The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (147 page)

39
EP
in
CT
, March 28, 1868; Fowler, 508; Smith, 56–7; Bensel, 239–40, 254–74.

40
In Gould's affidavit, quoted above, he said CV had told him that “Mr. Drew was bearing stocks, and was mainly instrumental in producing money stringency which took place just previous; that Drew had several millions on deposit, and knowing that Mr. Vanderbilt and his friends were carrying a large amount of stock, never offered assistance;”
CT
, March 30, 1868.

41
Ibid.; Klein, 79.

42
CT
, March 30, 1868;
NYH
, October 9, 1867; Klein, 79.

43
NYH
, October 9, 1867.
NYH
, October 12, 1867, refers to the operations of “the Erie clique,” and the
Albany Evening Journal
, quoted in
CT
, December 10, 1867, observed the broad upward movement in railroad stocks, including Erie. In Gould's affidavit quoted in
CT
, March 30, 1868, as elsewhere, he names the members of the pool.

44
NYH
, January 20, 1869; CV to JHB, February 1, 1868, CV-NYHS; SR 307, part 2, 43rd Cong., 1st sess., vol. 3, 137.

45
NYTr
, August 5, 1876; Directors' Minutes, December 11, 1867, Executive Committee Minutes, December 12, 20, 21, 26, 1867, January 20, February 11, 1868, NYC, vol. 3, box 34, NYCRR;
Circular
, February 10, 1868;
NYH
, January 20, 1869; JMD to EC, December 28, 1867, fold. 2, box 90, JMD to EC, July 2, 1868, fold. 8, box 39, ECP For a recollection of CVs elimination of sinecures, including EC Jr., see
NYTr
, August 5, 1876. For an account of the costs of free passes see
RRG
, July 6, 1872. The elimination of free passes created some problems; drovers, for example, usually traveled for free with their cattle, and when the Central stopped that practice the Erie captured much of the livestock business temporarily; see S. H. Dubois to EC, March 7, 1868, fold. 8, box 39, ECP. For a useful summary of CVs rationalization of the Central, see Alfred D. Chandler Jr., “The Railroads: Pioneers in Modern Corporate Management,”
BHR
39, no. 1 (spring 1965): 16–40.

46
RT
, February 8, 1868;
NYT
, February 9, 1868;
SA
, February 15, 1868.

47
BE
, January 15, 1868; JMD to EC, December 28, 1867, fold. 2, box 90, JMD to EC, July 2, 1868, fold. 8, box 39, ECP.

48
John D. Prince to JMD, January 7, 1868, JMD to EC, January 7, 14, 1868, fold. 8, box 39; JMD to EC, January 8, 1868, fold. 5, box 90, ECP;
NYT
, January 11, 1868.

49
NYH
, January 23, 1868;
NYT
, December 1, 1868;
CT
, March 30, 1868; S. W. Harned to EC, February 14, 1868, fold. 5, box 90, ECP.

50
S. W. Harned to EC, February 14, 1868, fold. 5, box 90, ECP; NYSAD 142, 92nd sess., 1869. The stenographer, Hudson C. Tanner, later testified that the assembly committee before whom CV spoke these words suppressed some of his comments (reproduced here) to delete his profanity and generally clean up his comments;
NYTr
, March 6, 1871. Schell is quoted in HR 31, 41st Cong., 2nd sess., vol. 1.

51
Klein, 81;
NYH
, February 20, 23, 1868; H. E. Sargent to JFJ, April 8, 1868, Telegram, Document Summary, box 5, JFJP-2. On March 7, a New York Central official reported, “4 out of 6 of the stock cars that comes down the Lake Shore Road [Michigan Southern's eastern connection] goes over the Erie Road in consequence of a nefarious arrangement;” S. H. Dubois to EC, March 7, 1868, fold. 8, box 39, ECP.

52
Frank Work v. Daniel Drew, John E. Eldridge, Alexander Drew, Homer Ramsdell, J. C. Bancroft Davis, Henry Thompson, Dudley Gregory, Frederick A. Lane, George Gravel, James Fisk Jr., Jay Gould, and William Skidmore
, July 24, 1868, file PL-1868-W-25, Supreme Court Pleadings, NYCC.

53
Strong, 4:263n;
NYTr
, March 25, 1872, in
HW
, April 13, 1872;
Zion's Herald
, March 26, 1868. On Tweed, Barnard, and the role of the city's courts, see Seymour Mandelbaum,
Boss Tweed's New York
(New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1965), 57–8, 66–7, 83; Burrows & Wallace, 837.

