priate
by eminent domain necessary private land for depots, turnouts,
etc., and public lands to the amount of ten alternate sections
per mile, within the limits of twenty miles on each side of
the road. It was required by the charter of the Union Pacific
Railroad that its stock should be paid in full in cash, and
that the interests of the Government should be specially protected
by the appointment by the President of five Government Directors.
The Government bonds were to be handed over on the certificate
of an officer appointed by the President, as the road advanced
to completion. It was required that a Government Director
should be a member of every Committee, standing or select.

The managers of the Union Pacific Railroad acquired the franchise
of a Pennsylvania Company, known as the Credit Mobilier, divided
its stock among themselves in proportion to their ownership
in the Union Pacific Railroad, mortgaged the road to the extent
permitted by the act of Congress, being a little more than
$27,000,000 and mortgaged their land grants for a further
sum of $10,000,000. Then they made a contract with the Credit
Mobilier Company to construct the road at a price which would
exhaust all the resources of the road, including the proceeds
of the bonds of all kinds, and divided the proceeds among
themselves as dividends on the stock of the Credit Mobilier.
This left the Union Pacific Railroad to begin business mortgaged
to its full value, without any resources for its operation,
and utterly stripped of the ample endowment which the bounty
of the Government had provided for it.

Congress supposed when this munificent grant of land and loan
of credit was made it would create a great public highway
across the continent for the use of the Government and the
people, in war and peace, which should be a strong, solvent
corporation, ready for every emergency, and as secure for
the public use as New York Harbor, or as the Pacific Ocean.

The devisers of this scheme soon got to quarrelling among
themselves. One faction was made up largely of Boston capitalists,
and the other of men belonging in New York, New Jersey and
Connecticut. The former wanted to have the headquarters of
the corporation in Boston, with a Boston man for President;
and the latter desired to have the management in New York.
A suit in equity was brought, and the Boston men, headed by
Oakes Ames, a member of Congress, and his brother Oliver,
both eminent and h