146 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



motion to show cause, on the next day, why Barnard's 

 order should not be vacated. This style of warfare, 

 however, savored too much of the tame defensive to 

 meet successfully the bold strategy of Messrs. Gould and 

 Fisk. They carried the war into Africa. In the 

 twenty-four hours during which Judge Sutherland's 

 order to show cause was pending, three new actions 

 were commenced by them. In the first place, they 

 sued the suers. Alleging the immense injury likely to 

 result to the Erie road from actions commenced, as 

 they alleged, solely with a view of extorting money in 

 settlement, Mr. Belmont was sued for a million of dol- 

 lars in damages. Their second suit was against Messrs. 

 Work, Schell, and others, concerned in the litigations 

 of the previous spring, to recover the $429,250 then 

 v paid them, as was alleged, in a fraudulent settlement. 

 These actions were, however, commonplace, and might 

 have been brought by ordinary men. Messrs. Gould 

 and Fisk were always displaying the invention of 

 genius. The same day they carried their quarrels into 

 the United States courts. The whole press, both of 

 New York and of the country, disgusted with the 

 parody of justice enacted in the State courts, had cried 

 aloud to have the whole matter transferred to the 

 United States tribunals, the decisions of which might 

 have some weight, and where, at least, no partisans 

 upon the bench would shower each other with stays, 

 injunctions, vacatings of orders, and other such pellets 

 of the law. The Erie ring, as usual, took time by the 

 forelock. While their slower antagonists were deliber- 

 ating, they acted. On this Monday, the 23d, one 

 Henry B. Whelpley, who had been a clerk of Gould's, 

 and who claimed to be a stockholder in the Erie and a 



