The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (132 page)

49
LT
, December 17, 30, 1851, January 2, 1852;
NYT
, December 17, 1851, February 14, 1852; SED 6, 32nd Cong., 1st sess., vol. 4; SED 30, 32nd Cong., 1st sess., vol. 7; Manning, 7:73–4;
NYH
, December 6, 1851; Williams, 120–2.

50
LT
, January 29, 1852; Manning, 7:448; 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; Williams, 120–3. Rodriguez, in “The ‘Prometheus’ and the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty,” notes that one reason the British recoiled so quickly is that the cabinet received a report that Greytown had become largely American in population, which made the dispute something of an internal U.S. affair.

51
New York Evangelist
, August 28, 1873;
HC
, June 7, 1851; entry for August 4, 1851, Strong, 2:60. For evidence of Clark's early law practice, see Horace F. Clark to Lauristen Hall, July 20, 1839, Hall Papers, HL, and HFC Misc. File, NYPL. See also the entry for Charles Antonio Rapallo,
National Cyclopedia of American Biography
(New York: James T. White & Co., 1904). HFC's name appears in a list of Democratic leaders,
USMDR
, June 1851. I am indebted to Maira Liriano of the New York Public Library for finding the wedding date, which had long eluded me; see
EP
, April 7, 1848. For a vivid description of a typical fashionable New York wedding, see
Eclectic Magazine
, July 1850.

52
CT
, June 21, 1873. For an earlier and more elaborate version of this story, see Medbery 160–1.

53
NYT
, December 22, 29, 1877;
Charles H. Wright v. Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr
., January 21, 1856, file LJ-1856-V-100, Supreme Court Judgments, NYCC;
NYTr
, March 28, 1878. A reference to CJV's poor health appears in John P. Hale to Charles Sumner, March 18, 1854, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, NYHS.

54
NYW
, November 13, 14, 1877.

55
Croffut, 58–9.

56
NYH
, December 6, 7, 1851.

57
This information about CV's office and operations can be found in one thick file,
James H Quimby v. CV
, November 21, 1855, file 1855-#1313, and
George S. Salls v. CV
, November 17, 1856, file 1855-#1226, both Court of Common Pleas, NYCC. See also Heyl, 1: 219. On Robert Schuyler, see
United States Magazine of Science, Art, Manufactures, Agriculture, Commerce
, July 15, 1854.

58
Senate Journal, 32nd Cong., 1st sess., January 27, 1852;
National Era
, March 4, 1852;
NYT
, February 5, 19, March 10, 29, 1852;
Farmer's Cabinet
, March 18, 1852;
BE
, February 26, 1852; Heyl, 1:307, 407, 413.

59
A Sketch of Events in the Life of George Law
(New York: J. C. Derby, 1855), 46; F. N. Otis,
Isthmus of Panama: History of the Panama Railroad and of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1867), 33;
NYT
, April 6, May 19, 21, 1852.

60
NYT
, February 7, 1856; MacDonald lawsuit. CV also collected 20 percent of the $35 Accessory Transit fare, as JLW explained in
George S. Salls v. CV
, November 17, 1856, file 1855-#1226, Court of Common Pleas, NYCC. For other commentary on the bitterness of the Law-CV rivalry, see
NYT
, July 19, 1852. CV himself noted that faster shipments of specie resulted in savings in interest payments; CV to WLM, October 10, 1853, vol. 43: Letters Received, September 28 to October 24, 1853, WLMP.

61
NYT
, March 13, 1852.

62
NYT
, March 31, 1852;
James H Quimby v. CV
, November 21, 1855, file 1855-#1313, Court of Common Pleas, NYCC;
George S. Salls v. CV
, November 17, 1856, file 1855-#1226, Court of Common Pleas, NYCC.

63
NYT, July
7, 15, August 20, 1852;
Liberator
, July 9, 1852;
National Era
, July 15, 1852;
NYTr
, August 20, 1852;
BE
, February 26, 1853.

64
NYTr
, March 30, April 3, August 13, 1852; Orville W. Childs,
Report of the Survey and Estimates of the Cost of Construction of the Inter-Oceanic Ship Canal
(New York: William C. Bryant, 1852);
NYH
, April 1, 1852; JLW and H. L. Routh, Commissioners of the American Atlantic & Pacific Ship Canal Co., to Baring Brothers, Rothschild & Sons, Finlay Hodgson & Co., Capel & Co., Sir J. H. Pelly, George Peabody Esq., London, July 21, 1852, reel 9: Letters Received, 1849 to November 1853, BB.

