Revere City (part 6 of 6)

In 1829 he helped to organize the Boston Lyceum, and was its first secretary. In the same year he entered actively into the movement against Masonry, which culminated in the nomination of William Wirt for the presidency in 1832. In the latter year he became president of the Boston Lyceum and a director of the Franklin Bank. In 1833 he delivered the Fourth of July oration before the Young Men's Society of Boston. In 1834, June 23, he married Miss Hannah Ambrose, of Concord, N. H., by whom he had three children, all of whom survived him. In 1835 Mr. Walker lost both father and mother by death. In this year he wrote a series of articles in the Daily Advertiser^ calling attention to the necessity of a railroad to connect Boston with Albany and the West beyond. These articles (signed. South Market Street) gave rise to a public meeting, which resulted in securing the stock of the Western Railway. In 1837 he was appointed one of the directors, serving in that capacity four years.

In June, 1839, Mr. Walker visited vSt. Louis and Alton, and addressed meetings of the citizens, urging the importance of early and strenuous efiforts to secure a continuous all rail line of communication between Boston and the Mississippi. Newspaper reports of these addresses have been preserved and constitute a most interesting feature in our commercial history. At that time railroad engines weighed but nine tons. A train of cars carried but fifty tons of freight. A journey by rail was only less tedious than by canal. Mr. Walker assured his hearers that locomotives weighing fourteen tons would soon be built ; that trains in the future would carry as much as a hundred and fif t}' tons ; and that, incredible as it might seem, a Boston merchant would yet make the journey to St. Louis in five days, eating and sleeping on the cars. In his description of passenger cars " of two stories," the upper being for lodging, we have the germ of the Pullman car.

From the beginning of the anti-slavery movement, Mr. Walker had joined actively in that effort, speaking and writing freely; he never, however, acceded to opinions adverse to the union of the States. He insisted upon constitutional methods within the Union and subject to the laws. In 1S3'J he became president of the Boston Temperance Society, the first association of its kind in the city. Mr. Walker's published writings on total abstinence began in 18'26.

In 18-10, owing to increasing bodily infirmities, :Mr. Walker retired permanently from business. The scale of his mercantile transactions had been extensive, and he had done more to open the trade of Boston with the South and Southwest than any other merchant of the same generation ; but the large profits of his business had been impaired by the almost total wreck of trade and industry in 1837 and 183ii, so that he retired with only a moderate competence, sufficient, however, for all his needs. Not even ill health could diminish his interest in public affairs; and he took an active part in the Harrison campaign, strenuously advocating the establishment of the Sub-Treasury system. For this he was subjected to much obloquy; but the results of forty years' financial experience have completely demonstrated his sagacity.

The winter of 1810 to 1841 Mr. Walker spent in Florida on account f his health. In 181-2 he went to Oberlin, O., on account of his great interest in the organization of a college in that town, to which he had contributed of his means, and remained there ten months, giving lectures in poHtical economy, a subject to which his mind had been increasingly drawn by the financial experiences of 1837 and 1839. In May, 1843, he finally took up his residence at North Brookfield, on his father's estate; but went almost immediately to England as delegate to the First International Peace Congress, of which he became one of the vice-presidents. In 184-1 he resided mainly in North Brookfield ; but delivered a course of lectures at Oberlin College and attended peace conventions in various parts of the country.

In 1848 his anti-slavery convictions led to his taking an active part in the formation of the Free Soil Party. He was a member of the convention which placed Van Buren in nomination for the presidency. In the fall of that year he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He took his seat January, 1849, and became the Free Soil and Democratic candidate for speaker. In the summer of this year he attended the International Peace Congress of Paris, becoming one of its vice-presidents. In the fall of the same year he was elected to the State Senate. Taking his seat in January, 1850, he brought forward his plan for a sealed ballot law, which was enacted the following year.

In 1851 and 1852 he was elected secretary of state by the united Free Soil and Democratic vote. In the latter year he received the degree of Master of Arts from Middlebury College. In 1853 he was elected a member of the convention for revi-sing the Constitution of Massachusetts, and became chairman of the committee on suffrage. From 1853 to 1859 he was one of the examiners in political economj^ at Harvard University. In 1854 he took a part in the organization of the North Brookfield Savings Bank, and became its first president. He was this year appointed lecturer on political economj' in Amherst College.

This year, 1857, was one of great import to the life of Mr. Walker. Early in that year he began the publication, in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, of a series of articles on political economy. The series had already progressed so far as to give Mr. Walker's views on money, when the financial panic commenced. Almost by chance Mr. Walker attended, early in October, a large meeting of the merchants of Boston, intended to fortify the banks of that city in their determination to maintain specie payments. At this meeting Mr. Walker took the ground that the banks could not possibly maintain specie payments for more than two weeks, and that it was desirable they should at once suspend, instead of causing the failure of the best merchants of the city, as they must inevitably do by refusing discounts in a vain attempt to save their own so-called honor. This speech created a great sensation at the time, and gave rise to a heated discussion in the jniblic press; but the suspension, within twelve days, of every bank in Boston, after causing the failure of great numbers of the best mercantile houses, some of them worth millions of dollars, gave so striking a comfirmation to Mr. Walker's views as to bring him into great prominence as an authority on finance. This episode may be considered the turning point in his intellectual career. From this time till the day of his death, the subject of the currency absorbed all the time he had to devote to public affairs. His attention had been especially called to the defects of the American system of paper money by the financial convulsions of 1837-9; and his exile in Florida during the winter of 1840-1, whither he carried the works of Adam vSmith and Ricado, gave him opportunity for reflection, of which the results appeared in a pamphlet on the Nature of Money, published in the fall of 1857. Mr. Walker did not, like many American writers, condemn the issue of bank notes; but he recommended such restrictions upon issue as should place the paper money of the country on a sound basis.

