XXIX. THE DIX CONVENTION…

XXIX. THE DIX CONVENTION

HOW THE WAR DEMOCRAT, GENERAL DIX, WAS ELECTED GOVERNOR BY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.—THE CANDIDATES OF SENATOR CONKLING REJECTED.—HOW DIX WAS SPRUNG ON THE CONVENTION, TO THE CONSTERNATION OF THE CAUCUS.—JUDGE ROBERTSON’S DISAPPOINTMENT.—EXCITING SCENES IN THE CONVENTION.—GENERAL DIX DECLINES THE NOMINATION, BUT RECONSIDERS AND ACCEPTS ON THE ADVICE OF HIS WIFE AND GENERAL GRANT.—HOW DIX’S ELECTION ENSURED GRANT’S SECOND TERM AS PRESIDENT.

Among the political events of the last quarter of a century in which I took an active part, in common with some other Wall Street men, I think the Utica Convention, at which General Dix was nominated for Governor of this State, is entitled to special notice, particularly on account of its effect upon national politics.

I was a delegate to that Convention. Just as I was stepping from the train to the platform at Utica I was met by a gentleman who introduced himself to me as the Private Secretary of Senator Conkling. He said he came to convey an invitation to me from the Senator to be his guest during my stay in that city. He escorted me to the carriage in waiting, and I was taken to the palatial mansion of the Senator. I was the only resident guest during my stay—an honor which I highly appreciated.

Several gentlemen were invited that evening to dinner, amongst whom were Hon. Chester A. Arthur, A. B. Cornell, Wm. Orton and General Sharpe.

At the conclusion of a sumptuous repast the subject matter relating to the Convention was introduced by Senator Conkling. The Senator turned to me and said: “Mr. Clews, why would not George Opdyke be the best man for Governor?” Mr. Opdyke and Senator Conkling had always been on excellent terms, and a few weeks previously this aspirant for Gubernatorial honors had been a guest at the house of the Senator, and General Grant had been there at the same time. It was apparent, therefore, that Mr. Opdyke had gained special recognition from the Senator as his candidate for Governor, and that the choice had been sanctioned by General Grant. So the visit of these two distinguished guests seemed to indicate that the matter had been virtually, harmoniously and finally arranged, simply awaiting the official approval of the Convention. Hence, the point of the Senator’s inquiry directed to myself.

I replied: “Senator, I have a very high regard for Mr. Opdyke, as a man of great ability, as well as a brother banker, but as we have, all of us, a greater interest in what is to be done at this Convention, with a view of re-electing General Grant, we must, in my judgment, sacrifice all other interests thereto. Looking at the matter from that point of view, I am bound to say, therefore, that George Opdyke is not our best man. As you remember, he was Mayor of the city of New York at the time of the great riots of 1863, which was the most critical period of the country’s existence, and it was generally understood that in his official capacity he showed the white feather. While I admit that the excitement at the time was calculated to intimidate some of the strongest hearts, still, Mr. Opdyke, as Chief Magistrate of the city, was supposed to be equal to the emergency, and to meet it with firmness, irrespective of personal danger. He was expected to be equal to the task of ordinary self sacrifice in such a position, and he did not come up to popular expectation.

“And you will recollect, Senator,” I continued, “that your own brother-in-law, that able, worthy and popular man, Hon. Horatio Seymour, was so far carried away by his predilections then, that he addressed the crowd of peace-breakers as ‘friends.’ I confess that when a man like him was so pronounced on that side it was a difficult matter for a Mayor to have backbone enough to withstand the pressure. But public opinion is not in the habit of making such fine distinctions to excuse want of courage.

“If this is not an ample reason,” I said, “I can give you another, which should be sufficient to determine that Mr. Opdyke is not our best man at this time. He is young enough, however, and may be available at a future period, when the asperities associated with these troublous times have been fully smoothed down. During the war Mr. Opdyke had the misfortune to be a special partner in a clothing manufacturing firm which had received a contract from the Government to make clothing for the poor fellows who were fighting our battles for the salvation of the country. The clothing made by this firm was rejected on account of the inferiority of the material, and this is said to have been the first application of the term ‘shoddy’ to army clothing in this country.”

Mr. Conkling seemed to be amazed at my statement, and admitted that his protegé would not do. He felt considerably embarrassed in regard to his position with reference to Mr. Opdyke. He said, “Mr. Opdyke is here and expects the nomination. Some one ought to tell him to withdraw.”

Thereupon Mr. A. B. Cornell volunteered to undertake this delicate duty. He promptly performed it, and afterwards reported that the work had been accomplished. He said that Mr. Opdyke at once consented to comply with the modest request, but was so mad about it that he had left the city by the first train for home, being unwilling to remain for the convention.

Prior to his departure, however, he had advised the Hon. W. H. Robertson, who was the next prominent candidate, of his withdrawal, and of the support of his constituency so far as his name could control it.

Mr. Robertson, who had been prominent in the preliminary canvass, was gratified at this turn of affairs, and encouraged by his new accession of strength. He was quick to embrace the opportunity now left open, as there were no other candidates whom he feared. So the whole of that night he worked arduously and faithfully for the object in view.

When I left the Conkling mansion next morning, after breakfast, I mingled freely with the delegates, and found, from the efforts made the previous night, that the nomination of Judge Robertson was a foregone conclusion, and the candidate himself was sure of it. The Robertson boom had become suddenly popular. In fact, it was in the air.

I was invited to General Arthur’s parlors, where the caucus had its headquarters. It was customary with General Arthur, in those days, to take parlors for that purpose at State Conventions. I found the rooms filled with distinguished members of the party, and it was assumed by all that Robertson was the candidate for Governor; it was also proposed that we should march in a body to his hotel, to congratulate him, and to assure him of the fact that we were all for him. I declined to be of the number on that mission, to the great chagrin of some of my friends. When asked for my reasons, I said that I had no feeling of personal hostility towards Mr. Robertson, but as the New York Times had not been pleased with his conduct while State Senator, and had severely criticized him thereafter, I felt satisfied that under no circumstances could we rely upon the Times to support our ticket if he were at the head of it; and as that was the only paper in New York that we had to fight our battles then, it was all important that we should nominate a ticket that would not be antagonistic to it, in order that we might have its endorsement and full co-operation.

The rest of the gentlemen went to pay their respects to Judge Robertson, as pre-arranged, and during their absence I went to the telegraph office and sent the following message to General John A. Dix, to his residence at 3 West Twenty-first street, New York:

You are favored by many of the delegates for Governor. If nominated will you accept? For the sake of the country, answer in the affirmative.

“HENRY CLEWS.”

To this I received the following:

“I have telegraphed your dispatch to West Hampton, where my father now is.

“Aug. 21 1872.

“JOHN W. DIX.”

A short time afterwards the Convention met, and the name of Robertson was presented. The management had been so ably conducted since the departure of Mr. Opdyke, that there seemed to be an overwhelming hurrah in favor of Robertson, though it was evident that many of the delegates did not know why they cheered, except by force of imitation. The Convention at first, as has been the case on many similar occasions—except that there never was any occasion precisely similar to this one—did not seem to know its own mind, and was apparently well in hand by the management. Several most laudatory speeches were made in favor of Robertson, which placed him on the very pinnacle of popularity with the Convention, as manifested by the cheering and wild hurrahs with which the speeches were received. The management was thoroughly convinced that the popular tide had begun to flow in favor of their candidate, beyond the possibility of ebbing until it carried him to port, and there was probably no man in that enthusiastic audience more fully convinced of the fact than Robertson himself.

Several other nominations were made, but that of Robertson overshadowed them all.

When the gavel was about to descend on the choice of the people, as expressed through their intelligent representatives by every sign of enthusiastic approval, the audience being almost exhausted with this high pressure of excitement, and when it was just prepared to relapse into a more thoughtful and deliberate mood, I sprung General Dix on the Convention. The mere mention of the name of that veteran seemed to inspire the vast assemblage with new life. The announcement acted like magic, and appeared to throw all the previous work of the Convention into utter oblivion.

After Mr. Bruce and the Hon. E. Delafield Smith had spoken, I said: “On behalf of the bankers and business men of New York, regardless of party, the nomination of John A. Dix would do more for the Republican party in the national contest than any other that could be named. No other man would receive equal confidence of the great monied interests of the metropolis.”

The scene that followed the remarks of these gentlemen and myself is indescribable. The whole audience arose to their feet and cheered vehemently. If the house had been struck with lightning the caucus managers could not have been more surprised, and Judge Robertson must have begun to doubt his own identity.

Concerning the scene in the Convention at this juncture, the New York Herald the next morning had the following:

“The enthusiasm excited by the representatives of Henry Clews carried the Convention, and it only wanted to put the question to the delegates to result in a triumph for the Dix interest. There was great confusion in the hall at this moment. Delegates attempted to make themselves heard from all parts of the hall. There were heard the first notes of the coming avalanche of victory for the Dix ticket. The stentorian voice of a delegate from St. Lawrence, mighty almost as the cataract of Niagara, was heard above the din, proclaiming that the St. Lawrence delegation endorsed the nomination of Dix. Further enthusiasm was thus excited. Then followed Kings, Jefferson, Cayuga and others, lost in the cheering that was incessantly kept up. The whole of the delegation seemed under one impulse to fall into line under the flag raised by Dix as the standard-bearer of the party. Then came a demand that no ballot should be taken, formally or informally, but that the nomination of General Dix be made by acclamation. The Hon. William A. Wheeler, the chairman, said such a motion was not in order, as there were other candidates before the Convention. This difficulty, like every other, was soon swept away in the tornado of excitement consequent upon the sudden and unexpected course of affairs, so lately garbled and mixed up, had taken; and the clear course that the name of one man, held back to the lucky moment, had arrived, to give it a talismanic power, opened to the previous bewildered senses of the delegates when the Bald-Eagle of Westchester, the proposer of Judge Robertson, arose and announced the withdrawal of his nominee’s name. A thunder of applause followed this announcement, which was echoed and re-echoed, when the several other proposers withdrew in quick succession the names of their candidates. Then came again the call to put the name of General Dix by acclamation to the Convention. The vote was put and was unanimously carried, with the greatest excitement ever before witnessed at a Convention.”

The New York Times said editorially:

“The Convention of this State has placed at the head of its ticket two of the strongest names it could possibly have selected. In General Dix it has nominated a Democrat who is free from all the reproaches which the last twelve years have brought upon the Democratic party—a man whose character is without a stain, whose strenuous efforts to assist the Union during the rebellion ought never to be forgotten, who has been one of our most indefatigable assistants in the work of reform, and whose integrity and abilities alike entitle him to the respect of the public. No one can doubt that if we have General Dix as Governor of this State the affairs of the community will be managed with discretion, dignity and a high sense of honor. We purposely refrained from recommending candidates to the Convention, but now that all is over, we need not disguise our opinion that General Dix was the very best man that could have been chosen. Honest Democrats will gladly support him, Republicans have every reason to arrange themselves by his side, for he has identified himself with every great work in which they have been interested. He has always done his duty, no matter what position he has occupied, and we shall be proud to assist in electing him as Governor of this State. If we could not trust such a man as General Dix, it would be very hard to carry on the work of popular government at all.”

At the close of the proceedings I sent the following despatch to General Dix:

“I took the responsibility of putting your name forward as a candidate for Governor, and now rejoice in apprising you of your nomination by the Convention by acclamation.

“HENRY CLEWS.”

On my return to New York, to my utter dismay, I found the following telegram awaiting me:

“WEST HAMPTON, Aug. 22, 1872.

“HENRY CLEWS:

“I have been compelled to decline.

“JOHN A. DIX.”

That afternoon I went down to Long Branch to see General Grant, and spent the evening with him. I showed him the despatch from General Dix, declining the nomination, and expressed the opinion that it was all important that he should be prevailed upon to reconsider his first resolve, and permit his name to head our ticket. “You know, General,” I said, “Dix is a war Democrat. He will act as a bridge to bring over to our ranks all the war Democrats. It was chiefly for that reason that I sprung him on the Convention.”

General Grant realized the position at once, and fully agreed with me.

I said: “General, you must write a letter to General Dix, urging him to accept the nomination.” He wrote to General Dix in a day or two. The veteran was greatly moved by a letter from a renowned brother in arms, but still had some difficulty in making up his mind, lest he might lay himself open to the charge of inconsistency. And here comes in the predominating influence of lovely woman, even cruelly deprived as she is of the ballot. General Dix held his final answer in abeyance until he should consult his wife.

GENERAL GRANT TO GENERAL DIX.

Following is the letter which General Grant wrote after my interview with him:

“LONG BRANCH, N. J., Aug. 24, 1872.

“MY DEAR GENERAL:

“I congratulate you upon the unanimity and enthusiasm of the Utica Convention on the occasion of your nomination for the honorable and responsible position of Governor of the great State of New York. Especially do I congratulate the citizens of that State, almost irrespective of party, upon your nomination. I believe you will receive the active support of the great majority of the best people of the State, and the secret sympathy of thousands who may be so bound up by party ties and pledges as to force them to support your opponent.

“But to doubt your election would be to impugn the intelligence and patriotism of a people by whose enlightened discrimination such good men as Tompkins, Clinton, Marcy, Fish, King and Morgan have been lifted to the Chief Magistracy of the Empire State. With your election reforms in the State will naturally follow, which all acknowledge have been much needed for years.

“No one acquainted with the political history of New York for the past eight years will claim that all the abuses of legislation are due to Democratic rule, but members, or at least pretended members, of both political parties share the responsibility of them.

“When I read the proceedings of the Convention of the 21st inst., and of the unanimity of feeling in favor of you and your associates on the State ticket, I felt that victory had been already achieved and reform inaugurated in the State of New York.

“Again, I congratulate you, not upon the prospect of being Governor, but upon having it within your reach to render such services to your State.

“It is a happy day when conventions seek candidates, not candidates nominations. This dream has been realized in the action of the Convention of the 21st inst. at Utica, New York.

“I have the honor to be, General, your most obedient servant,

U. S. GRANT.”

“GEN. JOHN A. DIX, N. Y.”

GENERAL DIX’S REPLY.

“LEAFIELD, WEST HAMPTON, N. Y.,

August 28, 1872.

“MY DEAR GENERAL:

“I am very thankful to you for your kind letter of congratulation on my nomination for the office of Governor of this State. You are aware, no doubt, that I declined it before the Convention was held. I am deeply sensible of the honor conferred on me, especially by the manner in which it was tendered; but my objections to the acceptance of the nomination are so strong, that I would not think of it a moment, were it not for the deep concern I feel in the result of the election, and the great public interests at stake.

“I expect Mrs. Dix to arrive from Europe on the 2nd or 3rd proximo, and as soon as I am able to confer with her, I shall reply to the letter of the President of the Convention, advising me of my nomination.

“I am, dear General, very respectfully and sincerely yours,

JOHN A. DIX.”

“HIS EXCELLENCY, U. S. GRANT.”

It is evident from this correspondence that General Grant’s letter, which I take the credit of having inspired, reinforced by the latent, loving power and good judgment of Mrs. Dix, assisted in the wise decision of the war Democrat to accept the Republican office which was judiciously thrust upon him.

The election of Dix made the second calling and election of Grant sure. The Republican party took General Dix into its fold, and the effect was, as I had anticipated, to bring thousands of others similarly situated, to vote, at the Presidential election, for General Grant.

The Dix nomination was the worst black eye that Mr. Greeley received during that campaign, and the Sage of Chappaqua acknowledged on his death bed that that event, together with the Grant mass meetings at the Cooper Institute, described in another chapter, sealed his political doom.

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XXX. CONSEQUENCES OF THE UTICA (DIX’S) CONVENTION

A CHAPTER OF SECRET HISTORY.—CONKLING GETS THE CREDIT FOR DIX’S NOMINATION AND HIS “SILENCE GIVES CONSENT” TO THE HONOR.—ROBERTSON REGARDS HIM AS A MARPLOT.—THE SENATOR INNOCENTLY CONDEMNED.—THE MISUNDERSTANDING WHICH DEFEATED GRANT FOR THE THIRD TERM, AND ELECTED GARFIELD.—HOW THE NOBLE “306” WERE DISCOMFITED.-“ANYTHING TO BEAT GRANT.”—THE STALWARTS AND THE HALF BREEDS.-“ME TOO.”—THE EXCITEMENT WHICH AROUSED GUITEAU’S MURDEROUS SPIRIT TO KILL GARFIELD.

The political events succeeding the Utica Convention and the nomination of General Dix for Governor contain some inside history of more than ordinary importance.

Had I not sprung General Dix on that Convention at the peculiar moment, as described in the last chapter, Judge Robertson would have carried the day with flying colors. It was a sudden and crushing blow to the prospects of himself and his political friends, and it dissipated some of the brightest hopes and brilliant schemes that had ever originated in the fertile brain of Senator Conkling. As a consequence of the unique turn that affairs took on that day, the Senator was placed in a false position in relation to some of his best friends. Several of the latter were put in an attitude whereby they misinterpreted the actions of Senator Conkling at that Convention, and unjustly accused him of betraying friends that he had promised to support. This was the result of a misconception on their part, that the Senator was the prime mover of the coup d’etat that surprised the Convention in the nomination of General Dix.

The credit was awarded to Conkling, without any hesitation or inquiry, and he was either too proud, or too indifferent to public opinion to explain. If he had explained his position candidly the chances are that his explanation would have been taken in a Pickwickian or political sense. In fact, he was in a position where he could hardly escape the responsibility of Dix’s nomination, and everybody was ready to believe that the movement in favor of Dix was too good a thing to be engineered by a man of less calibre.

It would have been useless, therefore, for anybody else to explain, as the person attempting to do so would only have been laughed to scorn.

Judge Robertson, himself the greatest sufferer by the curious turn affairs had taken, was the first to believe that the nomination of Dix was one of Conkling’s masterstrokes of political policy. He never thought of looking to any other source for its emanation. He believed in his soul it was the work of Conkling, and he thinks so to this day.

I happened to have been better informed, however; but my explanation would have hardly passed muster at that time, and I would have been charged with egotism if I had attempted to explain. I think an explanation is now in order, however, and may point a moral as well as help to adorn a tale.

History is said to be philosophy teaching by example, and one great historian has said that no one event in itself is any more important than another, except from what it teaches posterity by its example. So, for the benefit of posterity, I now state the facts on this historical principle.

I am willing to make affidavit on the revised edition of the good book that prior to the Utica Convention the name of General Dix was not even lisped by Senator Conkling within my hearing, nor was Dix ever thought of even remotely by the Senator as a possible candidate.

I am almost certain that the Senator had taken no action that could possibly conflict with the interests of Judge Robertson prior to the mention of the name of Dix at the Convention. In fact, with the exceptions previously stated, I am quite certain that the name of Dix was a genuine surprise to the entire Convention, managers and all.

Judge Robertson thought differently, however. He believed that Conkling was the cause of his defeat, and to this misapprehension is due the enmity that sprang up between these two men, and worked with various results to the defeat of the political aims of both ever since.

As I was Senator Conkling’s guest, this seemed to create a conviction in the mind of Judge Robertson, without any inquiry into the matter, that I had acted at the instigation of Conkling in bringing Dix to the front; whereas the conception of Dix as the best candidate originated solely with myself, nor did I ever suggest the idea to Conkling until I addressed the Convention, in favor of General Dix.

Believing as he did, that the Senator had played the marplot to such perfection at Utica, Robertson was naturally on the watch for the first opportunity that would enable him to get even with the friend whom he suspected of having so basely betrayed him, and with having blocked his way to political preferment.

This opportunity came at the Chicago Convention, when the Utica statesman was managing matters very successfully to nominate General Grant for a third term.

It is curious that the very circumstance which was most conducive to Grant’s success for the second term was the remote cause of his defeat for the third. Senator Conkling had no idea of the deep-seated enmity that lodged in the breast of Robertson. He had done nothing, knowingly, to merit it, and had been calculating on the co-operation of Robertson, as usual. He was not aware of the smouldering fire of vengeance that lay latent in the bosom of his friend. He supposed that Robertson and his co-mates in politics were with him as in days of yore in the support of General Grant. He imagined that he had gone to Chicago with a full hand, but instead of that he was short of some of his best cards, and his enemies had them stocked in a way that finally brought him to grief.

