Finding that he was defeated, Gould then resorted to one of those acts of audacity with which at different periods in his career he has surprised the public. In a public letter he offered to leave all the questions in dispute to arbitration by Horace Greeley. Thus he attempted to place himself in favorable light before the public. But it should not be supposed that Greeley was in any sense a friend of Gould. On the contrary, the _Tribune_ of that day shows how severely he criticised Gould. The battle lasted one night and then Gould surrendered. He remained as a director for a time, but his power was gone and Erie passed out of his hands forever. The property has never fully recovered from the condition into which it was thrown by the Drew-Gould regime. Though one of the most important systems in the country and enjoying an immense business, it is crippled with its enormous stock and bond liabilities, and not until 1891 did it pay a dividend. For many years it remained in the hands of a receiver. The testimony of J. W. Guppy before the Hepburn Committee, already referred to, gives some interesting details of Gould’s management of the Erie. Among the roads which Erie leased were the Chemung railroad and the Canandaigua and Elmira. These leases were very profitable to Erie, but Gould, as an individual, after quietly purchasing a majority of their capital stocks, as president of Erie refused to pay the rentals, thus abrogating the leases. Then he sold the roads to the Northern Central of Pennsylvania at a big profit. Gould and Fisk organized a number of auxiliary companies whose plant was usually paid for by Erie, but whose stock went into the pockets of Gould, Fisk and their associates. Among these companies was the National Stock Yard Company. The land was purchased and the improvements made by Erie, but the stock was divided as so much spoils, 800 shares finding their way into the pockets of Judge Barnard. The Erie Emigrant Company, the Jefferson Railroad Company, the Blackford Company and the Greenwood Coal Company were the names of some of the companies practically saddled upon Erie, but whose stock was issued to Gould and Fisk without consideration. August Stein, who made an examination into the records, told the Hepburn Committee that the amount of Gould’s wrong-doing in Erie was about $12,000,000. By this was meant the amount which he wrongfully appropriated.