Peabody @ MindSay 
[ Peabody Slideshow | Browse Tags ]
Gen'l. Robert E. Lee (1807-70) and Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869). at
General Robert E. Lee (1807-70) Met Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869) at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, July 23-August 30, 1869.
By Franklin Parker and Betty J. Parker 63 Heritage Loop, Crossville, TN 38571.
Email bfparker@frontiernet.net
The hot spring health spas of Virginia were the first gathering places of southern and northern elites after the Civil War. It was at the Greenbrier Hotel, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, the most popular of the hot spring spas, that Robert E. Lee and George Peabody met by chance for a few weeks during July 23-August 30, 1869. For each this meeting was a symbolic turn from Civil War bitterness toward reconciliation and the lifting power of education.
Lee was then president of Washington College, Lexington, Virginia (1865-70, renamed Washington and Lee University from 1871). Peabody had just (June 29, 1869) doubled to $2 million his Peabody Education Fund, begun February 7, 1867, to advance public education in the South.
Historical circumstances had made both Lee and Peabody famous in their time, Lee's fame more lasting; Peabody's, strangely, soon forgotten. Yet when they met in 1869 Peabody was arguably better known in the English speaking world and more widely appreciated.
For Lee, age 62, hero of the lost Confederate cause, it was next to the last summer of life. For Peabody, age 74, best known philanthropist of his time, it was the very last summer of life. They were the center of attention that summer of 1869 at "The Old White." They ate together in the public dining room, walked arm in arm to their nearby bungalows, were applauded by visitors, and were photographed together and with others of prominence.
Robert E. Lee's Father
Born in Stratford, Westmoreland County, Virginia, Robert Edward Lee was the son of Revolutionary War hero Henry Lee (1756-1818), popularly known as "Light Horse Harry." Henry Lee was a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress (1785-88), member of the Virginia Convention for the Continental Congress (1788), served in Virginia's General Assembly (1789-91), was Virginia Governor (1792-95), was appointed by George Washington to command troops to suppress the "Whiskey Insurrection" in Western Pennsylvania (1794), served in the U. S. Sixth Congress (1799-1801), and last served in the War of 1812.
Despite this impressive record (Congress voted him a gold medal for his American Revolutionary War exploits) Henry Lee was a less than satisfactory husband, a poor family breadwinner, an absentee father to his five children, was often hounded by creditors, and was several times imprisoned for debt.
Robert E. Lee was age six when he last saw his father, who left to regain his health in the West Indies. Young Lee was age eleven when his father died. Robert E. Lee's biographer, Emory M. Thomas wrote: "All his life, Robert Lee knew his father only at a great distance."
Robert E. Lee's Career
Robert E. Lee attended private schools in Alexandria, Virginia. At age 18, with family finances prohibiting attending a private college, Robert E. Lee, bent on a military career, applied for admission to the tuition free U. S. Military Academy, West Point, New York. His family and friends sent petitions and letters of recommendation to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun (1782-1850). In the summer of 1825 R. E. Lee entered West Point as one of 107 new cadets.
Forty-seven of that entering class graduated, Lee among them. He was an exemplary cadet, without a single demerit, held every cadet post of honor, and graduated second in his class of 1829. He was assigned to the engineer corps where he soon won a high reputation. On June 30, 1831, two years after graduating, he married Mary Randolph Custis, daughter of a grandson of Mrs. George Washington (Martha Washington, 1731-1802).
Distinguishing himself as chief engineer in river drainage and fort-building projects, he served in the Mexican War, where General Winfield Scott (1786-1866), valuing his military and engineering skills, constantly consulted him.
Lee was superintendent of West Point (1852-55). He was the United States military officer ordered to put down the John Brown (1800-59) insurrection at Harper's Ferry federal arsenal, Virginia, October 16, 1859. Abolitionist Brown's fanatical attempt to steal federal weapons in order to arm slaves for an insurrection against the South helped precipitate the bitter four-year Civil War.
Faced with the "irrepressible conflict," General Winfield Scott reportedly told President Abraham Lincoln that Lee was worth 50,000 men. Lee was offered command of Federal forces, April 18, 1861, but declined. He told Francis Preston Blair (1791-1876), who approached him on behalf of President Lincoln: "...though opposed to secession and deprecating war, I could take no part in an invasion of the Southern States." Loyal to Virginia, Lee resigned from the United States Army, April 20, 1861. In Richmond Virginia, at the request of the Virginia Convention, he was placed in command of the Virginia forces, April 23, 1861. Lee's organizing ability, grasp of military strategy, and his integrity held out for four bitter Civil War years against overwhelming Union strength in numbers, manpower, and economic resources. Faced by inevitable crushing defeat Lee surrendered to General U. S. Grant, Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, April 9, 1865.
He told his defeated troops: "...You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that our merciful God extend to you his blessing and protection."
With the Confederate cause lost, Lee sought obscurity and declined to lend his name to commercial ventures. When first invited to the presidency of small, obscure and struggling Washington College, Lexington, Virginia (August 1865), Lee hesitated. He wrote the trustees that he was "an object of censure" to the North, that his presence might "cause injury" to the college.
Knowing that Lee's name and fame would attract students, the trustees persisted. Lee accepted. His biographer Emory M. Thomas wrote that Lee quickly "established himself as a presence in Lexington," and that in the five years of life left to him (1865-1870) became "the savior of Washington College."
Greenbrier Hotel, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
The first inn at what is now the Greenbrier Hotel, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, was built in 1780, long before West Virginia became a state in 1863. It was a favorite resort for southern elites who gathered there to meet relatives and friends, to rest and recuperate, and to drink and bathe in its healthful mineral springs. Lee, with heart trouble, needing rest, was an occasional health spa visitor, particularly at the Greenbrier.
At the Greenbrier the summer of 1868, Lee heard that some young northern visitors were receiving a frosty reception. He asked the young southern women who surrounded him if one of them would go with him to greet and welcome the young northern guests.
The young lady accompanying him, Christina Bond, asked, "General Lee, did you never feel resentment towards the North?" She recorded his quiet reply, "I believe I may say, looking into my own heart, and speaking as in the presence of my God, that I have never known one moment of bitterness or resentment." The next summer of 1869 at the Greenbrier he met George Peabody for the first and only time.
Peabody's Career
George Peabody was third of eight children born to a poor family in Danvers (renamed Peabody, April 13, 1868), 19 miles from Boston, Massachusetts. After four years in a district school (1803-07) and four years apprenticed in a general store (1807-10), the 16-year-old in 1811 worked in his oldest brother's clothing store in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
His father's death that year (May 13, 1811) left the family in debt, their Danvers home mortgaged, with the mother and five younger siblings forced to live with relatives. The Great Fire in Newburyport (May 31, 1811) occurred eleven days after his father's death. The fire, coming as it did during an economic depression in New England, led many to leave that town and migrate to the South.
An improvident paternal uncle whose Newburyport store had burned in the fire encouraged his 16-year-old nephew, George Peabody, to open with him a drygoods store in Georgetown, District of Columbia. Needing credit, backed by Newburyport merchant Prescott Spaulding's (1781-1864) recommendation, Peabody secured a $2,000 consignment of goods, basis of his first commercial venture in the Georgetown drygoods store (1812).
His uncle soon left for other enterprises. Young Peabody operated the store and was also a pack peddler selling goods to homes and stores in the D. C. area. With Washington, D. C., under siege by the British he volunteered and served briefly in the War of 1812.
Fellow soldier and older experienced merchant Elisha Riggs, Sr. (1779-1853), took the 19-year-old Peabody as traveling junior partner in Riggs, Peabody & Co. (1814-29), Georgetown, D.C. The firm, which imported clothing and other merchandise for sale to U. S. wholesalers, moved in 1815 to Baltimore and by 1822 had Philadelphia and New York City warehouses.
Peabody early took on the support of his family. He sent clothes and money to his mother and siblings, and by 1816, at age 21, he paid off the family debts and restored his mother and siblings to their Danvers home. Handling the Peabody home deed, Newburyport, Massachusetts, lawyer Ebon Mosely wrote George Peabody (December 16, 1816): "I cannot but be pleased with the filial affection which seems to evince you to preserve the estate for a Parent."
Peabody paid for the education at Bradford Academy (now Bradford College), Bradford, Massachusetts, of five younger relatives. He bought a house in West Bradford for his relatives studying at the academy, where his mother also lived for several years.
He later paid for the complete education of nephew Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99), first U. S. paleontologist at Yale University; nephew George Peabody Russell (1835-1909), Harvard-trained lawyer, niece Julia Adelaide (née Peabody) Chandler (b. 1835), and others.
Deprived, as I was...
Peabody's May 18, 1831, letter to a nephew named after him, George Peabody (1815-32), son of his oldest brother David Peabody (1790-1841), hinted at his motive for educating his relatives and for his later philanthropies.
Particularly fond of this nephew, Peabody paid for his schooling at Bradford Academy and received regular reports of his nephew's progress. When this nephew asked his uncle for financial help to attend Yale College, Peabody replied in a poignant letter.
Peabody wrote his nephew: (his underlining): "Deprived, as I was, of the opportunity of obtaining anything more than the most common education, I am well qualified to estimate its value by the disadvantages I labour under in the society [in] which my business and situation in life frequently throws me, and willingly would I now give twenty times the expense attending a good education could I now possess it, but it is now too late for me to learn and I can only do to those who come under my care, as I could have wished circumstances had permitted others to have done by me."
Sadly, this favorite nephew died at age 17 on September 24, 1832, in Boston of scarlet fever, his potential unfulfilled.
Selling Maryland's Bonds Abroad
As purchasing partner in the United States and abroad for Riggs, Peabody & Co. (renamed Peabody, Riggs & Co., 1829-48), Peabody made four buying trips to Europe during 1827-37.
In the mid-1830s several states began internal improvement of roads, canals, and railroads requiring European investment capital through state bonds sold abroad. In 1836 the Maryland legislature voted to finance the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. On his fifth trip abroad, February 1837, Peabody represented both his firm and was also appointed one of three agents to sell abroad Maryland's $8 million bond issue.
In the financial Panic of 1837 the two other agents returned home without success. Peabody remained in London the rest of his life (1837-69), 32 years, except for three visits to the United States. Nine U. S. states in financial difficulty, including Maryland, stopped interest payments on their bonds sold abroad. Peabody faced a depressed market, with British and European investors angry at nonpayment of interest on their U. S. state bonds.
Peabody bombarded Maryland officials with letters urging that interest payments on Maryland bonds be resumed, and retroactively. His letters were published in U. S. newspapers. Abroad, he also publicly assured foreign investors that interest nonpayment was temporary and that repayment would be retroactive. He finally sold his part of the Maryland bonds to London's Baring Brothers.
The Panic of 1837 eased. The nine defaulting states resumed their bond interest payments. Peabody's faith that they would do so was justified and appreciated. His integrity became known to an ever-wider circle.
Some minor fame came to Peabody when the Maryland Legislature (1847-48), realizing what he had done, voted him unanimous thanks for upholding its credit abroad and for declining the $60,000 commission due him.
He had not wanted to burden the state treasury during its financial difficulty. In transmitting these resolutions of thanks, Maryland Governor Philip Francis Thomas (1810-90) wrote Peabody, "To you, sir...the thanks of the State were eminently due."
London-Based Banker
In London, Peabody gradually reduced his trade in drygoods and commodities. Under the firm name of George Peabody & Co. (1838-64) he made the transition from merchant to international banker. He sold U. S. state bonds to finance roads, canals, and railroads; helped sell the second Mexican War bonds; bought, sold, and shipped European iron and later steel rails for U. S. western railroads; and helped finance the Atlantic Cable Co.
Asked in an interview, August 22, 1869, how and when he made most of his money, the London-based securities broker and international banker said, "I made pretty much of it in 20 years from 1844 to 1864. Everything I touched within that time seemed to turn to gold. I bought largely of United States securities when their value was low and they advanced greatly."
Morgan Partnership
Often ill and urged by business friends to take a partner, Peabody on October 1, 1854, at age 59, took as partner Boston merchant Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90), whose 19-year-old son John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) began his banking career as New York City agent for George Peabody & Co., London On retirement, October 1, 1864, unmarried, without a son, and knowing he would no longer control his firm, Peabody asked that his name be withdrawn.
George Peabody & Co. (1838-64) continued in London as J. S. Morgan & Co. (1864-1909), Morgan Grenfell & Co. (1910-18), Morgan Grenfell & Co., Ltd. (1918-89), and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since 1989), a German-owned international banking firm.
Peabody was thus the root of the J. P. Morgan international banking firm. He spent the last five years of his life (1864-69) looking after his philanthropic institutions, begun in 1852 with the motto: "Education: a debt due from present to future generations."
Philanthropist
Peabody early told intimates and said publicly in 1850 that he would found a useful educational institution in every town and city where he had lived and worked. His 1827 will left $4,000 for charity. His 1832 will left $27,000 for educational philanthropy out of a $135,000 estate.
Founded Seven Libraries
Ultimately his philanthropic gifts of some $10 million included seven Peabody institute libraries, with lecture halls and lecture funds. These were, like the lyceums and the later chautauquas, the adult education centers of their time.
Later, Andrew Carnegie's (1835-1919) libraries and other funds, John D. Rockefeller's (1839-1937) funds and foundations, Henry Ford's (1863-1947) funds, and those of others far surpassed Peabody's philanthropy. But it was Peabody's gifts which first initiated, set policies, patterns, and inspired the later vast educational foundation movement.
The seven Peabody Institute Libraries are in: Peabody, Danvers, Newburyport, and Georgetown (all in Massachusetts); and in Baltimore, where the Peabody Institute of Baltimore (from 1857, total gift $1.4 million) consisted of a unique reference library whose books from European estates Peabody, through agents, bought and shipped to Baltimore. The Library of Congress early borrowed from its rare book collection.
The Peabody Institute of Baltimore also had an art gallery, lecture hall and lecture fund, a Conservatory of Music, and gave annual prizes to Baltimore's best public school students. In 1982 the Baltimore Reference Library and the Peabody Conservatory of Music became part of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Other Peabody libraries are in 6-Thetford, Vermont, where he visited his maternal grandparents at age 15, and in 7-Georgetown, D.C.
Three Museums of Science
He endowed the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University (anthropology); the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University (paleontology), both 1866; and what is now the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts (1867), containing maritime history and Essex County historical documents, including most of George Peabody's letters and papers.
Other Gifts
He gave the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of Mechanic Arts (Baltimore) $1,000 for a chemistry laboratory and school (1851); Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, $25,000 for a mathematics professorship (1866); Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, $25,000, for a mathematics and civil engineering professorship (November 1866); and former general, then President Robert E. Lee's Washington College (renamed Washington and Lee University, 1871), Lexington, Virginia, $60,000 for a mathematics professorship (September 1869).
He gave $20,000 publication funds each to the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore (November 5, 1866), and the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston (January 1, 1867). He gave to the United States Sanitary Commission to aid Civil War orphans, widows, and disabled veterans $10,000 (1864). To the Vatican charitable San Spirito Hospital, Rome, Italy, he gave $19,300 (April 5, 1867). He built a Memorial Congregational Church in his mother's memory in her hometown, Georgetown, Massachusetts, $70,000 (1866).
For patriotic causes he gave to the Lexington Monument in what is now Peabody, Massachusetts, $300 (1835); the Bunker Hill Memorial, Boston, Massachusetts, $500 (June 3, 1845); and the Washington Monument, Washington, D. C., $1,000 (July 4, 1854).
Peabody Education Fund
His most influential U. .S. gift was the $2 million Peabody Education Fund (PEF, 1867-1914) to promote public schools in the eleven former Confederate states plus West Virginia, added because of its poverty. For 47 years the PEF helped promote public schools in the devastated post-Civil War South, focusing on public elementary and secondary schools, then on teacher training institutes and normal colleges, and finally on rural public schools.
Without precedent, the PEF was the first multimillion dollar U.S. educational foundation. Historians have cited its example and policies as the model forerunner of all subsequent significant United States educational funds and foundations.
Famous in his time, largely forgotten since, even underrated by most historians, George Peabody was in fact the founder of modern American philanthropy.
Many of the over 50 distinguished PEF trustees (during 1867-1914) who held high offices in the U. S. were also trustees of other later, larger, and richer funds and foundations. They thus helped spread the PEF's influence far and wide.
The common goal of these late nineteenth century, early twentieth century funds and foundations was to use private foundation wealth as levers to help solve education, health, and economic welfare problems in the U. S. South, elsewhere in the U. S., and worldwide.
High Offices Held by PEF Trustees
Twelve of the over 50 PEF trustees were state legislators, two were U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justices, six were U.S. ambassadors, seven U.S. House of Representatives members, two U. S. generals, one U. S. Navy admiral, one U. S. Surgeon-General, three Confederate generals, seven U.S. Senators, three Confederate Congressmen, two church bishops, six U. S. cabinet officers, three U.S. presidents (U.S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Grover Cleveland), or eight U.S. presidents if Peabody Normal College and its predecessor institutions are included, and three financiers.
The three financiers who were PEF trustees included J. P. Morgan, himself an art collector and philanthropist of note; Anthony Joseph Drexel (1826-93), inspired as PEF trustee to found Drexel University, Philadelphia; and Paul Tulane (1801-87), inspired as PEF trustee to found Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Permitted to disband when their mission was accomplished, the PEF trustees gave (1914): $474,000 to fourteen state university colleges of education in the South; $90,000 to Winthrop Normal College, South Carolina; and funds to the Southern Education Fund, Atlanta, still aiding African-American education. The bulk of the PEF, $1.5 million (required matching funds made it $3 million), went to George Peabody College for Teachers (1914-79), Nashville, sited next to Vanderbilt University, which still thrives as Peabody College of Vanderbilt University (hereafter PCofVU, since 1979).
Peabody College of Vanderbilt University
Traced genealogically in Nashville for some 220 years, Davidson Academy (1785-1806) was chartered by North Carolina eleven years before Tennessee's statehood; rechartered as Cumberland College (1806-26); rechartered as the University of Nashville (1826-75); rechartered as Peabody Normal College (1875-1909, created and supported by the PEF); rechartered as George Peabody College for Teachers (1914-79), which continues as PCofVU (from 1979).
Faced with greater class and race divisions and with greater financial difficulties than counterpart colleges in other U.S. sections, what is now Peabody College of Vanderbilt University rose phoenix-like again and again to produce educational leaders for the South, the nation, and the world.
Peabody Homes of London
Wanting to do something for the working poor of London, Peabody followed social reformer Lord Shaftesbury's (1801-85) suggestion--that low-cost housing was the London poor's greatest need. Peabody gave a total of $2.5 million (from 1862) to subsidize low rent model housing in London.
Some 34,500 low income Londoners (March 31, 1999) lived in 14,000 Peabody apartments on 83 estates in 26 of London's boroughs. The Peabody Trust, which built and administers the Peabody Homes of London, valued at some $1.53 billion, is Peabody's most successful philanthropy (and least known by Americans).
Last U.S. Visit
Long ill, sensing his end was near, George Peabody made his last four-month U. S. visit, June 8 to September 29, 1869, to see family and friends and to add gifts to his U. S. institutes. Greatly weakened, he was met in New York City by intimates who also sensed this as his last U.S. visit.
The New York Times, June 9, 1869, reported his arrival "in advanced age and declining health...." "Wherever he goes," the article read, "he is worried by begging letters from individuals expecting him to get them out of some scrape... Now that he is in America he should be left to the quiet and repose he so greatly needs."
He went to Boston (June 10, 1869), then rested in Salem, Massachusetts, at nephew George Peabody Russell's (1835-1909) home.
On July 6, 1869, his nephew wrote to his uncle's intimate business friend William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888), who was at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia: "...Mr. Peabody...is weaker than when he arrived.... He has...decided to go to the White Sulphur Springs...[and asks you to] arrange accommodations for himself, and servant, for Mrs. Russell and myself."
In mid-June 1869 Peabody quietly visited the Boston Peace Jubilee and Music Festival and listened to the chorus. At intermission, Boston Mayor Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff (1810-74) announced Peabody's presence, which brought "a perfect storm of applause."
In a Sunday, June 20, sermon closing the Boston Peace Jubilee, the Reverend William Rounseville Alger (1822-1905) mentioned that George Peabody had done more to keep the peace between Britain and America than a hundred demagogues to destroy it.
On June 29, 1869, in more than doubling his fund for southern education, he wrote his trustees: "I now give you additional bonds [worth] $1,384,000..... I do this [hoping] that with God's blessing...it may...prove a permanent and lasting boon, not only to the Southern States, but to the whole of our dear country...." He added $50,000 to his first Peabody Institute Library (Peabody, Massachusetts, total gift $217,600). At the July 14, 1869, dedication of the Peabody Institute Library, Danvers, Massachusetts (to which he gave a total of $100,000), he said: "I can never expect to address you again collectively.... I hope that this institution will be...a source of pleasure and profit."
At a July 16, 1869, reception, Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Massachusetts, his 30 guests who arrived by special train from Boston included former Massachusetts Governor Clifford Claflin (1818-1905), Boston Mayor Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff, U.S. Senator Charles Sumner (1811-74), and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-94). Poet Holmes read aloud a poem titled "George Peabody" written specially for the occasion.
Two days later (July 18, 1869) Holmes described Peabody in a letter to U.S. Minister to Britain John Lothrop Motley (1814-77) as "the Dives who is going to Abraham's bosom and I fear before a great while...." On July 22, 1869, longtime friend Ohio Episcopal Bishop Charles Pettit McIlvaine (1799-1873) wrote to Peabody's philanthropic advisor Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94): "The White Sulphur Springs will, I hope, be beneficial to our excellent friend; but it can be only a very superficial good. [His] cough is terrible, and I have no expectation of his living a year...."
White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, July 23-Aug. 30, 1869
This was the background when Peabody arrived by special train at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, July 23, 1869. Present was Tennessee Superintendent of Public Instruction and later U.S. Commissioner of Education John Eaton, Jr. (1829-1906).
John Easton wrote in his annual report: "Mr. Peabody shares with ex-Governor Wise the uppermost cottage in Baltimore Row, and sits at the same table with General Lee, Mr. Corcoran, Mr. Taggart, and others.... Being quite infirm, he has been seldom able to come to parlor or dining room, though he has received many ladies and gentlemen at the cottage.... His manners are singularly affable and pleasing, and his countenance one of the most benevolent we have ever seen."
Peabody's confinement to his cottage prompted a meeting on July 27, 1869, at which former Virginia Governor Henry Alexander Wise (1806-76) drew up resolutions of praise read in Peabody's presence the next day (July 28, 1869) in the "Old White" hotel parlor. The resolutions read in part: "On behalf of the southern people we tender thanks to Mr. Peabody for his aid to the cause of education...and hail him 'benefactor.'"
Peabody, seated, replied, "If I had strength, I would speak more on the heroism of the Southern people. Your kind remarks about the Education Fund sound sweet to my ears. My heart is interwoven with its success."
Peabody Ball
Merrymakers at the "Old White" held a Peabody Ball on August 11, 1869. Too ill to attend, Peabody heard the gaiety from his cottage.
Historian Perceval Reniers wrote of this Peabody Ball: "The affair that did most to revive [the Southerners'] esteem was the Peabody Ball...given to honor...Mr. George Peabody.... Everything was right for the Peabody Ball. Everybody was ready for just such a climax, the background was a perfect build-up. Mr. Peabody appeared at just the right time and lived just long enough. A few months later it would not have been possible, for Mr. Peabody would be dead."
The PEF's first administrator Barnas Sears (1802-80), present at White Sulphur Springs that July 23-Aug. 30, 1869, recorded why Peabody's presence there was important to the PEF's work in promoting public education in the South. Sears wrote: "...both on account of his unparalleled goodness and of his illness among a loving and hospitable people [he received] tokens of love and respect from all, such as I have never before seen shown to any one. This visit...will, in my judgment, do more for us than a long tour in a state of good health...."
Famous Photos of George Peabody and Robert E. Lee
Peabody, Lee, and others were central figures in several remarkable photos taken at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, on August 12, 1869. In the main photograph the five individuals seated on cane-bottomed chairs were, left to right: Turkey's Minister to the U.S. Edouard Blacque Bey (1824-95); General Robert E. Lee, Peabody, William Wilson Corcoran, and Richmond, Virginia, judge and public education advocate James Lyons (1801-82).
Standing behind the five seated figures were seven former Civil War generals, their names in dispute until correctly identified in 1935 by Leonard T. Mackall of Savannah, Georgia (from left to right): James Conner (1829-83) of South Carolina, Martin W. Gary (1831-81) of South Carolina, Robert Doak Lilley (1836-86) of Virginia, P.G.T. Beauregard (1818-93) of Louisiana, Alexander Robert Lawton (1818-96) of Georgia, Henry Alexander Wise (1806-76) of Virginia, and Joseph L. Brent (b.1826) of Maryland.
There is also a photo of Peabody sitting alone and a photo of Lee, Peabody, and William Wilson Corcoran sitting together.
Peabody's Gifts to Lee
That August 1869 Peabody gave Lee a small private gift of $100 for Lee's Episcopal church in Lexington, Virginia, in need of repairs (William Wilson Corcoran also gave $100). Peabody also gave to Lee's Washington College Virginia state bonds he owned worth $35,000 when they were lost on the ship Arctic, a Collins Line steamer, sunk with the loss of 322 passengers on September 27, 1854, 20 miles off Cape Race, Newfoundland.
Peabody 's petition to the Virginia legislature to reimburse him for the lost bonds had been unsuccessful when he gave Lee's college the value of the bonds for a mathematics professorship. Eventually the value of the lost bonds and the accrued interest, $60,000 total, were paid by the State of Virginia to Washington and Lee University With wry humor Lee's biographer C.B. Flood described George Peabody's gift: "It was generosity with a touch of Yankee shrewdness: you Southerners go fight it out among yourselves. If General Lee can't get [this lost bond money] out of the Virginia legislature, nobody can."
Peabody left White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, August 30, 1869, in a special railroad car provided by longtime friend, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad President John Work Garrett (1820-84). Lee rode a short distance in the same car with Peabody. They parted, never to meet again.
Peabody recorded his last will (September 9, 1869) in New York City, had his tomb built at Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts (September 10, 1869), ordered a granite sarcophagus to mark his grave, and boarded the Scotia in New York City September 29, 1869. He landed at Queenstown, Ireland, October 8, 1869, and was rushed to rest at the London home of longtime business friend Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson (1806-85), where he died November 4, 1869.
Lee Sent His Photograph
On Sept. 25, 1869, at the request of Peabody Institute Librarian Fitch Poole (1803-73, Peabody, Massachusetts), Lee sent Poole a photograph of himself, adding that he would "feel honoured in its being placed among the 'friends' of Mr. Peabody, who can be numbered by the millions, yet all can appreciate the man who has [illumined] his age by his munificent charities during his life, and by his wise provisions for promoting the happiness of his fellow creatures."
Lee on Peabody's Death
Reading of Peabody's death in London (November 4, 1869), Robert E. Lee wrote (November 10, 1869) to Peabody's nephew George Peabody Russell, who had been with his uncle in White Sulphur Springs and there had met Lee: "The announcement of the death of your uncle, Mr. George Peabody, has been received with the deepest regret wherever his name and benevolence are known; and nowhere have his generous deeds--restricted to no country, section or sect--elicited more heartfelt admiration than at the South. He stands alone in history for the benevolent and judicious distribution of his great wealth, and his memory has become entwined in the affections of millions of his fellow-citizens in both hemispheres."
"I beg, in my own behalf," Lee continued, "and in behalf of the Trustees and Faculty of Washington College, Virginia, which was not forgotten by him in his act of generosity, to tender the tribute of our unfeigned sorrow at his death. ¶With great respect, Your obedient servant R.E. Lee."
Concern Over Lee's Attending Peabody's Funeral
Lee had been invited to attend Peabody's final funeral service and eulogy, South Congregational Church, Peabody, Massachusetts, followed by burial in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts, February 8, 1870.
But Peabody's intimates feared that Lee's attendance might evoke an ugly incident. After President Lincoln's assassination, Congressional radical Republicans, bent on revenge, crushed the defeated South with military rule. This anger was also strong among New England abolitionists.
Robert Charles Winthrop, Peabody's philanthropic advisor and president of the PEF trustees, who was to deliver Peabody's funeral eulogy February 8, 1870, feared that Lee's attendance might bring on a demonstration. On February 2, 1870, Winthrop wrote two private and confidential letters, the first to Baltimorean John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870): "There is apprehension here, that if Lee should come to the funeral, something unpleasant might occur, which would be as painful to us as to him. Would you contact friends to impart this to the General? Please do not mention that the suggestion came from me." Winthrop also wrote to Corcoran: "I write to you in absolute confidence. Some friends of ours, whose motives cannot be mistaken, are very anxious that Genl. Lee should not come to the funeral next week. They have also asked me to suggest that. Still there is always apprehension that from an irresponsible crowd there might come some remarks which would be offensive to him and painful to us all. I am sure he would be the last person to involve himself or us, needlessly, in a doubtful position on such an occasion."
Winthrop continued to Corcoran: "The newspapers at first said that he was not coming. Now, there is an intimation that he is. I know of no one who could [more] effectively give the right direction to his views than yourself. Your relation to Mr. Peabody & to Mr. Lee would enable you to ascertain his purposes & shape his course wisely.... I know of no one else to rely on."
One of the two Washington College trustees who planned to attend Peabody's funeral had earlier written to Corcoran (January 26, 1870): "I first thought that General Lee should not go, but have now changed my mind. Some of us believe that if you advise the General to attend he would do so. Use your own discretion in this matter."
Lee Too Ill to Attend
Lee explained in a January 26, 1870, letter to William Wilson Corcoran: "I am sorry I cannot attend the funeral obsequies of Mr. Peabody. It would be some relief to witness the respect paid to his remains, and to participate in commemorating his virtues; but I am unable to undertake the journey. I have been sick all the winter, and am still under medical treatment. I particularly regret that I shall not have the pleasure of seeing you. Two trustees of Washington College will attend the funeral. I hope you can join them."
On the same day Winthrop wrote his letters (February 2, 1870), Lee wrote his daughter Mildred Childe Lee (1846-1904) that he was too ill to attend: "I am sorry that I could not attend Mr. Peabody's funeral, but I did not feel able to undertake the journey, especially at this season."
Corcoran too replied to Winthrop that Lee had no intention of coming. Corcoran could not imagine, he wrote, that so good and great a man as Lee would receive anything but a kind reception. Himself ill, Corcoran wrote to Lee his regret that he could not attend to pay his respects to "my valued old friend." Peabody's intimates were relieved at confirmation that Lee's illness would definitely keep him from the funeral.
Trans-Atlantic Funeral Overview
Lee, Corcoran, and much of the English-speaking reading public, awed by Peabody's unusual 96-day transatlantic funeral, awaited its final scene: Robert Charles Winthrop's eulogy and Peabody's final burial (both February 8, 1870).
Peabody's funeral was unprecedented in length, pomp, and ceremony; was marked by cold stormy weather; involved the highest officials of England and the United States; was vastly publicized in the press of both countries; and was observed in person by many thousands of Britons and Americans. That funeral included:
1-a Westminster Abbey service (November 12, 1869) and temporary burial there for 30 days (November 12-December 11, 1869). When Peabody's will became known requiring burial in Salem, Massachusetts,
2-the British cabinet decided (November 10, 1869), at Queen Victoria's suggestion, to return his remains for burial in the U. S. on Her Majesty's Ship HMS Monarch, Britain's newest and largest warship, repainted for this grim occasion slate gray above the water line, with a specially built mortuary chapel. Next came a
3-U. S. government decision (made between November 12-15, 1869) to send the United States corvette USS Plymouth from Marseilles, France, to accompany HMS Monarch to the United States. Then followed
4-transfer (December 11, 1869) of Peabody's remains from Westminster Abbey, London, on a special funeral train to Portsmouth, England, impressive ceremonies at the transfer of remains from Portsmouth dock to HMS Monarch, specially outfitted as a funeral vessel. Next came the
5-transatlantic crossing of HMS Monarch and the USS Plymouth (December 21, 1869 to January 25, 1870) from Spithead near Portsmouth, past Ushant, France, to Madeira Island off Portugal, to Bermuda, and north to Portland, Maine, chosen by the British Admiralty because of its deeper harbor. A covert rivalry had early erupted between
6-Bostonians and New Yorkers about which city could provide the more solemn ceremony as receiving port. Thinking themselves the center of northeast society and fashion, each was disappointed when the British Admiralty chose Portland, Maine, whose deeper harbor more safely accommodated HMS Monarch's large size.
A contemporary news account described the petty jealousy: "When the mighty men of Boston knew that England's..."Monarch" was bringing the body of the great philanthropist to his last resting place, they called a meeting and decided with what fitting honors and glories it would be received.... but, when the telegraph flashed the astounding news that little Portland was to be the port...all was changed....[Bostonians were sure] that the Portlanders...would blunder...." On January 14, 1870, on President U. S Grant's approval,
7-U. S. Navy Secretary George Maxwell Robeson (1829-97) ordered Admiral David Glasgow Farragut (1801-70), a PEF trustee, to command a U.S. naval flotilla to meet HMS Monarch and USS Plymouth in Portland harbor, Maine (January 25, 1870). HMS Monarch's captain then requested, on behalf of Queen Victoria,
8-that the coffin remain aboard the Monarch in Portland harbor for two days (January 27-28, 1870).as a final mark of respect. Thousands of visitors, drawn to the spectacle, viewed the coffin in the somberly decorated Monarch's mortuary chapel. Peabody's remains then
9-lay in state in Portland City Hall (January 29-February 1, 1870), viewed by thousands.
10-A special funeral train from Portland, Maine, bore the remains to Peabody, Massachusetts (February 1, 1870). 11-Lying in state of Peabody's remains took place at the Peabody Institute Library (February 1-8, 1870).
The final ceremony, the press announced to an awed public, was to be 12-Robert Charles Winthrop's funeral eulogy at the South Congregational Church, Peabody, Massachusetts, attended by New England governors, mayors, Queen Victoria's son Prince Arthur, and other notables (February 8, 1870). Final burial would then follow at 13-Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts.
Why Such Unprecedented Funeral Honors?
Daily reports on Peabody's sinking condition in London had appeared in the British press. After his death the London Daily News recorded (November 8, 1869): "We have received a large number of letters, urging that the honours of a public funeral are due to the late Mr. Peabody's memory."
The Dean of Westminster Abbey, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-81), was in Naples, Italy, November 5, 1869, when he read of Peabody's death. Years later he recorded: "I was in Naples, and saw in the public papers that George Peabody had died. Being absent, considering that he was a foreigner, and at the same time, by reason of his benefactions to the City of London, entitled to a burial in Westminster Abbey, I telegraphed to express my wishes that his interment there should take place."
The Alabama Claims
Peabody died during tense, near warlike U. S.-British angers over two U. S. Civil War incidents, the Alabama Claims (1864-72) and the Trent Affair (September 8, 1861). CSS Alabama was a notorious British-built Confederate raider which sank 64 northern cargo ships during 1862-64.
Without a navy, with its southern ports blockaded by the North, Confederate agents slipped secretly to England, bought British-built ships, armed them as Confederate raiders, renamed them Alabama, Florida, Shenandoah, and others, which sank northern ships and cost northern lives and treasure.
Officially neutral in the U. S. Civil War, British officials were continually reminded of their breach of neutrality by U. S. Minister to Britain Charles Francis Adams (1807-86). Official U. S. demands for reparations for damages from British-built raiders (from1862) were resolved at a Geneva international tribunal (1871-72), requiring Britain to pay the United States $15.5 million indemnity.
At Peabody's death, November 4, 1869, this Alabama Claims controversy was unresolved and tense. Americans were angry; Britons were resentful. A desire to defuse angers over the Alabama Claims was one reason British officials first, and then United States officials to surpass them, outdid each other in unusual homage to Peabody's remains during his transatlantic funeral.
Trent Affair
There was also lingering resentment over the still rankling November 8, 1861 Trent Affair. On the stormy night of October 11, 1861, four Confederate emissaries, seeking aid and arms from Britain and France, evaded the Union blockade at Charleston, South Carolina, went by ship to Havana, Cuba, and there boarded the British mail ship Trent, bound for Southampton, England.
The Trent was illegally stopped in the Bahama Channel, West Indies (November 8, 1861) by USS San Jacinto's Captain Charles Wilkes (1798-1877). Confederates James Murray Mason (1798-1871, from Virginia), John Slidell (1793-1871, from Louisiana), and their male secretaries were forcibly removed and imprisoned in Boston harbor's Fort Warren Prison.
Anticipating war with the U. S., Britain sent 8,000 troops to Canada. But United States jingoism subsided. President Abraham Lincoln reportedly told his cabinet, "one war at a time," gentlemen, got the cabinet on December 26, 1861, to disavow the illegal seizure, and released the Confederate prisoners on January 1, 1862. But resentments lingered.
Besides softening near war U .S.-British tensions, another reason behind the Peabody funeral honors was British leaders' sincere appreciation for Peabody's gift of homes for London's working poor. Many marveled that an American would give that kind of gift in that large amount to a city and country not his own. Britons also valued Peabody's two decades of efforts to improve United States-British relations.
Prime Minister Gladstone
On November 9, 1869, in a major speech at the Lord Mayor's Day banquet, Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone (1808-98) referred to British-U.S. difficulties and then mentioned Peabody's death: "You will know that I refer to the death of Mr. Peabody, a man whose splendid benefactions...taught us in this commercial age...the most noble and needful of all lessons--...how a man can be the master of his wealth instead of its slave [cheers]."
"And, my Lord Mayor," Gladstone continued, "most touching it is to know, as I have learnt, that while, perhaps, some might think he had been unhappy in dying in a foreign land, yet so were his affections divided between the land of his birth and the home of his early ancestors, that...his [wish] has been realized--that he might be buried in America, [and] that it might please God to ordain that he should die in England [cheers]. My Lord Mayor, with the country of Mr. Peabody we are not likely to quarrel [loud cheers]."
Prime Minister Gladstone's cabinet met at 2:00 P.M., November 10, 1869, and confirmed Queen Victoria's suggestion of a Royal Navy ship to return Peabody's remains. Peabody funeral researcher Allen Howard Welch wrote: "The Queen, in fact, was personally grieved, and it was her own request that a man-of-war be employed to return Peabody to his homeland."
In the handing over ceremony of Peabody's remains from U .S. Minister to Britain John Lothrop Motley to HMS Monarch's Captain John Edmund Commerell (1829-1901), December 11, 1869, Portsmouth, England, U. S. Minister Motley explained: "The President of the United States, when informed of the death of George Peabody, the great philanthropist, at once ordered an American ship to convey his remains to America. Simultaneously, the Queen appointed one of Her Majesty's ships to perform that office. This double honor from the heads of two great nations to a simple American citizen is, like his gift to the poor, unprecedented. The President yields cordially to the wish of the Queen."
Praise for the Peabody Homes of London, 1862
Peabody's housing gift for London's working poor was announced March 12, 1862, while the U. S. and Britain still raged over the September 1861 Trent Affair. Peabody's gift evoked surprise and admiration in the British press, a sampling of which follows.
London Times, March 26, 1862: "Mr. George Peabody has placed £150,000 in the hands of a committee to relieve the condition of the poor of London. It is seldom that good works are done on such a scale as this one by an American in a city where he is only a sojourner.... [He] gives while he lives to those who can make no return.... He does this in a country not his own, in a city he may leave any day for his native land. Such an act is rare...."
London Daily Telegraph, March 27, 1862: "The noble gift of Mr. Peabody actually takes away the public breath...and sends a thrill through the public heart.... A man gives his fortune during his lifetime for an object going back to a resolution he had held more than a quarter of a century...to elevate the poor. Party strife and national bickering have not changed this good American; wars and rumours of wars have not turned him...from his...purpose."
London Morning Herald, March 27, 1862: "One of the merchant princes of the world has just presented [London] with a gift for which thousands will bless his name.... Whilst his countrymen are warring...with each other, this generous American is working out...good-will among his adopted people." London Sun, March 27, 1862: " How can England ever go to war with a nation whose leading man among us thus sympathizes with and blesses her poor? Who of us will not set the deed of Mr. Peabody...against that of Captain Wilkes....?"
London Review, March 29, 1862: "From America of late has come war, desolation, and animosity. The close ties of...friendships that linked Englishmen and Americans...seemed dissolved.... In the midst of this comes Mr. Peabody's gift to discard prejudices on both sides of the Atlantic. We have had a desperate family quarrel, and almost come to blows; Mr. Peabody...by a well-timed act...awakens...better sentiments."
Leeds Mercury, March 27, 1862: "An American citizen has now come forward to excite the wonder and admiration of the world."
When friend and sometime agent Horatio Gates Somerby (1805-72), a Vermont-born London resident genealogist, sent Peabody these London newspaper clippings, Peabody replied: "I had not the least conception that it would cause so much excitement over the country."
British Honors
British honors evoked by Peabody's gift to London included membership in the ancient guild of the Clothworkers' Company of London (July 2, 1862). He was granted the Freedom of the City of London (July 10, 1862), the first of only five American so honored; others being President U. S. Grant, June 15, 1877; President Theodore Roosevelt, May 3, 1910; General John J. Pershing, July 18, 1919; and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, June 1, 1945.
Peabody had been denied membership in London's Reform Club (1844) when Americans were disdained because nine U. S. states had stopped interest payments on their bonds sold abroad.
When payment was resumed retroactively Peabody, who had publicly urged this course, was admitted to the Parthenon Club (1848), the City of London Club (1850), and the most prestigious Athenaeum Club (March 12, 1862).
The Fishmongers' Company of London made Peabody an honorary member (April 18, 1866). When Oxford University granted him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree (June 26, 1867), undergraduates cheered, waved their caps, and beat the arms of their chairs with the flat of their hands. Jackson's Oxford Journal (June 29, 1867) recorded: "The lion of the day was beyond a doubt, Mr. Peabody."
