Reconstruction and the Gilded Age 167tance, particularly land grants. Protective tariffs were another form of
support and stimulated such manufactures as steel, copper, and wool.
In addition, federal banking and monetary policies attracted both for-
eign and domestic investors.
Money flowed, bringing unheard-of wealth to those individuals
who knew how to obtain privileges that would advance their goals. Of
course, it came at a price. Bribery, conspiracy, conflict of interest,
blackmail, and other assorted crimes were commonplace during the
Gilded Age. It was a matter of recognizing the appropriate targets.
Quite obviously, for the railroads and those needing tariff protection
the targets were congressmen and officers of the national administra-
tion. As it turned out, during this era such targets proved to be willing
recipients of what ever largess was offered. Congressmen chose to ac-
cept them as gifts in appreciation and recognition of their status and
importance. They liked to believe there was nothing wrong in provid-
ing favors through legislative action and then receiving appropriate
acknowledgment for their efforts.
Railroads offered free passes, stock in the company, and even cash to
appropriate legislators, especially chairmen of key committees. Some
congressmen even held executive positions or served on railroad boards.
Representative Grenville Dodge, for example, held the position of chief
engineer of the Union Pacific all the while he represented his Iowa dis-
trict in the House of Representatives. The so-called financier of the Civil
War, Jay Cooke, regularly conferred financial favors on congressmen
and even held the mortgage on the home of Speaker James G. Blaine.
Sooner or later these cozy and usually improper arrangements were
certain to explode into public print, and in the de cade of the 1870 s they
did. The first and perhaps most notorious was the Credit Mobilier
scandal. It was uncovered by Charles A. Dana’s New York Sun on Sep-
tember 4 , 1872 , and exposed the involvement of not only the former
Speaker of the House and current Vice President of the United States,
Schuyler Colfax, but Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, who succeeded
Colfax as Grant’s running mate in the presidential election of 1872.
Also included were George Boutwell—the secretary of the treasury
and one of the prosecutors of the Johnson impeachment trial—and at
least a dozen congressmen, including James A. Garfield, chairman of
the Committee on Appropriations; Henry L. Dawes, chairman of