The First Tycoon

by T. J. Stiles

  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.

  13 NYTr, March 18, 1878. Note also that CV sold to Van Pelt extensive property on the East River, apparently the grounds on which the Simonson shipyard stood. See 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. Personal wealth was extraordinarily difficult to ascertain. My statement that the $11 million figure sounds accurate is based on a close examination of surviving evidence of CVs business transactions during this period. My belief that this would make him one of the wealthiest men in the country is based on an extensive reading of the RGD reports, as well as other sources.

  14 NYH, April 29, 1853; NYT, March 11, 1853; SA, April 30, May 7, 1853. See also CT, May 4, 1853, and a quotation from the New York Illustrated News, April 9, 1853, in Choules, 18.

  15 NYTr, June 2, 1852.

  16 Quoted in The Knickerbocker, July 1853. See also Choules, 18–22.

  17 SA, May 7, 1853.

  18 NYT, April 15, May 13, 1853.

  19 Choules, 28.

  20 Circular, May 21, June 1, 1853; NYT, May 21, 1853; SA, May 28, 1853; Choules, 25–6; Richard Schell to WLM, May 21, 1853, vol. 37: Letters Received, May 14–30, 1853, WLMP.

  21 Choules, 26; NYT, May 21, 1853; Spirit of the Times, June 25, 1853.

  22 See CVs letter to this effect, NYH, September 28, 1853.

  23 JLW to WLM, April 25, 1853, vol. 35: Letters Received, April 22 to May 2, 1853, WLMP.

  24 NYH, May 28, 30, 1853.

  25 NYT, July 21, 1853.

  26 RGD, NYC, 341:184; Medbery, 312. RGD may have had its dates wrong; in July,
Robinson was reported as the head of the “bull clique” in Erie; NYH, July 29, 1853.

  27 NYT, March 16, 1852; National Magazine, March 1853; Tyler Anbinder, Five Points: The 19th-Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum (New York: Free Press, 2001), 67–8, 245–9.

  28 NYH, July 29, 1853.

  29 NYH, June 17, 1853; Spirit of the Times, June 25, 1853; NYT, September 24, 1853.

  30 Quotation in Spirit of the Times, June 25, 1853; Choules, 30, 245. The letter quoted in Spirit of the Times names no author, but some of the language is identical to that of Choules's book.

  31 CT, June 21, 1853. For other coverage, see in particular press coverage in late June and early July, such as Spirit of the Times, June 25, July 2, 1853. On the North Star's tour in general, see Choules, passim.

  32 Choules, 47, 49–51; Muriel E. Hidy, George Peabody: Merchant and Financier, 1829–1854 (New York: Arno Press, 1978), 356. CV attempted to return the favor to Peabody, inviting him and other notables for a jaunt aboard the North Star. Also, though CV brought his own gold, Peabody facilitated his financial transactions in England. See George Peabody to CV, June 13, 1853, ser. I, letterbook 42, mss. 181, George Peabody Papers, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.

  33 Choules, 51, 56, 118, 145, 222–4, 241–3, 247–8, 262, 322. Powers's fee was named in PS, September 8, 1853.

  34 RGD, NYC, 374:1; Choules, 32, 71.

  35 LW Dictation; Croffut, 108.

  36 Choules, 82, 103; Croffut, 108.

  37 Choules, 324.

  38 Choules, 351.

  39 Croffut, 68–9.

  40 Choules, 348–50.

  41 NYT, August 12, 1853. NYT only referred to CM as “the Vanderbilt agent.” The Nicaragua line was still known as the Vanderbilt line. The other plausible candidates, Daniel Allen and CKG, were in Europe and California, respectively.

  42 NYT, August 12, 1853; NYTr, September 13, 1855; Spirit of the Times, August 11, 1849.

  43 NYT, September 24, 1853; NYH, September 24, 1853.

  44 NYT, January 5, 1877. Lane believed the letter was real and reprinted it without caveat, 109. Lane also wrote that CKG joined CM in ousting CV; as I will discuss in Chapter Ten, I believe that this was not the case. In this I am contradicting virtually every historical account of this episode.

  45 NYH, September 28, 1853. In assessing CVs dispute with the ATC, Folkman, 53–5, concludes that CV was in the wrong—that he had pocketed roughly $500,000 during his agency. Simple theft was out of keeping with CVs personality or methods, whereas blatant lying was the hallmark of JLW. The numbers reported by the NYH during the airing of this argument cannot be trusted. The ATC later paid CV to settle the dispute—hardly the step to be expected from the victim of a half-million-dollar theft.

