Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/333

Rh company—"The Oregon and California Railroad Company,"—to which corporation the Salem company transferred all its effects. Mr. Evarts gave the legal opinion that inasmuch as Congress had recognized the Salem Company as an Oregon corporation, and had extended to it the franchise of competing for the land grant, and the company had actually complied with the terms of such recognition by building twenty miles of railroad, and that franchise was a grant from the sovereign that no one could dispute but the grantor, and that if this grantee should transfer to a new and lawful corporation all its rights in the grant, the courts would respect and maintain such transfer in the possession of the grantee, and that it would be safe for capitalists to lend the new corporation money on such security; and so the transfer of the Oregon and California Company was made, and bankers in Germany advanced the money on the first mortgage bonds of the company to build the road. For this service rendered by Mr. Evarts, Holladay paid a fee of $25,000.

It might be inferred from the articles of Professor Robertson and Mr. Fenton that the east side company was the popular one with the people of Oregon; but this was not the fact. Both companies strenuously sought to enlist popular support; and the Oregon Central (or west side) company succeeded to the extent of getting the Portland city council to pass an ordinance pledging the city to pay the interest on $250,000 of the company's bonds for twenty years. A like pledge was made by the commissioners of Washington County, to the extent of $50,000 of the company's bonds, and a like pledge by Yamhill County, to the extent of $75,000 of the company's bonds. In addition to this, citizens of Portland subscribed and paid for $50, 000 of the company's stock, citizens of Washington County took $20,000 of the company's stock, and citizens of Yamhill County $25,000; while Couch and