Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/115

 one stage of the negotiations to buy $500,000 of gold for Gen. Porter, the President's private secretary, which that gentleman promptly declined. It was said, also, that $500,000 was purchased in the name of Mrs. Grant, but she never received any of the profits and had no connection with the conspiracy.

Butterworth secured, it was necessary to make an impression on the President. Says Mr. Adams: "On the 15th of June, 1869, the President came to New York, and was there the guest of Mr. Corbin, who urged Mr. Gould to call and pay his respects to the chief magistrate. Mr. Gould had probably aimed at precisely this result. He called, and the President of the United States not only listened to the president of Erie, but accepted an invitation to Mr. Fisk's theatre, sat in Mr. Fisk's private box, and the next evening became the guest of these two gentlemen on their magnificent Newport steamer."

The President was to be sounded in regard to his financial policy on the occasion of this memorable trip to Boston, and when the selected guests sat down at nine o'clock to supper the conversation was directed to the subject of finance. "Some one," says Mr. Gould, "asked the President what his view was." The "some one" in question was, of course, Mr. Fisk, who alone had the impudence to put such an inquiry. The President bluntly replied that there was a certain amount of fictitiousness about the prosperity of the country, and that the bubble might as well be tapped in one way as another. The