Descendants Clement Corbin » Abel Rathbone 'Black Friday' Corbin (1808-1880)

Persönliche Daten Abel Rathbone 'Black Friday' Corbin 

• Er wurde geboren am 24. Mai 1808 in Oswego, Oswego, New York, USA.Quellen 2, 3, 4, 6
• Beruf: zwischen 1830 und 1840 (approx years) He was editor of the "Missouri Argus" in St. Louis in the 30's and 40's and active in political affairs; afterwards for many years he was clerk of committee on claims in the House of Representatives at Washington in St Louis, Missouri, USA.Quelle 3
• Wohnhaft:
• im Jahr 1840: St Louis, Missouri, USA.Quelle 7
• im Jahr 1870: Elizabeth, Union, New Jersey, USA.Quelle 5
• im Jahr 1860: Washington, District of Columbia, Verenigde Staten.Quelle 8
• zwischen 1870 und 1880: New Jersey, Verenigde Staten.Quelle 2
• (Fact (I)) : Brother in law of U. S. Grant.
• (Removed) im Jahr 1863 in New York, New York, Verenigde Staten.Quellen 3, 6
• (Land Records) : Corbin, Abel Rathbone; described as the east side 4 1/2 west, bt.
• (Public Office) in Washington, District of Columbia, Verenigde Staten: (Clerk of Committe of Claims in House of Representatives).Quelle 3
• (History) am 24. September 1869: Black Friday (An illustration of panicked investors).Quelle 9
• (Fact (I)) am 24. September 1869: Black Friday, House of Represenatives.Quelle 9
• Er ist verstorben am 28. März 1880 in Jersey City, Hudson, New Jersey, USA, er war 71 Jahre alt.Quellen 2, 3, 4
• Er wurde beerdigt in McDonough, Chenango, New York, USA.Quelle 4

  Abel Rathbone CORBIN
  Birth 24 May 1808
  Exeter, Otsego County, New York, USA
  Death 27 Mar 1880 (aged 71)
  Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, USA
  Burial
  Corbin Cemetery
  McDonough, Chenango County, New York, USA
  Memorial ID 84968853
  
  Added by Jim Livermore
  Picture of
  Added by Jim Livermore
  Abel Rathbone CORBIN
  Birth 24 May 1808
  Exeter, Otsego County, New York, USA
  Death 27 Mar 1880 (aged 71)
  Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, USA
  Burial
  Corbin Cemetery
  McDonough, Chenango County, New York, USA
  Memorial ID 84968853 · View Source
  
  Memorial
  Photos 4
  Flowers 4
  
  Lawyer, teacher, journalist, and politician. He was educated at Bacon Academy, Colchester, Connecticut and Hamilton Academy in New York. He studied law and taught at the Oxford Academy in Oxford, New York and in Zanesville, Ohio. In 1836 he moved to St. Louis, Missouri and taught in the new high school. As a frequent political contributor to the area presses, he was called upon by the state's Democrats to start a paper, the Missouri Argus. His political connections grew to include Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and Ulysses Grant. Health problems forced him to sell his paper in 1842. He then took a position as clerk of the House Committee on Clains in Washington, D.C., an office he held for 16 years. He was the first secretary for Professor Morse's Magnetic Telegraph Company. Counted among his intimate friends were Governor Phelps of Virginia, Governor Houston of Alabama, Governor Letcher of Virginia, Senator Douglas, John C. Breckinridge, Andrew Johnson, Professors Morse and Henry, and William Cullen Bryant.
  
  His first wife, Elizabeth McAllister, died in St. Louis, Missouri on July 9, 1868 and was interred there.
  
