Literary Friends and Business Companions

Thomas Jefferson believed the United States was to be a great and populous country; Henry Clay was enthusiastically in favor of internal improvements by the National Government. With both of these men, and others of like view, John Jacob Astor was in entire sympathy. Probably no man ever had more unbounded faith in the future of the American continent than the great financier. Ultimately, he believed, that the country would develop over a vast range of wealth and power. Jefferson and Clay wrought politically for the well-being and advancement of the nation; John Jacob Astor led the nation along the road of continental development.

Mr. Astor never took any active part in politics, but he was for many years a supporter of the old Whig party, and held its magnetic leader, Henry Clay, in warm regard both from a personal and political standpoint. He never was happier than when the celebrated orator was his guest.

"The Mill Boy of the Slashes," who, in working for the support of his family, often rode a pony to Daricott's mill, with a rope for a bridle, and a bag of wheat or corn-flour for a saddle, appealed to the man whose boyhood had been similar.

They had both been in favor of the War of 1812, and aided and upheld it by their diverse talents. They believed this war had "transformed the American Republic from a feeble experiment into a real power, full of brains,—and menace, if need be."

The story is told that when Henry Clay ran for President the third time, the committee called on Mr, Astor for a contribution to the campaign fund. He is said to have responded to their request:

"I am not interested in these things now. Those gentlemen who are in business, and whose property depends on the issues of the election, ought to give. I am an old man. I haven't anything to do with commerce, and it makes no difference to me what the Government does. I don't make money any more."

"Why, Mr. Astor," one of the committee replied, "you are like Alexander, when he wept because there were no more worlds to conquer. You have made all the money, and now there is no more money to make."

The old man's eyes twinkled at the keen repartee, and with a chuckle of amusement, he said: "Very good, that's very good. Well, I'll give you something." He thereupon drew a check for fifteen hundred dollars, which, though it did not elect his old friend to the Presidency, still stood for a sign of the friendship between them.

Although Mr. Astor had a reputation for making close bargains in business transactions, his confidence in the United States and its future, often led him into financial acts which surprised his fellowmen. When the founders of the National Bank of New York were procuring subscribers to its stock, and still needed a large sum, Mr. Astor offered to complete the amount, provided they allowed him to choose the President. The commissioners willingly acceded to his request, and he presented the name of Albert Gallatin, who continued as President of the Bank for many years, Mr. Astor becoming one of its largest depositors.

"When the New York Life Insurance Company was robbed of its entire surplus of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, in 1834, Mr. Astor made a gratuitous loan sufficient to enable it to continue business."

Another story is told of a financial transaction with Gerrit Smith, the son of John Jacob Astor's early partner. During the panic of 1837, Mr. Smith was in need of ready money, and procured a loan from Mr. Astor of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, giving as security a mortgage on a certain piece of property. Mr. Astor's check was received, but through the carelessness of the county clerk, the papers were not sent to him. After several weeks a letter arrived from the financier, enquiring into the matter. An examination was made, the fault located, and the transaction satisfactorily concluded, but it remained a matter of interest to many that Mr. Astor had loaned a quarter of a million dollars, simply on Gerrit Smith's bare word.

As the great financier's more active years passed by he found hearty enjoyment in a group of scholarly friends. He seems a strange figure in this inner circle of literary life. His fund of anecdotes, his stories of adventures in the wilds, and ventures in the world of finance, gave a vivid charm to his conversation. To the alert and imaginative minds of his friends, they were like discoveries in a new world to the explorer.

But to John Jacob Astor, the man of action and daring, the man who followed his visions personally into the virgin forests, or with ships and men and money over seas,—what did he find in these men of letters?

Fitz Greene Halleck, Washington Irving, Joseph Green Cogswell, and others who gathered at his fireside, were all travelers. Mr. Halleck had visited France, Switzerland, Germany, and the British Isles during the same years that Mr. Astor had spent abroad. Dr. Cogswell added to his knowledge of European countries and people, a trip to India made just after his graduation from Harvard. Here were interests in common, but there seems to have been a still closer tie than that formed from kindred topics of conversation.

Perhaps, as Mr. Astor's own active life ceased, he asked for himself the eyes of others, whose visions of great things were still clear and far-reaching, albeit they led into the realm of the intellectual and imaginative, rather than the world of actual adventure or business. Here there were still worlds to conquer, and the little coterie of friends spent happy days in one another's company.

