The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-05
SOME CURIOUS THINGS ABOUT THE
GOLD CONSPIRACY.
From the N. Y. Sun.

GOLD CONSPIRACY.
From, the NJ Y. Sun.
No full report of the evidence taken by the
Congressional Committee of Investigation
into the September gold conspiracy, as it is
commonly called, has yet been published by
authority but those portions of it which have
surreptitiously found their way into print
give us glimpses of certain curious facts.
The most striking of these facts is that
according to the testimony of Mr.. Jay Gould,
supposed to be the ringleader of the combi-
nation to put up the price of gold, there was
no such combination at all. The whole
movement was planned and controlled by
him alone, and came to an end when his de-
termination to continue it failed him. Even
his friend and associate in the management
of the Erie Railway, James Fisk, Jr., was
not admitted into his counsels, but merely
came in, with a number of other unorganized
followers, at the eleventh hour, to pick up a
| portion of the anticipated profits. Corbin,
| too, was but silent partner in the business,
with a contingent interest in it-secured to
his wife, not himself-but no vote in its di-
rection Mr.. Gould, therefore, stands forth
as the single colossal genius whose incanta-
| tions shook the whole fabric of the national
credit, and convulsed the entire mercantile
| community.
Mr. Gould's signal talents for a part of the
task he undertook are amply proved by his
success in bending the proverbially stubborn
will OF President Grant to conformity with
his desires. At his first interview with the
| President, in June, he found him resolved
on bringing the price of gold down by selling
it for greenbacks, and thus contracting the
currency. Mr. Goulds arguments in favor
of a contrary course seemed at the time to
make no impression; but at second inter-
view, toward the end of August, he was more
successful, and so entirely converted the
President to his policy of selling little or no
gold till after the crops were moved to the
seaboard, that he went on with his specula-
tion for rise in entire confidence that the
Government would do nothing to interfere
with it. His weak point was attaching too
much weight to an article in dsreputable
morning journal, and being frightened by
it into selling gold himself, and thus break
ing down the market, just when little
pluck would have given him triumphant
victory. If this is so, it is not the least
remarkable of the remarkable features of the
transaction.
Another point worth noticing is the way
in which two women figure in the affair. As
we have said, it was Mrs. Corbin, President
Grants sister, not Corbin himself, who was
to receive a part of the profits of Goulds
operations in return for Corbin's assistance
When finally the President desired to com
municate to his brother-in-law his dissatis
| ldSbAou db Ills ColipiACisy Ill Jue dudLI, IL
was Mrs. Grant who was selected to convey
the ntimation, not to Corbin himself, bu
to Mrs. .Corbin. There was thus a sort Of
double dummy game played between GRAM
and Corbin, with their respective wives fol
dummies
The pitiable exhibition of cunning, weak
) ness, and rascality made by Mr.. Corbin in
his own testimony will surprise no one who
read the account of his conduct as narrareo
in the Sun during the few days which imme
} diately followed the elimination of the specu
lation. But it is surprising to find Genera
) Butterfeld so innocently exposing his want
of sense of honor to the Government under
| which he held Office, and to his friend Mr.
! Gould 1t seems that all the while he was
Assistant Treasurer he was buying and sell
} ing Government bonds on speculation; anC
. when finally the upward movement in gold
5 which he knew Mr.. Gould was engineering
. and from which, if it had proved successful
I he was to reap large profits, ended disas
l trously, he lost no time in secretly selling
r gold on his own account, thus really bene
$ fitting himself at Goulds expense; for the
Q more gold he sold the lower the price went
l and the lower the price the greater MIR
$ Gould's losses.
1 The evident moral of the whole affair i
Q that the President of the United State
o should be careful whom he selects for his as
t sociates, and how he talks to them abou
D State secrets. President Grant has had
: narrow escape from being almost conclusivel
proved guilty of participating in speculs
: ton against the national credit. Will he b
t careful to keep out of similar complication
in future?