by Jean Strouse
I would like particularly to thank several members of the Morgan family: John P. Morgan II and Charles F. Morgan for their generous permission to quote from the Morgan papers, and the late Mabel S. Ingalls, the late Frances M. Pennoyer, Robert M. Pennoyer, Gita and Sandra Van Heerden, Anne and Constantine Sidamon-Eristoff, and Miles Morgan, for information, memories, documents, and photographs.
In addition, I am grateful to Daniel Aaron, Jonathan Alexander, Frederick H. S. Allen, Susan Mary Alsop, Bob Asahina, Jean Ashton, Louis Auchincloss, Katharine Baetjer, Gail W. Berry, Helen Bodian, Barbara Bristol, Michael Brock, Anne Taylor Brown, Ulf Buchholz, Kathleen Burk, Larry Butler, W. Bernard Carlson, Andy Carpenter, Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., Ron Chernow, Thomas C. Cochran, Joel Conarroe, Claire Le Corbeiller, Terry Collins, Mark Crandall, Peggy and Gordon Davis, Richard W. Davis, Sharon Delano, Jean and J. Gordon Douglas III, Mary L. Douglas, Nick Egleson, Colin Eisler, Barbara Epstein, Yasmine Ergas, Eric Foner, Helen Franc, R. William Franklin, the Art Reference Library at The Frick Collection, Eugene Gaddis, Peter Galassi, Susan Grace Galassi, Dorothy Gallagher, the Reverend Stephen Garmey, John A. Garraty, Donald Garstang, Jeanne Brooks Gart, Gary Gerstle, Paul Gewirtz, Paula Giddings, Hilliard Goldfarb, Diana D. Goodrich, Leonard Groopman, Peter Grossman, Megan Hahn, Neil Harris, Robert Heilbroner, Nancy Hoppin, Elizabeth and John Horder, Glenn Horowitz, Joseph A. Jackson, Walter Kaiser, Henry L. King, Maury Klein, Bruce Kuklick, Michael Jacobs, Jeanie James, Jim Lambert, Naomi Lamoreaux, Jenny Lawrence, Judith W. Leavitt, Hermione Lee, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Arthur Lubow, Thomas K. McCraw, Irene McHugh, Diane McWhorter, Dan Menaker, Louis Menand, Joy de Menil, the Reference Department of the Thomas J. Watson Library at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Reverend Edward O. Miller, Jim Miller, Ken Miller, Honor Moore, the Right Reverend Paul Moore, John M. Morris, David Mortimer, Kathleen Mortimer, Edgar Munhall, David Nasaw, Thomas Navin, Mary Wistar O’Connor, John Orbell, Sybil D’Origny, Robert M. Peck, Mark Piel and the staff of the New York Society Library, the Reverend Thomas Pike, Ben Primer, Philip Prioleau, James R. Pyne, Sono Rosenberg, Leona Rostenberg, Linda H. Roth, John Rousmaniere, Mary Rousseau, John Russell, Mariam and Edward W. Said, Martha Saxton, Sanford J. Schlesinger, Anne Schneider, Margaret M. Sherry, Caron Smith, Scott Smith, John Snyder, Nancy H. Soukoup, Peter Stansky, Madeleine Stern, Jerome Sternstein, Roger W. Straus, Joseph P. Sullivan, Paul Sweezy, Brent Sverdloff, Adeline Tintner, Geoffrey C. Ward, Betty Whiddington, W. Thomas White, William F. Whitehouse, William Wixom, Peter M. Wolf, and Mary Yeager.
I have quoted from public and private papers by permission of Barings ING; the Peabody and Stearns Architectural Drawings Collection, Fine Arts Department, Boston Public Library; Annabel Cole (letters of Roger Fry at King’s College, Cambridge); the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University; the Columbia University Oral History Research Office Collection; The Connecticut Historical Society; Thomas P. Cook (“Highland Falls,” unpublished memoir of Grace Bigelow Cook); Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library; Davis Polk & Wardwell (two histories of the firm); Deutsche Morgan Grenfell; J. Gordon Douglas III (family papers); the Hon. Lady Phillips, the Hon. Natasha Grenfell, and the Hon. Mrs. Katya Middleton (letters in the Estate of the First Lord St. Just); Historical Collections, Baker Library, Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration; Harvard University Archives; The James Jerome Hill Reference Library; Mrs. Priscilla Bibesco Hodgson (diary of Margot Tennant Asquith); Department of Manuscripts, The Huntington Library; The Lilly Library; The Massachusetts Historical Society; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Pierpont Morgan Library; the Warden and Fellows, New College, Oxford (letters of Clinton E. Dawkins at the Bodleian Library); The New Hampshire Historical Society; The New-York Historical Society; Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library; Nigel Nicolson (Lady Sackville diaries); The Peabody Essex Museum; Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library; Princeton University Archives, Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University Library; James R. Pyne (letter of Florence Blair, March 31, 1913); the late Annette M. Schieffelin (family papers); Villa I Tatti and the President and Fellows of Harvard College; Special Collections, Transylvania University Library; Department of Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
For financial assistance without which it would not have been possible to complete this project, I am grateful to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, Jean Stein, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
Annette Markoe Schieffelin, who knew Morgan and talked with me about him on dozens of occasions, urged me to finish the book in time for her to read it. To my great sorrow, she died in 1997. Others whom I can thank only in memoriam are Jean F. Block, Vincent Carosso, J. Gordon Douglas, Jr., Leon Edel, Gerald Freund, Martha and Stanton A. Friedberg, Brendan Gill, Gordon N. Ray, Tony Roth, Lady St. Just, and Frank A. Vanderlip.
