Thomas Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Hugh Jewett of the Erie, John Garrett of the Baltimore & Ohio, and William Vanderbilt of the New York Central were at the zenith of their careers. Their railroads had utterly changed the American economy and they were raking in the benefits. They had just proven that they owned the federal government by throwing the presidency to Hayes. They believed, in their hearts, that they were the new aristocracy of a postdemocratic United States. They were Thinking Big.
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