65
NYTr
, August 23, 1852.

66
NYTr
, August 24, 25, 1852. The share total comes from testimony by company secretary Isaac Lea,
James H. Quimby v. CV
, November 21, 1855, file 1855-#1313, Court of Common Pleas, NYCC.

67
Joshua Bates to Baring Brothers, July 23, 1852, reel 9: Letters Received, 1849 to November 1853, BB. JLW's statements on his return were clearly fraudulent, so I believe my conclusion concerning his actions have a sound basis. My assumption that CV was not in on JLW's plan, however, is based on indirect evidence: his vocal hatred for JLW, which will be seen shortly, and the timing of his attack on the ATC stock, coming so soon after JLW's return. The newspapers published an accurate account of the mission to London in December;
NYT
, December 3, 1852.

68
NYT
, April 6, 1855.

69
NYT
, August 27, 1852;
NYH
, April 6, 1855.

70
NYT
, March 29, August 27, 1852;
NYTr
, June 2, 1852;
NYH
, April 6, 1855; Manning, 4:266.

71
NYT
, September 14, 18, 1852; RGD, NYC, 341:184; Medbery, 312. Decades later, Daniel Drew testified that he had often seen CV at Robinson's office;
NYW
, March 9, 1878.

72
NYT
, September 18, 1852, April 6, 1855;
NYH
, April 6, 1855. For an excellent account of nineteenth-century Wall Street, in particular purchasing on margin, see Medbery, 53–61.

73
EP
, November 17, 1852;
NYH
, November 18, 1852;
NYTr
, August 20, 1852, January 3, 6, 1853;
NYT
, November 19, 1852; Manning, 4:35–6, 325–7;
Compilation of Executive Documents and Diplomatic Correspondence Relative to a Trans-Isthmian Canal in Central America
, vol. 2 (New York: Evening Post Printing, 1900), 818–9.

74
NYT
, October 4, 1852.

75
NYT
, April 6, May 8, 1855;
NYTr
, September 27, 1852. To follow the history of these negotiations as they played out in the press,
see NYT
, September 25, 28, 1852;
NYTr
, September 25, 27, 1852. For the quote on Allen, see RGD, NYC, 343:316.

76
NYT
, November 10, December 24, 1852. For a reference to “sick Transit,” see
NYTr
, June 7, 1852.

77
NYTr
, December 28, 1852, January 7, 1853;
NYH
, December 29, 30, 1852;
NYT
, December 30, 1852.

78
NYH
, December 29, 1852;
NYT
, December 30, 1852.

79
NYT
, December 30, 1852, February 15, 1853;
BE
, February 26, 1853.

Nine North Star

1
LW Dictation;
National Era
, April 6, 1854.

2
NYH
, April 6, 1855.

3
NYS
, November 13, 1877.

4
NYT
, April 6, 1855.

5
NYTr
, March 30, 1878.

6
John Overton Choules,
The Cruise of the Steam Yacht
North Star (New York: Evans & Dickerson, 1854), 17–8.

7
CV to Hamilton Fish, February 15, 1853, vol. 32, Hamilton Fish Papers, LOC.

8
NYT
, January 21, February 15, 1853;
NYTr
, February 15, 1853. As a further sign of CV's closeness to CM, one source describes a fancy ball that CM hosted in 1852, attended by the family of CVs son-in-law William K. Thorn; David Lavender,
Nothing Seemed Impossible: William C. Ralston and Early San Francisco
(Palo Ato: American West, 1975), 60.

9
ATC v. CKG
, September 13, 1858, file 1858-#53, Superior Court, NYCC; Deposition of Theodore A. Wakeman, MacDonald Lawsuit.

10
BE
, February 26, 1853.

11
NYTr
, March 18, 1878.

12
NYT
, March 16, 21, May 20, 1853, February 12, 1855;
William McClean v. Minthorne Tompkins, the Staten Island and New-York Ferry Company, and Others
[inc. George Law and Sarah A., His Wife, HFC], Papers on Appeals: July 14, 1856, and November 3, 1856, Supreme Court, Second Judicial District, fold. 5, box 2, Ferry and Railroad Collection, Staten Island Institute of Arts & Sciences; RGD, NYC, 374:1;
Petition of C Vanderbilt for Confirmation of Letters Patent, Issued April 3, 1816
(New York: S. S. Chatterton, 1852), NYPL.