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172 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES
been begun in December, 1868. Suddenly, Novem- Railway Company to obtain possession of the
ber 20, 1869,it was called before Judge Barnard, and Susquehanna Railroad. The adjournment of
in the Supreme Court. The great defendant was the suit in the midst of its hearing was vigorously
put on the witness stand. Although he had a few opposed by Vanderbilt's counsel, but Judge Barnard
months before denied publicly over his own signa- was on the bench. He adjourned the case until the
ture that he had ever received any money from the first Monday in January, 1870. At that hearing he
Erie Railway Company, or had anything to do with decided that he could entertain the action only so
it in the settlement of 1868, he admitted, on his far as it sought to recover the $1,000,000. The case
examination in this Erie case, November 20, 1869, was again adjourned. The telling of its progress
that he had received from Jay Gould, as Treasurer of and termination belongs to later chapters in this
the Erie Railway Company, in July, 1868, a check History of Erie.
for $1,000,000, and the bonds, for carrying out a
contract he had made a few days before with Daniel u GOUld SUPREME
Drew to sell Drew 50,000" shares of Erie stock at 80,
to be paid for in cash, $4,000,000. He accepted 625 In the midst of the whirl and excitement of the
one-thousand-dollar bonds of the Boston, Hartford desperate struggle in Wall Street that had shaken
and Erie Railroad, however, in payment for 5,000 the financialfoundation of the country as with omishares
of the stock, leaving only $3,500,000 to be nous preliminary rumblings of a mighty earthquake,
paid in cash. Mr. Vanderbilt denied that it was and from which trouble he had not come himself
part of the agreement in the settlement that he was unscathed, and in spite of the savage and persistent
to give the Erie Railway Company the privilege of assaults of powerful rivals who attacked him on
buying 50,000 more shares of him, but David Dudley every side to encompass his downfall, Jay Gould
Field, of the Erie counsel, produced the agreement, found time to formulate plans not only for the makduly
signed by Vanderbilt. It turned out also, that ing of himself more secure in his position, but for
he had not received a check for $1,000,000 from Jay the extending of his influence and power from the
Gould, but two checks the sums of which made that vantage ground of his control of Erie, and to find
amount. The defendant denied, in all the trans- the means to keep in motion the machinery necesaction,
that it was anything to do with the Erie sary to the pushing forward of such plans to the
Railway Company. It was a personal deal between desired issue. The friends of the new control of
Daniel Drew and himself. This Daniel Drew swore Erie by courtesy calledit the " Erie Management " ;
was the case as he understood it. He said he had but, although personally he was least in public evibought
50,000 shares of Erie from Vanderbilt and dence of any of his associates, Jay Gould's genius
paid him $4,000,000. He had agreed to hold his dominated the rule of Erie as indisputably asif Jay
stock, and Vanderbilt had agreed to hold 50,000 Gould alone had the right to plan and act. Fisk,
shares of Erie, neither one to sell without the knowl- Lane, Thompson, Davis, Tweed, Sweeny, and
edge of the other.
others in the Board were automatons, moving only
" I had an idee," said Drew, " that I might want at the will of Gould, so closely had he allied their
to git control of Ary ag'in, andif I had 50,000 shares interests with his and such was the fascination of
o' stock, Vanderbilt's 50,000 might come in handy." his audacity, his daring, his originality, and his fine
The suit was becoming interesting, when Mr. contempt for harassing conventionalities—although
Field asked for an adjournment on the ground that he never acted without the advice of the best counthe
suit of Ramsey against the Erie Railway Com- sel that money could procure, advice that perhaps
pany had been called at Rochester, and his presence not infrequently came as the wish that was father
was imperative there. This suit was one of the to the thought.
manifold actions and cross-actions that had grown The men who had entered the lists against Jay
out of an attempt of the management of the Erie Gould with the determination to end his career at its