In scanning the names of the directors of the railroad corporations which have received large grants of lands, subsidies, and special and exclusive privileges, we find many ex-members of congress in whose terms of service these grants were voted. We also find members of congress who were directors at the time their relief and aid bills were passed. We find one member who is now a director in three of the companies receiving the largest sums from government, and which are considered the best of all, because of the opportunity they present to enterprising men of legislative and financial ability; and in order that proper provision should be made for his kindred, one of the brothers of this same congressman is a director in five of these land grant subsidy corporations. These jobs are "nice and fat," made so by the unjust legislation of congress, and being "nice and fat," the division and distribution of the spoils is made among these congressmen and their friends. The practice of voting the money and lands of the public to these corporations has become so common that it is considered legitimate to bribe or buy the votes and influence of certain congressmen in favor of certain grants. Large bribes have been offered, and perhaps accepted for these purposes. So common is the practice of lobbying these jobs through congress that it excites but little attention save in extraordinary cases, and elicits but little comment. The power and corrupting influence of these corporations have grown to such proportions that they and their friends in congress can disregard and defy public opinion, and compel all the departments of the government to yield to their demands. They plunder the people with impunity. They have transformed the government; while we are in name a republic, and theoretically the people govern, we are in fact an oligarchy, and corporations rule the country. If the reader has followed us thus far he will have seen that while the idea of public necessity has been put prominently forth as the excuse for the great donations made to railroad companies, and the apology for the special privileges granted to them, in fact, the real object has been to create by special charter a privileged class with facilities to amass fortunes, and by the power granted to this class of perpetual succession and exclusive right under the law, to compel the whole people to pay tribute to it. This power is so great at this time, that it controls the whole commerce of the country, and as we will hereafter demonstrate, it controls not only the financial, but also the judicial department, and reigns supreme in the general politics of the country. Looking at these charters the thought is presented to the mind, and the idea is incorporated in the charter, that the people of the whole country are petitioning congress to grant aid to these companies for the purpose of developing the country; that by a spontaneous movement on the part of the whole people congress is called upon to incorporate these different companies, and to grant lands and money to aid in the different enterprises as they are presented. To give color to this idea, the names of men from most of the states and territories are included among the incorporators, some fifteen or twenty of whom are named as provisional directors who are to hold their places until the first regular meeting of the company, and the election of officers. Congress fixes the time and place of meeting and the notice to be given to the stockholders, and to carry out the idea that it is to be a company in which all can participate, the charter provides that any person can subscribe stock and become a stockholder who desires to do so. In fact though, no petitions have been presented to congress, nor do any considerable number of the persons named as corporators know of the organization, or that their names have been used; nor is it intended that they should know; the fifteen or twenty interested parties who have formed their plan for a raid upon the treasury, are the only ones, besides their particular friends in congress, who are supposed to know anything about it. These fifteen or twenty men who have gotten up the scheme, meet and elect themselves directors, and are then ready for action. Having obtained their charters, and organized under them, the work of robbing the people begins. With their friends, and some of their directors in Congress, they have been able thus far to obtain all they have demanded. There is no authority for the assumption that the chartering of these companies is in obedience to the wish of the people, either expressed or implied. On the contrary, this action of congress has uniformly been in opposition to public opinion, and indeed it has excited popular remonstrance. None but the few who wish to get their hands into the public treasury have asked the interference of congress, or desired the government to aid in these enterprises. So great is their anxiety to aid in the development of the country that substantially the same companies undertake to construct all the roads for which congress will grant sufficient aid. All these railroad schemes which have received the special attention of congress were planned by a set of unscrupulous men, who combined to plunder the treasury.

The system of aiding in the construction of railroads by grants of land was inaugurated in 1850, by grants to the Illinois Central, and did not develop itself fully until 1862, when the plan of obtaining charters from congress, connected with grants of land and subsidies, was systematically adopted. Since the latter date, the practice has increased with fearful rapidity, and within the last four or five years it has assumed such immense proportions as to threaten the entire subversion of the government.

The greatest raid made upon congress for these grants and special charter privileges during any one term was at the session closing March 4th, 1868. When it is remembered that the public business did not require these roads, and that the people had not asked congress to aid in their construction, it seems incredible that in the fortieth congress representatives and senators should have introduced more than one hundred and fifty bills and resolutions to aid railroad companies. Yet such is the fact. A gentleman who spent much time in Washington, and examined into this matter writes as follows:

