His reply was an
order to let go the line. The officer, unwilling to be carried off to
New Jersey, where he was threatened with imprisonment in the
penitentiary for interfering with the steamer, would at once jump
ashore, or beg to be landed. This was kept up for two months, but the
captain successfully baffled his enemies during the whole of that
period. The opponents of Mr. Gibbons offered a larger and better boat
than the one he commanded if he would enter their service, but he firmly
declined all their offers, avowing his determination to remain with Mr.
Gibbons until the difficulty was settled.
After the decision of the Supreme Court placed Mr. Gibbons in the full
enjoyment of his rights, Captain Vanderbilt was allowed to manage the
line in his own way, and conducted it with so much skill and vigor that
it paid its owner an annual profit of forty thousand dollars. Mr.
Gibbons offered to increase his salary to five thousand dollars, but he
refused to accept the offer.
"I did it on principle," he said, afterward. "The other captains had but
one thousand, and they were already jealous enough of me.
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