Now it was alleged that stock of the Credit Mobilier,
paying dividends of three hundred and forty per cent, had been
distributed by Ames among many of his fellow-Congressmen, in
order to forestall a threatened investigation. It was disclosed
that some of the members had refused point blank to have anything
to do with the stock; others had refused after deliberation;
others had purchased some of it outright; others, alas!, had
"purchased" it, to be paid for out of its own dividends.
* Testimony before the Wilson Committee.
The majority of the members involved in the nasty affair were
absolved by the Poland Committee from "any corrupt motive or
purpose." But Oakes Ames of Massachusetts and James Brooks of New
York were recommended for expulsion from the House and Patterson
of New Hampshire from the Senate. The House, however, was content
with censuring Ames and Brooks, and the Senate permitted
Patterson's term to expire, since only five days of it remained.
Whatever may have been the opinion of Congress, and whatever a
careful reading of the testimony discloses to an impartial mind
at this remote day, upon the voters of that time the revelations
came as a shock. Some of the most trusted Congressmen were drawn
into the miasma of suspicion, among them Garfield; Dawes;
Scofield; Wilson, the newly elected Vice-President; Colfax, the
outgoing Vice-President. Colfax had been a popular idol, with the
Presidency in his vision; now bowed and disgraced, he left the
national capital never to return with a public commission.
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