In July of 1859 Mr. Walker visited Europe again; and in the fall of that year was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he took an important part in the revision of the laws relating to banking and the issue of paper money. At the presidential election of 1800 Mr. Walker was chosen a member of the Electoral College of Massachusetts, casting his vote for Abraham Lincoln. The outbreak, 1859 -GO, of the cattle disease, known as pleuro-pneumonia, led to an enactment by the Legislature of Massachusetts, at a special session, of a law for its extirpation ; and a commission was appointed for this purpose, of which Mr. Walker was made chairman. The commission performed its work so vigorously and thoroughly as to secure the complete extirpation of this pest.

Beginning in 1859 Mr. Walker continued for several years to deliver an annual course of lectures in Amherst College. In the fall of 18<i-i he was elected a representative in Congress for an unexpired term. During the session of 1862-3 he made several speeches on finance. In 18(!i! he published his main woi'k in economics, entitled " The Science of Wealth." This work passed, in the following years, through not less than eight American editions, was translated into Italian, and received commendation from the economists of America and Europe. The moral enthusiasm, confidence in the right, and hope for the future, which pervaded the book, together with its wealth of examples drawn from American life, gave it a peculiar interest to writers and students of political economy in Europe. In 1807 Mr. Walker, received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Amherst College. Until his death he continued to write extensively in magazines and in the daily and weekly papers. His leisure gave frequent opportunities for travel; and he spent not a little of each year in visits to Boston, New Haven or Washington, or in trips to Florida or California.

Always cheerful and sanguine, in spite of great delicacy of health and frequent attacks of pain and sickness, the last years of his life were the happiest. He continued his physical and intellectual activity unimpaired to the very instant when, on the 29th of October, 1875, without a word or sigh, he ceased to breathe. Had the end been foreseen it would have been most welcome, for he had in July lost his wife, his companion for more than forty 5'ears. The father, Walter Walker, had in like manner closely followed his wife to the grave.

Mr. Walker was in figure slender and erect; and was very quick and graceful in his movements, producing the effects of being much taller than he was. His features were regular and clear-cut, and his whole appearance at once engaging and commanding. His voice was of unusual richness and power; and in public speaking he had a singular faculty of closely holding the attention of his audience, however large or however unfriendly. He made little use of rhetorical ornament ; but spoke with a fullness of knowledge, clearness of expression and earnestness of purpose seldom surpassed. He was fond of company ; and his delight was in the communication of his ideas and sentiments, or in learning the purposes, feelings and wishings of the young. Wlierever he traveled he easily and quickly made acquaintance, and immediately seized the occasion either to acquire or to impart information. In private charities, and in contributions to enterprises of public interest, he was lilieral and even lavish.

Henry Lee

Henry Lkk, whose portrait we present herewith, was a representative merchant and man, and he represented a notable family. In a memorial of his nephew, John Clarke Lee (one of the fonnders of the house of Lee, Higginson & Company), by the Rev. E. B. Willson, from which we shall quote more than once in this sketch, it is said : "The Lees of this line appear to have been, from the first American forefather known to us down to the subject of this notice, a people with a positive flavor, in whom was a strong individuality of character; not rounded and toned to a conventional and commonplace type, yet very genuine withal, and without affectation of eccentricity."

Henry Lee's great-grandfather was an upright business man in Boston, a much respected citizen of the town, and an honored member and office-bearer in one of the churches of the established order, for fifty or sixty years in the eighteenth century. His obituary, published July 21, 17(36, was as follows: " Yesterday morning died Mr. Thomas Lee, in the ninety-fourth year of his age, who in the early and active part of Life carried on a considerable Trade in this Town, though he deserves to be recorded, rather for the unblemished Integrity of his Dealings, and the exact Punctuality of his Payments, than for the Extent of his Trade, or the Length of his Life."

Thomas, the eldest son of Thomas Lee, was born in Boston, was educated at Harvard College, and settled in Salem, where he became a prominent merchant, and was entrusted with various important duties in the town, and served as its representative in the General Court. He died in 1747, leaving a son Joseph, then three years old, who was deprived by the circumstances of his family of the advantages of a liberal education, and was obliged to go to sea at the age of thirteen. This Joseph Lee in due time succeeded to the command of a vessel, and then became a merchant and shipowner. He married Elizabeth Cabot, who belonged to a family of merchants. George Cabot, who afterward made a distinguished name as a public man and a senator of the United States, served his brother-in-law through all grades from cabin-boy upward, and the two were partners for many years, and carried on a large and profitable trade with the West Indies, Spain and the Baltic. What the biographer of George Cabot tells us of his early experiences at sea, illustrates the nature of the training which made great merchants and great men in Massachusetts a hundred years ago: " Not yet seventeen years old, he shipped as cabin-boy in a vessel commanded by his brother-in-law, Mr. Joseph Lee. Such a change in his mode of life must have been a sharp one to a young collegian of studious habits ; nor was his lot softened by relationship with his captain ; for if family tradition may be trusted, Mr. Lee gave his young kinsman the full benefit of severe ship's discipline. "

Mr. Joseph Lee and the Messrs. Cabot moved from Salem to Beverly, which latter port was a busy one in their day; other merchants there at the same time were Moses Brown, Israel Thorndike, and John and Thomas Stephens. Mr. Lee, better known as Captain Lee, understood naval construction thoroughly; his models were a great improvement upon anything which had hitherto been in use, and were adopted by many of the merchants and mechanics in Boston, as well as on the north shore. Commodore Downes used to say that in the War of 1812 the " Lee model " was the favorite model in the navy.

