“General Grant was much embarrassed early in his presidential career by the attempts of those around him to engage in speculations for their private benefit. Always willing to bestow offices, or to dispense profitable favours to his numerous relatives by blood and marriage, and to advance the interests of those who had served him faithfully during the war, he could not understand the desperate intrigues which speculation led some of them into. Among his protégés was Abel R. Corbin, who had been known at Washington as the clerk of a House committee, a correspondent, and a lobbyist, and who afterward had removed to New York, where he had added to his means by successful speculation. Marrying General Grant’s sister, who was somewhat advanced in years, he conceived the idea of using his brother-in-law for a gigantic speculation in gold, and in order to obtain the requisite capital entered into partnership with Jay Gould and James Fisk, Jr. By adroit management, these operators held, on the first of September, 1869, ‘calls’ for one hundred millions of dollars of gold, and as there were not more than fifteen millions of the precious metal in New York outside of the Sub-Treasury, they were masters of the situation. The only obstacle in the way of their triumphant success would be the sale of gold from the Sub-Treasury at a moderate price, by direction of General Grant. Corbin assured his co-conspirators that he could prevent this interference, and wrote a letter to the President urging him not to order or permit sales from the Sub-Treasury. He ostensibly sent this letter by a special messenger, but, in fact, substituted for it an ordinary letter on family matters. General Grant’s suspicions were aroused by the receipt of this unimportant epistle, and at his request Mrs. Grant wrote to Mrs. Corbin, saying that the General had learned with regret that her husband was engaged in gold speculations, and he had better give them up.