The plane upon which his exertions will possibly be made may be justly imagined from the intimate knowledge and implied approval of bribery on a collossal scale which he mentions frankly and carelessly thus:
"I returned from Washington last night. The sub-committee of the R. R. Committee of the House have agreed to report Scott T. and P. Bills through to San Diego, and I am disposed to think the full committee will report it to the House. It can be hoped, but I doubt if it would be worth the cost, as I do not think it can pass the House. Scott, no doubt, will promise all the—say $40,000,000 that the Act would give him." (No, 428. N. Y., Feb. 23, 1878.)
And thus:
"The T. and P. folks are working hard on their bill. * * * They offered one M. C. one thousand dollars cash down, five thousand when the Bill passed and ten thousand of the bonds when they got them, if he would vote for the Bill." (No. 455. N. Y., May 3, 1878.)
The thought naturally occurs here: If such matter-of-course mention of appalling debauch cry of political honor and morality reflects the character of a conscience and foreshadows the scope of a purpose,—if such were his estimate of Congress, and such his belief then—how much are the Central Pacific magnates disposed to promise now to soon evade and eventually escape payment of, say, $67,000,000 now nearly due to the Government?
"The People Can Never Have an Open Highway."
In 1874, Thomas A. Scott, of Pennsylvania, proposed to build the Texas and Pacific Railway, and to secure subsidies for that purpose from the Southern States, as well as from Congress.
[With the question of subsidies in the abstract, this writing has nothing to do.]
If he succeeded, the Southern Pacific would lose its early clutch on the throat of our commerce, an hundred thousand voters would escape from political bondage—its paralyzing grip would be weakened, if not broken. There was deadly issue at once.