The First Tycoon
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71 RRG, May 16, 1874. See also NYW, April 9, 1875, in Railway World, April 17, 1875. It should be noted that the LS&MS minutes show that WHV was not present at some meetings over which his father presided, and that CV took an active part in all the meetings—presenting, for example, the results of his negotiations with Schell. See Executive Committee Minutes, December 17, 1873, Directors' Minutes, April 18, 1874, LS&MS, reel 65, box 243, NYCRR.
72 Edwin D. Worcester testified on the lease plan, and WHV's lack of knowledge of it; NYS, December 15, 1877.
73 NYTr, February 13, 1879; HC, October 9, 1873; RRG, October 18, 1873; Western Union Telegraph Company Annual Report, 1873, Baker Library, Harvard Business School; Klein, Gould, 196–205.
74 NYH, September 10, 1873.
75 Irwin Unger, The Greenback Era: A Social and Political History of American Finance, 1865–1879 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964), 203; CT, April 1, 1873. See also RRG, April 19, 1873, and the still-important Robert P. Sharkey Money, Class, and Party: An Economic Study of Civil War and Reconstruction (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1959).
76 CT, April 1, 1873; Nation, May 1, 1873; Stiles, 232. See also George H. Miller, Railroads and the Granger Laws (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1971).
77 Stiles, 170–1; Unger, 195–327; Richard Franklin Bensel, Yankee Leviathan: The Origins of Central State Authority in America, 1859–1877 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 303–65; Foner, 480–2; Sven Beckert, The Monied Metropolis: New York City and the Consolidation of the American Bourgeoisie, 1815–1896 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 192.
78 Beckert, 190(see also 191–2); Schell quoted in Unger, 48, also 195–327. During Andrew Johnson's administration, one conservative banker, steeped in hard-money orthodoxy, compared a return to the resumption of specie payments to death—necessary for eternal salvation, but to be resisted to the end; Dorfman, 4–5. On railroad cartels and attempts to cooperate, see Chandler, Visible Hand, 122–87; Jean Strouse, Morgan: American Financier (New York: Random House, 1999), 195–9.
79 Gregory A. Mark, “The Personification of the Business Corporation in American Law,” University of Chicago Law Review 54, no. 4 (autumn 1987): 1441–83. See also Naomi R. Lamoreaux, “Partnerships, Corporations, and the Limits on Contractual Freedom in U.S. History: An Essay in Economics, Law, and Culture,” in Kenneth Lipartito and David B. Scilia, eds., Constructing Corporate America: History, Politics, Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 29–65. On the post–Civil War struggles of the Supreme Court to account for the new corporate age, see Michael A. Ross, Justice of Shattered Dreams: Samuel Freeman Miller and the Supreme Court during the Civil War Era (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003), 176–254. Miller had long criticized the “money power,” and in 1877 voted with the 7–2 majority in Munn v. Illinois, which accepted the constitutionality of Granger laws. The justices were products of their time. As Ross writes, 254, “Throughout his judicial career, Miller clung to the Republican ideology of the 1850s, an ideology that became impracticable as a result [of] the nation's postwar economic transformations.”
80 Alan Trachtenberg, The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age (New York: Hill & Wang, 1982), 59–60, 79–86; Stiles, 376–95; see also Chandler, Visible Hand.
81 NYS, December 15, 1877; NYT, December 15, 1877.
82 NYT, December 29, 1877.
83 NYTr, November 21, June 15, 1878.
84 New York Sunday News, January 6, 1878, Vanderbilt Will Trial Case Clippings, NYPL.
85 Cornelius [J.] Vanderbilt to Thurlow Weed, May 28, 1875, Thurlow Weed Papers, NYHS.
86 NYTr, March 13, 1878.
87 LW Dictation; Independent, August 13, 1874.
88 NYH, March 5, 1879; NYTr, January 9, 1877.
89 Beckert, 220.
90 NYTr, January 9, 1877, February 6, 1879; RRG, June 20, 1874.
91 NYT, November 8, 1872, June 2, 1874, December 16, 1875; Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York, February 17, 1875; CT, January 25, 1876; AtlC, February 20, 1876; NYS, in Atlanta Constitution, April 25, 1875.
92 NYT, February 15, 1879 (this account mistakenly substitutes “president” for the correct “vice president”); NYT, December 15, 1877; Directors' Minutes, May 6, June 16, August 8, 1874, LS&MS, reel 65, box 243, NYCRR; H. E. Sargent to JFJ, May 16, 1874, JFJP Sargent named the rivalry between WHV and HFC as one reason for the Central's prior neutrality between the North Shore lines and the Lake Shore, a statement supported by Amasa Stone Jr., NYT, November 23, 1878.
