[390] Gould bribed Assistant Treasurer Daniel Butterfield $10,000 to gain insider information into the Treasury.[391][ai][aj] Gould and Fisk personally lobbied Grant onboard their private yacht from New York to Boston, in mid-June 1869 to influence Grant's gold policy.[393][ak]
In July, Grant reduced the sale of Treasury gold to $2,000,000 per month and subsequent months.[394] Fisk played a role in August in New York, having a letter from Gould, he told Grant his gold policy would destroy the nation.[395] By September, Grant, who was naive in matters of finance, was convinced that a low gold price would help farmers, and the sale of gold for September was not increased.[396] On September 23, when the gold price reached .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}143+1⁄8, Boutwell rushed to the White House and talked with Grant.[397] The following day, September 24, known as Black Friday, Grant ordered Boutwell to sell, whereupon Boutwell wired Butterfield in New York, to sell $4,000,000 in gold.