Henry Lee, sixth son and ninth child of Joseph and Elizabeth (Cabot) Lee, of whom we are now to speak particularly, was born in Beverly, February 4, 1782. He was educated at Phillips (Andover) Academy, and at Billerica, where Dr. Ebenezer Pemberton, who had been principal of Phillips from 1786 to 1795, kept school for some years. Two of his brothers had been sent to Harvard College, and his father offered to send him, but there was a prejudice in those days against a college education for a youth who had a business career before him, and he decided therefore not to go. He entered the counting-room of Marston Watson, Rowe's Wharf, Boston, and, early in the present century, went into business with his brother Joseph, first having an office at No. 9 Doane street, and then in Phillips Building, Kilby and Water streets. The brothers were not successful; and, in 1811, Mr. Henry Lee went to Calcutta, by way of London, in the brig Reaper, which belonged to him or his father. Whether this was his first voyage to the East Indies we do not know. He remained in Calcutta during the War of 1812, and came into very friendly relations with the great English houses there, which were continued after his return to the United States. He brought home with him not only a large acquaintanceship, but a fund of valuable information; and he was regarded as an authority both in Calcutta and Boston on all questions affecting the trade between the two ports. His Calcutta friends reposed such trust in him that, before the Baring-s furnished American merchants with letters of credit, all the younger and some of the long established houses depended on a letter from Mr. Lee to substantiate and define their pecuniary responsibility, and thus to enable them to sell their bills to the resident merchants. His store was at No. 39 India Wharf, and he was associated with Mr. Ozias Goodwin, who had served him as clerk and supercargo, and, later, with Mr. William S. Bullard, who had been brought up by him in the business. The firm was well known and highly respected in all the commercial centers in the United States and Europe, and the goods imported by it from Calcutta, Madras and Bombay were shipped again to the West Indies, South America and various European ports, as well as coastwise to New York, Philadelphia and the Southern cities. Mr. Lee was somewhat sanguine, however, and more than once met with temporary reverses. He was better fitted for the legal profession than for active business, and had it not been for his unconqtierable shyness of manner he would have been useful and eminent in public life. He was an able statistician, and an enthusiastic student of political economy, and while the conclusions to which he came in this department were not in accord with the prevailing opinions in the community in which he lived, he was recognized in England as a high authority by statisticians like McCuUoch, economists like Tooke and Newmarch, and Anti-Corn Law Leaguers like Villiers and Thorneley.

When the question of protection began to be an issue in New England, Mr. Lee ranged himself with those who were opposed to tariff duties except for purposes of national revenue. In 1820 nearly all the leading business men of Boston were anti-protectionists, and, led by Mr. Webster, they vigorously protested against any advance upon the low rates of dut}- then in force. But, as the manufacturing industries in cotton and wool obtained a foothold in this part of the coimtry, and became organized, the demand for protection on the behalf of those who had invested capital in them divided public opinion .sharply, and the line was drawn between those who were concerned in these industries and the merchants who represented foreign commerce. During the autumn of 182G three conventions were held in Boston by the woolen manufacturers of Massachusetts and adjacent States. A protective duty on woolen goods of thirty-three and a third per cent, had been laid two or three years previously, but the same act had advanced the protection on wool from fifteen to thirty per cent., and the woolen manufacturers, thus handicapped, were now calling not only for a higher rate of duty on the manufactured article, but for a change from ad valorem to specific duties. An active campaign to this end was prosecuted through the newspapers, and b}^ circulars scattered broadcast, under the direction of a committee of correspondence consisting of Jonas B. Brown, James M, Robbins, Lewis Tappan, James Wolcott, jr., and Joshua Clapp As the discussions became intense, the motives of those who were opposed to further protection were criticised, and suspicion was thrown even upon their patriotism. The committee of correspondence, in a circular published in November, 1826, said: " It is not now a question between difTerent American interests, but one between Americans and Englishmen." ^Matthew Carey, of Philadelphia, described the merchants from Maine to Savannah as a solid phalanx, united "to oppose every attempt to afford relief to their fellow citizens, however acute their distress, however intense their sufferings." Of the Essex Junto, of which the Cabots and Lees were prominent members, Mr. Clay said on the floor of Congress that its predilection for foreign trade and for British fabrics was unconquerable.

In 1827 a meeting was held in Boston of citizens "opposed to the further increase of the existing burthensome duties on imported articles, and especially the injurious consequences to the community at large of further duties on imported woolen goods." An influential committee was appointed, consisting of Nathaniel Goddard, Lemuel Shaw, Isaac Winslow, Thomas W. Ward, Henry Lee, Samuel Swett, Daniel P. Parker and others. The duty of preparing a report was assigned by the committee to Mr. Lee, and the result of his labors was a pamphlet of nearly two hundred pages octavo, in which the whole question of the tarifi", both in its general bearings, and in connection with the particular measures then under con,sideration, is discussed in a masterly way, and which might well be made use of to-day by those who wish to study the subject from all sides. The views of Franklin, of Hamilton in his report on manufactures, and of Webster in his speeches of 1820 and later, are quoted and applied, and the action of the Harrisburg Convention of the year before is examined in detail. The report, which came to be known as the Boston Report, bears date November'30, 1827, and, in presenting it, the committee said: " Your committee are aware of the peculiarl)^ difficult position in which this cjuestion is now placed, by the accidental if not designed connexion of this subject, under the specious name of the American system | an imitation of the old Colonial system], with certain controverted political questions, between which and that system your committee believe there is no natural or necessary relation."