93 CV to H. N. McTyeire, June 15, 1874, WHV to Bishop H. N. McTyeire, February 24, 1877, H. N. McTyeire, “Last Words Before Leaving for the Ecumenical Conference in London,” June 28, 1881, Correspondence of Cornelius and William H. Vanderbilt, NYPL; CV to H. N. McTyeire, March 24, 1874, fold. 23, box 2, John James Tigert IV Papers, Special Collections, Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University; CT, September 3, 1875; NYH, October 5, 1875. See also CV to H. N. McTyeire, July 13, 1874, CV to H. N. McTyeire, December 2, 1875, F. A. P. Barnard to CV June 29, 1876, NYPL; Charles F. Deems to CV October 2, 1875, Mrs. F. A. Vanderbilt Papers, Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library; Nashville American, June 17, 1876, in NYT, June 20, 1876.
94 NYW, December 13, 1877; NYS, March 6, 1878.
95 CT, May 29, 30, 1874; RRG, March 21, April 11, June 13, 1874. For a review of the impact of the depression over the course of 1874, see RRG, December 26, 1874. For explicit statements by both CV and WHV that CV set the nonaggression policy, see CT, May 10, 1876, NYT, June 16, 1876.
96 RGD, NYC 374:1.
97 RRG, July 6, December 26, 1874.
98 CT, August 3, 1874; RRG, August 8, 15, September 12, 1872.
99 CT, October 16, 22, 1874; RRG, October 31, November 21, 1874.
100 HC, November 13, 1874; CT, November 6, 1874; RRG, September 24, November 14, 21, 1874; NYT, November 13, 18, 1874; EP in NYT, November 18, 1874; NYH, February 18, March 27, 1875.
101 NYT, June 24, 1875. During the year, CV traveled to Cleveland for the LS&MS annual meeting and took part in discussions with Scott and Garrett; see Directors' Minutes, May 5, 1875, LS&MS, reel 65, box 243, NYCRR; CT, May 5, 1875: NYT, May 6, 1875; RRG, May 8, 1875; NYH, June 9, 1875; CT, June 9, 14, 1875; RRG, June 19, 26, July 3, 1875. WHV, however, clearly took operational leadership; see, for example, NYH, December 26, 1875.
102 I am grateful to Prof. Richard R. John of the University of Illinois at Chicago and David Hochfelder, Edison Papers, Rutgers University, for providing summaries of these two letters (John W. Garrett to CV, November 17, 1875, and William Orton to CV November 19, 1875). They appear in fold. 1, box 200B, subser. 1, ser. 4, Western Union Telegraph Company Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Orton quote from William Orton to Edwin D. Morgan, May 12, 1876, fold. 9, box 10, Edwin D. Morgan Papers, NYSL.
103 Board of Directors' Minutes, September 9, 1874, NYC&HR, vol. 2, box 93, Directors' Minutes, October 1, 1874, LS&MS, reel 65, box 243, NYCRR; NYSAD 38, 103rd sess., 1880, 15, 25; RRG, December 15, 22, 29, 1876; NYT, December 17, 1876; Edward Hungerford, Men and Iron: The History of the New York Central (New York: Thomas Y Crowell, 1938), 249–54.
104 Directors' Minutes, June 7, 1871, June 3, 1874, December 18, 1875, Canada Southern Railway Company, reel 68, box 242, NYCRR; Railway World, January 1, February 5, 1876; NYW, November 15, 1877; NYTr, February 13, 1879.
105 Directors' Minutes, July 1, 1875, LS&MS, reel 65, box 243, NYCRR; J. W. Brooks to JFJ, April 13, 1875, Telegram, C. J. Brydges to JFJ, April 21, 1875, Joseph Hick-son to JFJ, October 13, 1875, JFJP; CT, September 18, 1875; NYT, October 15, 1875, August 29, 1879; NYW, November 15, 1877; Klein, 196–203.
106 NYTr, October 16, 1878; NYH, October 16, 1878; see also NYTr, April 10, 1878.
107 On Morrissey, see CT, July 25, 1870. On lawsuits against them, see NYH, February 22, 1871. On their court battle
with their mother, see NYTr, December 15, 1871, in CT, December 18, 1871; NYT, May 17, 1871; NYH, May 16, 17, 1871. For the quote regarding pantarchy and their status as brokers, see NYT, March 31, 1872; also RGD, NYC 349:1062. On their eviction, see NYH, June 8, 1871. CVs testimony quoted in NYT, January 5, 1875. See also Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, “Victoria Woodhull, Anthony Comstock, and Conflict over Sex in the United States in the 1870s,” JAH 87, no. 2 (September 2000): 403–34, and “A Victoria Woodhull for the 1990s,” Reviews in American History 27, no. 1 (1999): 87–97; Mary Gabriel, Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored (Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1998), and Louis Beachy Underhill, The Woman Who Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull (Bridgehampton, N.Y: Bridge Works Publishing, 1995). Barbara Goldsmith, in Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), makes several claims without citing sources—or citing them incorrectly. Two of the most important claims, and perhaps most likely, are that Woodhull and Claflin's mother tried to blackmail CV in early 1871, prompting him to cut the sisters off (272–3); and that, upon CVs death, WHV came to see them, and they assured him that they had seen no signs of CVs being of unsound mind (430–1). Claflin appears to have attempted to extort money out of WHV during the trial over CVs will, colluding with the challenging attorney, Scott Lord, and threatening a lawsuit on the incredible claim that CV stole money from her; see Tennie C. Claflin to Father, c. 1877 (which includes a copy of a letter from Claflin to WHV), fold. 3, box 4, Tennessee Claflin Cook Family Correspondence, Victoria Woodhull-Martin Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University, Carbon-dale, Ill.