NOTES
MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS
Barings—The Baring Archive at ING Barings, London
Bodleian—The Bodleian Library, Oxford University
CHS—The Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Conn.
Columbia—Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, New York
Cornell—Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, N.Y.
HBS—Historical Collections, Baker Library, Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, Boston, Mass.
Huntington—The Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.
I Tatti—Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Florence, Italy
JJH—The James Jerome Hill Reference Library, St. Paul, Minn.
King’s—King’s College Library, Cambridge University
LC—Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Lilly—The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.
MGCo.—Morgan Grenfell Archives, the Guildhall Library, London
MGCo. (GWS)—Morgan Grenfell at Great Winchester Street (now Deutsche/Morgan Grenfell), London
MHS—The Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Mass.
MMA—The Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives, New York
MMA Egypt—The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Egyptian Art Department archives
NHHS—The New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, N.H.
N-YHS—The New-York Historical Society, New York
PEM—Phillips Library, The Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.
PML—The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
PML, MSI—the Mabel Satterlee Ingalls papers at The Pierpont Morgan Library
Princeton—Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library, Princeton, N.J.
Schieffelin—private papers of the late Annette Markoe Schieffelin
St. Just—private papers of the Estate of the First Lord St. Just
TAEM—Thomas A. Edison Papers: A Selective Microfilm Edition. Edited by Thomas E. Jeffrey et al. Four parts to date. Bethesda, Md.: University Publications of America, 1985–
Valentiner—William R. Valentiner, “Reminiscences,” Archives of American Art. Microfilm reel D31, frames 410–433.
INDIVIDUALS
AC—Andrew Carnegie
AJD—Anthony J. Drexel
AL—Albert Lythgoe
AMS—Annette Markoe Schieffelin
AS/ASM—Amelia Sturges, Amelia Sturges Morgan
ATM—Anne Tracy Morgan
BB—Bernard Berenson
BG—Belle da Costa Greene
CED—Clinton E. Dawkins
CFM—Charles Follen McKim
CHC—Charles H. Coster
CS—Charles Steele
ECG—Edward C. Grenfell
EPF—Egi
sto P. Fabbri
ER—Edward Robinson
FLT/FTM—Frances Louisa Tracy, Frances Tracy Morgan
GP—George Peabody
GWP—George Walbridge Perkins
HA—Henry Adams
HCS—Henry Cady Sturges
HFO—Henry Fairfield Osborn
HJ—Henry James
HLS—Herbert L. Satterlee
HPD—Henry Pomeroy Davison
ISG—Isabella Stewart Gardner
Jack—J. P. Morgan, Jr.
JJG—James Junius Goodwin
JJH—James J. Hill
JM—Joseph Morgan
JP—John Pierpont, Jr.
JS—Jonathan Sturges
JSM—Junius Spencer Morgan (father of JPM)
JSM2—Junius Spencer Morgan (nephew of JPM)
Juliet—Juliet Pierpont Morgan (mother of JPM)
Juliet(d)—Juliet Pierpont Morgan (daughter of JPM)
Juliet(s)—Juliet Pierpont Morgan (sister of JPM)
LPM/LMS—Louisa Pierpont Morgan, Louisa Morgan Satterlee (daughter of JPM)
LS—Lady Victoria Sackville
MCS—Mary Cady Sturges
MLP—Mary Lord Pierpont
RJP—the Reverend John Pierpont
RF—Roger Fry
TAE—Thomas Alva Edison
TR—Theodore Roosevelt
TWL—Thomas W. Lamont
VHS—Vivian Hugh Smith
VSO—Virginia Sturges Osborn
WHB—Walter Hayes Burns
WSR—Willam S. Rainsford
D after any individual’s initials (as in JPMD) indicates diary entries.
L before or after initials indicates published letters (LHA = Letters of Henry Adams; HJL = Henry James Letters).
BG notes in Hovey: Morgan’s librarian, Belle Greene, probably read him Carl Hovey’s Life Story of J. Pierpont Morgan (1912) aloud, because she made notes of his comments in the margins of her copy; it is at The Pierpont Morgan Library.
INTRODUCTION
1 “There were”: Frederick Lewis Allen, The Great Pierpont Morgan, p. vii.
2 “Unto whom”: Yale Alumni Weekly, Commencement Number, 1908. “financial Moses”: B.C. Forbes, Men Who Are Making America (New York: B.C. Forbes Publishing Co., 1916), p. 252.
3 “beefy”: NY Times, April 13, 1910. “boss croupier”: John Dos Passos, 1919, p. 337. “ ‘imperiously’ ”: Matthew Josephson, The Robber Barons, p. 319. “a burly”: E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime, p. 114.
4 “peculiarly”: Josephson, Robber Barons, pp. 440–41.
5 “most important”: William R. Valentiner “Reminiscences.” “a crude”: in Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry, p. 141.
6 “This ridiculous”: A.M. Lindbergh to author, July 2, 1987.
7 “JPM”—St. Just: ECG to Maud Grenfell, May 19, 1906. “MONEY TALKS”: Chicago Daily Tribune, Dec. 10, 1908.
8 “pure act”: Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, p. 1101.
9 “you felt”: AMS interview, May 9, 1993. “as if”: PML—William Lawrence, “Memoir of JPM,” p. 68. “the most”: I Tatti—BG to BB, Aug. 24, 1909.
10 “[T]he popular idea”: St. Just: ECG to Mrs. Willy Buckler, Dec. 4, 1909.
11 a “land”: Walter Lippmann, Drift and Mastery, pp. 23–25.
CHAPTER 1: MONEY AND TRUST
1 $25 billion: “Final Report from the Pujo Committee,” Feb. 28, 1913. House Report No. 1593, 62nd Cong., 3rd sess., 2.
2 “Napoleon”: Economist, April 5, 1913.
3 “glass pockets”: William S. Rainsford, The Story of a Varied Life, p. 291.
4 “I hope”: MGCo., Ms 21,800—CED to Jack, Dec. 10, 1901.
5 “We never”: MGCo. Ms 21,800—CED to GWP, July 19, 1902.
6 “One out of”: London Times, Dec. 4, 1908.
7 “the blessed”: MGCo. Ms 21,800—CED to Gerald Balfour, June 8, 1903.
8 “behave” & “Investigation”: PML—Jack to JPM, March 22 & April 25, 1912.
9 “So I can hear”: NY Post, Dec. 20, 1912.
10 “No, thanks” & ff.: NY Times, Dec. 20, 1912.
11 “Oh no”: NY Times, Dec. 20, 1912.
12 “What I say”: Money Trust Investigation, Testimony of JPM (1264), Dec. 18 & 19, 1912, p. 53.
13 “Your idea” & ff.: Ibid., pp. 54–56.
14 “I do not”: NY Times, Dec. 20, 1912.
15 “suddenly”: NY Post, Dec. 20, 1912.
16 “Your power” & ff.: Money Trust Investigation, pp. 67 ff.
17 “The basis” & ff.: Ibid., pp. 92–93.
18 “We are”: NY Times, Dec. 21, 1912.
19 “quite”: PML—Jack to ECG & VHS, Dec. 20, 1912.
20 “If impressions”: NY Times, Dec. 21, 1912.
21 “uncommon”: NY Post, Dec. 20, 1912.
22 “the country”: PML—LMS to Jack, March 6, 1913.
23 “HOW WEALTHY”: NY Herald, April 2, 1913.
24 “rugged”: NY Press, April 1, 1913. “sincerity”: The Outlook, April 12, 1913, p. 816. “first-class”: WSJ quoted in Literary Digest, April 12, 1913. “distinctly”: London Times, April 1, 1913. “embodiment”: NY Evening Sun, March 31, 1913.
25 “commanding” & ff.: NY World, April 1, 1913.
26 “Whatever”: NY Post, March 31, 1913.
CHAPTER 2: PIERPONTS AND MORGANS
1 “the vinegar”: RJP to Samuel Hitchcock, June 22, 1806, in Abe Ravitz, “John Pierpont” p. 9.
2 “perfectabilitarian”: Sidney Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People, pp. 399–401.
3 “his eyes”: PML—Joseph H. Choate interview with HLS, Jan. 1916.
4 “an irritating”: PML—RJP to JP, Oct. 26, 1857. “and when”: Ibid., Aug. 26, 1855.
5 “do all”: PML—RJP to MLP, March 31, 1836.
6 “as I”: PML—JSM to RJP, Feb. 13, 1836.
7 “beautiful”: PML—JSM to JPM, March 1 [1884].
8 “a perfect”: PML, HLS Papers—Mary Beach interview.