While conceding- the power of Consjress to impose duties for revenue, the efifect of which would be to encourage and promote manufactures, the report says: " It is the abuse of this power, when carried to such extremes as to prohibit imports and consequently lessen our exp(jrt trade, destroy revenue, burden one part of the nation with heavy taxes for the benefit of another, which constitutes the wrong, and which, we contend, is neither in accordance with the spirit or letter of a constitution which was intended to guarantee equal laws, equal rights, as well as equal burdens, to all who live under it."

" In conclusion, we say, the system we are opposing is not patriotic, is not American. Disguise it under what names you will, it is still a system founded on error and injustice. It is a system in which there are principles at work that will 'fir.st weaken, and finally break, those social, moral, and political ties which bind this Union together. We call then upon the farmer, the merchant, the mechanic, the navigator, the laborer, the citizen at large, upon every one who feels an interest in the welfare of his country, and, above all, upon the prudent, just and enlightened manufacturer, to join us in resisting it."

The memorial to Congress which accompanied this report was written by Lemuel Shaw. The Free Trade Advocate, edited by Condy Raguet, in Philadelphia, gave the following judgment on Mr. Lee's pamphlet: "Of all the publications which have appeared in this country, in favour of the principles of free trade, and in opposition to the narrow, selfish and anti-national policy miscalled the ' American system,' there is none which .stands so conspicuous as the 'report of a committee of the citizens of Boston and vicinity opposed to a further increase of duties on importations,' first published on the ;50th of November, 1827, prior to the passage of the last tariff law. This work occupies a volume of one hundred and eighty pages of clo.sely ))rintcd octavo, and has passed through four editions, respectively at Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston. It is ascribed to the pen of a practical merchant, one of the members of the committee, and when we sav that it contains more substantial information, more sound doctrine, and more practical illustration connected with the great truths of political economy, than is to be found in the same space in any book in the English language, we express the opinion, we believe, of all those with whom we have conversed on the subject, whose judgment in such matters is entitled to any weight. The Boston Report is, in fine, in our humble estimation, the most triumphant vindication of the principles which it has been the design of this journal to inculcate, and the most masterly refutation of all the fallacies of the restrictive party, that has ever appeared in print; and we cannot too strongly recommend it to the perusal of all who are desirous of thoroughly understanding the true interest of the country. For our own part, we are free to confess it, and we do it without any design to flatter the respectable gentleman who is the subject of these remarks, that most of the limited knowledge which we possess of the practical operation of the restrictive system has been derived from the Boston Report, and that without the existence of that work as a pioneer to prepare the way, our labours as an humble coadjutor in the great cause of agricultural and commercial freedom would not have been as light as they have thus far proved to be.

" In our paper of to-day we pul)lish from the Report in c^uestion a section upon the causes of the fall in the prices of cotton goods, which we flatter ourselves will be read with interest and profit, not only by those who have never seen it before, but even by those who are already familiar with the contents of Mr. Lee's volume."

The CongTessional election in Boston in 1830 turned upon the issue between free ti'ade and protection. Captain William Sturgis was selected to represent the foi'mer, but he withdrew at the la.st moment, and Mr. Lee accepted the candidac}^ in his place. !Mr. Nathan Appleton Avas the candidate of the protectionists, and he was elected after a close contest. On taking his seat in Congress, Mr. Appleton was assigned by the speaker, Mr. Stevensmi, df Virginia, to a position on the Committee on Invalid Pensions; "this appointment could be considered in no other light than a spiteful revenge upon the city of Boston for having disappointed the administration in the choice of the representative."

A Free Trade Convention was held in Philadelphia in 1831, and Mr. Lee took a leading part in its proceedings. A very forcible memorial for presentation to Congress was drafted by Albert Gallatin, who presided over its deliberations ; at the request of the permanent committee Mr. Lee prepared an " Exposition of Evidence " in support of the memorial, and this was printed and wideh' circulated. It is full of statistical matter, carefully compiled and clearly presented, and it is a monument to the ability, the painstaking industry, and the public spirit of the author.

