Los Angeles herald., 1890-09-16
TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 1e. 1890.
ABAD SYSTEM-A REMINISCENCE.

The frequent interpretations OF the
Secretaries of the Treasury OF the United
States in stock gambling operations in
Wall street. making money scarce or
abundant at their pleasure, have long
been the subject OF animadversion in the
press of the country, and the practice
has been condemned by the immense
majority of the people. We commented
on one phase of this matter in the issue
of the HERALD of yesterday.
Today we intend to advert to
another feature of the evil and
to perhaps the most disgraceiul
incident in the financial history
of the United States. 1t occurred during
the administration of Gen. Grant, and
was known as the "Black Friday"
panic. The negotiations which were
conducted by the Messrs. Fisk and
Gould produced corner in gold. 1t
was run UP to fabulous price. The
celebrated Jim Fisk, at that time even
more notorious than his partner, Jay
Gould, engineered this daring and to
many disastrous venture. Intimately
associated with these two lovely fnan-
cial lights was Mr.. Austin Corbin, Gen.
Grants brotner-in-law.
The combination openly asserted that
they controlled the government of the
United States, that the President was
in league with them, and that the price
of gold, already high, should be forced
to unheard of figures. All the circum-
stances served to confirm their vaunts.
The authorities at Washington seemed
indifferent to the great crisis through
which the country was passing. Though
the government was in possession of
immense sums OF gold, no attempt was
made to relieve the stringency by heavy
sales. The legitimate and proper
course for the Secretary of the Treasury
to have pursued was to have sold inn
mense quantities of a metal which was at
such an enormous premium. And yet
not dollar was thrown on the market
In the very height OF the panic Presi-
dent Grant started off to pay visit to
some of his relatives at Little Wash
ington, Pennsylvania. The clamor of
the press for relief grew fast and furious,
and the responsible commercial bodies
took up the cry. At last the President
realized that some action must be taken,
and he ordered the Secretary of the
Treasury to make large sales of gold.
This at once broke the artificial panic.
Gold fell as rapidly as it had risen. In
the short period covered by the corner
SO skillfully engineered by Fisk & Could
with the connivance of the Secretary of
the Treasury, these individuals are said
to have made millions. Fortunes were
made and lost in day, and a perfect
saturnalia of speculation reigned every
where, to the great injury of the legiti-
mate business OF the nation.
Large as are said to have been the
gains of the Messrs. Fisk q Gould, these
cormorants were not satisfied. Then
followed probably the most disgraceful
episode in the financial history of any
country. Fisk, who was as wordy as his
partner Gould was secretive, loudly
accused the President of having been in
partnership with him, and claimed that
Grant lacked that moderate degree of
rectitude known as honor amongst
thieves. In an interview with repor-
ter of the New York Herald he asserted
that Grant had been party to every
phase of the transaction, and he added
that he (Fisk) had paid to Mrs. Grant
the sum of $4,000 for the executive
participation in the Black Friday
scheme. We are not writing for the
purpose OF blackening the memory of
the dead hero. We are simply recapitu-
lating facts which are part of the his
ory of very exciting times. In his in
terview in the Herald Fisk undertook to
buttress his statements and give them
an air Of probability by pointing to the
repeated instances, In which Grant had