Peabody's seated statue, sculptured and cast by Salem, Massachusetts-born William Wetmore Story (1819-95), paid for by public subscription, was unveiled July 23, 1869, on London's Threadneedle Street, near the Royal Exchange, by Queen Victoria's eldest son, the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. The only four statues of Americans in London include George Peabody (1869), Abraham Lincoln (1920), George Washington (1921), and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1948).
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria's advisors had informed Her Majesty that, when asked privately, Peabody had declined either a baronetcy or the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. To accept would be to lose his U. S. citizenship, which he felt he could not do. Her Majesty's Foreign Secretary Lord John Russell (1792-1878) suggested instead a letter from the Queen and the gift of a miniature portrait of the Queen, such as was given to foreign ambassadors who signed a treaty with Britain.
The Queen's letter to Peabody, March 28, 1866, expressed thanks for his "noble act of more than princely munificence...to relieve the wants of her poor subjects residing in London. It is an act...wholly without parallel.... "The Queen...understands Mr. Peabody to feel himself debarred from accepting [other] distinctions." [She asks him instead] "to accept a miniature portrait of herself, which she will have painted for him, and which...can...be sent to him in America."
Peabody thanked the Queen by letter on April 3, 1866. He received Her Majesty's miniature portrait from British Ambassador Sir Frederick Bruce (1814-67) in Washington, D.C., March 1867. It was 14" long by 10" wide, had been especially painted for him by British artist F. A. C. Tilt, baked on enamel, and set in a sold gold frame, said to have cost $70,000. It was deposited in a specially built vault, with Peabody's other honors, in the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Massachusetts.
John Bright to the Queen on George Peabody
British statesman and Member of Parliament John Bright (1811-89), who had befriended Peabody from 1867 and had gone fishing with him on the Shannon River, Limerick, Ireland, dined with the Queen, December 30, 1868. Bright recorded in his diary the conversation: "Some remarks were made about Mr. Peabody: it arose from something about Ireland, and my having been there on a visit to him. [The Queen] remarked what a very rich man he must be, and how great his gifts."
[Bright recorded that Peabody] "told me how he valued the portrait [the Queen] had given him, that he made a sort of shrine for it, and that it was a thing of great interest in America. Peabody then "said to me, 'The Americans are as fond of your Queen as the English are.' To which she replied, 'Yes, the American people have also been kind to me.'"
Queen Victoria's Second Letter to Peabody
Leaving London suddenly on what he knew would be his last U. S. visit, Peabody was in Salem, Massachusetts, when he received Queen Victoria's second letter. She wrote (June 20, 1869): "The Queen is very sorry that Mr. Peabody's sudden departure has made it impossible for her to see him before he left England, and she is concerned to hear that he is gone in bad health."
The Queen continued: "She now writes him a line to express her hope that he may return to this country quite recovered, and that she may then have the opportunity, of which she has now been deprived, of seeing him and offering him her personal thanks for all he has done for the people."
Publishing the Queen's letter, the New York Times added: "Queen Victoria has paid our great countryman a delicate and graceful compliment. Mr. Peabody left England unexpectedly, his departure known only to a few friends. His feeble health became known to the Queen through London newspapers. With her goodness of heart which Americans never fail to appreciate she sent him a personal letter." On July 19, 1869, Peabody replied, assuring the Queen of his "heartfelt gratitude."
Queen Victoria's Last Contact
Learning of Peabody's hasty return to London (October 8, 1869), before she knew of his precarious condition, she asked her privy councilor Arthur Helps (1813-75) to invite Peabody to visit her at Windsor Castle. Helps wrote to Sir Curtis Lampson in whose London home Peabody rested (Oct. 30, 1869): "'Regarding Mr. Peabody, the Queen thinks the best way would be for her to ask him down to Windsor for one or two nights, where he could rest--and need not come to dinner, or any meals if he feels unequal to it; but where she could see him quietly at any time of the day most convenient to him." But it was too late. Largely unconscious his last days, Peabody died November 4, 1869.
U. S. Honors
Chief among Peabody's U. S. honors was the U. S. Congressional Resolution of Thanks and Gold Medal for his PEF, passed in the U.S. Senate (March 8, 1867), in the U. S. House (March 9, 1867), and signed by President Andrew Johnson (March 16, 1867), who welcomed Peabody at the White House (April 25, 1867). These, his Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Harvard University (July 17, 1867), and his other honors received in the U. S. and England, are displayed in the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Massachusetts.
Winthrop's Eulogy, February 8, 1870
All was ready for the final act: Winthrop's eulogy of George Peabody, February 8, 1870, a bitterly cold day. Thousands poured into tiny Peabody, Massachusetts, by special morning trains which ran full from Boston. Large crowds were quiet and respectful. The 50 state troopers had little to do but give directions. South Congregational Church filled quickly. Queen Victoria's son, Prince Arthur (1850-1942), in the seventh pew from the pulpit, held all eyes. His retinue, including British Minister to the U. S. Sir Edward Thornton, sat nearby.
Behind Prince Arthur sat HMS Monarch Captain John E. Commerell, USS Plymouth's Captain William H. Macomb, Admiral Farragut's staff, Massachusetts Governor William Claflin, Maine Governor Joshua L. Chamberlain, the mayors of eight New England cities, Harvard University President Charles William Eliot (1834-1926), and others.
On the first six rows sat Peabody's relatives, elderly citizens who knew him in youth, and the trustees of his institutes and funds. Anthems were sung. Scripture was read. Robert Charles Winthrop rose to give the eulogy.
Robert Charles Winthrop was the descendant of an early governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Harvard University graduate, trained in Daniel Webster's law office, member and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Peabody's philanthropic advisor, and the PEF board of trustees president. Winthrop began: "What a career this has been whose final scene lies before us! Who can contemplate his rise from lowly beginnings to these final royal honors without admiration? His death, painless and peaceful, came after he completed his great dream and saw his old friends and loved ones."
Winthrop continued: "He had ambition and wanted to do grand things in a grand way. His public charity is too well known to bear repetition and I believe he also did much private good which remains unknown. The trusts he established, the institutes he founded, the buildings he raised stand before all eyes."
"I have authority for saying," Winthrop continued, "that he planned these for many years, for in private talks he told me all he planned and when I expressed my amazement at the magnitude of his purpose, he said to me with guileless simplicity: 'Why Mr. Winthrop, this is no new idea to me. From the earliest of my manhood, I have contemplated some such disposition of my property; and I have prayed my heavenly Father, day by day, that I might be enabled, before I died, to show my gratitude for the blessings which He has bestowed upon me by doing some great good to my fellow-men.'"
The words underlined above are engraved on Peabody's marker in Westminster Abbey, London, where his remains rested for 30 days, November 12-December 11, 1869. That marker and the above words on it were refurbished for the February 12, 1995, bicentennial ceremony of Peabody's birth held in London's Westminster Abbey.
Winthrop further said: "To measure his gifts in dollars and pounds or in the number of people served is inadequate. He did something more. The successful way he arranged the machinery of world-wide philanthropy compels attention. It is a lesson that cannot be lost to history. It has inspired and will continue to inspire others to do likewise. This was the greatness of his life."
"Now, all that is mortal of him," Winthrop said, "comes back, borne with honors that mark a conquering hero. The battle he fought was the greed within him. His conquest was the victory he achieved over the gaining, hoarding, saving instinct. Such is the conqueror we make ready to bury in the earth this day. Winthrop continued: "And so was fulfilled for him a prophecy he heard once as the subject of a sermon, on which by some force of reflection lingered in his mind and which he more than once mentioned to me: 'And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear nor dark; but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, or night: but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light.'"
Winthrop said that Peabody first heard this text, Zechariah 14: 6-7, in a sermon by the Reverend Dr. John Lothrop (1772-1820) of Brattle Street, Boston, date not known.
Winthrop concluded: "And so we bid thee farewell, noble friend. The village of thy birth weeps. The flower of Essex County stands at thy grave. Massachusetts mourns her son. Maine does honor to thee. New England and Old England join hands because of thee. The children of the South praise thy works. Chiefs of the Republic stand with royalty at thy bier. And so we bid thee farewell, friend of mankind."
Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass.
The New York Times described the final burial scene at Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts, on February 8, 1870: "There were about two hundred sleigh coaches in the procession. The route was shortened somewhat in consequence of the prevalence of the storm. On arriving at the Peabody tomb, there was no special service, the coffin being placed reverently therein, after which the procession returned to the Institute, and the great pageantry attending the obsequies of the great philanthropist was ended."
Harmony Grove Cemetery's 65 acres of avenues and walks, first laid out in 1840, had been a thick walnut grove when Peabody was a boy. He could see it from the attic of the house where he was born. On a knoll where he had once played he had chosen the family burial plot on Anemone Ave., lot number 51. There, where he had brought together the remains of his mother, father, sisters, and brothers, he was laid to rest. Ninety-six days of unprecedented funeral honors had ended. His works remain. Public memory of him has since grown dim, except at his institutes and among those who care to search the records.
Memory has also dimmed of those few days that summer of 1869 at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, when two old men, one from Massachusetts, the other from Virginia, turned from Civil War strife to the healing power of education.
One, a lifelong soldier, had become president of a struggling college; the other, a volunteer for 14 days in the War of 1812, merchant, London-based banker, and creator of philanthropic institutions. The two old men walked arm in arm, enjoyed each other, spoke of educating new generations, of reconciliation, of healing, and of better days to ahead.
END.
Addendum:
For free access to most pages of Franklin Parker, George Peabody, A Biography (Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 1995, rev. updates, with photos), access:
Gen'l. Robert E. Lee (1807-70) and Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869). at
General Robert E. Lee (1807-70) Met Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869) at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, July 23-August 30, 1869.
By Franklin Parker and Betty J. Parker 63 Heritage Loop, Crossville, TN 38571.
Email bfparker@frontiernet.net
The hot spring health spas of Virginia were the first gathering places of southern and northern elites after the Civil War. It was at the Greenbrier Hotel, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, the most popular of the hot spring spas, that Robert E. Lee and George Peabody met by chance for a few weeks during July 23-August 30, 1869. For each this meeting was a symbolic turn from Civil War bitterness toward reconciliation and the lifting power of education.
Lee was then president of Washington College, Lexington, Virginia (1865-70, renamed Washington and Lee University from 1871). Peabody had just (June 29, 1869) doubled to $2 million his Peabody Education Fund, begun February 7, 1867, to advance public education in the South.
Historical circumstances had made both Lee and Peabody famous in their time, Lee's fame more lasting; Peabody's, strangely, soon forgotten. Yet when they met in 1869 Peabody was arguably better known in the English speaking world and more widely appreciated.
For Lee, age 62, hero of the lost Confederate cause, it was next to the last summer of life. For Peabody, age 74, best known philanthropist of his time, it was the very last summer of life. They were the center of attention that summer of 1869 at "The Old White." They ate together in the public dining room, walked arm in arm to their nearby bungalows, were applauded by visitors, and were photographed together and with others of prominence.
Robert E. Lee's Father
Born in Stratford, Westmoreland County, Virginia, Robert Edward Lee was the son of Revolutionary War hero Henry Lee (1756-1818), popularly known as "Light Horse Harry." Henry Lee was a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress (1785-88), member of the Virginia Convention for the Continental Congress (1788), served in Virginia's General Assembly (1789-91), was Virginia Governor (1792-95), was appointed by George Washington to command troops to suppress the "Whiskey Insurrection" in Western Pennsylvania (1794), served in the U. S. Sixth Congress (1799-1801), and last served in the War of 1812.
Despite this impressive record (Congress voted him a gold medal for his American Revolutionary War exploits) Henry Lee was a less than satisfactory husband, a poor family breadwinner, an absentee father to his five children, was often hounded by creditors, and was several times imprisoned for debt.
Robert E. Lee was age six when he last saw his father, who left to regain his health in the West Indies. Young Lee was age eleven when his father died. Robert E. Lee's biographer, Emory M. Thomas wrote: "All his life, Robert Lee knew his father only at a great distance."
Robert E. Lee's Career
Robert E. Lee attended private schools in Alexandria, Virginia. At age 18, with family finances prohibiting attending a private college, Robert E. Lee, bent on a military career, applied for admission to the tuition free U. S. Military Academy, West Point, New York. His family and friends sent petitions and letters of recommendation to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun (1782-1850). In the summer of 1825 R. E. Lee entered West Point as one of 107 new cadets.
Forty-seven of that entering class graduated, Lee among them. He was an exemplary cadet, without a single demerit, held every cadet post of honor, and graduated second in his class of 1829. He was assigned to the engineer corps where he soon won a high reputation. On June 30, 1831, two years after graduating, he married Mary Randolph Custis, daughter of a grandson of Mrs. George Washington (Martha Washington, 1731-1802).
Distinguishing himself as chief engineer in river drainage and fort-building projects, he served in the Mexican War, where General Winfield Scott (1786-1866), valuing his military and engineering skills, constantly consulted him.
Lee was superintendent of West Point (1852-55). He was the United States military officer ordered to put down the John Brown (1800-59) insurrection at Harper's Ferry federal arsenal, Virginia, October 16, 1859. Abolitionist Brown's fanatical attempt to steal federal weapons in order to arm slaves for an insurrection against the South helped precipitate the bitter four-year Civil War.
Faced with the "irrepressible conflict," General Winfield Scott reportedly told President Abraham Lincoln that Lee was worth 50,000 men. Lee was offered command of Federal forces, April 18, 1861, but declined. He told Francis Preston Blair (1791-1876), who approached him on behalf of President Lincoln: "...though opposed to secession and deprecating war, I could take no part in an invasion of the Southern States." Loyal to Virginia, Lee resigned from the United States Army, April 20, 1861. In Richmond Virginia, at the request of the Virginia Convention, he was placed in command of the Virginia forces, April 23, 1861. Lee's organizing ability, grasp of military strategy, and his integrity held out for four bitter Civil War years against overwhelming Union strength in numbers, manpower, and economic resources. Faced by inevitable crushing defeat Lee surrendered to General U. S. Grant, Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, April 9, 1865.
He told his defeated troops: "...You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that our merciful God extend to you his blessing and protection."
With the Confederate cause lost, Lee sought obscurity and declined to lend his name to commercial ventures. When first invited to the presidency of small, obscure and struggling Washington College, Lexington, Virginia (August 1865), Lee hesitated. He wrote the trustees that he was "an object of censure" to the North, that his presence might "cause injury" to the college.
Knowing that Lee's name and fame would attract students, the trustees persisted. Lee accepted. His biographer Emory M. Thomas wrote that Lee quickly "established himself as a presence in Lexington," and that in the five years of life left to him (1865-1870) became "the savior of Washington College."
Greenbrier Hotel, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
The first inn at what is now the Greenbrier Hotel, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, was built in 1780, long before West Virginia became a state in 1863. It was a favorite resort for southern elites who gathered there to meet relatives and friends, to rest and recuperate, and to drink and bathe in its healthful mineral springs. Lee, with heart trouble, needing rest, was an occasional health spa visitor, particularly at the Greenbrier.
At the Greenbrier the summer of 1868, Lee heard that some young northern visitors were receiving a frosty reception. He asked the young southern women who surrounded him if one of them would go with him to greet and welcome the young northern guests.
The young lady accompanying him, Christina Bond, asked, "General Lee, did you never feel resentment towards the North?" She recorded his quiet reply, "I believe I may say, looking into my own heart, and speaking as in the presence of my God, that I have never known one moment of bitterness or resentment." The next summer of 1869 at the Greenbrier he met George Peabody for the first and only time.
Peabody's Career
George Peabody was third of eight children born to a poor family in Danvers (renamed Peabody, April 13, 1868), 19 miles from Boston, Massachusetts. After four years in a district school (1803-07) and four years apprenticed in a general store (1807-10), the 16-year-old in 1811 worked in his oldest brother's clothing store in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
His father's death that year (May 13, 1811) left the family in debt, their Danvers home mortgaged, with the mother and five younger siblings forced to live with relatives. The Great Fire in Newburyport (May 31, 1811) occurred eleven days after his father's death. The fire, coming as it did during an economic depression in New England, led many to leave that town and migrate to the South.
An improvident paternal uncle whose Newburyport store had burned in the fire encouraged his 16-year-old nephew, George Peabody, to open with him a drygoods store in Georgetown, District of Columbia. Needing credit, backed by Newburyport merchant Prescott Spaulding's (1781-1864) recommendation, Peabody secured a $2,000 consignment of goods, basis of his first commercial venture in the Georgetown drygoods store (1812).
His uncle soon left for other enterprises. Young Peabody operated the store and was also a pack peddler selling goods to homes and stores in the D. C. area. With Washington, D. C., under siege by the British he volunteered and served briefly in the War of 1812.
Fellow soldier and older experienced merchant Elisha Riggs, Sr. (1779-1853), took the 19-year-old Peabody as traveling junior partner in Riggs, Peabody & Co. (1814-29), Georgetown, D.C. The firm, which imported clothing and other merchandise for sale to U. S. wholesalers, moved in 1815 to Baltimore and by 1822 had Philadelphia and New York City warehouses.
Peabody early took on the support of his family. He sent clothes and money to his mother and siblings, and by 1816, at age 21, he paid off the family debts and restored his mother and siblings to their Danvers home. Handling the Peabody home deed, Newburyport, Massachusetts, lawyer Ebon Mosely wrote George Peabody (December 16, 1816): "I cannot but be pleased with the filial affection which seems to evince you to preserve the estate for a Parent."
Peabody paid for the education at Bradford Academy (now Bradford College), Bradford, Massachusetts, of five younger relatives. He bought a house in West Bradford for his relatives studying at the academy, where his mother also lived for several years.
He later paid for the complete education of nephew Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99), first U. S. paleontologist at Yale University; nephew George Peabody Russell (1835-1909), Harvard-trained lawyer, niece Julia Adelaide (née Peabody) Chandler (b. 1835), and others.
Deprived, as I was...
Peabody's May 18, 1831, letter to a nephew named after him, George Peabody (1815-32), son of his oldest brother David Peabody (1790-1841), hinted at his motive for educating his relatives and for his later philanthropies.
Particularly fond of this nephew, Peabody paid for his schooling at Bradford Academy and received regular reports of his nephew's progress. When this nephew asked his uncle for financial help to attend Yale College, Peabody replied in a poignant letter.
Peabody wrote his nephew: (his underlining): "Deprived, as I was, of the opportunity of obtaining anything more than the most common education, I am well qualified to estimate its value by the disadvantages I labour under in the society [in] which my business and situation in life frequently throws me, and willingly would I now give twenty times the expense attending a good education could I now possess it, but it is now too late for me to learn and I can only do to those who come under my care, as I could have wished circumstances had permitted others to have done by me."
Sadly, this favorite nephew died at age 17 on September 24, 1832, in Boston of scarlet fever, his potential unfulfilled.
Selling Maryland's Bonds Abroad
As purchasing partner in the United States and abroad for Riggs, Peabody & Co. (renamed Peabody, Riggs & Co., 1829-48), Peabody made four buying trips to Europe during 1827-37.
In the mid-1830s several states began internal improvement of roads, canals, and railroads requiring European investment capital through state bonds sold abroad. In 1836 the Maryland legislature voted to finance the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. On his fifth trip abroad, February 1837, Peabody represented both his firm and was also appointed one of three agents to sell abroad Maryland's $8 million bond issue.
In the financial Panic of 1837 the two other agents returned home without success. Peabody remained in London the rest of his life (1837-69), 32 years, except for three visits to the United States. Nine U. S. states in financial difficulty, including Maryland, stopped interest payments on their bonds sold abroad. Peabody faced a depressed market, with British and European investors angry at nonpayment of interest on their U. S. state bonds.
Peabody bombarded Maryland officials with letters urging that interest payments on Maryland bonds be resumed, and retroactively. His letters were published in U. S. newspapers. Abroad, he also publicly assured foreign investors that interest nonpayment was temporary and that repayment would be retroactive. He finally sold his part of the Maryland bonds to London's Baring Brothers.
The Panic of 1837 eased. The nine defaulting states resumed their bond interest payments. Peabody's faith that they would do so was justified and appreciated. His integrity became known to an ever-wider circle.
Some minor fame came to Peabody when the Maryland Legislature (1847-48), realizing what he had done, voted him unanimous thanks for upholding its credit abroad and for declining the $60,000 commission due him.
He had not wanted to burden the state treasury during its financial difficulty. In transmitting these resolutions of thanks, Maryland Governor Philip Francis Thomas (1810-90) wrote Peabody, "To you, sir...the thanks of the State were eminently due."
London-Based Banker
In London, Peabody gradually reduced his trade in drygoods and commodities. Under the firm name of George Peabody & Co. (1838-64) he made the transition from merchant to international banker. He sold U. S. state bonds to finance roads, canals, and railroads; helped sell the second Mexican War bonds; bought, sold, and shipped European iron and later steel rails for U. S. western railroads; and helped finance the Atlantic Cable Co.
Asked in an interview, August 22, 1869, how and when he made most of his money, the London-based securities broker and international banker said, "I made pretty much of it in 20 years from 1844 to 1864. Everything I touched within that time seemed to turn to gold. I bought largely of United States securities when their value was low and they advanced greatly."
Morgan Partnership
Often ill and urged by business friends to take a partner, Peabody on October 1, 1854, at age 59, took as partner Boston merchant Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90), whose 19-year-old son John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) began his banking career as New York City agent for George Peabody & Co., London On retirement, October 1, 1864, unmarried, without a son, and knowing he would no longer control his firm, Peabody asked that his name be withdrawn.
George Peabody & Co. (1838-64) continued in London as J. S. Morgan & Co. (1864-1909), Morgan Grenfell & Co. (1910-18), Morgan Grenfell & Co., Ltd. (1918-89), and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since 1989), a German-owned international banking firm.
Peabody was thus the root of the J. P. Morgan international banking firm. He spent the last five years of his life (1864-69) looking after his philanthropic institutions, begun in 1852 with the motto: "Education: a debt due from present to future generations."
Philanthropist
Peabody early told intimates and said publicly in 1850 that he would found a useful educational institution in every town and city where he had lived and worked. His 1827 will left $4,000 for charity. His 1832 will left $27,000 for educational philanthropy out of a $135,000 estate.
Founded Seven Libraries
Ultimately his philanthropic gifts of some $10 million included seven Peabody institute libraries, with lecture halls and lecture funds. These were, like the lyceums and the later chautauquas, the adult education centers of their time.
Later, Andrew Carnegie's (1835-1919) libraries and other funds, John D. Rockefeller's (1839-1937) funds and foundations, Henry Ford's (1863-1947) funds, and those of others far surpassed Peabody's philanthropy. But it was Peabody's gifts which first initiated, set policies, patterns, and inspired the later vast educational foundation movement.
The seven Peabody Institute Libraries are in: Peabody, Danvers, Newburyport, and Georgetown (all in Massachusetts); and in Baltimore, where the Peabody Institute of Baltimore (from 1857, total gift $1.4 million) consisted of a unique reference library whose books from European estates Peabody, through agents, bought and shipped to Baltimore. The Library of Congress early borrowed from its rare book collection.
The Peabody Institute of Baltimore also had an art gallery, lecture hall and lecture fund, a Conservatory of Music, and gave annual prizes to Baltimore's best public school students. In 1982 the Baltimore Reference Library and the Peabody Conservatory of Music became part of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Other Peabody libraries are in 6-Thetford, Vermont, where he visited his maternal grandparents at age 15, and in 7-Georgetown, D.C.
Three Museums of Science
He endowed the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University (anthropology); the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University (paleontology), both 1866; and what is now the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts (1867), containing maritime history and Essex County historical documents, including most of George Peabody's letters and papers.
Other Gifts
He gave the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of Mechanic Arts (Baltimore) $1,000 for a chemistry laboratory and school (1851); Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, $25,000 for a mathematics professorship (1866); Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, $25,000, for a mathematics and civil engineering professorship (November 1866); and former general, then President Robert E. Lee's Washington College (renamed Washington and Lee University, 1871), Lexington, Virginia, $60,000 for a mathematics professorship (September 1869).
He gave $20,000 publication funds each to the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore (November 5, 1866), and the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston (January 1, 1867). He gave to the United States Sanitary Commission to aid Civil War orphans, widows, and disabled veterans $10,000 (1864). To the Vatican charitable San Spirito Hospital, Rome, Italy, he gave $19,300 (April 5, 1867). He built a Memorial Congregational Church in his mother's memory in her hometown, Georgetown, Massachusetts, $70,000 (1866).
For patriotic causes he gave to the Lexington Monument in what is now Peabody, Massachusetts, $300 (1835); the Bunker Hill Memorial, Boston, Massachusetts, $500 (June 3, 1845); and the Washington Monument, Washington, D. C., $1,000 (July 4, 1854).
Peabody Education Fund
His most influential U. .S. gift was the $2 million Peabody Education Fund (PEF, 1867-1914) to promote public schools in the eleven former Confederate states plus West Virginia, added because of its poverty. For 47 years the PEF helped promote public schools in the devastated post-Civil War South, focusing on public elementary and secondary schools, then on teacher training institutes and normal colleges, and finally on rural public schools.
Without precedent, the PEF was the first multimillion dollar U.S. educational foundation. Historians have cited its example and policies as the model forerunner of all subsequent significant United States educational funds and foundations.
Famous in his time, largely forgotten since, even underrated by most historians, George Peabody was in fact the founder of modern American philanthropy.
Many of the over 50 distinguished PEF trustees (during 1867-1914) who held high offices in the U. S. were also trustees of other later, larger, and richer funds and foundations. They thus helped spread the PEF's influence far and wide.
The common goal of these late nineteenth century, early twentieth century funds and foundations was to use private foundation wealth as levers to help solve education, health, and economic welfare problems in the U. S. South, elsewhere in the U. S., and worldwide.
High Offices Held by PEF Trustees
Twelve of the over 50 PEF trustees were state legislators, two were U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justices, six were U.S. ambassadors, seven U.S. House of Representatives members, two U. S. generals, one U. S. Navy admiral, one U. S. Surgeon-General, three Confederate generals, seven U.S. Senators, three Confederate Congressmen, two church bishops, six U. S. cabinet officers, three U.S. presidents (U.S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Grover Cleveland), or eight U.S. presidents if Peabody Normal College and its predecessor institutions are included, and three financiers.
The three financiers who were PEF trustees included J. P. Morgan, himself an art collector and philanthropist of note; Anthony Joseph Drexel (1826-93), inspired as PEF trustee to found Drexel University, Philadelphia; and Paul Tulane (1801-87), inspired as PEF trustee to found Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Permitted to disband when their mission was accomplished, the PEF trustees gave (1914): $474,000 to fourteen state university colleges of education in the South; $90,000 to Winthrop Normal College, South Carolina; and funds to the Southern Education Fund, Atlanta, still aiding African-American education. The bulk of the PEF, $1.5 million (required matching funds made it $3 million), went to George Peabody College for Teachers (1914-79), Nashville, sited next to Vanderbilt University, which still thrives as Peabody College of Vanderbilt University (hereafter PCofVU, since 1979).
Peabody College of Vanderbilt University
Traced genealogically in Nashville for some 220 years, Davidson Academy (1785-1806) was chartered by North Carolina eleven years before Tennessee's statehood; rechartered as Cumberland College (1806-26); rechartered as the University of Nashville (1826-75); rechartered as Peabody Normal College (1875-1909, created and supported by the PEF); rechartered as George Peabody College for Teachers (1914-79), which continues as PCofVU (from 1979).
Faced with greater class and race divisions and with greater financial difficulties than counterpart colleges in other U.S. sections, what is now Peabody College of Vanderbilt University rose phoenix-like again and again to produce educational leaders for the South, the nation, and the world.
Peabody Homes of London
Wanting to do something for the working poor of London, Peabody followed social reformer Lord Shaftesbury's (1801-85) suggestion--that low-cost housing was the London poor's greatest need. Peabody gave a total of $2.5 million (from 1862) to subsidize low rent model housing in London.
Some 34,500 low income Londoners (March 31, 1999) lived in 14,000 Peabody apartments on 83 estates in 26 of London's boroughs. The Peabody Trust, which built and administers the Peabody Homes of London, valued at some $1.53 billion, is Peabody's most successful philanthropy (and least known by Americans).
Last U.S. Visit
Long ill, sensing his end was near, George Peabody made his last four-month U. S. visit, June 8 to September 29, 1869, to see family and friends and to add gifts to his U. S. institutes. Greatly weakened, he was met in New York City by intimates who also sensed this as his last U.S. visit.
The New York Times, June 9, 1869, reported his arrival "in advanced age and declining health...." "Wherever he goes," the article read, "he is worried by begging letters from individuals expecting him to get them out of some scrape... Now that he is in America he should be left to the quiet and repose he so greatly needs."
He went to Boston (June 10, 1869), then rested in Salem, Massachusetts, at nephew George Peabody Russell's (1835-1909) home.
On July 6, 1869, his nephew wrote to his uncle's intimate business friend William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888), who was at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia: "...Mr. Peabody...is weaker than when he arrived.... He has...decided to go to the White Sulphur Springs...[and asks you to] arrange accommodations for himself, and servant, for Mrs. Russell and myself."
In mid-June 1869 Peabody quietly visited the Boston Peace Jubilee and Music Festival and listened to the chorus. At intermission, Boston Mayor Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff (1810-74) announced Peabody's presence, which brought "a perfect storm of applause."
In a Sunday, June 20, sermon closing the Boston Peace Jubilee, the Reverend William Rounseville Alger (1822-1905) mentioned that George Peabody had done more to keep the peace between Britain and America than a hundred demagogues to destroy it.
On June 29, 1869, in more than doubling his fund for southern education, he wrote his trustees: "I now give you additional bonds [worth] $1,384,000..... I do this [hoping] that with God's blessing...it may...prove a permanent and lasting boon, not only to the Southern States, but to the whole of our dear country...." He added $50,000 to his first Peabody Institute Library (Peabody, Massachusetts, total gift $217,600). At the July 14, 1869, dedication of the Peabody Institute Library, Danvers, Massachusetts (to which he gave a total of $100,000), he said: "I can never expect to address you again collectively.... I hope that this institution will be...a source of pleasure and profit."
At a July 16, 1869, reception, Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Massachusetts, his 30 guests who arrived by special train from Boston included former Massachusetts Governor Clifford Claflin (1818-1905), Boston Mayor Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff, U.S. Senator Charles Sumner (1811-74), and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-94). Poet Holmes read aloud a poem titled "George Peabody" written specially for the occasion.
Two days later (July 18, 1869) Holmes described Peabody in a letter to U.S. Minister to Britain John Lothrop Motley (1814-77) as "the Dives who is going to Abraham's bosom and I fear before a great while...." On July 22, 1869, longtime friend Ohio Episcopal Bishop Charles Pettit McIlvaine (1799-1873) wrote to Peabody's philanthropic advisor Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94): "The White Sulphur Springs will, I hope, be beneficial to our excellent friend; but it can be only a very superficial good. [His] cough is terrible, and I have no expectation of his living a year...."
White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, July 23-Aug. 30, 1869
This was the background when Peabody arrived by special train at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, July 23, 1869. Present was Tennessee Superintendent of Public Instruction and later U.S. Commissioner of Education John Eaton, Jr. (1829-1906).
John Easton wrote in his annual report: "Mr. Peabody shares with ex-Governor Wise the uppermost cottage in Baltimore Row, and sits at the same table with General Lee, Mr. Corcoran, Mr. Taggart, and others.... Being quite infirm, he has been seldom able to come to parlor or dining room, though he has received many ladies and gentlemen at the cottage.... His manners are singularly affable and pleasing, and his countenance one of the most benevolent we have ever seen."
Peabody's confinement to his cottage prompted a meeting on July 27, 1869, at which former Virginia Governor Henry Alexander Wise (1806-76) drew up resolutions of praise read in Peabody's presence the next day (July 28, 1869) in the "Old White" hotel parlor. The resolutions read in part: "On behalf of the southern people we tender thanks to Mr. Peabody for his aid to the cause of education...and hail him 'benefactor.'"
Peabody, seated, replied, "If I had strength, I would speak more on the heroism of the Southern people. Your kind remarks about the Education Fund sound sweet to my ears. My heart is interwoven with its success."
Peabody Ball
Merrymakers at the "Old White" held a Peabody Ball on August 11, 1869. Too ill to attend, Peabody heard the gaiety from his cottage.
Historian Perceval Reniers wrote of this Peabody Ball: "The affair that did most to revive [the Southerners'] esteem was the Peabody Ball...given to honor...Mr. George Peabody.... Everything was right for the Peabody Ball. Everybody was ready for just such a climax, the background was a perfect build-up. Mr. Peabody appeared at just the right time and lived just long enough. A few months later it would not have been possible, for Mr. Peabody would be dead."
The PEF's first administrator Barnas Sears (1802-80), present at White Sulphur Springs that July 23-Aug. 30, 1869, recorded why Peabody's presence there was important to the PEF's work in promoting public education in the South. Sears wrote: "...both on account of his unparalleled goodness and of his illness among a loving and hospitable people [he received] tokens of love and respect from all, such as I have never before seen shown to any one. This visit...will, in my judgment, do more for us than a long tour in a state of good health...."
Famous Photos of George Peabody and Robert E. Lee
Peabody, Lee, and others were central figures in several remarkable photos taken at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, on August 12, 1869. In the main photograph the five individuals seated on cane-bottomed chairs were, left to right: Turkey's Minister to the U.S. Edouard Blacque Bey (1824-95); General Robert E. Lee, Peabody, William Wilson Corcoran, and Richmond, Virginia, judge and public education advocate James Lyons (1801-82).
Standing behind the five seated figures were seven former Civil War generals, their names in dispute until correctly identified in 1935 by Leonard T. Mackall of Savannah, Georgia (from left to right): James Conner (1829-83) of South Carolina, Martin W. Gary (1831-81) of South Carolina, Robert Doak Lilley (1836-86) of Virginia, P.G.T. Beauregard (1818-93) of Louisiana, Alexander Robert Lawton (1818-96) of Georgia, Henry Alexander Wise (1806-76) of Virginia, and Joseph L. Brent (b.1826) of Maryland.
There is also a photo of Peabody sitting alone and a photo of Lee, Peabody, and William Wilson Corcoran sitting together.
Peabody's Gifts to Lee
That August 1869 Peabody gave Lee a small private gift of $100 for Lee's Episcopal church in Lexington, Virginia, in need of repairs (William Wilson Corcoran also gave $100). Peabody also gave to Lee's Washington College Virginia state bonds he owned worth $35,000 when they were lost on the ship Arctic, a Collins Line steamer, sunk with the loss of 322 passengers on September 27, 1854, 20 miles off Cape Race, Newfoundland.
Peabody 's petition to the Virginia legislature to reimburse him for the lost bonds had been unsuccessful when he gave Lee's college the value of the bonds for a mathematics professorship. Eventually the value of the lost bonds and the accrued interest, $60,000 total, were paid by the State of Virginia to Washington and Lee University With wry humor Lee's biographer C.B. Flood described George Peabody's gift: "It was generosity with a touch of Yankee shrewdness: you Southerners go fight it out among yourselves. If General Lee can't get [this lost bond money] out of the Virginia legislature, nobody can."
Peabody left White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, August 30, 1869, in a special railroad car provided by longtime friend, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad President John Work Garrett (1820-84). Lee rode a short distance in the same car with Peabody. They parted, never to meet again.
Peabody recorded his last will (September 9, 1869) in New York City, had his tomb built at Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts (September 10, 1869), ordered a granite sarcophagus to mark his grave, and boarded the Scotia in New York City September 29, 1869. He landed at Queenstown, Ireland, October 8, 1869, and was rushed to rest at the London home of longtime business friend Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson (1806-85), where he died November 4, 1869.
Lee Sent His Photograph
On Sept. 25, 1869, at the request of Peabody Institute Librarian Fitch Poole (1803-73, Peabody, Massachusetts), Lee sent Poole a photograph of himself, adding that he would "feel honoured in its being placed among the 'friends' of Mr. Peabody, who can be numbered by the millions, yet all can appreciate the man who has [illumined] his age by his munificent charities during his life, and by his wise provisions for promoting the happiness of his fellow creatures."
Lee on Peabody's Death
Reading of Peabody's death in London (November 4, 1869), Robert E. Lee wrote (November 10, 1869) to Peabody's nephew George Peabody Russell, who had been with his uncle in White Sulphur Springs and there had met Lee: "The announcement of the death of your uncle, Mr. George Peabody, has been received with the deepest regret wherever his name and benevolence are known; and nowhere have his generous deeds--restricted to no country, section or sect--elicited more heartfelt admiration than at the South. He stands alone in history for the benevolent and judicious distribution of his great wealth, and his memory has become entwined in the affections of millions of his fellow-citizens in both hemispheres."
"I beg, in my own behalf," Lee continued, "and in behalf of the Trustees and Faculty of Washington College, Virginia, which was not forgotten by him in his act of generosity, to tender the tribute of our unfeigned sorrow at his death. ¶With great respect, Your obedient servant R.E. Lee."
Concern Over Lee's Attending Peabody's Funeral
Lee had been invited to attend Peabody's final funeral service and eulogy, South Congregational Church, Peabody, Massachusetts, followed by burial in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts, February 8, 1870.
But Peabody's intimates feared that Lee's attendance might evoke an ugly incident. After President Lincoln's assassination, Congressional radical Republicans, bent on revenge, crushed the defeated South with military rule. This anger was also strong among New England abolitionists.
Robert Charles Winthrop, Peabody's philanthropic advisor and president of the PEF trustees, who was to deliver Peabody's funeral eulogy February 8, 1870, feared that Lee's attendance might bring on a demonstration. On February 2, 1870, Winthrop wrote two private and confidential letters, the first to Baltimorean John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870): "There is apprehension here, that if Lee should come to the funeral, something unpleasant might occur, which would be as painful to us as to him. Would you contact friends to impart this to the General? Please do not mention that the suggestion came from me." Winthrop also wrote to Corcoran: "I write to you in absolute confidence. Some friends of ours, whose motives cannot be mistaken, are very anxious that Genl. Lee should not come to the funeral next week. They have also asked me to suggest that. Still there is always apprehension that from an irresponsible crowd there might come some remarks which would be offensive to him and painful to us all. I am sure he would be the last person to involve himself or us, needlessly, in a doubtful position on such an occasion."
Winthrop continued to Corcoran: "The newspapers at first said that he was not coming. Now, there is an intimation that he is. I know of no one who could [more] effectively give the right direction to his views than yourself. Your relation to Mr. Peabody & to Mr. Lee would enable you to ascertain his purposes & shape his course wisely.... I know of no one else to rely on."
One of the two Washington College trustees who planned to attend Peabody's funeral had earlier written to Corcoran (January 26, 1870): "I first thought that General Lee should not go, but have now changed my mind. Some of us believe that if you advise the General to attend he would do so. Use your own discretion in this matter."
Lee Too Ill to Attend
Lee explained in a January 26, 1870, letter to William Wilson Corcoran: "I am sorry I cannot attend the funeral obsequies of Mr. Peabody. It would be some relief to witness the respect paid to his remains, and to participate in commemorating his virtues; but I am unable to undertake the journey. I have been sick all the winter, and am still under medical treatment. I particularly regret that I shall not have the pleasure of seeing you. Two trustees of Washington College will attend the funeral. I hope you can join them."
On the same day Winthrop wrote his letters (February 2, 1870), Lee wrote his daughter Mildred Childe Lee (1846-1904) that he was too ill to attend: "I am sorry that I could not attend Mr. Peabody's funeral, but I did not feel able to undertake the journey, especially at this season."
Corcoran too replied to Winthrop that Lee had no intention of coming. Corcoran could not imagine, he wrote, that so good and great a man as Lee would receive anything but a kind reception. Himself ill, Corcoran wrote to Lee his regret that he could not attend to pay his respects to "my valued old friend." Peabody's intimates were relieved at confirmation that Lee's illness would definitely keep him from the funeral.
Trans-Atlantic Funeral Overview
Lee, Corcoran, and much of the English-speaking reading public, awed by Peabody's unusual 96-day transatlantic funeral, awaited its final scene: Robert Charles Winthrop's eulogy and Peabody's final burial (both February 8, 1870).
Peabody's funeral was unprecedented in length, pomp, and ceremony; was marked by cold stormy weather; involved the highest officials of England and the United States; was vastly publicized in the press of both countries; and was observed in person by many thousands of Britons and Americans. That funeral included:
1-a Westminster Abbey service (November 12, 1869) and temporary burial there for 30 days (November 12-December 11, 1869). When Peabody's will became known requiring burial in Salem, Massachusetts,
2-the British cabinet decided (November 10, 1869), at Queen Victoria's suggestion, to return his remains for burial in the U. S. on Her Majesty's Ship HMS Monarch, Britain's newest and largest warship, repainted for this grim occasion slate gray above the water line, with a specially built mortuary chapel. Next came a
3-U. S. government decision (made between November 12-15, 1869) to send the United States corvette USS Plymouth from Marseilles, France, to accompany HMS Monarch to the United States. Then followed
4-transfer (December 11, 1869) of Peabody's remains from Westminster Abbey, London, on a special funeral train to Portsmouth, England, impressive ceremonies at the transfer of remains from Portsmouth dock to HMS Monarch, specially outfitted as a funeral vessel. Next came the
5-transatlantic crossing of HMS Monarch and the USS Plymouth (December 21, 1869 to January 25, 1870) from Spithead near Portsmouth, past Ushant, France, to Madeira Island off Portugal, to Bermuda, and north to Portland, Maine, chosen by the British Admiralty because of its deeper harbor. A covert rivalry had early erupted between
6-Bostonians and New Yorkers about which city could provide the more solemn ceremony as receiving port. Thinking themselves the center of northeast society and fashion, each was disappointed when the British Admiralty chose Portland, Maine, whose deeper harbor more safely accommodated HMS Monarch's large size.
