by T. J. Stiles
63 Deposition of Edmund Randolph, San Francisco, January 11, 1859, Deposition of John W. Bent, New York, July 3, 1858, MacDonald Lawsuit; Walker, 150–2. Interestingly, Walker wrote that Alexander Crittenden and Randolph led him to believe that CKG wanted him to cancel the ATC charter, whereas Crittenden, Randolph, and French all testified that CKG resisted this action. The most likely explanation is that Crittenden and Randolph misled Walker to secure his cooperation.
Eleven Vanderbilt
1 BE, December 8, 1855; NYT, December 11, 1855; NYT, December 11, 1855; New York Courier and Enquirer, reprinted in the LT, December 29, 1855; NYH, January 1, 1856. For a detailed analysis of the Vanderbilt (and all of CVs other Atlantic steamships) see Cedric Ridgely-Nevitt, American Steamships on the Atlantic (Newark, Del.: University of Delaware Press, 1981), 222–49.
2 RGD, NYC, 374:1. CV would later claim that he spent between $800,000 and $900,000 on the Vanderbilt; see HsR 2, part 2A, 37th Cong., 2nd sess., vol. 2.
3 NYTr, December 17, 24, 1855; NYH, December 24, 1855; NYT, February 7, 1856.
4 National Era, January 10, 1856.
5 On the administration's attitude toward Walker and French, see NYT, December 14, 15, 1855; NYH, November 25, 1856; WLM to John H. Wheeler, November 8, 1855, Manning, 4:74. On the Crampton affair, see WLM to J. F. Crampton, August 27, 1855, vol. 80: Private Letterbook, WLMP; NYH, December 25, 1855; NYT, November 17, 1855, May 21, 1856; SEP, May 24, 1856.
6 NYH, December 24, 25, 1855, May 9, 1856; NYTr, December 24, 25, 1855; NYT, December 25, 1855; LT, January 8, 1856.
7 NYH, December 24, 25, 1855, May 9, 1856; NYTr, December 24, 25, 1855; NYT, December 25, 1855; LT, January 8, 1856. Scott, a careful man, searched the Northern Light for arms with McKeon, offering more proof that the company was not secretly supporting Walker, beyond its special emigrant rate. No arms were found on the ship; later it became clear that arms were being shipped down in sailing vessels; NYTr, February 7, 1857. Scott also testified that emigrants to California typically went heavily armed, often with revolvers and rifles, and so many weapons were probably carried to Nicaragua by individual filibuster recruits. On the Irish and Five Points, see Tyler Anbinder, Five Points: The 19th-Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum (New York: Free Press, 2001), 42–50, 67–80, 111–40.
8 NYTr, January 7, 8, 24, 1856; NYH, January 7, 8, 10, 1856; NYW, November 14, 1877; David Colden Murray, Receiver of the ATC, v. CV, November 3, 1859, file PL 1859-M V74, Supreme Court Pleadings, NYCC.
9 NYTr, January 7, 8, 26, February 9, 1856; NYH, January 8, 10, 25, 1856; entry for January 21, 1856, Senate Journal, 34th Cong., 1st sess.; William Walker, Response to Interrogatories, Charles MacDonald v. CKG and CM, July 26, 1858, Papers Concerning the Filibuster War, BL; David Colden Murray, Receiver of the ATC, v. CV, November 3, 1859, file PL 1859-M V74, Supreme Court Pleadings, NYCC; CV to WLM, March 17, 1856, HED 103, 34th Cong., 1st sess., vol. 11. On CV's hostility toward Walker, see Wheeler's statement in Memorial Presented by David Colden Murray, fold. 1, box 1, CRCC.
10 NYTr, January 7, 8, 26, February 9, 1856; NYH, January 8, 10, 25, 1856; entry for January 21, 1856, Senate Journal, 34th Cong., 1st sess.; William Walker, Response to Interrogatories, Charles MacDonald v. CKG and CM, July 26, 1858, Papers Concerning the Filibuster War, BL; David Colden Murray, Receiver of the ATC, v. CV, November 3, 1859, file PL 1859-M V74, Supreme Court Pleadings, NYCC; CV to WLM, March 17, 1856, HED 103, 34th Cong., 1st sess., vol. 11; Depositions of O. M. Wozendraft and Edward J. C. Kewen, MacDonald Lawsuit.
