The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (130 page)

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Authors: T. J. Stiles

Tags: #United States, #Transportation, #Biography, #Business, #Steamboats, #Railroads, #Entrepreneurship, #Millionaires, #Ships & Shipbuilding, #Businessmen, #Historical, #Biography & Autobiography, #Rich & Famous, #History, #Business & Economics, #19th Century

BOOK: The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
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44
Burns, 2–7, 34–5, 39, 59, 67; Squier, 136–8.
45
Burns, 147–8, 156, 158, 161–2; Mary Wilhelmine Williams, ed., “Letters of E. George Squire to John M. Clayton, 1849–1850,”
HAHR
1, no. 4 (November 1918): 426–34; Manning, 3:534. See also Squier, 262, 268.
46
USMDR
, November-December 1849.
47
Burns, 161–2; Richard W. Van Alstyne, “British Diplomacy and the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty 1850–60,”
JModH
11: no. 2 (June 1939): 149–83;
USMDR
, November–December 1849.
48
Manning, 7:49.
49
Robert A. Naylor, “The British Role in Central America Prior to the Clayton-Bulwer TREATY of 1850,”
HAHR
40, no. 3 (August 1960): 361–82; Richmond F. Brown, “Charles Lennox Wyke and the Clayton-Bulwer Formula in Central America, 1852–1860,”
The Americas
47, no. 4 (April 1991): 411–45; G. F. Hickson, “Palmerston and the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty,”
Cambridge Historical Journal
3, no. 3 (1931): 295–303; Mario Rodriguez, “The ‘Prometheus’ and the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty,”
JModH
36, no. 3 (September 1964): 260–78; Squier, 263. For Squier's views of Chatfield, see Mary Wilhelmine Williams, ed., “Letters of E. George Squire to John M. Clayton, 1849–1850,”
HAHR
1, no. 4 (November 1918): 426–34; Manning, 3:534. The Nicaraguans communicated to the canal company their plans to move against the British in San Juan del Norte; see JLW to JMC, August 22, 1849, vol. 6: Letters Received, August 15 to October 20, 1849, JMC-P.
50
George L. Bernstein, “Special Relationship and Appeasement: Liberal Policy towards America in the Age of Palmerston,”
Historical Journal
41, no. 3 (September 1998): 725–50; Jasper Ridley,
Lord Palmerston
(London: Constable, 1970), 273.
51
PS
, December 6, 1849;
National Era
, December 27, 1849; Richard W. Van Alstyne, “British Diplomacy and the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 1850–60,”
JModH
11, no. 2 (June 1939): 149–83; Mario Rodriguez, “The ‘Prometheus’ and the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty”
JModH
36, no. 3 (September 1964): 260–78; JLW to Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, New York, January 16, 1850, vol. 8: Letters Received, January 1 to April 9, 1850, JMC-P.
52
Allan Nevins,
The Ordeal of the Union
, vol. 1:
Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847–1852
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1947), 221, 255; JMC to [John J.] Crittenden, February 10, 1850, Clayton Misc. Mss., NYHS. On JLW's belief that he dictated the resulting treaty, see
NYH
, June 25, 1850. For insight on the political fever of the moment, see diary entry for January 26, 1850, Strong, 2:5. For Whig attitudes toward “British encroachments and aggressions in Central America,” see
American Review
, February 1850.
53
Kemble, 36–9, 46–50.
54
Stonington Reports, 53. One possible reason for CV's loss of interest in the Stonington was the completion in 1848 of a continuous rail connection between Boston and New York, when the New York & New Haven connected to the HRR. Though the Stonington still offered faster and more comfortable transportation between the two cities, it was already clear that railroads had a tendency to drive out steamboats; see Thomas C. Cochran,
Railroad Leaders, 1845–1890: The Business Mind in Action
(New York: Russell & Russell, 1965, orig. pub. 1953), 23.
55
RGD, NYC, 374:193;
BE
, May 1, 1850;
NYTr
, October 1, 1850; Heyl, 6:259. On the organization and elaboration of the canal company and its successors, see
NYTr
, March 26, 1852. CV did not complete purchase of the shipyard until April 8, 1850, when he mortgaged the property for $43,680;
New York Life Insurance & Trust Co. v. CV, Freeman Campbell and Mary Ann, His Wife, Rutherford Moody and Eunice P., His Wife, Jacob J. Van Pelt and Sarah, His Wife, and Jay Jarvis, President of the Citizen's Bank
, September 25, 1855, file PL 1855-N14, Supreme Court Pleadings, NYCC For a discussion of the steamships first built for the California business, see Cedric Ridgely-Nevitt,
American Steamships on the Atlantic
(Newark, Del.: University of Delaware Press, 1981), 103–14.
56
NYH
, December 14, 1849.
57
Allan Pred,
Urban Growth and City-Systems in the United States, 1840–1860
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980), 150.
58
NYH
, December 17, 1849; Baughman,
6