A contemporary news account described the petty jealousy: "When the mighty men of Boston knew that England's..."Monarch" was bringing the body of the great philanthropist to his last resting place, they called a meeting and decided with what fitting honors and glories it would be received.... but, when the telegraph flashed the astounding news that little Portland was to be the port...all was changed....[Bostonians were sure] that the Portlanders...would blunder...." On January 14, 1870, on President U. S Grant's approval,
7-U. S. Navy Secretary George Maxwell Robeson (1829-97) ordered Admiral David Glasgow Farragut (1801-70), a PEF trustee, to command a U.S. naval flotilla to meet HMS Monarch and USS Plymouth in Portland harbor, Maine (January 25, 1870). HMS Monarch's captain then requested, on behalf of Queen Victoria,
8-that the coffin remain aboard the Monarch in Portland harbor for two days (January 27-28, 1870).as a final mark of respect. Thousands of visitors, drawn to the spectacle, viewed the coffin in the somberly decorated Monarch's mortuary chapel. Peabody's remains then
9-lay in state in Portland City Hall (January 29-February 1, 1870), viewed by thousands.
10-A special funeral train from Portland, Maine, bore the remains to Peabody, Massachusetts (February 1, 1870). 11-Lying in state of Peabody's remains took place at the Peabody Institute Library (February 1-8, 1870).
The final ceremony, the press announced to an awed public, was to be 12-Robert Charles Winthrop's funeral eulogy at the South Congregational Church, Peabody, Massachusetts, attended by New England governors, mayors, Queen Victoria's son Prince Arthur, and other notables (February 8, 1870). Final burial would then follow at 13-Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts.
Why Such Unprecedented Funeral Honors?
Daily reports on Peabody's sinking condition in London had appeared in the British press. After his death the London Daily News recorded (November 8, 1869): "We have received a large number of letters, urging that the honours of a public funeral are due to the late Mr. Peabody's memory."
The Dean of Westminster Abbey, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-81), was in Naples, Italy, November 5, 1869, when he read of Peabody's death. Years later he recorded: "I was in Naples, and saw in the public papers that George Peabody had died. Being absent, considering that he was a foreigner, and at the same time, by reason of his benefactions to the City of London, entitled to a burial in Westminster Abbey, I telegraphed to express my wishes that his interment there should take place."
The Alabama Claims
Peabody died during tense, near warlike U. S.-British angers over two U. S. Civil War incidents, the Alabama Claims (1864-72) and the Trent Affair (September 8, 1861). CSS Alabama was a notorious British-built Confederate raider which sank 64 northern cargo ships during 1862-64.
Without a navy, with its southern ports blockaded by the North, Confederate agents slipped secretly to England, bought British-built ships, armed them as Confederate raiders, renamed them Alabama, Florida, Shenandoah, and others, which sank northern ships and cost northern lives and treasure.
Officially neutral in the U. S. Civil War, British officials were continually reminded of their breach of neutrality by U. S. Minister to Britain Charles Francis Adams (1807-86). Official U. S. demands for reparations for damages from British-built raiders (from1862) were resolved at a Geneva international tribunal (1871-72), requiring Britain to pay the United States $15.5 million indemnity.
At Peabody's death, November 4, 1869, this Alabama Claims controversy was unresolved and tense. Americans were angry; Britons were resentful. A desire to defuse angers over the Alabama Claims was one reason British officials first, and then United States officials to surpass them, outdid each other in unusual homage to Peabody's remains during his transatlantic funeral.
Trent Affair
There was also lingering resentment over the still rankling November 8, 1861 Trent Affair. On the stormy night of October 11, 1861, four Confederate emissaries, seeking aid and arms from Britain and France, evaded the Union blockade at Charleston, South Carolina, went by ship to Havana, Cuba, and there boarded the British mail ship Trent, bound for Southampton, England.
The Trent was illegally stopped in the Bahama Channel, West Indies (November 8, 1861) by USS San Jacinto's Captain Charles Wilkes (1798-1877). Confederates James Murray Mason (1798-1871, from Virginia), John Slidell (1793-1871, from Louisiana), and their male secretaries were forcibly removed and imprisoned in Boston harbor's Fort Warren Prison.
Anticipating war with the U. S., Britain sent 8,000 troops to Canada. But United States jingoism subsided. President Abraham Lincoln reportedly told his cabinet, "one war at a time," gentlemen, got the cabinet on December 26, 1861, to disavow the illegal seizure, and released the Confederate prisoners on January 1, 1862. But resentments lingered.
Besides softening near war U .S.-British tensions, another reason behind the Peabody funeral honors was British leaders' sincere appreciation for Peabody's gift of homes for London's working poor. Many marveled that an American would give that kind of gift in that large amount to a city and country not his own. Britons also valued Peabody's two decades of efforts to improve United States-British relations.
Prime Minister Gladstone
On November 9, 1869, in a major speech at the Lord Mayor's Day banquet, Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone (1808-98) referred to British-U.S. difficulties and then mentioned Peabody's death: "You will know that I refer to the death of Mr. Peabody, a man whose splendid benefactions...taught us in this commercial age...the most noble and needful of all lessons--...how a man can be the master of his wealth instead of its slave [cheers]."
"And, my Lord Mayor," Gladstone continued, "most touching it is to know, as I have learnt, that while, perhaps, some might think he had been unhappy in dying in a foreign land, yet so were his affections divided between the land of his birth and the home of his early ancestors, that...his [wish] has been realized--that he might be buried in America, [and] that it might please God to ordain that he should die in England [cheers]. My Lord Mayor, with the country of Mr. Peabody we are not likely to quarrel [loud cheers]."
Prime Minister Gladstone's cabinet met at 2:00 P.M., November 10, 1869, and confirmed Queen Victoria's suggestion of a Royal Navy ship to return Peabody's remains. Peabody funeral researcher Allen Howard Welch wrote: "The Queen, in fact, was personally grieved, and it was her own request that a man-of-war be employed to return Peabody to his homeland."
In the handing over ceremony of Peabody's remains from U .S. Minister to Britain John Lothrop Motley to HMS Monarch's Captain John Edmund Commerell (1829-1901), December 11, 1869, Portsmouth, England, U. S. Minister Motley explained: "The President of the United States, when informed of the death of George Peabody, the great philanthropist, at once ordered an American ship to convey his remains to America. Simultaneously, the Queen appointed one of Her Majesty's ships to perform that office. This double honor from the heads of two great nations to a simple American citizen is, like his gift to the poor, unprecedented. The President yields cordially to the wish of the Queen."
Praise for the Peabody Homes of London, 1862
Peabody's housing gift for London's working poor was announced March 12, 1862, while the U. S. and Britain still raged over the September 1861 Trent Affair. Peabody's gift evoked surprise and admiration in the British press, a sampling of which follows.
London Times, March 26, 1862: "Mr. George Peabody has placed £150,000 in the hands of a committee to relieve the condition of the poor of London. It is seldom that good works are done on such a scale as this one by an American in a city where he is only a sojourner.... [He] gives while he lives to those who can make no return.... He does this in a country not his own, in a city he may leave any day for his native land. Such an act is rare...."
London Daily Telegraph, March 27, 1862: "The noble gift of Mr. Peabody actually takes away the public breath...and sends a thrill through the public heart.... A man gives his fortune during his lifetime for an object going back to a resolution he had held more than a quarter of a century...to elevate the poor. Party strife and national bickering have not changed this good American; wars and rumours of wars have not turned him...from his...purpose."
London Morning Herald, March 27, 1862: "One of the merchant princes of the world has just presented [London] with a gift for which thousands will bless his name.... Whilst his countrymen are warring...with each other, this generous American is working out...good-will among his adopted people." London Sun, March 27, 1862: " How can England ever go to war with a nation whose leading man among us thus sympathizes with and blesses her poor? Who of us will not set the deed of Mr. Peabody...against that of Captain Wilkes....?"
London Review, March 29, 1862: "From America of late has come war, desolation, and animosity. The close ties of...friendships that linked Englishmen and Americans...seemed dissolved.... In the midst of this comes Mr. Peabody's gift to discard prejudices on both sides of the Atlantic. We have had a desperate family quarrel, and almost come to blows; Mr. Peabody...by a well-timed act...awakens...better sentiments."
Leeds Mercury, March 27, 1862: "An American citizen has now come forward to excite the wonder and admiration of the world."
When friend and sometime agent Horatio Gates Somerby (1805-72), a Vermont-born London resident genealogist, sent Peabody these London newspaper clippings, Peabody replied: "I had not the least conception that it would cause so much excitement over the country."
British Honors
British honors evoked by Peabody's gift to London included membership in the ancient guild of the Clothworkers' Company of London (July 2, 1862). He was granted the Freedom of the City of London (July 10, 1862), the first of only five American so honored; others being President U. S. Grant, June 15, 1877; President Theodore Roosevelt, May 3, 1910; General John J. Pershing, July 18, 1919; and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, June 1, 1945.
Peabody had been denied membership in London's Reform Club (1844) when Americans were disdained because nine U. S. states had stopped interest payments on their bonds sold abroad.
When payment was resumed retroactively Peabody, who had publicly urged this course, was admitted to the Parthenon Club (1848), the City of London Club (1850), and the most prestigious Athenaeum Club (March 12, 1862).
The Fishmongers' Company of London made Peabody an honorary member (April 18, 1866). When Oxford University granted him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree (June 26, 1867), undergraduates cheered, waved their caps, and beat the arms of their chairs with the flat of their hands. Jackson's Oxford Journal (June 29, 1867) recorded: "The lion of the day was beyond a doubt, Mr. Peabody."
Peabody's seated statue, sculptured and cast by Salem, Massachusetts-born William Wetmore Story (1819-95), paid for by public subscription, was unveiled July 23, 1869, on London's Threadneedle Street, near the Royal Exchange, by Queen Victoria's eldest son, the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. The only four statues of Americans in London include George Peabody (1869), Abraham Lincoln (1920), George Washington (1921), and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1948).
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria's advisors had informed Her Majesty that, when asked privately, Peabody had declined either a baronetcy or the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. To accept would be to lose his U. S. citizenship, which he felt he could not do. Her Majesty's Foreign Secretary Lord John Russell (1792-1878) suggested instead a letter from the Queen and the gift of a miniature portrait of the Queen, such as was given to foreign ambassadors who signed a treaty with Britain.
The Queen's letter to Peabody, March 28, 1866, expressed thanks for his "noble act of more than princely munificence...to relieve the wants of her poor subjects residing in London. It is an act...wholly without parallel.... "The Queen...understands Mr. Peabody to feel himself debarred from accepting [other] distinctions." [She asks him instead] "to accept a miniature portrait of herself, which she will have painted for him, and which...can...be sent to him in America."
Peabody thanked the Queen by letter on April 3, 1866. He received Her Majesty's miniature portrait from British Ambassador Sir Frederick Bruce (1814-67) in Washington, D.C., March 1867. It was 14" long by 10" wide, had been especially painted for him by British artist F. A. C. Tilt, baked on enamel, and set in a sold gold frame, said to have cost $70,000. It was deposited in a specially built vault, with Peabody's other honors, in the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Massachusetts.
John Bright to the Queen on George Peabody
British statesman and Member of Parliament John Bright (1811-89), who had befriended Peabody from 1867 and had gone fishing with him on the Shannon River, Limerick, Ireland, dined with the Queen, December 30, 1868. Bright recorded in his diary the conversation: "Some remarks were made about Mr. Peabody: it arose from something about Ireland, and my having been there on a visit to him. [The Queen] remarked what a very rich man he must be, and how great his gifts."
[Bright recorded that Peabody] "told me how he valued the portrait [the Queen] had given him, that he made a sort of shrine for it, and that it was a thing of great interest in America. Peabody then "said to me, 'The Americans are as fond of your Queen as the English are.' To which she replied, 'Yes, the American people have also been kind to me.'"
Queen Victoria's Second Letter to Peabody
Leaving London suddenly on what he knew would be his last U. S. visit, Peabody was in Salem, Massachusetts, when he received Queen Victoria's second letter. She wrote (June 20, 1869): "The Queen is very sorry that Mr. Peabody's sudden departure has made it impossible for her to see him before he left England, and she is concerned to hear that he is gone in bad health."
The Queen continued: "She now writes him a line to express her hope that he may return to this country quite recovered, and that she may then have the opportunity, of which she has now been deprived, of seeing him and offering him her personal thanks for all he has done for the people."
Publishing the Queen's letter, the New York Times added: "Queen Victoria has paid our great countryman a delicate and graceful compliment. Mr. Peabody left England unexpectedly, his departure known only to a few friends. His feeble health became known to the Queen through London newspapers. With her goodness of heart which Americans never fail to appreciate she sent him a personal letter." On July 19, 1869, Peabody replied, assuring the Queen of his "heartfelt gratitude."
Queen Victoria's Last Contact
Learning of Peabody's hasty return to London (October 8, 1869), before she knew of his precarious condition, she asked her privy councilor Arthur Helps (1813-75) to invite Peabody to visit her at Windsor Castle. Helps wrote to Sir Curtis Lampson in whose London home Peabody rested (Oct. 30, 1869): "'Regarding Mr. Peabody, the Queen thinks the best way would be for her to ask him down to Windsor for one or two nights, where he could rest--and need not come to dinner, or any meals if he feels unequal to it; but where she could see him quietly at any time of the day most convenient to him." But it was too late. Largely unconscious his last days, Peabody died November 4, 1869.
U. S. Honors
Chief among Peabody's U. S. honors was the U. S. Congressional Resolution of Thanks and Gold Medal for his PEF, passed in the U.S. Senate (March 8, 1867), in the U. S. House (March 9, 1867), and signed by President Andrew Johnson (March 16, 1867), who welcomed Peabody at the White House (April 25, 1867). These, his Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Harvard University (July 17, 1867), and his other honors received in the U. S. and England, are displayed in the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Massachusetts.
Winthrop's Eulogy, February 8, 1870
All was ready for the final act: Winthrop's eulogy of George Peabody, February 8, 1870, a bitterly cold day. Thousands poured into tiny Peabody, Massachusetts, by special morning trains which ran full from Boston. Large crowds were quiet and respectful. The 50 state troopers had little to do but give directions. South Congregational Church filled quickly. Queen Victoria's son, Prince Arthur (1850-1942), in the seventh pew from the pulpit, held all eyes. His retinue, including British Minister to the U. S. Sir Edward Thornton, sat nearby.
Behind Prince Arthur sat HMS Monarch Captain John E. Commerell, USS Plymouth's Captain William H. Macomb, Admiral Farragut's staff, Massachusetts Governor William Claflin, Maine Governor Joshua L. Chamberlain, the mayors of eight New England cities, Harvard University President Charles William Eliot (1834-1926), and others.
On the first six rows sat Peabody's relatives, elderly citizens who knew him in youth, and the trustees of his institutes and funds. Anthems were sung. Scripture was read. Robert Charles Winthrop rose to give the eulogy.
Robert Charles Winthrop was the descendant of an early governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Harvard University graduate, trained in Daniel Webster's law office, member and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Peabody's philanthropic advisor, and the PEF board of trustees president. Winthrop began: "What a career this has been whose final scene lies before us! Who can contemplate his rise from lowly beginnings to these final royal honors without admiration? His death, painless and peaceful, came after he completed his great dream and saw his old friends and loved ones."
Winthrop continued: "He had ambition and wanted to do grand things in a grand way. His public charity is too well known to bear repetition and I believe he also did much private good which remains unknown. The trusts he established, the institutes he founded, the buildings he raised stand before all eyes."
"I have authority for saying," Winthrop continued, "that he planned these for many years, for in private talks he told me all he planned and when I expressed my amazement at the magnitude of his purpose, he said to me with guileless simplicity: 'Why Mr. Winthrop, this is no new idea to me. From the earliest of my manhood, I have contemplated some such disposition of my property; and I have prayed my heavenly Father, day by day, that I might be enabled, before I died, to show my gratitude for the blessings which He has bestowed upon me by doing some great good to my fellow-men.'"
The words underlined above are engraved on Peabody's marker in Westminster Abbey, London, where his remains rested for 30 days, November 12-December 11, 1869. That marker and the above words on it were refurbished for the February 12, 1995, bicentennial ceremony of Peabody's birth held in London's Westminster Abbey.
Winthrop further said: "To measure his gifts in dollars and pounds or in the number of people served is inadequate. He did something more. The successful way he arranged the machinery of world-wide philanthropy compels attention. It is a lesson that cannot be lost to history. It has inspired and will continue to inspire others to do likewise. This was the greatness of his life."
"Now, all that is mortal of him," Winthrop said, "comes back, borne with honors that mark a conquering hero. The battle he fought was the greed within him. His conquest was the victory he achieved over the gaining, hoarding, saving instinct. Such is the conqueror we make ready to bury in the earth this day. Winthrop continued: "And so was fulfilled for him a prophecy he heard once as the subject of a sermon, on which by some force of reflection lingered in his mind and which he more than once mentioned to me: 'And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear nor dark; but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, or night: but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light.'"
Winthrop said that Peabody first heard this text, Zechariah 14: 6-7, in a sermon by the Reverend Dr. John Lothrop (1772-1820) of Brattle Street, Boston, date not known.
Winthrop concluded: "And so we bid thee farewell, noble friend. The village of thy birth weeps. The flower of Essex County stands at thy grave. Massachusetts mourns her son. Maine does honor to thee. New England and Old England join hands because of thee. The children of the South praise thy works. Chiefs of the Republic stand with royalty at thy bier. And so we bid thee farewell, friend of mankind."
Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass.
The New York Times described the final burial scene at Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts, on February 8, 1870: "There were about two hundred sleigh coaches in the procession. The route was shortened somewhat in consequence of the prevalence of the storm. On arriving at the Peabody tomb, there was no special service, the coffin being placed reverently therein, after which the procession returned to the Institute, and the great pageantry attending the obsequies of the great philanthropist was ended."
Harmony Grove Cemetery's 65 acres of avenues and walks, first laid out in 1840, had been a thick walnut grove when Peabody was a boy. He could see it from the attic of the house where he was born. On a knoll where he had once played he had chosen the family burial plot on Anemone Ave., lot number 51. There, where he had brought together the remains of his mother, father, sisters, and brothers, he was laid to rest. Ninety-six days of unprecedented funeral honors had ended. His works remain. Public memory of him has since grown dim, except at his institutes and among those who care to search the records.
Memory has also dimmed of those few days that summer of 1869 at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, when two old men, one from Massachusetts, the other from Virginia, turned from Civil War strife to the healing power of education.
One, a lifelong soldier, had become president of a struggling college; the other, a volunteer for 14 days in the War of 1812, merchant, London-based banker, and creator of philanthropic institutions. The two old men walked arm in arm, enjoyed each other, spoke of educating new generations, of reconciliation, of healing, and of better days to ahead.
END.
Addendum:
For free access to most pages of Franklin Parker, George Peabody, A Biography (Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 1995, rev. updates, with photos), access:
2 of 14: George Peabody (1795-1869): A-Z Handbook...., by Franklin and Betty J.
2 of 14: George Peabody (1795-1869): A-Z Handbook...., by Franklin and Betty J. Parker, bfparker@frontiernet.net
Following Background "Preface" below 2 of 14 blogs covers alphabetically: Buchanan, James. 1 to Curry, J.L.M. 10.
Background: "Preface" 1 of 14 tells the why-when-where-how-findings-and-motives of the authors’ research on Franklin Parker’s doctoral dissertation, “George Peabody, Founder of Modern Philanthropy,” completed 1956 at George Peabody College for Teachers, adjoining Vanderbilt University, which on July 1, 1979, became Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, Nashville.
George Peabody, so well known in the 1850s-60s but since sadly neglected, was a significant 19th century figure as: 1-a Massachusetts-born merchant in the U.S. South: Riggs & Peabody, later Peabody & Riggs (1814-38), who imported dry goods and other commodities (worldwide) for sale to U.S. wholesalers. George Peabody then became: 2-a London-based merchant-banker, George Peabody & Co. (1838-64), who financed in part the B&O RR, the 2nd Mexican War Loan, the Atlantic Cable, and with J.S. Morgan as partner, was the root of the JP Morgan international banking firm. Finally, this merchant-turned-banker became: 3-the best known philanthropist of his time (1850s-60s), who founded the Peabody Homes of London for the working poor; in the U.S. 7 Peabody Libraries and Lecture Halls; the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore; three Peabody Museums at Harvard (Anthropology), Yale (Paleontology), and the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA (maritime history); and founder of the Peabody Education Fund for the South (1867-1914), basis for all later larger U.S. funds and foundations. End of Background.
Buchanan, James (1791-1868). 1-Was U.S. Minister to Britain. James Buchanan was the 15th U.S. president during 1857-61. He was born near Mercersberg, Penn., was a lawyer, served in the Penn. legislature for two terms (from 1814), was U.S. Congressman (1821-31), Minister to Russia (1832-33), U.S. Sen. (1834-45), U.S. Secty. of State (1845-49), and U.S. Minister to Britain (1853-56), when his legation secretary Daniel Edgar Sickles (1825-1914) created an incident. See: Presidents, U.S., and GP. Sickles, Daniel Edgar.
Buchanan, James. 2-Sickles Affair. At a GP-sponsored July 4, 1854, U.S.-British friendship dinner super patriot Sickles remained seated and then walked out while others stood when GP toasted Queen Victoria before toasting the U.S. President. Buchanan, who thought Sickles was slack in his work as secretary, was embarrassed because, like GP, he wanted to improve British-U.S. relations. The incident was aggravated when Sickles charged GP in the press as toadying to the Queen. When GP visited Washington, D.C., Jan. 1857, there was a coolness between then-Pres. Buchanan and GP. Ref.: Ibid.
Buchanan, John (1772-1844). 1-Md. Bond Agents Abroad. John Buchanan was one of three commissioners appointed by the Md. Assembly to sell abroad its bonds to raise $8 million for internal improvements. When commissioner Samuel Jones, Jr. (1800-74), resigned to become a state senator, he backed GP to replace him. Despite some opposition, GP was appointed commissioner. Amid the financial Panic of 1837 GP and the other two commissioners, John Buchanan and Thomas Emory, tried unsuccessfully to sell the bonds in London, Paris, and Amsterdam. The other two agents returned to the U.S. by Oct. 8, 1837. On this, GP's fifth business trip to Europe, he remained in London for the rest of his life (1837-69), 32 years, except for three U.S. visits: 1-Sept. 15, 1856 to Aug. 19, 1857, 2-May 1, 1866 to May 1, 1867, and 3-June 8 to Sept. 29, 1869. See: Md.'s $8 Million Bond Sale Abroad and GP.
Buchanan, John. 2-GP's Delayed Reward. The economic depression hindered GP's sale of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Co. portion of Md.'s $8 million bonds. Md. and eight other states felt they had to stop their bond interest payments. GP publicly urged Md. officials to resume interest payments and assured British investors that resumed payments would be retroactive. GP finally sold the bonds cheaply for exclusive resale by the Baring Brothers, Britain's largest and oldest banking firm. Not wanting to burden economically depressed Md., GP declined the $60,000 commission due him. Ref.: Ibid.
Buchanan, John. 3-Md. Legislature's Resolution of Praise. By the time Md. had recovered economically and resumed its bond interest payments (1847), GP had withdrawn his capital from Peabody, Riggs & Co. (1829-48) and was in transition from merchant to London-based broker-banker in U.S. securities. The Md. governor's 1847 annual report to the legislative Assembly singled out GP as one, "who never claimed or received one dollar of the $60,000 commission due him...whilst the State was struggling with her pecuniary difficulties." On March 7, 1848, both houses of Md.'s Assembly passed a unanimous resolution of praise to GP. Md. Gov. Philip Francis Thomas (1810-90) sent these resolutions to GP in London, adding: "To you, Sir,...the thanks of the State were eminently due." It took ten years for GP's efforts in selling Md. bonds to be publicly appreciated. Ref.: Ibid.
Buck, Paul Herman (1899-1978), was a U.S. historian who wrote of the PEF: "As in his [GP's] gifts to England he had hoped to link two nations in friendly bonds, now after the Civil War it seemed to him most imperative to use his bounty in the restoration of good will between North and South.... The Peabody Education Fund...was an experiment in harmony and understanding between the sections.... Not only was the gift of Peabody one of the earliest manifestations of a spirit of reconciliation, but it was also a most effective means of stimulating that spirit in others." Ref.: Buck, pp. 164, 166. See: PEF.
Buddington, Samuel, Capt. 1-GP gave $10,000 for science equipment for the Second U.S. Grinnell Expedition of 1853-55, led by U.S. Navy Capt. Dr. Elisha Kent Kane (1820-57, a naval surgeon), searching for lost British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin (1786-1847). HMS Resolute was a British ship abandoned in the Arctic ice in the decade-long search for Sir John Franklin. Capt. Samuel Buddington of the U.S. whaler George Henry found and extricated the Resolute. The U.S. government purchased the damaged Resolute, repaired it, and returned it to Britain as a gift. See: Franklin, Sir John.
Buddington, Samuel. 2-White House Desk. When the Resolute was broken up, Queen Victoria had a massive desk made from its timbers and gave it to the U.S. President. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-94) found the desk in a storeroom in 1961 and had it refurbished for Pres. John F. Kennedy's (1917-63) use. Famous photos show President Kennedy's young son John F. Kennedy, Jr. (1960-99), playing under that desk. Pres. Clinton returned the desk to the Oval Office in 1993. Ref.: Ibid. See: persons named.
Buffalo, NY. For GP's visit to U.S. Pres. Millard Fillmore (1800-74) at Fillmore's home in Buffalo, NY, Nov. 4, 1856, and connections with Fillmore, with sources, see Fillmore, Millard. Presidents, U.S., and GP.
CSS Alabama
Bulloch, James Dunwody (1823-1901). 1-Purchased Confederate Ships from England. Confederate Navy Secty. Stephen Russell Mallory (1813-73) sent Commander James Dunwody Bulloch (Bullock, in some sources) to England in May 1861 to purchase ships for the nonexistent Confederate Navy. Bulloch purchased from Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, England, the newly built "Hull No. 290," soon named the SS Enrica, which was subsequently outfitted for war and renamed the CSS Alabama at the end of July 1862. See: Adams, Charles Francis. Alabama Claims.
Bulloch, J.D. 2-U.S. Minister C.F. Adams Protested. On June 23, 1862, U.S. Minister to Britain Charles Francis Adams (1807-86) warned the British Foreign Office that by building the Alabama as a Confederate warship, Britain was breaking its neutrality. Minister Adams attached affidavits from involved seamen as proof of his charge. But British Customs law officials ruled the evidence insufficient. Ref.: Ibid.
Bulloch, J.D. 3-Alabama Sunk Union Ships. CSS Alabama was put under the command of Capt. Raphael Harwood Semmes (1809-77), whose first ship, the Sumter, had already severely damaged Union commerce before it was bottled up in Gibraltar in Jan. 1862. In its rampaging two-year cruise (June 1862 to June 1864) covering 67,000 nautical miles, CSS Alabama hijacked or sank 64 Union ships. Her crew were largely pirate-adventurers from many nations, including Britain. Ref.: Ibid.
Bulloch, J.D. 4-C.S.S. Alabama Sunk by USS Kearsarge. Needing repairs, the Alabama entered Cherbourg, France, June 11, 1864, where it was intercepted by the USS Kearsarge, under Capt. John Ancrum Winslow (1811-73), June 14, 1864. The Alabama came out to do battle and was sunk, June 19, 1864, in one of the last romanticized gunnery duels in the era of wooden ships, seen by thousands of observers offshore. Capt. Semmes and some of his officers and crew were rescued by the British yacht Deerhound and taken to an English port. Remains of the Alabama were found Oct. 1984 and artifacts were raised from Cherbourg harbor. Ref.: Ibid.
Bulloch, J.D. 5-International Alabama Claims Commission. An international Alabama Claims Commission that met in Geneva, Switzerland, Dec. 187l to Sept. 1872, awarded the U.S. $15.5 million to be paid by Britain for British-built raiders (Alabama and others), which destroyed 257 Union ships. Confederate raider successes compelled Union ship owners to transfer ownership of over 700 vessels to foreign registries. U.S. merchant marine activity was set back for half a century. Ref.: Ibid.
Bulloch, J.D. 6-GP's Death. Two years before GP's death, his name was mentioned as a possible arbitrator on the Alabama Claims Commission but was dropped because of age and illness. GP died in London Nov. 4, 1869, at the height of U.S.-British angers over U.S. loss of lives and treasure caused by the CSS Alabama and other British-built ships. When it became known that GP's will stipulated burial in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass., British officials, for political reasons, to ease U.S.-British near-war hysteria, decided to return GP's remains to the U.S. on a royal vessel. Ref.: Ibid.
Bulloch, J.D. 7-Remains Returned on HMS Monarch. In a Lord Mayor's Day banquet speech, British PM William Ewart Gladstone (1809-98) said (Nov. 9, 1869): "With Mr. Peabody's nation we will not quarrel." The next day (Nov. 10, 1869) his cabinet offered HMS Monarch, Britain's newest and largest warship, as funeral vessel. A GP funeral service was held at Westminster Abbey and his remains lay in state in the Abbey for 30 days (Nov. 12 to Dec. 11, 1869). Ref.: Ibid.
Bulloch, J.D. 8-Unprecedented Transatlantic Funeral. HMS Monarch, with GP's remains aboard, escorted by USS Plymouth, a U.S. warship from Marseilles, France, crossed the Atlantic, to be met in Portland harbor, Me., on Pres. U.S. Grant's orders by a flotilla of U.S. ships commanded by Adm. David G. Farragut (1801-70). GP's unusual 96-day British-U.S. transatlantic funeral ended with final burial on Feb. 8, 1870, in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass. Besides the political motive to ease U.S.-British angers over the Alabama Claims, there was genuine appreciation for GP's philanthropy, largely in the U.S. but also by Britain for his $2.5 million Peabody model apartments for London's working poor (from March 12, 1862). Ref.: Ibid.
Bulloch, J.D. 9-Bulloch's Sister Married Theodore Roosevelt. An interesting sidelight is that Confederate Navy Commander James Dunwody Bulloch's sister, Martha Bulloch (d. Feb. 12, 1884), married NYC's Theodore Roosevelt (1831-77). Their same-named son, Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), the 26th U.S. Pres. during 1901-09, was a trustee during 1901-14 of Peabody Normal College (1875-1911), Nashville, Tenn., which became GPCFT (1914-79) and continues as PCofVU (since July 1, 1979). Ref.: (Bulloch-Roosevelt connection): Hendrick, p. 370. Thayer, p. 4. See: persons named.
Bullock, James Dunwody (1823-1901). See: Bulloch, James Dunwody.
Bülow, Hans Guido Freiherr von (1830-94), was a German conductor and pianist, studied with Richard Wagner (1813-83) and Franz Liszt (1811-86), was court musician to Ludwig, King of Bavaria (1786-1868), and teacher of Asger Hamerik (1843-1923), PIB's Academy (Conservatory after 1874) of Music's first director. Director Hamerik enhanced the prestige of the PIB Academy of Music by attracting eminent world musicians, including Hans von Bülow, who performed during Dec.-Jan. 1875-1876. Other famous performers Director Hamerik brought to perform and lecture at the PIB were Russian-born composer Anton Rubinstein (1829-94); British popular composer Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) of Gilbert and Sullivan fame in late Dec. 1879; and Russian composer Peter Illytch Tschaikowsky (1840-93) in spring, 1891. Hans Guido Freiherr von Bülow wrote in a London paper that "Baltimore was the only place in America where I had proper support." See: PIB.
Bulwer-Lytton, Sir Henry (1801-72). Sir Henry Bulwer-Lytton (William Henry Lytton Earle Bulwer) was an English author, MP (1830-36, 1868-71), and Minister to the U.S. (1849-52) when he attended GP's Oct. 27, 1851, London dinner honoring the departing U.S. exhibitors at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London (first world's fair). He was praised at the dinner by the main speaker, U.S. Minister to Britain Abbott Lawrence (1792-1855). See: William Wilson Corcoran. Dinners, GP's, London. Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair). Lawrence, Abbott.
Bunker Hill, anniversary of battle of. GP gave a dinner in London attended by British and U.S. guests on June 17, 1852, the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill (Boston, July 17, 1775). See: Dinners, GP's, London.
Bunker Hill Memorial Monument (Boston). 1-GP's Donation. GP gave $500 as a patriotic gift in 1845 to help build the Bunker Hill Memorial Monument. Early in the American Revolution, with British ships in command of Boston Harbor, British troops determined to defeat the rebels by taking two high points, Bunker Hill (110 feet high) and Breed's Hill (75 feet high) in Boston's Charlestown district. Under night cover, the Americans seized the heights first, holding off the British until the Americans ran out of gunpowder. Despite having lost the battle (July 17, 1775), the Americans were heartened that their 1,600 ill-trained volunteers had held off 2,400 trained British troops and had caused the enemy 1,054 casualties to their own 100 dead, 267 wounded, and 30 taken prisoners. The Bunker Hill Memorial Monument cornerstone was laid by the Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834) July 17, 1825. GP, permanently in London since Feb. 1837, helped pay for the monument's completion. See: GP, Philanthropy. Peabody, Thomas (GP's father).
Bunker Hill Memorial Monument (Boston). 2-Post-Civil War attacks on GP's Loyalty. It is interesting to note, in view of post-Civil War attacks on GP's loyalty to the Union, that his father Thomas Peabody, some of whose forebears had fought in the French and Indian Wars, was one of 54 Peabodys who fought in the American Revolution, and that GP briefly served in the War of 1812. Ref.: Ibid. See: Civil War and GP.
Burdett-Coutts, Baroness Angela Georgina (1814-1906). 1-Lady Philanthropist. Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts was a prominent 19th century British philanthropist. England's famous journal of satire, Punch, on July 27, 1867, had a cartoon and long poem praising GP and Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts as the most prominent 19th century philanthropists. British-born Baroness Burdett-Coutts (she was created a peeress in 1871) inherited much land from her banker-grandfather, Thomas Coutts (1735-1822?). She built and endowed churches and schools; endowed three colonial bishoprics in Capetown, South Africa; Adelaide, Australia; and British Columbia, Canada. She aided Australian aborigines and Turkish peasants, built several water fountains in London, and built low-rent model homes for some 300 families at Columbia Square, London. Ref.: Punch (London), July 27, 1867, p. 33.
Burdett-Coutts, Baroness Angela Georgina. 2-Attended GP's July 4, 1851, Dinner. Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts attended GP's July 4, 1851, dinner and ball at Willis's Rooms, London, during the Great Exhibition in London of 1851 (first world's fair), with the Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley Wellington, 1769-1852) as guest of honor. For her attendance and details of the July 4, 1851, dinner, see Corcoran, William Wilson. Dinners in London, GP's. Great Exhibition in London of 1851 (first world's fair). Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Prince Albert).
Burk, Kathleen, author of Morgan Grenfell 1838-1988: The Biography of a Merchant Bank (London: Oxford University Press, 1989). See: Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990).
Burton, Asa (1752-1836), was a well known minister at the church five miles from Post Mills village, near Thetford, Vt., which GP attended in the winter of 1810. GP, then age 15, was visiting his maternal grandmother Judith Spofford Dodge (1749-1828) and grandfather Jeremiah Dodge (1744-1824). Ref.: Baldwin, J. A. pp. 12-15. See: Concord, N.H. Internet site (seen) March 18, 2000): http://www.valley.net~conriver/V13-7.htm Persons named. Thetford, Vt.
Bushby, Asa (1834-89), a photographer. Peabody Institute Librarian, Peabody, Mass., Fitch Poole's (1803-73) diary listed under date of Feb. 6, 1870, after GP's funeral service: "Bushby & Hart [photographers] taking views in library room." See: Death and Funeral, GP's.
Business career, GP's. See: Peabody, George. George Peabody & Co. Morgan, Junius Spencer. Peabody, Riggs & Co. Elisha Riggs, Sr. Riggs, Peabody & Co.
Butler, Benjamin Franklin (1818-93), was a U.S. Representative from Mass. (Republican) who spoke at the Dec. 21, 1869, debate on U.S. House Resolution No. 96, which asked Pres. U.S. Grant (1822-85) to order a U.S. Navy reception to receive GP's remains at the U.S. receiving port. The resolution, with some objection, was passed in the House that day, passed in the Senate on Dec. 23, 1869, and was signed into law by Pres. Grant on Jan. 10, 1870. B.F. Butler was born in Deerfield, N.H., graduated from what is now Colby College, Me. (1838), was a criminal lawyer and politician in Lowell and then Boston, Mass., served in the Mass. Legislature (1852 and 1858) and the Mass. Senate (1859-60), was a harsh and controversial Civil War Union general, a radical Republican in the U.S. House (1866-75) who led in the unsuccessful impeachment of Pres. Andrew Johnson; Mass. Gov. (1882), and nearly always in controversy. See: Death and funeral, GP's.
Butler, Charles (1802-97), is believed to be the NYC banker who gave Delia Salter Bacon (1811-59) a letter of introduction to GP in London. Charles Butler was born in Kinderhook Landing (now Stuyvesant), Columbia County, N.Y., was a lawyer (1824), helped establish Hobart College, Geneva, N.Y., was associated with a railroad link to Chicago, helped found and was active in the affairs of Union Theological Seminary, NYC (1836), and was a frequent visitor abroad. Delia S. Bacon, U.S. writer, was an early believer in the theory that William Shakespeare's plays were written by a group consisting of mainly Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618), and Edmund Spenser (1551-99). Ref.: Muzzey, Vol. 2, Part l, pp. 359-360. See Bacon, Delia Salter.
Buttre, John Chester (1821-93), engraver-artist who made an engraving of a GP photo, half-length facing right, taken by photographer Mathew B. Brady (1823-96), perhaps in Brady's NYC studio when the PEF trustees met in NYC on or about March 23, 1867. Copy of the engraving is in the Library of Congress BIOG FILE (b&w film copy neg.). Ref.: Library of Congress BIOG FILE. See: Brady, Mathew. Peabody, George, Illustrations.
C
Cairo, Ill. During GP's Sept. 15, 1856-Aug. 19, 1857, U.S. visit, his first return to the U.S. after nearly 20 years' absence in London (since Feb. 1837), he visited Cairo, Ill. (March 24-April 2, 1857), where he owned city bonds. See: Augusta, Ga.
Caldwell, Sally. On Jan. 20, 1814, in Newburyport, Mass., GP's oldest brother David Peabody (1790-1841) married Sally Caldwell, who died soon after 1815, leaving a son named George Peabody (1815-32) after his uncle. See: Chandler, Julia Adelaide (née Peabody). Peabody, David.
Cambridge, Mass. See: Harvard Univ. honorary degree to GP. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
Am. Association in London
Campbell, Robert Blair (d.1862). 1-Americans in London. Robert Blair Campbell was U.S. Consul, London, England (1854-61). He presided over a July 4, 1858, dinner for Americans in London organized by a then newly formed American Association in London, a fraternal club to aid needy U.S. visitors. The club was led by newer American residents in London like Robert Blair Campbell, U.S. Legation Secty. Benjamin Moran (1820-86), and others. They feigned respect for but were privately jealous and critical of older American residents in London like GP. Moran, Blair, and a few others sponsored for a few years July 4th Independence Day dinners in London, which GP had initiated from 1850. See: Fell, Jesse Weldon. Persons named.
Campbell, R.B. 2-Career. Robert Blair Campbell was born in S.C., graduated from S.C. College (1809, later the Univ. of S.C.), was a farmer, a commander in the S.C. militia (from 1814), a general of S.C. troops (1833; in his journal Benjamin Moran referred to R.B. Campbell as "Gen. Campbell), a member of the S.C. Senate (1821-23, 1830), and a U.S. House of Rep. member from S.C. (1823-25, 1834-35, 1835-37). He moved to Ala. where he was in the Ala. House of Rep. (1840), was U.S. Consul in Havana, Cuba (1842-50); then moved to Texas where he was appointed a commissioner in determining the U.S.-Mexico border (1853); was U.S. Consul, London, England (1854-61); died in 1862 and was buried in London, July 12, 1862. Ref.: Campbell, p. 94. Wallace and Gillespie, I, p. 9, footnote 12 (many entries in index).
Canada. GP visited Toronto and Montreal, Canada, on Oct. 15 to Nov. 1, 1856 (he suffered gout attacks on this visit). He visited Montreal on July 7-22, 1866, when he traveled on the Saguenay River and fished for salmon on the Marguerite River. See: Visits to the U.S. by GP. Montreal, Canada. Quebec, Canada. Toronto, Canada.
Cannes, France. GP went to Cannes, France, March 16, 1868, where he visited George Eustis (1828-72), who was Washington, D.C., business friend William Wilson Corcoran's (1798-1888) son-in-law. W.W. Corcoran's only daughter Louise Morris (née Corcoran) Eustis died Dec. 4, 1867, leaving three children. From Cannes on March 16 or 17, 1868, GP and his philanthropic advisor Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94) went to Paris, France, where they were received by Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, 1808-73) and Empress Eugénie (1826-1920). For details of GP's visits to Rome, Italy, and Paris, France, during Feb.-Mar. 1868, with sources, see: persons named. San Spirito Hospital, Rome, Italy.
Carlyle, Thomas (1795-1881), was a Scottish-born author who, with a few others, gave friendly aid but no encouragement to eccentric U.S. writer Delia Salter Bacon's (1811-59) theory that William Shakespeare's (1554-1616) plays were written by Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and others. For Bacon's inconsequential connection with GP, see: Bacon, Delia Salter. Butler, Charles.
HMS Monarch as Funeral Ship
Carnegie, Andrew (1835-1919). 1-Industrialist-Philanthropist. Andrew Carnegie was the Scottish-born immigrant to Pittsburgh, Penn., who rose from cotton mill bobbin boy, to telegrapher, to Penn. Railroad superintendent, to iron manufacturer, to steel magnate of what became the U.S. Steel Corporation. His various funds and foundations totaled over $350 million, including his well known Carnegie library buildings. His 1889 essay, "The Gospel of Wealth," urged the rich to use their wealth for public good.
Carnegie, Andrew. 2-1869 Connection with GP. In his Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie, 1933, he recalled reading of the launching of Britain's largest warship HMS Monarch, publicized in some jingoistic British newspapers as able to level a U.S. port city. Soon after, reading that GP had died in London (Nov. 4, 1869) and that GP's will required burial in Mass., he telegraphed British cabinet member John Bright (1811-99): "First and best service for Monarch, bringing home the body of Peabody." "Strange to say," he wrote, "this was done, and thus the Monarch became the messenger of peace, not of destruction." Ref.: Carnegie, p. 270. See: Bright, John. Death and Funeral, GP's.