  46 NYTr, September 30, 1853; NYH, October 27, 28, November 3, 1853. For CM's office, see an ad in the NYT, December 17, 1855. A curious debate arose in the NYH, October 31–November 2, 1853, over whether the ATC legally could own the steamships CV had sold it. Only a few papers from the lawsuit survive; see, for example, CV v. ATC, January 12, 1854, file PL 1854-V9, Supreme Court Pleadings, NYCC.

  47 Circular, July 8, 1854; NYT, July 4, 1854; USDM, July 15, 1854; HC, July 10, 1854. On the loss of the Independence, see AltaC, April 1, 1853, and a report from the San Francisco Whig, reprinted in the LT, May 13, 1853.

  48 NYT, October 12, 1853; EP, quoted in the HC, October 17, 1853; RGD, NYC, 341:184. Drew was not new to transactions with the Erie Railroad. As early as February 10, 1842, he and Isaac Newton supplied a steamboat connection to the Erie's terminus at Piermont; see Daniel Drew and Isaac Newton v. New York & Erie Rail Road Co., September 10, 1842, file 1842-#331, Superior Court, NYCC.

  49 LW Dictation.

  50 CV v. ATC, January 12, 1854, file PL 1854-V9, Supreme Court Pleadings, NYCC; NYH, December 2, 7, 8, 1853; NYTr, December 9, 1853.

  51 NYH, January 6, 7, 1854.

  52 NYT, January 17, 23, 1854; NYH, November 11, 18, 1853. William Thorn held a mortgage on half the value of the Uncle Sam and Yankee Blade, for $130,000 advanced to Mills; I am assuming that Thorn, as CVs son-in-law, served as his agent in this matter. See RGD, NYC, 374:118.

  53 Allan Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, vol. 2: A House Dividing, 1852–1857 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1947), 50–1; CV to WLM, October 10, 1853, vol. 43: Letters Received, September 28 to October 24, 1853, WLMP.

  54 Allan Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, vol. 1: Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847–1852 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1947), 39–40, 160.

  55 Joseph L. Williams, Washington, to James N. Reynolds, New York, January 23, 1854, quoted in HsR 2, 36th Cong., 2nd sess., vol. 1; NYT, January 17, 1854. For an example of Williams's lobbying, see NYT, July 26, 1852.

  56 NYT, January 17, 1854.

  57 Joseph L. Williams, Washington, to James N. Reynolds, New York, March 21, 1854, quoted in HsR 2, 36th Cong., 2nd sess., vol. 1; Croffut, 109.

  58 JLW to WLM, February 22, 1854, vol. 48: Letters Received, February 6 to March 15, 1854, WLMP.

  59 When Nicaragua threatened to tax specie shipments, for example, Marcy intervened; Manning, 4:395–7.

  60 Folkman, 49, 54–9.

  61 NYT, March 14, May 18, 1854.

  62 NYT, July 25, 29, 1854; NYH, April 26, 1853; July 25, 1854; Folkman, 63–7; James M. Woods, “Expansionism as Diplomacy: The Career of Solon Borland in Central America, 1853–1854,” The Americas 40, no. 3 (January 1984): 399–415; Nevins, House Dividing, 365–6. The destruction of Greytown followed on earlier conflicts with the municipality; on February 21, 1853, the town's authorities led a mob in an attack on Punta Arenas, which destroyed some of the ATC buildings. See SED 8, 33rd Cong., 1st sess., vol. 4; Harper's New Monthly Magazine, December 1854; NYT, March 16, April 14, 1853; LT, March 30, 1853; National Era, April 7, 1853. The outbreak of the Crimean War, and the fact that Greytown was largely American in population, muted the British response to the destruction of the town; see 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.

  63 CV v. William C. Moon, June 7, 1854, file L J-1854-M-398, Supreme Court Judgments; CV v. Reuben C Stone, September 12, 1854, file L J-1854-S-19, Supreme Court Judgments; CV v. John C Thompson and Minthorne Tompkins, September 26, 1854, file J L-1854-T-172, Supreme Court Judgments; CV v. Spring Valley Shot & Lead Manufacturing Company, April 21, 1855, file L J-1855-S-206, July 26, 1855, file L J-1855-S-208, May 2, 1855, file L J-1855-S-212, Supreme Court Judgments; all NYCC. See also Loan Agreement from CV to Mary Parmelisa M. Van Winkle, April 1, 1854, CV-NYPL; LW Dictation. On Vanderbilt's openness to callers, see Smith, 123–4.

