RECONSTRUCTION OF THE METROPOLIS.
General Grant, soon after his election to the Presidential chair,
turned his attention to the improvement of the National Capital,
which was then unworthy of the American people. The streets
generally were wagon tracks, muddy in the winter and dusty in the
summer, while the numerous public reservations were commons overgrown
with weeds. The growth of the city had been slow and labored, the
real estate being generally in the hands of a few old fogies who
manifested no disposition to improve or to sell. For many years
the metropolis had been petted and spoiled by the general Government,
which had doled out small annual appropriations, and the residents
had been exempted from many of the ordinary burdens of municipal
government and local improvement.
General Grant, with his great knowledge of men, found the right
person to place at the head of the regeneration of the city. It
was Alexander R. Shepherd, a native of Washington, born poor and
without friends, who went from the public schools into the shop of
a gas-fitter and plumber, where he learned the trade and became,
in a short time, by honesty, industry, and ability, a leading
business man. The Territorial Government was organized with Henry
D. Cooke, the banker, as Governor, a Legislature, and Delegate to
represent the District in Congress. Shepherd, as Chairman of the
Board of Public Works, commenced with his immense energy and
invincible determination, to transform a slovenly and comfortless
sleepy old town into the great and beautiful metropolis which
L'Enfant had planned and which Washington approved before it received
his name. The grandest systems of municipal improvement ever
conceived were carried out regardless of expense. The whole city
was placed upon an even and regular grade, the low places filled
up, and the elevations cut down. Some ninety miles of the three
hundred miles of half-made streets and avenues were graded and
paved, some with wood and others with asphaltum. The public grounds
and parks were made and ornamented with grass plats, shrubbery,
and fountains, the sewerage and drainage were made perfect, and
health, beauty, and comfort were permanently secured.
Washington, thanks to Governor Shepherd (he having in time succeeded
Governor Cooke) became a metropolis worthy of the Republic. By
reducing the width of the streets a front yard was given to each
house, planted with trees or flowers, and where the old canal yawned
through the heart of the city, a muddy receptacle for dead dogs
and filth, arose a broad avenue, while the small reservations dotted
over the city were graded and ornamented with trees, fountains,
and flowers.
All of this cost a great deal of money. Congress appropriated five
million dollars in cash, and several millions more were raised on
bonds. Much of this money was disbursed by Governor Shepherd, and
he undoubtedly was disposed to give profitable contracts to his
friends, and to the henchmen of those members of Congress whose
votes secured him liberal appropriations. Newspaper correspondents
received in several instances contracts for paving, which they
disposed of to those engaged in that business, and realized handsome
sums, but close investigation failed to show that Governor Shepherd
had enriched himself or had added to the value of his own property
as distinguished from the property of others. His ambition was
more than a merely selfish one, and it was shown clearly that his
ability was equaled by his honesty. A few years later he became
financially embarrassed, and was forced to exile himself to Mexico,
hoping to repair in its silver mines his shattered fortune. General
Grant never lost confidence in him, and as his improvements became
perfected, Alexander R. Shepherd was regarded as the regenerator
of the National Metropolis.
Another man who did much for the ornamentation of Washington City
was A. B. Mullett, the Supervising Architect of the Treasury.
After having finished that magnificent structure, the extended
Treasury Building, he planned and commenced the great State, War,
and Navy Building, the cost of which is about twelve millions of
dollars. His professional advice was followed by Governor Shepherd,
and it is not altogether creditable to our institutions that after
having honestly disbursed millions on the public buildings in almost
every section of the country, as well as on those at Washington
City, Mr. Mullett was removed from his position on political grounds,
and was obliged, after having given the best years of his life to
his country, to commence anew the practice of his profession for
a livelihood.
General Grant was much embarrassed early in his Presidential career
by the attempts of some of those around him to engage in speculations
for their private benefit. Always willing to bestow offices, or
to dispense profitable favors to his numerous relatives by blood
and by marriage, and to advance the interests of those who had
served him faithfully during the war, he could not understand the
desperate intrigues which speculation had led some of them into.
Among his proteges was Abel R. Corbin, who had been known at
Washington as the clerk of a House committee, a correspondent, and
a lobbyist, and who had afterward removed to New York, where he
had added to his means by successful speculation. Marrying General
Grant's sister, who was somewhat advanced in years, he conceived
the idea of using his brother-in-law for a gigantic speculation in
gold, and in order to obtain the requisite capital entered into a
partnership with Jay Gould and James Fisk, Jr. By adroit management,
these operators held on the first of September, 1869, "calls" for
one hundred million dollars of gold, and as there were not more
than fifteen millions of the precious metal in New York outside of
the Sub-Treasury, they were masters of the situation. The only
obstacle in the way of their triumphant success would be the sale
of gold from the Sub-Treasury at a moderate price, by direction of
General Grant. Corbin assured his co-conspirators that he could
prevent this interference, and wrote a letter to the President
urging him not to order or permit sales from the Sub-Treasury. He
ostensibly sent this letter by special messenger, but, in fact,
substituted for it an ordinary letter on family matters. General
Grant's suspicions were aroused by the receipt of this unimportant
epistle, and at his request Mrs. Grant wrote to Mrs. Corbin, saying
that the General had learned with regret that her husband was
engaged in gold speculations, and he had better give them up.
General Grant returned to Washington on the 23d of September, 1869.
The next day, "Black Friday," the conspirators put up the price of
gold, and a wild panic ensured. Leading men of all parties in the
city of New York telegraphed the President and the Secretary of
the Treasury, urging their interference as the only way of preventing
a financial crash, which would have extended over the whole country.