  Wednesday, 30 Mar 1880. "The Late Abel R. CORBIN." The New York Times (New York City, NY), p. 10 (online at nytimes.com):
  "The first paragraph is not available on this article." THE LATE ABEL R. CORBIN.Funeral services were held yesterday over the remains of Abel R. CORBIN, at his late residence on Pavonia-Avenue, Jersey City Heights. The body, incased in a casket with silver mountings, lay in the parlor on the first floor. The room and those opening into it were crowded with friends and neighbors. Among those in attendance were ex-Congressman Amos Clarke, Jr., Marchus Beach, President of the Jersey City Board of Finance; William H. Jenkins, President of the Bank of North America, Ulysses S. Grant, Jr., Mrs. Orville Grant and her two sons, Jesse and Harry; Gen. Grant's venerable mother, and Mrs. Dent. The services were opened at 4 o'clock by the Rev. Mr. Shattuck, and Misses Georgie Shepherd and Eugenie Cruger, assisted by Nicholas Albertson and Henry Hellerman, sang the hymn, "Why should we mourn for dying friends?" The Rev. L.R. Dunn read the Scriptures, and afterward paid a brief and feeling tribute for respect to the memory of the dead. The quartet afterward sang the hymn commencing "Jesus, lover of my soul," and the services were brught to a close. To-day the body will be removed to Oxford, Chenango County, N.Y., where it will be interred to-morrow.

  (Corbin Cemetery)

• Ein Kind von Eliakim Lyon 'Eli' Corbin und Lodama R. Rathbone

Familie von Abel Rathbone 'Black Friday' Corbin

(1) Er ist verheiratet mit Virginia Paine 'Jennie' Grant.

Sie haben geheiratet am 12. Mai 1869 in Covington, Kenton, Kentucky, USA, er war 60 Jahre alt.Quellen 3, 4, 6, 10

Kind(er):

1. Virginia 'Jennie' Corbin  1870-1870

(2) Er ist verheiratet mit Elizabeth (Lewis And McAllister).

Sie haben geheiratet am 11. Juni 1835, er war 27 Jahre alt.Quellen 3, 11

Notizen bei Abel Rathbone 'Black Friday' Corbin

Rev. Harvey M. Lawson, Ph.B., B.D., "History and Genealogy of the Descendants of Clement Corbin ,"p.174 #261 "ABEL RATHBONE CORBIN (Eliakim, Peleg, Samuel, James, Clement), b. May 24, 1808; m, 1st, Elizabeth McAllister at St. Louis June 11, 1835; one child, d. in infancy; Elizabeth d. in 1867 in N.Y.; m., 2d Virginia Paine Grant, dau. of Jesse R. and Hannah (Simpson) Grant and sister of General U. S. Grant, May 12, 1869, at Covington, Ky.; she was b. Feb. 20, 1832, at Georgetown, Ohio; she is still living (1904) at 70 Lennox Ave., East Orange, N.J.

He was editor of the Missouri Argus in St. Louis in the 20's and 40;s and active in political affairs; afterwards for many years he was clerk of committee on claims in the House of Representatives in Washington. In 1863 he moved to New York. He d. March 28, 1880, at Jersey City. One dau.., Virginia, b.1870, d. at age of about one month."
*****
Abel Rathbone CORBIN (May 24, 1808 - March 28, 1881) was an American financier and the husband of Virginia Grant, making him brother-in-law of Ulysses S. Grant. CORBIN was born in Otsego, New York to Eliakim Lyon CORBIN and Lodama CORBIN. He and Virginia Paine Grant were married on May 13, 1869 in Covington, Kentucky. She was his second wife. They had one child, Jennie CORBIN, who died as an infant. Abel CORBIN died in Jersey City, New Jersey.
*****
1849 Letter from Abel Rathbone CORBIN - brother-in-law to U.S. Grant
This is a Nov. 3, 1849 letter from Abel Rathbone CORBIN to Amweg regarding a document that Amweg had requested. Most interestingly CORBIN pontificated on the Pennsylvania and "her ancient and proud claim to the tile of KeyStone of the glorious Democratic Arch". He also opines about James Buchanan's chances for a seat in the "National Chair" and Buchanan's "contemplated Southern journey".
A very interesting letter from an important historical figure.
*****
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/grant/peopleevents/e_friday.html>
HISTORY OF BLACK FRIDAY
People & Events: Black Friday, September 24, 1869
September 24: The day will forever be known as Black Friday on the New York gold exchange as Jay Gould and Jim Fisk attempt to corner the available gold supply. In an effort to prevent the government from selling gold to break the corner, the conspirators have enlisted Abel Rathbone CORBIN, Grant's brother-in-law. CORBIN believes he has misled Grant into cooperation, but Grant approves a government gold sale which restores prevailing prices.
..."The plan seemed like an easy way to get rich -- until it fell through. Grant became suspicious of CORBIN's sudden interest in the gold market. And when he discovered a letter from his sister to his wife discussing the matter, he knew he was being conned. Grant was furious. He sent word that CORBIN should stop his plan immediately. Soon after, Grant ordered the sale of $4,000,000 in government gold.