Conkling only discovered his dilemma after the Convention met, when he found to his dismay that Robertson had bolted the Grant ticket.

Robertson had first made an alliance with the Blaine party, but finding an insufficiency of power among that party to carry his point against the solid phalanx of the Grant movement, he joined forces with John Sherman’s supporters, who were under the management of James A. Garfield.

The able strategist from Utica, at the head of his 306 chosen followers, so disconcerted the Sherman contingent that it also failed to carry the necessary number of guns.

As day after day passed without any change, it seemed as if the Conkling forces had adopted the motto of Napoleon’s old guard, “The Guard dies, but does not surrender.”

At length Robertson and his lieutenants collected the shattered ranks of Blaine and Sherman, and with Garfield at their head, like Ney attacking the English centre at Waterloo, hurled them with desperation on the solid square of Conkling, which still remained unbroken.

The united forces, however, with the war cry, “Anything to beat Grant!” carried the day, Garfield was nominated and Conkling retired in good order, but greatly discomfited.

Robertson had taken up this cry at the Convention in the same spirit that was displayed by another man about whom a good story was told during that campaign. He had got that shibboleth on the brain, “Anything to beat Grant!” As the story goes, a prediction had been made by some religious enthusiast that the world was coming to an end early in November of that year. A preacher was reminding his congregation, one Sunday, of the prediction, and the possibility of its fulfilment—at least that it was well to be prepared for such an event. At the conclusion of his exhortation, a man in the congregation arose to his feet, and in a solemnly pathetic voice said, “Thank God.” At the end of the service the minister’s curiosity was excited to converse with the man who had so fervently thanked heaven for what most people regarded as a universal calamity. He saw the man, and asked why he had made such a remarkable ejaculation at the prospect of such a terrible consummation. “Anything to beat Grant,” was the reckless and self-sacrificing response.

It was in this spirit that the Robertson party made the fight at Chicago, and in this spirit that they triumphed. It was anything to beat Senator Conkling, however, so far as Judge Robertson was concerned, who on other grounds would probably have preferred Grant. Thus he avenged upon the wrong man his defeat at the Utica Convention, and I was permitted to escape scathless, though innocently responsible for blasting his Gubernatorial aspirations.

This was not the end of Judge Robertson’s enmity to Senator Conkling, however. When the new Government came into power, Garfield, in making up his cabinet, selected Blaine as a member of that special body. This created a bad feeling between Blaine and Conkling, as it seemed to the latter like a continuation of the conspiracy between Robertson and Blaine, hatched at the Chicago Convention. Thus the seeds of a strong and bitter antagonism were sown between these two leading spirits in the Republican party, each aspiring to be at least the power behind the throne.

After Garfield’s inauguration Blaine was made Secretary of State. Great credit for the Presidential success was not only due to Mr. Blaine, but in a large degree to Judge Robertson also, as without his assistance Garfield could not have been nominated. So it was necessary to take care of Judge Robertson too. This was done by making him Collector of the Port of New York. These appointments were severe political blows, which, in the nature of circumstances, fell with full force upon the devoted head of Senator Conkling.

These events led to the sudden resignation of Senator Conkling and Senator Platt, “Me Too,” and a very serious division in the ranks of the party, under the respective names and banners of the Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds.

The excitement growing out of the political battle between these factions aroused the intemperate zeal and insane delusions of Guiteau to kill the President. Thus the thread of cause and effect, when followed up in this way, is entangled in the deepest mystery.

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XXXI. GRANT’S SECOND TERM

THE BEST MAN FOR THE POSITION AND MOST DESERVING OF THE HONOR.—HOW THE “BOOM” WAS WORKED UP IN FAVOR OF GRANT.—THE GREAT FINANCIERS AND SPECULATORS ALL COME TO THE FRONT IN THE INTEREST OF THE NATION’S PROSPERITY AND OF THE MAN WHO HAD SAVED THE COUNTRY.—THE GREAT MASS MEETING AT COOPER UNION.—WHY A. T. STEWART REFUSED TO PRESIDE.—THE RESULTS OF THE MASS MEETING AND HOW THEY WERE APPRECIATED BY THE FRIENDS OF THE CANDIDATE, LEADING REPRESENTATIVES OF THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY AND THE PUBLIC PRESS GENERALLY, IRRESPECTIVE OF PARTY.

I wish to relate briefly the part which I took in the re-election of General Grant, whose defeat, when he was spoken of as a candidate for the second term, was foreshadowed among a large number of politicians of every stripe. There were serious divisions in the ranks of his former friends and adherents, and an organized effort was made to destroy his prospects a long time in advance of the meeting of the Philadelphia Convention.

All the political machinery of his enemies, and of disappointed office seekers and their friends, was put in force, and all the tactics and prejudices employed that were put into operation with greater success four years later.

I felt assured that the nomination of any other man might result in the defeat of the party, and that it was absolutely necessary to its strength, maintenance and autonomy that General Grant should again be our choice. He had been tried for one term and found to be a very satisfactory executive. There was no important risk involved in trying him for a second term while the experiment with another man in the then sensitive, unsettled and tentative condition of reconstruction, might have been injurious to the best political and industrial interests of the country; and the experiment would have been especially risky if the nominee should have been a Democrat.

The people of the South were not then in a proper frame of mind to be trusted with any power implying the mere possibility of obtaining a controlling influence in the affairs of the Government. I perceived it was important that the Republicans should make a nomination that had a fair prospect of being successful, and I felt satisfied that the result would be extremely doubtful if we should nominate any other man.

Besides, no other man was more deserving of the national compliment, considering that he had done so much to terminate the struggle for national existence, and had been the chief force in suppressing the Rebellion. His genius and courage had been chiefly instrumental in preserving to the country the blessing of a Republican form of Government. For this boon no people could ever be too profuse in the manifestations of their gratitude.

This was the patriotic feeling deep in the hearts of the people at large, but there was a secret movement engineered by “sore-head” politicians, behind whom were even more dangerous enemies, to thwart patriotic purposes. Some of these conspirators had been brooding over latent schemes of anarchy for a long period, and had been attempting to put them in organic shape before half the first term of General Grant had expired. They were hard at work training public opinion, by every means in their power, to prevent Grant’s renomination.

This hostile element was sedulously hatching scandals and ventilating them in subsidized newspapers, and through various other disreputable channels.

This opposition increased in violence and intensity, and as the time approached when the country was to choose its next President, the renomination of General Grant became a matter of serious doubt, even to some of his most enthusiastic supporters. It had become a foregone conclusion that the Democrats would draw largely from the Republican ranks, and the anxiety on this point was intensified by the hostility of the Tribune, and the prospect of Horace Greeley’s candidacy. It was absolutely necessary, therefore, that an energetic effort should be made, and the requisite steps taken to ensure General Grant’s success at the Convention.

I entered into this feeling with a great deal of personal enthusiasm. What was my motive? some one reading this may ask.

Because I believed the sacredness of contracts, the stability of wealth, the success of business enterprise, and the prosperity of the whole country depended on the election of Grant for President.

If the reader wants to get at the selfish motive, as all readers do, I shall be perfectly candid with him in that respect also. Of course I knew that Wall Street business would boom in the wake of this general prosperity. That was the selfish motive, from which no man is free. Of course, I expected to share in Wall Street’s consequent prosperity.

I did not want office, as several of the highest were offered me which I respectfully declined; and no office in the gift of the people would have compensated me financially; and moreover, my highest ambition has been satisfied in my own line of business.

I went to work then in the interest of Grant for the second term. I employed numerous canvassers at my own expense, to find out the minds of the representative business men on the subject, and to talk the matter up with those interested in Republican success. These men reported to me daily, and in a short time I had sounded the minds of that part of the business community who had the greatest stake in the country, and whose influence is always most felt when any important achievement is to be compassed. I sent out a petition, and obtained the names of a splendid array of merchants and business men of all shades of opinion and politics in favor of Grant. Following is the heading of the petition:

“A PUBLIC MEETING.

“To the merchants, bankers, manufacturers and other business men in favor of the re-election of General Grant:

“The undersigned, desiring publicly to express their earnest confidence in the sagacity, fidelity, energy and unfaltering patriotism, so signally displayed by Ulysses S. Grant in securing the restoration of peace at home, upholding national rights abroad, and in maintaining throughout the world the honor of the American name, do hereby invite their fellow citizens to assemble in mass meeting at the Cooper Institute, on Wednesday evening, the 17th of April, 1872.”

This call was chiefly the result of the personal canvass which I had instituted a few weeks previously. I selected the names of the persons to be called on from day to day, and kept these men working the matter up, until I had secured almost all the reputable business firms in the city of New York. The following, whose original signatures I have still in my possession, were prominent in the list:

WILLIAM E. DODGE, JOHN C. GREEN, HENRY F. VAIL, GEORGE T. ADEE, REV. SAMUEL OSGOOD, WILLIAM H. FOGG, BENJAMIN B. SHERMAN, ROBERT L. STEWART, WILLIAM HENRY ANTHON, E. D. MORGAN, JAMES BUELL, H. B. CLAFLIN, W. R. VERMILYE, WM. M. VERMILYE, CHARLES L. FROST, NATHANIEL HAYDEN, JESSE HOYT, WILLIAM BARTON PEAKE, EMIL SAUER, JACOB OTTO, JOSEPH STUART, J. STUART, THOS. GARNER ANTHONY, FREDERICK S. WINSTON, MORRIS FRANKLIN, WM. C. BRYANT, R. H. McCURDY, JOSEPH SELIGMAN, THEODORE ROOSEVELT, WILLIAM ORTON, CHARLES P. KIRKLAND, PETER COOPER, HUGH J. HASTINGS, SAMUEL B. RUGGLES, CORTLANDT PALMER, JONATHAN EDWARDS, CHARLES KNEELAND, S. R. COMSTOCK, PITT COOK, THOMAS J. OWEN, OTIS D. SWAN, GEORGE OPDYKE, HARPER & BROS., JOHN C. HAMILTON, GEO. W. T. LORD, SAMUEL T. SKIDMORE, JONATHAN STURGES, WM. H. VANDERBILT, SHEPARD KNAPP, WM. H. ASPINWALL, J. S. ROCKWELL.

It is sad to reflect that these are all now numbered with the mighty dead.

These names will serve to show the great number of prominent people gradually departing from us every few years.

The name of the number of those yet alive who signed that petition is legion. In fact those who did not sign it were those whose names were not worth having. To put it mildly, I secured through their own signatures, by this method, all whose names were desirable. Our forces having been mustered in this way, the next thing was to disconcert the enemy, and inspire our own party by showing our available strength, and the power and enthusiasm behind the movement. This we proceeded to do by calling a mass meeting at the Cooper Institute for April 17, 1872.

The meeting was an immense success, in numbers, brains and respectability. The hall was crowded and the outside meeting was several times larger.

Mr. A. T. Stewart had been invited to preside. He had been a warm friend of General Grant, but had then become lukewarm and indifferent, owing to the fact that he had failed to obtain a Custom House promotion for one of his wife’s near relations. I had endeavored for several days to soften Stewart’s heart and get him to consent to be chairman of the meeting, but he was incorrigible. Finally, I succeeded in extorting a promise from him that if he did not vote for General Grant he would not vote against him, but beyond this it was impossible to mollify him. He was a paragon of obduracy when he had once resolved upon any course. Even the recollection that he, though an alien born, had been offered the second highest position of trust in the nation, Secretary of the Treasury, which he could not accept on account of being in business, failed to draw out his feelings of gratitude sufficiently to forget the fancied slight of refusing his wife’s relative promotion.

Failing to secure Mr. Stewart, I invited Mr. William E. Dodge to preside. He graciously accepted the invitation and made a very good chairman indeed.

The array of Vice-Presidents was said to excel anything that had ever appeared in a similar list of the proceedings of any meeting in this city.

I had invited Fred. Douglas and P. B. S. Pinchback, the eminent colored orators, to the meeting, but they could not attend, as they were at a New Orleans convention of their own people. Mr. Rainey, a colored gentleman, spoke most eloquently and with telling effect. This was the first time since the war that a colored orator had addressed a meeting of whites on politics in New York, or probably in the North. Prior to this the colored vote for Grant had been in doubt, as Horace Greeley, whose name was a word to conjure with among these people, had recently been swinging around the circle down South, with a view of capturing alike the vote of the colored people, who loved him, and that of the Democrats, who hated him. By a curious fatality he failed to capture either. As Blaine has truly said of him: “No other candidate could have presented such an antithesis of strength and weakness.”

There had been no meeting for a long time previous to this that had been the cause of such an enthusiastic awakening in the party and among politicians generally over the whole country, as this great demonstration of the people at the Cooper Union. It crushed the aspirations of the so-called Independents and smothered the lingering hopes of the Democratic party.

In order to show the influence of this mass meeting upon the destiny of political parties in the Presidential election of 1872, it will be necessary to take a retrospect of the impression it made on parties most deeply interested in the result, and to make known their private opinions on the subject. Inside history of this nature is always instructive, and time has clothed with the attribute of public property, what at one time was a very precious political secret.

Among the striking incidents of the night of that meeting I distinctly recollect one that was truly prophetic, in regard to Senator Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts. A number of the speakers and other prominent men took supper with me at the Union League Club after the meeting, and in proposing the health of Senator Wilson, who had spoken so eloquently, I nominated him for the Vice-Presidency, and sure enough he was afterwards elected to that position.

I shall take the liberty in this place of introducing to the reader a few letters hitherto unpublished, which throw considerable light on the value of the political work done by myself and friends at that time, and how it was appreciated by those most deeply interested in its outcome.

The following from the White House shows how anxiously the current of events was being watched from that great centre:

“EXECUTIVE MANSION, } WASHINGTON, D. C., April 17, 1872 }

MY DEAR CLEWS:

I have received your several interesting letters in regard to the great meeting in New York, and have shown them to the President, who read them with deep interest. I have not written any suggestions, because I know you, being on the ground, could judge so much better of the situation, and the temper of the New York people. You have done a great work, and this evening’s success will, I have no doubt, be the reward of your efforts. We shall look anxiously for the reports. What you say is curious about the use of Dix’s name and others. Our people are at work in Congress getting up telegrams signed by the Republican members of all the State delegations endorsing the administration of General Grant. I wish we had thought of these sooner, but still we can get them all in time, I hope. I have just come from the House, where I was looking after this matter. Wishing you every success,

I remain yours very sincerely,

HORACE PORTER,

(Sec’y to President Grant.)

After the meeting the President’s Secretary writes as follows:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, } WASHINGTON, D. C., } April 19, 1872. }

MY DEAR CLEWS:

I have only a moment before the mail closes to say how earnestly all congratulate you upon the great success of the meeting.

It was glorious and genuine. We read the proceedings in full in the Times last night. It has created a marked effect in Congress and elsewhere. Nearly every Republican in the House would have signed the congratulatory telegrams, but the movement was started so late in the day that the paper was not presented to any one.

Yours very truly,

HORACE PORTER.

The following, from the Hon. Roscoe Conkling, is a very flattering reminiscence, which I highly appreciate:

UNITED STATES SENATE CHAMBER, } WASHINGTON, April 19, 1872. }

MY DEAR SIR:

As a New Yorker and a Republican, I want to thank you for the great service you have rendered our country and our cause in conceiving and carrying forward the great meeting of night before last.

The effect of it will be wholesome and widefelt; it was most timely, and its whole management was a success. Our friends all, I think, know and appreciate the large debt due you in the premises.

Noting your suggestions as to the future, I lay them to heart.

Yours sincerely,

ROSCOE CONKLING.

HENRY CLEWS, Esq.

The New York Herald’s special from Washington next day after the meeting said:

“The President, in conversation with Senators who called upon him this morning, expressed himself as much pleased with the demonstration in New York last night, which he regards only as evidence of the popularity of the Republican party. He has been assured, from reliable sources, that the leading Democratic merchants and bankers in different parts of the country are anxious that the Republican party may completely triumph at the coming Presidential election, as the surest way of maintaining our credit, and resisting anything like a financial crisis, which they regard as certain if their own party should succeed.”

Following are the address and resolutions expressed through the representatives of a grateful people in favor of the hero who had saved the country:

Grant Meeting at Cooper Institute, March 17, 1872.—Address and Resolutions.

ADDRESS.

Hon. E. Delafield Smith, on behalf of the Committee of Arrangements, read the following address, remarking that it was prepared by one of the most eminent and substantial of our business men:

The administration of public affairs under the government of President Grant has been eminently wise, conservative and patriotic; our foreign relations have been conducted with a scrupulous respect for the rights of other nations, a jealous regard for the honor of our own; the noble aspiration with which General Grant emphasized his acceptance of his great office, “Let us have peace,” has been happily realized; the Union has been completely re-established on such principles of justice and equity as to insure its perpetuity; the Constitution, with all its amendments, has been adhered to with rigid fidelity; domestic tranquility has been restored; a spirit of humanity has been infused into our Indian policy; the revenues of the country have been faithfully collected and honestly disbursed, so that, while the burdens of taxation have been materially lightened, the public debt has been largely reduced, and the national credit appreciably strengthened; all branches of industry have been stimulated to healthy activity; and throughout the length and breadth of the land security, prosperity and happiness reward the perils and sacrifices by which the rebellion was suppressed and the Union preserved.

It is an act of poetic justice that the soldier whose victories in war, and the statesman whose triumphs of peace have made the last decade the most glorious in the annals of American history, should receive an earnest of the gratitude of his countrymen by his re-election to the Presidency.

It is an auspicious circumstance that the people are evidently awakening to a higher sense of the duties and responsibilities of public officials. There is a general disposition to hold men entrusted with place and power to a strict accountability for their acts, and to demand that honesty and capability shall be the inflexible conditions of appointment to office. The recommendations of the president in favor of the principles enunciated in the report of the Civil Service Commission, were timely and apposite, and deserve universal endorsement.

Numerous investigations have been set on foot during the present session of Congress, having for their object the discovery of corruption in the public service. Disaffected Republicans and partisan Democrats have made common cause in the endeavor to elicit evidence tending to show acts of wrong doing, and to implicate the President in knowledge or toleration of such acts. As in the days of Daniel, “they sought to find occasion against him.” But, like the enemies of Daniel, “they could find none occasion nor fault, forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found with him.”

The more incisive the scrutiny, the more palpable the demonstration of his purity. The cost of pursuing these investigations has exceeded the aggregate loss incurred by the Government through the dishonesty of its subordinates since the administration came into power.

A record so clear and honorable challenges the admiration, and compels the approval of citizens whose only aim is to secure a stable and beneficent Government—to preserve inviolate the faith of the nation—to give security to capital, adequate reward to labor, and equal rights to all.

With the grievances of disappointed office seekers, the masses who thrive by their own toil, cannot be expected to find time or patience to sympathize. Whether this Senator has had more or that Senator less than his share of patronage, are insignificant questions compared with the grave issues involved in a Presidential canvass. It is the constitutional prerogative of the President to make appointments to office. That he has not exercised these functions unwisely, the success of his administration abundantly proves.

Believing that General Grant’s civic career fitly supplements his military greatness, that he has brought to the discharge of his duties to the State the same energy, foresight and judgment which marked his achievements in the field, and made his campaigns from Donelson to Appomatox for ever illustrious; and that he possesses and deserves the confidence of the American people, we pledge to him our united and hearty support as a candidate for re-election.

RESOLUTIONS.

Hon. E. Delafield Smith, Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, presented the following:

First. That the merchants and mechanics, the bankers and business men of New York, represented in this meeting and in the call under which it is assembled, are satisfied with the wisdom, ability, moderation and fidelity with which the national government is administered, and in common with the bulk of our brethren throughout the Union favor the continuance of its distinguished head in the office which he holds with usefulness and honor.

Second. That the practical result of the coalition movement, if successful, would be to restore the Democratic party to power.

Third. That such a restoration, after the late glorious triumph over rebellion, would read in history like the record of a Tory resurrection at the close of our revolutionary war.

Fourth. That Republicans elected to office mainly by those who assailed the Union at the South and at the North embarrassed its defenders, would inevitably become serviceable to the powers that sustain them, like those northern presidents who were chosen by the South and did its bidding better than its own statesmen.

