CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



227 



in writing the McComb letters I had alone in 

 view the objects above enumerated; that I 

 never for an instant imagined that from them 

 could be extracted proof of the motive and 

 purpose of corrupting members of Congress 

 motives and purposes which I solemnly declare 

 I never entertained. The insignificant amounts 

 of stock sold to each member with whom I 

 had dealings, the proven fact that I never 

 urged its purchase, and the entire lack of 

 secrecy ordinarily the badge of evil purposes 

 in these transactions, ought, in my judg- 

 ment, to stand as a conclusive refutation of the 

 offenses charged. And above and beyond this, 

 I submit that a long nod busy life spent in the 

 prosecution of business pursuits, honorable to 

 myself and useful to mankind, and a reputa- 

 tion hitherto without stain, should of its own 

 weight overcome and outweigh charges solely 

 upheld by the nnoonsidered and unguarded 

 utterances of confidential business communi- 

 cations. 



"A vast amount of error has been dissemi- 

 nated and prejudice aroused in the minds of 

 many by incorrect and extravagant statements 

 of the profits accruing from the different con- 

 tracts for the construction of the road, and 

 especially that commonly known as the Oakes 

 Ames contract. The risk, the state of the 

 country, the natural obstacles, the inflation of 

 the currency, and consequent exorbitant prices 

 of labor and material, the Indian perils, the 

 unparalleled speed of construction, and the 

 clamorous demands of the country for speedy 

 completion, seem to be forgotten, and the par- 

 ties connected with the Credit Mobilier, and 

 the construction of the road, are now to be 

 tried by a standard foreign to the time and 

 firrumstances under which the work was 

 done. 



" It is said that when the failure to secure 

 the necessary amount of cash subscriptions to 

 the stock was proved, and it became manifest 

 that the only medium through which the work 

 coulil go on was by a constructing company, 

 which would undertake to build the road and 

 take the securities and stock of the company 

 in payment, when the whole enterprise had 

 come to a complete halt and was set in motion 

 by my individual credit and means and that 

 of my associates, the enterprise should have 

 been abandoned. Were it possible to present 

 that question to the same public sentiment, 

 the same state of national opinion, which ex- 

 isted at the time the exigency arose, I would 

 willingly and gladly go to Congress and the 

 country on that issue. But I am denied that 

 justice, and the motives and transactions of 

 one period are to be judged by the prejudices 

 of another, at an hour when the fluctuations 

 of opinion are extreme and violent, beyond 

 the experience of former times. 



" The actual cost of money of building the 

 road was about $70,000,000, and all statements 

 of a less cost are based upon mere estimates 

 of engineers who never saw the work, and 



utterly fail to grasp the conditions under 

 which it was prosecuted. The actual profit 

 on this expenditure, estimating the securities 

 and stock at their market value when received 

 in payment, was less than $10,000,000, as can 

 be demonstrably established in any court. 

 It is in testimony before a committee of the 

 House by witnesses who have spent their lives 

 as contractors, as well as those who have been 

 builders, owners, and operators of some of the 

 great trunk-lines of the country, that for twen- 

 ty years past the ordinary method of building 

 railroads has been through the medium of con- 

 structing companies; that few, if any, roads 

 involving a large outlay of capital are built in 

 any other way ; that a profit of from twenty to 

 thirty per cent, is not unreasonable in any case, 

 and that upon the construction of the Union 

 Pacific Railroad, estimating it with reference 

 to the magnitude of the work and the risk in- 

 curred, no man could reasonably object to a 

 profit of fifty per cent. The like evidence is 

 given by a Government director long inti- 

 mately acquainted with the manifold difficul- 

 ties and embarrassments encountered, and who 

 has not yet outlived the recollection and real- 

 ization of them. 



"So far as I am pecuniarily concerned, it 

 would have been better that 1 had never 

 heard of the Union Pacific Railroad. At its 

 completion the company found itself in debt 

 about $6,000,000, the burden of which fell 

 upon individuals, myself among others. The 

 assumption of the large portion of this liability 

 allotted to me, followed by others necessary to 

 keep the road in operation until there should be 

 developed, in the inhospitable region through 

 which it runs, a business affording revenue 

 sufficient to meet running expenses and inter- 

 est, finally culminated in events familiar to the 

 public, whereby losses were incurred greatly 

 in excess of all profit derived by me from the 

 construction of the road. 



" What, then, has the Government received 

 as the fruits of the 'connection of the Credit 

 Mobilier with the Union Pacific Railroad Com- 

 pany and the transactions now under consid- 

 eration ? By the terms of its charter it agreed, 

 among other things, to loan the company for 

 thirty years its bonds to certain amounts per 

 mile, and until their maturity one-half the 

 earnings on account of Government trans- 

 portations should be retained, to be applied in 

 repayment to the Government of whatever 

 interest might in the mean time be paid on the 

 bonds by the United States. The company in 

 turn, by acceptance of the charter, agreed to 

 pay the United States the amount due on the 

 bonds at their maturity, and to perform cer- 

 tain services. Without asking additional legis- 

 lation, or being Ailed upon to resist obnox- 

 ious legislation, except wherein this contract 

 had been disregarded and ignored by the Gov- 

 ernment, the road has been completed, and 

 successfully operated throughout its entire line 

 now nearly four years. 



