The Whiskey Rebel

Ethan Saunders

I considered it a successful day and returned to Fraunces Tavern, where I found Lavien in the taproom sipping a cup of tea and writing a letter on a piece of foolscap. His hand was slow and deliberate, his letters neat and precise. He almost did not need to blot.

He set down the quill and looked at me. “I asked you not to interfere with the Million Bank launch.”

I sat at his table. “I recollect something about that.” I called for a bottle of wine. “Don’t obstruct government business,” I said to Lavien. “Something on that order, yes?”

“You disobeyed the orders of the Treasury Department.”

“Well, yes,” I said, “but I don’t work for the Treasury Department. Your suggestions are taken into account but do not direct my actions, any more than mine direct yours. I have no obligation to anyone or anything except honor, love, and vengeance, and I have attempted to fulfill those three as best I can.”

My wine arrived, along with two glasses. I set one out for him and expected him to push it away. Instead, he poured for both of us.

“I suppose that’s so,” he said. “I don’t know what chaos you’ve brought down on us, but it was nicely done.” He raised his glass to me.

“Why, thank you very much.”

“I believe you’ve now learned where Pearson was during the time of his absence, and your actions today suggest you know what he was up to.”

“He was here in New York,” I said. “You knew that as well. As to what, he was engaged in business for Duer that had to be kept secret because of his horrible debts in Philadelphia. He was shorting six percents and driving up the price of four percents so Duer’s other agents, his real agents, could buy cheap, and he was making arrangements to invest in the Million Bank. The money invested in the six percents is gone, but I spared Cynthia the final ruin of Pearson’s sinking his remaining funds into the Million Bank.”

“There can be no doubt you saved her from ruin. Even if the Million Bank succeeds, its shares are already devalued. It oversubscribed today, in no small part thanks to your rumormongering. It oversubscribed by a factor of ten, so shares have been diminished by a factor of ten. The Million Bank will have to do well or else every investor will be a loser.”

“Then perhaps Duer will thank me too.”

“He will not. He did not need the shares he owned to possess their value but to control the Million Bank itself. He cared nothing for trading those shares and turning a profit on them, he wanted the wealth of the Million Bank as a whole. If anything, the devaluing would have aided him in buying up shares from disappointed investors, but to do that he would have already had to possess a significant portion, which, thanks to you, he doesn’t.” Lavien sipped his wine. “It must be difficult for you, though. You said your obligations were to honor, love, and vengeance. You have certainly fulfilled two of those today. You have demonstrated your honor and your love for Mrs. Pearson in defending what is left of her fortune, but what of vengeance? To protect her, you must save him.”

I could not tell if he was chastising me, teasing me, or encouraging me to act. “Pearson’s time will come, I have no doubt.”

Lavien grinned, and I felt a coldness wash over me. “Nor do I.” After a moment he said, “Leonidas came to see me. He wished to take his leave.”

I took a drink. “It was a bit of a debacle-not so well handled as I might have liked.”

Lavien’s face softened, and for a moment he seemed to be just a man, full of kindness and concern. “I’m sorry you’ve lost him. I understand his anger, but I think it is out of proportion to your crime. You did him wrong in not telling him sooner that you had behaved justly, but you did behave justly. He ought to have seen that. In the end, he will.”

“Thank you. Kind of you to say.”

He looked at my glass of wine and smiled. “In balance, I’d say the reform is going well. I must be sure to tell my wife what a wonderful effect she’s had upon you.”

To that there could be no response.

“Well, I suppose we should make arrangements to return to Philadelphia,” he continued. “Our work here is done. We’ll ride back together, leaving early this morning by express, your expenses paid for by Treasury. In the meantime, we have work to do.”

Had he then risen, I believe I would have risen with him-or at least begun to do so before I recollected myself. Yet, he did not command me, and he never had. I was not so tired from lack of sleep, not so addled with wine, that I failed to recollect that I was my own man. “I know we are not precisely opposed, but I do not work for you or for Treasury. I have my own business to attend, and that begins with Pearson.”

“If you’d like,” he said, “I can slit his throat before we leave.”

His words were so calm and easy, I believe he would have done it had I given him the word. And how easy it would have been. Perhaps that was why I reacted so strongly. I did not want him to offer again. “I am not going to murder him.”

He leaned forward. “Then what are you going to do, jeer at him? Point and laugh? There are things in motion, and you are not on the margins, Saunders. This is no longer a case of hoping to find out what some minor British functionary is up to, so that six months into the future some tiny bit of intelligence you’ve gathered can be placed together with a hundred other tiny bits in order to reach a conclusion that can be acted upon six months later.”

