Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-01-24
RBDET .NOBILIER,
What was il?

W nat was III
1t was a corporation or assoc alton by
which the officers and managers of the I'm
ion Pacific Railroad Corporation and their
friends in Congress and outside, built some
thing more than one thousand miles of
railroad, from Omaha, in Nebraska, to Og-
den in Utah, at an actual cost of about thir-
ty millions of dollars, and by which they
made an actual profit of at least thirty mil
lions of dollars.
1t was done in this way. The officers of
the railroad contracted, sometimes with
Cakes Ames and sometimes with the Cred
it Mobiler, TO build portions of the road
for about twice its actual cost. They Got
their funds out of the thirty millions of
bonds which the government issued to
them, thirty millions more of the bonds of
the road, which the government kindly
consented might be secured by a fir It mort
gage on the road, bonds to W hat amount is
not known, based on the immense land
grant to the corporation and stock. Per-
haps 1t will never be known how much
was realized from all these sources but.
probably, eighty millions of dollars. In
mild language, this is the most gigantic
swindle ever perpetrated in this country,
and makes Fisk theft of the Erie railroad
moderate speculation in comparison.
The government is wronged by this
swindle, inasmuch as it renders lis securi
~ for the repayment of the thirty millions
oil its bonds, ABSOLUTELY worthless. BY the
original act granting these bonds. they
were really only a loan of the credit of the
government, and were to be a first lien nm
on all the property and franchise of the
road. Afterwards Congress, in excess of
generosity, or some other cause made the
government lien second, and allowed the
road to issue, in round numbers, thirty
millions OF bonds secured by "a first mort
gage on the road. The bonds of the gov
eminent will never be paid by the road.
and probably the bonds of the railroad
will gradually become very poor property.
Cakes Ames, representative in Con-
gress from Massachusetts in the 3sth. Both.
10th, 4lst, and 42nd, Congresses, was prom
inent in all the transactions connected with
building the Union Pacific railroad. He
was also large stakeholder in the Credit
Mobilier, and he held between 300 and 400
shares of the stock of the associations "as
trustee; !" and Congress is now pretending
to find out for whom he was "trustee."
One ii. G. McComb was also large stock
holder in this Credit Mobilier, and has
claimed to have some interest in those
shares held by Ames "as trustee" Ames
refuses TO account for the shares. or anv
part Them, To McComb. Ames wrote Nc.
Comb, in 1868, that he was using the shares
In Washington "where they will do the
most good to u.s." The stock at that time
was worth at least three or four times its
par value, and during that year many hum
dred per cent in dividends were distributed
to somebody. Every hundred dollars of
the stock have been worth, at least. one
thousand dollars to those holding it during
1865 and 1869.
The sale at par of a valuable stock. worth
many times its par value, by Ames to his
influential associates in Congress,-stock
in corporation that was then practically
swindling the government out Of thirty
millions of dollars, and which could well
afford to buy the silenceof Congress wheth-
or 1t wanted any affirmative legislation or
not-is justified by Ames as fair and up
right business transaction. The members
of Congress, also, who made haste to get