Old Stephen Whitney
dead, leaving (some say) fifteen millions behind him.6 That may be
exaggerated, but he was close-fisted enough to have saved up thirty without
doing the least good to himself or anyone else. His last act was characteristic
and fitting. He locked up his checkbook and died.
_______________
6 Moses Y. Beach’s Wealthy Citizens of New
Cork (1845) had listed Whitney, a merchant, cotton speculator, and real estate
investor whom it described as "a very shrewd manager and close in his
dealings,” as worth ten millions and standing next John Jacob Astor in wealth.
SOURCE: Allan Nevins
and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong,
Vol. 3, p. 7-9
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D. Appleton & Company had issued Darwin’s The Origin of Species in 1859; and it forthwith encountered the warm approbation of a large group of scientists, and the fierce antagonism of most clergymen and religious editors. During the 1840’s the works of the English Tractarians had provoked a bitter controversy; since then the writings of Strauss on Christianity had created a tempest in the limited American circles which knew them through George Eliot and others; but the storm of indignant abuse which fell upon Darwin and his American publishers exceeded all precedent. The publishing house was deluged with hundreds of threatening letters. A distinguished clergyman wrote William H. Appleton that divine wrath would be visited upon him in this world and through all eternity. The Appletons pointed out that giving their imprint to a volume did not necessarily mean that they gave it their approval. Nevertheless, they became keenly interested in the new scien¬ tific works of Darwin, Herbert Spencer, Huxley, Tyndall, and other English¬ men, and with E. L. Toumans as adviser were soon specializing hi their publication. Strong’s notes on Darwin are an interesting evidence that his ideas —though combated by Agassiz and others—exercised considerable influence in the United States even before the Civil War.
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