Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-05-12
CREED HAYMoND's PLEA.

There is great danger that insufficient at.
tention will be given to a masterpiece OF
pleading, full of the most important facts
in history, lying at the foundation of the
present prosperity of the State of California
and indissolubly connected with all the
probabilities of the future of the Pacific
Coast. The plea is that of Greed HAMMOND
which occupied four days in its delivery
before Congressional committee and the
danger of its being lost by those of the
people who are most concerned in its
statements springs from the fact of its
necessary but extreme length. The occa-
sion of it was the reference of certain pro-
posed Acts of Congress to committee VINO
were charged with the grave duty of formu.
lating plan by which the debt of the
Central Pacific Railroad to the nation
should be equitably adjusted. A Commits
sion was appointed which fell into the
common mistake of regarding the Railroad
Company as rogues and swindlers whose
punishment only was to be provided for by
appropriate legislation.
To this one-sided view Governor Stan.
ford offered what has become known as
" the equities "a phrase which is but YET
little understood even in California-and
insisted that Court should first decide
what the debt is before summary measures
were adopted for its collection. Out oil
this attitude of the Central Pacific Rail.
road there grew the inquiry which furn.
ished the occasion for a personal state.
ment by Leland Stanford and the plea oil
Creed Raymond. Necessarily both oil
these productions required much space fol-
printing them, and as the habit of the
American people is to grasp only at that
which can be easily and quickly clutched
it is highly probable that but few will ac'
quaint themselves with the full import Of
these narratives. AS part of our duty we
have read more than once both the testi-
mony of Governor Stanford saud the mag.
niicent argument of Mr.. Raymond, but
have not yet been able to accomplish what
we have sought to do, thot is to so epito.
mize and concentrate the substance Of
these great papers as to bring them to the
level and the limit of popular condensa-
ton, without such an emasculation Of
strong points and glowing illustrations as
would leave them lifeless and too feeble to
be of public use. Still their importance is
such that we shall endeavor to do the
work, which however will be undertaken
with something of the feeling that might
animate an ordinary but conscientious
stonemason who should seek to reproduce
in miniature masterpiece of the LAGOON
or the Apollo Belvedere.
The purpose of the article is to call public
attention to the existence of statements sc
complete and exhaustive as 10 leave no ex,
cuse either for ignorance or demagogy. The
plea of Greed Raymond, and the unimpas.
stoned and clear headed statement of Gov.
ernor Stanford give the inside history Of
one of the most extraordinary undertak'
ings in the history of modern times. 1t is
a recapitulation of facts which a quarter o.
century ago thrilled every dweller on the
Pacific Coast, and will be remembered by
older men whose familiarity with subse
quent events have not entirely erased the
impression then made, but to the youn gel
generation must come like page out o
ancient history, of greater interest than the
passage of the Alps by the army of Napo.
leon or the grandest exploits of Alexander
or Hannibal.
1t is the history of six men who under
took and performed task from which tn,
combined capital of San Francisco stood
back in terror. Three of those men arr
dead and three are living but both tn,
living and the dead have for years beer
represented as public robbers, as a recon
pense for performing public work of UNTOLD
value. During all these years, while tn,
State has been filled with clamor, politics
debauched by demagogues, and men with
out character, conscience or brains hay,
made capital of all the alleged wrong doinf
of the projectors and constructors of tn,
road that has been the parent anC
cause of the other roads over which {
mighty procession of Eastern immi
grafton has entered the State
these men have kept silence when, as Mr.
Haymond's plea shows, they had com
plete answer to every charge. 1t is hard t.
decide which is the most remarkable, the
successful building of the Central Pacific
in spite of route which required tunnel!
and shafts to be sunk through banks O
eternal snow, the feeding of an army with
provisions hauled over mountain trails by
pack mules, and the bringing of every raj
and engine by ship around Cape Horn
this stupendous achievement of human
resolution, the subsequent bad faith of the
Government, which broke its pledges to the
constructors, or the heroic patience with
which, year after year, these men endured
In silence the taunts, howls and diatribes O.
eyerp mountebank who sought notoriety
by yelling at " the monopoly" 1t is for
tunate for the truth of history that the time
has come, in the lifetime of three of the
worst abused men in the world, when
every American citizen can read the record
of an enterprise which has created a new
and grand civilization on the Pacific coast
and learn how unmerited and shameful has
been the treatment of men whose only
crime was that they succeeded where Others
did not dare to venture.-T empleton Times