11 NYTr, February 14, 19, 23, March 5, 11, 12, 1856; NYT, March 6, 1856.
12 NYTr, March 14, 1856; NYH, March 14, 18, 1856; NYT, March 14, 15, 25, 1856. A dispute erupted on Wall Street over whether CM's short sales were legal, given the revocation of the charter; see entries for March 14, 18, 1856, Minutes of the New York Stock and Exchange Board, vol. 4: 1851–1858, 247, New York Stock Exchange Archives.
13 NYTr, March 15, 17, 1856; HED 103, 34th Cong., 1st sess., vol. 11; NYH, October 16, 1856; NYT, March 20, 1856; Congressional Globe, March 17, 1856.
14 LT, April 8, 1856; NYT, March 18, 24, 26, 1856; NYTr, March 29, 1856; CT, March 28, 1856; HED 103, 34th Cong., 1st sess., vol. 11. See McPherson, 103–16, and Robert E. May, The Southern Dream of Caribbean Empire: 1854–1861 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1989).
15 NYT, March 17, 1856; David Colden Murray, Receiver of the ATC, v. CV, November 3, 1859, file PL 1859-M V74, Supreme Court Pleadings, NYCC; NYH, March 31, 1856; NYTr, October 15, 1856. Though the subsidy was usually attributed to Pacific Mail alone, the Independent, February 11, 1858, reported that 75 percent was paid by Pacific Mail and 25 percent by U.S. Mail, a ratio that corresponds to other joint operations. Though the Times later would condemn the noncompetition payment, on March 18, 1856, it said in approving tones that it assumed such a “bonus” would be paid.
16 Memorial of David Colden Murray, CRCC; Mary Wilhelmine Williams, Anglo-American Isthmian Diplomacy: 1815–1915 (New York: Russell & Russell, 1965), 211–2. Regarding Cross's mission, see a letter from Cross, September 6, 1856, in a newspaper clipping in the Scrapbook, John Hill Wheeler Papers, LOC. Birdsall was identified as “superintending engineer” in NYH, October 16, 1856. On Birdsall's mission, see Manning, 4:556.
17 New York Express, in CT, May 12, 1856; Heyl, 6:79–80.
18 Walker, 188–9; May Manifest Destiny's Underworld, 201–5. Both Walker and Edmund Randolph said that they thought steamship service to Nicaragua would continue without interruption, but that Cross's coup disrupted the line on the Pacific for six critical weeks; Deposition of Edmund Randolph, MacDonald Lawsuit.
19 Published letter from Cross, September 6, 1856, Scrapbook, John Hill Wheeler Papers, LOC; Folkman, 78–9. CKG's contract as agent expired March 31, 1856; ATC v. CKG, September 13, 1858, file 1858-#53, Superior Court, NYCC. On the ATC steamships on the Pacific, see NYH, December 1, 1856.
20 SctDP; see also CV to WLM, March 17, 1856, HED 103, 34th Cong., 1st sess., vol. 11. For more on Scott, see NYT, December 27, 1855; entry for November 8, 1855, Diary, John Hill Wheeler Papers, LOC.
21 Shortly before the Orizaba incident, Captain Tarleton had allowed a sailing ship to unload 160 filibusters, along with rifles, ammunition, and artillery; see Commodore Hiram Paulding to James C. Dobbin, June 16, 1856, with accompanying documents, roll 96: Home Squadron, June 30, 1855, to December 17, 1856, Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy from Commanding Officers of Squadrons, 1841–1886, Microfilm Publication M89, NA; Manning, 4:556–7; SED 68, 34th Cong., 1st sess., vol. 13; SctDP; May, Manifest Destiny's Underworld, 245. On the arming of the Costa Ricans by the British, see AltaC, June 2, 7, 1856; NYT, June 5, 1856. For a description of the rebuilt Greytown, see NYT, March 27, 1857. See also Jasper Ridley, Lord Palmerston (London: Constable, 1970), 457, on British reluctance to take direct action against Walker.
