Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-07-14
THE CREDIT MOBILIER.

There is large number of people in
the United States who use the words with.
out my adequate idea of what they mean.
haze no doubt that a great many people
| feel about it very much as the fishwoman
at Bllingsgate Market felt when Sidney
Smith, the great humorist of England,
came along and began to talk with her
She answered back in very saucy way,
and he finally began to call her mathe-
NAUTICAL names. He called her a PARALLEL.
gram, hypothenuse, parallelopipedoD,
and other such terms, and she stood back
aghast and said she never heard such a
nasty talking man in her life-never was
abused 80 before. Now, people think they
have said an enormous thing when they
say that somebody had something to do
with the Credit Mobllier. I ask your at
tention just for few moments to what
that thing is, and, in the next place, to IN
derstand precisely what it IS that I am
supposed to have had to do with it,
The Credit Mobiller was a corporation
vania, and authorized to build houses, buy
lands, loan money, etc. Nothing of CON
sequence was done with that Company
until the year 1867, when a number Of
men bought up whatever stock there was
la it and commenced to do a very large
business. In the winter of 1867, Mr.. Train
came to me and showed me list of names
and subscribers to the stock of the Credit
Mobilier Company, and asked me to SUBJ
scribe $1,000. I should say there were
fifteen or twenty members of Congress on
the list, and many more prominent bust
nees men. He said that the Company was
going to buy lands along the line of the
Pacific railroad at places where they
thought there would cities and villages
grow up and develop, and he had no
doubt that the growth of the country
would make that investment double itself
in very short time.
That was the alleged scheme that the
Credit Mobilier Company had undertaken
"a thing that if there Is any gentleman
| in Warren who would feel any hesitancy
in buying it, would be because he did
| not believe in the growth of the country
| where the business was to be done. That
stock was offered to me as plain bust
| ness proposition, with no intention what
ever that it was offered because the sub
scribers were members of Congress, for ii
was offered to many other people, and no
| better men live than at least large mum
Der of the gentlemen to whom it was
| offered. Some of them took it at once
| Some men are cautious about making an
| investment; others are quick to deter
mine. To none of these men was any
explanation made that this Credit Mo
bilier Company was in any way connected
with ring of seven men who owned the
principal portion of the stock, and who
had contract with the directors of the
Union Pacific road for building 600 OF
| 700 miles at an extravagant price-largely
| above what the stock was worth. Tha
was a secret held only by those seven mer
who owned the principal portion of thu
stock. It is now understood that Mr.
Cakes Ames, who was the center of tina
company of seven men, sought to gair
the friendship of fifteen or twenty promi
nent Congressman, with the view of pro
tecting himself and the Pacific railroad
against any investigation which might bs
made; but it was necessary part of hi
plan not to divulge that purpose, or ir
any way intimate to them that he nigh
draw upon them for favors.
Long before any such purpose was real
allied, long before any pressure cam,
upon Mr.. Ames, most of the men who hal
been invited to purchase that stock hat
either declined to purchase or had pur
chased and realized, or had purchased