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thousand dollars a year less than he was earning; but he saw from the falling off in the receipts of his Harlem River boats that steam would supplant them. New York State had granted Fulton and Livingston exclusive rights to navigate the waters of this State; every steam-boat a trespasser would be liable to search and confiscation. The Bellona was owned by a company with Thomas Gibbons at its head, which carried passengers from New York to New Brunswick, New Jersey, on their way to Philadelphia; who then went by stage to Trenton, and by boat to Philadelphia. This company fought the others with great vigor, until the Supreme Court of the United States declared the act unconstitutional and void, Chief Justice Marshall writing the opinion. Vanderbilt enjoyed this fight immensely. In the next twenty years there were built and operated for him in the neighborhood of a hundred steamboats; and it was at this time, as commander of this fleet, that he acquired the title of Commodore. This remarkable man feared no opposition On the other hand, he seemed to love and court it, and always knew how to meet it. His boats, built largely under his own plans and supervision, were swifter, finer, and more attractive than those of his rivals, and were in the main successful. He operated his foundries and repair-shops. When gold was discovered in California, in 1849, various companies soon had the monopoly of the Panama traffic. Vanderbilt put on a competing line; sailed in 1850 for Nicaragua; personally explored a new route to the Pacific; and got a charter from the Nicaraguan government; and in 1852 sold it on excellent terms. After thirty years of incessant labor, he made an extended European trip, upon his own steamer, The North Star, and was most hospitably entertained in Great Britain, Denmark, Russia, and Turkey, both publicly and privately; many not believing that a private citizen of the United States could travel in such magnificence, unless as a commissioner for dangerous political designs. He then built a line of steamers from New Orleans and Galveston, and another from New York to Aspinwall, and in eleven years made eleven million dollars.
"When the Crimean War broke out, he tried to estabish a line of steamers to Europe, but the English opposition was too great, and he failed. In 1862 he gave the government The Vanderbilt, the swiftest and best-appointed steamer afloat, and she performed valuable services, for which Congress gave him a gold medal, on which were inscribed the words 'A grateful country, to her generous son.'
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