When the war broke out, it ceased operations, until in 1866 the construction of the Pacific railroad brought it again into notice.
By using the charter of this Credit Mobilier, Mr. Oakes Ames and his associates saw an opportunity of making large sums of money. They bought up a majority of the stock of the Pacific Railroad, and secured the entire control of the Credit Mobilier. A contract was made with this company to build the road at an exorbitant profit, the proceeds of which were to be divided among themselves. The rights and interests of the smaller stockholders were quite ignored, as well as those of the United States, which, besides giving millions of acres, had also indorsed $60,000,000 of its bonds, to assist in the building of the railroad.
Of course, all this fraudulent dealing was kept a profound secret, and the true character of the Credit Mobilier was not known to the public for a long time.
To prevent Congress from investigating this outrageous swindle, the ring tried to dispose of some of their Credit Mobilier stock to different members of Congress.
George Francis Train called upon Garfield and asked him to invest.
"You can double and treble your money in a year," he urged; "the object of the company is to buy land where cities and villages are to spring up."
Garfield told Mr. Train that he had no money to invest, and even if he had, he should want to make further inquiries before entering into such a transaction.
A year later Mr. Ames, who was a member of Congress, came to Garfield and repeated the request.
"If you have no money to spare," said Mr. Ames, "I will hold the stock until you can find it convenient to pay for it."
After taking a few days to consider the matter, Garfield told Mr. Ames he had decided not to invest.