The General Railroad Rill of 1858. 
343 
lie was beginning to realize that there were “ no other safeguards 
against the growing and excessive evils of corruption, lobbying, 
and log-rolling at Madison, which the struggle for special priv¬ 
ilege and class legislation almost always engenders.” 1 The 
Milwaukee Wisconsin was “ decidedly and unequivocally in favor 
of a general railroad law,” because it ‘‘is democratic in its 
principles, just to all parties, and would be the source of great 
relief to tax-payers. The present (1853) session will be extended 
six weeks, at an expense of thirty thousand dollars to the peo¬ 
ple, in order to dispose of the immense number of railroad ap¬ 
plications before it. We have too much special legislation. ” 
The Grant County Herald heads an editorial 2 “ A jubilee to Tax¬ 
payers, ” after the General Bill had been introduced and seemed 
'* almost certain to pass. ” The Sentinel quotes from a large 
number of exchanges throughout the state, and nearly all were 
strongly in favor of the bill. Not one seems to have objected 
to the principle , but there was some opposition because the Gen¬ 
eral Law would interfere with existing charters. Whether or 
not this objection defeated the bill cannot be ascertained, because 
the Journals of both houses fail to record arguments advanced 
in debate. However, it seems probable that existing charters, 
with the exception of the few which had been more carefully 
drawn up, would have felt the very reasonable restrictions 
which the General Law would have imposed. Of the loose and 
questionable*methods then in vogue in our legislature there can 
be no doubt, and that the army of those who had not yet ex¬ 
ploited the opportunities offered through railroad charters and 
whose designs would have been largely foiled by the passage of 
the bill, was strong enough to defeat the bill, easily falls within 
the range of possibilities. And the whole procedure was in 
harmony with the frontiersman’s intolerance of restraint and 
the injudicious, if not reckless, methods by which even the most 
serious business was disposed of. An editorial in the Sentinel 
of April 7, 1853, sums up the situation in these words: ‘‘There 
was more bargaining and trading at this last session than we have 
1 Sentinel , March 12, 1853; March 20, 1858 (editorial): Governor’s Mes¬ 
sage, January 14, 1858. 
2 March 9, 1853. 
