Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1873-03-20
The Wretched Conclusion.

report was published it was received
by the country with disappointment
and dissatisfaction, because it provi
ded for no censure and no punish
ment for any of the guilty Congress
men, except the resolution for the
expulsion OF Messrs. Ames and
Brooks. The country protested
against the attempt to condone the
scandalous corruption and enormous
frauds upon the government devel-
oped in that report by the sacrafice
OF two 'scape-goats." This ex-
preston sprung impulsively to the
lips of every honorable man who
had followed the evidence through
the long catalogue of evasion, sub
terfuge, falsehuod and worse. to
which the implicated parties were
driven, in the vain effort to hide
their guilt. But the action of the
House of Representatives. yes
terday falls short even of
the disappointing report of the Com
mittee. Even the escape goats were
not sacrificed. Weak, partial and
imperative resolutions of censure
were passed, and this was the lame
and impotent conclusion of a long
inquiry, which disclosed every day
now the government had been plum
dered of scores Cf millions of dol
lars, through the direct, active agen-
cy of some members Of Congress
and the guilty connivance and par
ticipation of others.
1t is vain thing for Congress or
any one else to attempt to conceal
the conspicuous features of the cor.
rupting transactions in which every
one of the members who "bought''
the Credit Mobilier stock was en-
gagged. In the first place, Congress
had voted twenty-seven millions of
dollars to The Union Pacific railroad
together with whole principality
,ofland. Then this company was
constantly and continuously in
terested in legislation before Con-.
gress, either to get favors, to free
itself from its obligations, or to pre-
vent other legislation compelling it
to do its duty and holding it to &C.
countability. There has been no
Congress since 1867 where it was not
interested in this way. The corrup-
ting agent of this railroad company
was the Credit Mobilier-it was the
company under another name-a
cunning device by which the mana
gers of the railway company, under
the disguise of contracting COM
pany, could plunder the other stock
holders and rob the government at
the same time. The managers and
manipulators of the two concerns
are the same persons throughout,
although they sometimes appear as
railroad directors and at others as
contractors. This company, COM
posed in part of men who were then
(and some of them now members of
Congress, appeared on the floor of
the National House of Represents
tives in December 1867, with budg-
cts of Credit Mobilier stock to 'sell"
to the leading members. No mon
ey was needed to pay for this stock.
The rich dividends of sixty and
eighty per cent paid for it in ad-
vance. There were two such divi-
dends within a few months. This in
itself was sufficient to warn off any
honorable man. No man-certain-
ly no corporation-goes about seek
ing buyers for stock paying such
princely profits unless thereis some
sinsister purnose in view. But there
were two other reasonswhy the mem
bers approached by Ames and Dur
ant should have repelled their ad-
vances. These profits were derived
from company that had been the
recipients of millions of the public
money; and there was Legislation
then pending in that month Of De
Gambler, 1867, in which that company
was deeply interested. But not
withstanding these suspicious over
lures of Ames, in virtually giving
away thousands and thousands of
dollars OF profitable STOCK, and in
spite of the knowledge of the rela
tions of the Union Pacific to the
government, and also in spite of the
pending legislation, which should
have aroused the dormant sense of
honor in every one of them, they
took the stock and aXailed of the
profits.
Then came their mean, tricky,
false denials, shifts, evasions and
fast following explanations, every
change in which showed more and
more their own sense of their own
culpability. There never was an il
stance in which men holding a pub
lie trust were more thoroughly COW
cred with proof of malfeasance in of
flee. The guilty knowledge of all
these men was as visible as the plum
der of the Government moneys was
stupendous. And Congress pun
ishes all this by passing its partial
resolutions of censure, letting the
guilty 60 free upon the false pre-
tense of having no jurisdiction.
This is so transparent sham that
it will command the belief of no one
possessing the commonest intelli
gepce. The majority of the House
of Representatives. evading their
plain duty in trying to wipe away
the stain from their dishonored fell
low members, have fixed that stain
upon the house itself, without re-
moving it from the guilty they have
tried to shield-Philadelphia Ledg-
err.