“Do you dare to insult the work I did?”

“Never,” he answered. “But it was a long war, and events unfolded on a large scale. Now we have not the luxury of time. You are in the thick of it, whether you like it or not, and waiting to see who Pearson contacts in two weeks is not an option. He must be dealt with now.”

“Why is it your concern? Duer is struck down by my hand. The threat against the bank is finished.”

He shook his head. “We don’t know what the real threat was, but I can assure you it was not Duer’s effort to take over the Million Bank. At best, that was but a portion. The threat is still real, and we cannot lose a day in our pursuit of it.”

“I do not work for you,” I said, “and I do not work for Hamilton.”

“Yes, you do,” he said. “Hamilton does not know it yet, but you do, and when all this is over, he will see what you’ve done and you will have what you’ve wanted-not only reform but redemption. When I first met you, I thought you were nothing but a useless drunk.”

It ought not to have stung. I presented myself as nothing more, and yet I did not want to hear it. “And now?”

“And now,” he said, “I find you are a useful drunk.”

I pushed the bottle away, but not the glass. Then I looked him full in the face. “I want to help you. The devil take me, I want to help Hamilton, though I never thought I would utter such words, but first I must help Cynthia. That is my obligation and my desire. It is the air in my lungs, and I cannot breathe if I turn from it. You must see that.”

“I do see it, but I see what you don’t. You can rid Cynthia of her husband in a single stroke, and only we shall know of it, yet you won’t do it. I understand why, but if you won’t do it in a single stroke, we must do it strategically. Pearson has bound himself and his fortune to larger schemes, and if you want to be rid of him, we must deal with Duer and the threat to the bank. We must discover the plot and bring down the plotters, and somewhere, amid all that chaos, I believe Pearson will be dealt with. You believe it too, I think, and I know you long to be part of this, to bring down Duer with me. You simply cannot endure the torment of taking your eye off Pearson. I promise you, you may turn away from him, and he will not trouble you. He is done in Philadelphia. He is in exile. He can’t hurt her now, and, if we do this right, he will not hurt her again.”

I could see the reason in what he said, and I did not mind that he’d thrown in a few very kind words about me. This was Kyler Lavien, perhaps the most powerful man-if only secretly so-in the employ of the most powerful man in Washington’s administration, and he begged me for my help. I would have hated to turn him away, but perhaps I did not have to. Perhaps he was right. I had no notion of what to do about Pearson. I would go, instead, with Lavien and see what came of his methods.

“What do we do?”

He grinned that evil grin again. “We’ve only a few hours before we take the express back to Philadelphia, so in the meantime we see Duer. We find out what he means to do next, and then we report to Hamilton. In keeping Pearson from utterly undoing himself, you may have completed your New York business as a private citizen. Now you are upon Treasury business.”

A t near seven, Duer received us in the parlor of his Greenwich mansion. He seemed as unflappable as ever, cool and friendly, a man at ease in the comforts of his own home, and he was alone: no Isaac Whippo in sight and no Reynolds. He showed us a painting he’d purchased and pointed out his window to a new pair of hunting dogs. Not a care in the world, and certainly not a thought for that pesky business with the Million Bank.

At last we sat but, unlike our last visit, no offer of refreshment was made.

“Now, how is it I can assist you gentlemen? Always at the service of the Secretary of the Treasury and his men.”

Lavien leaped right in. “I have heard that your plans to acquire a controlling interest in the Million Bank came to nothing.”

Duer kept his speculator’s smile in place. Let the building collapse around him, Duer would not flinch. “I never entertained such a scheme. I thought very ill of that project.”

Lavien scowled. “And now I hear that your agents move to acquire Bank of New York issues, and you continue your efforts to control government six percents.”

“You perhaps think you observe much from your little perch in the Merchants’,” Duer said, “but you are new to the world of trade, and you may not understand all you see. I beg you to leave my business to me. I have politely entertained your interference, but you must understand that Colonel Hamilton will not thank you for troubling me.”

“I understand it is time for you to be honest with us,” Lavien answered. “No more prevarication, if you please.”

“I must object, sir,” he said, with a bit of a nervous laugh. “You speak to me as I am unused.” Duer turned to me. “Do you not think a more civil tone is in order?”

“I shall tell you what is in order,” said Lavien, with surprising harshness. “Forthrightness, sir. I must know of your plans. I want to know everything about your schemes, with the banks and with the government issues. I want it all and I want it now, and then Treasury will decide if you can be permitted to continue.”

