CREDIT MOBILIER OF AMERICA, a construction company whose operations in connection with the building of the Union Pacific Railroad gave rise to one of the most serious po litical scandals in the history of the United States Congress. The company was originally chartered as the Pennsylvania Fiscal Agency in 1859. In March 1864 a controlling interest in the stock was secured by Thomas Durant, vice-president of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and the Pennsylvania legislature au thorized the adoption of the name Credit Mobilier of America. Durant proposed to utilize it as a construction company, pay it an extravagant sum for the work, and thus secure for the stock holders of the Union Pacific, who now controlled the Credit Mobilier, the bonds loaned by the United States Government. The net proceeds from the Government and the first mortgage bonds issued to the construction company were $50,863,172.05, slightly more than enough to pay the entire cost of construction. According to the report of the Wilson Congressional committee, the Credit Mobilier received in addition, in the form of stock, income bonds, and land grant bonds, $23,000,00o—a profit of about 48%. The work extended over the years 1865-67. During the winter of 1867-68, when adverse legislation by Congress was feared, it is alleged that Oakes Ames (q.v.), a representative from Massachusetts and principal promoter of the Credit Mobilier, dis tributed a number of shares among congressmen and senators to influence their attitude. As the result of a lawsuit between Ames and H. S. McComb, some private letters were brought out in Sept. 1872, which gave publicity to the entire proceedings. The House appointed two investigating committees, the Poland and the Wilson committees, and on the report of the former (1873) Ames and James Brooks of New York were formally censured by the House. Charges were also made against Schuyler Colfax, then vice-president but speaker of the House at the time of the trans action, and several other members either of the House or of the Senate. The Senate later appointed a special committee to in vestigate the charges against its members. This committee, on Feb. 27, 18 73, recommended the expulsion from the Senate of James W. Patterson, of New Hampshire. The evidence was exag gerated by the Democrats for partisan purposes, but the inves tigation showed clearly that many of those accused were at least indiscreet if not dishonest.
See J. B. Crawford, The Credit Mobilier of America (Boston, 188o), and R. Hazard, The Credit Mobilier of America (Providence, 1881), both of which defend Ames; also the histories of the Union Pacific Railroad company by J. P. Davis (Chicago, 1894) and H. K. White (Chicago, 189 5) ; and for a succinct and impartial account, James Ford Rhodes, History of the United States, vol. vii. (1906).