Carnegie, Andrew. 3-1913 Connection with GPCFT. PCofVU historian Sherman Dorn described how former U.S. Pres. William Howard Taft (1857-1930, 27th U.S. Pres. during 1909-13) wrote to Andrew Carnegie for funds for GPCFT. Historian Dorn wrote: "In a letter of 15 May 1913, former president William Taft wrote to industrialist philanthropist [Andrew] Carnegie that he should support Peabody College to help supply competent teachers for Southern schools: 'I doubt if you could do anything that would so help the white people of the south in an educational way as to contribute this last $200,000' of the campaign." Carnegie did not respond but others contributed`. Ref.: Dorn, p. 17. See: persons named. PCofVU.
Oxford Honorary Degree
Carroll, Lewis (1832-98). 1-GP's Oxford Honorary Degree, 1867. Lewis Carroll was the pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1864. He was born in Daresbury near Warrington, England; graduated from Christ Church College, Oxford (1854); took Anglican Church orders (1861); and taught mathematics at Oxford (1861-81). He was on duty as an Oxford don on Founders' and Benefactors' Day, June 26, 1867, when Oxford Univ. granted GP an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Ref.: Dodgson, I, p. 261.
Carroll, Lewis. 2-Journal Entry. In his journal entry that day (June 26) Dodgson recorded: "I was introduced to the hero of the day, Mr. Peabody." Background: Dr. Henry Longueville Mansel (1820-71) of Oxford's Christ Church College wrote asking GP if he would accept an Oxford honorary degree. GP accepted by letter on June 5, 1867. The ceremony was held during Oxford's Encaenia, combining commencement with the celebration of spring, occasioned by readings, poetry, music, lectures, and a full-dress university parade, reflecting centuries of British tradition. Ref.: Ibid.
Carroll, Lewis. 3-Sheldonian Theatre. The honorary degree ceremony was held in the Sheldonian Theatre. Undergraduates, exerting their traditional right of banter, called aloud the names of dignitaries whom they either cheered or hissed. They cheered Lord Derby, groaned at MP John Bright (1811-99), both cheered and hissed PM William E. Gladstone (1809-98), and acclaimed PM Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81). Ref.: Ibid.
Carroll, Lewis. 4-"The lion of the day." GP was one of six individuals granted an honorary degree that day. When GP's name was called and he stood up, undergraduates applauded him, waved their caps, and beat the arms of their chairs with the flat of their hands. Jackson's Oxford Journal, June 29, 1867, recorded: "The lion of the day was beyond a doubt, Mr. Peabody." The Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford's famous assembly hall, was designed in 1669 by Christopher Wren, who was then astronomy professor at Oxford Univ. It was Wren's first major architectural commission and was named after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Gilbert Sheldon, who commissioned the theater while he was Oxford Univ.'s chancellor. Ref.: Ibid. Jackson's Oxford Journal, June 29, 1867, p. 5, c. 4-6. See: persons named. Oxford Univ., England. Honors, GP's.
Baltimore Lady to Whom GP Twice Proposed Marriage
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox) (1799-1880). 1-Alleged Romance. PIB Librarian Frank N. Jones's (b. 1906) pamphlet, George Peabody and the Peabody Institute, 1965, reported that in 1958 Mrs. Charles Rieman (formerly Elizabeth Taylor Goodwin who married Charles Rieman in 1899) gave the PIB Library an undated manuscript by Baltimore lawyer and philanthropist James Wilson Leakin (1857-1922) entitled "Family Tree of the Knoxes and Their Connections." In that manuscript an Oct. 17 1902, letter from James Wilson Leakin to Henrietta Cowman on their Knox ancestry told of a romance between GP and Elizabeth (née Knox) Carson, daughter of Samuel and Grace (née Gilmore) Knox of Baltimore. The relevant part of that letter is given below. Ref.: Jones, p. 7. See: Md. Historical Society Reference Librarian Francis P. O'Neill's Aug. 30, 2001, letter to the authors in which he shared the content of J.W. Leakin's Oct. 17 1902, letter (Librarian O'Neill's letter in the authors' possession).
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 2-GP's First Proposal (c. 1815-17). Of GP's first meeting with Elizabeth Carson, his marriage proposal, and her father's disapproval J.W. Leakin wrote: "…Of the younger daughter [of Rev. Samuel Knox] there is a very romantic story told by the daughter of a lady who was very intimate with her: 'When she [Elizabeth Carson] was quite a young girl, a clerk in a banking-house addressed her on a walk across the Long Bridge; that clerk's name was George Peabody. On the return he spoke to her father and he [her father] declined to give his [GP's] suit any encouragement because he had no means to support her and she afterwards married Mr. Carson, who was a man in a comfortable business, but who failed, leaving her with four or five children.'" Ref.: Ibid.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 3-GP's Second Proposal (probably Jan. 26 to Feb. 14, 1857). J.W. Leakin's letter then described GP's second unsuccessful proposal: "When Mr. Peabody heard that she was a widow, after the lapse of years and the attendant incumbrances which it had brought to her, he came back and again addressed her while she was obliged to work for a living, keeping a boarding house. At that time Mr. Peabody was one of the leading bankers of the world, having a house in New York, London and Washington. Mrs. Carson had the old world idea, of those who are strictly brought up, that there was a great deal of deceitfulness in riches, and the story goes that she spent all night in prayer to know whether or not she ought to accept Mr. Peabody and on the next morning she told him that she felt she could not accept him." Ref.: Ibid.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 4-Last Meeting (probably Oct. 24-25, 1866). J.W. Leakin's letter described their third and last meeting: "I remember hearing when I was a very small boy, living with my grandmother who was then a very old lady, that this great-aunt, Mrs. Carson, came to Baltimore and went with my grandmother to a reception which was given Mr. Peabody on the occasion of the opening of the Peabody Institute, which was donated by him to this city, and when Mrs. Carson came onto the stage where he was receiving the people, he left everyone else and advanced to where she was, then an old woman of seventy, and took her in his arms in that public place and said 'Well, Eliza, is this you?'. Afterwards, he dined with Mr. John W. Garrett, and someone said to him, 'Mr. Peabody, I hear that you met your old sweetheart today.' And he said 'Yes', but that it was a subject on which he did not care to talk; that he had had a great many successes in his life, but that that was his greatest disappointment." Ref.: Ibid.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 5-Review: GP's Circumstances, 1815-17. GP's father's death, May 13, 1811, followed by the Newburyport, Mass., fire, May 31, 1811, led GP at 16 (he clerked in his older brother's store, ruined by the Newburyport fire) to migrate with paternal uncle John Peabody (1768-before 1826) to Georgetown, D.C., where they opened a dry good store on May 15, 1812. As a War of 1812 volunteer, GP at 19 met older (age 35) fellow soldier and experienced Georgetown, D.C., merchant Elisha Riggs, Sr. (1779-1853). Riggs in 1814 took GP as junior partner in Riggs & Peabody, which imported dry goods from abroad for sale to U.S. wholesalers. The firm moved to Baltimore in 1815. See: Great Fire of Newburyport, Mass.(May 31, 1811). Georgetown, D.C. Newburyport, Mass. Riggs, Sr., Elisha.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 6- Review: GP's Circumstances, 1815-17 (Cont'd). Early in GP's 22 years in Baltimore (1815-37), after which he moved permanently to London, he supported his mother and younger siblings, paid his deceased father's debts, paid the mortgage on the family home (Danvers, Mass.) to restore it to his mother and siblings, and paid for his younger siblings' schooling at Bradford Academy, Bradford, Mass. See: Bradford Academy, Bradford, Mass. Riggs, Peabody & Co.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 7- Review: GP's Circumstances, 1815-17 (Cont'd). GP most likely first met Elizabeth Knox during 1815-17. When he asked her father, Samuel Knox, for his daughter's hand in marriage, Samuel Knox thought GP unsuitable economically. In 1817, Elizabeth Knox at age 18 (GP was then age 22) married George Carson, a Baltimore bank teller. George Carson is believed to have died about 1841, after the birth of the couple's fourth child. Elizabeth Carson, in reduced circumstances, managed a boarding house, probably with distant relatives as boarders, at 206 West Lombard St., Baltimore Ref.: Jones. Md. Historical Society's Ref.: Libn. Francis P. O'Neill to authors, Aug. 30, 2001. See: Persons named.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 8-GP's Circumstances, 1857. GP in London from 1837 as head of George Peabody & Co., was a rising broker-banker dealing with American securities In 1838, when he was age 42, he met, fell in love with, and was engaged to Esther Elizabeth Hoppin (1819-1905). Strikingly beautiful and unusually mature at age 19, she was in London for Queen Victoria's coronation (June 28, 1838). In 1839, having returned to the U.S., she rekindled an earlier love with Alexander Lardner (1808-48) and broke her engagement to GP. She married Alexander Lardner on Oct. 2, 1840. Her portrait by artist Thomas Sully (1783-1872) in NYC's Frick Art Reference Library shows her in all her beauty. See: Hoppin, Esther Elizabeth. Sully, Thomas. Lardner, Alexander.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 9- Review: GP's Circumstances, 1857 (Cont'd). GP was intensely busy during his first U.S. visit (Sept. 15, 1856, to Aug. 19,1857) after nearly 20 years abroad. He added funds to his Peabody Institute Libraries in North and South Danvers, Mass., and was mainly concerned to establish the PIB. He was in Baltimore Jan. 26 to Feb. 14, 1857, during which receptions were held for him by the Md. Historical Society (Jan. 30) and the Md. Institute for the Promotion of Mechanic Arts (Feb. 2).ccccccccc He met with key PIB trustees to plan his Feb. 12, 1857, PIB founding letter. Sometime during Jan. 26 to Feb. 14, 1857, GP, then age 62, made his alleged second marriage proposal to Elizabeth Carson, then 58, when she was a widow in poor circumstances managing a boarding house in Baltimore. The Jones account is that she declined, saying that people would believe she had married GP solely for his money. Ref.: Ibid.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 10-GP's Sister on his Baltimore Receptions. GP's sister, Mrs. Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell Daniels (1799-1879), through whom he dispensed family funds, wrote him from Mass. (on Feb. 19, 1857) that the Md. Institute reception (Feb. 2) must have touched him deeply. Among the young ladies he had saluted so "heartily" in Baltimore that night, she teased, "may have been the daughter of...the beautiful [girl] whom as you remarked one day you would have married, if you had been 'silly enough!'" It was a teasing remark with more than a touch of pity. Ref.: Mrs. Judith (née Peabody) Russell, Georgetown, Mass., to GP, Feb. 19, 1857, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 11-GP's Sister on His Baltimore Receptions (Cont'd). Judith added, referring indirectly to his 1852 philanthropic motto: "Education: a debt due from present to future generations" (her underlining): "What...results of good, not only to your contemporaries but to 'future generations,' were pending on that one act of self-denial, practiced by you in the days of youthful romance. Even at this late day, I have given a tear of sympathy for what may be presumed to have been your feelings, when you made the 'wise' decision, and resolved to submit to what you certainly have a right to think a hard lot: and, did I believe that through life you had been less happy, I should most sincerely regret your 'wisdom' spite of generations, present and future--myself and posterity included...." "But my dear brother is not desolate although alone. One affection, at least, deeper, stronger, steadier than that of a wife, clinging to him with a firmer tenacity as age creeps on, and which no circumstances can change, follows him through all his wanderings. And for the children...all the children are his children." See: Daniels, Judith (née Peabody) Russell. Danvers, Mass., Centennial, June 16, 1852.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 12-Comment on Sister Judith's Letter. Judith's letter does not identify Elizabeth (née Knox) Carson or Esther Elizabeth Hoppin or another as "...the beautiful [girl] whom as you remarked one day you would have married, if you had been 'silly enough!" Two other ladies were publicly romantically linked to GP in London during 1852-53: Charlotte Manigault Wilcocks (18921-75), niece of U.S. Minister to Britain Joseph Reed Ingersoll (1786-1868), and Elise Tiffany, daughter of Baltimore friend Osmond Capron Tiffany (1794-1851). GP, then age 58, wrote to an intimate friend: "I have now arrived at an age that throws aside all thoughts of marriage [although] I think her [Miss Wilcocks] a very fine woman." See: Romance and GP. Persons named.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 13-GP's Circumstances, 1866. On GP's second busy U.S. visit during May 1, 1866-May 1, 1867, his main concern was to speak at the dedication of the PIB and to found the Peabody Education Fund. In Baltimore he spoke and greeted visitors at the Oct. 25, 1866, PIB dedication, the likely date he allegedly last saw Elizabeth Carson. In Leakin's words: "…he left everyone else…took her in his arms in that public place and said 'Well, Eliza, is this you?'" Leakin's letter stated that Elizabeth Carson, accompanied by his grandmother "came to Baltimore…" Md. Historical Society Ref.: Libn. O'Neill, who found Elizabeth Carson's death notice in York, Pa. (which was connected by rail with Baltimore), conjectured that she lived there with her daughter and son-in-law D.O. Prince from about the mid 1850s to her death. Ref.: O'Neill See: Visits to the U.S. by GP.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 11-Conclusion. It is doubtful that GP contemplated marriage after 1850. Publicity which accompanied his fame as a philanthropist in the 1860s mounted enormously at his last illness, Nov. 4, 1869, death in London, and unusual transatlantic funeral honors. Some obituary accounts attributed his philanthropic motive as compensation for a lost love. Such stories persisted long after his death. See: Death and Funeral, GP's. Romance and GP.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 12-Conclusion (Cont'd.). Second PEF administrator J.L.M. Curry's (1825-1903) 1898 book, A Brief Sketch of George Peabody, printed an undated letter from the daughter of a business friend of GP. She wrote that when her father congratulated GP on his amazing philanthropy (probably on GP's arrival in NYC, May 1, 1866), GP reportedly replied: "Humphreys, after my disappointment long ago, I determined to devote myself to my fellow-beings, and am carrying out that dedication to my best ability." See: Curry, Jabez Lamar Monroe.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 13-Conclusion (Cont'd.). There is documentation in GP's papers about Esther Elizabeth Hoppin, Miss Willcocks, and Elise Tiffany but no direct mention of Elizabeth (née Knox) Carson. That alleged romance, which rests on the evidence of J.W. Leakin's letter, is possible and even likely. A PIB Art Gallery catalog listing of an 1840 portrait of Elizabeth (née Knox) Carson contains the legend: "Lady to whom G. Peabody twice offered his hand." Ref.: Jones, p. 7. See: persons named. Romance and GP. For location of her portrait, see Ref.: g. Internet, under Peabody Art Collection, Md. State Archives.
Carson, George (d.? 1841). See: Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox), (above).
Broken Engagement
Cass, Lewis (1782-1866). 1-GP's Engagement "thoroughly discussed." Lewis Cass was U.S. Minister to France during 1836-42. Amid the vast publicity on GP's Nov. 4, 1869, death in London and his unprecedented 96-day transatlantic funeral, the story of GP's broken engagement to Esther Elizabeth Hoppin (1819-1905) appeared in some newspapers. The Providence Journal (R.I., Dec. 22, 1869) printed the following from an anonymous letter writer about the broken engagement: "I well remember, when in London, twenty-eight years ago, hearing all this talked over in a chosen circle of American friends; and also, at a brilliant dinner-party given by General Cass in Versailles, it was thoroughly discussed in all its length and breadth." See: Hoppin, Esther Elizabeth.
Cass, Lewis. 2-Career. Lewis Cass was born in Exeter, N.H.; was a lawyer in Zanesville, Ohio; was U.S. marshal for Ohio (1807-12); fought in the War of 1812; was Mich. Territory governor (1813-31); U.S. Secty. of War (1831-36); U.S. Minister to France (1836-42); U.S. Sen. from Mich. (1845-48); and U.S. Secty. of State (1857-60). Ref.: Ibid.
Castle Connell, Limerick, lreland. In June 1867 and in July 1868 GP rented the Castle Connell, Limerick, Ireland, on the Shannon River, where he liked to fish. MP John Bright (1811-89) was his guest on both occasions. GP's little known unusual gift (amount and date of gift not known) of a stone-based metal railing in front of the Catholic Church, Limerick, Ireland, has carved on it: "THIS RAILING IS THE GIFT OF GEORGE PEABODY ESQ." See: Bright, John. Ireland.
GP Bicentennial Celebrations (Feb. 18, 1795-1995)
Catto, Rt. Hon. Lord (Sir Stephen Gordon, 1923-), is the former head of the Morgan Grenfell Group banking firm, lineal descendant of George Peabody & Co. (1838-64), who participated in the "Bicentenary Service of Thanksgiving for the Life and Work of George Peabody, 1795-1869," in London's Westminster Abbey, Nov. 16, 1995. Lord Catto was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge Univ.; he succeeded his father as 2nd Baron Catto (1936); served with the RAF in WW II; and headed Morgan Grenfell & Co. Ltd. (from 1948) and its successor Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Group (1980-87). Ref.: New York Times, July 16, 1995, section XIII-CN, p. 17, c. 1. (Career): Seen Dec. 9, 1999: Internet http://www.knowuk.co.uk See: GP Bicentennial Celebrations (Feb. 18, 1795-1995).
Cazenove, Philip (1798-1880), who paid for British artist Henry William Pickersgill's (1782-1875) portrait of GP in the Corporation of London's Guildhall, is listed in Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 18th edn. (1965j), Vol. 1, p. 128, as "of Clapham, Founder of the Girls School at Green Lane and of Bolingbrooke Hospital." Ref.: London Times, April 10, 1866, p. 5, c. 3; and April 11, 1866, p. 5, c. 5. [Cazenove, Philip]. See: Pickersgill, Henry William.
Centennial Celebration, GP's, 1895. For speeches, messages received, and Queen Victoria's cablegram, with sources, see: George Peabody Centennial Celebration (Feb. 18, 1795-1895). Victoria, Queen.
Governor of Maine
Chamberlain, Joshua Lawrence (1828-1914), governor of Maine, participated in the Jan. 25-Feb. 1, 1870, reception of GP's remains aboard HMS Monarch, accompanied by the USS Plymouth, in Portland harbor, Maine. Gov. Chamberlain was born in Brewer, Maine; graduated from Bowdoin College (1852) and attended Bangor Theological Seminary; taught at Bowdoin College (1855-62); was a Lt. Col. in the 20th Maine Infantry; won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his defense of Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg (1863); was promoted to brig. gen. in the field by commanding Gen. U.S. Grant (1822-85) in June 1864; was Maine governor (1867-71); president of Bowdoin College (1871-83); and active in railroads and industry. Ref.: Boatner, p. 135. See: Death and funeral, GP's.
Chamier, Frederick (1796-1870). In his journal U.S. novelist Herman Melville (1819-91) recorded those present, including GP, when in Nov. 1849 he dined at the London home of Weymouth, Mass.-born head of the Baring Brothers banking firm Joshua Bates (1788-1864): "There was a Baron opposite me and a most lovely young girl, a daughter of Captain Chamier, the sea novelist...." See: Melville, Herman.
Chandler, Charles W. (d. Feb. 9, 1882). 1-Married GP's Niece Julia Adelaide Peabody. Charles W. Chandler was principal of the high school in Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio (April 1855-June 1865) and interim school superintendent (Jan. 7, 1862-63). He married GP's niece Julia Adelaide (née Peabody, b. April 25, 1835) Chandler (see immediately below) on Oct. 16, `1861, recorded in the Court of Common Pleas Probate Division, 401 Main St., Zanesville, Oh. 43701-3567. She was the daughter of GP's oldest brother David Peabody (1790-1841). Ref.: (High school principal): Everhart, pp. 221-222. (Marriage): Tunis.
Chandler, C.W. 2-Named Executor of GP's U.S. Estate. In his last will of Sept. 9, 1869, GP named two executors of his U.S. estates: nephew-in-law Charles W. Chandler and nephew Robert Singleton Peabody (1837-1904), son of GP's sister Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Daniels (1799-1879). GP left each U.S. executor $5,000 (ƒ1,000). Ref.: Death and Funeral, GP's, 4. See: Chandler, Julia Adelaide (née Peabody) below. Wills, GP's.
Favorite Niece
Chandler, Julia Adelaide (née Peabody) (b. April 25, 1835). 1-GP's Niece. During his first U.S. visit (Sept. 15, 1856 to Aug 19, 1857) after nearly 20 years' absence as a merchant-banker in London, GP became acquainted with his niece, Julia Adelaide Peabody, then age 21. This daughter of oldest brother David Peabody (1790-1841) became GP's favorite niece. She lived in Zanesville, Ohio, with her mother, David Peabody's second wife, Mrs. Phebe (née Reynolds) Peabody, went to finishing school in Philadelphia at uncle GP's expense, and married Zanesville, Ohio, lawyer Charles W. Chandler (d. 1882), who was an executor of GP's U.S. estate at GP's death.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 2-Background. In April 1811 David Peabody, oldest in the family of 8, employed GP, then age 16, as clerk in a dry goods shop David and partner Samuel Swett managed on State St., Newburyport, Mass. GP's father's death, May 13, 1811, in debt in Danvers, Mass., plus a devastating fire in Newburyport, May 31, 1811, led GP and paternal uncle John Peabody (1768-before 1826), whose store was burned, to sail from Newburyport, May 4, 1812, to Georgetown, D.C., where they opened a dry goods store, May 15, 1812. See: Riggs, Sr., Elisha.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 3-Brothers Worked for Riggs, Peabody & Co. GP managed the store, his uncle having gone into other enterprises. GP also served briefly in the War of 1812. He met older fellow soldier and experienced merchant Elisha Riggs, Sr. (1779-1853), who took GP, then age 19, as junior partner in Riggs, Peabody & Co. (1814-29), importers of dry goods from abroad for sale to U.S. wholesalers. The firm prospered. When Elisha Riggs, Sr., left the firm in 1829 to become a NYC banker, his place was taken by his nephew, Samuel Riggs (d.1853), in the renamed Peabody, Riggs & Co. (1829-48). See: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 4-Brothers Worked for Riggs, Peabody & Co. Cont'd. GP's three brothers occasionally worked for the firm: David Peabody, younger brothers Thomas Peabody (1801-35), and Jeremiah Dodge Peabody (1805-77, who early left the firm to become a farmer in Zanesville, Ohio). Correspondence from family and the firms detailed below indicated that Thomas and to a lesser extent David were improvident, gambled, drank, and were often in debt. Correspondence also indicated that oldest brother David may have been remiss in dealings with GP, but that GP aided financially David's son by his first wife (mentioned below) and daughter Julia Adelaide by his second wife. See: persons named.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 5-GP Paid for Relatives' Schooling. On Jan. 20, 1814, in Newburyport, Mass., David Peabody married Sally Caldwell. She died soon after 1815, leaving a son named after his uncle, George Peabody (1815-32). In Nov. 1816 David transferred to GP, now the main family supporter, title to their late father's mortgaged Danvers, Mass., home. Newburyport lawyer Ebon Mosely wrote to GP Dec. 16, 1816, "I cannot but be pleased with the filial affection which seems to evince you to preserve the estate for a Parent." By Jan. 1817 GP had paid off his late father's debts and restored his mother and younger siblings to their Danvers home (they had been forced to live separately with Spofford relatives in Salem, Mass.). Ref.: Ebon Mosley, Newburyport, Mass., to GP, Baltimore, Dec. 16, 1816, Peabody Papers, PEM.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 6-GP Paid for Relatives' Schooling Cont'd. GP paid for six of his relatives' schooling at Bradford Academy, Mass., during most of the 1820s, and bought a house for the family in West Bradford. Those who attended Bradford Academy were: 1-youngest born brother Jeremiah Peabody in 1819; 2-fourth born child Judith Dodge Peabody (1799-1879) during 1821-27; 3-seventh born and third of four sisters Mary Gaines Peabody (1807-34) in 1822-23; 4-eighth born and fourth sister Sophronia Phelps Peabody (b.1809) in 1827; 5-young cousin Adolphus William Peabody (b. 1814, paternal uncle John Peabody's son) during 1827-29; and 6-nephew George Peabody (1815-32, oldest brother David's son who sadly died of scarlet fever at age 17) in 1827. Ref.: (David Peabody married Sally Caldwell): Vital Records...Newburyport, Mass. ...to...1849, Vol. II, p. 360. See: Bradford Academy. Persons named.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 7-Nephew Asked for Aid for College. David's son named after GP wrote to ask if his uncle would help him financially to attend Yale College. GP, back in London after a 15-month commercial buying trip in Europe, replied positively on May 18, 1831. Perhaps the cultural scenes he briefly glimpsed on his commercial travels induced the following poignant letter that helps explain GP's later philanthropy.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 8-"Deprived, as I was." GP wrote his nephew (his underlining): "Deprived, as I was, of the opportunity of obtaining anything more than the most common education, I am well qualified to estimate its value by the disadvantages I labour under in the society [in] which my business and situation in life frequently throws me, and willingly would I now give twenty times the expense attending a good education could I now possess it, but it is now too late for me to learn and I can only do to those who come under my care, as I could have wished circumstances had permitted others to have done by me." Sadly this nephew died Sept. 24, 1832, in Boston of scarlet fever, his potential unfulfilled. Ref.: GP, London, to nephew George Peabody, May 18, 1831, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 9-Elisha Riggs, Sr. on GP's Difficult Brothers. In Jan. and Feb. 1827 Elisha Riggs, Sr., then GP's senior partner, wrote in confidence to GP, then working out of Baltimore for the firm, of serious difficulties with younger brother Thomas Peabody and some irritations from oldest brother David Peabody. "My whole time," Elisha Riggs, Sr., wrote to GP, "was employed late & early in attending to various business, While I was also much trouble[d] in Mind, as to what course to take with Thomas P[eabody] who I had nearly lost confidence in, and had to be attentive to every thing in the way of business myself, as but little appeared to be done as it should be without my personal attention." See: Riggs, Sr., Elisha.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 10-Elisha Riggs, Sr. on GP's Difficult Brothers Cont'd.: "I have caused Thomas to remove from his old boarding place to Mr. Devens where I board. [H]e has been here about three days. [H]e promises to be regular in his habits for the future and is generally in the house of nights in good time--As I often have writing for him to do in my room. I have paid all his debts of borrowed money, taylors, shoe bills, etc., with the exception of about 150$ which he borrowed he says of Brokers & Lotter [lottery, i.e. gambling] men, of which David Peabody was also bound. This I told him I would not pay at present. I keep a strick eye over him as well as my business will allow me to do--And have assured him, that if he ever acted again as he has done, that I would certainly get another Clerk--I have taken great pains and talked with him very carefully as to the consequences of his conduct--he appears penitent and I hope will keep his promise hereafter." Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 11-Elisha Riggs, Sr. on GP's Difficult Brothers Cont'd.: "I have acted the part of a good friend toward him in every respect, which he appears to feel and acknowledge. A short time will enable him to see and determine--I understand from Thomas that David is now employed in a lottery office. He is occasionally in the Store...." Riggs ended with: "This letter is written in haste for yourself only, as I have never mentioned to any person except yourself anything about T.P. [Thomas Peabody]. You will therefore destroy this letter...." Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 12-GP's Mother Ill. Often in financial trouble, David in NYC wrote brother Thomas in Baltimore that he needed money. Thomas replied, Nov. 18, 1828, that he was without a job and could do nothing. Four days later GP sent Thomas $15 which Thomas sent to David. Thomas sought better prospects in South America. He wrote older brother David from Lima, Peru, April 30, 1830, that he was working there as bookkeeper for Alsop, Wetmore & Co.'s agent, that their brother GP was about to sail for England on his second European commercial buying trip (1831-32, 15 months), and that their mother, in poor health, was living with recently married daughter Mary Gaines (née Peabody) Marsh in Lockport, N.Y. On April 30, 1830, Mary wrote David in NYC that their mother was still in poor health, that she had the ague followed by a high intermittent fever. Caleb Marsh (b.1800) also wrote David that mother Peabody was seriously ill and that he did not think she would recover. Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 13-GP's Mother Died, June 22, 1830. On June 25, 1830, Mary wrote David that their mother had died on June 22, 1830, a month short of her sixtieth year. David forwarded Mary's letter about their mother's death to GP by the next ship bound for England. He added to GP, in a postscript to Mary's letter: "The above I just recd in time to forward by the Canada [ship]--which sails in an hour. I should have gone to Lockport a month since if it had been in my power to have paid the expense of the journey. Yrs. truly, D. Peabody." Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 14-Thomas Peabody Ill and Unemployed. Thomas Peabody was ill in Lima, Peru; gave up his job there; worked his way back to the U.S. as a ship's clerk, and lost that job when a new crew was hired. GP was out of the country on a European buying trip when Thomas landed in Baltimore without work. He wrote David in NYC: "George being out of the country my necessity for employment is very great & for the present I would be willing to take up with almost any situation." Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 15-Thomas Peabody's Death, 1835. Peabody family letters hint at rather than detail Thomas Peabody's misdemeanors. He had evidently wronged brother David and begged to be forgiven. Thomas Peabody died April 16, 1835, the day before his thirty-fourth birthday. He had been operating a school and had gone to pay some debts in Buffalo, N.Y. Not having enough money to meet his obligations and overcome with remorse and shame, he died in circumstances not specified in family letters. Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 16-Thomas Peabody's Death, 1835 Cont'd. GP, then in Europe, had the sad news in an April 20, 1835, letter, from his brother-in-law, Dr. Eldridge Gerry Little, a physician, married to GP's youngest sister Sophronia Phelps (née Peabody) Little (b.1809). Dr. Little wrote to GP: "It becomes my painful duty to inform you of the death of Thomas. He died in Buffalo on the 16th inst. a victim of his own vices." Four months later sister Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell in her Aug. 23, 1835, letter to GP, referred to Thomas as their "poor misguided brother." She also relayed news that oldest brother David had married again. He met his second wife when he boarded at her home in Brookline, near Boston, Mass. David and his new family moved to Zanesville, Ohio, where youngest brother Jeremiah had settled on a farm. Maybe, Judith added about David, having a wife again might teach him economy. Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 17-GP and Niece Julia, 1856-57. During his 1856-57 U.S. visit GP was busy visiting friends, being honored, fêted, seeing after his institute library in what is now Peabody, Mass., founding a branch library in what is now Danvers, Mass., founding the PIB (Feb. 12, 1857), traveling to see vast changes in the U.S. since his 20-year absence abroad. He was in Zanesville, Ohio, Nov. 1856 with brother Jeremiah's family and became acquainted with niece Julia Adelaide, age 21. He overcame her mother's initial doubts about sending Julia to a finishing school in Philadelphia at his expense. Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 18-With Julia in Philadelphia, 1857. GP was in Philadelphia Jan. 10-18, 1857, partly to sit for a portrait in artist James Read Lambdin's (1807-89) Philadelphia studio, partly to be with niece Julia Adelaide, then attending finishing school in Philadelphia. With GP in Philadelphia was Baltimorean and PIB trustee Charles James Madison Eaton (1808-93). Eaton, an art collector, was keen to visit the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Artist James Read Lambdin, its director, took the group to visit the art gallery. GP preferred to sit and wait while the others toured the gallery. See: Eaton, Charles James Madison.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 19-"Julia will be a solace to your declining years." On May 20, 1857, sister Judith wrote GP from her home in Georgetown, Mass. She was glad he had taken Julia under his wing, sent her to school in Philadelphia, and had someone to lavish his affections on. She recalled how often Julia's father David, their deceased brother, had been jobless and in debt, how GP had time and again aided David and all the family. "I trust," she wrote, "that Julia will be a solace to your declining years, and by her affection, wipe away the remembrance of the wrongs you have received from her father." Ref.: Mrs. Judith (née Peabody) Russell, Georgetown, Mass., to GP, May 20, 1857, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 20-Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, April 1857, published an extensive, laudatory account of GP's life, rise in business, saving Md.'s credit abroad, and philanthropic gifts. The article, reprinted in pamphlet form, was widely circulated. Niece Julia Adelaide had a copy, wrote to tell GP that all her friends said he was quite handsome and that she was making a miniature painting of the GP frontispiece picture. She asked in her letter, "Will 'somebody' please send me a lock of his hair." Ref.: Julia Adelaide Peabody, Zanesville, Ohio, to GP, April 30, 1857, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 21-GP & Niece Julia Visit Yale College. In July 1857 GP took Julia with him to New Haven, Conn., to visit Yale College, where nephew Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99), son of GP's deceased younger sister Mary Gaines (née Peabody) Marsh, was studying science. While there he had a visit from science Prof. Benjamin Silliman, Sr. (1779-1864). Neither man could foresee that nine years later GP would endow Peabody museums at Harvard and Yale Universities. Ref.: "George Peabody-a."
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 22-Panic of 1857. Having Boston merchant Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90) as partner in George Peabody & Co., London, from Oct. 1, 1854, freed GP for his 1856-57 U.S. visit. J.S. Morgan wrote GP frequently about business affairs. On Jan. 30, 1857, Morgan alerted GP to a brewing financial panic: "The drawing upon us for the last two or three mails have been very heavy and the look of our financial business is anything but encouraging for it." Morgan warned GP again on Feb. 27 and Apr. 9: "These are times when we must keep a sharp lookout. We are in a good position and must keep so." See: Morgan, Junius Spencer.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 23-Panic of 1857 Cont'd. On April 11 GP's cousin Joseph Peabody wrote from NYC of a Paris firm (Greene & Co.) "obliged to suspend...." Alarmed, J.S. Morgan wrote GP, April 17, that money was stringent, and the specie of the Bank of England were down to nine million, "the lowest point in ten years." GP hurriedly left NYC for London on Aug. 19, 1857. He found that hundreds of U.S. and British firms had collapsed, that Lawrence, Stone and Co. of Boston, which owed him a large sum, could not repay him, that Baring Brothers of London were pressing George Peabody & Co. for £150,000 ($750,000) owed them. George Peabody & Co. was in trouble. Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 24-GP to Julia about the Panic. On Nov. 13, 1857, GP wrote of his distress to niece Julia Adelaide Peabody: "This letter I promised to write you has been postponed because of my constant engagements and the unparalleled gloom of the Panic. What will happen, Heaven only knows. Lack of confidence and distrust is universal here and in the United States. I hope my house will weather the storm. I think it will do so even though so many in debt to me cannot pay. If I fail I will bear it like a man. In my conscience I know I never deceived or injured any other human being." Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 25-GP to Julia about the Panic Cont'd : "It is less than three months since I left you in the United States, prosperous and happy. Now all is gloom and affliction. Nearly all the American houses in Europe have suspended operations and nothing but great strength can save them. It is the loss of credit of my house I fear. In any circumstances, only a small part of my private fortune will be lost. I will have enough for all my required purposes." GP held this letter for some weeks, determined not to worry his niece and to secure a Bank of England loan. Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 26-Bank of England Loan. Gathering his assets, GP anxiously applied for a $4 million loan from the Bank of England. While the Bank of England considered the loan request, some financiers, seeing an opportunity to force GP out of business, approached GP's partner J.S. Morgan and said that they would guarantee the loan if George Peabody & Co. ceased business in London. Second PEF administrator Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry (1825-1903) later wrote that GP raged like a wounded lion "and told Mr. Morgan to reply that he dared them to cause his failure." The Bank of England made the loan, enabling GP to satisfy his creditors, and by March 30, 1858, GP was able to repay the Bank of England. On April 16, 1858, GP wrote Washington, D.C., business friend William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888), "My business is again quite snug. ....Our credit...stands as high as ever before." Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody).
Following Background "Preface" below 2 of 14 blogs covers alphabetically: Buchanan, James. 1 to Curry, J.L.M. 10.
Background: "Preface" 1 of 14 tells the why-when-where-how-findings-and-motives of the authors’ research on Franklin Parker’s doctoral dissertation, “George Peabody, Founder of Modern Philanthropy,” completed 1956 at George Peabody College for Teachers, adjoining Vanderbilt University, which on July 1, 1979, became Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, Nashville.
George Peabody, so well known in the 1850s-60s but since sadly neglected, was a significant 19th century figure as: 1-a Massachusetts-born merchant in the U.S. South: Riggs & Peabody, later Peabody & Riggs (1814-38), who imported dry goods and other commodities (worldwide) for sale to U.S. wholesalers. George Peabody then became: 2-a London-based merchant-banker, George Peabody & Co. (1838-64), who financed in part the B&O RR, the 2nd Mexican War Loan, the Atlantic Cable, and with J.S. Morgan as partner, was the root of the JP Morgan international banking firm. Finally, this merchant-turned-banker became: 3-the best known philanthropist of his time (1850s-60s), who founded the Peabody Homes of London for the working poor; in the U.S. 7 Peabody Libraries and Lecture Halls; the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore; three Peabody Museums at Harvard (Anthropology), Yale (Paleontology), and the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA (maritime history); and founder of the Peabody Education Fund for the South (1867-1914), basis for all later larger U.S. funds and foundations. End of Background.
Buchanan, James (1791-1868). 1-Was U.S. Minister to Britain. James Buchanan was the 15th U.S. president during 1857-61. He was born near Mercersberg, Penn., was a lawyer, served in the Penn. legislature for two terms (from 1814), was U.S. Congressman (1821-31), Minister to Russia (1832-33), U.S. Sen. (1834-45), U.S. Secty. of State (1845-49), and U.S. Minister to Britain (1853-56), when his legation secretary Daniel Edgar Sickles (1825-1914) created an incident. See: Presidents, U.S., and GP. Sickles, Daniel Edgar.
Buchanan, James. 2-Sickles Affair. At a GP-sponsored July 4, 1854, U.S.-British friendship dinner super patriot Sickles remained seated and then walked out while others stood when GP toasted Queen Victoria before toasting the U.S. President. Buchanan, who thought Sickles was slack in his work as secretary, was embarrassed because, like GP, he wanted to improve British-U.S. relations. The incident was aggravated when Sickles charged GP in the press as toadying to the Queen. When GP visited Washington, D.C., Jan. 1857, there was a coolness between then-Pres. Buchanan and GP. Ref.: Ibid.
Buchanan, John (1772-1844). 1-Md. Bond Agents Abroad. John Buchanan was one of three commissioners appointed by the Md. Assembly to sell abroad its bonds to raise $8 million for internal improvements. When commissioner Samuel Jones, Jr. (1800-74), resigned to become a state senator, he backed GP to replace him. Despite some opposition, GP was appointed commissioner. Amid the financial Panic of 1837 GP and the other two commissioners, John Buchanan and Thomas Emory, tried unsuccessfully to sell the bonds in London, Paris, and Amsterdam. The other two agents returned to the U.S. by Oct. 8, 1837. On this, GP's fifth business trip to Europe, he remained in London for the rest of his life (1837-69), 32 years, except for three U.S. visits: 1-Sept. 15, 1856 to Aug. 19, 1857, 2-May 1, 1866 to May 1, 1867, and 3-June 8 to Sept. 29, 1869. See: Md.'s $8 Million Bond Sale Abroad and GP.
Buchanan, John. 2-GP's Delayed Reward. The economic depression hindered GP's sale of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Co. portion of Md.'s $8 million bonds. Md. and eight other states felt they had to stop their bond interest payments. GP publicly urged Md. officials to resume interest payments and assured British investors that resumed payments would be retroactive. GP finally sold the bonds cheaply for exclusive resale by the Baring Brothers, Britain's largest and oldest banking firm. Not wanting to burden economically depressed Md., GP declined the $60,000 commission due him. Ref.: Ibid.
Buchanan, John. 3-Md. Legislature's Resolution of Praise. By the time Md. had recovered economically and resumed its bond interest payments (1847), GP had withdrawn his capital from Peabody, Riggs & Co. (1829-48) and was in transition from merchant to London-based broker-banker in U.S. securities. The Md. governor's 1847 annual report to the legislative Assembly singled out GP as one, "who never claimed or received one dollar of the $60,000 commission due him...whilst the State was struggling with her pecuniary difficulties." On March 7, 1848, both houses of Md.'s Assembly passed a unanimous resolution of praise to GP. Md. Gov. Philip Francis Thomas (1810-90) sent these resolutions to GP in London, adding: "To you, Sir,...the thanks of the State were eminently due." It took ten years for GP's efforts in selling Md. bonds to be publicly appreciated. Ref.: Ibid.
Buck, Paul Herman (1899-1978), was a U.S. historian who wrote of the PEF: "As in his [GP's] gifts to England he had hoped to link two nations in friendly bonds, now after the Civil War it seemed to him most imperative to use his bounty in the restoration of good will between North and South.... The Peabody Education Fund...was an experiment in harmony and understanding between the sections.... Not only was the gift of Peabody one of the earliest manifestations of a spirit of reconciliation, but it was also a most effective means of stimulating that spirit in others." Ref.: Buck, pp. 164, 166. See: PEF.
Buddington, Samuel, Capt. 1-GP gave $10,000 for science equipment for the Second U.S. Grinnell Expedition of 1853-55, led by U.S. Navy Capt. Dr. Elisha Kent Kane (1820-57, a naval surgeon), searching for lost British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin (1786-1847). HMS Resolute was a British ship abandoned in the Arctic ice in the decade-long search for Sir John Franklin. Capt. Samuel Buddington of the U.S. whaler George Henry found and extricated the Resolute. The U.S. government purchased the damaged Resolute, repaired it, and returned it to Britain as a gift. See: Franklin, Sir John.
Buddington, Samuel. 2-White House Desk. When the Resolute was broken up, Queen Victoria had a massive desk made from its timbers and gave it to the U.S. President. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-94) found the desk in a storeroom in 1961 and had it refurbished for Pres. John F. Kennedy's (1917-63) use. Famous photos show President Kennedy's young son John F. Kennedy, Jr. (1960-99), playing under that desk. Pres. Clinton returned the desk to the Oval Office in 1993. Ref.: Ibid. See: persons named.
Buffalo, NY. For GP's visit to U.S. Pres. Millard Fillmore (1800-74) at Fillmore's home in Buffalo, NY, Nov. 4, 1856, and connections with Fillmore, with sources, see Fillmore, Millard. Presidents, U.S., and GP.
