Gould secured controlling interest in the federally audited New York's Tenth National Bank, a Wall Street broker's bank that was used as a facility to contract business. In addition to meeting at Corbin's mansion home, Fisk and Gould also talked with Grant on their Erie Canal railroad car and in Fisk's box seats at New York's Fifth Avenue Theatre. Gould suggested to Grant that increasing gold prices would lower the dollar and allow farmers in the West to sell their crops overseas, but Grant gave no response. Both Grant and Boutwell strongly felt that the nation's wartime debt had to be paid to assure the credibility of the United States in the eyes of the European banks. To accomplish this, Boutwell began selling gold from the Treasury's reserve of $100 million in gold bars, initially without the President's express consent, and then using the proceeds to buy back U.S. bonds. Boutwell's controversial approach was later endorsed by Grant, giving Boutwell all the latitude he needed. Boutwell later wrote that only outsiders unaware of the finer designs of his dealings thought "the President was taking any part in the operations of the treasury concerning the price of gold". Grant, meanwhile, was unaware that his appearances in the company of Gould and Fisk sent a message to Wall Street that he supported raising the gold price.