In 18:U, when General Jackson was in conflict with the Bank of the United States, the government deposits having already been withdrawn, Mr. Lee, with Mr. Nathan Appleton, Mr. Patrick T. Jackson, and others, went to Washington in behalf of the citizens of Boston, to remonstrate with the administration, and to do what could be done towards a renewal of the charter of the bank. On their way they had an interview with Mr. Biddle, the president, whose policy of violently C(jntracting the currency they disapproved and protested against. To relieve the pressure in the money market and the general distress which followed the closing of the bank, a meeting was held in Boston, January IS, 1S3G, at which Thomas B. Wales presided, and George William Gordon served as secretary. The meeting was called specifically "to consider the need of a bank with a capital sufficient to do the business which had been done by the Branch Bank of the United States," and it was resolved to ask the Legislature " to incorporate a bank with a capital of not exceeding ten millions of dollars, one-half to be subscribed and paid for by the State in four per cent, bonds." The memorial embodying this proposition was drawn up by a committee con.sisting of Henry Lee, Henry Rice, George Bond, Thomas B. Curtis, James McGregor, Ozias Goodwin, Horace Gray, and others, and it received the signature of Perkins and Company and seventeen hundred and thirty-six others. It said : "The increased and increasing business of the whole Commonw'ealth requires the aid of foreign capital, and such capital cannot be obtained without the credit of the State. Such an institution will not only relieve the wants of the community, but will give a new impulse to all the concerns of agriculture, manufactures, commerce and the fisheries." Mr. Lee wrote "an exposition of the facts and arguments in support of the memorial," which was printed with the legislative (locuments of the year. Strong ground is taken in this paper against the usury laws then on the statute book of the Commonwealth; but in this particular Mr. Lee says expressly that he does not represent the opinions of all the memorialists.

At the urgent request of his son, Mr. Lcc retired from active business in 1840, and henceforth devoted himself to the more congenial pursuits of reading and writing, and to the study of the great questions of the day. He was succeeded, in the same store on India Wharf, by the firm of Bullard, Lee and Company, which consisted of Messrs. William S. Bullard, Henry Lee, jr., and Stephen H. Bullard. After more than a quarter of a century spent in honorable and peaceful retirement, and in the exercise of a genial and healthful influence upon all who knew him, he died on the 6th of February, LSiiT. In announcing the event of his death, the Boston Daily Adi'tT/iscr said:

Mr. Henry Lee, who died at his residence in this city yesterday morning at the venerable age of eighty-five years, had been well known to our business community almost from the beginning of this century, and was highly respected for his attainments, his public spirit, and his many estimable personal qualities. In the prime of his life he was well known as a writer on financial topics, and it was his singular fortune in 1832 to receive the vote of South Carolina for vice-president of the United States on a ticket with John Floyd, for whom she voted for president. In the latter part of his life, until advanced age compelled him to withdraw his mind from the excitement of politics, we believe that Mr. Lee was a strong upholder of the ideas of Massachusetts. His death removes one of the most familiar names from the honored list of our merchants of the old school.

It sh(.)uld be said that the vote given to Mr. Lee for the vice-presidency by the vState of Sottth Carolina was mereU' an expression of its gratititde for his opposition to high tariff legislation, and not becarise he had any sympathy with its attempt at nullification. The reference of the Advertiser to his being a strong upholder of " the ideas of Massachusetts," meant, of course, that he gave his support to the principles of the Republican party, which were accepted by the majority of the people of the State during the war of the Rebellion and in the years that followed.

His simplicity, his cordiality, his eloquence in conversation (for nothing would have induced him to sj^eak in public), his general information, contribtited to place him in friendly relations with the whole community, and few men m private station have been more respected and beloved.

He married, June 1(_J, 1809, Mary, youngest daughter of the Hon. Jonathan Jackson, by whom he had six children. His wife's brothers. Judge Charles and Doctor James Jackson, were eminent in their professions, and universally respected and beloved ; her brother, Mr. Patrick Tracy Jackson, and her brother-in-law, Mr. Francis Cabot Lowell, after a brief career as East India merchants, founded at Waltham the first successful cotton cloth factory in Massachttsetts, but never advocated permanent high duties, as did the Appletons, Lawrences,

The judicious estimate of his personal character and worth, j>-iven at his funeral by the Rev. Dr. Hedjje, will help to make our sketch more complete :

Our friend, whose mortal remains we are about to .commit to their final rest, has left an image in our memory which all who knew him in the days of his strength will delight to cherish.

I feel that I should be false to the spu'itof his character, and do violence, especially to that modesty and simplicity, which seem to me its distinguishing characteristics, were I to expatiate concerning it in the way of eulogy.

Those who in years gone by were associated with him in tlie way of business will bear witness to the high principles and lofty integrity which governed his conduct in all ctmimercial relations, and impelled him after repeated misfortunes to cancel obligations which the law could no longer exact, but which his own r|uick sense of honor made none the less binding.

I, who knew him only in the latter days of his retirement, can .speak only of his qualities as they exhibited themselves in social intercourse. I esteemed it a privilege to converse with one whose pursuits and large experience of men and life had furnished his mind with such ample stores of thought and anecdote, and who had at his command such varied and exact information on topics of public and national interest. I rarely left him without feeling myself enriched by his conversation.

But what most iinpressed and charmed me in his social character, as I recall it, was his perfect naturalness, his affluent humor, and a certain gaietv of spirit, found only, as I believe, in connecticm with great purity and innocence of heart and life. 1 have seen him at the age of nearly four score engaged in sports with young children as if himself were one of them, with entire abandonment of all false ideas of dignity and reserve. He seemed to me to retain in extreme age the playfulness and gentleness of a little child.

I recall, moreover, with vivid satisfaction the high tone and generous strain of sentiments expressed by him on the great political question of the time in which I knew him, and I well remember the encouragement I derived from the patriotic zeal and prompt decision with which, at the breaking out of the war, the old man embraced the side of liberty and union.

His earthly existence was an acceptable offering, and when the sacrifice was done it was meet that the flame should go out. The incense of that sacrifice has ascended to heaven ; to us remains the odor of a useful and honorable life.