CSS Alabama
Bulloch, James Dunwody (1823-1901). 1-Purchased Confederate Ships from England. Confederate Navy Secty. Stephen Russell Mallory (1813-73) sent Commander James Dunwody Bulloch (Bullock, in some sources) to England in May 1861 to purchase ships for the nonexistent Confederate Navy. Bulloch purchased from Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, England, the newly built "Hull No. 290," soon named the SS Enrica, which was subsequently outfitted for war and renamed the CSS Alabama at the end of July 1862. See: Adams, Charles Francis. Alabama Claims.
Bulloch, J.D. 2-U.S. Minister C.F. Adams Protested. On June 23, 1862, U.S. Minister to Britain Charles Francis Adams (1807-86) warned the British Foreign Office that by building the Alabama as a Confederate warship, Britain was breaking its neutrality. Minister Adams attached affidavits from involved seamen as proof of his charge. But British Customs law officials ruled the evidence insufficient. Ref.: Ibid.
Bulloch, J.D. 3-Alabama Sunk Union Ships. CSS Alabama was put under the command of Capt. Raphael Harwood Semmes (1809-77), whose first ship, the Sumter, had already severely damaged Union commerce before it was bottled up in Gibraltar in Jan. 1862. In its rampaging two-year cruise (June 1862 to June 1864) covering 67,000 nautical miles, CSS Alabama hijacked or sank 64 Union ships. Her crew were largely pirate-adventurers from many nations, including Britain. Ref.: Ibid.
Bulloch, J.D. 4-C.S.S. Alabama Sunk by USS Kearsarge. Needing repairs, the Alabama entered Cherbourg, France, June 11, 1864, where it was intercepted by the USS Kearsarge, under Capt. John Ancrum Winslow (1811-73), June 14, 1864. The Alabama came out to do battle and was sunk, June 19, 1864, in one of the last romanticized gunnery duels in the era of wooden ships, seen by thousands of observers offshore. Capt. Semmes and some of his officers and crew were rescued by the British yacht Deerhound and taken to an English port. Remains of the Alabama were found Oct. 1984 and artifacts were raised from Cherbourg harbor. Ref.: Ibid.
Bulloch, J.D. 5-International Alabama Claims Commission. An international Alabama Claims Commission that met in Geneva, Switzerland, Dec. 187l to Sept. 1872, awarded the U.S. $15.5 million to be paid by Britain for British-built raiders (Alabama and others), which destroyed 257 Union ships. Confederate raider successes compelled Union ship owners to transfer ownership of over 700 vessels to foreign registries. U.S. merchant marine activity was set back for half a century. Ref.: Ibid.
Bulloch, J.D. 6-GP's Death. Two years before GP's death, his name was mentioned as a possible arbitrator on the Alabama Claims Commission but was dropped because of age and illness. GP died in London Nov. 4, 1869, at the height of U.S.-British angers over U.S. loss of lives and treasure caused by the CSS Alabama and other British-built ships. When it became known that GP's will stipulated burial in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass., British officials, for political reasons, to ease U.S.-British near-war hysteria, decided to return GP's remains to the U.S. on a royal vessel. Ref.: Ibid.
Bulloch, J.D. 7-Remains Returned on HMS Monarch. In a Lord Mayor's Day banquet speech, British PM William Ewart Gladstone (1809-98) said (Nov. 9, 1869): "With Mr. Peabody's nation we will not quarrel." The next day (Nov. 10, 1869) his cabinet offered HMS Monarch, Britain's newest and largest warship, as funeral vessel. A GP funeral service was held at Westminster Abbey and his remains lay in state in the Abbey for 30 days (Nov. 12 to Dec. 11, 1869). Ref.: Ibid.
Bulloch, J.D. 8-Unprecedented Transatlantic Funeral. HMS Monarch, with GP's remains aboard, escorted by USS Plymouth, a U.S. warship from Marseilles, France, crossed the Atlantic, to be met in Portland harbor, Me., on Pres. U.S. Grant's orders by a flotilla of U.S. ships commanded by Adm. David G. Farragut (1801-70). GP's unusual 96-day British-U.S. transatlantic funeral ended with final burial on Feb. 8, 1870, in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass. Besides the political motive to ease U.S.-British angers over the Alabama Claims, there was genuine appreciation for GP's philanthropy, largely in the U.S. but also by Britain for his $2.5 million Peabody model apartments for London's working poor (from March 12, 1862). Ref.: Ibid.
Bulloch, J.D. 9-Bulloch's Sister Married Theodore Roosevelt. An interesting sidelight is that Confederate Navy Commander James Dunwody Bulloch's sister, Martha Bulloch (d. Feb. 12, 1884), married NYC's Theodore Roosevelt (1831-77). Their same-named son, Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), the 26th U.S. Pres. during 1901-09, was a trustee during 1901-14 of Peabody Normal College (1875-1911), Nashville, Tenn., which became GPCFT (1914-79) and continues as PCofVU (since July 1, 1979). Ref.: (Bulloch-Roosevelt connection): Hendrick, p. 370. Thayer, p. 4. See: persons named.
Bullock, James Dunwody (1823-1901). See: Bulloch, James Dunwody.
Bülow, Hans Guido Freiherr von (1830-94), was a German conductor and pianist, studied with Richard Wagner (1813-83) and Franz Liszt (1811-86), was court musician to Ludwig, King of Bavaria (1786-1868), and teacher of Asger Hamerik (1843-1923), PIB's Academy (Conservatory after 1874) of Music's first director. Director Hamerik enhanced the prestige of the PIB Academy of Music by attracting eminent world musicians, including Hans von Bülow, who performed during Dec.-Jan. 1875-1876. Other famous performers Director Hamerik brought to perform and lecture at the PIB were Russian-born composer Anton Rubinstein (1829-94); British popular composer Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) of Gilbert and Sullivan fame in late Dec. 1879; and Russian composer Peter Illytch Tschaikowsky (1840-93) in spring, 1891. Hans Guido Freiherr von Bülow wrote in a London paper that "Baltimore was the only place in America where I had proper support." See: PIB.
Bulwer-Lytton, Sir Henry (1801-72). Sir Henry Bulwer-Lytton (William Henry Lytton Earle Bulwer) was an English author, MP (1830-36, 1868-71), and Minister to the U.S. (1849-52) when he attended GP's Oct. 27, 1851, London dinner honoring the departing U.S. exhibitors at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London (first world's fair). He was praised at the dinner by the main speaker, U.S. Minister to Britain Abbott Lawrence (1792-1855). See: William Wilson Corcoran. Dinners, GP's, London. Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair). Lawrence, Abbott.
Bunker Hill, anniversary of battle of. GP gave a dinner in London attended by British and U.S. guests on June 17, 1852, the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill (Boston, July 17, 1775). See: Dinners, GP's, London.
Bunker Hill Memorial Monument (Boston). 1-GP's Donation. GP gave $500 as a patriotic gift in 1845 to help build the Bunker Hill Memorial Monument. Early in the American Revolution, with British ships in command of Boston Harbor, British troops determined to defeat the rebels by taking two high points, Bunker Hill (110 feet high) and Breed's Hill (75 feet high) in Boston's Charlestown district. Under night cover, the Americans seized the heights first, holding off the British until the Americans ran out of gunpowder. Despite having lost the battle (July 17, 1775), the Americans were heartened that their 1,600 ill-trained volunteers had held off 2,400 trained British troops and had caused the enemy 1,054 casualties to their own 100 dead, 267 wounded, and 30 taken prisoners. The Bunker Hill Memorial Monument cornerstone was laid by the Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834) July 17, 1825. GP, permanently in London since Feb. 1837, helped pay for the monument's completion. See: GP, Philanthropy. Peabody, Thomas (GP's father).
Bunker Hill Memorial Monument (Boston). 2-Post-Civil War attacks on GP's Loyalty. It is interesting to note, in view of post-Civil War attacks on GP's loyalty to the Union, that his father Thomas Peabody, some of whose forebears had fought in the French and Indian Wars, was one of 54 Peabodys who fought in the American Revolution, and that GP briefly served in the War of 1812. Ref.: Ibid. See: Civil War and GP.
Burdett-Coutts, Baroness Angela Georgina (1814-1906). 1-Lady Philanthropist. Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts was a prominent 19th century British philanthropist. England's famous journal of satire, Punch, on July 27, 1867, had a cartoon and long poem praising GP and Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts as the most prominent 19th century philanthropists. British-born Baroness Burdett-Coutts (she was created a peeress in 1871) inherited much land from her banker-grandfather, Thomas Coutts (1735-1822?). She built and endowed churches and schools; endowed three colonial bishoprics in Capetown, South Africa; Adelaide, Australia; and British Columbia, Canada. She aided Australian aborigines and Turkish peasants, built several water fountains in London, and built low-rent model homes for some 300 families at Columbia Square, London. Ref.: Punch (London), July 27, 1867, p. 33.
Burdett-Coutts, Baroness Angela Georgina. 2-Attended GP's July 4, 1851, Dinner. Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts attended GP's July 4, 1851, dinner and ball at Willis's Rooms, London, during the Great Exhibition in London of 1851 (first world's fair), with the Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley Wellington, 1769-1852) as guest of honor. For her attendance and details of the July 4, 1851, dinner, see Corcoran, William Wilson. Dinners in London, GP's. Great Exhibition in London of 1851 (first world's fair). Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Prince Albert).
Burk, Kathleen, author of Morgan Grenfell 1838-1988: The Biography of a Merchant Bank (London: Oxford University Press, 1989). See: Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990).
Burton, Asa (1752-1836), was a well known minister at the church five miles from Post Mills village, near Thetford, Vt., which GP attended in the winter of 1810. GP, then age 15, was visiting his maternal grandmother Judith Spofford Dodge (1749-1828) and grandfather Jeremiah Dodge (1744-1824). Ref.: Baldwin, J. A. pp. 12-15. See: Concord, N.H. Internet site (seen) March 18, 2000): http://www.valley.net~conriver/V13-7.htm Persons named. Thetford, Vt.
Bushby, Asa (1834-89), a photographer. Peabody Institute Librarian, Peabody, Mass., Fitch Poole's (1803-73) diary listed under date of Feb. 6, 1870, after GP's funeral service: "Bushby & Hart [photographers] taking views in library room." See: Death and Funeral, GP's.
Business career, GP's. See: Peabody, George. George Peabody & Co. Morgan, Junius Spencer. Peabody, Riggs & Co. Elisha Riggs, Sr. Riggs, Peabody & Co.
Butler, Benjamin Franklin (1818-93), was a U.S. Representative from Mass. (Republican) who spoke at the Dec. 21, 1869, debate on U.S. House Resolution No. 96, which asked Pres. U.S. Grant (1822-85) to order a U.S. Navy reception to receive GP's remains at the U.S. receiving port. The resolution, with some objection, was passed in the House that day, passed in the Senate on Dec. 23, 1869, and was signed into law by Pres. Grant on Jan. 10, 1870. B.F. Butler was born in Deerfield, N.H., graduated from what is now Colby College, Me. (1838), was a criminal lawyer and politician in Lowell and then Boston, Mass., served in the Mass. Legislature (1852 and 1858) and the Mass. Senate (1859-60), was a harsh and controversial Civil War Union general, a radical Republican in the U.S. House (1866-75) who led in the unsuccessful impeachment of Pres. Andrew Johnson; Mass. Gov. (1882), and nearly always in controversy. See: Death and funeral, GP's.
Butler, Charles (1802-97), is believed to be the NYC banker who gave Delia Salter Bacon (1811-59) a letter of introduction to GP in London. Charles Butler was born in Kinderhook Landing (now Stuyvesant), Columbia County, N.Y., was a lawyer (1824), helped establish Hobart College, Geneva, N.Y., was associated with a railroad link to Chicago, helped found and was active in the affairs of Union Theological Seminary, NYC (1836), and was a frequent visitor abroad. Delia S. Bacon, U.S. writer, was an early believer in the theory that William Shakespeare's plays were written by a group consisting of mainly Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618), and Edmund Spenser (1551-99). Ref.: Muzzey, Vol. 2, Part l, pp. 359-360. See Bacon, Delia Salter.
Buttre, John Chester (1821-93), engraver-artist who made an engraving of a GP photo, half-length facing right, taken by photographer Mathew B. Brady (1823-96), perhaps in Brady's NYC studio when the PEF trustees met in NYC on or about March 23, 1867. Copy of the engraving is in the Library of Congress BIOG FILE (b&w film copy neg.). Ref.: Library of Congress BIOG FILE. See: Brady, Mathew. Peabody, George, Illustrations.
C
Cairo, Ill. During GP's Sept. 15, 1856-Aug. 19, 1857, U.S. visit, his first return to the U.S. after nearly 20 years' absence in London (since Feb. 1837), he visited Cairo, Ill. (March 24-April 2, 1857), where he owned city bonds. See: Augusta, Ga.
Caldwell, Sally. On Jan. 20, 1814, in Newburyport, Mass., GP's oldest brother David Peabody (1790-1841) married Sally Caldwell, who died soon after 1815, leaving a son named George Peabody (1815-32) after his uncle. See: Chandler, Julia Adelaide (née Peabody). Peabody, David.
Cambridge, Mass. See: Harvard Univ. honorary degree to GP. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
Am. Association in London
Campbell, Robert Blair (d.1862). 1-Americans in London. Robert Blair Campbell was U.S. Consul, London, England (1854-61). He presided over a July 4, 1858, dinner for Americans in London organized by a then newly formed American Association in London, a fraternal club to aid needy U.S. visitors. The club was led by newer American residents in London like Robert Blair Campbell, U.S. Legation Secty. Benjamin Moran (1820-86), and others. They feigned respect for but were privately jealous and critical of older American residents in London like GP. Moran, Blair, and a few others sponsored for a few years July 4th Independence Day dinners in London, which GP had initiated from 1850. See: Fell, Jesse Weldon. Persons named.
Campbell, R.B. 2-Career. Robert Blair Campbell was born in S.C., graduated from S.C. College (1809, later the Univ. of S.C.), was a farmer, a commander in the S.C. militia (from 1814), a general of S.C. troops (1833; in his journal Benjamin Moran referred to R.B. Campbell as "Gen. Campbell), a member of the S.C. Senate (1821-23, 1830), and a U.S. House of Rep. member from S.C. (1823-25, 1834-35, 1835-37). He moved to Ala. where he was in the Ala. House of Rep. (1840), was U.S. Consul in Havana, Cuba (1842-50); then moved to Texas where he was appointed a commissioner in determining the U.S.-Mexico border (1853); was U.S. Consul, London, England (1854-61); died in 1862 and was buried in London, July 12, 1862. Ref.: Campbell, p. 94. Wallace and Gillespie, I, p. 9, footnote 12 (many entries in index).
Canada. GP visited Toronto and Montreal, Canada, on Oct. 15 to Nov. 1, 1856 (he suffered gout attacks on this visit). He visited Montreal on July 7-22, 1866, when he traveled on the Saguenay River and fished for salmon on the Marguerite River. See: Visits to the U.S. by GP. Montreal, Canada. Quebec, Canada. Toronto, Canada.
Cannes, France. GP went to Cannes, France, March 16, 1868, where he visited George Eustis (1828-72), who was Washington, D.C., business friend William Wilson Corcoran's (1798-1888) son-in-law. W.W. Corcoran's only daughter Louise Morris (née Corcoran) Eustis died Dec. 4, 1867, leaving three children. From Cannes on March 16 or 17, 1868, GP and his philanthropic advisor Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94) went to Paris, France, where they were received by Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, 1808-73) and Empress Eugénie (1826-1920). For details of GP's visits to Rome, Italy, and Paris, France, during Feb.-Mar. 1868, with sources, see: persons named. San Spirito Hospital, Rome, Italy.
Carlyle, Thomas (1795-1881), was a Scottish-born author who, with a few others, gave friendly aid but no encouragement to eccentric U.S. writer Delia Salter Bacon's (1811-59) theory that William Shakespeare's (1554-1616) plays were written by Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and others. For Bacon's inconsequential connection with GP, see: Bacon, Delia Salter. Butler, Charles.
HMS Monarch as Funeral Ship
Carnegie, Andrew (1835-1919). 1-Industrialist-Philanthropist. Andrew Carnegie was the Scottish-born immigrant to Pittsburgh, Penn., who rose from cotton mill bobbin boy, to telegrapher, to Penn. Railroad superintendent, to iron manufacturer, to steel magnate of what became the U.S. Steel Corporation. His various funds and foundations totaled over $350 million, including his well known Carnegie library buildings. His 1889 essay, "The Gospel of Wealth," urged the rich to use their wealth for public good.
Carnegie, Andrew. 2-1869 Connection with GP. In his Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie, 1933, he recalled reading of the launching of Britain's largest warship HMS Monarch, publicized in some jingoistic British newspapers as able to level a U.S. port city. Soon after, reading that GP had died in London (Nov. 4, 1869) and that GP's will required burial in Mass., he telegraphed British cabinet member John Bright (1811-99): "First and best service for Monarch, bringing home the body of Peabody." "Strange to say," he wrote, "this was done, and thus the Monarch became the messenger of peace, not of destruction." Ref.: Carnegie, p. 270. See: Bright, John. Death and Funeral, GP's.
Carnegie, Andrew. 3-1913 Connection with GPCFT. PCofVU historian Sherman Dorn described how former U.S. Pres. William Howard Taft (1857-1930, 27th U.S. Pres. during 1909-13) wrote to Andrew Carnegie for funds for GPCFT. Historian Dorn wrote: "In a letter of 15 May 1913, former president William Taft wrote to industrialist philanthropist [Andrew] Carnegie that he should support Peabody College to help supply competent teachers for Southern schools: 'I doubt if you could do anything that would so help the white people of the south in an educational way as to contribute this last $200,000' of the campaign." Carnegie did not respond but others contributed`. Ref.: Dorn, p. 17. See: persons named. PCofVU.
Oxford Honorary Degree
Carroll, Lewis (1832-98). 1-GP's Oxford Honorary Degree, 1867. Lewis Carroll was the pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1864. He was born in Daresbury near Warrington, England; graduated from Christ Church College, Oxford (1854); took Anglican Church orders (1861); and taught mathematics at Oxford (1861-81). He was on duty as an Oxford don on Founders' and Benefactors' Day, June 26, 1867, when Oxford Univ. granted GP an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Ref.: Dodgson, I, p. 261.
Carroll, Lewis. 2-Journal Entry. In his journal entry that day (June 26) Dodgson recorded: "I was introduced to the hero of the day, Mr. Peabody." Background: Dr. Henry Longueville Mansel (1820-71) of Oxford's Christ Church College wrote asking GP if he would accept an Oxford honorary degree. GP accepted by letter on June 5, 1867. The ceremony was held during Oxford's Encaenia, combining commencement with the celebration of spring, occasioned by readings, poetry, music, lectures, and a full-dress university parade, reflecting centuries of British tradition. Ref.: Ibid.
Carroll, Lewis. 3-Sheldonian Theatre. The honorary degree ceremony was held in the Sheldonian Theatre. Undergraduates, exerting their traditional right of banter, called aloud the names of dignitaries whom they either cheered or hissed. They cheered Lord Derby, groaned at MP John Bright (1811-99), both cheered and hissed PM William E. Gladstone (1809-98), and acclaimed PM Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81). Ref.: Ibid.
Carroll, Lewis. 4-"The lion of the day." GP was one of six individuals granted an honorary degree that day. When GP's name was called and he stood up, undergraduates applauded him, waved their caps, and beat the arms of their chairs with the flat of their hands. Jackson's Oxford Journal, June 29, 1867, recorded: "The lion of the day was beyond a doubt, Mr. Peabody." The Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford's famous assembly hall, was designed in 1669 by Christopher Wren, who was then astronomy professor at Oxford Univ. It was Wren's first major architectural commission and was named after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Gilbert Sheldon, who commissioned the theater while he was Oxford Univ.'s chancellor. Ref.: Ibid. Jackson's Oxford Journal, June 29, 1867, p. 5, c. 4-6. See: persons named. Oxford Univ., England. Honors, GP's.
Baltimore Lady to Whom GP Twice Proposed Marriage
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox) (1799-1880). 1-Alleged Romance. PIB Librarian Frank N. Jones's (b. 1906) pamphlet, George Peabody and the Peabody Institute, 1965, reported that in 1958 Mrs. Charles Rieman (formerly Elizabeth Taylor Goodwin who married Charles Rieman in 1899) gave the PIB Library an undated manuscript by Baltimore lawyer and philanthropist James Wilson Leakin (1857-1922) entitled "Family Tree of the Knoxes and Their Connections." In that manuscript an Oct. 17 1902, letter from James Wilson Leakin to Henrietta Cowman on their Knox ancestry told of a romance between GP and Elizabeth (née Knox) Carson, daughter of Samuel and Grace (née Gilmore) Knox of Baltimore. The relevant part of that letter is given below. Ref.: Jones, p. 7. See: Md. Historical Society Reference Librarian Francis P. O'Neill's Aug. 30, 2001, letter to the authors in which he shared the content of J.W. Leakin's Oct. 17 1902, letter (Librarian O'Neill's letter in the authors' possession).
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 2-GP's First Proposal (c. 1815-17). Of GP's first meeting with Elizabeth Carson, his marriage proposal, and her father's disapproval J.W. Leakin wrote: "…Of the younger daughter [of Rev. Samuel Knox] there is a very romantic story told by the daughter of a lady who was very intimate with her: 'When she [Elizabeth Carson] was quite a young girl, a clerk in a banking-house addressed her on a walk across the Long Bridge; that clerk's name was George Peabody. On the return he spoke to her father and he [her father] declined to give his [GP's] suit any encouragement because he had no means to support her and she afterwards married Mr. Carson, who was a man in a comfortable business, but who failed, leaving her with four or five children.'" Ref.: Ibid.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 3-GP's Second Proposal (probably Jan. 26 to Feb. 14, 1857). J.W. Leakin's letter then described GP's second unsuccessful proposal: "When Mr. Peabody heard that she was a widow, after the lapse of years and the attendant incumbrances which it had brought to her, he came back and again addressed her while she was obliged to work for a living, keeping a boarding house. At that time Mr. Peabody was one of the leading bankers of the world, having a house in New York, London and Washington. Mrs. Carson had the old world idea, of those who are strictly brought up, that there was a great deal of deceitfulness in riches, and the story goes that she spent all night in prayer to know whether or not she ought to accept Mr. Peabody and on the next morning she told him that she felt she could not accept him." Ref.: Ibid.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 4-Last Meeting (probably Oct. 24-25, 1866). J.W. Leakin's letter described their third and last meeting: "I remember hearing when I was a very small boy, living with my grandmother who was then a very old lady, that this great-aunt, Mrs. Carson, came to Baltimore and went with my grandmother to a reception which was given Mr. Peabody on the occasion of the opening of the Peabody Institute, which was donated by him to this city, and when Mrs. Carson came onto the stage where he was receiving the people, he left everyone else and advanced to where she was, then an old woman of seventy, and took her in his arms in that public place and said 'Well, Eliza, is this you?'. Afterwards, he dined with Mr. John W. Garrett, and someone said to him, 'Mr. Peabody, I hear that you met your old sweetheart today.' And he said 'Yes', but that it was a subject on which he did not care to talk; that he had had a great many successes in his life, but that that was his greatest disappointment." Ref.: Ibid.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 5-Review: GP's Circumstances, 1815-17. GP's father's death, May 13, 1811, followed by the Newburyport, Mass., fire, May 31, 1811, led GP at 16 (he clerked in his older brother's store, ruined by the Newburyport fire) to migrate with paternal uncle John Peabody (1768-before 1826) to Georgetown, D.C., where they opened a dry good store on May 15, 1812. As a War of 1812 volunteer, GP at 19 met older (age 35) fellow soldier and experienced Georgetown, D.C., merchant Elisha Riggs, Sr. (1779-1853). Riggs in 1814 took GP as junior partner in Riggs & Peabody, which imported dry goods from abroad for sale to U.S. wholesalers. The firm moved to Baltimore in 1815. See: Great Fire of Newburyport, Mass.(May 31, 1811). Georgetown, D.C. Newburyport, Mass. Riggs, Sr., Elisha.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 6- Review: GP's Circumstances, 1815-17 (Cont'd). Early in GP's 22 years in Baltimore (1815-37), after which he moved permanently to London, he supported his mother and younger siblings, paid his deceased father's debts, paid the mortgage on the family home (Danvers, Mass.) to restore it to his mother and siblings, and paid for his younger siblings' schooling at Bradford Academy, Bradford, Mass. See: Bradford Academy, Bradford, Mass. Riggs, Peabody & Co.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 7- Review: GP's Circumstances, 1815-17 (Cont'd). GP most likely first met Elizabeth Knox during 1815-17. When he asked her father, Samuel Knox, for his daughter's hand in marriage, Samuel Knox thought GP unsuitable economically. In 1817, Elizabeth Knox at age 18 (GP was then age 22) married George Carson, a Baltimore bank teller. George Carson is believed to have died about 1841, after the birth of the couple's fourth child. Elizabeth Carson, in reduced circumstances, managed a boarding house, probably with distant relatives as boarders, at 206 West Lombard St., Baltimore Ref.: Jones. Md. Historical Society's Ref.: Libn. Francis P. O'Neill to authors, Aug. 30, 2001. See: Persons named.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 8-GP's Circumstances, 1857. GP in London from 1837 as head of George Peabody & Co., was a rising broker-banker dealing with American securities In 1838, when he was age 42, he met, fell in love with, and was engaged to Esther Elizabeth Hoppin (1819-1905). Strikingly beautiful and unusually mature at age 19, she was in London for Queen Victoria's coronation (June 28, 1838). In 1839, having returned to the U.S., she rekindled an earlier love with Alexander Lardner (1808-48) and broke her engagement to GP. She married Alexander Lardner on Oct. 2, 1840. Her portrait by artist Thomas Sully (1783-1872) in NYC's Frick Art Reference Library shows her in all her beauty. See: Hoppin, Esther Elizabeth. Sully, Thomas. Lardner, Alexander.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 9- Review: GP's Circumstances, 1857 (Cont'd). GP was intensely busy during his first U.S. visit (Sept. 15, 1856, to Aug. 19,1857) after nearly 20 years abroad. He added funds to his Peabody Institute Libraries in North and South Danvers, Mass., and was mainly concerned to establish the PIB. He was in Baltimore Jan. 26 to Feb. 14, 1857, during which receptions were held for him by the Md. Historical Society (Jan. 30) and the Md. Institute for the Promotion of Mechanic Arts (Feb. 2).ccccccccc He met with key PIB trustees to plan his Feb. 12, 1857, PIB founding letter. Sometime during Jan. 26 to Feb. 14, 1857, GP, then age 62, made his alleged second marriage proposal to Elizabeth Carson, then 58, when she was a widow in poor circumstances managing a boarding house in Baltimore. The Jones account is that she declined, saying that people would believe she had married GP solely for his money. Ref.: Ibid.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 10-GP's Sister on his Baltimore Receptions. GP's sister, Mrs. Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell Daniels (1799-1879), through whom he dispensed family funds, wrote him from Mass. (on Feb. 19, 1857) that the Md. Institute reception (Feb. 2) must have touched him deeply. Among the young ladies he had saluted so "heartily" in Baltimore that night, she teased, "may have been the daughter of...the beautiful [girl] whom as you remarked one day you would have married, if you had been 'silly enough!'" It was a teasing remark with more than a touch of pity. Ref.: Mrs. Judith (née Peabody) Russell, Georgetown, Mass., to GP, Feb. 19, 1857, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 11-GP's Sister on His Baltimore Receptions (Cont'd). Judith added, referring indirectly to his 1852 philanthropic motto: "Education: a debt due from present to future generations" (her underlining): "What...results of good, not only to your contemporaries but to 'future generations,' were pending on that one act of self-denial, practiced by you in the days of youthful romance. Even at this late day, I have given a tear of sympathy for what may be presumed to have been your feelings, when you made the 'wise' decision, and resolved to submit to what you certainly have a right to think a hard lot: and, did I believe that through life you had been less happy, I should most sincerely regret your 'wisdom' spite of generations, present and future--myself and posterity included...." "But my dear brother is not desolate although alone. One affection, at least, deeper, stronger, steadier than that of a wife, clinging to him with a firmer tenacity as age creeps on, and which no circumstances can change, follows him through all his wanderings. And for the children...all the children are his children." See: Daniels, Judith (née Peabody) Russell. Danvers, Mass., Centennial, June 16, 1852.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 12-Comment on Sister Judith's Letter. Judith's letter does not identify Elizabeth (née Knox) Carson or Esther Elizabeth Hoppin or another as "...the beautiful [girl] whom as you remarked one day you would have married, if you had been 'silly enough!" Two other ladies were publicly romantically linked to GP in London during 1852-53: Charlotte Manigault Wilcocks (18921-75), niece of U.S. Minister to Britain Joseph Reed Ingersoll (1786-1868), and Elise Tiffany, daughter of Baltimore friend Osmond Capron Tiffany (1794-1851). GP, then age 58, wrote to an intimate friend: "I have now arrived at an age that throws aside all thoughts of marriage [although] I think her [Miss Wilcocks] a very fine woman." See: Romance and GP. Persons named.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 13-GP's Circumstances, 1866. On GP's second busy U.S. visit during May 1, 1866-May 1, 1867, his main concern was to speak at the dedication of the PIB and to found the Peabody Education Fund. In Baltimore he spoke and greeted visitors at the Oct. 25, 1866, PIB dedication, the likely date he allegedly last saw Elizabeth Carson. In Leakin's words: "…he left everyone else…took her in his arms in that public place and said 'Well, Eliza, is this you?'" Leakin's letter stated that Elizabeth Carson, accompanied by his grandmother "came to Baltimore…" Md. Historical Society Ref.: Libn. O'Neill, who found Elizabeth Carson's death notice in York, Pa. (which was connected by rail with Baltimore), conjectured that she lived there with her daughter and son-in-law D.O. Prince from about the mid 1850s to her death. Ref.: O'Neill See: Visits to the U.S. by GP.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 11-Conclusion. It is doubtful that GP contemplated marriage after 1850. Publicity which accompanied his fame as a philanthropist in the 1860s mounted enormously at his last illness, Nov. 4, 1869, death in London, and unusual transatlantic funeral honors. Some obituary accounts attributed his philanthropic motive as compensation for a lost love. Such stories persisted long after his death. See: Death and Funeral, GP's. Romance and GP.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 12-Conclusion (Cont'd.). Second PEF administrator J.L.M. Curry's (1825-1903) 1898 book, A Brief Sketch of George Peabody, printed an undated letter from the daughter of a business friend of GP. She wrote that when her father congratulated GP on his amazing philanthropy (probably on GP's arrival in NYC, May 1, 1866), GP reportedly replied: "Humphreys, after my disappointment long ago, I determined to devote myself to my fellow-beings, and am carrying out that dedication to my best ability." See: Curry, Jabez Lamar Monroe.
Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox). 13-Conclusion (Cont'd.). There is documentation in GP's papers about Esther Elizabeth Hoppin, Miss Willcocks, and Elise Tiffany but no direct mention of Elizabeth (née Knox) Carson. That alleged romance, which rests on the evidence of J.W. Leakin's letter, is possible and even likely. A PIB Art Gallery catalog listing of an 1840 portrait of Elizabeth (née Knox) Carson contains the legend: "Lady to whom G. Peabody twice offered his hand." Ref.: Jones, p. 7. See: persons named. Romance and GP. For location of her portrait, see Ref.: g. Internet, under Peabody Art Collection, Md. State Archives.
Carson, George (d.? 1841). See: Carson, Elizabeth (née Knox), (above).
Broken Engagement
Cass, Lewis (1782-1866). 1-GP's Engagement "thoroughly discussed." Lewis Cass was U.S. Minister to France during 1836-42. Amid the vast publicity on GP's Nov. 4, 1869, death in London and his unprecedented 96-day transatlantic funeral, the story of GP's broken engagement to Esther Elizabeth Hoppin (1819-1905) appeared in some newspapers. The Providence Journal (R.I., Dec. 22, 1869) printed the following from an anonymous letter writer about the broken engagement: "I well remember, when in London, twenty-eight years ago, hearing all this talked over in a chosen circle of American friends; and also, at a brilliant dinner-party given by General Cass in Versailles, it was thoroughly discussed in all its length and breadth." See: Hoppin, Esther Elizabeth.
Cass, Lewis. 2-Career. Lewis Cass was born in Exeter, N.H.; was a lawyer in Zanesville, Ohio; was U.S. marshal for Ohio (1807-12); fought in the War of 1812; was Mich. Territory governor (1813-31); U.S. Secty. of War (1831-36); U.S. Minister to France (1836-42); U.S. Sen. from Mich. (1845-48); and U.S. Secty. of State (1857-60). Ref.: Ibid.
Castle Connell, Limerick, lreland. In June 1867 and in July 1868 GP rented the Castle Connell, Limerick, Ireland, on the Shannon River, where he liked to fish. MP John Bright (1811-89) was his guest on both occasions. GP's little known unusual gift (amount and date of gift not known) of a stone-based metal railing in front of the Catholic Church, Limerick, Ireland, has carved on it: "THIS RAILING IS THE GIFT OF GEORGE PEABODY ESQ." See: Bright, John. Ireland.
GP Bicentennial Celebrations (Feb. 18, 1795-1995)
Catto, Rt. Hon. Lord (Sir Stephen Gordon, 1923-), is the former head of the Morgan Grenfell Group banking firm, lineal descendant of George Peabody & Co. (1838-64), who participated in the "Bicentenary Service of Thanksgiving for the Life and Work of George Peabody, 1795-1869," in London's Westminster Abbey, Nov. 16, 1995. Lord Catto was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge Univ.; he succeeded his father as 2nd Baron Catto (1936); served with the RAF in WW II; and headed Morgan Grenfell & Co. Ltd. (from 1948) and its successor Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Group (1980-87). Ref.: New York Times, July 16, 1995, section XIII-CN, p. 17, c. 1. (Career): Seen Dec. 9, 1999: Internet http://www.knowuk.co.uk See: GP Bicentennial Celebrations (Feb. 18, 1795-1995).
Cazenove, Philip (1798-1880), who paid for British artist Henry William Pickersgill's (1782-1875) portrait of GP in the Corporation of London's Guildhall, is listed in Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 18th edn. (1965j), Vol. 1, p. 128, as "of Clapham, Founder of the Girls School at Green Lane and of Bolingbrooke Hospital." Ref.: London Times, April 10, 1866, p. 5, c. 3; and April 11, 1866, p. 5, c. 5. [Cazenove, Philip]. See: Pickersgill, Henry William.
Centennial Celebration, GP's, 1895. For speeches, messages received, and Queen Victoria's cablegram, with sources, see: George Peabody Centennial Celebration (Feb. 18, 1795-1895). Victoria, Queen.
Governor of Maine
Chamberlain, Joshua Lawrence (1828-1914), governor of Maine, participated in the Jan. 25-Feb. 1, 1870, reception of GP's remains aboard HMS Monarch, accompanied by the USS Plymouth, in Portland harbor, Maine. Gov. Chamberlain was born in Brewer, Maine; graduated from Bowdoin College (1852) and attended Bangor Theological Seminary; taught at Bowdoin College (1855-62); was a Lt. Col. in the 20th Maine Infantry; won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his defense of Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg (1863); was promoted to brig. gen. in the field by commanding Gen. U.S. Grant (1822-85) in June 1864; was Maine governor (1867-71); president of Bowdoin College (1871-83); and active in railroads and industry. Ref.: Boatner, p. 135. See: Death and funeral, GP's.
Chamier, Frederick (1796-1870). In his journal U.S. novelist Herman Melville (1819-91) recorded those present, including GP, when in Nov. 1849 he dined at the London home of Weymouth, Mass.-born head of the Baring Brothers banking firm Joshua Bates (1788-1864): "There was a Baron opposite me and a most lovely young girl, a daughter of Captain Chamier, the sea novelist...." See: Melville, Herman.
Chandler, Charles W. (d. Feb. 9, 1882). 1-Married GP's Niece Julia Adelaide Peabody. Charles W. Chandler was principal of the high school in Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio (April 1855-June 1865) and interim school superintendent (Jan. 7, 1862-63). He married GP's niece Julia Adelaide (née Peabody, b. April 25, 1835) Chandler (see immediately below) on Oct. 16, `1861, recorded in the Court of Common Pleas Probate Division, 401 Main St., Zanesville, Oh. 43701-3567. She was the daughter of GP's oldest brother David Peabody (1790-1841). Ref.: (High school principal): Everhart, pp. 221-222. (Marriage): Tunis.
Chandler, C.W. 2-Named Executor of GP's U.S. Estate. In his last will of Sept. 9, 1869, GP named two executors of his U.S. estates: nephew-in-law Charles W. Chandler and nephew Robert Singleton Peabody (1837-1904), son of GP's sister Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Daniels (1799-1879). GP left each U.S. executor $5,000 (ƒ1,000). Ref.: Death and Funeral, GP's, 4. See: Chandler, Julia Adelaide (née Peabody) below. Wills, GP's.
