so much land, and a loan of so many bonds on the one side,
and the construction and equipment of so many miles of railroad
and telegraph on the other.

The United States was not a mere creditor, loaning a sum of
money upon a mortgage. The railroad corporation was not a
mere contractor, bound to furnish a specified structure and
nothing more. The law created a body politic and corporate,
bound, as a trustee, so to manage this great public franchise
and endowment that not only the security for the great debts
due the United States should not be impaired, but so that
there should be ample resources to perform its great public
duties in time of commercial disaster and in time of war.

This act was not passed to further the personal interests
of the corporators, nor for the advancement of commercial
interests, nor for the convenience of the general public,
alone; but in addition to these the interests, present and
future, of the Government, as such, were to be subserved.
A great highway was to be created, the use of which for postal,
military, and other purposes was to be secured to the Government
"at all times," but particularly in time of war. Your committee
deem it important to call especial attention to this declared
object of this act, to accomplish which object the munificent
grant of lands and loan of the Government credit was made.
To make such a highway and to have it ready at "all times,"
and "particularly in time of war," to meet the demands that
might be made upon it; to be able to withstand the loss of
business and other casualties incident to war and still to
perform for the Government such reasonable service as might
under such circumstances be demanded, required a strong, solvent
corporation; and when Congress expressed the object and granted
the corporate powers to carry that object into execution,
and aided the enterprise with subsidies of lands and bonds,
the corporators in whom these powers were vested and under
whose control these subsidies were placed, were, in the opinion
of your committee, under the highest moral, to say nothing
of legal or equitable obligations, to use the utmost degree
of good faith toward the Government in the exercise of the
powers and disposition of the subsidies.

Congress relied for the performance of these great trusts
by the corporators upon their sense of public duty; upon
the fact that they were to deal with and protect a large
capital of their own which they wer