The Crédit Mobilier scandal of 1872 involved the Union Pacific Railroad and the Crédit Mobilier of America (No relation to the French Credit Mobilier) construction company in the building of the western portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. In 1868 Congressman Oakes Ames had distributed Crédit Mobilier shares of stock to other congressmen, in addition to making cash bribes, during the Andrew Johnson presidency. The story was broken by the New York newspaper, The Sun, during the 1872 presidential campaign, when Ulysses S. Grant was running for re-election. The scandal's origins dated back to the Abraham Lincoln presidency, when the Union Pacific Railroad was chartered in 1864 by the federal government and the associated Crédit Mobilier was established.