Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-09-25
WORCESTER
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. e5, 1873.


Kept his pocket full OF free passes over this rail
road, and dealt them out iuGiciously to whoever
might be able TO do him either good or injury
A member of congress, and as such obligated tC
protect the government in lis property in the
Pacific railways, Cakes Ames was all the while
a member of the credit mo0ilier, and brother
OF the president OF the road. He never made a
proposition concerning this road which did not
become the law or the observance by act of con-
eresS. He carried through congress scandalous
proposition by which the government aban-
doned its first mortgage of this highway, and
allowed the private mortgage bonds of the rail-
road company to take precedence, and crowded
the government with a second mortgage. He
was able, with the help of the most eminent men
IN the republican party, TO collect from the
United States the gross sum for carrying the
mails over this road, while at the same time he
never paid the interest on the government bonds
as it accrued In short, the Union Pacific rail-
road first begged a loan from the United States
OF from sixteen to seventeen thousand dollars a
mile, and then robbed it of the interest on the
loan, forced the loan itself back to a contingent
place, and pasted ii over with another, and a
private loan OF its own, and then swindled it out
OF the whole gross sums for the mail service"
This extract contains more deliberate lies
than sentences. A few statements of facts, that
can be verified by the record, will enable thu
reader to detect them.
1. Mr.. ColiaX did not keep Mr.. Ames sat thu
head of the Pacific railroad committee" Tha
committee was appointed by Mr.. Colfax, Dec
1G, 1868, as a select committee, with Thaddeu.
Stevens as chairman. In the next two con.
crosses its chairman was Hiram Price of Iowa
2..Since Mr.. Blaine became speaker, William
A. Wheeler of New York has been chairman of
the Pacific railroad committee, and Dlr. Ames
has not been a member of it
s. Since Mr.. Ames became connected with the
Pacific railroad enterprise there has been no act
of congress passed in aid of the Pacific railroad
and no legislation in regard to it, except a
clause in an army appropriation bill, reaffirming
one Of the conditions of the contract, and joint
resolution authorizing the company to establish
its headquarters in Boston.
4. 1t was the government that besought pri-
waite parties to build the road, Offering bonds
and lands in aid of the enterprise; and it is a
false and shameless way of stating the case, to
say that private parties besought the govern
ment to aid a private enterprise, or to say that
''the Pacific railroad first begged loan of the
United States" The truth is, the government
begged the formation of a Pacific railroad com.
pany that would undertake to build this road
and made offers to secure it.
5. The government offered, in the legislation
of 1864, to take second mortgage as security
for its bonds, as an inducement to secure the
organization Of company that would do the
work. At the same time, it limitedIthe issue of
first mortgage bonds, so as to make the whole
secure. Therefore, it is infamous to describe
this arrangement as a "scandalous proposition"
OF Mr. Ames. In 1864, when the contract was
thus arranged, he was not connected with the
undertaking, and did not expect to be con.
nected with it because he thought it too haz
ardous
6. Under the arrangement provided by the
legislation OF 1864, the work OF building the
road was undertaken by gentlemen residing
chiefly in New York city. How many of them
resided elsewhere we are unable to say; but Mr.
Ames was not one of them, and we happen to
know, that, when these gentlemen accepted the
proposed contract, he thought the undertaking
TOO perious for him. After beginning the work
the New York company broke down. 1t be-
came necessary TO accept failure or reorganize
the company, with new heads and hands to
manage it. 1t was then, and not until then, that
Mr.. Ames became connected with the enterprise.
Z. Mr.. Ames and his associates who built the
road so speedily, did SO without asking or re-
ceiving any change whatever, in the terms pre-
scribed by the legislation under which their pre-
decessors had attempted to do the work Moth
ing was added to the contract in aid OF the COM
pany and there was no further action of con
gress in regard the matter, excepting what we
have already specified. Meanwhile, Mr. Ames adj
yaneed money TO the full extent of his ability,
and involved his properly in the enterprise, so
deeply, that something more than year ago,
embarrassment on this account caused him to
suspend payment, and ask the forbearance of
his creditors.
s. In regard to such talk as that of this dirty
libeller, when he says, Dir. AmeS was able to
"swindle the government out of the whole gross
sums for the mail service, we have previously
had something TO say. 1t was a part OF the con-
tract with the predecessors of Mr.. Ames and his
associates, that onehalf of the compensation for
government transportation, should be retained
by the government and credited on the bond ac-
count, and that the other half should be paid to
the company; and the government did not ex
pect to receive much from this source, previous
to 1876, that being the year in which the con-
tract required the road to be finished and ready
for business. One-halfof the compensation has
been regularly retained by the governments
from the beginning; this part of the contract
has never been changed, and when a question
was raised in regard to it, it was reaffirmed.
We expose these lies, because they are circu-
lated in all the "high-toned and independent
reform newspapers" and even scattered about
by Horace Greeley, as he Swings around the
circle" The Springfield Republican has had a
letter from Boston, on Mr. Ames, all written in
the same strain. Those who invent and circu-
late such ialsehoods, make themselves foul and
base; but they can not change the truth. They
do all this, and yet have the audacty to call
themselves "reiormersP Can they understand
will they ever be able to understand, the pro-
found disgust with which their professions are re-
garded by all honest people whose reason has
not been demoraized? We neither own nor ex-
pect to own SO much as a cents worth of the
bonds or stock Of the Pacific railroad, and have
no interest in it beyond that which is shared by
the public in general. But we feel no little dis.
gust and indignation toward such deliberate.
reckless, shameless lying in the name Of "re-
FORM"
Tho or5rfr 20 es,,p,r, s,,o,i.;,.- -. 49, T.,