Sold – Abraham Lincoln Promotes the Heir to the Vanderbilt Fortune

Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) was the greatest business figure of the age and founder of one of America’s wealthiest families. He got his start in the steamboat business in the waters around New York City, and then went on to dominate the transatlantic and east-coast-to-west-coast steamship businesses. As a result of these interests, he was called (and remains known) by the title “Commodore.”

By the mid-1840’s Vanderbilt operated a fleet of over 100 steamboats, employed more men than any other business in the country, and was worth several million dollars. He entered upon new ventures only after careful consideration, but eventually became a railroad tycoon. He built the New York Central Railroad (which, in effect, replaced the Erie Canal), and his other railroads played a key role in the development of the Midwestern United States. Commodore Vanderbilt was a hardheaded businessman, big, bumptious, loud, and coarse in speech but frank and faithful to his word once he had given it. When he died he was the richest man in America. Vanderbilt married his cousin Sophie Johnson in 1813.

They had thirteen children, one of whom died young. Of the twelve survivors, there were nine daughters and three sons. In the 19th century, only the sons would have the opportunity to take on the father’s business mantle. The eldest, William Henry Vanderbilt (1821- 1885), the Commodore regarded as being of little business use, and initially exiled him to Staten Island to run a minor railroad there. His second son, Cornelius Jeremiah, gambler and ne’er-do-well, he considered a great disappointment. His youngest son, George Washington, was born in 1839, and according to the book Commodore Vanderbilt and His Family by Dorothy Kelley MacDowell, was the Commodore’s pride and joy. As such, he was likely destined to take a significant part in running his father’s empire, and as the Commodore always believed in leaving his fortune intact, to inherit the bulk of it as well. However, a document intervened, the very one we offer, and changed American financial history, as well as the history of the Vanderbilt family.

George Washington Vanderbilt graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1860, in a class that included such future Civil War heroes as Wesley Merritt, Stephen Ramseur, James H. Wilson and Horace Porter. Vanderbilt was on frontier duty at Fort Dallas, Oregon up until the end of January 1861. Then, on February 27, 1861, he was appointed a 2nd lieutenant in the 10th U.S. Infantry. The Civil War broke out in April, and young Vanderbilt fought for his country. Within a year, President Lincoln promoted him to 1st lieutenant.

Abraham Lincoln autograph on a Document Signed as president, large folio on vellum, with an eagle at top and flags, cannon and accoutrements of war below, Washington, February 5, 1862, appointing George W. Vanderbilt a 1st lieutenant in the 10th Regiment U.S. Infantry, with the rank to be effective as of June 14, 1861. Vanderbilt would be promoted once more, attaining the rank of captain on September 19, 1863, but by then he would be effectively out of the service.

According to the West Point Register of Graduates, Vanderbilt spent some time on recruiting duty, and was finally given a leave of absence. On the subject of Vanderbilt’s service, Dorothy MacDowell states he was “on leave of absence from April 1862 until his death at age 25 on January 1, 1864, in Nice, France, where his father had sent him in hopes that he would recover from wounds and illnesses brought on by his war service. His remains were returned to Staten Island where he was buried in the Vanderbilt vault. George was much like his father in size and strength, and was the pride of his father’s heart.” Another source relates that Vanderbilt’s fatal problems occurred during the Union campaign against Corinth in the spring of 1862, at a time when he was serving pursuant to this lieutenancy appointment. After the loss of George, Commodore Vanderbilt gave his son William the opportunity to use his abilities, starting by promoting him to run the New York and Harlem Railroad in 1864. When the Commodore died, he left the bulk of his money to William, who in eight years managed to double the family wealth to $210 million, the greatest fortune of the age. William is remembered for his remark, "The public be damned," when asked by a reporter whether railroads should be run for the public benefit. Would his younger brother been more public-minded? What would George’s stewardship of the Vanderbilt power and money have meant to his family and his country? The answers to these questions will forever remain unknown. William H. Vanderbilt was fond of his younger brother and named his own son George Washington Vanderbilt II; the namesake would go on to build Biltmore, perhaps the finest country estate in the U.S.