The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (137 page)

21
Shortly before the
Orizaba
incident, Captain Tarleton had allowed a sailing ship to unload 160 filibusters, along with rifles, ammunition, and artillery; see Commodore Hiram Paulding to James C. Dobbin, June 16, 1856, with accompanying documents, roll 96: Home Squadron, June 30, 1855, to December 17, 1856, Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy from Commanding Officers of Squadrons, 1841–1886, Microfilm Publication M89, NA; Manning, 4:556–7; SED 68, 34th Cong., 1st sess., vol. 13; SctDP; May,
Manifest Destiny's Underworld
, 245. On the arming of the Costa Ricans by the British, see
AltaC
, June 2, 7, 1856;
NYT
, June 5, 1856. For a description of the rebuilt Greytown, see
NYT
, March 27, 1857. See also Jasper Ridley,
Lord Palmerston
(London: Constable, 1970), 457, on British reluctance to take direct action against Walker.

22
NYT
, May 19, 20, 21, 1856;
SEP
, May 24, 1856; May,
Southern Dream
, 89.

23
Burns, 70, 201;
NYT
, May 15, 16, 1856; May,
Southern Dream
, 101–3. Williams,
Anglo-American Isthmian Diplomacy
, 211–2, argues that intelligence of British shipments of arms to Costa Rica led to the recognition. Though this is an overstatement, the discovery certainly gave added urgency to the decision.

24
Even Scroggs, who argued that the ATC supported the filibusters, wrote in “William Walker and the Steamship Corporation” that “the government officers had no means of distinguishing the filibuster from the passenger. Moreover it seems that the recruits were never organized on a military basis until they were beyond the jurisdiction of the United States.” Yet Scroggs expected the company to know the difference between emigrant and filibuster!

25
Thomas W. Ward to WLM, April 18, 1856, SED 68, 34th Cong., 1st sess., vol. 13.

26
Manning, 4:536–41. Walker's version appears 214–28, 231; Burns, 203.

27
T. J. Stiles,
Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002), 46–55; McPherson, 145–61.

28
MM
, December 1854;
NYT
, July 3,
1860; Memoirs of William T. Sherman
(New York: Da Capo, 1984, orig. pub. 1875), 95–105, 118–24; Kemble, 71, 152–3, 206; Richard Maxwell Brown,
Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1975), 123–40.

29
Sherman, 95–105, 118–24; Brown, 123–40;
NYT
, March 27, June 27, 1857;
National Era
, July 3, 1856; Deposition of Benjamin F. Voorhees, MacDonald Lawsuit. See also Leonard L. Richards,
The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), 5–6, 26–33, 184–6. The Pierce administration expressed “alarm” but also a need for “extraordinary circumspection” with regard to the vigilance committee, and declined to intervene; see James C. Dobbin to Commodore William Mervine, August 2, 1856, Letter Books of U.S. Naval Officers, March 1778 to July 1908: Correspondence of Rear Admiral William Mervine, July 1836 to August 1868, vol. 4, entry 603(15), RG 45, NA. For commentary on gang violence in contemporary New York elections, see
NYTr
, June 7, 1852.

30
Deposition of Edmund Randolph, Deposition of Alexander P. Crittenden, MacDonald Lawsuit;
NYT
, July 15, 16, 28, 1856, March 20, 1857;
NYH
, November 21, 1856; Baughman, 81. Walker officially transferred the transit rights and property to CM and CKG in a decree signed August 26, 1856;
SEP
, October 4, 1856.

31
HsR 2, 36th Cong., 2nd sess., vol. 1;
NYT
, March 6, 1852, April 23, 25, 1886; LW Dictation.

32
Medbery 312–3; entry for March 24, 1856, Minutes of the New York Stock and Exchange Board, vol. 4: 1851–1858, New York Stock Exchange Archives; RGD, NYC, 366:251.

33
Strong, 2:282;
David Colden Murray, Receiver of the ATC, v. CV
, November 3, 1859, file PL 1859-M V74, Supreme Court Pleadings, NYCC; CV to John Hawes, August 4, 1856, fold. 12, box 1, Ms 82–01, Panama Collection, Department of Special Collections, University Libraries, Wichita State University;
NYH
, July 16, September 15, October 16, December 1, 1856;
NYT
, June 3, 6, 12, August 22, 1856;
NYTr
, October 16, November 4, 1856.

34
NYT
, May 6, June 3, 6, 1856;
NYH
, July 16, 1856;
NYTr
, October 15, 1856;
David Colden Murray, Receiver of the ATC, v. CV
, November 3, 1859, file PL 1859-M V74, Supreme Court Pleadings, NYCC.

35
NYT
, November 21, 1857; Ridgely-Nevitt, 163–9.

36
NYT
, April 16, July 21, 24, 30, 1856; January 21, July 23, 1856, Senate Journal, 34th Cong., 1st sess.; Benjamin B. French to Henry F. French, September 5, 1856, reel 7, Benjamin B. French Papers, LOC; David Budlong Tyler,
Steam Conquers the Atlantic
(New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1939), 236–8.

