CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



235 



affairs before this House, but I must do so. 

 She married to please herself. She did not 

 marry a planter, or a farmer, or a merchant, 

 but she chose to marry a man doing business 

 in Pine Street, closely connected with Wall 

 Street, whose uncle was president of the board 

 of brokers there, and who himself, from the 

 connection, probably, was often more or less 

 engaged in stock operations. I have asked of 

 him to let me hare the loan of his shares of 

 the Credit Mobilier, and that he has done. He 

 had purchased fifty shares, the very fifty shares 

 out of which all this attack on me has grown. 

 Here is his certificate of Credit Mobilier, made 

 out to Charles H. Neikon, and dated Febru- 

 ary, 1868. (Mr. Brooks here exhibited to the 

 House the certificate of fifty shares of the Cred- 

 it Mobilier.) And here is the receipt of the 

 president of the Credit Mobilier, Sidney Dil- 

 lon, for the money he paid him on that day, 

 $5,233.33, or $233.33 beyond the par value of 

 the Credit Mobilier stock of that day. And 

 now, out of this transaction of a person with 

 whom I had this relationship, is made this 

 whole story of fifty shares of Credit Mobilier 

 stock given away to a member of Congress, 

 to buy up the whole Democratic side of this 

 House. Why, sir, in the old slavery times 

 on intelligent, good-looking slave, was worth 

 more than that. And what estimate can this 

 man, who purchased a Louisiana Legislature, 

 who was engaged in robbing soldiers during 

 the war, place upon a member of Congress, 

 when he proposes not only to buy him with 

 $5,000, but with the same $5,000 to buy up all 

 the Democratic members of the House associ- 

 ated with him ? 



"Mr. Speaker, I think I have sufficiently 

 discussed this transaction. I think I have 

 sufficiently vindicated myself from any alle- 

 gation of being bribed. I am ready to be ex- 

 amined inside and out riddled from top to 

 bottom; and in a friendly way, not by a law- 

 less exercise of power, I am willing that by 

 lettres de cachet, or by inquisition, my private 

 papers here and in New York may be seized 

 and examined. I am willing that every trans- 

 action of my life shall be scrutinized. 



'I have felt it my duty in all the transac- 

 tions of my public life, not only to walk 

 straight, but to walk more than straight to 

 bend backward. But I have never felt it my 

 duty to impoverish myself, to earn nothing, to 

 trade in nothing, and to have nothing, because 

 I am a member of Congress. 'What I have 

 earned has been earned by hard and honest 

 labor severe and unremitting industry, often 

 working as a journalist in New York from the 

 break of day till midnight. My accumulations 

 have all been fair, honest, and reputable, and 

 such as will bear a thorough examination be- 

 fore the world. My newspaper has been profit- 

 able ; it has yielded me at times largo sums of 

 money ; and, in investing them wisely and judi- 

 ciously, I have done no more than I had a right 

 to do. In the presence of God, and in this 



House, and before the whole country, I swear 

 that on no occasion, at no time whatsoever, 

 for no man, have I ever used my influence or 

 power, in this body or elsewhere, to accumu- 

 late one cent of money, or to add one farthing 

 to my fortune. 



"Mr. Speaker, lest I may be censured for 

 my connection with the Pacific Railroad as a 

 director, and for many transactions in connec- 

 tion therewith, which would all bear investi- 

 gation, if investigated at the time they took 

 place, I have only to ask this House to recall 

 the period when there were no railroads in 

 Iowa, when that State, but a few years ago, 

 was a wilderness or a prairie, and when, in 

 order to build the Union Pacific Railroad, it 

 became necessary, either to bring every thing 

 through the mud and prairies of Iowa, or by 

 the waters of the Missouri; so that the iron 

 used upon that road, which was conveyed to 

 the Platte River, or beyond, was often trans- 

 ported in wagons ; and the timber (as little or 

 none existed upon the prairies) was brought 

 from the upper or lower waters of the Mis- 

 souri, and bnrnettized to be prepared for that 

 road. 



"I make this remark without expanding 

 upon it; simply saying, that of all the great 

 achievements, not only of this age, but of all 

 ages, the most wonderful achievement that 

 human beings ever engaged in, was the con- 

 struction of that railroad from the Missouri to 

 the Pacific Ocean. I have seen all or nearly 

 all the wonders of the world ; I have been en 

 the Pyramids of Egypt ; I have been on the 

 promontory where was the Colossus of Rhodes; 

 I have wandered up and down the Great Wall 

 of China; and I declare in your presence that, 

 in my judgment, no achievement of human in- 

 dustry, or human enterprise, or human capi- 

 tal, is to be compared with the construction 

 of the Pacific Railroad, in view of the circum- 

 stances under which it was completed. There 

 were, necessarily, great and often wasteful ex- 

 penditures of money, and reckless audacity, 

 apparently, in the making of contracts. 



" On the AVasatch Mountains sixty dollars a 

 bushel was at one time paid during the winter 

 for corn; and for oats the price was corre- 

 spondingly high. This road was built eight 

 years earlier than the directors were required 

 to finish it under their contract. I might 

 dwell upon this subject :and I shall perhaps 

 at some time hereafter take occasion to do so 

 but to-day I only want to do my duty to 

 myself; and that duty I have discharged to 

 the best of my ability. For myself, as my 

 career is about ending, as I am about to be 

 gathered to my fathers for in the natural 

 course of events I cannot much longer dwell 

 on this earth all I have to transmit to my 

 children and to their children is my good 

 name ; and this I value above all price. 



"For the vindication of this, and for no 

 other purpose, I have addressed the House 

 this day, and challenged investigation. To 