Starting on September 20, Gould and Fisk had started to buy as much gold as they could. Just as they planned, the price went higher. At its highest point on September 24, the price of an ounce of gold reached more than thirty dollars above what it was when Grant took office. But when the government gold hit the market, so did panic.

Within minutes, the price of gold plummeted, and investors scrambled to sell their holdings. Many investors had obtained loans to buy their gold. With no money to repay the loans, they were ruined.

Among those who lost big on Black Friday was Abel CORBIN. The wily Gould escaped disaster by selling his gold before the market began to fall. In the Congressional investigation that followed, General Daniel Butterfield was removed from his post. But loyal Republicans refused to allow the testimony of Virginia CORBIN and First Lady Julia Grant."
*****
<http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~eng313/html>/adams.html>
The first requisite for Gould's purpose was a channel of direct communication with the President; and here he was peculiarly favored by chance. Mr. Abel Rathbone CORBIN formerly lawyer, editor, speculator, lobby-agent, familiar, as he claims, with everything, had succeeded during his varied career in accumulating from one or another of his hazardous pursuits a comfortable fortune, and had crowned his success, at the age of sixty-seven or thereabout, by contracting a marriage with General Grant's sister at the moment when General Grant was on the point of reaching the highest eminence possible to an American citizen. To say that CORBIN's moral dignity had passed absolutely pure through the somewhat tainted atmosphere in which his life had been spent would be flattering him too highly; but at least he was no longer engaged in active occupation, and he lived quietly in New York watching the course of public affairs, and remarkable for respectability becoming to a President's brother-in-law. Gould enjoyed a slight acquaintance with CORBIN, and proceeded to improve it. He assumed and asserts that he felt a respect for CORBIN's shrewdness and sagacity. CORBIN claims to have first impressed the crop theory on Gould's mind; while Gould testifies that he indoctrinated CORBIN with this idea, which became a sort of monomania with the President's brother-in-law, who soon began to preach it to the President himself. On the 15th of June, 1869, the President came to New York, and was there the guest of CORBIN, who urged Gould to call and pay his respects to the Chief Magistrate. Gould had probably aimed at this result. He called; and the President of the USA not only listened to the president of Erie, but accepted an invitation to Fisk's theatre, sat in Fisles private box, and the next evening became the guest of these two gentlemen on their Newport steamer,while Fisk, arrayed, as the newspapers reported, "in a blue uniform, with a broad gilt cap-band, three silver stars on his coat-sleeve, lavender gloves, and a diamond breast-pin as large as a cherry, stood at the gangway, surrounded by his aids, be starred and be striped like himself," and welcomed his distinguished friend.

The Erie managers had already arranged that the President should on this occasion be sounded in regard to his financial policy; and when the selected guests--among whom were Gould, Fisk, and others-sat down at nine o'clock to supper, the conversation was directed to the subject of finance."Some one," says Gould, "asked the President what his view was." The "some one" in question was of course 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 Gould's plans, and he felt it, in his own words, as "a wet blanket."

Meanwhile the post of assistant-treasurer at New York bad become vacant, and it was a matter of interest to Gould that some person friendly to himself should occupy this position, which in its relations to the public is second in importance only to the Secretaryship of the Treasury itself. Gould consulted CORBIN, and CORBIN subverted the name of General Butterfield,-a former officer in the volunteer army. The appointment was not a wise one; nor does it appear in evidence by what means CORBIN succeeded in bringing it about. He was supposed to have used A. T. Stewart, the wealthy importer, as his instrument for the purpose; but whatever the influence may have been, CORBIN appears to have set it in action, and General Butterfield entered upon his duties toward the 1st of July.

