“The President was carefully shadowed after this by the detectives of the clique, and great care was taken to throw men across his path who were fluent talkers on the great financial problem of the day, the absolute necessity of stimulating the export trade and raising the premium upon gold for that patriotic purpose. In this way, President Grant began to think that the opinion of almost everybody he talked with on this subject was on the same side, and must, therefore, be correct. “About the first of September, it was considered that the opinions of the President had been worked up fairly to the sticking point, and Gould bought $1,500,000 in gold at 132½ for Corbin. Gould, however, was timid in his purchasing at first, as he had heard that a number of operators who were short of gold were making arrangements to give Secretary Boutwell a dinner. On further assurance from Corbin that the President had written Boutwell to sell no gold without consulting him, Gould prepared to go ahead with the execution of his great scheme. Nothing remained to be done in the completion of the plot except to stow away the President in a place of safety until the financial storm should blow over.” CHAPTER IX. CULMINATION OF CONSPIRACY--BLACK FRIDAY. September is the memorable month of the gold conspiracy in Wall street. Between the 20th of August and the first of September, Gould, in company with Woodward and Kimber, two large speculators, made a pool to raise the premium on gold, and some ten or fifteen millions were bought, but with very little effect on the price. [Illustration: “BLACK FRIDAY” IN WALL STREET.] An event now took place which would have seemed to justify the implicit belief of an Erie treasurer in the corruptibility of all mankind. The unsuspicious President again passed through New York, and came to breakfast at Mr. Corbin’s house on the 2d of September. He saw no one but Mr. Corbin while there, and the same evening at ten o’clock, departed for Saratoga. Mr. Gould declared afterward, however, that he was told by Mr. Corbin that the President, in discussing the financial situation, had shown himself a convert to the Erie theory about marketing the crops, and had stopped in the middle of a conversation in which he had expressed his views and written a letter to Secretary Boutwell. In regard to this letter, Secretary Boutwell testified as follows: