One of the greatest of American philanthropists, especially as his princely bequest was rather unexpected, was the Hon. Samuel Jones Tilden, whose financial and political career I have referred to in another chapter. He was about seventy-three years of age at the time of his death, in August, 1886.
Mr. Tilden died worth about five millions, four of which he left to be donated to public and beneficent objects. The greater part of this is to be spent in the erection and endowment of a grand free library, which, if the terms of the bequest are properly administered, will be the greatest institution of its kind in this country.
The disposition of the Vanderbilt fortune, up to the present time, has been briefly described in the lives of the various members of the family in another chapter. The Clinic of the College of Physicians, however, which has recently been opened at Sixtieth street and Fourth avenue, is entitled to greater detail, as it is, perhaps, destined at some future day to become a great medical centre. Mrs. W. D. Sloane, daughter of Wm. H. Vanderbilt, subscribed $250,000 to build the Maternity Hospital, in connection with this institution, her father having, prior to that, donated the balance of the million necessary to finish the entire structure, which consists of the Clinic, the Maternity Hospital and the College Hospital. It is said that in all their appointments the different departments of this institution are superior to anything of a similar description in the world.
Among the men who disposed of great fortunes I may mention James Lick, of California, who devoted millions to charitable purposes; William W. Corcoran of Washington, who gave two millions for an art gallery and a home for old, decrepit and superannuated women; also, Mr. Stevens, of Hoboken, who devised two millions, one for the Stevens Battery and the other for the Stevens Institute at Hoboken. Miss Catharine Wolf, who died last year worth twelve millions, bequeathed largely of her estate to charitable purposes, and donated her magnificent art gallery to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
What a lesson is taught in these examples of philanthropic celebrities to our fellow-beings—I was going to say fellow citizens, but that would not be appropriate in many instances—the Socialists. Those millionaires, who have all more or less been denounced as hard-hearted monopolists, have been among the hardest workers and thinkers all their lives, many of them denying themselves the luxuries and some of them even the full necessities of life. For what purpose? Simply to be the hard worked and poorly fed mediums of accumulating wealth to relieve the necessities and minister to the comfort of the less fortunate, the idle, the dissipated, the poor and the needy, and in general those who misunderstood and abused them on account of their good work.
It was good for those benefactors of humanity that virtue is its own reward.
CHAPTER XLIX.
SOUTHERN AFFAIRS IN SPECULATION.
The Preservation of the Union a Great Blessing.—To Let them “Secesh” would have been National Suicide.—How Immigration has Assisted National Prosperity.—Rescued from the Dynastic Oppression of European Governments.—Showing Good Fellowship towards the Southern People and Aiding them in their Internal Improvements.—The South, Immediately After the War, had Greater Advantages than the North for Making Material Progress.—The Business of the North was Inflated.—The States of Georgia and Alabama Offered Inviting Fields for Investment.—Issuing State Securities, Cheating and Repudiating.—President Johnson Chiefly to Blame for the Breach of Faith with Investors who were Swindled out of their Money.—Revenge and Avarice Unite in Financial Repudiation.
During the war I did all that lay in my humble power to farther the cause of the Union, believing that it was a righteous one, and that the North went into the struggle to maintain, uphold and preserve the best form of government known to man, and certainly the only one suitable to America.