Favorite Niece
Chandler, Julia Adelaide (née Peabody) (b. April 25, 1835). 1-GP's Niece. During his first U.S. visit (Sept. 15, 1856 to Aug 19, 1857) after nearly 20 years' absence as a merchant-banker in London, GP became acquainted with his niece, Julia Adelaide Peabody, then age 21. This daughter of oldest brother David Peabody (1790-1841) became GP's favorite niece. She lived in Zanesville, Ohio, with her mother, David Peabody's second wife, Mrs. Phebe (née Reynolds) Peabody, went to finishing school in Philadelphia at uncle GP's expense, and married Zanesville, Ohio, lawyer Charles W. Chandler (d. 1882), who was an executor of GP's U.S. estate at GP's death.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 2-Background. In April 1811 David Peabody, oldest in the family of 8, employed GP, then age 16, as clerk in a dry goods shop David and partner Samuel Swett managed on State St., Newburyport, Mass. GP's father's death, May 13, 1811, in debt in Danvers, Mass., plus a devastating fire in Newburyport, May 31, 1811, led GP and paternal uncle John Peabody (1768-before 1826), whose store was burned, to sail from Newburyport, May 4, 1812, to Georgetown, D.C., where they opened a dry goods store, May 15, 1812. See: Riggs, Sr., Elisha.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 3-Brothers Worked for Riggs, Peabody & Co. GP managed the store, his uncle having gone into other enterprises. GP also served briefly in the War of 1812. He met older fellow soldier and experienced merchant Elisha Riggs, Sr. (1779-1853), who took GP, then age 19, as junior partner in Riggs, Peabody & Co. (1814-29), importers of dry goods from abroad for sale to U.S. wholesalers. The firm prospered. When Elisha Riggs, Sr., left the firm in 1829 to become a NYC banker, his place was taken by his nephew, Samuel Riggs (d.1853), in the renamed Peabody, Riggs & Co. (1829-48). See: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 4-Brothers Worked for Riggs, Peabody & Co. Cont'd. GP's three brothers occasionally worked for the firm: David Peabody, younger brothers Thomas Peabody (1801-35), and Jeremiah Dodge Peabody (1805-77, who early left the firm to become a farmer in Zanesville, Ohio). Correspondence from family and the firms detailed below indicated that Thomas and to a lesser extent David were improvident, gambled, drank, and were often in debt. Correspondence also indicated that oldest brother David may have been remiss in dealings with GP, but that GP aided financially David's son by his first wife (mentioned below) and daughter Julia Adelaide by his second wife. See: persons named.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 5-GP Paid for Relatives' Schooling. On Jan. 20, 1814, in Newburyport, Mass., David Peabody married Sally Caldwell. She died soon after 1815, leaving a son named after his uncle, George Peabody (1815-32). In Nov. 1816 David transferred to GP, now the main family supporter, title to their late father's mortgaged Danvers, Mass., home. Newburyport lawyer Ebon Mosely wrote to GP Dec. 16, 1816, "I cannot but be pleased with the filial affection which seems to evince you to preserve the estate for a Parent." By Jan. 1817 GP had paid off his late father's debts and restored his mother and younger siblings to their Danvers home (they had been forced to live separately with Spofford relatives in Salem, Mass.). Ref.: Ebon Mosley, Newburyport, Mass., to GP, Baltimore, Dec. 16, 1816, Peabody Papers, PEM.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 6-GP Paid for Relatives' Schooling Cont'd. GP paid for six of his relatives' schooling at Bradford Academy, Mass., during most of the 1820s, and bought a house for the family in West Bradford. Those who attended Bradford Academy were: 1-youngest born brother Jeremiah Peabody in 1819; 2-fourth born child Judith Dodge Peabody (1799-1879) during 1821-27; 3-seventh born and third of four sisters Mary Gaines Peabody (1807-34) in 1822-23; 4-eighth born and fourth sister Sophronia Phelps Peabody (b.1809) in 1827; 5-young cousin Adolphus William Peabody (b. 1814, paternal uncle John Peabody's son) during 1827-29; and 6-nephew George Peabody (1815-32, oldest brother David's son who sadly died of scarlet fever at age 17) in 1827. Ref.: (David Peabody married Sally Caldwell): Vital Records...Newburyport, Mass. ...to...1849, Vol. II, p. 360. See: Bradford Academy. Persons named.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 7-Nephew Asked for Aid for College. David's son named after GP wrote to ask if his uncle would help him financially to attend Yale College. GP, back in London after a 15-month commercial buying trip in Europe, replied positively on May 18, 1831. Perhaps the cultural scenes he briefly glimpsed on his commercial travels induced the following poignant letter that helps explain GP's later philanthropy.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 8-"Deprived, as I was." GP wrote his nephew (his underlining): "Deprived, as I was, of the opportunity of obtaining anything more than the most common education, I am well qualified to estimate its value by the disadvantages I labour under in the society [in] which my business and situation in life frequently throws me, and willingly would I now give twenty times the expense attending a good education could I now possess it, but it is now too late for me to learn and I can only do to those who come under my care, as I could have wished circumstances had permitted others to have done by me." Sadly this nephew died Sept. 24, 1832, in Boston of scarlet fever, his potential unfulfilled. Ref.: GP, London, to nephew George Peabody, May 18, 1831, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 9-Elisha Riggs, Sr. on GP's Difficult Brothers. In Jan. and Feb. 1827 Elisha Riggs, Sr., then GP's senior partner, wrote in confidence to GP, then working out of Baltimore for the firm, of serious difficulties with younger brother Thomas Peabody and some irritations from oldest brother David Peabody. "My whole time," Elisha Riggs, Sr., wrote to GP, "was employed late & early in attending to various business, While I was also much trouble[d] in Mind, as to what course to take with Thomas P[eabody] who I had nearly lost confidence in, and had to be attentive to every thing in the way of business myself, as but little appeared to be done as it should be without my personal attention." See: Riggs, Sr., Elisha.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 10-Elisha Riggs, Sr. on GP's Difficult Brothers Cont'd.: "I have caused Thomas to remove from his old boarding place to Mr. Devens where I board. [H]e has been here about three days. [H]e promises to be regular in his habits for the future and is generally in the house of nights in good time--As I often have writing for him to do in my room. I have paid all his debts of borrowed money, taylors, shoe bills, etc., with the exception of about 150$ which he borrowed he says of Brokers & Lotter [lottery, i.e. gambling] men, of which David Peabody was also bound. This I told him I would not pay at present. I keep a strick eye over him as well as my business will allow me to do--And have assured him, that if he ever acted again as he has done, that I would certainly get another Clerk--I have taken great pains and talked with him very carefully as to the consequences of his conduct--he appears penitent and I hope will keep his promise hereafter." Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 11-Elisha Riggs, Sr. on GP's Difficult Brothers Cont'd.: "I have acted the part of a good friend toward him in every respect, which he appears to feel and acknowledge. A short time will enable him to see and determine--I understand from Thomas that David is now employed in a lottery office. He is occasionally in the Store...." Riggs ended with: "This letter is written in haste for yourself only, as I have never mentioned to any person except yourself anything about T.P. [Thomas Peabody]. You will therefore destroy this letter...." Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 12-GP's Mother Ill. Often in financial trouble, David in NYC wrote brother Thomas in Baltimore that he needed money. Thomas replied, Nov. 18, 1828, that he was without a job and could do nothing. Four days later GP sent Thomas $15 which Thomas sent to David. Thomas sought better prospects in South America. He wrote older brother David from Lima, Peru, April 30, 1830, that he was working there as bookkeeper for Alsop, Wetmore & Co.'s agent, that their brother GP was about to sail for England on his second European commercial buying trip (1831-32, 15 months), and that their mother, in poor health, was living with recently married daughter Mary Gaines (née Peabody) Marsh in Lockport, N.Y. On April 30, 1830, Mary wrote David in NYC that their mother was still in poor health, that she had the ague followed by a high intermittent fever. Caleb Marsh (b.1800) also wrote David that mother Peabody was seriously ill and that he did not think she would recover. Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 13-GP's Mother Died, June 22, 1830. On June 25, 1830, Mary wrote David that their mother had died on June 22, 1830, a month short of her sixtieth year. David forwarded Mary's letter about their mother's death to GP by the next ship bound for England. He added to GP, in a postscript to Mary's letter: "The above I just recd in time to forward by the Canada [ship]--which sails in an hour. I should have gone to Lockport a month since if it had been in my power to have paid the expense of the journey. Yrs. truly, D. Peabody." Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 14-Thomas Peabody Ill and Unemployed. Thomas Peabody was ill in Lima, Peru; gave up his job there; worked his way back to the U.S. as a ship's clerk, and lost that job when a new crew was hired. GP was out of the country on a European buying trip when Thomas landed in Baltimore without work. He wrote David in NYC: "George being out of the country my necessity for employment is very great & for the present I would be willing to take up with almost any situation." Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 15-Thomas Peabody's Death, 1835. Peabody family letters hint at rather than detail Thomas Peabody's misdemeanors. He had evidently wronged brother David and begged to be forgiven. Thomas Peabody died April 16, 1835, the day before his thirty-fourth birthday. He had been operating a school and had gone to pay some debts in Buffalo, N.Y. Not having enough money to meet his obligations and overcome with remorse and shame, he died in circumstances not specified in family letters. Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 16-Thomas Peabody's Death, 1835 Cont'd. GP, then in Europe, had the sad news in an April 20, 1835, letter, from his brother-in-law, Dr. Eldridge Gerry Little, a physician, married to GP's youngest sister Sophronia Phelps (née Peabody) Little (b.1809). Dr. Little wrote to GP: "It becomes my painful duty to inform you of the death of Thomas. He died in Buffalo on the 16th inst. a victim of his own vices." Four months later sister Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell in her Aug. 23, 1835, letter to GP, referred to Thomas as their "poor misguided brother." She also relayed news that oldest brother David had married again. He met his second wife when he boarded at her home in Brookline, near Boston, Mass. David and his new family moved to Zanesville, Ohio, where youngest brother Jeremiah had settled on a farm. Maybe, Judith added about David, having a wife again might teach him economy. Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 17-GP and Niece Julia, 1856-57. During his 1856-57 U.S. visit GP was busy visiting friends, being honored, fêted, seeing after his institute library in what is now Peabody, Mass., founding a branch library in what is now Danvers, Mass., founding the PIB (Feb. 12, 1857), traveling to see vast changes in the U.S. since his 20-year absence abroad. He was in Zanesville, Ohio, Nov. 1856 with brother Jeremiah's family and became acquainted with niece Julia Adelaide, age 21. He overcame her mother's initial doubts about sending Julia to a finishing school in Philadelphia at his expense. Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 18-With Julia in Philadelphia, 1857. GP was in Philadelphia Jan. 10-18, 1857, partly to sit for a portrait in artist James Read Lambdin's (1807-89) Philadelphia studio, partly to be with niece Julia Adelaide, then attending finishing school in Philadelphia. With GP in Philadelphia was Baltimorean and PIB trustee Charles James Madison Eaton (1808-93). Eaton, an art collector, was keen to visit the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Artist James Read Lambdin, its director, took the group to visit the art gallery. GP preferred to sit and wait while the others toured the gallery. See: Eaton, Charles James Madison.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 19-"Julia will be a solace to your declining years." On May 20, 1857, sister Judith wrote GP from her home in Georgetown, Mass. She was glad he had taken Julia under his wing, sent her to school in Philadelphia, and had someone to lavish his affections on. She recalled how often Julia's father David, their deceased brother, had been jobless and in debt, how GP had time and again aided David and all the family. "I trust," she wrote, "that Julia will be a solace to your declining years, and by her affection, wipe away the remembrance of the wrongs you have received from her father." Ref.: Mrs. Judith (née Peabody) Russell, Georgetown, Mass., to GP, May 20, 1857, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 20-Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, April 1857, published an extensive, laudatory account of GP's life, rise in business, saving Md.'s credit abroad, and philanthropic gifts. The article, reprinted in pamphlet form, was widely circulated. Niece Julia Adelaide had a copy, wrote to tell GP that all her friends said he was quite handsome and that she was making a miniature painting of the GP frontispiece picture. She asked in her letter, "Will 'somebody' please send me a lock of his hair." Ref.: Julia Adelaide Peabody, Zanesville, Ohio, to GP, April 30, 1857, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 21-GP & Niece Julia Visit Yale College. In July 1857 GP took Julia with him to New Haven, Conn., to visit Yale College, where nephew Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99), son of GP's deceased younger sister Mary Gaines (née Peabody) Marsh, was studying science. While there he had a visit from science Prof. Benjamin Silliman, Sr. (1779-1864). Neither man could foresee that nine years later GP would endow Peabody museums at Harvard and Yale Universities. Ref.: "George Peabody-a."
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 22-Panic of 1857. Having Boston merchant Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90) as partner in George Peabody & Co., London, from Oct. 1, 1854, freed GP for his 1856-57 U.S. visit. J.S. Morgan wrote GP frequently about business affairs. On Jan. 30, 1857, Morgan alerted GP to a brewing financial panic: "The drawing upon us for the last two or three mails have been very heavy and the look of our financial business is anything but encouraging for it." Morgan warned GP again on Feb. 27 and Apr. 9: "These are times when we must keep a sharp lookout. We are in a good position and must keep so." See: Morgan, Junius Spencer.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 23-Panic of 1857 Cont'd. On April 11 GP's cousin Joseph Peabody wrote from NYC of a Paris firm (Greene & Co.) "obliged to suspend...." Alarmed, J.S. Morgan wrote GP, April 17, that money was stringent, and the specie of the Bank of England were down to nine million, "the lowest point in ten years." GP hurriedly left NYC for London on Aug. 19, 1857. He found that hundreds of U.S. and British firms had collapsed, that Lawrence, Stone and Co. of Boston, which owed him a large sum, could not repay him, that Baring Brothers of London were pressing George Peabody & Co. for £150,000 ($750,000) owed them. George Peabody & Co. was in trouble. Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 24-GP to Julia about the Panic. On Nov. 13, 1857, GP wrote of his distress to niece Julia Adelaide Peabody: "This letter I promised to write you has been postponed because of my constant engagements and the unparalleled gloom of the Panic. What will happen, Heaven only knows. Lack of confidence and distrust is universal here and in the United States. I hope my house will weather the storm. I think it will do so even though so many in debt to me cannot pay. If I fail I will bear it like a man. In my conscience I know I never deceived or injured any other human being." Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 25-GP to Julia about the Panic Cont'd : "It is less than three months since I left you in the United States, prosperous and happy. Now all is gloom and affliction. Nearly all the American houses in Europe have suspended operations and nothing but great strength can save them. It is the loss of credit of my house I fear. In any circumstances, only a small part of my private fortune will be lost. I will have enough for all my required purposes." GP held this letter for some weeks, determined not to worry his niece and to secure a Bank of England loan. Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody). 26-Bank of England Loan. Gathering his assets, GP anxiously applied for a $4 million loan from the Bank of England. While the Bank of England considered the loan request, some financiers, seeing an opportunity to force GP out of business, approached GP's partner J.S. Morgan and said that they would guarantee the loan if George Peabody & Co. ceased business in London. Second PEF administrator Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry (1825-1903) later wrote that GP raged like a wounded lion "and told Mr. Morgan to reply that he dared them to cause his failure." The Bank of England made the loan, enabling GP to satisfy his creditors, and by March 30, 1858, GP was able to repay the Bank of England. On April 16, 1858, GP wrote Washington, D.C., business friend William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888), "My business is again quite snug. ....Our credit...stands as high as ever before." Ref.: Ibid.
Chandler, J.A. (née Peabody).
7 of 14: George Peabody (1795-1869): A-Z Handbook...., by Franklin and Betty J.
7 of 14: George Peabody (1795-1869): A-Z Handbook...., by Franklin and Betty J. Parker, bfparker@frontiernet.net
Following Background "Preface" below 7 of 14 blogs covers alphabetically: Morgan Grenfell & Co. (1910-18) to Peabody, George, Illus.: "Prophetic Eye."
Background: "Preface" 1 of 14 tells the why-when-where-how-findings-and-motives of the authors’ research on Franklin Parker’s doctoral dissertation, “George Peabody, Founder of Modern Philanthropy,” completed 1956 at George Peabody College for Teachers, adjoining Vanderbilt University, which on July 1, 1979, became Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, Nashville.
George Peabody, so well known in the 1850s-60s but since sadly neglected, was a significant 19th century figure as: 1-a Massachusetts-born merchant in the U.S. South: Riggs & Peabody, later Peabody & Riggs (1814-38), who imported dry goods and other commodities (worldwide) for sale to U.S. wholesalers. George Peabody then became: 2-a London-based merchant-banker, George Peabody & Co. (1838-64), who financed in part the B&O RR, the 2nd Mexican War Loan, the Atlantic Cable, and with J.S. Morgan as partner, was the root of the JP Morgan international banking firm. Finally, this merchant-turned-banker became: 3-the best known philanthropist of his time (1850s-60s), who founded the Peabody Homes of London for the working poor; in the U.S. 7 Peabody Libraries and Lecture Halls; the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore; three Peabody Museums at Harvard (Anthropology), Yale (Paleontology), and the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA (maritime history); and founder of the Peabody Education Fund for the South (1867-1914), basis for all later larger U.S. funds and foundations. End of Background.
J. P. Morgan Family
Morgan Grenfell & Co. (1910-18). George Peabody & Co., London (Dec. 1, 1838-Oct. 1, 1864), became J.S. Morgan & Co. (Oct. 1, 1864-Dec. 31, 1909). On J.S. Morgan's death (1890) the firm was controlled by J.P. Morgan, Sr. The firm continued as Morgan Grenfell & Co. (1910-18), Morgan Grenfell & Co., Ltd. (1918-90), and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990), a German owned banking firm. See: Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. George Peabody & Co. Morgan, Junius Spencer.
Morgan, John Pierpont, Sr. (1837-1913). 1-International Banker. John Pierpont Morgan, Sr., was the son of Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-1890), Boston merchant and GP's partner in George Peabody & Co., London, for ten years during Oct. 1,1854 to Oct. 1, 1864. J.P. Morgan, Sr., was born in Hartford, Conn., educated at the English High School in Boston, and soon after his father's partnership with GP attended the Univ. of Göttingen, Germany (1856-57). J.P. Morgan, Sr., at age 16 visited London with his father and mother when he first met GP in London in May 1853. His father was then considering becoming GP's partner. On May 18, 1853, J.P. Morgan, Sr., wrote his 14-year-old cousin James Junius Goodwin (1835-1915), : "Father and Mother went to a dinner given by George Peabody at Richmond." Ref.: "Goodwin," p. 469.
Morgan, J.P., Sr. 2-J.P. Morgan [Sr.], at age 20. In 1857 J.P. Morgan, Sr., at age 20 shared an apartment at 45 West 17 St. NYC, with GP's relative (distant cousin?) Joseph Peabody (d. April 7, 1905) and was the NYC agent for George Peabody & Co. His father soon placed him in the NYC banking firm of Duncan, Sherman & Co. (1860), which chiefly represented George Peabody & Co. J.P. Morgan, Sr., then became junior partner in Dabney, Morgan & Co., NYC (1864), helped form Drexel, Morgan & Co., NYC (1871), of which his father was also a partner. Drexel, Morgan & Co. became J.P. Morgan & Co. (1895). Ref.: "Goodwin," p. 469. See: Peabody, Joseph.
Morgan, J.P., Sr. 3-Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, London. GP retired on Oct. 1, 1864. Knowing that he would no longer exert control, he asked that his name be withdrawn from the firm. George Peabody & Co., London (Dec. 1, 1838-Oct. 1, 1864), then became J.S. Morgan & Co. (Oct. 1, 1864-Dec. 31, 1909). On J.S. Morgan's death (1890) the firm was controlled by J.P. Morgan, Sr. The firm continued as Morgan Grenfell & Co. (1910-18), Morgan Grenfell & Co., Ltd. (1918-90), and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990), a German owned banking firm. J.P. Morgan, Sr., was also a partner of Drexel & Co., Philadelphia, when he gained control of leading railroads (1901), organized United States Steel Co. (1901), and controlled both steel and coal interests. He was the leading financier of his time, a yachtsman, art collector, and philanthropist. For details and sources of J.P. Morgan, Sr., as a PEF trustee, see PEF.
Morgan, J.P., Sr. 4-GP, Root of Morgan Banking. George Peabody & Co. was the root of the J.P. Morgan, Sr., financial empire which, in later more complex times, was on an international scale that far surpassed its GP beginnings. GP and a few other merchant-bankers of his time began, and the Morgans and other international bankers greatly advanced, the use of investment capital that developed and industrialized the U.S. to world leadership. Ref.: Allen, F.L. See: Junius Spencer Morgan. Morgan Grenfell & Co. Ltd. Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990). For details and sources of how GPCFT Pres. Bruce R. Payne secured a $250,000 gift from the estate of John Pierpont Morgan, Sr., see PCofVU, history. Conkin, Peabody College, index.
Morgan, John Pierpont, Jr. (1867-1943). 1-Of the House of Morgan. John Pierpont Morgan, Jr., was the son of John Pierpont Morgan, Sr. (1837-1913). He was born in Irvington, N.Y., graduated from Harvard Univ. (1889), and soon after worked in J.S. Morgan & Co., London (Oct. 1, 1864-Dec. 31, 1909). The firm, begun by GP as George Peabody & Co., London (Dec. 1, 1838-Oct. 1, 1864); continued as J.S. Morgan & Co., London (Oct. 1, 1864-Dec. 31, 1909); continued as Morgan, Grenfell & Co. (Jan. 1, 1910-18), continued as Morgan Grenfell & Co., Ltd. (1918-90); and continues as Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990), a German owned banking firm. See: Morgan, Junius Spencer. Morgan Grenfell & Co. Ltd. Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990).
Morgan, John Pierpont, Jr. 2-Career. J.P. Morgan, Jr., succeeded his father as head of J.P. Morgan & Co. (from 1913) and head of United States Steel. In 1920 he gave his Grosvenor Square, London, residence in to the U.S. government as its London embassy. In 1924 he endowed as a public institution the Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC, originally his father's private library, which has family papers and some GP papers. J.P. Morgan, Jr., contributed to charitable institutions and was a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, Cooper Union, and several hospitals. Ref.: Ibid.
GP’s Partner, J.S. Morgan
Morgan, Junius Spencer (1813-90). 1-Am. Merchant in London. GP went to England in Feb. 1837 as one of three Md. agents to sell the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal part of Md.'s $8 million bonds to finance internal improvements. It was his fifth commercial trip abroad during 1827-37. The other two agents returned without success to the U.S. He remained in London from Feb. 1837 to his death (Nov. 4, 1869), 32 years, except for three U.S. visits (Sept. 15, 1856 to Aug. 19, 1857, May 1, 1866 to May 1, 1867, and June 8-Sept. 29, 1869). In 1837 GP was age 42 and had been in the mercantile trade for 23 years. The Panic of 1837, followed by a depression into the 1840s, adversely affected all business including GP's sale of Md. bonds and the mercantile business of Peabody, Riggs & Co. (1829-48). See: Riggs, Peabody & Co.
Morgan, J.S. 2-End of Peabody, Riggs & Co. GP was Peabody, Riggs & Co.'s senior partner and London resident financier. Junior partner Samuel Riggs (d.1853) managed the main Baltimore office and then the NYC office. Two other younger partners, Henry T. Jenkins (b.1815) and Adolphus William Peabody (b. 1814), GP's cousin, son of his paternal uncle John Peabody (1768-1827), traveled and collected debts for the firm in the U.S. In London GP also traded on his own, first in various goods and services, then increasingly in U.S. state and federal securities. Peabody, Riggs & Co.'s mercantile trade declined. GP withdrew his capital in 1843, although the firm continued to 1848 when the other partners entered other firms. Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 3-Beginning of George Peabody & Co. (1838). On Dec. 1, 1838, GP leased an office at 31 Moorgate St., in London's inner city not far from St. Paul's Cathedral where business houses occupy odd nooks and crannies. He installed desks, chairs, a mahogany counter, a safe, and bookkeeping materials. This was the informal beginning of George Peabody & Co., London, merchant banker (1838-64). He still traded in goods and commodities and was in transition from merchant to securities broker and banker. He lived simply and worked concentratedly. In 1848, tired and often ill, he complained to intimate NYC business friend William Shepard Wetmore (1802-62): "I am almost tired of making money without having time to spend and enjoy it--and I feel this particularly at this time when I am not very well & should be out of this City [London] where the cholera is raging with terrible effect." Ref.: GP to William Shepard Wetmore, Sept. 24 and 28, 1848, quoted in Hidy, M.E.-c, p. 261.
Morgan, J.S 4-Seeking a Partner. GP complained to business friends that by 1851 he had worked 10 hours a day, had not been away from his office two consecutive days, had not been 100 miles from London for six years. Sometimes in poor health, he had severe attacks of rheumatism, suffered from gout and intestinal ailments, and was occasionally absent from his office. Business friends and clients were concerned because he ran a one-man business. They urged him to take an American partner to give his firm continuity. In 1843 he hired 32-year-old British-born Charles Cubitt Gooch (1811-89) as salaried clerk at £150 ($750) a year. Gooch had seven years' experience as bookkeeper with Thomas Wilson & Co., a London firm headed by an American, and then worked in another firm specializing in U.S. trade. Ref.: (Gooch partnership): Articles of partnership between GP and Charles Cubitt Gooch, Jan. 1852, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Morgan, J.S 5-Seeking a Partner Cont'd. Although Gooch was an efficient bookkeeper and an able office manager, friends and clients still urged GP to find an experienced younger American partner. In 1852 GP made Gooch a salaried junior partner. GP cautiously let it be known that he was looking for an American merchant of probity as partner, one with dry goods importing experience, knowledgeable about U.S. government and U.S. state securities, and one adaptable to the fast-changing world of securities banking. Business friends and clients whose advice he valued recommended as an ideal choice Boston merchant Junius Spencer Morgan. Ref. Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 6-Morgan's Commercial Career. J.S. Morgan, 18 years younger than GP, was from an old Mass. family. His ancestor Miles Morgan (1616-99) arrived in America from England in 1636, a year after GP's ancestor Francis Peboddy (1612 or 14-1697) arrived in America in 1635. J.S. Morgan was born in West Springfield (later Holyoke), Mass. He grew up in Hartford, Conn., where his father Joseph Morgan (1771-1847) moved the family in 1817. This Joseph Morgan began as a farmer, was a realtor, made money in stage coach lines, then hotels, and finally in insurance companies. Biographer Andrew Sinclair of grandson John Pierpont Morgan, Sr. (1837-1913), wrote that Joseph Morgan's "fortune was...based on the great Wall Street fire of December, 1835, when he had made his Aetna Fire Insurance Company pay up promptly in order to attract more business at triple rates." Ref.: Sinclair, p. 5.
Morgan, J.S. 7-Morgan's Commercial Career Cont'd. J.S. Morgan was educated in private schools. He learned the wholesale dry goods business as apprentice to merchant-banker Alfred Wells (1814-67) of Boston and was briefly Wells's partner. He then was a partner in Morris Ketchum's private bank on Wall St., NYC; and then became a partner in the dry goods house of Howe Mather & Co., Hartford, Conn. (which became Mather Morgan & Co.). He was a partner in J.M. Beebe, Morgan & Co. of Boston during 1851-54, dealing in dry goods and commodities, when he came to GP's attention. GP had dealings with this firm and particularly valued James Madison Beebe's (1800-75) high regard for his partner. Ref.: "Goodwin," p. 469.
Morgan, J.S. 8-Considering a GP-Morgan Partnership. J.S. Morgan had first visited England in 1850, but had no known connection with GP then. Now in 1853 GP let J.S. Morgan know of his interest in having him as his partner. J.S. Morgan was interested enough to go with his wife to London in May 1853. They were joined there by their 16-year-old son John Pierpont Morgan (Sr., 1837-1913). GP and J.S. Morgan first met at George Peabody & Co., 6 Warnford Court, Throgmorton St., London, May 15, 1853. GP at 58 and J.S. Morgan at 40 liked each other. On May 18, 1853, young John Pierpont in London wrote to his cousin James Junius Goodwin (1835-1915), "Father and Mother went to a dinner given by George Peabody at Richmond." Ref.: Ibid. Satterlee, p. 207.
Morgan, J.S. 9-At GP's May 18, 1853, Dinner. GP and J.S. Morgan took each other's social measure at this dinner GP gave to honor the new U.S. Minister to England Joseph Reed Ingersoll (1786-1868) and his niece, Miss Charlotte Manigault Wilcocks (1821-75). The dinner was held at the Star and Garter, Richmond, about eight miles from London, overlooking the Thames. Among the 150 guests (65 English, 85 Americans) was Harvard Univ. professor (and president in 1860) Cornelius Conway Felton (1807-62). He later wrote in his book, Familiar Letters from Europe, of being a guest "at a splendid and costly entertainment" on May 18, 1853, given by GP and attended by former U.S. Pres. Martin Van Buren (1782-62, eighth U.S. Pres. during 1837-41), and "many very distinguished persons." See: Dinners, GP's, London (May 18, 1853).
Morgan, J.S. 10-N.Y Times on May 18, 1853, Dinner. The New York Daily Times prefaced its four-column account of the dinner with the following about GP: "No American who has visited England within the past ten or fifteen years, needs to be told who Mr. Peabody is, or how much he is constantly doing to make his countrymen feel at home upon British soil, or how largely he has contributed, in an unostentatious but most effective way to strengthen the feeling of friendship between the people of the two great nations on which so much of their peace and prosperity must always depend." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 11-N.Y Times on May 18, 1853, Dinner Cont'd.: "Possessed of princely wealth, the fruit solely of his own industry and business talent, and gifted with more than princely beneficence, he seems to know no greater pleasure than to extend to Americans in London the warmest and most profuse[d] hospitality--taking occasion, at the same time, to bring them into direct social intimacy with some of the worthiest and the best of the English people, and thus substantially serving great ends, while promoting the personal enjoyment of his countrymen." Ref. Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 12-May 18, 1853, Dinner Speeches. After the sumptuous meal and appropriate band music GP rose to express pleasure at bringing together U.S. and English friends. The new U.S. Minister Ingersoll then toasted the Queen, the U.S. President, and the peoples of the U.S. and the U.K., which he called: "The two great nations, whose common origin, mutual interests and growing friendships, serve to cement a union created by resemblance in language, liberty, religion and law." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 13-May 18, 1853, Dinner Speeches Cont'd. In his speech referring to GP's British-U.S. friendship dinners Episcopal Bishop of Ohio Charles Pettit McIlvaine (1799-1873) said: "When history should come to be written, and...weight...given to all...influences,...it would assign...a very high place to...one who had done very much to promote...goodwill between...two great nations...here represented." The dinner and speeches were widely and favorably reported in the transatlantic press. What the dinner cost GP is not known. One bill, only part of the total, was about $940. Ref.: Ibid.
Negotiating a Partnership
Morgan, J.S. 14-Negotiating a Partnership. GP valued J.S. Morgan's commercial credentials, stable family, and social qualities. J.S. Morgan and GP were favorably impressed with each other. Morgan returned to Boston. GP wrote him details about his firm's business. Morgan visited U.S. firms with whom George Peabody & Co. did business. They exchanged letters. Concerned commercial acquaintances eyed the match favorably. Samuel G. Ward, U.S. agent for the Baring Brothers, GP's chief competitor in London for U.S. trade in goods and securities, wrote to his superior, April 11, 1854: "Mr. Morgan is highly thought of here as a man of talent, energy, & labor. If Mr. Peabody was safe before, he will be much safer now with Mr. Morgan at his side." Ref.: (S.G. Ward): Burk, p. 18. Carosso, p. 36. Mirabile, ed., pp. 427-429.
Morgan, J.S. 15-Negotiating a Partnership Cont'd. George B. Blake of Boston's Blake, Howe & Co., which did much business with George Peabody & Co., wrote GP: "I am more convinced than ever that he is the man of all others for you." J.S. Morgan's partner, J.M. Beebe, wrote GP: "the situation you have offered him presents so many advantages and is so congenial to his taste--that I cannot but approve of his acceptance." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 16-Negotiating a Partnership Cont'd. GP began serious negotiations with Morgan in Nov. 1853. In early Feb. 1854, J.S. Morgan returned to London to examine George Peabody & Co.'s accounts books. These showed that in 1851 GP was worth £1.2 million ($6 million) From Aug. 1848 to Sept. 30, 1854, George Peabody & Co. had earned £311,546 ($1,557,730). Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 17-Partnership Agreement. A ten-year partnership agreement was drawn up on Sept. 30, 1854. Of George Peabody & Co.'s capital of £450,000 ($2.25 million), GP provided £400,000 ($2 million) and was to get 65 percent of the profits. Morgan provided £40,000 ($200,000) and was to get 28 percent of the profits plus £2,500 ($12,500) per year entertainment allowance. Longtime clerk Charles Cubitt Gooch, made a partner, put in £10,000 ($50,000) and was to earn 7 percent of profits. Ref.: George Peabody & Co. circular announcing entrance of Junius Spencer Morgan as a partner, Aug. 10, 1854, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.; copy in Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC; and copy in Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990), London, England.
Morgan, J.S. 18-Partnership Agreement Cont'd. A circular dated Aug. 10, 1854, announced: "On the first of October Mr. J.S. Morgan, who recently retired from the house of Messer[s]. J.M. Beebe, Morgan & Company, of Boston, will become a Partner of our Firm, but its title will remain unaltered.... "Our arrangements with Mr. Morgan have been made, with a view to establish our House permanently; and that if our Prior [GP] is removed by death before the expiration of the time contemplated by this arrangement, a large portion of his capital [will be used for the firm].... "The business of the House will consist of sales and purchases of Stocks, Foreign Exchange, banking and Credits; the execution of orders for railroad iron, purchase and sale of Produce together with general mercantile transactions. Signed by George Peabody. C.C. Gooch." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 19-GP to Blake on Partner Morgan. On Oct. 6, 1854, GP wrote to George B. Blake of Boston: "Mr. Morgan has taken his place in a room adjoining me, and I trust he will make an able help-mate." To another business friend, Charles Macalester (1798-1873) GP wrote at the end of Oct. 1854: "Mr. Morgan my new partner has been with us about a month and I begin to find him useful and I trust when we get into our new counting house in [22] Broad Street (which will be one of the best in London), and get proper assistance around us that I shall begin to experience the good results of my late arrangements, and before 1857 if my life and health is spared, find leisure to visit my native land...." Ref.: (GP to Blake): GP to George B. Blake, Boston, Oct. 6, 1854, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC. Ref.: (GP to Macalester): GP to Charles Macalester, Oct. 31, 1854, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 20-GP to Blake on Partner Morgan Cont'd.: "It has been, and is now, a favorite object with me to so arrange all my business, that my house will be purely American, that its continuance for many years will not depend on my life, and that my American friends will feel that, in every respect the house is worthy of their entire confidence." Ref. Ibid. (History of the company): [Morgan Grenfell & Co. Ltd.]. New York Times, Nov. 28, 1989, p. 29, contd. p. 42 (Steven Prokesch, "Germans to Buy Morgan Grenfell," continued as "Deutsche Bank to Acquire Morgan Grenfell"). (1854 partnership): Burk, pp. 18-19. (S.G. Ward and G.B. Blake): Burk, p. 19. Carosso, pp. 35-36. Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990). Mirabile, ed., pp. 427-429.
GP’s 1856-57 U.S. Visit
Morgan, J.S. 21-J.P. Morgan on GP's 1856-57 U.S. Visit. Freed from daily routine by the Morgan partnership, GP prepared for a year's U.S. visit (Sept. 15, 1856 to Aug 19, 1857), his first return after nearly 20 years' absence in London. John Pierpont Morgan, age 19, attending the Univ. of Göttingen, Germany, spent his summer 1856 vacation putting GP's papers in order. He wrote his cousin James Junius Goodwin: "Since my return from Göttingen I have been pretty busily occupied arranging Mr. Peabody's letters, etc., which had accumulated for over twenty years. Those operations were brought to a close last Tuesday when Mr. P. left us for Liverpool. He sailed in the Atlantic last Tuesday." Ref.: John Pierpont Morgan, London, to cousin, James Junius Goodwin, Hartford, Conn., Sept. 5, 1856, quoted in Satterlee, pp. 283-284.
Morgan, J.S. 22-J.P. Morgan on GP's 1856-57 U.S. Visit Cont'd.: "Wednesday we received a letter from him which he had given to the pilot off Point Lynas which was written in very good spirits. Before this letter reaches you I trust he will have arrived at New York, where I have no doubt he will be welcomed by a large circle of friends. He said before he left that he would make it a point to visit Hartford, so I suppose you may see him there." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 23-J.P. Morgan on GP's 1856-57 U.S. Visit Cont'd.: "He is a very agreeable gentleman and very full of wit, but a regular old bachelor. If you could have seen the quantity of nic-nacs which he carried with him to America, and which were stored away in his trunk with the greatest precision, you would most certainly have thought he was going to Central Africa to some unexplored regions, rather than to America." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 24-GP's 1856-57 U.S. Visit. During GP's hectic 1856-57 U.S. visit he added funds to his institute library in South Danvers (renamed Peabody, April 13, 1868, total gift $217,600), Mass.; created a branch institute library in North Danvers (now Danvers), Mass., total gift $100,000; founded in Baltimore the PIB (total gift $1.4 million), and was féted in his home town (Oct. 9, 1856) and honored elsewhere. See: Visits to the U.S. by GP.
Morgan, J.S. 25-J.S. Morgan Kept GP Informed. J.S. Morgan, relating business and other news, wrote GP on Sept. 30, 1856: "Glad to hear of your safe arrival and that you had so little sea-sickness. Your friends have certainly been very kind in their reception. I hope their kindness won't go so far as to injure your health which we fear might be the case if you yield to all the temptations that surround you." Ref.: J.S. Morgan, London, to GP, U.S., Sept. 30, 1856, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 26-Morgan to GP on Atlantic Cable. Morgan wrote GP on Oct. 10 that Cyrus W. Field (1819-92) was organizing the Atlantic Telegraph and Cable Co. and wanted GP as one of the directors: "Field is getting up his company on the ocean Telegraph. He wishes your name as one of the directors. Lampson and ourselves agree that it is best you should accept, and I have taken responsibility of saying to Field it might be put through subject to your confirmation. It will be a go and the new [organization] with you will be of the right stamp.... We have many inquiries for you every day." Ref.: J.S. Morgan, London, to GP, U.S., Oct. 10, 1856, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 27-Morgan to GP on Bessemer Steel. On Oct. 14 Morgan reported that Curtis Miranda Lampson (1806-85) wanted GP to use his influence in Washington, D.C., to get U.S. government support for British engineer Henry Bessemer's (1813-98) new steel process. Ref.: J.S. Morgan, London, to GP, U.S., Oct. 14, 1856, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 28-On Oct. 9, 1856, GP Reception. In late Oct. 1856, 19-year-old John Pierpont Morgan returned to his studies at the Univ. of Göttingen, wrote to his cousin James Junius Goodwin on hearing of the Oct. 9, 1856, Danvers reception for GP: "Mr. Peabody's reception at Danvers must indeed have been a glorious affair. I should have liked immensely to have been present to have seen it. The report has been copied into several of the European journals, and very well spoken of. I trust Mr. P. did not have an attack of gout after the sumptuous dinner." Ref.: Satterlee, p. 288.
Morgan, J.S. 29-Morgan on Atlantic Cable. On Nov. 14, 1856, J.S. Morgan wrote Peabody that the Atlantic Telegraph was going well, that GP's name as director was being publicly used, and that Curtis M. Lampson would also consent to be a director. J.S. Morgan wrote in Dec.: "The Bessemer Patent...I fear...is likely to bring us in for a great loss, for I believe we should lose every shilling we agreed to pay. This is Lampson's opinion." Ref. J.S. Morgan, London, to GP, U.S., Nov. 14, 1856, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 30-Morgan on Atlantic Cable Cont'd. Morgan to GP, Dec. 16: "Many inquire for you every day. The election for directors for the Atlantic Telegraph Company came off very satisfactorily." Morgan to GP, Dec. 22: "I am glad you are able to spend Thanksgiving in Georgetown [Mass., with sister Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell, 1799-1879, and her family] and that the rest and quiet there has been beneficial." Ref.: J.S. Morgan, London, to GP, U.S., Dec. 16 and 22, 1856, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 31-Avoidance of Pres. Buchanan. GP was in Washington, D.C., in Jan. and during Feb. 13-24, 1857. His relations with Pres.-elect James Buchanan (1791-1868) were strained. This strain went back to GP's July 4, 1854, British-U.S. friendship dinner in London. James Buchanan was then U.S. Minister to Britain. His Legation Secty. Daniel Edgar Sickles (1825-1914), a super patriot, had created an incident when GP toasted Queen Victoria before toasting the U.S. president. Sickles refused to stand with the other 149 guests and walked out in anger. In a lengthy exchange of letters to the press Sickles accused GP of toadying to the British. GP and others at the dinner wrote defending GP. Buchanan quickly replaced Sickles but did not publicly censure him. See: Sickles Affair. Persons named.
Morgan, J.S. 32-Avoidance of Pres. Buchanan Cont'd. GP explained to his Mass.-born friend, sometimes agent, and London resident genealogist Horatio Gates Somerby (1805-72) why he would not call on Pres. Buchanan: "Buchanan's friends are particularly attentive to me, but I refuse any interferences to bring us together without a direct explanation from him. I met Miss Lane [Harriet Lane, 1830-1903, bachelor James Buchanan's niece and White House hostess] who treated me with great cordiality." Ref.: GP, Philadelphia, to Horatio Gates Somerby, Jan. 18, 1857, Somerby Papers, Mass. Historical Society, Boston. See: Lane, Harriet.
Morgan, J.S. 33-Avoidance of Pres. Buchanan Cont'd. Of Buchanan's aloofness, J.S. Morgan wrote from London to GP in Washington, D.C., March 13, 1857: "Your course respecting Mr. Buchanan strikes us as just the thing. It is for you to receive him if either is to be received, but any reconciliations now would look like truckling to a man because he happens to be in power." Ref.: J.S. Morgan, London, to GP, U.S., March 3, 1857, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
GP & the Panic of 1857
Morgan, J.S. 34-Panic of 1857. J.S. Morgan in London alerted GP in the U.S. of the first rumblings of the Panic of 1857. Morgan noted the heavy demand for debt payments on George Peabody & Co. and wrote GP on Jan. 30, 1857: "The drawing upon us for the last two or three mails have been very heavy and the look of our financial business is anything but encouraging for it." Morgan wrote GP again on Feb. 27 and Apr. 9: "These are times when we must keep a sharp lookout. We are in a good position and must keep so." Ref. (J.S. Morgan to GP): J.S. Morgan to GP, Jan. 30, Feb. 27, and April 9, 1857, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 35-Panic of 1857 Cont'd. GP's cousin Joseph Peabody wrote from NYC (GP was then in Philadelphia), April 11: "There is a report by telegraph from Halifax that Greene & Co. of Paris have been obliged to suspend: I know nothing of particulars." Alarmed, J.S. Morgan wrote GP, April 17, that money was stringent, and the specie of the bank of England were down to nine million, "the lowest point in ten years." Ref.: Joseph Peabody, NYC, to GP, care of Capt. Edward Schenley, Pittsburgh, Penn., April 12, 1857, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Morgan, J.S. 36-Panic of 1857 Cont'd. GP hurried back to England. Back in London the end of Aug. 1857 GP found his firm severely threatened by the Panic of 1857. The financial crisis came from overspeculation in western U.S. lands, poorly managed railroads needing large capital, and overbuying of goods in eastern U.S. cities. The collapse of hundreds of business firms in the U.S. and Britain was hastened by poor U.S. wheat sales abroad, the sinking of a packet ship with $1.6 billion in California gold bullion aboard (Sept. 1857), and the failure of some railroads, banks, and insurance companies. Ref.: Hidy, R.W.-c, pp. 456-465.
Morgan, J.S. 37-Panic of 1857 Cont'd. U.S. Legation Secty. Benjamin Moran (1820-86) described the crisis in his journal entry for Nov. 6, 1857: "The news from the United States indicates a commercial panic of the most disastrous nature. Each arrival brings us worse news than the last, and now starvation seems to threaten unemployed workmen, fifty thousand of which are in New York alone." Business firms failed in Glasgow, Liverpool, and London. George Peabody & Co. was in trouble. Ref.: (Moran entry Nov. 6, 1857): Wallace and Gillespie, eds., p. 176.
Bank of England Loan to GP
Morgan, J.S. 38-Bank of England Loan. GP had given large credit to Lawrence, Stone and Co. of Boston, which could not repay him. Meanwhile, the House of Baring pressed GP for £150,000 ($750,000) he owed them. Gathering his assets, GP on Nov. 17, 1857, applied for a $4 million loan from the Bank of England (which seldom made such loans). Moran's Nov. 6, 1857, journal entry stated that he had heard that the stability of George Peabody & Co was in grave danger. Moran's Nov. 21, 1857, entry: "My friend, Phil [Philip N. Dallas, 1825-66, U.S. Minister George Mifflin Dallas' son under whom Moran then worked] went over to George Peabody & Co. the other day to withdraw all his father's deposits, having heard that house would fail unless relief in the form of a tremendous loan arrived." Breaking precedent, the Bank of England lent GP more than was needed. Ref.: Burk, p. 21. Ref. (Moran's entries Nov. 6 and 21, 1857): Wallace and Gillespie, eds., Vol. I, pp. 176, 181.
Morgan, J.S. 39-Bank of England Loan Cont'd. During negotiations for the Bank of England loan, some unscrupulous financiers, seeing opportunity to force GP out of business, approached GP's partner J.S. Morgan. Morgan was told that certain individuals would guarantee a loan to George Peabody & Co. if the firm ceased business in London at the end of 1858. PEF's second administrator Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry (1825-1903) reported GP's reaction as follows: "When Mr. Morgan brought this message to Mr. Peabody, he was in a rage like a wounded lion, and told Mr. Morgan to reply that he dared them to cause his failure." [Italics added]. Ref.: Curry-b, p. 7.
Morgan, J.S. 40-Bank of England Loan Cont'd. GP repaid the Bank of England loan on March 30, 1858. He wrote Washington, D.C., business friend William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888): "My business is again quite snug.... Our credit...stands as high as ever before." Ref. (GP to Corcoran): GP, London, to William Wilson Corcoran, Washington, D.C., April 16, 1858, Corcoran Papers, Library of Congress Ms.; also quoted in Corcoran, pp. 168-169. (GP's financial difficulties in the Panic of 1857 briefly told): Strouse, pp. 70-71.
Morgan, J.S. 41-GP to Niece Julia Adelaide. On Nov. 13, 1857, GP wrote in gloom to his niece Julia Adelaide Peabody (b. April 25, 1835, daughter of deceased older brother David Peabody, 1790-1841): "This letter I promised to write you has been postponed because of my constant engagements and the unparalleled gloom of the Panic. What will happen, Heaven only knows. Lack of confidence and distrust is universal here and in the United States. I hope my house will weather the storm. I think it will do so even though so many in debt to me cannot pay. If I fail I will bear it like a man. In my conscience I know I never deceived or injured any other human being." Ref.: (GP to niece Julia): Curry-b, pp. 8-9.