9 “the most”: George W. Smalley, Anglo-American Memories, p. 219.
10 fn.: PML—JMD, 1809–12.
11 “Locomotive”: Ibid., Dec. 14, 1839.
12 “Those who”: “Notes on the State of Virginia,” in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. III, pp. 268–70.
13 “Was introduced”: PML—JMD, Feb. 8, 1832.
14 “Abroad”: Ibid., Dec. 31, 1832.
15 “whether”: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Jackson, p. 108.
16 “might”: Ibid., p. 91.
17 “The Bank”: Ibid., p. 89.
18 “altho’ ”: PML—JSM to RJP, Feb. 13, 1836.
19 fn.: F. Perry Close, History of Hartford Streets (Hartford: The Connecticut Historical Society, 1969).
20 “Junius came”: PML—JMD, May 11, 1836.
21 “I leave”: in John Kenneth Galbraith, Money, p. 108.
22 “This day”: PML—JMD, March 3, 1837.
23 “roughly”: Galbraith, Money, p. 21.
24 “Don’t” & ff.: PML—Howe, Mather to JSM, May 8, 13, & 18, 1837.
25 “Our own” & “We are”: Ibid., May 8 & 13, 1837.
26 “Self &”: CHS, Ms 72547—JSM Correspondence.
27 “young Mr. Morgan” & ff.: PML—JMD, Feb. 19, March 2 & 24, 1838.
28 “Child” & “Boy”: Ibid., April 29 & July 28, 1838.
29 “Master” & “Bub”: PML—JSM to RJP, Nov. 14, Dec. 8, 1838.
30 “Whatever”: PML, HLS Box 6, folder C-12—“Personal Anecdotes,” Nov. 6, 1913.
31 “your beautiful”: PML—JM to JSM, June 13, 1839.
32 “quite troubled: PML—JSM to RJP, Dec. 27, 1839.
33 “he had not”: Rev. E.C. Towne, “A Discourse in Commemoration of the Life and Character of Rev. John Pierpont,” Medford, Mass., Sept. 2, 1866.
34 “very long”: PML—JMD, Dec. 21, 1838.
35 “he was”: PML—Mary E. Pierpont to RJP, May 13, 1860.
36 “My ideal” & “Dear Father”: PML—JP to RJP, June
6, 1852, April 11, 1854.
37 “too busy”: in Ravitz, pp. 140–46, 280.
38 “indignant”: PML—JSM to RJP, Oct. 11, 1839.
39 “every” & ff.: in Ravitz, pp, 283, 227.
40 “I think”: RWE to TP, July 17, in Ralph Rusk, Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Vol. III, pp. 70–71.
41 “I hope”: PML—JSM to RJP, Feb. 21, 1842.
42 “ecclesiastical” & ff.: in Ravitz, pp. 285–97.
43 “James K. Polk”: PML—JMD, March 4, 1845.
44 “church … only”: Ahlstrom, Religious History, p. 630.
45 “Without” & ff.: JMD—Dec. 13, 1846; April 9, 1847.
CHAPTER 3: A MORAL EDUCATION
1 “the very”: PML—JPM to RJP, Jan. 3, 1848.
2 “I am”: Ibid., March 14, 1848.
3 “Pierpont goes”: PML—JSM to RJP, April 10, 1848.
4 “I noticed”: PML—JSM to JPM, April 17, 1848.
5 “twice glad”: PML—Juliet to JPM April 23, 1848.
6 “It only shows”: PML—Juliet to RJP, June 15, 1860.
7 “very careful”: PML—JSM to JPM, March 1, 1851.
8 “I think”: PML—in Juliet to JPM, Feb. 23, 1851.
9 “more than any”: Joseph P. Thompson, Young Men Admonished (Buffalo: Phinney & Co., 1852), pp. 10–32.
10 “full of”: PML—J.B. Burbank to HLS, April 4, 1914.
11 “Miss Stevens”: PML, MSI—JPM to Sophia Stevens [1850].
12 “lofty”: PML—JPM to JJG, June 17, 1856.
13 “I promised”: An Introduction to Geometry, James Munroe & Co., 1846.
14 “the celebrated” to “I expect”: PML—JSM to JPM, May 16 & 30, [1850].
15 “Sleighing” & ff.: PML—JPMD, Jan.–June 1850. “Glad to” & ff.: Ibid., Aug. 26, 1850; March 7 & Nov. 29, 1851.
16 “It is”: Jared Sparks, Life of George Washington (Boston: Tappan and Dennet, 1843), Vol. I, abridged, pp. 4–9.
17 Math problems: PML Base Family Collection Box III.
18 Essays: PML, Base Family Collection Box II.
19 “Did you,” “I would,” & “to see”: PML—JPM to JJG, Jan. 23 & 30 & Oct. 1, 1852.