Grant's own ideas about the economy were simple and he relied on the advice of wealthy and financially successful businessman that he courted. In April 1869, railroad tycoons Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, conspired to corner the gold market in New York, the nation's financial capital. They controlled the Erie Railroad, and a high price of gold would allow foreign agriculture buyers to purchase exported crops, shipped east over the Erie's routes. Boutwell's bi-weekly policy of selling gold from the Treasury, however, kept gold artificially low. Unable to corrupt Boutwell, the two schemers built a relationship with Grant's brother-in-law, Abel Corbin, and gained access to Grant. Gould bribed Assistant Treasurer Daniel Butterfield $10,000 to gain insided information into the Treasury. Gould and Fisk personally lobbied Grant on board their private yacht from New York to Boston, in mid-June 1869 to influence Grant's gold policy. In July, Grant reduced the sale of Treasury gold to $2,000,000 per month and subsequent months. Fisk played a role in August in New York, having a letter from Gould, he told Grant his gold policy would destroy the nation. 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. On September 23, when the gold price reached , Boutwell rushed to the White House and talked with Grant. 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. The bull market at Gould's Gold Room collapsed, the price of gold plummeted from 160 to , a bear market panic ensued, Gould and Fisk fled for their own safety, while severe economic damages lasted months. By January 1870, the economy resumed its post-war recovery. Grant's first administration was mixed with both success and failure. In 1871, to placate reformers, he created the America's first Civil Service Commission, chaired by reformer George William Curtis. The Liberal Republicans, composed of reformers, men who supported low tariffs, and those who opposed Grant's prosecution of the Klan, broke from Grant and the Republican Party. The Liberals, who personally disliked Grant, detested his alliance with Senator Simon Cameron and Senator Roscoe Conkling, considered to be spoilsmen politicians. In 1872, the Liberals nominated Horace Greeley, a leading Republican "New York Tribune" editor and a fierce enemy of Grant, for president, and Missouri governor B. Gratz Brown, for vice president.