The Pacific Railroad : The Relations Existing Between It and the Government of the United States (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Pacific Railroad: The Relations Existing Between It and the Government of the United States

IT is impossible to discuss, intelligibly, the question of the relations between the government of the United States and the Pacific Railroad Companies, and of their respective legal obligations and rights, under and by virtue of the act incor porating said companies, without a full and careful considera tion of the condition of the country at the time of the passage of the bill and the amendments thereto, as nearly all the arguments urged in favor of or against the proposed measure were drawn from such condition, which was one of civil war threatening the very existence of the nation. All the mind and strength of the people of the North were put forth for self-preservation and the maintenance of their territorial unity. One of the means to this end was a railroad across the conti nent to unite its two great slopes. It was inaugurated, on the part of government, almost wholly as a military measure. The appropriations made to it were regarded as fully justified on such ground. Its construction was committed to a private company, or companies, for the reason of their greater compe teney to construct and manage works that were to be commer cial as well as military in their character. As the value of the road, for whatever purposes, would be shared equally by the nation, it was but just that its cost should, as far as necessary, be assessed equally upon the nation.

All these considerations entered into and gave the peculiar form of language to the bill that was finally passed. Strange to say, these considerations are now almost wholly forgotten, and by none more so than by the government which inaugurated and supplied the means for the construction of the roads, and which is supposed to be always connusant of its acts in the past. But this very government now seeks to construe the law, not by reasons and conditions existing when it was enacted, but by those now existing, and which are wholly different. But the companies need not shun alegal contest. They can be compelled to do only what they agreed to do. Government was compe tent to make an outright gift of its bonds, if it chose - or to give credit for the interest, as well as principal, for the whole time the latter had to run. There is no privity between the holders of the bonds of the government and the railroad com pantes. The attorney-general unfortunately knows nothing of all this. He was not in a position to know any thing of the feeling or action of the North when the railroad bill became a law. He has, consequently, assumed both his law and his facts to support his conclusions.

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