54
See the complaint against Barnard by James Fisk's partner, William Belden,
NYH
, March 12, 1868. On Barnard's closeness with Osgood, see
NYH
, March 19, 31, 1868. For some of the many letters from JMD to EC on Barnard and the stock market, see those for December 28, 1867, fold. 2, box 90; February 11, 27, 1868, fold. 8, box 39; August [n.d.], August 23, 1869, fold. 1, box 94; all in ECP. For a timeline of the Erie litigation, see
American Law Review
, October 1868. Barnard actually rebuked Rapallo at one point as he presented the motion to remove Drew;
NYT
, February 22, 1868.

55
CFA, “A Chapter of Erie,”
NAR
, July 1869; Lane, 243.

56
NYSAD 142, 92nd sess., 1869;
NYTr
, March 6, 1871.

57
CV to JHB, February 1, 1868, CV-NYHS; CV to Andrew Johnson, February 6, 1868, in Paul H. Bergeron, ed.,
The Papers of Andrew Johnson
, vol. 13,
September 1867-March 1868
(Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1996), 534–5;
NYT
, February 18, 22, 1868; S. H. Dubois to EC, March 7, 1868, fold. 8, box 39, ECP.

58
CT
, March 19, 1868;
RT
, March 21, 1868.

59
NYT
, March 4, April 24, 1868; NYSSD 52:
Report of the Select Committee of the Senate, Appointed April 10, 1868, in Relation to Passage of Certain Railroad Bills
(Albany: Argus Company, 1869), 1–6, 107;
American Law Review
, October 1868;
NYH
, April 9, 1868; Klein, 81–2.

60
NYT
, February 20, 1868. The wedding description is from the
New York Mail
in
Flake's Bulletin
, March 3, 1868.

61
HG to Ellen Williams Vanderbilt, March 8, 1868, WFP.

62
Ellen W. Vanderbilt to HG, March 19, 1868, reel 2, HGP.

63
Ibid.

64
Circular
, February 17, 1868;
NYT
, February 17, March 17, 1868.

65
NYH
, March 7, 10, 25, 1868;
American Law Review
, October 1868.

66
American Law Review
, October 1868;
NYH
, March 12, 15, 25, April 3, 1868;
NYT
, March 12, 1868; NYSSD 52, 1–6. Those interested in the fine details of this tangle of legal actions, see John Steele Gordon,
The Scarlet Woman of Wall Street: Jay Gould, Jim Fisk, Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Erie Railway Wars, and the Birth of Wall Street
(New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988), 164–73. Henry Clews reported the rumors about Vanderbilt forcing banks to lend, in
Fifty Years in Wall Street
(New York: Irving Publishing, 1908), 139, as did Croffut, 91.

67
NYH
, March 14, 15, 21, 1868;
CT
, March 24, 1868. Drew later testified that Field had advised the flight to New Jersey;
NYT
, November 30, 1869.

68
CFA, “A Chapter of Erie.”

69
HW
, April 11, 1868.

70
NYH
, March 15, 1868.

71
W. L. Garrison to Wife, May 24, 1871, William Lloyd Garrison Papers, Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library.

72
HW
, October 16, 1869;
NYH
, March 15, 19, 1868; Klein, 80–3.

73
NYH
, March 16, 19, 20, 1868;
CT
, March 24, 25, 1868; Klein, 83.

74
NYSSD 52, 11, 50, 111–2;
NYH
, March 21, 25, 1868; Klein, 84.

75
Klein, 84.

76
NYSSD 52, 1–11;
NYH
, April 2, 1868;
NYT
, April 2, 1868; William Cassidy to Samuel J. Tilden, April 6, 1868, fold. 6, box 6, Samuel J. Tilden Papers, NYPL.

77
NYSSD 52, 9–11; Klein, 84–5.

78
William Cassidy to Samuel J. Tilden, April 6, 1868, fold. 6, box 6, Samuel J. Tilden Papers, NYPL; Klein, 83;
NYT
, November 30, 1869, March 17, 1870.

79
CT
, April 29, 1868;
HC
, November 30, 1869;
NYTr
, April 27, 1868, in
CT
, April 30, 1868;
NYT
, March 17, 18, 1870. Drew testified, as reported in the
NYT
, November 30, 1869, that he intended to take CVs shares in order “to get control of the Erie Road—get these people out of it.”

80
NYTr
, April 27, 1868, in
CT
, April 30, 1868;
NYT
, April 28, 1868.

81
The ensuing conversation is largely drawn from Gould and Fisk's testimony,
NYT
, March 16, 18, 19, 1870. Gordon, relying on Clews, claims that Fisk burst into CVs bedroom; the account I am citing, given by both Fisk and Gould under oath, shows CV called Fisk in.