“Such a series of misfortunes is not often experienced by a single firm, at least in such rapid succession, and is quite sufficient to explain the present position of my affairs. Against all these losses I have struggled, and until within a few weeks hoped confidently to be able to weather all difficulties. But you know how suddenly the late panic has come upon us. We found it impossible to make collections. The suspension of several houses, whose paper we held to a large amount, added to our embarrassment.
“Thus, receiving almost nothing and obliged to pay our own notes and those of others, we found it impossible to go on without calling in the aid of private friends, and running the risk of involving them, a risk which I believe it morally wrong to take.
“I thought it more manly and more honorable to call this meeting of my creditors to lay before them a full statement of my affairs, and to ask their advice as to the course which I ought to take.
“Thus, gentlemen, you have the whole case before you, and I leave it to you to decide what I ought to do.
“My only wish is, so far as I am able, to pay you to the uttermost farthing. I shall most cheerfully give up to you every dollar of property I have in the world; and I ask only to be released that I may feel free from a load of debt, and can go to work again to regain what I have lost.
“It is for you now to decide what course justice and right require me to pursue.”
His creditors accepted twenty-five cents on the dollar, and preferred to have him manage his affairs rather than “place all in the hands of a trustee or trustees;” but in order to make this payment and also the amount then due upon the stock he had subscribed to in the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company and in the Atlantic Telegraph Company, he placed a mortgage upon everything he owned, including the portraits of his father and mother.
His assets then were:
House and furniture, 123 East Twenty-first Street (heavily mortgaged).
Pew in the Madison Square Presbyterian Church.