108 Independent, March 16, 1876; RRG, March 17, 1876; NYH, March 24, 1876; BG, April 24, 1876; CT, March 17, 1876.
109 BG, April 24, 1876.
110 NYH, April 11, 14, 1876.
111 NYW November 15, 1877; NYS, November 17, 1877.
112 NYT, August 7, 1876; NYW, November 15, 1877; AtlC, April 30, 1876; NYH, March 9, 1878.
113 NYT, December 8, 1877.
114 CT, May 10, 1876.
115 NYH, May 11, 1876.
116 NYT, December 15, 1877.
117 Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Diary 2, 1876–1878, Misc. Microfilms, reel 72, NYH's (cited hereafter as “Diary 2”). Curiously, she left two parallel diaries with overlapping information. Frank may have made a second record at the time, or she may have copied her original at a later date, leaving out potentially embarrassing revelations, as the primary difference is that only one diary has any references to magnetic healers, who came in to rub CV periodically.
118 Entries for June 4, 19, 1876, Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Diary, 1876–1878, Misc. Microfilms, reel 72, NYH's (cited hereafter as “Diary 1”).
119 Entries for August [?]11, September 3, 1876, Diary 2; entry for August 4, 1876, Diary 1; see also NYT, March 7, 1878.
120 Entries for September 12, 27, 28, October 9, 1876, Diary 2; see multiple telegrams in 1876 to McTyeire, fold. 24, box 2, John James Tigert IV Papers, Special Collections, Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University.
121 Entry for August 3, 1876, Diary 1; entries for August 8[?], September 27, 1876, Diary 2.
122 Entries for June 24, August 8, October 4, 1876, Diary 1; entry for October 5, 1876, Diary 2. Corneil mistakenly blamed Frank and Martha Crawford for turning him away; NYS, December 22, 1877.
123 NYH, December 17, 1876; NYTr, February 13, 1879.
124 NYS, November 17, 1877; Telegrams, WHV to Bishop H. N. McTyeire, January 4, 1876, 9:12 a.m., 11:41 a.m., 9:55 p.m., fold. 24, box 2, John James Tigert IV Papers, Special Collections, Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University.
Epilogue
1 For examples of especially questionable witnesses, see NYTr, October 2, 1878; NYH, March 5, 1879.
2 A history of the contest appears in NYH, March 5, 1879; see also New York Sunday News, December 23, 1877, Vanderbilt Will Trial Case Clippings, NYPL; NYTr, March 21, 1878; NYT, April 8, 1880. It was widely believed that WHV eventually gave Corneil a total of $1 million; RGD, NYC 392:2938.
3 Board of Directors' Minutes, January 5, 1877, NYC&HR, vol. 2, box 93, NYCRR.
4 NYH, January 8, 1877; HW, January 27, 1877. CV's remains would later be removed to the present family tomb, in the same cemetery, constructed by WHV.
5 NYH, May 2, 1878.
6 CJV to George Terry fold. 26, box 59, ser. 13, Colt Family Papers, Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Rhode Island; Family Record, WFP; Richmond County Advance, April 15, 1882; NYT, April 3, 1882, May 5, 1885.
7 NYT, December 8, 1885. The Colt Papers include voluminous documents related to CJV's final bankruptcy.
8 Annual Report of the Comptroller of the Currency: December 4, 1876 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1876), 45–69; Richard Franklin Bensel, Yankee Leviathan: The Origins of Central State Authority in America, 1859–1877 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 268–74. The population estimate for 1876 is extrapolated from census data for 1870 and 1880.
9 Forbes, September 17, 2008; “Money Stock Measures,” November 13, 2008, Federal Reserve Statistical Release, http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h6/current/. The Federal Reserve has ceased to publish M3 statistics.
10 CFA to George E. Crocker, August 7, 1888, Charles Francis Adams Papers, Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library; Jean Strouse, Morgan: American Financier (New York: Random House, 1999), 195–9; Alfred D. Chandler Jr., ed., The Railroads; The Nation's First Big Business: Sources and Readings (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1965), 45; Alfred D. Chandler Jr. and Stephen Salsbury “The Railroads: Innovators in Modern Business Administration,” in Bruce Mazlish, The Railroad and the Space Program: An Exploration in Historical Analogy (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1965), 127–62. Strouse's excellent account is marred by one error: she writes of the New York Central as a family-owned company and of Morgan taking it public, whereas it always was a publicly traded corporation in which the Vanderbilts simply owned a majority of the stock.
11 Strouse, 198–9; NYS, December 9, 1885.
12 Strouse, 224–5.
13 Louis Auchincloss, The Vanderbilt Era: Profiles of a Gilded Age (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989), 41. For a fine portrait of the successive generations of the Vanderbilt family, see Arthur T. Vanderbilt II, Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt (New York: Morrow, 1989).
14 NYT, March 19, 2006.
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