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Lifestyles Left and Right
The Gilded Age
Having concluded my nuptial celebration last week, my new hubby and I embarked on a short but welcome retreat up the Hudson River in New York. We chose a small hotel in the hamlet of Rhinecliff with balconies overlooking the beautiful river that flows in two directions. Surrounded by the river and the soft-shouldered Catskill Mountains, we were left to muse on the beauty and history of the region.
This happy location put us in the vicinity of Hyde Park, home of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt estate and library. But, being good conservatives, we eschewed a visit to the home of the father of American socialism and instead spent the day at the Vanderbilt mansion. This gorgeous edifice was the spring/summer retreat of Frederick William Vanderbilt, grandson of the patriarch, Cornelius.
Donated to the public by the Vanderbilt family in 1940 and run by the National Park Service, the mansion and grounds are magnificent; both a monument to a more genteel past, and a reminder that great wealth for a few is often conducive for a more general diffusion of same to the many; a lesson we seem to have forgotten.
The descendant of Dutch immigrants, Cornelius Vanderbilt was known as the Commodore after founding a massive steamship business, capitalizing in part on the California gold rush. He then parlayed this fortune into a railroad empire which included the New York Central and Hudson River lines and ultimately resulted in the construction of the Grand Central Terminal. At his death in 1877, his worth was estimated at $100 million -- about $143 billion by today's standards -- making him America's second richest man ever, behind John D. Rockefeller.
Determined that his wealth would be the cornerstone for an American dynasty, the flamboyant Commodore left the bulk of his estate to his son, William Henry Vanderbilt (1821-1885), who doubled the family fortune in less than a decade. Not quite the character that his father was, he was no less an exceptional entrepreneur who had no noble delusions about the family business: "The railroads are not run for the benefit of the 'dear public' -- that cry is all nonsense -- they are built by men who invest their money and expect to get a fair percentage on the same."
Yet both father and son were philanthropists in the truest sense of the word. These brilliant and sometimes ruthless businessmen were some of the young country's first philanthropists, giving among other gifts, a $1 million dollar endowment for Vanderbilt University, the largest charitable donation in American history up to that time. They also gave generously to the arts, helping to establish the Metropolitan Opera House.
This munificence also extended to their household help as was evidenced by the Commodore's grandson, Frederick William Vanderbilt (1856-1938), the owner of the mansion I visited last week. As our excellent NPS guide informed us, the 60 or so servants at Hyde Park were treated well; indeed, each was paid twice the going rate. In addition, all the hired help and their families received free medical care from the Vanderbilts' own family doctors as well as $1,000 endowments for their children's college educations.
The Vanderbilts, whose empire grew on the heels of the Industrial Revolution, ushered in what was known as America's Gilded Age; the period from the end of the Civil War to the onset of the 20th century. Great fortunes were made by men who took chances and worked hard; men who enjoyed the money that they earned and were not ashamed of it, building their mansions large and furnishing them expansively, as if to show the rest of the world what could be accomplished by these upstart Americans.
Of course some things never change. Men like Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan were derided in their time as "robber barons" and worse. Yet, by the end of the Gilded Age, the nation experienced an explosion of wealth never witnessed in human history, and real prosperity was starting to spread to all classes of Americans.
And this would have been impossible without men like the Vanderbilts who built the railroads that employed thousands directly and enabled millions to share in the American dream they carried in their freight cars and steamships.
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Rocco| 7.1.09 @ 7:04AM
Congratulations, Lisa. Also, great article! Cheers.
PapaHans| 7.1.09 @ 8:08AM
Jesus, what is there about conservative women and abject stupidity? I believe there's a reason Coulter, Bruce, Ingraham, and hopefully, this pathetic example of the better sex, are childish, infertile, ridden with cancer, unmarried etc. HE doesn't want their genes to survive. Simple, and it's in the bible, check it out.
John| 7.1.09 @ 8:14AM
Mazel tov y'all from the Carolinas! Readers interested in reading further about the barons might like Jonathan Hughes's "The Vital Few." Thanks for the quick refresher.
FDR| 7.1.09 @ 8:23AM
Did you really mean "Hyde Park" in the fourth from the last paragraph?
Nittany| 7.1.09 @ 9:02AM
PH- the new name for "progressives" is "primitives" ; your mysticism and fear of fates is a delightful example, as is your cursing your enemies . Why don't you make a sacrifice to The Blessed One so that he may provide ? God bless you, PH.
J.C.Eaton| 7.1.09 @ 9:27AM
OK,Papa, I'll bite: What is it about progressive functionaries, senators, congresswomen that generally make them all ugler than mud huts?
Jay| 7.1.09 @ 10:53AM
Hey, Papa. You got it wrong. It is the Left who are not procreating, leaving the future to us fecund, non-aborting, home-schooling, church-going conservatives. Sorry about that.
