15

was not divulged. Mr. Aldrich asked him how he had 

managed it and he did not volunteer the information."3

Davison had an excellent reputation as the person who could 
conciliate warring factions, a role he had performed for J.P. Morgan 
during the settling of the Money Panic of 1907. Another Morgan 

partner, T.W. Lamont, says:

"Henry P. Davison served as arbitrator of the Jekyll Island 
expedition."4

__________________________

2 "CURRENT OPINION", December, 1916, p. 382.

3 Nathaniel Wright Stephenson, Nelson W. Aldrich, A Leader in 
American Politics, Scribners, N.Y. 1930, Chap. XXIV "Jekyll Island"

4 T.W. Lamont, Henry P. Davison, Harper, 1933

2 

From these references, it is possible to piece together the story. 
Aldrich’s private car, which had left Hoboken station with its shades 

drawn, had taken the financiers to Jekyll Island, Georgia. Some 
years earlier, a very exclusive group of millionaires, led by J.P. 

Morgan, had purchased the island as a winter retreat. They called 
themselves the Jekyll Island Hunt Club, and, at first, the island was 
used only for hunting expeditions, until the millionaires realized that 
its pleasant climate offered a warm retreat from the rigors of winters 

in New York, and began to build splendid mansions, which they 
called "cottages", for their families’ winter vacations. The club 

building itself, being quite isolated, was sometimes in demand for 
stag parties and other pursuits unrelated to hunting. On such 
occasions, the club members who were not invited to these specific 

outings were asked not to appear there for a certain number of 

days. Before Nelson Aldrich’s party had left New York, the club’s 
members had been notified that the club would be occupied for 

the next two weeks.

The Jekyll Island Club was chosen as the place to draft the plan for 
control of the money and credit of the people of the United States, 
not only because of its isolation, but also because it was the private 

preserve of the people who were drafting the plan. The New York 
Times later noted, on May 3, 1931, in commenting on the death of 
George F. Baker, one of J.P. Morgan’s closest associates, that "Jekyll