Republican politician, said of him: "Chauncey Depew? Oh, you mean the
man that Vanderbilt sends to Albany every winter to say 'haw' and
'gee' to his cattle up there."] Every one who could in any way be
used, or whose influence required subsidizing, was, in the phrase of
the day, "taken care of." Great sums of money were distributed
outright in bribes in the legislatures by lobbyists in Vanderbilt's
pay. Supplementing this, an even more insidious system of bribery was
carried on. Free passes for railroad travel were lavishly
distributed; no politician was ever refused; newspaper and magazine
editors, writers and reporters were always supplied with free
transportation for the asking, thus insuring to a great measure their
good will, and putting them under obligations not to criticise or
expose plundering schemes or individuals. All railroad companies used
this form, as well as other forms, of bribery.

It was mainly by means of the free pass system that Depew, acting for
the Vanderbilts, secured not only a general immunity from newspaper
criticism, but continued to have himself and them portrayed in
luridly favorable lights. Depending upon the newspapers for its
sources of information, the public was constantly deceived and
blinded, either by the suppression of certain news, or by its being
tampered with and grossly colored. This Depew continued as the
wriggling tool of the Vanderbilt family for nearly half a century.
Astonishing as it may seem, he managed to pass among the uninformed
as a notable man; he was continuously eulogized; at one time he was
boomed for the nomination for President of the United States, and in
1905 when the Vanderbilt family decided to have a direct
representative in the United States Senate, they ordered the New York
State Legislature, which they practically owned, to elect him to that
body. It was while he was a United States Senator that the