The conspirators interpreted the telegram from their messenger, reading “all right” to mean a favorable answer to the letter, and they were much elated. But the President, supposing that the messenger was only a clerk from the post-office, had said “all right” merely to indicate that he had received the letter and required his presence no longer. His suspicions were aroused after the messenger had left, when he ascertained that he had brought the letter at post-haste all the way from New York. That night Mrs. Grant wrote to Mrs. Corbin a note stating that the President had heard that Mr. Corbin was engaged in Wall street speculations, and if it were true he desired that he should immediately dissociate himself from them. This letter filled Gould with consternation. He and Corbin sat in the latter’s house all night reading and rereading the note and endeavoring to grasp the meaning between the lines. “If you show that note,” said Gould, finally, “I am a ruined man.” Corbin said he must obey orders and leave the street, but he insisted Gould should first take up the gold held in Corbin’s name and pay him the profits. Corbin had already received a check for $25,000. But Gould had already all the gold he wanted, and after standing for a while in silence by the door, his brow black with mystery, he left the house.
The game was up. One stroke of a woman’s pen had punctured the dazzling bubble. A word from the President was sufficient to collapse the biggest corner on record. How to save himself? That was the question which, with knit brow and lips compressed with hidden excitement, Gould debated as he returned home that night. No thought for others who were deep in the game with himself. No thought for Fisk, his friend and associate. His mind labored for himself alone. He soon reached a conclusion. While there was yet time he would dump his heavy load of gold on the market and let others take what he could not carry. His only capital now was the early information he possessed of the President’s aroused suspicions; of his change of purpose. He did not tell even Fisk of Mrs. Grant’s letter to Mrs. Corbin, but let Fisk continue his purchases in ignorance of the real situation. He only remarked to Fisk that Corbin was getting weary and wanted his profits, or something to that purpose. Thursday—the day preceding Black Friday—Gould began his dumping process. “I sold that day,” he testified afterward, “and only bought enough to make the street think I was still a bull.”
Here is Mr. Clews’ story of days immediately preceding the fatal Friday.
“On Wednesday, the 22d of September, two days preceding ‘Black Friday,’ the clique, it is believed, owned several millions more gold than there was in the city, outside the vaults of the sub-treasury. Belden bought about eight millions of gold on that day, while Smith, Gould, Martin & Co. were also heavy purchasers. The clique held a caucus in the office of Wm. Heath & Co. in Broad street and concluded that it had gold enough to put the price to 200 if it could carry the gold without lending and compel the shorts to purchase. But the idea of finding a market for over thirty millions of gold was also a gigantic problem, and they felt the risk of being ground between the upper and the nether millstones of their scheme.
“On the morning of Thursday another council of war was held in the office of Belden & Co., on Broadway. At this meeting, Gould, Fisk, Henry N. Smith and William Belden were present. The proceedings of this meeting were kept a profound secret, but one result of it was that Belden gave his clerk the famous order to put gold to 144 and keep it there. On that day Belden purchased about twenty millions of gold, the price opening at 141½ and closing at 143½.
“The chiefs of the Cabal had another private meeting up town that evening. The great question of closing up the transactions on the following day was the chief topic of discussion. These operators held contracts for over $100,000,000 in gold. Gould said that the ‘short’ interest was $250,000,000. The total amount of gold in the city did not exceed $25,000,000, and the difference between this and the aggregate amount of the contracts of the clique was the enormous amount that would have to be settled in the event of a ‘corner.’
“Fisk proposed that the clique show its hand, publish the state of affairs, and offer to settle with the shorts at 150. His plan was rejected by his brother conspirators.”
And now opens that remarkable day in September, 1869, known as “Black Friday.” Wall street has passed through other days of excitement and calamity, but even the panic days of 1873 and 1884 pale before the awful passion and fury of Black Friday.
The New York World of September 25, 1869, thus describes the day:
“The scene during the conflict almost beggars description and exceeds anything ever before witnessed in Wall street. It was a tussle of enormous magnitude, fierce and desperate. It was a day long to be remembered and not easily forgotten by those who witnessed it or were caught in the maelstrom that carried everything before it.”