Quotes from Ron Chernow

Rockefeller's sisters played a limited role in his adult life.

towns. In another tack, Standard Oil placed stories in local papers, warning farmers who sold to Tidewater that their crops would be spoiled by pipeline leaks.

He followed matters closely but never soiled his hands, so that he could profess ignorance of the whole matter.

Since he had figured out every conceivable way to restrain trade, rig markets, and suppress competition, all reform-minded legislators had to do was study his career to draw up a comprehensive antitrust agenda.

Only the prestigious Wall Street firms such as J. P. Morgan and Company or Kuhn, Loeb could tap the foreign and domestic capital needed to execute these transactions.

For that reason, historian Clinton Rossiter insisted that Hamilton's "works and words have been more consequential than those of any other American in shaping the Constitution under which we live.

were attempts by indebted farmers to lighten their debt load.

He would compensate for his long absence by extravagant shows of generosity with his children.

It seemed unfortunate that they were led into such lavish style.

From the start, he owned more shares of Standard Oil than anybody else and exploited every opportunity to augment his stake.

Still, Tidewater pushed relentlessly ahead.

Rockefeller, who, along with his son, reserved the right to designate the use of two-thirds of the money given.

All on this side [of] the Mississippi must be ours, including both Floridas," he had already argued to McHenry in early 1798.

He was also accused of mixing the lawless and the honorable, of ignoring ethical niceties, in a manner reminiscent of his father.

Right on the eve of Tidewater's success, Rockefeller decided that he might recoup in the political arena what he was on the verge of losing in the economic sphere.

Not surprisingly, he had trouble delegating authority and low regard for the intelligence of other people.

Even the now-immense authority of Pierpont Morgan couldn't solve the structural problems caused by too many railroads chasing too few passengers and owing too much money.

In his business career, John D. Rockefeller was accused of many sins, but he took pride in paying his debts promptly and abiding strictly by contracts.

Financial partnerships are combustible affairs that frequently blow up as a result of personality clashes and disputes over money.

It was in the last-minute effort to halt Tidewater that Standard Oil first resorted to the wholesale bribery of state legislators.

Eliza's death, far from putting the whole situation to rest, only inflamed John's feelings anew, complicating his stormy relationship with his father.

The church would have been devastated without the Rockefeller money and torn apart by the scandal.

Like the Reynolds pamphlet, these clandestine messages signal a further deterioration in Hamilton's judgment once he no longer worked under Washington's wise auspices and was left purely to his own devices.

the House of Morgan always favored government planning over private competition, but private planning over either.