Fifth. That the patriotism that made Grant President of the Republic he saved, is akin to that which placed Washington at the head of the nation he created. The trust was accepted by each at a manifest sacrifice of interest and inclination, with modest misgiving as to civic experience and qualification. But having been well and wisely administered, the confidence implied in a re-election is an appropriate reward for faithful services, and accords with the broadest views of public policy.

Sixth. That against hostile criticisms and unfounded imputations, against alluring promises and prismatic theories,—we array the practical reforms constantly inaugurated and the substantial results already achieved by the present administration. The chronic vices of existing systems, unfairly paraded to its injury, have been placed in a course of amelioration or removal. The reduction of the national debt has elicited the admiration of the world. Our diplomacy has made peace the ally of national honor. And our President has been in deed as in name a kind and “great father” to the Indian tribes still lingering within our borders.

Seventh. That while honorable opposition is entitled to respect, every effort to blacken, for political purposes, the character of President Grant, is a crime against truth which vindicates him, and an insult to the American people who honor and exalt him. Pure in private as irreproachable in public life, with strong convictions yet deferential to the popular will, patient under attack, more ready to listen than to speak, with no display and no ostentation—those who know him best bear testimony to the sense, the sagacity, and the power of analysis by which his utterances are characterized and impressed.

Eighth. That in the judgment of this meeting a majority of the people of the country expect, desire, and decree the renomination and re-election of Ulysses S. Grant.

SPEECH OF HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH.

Mr. E. Delafield Smith said:—Fellow Citizens:—It is manifest to us all that President Grant will be renominated at the Convention in Philadelphia. It is equally clear that such is the wish of the American people. This is due to a confidence reposed in him by the “plain people” of the country, which no misrepresentation seems able to impair. His opponents assert that the public declarations in his favor are influenced by the office holders. But this cannot well be, for the office holders are always far outnumbered by the office seekers. With regard to executive patronage, it is as true now as when Talleyrand first said it, that every office conferred makes one ingrate and forty-nine enemies. The truth is, possession of the offices is a source, not of strength, but of actual weakness to any political party. In spite of this, General Grant is so strong and popular that a coalition is frantically sought as the only and forlorn hope of defeating him. It is thought that the Democratic masses can be carried over bodily to the few Republican seceders. But the moment the Democratic organization is relaxed, it will lose its hold upon thousands of its own members, and they may and will prefer in voting for a Republican to make the choice themselves, and they will rally in large numbers to the hero of our patriotic armies. The coalition meeting, lately held in this city, recalls the old arrangement as to colored troops, where the officers were white men, but the rank and file negroes. So here, the platform was covered with Republicans, but the audience was made up of Democrats. In thus acting with their old opponents our disaffected friends boast of their independence, and impute servility to us. But they are wrong. That man is most independent who is at once loyal to his country, true to his party, and faithful to his friends! With these brief observations, I move the adoption of the address and resolutions.

My only apology for inserting the above address and resolutions is, that I believe they constitute a valuable epitome of a very important chapter, yet to be more fully written, of the political history of the United States.

A greater criterion of the success of the meeting, however, was the editorial opinion of the Evening Post next day, which had been for a long time previously very bitter in its attacks upon General Grant. It said:

“The meeting held last evening at the Cooper Institute was, we believe, without precedent in our political history. It was expressly called as a gathering of that branch of the Republican party which desires the nomination and re-election of President Grant. Yet, when it came together, the officers and speakers assumed that it was a mass meeting of the Republicans of New York. This is to say, according to the organizers and promoters of this gathering, the one test of Republicanism now is the political support of one man’s aspirations, and that before any nomination has been made by that party. This is a singular position to receive the approval, at least, by their acquiescence, of such men as some scores of those whose names are prominent in the report of the meeting, and who, as we know, would prefer some other candidate than General Grant, if they could hope to control the Philadelphia nomination.

“The power of this meeting was wholly in its organization. The list of officers chosen by it is, on the whole, the best, most reputable, and most influential commanded by any partisan meeting within our recollection. There are a few names on it which disgrace their fellows; there are many which carry no weight, but an unusually large proportion of the very long list are eminent and representative names in this city. The audience assembled was in many respects in keeping with the officers. It consisted mainly of reputable, thoughtful voters.”

The good work was continued until November with the result that is now historical.

The New York Sun said: “We believe that Henry Clews did more, in a pecuniary way, to promote the success of Grant, than any Republican millionaire of the Union League Club.”

Another mass meeting was held late in the fall. Referring to it, and other events of that period, the President’s Secretary writes a few days prior to the election as follows:

WASHINGTON, D. C., Nov. 2, 1872.

MY DEAR CLEWS:

We are all greatly obliged for the documents and information which you have sent us during the campaign. The President says the list of vice-presidents of the last Cooper Institute meeting is the most remarkable list of prominent names he has ever seen upon one paper. It will of itself do great good.

Our news is charming from all quarters, and all our hopes will, without doubt, be fully realized on Tuesday next.

If the defeat of the enemy is overwhelming, it will be sufficient reward for all our labors.

Your very truly,

HORACE PORTER.

To show still further the interest which the leading merchants, bankers and business men of this city took in the movement to re-elect General Grant at that time, the following circular furnishes an excellent and historical record. It constitutes, in a small compass and compact form, a valuable chapter of financial history:

CIRCULAR

Of the Business Men of New York on the Financial Condition of the National Debt of the United States. Further Reduction October 1, 10,327,000 Dollars.

The undersigned, merchants, bankers and business men of New York, respectfully submit the following statements for the information of all parties interested therein:

The Republican candidate for President of the United States is Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who was unanimously named for re-election at Philadelphia, in May last.

At the commencement of Gen. Grant’s first term of office, March 4, 1869, the national debt was $2,525,000,000. On the first day of September, of the present year, there had been paid and cancelled of the principal of this debt, $348,000,000, leaving a balance of principal remaining unpaid at that date, in accordance with the official statement of the Secretary of the Treasury, the sum of $2,177,000,000.

Of this amount, $1,177,000,000 are represented in a funded debt, bearing interest in gold, while $400,000,000 remain unfunded in Treasury circulation.

Up to the close of the last session of Congress, the annual reduction of taxes, as measured by the rates of 1869, had been as follows:

Internal revenue tax $82,000,000

Income tax, (repealed,) 30,000,000

Duties on imposts, 58,000,000

———

Making a total reduction $170,000,000 of

The reduction of the yearly interest on the public debt exceeds the sum of $23,200,000, of which $21,743,000 are saved by the purchase and cancellation of the six per cent. public securities.

A careful consideration of these results of a prudent and faithful administration of the national Treasury, induces the undersigned to express the confident belief, that the general welfare of the country, the interests of its commerce and trade, and the consequent stability of its public securities, would be best promoted by the re-election of Gen. Grant to the office of President of the United States.

New York, Oct. 4, 1872.

PHELPS, DODGE & CO., GEORGE OPDYKE & CO., A. A. LOW & BROTHERS, JOHN A. STEWART, VERMILYE & CO., JAY COOKE & CO., JOHN STEWARD, HARPER & BROTHERS, JOHN TAYLOR JOHNSTON, FREDERICK S. WINSTON, PEAKE, OPDYCKE & CO., MORRIS FRANKLIN, SCHULTZ, SOUTHWICK & CO., J. S. ROCKWELL & CO., ROBERT H. McCURDY, WILLIAM M. VERMILYE, R. W. HOWES, WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, C. L. TIFFANY, SPOFFORD BROS. & CO., JOHN C. GREEN, H. B. CLAFLIN & CO., MOSES TAYLOR, WM. H. ASPINWALL, ROBERT LENOX KENNEDY, S. B. CHITTENDEN & CO., JAMES G. KING’S SONS, HENRY E. PIERREPONT, EMIL SAUER, BOOTH & EDGAR, WILLIAM ORTON, ISAAC H. BAILEY, SHEPHERD KNAPP, WILLIAMS & GUION, EDWARDS PIERREPONT, RUSSELL SAGE, PETER COOPER, ANTHONY, HALL & CO., GARNER & CO., J. S. T. STRANAHAN, E. D. MORGAN & CO., DREXEL, MORGAN & CO., AUGUSTINE SMITH, WM. H. VANDERBILT, MORTON, BLISS & CO., JONATHAN STURGES, J. & W. SELIGMAN & CO., J. & J. STUART & CO., JOHN A. PARKER, BENJAMIN B. SHERMAN, JOHN D. JONES, J. D. VERMILYE, SAMUEL T. SKIDMORE, HENRY F. VAIL, LLOYD ASPINWALL, JACOB A. OTTO, GEORGE W. T. LORD, SAMUEL McLEAN & CO., HENRY CLEWS & CO.

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XXXII. THE TWEED RING, AND THE COMMITTEE OF SEVENTY

THE RING MAKES ITSELF USEFUL IN SPECULATIVE DEALS.—HOW TWEED AND HIS “HEELERS” MANIPULATED THE MONEY MARKET.—THE RING CONSPIRES TO ORGANIZE A PANIC FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES.—THE PLOT TO GAIN A DEMOCRATIC VICTORY DEFEATED AND A PANIC AVERTED THROUGH PRESIDENT GRANT AND SECRETARY BOUTWELL, WHO WERE APPRISED OF THE DANGER BY WALL STREET MEN.—HOW THE COMMITTEE OF “SEVENTY” ORIGINATED.—THE TAXPAYERS TERRORIZED BY BOSS TWEED AND HIS MINIONS.—HOW “SLIPPERY DICK” GOT HIMSELF WHITEWASHED.—OFFERING THE OFFICE OF CITY CHAMBERLAIN AS A BRIBE TO COMPROMISE MATTERS.—HOW THE HON. SAMUEL JONES TILDEN, AS COUNSEL TO THE COMMITTEE, OBTAINED HIS GREAT START IN LIFE.

The Tweed Ring had considerable experience in and out of Wall Street for several years during the municipal reign of the famous Boss. I have made some reference to their attempts to manipulate the market through tight money, in my biographical sketch of that Wall Street celebrity Henry N. Smith.

The Ring was often highly subservient in assisting certain operators in speculative deals in stocks, one notable instance being in Hannibal & St. Jo. shares, which resulted in a terrible loss to Boss Tweed & Co. This stock became quite neglected for a long period afterwards, and so remained until the famous “corner” was engineered many years after by John R. Duff, of Boston, through his New York broker, Wm. J. Hutchinson, and by which poor Duff was almost, if not entirely, ruined. It is only justice to Mr. Duff, in this connection, to state that he was not to blame, as an exhaustive investigation by the Governing Committee of the Stock Exchange showed that his trouble chiefly arose through flagrant dishonesty and betrayal of trust on the part of his agent, in whom he reposed too much confidence.

Boss Tweed and his special retainers sometimes made Wall Street instrumental in engineering national and State political movements. About the time of an election, if their opponents happened to be in power, the Ring would produce a stringency in the money market, by calling in simultaneously all the city money, which was usually on temporary loans in the Street.

This the Ring managers would accomplish through some of the banks which were the depositories of the city funds, and were under their control.

By this means they worked up a feeling of antagonism against the Republicans who were in office, by throwing the blame on them, and thus rendering them odious in the eyes of those who had lost money in speculation. The blame was not unnaturally fastened on the party in power, and most men, when they lose money, are credulous enough to believe anything that seems to account for the manner in which the loss has been sustained. It seems to have a soothing effect upon their minds, and furnishes them with a tangible object upon which they may wreak their vengeance and feel satisfied. There is nothing so irritating to the disappointed speculator as the harassing doubt of where to fix the blame.

The Tweed Ring supplied this long-felt want, and filled the aching void in the heart of the man who happened to get on the wrong side of the market. When speculators frequently had their margins “wiped out,” and were almost beggared of everything except their votes, they found that consolation which Wall Street refused them, in the sympathetic hearts of Tweed’s “heelers,” who pointed to the poor office-holders of the Republican party, representing them as the sole possessors of Pandora’s box, which contained all evils that flesh is heir to.

So these financial disasters were brought about by the Tweed party for the purpose of getting their friends into office, which always paid tribute to the Boss when he was instrumental in elevating a person to a fat position. He, himself, did not want any better office than receiver general of this tribute.

In those days a Presidential election was largely influenced by the way Pennsylvania went, so that it had grown into a political maxim, “As goes the Keystone State so goes the Union.”

In the Spring of 1872, the year in which General Grant was the Republican candidate for the second term, when it was decided that Horace Greeley should be the Democratic candidate, great efforts were made to produce a panic in Wall Street. It was arranged by the Tweed party that the panic should take place simultaneously with the State election in Pennsylvania, so as to illustrate the evil results of Republican rule, and turn the influence in favor of Mr. Greeley’s election.

I received intimation of this politico-speculative conspiracy, and communicated my information to Senator Conkling, who was stopping at the Fifth Avenue Hotel at the time. I told him that the Democrats were working up a panic to help to defeat General Grant. He said it was the first he had heard of it, but it was so like a move that Tweed and his party would make, that he felt there was just cause for alarm about it, and he requested me to go and see Governor Morgan, and also George Opdyke, on the subject. I found that the Governor was at a church meeting, and I left my card telling him to call upon me at the rooms of the Republican National Committee, as I wanted to see him upon important business. I left word for Mr. Opdyke to call also.

The Governor soon presented himself at the Committee rooms, and I divulged to him my information and suspicions. He did not exhibit so much interest as I imagined the importance of the case demanded, and he appeared to doubt the correctness of the report of the political intentions of the Tweed Ring, or rather he seemed to imagine that the Ring was hardly capable of a move that involved such subtlety and depth of design. Therein he greatly underestimated the power, resources and statecraft of Peter “Brains” Sweeney. The Governor was of a phlegmatic temperament, and it was difficult to convince him of anything that was not very clearly demonstrable. I told him that my information was of such a positive and reliable nature that I knew I was right, and that if there should be a panic in Wall Street I had serious apprehensions that it would prove disastrous to the Republicans in the national campaign.

Governor Morgan appointed a meeting for the next day to discuss the matter more fully and obtain further light upon the subject. I took with me to see the Governor, whom I had now convinced of the reality of the political plot, Mr. George Opdyke and Mr. H. B. Claflin.

In the meantime the Governor had seen Travers, who, being an inveterate bear on the situation, had an inkling of what was in progress to break the market. The Governor had satisfied himself that my representations were correct, and that trouble was really brewing. He then entered with earnestness into the question of the best policy to be adopted to obstruct the schemes, and frustrate the purposes of the Democratic party.

I then suggested, that as the matter did not admit of delay, it was highly essential that some one, or more, of us should go to Washington to see General Grant. The Governor said he could not go. I could not go, and neither could Mr. Claflin. So Mr. Opdyke, who was very ready in such matters, consented to bear the important message in person, provided we all agreed to back him up by writing a strong letter to the President, setting forth the facts in relation to the emergency. This we did, and Mr. Opdyke left at once for Washington. This was on Friday evening, and he transacted his business with more than ordinary despatch, and returned on Sunday morning. He sent for me, and told me that he had explained the matter to the President, who felt exceedingly grateful for the warning which he and our letters had conveyed, and that he had forthwith consulted with the Secretary of the Treasury, and it was resolved to order the purchase, on Monday, of ten millions of bonds, and the sale of ten millions of gold, for the purpose of averting, in advance, any financial disturbance that might arise through the project of the Tweed Ring to create an artificial stringency in the money market.

Then I saw that these men who were engaged in the conspiracy to create a panic, and benefit themselves both politically and financially by its results, were a deeply designing lot, and that under the law, gold could be bid up, the highest bidders obtaining it, having the option of either paying by depositing their money in payment for it in the National depositories, which were the Fourth National Bank and the Bank of Commerce, or else depositing it in the Sub-Treasury. If deposited in the latter it would be locked up, and the effect intended by the Treasury, to make money easy, would be neutralized, in so far as the influence of the money as a circulating medium was concerned.

In order, therefore, to provide for that probable contingency, my firm subscribed for the whole ten millions of gold, the names being the clerks of my office. We were awarded eight millions, and we paid the money into the Bank of Commerce, and the Fourth National Bank, through which it was brought into circulation.

Thus ten millions of greenbacks and also ten millions of gold came fresh from the Sub-Treasury into circulation immediately, promptly anticipating and defeating the machinations of the Ring.

The Tweed Ring being “all broke up” on this deal, the effect was magical on the market. The plans of the conspirators had been entirely upset, and the Pennsylvania election took place a few days afterward with an overwhelming majority for the Republicans.

Had the panic, which was projected by the Ring, taken place, the result might have been otherwise, and the re-election of Grant thus jeopardized.

After this triumph over Tweed and his gang, I set my wits to work to plan their overthrow. I saw that their power was entirely money power, obtained by official position through official theft. I was satisfied that these patriots who had put their hands up to the elbows in the City Treasury of New York were bent upon buying, stealing or otherwise obtaining their way to the National Treasury at Washington.

They had hoped to do there on a large scale what they had accomplished on a smaller scale in the city of New York, where they were becoming restive under their limited resources.

It was with the view of suppressing the dangerous aspirations of this band of political marauders that I originated the well known Vigilance Committee of Seventy, and at the first meeting to organize this committee I nominated sixty-five of its members.

The committee was thus backed at the start by so many prominent citizens as to make it at once a power in the community.

Then for the first time in many years the citizens of New York were emboldened to become outspoken on the subject of political plunder and tyranny, and against the officials who had ruled the city with a rod of iron.

For a long time previous to this there had been grave suspicions that robbery on a large scale was being perpetrated, but no one dared to give utterance to the fact except with bated breath and in half smothered whispers. No one, with the possible exception of a few who were not taxpayers, had the temerity to open his mouth to say a word against the desperate men who controlled the destinies of the city, through fear that on the event of any remark reaching the ears of the Boss or his minions, the property of the person thus offending should be marked up to an artificial value and his taxes accordingly increased. This was one of the most effective methods pursued by the Ring to choke off unfriendly criticism by the rich men of the city. In this way the power of some of the most influential citizens became paralyzed, being held in complete subjection under the terrorism of this subtle system of blackmailing.

The power the Ring possessed of covering up the rascality of its members and bamboozling the public is hardly conceivable at this day except by those who had experience of it at the time. As an instance of this I may state that some time prior to the appointment of the Committee of Seventy certain accusations were ventilated against Richard Connolly, the City Comptroller. He put on a bold front, and insisted upon an investigation of his department by a committee of leading and prominent citizens. He named his committee, who were Moses Taylor, Marshall Roberts and John Jacob Astor. These were men against whom no person could have any objection. They were wealthy and independent citizens, and it might have been difficult at the time to have selected any other three who commanded greater confidence in the community. The investigation, through the unblushing effrontery and audaciousness of Connolly and his “pals,” resulted in an acquittal of Mr. Connolly, which gave him a new lease of political life, and rendered it more dangerous than ever for any one to utter a word of hostile criticism against his methods of managing the city finances.

Results showed, when the Ring was exposed, that Connolly had made the very best use of this investigation in appropriating additional sums out of the City Treasury.

The Ring was now supreme in city affairs, and the city was under a reign of terror. This state of things existed until the summer of 1872, when the Committee of Seventy got into harness, after which the despotic thieves that had ruled the roost so long, were driven from power one after another in rapid succession, and scattered to the four corners of the globe.

The task of ousting this brazen band of plunderers, root and branch, was attended with considerable difficulty, as their resources were so numerous and powerful. When they were no longer able to exercise their arbitrary power they stooped to every form of cajolery and bribery in order to adhere to the remnant of their official authority. As an illustration of this, I may state that at the beginning of my efforts in connection with the Committee of Seventy I was waited upon by a member of the Ring and asked if I would not accept the position of City Chamberlain. I said: “That is a matter, of course, which I could not decide upon at once, as there is no vacancy at present. It will be time enough for me to consider the matter when a vacancy occurs, and then when the position is offered to me.”

This answer carried with it an intimation, which I had intended, with a view of drawing out some of the internal methods of procedure in such cases, that I would probably accept the position and help to smooth over impending revelations. I thought that the end which the Committee had in view justified this means of mildly extorting an important secret in methods of Ring management, that was calculated to aid us in the work of municipal reform.

