The daily gazette., 1878-04-15
involved and the consequence tanyz,

ago the question of the pay Of the Chief
Magistrate, and some Ssnator3 were as
serting that that which barely paid the
actual expenses Of George Washington
in 1888; was quite enough and more than
enough for his successor in 1876; and
happen to turn TO a bit Of testimony
found on the second page OF the report
on this same Credit Mobilisr subject In
which the salary paid to one Mr.. Fran
chot as an agent for one OF these COM
panies is stated, upon whom was de-
volved the Onerous duty and incredible
hardship ofspending the winter in Wash
ington and "watching the interests Of
the Central Pacific Railroad Company"
for which service tho small remunera-
ton of $4,000 year was allowedi 1
know not what may be the allowances
of the presidents and high officers Of
these great corporations, but / suppose
they all are in the same proportions; and
such sums are mere fea-bites, so to
speak, compared to the mill ons taken
every year from the Treasury of the
United States in the payment of interest
on these subsidy bonds, every dollar of
which represents some human beings
toll from sunrise until sunset.
Mr.. President, these great debts which
are being piled upon the to!ling masses
of this country in total disregard of the
sufierings which are causing one unlver-
sal groan to arise all over the land, are
greatly to be deplored and dreaded in
the results-but still more formidable is
the question of the inroads upon and
the overthrow of the great republican idea
Of fdiSintegrdtion, and distribution ofpoper.
The possession of irresponsible power
never failed in human history to corrupt
its posssssor. Well did our forefathers
know it. They knew that power, like
To-. 3 Cd
and in many modes in building up this
Government they sought to check its
growth. They did not intend that the
individual should wither, but by encour-
aging individuality they sought to en-
courage the growth of men. They
sought not strength by massing weak
ness, that atom might protect atom, but
by creating the greatest number of Wig
orous Integers to make the state strong.
Out of individuality grows competition /;
out of consolidation grows monopoly.
Hence their political institutions, the
abolition of rank and title, obolition of
the rule of primogeniture, an equal di-
vision of estates without regard to sex,
the subjection of lands to the payment
of debts, the equality of all men before
the law, widespread suffrage, destruc-
ton of entailed estates, limitation upon
devises, all tending to facilitate the dis
tribution of wealth and power and to
prevent perpetuities. And yet the doc
trine and practice of incorporation was
suffered TO creep in, destroying as it does
all power and making its owners moral.
ly Irresponsible, creating artificial beings
who never die and whose estates are
never to be distributed, but are perpet-
ual.
Mr.. President, the consequences of
this may be remote, but to my eye they
are certain. 1t is the creation of power
without moral and legal responsibility,
and that is fatal to any form of govern
ment under which it shall be encouraged
or permitted to exist.
The consequences of this measure
now proposed are intended not for to-day
so much, as for a future time. when FEW
or none of those of us who now discuss
| it will be here. 1t is for the future that
this law is prepared; it is for generations
perhaps yet unborn that this protection
is demanded. l hold it to be the duty
| Of Congress to assert and to exercise in
the spirit of high and wise discretion its
reserved power over the great public ill.,
terest touched by these corporations. l
hold that nothing can justify the release
of any portien of that power L hold
that no compromise of any kind can be
discussed in relation to that power
This is no mere grant of land, it is no
mere grant of money. because the grants
of both have reached such a magnitude
that the power contained in their pos
session becomes political power; and it
may well be that in the generations yet
to come the vast population who are to
inhabit the grand territory traversed by
these railways, to fill it with American
activity and enterprise, ever whose me-
cessities of transportation, over whose
necessities for fuel over whose necessi-
ties for the arts and occupations of life
as connected with iron, the great work
ing metal of the world, and coal its ne
cessary coadjutor-it may be that those
people will come to ask whether they
are to live under the principles of free
constitution or under the bylaws of a
corporation, which is without restraint
except those limitations that human en-
durance will ever put upon human pow
er, let it assume what shape it may.
| Sir, l hope and pray that this Congress
will not release one iota of its power OF
amendment, alteration, or repeal over
the acts which brought ints being these
artificial persons and created them the
agents of the American people, to use
the money and the property of that peo-
pie for the public welfare and not for
private profit. 1t is my sense of the inn
portance of this bill. of the magnitude of
the consequences involved in the decis-
ion of the Senate that has induced me to
detain it so long