37
Burns, 198, 202;
NYT
, March 17, April 17, May 30, 1856; Walker, 190, 197–210; SED 68, 34th Cong., 1st sess., vol. 13.

38
CT
, September 6, 1856;
NYH
, September 6, 7, 1856. As discussed previously, social concerns over the difficulties of assessing character had grown up in the collapse of the culture of deference, and the rise of an individualistic, commercial society; see in particular
Confidence Men
. Amy S. Greenberg, in “A Gray-Eyed Man: Character, Appearance, and Filibustering,”
Journal of the Early Republic
20, no. 4 (winter 2000): 673–99, and
Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), goes so far as to argue that “the American reception of William Walker's Nicaragua adventures was shaped by a national conflict over the relationship between character and appearance.” I would argue that this “conflict” may have led Walker's supporters to cast about for a way to put his unimpressive appearance in a positive light, but it in no way determined the public's response to him.

39
RGD, NYC, 374:1.

40
NYT
, November 22, 1856;
NYH
, November 21, 25, 1856; SctDP; Francisco Calcagno,
Diccionario Biográfico Cubano
(New York: Ponce de León, 1878), 302; William O. Scroggs, “William Walker's Designs on Cuba,”
Mississippi Valley Historical Review
1, no. 2 (September 1914): 198–211; Scroggs,
Filibusters
, 217–8; May
Southern Dream
, 106. One of Goicouria's letters stated, in the passive voice, that someone had offered him $250,000 for the transit rights. The press assumed that this offer came from CV
(NYT
, November 24, 1856), and historians have followed suit (see, for example, Baughman, 82). This is possible (perhaps simply as a feint), but I doubt it. For one thing, Goicouria mentioned CV by name elsewhere in the same letter; why leave out his name with regard to the offer? And such an offer would have been out of keeping with CV's consistent course, to oppose Walker and restore the original company to possession. Further, there is every indication that he believed Walker would soon be driven from power. Finally, CV explicitly denied that Goicouria was his “agent”
(NYH
, November 25, 1856), or that he had ever supported Walker, a statement supported by Goicouria himself
(NYT
, March 24, 1857) and the pro-filibuster U.S. minister to Nicaragua, John N. Wheeler (see his sworn deposition in CRCC).

41
NYT
, November 22, 1856;
NYH
, November 21, 25, 1856; SctDP; Calcagno, 302; Scroggs, “William Walker's Designs on Cuba,” 198–211; Scroggs,
Filibusters
, 217–8; May,
Southern Dream
, 106. Walker, 256–66, offers a lengthy defense of his reestablishment of slavery.

42
NYH
, November 25, 1856;
HW
, May 23, 1857;
NYTr
, February 7, 1857.

43
NYH
, October 15, 1856.

44
Burns, 203–5, 213–5. Michel Gobat emphasizes, in
Confronting the American Dream: Nicaragua Under U.S. Imperial Rule
(Durham: Duke University Press, 2005), 21–41, Walker's revolutionary role in displacing old power structures and remaking Nicaraguan society, and his support from both local elites as well as peasants and Indians. He did not, for example, press Nicaraguans into armed service, as had traditionally been done. However, such incidents as the hanging of Byron Cole and the slaughter of Walker's wounded on Ometepe demonstrate widespread, violent discontent with filibuster rule.

45
HW
, January 31, 1857; May,
Manifest Destiny's Underworld
, 200–3. Walker, 301, wrote that not until Charles Henningsen arrived in October 1856 did he have an officer qualified to train the men in the use of the Minié rifle or artillery.

46
Walker, 287–94, 301–12; Manning, 4:576; Scroggs,
Filibusters
, 255.

47
HW
, May 23, 1857;
NYTr
, January 14, 1857;
NYH
, January 25, 1857.

48
Walker, 367–71; Charles Henry Davis to Commodore William Mervine, March 4, 1857, Correspondence of Rear Admiral William Mervine, July 1836 to August 1868, vol. 4, Letter Books of U.S. Naval Officers, March 1778 to July 1908, entry 603 (15), RG 45, NA.

49
NYT
, January 28, 1857;
H W
, January 31, 1857;
NYTr
, December 20, 21, 22, 1855.

50
SctDP.

51
Scroggs, “William Walker and the Steamship Corporation,” makes precisely this point about Vanderbilt's strategy.

52
Statement of U.S. Commissioner B. F. Rexford, In the Matter of David Colden Murray, Receiver of the ATC, CRCC;
NYH
, January 26, 1857.

53
NYT
, January 29, June 11, July 4, 1857; Juan R. Mora to Sylvanus M. Spencer, December 3, 1856, Memorial of David Colden Murray, CRCC. Historians have consistently reported that an Englishman, W. R. C. Webster, commanded Spencer's expedition as CV's chief agent; see, for example, Lane, 129, and Folkman, 88. In fact, Webster appears to have been a confidence man who promoted this idea (see, for example,
NYT
and
NYH
, January 29, 1857). CV refused to pay drafts that Webster issued; and Webster appears nowhere in the extensive investigations of the CRCC. I therefore conclude that, as per the
NYT
reporting cited, Webster was a fraud.