The preparations thus made show that some large scheme was never absent from Gould's mind, although between the months of May and August he made no attempt to act upon the markets. Between August 20 and September 1, in company with Messrs. Woodward and Kimber, two large speculators, he made what is known as a pool or combination to raise the premium on gold, and some ten or fifteen millions were bought, but with very little effect on the price. The tendency of the market was downward, and was not easily counteracted. Perhaps under ordinary circumstances he might have abandoned his project; but an incident suddenly occurred which drew him headlong into the operation.

Whether the appointment of General Butterfield strengthened Gould's faith in CORBIN~s secret powers does not appear in evidence, though it may readily be assumed as probable; but the next event seemed to authorize an unlimited faith in CORBIN, as well as 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 CORBIN's house on the 2d of September. He saw no one but CORBIN while there, and the same evening at ten o'clock departed for Saratoga. Gould was immediately informed by 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. This letter was not produced before the investigating committee; but Secretary Boutwell testified as follows in regard to it:-

"I think on the evening of the 4th of September I received a letter from the President dated at New York, as I recollect it; I am not sure where it is dated. I have not seen the letter since the night I received it. I think it is now in my residence in Groton. In that letter he expressed an opinion that it was 'undesirable to force down the price of gold. He spoke of the importance to the West of being able to move their crops. FBS idea was that if gold should fall, the West would suffer and the movement of the crops would be retarded. The impression made on my mind by the letter was that be had rather a strong opinion to that effect . . . Upon the receipt of the President's letter on the evening of the 4th of September, I telegraphed to Judge Richardson [Assistant Secretary at Washington] this dispatch: 'Send no order to Butterfield as to sales of gold until you hear from me."'

p. 174
Gould had succeeded in reversing the policy of the national government; but this was not all. He knew what the government would do before any officer of the government knew it. Gould was at CORBIN's house on the 2d of September; and although the evidence of both these gentlemen was very confused on the point, the inference is inevitable that Gould saw CORBIN privately within an hour or two after the letter to Boutwell was written; and that at this interview, while the President was still in the house, CORBIN gave information to Gould about the President's letter,-perhaps showed him the letter itself. Then followed a transaction worthy of the French stage. CORBIN's evidence gives his own account of it:-

"On the 2d of September (referring to memoranda) Mr. Gould offered to let me have some of the gold he then possessed . . . He spoke to me, as be had repeatedly done before, about taking a certain amount of gold owned by him. I finally told Mr. Gould that for the sake of a lady, my wife, I would accept $500,000 of gold for her benefit, as I shared his confidence that gold would rise . . . He afterward insisted that I should take a million more, and I did so on the same condition for my wife. He then sent me this paper."

The paper in question was as follows:-
Smith, GOULD, MARTIN,& Co., Bankers.
11 BROAD STREET, NEW YORK, Sep 2, 1869.

Dear Sir,-We have bought for your account and risk,

500,000, gold, 132, R.

1,000,000, gold, 133%, R. which we will carry on demand with the right to use. Smith, GOULD, MARTIN, & CO.

The memorandum meant that for every rise of one per cent in the price of gold CORBIN was to receive $15,000, and his name nowhere to appear. If Gould saw CORBIN in the morning and learned from him what the President had written, he must have made his bargain on the spot, and then going directly to the city he must in one breath have ordered this memorandum to be made out and large quantities of gold to be purchased before the President's letter left CORBIN's house.

