hearted; as a citizen, he was always ready to aid in any project that required the support of the patriotic and public-spirited. He died in January, 1817.

Messrs. BILLINGS, HALLETT, BAKER, and THACHER, were merchants in good repute, and by their lives and conduct maintained the dignity and honor of the mercantile character. Mr. Billings was a member of the first board of aldermen after Boston was incorporated as a city. Mr. Hallett was a native of Barnstable, and came to Boston, when quite a lad, as an apprentice with Allen & Tucker, wholesale grocers. He accumulated a handsome property, and had a numerous family of children, to whom he left the legacy of an unsullied name. Mr. Baker originated in the county of Essex, to which he returned after many years of successful trade in Boston. Mr. Thacher was a son of the Rev. Peter Thacher, minister of the church in Brattle-street. A warm-hearted friend and agreeable companion, he was, perhaps, too liberal for his own benefit. Neither of the four gentlemen mentioned in this paragraph, except Mr. Billings, was, at the commencement of the publication of the Courier, interested in manufactures; but they were men who were willing that the system should be fairly tried, and were ready to aid with their purses the progress of the experiment. It is believed that all of them became in some degree, afterward, involved in the business of manufacturing.

JOSHUA CLAP was a native of Westfield, in the county of Hampden. He was unknown to me till he came to subscribe for the Courier, and to offer his assistance in promoting the publication. He was then about

erecting a large woollen factory in Leicester, which he soon after completed. A village soon grew up around the factory, which, in memory of its founder, has been called Clapville. The speculation turned out to be an unfortunate one. Mr. Clay's famous " compromise" of 1832, admitted the importation of woollen cloths, which were introduced from the glutted warehouses of Great-Britain, and sold at a price with which no American manufacturer could think of competition. After suffering the loss of property to a large amount by this ruinous "compromise," a finishing blow was given to Mr. Clap's prosperity by the burning of his factory. He died in 1841.

JONAS B. BROWN came to Boston at the age of sixteen, from some town in the interior of NewHampshire, and was domesticated in the family and counting-room of William Tileston. At the expiration of his minority, he became a partner in business with Mr. Tileston, and from that moment he was a thoroughgoing advocate for the protection of domestic industry in all its branches. He was not the advocate of protection merely; he was pre-eminently the workingman of the whole concern. His understanding was clear and comprehensive. He wrote much, and wrote well, and he spared neither labor nor expense to effect his object. Journey after journey he made to Washington, and spent days and nights, -nay, weeks and months, in attendance on Congress, to explain his views, and to urge upon the members the benefits that would result to the whole nation by the adoption of measures that would encourage and sustain industrial efforts to increase the products of manufacturing,

agricultural, and mechanical labor. It is not giving too much credit to his untiring perseverance and intelligent representations, to say, that he was the chief agent in procuring the enactment of the tariff of 1828. Mr. Brown began his career with no property, and with no means but such as nature and a country school had furnished him with; but he was the vital spark which kept alive the whole body that was dying for lack of protection. He erected a large woollen factory at Millbury, in the county of Worcester, and produced there from fabrics of a superior kind, that were pronounced fit to enter into competition with most of the British and German cloths. But the "compromise was fatal to his prospects. Excessive importations produced the insolvency and bankruptcy of nearly all the manufacturers of New-England, and Mr. Brown was not exempted from the common lot. He fought manfully to sustain the doctrines of protection, to preserve his own property from the sacrifice that was impending, and to assist his fellow-sufferers. But without success. Worn out with incessant labor, physical and mental, he died before he had attained the age of forty years. A subscription, after his death, among those who had been his friends and co-laborers, placed his widow and her two children in a comfortable situation, — a very proper tribute to the memory of him whose talents had been exerted for their benefit, a man, whose heart was liberal almost to a fault, whose soul was the home of uprightness and honor.

Such were the men to whom I was chiefly indebted for encouragement in an undertaking of very doubtful success. Others there were whose good wishes were

not withheld; but the time to write their eulogy has not yet arrived.

The year 1824 will be distinguished in our national history as a period of great political excitement. In the early part of the year, a caucus of members of Congress nominated William H. Crawford as the democratic candidate for the office of President. The Legislature of Pennsylvania nominated John C. Calhoun. Mr. Calhoun afterwards withdrew from the contest in favor of General Jackson, who had been nominated in Tennessee, and in some of the Southern States. Henry Clay was the candidate of Kentucky, and received the nomination of public conventions in other sections of the country. A powerful effort in favor of John Quincy Adams operated in many parts, and he was supported, generally, without regard to old party associations. Many of the Federalists opposed the election of Mr. Adams. They had not forgotten, and would not forgive, his desertion from the party and his support of Mr. Jefferson's embargo in 1807. Sympathizing with this class, and believing in the uprightness of their policy, it was natural that the Courier should unite in opposition to Mr. Adams. So far as it became actively involved in the electioneering controversy, it assumed a position of hostility to his election, occasionally with a degree of acrimony, that was deeply regretted in after years. It took no determined stand against either of the other candidates; but a preference was avowed for Mr. Clay, as the advocate and champion of protection to home industry. Just before the choice of electors in November, a con

vention of the friends of that gentleman was held in Boston, attended by nearly all the principal manufacturers of New-England. My allotment in the proceedings was the presentation of a set of resolutions, (which were adopted,) declaring that the elevation of Mr. Clay to the Presidency was desirable, and setting forth in brief detail the advantages that the whole country would derive from such an event. But the voice of Massachusetts was in favor of Mr. Adams, and his election was vehemently advocated in most of the newspapers. The opposition to Mr. Adams, manifested in the Courier, provoked the displeasure of his friends, among which the conductors of the Salem Register and the Boston Patriot were the most prominent. The wrath of the Patriot was poured upon the Courier without stint and without mercy, frequently in personal invectives, which were returned with ample interest. Many of these outpourings from the Patriot were written by Dr. Waterhouse, of Cambridge; and those in the Register by Joseph E. Sprague, of Salem. With both of these writers my intercourse, until then,as well as that with the respective editors, John B. Davis and Warwick W. Palfray, - had been of a courteous and friendly nature. It is not my purpose to exhibit any specimens of these criminations and recriminations. Let them remain undisturbed in the columns where they had their birth. The unpleasant feelings which they produced, subsided after the election was over, and friendly intercourse was renewed. All these opponents have gone, and I shall soon follow them, to the land where love and hatred are alike forgotten.