Adams cast a more positive light on all this in a letter to his lobbyist, Moorfield Storey, intended for use in modifying the Thurman Act
Adams to Storey, Jan. 14, 1887, UP, PO, OC, vol. 37, ser. 2, r. 33.
Testimony of Charles Francis Adams, PRC, 1:86.
The Associates kept virtually all the stock for themselves, although they often put it in other peoples names.
Colton to CPH, Aug. 8, 16, 1877, Octopus Speaks, 401, 403.
David Lavender, The Great Persuader: The Biography of Collis P. Huntington (Nivot: Univ. Press of Colorado, 1998), 300, 308, 328.
The sinking funds remained a source of corruption well after the Colton Trial
Colton Case Testimony, 3:1011, 1015-16, 1022-31, 1:98-99, 228-33, 6:2632-33.
CPH to Colton, Nov. 16, 1877, Octopus Speaks, 432.
Charles F. Crocker to CPH, July 26, 1889, CPH Papers, ser.1, r. 48.
They initially would have preferred to have the Central Pacific simply guarantee Southern Pacific bonds.
T. Hopkins to CPH, July 23, 1883, CPH Papers, ser.1, r. 33.
From Nov. 1885 to May 1886, the figure was 78 percent of the freight
Adams to Geo. Edmunds, March 17, 1885, Adams to Colgate Hoyt, March 18, 1885, UP, PO, OC, vol. 28, ser. 2, r. 24