AMES, OAKES (1804-1873), American manufacturer, cap italist and politician, was born in Easton, Mass., on Jan. Io 1804. As a manufacturer of shovels, with his father and his brother Oliver (1807-77), he amassed a large fortune. From 1863 to 1873 he was a Republican member of the national House of Representatives. As a member of the committee on railroads he became interested in the project to build a trans-continental rail way, connecting the eastern States with California. In 1865 he took charge of the work, and to him more than to any other one man the credit for the construction of the Union Pacific railway was due. The execution was effected largely through a construction company, the Credit Mobilier Company of America. In disposing of the stock of this company, Ames, in 1867-71, sold shares to members of Congress at a price much below what they eventually proved to be worth. This gave rise in 1872-73 to a congressional scandal. After an investigation by a committee of the House, which recommended the expulsion of Ames, a resolution was passed on Feb. 28 1873, "that the House absolutely condemns the conduct of Oakes Ames . . . in seeking to secure con gressional attention to the affairs of a corporation in which he was interested, and whose interest directly depended upon the legislation of Congress, by inducing members of Congress to invest in the stocks of said corporation." Many have since attrib uted this resolution to partisanship, and the influence of popular clamour. In 1883 the legislature of Massachusetts passed a res olution vindicating Ames. He died at North Easton, Mass., on May 8 1873.
See CREDIT MOBILIER OF AMERICA and the references there given. For a defence of Oakes Ames, see Oakes Ames, A Memorial Volume (Cambridge, Mass., 1884)•