"The Central Pacific railroad company of California, a corporation existing under the laws of the state of California, are hereby authorized to construct a railroad and telegraph line from the Pacific coast, at or near San Francisco, or the navigable waters of the Sacramento river, to the eastern boundary of California." Substantially the same provision is found for most of the corporations above named, and in all those cases, the authority to construct the road is followed by a provision for aid by the general government. It might be pertinent to inquire why it became necessary for congress to assume the control of railroads already chartered under state authority. It cannot be claimed that the states acted without authority in granting the charter; nor can the authority of the general government to take from the states the control of railroads within their border, be supported by any grant of power contained in the constitution. On the contrary, the power is reserved to the states, and its exercise is denied to the general government. It cannot be urged that the interests of the people are subserved by this assumption of power; on the contrary, these acts of congress take from the public its rights reserved by the constitution. But one answer can be given, _these acts were passed for the promotion of selfish and corrupt ends_. In support of this, we need only state the fact, that in almost every instance where congress has attempted to re-charter companies organized under state authority, and granted them aid, members of congress who were members at the date of the passage of the acts, were stockholders, and not unfrequently directors. Some congressmen who have been members for the last ten or twelve years, are stockholders in several of the companies, and at least one member of congress of twelve years standing is now a director in at least three companies that received grants of land, one of them getting large amounts of subsidy bonds, for all of which he voted, and for which, as often as occasion served, he has used his vote and influence in procuring additional privileges. We do not claim that every member of congress is interested in railroads; but we do assert that there are many senators and representatives who are personally interested, and that the proportion is so great that whenever it is desirable to have legislation it can be obtained without difficulty. To prove that the chartering and endowing of railroad companies is one of the principal occupations of the national legislature, we have only to look through the acts of congress the last two or three sessions. At the first session of the forty-second congress fourteen railroad bills were passed, some of them conferring grants to companies yet in embryo, having no being save upon paper, but presenting "great expectations" to our congressmen, who combine the business of granting charters and building railroads, and who find no indelicacy in