Morgan, J.S. 42-GP to Niece Julia Adelaide Cont'd.: "It is less than three months since I left you in the United States, prosperous and happy. Now all is gloom and affliction. Nearly all the American houses in Europe have suspended operations and nothing but great strength can save them. It is the loss of credit of my house I fear. In any circumstances, only a small part of my private fortune will be lost. I will have enough for all my required purposes." GP waited before sending this letter. Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 43-GP to Niece Julia Adelaide Cont'd. GP held the letter to niece Julia for three weeks. He then added: "My very dear Niece,--The three pages enclosed, as you will see from the date were written three weeks ago when I felt...that the credit of my house was in danger.... I thought to myself, Why should I make my good niece unhappy, however so my miserable self? and consequently declined to send the letter, and I am glad that I did not. "A few days after I felt it to be my duty to apply to the banks for a loan of money sufficient to carry my house through the crisis, proposing security for the full amount required, which was four million dollars." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 44-GP to Niece Julia Adelaide Cont'd. "It was a severe test to my pride, but after a week spent with the Committees and Directors of the Banks I finally succeeded, and I doubt not that my house is now free from all danger.... Don't you hold your head less high or your heart worth less than you did before, for your Uncle George had done nothing but what among sensible persons will raise him higher than before." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 45-Panic of 1857's Effect . The financial panic, his illness, age (63), and wanting to put his philanthropies in order made GP write as follows to a young man who applied for a position with him: "The influence of the panic year upon my feelings have been such as to greatly modify my ambitious views and I have fully determined not only to keep snug during the terms of my present copartnership but if my life is spared to its end to then leave business entirely and shall most likely pass any remaining years that may be allotted me by Providence in my native land." Ref.: (On retirement): GP to William Heath, Boston, Dec. 9, 1858, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Morgan, J.S. 46-GP Corrected N.Y. Times Report. The New York Times published incorrectly, late Dec. 1857, that George Peabody & Co. owed others £6 million ($30 million) at the time of the Bank of England loan. GP sent a correction to the editor on Feb. 9, 1858: "With a few exceptions the American press has extended me more sympathy than blame for my course in the panic. Your respectable journal's account in late December, 1857, of my house's acceptances of six million sterling is inaccurate." Ref.: New York Times, Feb. 9, 1858, p. 4, c. 6.
Morgan, J.S. 47-GP Corrected N.Y. Times Report Cont'd.: "Here are the facts: About November 20th, my house considered it prudent to borrow funds to protect our own credit and save many of our American correspondents unable to meet engagements. The bills my house were liable for at the time of the loan were £2,300,000, not £6,000,000. I applied for a loan of £800,000 from the Bank of England on good securities but have only taken £300,000 to this date. Of the £2,300,000 bills liable, my house paid more than £l,500,000 at the time of the loan. The strength of our correspondents is such that our losses will be but trifling. In justice to American credit and to my house these facts are at your disposal." Ref. Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 48-Correcting Another N.Y. Times Report. Again on Feb. 18, 1858, GP corrected another New York Times error that he had secured the Bank of England loan, not on the basis of securities but on the personal guarantees of friends. He wrote: "The Charter of the Bank of England forbids...lending money on any but British securities. Since my house held large securities from the states and cities of the United States, the Bank of England required guarantees from Englishmen. Some personal friends and interested parties guaranteed £90,000 of the £300,000 which my house received from the Bank. The error in the press arose from the circumstance in the Panic of 1837 when three American houses obtained assistance from the Bank of England by giving guarantees without other securities." Ref.: New York Times, Feb. 18, 1858, p. 4, c. 6.
Morgan, J.S. 49-J.S. Morgan to GP on Atlantic Cable. GP was ill with gout and went for relief to a health spa in Vichy, France. J.S. Morgan wrote him from London Aug. 12, 1858, about Atlantic Telegraph Co. stock. The Atlantic cable had been laid in 1858 but broke. "Our position," Morgan wrote GP, "is an unpleasant one. The moment we sell it is known and down goes the market." Ref.: (Morgan on Atlantic cable): J.S. Morgan, London, to GP, Vichy, France, Aug. 1858, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 50-Morgan Visited Niece Julia Adelaide. In Oct. 1858 Morgan was in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and had heard reports of GP's improved health. He planned to go to Zanesville, Ohio, to see GP's niece Julia Adelaide Peabody. On Nov. 2 he wrote to GP that he had seen Julia and "found her all that I had expected from your description.... I am not surprised at your feelings toward her as she seemed a person uncommonly attractive both in mind and person." Ref.: J.S. Morgan, NYC, to GP, Nov. 2, 1858, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 51-GP Reassured Niece Julia. GP also wrote his niece Julia in late 1858 that he had returned from Vichy, France, where he had been under the care of a physician for gout in his feet and right hand: "I am happy also to tell you that although my firm lost some money the business of the year more than made it good, and individually I am now worth much more than I supposed myself when I left the United States and I sincerely feel that what we supposed misfortunes and calamities last year were, so far as regards myself, really 'blessings in disguise.'" Ref.: GP to Julia Adelaide Peabody, n.d., probably late 1858, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Morgan, J.S. 52-GP Ill, March 1859. Resting away from London GP wrote Washington, D.C., business friend William Wilson Corcoran of his rest cures at health spas for gout attacks: "I have been a great sufferer by rheumatic gout in my knees and arms, as also my right hand, for several months. I have been here for three weeks for the benefit of the waters, and may remain a fortnight longer. I am now quite well, except my right hand, which is painful when I write, and I fear you will hardly be able to make out what I have written." Ref.: GP to William Wilson Corcoran, March 22, 1859, Corcoran Papers, VII, Accession Nos. 8279-8280, Library of Congress Ms., quoted in Corcoran, p. 178.
Morgan, J.S. 53-GP and N.Y. Gov. W.H. Seward. In May 1859 N.Y. Gov. William Henry Seward (1801-72) visited London. Seward was the political protégé of GP's friend Thurlow Weed (1797-1882), Albany, N.Y. Evening News editor. GP arranged for Seward to meet such prominent people as Irish-born MP Sir James Emerson Tennent (1791-1869). These meetings were of special importance a few years later when Seward became Pres. Lincoln's Secty. of State during the Civil War.
Morgan, J.S. 54-GP and N.Y. Gov. W.H. Seward Cont'd. Too ill to attend himself, GP explained to Seward: "As the time approaches to join you at Lady Tennent's I find myself too unwell to go out being quite lame and in considerable pain in my feet arising from my late severe attack of gout.--Having accomplished the object I had in view of bringing together yourself and Sir James, I do not so much regret my inability to join you but feel forced to make this explanation." Ref. GP to William Henry Seward, May 26, 1859, Seward Collection, Univ. of Rochester.
N.Y. Herald Attacks on GP
Morgan, J.S. 55-N.Y. Herald Criticism. GP ignored hostile articles about him in editor James Gordon Bennett's New York Herald ' during his 1856-57 U.S. visit. A false report of a rift between GP and J.S. Morgan forced him to reply in 1859. This Sept. 20, 1859, Herald article read: "There is a rumor that the firm of George Peabody & Co. is to be dissolved or remodelled. The cause I have not heard, but I know that the head of the house has never been pleased nor satisfied since certain events during and previous to the great crisis of 1857. Before that disgraceful failure in Boston, connected with Lawrence, of Lawrence, Stone & Co." Ref.: New York Herald , Sept. 20, 1859, p. 2, c. 2.
Morgan, J.S. 56-N.Y. Herald Criticism Cont'd.: "A draft was actually drawn amounting to some £80,000 [then equivalent to $400,000] and some real or fanciful security offered. This draft was accepted, and the negotiation had been about completed when the senior partner, Mr. Peabody came in and put a veto on the whole transaction. As matters turned out the securities were not worth a straw. Lawrence failed and but for the timely appearance of Mr. Peabody, his firm would have been seriously damaged by the stroke of the pen." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 57-N.Y. Herald Criticism Cont'd. Before GP could reply the Herald again directed sarcasm at GP personally and stated that he used undue influence on the Times financial writer to attack business rivals. The N.Y. Herald for Oct. 12, 1859, read: "The London Timeshas been declining in influence because Mr. Sampson who writes the money articles has an American wife and is intimate to the point of control with George Peabody. They attack the Bank of England, certain corporations, speculations, public works, and loans from which they expect to make nothing. It has gotten so that an individual wanting to enter something in the London Times financial column must go to--not the owner or manager or editor--but to a man who is to London financial circles what a podunk newspaper is to political newspapers of the world." Ref.: New York Herald , Oct. 12, 1859, p. 2, c. 2.
Morgan, J.S. 58-N.Y. Herald Criticism Cont'd.: "Money articles in the Times follow what George Peabody favors or opposes, reflecting his personal enmities, piques, quarrels. Articles telling of a large loan received during the 1857 crisis are laughed at by the Bank of England. Here is a striking example of his influence: A year or more ago an English merchant ship owner about to start steamers from England to New York unfortunately asked George Peabody's advice as to which New York house to consign it. Peabody advised a house with one of his relatives in it. The Englishman later chose the American Express Co. as New York agent. He and his steamship company were attacked in the London Times. Thus the quarrels and enmities of an insignificant individual are echoed, trumpeted and heralded forth year after year in the Times." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 59-W.W. Corcoran on Herald Attacks. GP's Washington, D.C. business friend William Wilson Corcoran joked about the charge: "I read a letter in the Herald some time since alluding to your influence with the London Times which if true, makes you more potential than Lord Palmerston [Henry John Temple Palmerston (1784-1865), British Prime Minister during 1855-58]." GP, particularly wanting to reassure his Baltimore friends, felt he had to answer the Herald's erroneous charges. Ref.: William Wilson Corcoran, Washington, D.C., to George Peabody, Dec. 20, 1859, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Morgan, J.S. 60-GP's Reply to Herald Attacks. GP wrote on Dec. 23, 1859, to the Baltimore American (reprinted in the New York Times): "For some motive, which I have never been able to understand, the managers of the New York Herald have, from the time I landed in New York in 1856, frequently introduced into its columns paragraphs and articles reflecting upon me personally, or on the position and business of my house, without the least regard to facts. Their London correspondence (or letters bearing the date of London) has been characterized by the same feeling of untruthfulness throughout; although I have not thought advisable to publicly contradict them, I will now notice three of these letters, and thereby put you and my Baltimore friends right on matters to which they refer." Ref.: (GP's Dec. 23, 1859, letter to the Baltimore American) reprinted in New York Times, Jan. 12, 1860, p. 1, c. 6.
Morgan, J.S. 61-GP's Reply to Herald Attacks Cont'd.: "The most important...stating that I had never been satisfied with the management of my firm's business since certain events during and previous to the crisis of 1857; and that I had to put my veto on a transaction with Lawrence, Stone & Co.,...about being entered into for an advance of $400,000 to that house. As this reflects upon my partner, Mr. J. S. Morgan, I beg to state that it has not the least foundation in truth. Mr. Morgan joined my firm on the 1st of October, 1854, and since that period our business has been most satisfactory to all parties interested, and a difference of opinion on the subject of its management has never occurred between Mr. Morgan and myself." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 62-GP's Reply to Herald Attacks Cont'd.: "Another letter appearing in the New York Herald infers erroneously that I interposed an objection to the Bank of England's financial dealing with the Gallway (Lever) steamers. No act or expression of mine has ever been made in an unfriendly spirit to this Company, although I think it has been unfortunately managed. "The last letter I wish to comment on was dated December 7, 1858, stating that if my house had not opposed the sale of Florida Railroad bonds, Mr. [Edward M.C.] Cabell would have effected their negotiation in London. This is untrue, as my wishes were favorable to his success, and I offered him every assistance my position would justify, short of recommending the bonds to the British public. This I could not do, nor do I connect my name in any way with schemes or companies got up for the European market, however unquestionable may be the character of the gentlemen who have charge of them." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 63-GP's Reply to Herald Attacks Cont'd. GP knew from his NYC cousin Joseph Peabody that New York Herald editor James Gordon Bennett deliberately provoked controversy in order to sell newspapers. Joseph Peabody had earlier written to GP that: [Herald editor Bennett] "published...falsehood[s] expressly to provoke a reply.... He makes it a system to attack some prominent person, it matters little who that person may be!...as regards the 'Herald,' it is even better to be abused than be praised by such a rascal as Bennett." Ref.: Joseph Peabody, NYC, to GP, Montreal, Canada, Oct. 18, 1856, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. For criticism of GP in the New York Herald during GP's 1856-57 U.S. visit, reasons for Bennett's criticism, and sources, See: Visits to the U.S. by GP.
Trent Affair & GP
Morgan, J.S. 64-Trent Affair, 1861. GP's hope for early retirement was pushed back by the Civil War. Officially neutral, the British upper class had a natural sympathy for the Confederacy. Also, British cotton factory jobs and profit were dependent on southern cotton, cut off by the Union blockade of southern ports. The Nov. 8, 1861 Trent Affair was one of several frictionable events during the Civil War that provoked near war hysteria between Britain and the U.S. GP and J.S. Morgan were named in a side incident of the Trent Affair. See: Trent Affair.
Morgan, J.S. 65-Trent Affair, 1861, Cont'd. On the stormy night of Oct. 11, 1861, four Confederate emissaries and some of their families evaded a Union blockade of Charleston, S.C., got to Havana, Cuba, and there boarded the British mail steamer Trent bound for Southampton, England. Their mission was to seek aid and arms from Britain and France. One day out of Havana, on Nov. 8, 1861, the Trent was illegally stopped by the captain of the Union warship San Jacinto. The four Confederate emissaries were forcibly removed and taken to Boston Harbor's Fort Warren prison. Their illegal seizure and detention produced exultation in the U.S. North but anger in Britain. Passions were aroused. Britain sent 8,000 troops to Canada in case of war between Britain and the U.S. Calmer heads prevailed at Pres. Lincoln's Dec. 26, 1861, cabinet meeting. The illegal seizure was disavowed. The four Confederates were released on Jan. 1, 1862. Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 66-Trent Affair, 1861, Cont'd. A Capt. Richard Williams in charge of the mail on the Trent was asked to tell of the illegal seizure at a dinner in Liverpool. His version, published in the Liverpool Daily Post (Jan. 8, 1862) was that when the San Jacinto's captain sent Lt. Donald McNeill Fairfax (1821-94) to remove the Confederate agents, John Slidell's (1793-1871) daughter clung to her father, and that when Lt. Fairfax tried to separate them, she slapped his face. The Daily Post article added that there was a contradiction to Capt. Williams' version from a Member of Parliament who "had the contradiction from George Peabody, the well known banker and merchant." The article added information from a Mr. Allen S. Kanckel (his last name, misspelled, was Hanckel), who claimed to have witnessed the Trent incident. He told the editor that Slidell's daughter did not slap Lt. Fairfax but "put her hand twice on his face to keep him back." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 67-Trent Affair, 1861, Cont'd. The article ended with: "Mr. Kanckel adds, that Mr. Peabody, uninvited, called on Mrs. Slidell, and behaved ungentlemanly." The editor sent GP the news article along with Allen S. Hanckel's calling card. Hanckel wrote GP that the Daily Post editor had made a mistake, that it had been GP's partner, Junius Spencer Morgan, who had burst uninvited into Mrs. Slidell's room. Hanckel added with an implied threat, "I shall certainly call upon you and hope to receive an explanation." Mr. Hanckel's visit never materialized. Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 68-Trent Affair, 1861, Cont'd. The GP-J.S. Morgan involvement had to do with John Slidell's secretary, George Eustice (1828-72, of La.). His wife was Louise Morris née Corcoran Eustice (1838-67), the only daughter of GP's Washington, D.C., business associate William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888). She was a favorite of GP, who had entertained Corcoran and his daughter, and sometimes the daughter alone, on European trips. When the wives of Slidell and Eustice reached England, it is understandable that someone from George Peabody & Co., probably Junius Spencer Morgan, went to see after the Eustices' welfare (GP may have been ill or busy at the time). Ref.: Ibid.
Peabody Homes of London
Morgan, J.S. 69-Peabody Homes of London. Angers over the Trent affair lasted well into 1862, affecting GP and J.S. Morgan in London. J.S. Morgan was one of the five trustees of the Peabody Donation Fund for building model apartments for London's working poor families (total gift $2.5 million). The Trent Affair and other frictionable U.S.-British events had caused worry and delay in public announcement of this gift. GP and his trustees feared that while U.S.-British feelings were so hostile, the British government, press, and public might reject his gift. Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 70-GP to Weed on U.S.-British Tension. GP explained the delay in a note to his friend Thurlow Weed (1797-1882): "Two days ago we thought it exactly the right time, but one cloud between this country and ours is no sooner disposed than another appears. Today the Times and Post are at us again...[as are] ugly extracts from the World and other New York papers.... The feeling [is] as bad as it was before the Trent affair closed. The Post I have takes up strongly the blocking up of Charlestown harbour. Lampson told me that he thought both Sir Emerson [Tennent] and Mr. Adams were in rather a gloomy mood on our affairs with England and France, and Sir Emerson told me that France was pushing England very hard to join and recognize the Southern Confederacy." Ref.: GP, London, to Thurlow Weed, Jan. 17, 1862, Weed Collection, Univ. of Rochester; also quoted in Barnes, p. 365.
Morgan, J.S. 71-GP to Weed on U.S.-British Tension Cont'd. GP sadly mentioned in his note to Weed the "Newcastle story," printed in the London Times and widely circulated as true. U.S. Secty. of State William Henry Seward (1801-72) allegedly told the Duke of Newcastle, then Colonial Secty., that one way to end the U.S. Civil War and get the South to rejoin the North would be to start a war with Britain. See: Peabody Homes of London.
Morgan, J.S. 72-GP to Weed on U.S.-British Tension Cont'd. GP's note to Weed explained the seriousness of the Newcastle story: "We talked over the mystery hanging over the Seward and the New Castle [sic] affair. Sir James E[merson] Tennent said that there can be no doubt that what the Duke reported of Seward's remarks had strongly influenced the government in this war preparation for several months past. The Bishop [McIlvaine] said that he had received the words from Sir H[enry]. Holland [medical advisor to Queen Victoria], and I think Lord Shaftesbury, both of whom had them from the Duke's own lips. You should at once write to Mr. Seward for a letter to the Duke and have the matter cleared up." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 73-Peabody Homes of London Gift Praised. GP's Peabody Donation Fund founding letter was at last published on March 12, 1862. Widely printed and praised it was addressed to and accepted by his five trustees: his partner J.S. Morgan, business friend Curtis Miranda Lampson (1806-85), U.S. Minister to England Charles Francis Adams (1806-86), longtime friend and MP Sir James Emerson Tennent (1791-1869), and Lord Stanley, trustee chairman (Edward George Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, 1799-1869, Member of Parliament and president of the Board of Control [trade]). Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 74-Peabody Homes of London Gift Praised. News of GP's gift swept London, captured England, echoed in the U.S., and made the world press. Sir James Emerson Tennent sent GP London press notices and added: "But the press is only a faint echo of the voice of Society which is so forcible in praise of an act so utterly beyond all precedent. It is the topic of conversation and laudation in every circle of London, from the Palace down...." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 75-Peabody Homes of London Gift Praised Cont'd. After spending March 27, 1862, with the Commissioners of Charities arranging for their legal acceptance of the gift, Tennent wrote GP: "I have returned after spending a very long time with the Commissioners of Charities.... They tell me that in the whole range of charities of England there is nothing to compare with the disinterestedness and magnitude of your gift." GP rested in Bath, England, late March and early April 1862. His friend and agent, Horatio Gates Somerby (1805-72), a Vt.-born London-resident genealogist, sent him London newspaper clippings. GP answered Somerby with: "I had not the least conception that it would cause so much excitement over the country." GP's mounting reputation had a positive spillover effect on J.S. Morgan, both as partner in George Peabody & Co. and as Peabody Donation Fund trustee. Ref.: Ibid.
Freedom of the City of London to GP
Morgan, J.S. 76-Freedom of the City of London, July 10, 1862. J.S. Morgan attended London's ancient Guildhall, 3:00 P.M. on July 10, 1862, when GP was given the Freedom of the City of London. GP was the first of five Americans to accept this honor, the second, Ulysses Simpson Grant (1822-85, U.S. general and 18th U.S. president), awarded June 15, 1877; third, Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919, 26th U.S. president), awarded May 31, 1910; fourth, John Joseph Pershing (1860-1948, U.S. general), awarded July 18, 1919; and fifth, Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969, U.S. general and the 34th U.S. president), awarded June 12, 1945. See: London, Freedom of the City of London.
Morgan, J.S. 77-Lord Mayor's Dinner, July 10, 1862. Mr. and Mrs. J.S. Morgan were among the 300 guests assembled that evening at the Egyptian Hall, Mansion House, for the Lord Mayor's dinner honoring GP. Guests included Peabody Donation Fund trustees and their wives, Sir James Emerson Tennent (1791-1869) and the Curtis Miranda Lampsons, U.S. Minister to England Charles Francis Adams (1807-86) and Mrs. Adams, author Charles Dickens' daughter, Sir Henry Holland (1788-1873, Queen Victoria's physician), and other British and U.S. notables. A loving cup was passed around until all 300 present had drunk from it. Ref.: Ibid. See: persons named.
Morgan, J.S. 78-Lord Mayor's Dinner, July 10, 1862 Cont'd. Several toasts were proposed, including one to GP from the Lord Mayor, who said (in part): "I now propose a toast to a distinguished gentleman who has won the esteem of the City of London and the approbation of the world. Mr. Peabody has performed the crowning act of an honorable career. How glad I am for Mr. Peabody to be here and I hope he may live long to see his noble deed prove a monument to his name and character." Amid loud cheering, GP rose to reply (in part): "Persons in every station hope for success and tremble at real or imagined calamities, but none more than a merchant. From a full and grateful heart I say that this day has repaid me for the care and anxiety of fifty years of commercial life. I will not take up time from other speakers. I am no orator but ask that you accept my deeds for my words." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 79-Lord Mayor's Dinner, July 10, 1862 Cont'd. The Lord Mayor then spoke of the Peabody Donation Fund for housing London's working poor and proposed a toast to its trustees. Trustee Charles Francis Adams, U.S. Minister, responded to the toast. He said (in part): "The City of London does honour to Mr. Peabody to-day. Why? The reason is that Mr. Peabody has done honour to human nature (loud cheers!). I honour Mr. Peabody because he has done honour to his country." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 80-Lord Mayor's Dinner, July 10, 1862 Cont'd.: "Born in America he went out to build his fortune, became successful in his own land and eminently more so on this side of the ocean. In twenty years he achieved his ambition. How did this happen? The answer is simple. It was by making an honest use of the friendly relations between the two countries. He drew benefit from the trade of both countries. His career teaches the advantage of good will. His success shows how mutual interests advance with peace. Now, with this gift he forms a new bond between two nations." Long speeches followed by Lord Stanley and Sir James Emerson Tennent, who toasted the Lord Mayor. GP, as he enjoyed doing, gave the last toast to the Lady Mayoress. Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 81-Walked Home to Save Carriage Fare? The story persisted in news accounts at his death (Nov. 4, 1869), seven years later, that after the Lord Mayor's banquet, July 10, 1862, GP walked home to save carriage fare. The night being damp and foggy, he reportedly caught cold. He more likely walked home filled with wonder. Officials of the world's largest city had given him its greatest honor. Ref.: Ibid.
GP’s Retirement
Morgan, J.S. 82-Retirement, Oct. 1, 1864 . GP's business partnership with J.S. Morgan and C.C. Gooch expired on Oct. 1, 1864. He had set this as his retirement date. He was in the Scottish Highlands in Aug. 1864, resting and fishing, when J.S. Morgan wrote urging him to delay retirement beyond Oct. 1. The firm had many securities which would have to be sold in order to liquidate the partnership. To sell in Oct. would result in some loss. But GP was set on his course. In six months he would be age 70.
Morgan, J.S. 83-Retirement, Oct. 1, 1864 Cont'd. GP wrote to Morgan from Scotland: "It has been my fixed determination to retire from all commercial business if I should live till the lst of October 1864 and I can now make no change, for although the continuance of the firm for three or six months, which you suggest, may appear short to you, to me--feeling as I deeply do, the uncertainty of life at the age of seventy--months would appear as years, for I am most anxious before I die to place my worldly affairs in a much more satisfactory state than they are at present." Ref.: (1864): GP to J.S. Morgan, Aug. 13, 1864, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Morgan, J.S. 84-Retirement, Oct. 1, 1864 Cont'd. J.S. Morgan was also disappointed that GP, not wanting responsibility over a firm he would no longer control, asked that his name be removed from the firm. George Peabody & Co. (Dec. 1838 to Oct. 1, 1864) was succeeded by J.S. Morgan & Co. (Oct. 1, 1864 to Dec. 31, 1909); succeeded by Morgan Grenfell & Co. (Jan. 1, 1910 to 1918); Morgan Grenfell & Co. Ltd. (1918-90); and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990), a German owned bank. GP's remaining five years and one month were devoted to his philanthropies. He returned gravely ill from his last U.S. visit, June 8-Sept. 29, 1869, and died Nov. 4, 1869, at the London home of Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson. J.S. Morgan attended his Westminster Abbey funeral. See: Morgan Grenfell & Co. Ltd. Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990).
J. S. Morgan Attended GP’s Westminster Abbey Funeral
Morgan, J.S. 85-Westminster Abbey, Nov. 12, 1869. J.S. Morgan's presence at GP's Westminster Abbey funeral was recorded in U.S. Legation in London Secty. Benjamin Moran's journal (Nov. 12, 1869): "At about 12 to-day Mr. Motley and I arrived in his carriage at Sir Curtis Lampson's, 80 Eaton Square, where we met Sir Curtis and his three sons, J.S. Morgan, Russell Sturgis, Mr. F.H. Morse, Mr. Nunn, Drs. Gull and Covey, Horatio G. Somerby, and several other gentlemen, who were to act as mourners...in Westminster Abbey...." Moran's journal entry described the ceremony in the Abbey: "The coffin was
Following Background "Preface" below 7 of 14 blogs covers alphabetically: Morgan Grenfell & Co. (1910-18) to Peabody, George, Illus.: "Prophetic Eye."
Background: "Preface" 1 of 14 tells the why-when-where-how-findings-and-motives of the authors’ research on Franklin Parker’s doctoral dissertation, “George Peabody, Founder of Modern Philanthropy,” completed 1956 at George Peabody College for Teachers, adjoining Vanderbilt University, which on July 1, 1979, became Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, Nashville.
George Peabody, so well known in the 1850s-60s but since sadly neglected, was a significant 19th century figure as: 1-a Massachusetts-born merchant in the U.S. South: Riggs & Peabody, later Peabody & Riggs (1814-38), who imported dry goods and other commodities (worldwide) for sale to U.S. wholesalers. George Peabody then became: 2-a London-based merchant-banker, George Peabody & Co. (1838-64), who financed in part the B&O RR, the 2nd Mexican War Loan, the Atlantic Cable, and with J.S. Morgan as partner, was the root of the JP Morgan international banking firm. Finally, this merchant-turned-banker became: 3-the best known philanthropist of his time (1850s-60s), who founded the Peabody Homes of London for the working poor; in the U.S. 7 Peabody Libraries and Lecture Halls; the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore; three Peabody Museums at Harvard (Anthropology), Yale (Paleontology), and the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA (maritime history); and founder of the Peabody Education Fund for the South (1867-1914), basis for all later larger U.S. funds and foundations. End of Background.
J. P. Morgan Family
Morgan Grenfell & Co. (1910-18). George Peabody & Co., London (Dec. 1, 1838-Oct. 1, 1864), became J.S. Morgan & Co. (Oct. 1, 1864-Dec. 31, 1909). On J.S. Morgan's death (1890) the firm was controlled by J.P. Morgan, Sr. The firm continued as Morgan Grenfell & Co. (1910-18), Morgan Grenfell & Co., Ltd. (1918-90), and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990), a German owned banking firm. See: Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. George Peabody & Co. Morgan, Junius Spencer.
Morgan, John Pierpont, Sr. (1837-1913). 1-International Banker. John Pierpont Morgan, Sr., was the son of Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-1890), Boston merchant and GP's partner in George Peabody & Co., London, for ten years during Oct. 1,1854 to Oct. 1, 1864. J.P. Morgan, Sr., was born in Hartford, Conn., educated at the English High School in Boston, and soon after his father's partnership with GP attended the Univ. of Göttingen, Germany (1856-57). J.P. Morgan, Sr., at age 16 visited London with his father and mother when he first met GP in London in May 1853. His father was then considering becoming GP's partner. On May 18, 1853, J.P. Morgan, Sr., wrote his 14-year-old cousin James Junius Goodwin (1835-1915), : "Father and Mother went to a dinner given by George Peabody at Richmond." Ref.: "Goodwin," p. 469.
Morgan, J.P., Sr. 2-J.P. Morgan [Sr.], at age 20. In 1857 J.P. Morgan, Sr., at age 20 shared an apartment at 45 West 17 St. NYC, with GP's relative (distant cousin?) Joseph Peabody (d. April 7, 1905) and was the NYC agent for George Peabody & Co. His father soon placed him in the NYC banking firm of Duncan, Sherman & Co. (1860), which chiefly represented George Peabody & Co. J.P. Morgan, Sr., then became junior partner in Dabney, Morgan & Co., NYC (1864), helped form Drexel, Morgan & Co., NYC (1871), of which his father was also a partner. Drexel, Morgan & Co. became J.P. Morgan & Co. (1895). Ref.: "Goodwin," p. 469. See: Peabody, Joseph.
Morgan, J.P., Sr. 3-Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, London. GP retired on Oct. 1, 1864. Knowing that he would no longer exert control, he asked that his name be withdrawn from the firm. George Peabody & Co., London (Dec. 1, 1838-Oct. 1, 1864), then became J.S. Morgan & Co. (Oct. 1, 1864-Dec. 31, 1909). On J.S. Morgan's death (1890) the firm was controlled by J.P. Morgan, Sr. The firm continued as Morgan Grenfell & Co. (1910-18), Morgan Grenfell & Co., Ltd. (1918-90), and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990), a German owned banking firm. J.P. Morgan, Sr., was also a partner of Drexel & Co., Philadelphia, when he gained control of leading railroads (1901), organized United States Steel Co. (1901), and controlled both steel and coal interests. He was the leading financier of his time, a yachtsman, art collector, and philanthropist. For details and sources of J.P. Morgan, Sr., as a PEF trustee, see PEF.
Morgan, J.P., Sr. 4-GP, Root of Morgan Banking. George Peabody & Co. was the root of the J.P. Morgan, Sr., financial empire which, in later more complex times, was on an international scale that far surpassed its GP beginnings. GP and a few other merchant-bankers of his time began, and the Morgans and other international bankers greatly advanced, the use of investment capital that developed and industrialized the U.S. to world leadership. Ref.: Allen, F.L. See: Junius Spencer Morgan. Morgan Grenfell & Co. Ltd. Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990). For details and sources of how GPCFT Pres. Bruce R. Payne secured a $250,000 gift from the estate of John Pierpont Morgan, Sr., see PCofVU, history. Conkin, Peabody College, index.
Morgan, John Pierpont, Jr. (1867-1943). 1-Of the House of Morgan. John Pierpont Morgan, Jr., was the son of John Pierpont Morgan, Sr. (1837-1913). He was born in Irvington, N.Y., graduated from Harvard Univ. (1889), and soon after worked in J.S. Morgan & Co., London (Oct. 1, 1864-Dec. 31, 1909). The firm, begun by GP as George Peabody & Co., London (Dec. 1, 1838-Oct. 1, 1864); continued as J.S. Morgan & Co., London (Oct. 1, 1864-Dec. 31, 1909); continued as Morgan, Grenfell & Co. (Jan. 1, 1910-18), continued as Morgan Grenfell & Co., Ltd. (1918-90); and continues as Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990), a German owned banking firm. See: Morgan, Junius Spencer. Morgan Grenfell & Co. Ltd. Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990).
Morgan, John Pierpont, Jr. 2-Career. J.P. Morgan, Jr., succeeded his father as head of J.P. Morgan & Co. (from 1913) and head of United States Steel. In 1920 he gave his Grosvenor Square, London, residence in to the U.S. government as its London embassy. In 1924 he endowed as a public institution the Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC, originally his father's private library, which has family papers and some GP papers. J.P. Morgan, Jr., contributed to charitable institutions and was a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, Cooper Union, and several hospitals. Ref.: Ibid.
GP’s Partner, J.S. Morgan
Morgan, Junius Spencer (1813-90). 1-Am. Merchant in London. GP went to England in Feb. 1837 as one of three Md. agents to sell the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal part of Md.'s $8 million bonds to finance internal improvements. It was his fifth commercial trip abroad during 1827-37. The other two agents returned without success to the U.S. He remained in London from Feb. 1837 to his death (Nov. 4, 1869), 32 years, except for three U.S. visits (Sept. 15, 1856 to Aug. 19, 1857, May 1, 1866 to May 1, 1867, and June 8-Sept. 29, 1869). In 1837 GP was age 42 and had been in the mercantile trade for 23 years. The Panic of 1837, followed by a depression into the 1840s, adversely affected all business including GP's sale of Md. bonds and the mercantile business of Peabody, Riggs & Co. (1829-48). See: Riggs, Peabody & Co.
Morgan, J.S. 2-End of Peabody, Riggs & Co. GP was Peabody, Riggs & Co.'s senior partner and London resident financier. Junior partner Samuel Riggs (d.1853) managed the main Baltimore office and then the NYC office. Two other younger partners, Henry T. Jenkins (b.1815) and Adolphus William Peabody (b. 1814), GP's cousin, son of his paternal uncle John Peabody (1768-1827), traveled and collected debts for the firm in the U.S. In London GP also traded on his own, first in various goods and services, then increasingly in U.S. state and federal securities. Peabody, Riggs & Co.'s mercantile trade declined. GP withdrew his capital in 1843, although the firm continued to 1848 when the other partners entered other firms. Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 3-Beginning of George Peabody & Co. (1838). On Dec. 1, 1838, GP leased an office at 31 Moorgate St., in London's inner city not far from St. Paul's Cathedral where business houses occupy odd nooks and crannies. He installed desks, chairs, a mahogany counter, a safe, and bookkeeping materials. This was the informal beginning of George Peabody & Co., London, merchant banker (1838-64). He still traded in goods and commodities and was in transition from merchant to securities broker and banker. He lived simply and worked concentratedly. In 1848, tired and often ill, he complained to intimate NYC business friend William Shepard Wetmore (1802-62): "I am almost tired of making money without having time to spend and enjoy it--and I feel this particularly at this time when I am not very well & should be out of this City [London] where the cholera is raging with terrible effect." Ref.: GP to William Shepard Wetmore, Sept. 24 and 28, 1848, quoted in Hidy, M.E.-c, p. 261.
Morgan, J.S 4-Seeking a Partner. GP complained to business friends that by 1851 he had worked 10 hours a day, had not been away from his office two consecutive days, had not been 100 miles from London for six years. Sometimes in poor health, he had severe attacks of rheumatism, suffered from gout and intestinal ailments, and was occasionally absent from his office. Business friends and clients were concerned because he ran a one-man business. They urged him to take an American partner to give his firm continuity. In 1843 he hired 32-year-old British-born Charles Cubitt Gooch (1811-89) as salaried clerk at £150 ($750) a year. Gooch had seven years' experience as bookkeeper with Thomas Wilson & Co., a London firm headed by an American, and then worked in another firm specializing in U.S. trade. Ref.: (Gooch partnership): Articles of partnership between GP and Charles Cubitt Gooch, Jan. 1852, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Morgan, J.S 5-Seeking a Partner Cont'd. Although Gooch was an efficient bookkeeper and an able office manager, friends and clients still urged GP to find an experienced younger American partner. In 1852 GP made Gooch a salaried junior partner. GP cautiously let it be known that he was looking for an American merchant of probity as partner, one with dry goods importing experience, knowledgeable about U.S. government and U.S. state securities, and one adaptable to the fast-changing world of securities banking. Business friends and clients whose advice he valued recommended as an ideal choice Boston merchant Junius Spencer Morgan. Ref. Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 6-Morgan's Commercial Career. J.S. Morgan, 18 years younger than GP, was from an old Mass. family. His ancestor Miles Morgan (1616-99) arrived in America from England in 1636, a year after GP's ancestor Francis Peboddy (1612 or 14-1697) arrived in America in 1635. J.S. Morgan was born in West Springfield (later Holyoke), Mass. He grew up in Hartford, Conn., where his father Joseph Morgan (1771-1847) moved the family in 1817. This Joseph Morgan began as a farmer, was a realtor, made money in stage coach lines, then hotels, and finally in insurance companies. Biographer Andrew Sinclair of grandson John Pierpont Morgan, Sr. (1837-1913), wrote that Joseph Morgan's "fortune was...based on the great Wall Street fire of December, 1835, when he had made his Aetna Fire Insurance Company pay up promptly in order to attract more business at triple rates." Ref.: Sinclair, p. 5.
Morgan, J.S. 7-Morgan's Commercial Career Cont'd. J.S. Morgan was educated in private schools. He learned the wholesale dry goods business as apprentice to merchant-banker Alfred Wells (1814-67) of Boston and was briefly Wells's partner. He then was a partner in Morris Ketchum's private bank on Wall St., NYC; and then became a partner in the dry goods house of Howe Mather & Co., Hartford, Conn. (which became Mather Morgan & Co.). He was a partner in J.M. Beebe, Morgan & Co. of Boston during 1851-54, dealing in dry goods and commodities, when he came to GP's attention. GP had dealings with this firm and particularly valued James Madison Beebe's (1800-75) high regard for his partner. Ref.: "Goodwin," p. 469.
Morgan, J.S. 8-Considering a GP-Morgan Partnership. J.S. Morgan had first visited England in 1850, but had no known connection with GP then. Now in 1853 GP let J.S. Morgan know of his interest in having him as his partner. J.S. Morgan was interested enough to go with his wife to London in May 1853. They were joined there by their 16-year-old son John Pierpont Morgan (Sr., 1837-1913). GP and J.S. Morgan first met at George Peabody & Co., 6 Warnford Court, Throgmorton St., London, May 15, 1853. GP at 58 and J.S. Morgan at 40 liked each other. On May 18, 1853, young John Pierpont in London wrote to his cousin James Junius Goodwin (1835-1915), "Father and Mother went to a dinner given by George Peabody at Richmond." Ref.: Ibid. Satterlee, p. 207.
Morgan, J.S. 9-At GP's May 18, 1853, Dinner. GP and J.S. Morgan took each other's social measure at this dinner GP gave to honor the new U.S. Minister to England Joseph Reed Ingersoll (1786-1868) and his niece, Miss Charlotte Manigault Wilcocks (1821-75). The dinner was held at the Star and Garter, Richmond, about eight miles from London, overlooking the Thames. Among the 150 guests (65 English, 85 Americans) was Harvard Univ. professor (and president in 1860) Cornelius Conway Felton (1807-62). He later wrote in his book, Familiar Letters from Europe, of being a guest "at a splendid and costly entertainment" on May 18, 1853, given by GP and attended by former U.S. Pres. Martin Van Buren (1782-62, eighth U.S. Pres. during 1837-41), and "many very distinguished persons." See: Dinners, GP's, London (May 18, 1853).
Morgan, J.S. 10-N.Y Times on May 18, 1853, Dinner. The New York Daily Times prefaced its four-column account of the dinner with the following about GP: "No American who has visited England within the past ten or fifteen years, needs to be told who Mr. Peabody is, or how much he is constantly doing to make his countrymen feel at home upon British soil, or how largely he has contributed, in an unostentatious but most effective way to strengthen the feeling of friendship between the people of the two great nations on which so much of their peace and prosperity must always depend." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 11-N.Y Times on May 18, 1853, Dinner Cont'd.: "Possessed of princely wealth, the fruit solely of his own industry and business talent, and gifted with more than princely beneficence, he seems to know no greater pleasure than to extend to Americans in London the warmest and most profuse[d] hospitality--taking occasion, at the same time, to bring them into direct social intimacy with some of the worthiest and the best of the English people, and thus substantially serving great ends, while promoting the personal enjoyment of his countrymen." Ref. Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 12-May 18, 1853, Dinner Speeches. After the sumptuous meal and appropriate band music GP rose to express pleasure at bringing together U.S. and English friends. The new U.S. Minister Ingersoll then toasted the Queen, the U.S. President, and the peoples of the U.S. and the U.K., which he called: "The two great nations, whose common origin, mutual interests and growing friendships, serve to cement a union created by resemblance in language, liberty, religion and law." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 13-May 18, 1853, Dinner Speeches Cont'd. In his speech referring to GP's British-U.S. friendship dinners Episcopal Bishop of Ohio Charles Pettit McIlvaine (1799-1873) said: "When history should come to be written, and...weight...given to all...influences,...it would assign...a very high place to...one who had done very much to promote...goodwill between...two great nations...here represented." The dinner and speeches were widely and favorably reported in the transatlantic press. What the dinner cost GP is not known. One bill, only part of the total, was about $940. Ref.: Ibid.
Negotiating a Partnership
Morgan, J.S. 14-Negotiating a Partnership. GP valued J.S. Morgan's commercial credentials, stable family, and social qualities. J.S. Morgan and GP were favorably impressed with each other. Morgan returned to Boston. GP wrote him details about his firm's business. Morgan visited U.S. firms with whom George Peabody & Co. did business. They exchanged letters. Concerned commercial acquaintances eyed the match favorably. Samuel G. Ward, U.S. agent for the Baring Brothers, GP's chief competitor in London for U.S. trade in goods and securities, wrote to his superior, April 11, 1854: "Mr. Morgan is highly thought of here as a man of talent, energy, & labor. If Mr. Peabody was safe before, he will be much safer now with Mr. Morgan at his side." Ref.: (S.G. Ward): Burk, p. 18. Carosso, p. 36. Mirabile, ed., pp. 427-429.
