The Railroad Builders: A Chronicle of the Welding of the States — John Shaqi
The Railroad Builders: A Chronicle of the Welding of the StatesMoody, John
History
The Railroad Builders: A Chronicle of the Welding of the States
Moody, John
Railroads -- United States -- History
Vanderbilt was now loaded up with reams of Erie stock at high costs,
and the load was a severe strain on him. He dared not sell for fear of
causing a financial collapse. Drew had taken away about seven million
dollars of his money and an artificial stringency had been created in
Wall Street by this exodus of most of its available cash. But Vanderbilt
weathered the storm and, as his generally optimistic attitude inspired
confidence, the sky began to clear.
But this stock-market battle did not end the war. New injunctions flew
in all directions. Osgood, son-in-law of Vanderbilt, was appointed
receiver of the 100,000 shares of illegally issued stock and was
immediately enjoined from acting by another judge. Then Peter B.
Sweeney, of the Tammany ring, was appointed in his stead without notice
to the other side. There was nothing for a receiver to do, as every
dollar he was to "receive" was known to be in New Jersey and beyond his
reach. Nevertheless he was subsequently allowed a fee of $150,000 by
Judge Barnard for his services!
While the legal battle was going on neither Drew nor Vanderbilt was
idle. A plot was arranged for bringing the Erie directors over by force,
but this failed. In the meanwhile the Erie directors persuaded the New
Jersey Legislature to rush through a bill making the Erie Railway a New
Jersey corporation. This move, however, was intended merely to meet an
emergency. It was the intention of the Erie interests to do their real
work with the Legislature at Albany. This was also the intention of the
Vanderbilt interests. Consequently, during the subsequent session, the
grafters in that body were wooed by both sides. When the Legislature
convened, a bill was promptly introduced making legal the recent
issue of Erie stock, regulating the power to issue convertible bonds,
providing for the guaranty of the bonds of the Boston, Hartford and
Erie, and forbidding the consolidation of the Central and the Erie under
the control of Cornelius Vanderbilt. But evidently the Commodore's purse
was open wider than "Uncle Daniel's," for this bill was defeated by a
decisive vote.
Now Jay Gould appeared upon the scene. He left Jersey City with half
a million of the Erie's money in his pocket and arrived in Albany
immediately after the defeat of this bill. On his arrival he was
arrested on a writ issued against him for contempt of court and was held
in bail of half a million dollars for his appearance in New York a few
days later. He appeared before Judge Barnard in New York and was put
in the charge of a sheriff. But the sheriff was served with a writ of
habeas corpus, and Gould was again brought before the court. Then in
some mysterious way the hearing was deferred and Gould returned to
Albany, taking the officer as a traveling companion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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