Next day I was again waited upon by one of Tweed’s most trusty friends, who graciously informed me that the City Chamberlain had resigned, and that there was a vacancy which I could fill to the entire satisfaction of the then appointing power. I desired him to convey my feelings of deep gratitude to the powers that were then on the point of being dethroned, and to say that I very respectfully declined the flattering offer. I said that I had thought earnestly over the matter since the previous day, and as I was a member of the Committee of Seventy, which was a reforming organization, I felt that I could not conscientiously accept the position.

It was necessary that the office should be filled immediately, and it was next offered to Mr. F. A. Palmer, President of the Broadway Bank, which had been one of the Ring’s depositories of the city funds.

Soon after this the majority of the city officials had resigned and taken their flight to parts unknown. They were scattered broadcast over the world. Some had gone to Europe, some to Cuba, and others to that favorite and paradisaical colony of defaulters, the New Dominion, leaving the Committee of Seventy, as a reform and revolutionary body, in complete control of the city.

Tweed remained, but was not quite so audacious in putting his pet interrogative, “What are you going to do about it?” He seemed to be convinced that the Committee of Seventy meant business. Mayor Oakey Hall also remained, and facetiously protested that as far as he was concerned everything was “O. K.”

The Hon. Samuel J. Tilden began to loom into prominence about this time. Through the influence of William F. Havemeyer, he was chosen one of the three legal advisers of the committee. Abraham B. Lawrence and Wm. H. Peckham were the other two. Mr. Tilden was quick to seize this opportunity of sudden prominence to bring himself to the front and pose as a great reformer. Had it not been for the Committee of Seventy, I believe it is very doubtful whether this great reformer would ever have been known as such, and it is also exceedingly problematical whether he would have ever got the chance of being counted out, or, attempting through the magic of his occult cyphers, to count anybody else out of the Presidency of the United States.

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XXXIII. HON. SAMUEL J. TILDEN

HOW TILDEN BEGAN TO MAKE HIS FORTUNE IN CONNECTION WITH WILLIAM H. HAVEMEYER.—TILDEN’S GREAT FORTE IN POLITICS.—HE IMPROVES HIS OPPORTUNITY WITH THE DISCERNMENT OF GENIUS.—HOW TILDEN BECAME ONE OF THE COUNSEL OF THE “COMMITTEE OF SEVENTY.”—HIS POLITICAL ELEVATION AND FAME DATING FROM THIS LUCKY EVENT.—THE SAGE OF GREYSTONE A TRULY GREAT MAN.—ATTAINS MARVELOUS SUCCESS BY HIS OWN INDUSTRY AND BRAIN POWER.—HE NOT ONLY DESERVED SUCCESS AND RESPECT, BUT COMMANDED THEM.—HOW HIS LARGE GENEROSITY WAS MANIFESTED IN HIS LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT.—THE ATTEMPT TO BREAK THAT PRECIOUS PUBLIC DOCUMENT.

Mr. Wm. H. Havemeyer had long been associated with Mr. Tilden in railroad wrecking and the reorganization of broken concerns of this character. Through this process both these gentlemen became wealthy. When, therefore, Mr. Havemeyer extended the right hand of fellowship to his confidential companion in money making affairs, and invited him to officiate as one of the counsel of three for the Committee of Seventy, Mr. Tilden was sharp enough to appreciate the opportunity, which he seized with avidity.

He was quick to discern the tide in the affairs of men which, when taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. He did not wait until the tide began to ebb, but, like an able seaman, set his sail at the propitious moment to catch the prosperous breeze as well as the tide. Thus, through a lucky chance and other men’s exertions, Mr. Tilden was raised high on the very crest of the tidal wave of reform, almost before he knew it.

In the first instance, this happy accident of being one of the trinity of legal advisers to our committee, for which he was well paid, did not lead immediately so much to fortune as to fame, but it formed an important portion of the pedestal upon which the several millions which he so munificently bequeathed to educational purposes were subsequently raised. To fame he was then comparatively unknown. The Committee of Seventy enabled him to obtain the start which was chiefly instrumental in elevating him to a position of renown in national politics.

Tilden’s great forte in politics, as in financial affairs and railroad matters, was to set a cash value on everything, and measure it accordingly. If he opened his “barrel” the contents were not distributed indiscriminately, but on the principle directed by the most expert judgment of where the money would do the most good—according to Mr. Tilden’s ideas of good. What they were I don’t attempt to explain, but, like the popular novelist, charitably leave them to the inference of the reader, or to that expert Moses who so ably deciphered occult telegrams from Florida and Louisiana when there was such a close contest for the office of National Executive.

Without departing from the main issue of my subject, however, I may say that the position which Mr. Tilden was enabled to assume as counsellor to our committee made it possible for him to rise from the, not to say dignified, although money-making, attitude of railroad wrecker to that of Governor of the Empire State of the Union, thus paving the way for him to become almost a successful candidate for the highest position in the gift of the Great Republic.

Such a sudden transition from comparative obscurity was enough to turn any ordinary head.

Seeing the unexpected course that both our local and national history have taken, it is impossible to say what might have been the course of this man’s destiny, and the fate of this new Daniel come to judgment in canal ring masters, had it not been that his friend Havemeyer discovered him at an opportune moment, and rescued him from manifest oblivion in the nick of time.

It must be said, on behalf of Mr. Tilden, however, that he improved the occasion with the discernment of genius, and in the fullest degree, and to the highest extent, thoroughly justified Havemeyer’s choice.

The soundness of that proverbial philosophy which holds that lightning never strikes twice in the same place seems to have been fully appreciated by Mr. Havemeyer, although this was a little ahead of the time that John Tyndall and other scientists of the modern school of discovery had demonstrated some of the recent wonders of electricity.

Tilden struck while the iron was hot, and though he failed to reach the highest pinnacle of his soaring ambition, he demonstrated the wonderful possibilities which lie in the path of obscure men who are blest with friends who look out for their welfare, and who have the precaution to turn the wheel of fortune in the right direction.

Whether it was the result of fate, genius, or wise direction, or a combination of all these attributes, I don’t pretend to decide, but I have noted the simple facts from my own observation and experience, associated with the rise and financial progress of the Hon. Samuel J. Tilden, leaving others deeper in scientific and philosophic matters to supply the details and hidden mysteries of the causes of his marvellous prosperity.

The Committee of Seventy, when entering upon its labors, passed a resolution authorizing the appointment of a subcommittee by the chair to select and retain three lawyers to represent it in the matters of litigation that might arise in connection with the investigation. Mr. Havemeyer, being a member of the sub-committee, through his influence Samuel J. Tilden was one of the three appointed.

To give the reader an idea of the power and prestige of the Committee of Seventy at that time it is only necessary to state that it was instrumental in making Mr. Abraham Lawrence one of the Judges of the Supreme Court, and Mr. W. H. Peckham, the third counsel, could have obtained almost any judgeship he had desired, with perfect facility.

These cases are on official record, and are living examples to show that I am not exaggerating. Judge Lawrence still adorns the bench, with an excellent record behind him, and Mr. Peckham has been a prominent figure in many of the most important suits that have become historic in the State and City of New York.

Mr. Tilden saw the power which this committee, used as an instrument of recommendation, wielded, and he set his astute mind to avail himself of the reformatory advantages which it afforded. The committee was a reform body, and he saw his opportunity, as one of its counsel, to become a reformer also. He builded almost better than he knew, if I may be permitted to quote Scripture in this case, and he did not build on a sandy foundation either. He planted himself on the solid rock of reform principles, independent of politics or previous condition. It must be said, to his credit, that he used the material at his disposal with great tact and good judgment, and made an excellent reformer.

Whatever may have been said about him by political opponents, the late Sage of Greystone must be judged in this sinful world by the positions to which he honorably attained. He became a prominent and most estimable citizen of our great Republic, and had it not been for his age, and certain physical infirmities, the existence of which was a matter of dispute, he would have made a very good President, judging from his record as a Governor.

I have not intended to say anything especially disparaging or ill-natured about Mr. Tilden through any hostile feeling towards him, of which I never had any. My intention has been simply to show how easily a man can rise if he has the ability required to take passage on the tide of prosperity exactly at its flow, the magic point of embarkation which William Shakespeare has suggested.

So what I have stated about Mr. Tilden is in the main rather to his credit than otherwise.

For a man who attained such an elevated position of success by his own industry and brain power I have the highest respect and the deepest sympathy, knowing myself a good deal about the toil attendant upon climbing above the heads of the great majority of the “masses” with a strong contingent of the envious “classes” always using their best efforts to pull a man down who attempts to aspire above a certain level. In fact, Mr. Tilden not only deserved success and respect, but he commanded them. Such a man should always be accorded most graciously his well-earned deserts.

I can, therefore, conscientiously subscribe myself one of the great admirers of his successful career on the whole, bearing always in mind that human nature is not perfect, and that there are few, if any, who have not had some murky clouds cast over their fair fame.

Although on strict moral principles we should never do evil that good may come, yet the manner in which Tilden disposed of the greater portion of his fortune will, even in the eyes of straight-laced moralists, go far to cover a multitude of sins in the acquisition of his wealth. There are probably few, if any, churches in the land that would have refused a portion of the bequest, no matter how familiar their members or their clergy might have been with Mr. Tilden’s railroad methods.

In this imperfect sketch of the turning point of prosperity in Mr. Tilden’s career, I have desired to show how little it requires to change the entire current of a man’s apparent destiny. A man who attains such eminent success has his Creator to thank for endowing him in the first instance with the capacity to take advantage of the chances thrown in his way, and his own smartness for turning them to the best account.

I have taken Mr. Tilden up and devoted to his extraordinary career a few pages, from personal reminiscences, in this book, owing to the fact that he was identified with a number of railroads in the way which I have indicated above. His position in this respect naturally classifies him with some of our most prominent Wall Street speculators, investors and operators, and he thus naturally falls within the scope of the main subject of this book.

Mr. Tilden, in his will, ordered that if the will should be contested by any of the beneficiaries each and all of the contesting parties should be disinherited.

In spite of this prohibition, George H. and Samuel J. Tilden, sons of Henry A. Tilden, and nephews of the testator, contested the validity of the instrument, not on the ground of incapacity or undue influence, but upon construction.

Henry L. Clinton and Aaron Vanderpoel were the lawyers for the contestants.

It is curious that the will of a man so deeply learned in the law as Mr. Tilden was, should be questioned as to whether it was a legal document or not. But such was the ground of the contest. The point was this: The residuary clause empowers the trustees to apply to the Legislature for an act to incorporate a body to be called the Tilden Trust. This body, when incorporated, was to become the legatee. This method of procedure, according to the opinion of learned counsel in the law, bequeathed to the trustee under the will the power to name the public legatee of the testator. It seems that a testator has no power to do this, according to the recent decisions of the Courts of last resort in this country, which, it would seem, Mr. Tilden had not read. Nobody but the testator himself has power to name the legatee. It appears he had the decision of the English Court in his mind, which allows of this method of bequeathing property. Following is the residuary clause in full, bearing upon this point: “I request my said executors and trustees to obtain, as speedily as possible, from the Legislature an act of incorporation of an institution to be known as the Tilden Trust, with capacity to establish and maintain a free library and reading-room in the city of New York, and to promote such scientific and educational objects as my said executors and trustees may more particularly designate. Such corporation shall have not less than five trustees, with power to fill vacancies in their number, and in case said institution shall be incorporated in a form and manner satisfactory to my said executors and trustees during the lifetime of the survivor of the two lives in being, upon which the trust of my general estate herein created is limited, to wit, the lives of Ruby S. Tilden and Susie Whittlesey, I hereby authorize my said executors and trustees to organize the said corporation, designate the first trustees thereof, and to convey to or apply to the use of the same the rest, residue and remainder of all my real and personal estate not specifically disposed of by this instrument, or so much thereof as they may deem expedient, but subject, nevertheless, to the special trusts herein directed to be constituted for particular persons, and to the obligations to make and keep good the said special trusts, provided that the said corporation shall be authorized by law to assume such obligation. But in case such institution shall not be so incorporated during the lifetime of the survivors of the said Ruby S. Tilden and Susie Whittlesey, or if for any cause or reason my said executors shall deem it expedient to convey said rest, residue and remainder, or any part thereof, or to apply the same, or any part thereof, to the said institution, I authorize my said executors and trustees to apply the rest, residue and remainder of my properly, real and personal, after making good the said special trusts herein directed to be constituted, or such portion thereof as they may not deem it expedient to apply to its use to such charitable, educational and scientific purposes, as in the judgment of my said executors and trustees will render the said rest, residue and remainder of my property most widely and substantially beneficial to the interests of mankind.”

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Chapter XXXIV

COMMODORE VANDERBILT. —HOW HIS MAMMOTH FORTUNE WAS ACCUMULATED.

FERRYMAN.—STEAMBOAT OWNER.—RUNS A GREAT COMMERCIAL FLEET.—THE FIRST AND GREATEST OF RAILROAD KINGS.—THE HARLEM “CORNER.”—REORGANIZATION OF N. Y. CENTRAL.—HOW HE MILKED HIS CO-SPECULATORS.—HIS FORTUNE.—ITS VAST INCREASE BY WM. H.

The most conspicuous man connected with Wall Street in my early days of speculation was “Commodore” Vanderbilt. Without going minutely into the early exploits of the man, it will be sufficient, for the purposes of this narrative, that I trace his start in life in connection with a row-boat of which he was Captain, plying between Staten Island, Governor’s Island, and New York, in which he himself did the rowing. This enterprise, in course of time, grew into one with boats propelled by steam, instead of manual labor. During his progress as ferryman he became proprietor of a hotel at New Brunswick, New Jersey. This side issue did not prove very lucrative, perhaps, because the Commodore, with all his versatile ability, did not possess the special talents required to keep a hotel. The hotel still exists, and is situated near the railroad station, and is now, as it was then, merely a railroad tavern. The first vivid recollection of the Commodore in Wall Street “dickering” was in connection with the Nicaragua Transit Company, the capital of which was over $4,000,000. He became President of the Company, and soon afterward the head and front of the whole enterprise. The Directors and stockholders, and in fact every one else connected with the Company, were soon crushed into nonentities. When their complete subjection was obtained, the Commodore loomed up into gigantic dimensions, and, as he expanded, the Nicaragua Company became small by degrees and beautifully less in inverse proportion. Eventually the greatly depressed stockholders, like the worm when trodden under foot, turned and showed resentment. The case came into Court and was the subject of ordinary investigation, but I never heard of the Company recovering anything. I presume their claims were relegated to the profit and loss account in perpetuity.

After this, the Commodore started a line of steamers in opposition to the fleet of Pacific Mail, and kept his boats running until he was bought off. About this time an event happened which has preserved for posterity a good story, highly characteristic of the Commodore. His son-in-law, James M. Cross, had conceived the idea of embarking in the wholesale leather business in the “Swamp.” He had been talked into it by an experienced man who was to be his partner. A store was secured, and everything put under way for the start, with the exception of the capital, which Mr. Cross had agreed to contribute against the experience of his partner. The amount was to be $50,000. Mr. Cross, knowing that the Commodore had at this time become rich and prosperous, felt satisfied that it was only necessary to make application to his enterprising father-in-law for the amount required. Thereupon, with the confidence begotten of implicit trust, he approached the Commodore for this temporary accommodation, giving him a full description of the nature of the business. After listening attentively to the statement of his esteemed son-in-law, the Commodore said in reply: “Now, James, if I let you have this $50,000 to put in the leather business, how much do you think you will be able to make for your share out of the profits?” Mr. Cross thought the best position to take with a rigid business man like his father-in-law was to be prudently conservative in his expectations, and to keep all his Colonel Seller prospects in the background. After a few moments reflection he replied: “I believe I am almost certain to make $5,000 a year.” The Commodore promptly responded: “James, as I can do better than that myself in handling $50,000, I will give you $5,000 a year hereafter, and you may consider yourself in my employ at that salary.” There was no way for James to wriggle out of it, and he accepted the situation with apparent good grace, whatever his internal emotions may have been at the time. The Commodore forthwith dispatched Mr. Cross to San Francisco to manage his steamboat business there. He soon discovered, however, that James was hardly aggressive enough for the go-ahead fellows on the gold coast, and he was recalled. After looking around some time for a man possessing the necessary requirements to be placed in successful competition with the adventurous spirits of the Pacific Slope, his search was rewarded by an introduction to Commodore C. K. Garrison, then in command of a Mississippi steamboat. Garrison had established his reputation for being the best euchre player on the river, and for much besides which that term implies. He was brave and fearless—in fact, in some respects, a Jim Bludso of real life, with the self-sacrificing qualities of that hero largely discounted, or perhaps entirely left out. It required men of mettle in those days to run a steamboat on the Father of Waters, when the greater portion of the passengers belonged to the gambling fraternity, and were all experts with the bowie knife and the ready revolver.

The Commodore had an interview with Garrison, which resulted in an engagement, and he was sent to San Francisco as the Commodore’s agent. It was soon found that he was the man for the Wild West, and he was not slow to appreciate his own value and importance to the increasing fortunes of his employer. He struck very often for higher wages, and was always able to command his price. He rose, from one advance to another, until his salary at that day had reached the marvellous figure of $60,000 a year. Numerous stories of Garrison’s fabulous prosperity on the Pacific Coast reached this city and the ears of the Commodore, and his fame began to penetrate farther than the name of the latter had ever been heard. These accounts had their effect on a mind so naturally envious as that of the Commodore. He began to realize the humiliating fact that, instead of Garrison being in his employ, the former captain of the Mississippi steamboat had him in tow, and was everywhere regarded as the Boss, while Vanderbilt was simply supposed to be his Eastern agent. This brought matters to the point where patience ceased to be a virtue, and the connection was severed. Soon after this the Commodore sold out to the Pacific Mail Company, which again became a monopoly, and as the fight had been a losing one to him, he was obliged to find other waters for his boats.

Since his advent with a common row boat on the waters of our own handsome bay, thence through the gradations of ferry boats and steamboats, nothing but unremitting success had attended his ventures, until his unequal struggle in competition with Pacific Mail. He appeared to have met his Trafalgar when he encountered that fleet. His dissociation with Garrison seemed for a time to forebode disaster. He gathered himself up temporarily again, but never took to the waters so kindly afterwards. He began to feel that his financial destiny was verging towards a firmer foundation. His last boat was the famous steamship Vanderbilt, which was recognized at the time as one of the finest ships to be found on any sea. He made a present of her to the Government during our great National struggle, or according to another account, he lent her, and the Government kept her. The Commodore at one time had a fleet of sixty ships.

The Commodore became convinced that the growing prospects of railroads pointed to greater facilities for transportation in the future, and also a more profitable investment than those watery regions which had hitherto appeared to be his natural element. He promptly resolved to turn his back on the domain of Neptune, and to devote his great energies to enterprises on land. He saw there was comparatively little room for development in water traffic, while in the railroad business the field was practically unlimited.

He then commenced to buy up Harlem Railroad stock, so as to obtain control of that road, and in the operation got up the celebrated Harlem “corner.” Application had been made to the Legislature for some advantages in connection with the road, which were refused for reasons best known to leading members of that body. In the meantime Harlem stock had been knocked down to a very low figure. The Commodore remained in ambush, and was secretly purchasing it. He then went to the Legislature to get his bill passed. Most of the members of the Legislature thought they had got the “deadwood” on the Commodore, and enlisted a large number of their friends in the enterprise. They attempted “to work the Commodore for all he was worth,” and for a time appeared anxious to pass the measure required. On the strength of this anticipated action on the part of the Legislature the stock advanced, when the members sold “short” and failed to legislate. The stock naturally went down, and Vanderbilt bought it up. The collapse anticipated by the Legislature did not take place, and, instead of that, the Commodore got a “corner” in the stock, and the members of the Legislature were the parties mulcted. They had, therefore, all to go to the Commodore’s office, and settle up with him on his own terms, and he made arrangements to get his measure in favor of the road through the Legislature as part of the bargain. This transaction is more fully described in another chapter.