Halleck, the poet, was one of the most charming conversationalists of his day, a man full of humor, anecdote and fancy; handsome, graceful and cultured. He spent seventeen years as a clerk in the Astor office. The old gentleman became very fond of him, and after a time invited him to reside with him, and take charge of his affairs. They passed months together at Mr. Astor's country seat, to the pleasure and satisfaction of both men.

The author of "Burns" and "Marco Bozzaris" was beloved in England, Scotland and America. His poetry won the hearts of men, and caused them to erect monuments and statues to him after his death, at which time the literary world, the President and his Cabinet, and a host of plain people, all did him honor; but during his life-time it was the common, daily task of a book-keeper in Mr. Astor's counting room, which gave him his livelihood.

Halleck used to rally Mr. Astor upon his wealth, assuring him if he, himself, had two hundred dollars a year and was sure of it, he would be content. To the amusement, and somewhat to the surprise of Halleck's friends, the old man took the joker at his word, and left him in his will, an annuity of two hundred dollars. William B. Astor, however, augmented his father's bequest to Mr. Halleck by an additional gift of ten thousand dollars.

Mr. Astor's intimacy with Washington Irving dated back to their early years. Irving's warm, genial nature appealed to the softer side of the character of the great financier. He loved to have the whimsical story-teller and the able historian in his home and at his table; and visited the author, in turn, in his home in Tarry-town-on-the-Hudson. As long as such activity was possible, Mr. Astor delighted in excursions over his old hunting grounds on the Hudson River, and reveled in the magnificent scenery of the Catskills and the Alleghanies.

In his days of leisure, Mr. Astor had gathered about him a library of choice volumes, his preference tending to biographical and historical subjects. During the long winter evenings, he delighted in tracing through the pages of some book the life of a man of action or daring, or following with deep interest the growth and progress of the nations.

In these years the great Bininger groceries on Maiden Lane had proved the worth of Katie Bininger's dreams, as the Astor ships and furs and real estate, had shown the determination of John Jacob Astor to succeed. Philip Hone, an old friend and companion in some past financial ventures, was at times a guest at Mr. Astor's table. Mr, Hone was thoroughly acquainted with the capitalist, and is one of the men who paid tribute to the uniform fairness and justice of Mr. Astor's business dealings.

Joseph Green Cogswell, the learned editor of the "New York Review," came intimately into Mr. Astor's life at a later period than his other friends. Dr. Cogswell visited New York during the winter of 1838, and wrote from there: "During my present visit to New York, I have seen a good deal of old Mr, Astor, having dined with him twice at his own house, and three times at his son's. He is not the mere accumulator of dollars, as I had supposed him; he talks well on many subjects, and shows a great deal of interest in arts and literature. I met Halleck there often, and some other pleasant visitors."

Mr, Astor became so fond of the presence of this learned and companionable man, that he asked him more than once to make his home with him. Part of the charm of Dr. Cogswell's society lay in his ability to converse with Mr. Astor in German, thus adding to the pleasure of other congenial topics, that of harking back to Mr. Astor's native land and childhood's home.

Mr. Astor drew about him, besides these intimate friends, James G. King, Henry Brevoort, Samuel Ward, Samuel B. Ruggles, Daniel Lord and others among the eminent and scholarly men of the day.

This man of wealth was of the opinion, shared by other foreigners who have been eminently successful in this land of opportunity, that there was no cause for poverty in a country which offered the poorest a chance to earn an honest livelihood, and even to attain a competency.

In spite of these views, the great financier gave money to charitable objects, but for the most part his benevolence took a practical turn. One reads of fathers who sought employment for their sons with Mr. Astor, which, in many instances, proved to be the road to prosperity for captains, clerks, and supercargoes. George Merle, of one of the old shipping firms, and George and William Wallace Bruce, were among Mr. Astor's clerks.

Moses Taylor was the son of Mr. Astor's rent collector, and went to sea when very young. After serving his time, he started a small shipping business of his own. It is said that his father's employer always "backed up" young Taylor when he needed aid. In after years, Taylor became President of the City Bank, and a millionaire on his own account. John D. Wendel was a clerk for his uncle in early life, and William W. Todd was connected, for a number of years in his young manhood, with the Astor fur business.

Numerous other clerks remained many years in Mr. Astor's employ, finding their positions still held for them in old age, grey hail's proving no impediment to earning a livelihood in Mr. Astor's service.