g
, 12–3, 44–63;
Theodosius F. Secor and CM v. George Law
, May 22, 1861, file 1861–832, Superior Court, NYCC. See also Squier's report on the progress made by the canal company, Manning, 3:510.
59
NYTr
, January 5, 1850;
NYH
, January 9, March 10, 1850.
60
CM's reluctance to discuss his affairs was a subject of comment in the newspapers. See, for example, a transcription of an amusingly unenlightening interview,
NYT
, July 31, 1857.
61
CV to Hamilton Fish, February 7, 1850, vol. 18, Hamilton Fish Papers, LOC. For a reference to Robert Kelly, see Strong, 2:173.
62
NYH
, February 22, 1850.
63
NYH
, February 24, 1850;
NYTr
, April 24, May 25, 1850;
Charter and Act of Incorporation of the American Atlantic and Pacific Ship Canal Company and Treaty of Protection Negociated Between the United States and Great Britain
(New York: Globe Job, 1850), copy in NYPL; George L. Bernstein, “Special Relationship and Appeasement: Liberal Policy towards American in the Age of Palmerston,”
Historical Journal
41, no. 3 (September 1998): 725–50; G. F. Hickson, “Palmerston and the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty,”
Cambridge Historical Journal
3, no. 3 (1931): 295–303; Burns, 178–9. JLW even irritated Bulwer; see JLW to Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, February 25, 1850, vol. 8: Letters Received, January 1 to April 9, 1850, JMC-P.
64
Ephraim G. Squier to JMC, May 8, 1850, quoted in Mary Wilhelmine Williams, ed., “Letters of E. George Squire to John M. Clayton, 1849–1850,”
HAHR
1, no. 4 (November 1918): 426–34. JLW let it be known in the United States as well that he had drafted the treaty himself; see
NYH
, June 25, 1850.
65
NYTr
, April 25, October 1, 1850;
BE
, May 1, 1850; see also entries for June 22 and July 10, 1850, William D. Murphy Account Books, vol. 3: 1849–185
i
, NYHS;
NYH
, July 9, 12, 1850.
66
CV v. Jesse P. Wilson
, March 19, 1856, file 1856–2735, Superior Court, and
CV v. Mark Wadleigh and Calvin E. Knox
, June 24, 1857, file LJ-1857-W-173, Supreme Court Judgments, NYCC; entry for November 7, 1850, William D. Murphy Account Books, vol. 3: 1849–1851, NYHS;
RT
, September 19, 1850; Stonington Reports, 58.
67
Nevins, 1:333–5; Strong, 2:17.
68
NYTr
, October 1, 1850. For a ship-by-ship review of all of CVs operations on the Atlantic, see Cedric Ridgely-Nevitt,
American Steamships on the Atlantic
(Newark, Del.: University of Delaware Press, 1981), 222–49.
69
Richard W. Van Alstyne, “British Diplomacy and the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 1850–60,”
JModH
11, no. 2 (June 1939): 149–83; Mario Rodriguez, “The ‘Prometheus’ and the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty,”
JModH
36, no. 3 (September 1964): 260–78.
70
Ralph W. Hidy “The Organization and Functions of Anglo-American Merchant Bankers,”
JEH
1 (Supplement:
The Tasks of Economic History)
(December 1941): 53–66; Ralph W. Hidy, “The House of Baring and American Trade,”
Bulletin of the Business Historical Society
9, no. 5 (October 1835): 71–5.
71
JLW and H. L. Routh to Baring Brothers, Rothschild & Sons, Finlay Hodgson & Co., Capel & Co., Sir J. H. Pelly, George Peabody Esq., London, July 21, 1852, vol. 10: Letters Received, January 1851 to August 1853, JMC-P; Baring Brothers to Thomas W. Ward, October 15, 1850, reel 63: Letterbook, April 1848 to April 1851, BB.
72
JLW and H. L. Routh to Rothschild & Sons, July 17, 1852, vol. 10: Letters Received, January 1851 to August 1853, JMC-P;
LT
, October 15, 16, 1850.
73
Baring Brothers to Thomas W. Ward, October 15, 1850, reel 63: Letterbook, April 1848 to April 1851, BB.
74
Ibid., and James G. King to Messrs Baring Bros. & Co., October 29, 1850, reel 41: Letters Received from New York, BB. On August Belmont and New York society, see Eric Homberger,
Mrs. Astor's New York: Money and Social Power in a Gilded Age
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 174–8.
75
Edward Harold Mott,
Between the Ocean and the Lakes: The Story of Erie
(New York: Ticker Publishing, 1908), 460; entry for February 3, 1849, Hone ms.
76
James G. King to Messrs Baring Bros. & Co, October 29, 1850, reel 41: Letters Received from New York, BB.
77
NYH
, November 15, 1850;
Farmers' Cabinet
, October 31, 1850.

Eight
Star of the West

1
Zion's Herald and Wesleyan Journal
, October 8, 1850; Strong, 2:15–16.
2
New York Evangelist
, January 3, 1850;
SA
, January 5, 1850;
Zion's Herald and Wesleyan Journal
, October 8, 1850.
3
McPherson, 64–77; Strong, 2:21–2.
4
Littell's Living Age
, November 2, 1850.
5
SED 50, 32nd Cong., 1st sess., vol. 8; LW Dictation.

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