Mr. WASHBURNE, of Illinois. If there is any such report, why has it not been read? No report has been read here, and we have nothing before us but the statements of gentlemen. Now I have the sworn testimony of 16 witnesses, whose testimony cannot be refuted, that this bridge is a great obstruction to the navigation of the Mississippi river. I ask the House if they have no regard for the interests of the people? Do gentlemen know what this bill really means? Do they know the hostility and power of these railroad corporations in reference to every means of transportation except such as they themselves control? They want to close up the Mississippi in order to drive everything to go over their roads, and not permit us to have any outlets for our products except over their roads. Now, this very corporation for the benefit of which we are asked to legislate, this very Northwestern Railroad Company, is charging my constituents from 20 to 30 cents per bushel for carrying their corn to our nearest market by railroad, the market of Chicago. And yet the corporation comes here and demands of us to legislate for its particular benefit, while our suffering constituents have no voice in the matter and cannot be heard here. Let the people have a chance to be heard. The Gentfrom Massachusetts [Mr. ALLEY] must have known that I was deceived in. to this thing; he must have known that I had a right to presume that this was a matter foreclosed by the action of the last Congress; he must have known that my constituents and the people of the Northwest would want to be heard if this matter should come up again. How is it in Massachusetts, and even in Indiana? Do you not there give the people an o be heard upon all such questions as this? hen the Legislature of Indiana proposes to obstruct the navigation of any stream in the State do they not give the people a hearing? How is it in the State of Massachusetts? There you have in the Legislature a committee on corporations and bridges. Does the Massachusetts Legislature take up and pass upon a matter in the interest of a few men who want to be corporators without allowing the people to be heard? No, sir, they never did any such thing. Massachusetts legislates honorably, understandingly, and justly. I would like to see the committee of the Massachusetts Legislature that would undertake to get a bill through as the Gentfrom Massachusetts [Mr. ALLEY] is trying to get this through here. [Here the hammer fell]