Duer flushed but attempted to laugh it off. “Oh, a businessman never reveals such things. I’m sure you understand.”

“I don’t give a fig for your schemes,” said Lavien. “And you, sir, do not wish to stand in my way.”

“Now, wait a moment-”

“No,” Lavien said, his voice hard but quiet. “There is no negotiation. I am telling you what will happen, not proposing an arrangement. The time for subtlety is done. You will tell me what I wish to know, or I will find out my own way and you shan’t like it.”

Duer’s face, which had gone white, suggested he did not doubt it. No one looking upon Lavien could doubt it. The man appeared to be himself in every way, and yet somehow he had metamorphosed into a devil. There was a hardness in his eyes, a hooded quality to his brow.

“I am happy to make open inquiries,” Lavien said, “to spread about what I know and collect the information I require from others, laying open your schemes, as I understand them, to all. I presume you do not wish that.”

Duer continued to gaze upon Lavien but said nothing. I believe this man, who had made his way through the world with lies and manipulation, could not now speak when faced with the sheer unmovable force of a man who would not, under any circumstances, allow himself to be convinced, charmed, or manipulated.

Lavien turned to me. “We will now go to the Merchants’ Coffeehouse. We will announce what we know about Mr. Duer and offer a reward for anyone who will tell us more. Surely if we get enough men together, each saying what he has heard from the man himself and each finding himself contradicted, then we shall know all.”

Before I could rise, Duer spoke. “No, no, wait. I will tell you, but you must promise to keep everything I say a secret.”

Lavien said, “I’ll promise nothing. I’m not a gossip, and I’ll not go about speaking of your business idly, but I’ll speak of it as needs must.”

Duer shook his head, as though exasperated at Lavien’s stupidity. “I think the value of both six percent securities and bank stock will rise. I am patriot enough to invest in my country, and if you wish to persecute me for that, go ahead. Yes, I have tried to convince the world that I do otherwise, but that is the curse of my success. I am watched too closely, and my plans would be thwarted should they be uncovered.”

“That is all?” asked Lavien. “What about your Mr. Whippo buying up money so dearly-taking those absurdly expensive loans from grocers and peddlers?”

Duer shrugged. “I require cash. It is a steep rate of interest, but it shall be repaid by and by. Hammy has made sure of it, by extending credit through the bank so readily. That is all, Lavien. A man who attempts so much at once, in an economy as small as ours, must have cash, so I raise cash. Would you destroy me for that?”

Lavien smiled. “If you had said as much sooner, we could have avoided the bickering.”

“You must understand that a man of trade must keep his secrets.”

“And a man of the government must sometimes discover them.” Lavien rose from his chair, and I did the same. In the hall, I observed Whippo as he came out of a room, a pair of heavy books tucked under his arm. He stopped and looked at me, and I thought he should say something accusing. Instead he shook his head, as though with a recollected amusement, and laughed softly. “Pudendum,” he said. “Very witty.”

A s we rode back to the tavern, Lavien sat in silent contemplation. I did not think he was withholding anything from me. As we rolled past the dark countryside between Greenwich Village and New York City, and he stared into the darkness, I honestly believed he forgot I was beside him. He might even have forgotten that he himself was there. Perhaps he was back in some dank Surinam jungle.

“It is still our plan to return to Philadelphia?” I ventured at last.

“Yes,” he said, his voice thick.

I thought of Cynthia Pearson, whom I would soon see. “So, our work is done here?”

“It would seem so. Duer is acquiring both bank stock and government securities. He is interested in hoarding, not trading what he has for quick profit. That is why he is willing to borrow money at such exorbitant interest rates.”

“But he will have to pay the interest, and even if he makes a fortune in his venture, he will have a hard time making enough to cover his loans.”

“It is more complicated. The bank issues that are in circulation are not yet fully paid for. They are bought in several payments, and those payments have not yet come due. The bank will accept specie for some payments, but it will only accept six percent government securities for others. Do you understand now?”

“Duer will control government securities, which bank scrip holders need to make their payments, and because they will be off the market, the prices of six percents will soar while bank scrip values plummet. Duer will then sell off a small portion of the six percents so he can raise enough money to buy a controlling interest in bank scrip, which will now be cheap since holders can’t get six percents to pay them off. And in that way, he means to gain control of the Bank of the United States.”

“Yes,” said Lavien. “That is why we are going back to Philadelphia. We have, I believe, discovered the nature of the threat against the Bank of the United States. We know its author and his means. We now need only to discover how to stop it.”