The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-21

wrong and rob its benefactor, the United
States Govern ment.
In the course of his long address Judge
McKisick said:
I shall devote only a few minutes to answer
ing that argument so earnestly and so stfenu-
ously made. that because Congress chartered
the Union Pacific Railroad Company without
imposing liability upon the stockholders, there
fore Congress did not intend to look TO the liza
bihty OF the stockholders of the Central Pa
ciic Railroad Company of California under the
liability that the Stale OF California imposed
upon them.
/ There is no provision in the constitution of
the United States imposing any liability upon
the stockholders OF corporation; there is no
general law OF the United States Congress i'm
posing any liability upon the stockholders OF
corporation. The word corporation is not
mentioned in the constitution OF the United
States. Therefore when Congress chartered
( the Union Pacific Railroad Company il left the
stockholders just where the law left them; it
said nothing about them at ALL
But counsel appealed to your Honors to per-
sonally put yourselves in place OF members
of Congress, or to so into Congress and look for
yourselves at this matter, and see what you
would feel about it. Granted.
You are now in Congress in 1862, when this
scheme was first inaugurated. You saw there
with what anxiety the Congress OF the United
States wanted TO have this road built Would
you Tot have seen some anxiety also on the
part OF the California corporation to get as
much out OF Congress as it could to aid ii in
building the road?
If you had not seen it then would you not
have seen it when they came back to you in
July, 1864, and wanted you to do-what? To
give them the privilege OF mortgaging the
railroad to the extent of the bonds which the
Government mad agreed TO loan them under
the act of 1862. Not only that, but they
would want you to give them, in addition to
the land grant, just double the amount that
the act of 1862 gave them.
And standing in the halls of Congress and
looking down the corridors OF time you would
have seen great armies OF men engaged IN
building that road from the Missouri River to
the West, and from Sacramento to the East.
You would have seen the inception there of the
greatest industrial improvement that had ever
been ineugurated in the United States You
would have seen great loads OF United States
| bonds going out OF the treasury OF the United
States 1900 $1,000 bonds coming West.
You would have seen q 600 other bonds taken
from the treasury of the railroad company on
their first mortgage ,000, 600
You would have seen the City and County of
with them, had paid them $400, 900. You
would have seen that Sacramento had paid
them 100000; that Santa Clara, San Joaquin
! and Placer counties all paid them hundreds of
thousands of dollars more. You would have
seen that they persuaded the State of California
to donate and pay the interest on $l,500,000
for twenty years. When you came to pile it up
together you would have seen about $50 ,000,-
GEO given to these corporations or loaned TO
them to bald thes roads with. And,when, in
1869, they came together at Ogden, you would
have seen the road completed.
But what then occurred? You are still in
Congress. You would have heard in the at
mosphere something clamoring to look after
this money that the United States has loaned
to these people, and you would have been there
and passed the act of 1S71-two years after the
road was completed-by which the Govern
secure the money which it had loaned them.
And when the Supreme Court had decided
the case in the ninety first U. S. you would have
found that that had done you no good. Then
WOnld passed
looking to better security to get the money
back.
And while that act was pending in the SUI
preme Court of the United States and was re-
ported in the ninety-eighth U. s., after having
| been once argued and not decided, you would
have found yourselves so earnestly desiring to
make it absolutely certain that the Govern
ment should not lose its money that you
would pass the act of 1873.
That act, if the court pleases. has not been
discussed here at all or in the Circuit Court,
nor did the Circuit Judge give to it any con-
sideration whatever. But yet it is one of the
most important acts that have been passed by
Congress.
And, furthermore, If you had remained in
Congress, only for q year more. what would
have happened? You would have found these
men, c. P. Huntington, Leland Stanford, Mark
Hopkins, Charles Croker, coming to Washing
ton in their private cars and coming into the
nails of Congress and whining there. "We are
ruined the Central Pacific is ruined. You
must give US 100 years within which to pay
this debt and reduce the interest"
1t was wrecked-the Central Pacific was al
ready wrecked ten years before. And now they
whine for time. That is what you would have
seen there, and when you left Congress and
came West, when you reached the Central
Pacific Railroad you would have found indeed
wreck The beautiful silver-palace cars are
gone. All along the route you would have
found wreck and ruin strewn. How has this
happened? You would have heard of smoke
what was in the atmosphere, but you would
not have known the facts.
Now you have been transferred from the halls
of Congress to the bench and the United State
comes here to you and tells you who worked it
and why and how it was worked. With the