The game was by no means abandoned, however, as a result of this first rebuff. A prominent English financier who was visiting the country advocated the theory that business interests required an advance in the price of gold in order to move the crops and sell them on favorable terms in foreign markets. Corbin was a willing convert to this theory, for he was already a party to a pool in which Gould and Fisk were members. Corbin was put forward to talk to the President whenever he came in contact with him, and even introduced Gould for the purpose of presenting his views. The President, according to Corbin, engaged in these conversations with reluctance, and the moment any allusion was made to the future policy of the Government he became very reticent. Fisk also tried his hand on the President, but without much success. Thus matters dragged along until September, when the President wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, George S. Boutwell, suggesting that it would not be wise to sell gold in large amounts to force down the price while the crops were moving, as it might embarrass the West. This was the first ray of light from the Presidential office that had reached the conspirators. It is not certain that they knew definitely of this letter; but on the third and fourth of September gold began to rise rapidly, and on the sixth it touched 137-⅝.
About two weeks later, with President Grant staying at a small country place in Washington, Pennsylvania (on a visit to William Smith, a cousin of Mrs. Grant), far from the railway and the telegraph, the time seemed ripe to push up the price of the yellow metal, drive the “shorts” to cover, and compel them to settle. The final coup was played by getting Corbin to write a letter to the President, urging him not to interfere in the struggle between the two factions in the gold market by ordering or permitting sales of gold by the Treasury. A faithful messenger, W. O. Chapin, was selected to take this letter to Pittsburgh, and from there by carriage to Washington, thirty miles distant. It was testified by General Horace Porter, secretary to the President, that they were engaged one morning in playing a game of croquet when General Porter was told that a gentleman wished to see him. The messenger was asked to wait until the game was finished, when he handed Porter a note stating that he had a letter which he desired to deliver to the President. The letter was shown to the President, who glanced over it and said to the bearer, “No answer.” General Porter then called the President’s attention to the peculiarity of the missive being brought so far by a special messenger, with a letter of introduction. The President was set to thinking. The letter, which Corbin and his conspirators were relying upon to prevent interference by the Secretary of the Treasury, proved their ruin. President Grant began to see through the plot, and suggested to Mrs. Grant to say in a letter she was writing to Mrs. Corbin that rumors had reached her that Mr. Corbin was connected with speculators in New York, and that she hoped, if this were true, that he would disengage himself from them at once, adding that the President was very much distressed at such rumors.
Mrs. Grant’s letter caused something approaching a panic in the ranks of the gold speculators. When Gould called at Corbin’s house on the evening of Wednesday, September 22, and read the contents of the letter, it was apparent to him that Corbin had no such influence over the President as had been expected, and that a blow from the Treasury might fall at any hour. It was a picturesque spectacle, described by Gould himself in his testimony, when the two were shut in the library near midnight, Corbin bending over the table and straining with dim eyes to decipher the contents of the letter, written in pencil to his wife, while the gold-room gambler, looking over his shoulder, caught with his sharper vision every word. Corbin had already prepared a letter to the President denying that he had any interest in the movement, direct or indirect, and now told Gould that he must send the letter by the first mail; but that, if it were sent, its statements must be true. He proposed, therefore, to Gould that they should settle his (Corbin’s) account, paying him his accrued profits, which as gold stood that night would amount to more than $100,000, in addition to $25,000 which he had already received. Gould put the matter over until morning and eventually drew a check, which, however, never was paid to Corbin.
Gould knew better than to divulge the unfortunate news to Fisk. It appeared to be his plan to let him and their brokers continue to buy gold and force up its price, while Gould himself was unostentatiously getting rid of his stock at maximum prices. Fisk entered the gold-room the next morning and struck terror into the hearts of the “bears” by offering to bet any part of $50,000 that gold would sell at 200. Thursday afternoon gold closed at about 144, and the conspirators held a meeting in the evening to lay plans for the next day’s campaign. They held calls for more than $100,000,000 in gold, and there were not more than $15,000,000 of gold and gold certificates in New York, outside of the Sub-Treasury. They had a full list of those who were short of gold, including more than two hundred and fifty prominent firms; and it was proposed to publish this list next morning, and to inform the victims that if they did not settle at 160 before three o’clock, a higher rate would be demanded. This detail was abandoned because they were advised by counsel that under the statutes of New York such a course would constitute a conspiracy. Fisk was asked the next morning why he feared any sale the Treasury could make, since the clique held calls for more gold than both the Treasury and the city could command. His answer was, “Oh, our phantom gold can’t stand the weight of the real stuff!”
About Friday noon, the blow from the Treasury fell. President Grant had returned from Pennsylvania to Washington on the previous afternoon, and in the evening had held a consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury. Both agreed that if the price of gold should be forced higher, so as to threaten a general financial panic, it would be their duty to interfere to protect business interests. Friday morning the price advanced rapidly, and telegrams poured into Washington from all parts of the country, urging the Government to interfere and if possible prevent a financial crash. At a conference, held soon after eleven o’clock, it was agreed to sell $4,000,000 of Treasury gold. The message to the assistant treasurer at New York, General Butterfield, was not sent in cipher, and soon the news was in everybody’s mouth. In the meantime, James Brown, a Scottish banker of New York, with the support of leading merchants, offered successively to sell $1,000,000 gold at 162, another $1,000,000 at 161, and $5,000,000 more at 160. The market began to break; and when ten minutes afterward the news came that the Treasury would sell, the price fell from 160 to 133.
From a photograph owned by F. H. Meserve
COMMODORE CORNELIUS VANDERBILT
It was with difficulty that Gould and Fisk escaped from the fury of the ruined victims who had been following their lead, and succeeded in finding refuge in their up-town stronghold, the office of the Erie Railroad Company at Twenty-third Street and Eighth Avenue. During Thursday and Friday they had sold out at high rates a large part of the gold they had purchased, and had made many private settlements at rates ruinous to their victims. They now repudiated all the purchases they had made through Belden, the principal broker who had acted as their agent. They called on Corbin and overwhelmed him with denunciations. As Fisk told the story, Corbin “was on one side of the table weeping and wailing, and I was gnashing my teeth.” In vain they despatched Corbin to Washington to plead with Grant to suspend the order to sell. The President cut him short with the remark that that subject was closed. Corbin returned to New York and did not even see his fellow conspirators when he got back. As Fisk characterized the situation, “Matters took such a turn that it was no use; it was each man drag out his own corpse.” Afterward it was shown that neither Mrs. Grant nor General Porter was in any way connected with the conspiracy.