e to pay in money; upon
the presence of five directors appointed by the President
especially to represent the public interests, who were to
own no stock; one of whom should be a member of every Committee,
standing or special; upon the commissioners to be appointed
by the President, who should examine and report upon the work
as it progressed; in certain cases upon the certificate of
the chief engineer, to be made upon his professional honor;
and lastly, upon the reserved power to add to, alter, amend,
or repeal the act.

Your committee find themselves constrained to report that
the moneys borrowed by the corporation, under a power given
them, only to meet the necessities of the construction and
endowment of the road, have been distributed in dividends
among the corporators; that the stock was issued, not to men
who paid for it at par in money, but who paid for it at not
more than thirty cents on the dollar in road making; that
of the Government directors some of them have neglected their
duties and others have been interested in the transactions
by which the provisions of the organic law have been evaded;
that at least one of the commissioners appointed by the President
has been directly bribed to betray his trust by the gift of
$25,000; that the chief engineer of the road was largely interested
in the contracts for its construction; and that there has
been an attempt to prevent the exercise of the reserved power
in Congress by inducing influential members of Congress to
become interested in the profits of the transaction. So that
of the safeguards above enumerated none seems to have been
left but the sense of public duty of the corporators.

The Judge Poland Committee investigated the conduct of the
members who were suspected and acquitted all but two. The
House accepted their decision. They recommended the expulsion
of Mr. Ames and of James Brooks, one of the Democratic members.
There were some special circumstances in the case of Brooks,
which it is not necessary to recite. Brooks died before a
vote on his case was taken. The House by a majority amended
the resolution reported by the Committee in the case of Mr.
Ames, and recommended a vote of censure, which was passed.
Ames felt the disgrace very keenly, and did not live very
long afterward.

These disclosures did much to bring about the uneasy condition
of the public mind which led to the Republican defeat in the
election of members of the House of Rep