"The latest developments show that in the grandeur and number of their schemes of spoil and plunder, the congressional rings of railroad jobbers throw into the shade all other rings of the lengthy catalogue of confederate treasury robbers. * * * One hundred and fifty-nine railroad bills and resolutions have been introduced in the fortieth congress, and twice as many more are in preparation in the lobby; one hundred millions of acres of the public lands, and two hundred millions of United States bonds would not supply the demands of these cormorants. In other words, this stupendous budget of railway jobs would require sops and subsidies in lands and bonds, which, reduced to a money valuation, would swell up to the magnificent figure of half of the national debt!" He continues: "Among the jobs of this schedule is the Atchison & Pike's Peak railroad company, or Union Pacific Central branch, which, after having received government sops to the extent of six millions, puts in for seven millions more. Next comes the Denver Pacific and Telegraph company, which, having feathered its nest to the tune of thirty-two millions, puts in for a little more, and this company is reported to be a mere gang of speculators without any known legal organization whatever—a set of mythical John Does and Richard Roes, who cannot be found when called for. Next, we have the Leavenworth, Pawnee, & Western railroad, now known as the Union Pacific, eastern division, chartered by the Kansas territorial legislature in 1855, subsidized with Delaware Indian Reserve lands in 1861, and then in 1862, by a rider on the Pacific railroad law, granted sixteen thousand dollars per mile in United States bonds and every alternate section of land within a certain limit on each side of the line of the road, and the privilege of a first mortgage (by subsequent amendment) to secure bonds issued by the company to the amount of sixteen thousand dollars per mile. It further appears that a clique of seceders from the old company illegally formed a new company, and having by force of arms taken possession of the road, are pocketing the spoils which legally belong to the old company. All this, too, with the consent of the president, the secretary of the treasury, and congress. From another source we learn that some half dozen Pacific branch or main stem railroads, northern and southern, are on the anvil, involving lands and bonds by tens and twenties and hundreds of millions; that Senator Pomeroy of Kansas, has seven of these jobs on the docket; Senator Ramsey of Minnesota, four; Senator Conners of California, five; and Senator Harlan of Iowa, four. Senator Pomeroy, however, distances all competitors in the number and extent of his jobs, for as it appears, they include a line from Kansas to Mexico, three bills for roads from Fort Scott to Santa Fe, in Texas, a South Carolina road through the Sea Island cotton section, two or three lines from the Mississippi river through to Texas, and a little private Atchison Pacific—one of the nicest and fattest speculations ever worked through. Is not this a magnificent budget, and is not the audacity of these railroad jobs and jobbers positively sublime?"

We do not vouch for the entire accuracy of the statements above quoted, but we know that much contained in them is absolutely true. If the congressional committee now investigating the alleged Credit Mobilier frauds, perform their duty honestly and faithfully, we will probably learn that the John Does and Richard Roes referred to, were Ames, Alley, and other distinguished persons in congress and out of it. An expose by this committee of the sum total voted to this eastern division of the Union Pacific, and the actual cost of the road and telegraph lines, would show a large margin for division, a goodly portion of which found its way into the pockets of members of congress. Can it be claimed that the needs of government required these large subsidies of lands and money? Had the people requested congress to make these grants? Has the development of this country returned to the people a tithe of the wealth thus recklessly given away by congress? The people are now groaning under the burdens imposed upon them by reckless or dishonest legislation at Washington. We might well stop and inquire, from what source the power for this kind of legislation is derived. Mr. Washburn of Illinois, now United States minister at Paris, in a speech in congress, in the winter of 1868, seems to have comprehended the situation, and in opposition to the system of plundering the public treasury spoke as follows:

"With the unreconstructed states admitted into the Union, with full and equal protection for all men, in all of the states, and with manhood suffrage secured by legislation or constitutional amendments, the minds of the people will turn to questions of finance, of taxes, of economy, of decreased expenditures, and honest and enlightened legislation—to questions of tariff, and to questions of railroads, telegraphs, and express monopolies which are sucking the very life-blood of the people—to the administration of the revenue laws and to the robberies and plunderings of the treasury by dishonest office holders. Already the eyes of the people of this country are upon congress. I may say they are upon the republican majority in congress, for that majority is now responsible before the country for the legislation of congress. It can make and unmake laws in defiance of executive vetoes. The republican party triumphed because it was pledged to honesty and economy, to the upholding of public faith and credit, and to the faithful execution of the laws. * * * The condition of the country, the vast public debt, the weight of taxation, the depreciated and fluctuating currency, the enormous expenditure of public money, mal-administration of the government, the extortion of monopolies press upon our attention with most crushing force. The people elected General Grant to the presidency, not only on account of the great and inestimable services he had rendered the country, in subduing the rebellion, not only on account of his devotion to the great principles of the republican party, but because they believed him to be emphatically an honest man, and an enlightened statesman who would faithfully administer the laws without fear, favor, or affection. The time has come when we are imperatively called upon to take a new departure. Added to the other terrible evils brought upon the country by the war for the suppression of the great rebellion, in the demoralization incident to all great wars, and to the expenditure of vast and unheard of amounts of public money; to the giving out of immense contracts, by which sudden and vast fortunes were made; the inflation of the currency, which engendered speculation, profligacy, extravagance, and corruption, by the intense desire to get suddenly rich out of the government and without labor, and the inventions and schemes generally to get money out of the treasury for the benefit of individuals without regard to the interest of the government. While the restless and unpausing energies of a patriotic and incorruptible people were devoted to the salvation of their government, and were pouring out their blood and treasure in its defence, there was a vast army of the base, the venal, and unpatriotic who rushed to take advantage of the misfortune of their country, and to plunder its treasury. The statute books are loaded with legislation which will impose burdens on future generations. Public land enough to make empires has been voted to private railroad corporations; subsidies of untold millions of bonds, for the same purposes, have become a charge upon the people, while the fetters of vast monopolies have been fastened closer and still closer upon the public. It is time that the representatives of the people were admonished that they are the servants of the people, and are paid by the people; that their constituents have confided to them the great trust of guarding their rights and protecting their interests; that their position and their power is to be used for the benefit of the people whom they represent, and not for their own benefit, and the benefit of the lobbyists, the gamblers, and the speculators who have come to Washington to make a raid upon the treasury."

The above shows the light in which Mr. Washburn, four years ago, viewed the matters of which we are now treating. Since the delivery of that speech act after act has been passed by congress in favor of these corporations, giving them greater privileges, releasing them from their obligations to government, discharging their liability to government for many millions of money, and to accomplish this, imposing upon the people additional burdens and taxes for which no equivalent has been or even will be given. The determination to plunder the government and people, seems to control not only the adventurers who go to Washington to lobby their schemes through congress, but also congressmen themselves, who become chiefs among this class of money and land grabbers. They vote to the corporations, of which they are a part, large sums in money and lands, and then use the means thus obtained for the purpose of bribing and corrupting their fellow members in favor of other and larger robberies.