His next great enterprise was in connection with the New York Central. Having successfully euchred the legislators in the matter of Harlem, he was encouraged to play a still higher game. As soon as he obtained control of this property, it seemed as if it had been touched by a magic wand, or that famous stone of Midas, contact with which turned everything into gold. Prior to this event the road had been dragged along under the management of Dean Richmond, Samuel Sloan and Henry Keep, without any signs of prosperity; but when Vanderbilt took hold of it there was a sudden change to visible progress and prosperity. It never looked behind afterwards, and both enterprises have enjoyed signal and increasing success ever since, thus illustrating the marvellous capacity of the Commodore for the organization and management of large enterprises. The hydraulic operations of the Commodore with the stock of this property would alone furnish material for a very interesting chapter. Sending it up on one occasion at a bound, between Saturday and Monday, 20 per cent., was a new move in manipulation which caused some of the boldest operators on the Stock Exchange to stand aghast. He kept working the stock up and down, in some such way as Mr. S. V. White now keeps toying with Lackawanna, until he “milked” the street sometimes very dry. He kept the tempting prize of a coming dividend glittering before the eyes of the dazzled imaginations of his friends who were dealing in the stock, but the “milking” process was so ably managed that, when the famous 80 per cent. dividend was actually declared, they had become so poor that they were unable to carry any of the stock, so as to avail themselves of the profits. There was but one man that I know of who reaped any benefit from it, and that was an old friend of the Commodore, who still lives, and who had met with signal reverses in some of the Erie deals at the time Mr. Gould so ably managed that concern. This man had been wiped out in Erie, and his depressed condition awoke a sympathetic cord momentarily in the heart of the Commodore. He gave his friend the tip the day before the dividend was declared, and he found another friend who bought enough of stock to realize $700,000, which was divided between them. This is the solitary exception within my knowledge where the Commodore failed to bag the entire game without “saying turkey once” to any person connected with the deal.

The life of the Commodore affords singular scope for reflection on the immense possibility of a great business capacity to amass a huge fortune in a few years, especially in this country. The Commodore and his son William H., in a little more than half a century, accumulated the largest private fortune in the world, excepting the aggregate wealth of all the Rothschilds combined, which has been the result of the most expert financiering in all the capitals of Europe through several generations, with all the resources of the greatest monarchs on the earth to back their various enterprises. With all these advantages in favor of the Rothschilds, the Vanderbilt fortune amounts to two-thirds of the sum total of theirs. The result is certainly astounding when submitted to a test of the highest standard of comparison that can be found anywhere on this globe. But, wonderful as the success of the Commodore was in its rapid gradations, from the possession of a rowboat on our bay to that of a fleet of sixty-six steamboats that brought mercantile argosies from all parts of the world, and in later years his great railroad acquisitions, yet the success of his son is more marvellous still.

In seventy years the Commodore arose from nothing financially to be the proud possessor of $90,000,000. Wm. H. obtained $75,000,000 of that and nearly trebled it in a tenth part of the time. He made three times as much in seven years as his father made in seventy, or he made as much on an average every two and one-half years as his father had done during the three score and ten of his active business and speculative career. If any person having the necessary amount of temerity had ever ventured to make such a prediction as this in the presence of the old Commodore, what a natural burn idiot he would have been regarded by that grand old man. If the spirits of the departed ever visited the glimpses of the moon in these days, what a profound sense of humiliation that of old Vanderbilt must feel, as it makes its nightly rounds through those spacious marble corridors in Fifth avenue, or, perched on the dome of the Grand Central Depot, it contemplates the mighty development and expansion of its earthly designs, now extended far beyond the limits of what its highest ambition had dared to foreshadow.

Some people may argue that it required greater ability to acquire these first $90,000,000 than the present sum total of the wealth of the Vanderbilts. Those who argue thus, however, have no precedent to suggest their position. An instance of such prosperity on so large a scale in so short a time has never occurred in the history of financiering. The accumulations in all the wealthy families that I know of have been comparatively slow, and the history of the family of European millionaires shows a similar principle of gradation, except, indeed, that the gradation in the majority of instances has gone backwards. Very few wealthy men, with the exception of the Rothschilds, the Astors and a few others, have had any children capable of increasing their wealth, except where it was almost impossible to do otherwise under the law of primogeniture. In this country, therefore, where the law of distribution has full scope, Wm. H. Vanderbilt, who had to that time been regarded as a man of very moderate capacity, proved himself to be the ablest financier of which there is any record either in ancient or modern history.

Jay Gould, with all the resources of science at his disposal, and all the talent that money could command, with newspapers, politicians, lawyers, judges, and courts at his will, with as good a start, financially dating from 1878, as Wm. H. Vanderbilt had, has been left far behind in the race for wealth, and for the highest prize ever gained by one man in any nation. It has been truly said that a fool can make money, but it takes a wise man to keep it. Wm. H. Vanderbilt’s financial wisdom, as well as his ability, was signally displayed in keeping this great fortune intact, besides adding fully three times as much more to it; and it proves that his father made no mistake in selecting him to hand his name and fortune down to posterity. This immense pile of “filthy lucre,” however, in spite of all the credit that is justly due to its late manager, has had one serious drawback from a public standpoint. In fact, the very announcement of this mammoth fortune in the newspapers, at the time of Mr. Wm. H. Vanderbilt’s death, had a most demoralizing effect upon a large number of the wealthy portion of the community, who began to feel that they were nonentities in comparison. In making this statement I absolve the Vanderbilt family from any blame. Every man in this great Republic has the privilege of walking in the footsteps of the two great Vanderbilts if he only has the ability; but it would not be wisdom for a large number of men to attempt it. They would be pretty certain to “get left.”

The story of the distribution of the Vanderbilt wealth, however, has brought discontent to many a home where happiness reigned before. It could hardly be otherwise, constituted as human nature is, and especially human nature in our highly strung commercial society, where the spirit of ambition is always strenuously aiming at higher flights. People who heretofore had considered themselves rich, and socially important, with a million or so to draw upon, felt that they were mere ciphers in the scale of wealth; they seemed to themselves to be financially blighted, and miserably poor in contrast with the colossal magnitude of the Vanderbilt possessions as exhibited in the Surrogate’s Court. The plain, cold, prosy figures brought out there read like a romance, or the story of Sinbad the Sailor and the Valley of Diamonds. But it was all stern reality. This is why the feelings which suffer from this contrast are so deeply pathetic. It is a reality, and a stern reality, that can hardly be imitated or duplicated by any other two men in this generation. The thing is possible, but just about as probable as it was for every private soldier of Napoleon the Great, who each had a Marshal’s baton in his knapsack, to become a Marshal. “Every blacksmith,” says the Rev. Robert Collyer, “might become a preacher, but it would be a great public calamity if it should happen to that extent.” The bare outlines of the Vanderbilt wills, which have made such a deep impression on the community at large, will be found in another part of this book. I think they will afford very interesting reading for generations yet unborn.

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XXXV. WILLIAM H. VANDERBILT

A BUILDER INSTEAD OF A DESTROYER OF PUBLIC VALUES.—HIS RESPECT FOR PUBLIC OPINION ON THE SUBJECT OF MONOPOLIES.—HIS FIRST EXPERIENCE IN RAILROAD MANAGEMENT.—HOW HE IMPROVED THE HARLEM RAILROAD PROPERTY.—HIS GREAT EXECUTIVE POWER MANIFESTED IN EVERY STAGE OF ADVANCE UNTIL HE BECOMES PRESIDENT OF THE VANDERBILT CONSOLIDATED SYSTEM.—AN INDEFATIGABLE WORKER.—HIS HABIT OF SCRUTINIZING EVERY DETAIL.—HIS PRUDENT ACTION IN THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1877, AND ITS GOOD RESULTS.—SETTLED ALL MISUNDERSTANDINGS BY PEACE AND ARBITRATION.—MAKES PRINCELY PRESENTS TO HIS SISTERS.—THE SINGULAR GRATITUDE OF A BROTHER-IN-LAW.—HOW HE COMPROMISES BY A GIFT OF A MILLION WITH YOUNG CORNEEL.—GLADSTONE’S IDEA OF THE VANDERBILT FORTUNE.—INTERVIEW OF CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW WITH THE G. O. M. ON THE SUBJECT.—THE GREAT VANDERBILT MANSION AND THE CELEBRATED BALL.—THE IMMENSE PICTURE GALLERY.—MR. VANDERBILT VISITS SOME OF THE FAMOUS ARTISTS.—HIS LOVE OF FAST HORSES.—A PATRON OF PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.—HIS GIFT TO THE WAITER STUDENTS.—WHILE SENSITIVE TO PUBLIC OPINION, HAS NO FEAR OF THREATS OR BLACKMAILERS.-“THE PUBLIC BE DAMNED.”—EXPLANATION OF THE RASH EXPRESSION.—THE PURCHASE OF “NICKEL PLATE.”—HIS DECLINING HEALTH AND LAST DAYS.—HIS WILL AND WISE METHOD OF DISTRIBUTING 200 MILLIONS.—EFFECTS OF THIS COLOSSAL FORTUNE ON PUBLIC SENTIMENT.

In treating of the family in the order of descent, I shall now make a brief survey of the life of William H. Vanderbilt, especially in its relation to Wall Street affairs and the management of his great railroad system, the two being closely connected. William H. Vanderbilt was not much of a speculator in the Wall Street sense of the term. He was more of an investor than a speculator, and his investments had always a healthy effect upon the market. Unlike Woerishoffer and others of that ilk, he built up instead of pulling down values, but was at the same time careful to avoid the error of inflation. He paid due deference to public opinion also, in striving to allay its alarm in regard to the dangerous overgrowth of monopolies. A grand illustration of this was seen in the sale of the large block of New York Central. His first experience in railroad matters was in connection with the Staten Island Railroad, thirteen miles in length. The road had been mismanaged and was deeply in debt, and became bankrupt. As he and his father had considerable interest in the road William H. was appointed receiver. It seems this was done secretly at the suggestion of the Commodore, who wanted to discover by this experiment if his son had any capacity for railroad management. The receivership of the Staten Island road was crowned with signal success. In two years the entire indebtedness of the road was paid, and the stock, which had been worthless, rose to 175. William H. Vanderbilt was then elected President of the road. It was at this time, it is said, that the Commodore began to correct his judgment regarding the “executive ability of William H.,” and the latter relaxed no effort to please his exacting father in everything, taking all his abuse without complaint or anger. After the Commodore secured control of the Harlem road, which was his first great railroad venture, he made William H. Vice-President. As a co-worker with his father the latter further demonstrated his capacity for railroad management, and Harlem stock, which had been down to nearly nothing, in a few years became one of the most valuable railroad properties in the country. So, it is a fact, although not generally known, that William H. Vanderbilt had proved himself to be a competent railroad manager before his eminent father had fairly begun that line of business. It was almost entirely owing to his individual exertions and sound judgment that, in a few years, the Harlem road was double-tracked, and such other improvements made as sent the stock from 8 or 9 to above par. The Commodore was so highly pleased and agreeably surprised with his son’s management of the Harlem road that he made him Vice-President of the Hudson River Railroad also, and at a later date associated him in the same capacity with the management of the important consolidation of New York Central & Hudson River. The great executive power of William H. was manifested in every successive movement which his father directed, and unparalleled prosperity was the result in every instance. After William H. was fully installed in the Vice-Presidency of the consolidated system of the Vanderbilt railroads he became an indefatigable worker, taxing his physical and mental powers to their utmost capacity, and it was doubtless this habit of hard work, persisted in for many years, that resulted in so sudden and comparatively premature death for a member of a family famous for its longevity throughout several generations. He insisted on making himself familiar with the smallest details of every department, and examined everything personally. He carefully scrutinized every bill, check and voucher connected with the financial department of the immense railroad system, and inspected every engine belonging to the numerous trains of the roads. In addition to this general supervision of everything that pertained to the railroads, he was in the habit of going over a large amount of correspondence which the majority of other men not possessing the hundredth part of his wealth hand over to their clerks, and he answered a great number of letters with his own hand which financiers of comparatively moderate means are in the habit of dictating to their stenographers. When his father died, at the age of 82, in January, 1887, William H. Vanderbilt, then 56 years of age, found himself the happy possessor of a fortune variously estimated at from 75 to 90 million dollars. The remainder of the Commodore’s bequests amounted to 15 millions.

After the death of his father the executive powers of Wm. H. Vanderbilt, in the management of the vast railroad interests bequeathed to him, were called into active play. The great strike of 1877 among the railroad employes threatened to paralyze business all over the country, and came pretty near causing a social revolution. In this emergency a cool head and prudent judgment were valuable attributes to a railroad manager. Mr. Vanderbilt proved that he possessed both in more than an ordinary degree. Just prior to encountering the knotty problem of the strike he had been highly instrumental in bringing about suspension of hostilities in the freight war, and the course which he advised led to an arrangement that produced harmony among the trunk lines for a considerable period. As a consequence of the rate war the railroad companies were obliged to cut down the wages of their employes, and this was the chief element in causing the strike. There were 12,000 men in the employ of the New York Central and Harlem. Their wages had been reduced ten per cent. and they had threatened to annihilate the Grand Central Depot. Instead of making application to have the militia called out, as had been done in Pennsylvania, Mr. Vanderbilt—although a man possessed of far more than ordinary courage—with keen foresight proposed a kindly compromise with his employes. He telegraphed from Saratoga to his head officials an order to distribute $100,000 among his striking employes and promising them a restoration of the ten per cent. reduction as soon as business improved to a point justifying such an advance. This prompt and prudent action had the desired effect, and the consequence was that while there was a small insurrection in Pittsburgh, and bloody war to the knife, at great cost to Allegheny County, calmness reigned in the prominent railroad circles of New York, and the taxpayers escaped the burden that might otherwise have been put upon their shoulders, and the demoralizing effects of violence and bloodshed were prevented. Over 11,500 of the 12,000 men returned to work, thus showing their gratitude to Mr. Vanderbilt and faith in his promise, which was afterwards duly fulfilled. The policy of Wm. H., in the management of his great railroad system, unlike that of his father, was entirely pacific in its character. He was disposed to settle all misunderstandings by reason and arbitration, and had no inclination for fighting and conquest, after the manner of the Commodore. Although a very close calculator in business matters, a habit to which he adhered even to the precision of striking out superfluous items which should not have been charged in his lunch bill, Mr. Vanderbilt was in many respects generous to a fault. He compromised the suit with his brother, “Young Corneel,” allowing him the interest on $1,000,000, whereas his father had only left him the interest on $200,000, with a forfeiture clause in the event of “Corneel” contesting the will. Wm. H. also made a present of $500,000 in United States bonds to each of his sisters, out of his own private fortune. A good story is related in connection with the distribution of this handsome gift. Mr. Vanderbilt, it is said, went around one evening in his carriage, taking the bonds with him and dispensing them to the fortunate recipients from his own hands. One of his brothers-in-law having observed by the evening papers that the bond market had declined a point or two on that day, said, “William, these bonds fall $150 short of the $500,000, according to the closing prices of this day’s market.” “All right,” replied Mr. Vanderbilt, with assumed gravity, “I will give you a check for the balance,” and he wrote and signed it on the spot. It is related that another brother-in-law followed him to the door, and said, “If there is to be anything more in this line I hope we shall not be forgotten.” It is said that these remarkable instances of ingratitude, instead of irritating him, as they would have in the case of an ordinary individual, only served to arouse his risible faculties and that he regarded the exhibitions of human weakness as a good joke.

One of the greatest works of Mr. Vanderbilt’s life was the building of the beautiful palace on Fifth avenue, between Fifty-first and Fifty-second streets, which he adorned extensively with paintings selected from the great masterpieces of the most renowned artists of the world.

One reason assigned for his disinclination to speculate was that he regarded the property left by his father in the light of a sacred trust, and while he considered it a filial duty to look after its increase and accumulation, he was careful not to do anything that might risk its dissipation.

Mr. Chauncey Depew, who succeeded to the presidency of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Company, was upon one occasion, while visiting in London, a guest at a dinner given to the Hon. Wm. E. Gladstone, then Premier of England, and was honored by a seat on the left of Mr. Gladstone, with whom he discussed the differences between American and English railroad and financial management. In the course of conversation Mr. Gladstone said, “I understand you have a man in your country who is worth £20,000,000 or $100,000,000, and it is all in property which he can convert at will into cash. The Government ought to seize his property and take it away from him, as it is too dangerous a power for any one man to have. Supposing he should convert his property into money and lock it up, it would make a panic in America which would extend to this country and every other part of the world, and be a great injury to a large number of innocent people.” Mr. Depew admitted that the gentleman referred to—who was Mr. Vanderbilt—had fully the amount of money named and more, and in his usual suave and conclusive way, replied, “But you have, Mr. Gladstone, a man in England who has equally as large a fortune.”

Mr. Gladstone said, “I suppose you mean the Duke of Westminster. The Duke of Westminster’s property is not as large as that. I know all about his property and have kept pace with it for many years past. The Duke’s property is worth about £10,000,000 or $50,000,000, but it is not in securities which can be turned into ready cash and thereby absorb the current money of the country, so that he can make any dangerous use of it, for it is merely an hereditary right, the enjoyment of it that he possesses. It is inalienable, and it is so with all great fortunes in this country, and thus, I think, we are better protected here in England than you are in America.” “Ah, but like you in England, we in America do not consider a fortune dangerous,” was the ready response.

The best proof of Wm. H. Vanderbilt’s great ability as a financier is the marvellous increase in the value of the estate which he inherited from his father during the seven years which he had the use and control of it, and in which he did more than treble the value at which it was estimated on the death of the Commodore.

The weakest financial operation on his part, known to the public, was the purchase of the Nickel Plate Road, as regards the time of the transaction, in which he was rather premature. It is now positively known that if he had waited about a month longer the road would have gone into bankruptcy and have fallen into his lap on his own terms. In that case the West Shore would have followed suit.

In such an event I believe Mr. Vanderbilt would have been saved an immense amount of money, remorse and mental strain, which, no doubt, aggravated the malady which was the cause of his sudden death. He realized his error when it was too late, and it was a source of great mental anxiety to him in his latter days. He was very sensitive, and nothing afforded him more gratification than a clean and successful transaction, which drew forth public approval, and in the purchase of Nickel Plate he was caught napping. It was a mistake for which the Commodore, had he been alive, could never have forgiven him.

The syndicate that built the road had solely for their object to land it upon either Gould or Vanderbilt, and it was upon its last legs at the time it made the transfer to Mr. Vanderbilt. The syndicate laid a trap for him. It had been coquetting with Mr. Gould in reference to the purchase, and had made it to appear, through the press and other channels of plausible rumors, that he had an eye upon the road. Mr. Gould had occasion to go West about this time and the syndicate invited him to make his homeward trip over the road, taking particular pains that all these rumors and reports should reach the ears of Mr. Vanderbilt, who was impressed with the idea that Mr. Gould’s trip was one of inspection, with the intention of buying the road if he did not anticipate him. This was just what the syndicate desired, and the successful consummation of their financial plot.

The purchase was made solely in the interest of Lake Shore, as it was a parallel road, and the road was afterwards turned over to the Lake Shore Company.

The conception of the scheme was to build the road at a nominal price and sell it to Mr. Vanderbilt as high as possible, and this was duly accomplished. I am quite satisfied that if this road had not been sold at this particular time it would then have gone into the hands of a receiver, while a number of the syndicate, who had built the road, would have failed, and a general crash would have ensued. This Mr. Vanderbilt’s purchase averted for the time, and served to prolong the period of its coming until May, 1884.

For a few years prior to his death Mr. Vanderbilt was in a weak condition. This cause of mental annoyance came upon him at a time when he was not robust enough to bear it and had not sufficient strength to throw it off. He had been seized with a slight paralytic stroke, the only visible effect of which was a twitching of the lower lip. Shortly after this he lost the entire sight of one eye, about a year before his death. This was not generally known to the public, however, and it was the principal cause of his giving up his favorite pastime of driving, which was one of his greatest pleasures and the chief source of mental diversion from the heavy weight of his worldly cares and responsibilities.