No time was lost. The same afternoon Gould's brokers bought large amounts in gold. One testifies to buying $1,315,000 at 134,14'. September 3 the premium was forced up to 36; September 4, when Boutwell received his letter, it had risen to 37. There Gould met a check, as he described his position in nervous Americanisms:-

"I did not want to buy so much gold. In the spring I put gold up from 32 to 38 and 40, with only about seven millions. But all these fellows went in and sold short, so that in order to keep it up I bad to buy or else to back down and show the white feather. They would sell it to you all the time. I never intended to buy more than four or five millions of gold, but these fellows kept purchasing it on, and I made up my mind that I would put it up to 40 at one time . . . We went into it as a commercial transaction, and did not intend to buy such an amount of gold. I was forced into it by the bears selling out. They were bound to put it down. I got into the contest. All these others fellows deserted me like rats from a ship. Kimber sold out and got short . . . He sold out at 37. He got short of it, and went up" (or, in English, he failed).

The bears would not consent to lie still and be flayed. They had the great operators for once at a disadvantage, and were bent on revenge. Gould's position was hazardous. When Kimber sold out at 37, which was probably on the 7th of September, the market broke; and on the 8th the price fell back to 35. At the same moment, when the "pool" was ended by Kimber's desertion, CORBIN, with his eminent shrewdness and respectability, told Gould "that gold had gone up to 37," and that be "should like to have this matter realized," - which was equivalent to saying that he wished to be paid some thing on account. This was said September 6; and Gould was obliged the same day to bring him a check for $25,000, drawn to the order of Jay Gould, and indorsed in blank by him with a proper regard for CORBIN's modest desire not to have his name appear. The transaction did credit to CORBIN's sagacity, and showed at least that he was acquainted with the men he dealt with. Undoubtedly it placed Gould in a difficult position; but as Gould already held some fifteen millions of gold and needed CORBIN's support, he preferred to pay $25,000 outright rather than allow CORBIN to throw his gold on the market. Yet the fabric of Gould's web bad been so seriously injured that for a week-from the 8th to the 15tb of September he was unable to advance and equally unable to retreat without severe losses. He sat at his desk in the opera-house, silent as usual, tearing little slips of paper which he threw on the floor in his abstraction, while he revolved new combinations in his mind.

Down to this moment James Fisk, Jr., had not appeared in the affair. Gould had not taken him into his confidence; and not until after September 10 did Gould decide that nothing else could be done. Fisk was not a safe ally in so delicate an affair; but apparently no other aid offered itself. Gould approached him; and as usual Gould's touch was like magic. Fiske's evidence begins here, and may be believed when very strongly corroborated:-

"Gold having settled down to 35, and I not having cared to touch it, he was a little sensitive on the subject, feeling as if be would rather take his losses without saying anything about it . . . One day he said to me, 'Don't you think gold has got to the bottom? I replied that I did not see the profit in buying gold unless you have got into a position where you can command the market. He then said he had bought quite a large amount of gold, and I judged from his conversation that he wanted me to go into the movement and help strengthen the market. Upon that I went into the market and bought. I should say that was about the 15th or 16th of September. I bought at that time about seven or eight millions, I think."

The market responded slowly to these enormous purchases; and on the 16th the clique was still struggling to recover its lost ground.

Meanwhile Gould placed a million and a half of gold to the account of General Butterfield, as he had done to the account of CORBIN, and notified him of the purchase; so Gould swears, in spite of General Butterfield's denial. The date of this purchase is not fixed. Through CORBIN a notice was also sent by Gould about the middle of September to the President's private secretary, General Porter, informing him that half a million was placed to his credit. Porter repudiated the purchase, but Butterfield took no apparent notice of Gould's transaction on his account. On the 10th of September the President again came to New York, where he remained his brother in-law's guest till the 13th; and during this visit Gould again saw him, although CORBIN avers that the President then intimated his wish to the servant that this should be the last time Gould obtained admission."Gould was always trying to get something out of him," he said; and if he bad known how much Gould had succeeded in getting out of him, he would have admired the man's genius, even while shutting the door in his face.