22 NYT, May 19, 20, 21, 1856; SEP, May 24, 1856; May, Southern Dream, 89.
23 Burns, 70, 201; NYT, May 15, 16, 1856; May, Southern Dream, 101–3. Williams, Anglo-American Isthmian Diplomacy, 211–2, argues that intelligence of British shipments of arms to Costa Rica led to the recognition. Though this is an overstatement, the discovery certainly gave added urgency to the decision.
24 Even Scroggs, who argued that the ATC supported the filibusters, wrote in “William Walker and the Steamship Corporation” that “the government officers had no means of distinguishing the filibuster from the passenger. Moreover it seems that the recruits were never organized on a military basis until they were beyond the jurisdiction of the United States.” Yet Scroggs expected the company to know the difference between emigrant and filibuster!
25 Thomas W. Ward to WLM, April 18, 1856, SED 68, 34th Cong., 1st sess., vol. 13.
26 Manning, 4:536–41. Walker's version appears 214–28, 231; Burns, 203.
27 T. J. Stiles, Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War (New York: A
lfred A. Knopf, 2002), 46–55; McPherson, 145–61.
28 MM, December 1854; NYT, July 3, 1860; Memoirs of William T. Sherman (New York: Da Capo, 1984, orig. pub. 1875), 95–105, 118–24; Kemble, 71, 152–3, 206; Richard Maxwell Brown, Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975), 123–40.
29 Sherman, 95–105, 118–24; Brown, 123–40; NYT, March 27, June 27, 1857; National Era, July 3, 1856; Deposition of Benjamin F. Voorhees, MacDonald Lawsuit. See also Leonard L. Richards, The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), 5–6, 26–33, 184–6. The Pierce administration expressed “alarm” but also a need for “extraordinary circumspection” with regard to the vigilance committee, and declined to intervene; see James C. Dobbin to Commodore William Mervine, August 2, 1856, Letter Books of U.S. Naval Officers, March 1778 to July 1908: Correspondence of Rear Admiral William Mervine, July 1836 to August 1868, vol. 4, entry 603(15), RG 45, NA. For commentary on gang violence in contemporary New York elections, see NYTr, June 7, 1852.
30 Deposition of Edmund Randolph, Deposition of Alexander P. Crittenden, MacDonald Lawsuit; NYT, July 15, 16, 28, 1856, March 20, 1857; NYH, November 21, 1856; Baughman, 81. Walker officially transferred the transit rights and property to CM and CKG in a decree signed August 26, 1856; SEP, October 4, 1856.
31 HsR 2, 36th Cong., 2nd sess., vol. 1; NYT, March 6, 1852, April 23, 25, 1886; LW Dictation.
32 Medbery 312–3; entry for March 24, 1856, Minutes of the New York Stock and Exchange Board, vol. 4: 1851–1858, New York Stock Exchange Archives; RGD, NYC, 366:251.
33 Strong, 2:282; David Colden Murray, Receiver of the ATC, v. CV, November 3, 1859, file PL 1859-M V74, Supreme Court Pleadings, NYCC; CV to John Hawes, August 4, 1856, fold. 12, box 1, Ms 82–01, Panama Collection, Department of Special Collections, University Libraries, Wichita State University; NYH, July 16, September 15, October 16, December 1, 1856; NYT, June 3, 6, 12, August 22, 1856; NYTr, October 16, November 4, 1856.
34 NYT, May 6, June 3, 6, 1856; NYH, July 16, 1856; NYTr, October 15, 1856; David Colden Murray, Receiver of the ATC, v. CV, November 3, 1859, file PL 1859-M V74, Supreme Court Pleadings, NYCC.
35 NYT, November 21, 1857; Ridgely-Nevitt, 163–9.
36 NYT, April 16, July 21, 24, 30, 1856; January 21, July 23, 1856, Senate Journal, 34th Cong., 1st sess.; Benjamin B. French to Henry F. French, September 5, 1856, reel 7, Benjamin B. French Papers, LOC; David Budlong Tyler, Steam Conquers the Atlantic (New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1939), 236–8.