Mr. Howells has preserved for all time, in one of his volumes, the memory of the Calcutta trade, with whose great development and gradual decline Mr. Henry Lee's active life was contemporaneous. The stor}^ is told by one who is supposed to have worked his way from the forecastle to the quarter-deck, and from the cabin to the counting-room :

"The place [India Wharf J was sacred to the shipping of the grandest commerce in the world. There the)' lay, those beautiful ships, clean as silver, every one of them, manned by honest Yankee crews. Not by rufifians from every quarter of the globe. There were gentlemen's sons before the mast, with their share in the venture, going out for the excitement of the thing, hoys from Harvard, fellows of education and spirit; and the forecastle was filled with good Toms and Jims and joes from the Cape, chaps who.se aunts you knew ; good stock through and through, .sound to the core. We had on a mixed cargo, and we might he going to trade with eastern ports on the wa}' out. Nobody knew what market we should find in Calcutta. It was pure adventure, and a calculation of chances, and it was a great school of character. It was a trade tluit made men as well as fortunes; it took thought and forethought. The owners planned their ventures like generals planning a campaign. The)' were not going to see us again for a year; they were not going to hear of us till we were signalled outside on our return."

It has been well said )iy a friendly critic of Mr. Howells: "This passage deserves a place in the best histor)' of Boston that shall be written, for it perfectly pictures one of the great periods in Boston's commercial past, a period when the magnificent East India trade of the port laid the foundation for much of its present wealth and greatness. How strongly the difference between the broadening, cultivating effect upon those engaged in a trade which carried the mind out into remote parts of the world, and the restrictive effect of most of the mercantile occupations of to-da)', is brought out. To be in the East India trade was almost a liberal education in itself."

Joseph Nickerson

Joseph Nickerson was a lineal descendant of William Nickerson who came from the County of Norfolk in England in April, 1()37. He landed in Boston, 1)ut soon after purchased from the Indians a large tract of land in Yarmouth, on Cape Cod, and settled upon it. The grandfather of Joseph settled in Brewster, where the subject of this memoir was born March 3, 1804. He died in the same town Februarv 28, 1880. He was the son of David and Priscilla (Snow) Nickerson. David Nickerson was a ship master. He died at sea at a comparatively early age, leaving five sons, David, Joseph, Jonathan Snow, Frederic, and Thomas. All, except Thomas, went to sea and became ship masters. Frederic and Thomas became successful merchants and ship owners, and later in life became lai-gely interested in railroads. Frederic was a director in the Union Pacific, and Thomas was president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and Mexican Central Railroad Companies.

Joseph, the second son, was about twelve years old when his father died. He at once started as a cabin boy, and at the age of nineteen had won his way to the command of a full rigged ship. He soon became part owner of his ship and cargoes, and at the age of twenty-three retired with a fortune. He settled in Boston, and at some time in the thirties he with Captain (\sborn Howes traveled in the West. They foresaw that a city would be built on Lake Michigan near where Chicago now is, and bought a large tract of land where they thouglit it would be located. The city came as they predicted, but unfortunately did not cover their land.

He soon after engaged in business in Boston, and acquired very large interests in .shipping. He also became a manufacturer, and owned mills for the manufacture of cotton. He was president of the Arlington Mills in Lawrence, owning at one time a majority of the stock. As his wealth increased he became interested in railroads. He aided in the construction of the railroads in Iowa, which now form a part of the Northwestern system. He had a larger interest than any other man in the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company, and it was mainly due to his courage and resources that the road was carried safely through a period of financial depression. Up to the last day of his life his business operations were carried on with full vigor. He was a man of strong character and convictions, self reliant and sagacious. He was a born leader of men in large undertakings, and there were few, if any, whose judgment inspired wider or more profound confidence. His sympathies were deep, and he was most generous in aiding his friends in financial troubles. He was twice married. His first wife was Emiline Winslow, and the second, who survives him, was Louise Winslow, daughter of Abraham Winslow, of Brewster. He left by his second wife two sons and two daughters. The elder, Albert Winslow, succeeded him as president of the Arlington Mills and as director of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company. Albert Winslow died in 18113, and the younget son, George Augustus, a graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1876, is now president of the Arlington

Frederick Lothrop Ames

Fkkdkkick LoTHRoi' AiMKS, onc of the countr\''s great capitalists, and widely known as a man of strong and unsullied character, was born in Easton, Mass., June S, \%'^5. He was the son of Oliver and Sarah Lothrop Ames, his mother being the daughter of Hon. Howard Lothrop, of Easton, who had served in the Massachusetts Senate, and in other official positions, and sister of Hon. George Van Ness Lothrop, United States minister to Russia, during Cleveland's first administration.

At Bruton, in the shire of Somerset,, England, was the ancestral home of the Ames family, and thence, some fifteen years after the New England fathers set foot on Plymouth rock, William, the first one whose name appears in Massachusetts annals, removed to the settlement of Braintree.

The history of the Ames family forms an interesting cliapter in the industrial annals of New England, The foundations of the family fortunes were laid about 17T:i, when Capt. John Ames, great-grandfather of our subject, began the making of shovels in West Bridgewater. Captain John's son, ( )liver, learned his trade at his father's forge, went to Easton, and in 180-5 established the works, and firm, which have since attained world-wide reputation, under the name of Oliver Ames & Sons. Of Oliver's sons, the best known were Oakes, and Oliver, the latter being the father of Frederick L. Ames.