Morgan, J.S. 15-Negotiating a Partnership Cont'd. George B. Blake of Boston's Blake, Howe & Co., which did much business with George Peabody & Co., wrote GP: "I am more convinced than ever that he is the man of all others for you." J.S. Morgan's partner, J.M. Beebe, wrote GP: "the situation you have offered him presents so many advantages and is so congenial to his taste--that I cannot but approve of his acceptance." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 16-Negotiating a Partnership Cont'd. GP began serious negotiations with Morgan in Nov. 1853. In early Feb. 1854, J.S. Morgan returned to London to examine George Peabody & Co.'s accounts books. These showed that in 1851 GP was worth £1.2 million ($6 million) From Aug. 1848 to Sept. 30, 1854, George Peabody & Co. had earned £311,546 ($1,557,730). Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 17-Partnership Agreement. A ten-year partnership agreement was drawn up on Sept. 30, 1854. Of George Peabody & Co.'s capital of £450,000 ($2.25 million), GP provided £400,000 ($2 million) and was to get 65 percent of the profits. Morgan provided £40,000 ($200,000) and was to get 28 percent of the profits plus £2,500 ($12,500) per year entertainment allowance. Longtime clerk Charles Cubitt Gooch, made a partner, put in £10,000 ($50,000) and was to earn 7 percent of profits. Ref.: George Peabody & Co. circular announcing entrance of Junius Spencer Morgan as a partner, Aug. 10, 1854, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.; copy in Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC; and copy in Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990), London, England.
Morgan, J.S. 18-Partnership Agreement Cont'd. A circular dated Aug. 10, 1854, announced: "On the first of October Mr. J.S. Morgan, who recently retired from the house of Messer[s]. J.M. Beebe, Morgan & Company, of Boston, will become a Partner of our Firm, but its title will remain unaltered.... "Our arrangements with Mr. Morgan have been made, with a view to establish our House permanently; and that if our Prior [GP] is removed by death before the expiration of the time contemplated by this arrangement, a large portion of his capital [will be used for the firm].... "The business of the House will consist of sales and purchases of Stocks, Foreign Exchange, banking and Credits; the execution of orders for railroad iron, purchase and sale of Produce together with general mercantile transactions. Signed by George Peabody. C.C. Gooch." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 19-GP to Blake on Partner Morgan. On Oct. 6, 1854, GP wrote to George B. Blake of Boston: "Mr. Morgan has taken his place in a room adjoining me, and I trust he will make an able help-mate." To another business friend, Charles Macalester (1798-1873) GP wrote at the end of Oct. 1854: "Mr. Morgan my new partner has been with us about a month and I begin to find him useful and I trust when we get into our new counting house in [22] Broad Street (which will be one of the best in London), and get proper assistance around us that I shall begin to experience the good results of my late arrangements, and before 1857 if my life and health is spared, find leisure to visit my native land...." Ref.: (GP to Blake): GP to George B. Blake, Boston, Oct. 6, 1854, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC. Ref.: (GP to Macalester): GP to Charles Macalester, Oct. 31, 1854, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 20-GP to Blake on Partner Morgan Cont'd.: "It has been, and is now, a favorite object with me to so arrange all my business, that my house will be purely American, that its continuance for many years will not depend on my life, and that my American friends will feel that, in every respect the house is worthy of their entire confidence." Ref. Ibid. (History of the company): [Morgan Grenfell & Co. Ltd.]. New York Times, Nov. 28, 1989, p. 29, contd. p. 42 (Steven Prokesch, "Germans to Buy Morgan Grenfell," continued as "Deutsche Bank to Acquire Morgan Grenfell"). (1854 partnership): Burk, pp. 18-19. (S.G. Ward and G.B. Blake): Burk, p. 19. Carosso, pp. 35-36. Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990). Mirabile, ed., pp. 427-429.
GP’s 1856-57 U.S. Visit
Morgan, J.S. 21-J.P. Morgan on GP's 1856-57 U.S. Visit. Freed from daily routine by the Morgan partnership, GP prepared for a year's U.S. visit (Sept. 15, 1856 to Aug 19, 1857), his first return after nearly 20 years' absence in London. John Pierpont Morgan, age 19, attending the Univ. of Göttingen, Germany, spent his summer 1856 vacation putting GP's papers in order. He wrote his cousin James Junius Goodwin: "Since my return from Göttingen I have been pretty busily occupied arranging Mr. Peabody's letters, etc., which had accumulated for over twenty years. Those operations were brought to a close last Tuesday when Mr. P. left us for Liverpool. He sailed in the Atlantic last Tuesday." Ref.: John Pierpont Morgan, London, to cousin, James Junius Goodwin, Hartford, Conn., Sept. 5, 1856, quoted in Satterlee, pp. 283-284.
Morgan, J.S. 22-J.P. Morgan on GP's 1856-57 U.S. Visit Cont'd.: "Wednesday we received a letter from him which he had given to the pilot off Point Lynas which was written in very good spirits. Before this letter reaches you I trust he will have arrived at New York, where I have no doubt he will be welcomed by a large circle of friends. He said before he left that he would make it a point to visit Hartford, so I suppose you may see him there." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 23-J.P. Morgan on GP's 1856-57 U.S. Visit Cont'd.: "He is a very agreeable gentleman and very full of wit, but a regular old bachelor. If you could have seen the quantity of nic-nacs which he carried with him to America, and which were stored away in his trunk with the greatest precision, you would most certainly have thought he was going to Central Africa to some unexplored regions, rather than to America." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 24-GP's 1856-57 U.S. Visit. During GP's hectic 1856-57 U.S. visit he added funds to his institute library in South Danvers (renamed Peabody, April 13, 1868, total gift $217,600), Mass.; created a branch institute library in North Danvers (now Danvers), Mass., total gift $100,000; founded in Baltimore the PIB (total gift $1.4 million), and was féted in his home town (Oct. 9, 1856) and honored elsewhere. See: Visits to the U.S. by GP.
Morgan, J.S. 25-J.S. Morgan Kept GP Informed. J.S. Morgan, relating business and other news, wrote GP on Sept. 30, 1856: "Glad to hear of your safe arrival and that you had so little sea-sickness. Your friends have certainly been very kind in their reception. I hope their kindness won't go so far as to injure your health which we fear might be the case if you yield to all the temptations that surround you." Ref.: J.S. Morgan, London, to GP, U.S., Sept. 30, 1856, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 26-Morgan to GP on Atlantic Cable. Morgan wrote GP on Oct. 10 that Cyrus W. Field (1819-92) was organizing the Atlantic Telegraph and Cable Co. and wanted GP as one of the directors: "Field is getting up his company on the ocean Telegraph. He wishes your name as one of the directors. Lampson and ourselves agree that it is best you should accept, and I have taken responsibility of saying to Field it might be put through subject to your confirmation. It will be a go and the new [organization] with you will be of the right stamp.... We have many inquiries for you every day." Ref.: J.S. Morgan, London, to GP, U.S., Oct. 10, 1856, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 27-Morgan to GP on Bessemer Steel. On Oct. 14 Morgan reported that Curtis Miranda Lampson (1806-85) wanted GP to use his influence in Washington, D.C., to get U.S. government support for British engineer Henry Bessemer's (1813-98) new steel process. Ref.: J.S. Morgan, London, to GP, U.S., Oct. 14, 1856, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 28-On Oct. 9, 1856, GP Reception. In late Oct. 1856, 19-year-old John Pierpont Morgan returned to his studies at the Univ. of Göttingen, wrote to his cousin James Junius Goodwin on hearing of the Oct. 9, 1856, Danvers reception for GP: "Mr. Peabody's reception at Danvers must indeed have been a glorious affair. I should have liked immensely to have been present to have seen it. The report has been copied into several of the European journals, and very well spoken of. I trust Mr. P. did not have an attack of gout after the sumptuous dinner." Ref.: Satterlee, p. 288.
Morgan, J.S. 29-Morgan on Atlantic Cable. On Nov. 14, 1856, J.S. Morgan wrote Peabody that the Atlantic Telegraph was going well, that GP's name as director was being publicly used, and that Curtis M. Lampson would also consent to be a director. J.S. Morgan wrote in Dec.: "The Bessemer Patent...I fear...is likely to bring us in for a great loss, for I believe we should lose every shilling we agreed to pay. This is Lampson's opinion." Ref. J.S. Morgan, London, to GP, U.S., Nov. 14, 1856, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 30-Morgan on Atlantic Cable Cont'd. Morgan to GP, Dec. 16: "Many inquire for you every day. The election for directors for the Atlantic Telegraph Company came off very satisfactorily." Morgan to GP, Dec. 22: "I am glad you are able to spend Thanksgiving in Georgetown [Mass., with sister Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell, 1799-1879, and her family] and that the rest and quiet there has been beneficial." Ref.: J.S. Morgan, London, to GP, U.S., Dec. 16 and 22, 1856, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 31-Avoidance of Pres. Buchanan. GP was in Washington, D.C., in Jan. and during Feb. 13-24, 1857. His relations with Pres.-elect James Buchanan (1791-1868) were strained. This strain went back to GP's July 4, 1854, British-U.S. friendship dinner in London. James Buchanan was then U.S. Minister to Britain. His Legation Secty. Daniel Edgar Sickles (1825-1914), a super patriot, had created an incident when GP toasted Queen Victoria before toasting the U.S. president. Sickles refused to stand with the other 149 guests and walked out in anger. In a lengthy exchange of letters to the press Sickles accused GP of toadying to the British. GP and others at the dinner wrote defending GP. Buchanan quickly replaced Sickles but did not publicly censure him. See: Sickles Affair. Persons named.
Morgan, J.S. 32-Avoidance of Pres. Buchanan Cont'd. GP explained to his Mass.-born friend, sometimes agent, and London resident genealogist Horatio Gates Somerby (1805-72) why he would not call on Pres. Buchanan: "Buchanan's friends are particularly attentive to me, but I refuse any interferences to bring us together without a direct explanation from him. I met Miss Lane [Harriet Lane, 1830-1903, bachelor James Buchanan's niece and White House hostess] who treated me with great cordiality." Ref.: GP, Philadelphia, to Horatio Gates Somerby, Jan. 18, 1857, Somerby Papers, Mass. Historical Society, Boston. See: Lane, Harriet.
Morgan, J.S. 33-Avoidance of Pres. Buchanan Cont'd. Of Buchanan's aloofness, J.S. Morgan wrote from London to GP in Washington, D.C., March 13, 1857: "Your course respecting Mr. Buchanan strikes us as just the thing. It is for you to receive him if either is to be received, but any reconciliations now would look like truckling to a man because he happens to be in power." Ref.: J.S. Morgan, London, to GP, U.S., March 3, 1857, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
GP & the Panic of 1857
Morgan, J.S. 34-Panic of 1857. J.S. Morgan in London alerted GP in the U.S. of the first rumblings of the Panic of 1857. Morgan noted the heavy demand for debt payments on George Peabody & Co. and wrote GP on Jan. 30, 1857: "The drawing upon us for the last two or three mails have been very heavy and the look of our financial business is anything but encouraging for it." Morgan wrote GP again on Feb. 27 and Apr. 9: "These are times when we must keep a sharp lookout. We are in a good position and must keep so." Ref. (J.S. Morgan to GP): J.S. Morgan to GP, Jan. 30, Feb. 27, and April 9, 1857, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 35-Panic of 1857 Cont'd. GP's cousin Joseph Peabody wrote from NYC (GP was then in Philadelphia), April 11: "There is a report by telegraph from Halifax that Greene & Co. of Paris have been obliged to suspend: I know nothing of particulars." Alarmed, J.S. Morgan wrote GP, April 17, that money was stringent, and the specie of the bank of England were down to nine million, "the lowest point in ten years." Ref.: Joseph Peabody, NYC, to GP, care of Capt. Edward Schenley, Pittsburgh, Penn., April 12, 1857, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Morgan, J.S. 36-Panic of 1857 Cont'd. GP hurried back to England. Back in London the end of Aug. 1857 GP found his firm severely threatened by the Panic of 1857. The financial crisis came from overspeculation in western U.S. lands, poorly managed railroads needing large capital, and overbuying of goods in eastern U.S. cities. The collapse of hundreds of business firms in the U.S. and Britain was hastened by poor U.S. wheat sales abroad, the sinking of a packet ship with $1.6 billion in California gold bullion aboard (Sept. 1857), and the failure of some railroads, banks, and insurance companies. Ref.: Hidy, R.W.-c, pp. 456-465.
Morgan, J.S. 37-Panic of 1857 Cont'd. U.S. Legation Secty. Benjamin Moran (1820-86) described the crisis in his journal entry for Nov. 6, 1857: "The news from the United States indicates a commercial panic of the most disastrous nature. Each arrival brings us worse news than the last, and now starvation seems to threaten unemployed workmen, fifty thousand of which are in New York alone." Business firms failed in Glasgow, Liverpool, and London. George Peabody & Co. was in trouble. Ref.: (Moran entry Nov. 6, 1857): Wallace and Gillespie, eds., p. 176.
Bank of England Loan to GP
Morgan, J.S. 38-Bank of England Loan. GP had given large credit to Lawrence, Stone and Co. of Boston, which could not repay him. Meanwhile, the House of Baring pressed GP for £150,000 ($750,000) he owed them. Gathering his assets, GP on Nov. 17, 1857, applied for a $4 million loan from the Bank of England (which seldom made such loans). Moran's Nov. 6, 1857, journal entry stated that he had heard that the stability of George Peabody & Co was in grave danger. Moran's Nov. 21, 1857, entry: "My friend, Phil [Philip N. Dallas, 1825-66, U.S. Minister George Mifflin Dallas' son under whom Moran then worked] went over to George Peabody & Co. the other day to withdraw all his father's deposits, having heard that house would fail unless relief in the form of a tremendous loan arrived." Breaking precedent, the Bank of England lent GP more than was needed. Ref.: Burk, p. 21. Ref. (Moran's entries Nov. 6 and 21, 1857): Wallace and Gillespie, eds., Vol. I, pp. 176, 181.
Morgan, J.S. 39-Bank of England Loan Cont'd. During negotiations for the Bank of England loan, some unscrupulous financiers, seeing opportunity to force GP out of business, approached GP's partner J.S. Morgan. Morgan was told that certain individuals would guarantee a loan to George Peabody & Co. if the firm ceased business in London at the end of 1858. PEF's second administrator Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry (1825-1903) reported GP's reaction as follows: "When Mr. Morgan brought this message to Mr. Peabody, he was in a rage like a wounded lion, and told Mr. Morgan to reply that he dared them to cause his failure." [Italics added]. Ref.: Curry-b, p. 7.
Morgan, J.S. 40-Bank of England Loan Cont'd. GP repaid the Bank of England loan on March 30, 1858. He wrote Washington, D.C., business friend William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888): "My business is again quite snug.... Our credit...stands as high as ever before." Ref. (GP to Corcoran): GP, London, to William Wilson Corcoran, Washington, D.C., April 16, 1858, Corcoran Papers, Library of Congress Ms.; also quoted in Corcoran, pp. 168-169. (GP's financial difficulties in the Panic of 1857 briefly told): Strouse, pp. 70-71.
Morgan, J.S. 41-GP to Niece Julia Adelaide. On Nov. 13, 1857, GP wrote in gloom to his niece Julia Adelaide Peabody (b. April 25, 1835, daughter of deceased older brother David Peabody, 1790-1841): "This letter I promised to write you has been postponed because of my constant engagements and the unparalleled gloom of the Panic. What will happen, Heaven only knows. Lack of confidence and distrust is universal here and in the United States. I hope my house will weather the storm. I think it will do so even though so many in debt to me cannot pay. If I fail I will bear it like a man. In my conscience I know I never deceived or injured any other human being." Ref.: (GP to niece Julia): Curry-b, pp. 8-9.
Morgan, J.S. 42-GP to Niece Julia Adelaide Cont'd.: "It is less than three months since I left you in the United States, prosperous and happy. Now all is gloom and affliction. Nearly all the American houses in Europe have suspended operations and nothing but great strength can save them. It is the loss of credit of my house I fear. In any circumstances, only a small part of my private fortune will be lost. I will have enough for all my required purposes." GP waited before sending this letter. Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 43-GP to Niece Julia Adelaide Cont'd. GP held the letter to niece Julia for three weeks. He then added: "My very dear Niece,--The three pages enclosed, as you will see from the date were written three weeks ago when I felt...that the credit of my house was in danger.... I thought to myself, Why should I make my good niece unhappy, however so my miserable self? and consequently declined to send the letter, and I am glad that I did not. "A few days after I felt it to be my duty to apply to the banks for a loan of money sufficient to carry my house through the crisis, proposing security for the full amount required, which was four million dollars." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 44-GP to Niece Julia Adelaide Cont'd. "It was a severe test to my pride, but after a week spent with the Committees and Directors of the Banks I finally succeeded, and I doubt not that my house is now free from all danger.... Don't you hold your head less high or your heart worth less than you did before, for your Uncle George had done nothing but what among sensible persons will raise him higher than before." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 45-Panic of 1857's Effect . The financial panic, his illness, age (63), and wanting to put his philanthropies in order made GP write as follows to a young man who applied for a position with him: "The influence of the panic year upon my feelings have been such as to greatly modify my ambitious views and I have fully determined not only to keep snug during the terms of my present copartnership but if my life is spared to its end to then leave business entirely and shall most likely pass any remaining years that may be allotted me by Providence in my native land." Ref.: (On retirement): GP to William Heath, Boston, Dec. 9, 1858, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Morgan, J.S. 46-GP Corrected N.Y. Times Report. The New York Times published incorrectly, late Dec. 1857, that George Peabody & Co. owed others £6 million ($30 million) at the time of the Bank of England loan. GP sent a correction to the editor on Feb. 9, 1858: "With a few exceptions the American press has extended me more sympathy than blame for my course in the panic. Your respectable journal's account in late December, 1857, of my house's acceptances of six million sterling is inaccurate." Ref.: New York Times, Feb. 9, 1858, p. 4, c. 6.
Morgan, J.S. 47-GP Corrected N.Y. Times Report Cont'd.: "Here are the facts: About November 20th, my house considered it prudent to borrow funds to protect our own credit and save many of our American correspondents unable to meet engagements. The bills my house were liable for at the time of the loan were £2,300,000, not £6,000,000. I applied for a loan of £800,000 from the Bank of England on good securities but have only taken £300,000 to this date. Of the £2,300,000 bills liable, my house paid more than £l,500,000 at the time of the loan. The strength of our correspondents is such that our losses will be but trifling. In justice to American credit and to my house these facts are at your disposal." Ref. Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 48-Correcting Another N.Y. Times Report. Again on Feb. 18, 1858, GP corrected another New York Times error that he had secured the Bank of England loan, not on the basis of securities but on the personal guarantees of friends. He wrote: "The Charter of the Bank of England forbids...lending money on any but British securities. Since my house held large securities from the states and cities of the United States, the Bank of England required guarantees from Englishmen. Some personal friends and interested parties guaranteed £90,000 of the £300,000 which my house received from the Bank. The error in the press arose from the circumstance in the Panic of 1837 when three American houses obtained assistance from the Bank of England by giving guarantees without other securities." Ref.: New York Times, Feb. 18, 1858, p. 4, c. 6.
Morgan, J.S. 49-J.S. Morgan to GP on Atlantic Cable. GP was ill with gout and went for relief to a health spa in Vichy, France. J.S. Morgan wrote him from London Aug. 12, 1858, about Atlantic Telegraph Co. stock. The Atlantic cable had been laid in 1858 but broke. "Our position," Morgan wrote GP, "is an unpleasant one. The moment we sell it is known and down goes the market." Ref.: (Morgan on Atlantic cable): J.S. Morgan, London, to GP, Vichy, France, Aug. 1858, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 50-Morgan Visited Niece Julia Adelaide. In Oct. 1858 Morgan was in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and had heard reports of GP's improved health. He planned to go to Zanesville, Ohio, to see GP's niece Julia Adelaide Peabody. On Nov. 2 he wrote to GP that he had seen Julia and "found her all that I had expected from your description.... I am not surprised at your feelings toward her as she seemed a person uncommonly attractive both in mind and person." Ref.: J.S. Morgan, NYC, to GP, Nov. 2, 1858, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Morgan, J.S. 51-GP Reassured Niece Julia. GP also wrote his niece Julia in late 1858 that he had returned from Vichy, France, where he had been under the care of a physician for gout in his feet and right hand: "I am happy also to tell you that although my firm lost some money the business of the year more than made it good, and individually I am now worth much more than I supposed myself when I left the United States and I sincerely feel that what we supposed misfortunes and calamities last year were, so far as regards myself, really 'blessings in disguise.'" Ref.: GP to Julia Adelaide Peabody, n.d., probably late 1858, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Morgan, J.S. 52-GP Ill, March 1859. Resting away from London GP wrote Washington, D.C., business friend William Wilson Corcoran of his rest cures at health spas for gout attacks: "I have been a great sufferer by rheumatic gout in my knees and arms, as also my right hand, for several months. I have been here for three weeks for the benefit of the waters, and may remain a fortnight longer. I am now quite well, except my right hand, which is painful when I write, and I fear you will hardly be able to make out what I have written." Ref.: GP to William Wilson Corcoran, March 22, 1859, Corcoran Papers, VII, Accession Nos. 8279-8280, Library of Congress Ms., quoted in Corcoran, p. 178.
Morgan, J.S. 53-GP and N.Y. Gov. W.H. Seward. In May 1859 N.Y. Gov. William Henry Seward (1801-72) visited London. Seward was the political protégé of GP's friend Thurlow Weed (1797-1882), Albany, N.Y. Evening News editor. GP arranged for Seward to meet such prominent people as Irish-born MP Sir James Emerson Tennent (1791-1869). These meetings were of special importance a few years later when Seward became Pres. Lincoln's Secty. of State during the Civil War.
Morgan, J.S. 54-GP and N.Y. Gov. W.H. Seward Cont'd. Too ill to attend himself, GP explained to Seward: "As the time approaches to join you at Lady Tennent's I find myself too unwell to go out being quite lame and in considerable pain in my feet arising from my late severe attack of gout.--Having accomplished the object I had in view of bringing together yourself and Sir James, I do not so much regret my inability to join you but feel forced to make this explanation." Ref. GP to William Henry Seward, May 26, 1859, Seward Collection, Univ. of Rochester.
N.Y. Herald Attacks on GP
Morgan, J.S. 55-N.Y. Herald Criticism. GP ignored hostile articles about him in editor James Gordon Bennett's New York Herald ' during his 1856-57 U.S. visit. A false report of a rift between GP and J.S. Morgan forced him to reply in 1859. This Sept. 20, 1859, Herald article read: "There is a rumor that the firm of George Peabody & Co. is to be dissolved or remodelled. The cause I have not heard, but I know that the head of the house has never been pleased nor satisfied since certain events during and previous to the great crisis of 1857. Before that disgraceful failure in Boston, connected with Lawrence, of Lawrence, Stone & Co." Ref.: New York Herald , Sept. 20, 1859, p. 2, c. 2.
Morgan, J.S. 56-N.Y. Herald Criticism Cont'd.: "A draft was actually drawn amounting to some £80,000 [then equivalent to $400,000] and some real or fanciful security offered. This draft was accepted, and the negotiation had been about completed when the senior partner, Mr. Peabody came in and put a veto on the whole transaction. As matters turned out the securities were not worth a straw. Lawrence failed and but for the timely appearance of Mr. Peabody, his firm would have been seriously damaged by the stroke of the pen." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 57-N.Y. Herald Criticism Cont'd. Before GP could reply the Herald again directed sarcasm at GP personally and stated that he used undue influence on the Times financial writer to attack business rivals. The N.Y. Herald for Oct. 12, 1859, read: "The London Timeshas been declining in influence because Mr. Sampson who writes the money articles has an American wife and is intimate to the point of control with George Peabody. They attack the Bank of England, certain corporations, speculations, public works, and loans from which they expect to make nothing. It has gotten so that an individual wanting to enter something in the London Times financial column must go to--not the owner or manager or editor--but to a man who is to London financial circles what a podunk newspaper is to political newspapers of the world." Ref.: New York Herald , Oct. 12, 1859, p. 2, c. 2.
Morgan, J.S. 58-N.Y. Herald Criticism Cont'd.: "Money articles in the Times follow what George Peabody favors or opposes, reflecting his personal enmities, piques, quarrels. Articles telling of a large loan received during the 1857 crisis are laughed at by the Bank of England. Here is a striking example of his influence: A year or more ago an English merchant ship owner about to start steamers from England to New York unfortunately asked George Peabody's advice as to which New York house to consign it. Peabody advised a house with one of his relatives in it. The Englishman later chose the American Express Co. as New York agent. He and his steamship company were attacked in the London Times. Thus the quarrels and enmities of an insignificant individual are echoed, trumpeted and heralded forth year after year in the Times." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 59-W.W. Corcoran on Herald Attacks. GP's Washington, D.C. business friend William Wilson Corcoran joked about the charge: "I read a letter in the Herald some time since alluding to your influence with the London Times which if true, makes you more potential than Lord Palmerston [Henry John Temple Palmerston (1784-1865), British Prime Minister during 1855-58]." GP, particularly wanting to reassure his Baltimore friends, felt he had to answer the Herald's erroneous charges. Ref.: William Wilson Corcoran, Washington, D.C., to George Peabody, Dec. 20, 1859, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Morgan, J.S. 60-GP's Reply to Herald Attacks. GP wrote on Dec. 23, 1859, to the Baltimore American (reprinted in the New York Times): "For some motive, which I have never been able to understand, the managers of the New York Herald have, from the time I landed in New York in 1856, frequently introduced into its columns paragraphs and articles reflecting upon me personally, or on the position and business of my house, without the least regard to facts. Their London correspondence (or letters bearing the date of London) has been characterized by the same feeling of untruthfulness throughout; although I have not thought advisable to publicly contradict them, I will now notice three of these letters, and thereby put you and my Baltimore friends right on matters to which they refer." Ref.: (GP's Dec. 23, 1859, letter to the Baltimore American) reprinted in New York Times, Jan. 12, 1860, p. 1, c. 6.
Morgan, J.S. 61-GP's Reply to Herald Attacks Cont'd.: "The most important...stating that I had never been satisfied with the management of my firm's business since certain events during and previous to the crisis of 1857; and that I had to put my veto on a transaction with Lawrence, Stone & Co.,...about being entered into for an advance of $400,000 to that house. As this reflects upon my partner, Mr. J. S. Morgan, I beg to state that it has not the least foundation in truth. Mr. Morgan joined my firm on the 1st of October, 1854, and since that period our business has been most satisfactory to all parties interested, and a difference of opinion on the subject of its management has never occurred between Mr. Morgan and myself." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 62-GP's Reply to Herald Attacks Cont'd.: "Another letter appearing in the New York Herald infers erroneously that I interposed an objection to the Bank of England's financial dealing with the Gallway (Lever) steamers. No act or expression of mine has ever been made in an unfriendly spirit to this Company, although I think it has been unfortunately managed. "The last letter I wish to comment on was dated December 7, 1858, stating that if my house had not opposed the sale of Florida Railroad bonds, Mr. [Edward M.C.] Cabell would have effected their negotiation in London. This is untrue, as my wishes were favorable to his success, and I offered him every assistance my position would justify, short of recommending the bonds to the British public. This I could not do, nor do I connect my name in any way with schemes or companies got up for the European market, however unquestionable may be the character of the gentlemen who have charge of them." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 63-GP's Reply to Herald Attacks Cont'd. GP knew from his NYC cousin Joseph Peabody that New York Herald editor James Gordon Bennett deliberately provoked controversy in order to sell newspapers. Joseph Peabody had earlier written to GP that: [Herald editor Bennett] "published...falsehood[s] expressly to provoke a reply.... He makes it a system to attack some prominent person, it matters little who that person may be!...as regards the 'Herald,' it is even better to be abused than be praised by such a rascal as Bennett." Ref.: Joseph Peabody, NYC, to GP, Montreal, Canada, Oct. 18, 1856, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. For criticism of GP in the New York Herald during GP's 1856-57 U.S. visit, reasons for Bennett's criticism, and sources, See: Visits to the U.S. by GP.
Trent Affair & GP
Morgan, J.S. 64-Trent Affair, 1861. GP's hope for early retirement was pushed back by the Civil War. Officially neutral, the British upper class had a natural sympathy for the Confederacy. Also, British cotton factory jobs and profit were dependent on southern cotton, cut off by the Union blockade of southern ports. The Nov. 8, 1861 Trent Affair was one of several frictionable events during the Civil War that provoked near war hysteria between Britain and the U.S. GP and J.S. Morgan were named in a side incident of the Trent Affair. See: Trent Affair.
Morgan, J.S. 65-Trent Affair, 1861, Cont'd. On the stormy night of Oct. 11, 1861, four Confederate emissaries and some of their families evaded a Union blockade of Charleston, S.C., got to Havana, Cuba, and there boarded the British mail steamer Trent bound for Southampton, England. Their mission was to seek aid and arms from Britain and France. One day out of Havana, on Nov. 8, 1861, the Trent was illegally stopped by the captain of the Union warship San Jacinto. The four Confederate emissaries were forcibly removed and taken to Boston Harbor's Fort Warren prison. Their illegal seizure and detention produced exultation in the U.S. North but anger in Britain. Passions were aroused. Britain sent 8,000 troops to Canada in case of war between Britain and the U.S. Calmer heads prevailed at Pres. Lincoln's Dec. 26, 1861, cabinet meeting. The illegal seizure was disavowed. The four Confederates were released on Jan. 1, 1862. Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 66-Trent Affair, 1861, Cont'd. A Capt. Richard Williams in charge of the mail on the Trent was asked to tell of the illegal seizure at a dinner in Liverpool. His version, published in the Liverpool Daily Post (Jan. 8, 1862) was that when the San Jacinto's captain sent Lt. Donald McNeill Fairfax (1821-94) to remove the Confederate agents, John Slidell's (1793-1871) daughter clung to her father, and that when Lt. Fairfax tried to separate them, she slapped his face. The Daily Post article added that there was a contradiction to Capt. Williams' version from a Member of Parliament who "had the contradiction from George Peabody, the well known banker and merchant." The article added information from a Mr. Allen S. Kanckel (his last name, misspelled, was Hanckel), who claimed to have witnessed the Trent incident. He told the editor that Slidell's daughter did not slap Lt. Fairfax but "put her hand twice on his face to keep him back." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 67-Trent Affair, 1861, Cont'd. The article ended with: "Mr. Kanckel adds, that Mr. Peabody, uninvited, called on Mrs. Slidell, and behaved ungentlemanly." The editor sent GP the news article along with Allen S. Hanckel's calling card. Hanckel wrote GP that the Daily Post editor had made a mistake, that it had been GP's partner, Junius Spencer Morgan, who had burst uninvited into Mrs. Slidell's room. Hanckel added with an implied threat, "I shall certainly call upon you and hope to receive an explanation." Mr. Hanckel's visit never materialized. Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 68-Trent Affair, 1861, Cont'd. The GP-J.S. Morgan involvement had to do with John Slidell's secretary, George Eustice (1828-72, of La.). His wife was Louise Morris née Corcoran Eustice (1838-67), the only daughter of GP's Washington, D.C., business associate William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888). She was a favorite of GP, who had entertained Corcoran and his daughter, and sometimes the daughter alone, on European trips. When the wives of Slidell and Eustice reached England, it is understandable that someone from George Peabody & Co., probably Junius Spencer Morgan, went to see after the Eustices' welfare (GP may have been ill or busy at the time). Ref.: Ibid.
Peabody Homes of London
Morgan, J.S. 69-Peabody Homes of London. Angers over the Trent affair lasted well into 1862, affecting GP and J.S. Morgan in London. J.S. Morgan was one of the five trustees of the Peabody Donation Fund for building model apartments for London's working poor families (total gift $2.5 million). The Trent Affair and other frictionable U.S.-British events had caused worry and delay in public announcement of this gift. GP and his trustees feared that while U.S.-British feelings were so hostile, the British government, press, and public might reject his gift. Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 70-GP to Weed on U.S.-British Tension. GP explained the delay in a note to his friend Thurlow Weed (1797-1882): "Two days ago we thought it exactly the right time, but one cloud between this country and ours is no sooner disposed than another appears. Today the Times and Post are at us again...[as are] ugly extracts from the World and other New York papers.... The feeling [is] as bad as it was before the Trent affair closed. The Post I have takes up strongly the blocking up of Charlestown harbour. Lampson told me that he thought both Sir Emerson [Tennent] and Mr. Adams were in rather a gloomy mood on our affairs with England and France, and Sir Emerson told me that France was pushing England very hard to join and recognize the Southern Confederacy." Ref.: GP, London, to Thurlow Weed, Jan. 17, 1862, Weed Collection, Univ. of Rochester; also quoted in Barnes, p. 365.
Morgan, J.S. 71-GP to Weed on U.S.-British Tension Cont'd. GP sadly mentioned in his note to Weed the "Newcastle story," printed in the London Times and widely circulated as true. U.S. Secty. of State William Henry Seward (1801-72) allegedly told the Duke of Newcastle, then Colonial Secty., that one way to end the U.S. Civil War and get the South to rejoin the North would be to start a war with Britain. See: Peabody Homes of London.
Morgan, J.S. 72-GP to Weed on U.S.-British Tension Cont'd. GP's note to Weed explained the seriousness of the Newcastle story: "We talked over the mystery hanging over the Seward and the New Castle [sic] affair. Sir James E[merson] Tennent said that there can be no doubt that what the Duke reported of Seward's remarks had strongly influenced the government in this war preparation for several months past. The Bishop [McIlvaine] said that he had received the words from Sir H[enry]. Holland [medical advisor to Queen Victoria], and I think Lord Shaftesbury, both of whom had them from the Duke's own lips. You should at once write to Mr. Seward for a letter to the Duke and have the matter cleared up." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 73-Peabody Homes of London Gift Praised. GP's Peabody Donation Fund founding letter was at last published on March 12, 1862. Widely printed and praised it was addressed to and accepted by his five trustees: his partner J.S. Morgan, business friend Curtis Miranda Lampson (1806-85), U.S. Minister to England Charles Francis Adams (1806-86), longtime friend and MP Sir James Emerson Tennent (1791-1869), and Lord Stanley, trustee chairman (Edward George Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, 1799-1869, Member of Parliament and president of the Board of Control [trade]). Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 74-Peabody Homes of London Gift Praised. News of GP's gift swept London, captured England, echoed in the U.S., and made the world press. Sir James Emerson Tennent sent GP London press notices and added: "But the press is only a faint echo of the voice of Society which is so forcible in praise of an act so utterly beyond all precedent. It is the topic of conversation and laudation in every circle of London, from the Palace down...." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 75-Peabody Homes of London Gift Praised Cont'd. After spending March 27, 1862, with the Commissioners of Charities arranging for their legal acceptance of the gift, Tennent wrote GP: "I have returned after spending a very long time with the Commissioners of Charities.... They tell me that in the whole range of charities of England there is nothing to compare with the disinterestedness and magnitude of your gift." GP rested in Bath, England, late March and early April 1862. His friend and agent, Horatio Gates Somerby (1805-72), a Vt.-born London-resident genealogist, sent him London newspaper clippings. GP answered Somerby with: "I had not the least conception that it would cause so much excitement over the country." GP's mounting reputation had a positive spillover effect on J.S. Morgan, both as partner in George Peabody & Co. and as Peabody Donation Fund trustee. Ref.: Ibid.
Freedom of the City of London to GP
Morgan, J.S. 76-Freedom of the City of London, July 10, 1862. J.S. Morgan attended London's ancient Guildhall, 3:00 P.M. on July 10, 1862, when GP was given the Freedom of the City of London. GP was the first of five Americans to accept this honor, the second, Ulysses Simpson Grant (1822-85, U.S. general and 18th U.S. president), awarded June 15, 1877; third, Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919, 26th U.S. president), awarded May 31, 1910; fourth, John Joseph Pershing (1860-1948, U.S. general), awarded July 18, 1919; and fifth, Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969, U.S. general and the 34th U.S. president), awarded June 12, 1945. See: London, Freedom of the City of London.
Morgan, J.S. 77-Lord Mayor's Dinner, July 10, 1862. Mr. and Mrs. J.S. Morgan were among the 300 guests assembled that evening at the Egyptian Hall, Mansion House, for the Lord Mayor's dinner honoring GP. Guests included Peabody Donation Fund trustees and their wives, Sir James Emerson Tennent (1791-1869) and the Curtis Miranda Lampsons, U.S. Minister to England Charles Francis Adams (1807-86) and Mrs. Adams, author Charles Dickens' daughter, Sir Henry Holland (1788-1873, Queen Victoria's physician), and other British and U.S. notables. A loving cup was passed around until all 300 present had drunk from it. Ref.: Ibid. See: persons named.
Morgan, J.S. 78-Lord Mayor's Dinner, July 10, 1862 Cont'd. Several toasts were proposed, including one to GP from the Lord Mayor, who said (in part): "I now propose a toast to a distinguished gentleman who has won the esteem of the City of London and the approbation of the world. Mr. Peabody has performed the crowning act of an honorable career. How glad I am for Mr. Peabody to be here and I hope he may live long to see his noble deed prove a monument to his name and character." Amid loud cheering, GP rose to reply (in part): "Persons in every station hope for success and tremble at real or imagined calamities, but none more than a merchant. From a full and grateful heart I say that this day has repaid me for the care and anxiety of fifty years of commercial life. I will not take up time from other speakers. I am no orator but ask that you accept my deeds for my words." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 79-Lord Mayor's Dinner, July 10, 1862 Cont'd. The Lord Mayor then spoke of the Peabody Donation Fund for housing London's working poor and proposed a toast to its trustees. Trustee Charles Francis Adams, U.S. Minister, responded to the toast. He said (in part): "The City of London does honour to Mr. Peabody to-day. Why? The reason is that Mr. Peabody has done honour to human nature (loud cheers!). I honour Mr. Peabody because he has done honour to his country." Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 80-Lord Mayor's Dinner, July 10, 1862 Cont'd.: "Born in America he went out to build his fortune, became successful in his own land and eminently more so on this side of the ocean. In twenty years he achieved his ambition. How did this happen? The answer is simple. It was by making an honest use of the friendly relations between the two countries. He drew benefit from the trade of both countries. His career teaches the advantage of good will. His success shows how mutual interests advance with peace. Now, with this gift he forms a new bond between two nations." Long speeches followed by Lord Stanley and Sir James Emerson Tennent, who toasted the Lord Mayor. GP, as he enjoyed doing, gave the last toast to the Lady Mayoress. Ref.: Ibid.
Morgan, J.S. 81-Walked Home to Save Carriage Fare? The story persisted in news accounts at his death (Nov. 4, 1869), seven years later, that after the Lord Mayor's banquet, July 10, 1862, GP walked home to save carriage fare. The night being damp and foggy, he reportedly caught cold. He more likely walked home filled with wonder. Officials of the world's largest city had given him its greatest honor. Ref.: Ibid.
GP’s Retirement
Morgan, J.S. 82-Retirement, Oct. 1, 1864 . GP's business partnership with J.S. Morgan and C.C. Gooch expired on Oct. 1, 1864. He had set this as his retirement date. He was in the Scottish Highlands in Aug. 1864, resting and fishing, when J.S. Morgan wrote urging him to delay retirement beyond Oct. 1. The firm had many securities which would have to be sold in order to liquidate the partnership. To sell in Oct. would result in some loss. But GP was set on his course. In six months he would be age 70.
Morgan, J.S. 83-Retirement, Oct. 1, 1864 Cont'd. GP wrote to Morgan from Scotland: "It has been my fixed determination to retire from all commercial business if I should live till the lst of October 1864 and I can now make no change, for although the continuance of the firm for three or six months, which you suggest, may appear short to you, to me--feeling as I deeply do, the uncertainty of life at the age of seventy--months would appear as years, for I am most anxious before I die to place my worldly affairs in a much more satisfactory state than they are at present." Ref.: (1864): GP to J.S. Morgan, Aug. 13, 1864, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Morgan, J.S. 84-Retirement, Oct. 1, 1864 Cont'd. J.S. Morgan was also disappointed that GP, not wanting responsibility over a firm he would no longer control, asked that his name be removed from the firm. George Peabody & Co. (Dec. 1838 to Oct. 1, 1864) was succeeded by J.S. Morgan & Co. (Oct. 1, 1864 to Dec. 31, 1909); succeeded by Morgan Grenfell & Co. (Jan. 1, 1910 to 1918); Morgan Grenfell & Co. Ltd. (1918-90); and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990), a German owned bank. GP's remaining five years and one month were devoted to his philanthropies. He returned gravely ill from his last U.S. visit, June 8-Sept. 29, 1869, and died Nov. 4, 1869, at the London home of Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson. J.S. Morgan attended his Westminster Abbey funeral. See: Morgan Grenfell & Co. Ltd. Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990).
J. S. Morgan Attended GP’s Westminster Abbey Funeral
Morgan, J.S. 85-Westminster Abbey, Nov. 12, 1869. J.S. Morgan's presence at GP's Westminster Abbey funeral was recorded in U.S. Legation in London Secty. Benjamin Moran's journal (Nov. 12, 1869): "At about 12 to-day Mr. Motley and I arrived in his carriage at Sir Curtis Lampson's, 80 Eaton Square, where we met Sir Curtis and his three sons, J.S. Morgan, Russell Sturgis, Mr. F.H. Morse, Mr. Nunn, Drs. Gull and Covey, Horatio G. Somerby, and several other gentlemen, who were to act as mourners...in Westminster Abbey...." Moran's journal entry described the ceremony in the Abbey: "The coffin was
we have only just begun.
i found a poem the other day and at first i didn't like it but then i read it again and it captured me.
i hid it somewhere. somewhere only a few people would think to look.
it makes me want to write poetry and leave it on a napkin somewhere.
i think i'm going to the next time i go out to eat.
by the way, my cat is hella cuter than yours:
i hid it somewhere. somewhere only a few people would think to look.
it makes me want to write poetry and leave it on a napkin somewhere.
i think i'm going to the next time i go out to eat.
by the way, my cat is hella cuter than yours:
Quick Links
Latest Comment
Re: Just wanna do something special... - I just love the concept of living ships! Or living things like that....
| Terms of Service
| Privacy Policy