On the morning of September 13 the President set out on a journey to the little town of Washington, situated among the mountains of western Pennsylvania, where he was to remain a few days. Gould, who consulted CORBIN regularly every morning and evening, was still extremely nervous in regard to the President's policy; and as the crisis approached, his nervousness led him into the blunder of doing too much. Probably the bribe offered to Porter was a mistake, but a greater mistake was made by pressing CORBIN's influence too far. Gould induced CORBIN to write an official article for the New York press on the financial policy of the government,-an article afterward inserted in the "New York Times" through the kind offices of Mr. James McHenry; and he also persuaded or encouraged CORBIN to write a letter directly to the President. This letter, written September 17 under the influence of Gould's anxiety, was instantly sent by a special messenger of Fisk to reach the President before he returned to the capital. The messenger carried also a letter of introduction to General Porter, the private secretary, in order to secure the personal delivery of this important despatch.

On Monday, September 20, gold again rose. Throughout Tuesday and Wednesday Fisk continued to purchase without limit, and forced the price up to 40. At that time Gould's firm of Smith, Gould, & Martin, through which the operation was conducted, had purchased some $50,000,000; yet the bears went on selling, although they could continue the contest only borrowing Gould's own gold. Gould, on the other band, could no longer sell and clear himself, for the reason that the sale of $50,000,000 would have broken the market. The struggle became intense. The whole country watched with astonishment the battle between the bulls and the bears. Business was deranged, and values were unsettled. There were indications of a panic in the stock market; and the bears in their emergency vehemently pressed the government to intervene. Gould wrote to Boutwell a letter so impudent as to indicate desperation and loss of his ordinary coolness. He began:-

Sm,-There is a panic in Wall Street, engineered by a bear combination. They have withdrawn currency to such an extent that it is impossible to do ordinary business. The Erie Company requires eight hundred thousand dollars to disburse,- much of it in Ohio, where an exciting political contest is going on, and where we have about ten thousand employed; and the trouble is charged on the Administration....Cannot you, consistently, increase your line of currency?"

From a friend such a letter would have been an outrage; but from a member of the Tammany ring, the principal object of detestation to the government, such a threat or bribe-whichever it may be called-was incredible. Gould was, in fact, at his wits' end. He dreaded a panic, and he felt that it could no longer be avoided,

The scene next shifts for a moment to the distant town of Washington, among the hills of western Pennsylvania. On the morning of September 19, President Grant and his private secretary General Porter were playing croquet on the lawn, when Fisk's messenger, after twenty-four hours of travel by rail and carriage, arrived at the house, and sent in to ask for General Porter. When the President's game was ended, Porter came, received his own letter from CORBIN, and called the President, who entered the room and took his brother-in-laws despatch. He then left the room, and after some ten or fifteen minutes' absence returned. The messenger, tired of waiting, then asked, "Is it all right?"All right," replied the President; and the messenger hastened to the nearest telegraph station, and sent word to Fisk, "Delivered; all right."

The messenger was altogether mistaken. Not only was all not right, but all was going hopelessly wrong. The President had at the outset supposed the man to be an ordinary post-office agent, and the letter an ordinary letter which had arrived through the post office. Not until Porter asked some curious question as to the man, did the President learn that he had been sent by CORBIN merely to carry this apparently unimportant letter of advice. The President's suspicions were excited; and the same evening, at his request, Mrs. Grant wrote a hurried note to Mrs. CORBIN, telling her bow greatly the President was distressed at the rumor that Mr. CORBIN was speculating in Wall Street, and how much he hoped that Mr. CORBIN would "instantly disconnect himself with anything of that sort."

