Grant administration. The most famous of these was the Crédit Mobilier scandal. In this scheme, the Union Pacific Railroad bankrupted itself by overpaying its construction company, the Crédit Mobilier of America. Crédit Mobilier was owned by the railroad's principal shareholders and, as the investigation discovered, several congressmen also owned shares that they had been allowed to purchase at discounted prices. Randall's role in the investigation was limited, but he proposed bills to ban such frauds and sought to impeach Vice President Schuyler Colfax, who had been implicated in the scandal. Randall was involved with the investigation of several other scandals, as well, including tax fraud by private tax collection contractors (known as the Sanborn incident) and fraud in the awarding of postal contracts (the star route scandal). Randall was caught on the wrong side of one scandal in 1873 when Congress passed a retroactive pay increase. On the last day of the term, the 42nd Congress voted to raise its members' pay by 50%, including a raise made retroactive to the beginning of the term. Randall voted for the pay raise, and against the amendment that would have removed the retroactive provision. The law, later known as the Salary Grab Act, provoked outrage across the country. Randall defended the Act, saying that an increased salary would "put members of Congress beyond temptation" and reduce fraud. Seeing the unpopularity of the Salary Grab, the incoming 43rd Congress repealed it almost immediately, with Randall voting for repeal. Rise to prominence Democrats remained in the minority when the 43rd Congress convened in 1873. Randall continued his opposition to measures proposed by Republicans, especially those intended to increase the power of the federal government. That term saw the introduction of a new civil rights bill with farther-reaching ambitions than any before it. Previous acts had seen the use of federal courts and troops to guarantee that black men and women could not be deprived of their civil rights by any state. Now Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts proposed a new bill, aimed at requiring equal rights in all public accommodations. When Sumner died in 1874, his bill had not passed, but others from the radical wing of the Republican Party, including Representative Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts, continued to work for its enactment. Randall stood against this measure, as he had against nearly all Reconstruction laws. A lack of consensus delayed the bill from coming