THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 173 



smitten with despair, and the cheeks of the legislators 

 were blanched, for it was reported that Vanderbilt had 

 withdrawn his opposition to the bill. The report was 

 true. Either the Commodore had counted the cost and 

 judged it excessive, or he despaired of the result. At 

 any rate, he had yielded in advance. In a few moments 

 the long struggle was over, and that bill which, in an 

 unamended form, had but a few days before been thrown 

 out of the Assembly by a vote of eighty-three to thirty- 

 two, now passed it by a vote of one hundred and one to 

 six, and was sent to the Governor for his signature. 

 Then the wrath of the disappointed members turned on 

 Vanderbilt. Decency was forgotten in a frenzied sense 

 of disappointed avarice. That same night the pro rata 

 freight bill, and a bill compelling the sale of through 

 tickets by competing lines, were hurriedly passed, sim- 

 ply because they were thought hurtful to Vanderbilt ; 

 and the docket was ransacked in search of other mea- 

 sures, calculated to injure or annoy him. An adjourn- 

 ment, however, brought reflection, and subsequently, on 

 this subject, the legislature stultified itself no more." 