This letter, subsequently destroyed-or said to have been destroyed-by Mrs. CORBIN, arrived in New York on the morning of Wednesday, September 22, the day when Gould and his enemies the bears were making simultaneous appeals to Secretary Boutwell, Mrs. CORBIN was greatly excited and distressed by her sister-in-law's language. She carried the letter to her husband, and insisted that be should instantly abandon his interest in the gold speculation. CORBIN, although considering the scruples of his wife and her family highly absurd, assented to her wish; and when Gould came that evening as usual, with $50,000,000 of gold on his hands and extreme anxiety on his mind, CORBIN read to him two letters,-the first, written by Mrs. Grant to Mrs. CORBIN; the second, written by Mr. CORBIN to President Grant, assuring him that he bad not a dollar of interest in gold. The assurance of this second letter was, at any sacrifice, to be made good. CORBIN proposed that Gould should give him a check for $100,000, and take his $1,500,000 off his hands. A proposition more impudent than this could scarcely be imagined. Gould had already paid CORBIN $25,000, and CORBIN asked for $100,000 more at the moment when it was clear that the $25,000 he had received had been given him under a misunderstanding of his services. He even represented himself as doing Gould a favor by letting him have a million and a half more gold at the highest market price, at a time when Gould had fifty millions which he must sell or be ruined. What Gould might under ordinary circumstances have replied, may be imagined; but for the moment he could say nothing. CORBIN bad but to show this note to a single broker in Wall Street, and the fabric of Gould's speculation would fall to pieces. Gould asked for time, and went away. He consulted no one; he gave Fisk no hint of what had happened. The next morning he returned to CORBIN, and made him the following offer:-

"'Mr. CORBIN, I cannot give you anything if you will go out. If you will remain in, and take the chances of the market, I will give you my check [for $100,0001.' 'And then,' says CORBIN, 'I did what I think it would have troubled almost any other business man to consent to do,refuse one hundred thousand dollars on a rising market. If I had not been an old man married to a middle-aged woman, I should have done it (of course with her consent) just as sure as the offer was made. I said, "Mr. Gould, my wife says no! Ulysses thinks it wrong, and that it ought to end." So I gave it up . . . He looked at me with an air of severe distrust, as if he was afraid of treachery in the camp. He remarked, "Mr. CORBIN, I am undone if that letter gets out.". . . He stood there for a little while looking very thoughtful, exceedingly thoughtful. He then left and went into Wall Street;. . . and my impression is that be it was, and not the government, that broke that market." "CORBIN was right; throughout all these transactions his insight into Gould's character was marvellous.

It was the morning of Thursday, September 23. Gould and Fisk went to Broad Street together; but as usual Gould was silent and secret, while Fisk was noisy and communicative. Their movements were completely separate. Gould acted through his own firm of Smith, Gould, & Martin, while Fisk operated principally through his old partner, Belden, One of Smith's principal brokers testifies:-

"'Fisk never could do business with Smith, Gould, & Martin very comfortably. They would not do business for him. It was a very uncertain thing of course where Fisk might be. He is an erratic sort of genius. I don't think anybody would want to follow him very long. I am satisfied that Smith, Gould, & Martin controlled their own gold, and were ready to do as they pleased with it without consulting Fisk. I do not think there was any general agreement . . . None of us who knew him cared to do business with him. I would not have taken an order from him nor had anything to do with him."' Belden was considered a very low fellow."'I never had anything to do with him or his party,' said one broker employed by Gould. 'They were men I bad a perfect detestation of; they were no company for me. I should not have spoken to them at all under any ordinary circumstances."' Another says, "'Belden is a man in whom I never bad any confidence in any way. For months before that, I would not have taken him for a gold transaction."'

Yet Belden bought millions upon millions of gold. He himself swore that he had bought twenty millions by Thursday evening, without capital or credit except that of his brokers. Meanwhile Gould, on reaching the city, had at once given secret orders to sell. From the moment he left CORBIN he had but one idea, which was to get rid of his gold as quietly as possible."I purchased merely enough to make believe I was a bull," says Gould. This double process continued all that afternoon. Fisk's wild purchases carried the price to 144, and the panic in the street became more and more serious as the bears realized the extremity of their danger. No one can tell how much gold which did not exist they had contracted to deliver or pay the difference in price. One of the clique brokers swears that by Thursday evening the street had sold the clique one hundred and eighteen millions of gold; and every rise of one per cent of this sum implied a loss of more than $1,000,000 to the bears. Naturally the terror was extreme, for half Broad Street and thousands of speculators would have been ruined if compelled to settle gold at 150 which they had sold at 140. By that time nothing more was beard in regard to philanthropic theories of benefit to the Western farmer.

