| Founded | 1907 in |
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Comparison of treatments of Charles Morgan
editBaughman (1968)
editMorgan and Howard operated three steamers from the Pacific side of Panama in 1850, compared to four operated by U.S. Mail Steamship Company. Pacific Mail Steamship Company added four ships to its Pacific fleet for a total of seven, creating a competitive market for passengers in 1850. Morgan, withdrew from the competition for the trade across Panama late in 1850, though he did not withdraw from the trade across the isthmus. He probed crossings several hundred miles west through a water and land route via Nicaragua. This led initially to a business alliance between Morgan and Vanderbilt, who had previously secured comprehensive right-of-way charters with the Nicaraguan government. On August 27, 1849, American Atlantic and Pacific Ship-Canal Company gained a concession for exclusive rights to construct a canal to the Pacific. In exchange for this and additional concessions, Nicaragua received cash, a right to stock in the canal, and annual cash payments. Under a separate deal, Vanderbilt also gained the right-of-way through Nicaragua using any means of transportation, which would remain in effect even if his company did not complete the canal.[1] However, this second deal was signed after a civil war split Nicaragua into rival governments. The agreement was negotiated between Joseph L. White and the conservative faction which ruled out of the city of Grenada, and conveyed the rights to construct a canal to the Vanderbilt-controlled Accessory Transit Company. The parties signed on August 14, 1851.[2]
Vanderbilt began operating routes from New York to San Francisco on his New and Independent Line. Morgan placed his own ships into service of Vanderbilt's company, running his Empire City Line steamers from New York, as well as Mexico from New Orleans, all of which put in at the port of San Juan del Norte.[3] In September 1852, Vanderbilt resigned as president of the company and divested most of his interests the following December. He retained a commission as the company’s agent and a percentage of the company’s business across Nicaragua. Morgan was part of a short-lived alliance with Vanderbilt as late as February 1853. Accessory Transit Company reported net revenue in excess of $535,000 in its semi-annual report at the end of 1853; however, report this failed to account for stock dilution, accounts payable to the government of Nicaragua, and the debt settlements to Vanderbilt. In the same year, Morgan deposed Vanderbilt as the agent of the line while the Commodore was vacationing. An anti-Vanderbilt faction seized the control of the board, and they appointed Morgan president of the Accessory Transit Company.[4]
The New York Times reported decades later in its obituary of Vanderbilt that he penned the following missive directed at his enemies, “You have undertaken to cheat me. I won’t sue you for the law is too slow. I’ll ruin you.” According to two historians, this is at best apocryphal.[5][6] In the fall of 1853, Vanderbilt entered the Atlantic–Pacific trade to compete with his former partners. He formed the Independent Opposition Line with North Star sailing the New York–Nicaragua leg, and partnered with Edward Mills and his two steamers to run on the Nicaragua–San Francisco leg. The Independent Opposition Line offered aggressively priced fares, triggering a three-way price war between Vanderbilt, Morgan and Garrison’s Accessory Transit Company, and the U.S. Pacific Mail Lines. After less than a year, the Morgan-led Accessory Transit Company and the U.S. Pacific Mail Lines paid over $1 million to Vanderbilt in order to leave the market: a total of $800,000 for his two ships on the Pacific side and $40,000 per month in cash for a non-compete agreement.[7]
With Vanderbilt out of the field, the remaining carriers were able to increase their rates. Meanwhile, Morgan and Garrison arranged for new ships and crews to be ready to take over shipping after the regime change in Nicaragua. They provided other material support to Walker, secretly honoring letters of credit through intermediaries, and providing transportation to Nicaragua for weapons and mercenaries. They also divested of their Accessory Transit Company stock, while Morgan even took short positions. Patricio Rivas assumed the title of Provisional President of Nicaragua while guided by Walker to cancel all of the previous transportation concessions.[8]
Stiles (2009)
editStiles disputes, "Morgan coordinated with Garrison a plan to operate transportation without its debt to Nicaragua. Without the knowledge of the other directors of Accessory Transit Company, the two supported the filibuster of William Walker in Nicaragua. If Walker succeeded in his coup, his puppet would renounce Nicaragua’s previous agreement which Vanderbilt’s group had negotiated, and create new concessions to a new company controlled by Morgan and Garrison. Morgan ceded control of the Accessory Transit Company to Vanderbilt at the end of 1855; however, this was feigned cooperation in the context of the filibuster."
- Stiles rebuts the claims that Morgan and Garrison created a plan to coordinate with Walker:
- The timeline was wrong for Garrison: he departed Nicaragua for San Francisco too early to be influential in the filibuster (273).
- According to French, Garrison refused to release a steamboat from San Francisco to the filibusters (273).
- Stiles proposes that Edmund Randolph, an old friend of Walker, devised the scheme of coordination with the Accessory Transit Company:
- Randolph first approached Garrison in San Francisco with the plan (274-5).
- Garrison refused to cooperate out of concern about reprisals from Morgan (275).
- However, Garrison sent two agents to go with Randolph to Nicaragua (275).
- After arriving in Nicaragua, Randolph brought walker into the scheme (275).
- Randolph admitted to Walker that he wanted a transit charter in order to sell it to Garrison (275).
- Randolph's scheme comported well with Walker's desire to destroy the Accessory Transit Company, since one of the company's main players, Joseph L. White, had found common cause with the Conservatives (275-6).
- William Garrison, the son and agent for Cornelius Garrison, negotiated with Walker to charter a new transit company (276).