37 Burns, 198, 202; NYT, March 17, April 17, May 30, 1856; Walker, 190, 197–210; SED 68, 34th Cong., 1st sess., vol. 13.
38 CT, September 6, 1856; NYH, September 6, 7, 1856. As discussed previously, social concerns over the difficulties of assessing character had grown up in the collapse of the culture of deference, and the rise of an individualistic, commercial society; see in particular Confidence Men. Amy S. Greenberg, in “A Gray-Eyed Man: Character, Appearance, and Filibustering,” Journal of the Early Republic 20, no. 4 (winter 2000): 673–99, and Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), goes so far as to argue that “the American reception of William Walker's Nicaragua adventures was shaped by a national conflict over the relationship between character and appearance.” I would argue that this “conflict” may have led Walker's supporters to cast about for a way to put his unimpressive appearance in a positive light, but it in no way determined the public's response to him.
39 RGD, NYC, 374:1.
40 NYT, November 22, 1856; NYH, November 21, 25, 1856; SctDP; Francisco Calcagno, Diccionario Biográfico Cubano (New York: Ponce de León, 1878), 302; William O. Scroggs, “William Walker's Designs on Cuba,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 1, no. 2 (September 1914): 198–211; Scroggs, Filibusters, 217–8; May Southern Dream, 106. One of Goicouria's letters stated, in the passive voice, that someone had offered him $250,000 for the transit rights. The press assumed that this offer came from CV (NYT, November 24, 1856), and historians have followed suit (see, for example, Baughman, 82). This is possible (perhaps simply as a feint), but I doubt it. For one thing, Goicouria mentioned CV by name elsewhere in the same letter; why leave out his name with regard to the offer? And such an offer would have been out of keeping with CV's consistent course, to oppose Walker and restore the original company to possession. Further, there is every indication that he believed Walker would soon be driven from power. Finally, CV explicitly denied that Goicouria was his “agent” (NYH, November 25, 1856), or that he had ever supported Walker, a statement supported by Goicouria himself (NYT, March 24, 1857) and the pro-filibuster U.S. minister to Nicaragua, John N. Wheeler (see his sworn deposition in CRCC).
41 NYT, November 22, 1856; NYH, November 21, 25, 1856; SctDP; Calcagno, 302; Scroggs, “William Walker's Designs on Cuba,” 198–211; Scroggs, Filibusters, 217–8; May, Southern Dream, 106. Walker, 256–66, offers a lengthy defense of his reestablishment of slavery.
42 NYH, November 25, 1856; HW, May 23, 1857; NYTr, February 7, 1857.
43 NYH, October 15, 1856.
44 Burns, 203–5, 213–5. Michel Gobat emphasizes, in Confronting the American Dream: Nicaragua Under U.S. Imperial Rule (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005), 21–41, Walker's revolutionary role in displacing old power structures and remaking Nicaraguan society, and his support from both local elites as well as peasants and Indians. He did not, for example, press Nicaraguans into armed service, as had traditionally been done. However, such incidents as the hanging of Byron Cole and the slaughter of Walker's wounded on Ometepe demonstrate widespread, violent discontent with filibuster rule.
45 HW, January 31, 1857; May, Manifest Destiny's Underworld, 200–3. Walker, 301, wrote that not until Charles Henningsen arrived in October 1856 did he have an officer qualified to train the men in the use of the Minié rifle or artillery.
46 Walker, 287–94, 301–12; Manning, 4:576; Scroggs, Filibusters, 255.
47 HW, May 23, 1857; NYTr, January 14, 1857; NYH, January 25, 1857.
48 Walker, 367–71; Charles Henry Davis to Commodore William Mervine, March 4, 1857, Correspondence of Rear Admiral William Mervine, July 1836 to August 1868, vol. 4, Letter Books of U.S. Naval Officers, March 1778 to July 1908, entry 603 (15), RG 45, NA.