The day after Mr. Vanderbilt’s death I sent the following circular to my customers:

“As Mr. Wm. H. Vanderbilt was a very important factor in Wall Street business, I feel it incumbent upon me to issue a letter to my friends and clients on the subject of his decease, especially as the loss to the Street is a most important one, and certainly will be felt for some time to come. Mr. Vanderbilt undoubtedly, at the time of his death, was the largest holder of American securities in the world, and had innumerable followers, who were also vast holders of similar properties as those he controlled, who acted more or less in concert with him, and who were at his beck and call. When he told them to buy or sell they would do so. These parties have now lost a valuable friend and counsellor, and a leader in whom they believed implicitly. In such quarters, for some time to come at least, more or less of a dazed condition will prevail, precisely, the same as would exist in an army in the event of the general in command having been killed. Mr. Vanderbilt was a bolder and larger operator than his father ever dared to be, as he spread out over more interests. The market has lost an able leader, who was usually a builder-up of the interests of the entire country, and unlike many other large operators, who, at times, are on that side, but quite as frequently on the wrecking side. It will be a long while before so conspicuous and valiant a leader as Mr. Wm. H. Vanderbilt will be forthcoming, and the market will, for a protracted period, have cause to mourn its great loss. It is, indeed, fortunate that Mr. Vanderbilt lived long enough to see the completion of the consolidation of the West Shore and New York Central roads; since both roads are under the able direction of Mr. Depew, they are now secure from future harm; but the same cannot be said of the South Pennsylvania enterprise, as negotiations remain in connection therewith unfinished, which will suffer by Mr. Vanderbilt’s death, and it will be found difficult, I fear, for any other man to knit the discordant elements together that at present exist in that quarter. There is enough in this for some ground of apprehension, and this matter may, therefore, disturb the harmony of the great trunk lines, as this speck of trouble may yet prove a cancer in the body of the stock market. As it is capable of infusing its poison elsewhere, beyond where it is at present located, it is certain that there will be required skillful surgery to prevent inoculation therefrom.

“The stock market started off to-day as if held by concerted action, and the appearances indicating that such attitude might prevail to bridge over the Vanderbilt shock. While prices had a moderate break, it was scarcely adequate as a fitting tribute of respect to Mr. Vanderbilt’s memory, as the great General of the Army of Finance of this country. It was unmistakable, however, that the large selling was mostly of long stock, coming from numerous frightened holders who were shaken out, and it was very evident that the bears were more conspicuous as buyers than as sellers, to cover their short sales made during the previous several days. I do not think that the market had, considering the power it has lost in the death of Mr. Vanderbilt, as much of a break as should have occurred; still, it must be remembered, that the dealings have been so enormous during the past month, which represent the immense number of operators now interested in the market, that it has taken from it a character which previously existed as a one man market, and therefore it is owing to this fact that the removal of any one man, or a half dozen of them, by death or otherwise, could not bring about, at the present time, any very wide and lasting disaster to Wall Street. This market, as I have repeatedly stated, can fairly be now considered the market for the world, and beyond the permanent reach of any one man doing it any lasting harm. As Mr. Vanderbilt invented pegging stocks, and stood his ground when taken better than any one that will survive him in that plan of strategic movement, he will, in that particular alone, be sorrowfully missed. I am of the opinion, now that Mr. Vanderbilt is no more, that Mr. Gould’s plan of leaving the Street will undergo a modification, at least by his remaining for some time longer at the helm. This will prove, in such an event, an important factor in the future, especially as the bulls of the Street have for at least a year past recognized Mr. Gould in the light of a benefactor. To them he has proved a brave and able leader, and the field is now clear for him to become commander-in-chief of all the forces, without any one to dispute his right thereto. This should be enough to fire his ambition and keep him in our midst, and probably will.”

Among the popular and erroneous impressions entertained regarding Wm. H. Vanderbilt, the one that he was no judge of pictures seemed to have taken deep root in the public mind, except among the few who knew him intimately, and the celebrated artists whom he visited and from whom he purchased many of the works of art which adorn his great gallery in Fifth avenue, now in charge of his youngest son, George. That Mr. Vanderbilt had an intimate knowledge and correct appreciation of true art has been amply proved by the highest authority. I am well aware that some years ago this statement would have been ridiculed by the majority of the newspapers; but Mr. Vanderbilt never bought a picture that he did not fully understand in his own simple, unaffected method of judgment. He may not have been capable of the highest flights of fancy, necessary to follow the poetic imagination of the artist to its extreme height, but he was equal to the task of grasping all the material essentials from a common-sense point of view.

So far from making any pretence of being a lover of art, he was in the habit of saying, when a handsome painting was shown him, “It may be very fine, but until I can appreciate its beauty I shall not buy it.”

Apropos of his modesty and judgment, in regard to the fidelity to nature of a picture, a circumstance is related of his visit to Boucheron, a French picture dealer, where he wanted to see a painting by Troyon, with the object of buying it. A yoke of oxen turning from the plough to leave the field is the subject. Experts in art had taken exception to the manner in which the cattle left the field. When Mr. Vanderbilt’s opinion was asked, he said, “I don’t know as much about the quality of the picture as I do about the truth of the actions of the cattle. I have seen them act like that hundreds of times.” The artists present submitted to his judgment, as he knew more about the oxen than they did. When in France he visited the celebrated Rosa Bonheur, at Fontainebleau, who was about his own age, and gave her an order for two pictures, which she painted to his entire satisfaction. He had his portrait painted by the celebrated Meissonier, to whom he paid nearly $200,000 for seven pictures. He purchased in Germany this artist’s masterpiece, “The Information—General Desaix and the Captured Peasant,” for $40,000, giving Meissonier, who had not seen it for many years, a great surprise, and filling the heart of the enthusiastic artist with unbounded gratitude for rescuing the picture from Germany and bringing it to America.

Mr. Vanderbilt’s taste for music, especially operatic music, was refined, and he had a keen sense of the humorous.

Neither Mr. Vanderbilt nor any of his family ever displayed any anxiety to hobnob with those people who are known as the leaders of society, although possessed of more wealth than the greatest of them. The celebrated fancy dress ball, given by Mrs. Wm. K. Vanderbilt, at the suggestion of Lady Mandeville, in March, 1883, seemed to have the effect of levelling up among the social ranks of upper-tendom, and placing the Vanderbilts at the top of the heap, in what is recognized as good society in New York. So far as cost, richness of costume and newspaper celebrity were concerned, that ball had, perhaps, no equal in history. It may not have been quite so expensive as the feast of Alexander the Great at Babylon, some of the entertainments of Cleopatra to Augustus and Mark Antony, or a few of the magnificent banquets of Louis XIV., but when viewed from every essential standpoint, and taking into account our advanced civilization, I have no hesitation in saying that the Vanderbilt ball was superior to any of those grand historic displays of festivity and amusement referred to, and more especially as the pleasure was not cloyed with any excesses like those prevalent with the ancient nobility of the old world and frequently exhibited among the modern “salt of the earth” in the mother country. The ball had the effect of drawing the Astors and the Vanderbilts into social union. The entente cordiale was brought about in this way, as the story goes:

Several weeks before the ball Miss Carrie Astor, daughter of Mrs. William Astor, organized a fancy dress quadrille, to be danced at the ball. Mrs. Vanderbilt, it seems, heard of this and said, in the hearing of some friends, that she was sorry Miss Astor was putting herself to so much trouble, as she could not invite her to the ball, for the reason that Mrs. Astor had never called on her. This was carried to Mrs. Astor, who immediately unbent her stateliness, called on Mrs. Vanderbilt, and in a very ladylike manner made the amende honorable for her former neglect. So the Astors were cordially invited to the ball, where Miss Astor presented a superb appearance with her well trained quadrille.

All Mr. Vanderbilt’s other attachments vanished in presence of his love for his horses. When any company, of which he formed a part, began to talk horse his tongue was immediately loosened and he became eloquent. Although generally a man of few words and diffident as a talker, he could throw the eloquence of Chauncey M. Depew in the shade when the subject was horse. He not alone admired the speed of his horses; he seemed possessed of the fondness of an Arabian for them, and, like old John Harper of Kentucky, would probably have slept with them only through fear of the newspapers criticising his eccentricity. It was he who introduced the custom of fast driving teams, first with Small Hopes, purchased by his father, and Lady Mac, purchased by himself. With this team, in a top road wagon, he made the then remarkable time of 2.23¼.

A host of rivals immediately sprang up, of whom Mr. Frank Work was the most formidable. Mr. Vanderbilt procured faster teams, and with Aldine and Early Rose, under the spur of competition, reduced the time to 2.16½. Mr. Work, however, was a daring and persistent rival, and soon beat this record, although only by a fraction of a minute, which in trotting or racing counts just the same as if it were an hour. Mr. Vanderbilt then purchased the famous Maud S. in Kentucky for $21,000, and with her and Aldine made the mile in Fleetwood Park in June, 1883, in 2.15½.

He afterwards reduced this time to 2.08¾, leaving Mr. Work and all other rivals hopelessly in the distance. Eventually he sold Maud S. to Mr. Robert Bonner for the comparatively small amount of $40,000, on condition that she should never be trotted for money. Other men would have given $100,000 for her without this condition.

On the 12th of August, this year, Murphy, the famous jockey, drove Maud S. in single harness, at Tarrytown, a mile in 2.10½, and declared he did not push her. He said he was confident he could make her do the mile in 2.06 or 2.07 if Mr. Bonner would permit him, thus smashing all trotting records.

It has been said by experts in driving that Mr. Vanderbilt was the best double-team driver in America, either amateur or professional.

Mr. Vanderbilt’s bequests were liberal and numerous. He added $300,000 to the million which his father gave, through the wife of the Commodore and Dr. Deems, to the Nashville University. He gave half a million to the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and his sister, Mrs. Sloane, added a quarter of a million to this generous donation. It cost him over $100,000 to remove Cleopatra’s Needle from Egypt to Central Park. He offered to cancel the $150,000 check which he gave to General Grant to relieve him from the Ward-Fish embarrassment, and his munificent gift to the waiter students in the White Mountains will long be remembered.

Although Mr. Vanderbilt was very courageous, as was proved by the fact that no matter how many threatening letters he may have received—and their name was legion—from cranks, socialists and others, he never made any change in his programme or his routine of business for the day, and never absented himself from the place where he was expected at any particular hour on account of such letters. Yet he was peculiarly sensitive to public opinion, and sought in various ways to correct its hasty judgment in regard to himself and his enormous wealth.

It was this sensitive feeling, together with his profound respect for popular opinion against monopolies, which induced him to sell a controlling interest, 300,000 shares out of 400,000, at from 120 to 130, ten points below the market price, of New York Central stock in 1879 to a syndicate, the chief members of which were Drexel, Morgan & Co., Morton, Bliss & Co., August Belmont & Co., Winslow, Lanier & Co., L. Von Hoffman & Co, Cyrus W. Field, Edwin D. Morgan, Russell Sage, Jay Gould and J. S. Morgan & Co. of London. The amount paid for the stock was $35,000,000. As the syndicate largely represented the Wabash system, the stock of that property, as well as New York Central, had an important advance.

The reasons assigned for this stupendous and unprecedented stock transaction are briefly condensed by Mr. Chauncey M. Depew as follows: “Mr. Vanderbilt, because of assaults made upon him in the Legislature and in the newspapers, came to the conclusion that it was a mistake for one individual to own a controlling interest in a great corporation like the New York Central, and also a mistake to have so many eggs in one basket, and he thought it would be better for himself and better for the company if the ownership were distributed as widely as possible. The syndicate afterwards sold it, and the stock became one of the most widely-distributed of the dividend-paying American securities. There are now about 14,000 stockholders. At the time he sold there were only 3,000.”

That hasty expression, “The public be damned,” which Mr. Vanderbilt used in an interview with a reporter for a Chicago newspaper, has received wide circulation, various comment and hostile criticism. Although the expression is literally correct, the public at first, and many of them to this day, received a wrong impression in regard to the spirit in which it was applied. It was represented as if Mr. Vanderbilt was a tyrannical monopolist, who defied public opinion. A true and simple relation of the interview is a sufficient answer to this. The subject was the fast mail train to Chicago. Mr. Vanderbilt was thinking of taking this train off, because it did not pay, and did not appear to him therefore to be a necessity, and he did not propose to run trains as a philanthropist. As part of the interview which relates to this point has become so widely historic, I think it will bear reproduction here, literally:

“Why are you going to stop this fast mail train?” asked the reporter.

“Because it doesn’t pay,” replied Mr. Vanderbilt; “I can’t run a train as far as this permanently at a loss.”

“But the public find it very convenient and useful. You ought to accommodate them,” rejoined the reporter.

“The public,” said Mr. Vanderbilt. “How do you know, or how can I know that they want it? If they want it why don’t they patronize it and make it pay? That’s the only test I have as to whether a thing is wanted or not. Does it pay? If it doesn’t pay I suppose it isn’t wanted.”

“Are you working,” persisted the reporter, “for the public or for your stockholders?”

“The public be damned!” exclaimed Mr. Vanderbilt, “I am working for my stockholders. If the public want the train why don’t they support it.”

This, I think, was a very proper answer from a business standpoint, and the expression, when placed in its real connection in the interview, does not imply any slur upon the public. It simply intimates that he was urging a thing on the public which it did not want and practically refused. The “cuss” word might have been left out, but the crushing reply to the reporter would not have been so emphatic, and that obtrusive representative of public opinion might have gone away unsquelched. As it was, however, he and his editor exhibited considerable ingenuity in making the best misrepresentation possible out of the words of Mr. Vanderbilt, thus giving them a thousand times wider circulation than the journal in which they were first printed, and affording that paper a big advertisement. This is the correct account of that world-renowned expression, “The public be damned!”

The mausoleum at New Dorp, Staten Island, is another outcome of the genius of Wm. H. Vanderbilt. Mr. Richard M. Hunt was the architect. Pursuant to the instructions of Mr. Vanderbilt, it was built without any fancy work, but at the same time on such a grand and substantial scale that it is said there is nothing among the tombs of either European or Oriental royalty to excel it, in solidity of structure and grandeur of design. It is forty feet in height, sixty in breadth and about 150 in depth. It is situated on an eminence commanding the largest prospect of the bay, and one of the finest views all around in the State of New York. The tomb and the twenty-one acres of land, upon the highest part of which it stands, cost nearly half a million dollars, and when the grounds are finished, in the style intended, beautiful roads and walks made, flower gardens planted with the requisite adornments, the entire expense of the mausoleum and its surroundings will not fall far short of a million dollars.

The precautions taken by the family against resurrectionists is one of the best that has ever been adopted. There is a guard at the tomb night and day. Each of these must put on record his vigilance every fifteen minutes by winding up a clock, which is sent to the office at the Grand Central Depot every morning.

In May, 1883, Mr. Vanderbilt, finding that his railroad duties were too heavy for him, resigned the presidencies of his roads and took a trip to Europe. James H. Rutter was elected President of the Central, and on his death was succeeded by Chauncey M. Depew, the present President, who so ably fills that office. About a year before his death Mr. Vanderbilt gave unmistakable notice of his approaching dissolution when he stopped driving his fast teams, and went out riding with some other person to drive for him. He must have keenly felt his growing weakness when he was obliged to resign the reins which he so fondly desired to hold, and which he had handled with such inimitable skill.

The death of Mr. Vanderbilt was a great surprise, especially to Wall Street, as very few brokers were aware even of his failing health. On the 8th day of December, 1885, he arose early, apparently no worse in health than he had been for a year previous. He went to the studio of J. Q. A. Ward and gave that artist a sitting for the bronze bust ordered by the Trustees of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Mr. Depew called upon him at one o’clock, but finding that Mr. Robert Garrett, President of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, had also called to see Mr. Vanderbilt, Mr. Depew waived his opportunity in favor of Mr. Garrett. Mr. Garrett was conversing on his project of getting into New York by way of Staten Island and a bridge over the Arthur Kill. They were in the study. Mr. Vanderbilt sat in his large arm chair and Mr. Garrett sat on a sofa opposite to him. It seems that Mr. Vanderbilt was in perfect harmony with the plans of Mr. Garrett. While he was replying to the remarks of Mr. Garrett the latter observed that his voice began to falter and there was a curious twitching of the muscles about his mouth. Soon he ceased to speak and had a spasm. In a moment he leaned forward and would have fallen on his face on the floor, but Mr. Garrett caught him in his arms, laid him gently on the rug and put a pillow under his head. This was only the work of a few moments, but before it was accomplished the greatest millionaire in America had ceased to breathe. When Dr. McLean, the family physician, arrived he said a blood vessel had burst in the head, and so death, according to the frequently expressed wish of Mr. Vanderbilt, was instantaneous.

On the announcement of Mr. Vanderbilt’s death, (which was after Board hours), a panic was predicted in the stock market. A pool was formed of the most wealthy leading operators, with a capital of $12,000,000, to resist such a calamity. It was not required, however. There was a reaction of a few points in the morning following, which was recovered before the close of the market. The stocks of Mr. Vanderbilt’s properties, as well as the properties themselves, had been so well distributed that such a disaster could hardly have occurred without a strong outside combination to help it, and the prevalent desire there was to assist speculation in the very opposite direction. The remains of Mr. Vanderbilt were conveyed to New Dorp and deposited in the tomb without any ostentation.

In the chapter on the young Vanderbilts a brief account of the disposition of the mammoth fortune of $200,000,000 is given.

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Chapter XXXVI

“YOUNG CORNEEL.”

THE ECCENTRICITIES OF CORNELIUS JEREMIAH VANDERBILT, AND HIS MARVELLOUS POWER FOR BORROWING MONEY.—HE EXERCISES WONDERFUL INFLUENCE OVER GREELEY AND COLFAX.—A DINNER AT THE CLUB WITH YOUNG “CORNEEL” AND THE “FAMOUS SMILER.”—“CORNEEL TRIES TO MAKE HIMSELF SOLID WITH JAY COOKE.—THE COMMODORE REFUSES TO PAY GREELEY.-“WHO THE DEVIL ASKED YOU?” RETORTED GREELEY.-“CORNEEL’S” MARRIAGE TO A CHARMING AND DEVOTED WOMAN.—HOW SHE SOFTENED THE OBDURATE HEART OF HER FATHER-IN-LAW.

Cornelius J. Vanderbilt, the brother of Wm. H., popularly known by the name of “Young Corneel,” is entitled to a place in this book, as he was prominent among the many financial friends I have had, in his own peculiar line.

“Corneel” was eccentric, and was possessed of some astonishing peculiarities that made him a genius in his way. He led a charmed and adventurous life in his own circles.

He had a wonderful facility for getting into scrapes, and “banked” on the Commodore to extricate him therefrom, which the latter did on many occasions. The mere fact, however, that he had such a father, was in itself sufficient, very often, to get him out of his troubles, without any effort on the part of the Commodore in that direction. “Corneel,” however, worked this “racket” for all it was worth, and in time it became almost exhausted. Still, he went on making new acquaintances without limit, and to many of them the name of the Commodore was a sufficient guarantee of security for sundry loans, that were promised to be paid on the fulfilment of certain expectations which only existed in the borrower’s imagination.

But it was not very safe for “Corneel” to rely upon his father, or to bank upon his credit in any case. If he had depended solely on the paternal security, he would often have found, when in his worst straits, that he had leaned upon a willow cane for support. “Corneel” had a peculiar fascination in his ability to catch the ear of prominent men, who would listen attentively to his tale of woe, and some of them were so thoroughly under the spell of his persuasive powers that they would “fork” out the required amount without hesitation, to relieve his pressing necessities.

It is sad to relate that the money thus sometimes piteously solicited, and really required to pay a board bill or room rent, was often thrown away in the first gambling den that the borrower happened to be passing, while the landlady and the washerwoman would be obliged to extend their bills of credit indefinitely.

Amongst the special friends upon whom he was in the habit of exercising his alluring magnetism were the Hon. Schuyler Colfax and Horace Greeley. Over both of these eminent gentlemen he seemed to have perfect control. So hopelessly were they under the charm of his occult power that they seldom said “no” to any request that he made, especially when he wanted to borrow money. No sorcerer ever had his helpless victims more completely at his mercy, nor had greater power by the touch of his mysterious wand, than “Corneel” had over these and certain other men, when he would entertain them with a list of imaginary wrongs which he had suffered at the hands of his father and brother. In their ears this story never seemed to become stale, though it was the same old story every time, with hardly any attempt at variation. To them and others, over whom he exercised this unaccountable influence, the thing did not seem to become monotonous like other twice-told tales, related by ordinary people.

To the man of average intellect and common business capacity “Corneel” was a shocking “bore” and a victim of morbid melancholia, but these men of genius were won by the impression which he had made upon them, and thoroughly imbued with the deepest sympathy for the wrongs which his strange hallucinations conjured up. Unlike most men who borrow money from friends and don’t pay, instead of exhausting his credit by this business delinquency, he made it the basis for increasing it, and it generally seemed to be a potent means of enabling him to borrow more. Hence his obligations to Mr. Greeley were persistently cumulative until they exceeded $50,000.