The first Oliver Ames, who gave his name to the shovel manufact(jry, never became practically interested in railroad affairs ; in fact, within the period of his active career, railroad building had reached limits of comparatively small magnitude, and his mind and abilities were fiilly occupied with the enterprises which he had in hand. It was during the gold excitement in California, and a few years after, during the .similar excitement in Australia, that Oliver Ames & Sons began to develop their great trade, which rapidly grew to large proportions. Later, the firm supplied immense cjuantities of shovels to the United States government during the civil war, and afterwards, through the sons, Oakes and Oliver, became interested in the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. The full tide of the business success of these two broth- ers fell upon the exciting times incident to the first jjfrcal railway development in this countr}'. Large minded and vigorous, and possessing excellent judgment and clear-sightedness, they foresaw the advantages that were likely to result to the country, and themselves, from just and judicious management of the rising interests, and accordinglv threw themselves into railroad development with all the ardor and ability for which their name had already become noted. Without them, and others like them, would never, in their day, have been forged the link that binds east and west in bonds that shall never more be severed.

Frederick L. Ames received his early education at C(.incord, Mass. He was prepared for college at Phillips Exeter Academy, and was graduated from Harvard University in 18o4. In recent years, and at the time of his death, he served as fellow and trustee of that institution. In his youth he had a strong fancy for the law, but, in accordance with his father's wishes, he went into business, beginning as a clerk in the (jffice of Oliver Ames & Sons at North Easton, and securing promotions from grade to grade, according to the rules which prevailed in the establishment. After several years' labor as a subordinate, he was placed in charge of the accountant's department; here he exhibited marked business ability, and solely by his industry and ajnitude won advancement. He was in his twenty-eighth year when, in 1 8f;:), by the death of his grandfather, he became a member of the firm. In 187ii, before his father's death, the firm was reorganized under the title of Oliver Ames & Sons Corporation, Frederick L. Ames, treasurer. Soon after he succeeded his father as the official, and actual head, of that great manufacturing concern.

But it was not exactly in the path that his father had marked out for him that he became most famous. When his father died he was already a rich man, by reason of the great success that had attended his individual enterprises in the business world. He had invested as liberallv as he could afford in western railroads, and while he was still comparatively a young man, he was a director in the Union Pacific, the Chicago and Northwestern, the Missouri Pacific, and Texas Pacific roads, and had gradually diverted his interests from manufacturing to railroads.

While he retained his interest in the North Easton factory of his ancestors, being treasurer of the corporation at the time of his death, it was in the larger field of railroad enterprises that he distinguished himself, and has left a name conspicuous among the foremost men of the railroad world. Being a judge of the value, quality, resources and possibilities of railway propeily, he was considered an adviser almost unequaled in such matters. Universally conceded to have been one of the best informed men in railroad business in the country, he was vicepresident of the Old Colony Railroad Company, a director in the Old Colony Steamboat Company, and held directorships in about half a hundred other railroad companies, including the following : Atchison, Colorado & Pacific ; Atchison, Jewell Company & Western ; Boulder Valley & Central City Wagon Road ; Carbon Cut-Off Company ; Central Branch Union Pacific ; Chicago & Northwestern ; Colorado Western ; Denver, Leadville & Gunnison ; Denver, Union & Terminal ; Echo & Park City ; Fall River, Warren & Providence: Fitchburg; Fort Worth & Denver City; Gray "s Peak; »Snake River & Leadville ; Golden Boulder & Caribou ; Junction Cit}' & Fort Kearney; Kansas Central ; Kansas City & Omaha; Laramie, North Park & Pacific Railroad & Telegraph Company ; Lawrence & Emporia ; Leavenworth ; Topeka & Southwestern ; Loveland Pass Mining & Railroad Tunnel ; Manhattan, Alma & Burlington ; Montana; Montana Union; North Park & Grand River \'alley Railroad & Telegraph Company; Omaha & Elkhorn Valley; Oregon Railway & Navigation Company; Oregon Railway & Extension Company; Oregon Short Line & Utah Northern; Providence, Warren & Bristol ; St. Joseph & Grand Lsle ; vSalina & South Weston ; Solomon ; Union Pacific ; Union Pacific, Lincoln & Colorado ; Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf; Washington & Idaho; Walla Walla &- Colorado River.

Besides his official connections with railroads, Mr. Ames's remarkable business energies found employment in other fields. He was president of the First National Bank of North Easton. president of the North Easton Savings Bank, and of the Hoosac Tunnel Dock and Elevator Company, and a director in the New England Trust Company, the Old Colony Trust Company, the Bay vState Trust Company, the American Loan and Trust Company, the Mercantile Trust Company of New York, General Electric Company, Western Union Telegraph Cornpan}', and others.

In the business world Mr. Ames was not regarded as a speculator, his operations being- alwaj^s undertaken from practical standpoints. His judgment was clear, cool and sound, immoved b)' mere hope, enthusiasm or excitement of any kind, leading him straight to the mark. He was neither elated by success, nor depressed by failure, but kept an even temper amid the distractions of a most active business life. Associated in the closest relations with .some of the most noted bu.siness characters in the country, his shrewdness and sound judgment enabled him to work with them as their ecjual in enterprise and abilit)' to manage, when legitimate operations were in question, while his probity, and strict integrity, rendered him proof against any doubtful enterprises or compromising combinations. He had all the Ames method in business operations, neglecting no details which ought to occupy his attention, untiring and methodical in business habits, energetic to the last degree, forgetting nothing, and forsaking nothing, on the ground of lack of necessity for personal action.

