Fifty years in Wall Street
of London, who had been its fiscal agents up to that time, since the
Bank of England had acted in that capacity.
When it became certain that General Grant’s death was very near, I was
anxious to see him once more, and also a strong advocate of his burial
in the city of New York, where his tomb would be a conspicuous monument,
to be seen by all, instead of burying him almost out of sight in
Arlington Cemetery or at West Point, which places were strongly urged.
The States of Ohio and Illinois also claimed him, as did the city of St.
Louis. They all made strenuous efforts to obtain the family’s consent,
as well as his, through committees sent to Mount McGregor for that
purpose.
So I went to Mount McGregor, where he was, and as delicately as possible
urged this upon him and his family. All of the members of the family
assented, and the General, being unable to speak, nodded his assent also
to what I said. Then when he was wheeled out in his chair, on the
veranda, on his way to take his regular afternoon sun bath on the
mountain side, accompanied by Dr. Douglas, he wrote on a pad that all he
demanded was that his wife should be buried by his side when her own
time came. Knowing them all well, I remained there two hours, talking
with the General and the family, and my visit, when I made its result
known, led to the selection of New York as the great soldier’s burial
place, on the conditions mentioned by him. Within three days after I had
seen him, the great General died. I had visited him on a Monday
afternoon, and he died on the following Wednesday. His death threw the
Nation into mourning.
Incidentally, I may mention that I started the organization of the
famous Committee of Seventy, that brought about the overthrow of the
corrupt Tweed Ring, that had robbed the city of New York of about a
hundred millions of dollars. I nominated sixty-five of its members, and
for my instrumentality in forming that Committee of eminent and
public-spirited citizens I received many congratulations. That Committee
not only drove the thieves out of office, but caused the prosecution of
all of them who had not fled the country, and ultimately brought back
and convicted Tweed, who died in prison. Meanwhile, it had reorganized
the City Departments, and put new men in office, with Andrew H. Green as
Comptroller. It purified, and, for a time, virtually ruled the city,
through controlling its government.
But above everything else in my business life, I regard with most
satisfaction the work I did in marketing the Civil War loans of the
Government of this great and glorious country of ours—the United States
of America—and in other ways strengthening the hands of the Government
to the best of my ability and with all my heart and soul, not only as a
banker but a patriotic American citizen; and I felt that I had my reward
when, after the memorable four years’ war, peace came bringing with it
Victory for the Union and a reunited country, a victory which gave
permanence to the best government ever known to man—a government “of the
people, for the people, and by the people,” which bids fair to be
everlasting.
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FIFTY YEARS IN WALL STREET
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BY HENRY CLEWS, LL.D.
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CHAPTER I.
MY DEBUT IN WALL STREET.
MY advent in Wall Street was on the heels of the panic of 1857. That
panic was known as the “Western blizzard.” It was entitled to the name,
as its destructive power and chilling effects had surpassed all other
financial gales that had swept over Wall Street. The first serious
result of its fatal force was the failure of the Ohio Life and Trust
Company, a concern of gigantic dimensions in those days.
The Company had an office in Wall Street, and on the announcement of the
collapse, business became completely paralyzed. This failure was
immediately followed by the suspension of many large firms that had
withstood the shock of all ordinary collisions and had successfully
weathered many financial storms.
The panic was due in part to excessive importations of foreign goods,
and also to the rapid construction of railroads, to a large extent on
borrowed capital. There were other contributing causes. The crops were
bad that year, and the country was unable to pay for its imports in
produce, and coin was brought to the exporting point. In October, the
New York City banks suspended payments, and their example was followed
throughout the country. Bank credits had been unduly expanded
everywhere, and the time had naturally arrived for contraction. It came
with a bound, and financial disaster spread like a whirlwind, becoming
general.
The Stock Exchange had been a moderately growing concern for the ten
years previous to this calamity, and the securities there dealt in had
been rapidly accumulating in number and appreciating in value. Its
members were wealthy and conservative, with a strong infusion of
Knickerbocker blood, an admixture of the Southern element and a
sprinkling of Englishmen and other foreigners.
The effect of the crisis on the majority of Stock Exchange properties
was ruinous. Prices fell fifty per cent. in a few days, and a large
proportion of the Board of Brokers were obliged to go into involuntary
liquidation. There was a great shaking up all around.
