578 THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



fifty-nine railroad bills and resolutions have been intro- 

 duced in the fortieth Congress, and that twice as many 

 more were in preparation in the lobby; that one thousand 

 million acres of the public land, and two hundred millions 

 in United States bonds, would not supply the demands of 

 these cormorants. In other words, their stupendous budget 

 of railway jobs would require sops and subsidies in lands 

 and bonds, which, reduced to a money valuation, swell up 

 to the magnificent figure of half the national debt." 



"Well did the eloquent Illinois Congressman, Mr. 

 Washbun- exclaim, from his place in the House of Repre- 

 sentatives. 



ut While the restless and unpausing energies of a 

 patriotic and incorruptible people were devoted to the 

 salvation of their government, and were pouring out their 

 blood and treasure in its defence, there was the vast army 

 of the base, the venal and unpatriotic, who rushed in to 

 take advantage of the misfortunes of the country and to 

 plunder its treasury. The statute books are loaded with 

 legislation which will impose burdens upon future gener- 

 ations. Public land enough to make empires has been 

 voted to private railroad corporations; subsidies of untold 

 millions of bonds, for the same purposes, have become a 

 charge upon the people, while the fetters of vast monop- 

 olies have been fastened still closer and closer upon the 

 public. It is time that the representatives of the people 

 were admonished that they are the servants of the people 

 and are paid by the people; that their constituents have 

 confided to them the great trust of guarding their rights 

 and protecting their interests ; that their position and their 

 power are to be used for the benefit of the people whom 

 they represent, and not for their own benefit and the 

 benefit of the lobbyists, the gamblers, and the speculators 

 who have come to Washington to make a raid upon the 

 treasury.' }> 



