The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (84 page)

“I thought at that meeting there was no possible chance to do anything with Mr. Keep,” the Commodore recalled. “When we left I said to Mr. Corning, ‘Get into my wagon and I will carry you up to the Fifth Avenue Hotel.’” He still respected Corning; Keep, on the other hand, he derided as “a shyster,” and was heard to say “that he should never be recognized by gentlemen.” Corning climbed up next to Vanderbilt, who held the reins and whipped his horses through the crowded New York streets. Vanderbilt said, “Mr. Corning, I am very sorry we cannot get along together in this matter.”

“I am too,” Corning replied. “If it was left to you and me we could fix it up in a little while.”

“I believe we could,” the Commodore said. The brief conversation told him all he needed to know. It was
not
left to Corning to fix it up. Clearly he had no power in the matter. Vanderbilt dropped his friend off at the hotel, certain that war was inevitable.
¹⁰⁰

On January 7, William received a notice from Worcester, the Central's treasurer, who said he was not authorized to pay the Hudson River's terminal charges. The Central also began to play with the accounts of the Albany bridge company, keeping for itself a certain amount of stock that should have been divided with the Hudson River.
¹⁰¹
William showed the note to his father. “This thing is getting very serious,” the Commodore said. “Go to Albany.… Fix up some kind of arrangement with these people. I don't want to be compelled to split with them. Go to Albany.”

William and Schell took the train to Albany the next morning, and arrived at half past one in the afternoon. They immediately went into a conference with the Central directors. William told them that he only wanted to do what was right. “Your father said that the other day,” Keep replied, “but I have about made up my mind he does not know what is right and what is wrong.”

The insult stunned Schell. He watched the reaction on William's face, under the great pyramids of whiskers that extended out and drooped from his cheeks. William “controlled himself,” Schell recalled, and said “that he wished to avoid any personal difficulty, and he had come as a representative of the road to see if the matters in difference could not be fairly adjusted.” Under this calm surface, William seethed. He thought to himself that if his father “was inclined at all to break his business connections with the NY. Central R.R. he had cause enough now.”

William made one last proposal: to refer the dispute to arbitration. He said his father wished “to do nothing in the world that any man who walked the streets should not say was exactly right.” At that, Azariah Boody leaped up and shouted, “There was no man in the world who could say that. Mr. Vanderbilt has not made a fair proposition.” Keep coldly added, “We can settle our own business.”

Vanderbilt equipped the
Vanderbilt
with a ram to destroy the Confederate ship
Virginia
and brought it to Hampton Roads, Virginia, where it bottled up the ironclad. He refitted it as a cruiser to search for the Confederate raider
Alabama
(note the cannons visible through gun-ports in this image) and sold it to the navy for one dollar.
Library of Congress

Cornelius Vanderbilt as he appeared on a magazine cover in 1865. This image captures him just after he sold his last steamships and devoted himself to his growing railroad empire.
Library of Congress

Confederate captain Raphael Semmes of the
Alabama
targeted Vanderbilt's Panama line, hoping to punish the Commodore for donating the
Vanderbilt
to the Union navy. On December 7, 1862, A. G. Jones, the captain of the Vanderbilt steamer
Ariel
, suspiciously watched the approach
of the Alabama
under a false U.S. flag.
Naval Historical Center

Captain Jones attempted to escape the
Alabama
, but the
Ariel
was one of the slowest ships in the Vanderbilt fleet. But Semmes had been searching for the
Champion
, headed north with a cargo of gold;
the Ariel
was steaming south from New York, and had none. Semmes let it go after a few days.
Naval Historical Center

In 1863, Vanderbilt took control of the struggling New York & Harlem Railroad, which had one key strength: it was the only steam railway to enter the center of Manhattan. Its trains ran down the surface of Fourth (later Park) Avenue to this station on Twenty-sixth Street, where they connected with the Harlem's horse-drawn streetcar line.
New York Central System Historical Society

In keeping with steamboat and steamship tradition, locomotives were named in honor of leading officials of their companies. The
Commodore Vanderbilt
of the Hudson River Railroad was typical of those operated by Vanderbilt's lines.
Library of Congress

After taking control of the Harlem, Vanderbilt bought its principal competitor, the Hudson River Railroad, which ran from Albany along the river to this freight depot at Chambers Street. The horse-drawn carts illustrate one of the railroad's strengths: it ran down the West Side, close to the piers that served the city's abundant shipping trade.
New York Central System Historical Society

Horace F. Clark, one of Vanderbilt's sons-in-law, emerged in the 1850s as a trusted lieutenant. A prominent Democratic politician, he sat on the boards of Vanderbilt's railroads and became president of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, which Vanderbilt controlled. In that position he struck out on his own, and forged an alliance with Jay Gould.
Library of Congress