Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/118

 Mr. Gould at 131 and 132, which had been sold at 137; that Mr. Corbin held for himself about two millions of gold, five hundred thousand of which was for Mrs. Grant and five hundred thousand for "Porter."

The story of the conspiracy, as Mr. Clews tells it, is interesting as well, and has certain points of difference from the others. He says:

"Although the policy of stopping the sale of gold had been agreed upon in deference to the views of the best financiers of the country, yet Mr. Gould and his fellow strategists thought it was best to make assurance doubly sure on this point, in order that nothing might stand in the way of the great speculative intrigue to get a "corner" in gold. President Grant was conservative on the subject. The conspirators, therefore, conceived the design of arranging things so that Secretary Boutwell could not depart from this policy, no matter what emergency might arise.

"This bold and wicked strategy could only be successful by first getting President Grant convinced that the theory of stopping the gold sales was the only commercial salvation for the country, in the then condition of business stagnation and the possible panic threatened. The theory was then to impress him with the necessity of giving Secretary Boutwell an absolute order not to sell gold, and afterward to fix things so that it would be impossible for the President to revoke that order until the brilliant speculative purposes of the clique in cornering gold should be accomplished.