  64 John P. Hale to Charles Sumner, March 18, 1854, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, NYHS; Henry Clews, Fifty Years in Wall Street (New York: Irving Publishing Company, 1908), 375–6; McPherson, 121–30.

  65 NYS, December 19, 1877; NYTr, March 30, 1878.

  66 NYW, November 14, 1877; NYT, May 31, 1854; NYTr, March 28, 1878. For Clark's settlement of the North America lawsuits, see a set of 128 cases with identical outcomes, such as George J. Lathrop v. CV and Daniel Drew, May 4, 1854, file LJ. 1854-v-131, Supreme Court Law Judgments, NYCC.

  67 EP quoted in the NYT, June 1, 1854; NYT, July 7, 1854; NYTr, March 30, 1878. Much later, Cornelius J. Vanderbilt testified that this internment was “partially voluntary,” and that it was his father who sent him; NYW, December 20, 1877.

  68 NYS, December 19, 1877, March 2, 1878.

  69 Strong, 2:178; Smith, 169–70. Halttunen writes, Confidence Men, 166, “In the 1850s and 1860s, polite hypocrisy was achieving cultural legitimacy.”

  70 EP quoted in HC, July 3, 1854; BM, July 1854.

  71 NYT, July 4, 1854; EP, quoted in HC, July 7, 1854.

  72 United States Magazine of Science, Art, Manufactures, Agriculture, Commerce, July 15, 1854; NYT, July 6, 1854;
EP, quoted in HC, July 7, 1854; Circular, July 8, 1854.

  73 United States Magazine of Science, Art, Manufactures, Agriculture, Commerce, July 15, 1854; Strong, 2:178–9; PS, July 13, 1854.

  74 NYT, February 3, 1855; CV v. HRR, July 16, 1858, file LJ-1858-N-41, Supreme Court Judgments, NYCC. See also entry for June 9, 1857, Directors' Minutes, HRR, reel 27, box 242, NYCRR. See also CVs letter to the HC, August 3, 1854.

  75 BM, March 1856; HC, August 13, 1857; Smith, 171. See also NYT, March 11, 1856, and New York Observer and Chronicle, March 27, 1856.

  76 Indianola Bulletin quoted in Texas State Gazette, May 27, June 17, 1854; San Antonio Ledger, June 15, 1854. See also Texas State Gazette, July 29, 1854; Baughman, 81. See also James P. Baughman, “The Evolution of Rail-Water Systems of Transportation in the Gulf Southwest, 1836–1890,” Journal of Southern History 34, no. 3 (August 1968): 357–81.

  77 NYT, July 18, 1854, February 7, 1856, July 12, 1860; Home Journal, April 8, 1854; RGD, NYC, 342:300. Kemble, 88, mistakenly places the time of Law's departure from the company in March 1853. Roberts also stood as the Whig candidate for mayor in 1852; NYT, October 30, 1852.

  78 RGD, NYC, 374:118. The song, “Humbug Steamship Companies,” is quoted in Kemble, 68; see also 69–71.

  79 NYH, August 30, 31, September 1, 1854; NYTr, November 11, 21, 1855; JoC, November 21, 1855; NYT, February 7, 1856; AltaC, October 2, 1854; RGD, NYC, 374: 118; Folkman, 56–7.

  80 NYTr, December 25, 1854.

  81 Weekly AltaC, October 7, 1854.

  Ten Ariel

  1 LW Dictation.

  2 For a complaint about the Staten Island Ferry, see NYT, February 12, 1855.

  3 The story of the Erie is an oft-told tale. See John Steele Gordon, The Scarlet Woman of Wall Street: Jay Gould, Jim Fisk, Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Erie Railway Wars, & the Birth of Wall Street (New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988), 94–107; Edward Harold Mott, Between the Ocean and the Lakes: The Story of Erie (New York: Ticker Publishing, 1908); CFA, “A Chapter of Erie,” NAR, July 1869.

  4 Mott, 105, 114–5; Alfred D. Chandler, The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977), 81–94.