I have been told by a person familiarly acquainted with him that years after Greeley’s death he would sometimes sit in deep meditation, with the tears welling up in his eyes, especially when in a great financial strait, and sighingly say: “When Mr. Greeley died I lost the best friend in the world.” Be it said to his credit, however, in spite of all his shortcomings, he exhibited his honesty by paying every cent of the debt, with interest, to Mr. Greeley’s daughters. He also paid the greater part of all the other debts which he had contracted under similar circumstances, after making a settlement with Wm. H. and receiving a much larger amount than he had been left by the will of his father, who bequeathed him merely a decent competence for his rank and station in life, without any surplus for the policy shops and faro banks.

One of the qualities possessed by “Corneel” in a remarkable degree, and which enabled him to be so successful a borrower, was his extreme earnestness. He bent his whole energies to the work in hand, and his requests usually met with ready response. If he had put the same energy and intense enthusiasm into legitimate speculation, he would have been as successful as his father or Jay Gould. He must have been an intuitive judge of character, for he showed that he generally knew his man in advance of making application for sundry little loans. In that respect he was not unlike the famous huntsman who was a dead shot every time.

My first acquaintance with “Corneel” was through one of his special friends, the Hon. Schuyler Colfax, whom he brought to my office for the purpose of having himself introduced by Mr. Colfax. He informed me that he had just then returned from Hartford, Conn., where he had taken his friend, Mr. Colfax, for a week’s visit at his house. It can be readily imagined, therefore, that at this time Mr. Colfax had but little control over his own bank account and for a long time afterwards.

I invited both these gentlemen to dinner at the Club that afternoon. Although Mr. Colfax was an extraordinarily good talker, he was left far in the distance and almost silenced by “Corneel.” Most of what the latter said, however, had very little in it of a tangible character, and was almost entirely made up of unstinted praise of his friend Colfax. If ever there was a man talked up to the skies, or if the thing were possible, Colfax must have been literally in that elevated position during our dinner.

There was no let-up to the unqualified adulation, yet I must say that there was none of the uninterrupted stream of fulsome flattery fell to the ground. Schuyler took it all in as he did his viands, and as if it were legitimately his due, a proof positive that “Young Corneel” was not mistaken in his man; and a further demonstration of his natural sagacity in striking the man upon whom he could successfully exercise his peculiar charms of persuasion.

When he got tired talking about Mr. Colfax, the object of his next theme was Mr. Greeley, on whom he was profusely prolific.

I met Mr. Greeley frequently afterwards, and told him what a good friend he had in young Cornelius Vanderbilt. “Yes,” he said, with a knowing smile, “I think he is a good friend of mine. I have heard of his frequently saying nice things about me. It is a great pity, however,” he added significantly, “that he is so frequently short of funds. If he had more money he would be a very good fellow.”

It was generally in the way above referred that he would steal a march on Mr. Greeley and impose on his good nature. He would say nice things about him to some one who would quote him to Mr. Greeley, and thus pave the way for an additional loan. In a few days afterward “Corneel” would call on his tried and trusty friend, and never fail to obtain the needed relief, or a large portion of it.

“Corneel” had great tact in utilizing his various advantages for borrowing, and was imbued with a thorough devotion to his object, worthy of a better cause. The day following his first visit to my office, he called again and told me that his friend Colfax had left by the early train for Washington and had urged him to go along, but as he had some matters to attend to he had postponed his departure until the night train.

He said to me, “By-the-bye, you know Jay Cooke very well.”

I said, “Yes.”

Then he replied, “I have some matters to look after in connection with the Treasury Department, and I think he could be of some service to me. Will you be good enough to oblige me with a letter of introduction to him? I may not need it,” he added with a business air of sang froid, “but I should like to have it in case of need.”

I wrote him a brief and non-committal introduction, somewhat as follows:

“This will introduce to you Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., son of the Commodore. I take the liberty of making you acquainted with him through this medium, at his own request.

“Truly yours, HENRY CLEWS.”

There was certainly nothing on the face of this document, except the Commodore’s name, to justify any person in utilizing it as a bill of credit.

Yet the financial genius of “Young Corneel” was equal to the task of an indirect negotiation of this character, and after the lapse of a few days his drafts from Jay Cooke began to pour into my office like April showers. None of them was very large, but when put together they aggregated a pretty fair amount, and were so cumulative in their character that, had I not wired Mr. Cooke to stop the supplies, it is difficult to say what figure the sum total would have reached.

The last time I saw “Young Corneel” was at Long Branch, where he took a drive with me one fine warm afternoon. He spoke feelingly about his wasted life, and concerning the many good friends who had come so often to his rescue, and had got him out of his numerous holes, into which, through misfortune, he had been thrown. He said all there was of life for him was to live long enough to pay up old scores. He had fully determined to do this, and then, he thought, a prolongation of existence would have no further charms for him. It must be said to his credit that he accomplished this work, and then laying himself sadly down, died by his own hand.

Let us, therefore, throw the mantle of charity over that tragic scene in the Glenham Hotel, and hope that his soul may elsewhere have found the rest which in its poor, afflicted body it vainly sought for here.

That portion of the Commodore’s will in which he makes provision for Cornelius J. is thoroughly characteristic of the old man, in its iron-clad provisions. It says: “I direct that $200,000 be set apart, the interest thereof to be applied to the maintenance and support of my son, Cornelius J. Vanderbilt, during his natural life. And I authorize said trustees, in their discretion, instead of themselves making the application of said interest money to his support, to pay over from time to time, to my said son, for his support, such portions as they may deem advisable, or the whole of the interest of said bonds. But no part of the interest is to be paid to any assignee of my said son, or to any creditor who may seek by legal proceedings to obtain the same; and in case my said son should make any transfer or assignment of is beneficial interest in said bonds or the interest thereof, or encumber the same, or attempt so to do, the said interest of said bonds shall thereupon cease to be applicable to his use, and shall thenceforth, during the residue of his natural life, belong to my residuary legatee. Upon the decease of my said son, Cornelius J., I give and bequeath the last mentioned $200,000 of bonds to my residuary legatee.”

Though a portion of this provision is rather whimsical, yet it was ably designed to force “Corneel” to desist from his besetting sin, the gaming table.

If the trustees were permitted to pay him the whole of the interest at whatever period they should choose, it seems harsh that the beneficiary should forfeit it entirely, if he should seek to relieve present and pressing necessities, by borrowing on his future income. It showed that the Commodore, even at the hour of his death, thought that “Corneel” was not fit to be treated otherwise than as a child, and that it was necessary he should be kept under the guardianship of his brother.

This circumstance hurt “Corneel’s” feelings greatly, as he imagined himself a bigger man, mentally, than Wm. H. This opinion, however, no other man could conscientiously endorse, except it might have been Greeley or Colfax.

“Corneel,” though always exclaiming against the old man’s hard-heartedness, had an intense admiration for his father’s abilities, and he was as sensitive as a sunflower when any other person would say a word to disparage the Commodore. While railing constantly at the parsimony of his father, he was as devoted a hero-worshipper of the Commodore as Thomas Carlyle ever was of the greatest of his heroes, and he never grew tired talking of his achievements, with the history of which he was thoroughly familiar. He had even a more intense hatred against Gould than his father had, and solemnly believed that Gould and Fisk had, during the manipulation of the Erie “corner,” conspired to assassinate the Commodore.

Of course this was one of his many hallucinations, and there was not the least ground for it, but he had got it indelibly on the brain, and he would not tolerate contradiction in that notion any more than in any other opinion which he had got fixed in his morbid mind. He once went into an epileptic fit in the presence of a friend of mine who attempted to reason with him on the improbability of such a man as Gould contemplating murder.

He never forgave his father for having him arrested and incarcerated in Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum. He had run off to California the time of the gold fever, and shipped as a sailor. He was then in his eighteenth year. When he returned, which was pretty soon, as he had no ability to enter into the terrible mental and physical struggle for wealth on the gold coast, his father had him arrested. It was soon discovered that he was no lunatic, however eccentric he might be, and he was released, but he took the matter dreadfully to heart, and it had a melancholy and demoralizing effect upon all his future life. He was petulant, and still complaining, and often acted like a crazy man in that the more any of his intimate friends tried to please him he seemed the more dissatisfied; yet it was impossible to get along with him without humoring him, and it was almost next to impossible to humor him. In this way he could work on the minds of the strongest of his friends, so as almost to put them into a fit as bad as one of his own.

Dr. Swazy’s patience was often put to a very severe test in his attempt to please this eccentric invalid.

“Corneel” was a miser everywhere except at the gaming table, and would cling to a cent with greater tenacity than ordinary people display in holding on to a ten-dollar bill. But among the gamblers either a ten-dollar bill or a hundred-dollar bill was less valuable in his eyes than a cent in the common transactions of every day life. “Faro” and “keno” had terrific power over him. He has often been known to have had an epileptic fit at the gaming-table, get a doze afterwards which seemed like the sleep of death, so cadaverous did he look on those occasions, and then awake up and go on with the play, whose fascination he appeared utterly powerless to resist.

When it came to the ears of the Commodore that Greeley was lending his son hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars at a time, he visited the office of the Tribune. He rushed without ceremony into the sanctum, where Greeley was busy at his high desk, grinding out a tirade against some political or social abuse, and thus addressed the Sage of Chappaqua: “Greeley, I hear yer lendin’ ‘Corneel’ money.” “Yes,” said Greeley, eyeing the monarch of steamboat men through his glasses, with an air of philosophic contempt mixed with commiseration; “I have let him have some.” “I give you fair warning,” replied the Commodore, “that you need not look to me; I won’t pay you.” “Who the devil asked you?” retorted Greeley. “Have I?”

This closed the interview. The Commodore retraced his steps down the rickety stairs into Spruce street, and Greeley continued to grind out his illegible chirography for the profane printers. There is no record, I believe, that the subject was ever reverted to between them. Soon after the death of Greeley the Commodore sent a check for $10,000 each to his two daughters.

The Commodore was well satisfied with the marriage of young “Corneel” to Miss Williams, of Hartford, Connecticut, and he had hoped that his son would begin then to lead a new life, but he was doomed to disappointment.

There is a good story told about an interview between the Commodore and Mr. Williams prior to the marriage.

Mr. Williams called upon the Commodore at his office in Fourth street, near Broadway, and informed him that his son, Cornelius Jeremiah, had asked his daughter in marriage, and she was willing if the Commodore had no objection to the union.

“Has your daughter plenty of silk dresses?” asked the Commodore, sententiously.

“Well,” replied Mr. Williams, showing some sensitiveness at what he at first considered assumption of superiority and purse-pride on the part of the Commodore, “my daughter, as I told you, is not wealthy. She has a few dresses like other young ladies in her station, but her wardrobe is not very extensive nor costly.”

“Has your daughter plenty of jewelry?” continued the Commodore, without appearing to take much notice of Mr. Williams’ explanation.

“No, sir,” replied Mr. Williams, becoming slightly nettled, and showing a laudable pride in opposition to what he considered a slur on account of his moderate means, “I have attempted to explain to you that I am in comparatively humble circumstances, and my daughter cannot afford jewelry.”

“The reason I ask you,” pursued the Commodore, “is, that if she did possess these articles of value, my son would take them and either pawn or sell them, and throw away the proceeds at the gaming table. So I forewarn you and your daughter that I can’t take any responsibility in this matter.”

The nuptials were duly consummated, however, in spite of the Commodore’s constructive remonstrance.

After the marriage “Corneel” asked his father for some money to build a house. “No, Corneel,” he said emphatically, “you have got to show that you can be trusted before I trust you.”

His wife made application to her father-in-law with better success, however. He gave her a check for $10,000. In a few months afterward she paid another visit to the Commodore, who received her cordially, but expected she had come for another loan, and he was attempting to work up his courage to the point of refusal; for, strong and almost invincibly obdurate as he was in the general affairs of life, in the presence of the fair sex, like Samson when he got his hair cut, he was weak and like another man.

“Well,” said the Commodore, addressing his daughter-in-law with a kindly smile, “what can I do for you now?”

“Well, papa,” she replied in her exceedingly candid and agreeable manner, “we did not need all the money, so I brought you back $1,500.”

The Commodore could hardly believe his ears and eyes, and thought for a moment that he must be under some mysterious delusion, superinduced by the spiritual seances which he then was in the habit of attending. But when the cash was put in his hand he found it was a material reality. This sealed a warm friendship between him and his worthy and economical daughter-in-law, which was only severed by her premature death about ten years before that of her unfortunate husband.

The sympathy that some people manifested for “Young Corneel” was, like his own maladies, of the most morbid or delusive character. He had $200 a week from his father all the time that he was whining to the public about his pinching poverty and denouncing the old man’s niggardliness. This would have been ample, with fair economy, not only for all the necessaries of life, but, under judicious management, would have afforded the recipient many of its luxuries.

With his irresistible propensity for gambling, he would not have been any better off physically, but worse, with the entire income from his father’s 75 or 100 millions. The only difference that should have arisen was that he would have been instrumental in carrying out in part the socialistic and communistic idea of a wider distribution of private property, amassed by thrift, privation and industry, among the drones, lazy “loafers” and criminals of society.

The Commodore’s judgment, therefore, in limiting his prodigal son to $200 a week, was not only comprehensive, but beneficent in its results both to his son and to society at large.

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XXXVII. THE YOUNG VANDERBILTS AND THEIR FORTUNES

REMARKABLE FOR PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL ABILITY.—THE MIXTURE OF RACES AND THE LAW OF SELECTION.—THE WONDERFUL WILL AND THE WISE DISTRIBUTION OF TWO HUNDRED MILLIONS.—TASTES, HABITS AND SOCIAL PROCLIVITIES OF THE YOUNG VANDERBILTS.—THE MARRIED RELATIONS OF SOME OF THEM.—BEING HAPPILY ASSORTED THEY MAKE GOOD HUSBANDS.—THEIR PROPERTY REGARDED AS A GREAT TRUST.—THEIR RAILROAD SYSTEM AND ITS GREAT ARMY OF EMPLOYES.—THE YOUNG MEN CAUTIOUS ABOUT SPECULATING, AND CONSERVATIVE IN THEIR EXPENSES GENERALLY.

The young Vanderbilts who have succeeded to the estate of their father, William H., are all remarkable for both intellectual and physical power, as well as a high degree of refinement, showing how fast human evolution under favorable circumstances progresses in this country. In other countries it takes many generations to develop such men as the present Vanderbilts. In this country three generations in this instance have produced some of the best samples of nature’s nobility, which is superior in every respect to the proud and vain-glorious production which emanates from the succession of “a hundred earls” in England, or even a greater number of barons, princes and kings on the Continent of Europe. It would be difficult to produce better types of men in the short period named than Cornelius, William K., Frederick and George Vanderbilt, in personal appearance, breeding and culture.

The mixture and amalgamation of races from all parts of the world have doubtless had a great deal to do with such favorable results in the reproduction of our species in the United States. In the old country close intermarriages seem to have a deteriorating effect on the race, with probably the one apparent exception, namely, the house of Rothschild, and a little longer time may tell that the rule of deterioration holds good in this case also.

The four sons of William H. Vanderbilt have had the greatest start in life of any family in all the records of history, ancient and modern, with the single exception, probably, of the five Rothschild brothers, the sons of old Anselm, and they had not near so much money to begin with, but had the advantage of the Vanderbilts in their locations and in their methods of combination. These methods, as I have observed elsewhere, could only be attained through the Hebrew religion. By the provisions of the remarkable will, which revealed such enormous wealth as to make almost every other millionaire feel comparatively poor, the greater portion of 200 million dollars was divided among the eight children of the testator. Millions were distributed in this case as other millionaires have been in the habit of dealing with thousands. The ordinary human mind fails to grasp the idea of such a vast amount of wealth. If converted into gold it would have weighed 500 tons, and it would have taken 500 strong horses to draw it from the Grand Central Depot to the Sub-Treasury in Wall Street. If it had been all in gold or silver dollars, or even in greenbacks, it would have taken Vanderbilt himself, working eight hours a day, over thirty years to count it. If the first of the Vanderbilts had been a contemporary of old Adam, according to the Mosaic account, and had then started as president of a railroad through Palestine, with a salary of $30,000 a year, saving all this money and living on perquisites, the situation being continued in the male line to the present day, the sum total of all the family savings thus accumulated would not amount to the fortune left by Wm. H. Vanderbilt, unless this original $30,000 had been placed at compound interest, and that in a bank from which young Napoleons of finance had been strictly excluded.

The will itself affords one of the best tests on record of the sound judgment and equitable mind of the testator. He was under filial obligations to a certain extent to revere the memory and respect the opinions of the father through whom he had acquired the means of accumulating this wonderful fortune.

The Commodore had modified ideas of primogeniture, not exactly in the English sense of the term, but he had an intense desire to perpetuate his name and wealth, and would doubtless have advised William H., and perhaps he did, to bequeath nearly all his possessions to one of his sons, leaving the rest of the family a bare independence.

Wm. H., in accordance with his sensitive disposition, upright mind, and a due respect for the feelings, opinions and even the prejudices of others, resolved to make what public opinion would be likely to consider an approximately fair division of his immense estate. In this attempt, I think he succeeded pretty well, considering all the circumstances and difficulties with which he had to grapple. A synopsis of the will itself, however, herewith inserted, will enable the public to be the best judge of the equity of the case.

In the first place Mr. Vanderbilt devised to his wife the palatial residence, which cost two millions, situated between 51st and 52d streets on Fifth avenue, the stables on Madison avenue, the paintings and statuary, and an annuity of $200,000 per annum. He also empowered her to dispose of, by will, in any way she might desire, $500,000 out of the sum set apart to produce her annuity of $200,000.

He bequeathed to each of his four daughters, Mrs. Elliott F. Shepard, Mrs. William Sloane, Mrs. Hamilton McK. Twombly and Mrs. William Seward Webb, an elegant house on Fifth avenue in the vicinity of his own mansion. He then devised 40 million dollars’ worth of securities, 25 millions of which were in United States bonds, to be divided by the trustees equally among his eight children, five millions each. Next he bequeathed 40 millions more in securities, ten millions of which were in United States bonds, and the balance in securities of his own railroads, to his eight children, share and share alike.

He gave to his son Cornelius two million dollars in addition to all other bequests made to him.

George W., his youngest son, is to receive at the death of his mother all that she possessed during her natural life, and if he should die without issue his inheritance shall go to Wm. H., the son of Cornelius, but in the event of this contingency not occurring, the grandson, Wm. H., is to receive a million on attaining the age of 30.

Then followed a host of small legacies to relatives, friends and employes. He left $2,000 a year to each of his uncle Jacob’s three children.

He gave $200,000 to the Vanderbilt University of Nashville, Tenn., founded by his father; and he left about a million in the aggregate to twelve charitable and religious institutions.

The twenty-second clause of the will is the most important, especially to his two eldest sons. It reads as follows:

“All the rest, residue and remainder of all the property and estate, real, personal and mixed, of every description and wheresoever situated, of which I may be seized or possessed, or to which I may be entitled at the time of my decease, I give, devise and bequeath unto my two sons, Cornelius Vanderbilt and William K. Vanderbilt, in equal shares, and to their heirs and assigns, to their use forever.”

Mrs. Vanderbilt was appointed executrix and her four sons executors of the will. The witnesses were Judge Charles A. Rapallo, Samuel F. Barger, C. C. Clarke and I. P. Chambers.

This remainder, left to his two sons named in the clause cited, amounted to about 50 million dollars each, in addition to their other bequests, thus leaving each of them nearly as wealthy as their grandfather was when he died. Cornelius is said to be worth over 80 million dollars.

Cornelius is the oldest son. He is a year or two over forty. He received a good education, and had an excellent business training in his father’s offices at the Grand Central Depot. He has always been remarkable for strict attention to business, and for his thorough familiarity with everything connected with his own department, as well as having a good general knowledge of all the departments of the great railroad system. When his father retired from active work, and the presidency of the roads, Cornelius succeeded him as Chairman of the Board of Directors in New York Central and Michigan Central.