Gould's feelings may easily be imagined. He knew that Fisk's reckless management would bring the government upon his shoulders-, and he knew that unless he could sell his gold before the order came from Washington he would be a ruined man. He knew, too, that Fisk's contracts must inevitably be repudiated. This Thursday evening he sat at his desk in the Erie offices at the opera-house, while Fisk and Fisk's brokers chattered about him."I was transacting my railroad business. I had my own views about the market, and my own fish to fry. I was all alone, so to speak, in what I did, and I did not let any of those people know exactly how I stood, I got no ideas from anything that was said there. I had been selling gold from 35 up all the time, and I did not know till the next morning that there would probably come an order about twelve o'clock to sell gold."

Gould had not told Fisk of CORBIN's retreat, or of his own orders to sell,

Friday morning Gould and Fisk went together to Broad Street and took possession of the private back-office of a principal broker, "without asking the privilege of doing so," as the broker observes in his evidence. The first news brought to Gould was a disaster. The government had sent three men from Washington to examine the bank which Gould owned; and the bank sent word to Gould that it feared to certify for him as usual, and was itself in danger of a panic, caused by the presence of officers, which created distrust of the bank. It barely managed to save itself. Gould took the information silently, and his firm redoubled sales of gold. His partner, Smith, gave the orders to one broker after another,-"Sell ten millions!" "The order was given as quick as a Hash, and away be went," says one of these men."I sold only eight millions."Sell, sell, sell! do nothing but sell! only don't sell to Fisk's brokers," were the orders which Smith himself acknowledges. In the gold-room Fisk's brokers were shouting their rising bids, and the packed crowd grew frantic with terror and rage as each successive rise showed their increasing losses. The wide streets outside were thronged with excited people; the telegraph offices were overwhelmed with messages ordering sales or purchases of gold or stocks; and the whole nation was watching eagerly to see what the result of this convulsion was to be. Trade was stopped, and even the President felt that it was time to raise his hand. No one who has not seen the New York gold-room can understand the spectacle it presented,-now a pandemonium, now silent as the grave. Fisk, in his dark back office across the street, with his coat off, swaggered up and down,. a big cane in his band," and called himself the Napoleon of Wall Street. He believed that he directed the movement, and while the street outside imagined that he and Gould were one family, and that his purchases were made for the clique, Gould was silently flinging away his gold at any price he could get for it.

Whether Fisk expected to carry out his contract and force the bears to settle, or not, is doubtful; but the evidence seems to show that he was in earnest, and felt sure of success. His orders were unlimited. 'Tut it up to 150!" was one which be sent to the gold room. Gold rose to 150. At length the bid was made, "160 for any part...

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Abel Rathbone CORBIN)
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Abel Rathbone CORBIN (May 24, 1808 - March 28, 1881) was an American financier and the husband of Virginia Grant, sister of President Ulysses S. Grant. He was involved in the Black Friday stock market crash of September 24, 1869.

CORBIN was born in Otsego, New York to Eliakim Lyon CORBIN and Lodama (née Rathbone) CORBIN. He married on May 13, 1869, in Covington, Kentucky, to Virginia Grant as his second wife. They had one child, Jennie CORBIN, who died as an infant. Abel's first marriage, to Widow Elizabeth (née Lewis) McAllister (1794-1868), also had no surviving issue. Abel CORBIN died in Jersey City, New Jersey.

[edit] References
PBS's American Experience on Black Friday
The CORBIN Ancestry of Abel Rathbone CORBIN
Genealogy of the family of Ulysses S. Grant
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Abel CORBIN
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abel Rathbone CORBIN (May 24, 1808 - March 28, 1881) was an American financier and the husband of Virginia Grant, sister of President Ulysses S. Grant. He was involved in the Black Friday stock market crash of September 24, 1869.

CORBIN was born in Otsego, New York to Eliakim Lyon CORBIN and Lodama (née Rathbone) CORBIN. He married on May 13, 1869, in Covington, Kentucky, to Virginia Grant as his second wife. They had one child, Jennie CORBIN, who died as an infant. Abel's first marriage, to Widow Elizabeth (née Lewis) McAllister (1794-1868), also had no surviving issue. Abel CORBIN died in Jersey City, New Jersey.

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