Then came the work of rehabilitation and reorganization. Confidence
gradually returned. The Young Republic had great recuperative powers,
and they were thoroughly exerted in the work of resuming business. Much
of the old conservative element had fallen in the general upheaval, to
rise no more. This element was eliminated, and its place supplied by
better material, and with young blood, and in December the banks resumed
business.
This panic and its immediate results created an entire revolution in the
methods of doing business in Wall Street. Prior to this time, the
antique element had ruled in things financial, speculative and
commercial. This crisis sounded the death knell of old fogyism in the
“street.” A younger race of financiers arose and filled the places of
the old conservative leaders.
The change was a fine exemplification of the survival of the fittest,
and proved that there was a law of natural selection in financial
affairs that superseded old conservatism and sealed its doom.
Until that time, the general idea prevailed that those engaged in
financial matters must be people well advanced in years, even to the
verge of infirmity. It is the same idea that has been handed down, as if
by divine right, from old world prejudices, especially in the learned
professions. No doctor was considered a safe prescriber unless his hoary
locks, bald head and wrinkled brow proclaimed that he had almost passed
the period of exercising human sympathy. The same rule of judgment was
applied to the lawyer and the clergyman.
These unworthy prejudices were fostered by the character of the
Government of the old country, and nurtured by the surroundings of the
venerable monarchies of Europe, where they exist largely even to the
present day. So tenacious of life are these old-fashioned ideas, that
many of them were found in full vigor, dominating Wall Street affairs up
to the crash of 1857, fostering the antique element and choking off
salutary enterprise.
Hence the process of decay of these archaic notions and our gradual
development.
This struggle for new life in Wall Street was not successfully developed
without a serious effort to attain it. The old potentates of the street
fought hard to prolong their obstructive power, and their tenacious
vitality was hard to smother, reminding one of the nine lives attributed
to the feline species. The efforts of the young and enterprising men to
gain an entrance to the Stock Exchange were regarded by the older
members as an impertinent intrusion on the natural rights of the senior
members. It was next to impossible for a young man, without powerful and
wealthy patrons, to obtain membership in the New York Stock Exchange at
the time of which I speak.
The old fellows were united together in a mutual admiration league, and
fought the young men tooth and nail, contesting every inch of ground
when a young man sought entrance to their sacred circle.
The idea then struck me that there was a chance for young men to come to
the front in Wall Street. I was then engaged in the dry goods importing
trade, in which I received my early training. I had been kept out of the
Exchange for several years by the methods to which I have alluded. My
fate was similar to that of many others. It was only by an enterprising
effort, and by changing the base of my operations, that I finally
succeeded.
The commissions charged at that time were an eighth of one per cent. for
buying and selling, respectively.
After numerous efforts to gain admission to the Exchange, without
success, I finally made up my mind to force it. I at once inserted an
advertisement in the newspapers, and proposed to buy and sell stocks at
a sixteenth of one per cent. each way. This was such a bombshell in the
camp of these old fogies that they were almost paralyzed. What rendered
it more distasteful to them still was the fact that, while they lost
customers, I steadily gained them. The result was that they felt
compelled to admit me to their ranks, so that I could be kept amenable
to their rules and do business only in their own conventional fashion.
My membership cost me, in all, initiation fee and other trifling
expenses in connection therewith, $500. This presents a striking
contrast to the recent price of a seat, $35,000, but though this
difference seems very large, yet the changes in every other respect
connected with Wall Street affairs have been in similar proportion.
Among some of the old members of that day were Jacob Little, John Ward,
David Clarkson and others whose names may be found in the archives of
the Stock Exchange.
As an instance of the way in which membership was then appreciated, it
may be mentioned that speculators frequently offered $100 a week, or ten
times the cost of membership, for the privilege of listening at the
keyhole during the calls.
Although the prostration growing out of this panic was very great and of
long continuance throughout the country, general confidence being shaken
to its very foundation, yet, on the whole, it was a great gain, and
marked an era of financial and speculative progress. It was the chief
cause in drawing out the young element in the business of Wall Street,
which might have lain dormant for a much longer period without this
sudden and somewhat rude awakening. It not only brought Young America to
the front in speculation, commerce and general business, but it imparted
an impetus of genuine enterprise to every department of trade and
industry, from the good effects of which the country has never since
receded.
This new element, emanating from the throes of one of the greatest
business revolutions that any country has ever experienced, has