construct a canal to the Pacific. In exchange for this and additional concessions, Nicaragua received cash, a right to stock in the canal, and annual cash payments. Under a separate deal, Vanderbilt also gained the right-of-way through Nicaragua using any means of transportation, which would remain in effect even if his company did not complete the canal. However, this second deal was signed after a civil war split Nicaragua into rival governments. The agreement was negotiated between Joseph L. White and the conservative faction which ruled out of the city of Granada, and conveyed the rights to construct a canal to the Vanderbilt-controlled Accessory Transit Company. The parties signed on August 14, 1851. Vanderbilt began operating routes from New York to San Francisco on his New and Independent Line. Morgan placed his own ships into service of Vanderbilt's company, running his Empire City Line steamers from New York, as well as Mexico from New Orleans, all of which put in at the port of San Juan del Norte. In September 1852, Vanderbilt resigned as president of the company and divested most of his interests the following December. He retained a commission as the company's agent and a percentage of the company's business across Nicaragua. Morgan was part of a short-lived alliance with Vanderbilt as late as February 1853. Accessory Transit Company reported net revenue in excess of $535,000 in its semi-annual report at the end of 1853; however, this report failed to account for stock dilution, accounts payable to the government of Nicaragua, and the debt settlements to Vanderbilt. In the same year, Morgan deposed Vanderbilt as the agent of the line while the Commodore was vacationing. An anti-Vanderbilt faction seized the control of the board, and they appointed Morgan president of the Accessory Transit Company. The New York Times reported decades later in its obituary of Vanderbilt that he penned the following missive directed at his enemies, “You have undertaken to cheat me. I won’t sue you for the law is too slow. I’ll ruin you.” According to two historians, this is at best apocryphal. In the fall of 1853, Vanderbilt entered the Atlantic–Pacific trade to compete with his former partners. He formed the Independent Opposition Line with North Star sailing the New York–Nicaragua leg, and partnered with Edward Mills and his two steamers to run on the Nicaragua–San Francisco leg. The Independent Opposition Line offered aggressively priced fares,