CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



225 



the company, and then it was such as arose 

 out of exigencies presented by the action of 

 the Government in reversing a long-continued 

 and uniform previous policy, which could not 

 by any possibility have been foreseen or an- 

 ticipated. 



"The stock depended for its value upon the 

 connection of the Credit Mobilier with the 

 Oakes Ames contract, which was simply in 

 the capacity of a guarantor of its execution, 

 whereby a certain class of its stockholders 

 became entitled to participate in the profits 

 of that contract in money. There is no pro- 

 vision of the Oakcs Ames contract, the assign- 

 ment thereof, or of the triplicate agreement, 

 whereby a stockholder became entitled to any 

 of the securities of the Union Pacific Railroad 

 Company, or in any way interested in their 

 value. The profits derived, if any, were to be, 

 and were, in cash. When the Oakes Ames 

 contract was completed, and the consideration 

 thereof divided in cash to the several parties 

 entitled, in due proportion, the interest of a 

 holder of Credit Mobilier stock in the Union 

 Pacific Railroad Company, and every thing 

 pertaining to it, was at an end. In other 

 words, the stipulations of that contract, and 

 the cash profits derivable therefrom, were the 

 end and the beginning the centre and cir- 

 cumference the absolute measure of the pe- 

 cnniary interest of a holder of Credit Mobilier 

 stock in 1868. To say that the Washburn bill, 

 which professed to deal exclusively with the 

 operation of the road in the hands of the com- 

 pany after it had been built and turned over 

 by the contractors, was a measure feared, and 

 to protect the railroad company, against which 

 the stock in question was sold to members of 

 Congress, seems to me to invoke the last 

 degree of credulity. 



" It is impossible to impute to me the pur- 

 pose to corruptly influence members of Con- 

 gress by conferring upon them pecuniary 

 benefit without adequate consideration, unless 

 the benefit conferred is of such a character as 

 to necessarily create an inclination to aid the 

 donor to the detriment of the public. There 

 is but one escape from this position, and that 

 leads to a lower deep. It may be said that the 

 giving by any person and the receiving by a 

 member of Congress of any gratuity whatever, 

 or, what is identical therewith, selling and 

 buying at an inadequate price, imports cor- 

 ruption in both the giver and receiver, the 

 buyer and seller. Whoever proclaims this 

 doctrine should instantly set on foot the in- 

 quiry how many railroad presidents and su- 

 perintendents have presented to members of 

 Congress the value of transportation over their 

 respective railroad lines, and by whom the 

 same have been received, to the end that jus- 

 tice may be done, and the one presented for 

 indictment and the other for expulsion. The 

 dimensions and value of the gratuity have 

 nothing to do with the question. There is no 

 middle ground on which to stand. 



TOt. XIII. 15 A 



" For the first time in the history of any 

 tribunal, this body has before it an alleged 

 offender without an offense. Any person ac- 

 cused in the courts of the country, under like 

 circumstances, might well, when called upon 

 to plead to the indictment, insist that it failed 

 to charge a crime. I am charged by the com- 

 mittee with the purpose of corrupting certain 

 members of Congress, while it, at the same 

 time, declares said members to have been un- 

 conscious of my purpose, and fails to indicate 

 the subject of the corruption. In other words, 

 the purpose to corrupt is inferred, where the 

 effect of corrupting could not by possibility be 

 produced, and where no subject for corruption 

 existed. 



" No lawyer who values his reputation will 

 assert that an indictment for bribery could 

 stand for an instant in a common-law court 

 without specifically alleging who was the 

 briber, who was bribed, and what precise 

 measure, matter, or thing, was the subject of 

 bribery. There can be no attempt to bribe 

 without the hope and purpose of corniptly in- 

 fluencing some person or persons in respect to 

 some particular act. Until, therefore, it is al- 

 leged and shown not only who tendered a 

 bribe, but who accepted or refused it, and 

 what was the specific subject-matter of the 

 bribery, any conviction which may follow the 

 alleged offense must rest upon the shifting and 

 unstable foundation of individual caprice, and 

 not upon the solid rock of jui-tice administered 

 under the restraints of law. 



" I shall not enter upon a discussion of the 

 jurisdiction of this body over offenses alleged 

 to have been committed during a previous 

 Congress, leaving that question for such addi- 

 tional comment as the lawyers of the House 

 choose to make. The position, however, that 

 the fault if such exists is a continuing of- 

 fense, is so extraordinary and fruitful of such 

 fatal consequences that I cannot forbear a ref- 

 erence to it. Since the Credit Mobilier stock 

 sold by me passed into the hands of the sever- 

 al members of Congress referred to in the re- 

 port, I have been in the judgment of the com- 

 mittee a perpetual and chronic offender 

 against the dignity and honor of the House, 

 and so far as my own volition is concerned 

 must so continue to the end of the world. 



"So long as a single share of this stock 

 shall not be restored, but shall remain in the 

 bands of the several receivers, or either or any 

 of them, my offense goes on, and I am bereft 

 of the power to stop it. And yet, notwith- 

 standing the world is now apprised of my al- 

 leged corrupt intentions and no member of 

 Congress can be ignorant of them the parties- 

 who alone have the power but fail to release 

 me from the necessity of continuing my of- 

 fenses by return of the stock, are themselves 

 without blame, and in no way obnoxious to 

 the sins laid upon me. The committee declare 

 that want of knowledge alone of the corrupt 

 intention of the seller excused the buyer while 



