Many of those who fattened on federal subsidies in the West were first to the trough in the South. Isaac Sherman, who argued for laissez-faire as vehemently as anyone in the country, did not allow his economic principles to stop his investments in Southern railroads, which fed off state aid. Huntington and Scott had no scruples over subsidies, and they came running wherever they caught a whiff of them in either the South or the West.