MikeF| 7.1.09 @ 11:47AM
Jay. You got part of it right but you missed a bigger point. Papa and his ilk have created programs and policies that more than make up their lack of procreation by paying others in our society to have large numbers of children outside of marriage. These people are subsidized by the government. The more kids they have, the more money they get. These policies and their outcomes guarantee that most, if not all, of these children will grow up to be dependent on the government for their existence (poverty). They, in turn, will continue to vote for the liberals because they are, in reality, voting themselves money.
So, in a sense, we are stupid for letting Papa and those he and his compatriots vote for implement, continue and expand these poilcies. This also allows them to get away with never having to develop a sound basis, arguments and set of outcomes for their proposed policies. All they do is insult and degrade those with intelligence and that is their argument. Being that they have created this mass if illiterate and uninformed voters who are addicted to government handouts, they don't have to have intelligence.
As a wise man once said, "Once people realize they can vote themselves money the republic will be destroyed." Ben Franklin, when asked what the Constitutional Convention had given the people in 1787 at the end of the convention said "A republic, if you can keep it." If we don't do something to change our direction in a hurry, the "Papa's" of the country will have destroyed the republic.
Alan Brooks| 7.1.09 @ 2:30PM
great piece.
what we need are more Churchills, Menckens, Geo F. Wills, and maybe a Tom Wolfe artist-type, to explain our heritage in greater depth.
David T.| 7.1.09 @ 2:42PM
I wrote a college paper many years ago extolling the economic and social achievements of the great industrialists, but was marked down by my econ professor for not recognizing the "social costs" of the Gilded Age.
Helen Donnelly| 7.1.09 @ 3:03PM
PH - I'll thank you to leave the Lord's name out of your crass remarks.
Jay| 7.1.09 @ 3:30PM
Mike...you are correct. However, in his comments, Papa was referring to elites, not the social welfare casualties of liberalism. The elites, both here and in Europe, are not having kids.
Ken| 7.1.09 @ 4:20PM
Congrats on your nuptials. Although the webteam appears a little behind in updating your byline!
Liberal Reader| 7.1.09 @ 5:07PM
Indeed, during the so-called Guilded Age the nation experienced a large increase in wealth.
The causes for this increase are complicated, and it wasn't the greatest increase in history. And it wasn't enjoyed by a very large proportion of society.
For a large increase in wealth that actually lifted millions out of poverty and into the middle class, we had to wait for FDR, WWII, the GI bill, and dozens of other (publicly funded) initiatives.
Bill Croke| 7.2.09 @ 12:53AM
Lisa, Nice bit of work considering you were on your honeymoon. Best wishes to you and your new husband.
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Jeremy Jester| 7.2.09 @ 11:15AM
Liberal Reader,
Please do explain exactly how it was that FDR's regeneration of Hoover's social programs created great wealth? Government, by definition, cannot create wealth! How can it create anything, when it only takes the wealth of citizens (both individual and corporate)...what profit can that process create?
Methinks you are confusing the great efforts of hundreds of thousands of hardworking folks that worked their way out of the depression (that was lengthened by FDR's actions) with New Deal programs that hamstrung the economy. Your "dozens of other (publicly funded) initiatives" have long been proven to be a drain on private commerce in the 1930's.
Sure the GI bill offered a great benefit that returning soldiers, sailors, and Marines EARNED with their blood and sweat. However, that generation was determined to move forward and out of the depression (even before WWII). They created, invented, and expanded the post war economy by their own initiative and not through any make work WPA program.
Richard Baker| 7.2.09 @ 11:21PM
The "Robber Barons" did something that's seems rare today. They actually built something and not just financial instruments. Vanderbilt-steamships/railroads, Carnegie-steel, Rockefeller-a national oil company, and Morgan-banking to fund the builders. They were attacked by, and still are, people who build nothing but financial merry-go-rounds and endless litigation to support their law firms and restrictive political games. As a country we are building less and less precisely because of fantasy thinking that inhibits the creative process and then we wonder why America isn't a nation of builders and makers, anymore. Have we lost our build-it ethic because we've purposely losing our work hard and reap the reward system? This article highlights the reason the American system was able to grow like crazy and create wealth. Where do the liberals and America-haters think the money comes from?
Richard Baker| 7.2.09 @ 11:44PM
Correction:Have we lost our build-it ethic because we're purposely losing our hard work and reap the reward system?
PapaHans| 7.4.09 @ 2:19AM
Hey Jay,
You have it wrong, contrary to conventional wisdom. My wife of 33 years and I have six kids, five homebirthed, all homeschooled, (very successfully I might add). We're liberal, atheist, and though this combination is not as common as the bible-whacking snake handlers, it's growing.
Richard Baker| 7.4.09 @ 1:47PM
PapaHans:
Liberals,liberals. Is insulting everything you disagree with the height of intellect with you guys? I've discovered, by experience, that you liberals can go about 30 seconds in an argument/discussion before replacing thought with insults. Spare us the tedious personal attacks or is that loss of expression too painful to contemplate? If this country so offends with our foundations, I'll provide you and your family, each, with a 1st Class Airfare to wherever you'd be happy. The only proviso is that you have to STAY. Happy 4th of July and God Bless the USA.
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