49 NYT, January 28, 1857; H W, January 31, 1857; NYTr, December 20, 21, 22, 1855.
50 SctDP.
51 Scroggs, “William Walker and the Steamship Corporation,” makes precisely this point about Vanderbilt's strategy.
52 Statement of U.S. Commissioner B. F. Rexford, In the Matter of David Colden Murray, Receiver of the ATC, CRCC; NYH, January 26, 1857.
53 NYT, January 29, June 11, July 4, 1857; Juan R. Mora to Sylvanus M. Spencer, December 3, 1856, Memorial of David Colden Murray, CRCC. Historians have consistently reported that an Englishman, W. R. C. Webster, commanded Spencer's expedition as CV's chief agent; see, for example, Lane, 129, and Folkman, 88. In fact, Webster appears to have been a confidence man who promoted this idea (see, for example, NYT and NYH, January 29, 1857). CV refused to pay drafts that Webster issued; and Webster appears nowhere in the extensive investigations of the CRCC. I therefore conclude that, as per the NYT reporting cited, Webster was a fraud.
54 NYH, January 29, 1857; NYT, January 29, March 27, 1857; Affidavit of Sylvanus M. Spencer, July 25, 1860, Affidavit of George F. Cauty, August 9, 1858, Statement of B. Squire Cottrel, January 26, 1858, CRCC; Walker, 342–3.
55 Marriage Certificate, November 26, 1856, WFP; HC, November 28, 1856; NYS, December 19, 1877. On Vanderbilt's feelings toward the Williams family see CV to Ezekiel Williams Jr., February 12, 1857, and CV to Oliver Williams, May 5, 1860, WFP.
56 Texas State Gazette, November 29, December 6, 1856; NYT, December 11, 16, 1856, January 16, 1857.
57 NYH, January 16, 1857.
58 Statement of B. Squire Cottrel, January 26, 1858, CRCC; SctDP. Cottrel plac
es these events one day earlier; I am following Scott, whose account agrees with contemporary newspaper reports.
59 SctDP.
60 SctDP; Deposition of William W. Wise, CRCC; NYT, March 5, 1857.
61 NYH, January 26, 1857; NYTr, January 26, 1857; NYT, March 5, 1857; Deposition of William W. Wise, CRCC.
62 NYTr, January 26, 1857; NYH, January 25, 1857; Deposition of William W. Wise, CRCC.
Twelve Champion
1 NYTr, January 27, 1857.
2 “The Experience of Samuel Absalom, Filibuster,” Atlantic Monthly, December 1859; HED 24, 35th Cong., 1st sess., vol. 7; Walker, 371–84. Walker admitted to the demoralization of his men. A filibuster force landed at Greytown and tried to fight its way through, but a Costa Rican ruse held them off at Castillo Viejo until Mora could send reinforcements; then Goicouria arranged for a steamship to pick up the retreating filibusters at Greytown; NYH, April 30, 1857; Manning, 7:703–4. NYT, December 24, 1856, and NYTr, June 1, 1857. Goicouria was now on the ATC payroll, taking a total of $15,000 from it; see David Colden Murray, Receiver of the ATC, v. CV, November 3, 1859, file PL 1859-M V74, Supreme Court Pleadings, NYCC. Note also that Charles J. MacDonald asked the U.S. Navy to intervene to recover the steamboats for CKG and CM; C. J. Macdonald to Captain Charles Henry Davis, U.S. Sloop of War St. Mary's, February 23, 1857, Affidavit of C. J. Macdonald, February 23, 1857, Letter Books of U.S. Naval Officers, March 1778 to July 1908: Correspondence of Rear Admiral William Mervine, July 1836 to August 1868, vol. 4, entry 603(15), RG 45, NA.
3 NYH, May 29, 1857; Charles Henry Davis to Commodore William Mervine, March 4, 19, 1857, Letter Books of U.S. Naval Officers, March 1778 to July 1908: Correspondence of Rear Admiral William Mervine, July 1836 to August 1868, vol. 4, entry 603(15), RG 45, NA; Walker, 419–28; Burns, 206; William O. Scroggs, Filibusters and Financiers: The Story of William Walker and his Associates (New York: Macmillan, 1916), 286–301.
