The President was to be sounded in regard to his financial policy on the occasion of this memorable trip to Boston, and when the selected guests sat down at nine o’clock to supper the conversation was directed to the subject of finance. “Some one,” says Mr. Gould, “asked the President what his view was.” The “some one” in question was, of course, Mr. Fisk, who alone had the impudence to put such an inquiry. The President bluntly replied that there was a certain amount of fictitiousness about the prosperity of the country, and that the bubble might as well be tapped in one way as another. The remark was fatal to Mr. Gould’s plans and he felt it, in his own words, “as a wet blanket.” Mr. Fisk, in his testimony, frankly said: “On our passage over to Boston with Gen. Grant we endeavored to ascertain what his position in regard to finances was. We went down to dinner about nine o’clock, intending, while we were there, to have this thing pretty thoroughly talked up, and, if possible, to relieve him from any idea of putting the price of gold down.” Mr. Gould in his testimony said of the President: “He was our guest. At this supper the question came up about the state of the country, the crops, and the prospects ahead. The President was a listener; the other gentlemen were discussing. Some were in favor of Boutwell’s selling gold, and some were opposed to it. After they had all interchanged their views, some one asked the President what his view was. He remarked that he thought there was a certain amount of fictitiousness about the prosperity of the country, and that the bubble might as well be tapped in one way as another. That was about the substance of his remark. He then asked me what I thought about it. I remarked that I thought if that policy was carried out it would produce great distress, and almost lead to civil war.” However, Gould was already in, and he was not a man to back out as long as he saw any chance for success, and he finally succeeded in really impressing on the President’s mind that in order to move the crops it was necessary that gold should sell at 145. Gould’s first purchases had been made as low as 130¼, which was about the normal price. But it should be said at the outset that there is not a particle of evidence that Gen. Grant was ever personally concerned in the speculation or that he winked at members of his official household being so. On the contrary, the evidence is all the other way. Grant never seemed to like Gould. When the latter succeeded in getting his first interview with the President, Gen. Grant reprimanded his servant for allowing him so easy an access to his person, and at a later day the President remarked to his Secretary that he did not like to have that man--referring to Gould--around so much. “He is always trying to get something out of me,” was the President’s remark.