Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-10-03
The Credit Mobilier.

TOdu company, gentleman VINO Is con
versant with railroad matters, and famil-
lar with the origin and character of the
much written and talked about Credit
Mobilier, which we commend to our read
ers now. that Mr.. Greeley has commenced
the business ofretailihg the exploded SIAN
ders of the New York Sun.
ELMwooD, PIrTsFIELD, September IS.
MR.. EDITOR: The calumnious article
which, for party purposes, has been so gen.
orally paraded in the coalition press, charg
ing Senator Wilson and Representatives
Blaine, Dawes and Others with interests in
the Credit Mobilier," corruptly obtained,
having ELECTED from those gentlemen ex-
plicit and unqualified denials, the calumny
is still persisted in, and a process showing
its author to be an expert in duplcity, is de-
scribed, whereby the frank denials of these
gentlemen may be harmonized with their un-
assailable characters for veracity, and yet
leave the design of the original SANDER to
work out it's political effect unimpaired.
BY studied suppression, perversion, or
confusion of dates, powerful motive, on the
part of the alleged corruptionists, is manu-
faetured, viz They wanted an act passed
allowing the Union Pacific Railroad Com
pany to issue first mortgage bonds, with the
interest guaranteed by the Government to
an amount equal to those issued by the Gov
ernmentn
Being somewhat familiar with the Pacific
Railroad legislation, and also with the Credit
Mobilier Corporation-both of which chart
ers are before mel propose to place facts
ana dates before your readers, knowing that
their intelligence will discern the right, and
their sense of justice will vindicate their
representatives from these foul aspersions,
Notwithstanding the malignity with which
they are persisted in, and Irrespective of all
party or political considerations.
The time of the alleged bribery must have
been about January 80, 1868, the date of the
Ames letter bearing the alleged pencil notes.
This was nearly four wears after the alleged
motive, if it ever had existed, had passed
away, as the Pacific Railway Act-granting
not guaranty of interest, it is true, though
what was then sought and passed the Sen
ate, but the right of the Company to issue
Its first mortgage bonds with a priority or
preference of payment over the bonds of
the Government, agreed to be issued under
the original act of 1862 and which Govern
mcnt bonds therefore were q fist mortgage
on the road and property of the Company,
became a law on the I'd day of July, 1864 !;
and was passed because the inability of the
company-with stockholding list such as
no other company in this country ever pos
sessed-to construct the road, had been
amply demonstrated. The passage of this
act of 1864 did not require that any man, or
set of men, should be approached corruptly.
The country was committed to the construc-
tion of the road as a great national and
commercial necessity, and that act-which
was as nearly perfect as any piece of rail-
road legislation in this country-granted
ample powers, which have not since been
materially amplified or enlarged, and was
passed in obedience to an irresistible public
demand.
Prior to, or about that time, there was no
Credit Mobilier Corporation extant its en-
bryo, the Pennsylvania Fiscal Agency, be-
longed to General Duff Green and his asso-
ciates, and is claimed to belong to them at
this hour.
So much for the motive. Now as to the
bribe: 10000 shares of Credit Mobilier stock
are said to have been allotted to the parties
named, and it is freely admitted that large
number of other shares were in like manner
used with other and, as yet, unascertained
parties.
The capital stock of the Company is fixed
by the charter at so, 900 shares of 800 each
The letter of Oakes Ames, as given, and
bearing date January 90, 1868, clearly de-
clares the stock then outstanding to be 81
900 shares.
Will any sane man believe for an in
slant that such financial operators of DIR.
Durant, Sidney Dillon, John b. Alley, Oakes
Ames, Henry s. McComb, and their asso-
ciates, builders of the Union Pacific Rail-
road, ever offered, gave, or even sold, to the
Senators and Representatives named, thirty
thirty-sevenths nearly eighty per cent? of
the corporation which has notoriously made
the profit realized from the construction of
that railroad The proposition is simply
absurd, and the allegation preposterous.
But the fabricators of the calumny may
take a new tack, and claim that the pencil
notes, instead of referring to shares as they
have published them, may mean money at
the par value of the shares. If so the noun
tain dwindles to SO small molehill that the
inventors must stand rebuked by the denials
already published.
Twenty or thirty shares of Credit Mobilier
four years after all the important legislation
had been had, would not amount to a greater
crime than the purchase of an interest in a
cotton or wooden factory, or in coal or iron
mine.
1t may be alleged that the pencil notes on
Oakes Ames' letter referred to shares in the
Union Pacific Railroad Company.
1t is sufficient answer to say that these
gentlemen were too well informed both as to
business and law to accept, even as gratu-
ity, shares in such company on which
there had not been one dollar paid in money
into its Treasury, but which shares had been
issued under a construction contract with
the Credit Mobilier in evasion of the law of
1864, which law these gentlemen had helped
to make, and which expressly provides that
assessments shall be made upon the stock
holders of not less than five dollars per share,
and at intervals of not exceeding six months
from July l, 1864, until the par value shall be
ed for any such assessment-er as equivalents
for any portion of the capital stock" Aside
from the then worthless character of the
stock, this provision of law attaching ir-
revocably liability to pay, at some future
day, 500 per share to the Government or
any other creditor, in satisfaction of de-
mands possibly enormous in amount there
after to accrue, was sufficient to deter any
person as familiar with the law as were
these gentlemen, from participating in any
such entertainment.
If the prosperity of our couutry-the per-
manence of our republican form of govern
ment-and the advancement of our civiliza-
ton, are in any manner or degree dependent
upon public integrity and private worth, it
is to be hoped that the practice of seeking
political or party success by wantonly and
calumniously assailing private character
may be Indignantly rebuked by all who re
cognize and accept the sacred injunction
''Whatsoevery ye would that men should dc
unto you, do ye even SO unto them"
Respectfully, EDWARD LEARNED.
ssTHE origin of the term ''foolscap" ha:
doubtless puzzled many writers who ust
the paper known by that name, and yet
as in many singular cases, it took it!
name from very simple circumstance
Charles l., of England, granted numerous
monopolies for the support of the Gov
ernment. Among others was the manu-
facture of paper. The watermark of tn,
finest sort was the royal arms of England
The consumption of this article wa,
great, and large fortunes were made b,
those who purchased the exclusive righ
to vend it. This, among monopolise
was set aside by the Parliament tha
brought Charles 1. to the scaffold; anC
by way of showing their contempt TO
for the king they ordered the royal arm
to be taken from the paper, and foo
with his cap and bells to be substituted
1t is now over 200 years since the fool.
cap was taken from the paper, but still
the paper of the size which the rump PAL
lament used for their journals bears tn
name of the watermark placed there a
an indignity to Charles.
TIE Cincinnati Lancet and Observer O
recent date says: ''On the 21st of AT
gust Mrs. Timothy Bradlee, of Trumbu
County, Ohio, gave birth to eight chi
dren-three boys and five girls The
are all living, and are healthy, but quit
small. Mr.. Bradlee was married six yea1
ago to Eunice Mowery, who weighed 81