Wm. K. took a similar position in Lake Shore, and was also elected President of New York, Chicago & St. Louis, generally called the Nickel Plate road.

Cornelius was married about fourteen years ago to Miss Alice Gwinn, a handsome young lady of Cincinnati, and has four children. He resides in an elegant house, at the corner of Fifty-seventh street and Fifth Avenue, and has a handsome summer residence, “The Breakers,” at Newport.

He is connected, as an active worker, with various charitable and religious institutions, and is very favorably known and highly respected in the best social circles. He is gaining a great reputation through various donations to laudable objects. Among these may be mentioned the Club House in the vicinity of the Grand Central Depot, for the accommodation of employes of the various railroads connected with the Vanderbilt system. Also his magnificent gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the celebrated picture of Rosa Bonheur, “The Horse Fair,” which is valued at $60,000. In this he surpassed the most liberal efforts of Mr. George I. Seney, in one of his grand specialties, namely, contributions to Art.

William Kissam Vanderbilt, the second son of Wm. H., also received a fair education, and graduated in business in the Transportation Department of his father’s great railroad system, where he exhibited marked ability in mastering all the essentials, and in doing his work with rapidity and accuracy. He is considered the most handsome and the most imposing in appearance of any of the family, although, as I have intimated at the beginning of this chapter, they are all above the average in regard to the manly and gentlemanly virtues, owing to what Darwin would have designated the “natural law of selection.” Wm. K. has a grand mansion, on the corner of Fifty-second street and Fifth Avenue, and a country residence at Islip, Long Island, where he usually summers. He is about thirty-eight years of age. He is married to Miss Alva Smith, the daughter of a wealthy merchant of Savannah. She is a leading lady in society, considerably above the average in good looks, and possessed of rare conversational powers, with an ample fund of wit and humor. They have three children.

Frederick W. Vanderbilt, the third son of the late millionaire, seemed to have had a greater desire for study than the two former, hence after going through the ordinary course for boys at home, he went to Yale, where he graduated in the Sheffield Scientific School. Thus equipped he went into his father’s office, and made himself thoroughly acquainted with the general routine of the whole business, in every department.

He married Mrs. Torrance, formerly the wife of his cousin. Young Vanderbilt fell in love with her and married her in a year afterward. She is an exceedingly attractive woman, and the union is a very happy one. Mr. Vanderbilt gave Frederick the house at Fortieth street and Fifth Avenue, in which he himself had resided prior to his removal to the Fifth Avenue palace. This house was built by the old Commodore for his son W. H. It was considered to be the finest residence in the city at the time of its completion.

George W. Vanderbilt, the youngest of the four sons, is now about 25 years of age. He is not so robust as the others, but enjoys pretty good health. He manifested a decided tendency at an early age for study and reading.

He is said to be extensively read in literature for his age, and has written some essays on various subjects, which give considerable promise of success with perseverance in that line. He is a lover of the fine-arts, knows the history of all the pictures in the great gallery which his father collected, and like that revered parent, whose constant companion he was during the last few years of his life, he is very fond of the opera. His grandfather, the Commodore, left him a million dollars, to which his father added another million on his twenty-first birthday.

George W. has recently made a handsome present to the Bond street free public library, donating thereto $40,000 to build a branch of that institution at 251 West Thirteenth street. He bids fair to be a liberal patron of letters, and no doubt his gifts in this way will be prudently directed and made with good judgment. The man who can appreciate learning, as George Vanderbilt has proved he can, will never be likely to leave the terms of an endowment to a public library, for instance, which he intended for the benefit of the whole community, so loose that a clique of trustees can restrict all its privileges to a limited number of ladies and gentlemen of leisure, by narrowing the hours of keeping the institution open, as has been done with those two fine libraries intended by the donors for the people at large, namely, the Astor and the Lenox.

New York is comparatively poor in its libraries, even on the supposition that these public trusts should not be tampered with, and their original object defeated; but when the best of them are diverted from the purpose originally intended by the philanthropists who presented them to the public, a great wrong is inflicted on the citizens of New York.

There has been a great deal said and written during the past few years about the Vanderbilt system of railroads being a great monopoly. I am not in favor of monopolies. On the contrary, I have, in this book, as well as through other mediums of reaching the public, and in interviews published all over the country, denounced monopolies in very strong terms. I regard the Vanderbilt properly, however, in the light of a great trust, the four young men above referred to, with Chauncey M. Depew, the President of New York Central, being the trustees, and I question very much if that eminent team of honest and able reformers, Henry George and the Rev. Dr. Edward McGlynn, with other minor lights of the Anti-Poverty Society, could administer that trust with greater benefit to the public, nor could they employ a greater army of well-paid, easy-worked, and well-fed men by any State or National supervision or management, or by breaking up the great corporation into probably a hundred or more small companies.

The Vanderbilt system employs 200,000 people at better wages than they can obtain elsewhere, any place in the world. It pays over $150 an hour for taxes. The State is paid $1 for every $2.70 received by the stockholders.

Nor can I think it possible that the paternal system of Government proposed by the Socialists, with all the modern discoveries and appliances of dynamite to aid them, could accomplish as much in a century for the well-being and advantage of the people of this State and of the whole country as the Vanderbilt system of railroads has done in half that time. I see no reason, therefore, to regard the present Vanderbilt regime as a grinding monopoly.

Until the Georgeites, the McGlynnites, and the Socialists demonstrate that their untried systems will confer greater happiness on humanity than honest enterprise in the best circumstances, under our present social system, with all its defects, has developed, I shall be tardy in subscribing my adhesion to the new order of things.

I don’t wish to be understood for a moment as implying that I am averse to free thought, the highest development of humanity, mentally and physically, and the most advanced evolution in the same direction. I aim at keeping abreast of all these within the free exercise of my own judgment, and it is thus that I can heartily applaud Dr. McGlynn for his polite but firm refusal to visit the Eternal City for the purpose of being corrected or regulated in regard to free thought and free speech, as viewed from the American standpoint, by a foreign potentate, who assumes the guardianship and governorship of all human affairs, both from a spiritual and secular point of view.

The days of Hildebrand (Pope Gregory VII.) are gone for ever, and Leo XIII. should have sense enough to know it. McGlynn will never stand, like Henry IV., shivering in his shirt at the door of the Vatican, awaiting his sentence of penance to Canossa. Bismarck, however, came pretty near repeating this little historical episode not long since, but the great Chancellor of the German Empire, unlike McGlynn, did not have the advantage of an American education, and the independence which it confers. He may, therefore, to some extent be excused. I think, however, that McGlynn will stick, and I admire his firmness. No church, no matter how powerful its foreign allies may be, can suppress free speech in the home of the brave and the land of the free.

So, in their battle for freedom of speech, I admire the pluck of the George-McGlynn party, but as regards their social theories, I shall remain in a waiting mood until I see them more fully demonstrated.

To return from this little digression, however, I wish to express the hope that the young Vanderbilts will manage their vast estate so as to inure to the public benefit in such a way that the most fastidious Socialist will be unable to take exception to the benign results.

The young Vanderbilts have at intervals speculated in Wall Street, but conservatively, with the exception of William K., who, in the past, has made numerous and spasmodic turns, chiefly on the advice of older operators, which have not always redounded to his interest. As a rule these young men are shrewd and cautious financiers, and I think it is safe to say that none of them will run the risk of losing his handsome fortune in speculation.

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XXXVIII. THE ROTHSCHILDS

THE BEGINNING OF THE FINANCIAL CAREER OF THE GREAT HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD.—THE HESSIAN BLOOD MONEY WAS THE GREAT FOUNDATION OF THEIR FORTUNE.—HOW THE FIRM OF THE FIVE ORIGINAL BROTHERS WAS CONSTITUTED.—NATHAN THE GREATEST SPECULATOR OF THE FAMILY.—HIS CAREER IN GREAT BRITAIN, AND HOW HE MISREPRESENTED THE RESULT OF THE “BATTLE OF WATERLOO” FOR SPECULATIVE PURPOSES.—CREATING A PANIC ON THE LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE—HIS TERROR OF BEING ASSASSINATED.—HIS DEATH CAUSES A PANIC ON THE LONDON EXCHANGE AND THE BOURSES.

As the Rothschilds have indirectly made an immense amount of money in Wall Street from time to time, a sketch of the famous house and its methods of doing business will be of interest in this volume. The house is represented in America by Mr. August Belmont, than whom there is no banker more widely known and more highly regarded all the world over. It is due to the wise and conservative management of Mr. Belmont that the famous Rothschilds have reaped millions of profits from American sources. The original name of Rothschild was Bauer. The family adopted the name Rothschild (Red Shield) from the sign which the founder of the house kept over his dingy little shop in Frankfort-on-the-Main, in the odoriferous quarter called the Judengasse (Jews’ street). In this little shop Mayer Anselm Rothschild, the founder of the house, discounted bills, changed money, examined the quality of coins, bought cheap and sold dear. “How do you get so rich, Mr. Rothschild?” said a friend of his to old Anselm one day, as he leaned over his dusky little counter. The original head of the great house said: “I buys ‘sheep’ and sells ‘deer.’” His knowledge of the quality of coins was marvellous. He could detect a light coin the moment he took it in his hand, and there was no imitation diamond or gem could escape his eye. He had the instinct of genius in detecting everything in the form of money or jewelry that was not genuine. He was a walking directory so far as the financial standing of every commercial man in Frankfort and in several other important cities in Germany was concerned. At the age of seventeen young Rothschild took rank with the best, oldest and ablest financiers of Frankfort. His father, who died when Mayer Anselm was thirteen years of age, had intended to make him a Rabbi, but the coin had such attraction for him, that it quickly drew him from the Talmud, and he established himself in his father’s narrow quarters as a financier.

It is not generally known that Rothschild’s first great start in financial life was given to him by the use of the twenty million dollars which was paid to the Landgrave of Hesse, Frederic II., by George III. of England, for 17,000 Hessians to help to whip George Washington and retain the American Colonies. This blood money was the original basis of the vast fortune of the Rothschilds. It was deposited with Mayer Anselm by William IX., the successor of Frederic, whose example was followed by other great ones of the earth, and in a few years the agents of the kings and princes of Europe were flocking to Frankfort to negotiate loans with Rothschild on behalf of their mighty patrons.

There is a very interesting story related, giving the reason why the Landgrave passed by all the great bankers of Frankfort and entrusted this large amount, together with a similar amount afterwards, to Rothschild. The latter had occasion to visit Prince William at his palace in Cassel, and found him playing a game of chess with Baron Estorff. Rothschild prudently kept quiet and did not interrupt the game, but stepped lightly up and stood behind the prince’s chair, where he could watch every move. The Prince was getting the worst of the game, and was becoming a little excited. Turning around, he said: “Rothschild, do you understand chess?” “Sufficiently well, your Serene Highness,” replied Rothschild, “to induce me, were the game mine, to castle on the king’s side.” The Prince took the hint, and won the game. Then turning to Rothschild, he said: “You are a wise man. He who can extricate a chess player from such a difficulty as I was in, must have a very clear head for business.”

The Prince afterwards told the Baron that Rothschild was as good a chess player as Frederic the Great, and that a man of such capacity must be able to take good care of money. The forty millions which were obtained on deposit remained with the house of Rothschild for nine years, and when Napoleon invaded Germany in the interim, the money, together with other valuables, was hidden in wine casks in Rothschild’s cellar, but the Conqueror never thought of tapping the casks. After peace was proclaimed, and William, who had been obliged to seek safety in flight, returned home, old Rothschild was dead, but his son Anselm handed over to the Prince every dollar of the forty millions, and tendered him in addition two per cent. interest for the entire time of the deposit. The Prince made him a present of the interest.

The elder Rothschild had five sons, namely: Anselm, who succeeded his father in Frankfort; Solomon, of Vienna; Nathan Mayer, of London; Charles, of Naples; and James, of Paris. According to their father’s will, the five sons were to constitute but one firm, in which they were to enjoy equal profits, and never divide the fortune. The business was to be managed at Frankfort as headquarters, to which great money centre all the profits from the other moneyed capitals were to be raked in. The intention of the old man was to make these five money kings dominate Europe by the power of their wealth, so that the ordinary kings would become their subjects, and in many instances the hopes of the great old chess player have been realized. All the annual settlements were made at Frankfort, and the brothers met there at least once a year for a general conference. This system continues, and though the original five brothers have all passed over to the majority, the last of them, James, having died in Paris in 1868, at the ripe age of 76, yet the representatives of the house in the large cities of Europe sustain the principles of union, harmony and consolidation laid down by old Anselm Mayer Rothschild. Although this union has been the great source of the Rothschilds’ success, it would be hopeless, however, for any other parent outside the Hebrew race to imitate the injunction of old Rothschild. The idea of an equal division of the profits could not be entertained for a moment by an American. The socialistic family tie that enjoined such an arrangement could only be rendered binding through the power of the Hebrew religion. Just imagine how an American would feel if by some lucky turn of fortune, like that of Nathan Rothschild in London, after the battle of Waterloo, he should make six millions in a day, and be requested to divide it with his four brothers! He would sooner spend a million of it to try and break the old man’s will, and employ several of the best sophistical lawyers he could find to prove that his father was demented.

It is supposed that the elder Rothschild died worth 15 or 20 millions, but this is in a great measure merely conjecture, as nobody outside the family ever knew what their real wealth was, this fact having always been kept an inviolate family secret. It must be said, to the credit of the old man, that in his latter days, instead of becoming stingy, as many do, he was quite liberal, and, according to the scriptural injunction, distributed his alms in secret, without even permitting his sons to know anything about the matter. He contributed largely to various charities in the same way. It is said he would go through the poverty-stricken districts of the city after night, giving money to the needy, from whom he would retreat before giving them time to thank him for his beneficence. He had a notion that those who gave without receiving thanks were greater favorites with the Divine Being, who rules the destinies of man.

The greatest speculator of the five brothers was Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the third son of the great old man. He made the grand hit of his life after the battle of Waterloo. He kept watching the movements of the opposing armies on the Continent, and followed Wellington very closely as he approached the famous field. It seems that the Iron Duke was not at all pleased with Nathan’s attention to him, as he took him for either a spy or an assassin, and was on the point of having him arrested several times. But Nathan kept his purpose steadily in view, in spite of the fact that bullets were whizzing around his ears in showers. He sat on his horse on the hill of Hougomont with perfect composure in the teeming rain the whole afternoon, looking upon that terrible struggle that was to decide the destiny of nations, until Blucher arrived and the French were put to route.

As soon as Nathan saw this he put spurs to his steed and made all possible haste to Brussels, where a carriage with swift horses was in waiting to carry him to Ostend. At day light next morning he arrived on the Belgian coast, where he found it exceedingly difficult to obtain a boat, the sea being very rough. At length he obtained a boatman as courageous as himself, who undertook the task for 2,500 francs, and landed him at Dover in the evening. He lost no time, but with relays of the swiftest horses pushed forward to London, and was on the Exchange next morning ready for business, long before the opening of the market. That was the morning of the 20th, only a day and two nights after the battle that decided the fate of nations. Nathan had performed a great feat. He acted his role well. Like the great hero whose political history had just closed, Nathan was “grand, gloomy and peculiar,” in the financial sense of the phrase. He was an embodiment of the latest information from the Continent. In defiance of winds and waves he had, at the risk of his life, outstripped the swiftest couriers and the best special correspondents of that day. The great operators flocked around him asking, “What is the news?” Nathan sighed heavily and seemed reluctant to tell. Eventually, this important piece of information was extorted from him, in strict confidence: “Blucher, at the head of his vast army of veterans, was defeated by Napoleon at Ligny, on the 16th and 17th (of June), and there can be no hope for Wellington with his comparatively small and undisciplined force.” This statement was substantially true, and it forcibly reminds one of Tennyson’s poetic remarks:

“A lie which is all a lie May be met and fought with outright, But a lie which is half a truth, Is a harder matter to fight.”

True, Blucher had been repulsed at Ligny. The Duke had an awkward squad, with the exception of the English, the Irish, and the Scotch Greys, to marshal in fighting order, but he “got there all the same.” Nathan’s secret point soon oozed out, and in less than an hour after the opening there was a perfect panic on the London Stock Exchange. Nathan had his brokers at work, first selling “short,” and then, when the market reached bed rock, buying on the long side. He bought everything that he could raise, borrow or beg the money for—consols, notes and bills. When the news of Wellington’s victory arrived, forty-eight hours after Nathan had begun to manipulate the market, and when he was “long” of everything that he had money or credit to purchase, securities went up with a boom. Nathan realized six million dollars, and it is said that a large number of the great operators flocked around him to congratulate him. It was lucky for Nathan that the scene of his operations was in London instead of Wall Street, otherwise Judge Lynch might have had something to say before the settlements had been made.

The career of Nathan Rothschild in England was remarkable, and his success from the very start phenomenal. He began his speculations and money-lending operations in Manchester with $500, being the limited amount which he was permitted to draw from the family treasury on taking his departure from Frankfort to seek his fortune in Great Britain. In five years he had augmented the $500 to a million. He then removed to London. There he married a daughter of Levi Cohen, one of the wealthiest Hebrews of the great metropolis, well known by the pseudonym of Pound-Adoring Cohen. His father-in-law was afraid that Nathan would soon ruin himself, so reckless did he seem in his speculations, estimated by the conservative standard of old Cohen.

Nathan was very fortunate in his speculative ventures in the public funds, and managed to get himself introduced so as to do considerable business for the Government in its transactions on the Continent. His first introduction to the Government was through the Duke of Wellington, who during his peninsular campaigns had made drafts that the Treasury of Great Britain was dilatory in meeting. Nathan purchased these drafts at a large discount. He afterwards renewed them to the Government, and they were eventually redeemed at par. This was the means of bringing him into confidential relations with the ministry of Great Britain, and he was entirely trusted as their chief agent in all their financial matters on the Continent. This gave him immense advantage in speculating, and enabled him to give his brothers in the other great capitals of Europe a large amount of valuable and inside information, which put them in a position to speculate with success in the funds of their respective Governments. Nathan had made arrangements to get the very latest information from Frankfort, then the centre of European financiering, by well trained carrier pigeons. He had also several boats of his own by which to send personal messages across the channel in cases where these were requisite, and a boat always in readiness at a moment’s notice in case his presence should be indispensable at the great money centre, and the central counting and clearing house of the family.

Nathan Rothschild was a strange and inconsistent compound of liberality, avariciousness, and penuriousness. He entertained his guests in a princely style, and often princes were mingled with those guests, but he was miserably mean with his clerks and employees generally. Unlike A. T. Stewart, who followed the very opposite rule, and had his place filled with bankrupt dry goods men as employees, the Rothschilds would never engage anybody who had been unfortunate in business. They had a superstitious feeling that misfortune is contagious, and they carefully avoided coming in contact with any of its victims. Nathan was even more precise than Wm. H. Vanderbilt in calculating the pennies in his lunch bill; but while Vanderbilt did this as a mere whim to illustrate his business precision and correctness, Rothschild really loved the pennies with ardent devotion. But Baron Nathan, even when he had accumulated $70,000,000 or $80,000,000, was not happy. He was tortured by the fear of enemies, who, he believed, intended to murder him. Like Vanderbilt, he received many threatening letters; but unlike the New York millionaire, who paid no attention to threats, but walked and drove out defiantly, Rothschild was still in mortal terror, and believed that the threats were intended to be executed. Nathan made one of his biggest piles out of the Almaden quicksilver mines in Spain. The Spanish Government wanted a loan, which he granted, receiving the mines as security for several years. He got up a “corner” in quicksilver, and raised the price 100 per cent. He realized almost $6,000,000 out of this transaction. It was as good for him as the Waterloo deal, only the returns did not come in so quickly. Nathan died in Frankfort, at the age of 59, in 1836. His last words were, “He is trying to kill me. Quick, quick, give me the gold.” His death created a panic on the London Stock Exchange, and the Continental Bourses were greatly embarrassed by the event. The news was conveyed by a carrier pigeon, which was shot by a boy near Brighton. The message was briefly, Il est mort-“He is dead.” The interests of the house of Rothschild are now scattered over the globe, and it is probable that the aggregate wealth of all the branches of the firm, including the possessions of the various members of their families, exceeds $1,000,000,000.

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