For discretion's sake, he often kept the stock in his name and dispensed earnings where necessary. By virtue of their posts, all the recipients held influence over railroad legislation, but none seemed to sense any conflict of interest in their purchases.
And Ames was intent on gaining their support. Scandal erupted in election season , as president and UP friend Ulysse Grant came up for his second term. Blaine, and ten others among them future president James Garfield. The anti-Grant press seized upon the revelation as "the most damaging exhibition of official and private villainy and corruption ever laid bare to the gaze of the world.
Called before a Capitol Hill committee, Oakes Ames insisted that nothing illegal had transpired. He was therefore willing to talk. His colleagues turned on Ames, who in turn produced the ledger book. It cleared Blaine and Wilson, but incriminated Colfax and 13 other legislators. With a rapt public and incendiary press following its every move, the Committee decided not to take measures against those Ames fingered, choosing only to punish Ames himself and James Brooks -- the sole Democrat -- with congressional censure.
The Capitol seemed darkened by shame. He also pointed out that the financial improprieties would result in higher taxes on the trade carried by the railroad in the future, meaning that, as Durant had planned, someone else would foot the bill for cleaning up a villainous mess.
As a crowning insult to the public trust, the schemers were never punished. Discover the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst who helped bring down gangsters and break up a Nazi spy ring in South America. Her work helped lay the foundation for modern codebreaking today. I n the summer of , hundreds of wildfires raged across the Northern Rockies.
By the time it was all over, more than three million acres had burned and at least 78 firefighters were dead. It was the largest fire in American history. Charles Crocker was the first Central Pacific Associate to ride the completed transcontinental road, tracing his former wagon route back east. Collis Huntington had a preternatural sense for buying and selling.
He came to California in at news of gold. He found success vending supplies to men chasing their fortunes in icy streams. Despite a rough start, he established himself in Sacramento by the turn of the decade. Support Provided by: Learn More. Now Streaming The Codebreaker Discover the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst who helped bring down gangsters and break up a Nazi spy ring in South America.
The scandal also showed how corruption tainted Gilded Age politics, and the lengths railroads and other economic interests would go to assure and increase profits. Eric Foner and John A.
Garraty, Editors. All rights reserved. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.
In , the Pacific Railroad Act chartered the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad Companies, tasking them with building a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from east to west. Over the next seven years, the two companies would race toward One of the most powerful bankers of his era, J. John Pierpont Morgan financed railroads and helped organize U. Steel, General Electric and other major corporations.
The Connecticut native followed his wealthy father into the banking business in the late s, During this era, America became Bleeding Kansas describes the period of repeated outbreaks of violent guerrilla warfare between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces following the creation of the new territory of Kansas in In all, some 55 people were killed between and The struggle intensified In , Jackson vetoed a bill to recharter the Bank, and began a campaign that would eventually lead to its destruction.
Douglas in a series of seven debates. Thousands of spectators and newspaper reporters from around the country watched as Shipping and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt was a self-made multi-millionaire who became one of the wealthiest Americans of the 19th century. As a boy, he worked with his father, who operated a boat that ferried cargo between Staten Island, New York, where they
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