If the Boyd bill represents payment for votes, it was most likely votes bought in an unsuccessful attempt to block a procedural motion to suspend the rules and bring S 238 extending the time for the construction of the Northern Pacific to a vote of the Committee of the Whole. It passed 133 to 104.

The money also, however, could have been spent on a speakership fight raging among the Democrats or to block an attempt to get T.P. legislation to the floor.

Boyd to CPH, March 5, 1879, CPH, r. 17, ser. 1.

Huntington to Colton, Jan. 12, 1878, Octopus Speaks, 452.

Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal, Voteview for Windows: Roll Call Displays of the U.S. Congress, 1789-2000.Towne to Huntington, March 12, 1879, CPH Papers, ser. 1, r 17.

Rothman, Politics and Power, 197.