Crédit Mobilier

[ kred-it moh-beel-yer, moh-beel-yey; French krey-dee maw-bee-lyey ]

noun

, U.S. History.

1. a joint-stock company organized in 1863 and reorganized in 1867 to build the Union Pacific Railroad. It was involved in a scandal in 1872 in which high government officials were accused of accepting bribes.

Example Sentences

Congress passed the law in March 1873, acting hastily and without extended discussion, in part because it was distracted by the Credit Mobilier case, a scandal that embroiled numerous representatives and senators in accusations of bribery by railroad investors.

From Los Angeles Times

But when Horace Greeley, the longtime editor of the New York Tribune running for president as a Democrat, campaigned in Indiana and cited Crédit Mobilier as an example of corruption in Washington that required “purification,” the scandal could no longer be ignored.

From Washington Post

Ames admitted — first to a fellow investor and later to the committee — that he sold the Crédit Mobilier shares to his colleagues well below market value because the Union Pacific needed friends in Congress.

From Washington Post

Colfax told a hometown crowd in South Bend that in his years in public life, “no man ever dared make me a dishonorable proposition” and that “neither Oakes Ames nor any other person ever gave or offered to give me one share, or twenty shares, or two thousand shares in the Crédit Mobilier.”

From Washington Post

Ames had, in fact, approached him about buying Crédit Mobilier shares, and he told his Massachusetts colleague that the stock “looked like a good and safe investment for one of limited means.”

From Washington Post