About eleven o'clock Secretary Boutwell went to the White House,
and after a brief conference General Grant expressed his wish that
the desired relief should be given, and Secretary Boutwell promptly
telegraphed to Sub-Treasurer Butterfield, at New York, to give
notice that he would sell four millions of gold. This collapsed
the speculation. "I knew," said Jim Fisk, afterward, "that somebody
had run a sword right into us." It was not without difficulty that
Corbin, Gould, and Fisk escaped from the fury of their victims.
The conspiracy was subsequently investigated by a committee of the
House of Representatives, and a report was made by James A. Garfield,
completely exonerating General Grant, and declaring that by laying
the strong hand of Government upon the conspirators and breaking
their power he had treated them as enemies of the credit and business
of the Union.
General Grant was known to advocate the speediest practical return
to specie payment, but the Supreme Court of the United States
changed the current of financial operations by declaring that the
act of Congress of 1864, making "greenback" notes a legal tender,
was unconstitutional. It is a curious fact, that while the community
every now and then is thrown into a condition of great excitement
about political rights and duties, and about who shall be President
and who member of Congress, nine elderly gentlemen, wearing silk
gowns, sitting in a quiet room in the Capitol, are deciding questions
of direct and immediate political concern, taking laws from the
statute books, and nullifying the action of the executive and
legislative departments of the Government, yet not one in a thousand
of the busy, restless citizens of the country knows or cares what
the decisions of this arch-tribunal are.
This high tribunal holds its sessions in the chamber of the Capitol
which was originally constructed for and occupied by the Senate of
the United States. The Supreme Court began its sessions here in
1860. The Court is in session from the second Monday in October
to early in May of each year. It usually sits five days each week,
reserving Saturday for consultations on the cases in hand. Positions
on this bench are deemed eminently desirable, as they are for life,
or "during good behavior." The salaries are not to be despised
either, being ten thousand dollars each per annum, with an additional
five hundred dollars to the Chief Justice.
The Credit Mobilier made a deal of talk, although comparatively
few people knew what it really was. Under various acts of Congress
granting aid to the Union Pacific Railroad, that corporation was
to receive twelve thousand eight hundred acres of land to the mile,
or about twelve million acres in all, and Government six per cent.
bonds to the amount of twelve thousand dollars per mile for one
portion of the road, thirty-two thousand dollars per mile for
another portion, and forty-eight thousand dollars per mile for
another. In addition to these subsidies, the company was authorized
to issue its own first mortgage bonds to an amount equal to the
Government bonds, and to organize with a capital stock not to exceed
one hundred million dollars. All this constituted a magnificent
fund, and it soon became evident that the road could be built for
at least twenty million dollars less than the resources thus
furnished. Of course, the honest way would have been to build the
road as economically as possible, and give the Government the
benefit of the saving, but this was not thought of. The directors
set themselves at work to concoct a plan by which they could
appropriate the whole amount, and, after building the road, divide
the large surplus among themselves. The plan hit upon was for the
directors to become contractors, in other words, to hire themselves
to build the road. To consummate this fraud without exciting public
attention, and to cover all traces of the transaction, was no easy
matter, but the directors employed an eminent attorney skilled in
the intricacies of railroad fraud, and with his aid and advice the
machinery for the transaction was finally arranged to the satisfaction
of all concerned. This attorney was Samuel J. Tilden.
In order to avoid personal liability and give their movement the
semblance of legality, the directors purchased the charter of the
"Pennsylvania Fiscal Agency," and changed its name to the "Credit
Mobilier of America." At this time (1864) two million dollars of
stock had been subscribed to the railroad company, and two hundred
and eighteen thousand dollars paid in. Samuel J. Tilden had
subscribed twenty thousand dollars. The first thing the Credit
Mobilier did was to buy in all of this stock and bring the railroad
company and Credit Mobilier under one management and the same set
of officers. Then the directors of the railroad company, through
certain middle-men, awarded the contract for building the road to
the Credit Mobilier, in other words, to themselves, for from twenty
thousand dollars to thirty thousand dollars per mile more than it
was worth. Evidence which afterward came to light in the Congressional
investigations showed that the Credit Mobilier made a cash profit
in the transaction of over twenty-three million dollars, besides
gobbling up the stock of the road at thirty cents on the dollar,
when the law plainly provided that it should not be issued at less
than par.
Oakes Ames, a sturdy Massachusetts mechanic, who had acquired a
fortune by the manufacture of shovels, had been persuaded to embark
in the construction of the Pacific Railroad. Finding legislation
necessary, and knowing how difficult it was to secure the attention
of Congressmen to schemes which did not benefit them or their
constituents, he distributed shares of this Credit Mobilier, to
use his own words, "where it would do the most good." Some of the
recipients kept it and pocketed the profits, while others endeavored
to get rid of it when public attention was called to it, and they
ungratefully tried to make Mr. Ames their scapegoat.
[Facsimile]
James Monroe
JAMES MONROE was born in Westmoreland County, Va., April 28th,
1758; served honorably in the Revolution; entered the Virginia
Legislature when twenty-three years of age; entered Congress when
twenty-four; chosen United States Senator, 1789; was Minister to
France, 1794-1796; was Governor of Virginia, 1799-1802; re-elected
Governor in 1811; resigned and became Secretary of State under
Madison, 1811-1817; was President of the United States, 1817-1825;
died July 4th, 1831, in New York.