Thus far we have considered Mr, Ames only as an able and eminent business man, but he was much more than that. His was a strong and cultivated intellect, a self-poised, self-respecting, vigorous character. He was a refined gentleman, who was at once courteous and dignified, a man conversant with, and interested in, all the great questions of the day, with decided literary and intellectual tastes, a lover of the beautiful in nature and in art. Not only in business matters, but upon the many other subjects to which he turned his attention, his judgment was remarkably clear and sound, always commanding attention and respect.

For years past he had been warmly devoted to the welfare of Harvard University. Through his liberality the Arnold Arboretum and the Botanical Department of the university, in which he was especially interested, have been able to greatly extend their usefulness.

In early life his profound love of nature, which he enjoyed to the last, turned him to horticulture, in which he became deeply engaged. Mr. Ames was one of the most liberal patrons of horticulture America has produced, and his collection of orchids was a great source of pride to every one interested in the progress of the art in which he found his principal pleasure. This great collection, begun many years ago, has gradually grown and improved until it surpasses all other collections of these plants in America, and in number, variety and condition has not a .superior. Mr. Ames's love of nature was real and profound, and his exact and comprehensive knowledg-e of the plants in which he was particnlarl}' interested, has given him an international reputation among orchidologists, and many rare orchids have been named for him. His ambition and success in establishing this noted collection, surrounded in his glasshouses in North Easton by much of rare horticultural beaiTty, and in great variety, has resulted in having the fame for this work credited not alone to Mr. Ames and his own State, but also to our nation. Honor to the man who.se work brings honor to his coimtry.

P'or nearly thirty years Mr. Ames was an active member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society; he had long been one of its vice-presidents, and as a member of the finance committee rendered it valuable service.

His country home in North Easton is one of the most extensive and beautiful estates in New England. His large greenhouses have been a public benefit and delight, as they have been freely opened, not only to the residents of North Easton, who took great pride in them, but also to visitors from far and near.

His interest in rural arts and in rural economy was deep and active, and he was for man}- years a trustee of the Massachusetts Socictv for Promoting Agriculture.

Mr. Ames was intensely a New Englandcr, and had an abiding faith in the future of Boston, where his wealth had been invested to a degree that made him the city's largest owner of real estate. Here, also, it was, that as a client of Richardson, he exercised a marked influence for improvement upon the business architecture of the cit_v, such as probably no other individual has yet exerted. In the great tower-like Ames building, at the corner of Washington and Court streets, designed by Richardson's successors, Mr. Ames leaves a substantial monument, in the form of one of the most beautiful, and original examples of the gigantic office structures, that characterize our leading American cities.

But loyalty to his native town and village was one of his marked characteristics, and it was manifest in the beautiful architectural additions he made to the place. With his mother and sister he largely increased the bequest left by his father to build, equip and endow a public library, and, employing Richardson as architect, he erected one of the most beautiful library buildings in the country. His gate-lodge, at the north entrance of his grounds, built of moss covered stones of irregular shape, is exceedingly unique and interesting. This and the beautiful railroad station which Mr. Ames erected at his own expense for the adornment of the village, are also worthy memorials of Richardson's genius.

Mr. Ames was a liberal patron of the fine arts, and .showed unusual discrimination in the selection of his purchases. In his winter home in Boston, he had a superb collection of paintings, tapestries, jades and crystals, among the latter, the largest known. He owned some of the finest exam]:>les of Millet, Rosseau, Troyon, Dias, Daubigny and Corot, and many other important paintings, notably two very fine portraits by Rembrandt, dated 1(J32, of undoubted genuineness, and great value.

In politics Mr. Ames was originally a Whig, but later became a Republican. He never, however, cherished political aspirations, and his tastes disinclined him to seek positions that would bring him into public notice. Much against his will he was elected to the State Senate in Xi^'i'l. The nomination had been made in his absence, and without his knowledge. He served during his term on the committee on manufactures, and agriculture. In religious life he was a devoted Unitarian, and took an active part in the affairs of the church at North Easton, and of the First Unitarian Church of Boston, and he was one of the most generous givers to denominational objects.

He was a liberal contributor to charitable enterprises, and personally devoted much time and money to worthy objects. He was president of the Home for Incurables, and a trustee of the Children's Hospital, of the Massachusetts General Hospital, and of the McLean Insane Asylum. He was also deeply concerned in the work of the Kindergarten for the Blind.

On the Tth of June, 1860, Mr. Ames was married to Rebecca Caroline, only child of James Blair, of St. Louis, Mo. Six children were born to them, of whom five are now living: Helen Angier, the wife of Robert C. Hooper, of Boston ; Oliver, who married Elise A. West, of Boston ; Mary Shreve ; Lothrop ; and John Stanley.

Mr. Ames possessed the happy faculty of leaving his business cares behind him when he crossed the threshold of his home. It was there that he found his truest delight. There, with his wife and children, surrounded by the works of art he so well appreciated, deeply interested in the best books, he passed his happiest hours, and gained the rest

Mr. Ames's death occurred September i:5, 1893, in the heit^ht of his great business activities, and was a severe blow to the financial interests of Boston, and of all New England. The press of New England, and of the entire country, paid common tribute to his distinguished abilities, eminent services, and unblemished character. < )f honored lineage and sterling personal character, as a great man of business he will be best, and very properly remembered. Here he takes rank with the foremost of his generation in this country, and it should be held to his lasting honor, that he won this proud place, without compromising the characteristic integrity of the Massachusetts gentleman.