USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 9
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Mr. Madison, then in Congress, was not regarded as either intelli- gent or friendly in his views relating to American commerce. Com- paring him with Mr. Ames and Mr. Dexter, of Massachusetts, the Cen- tinel caustically asks, "Where did Mr. Madison acquire his knowledge of commerce ?" and it thuis answers its own question : "Not surely in the interior of Virginia, where no other commerce is transacted than buying and selling of negroes."
The burning of seven rope-walks and other property on the 30th of June, 1994, was one of the memorable events in the history of the town of Boston. These walks occupied the whole west side of Pearl street, between Milk and High streets, and were owned respectively by Ed- ward Howe, Jeffrey Richardson, Samuel Emmons, John Codman, Will- iam MeNeill, Isaac Davis and Nathaniel Torrey. The weather had been warm and dry, and the hemp, cordage and tar on storage made a furious fire. A large number of stores and dwellings were burned, a hundred families were turned out of house and home, and a hundred or more mechanies were deprived of daily employment. Among those who lost their stores were Thomas Russell, Thomas Dawes, Samuel Dillaway and Nehemiah Somes; and Thomas Lamb, Nathaniel Ap- pleton, Job Wheelwright and Daniel Sergeant were among those who lost their dwelling houses. To prevent future disaster of a similar nat- ure, the townspeople granted the flats at the bottom of the Common, -" the Old Round Marsh "-for the erection of new rope factories in place of those destroyed, on condition that no more should be built upon the old site.
On the 12th of Angust the "copper-bottomed " ship Margaret, Cap- tain Magee, arrived from Canton after a voyage of six months, "and we doubt not," said the announcement, " has returned with remittances which will reward the enterprising patriotism of the owners." She brought the news of the lamented death of Mr. Samuel Shaw, off the Cape of Good Hope, on the 30th of May.
Mr. Jay arrived in England June 15, 1794, and, five months later, November 19, concluded a treaty with Lord Grenville. This negotia- tion, which meant so much for the people of the United States, was only an incident in the administration of public affairs in Great Britain,
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and it is not strange, perhaps, that there is no reference whatever to it in Lord Stanhope's Life of Pitt, when we remember all the difficulties with which the great minister was contending at the time. The cam- paign in Holland had been disastrous, and, during the next winter, that country was completely overrun by the French troops. Mr. Pitt wrote to a friend, October 14, 1294: " Nearer home than Holland, every- thing looks ill." While prosecuting the war, he had to deal with a powerful opposition at home, with an impracticable sovereign, with a populace on the verge of insurrection, and with the people of Ireland rent asunder by religious controversy. Mr. Jay's treaty was received by President Washington March 2, 1795, and its ratification was ad- vised by him June 24. It was condemned by many in the community, even before its provisions had been made known, and, after its ratifica- tion by the Senate, the popular feeling was largely against it. Samuel Adams, then governor of Massachusetts, was among the patriots who disapproved of it. In an address to the Legislature, he said: "I am constrained, with all due respect to our constituted authorities, to de- clare that the treaty appears to me to be pregnant with evil. It con- trols some of the powers specially vested in Congress for the security of the people; and I fear that it may restore to Great Britain such an influence over the government and people of this country as may not be consistent with the general welfare." One of his principal objec- tions related to the clanse which conceded to Great Britain the right to search American vessels on the high seas, an assumption of maritime power to which he thought it disgraceful for America to yield, and which a firm front on its part would have obliged England to relinquish.
At a town meeting held in Boston July 13, 1:95, resolutions were adopted by a large majority to the effect that the treaty was " injurious to the commercial interests of the United States, derogatory to their national honor and independence, and might be dangerous to the peace and happiness of their citizens." A few days later, at a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, more conservative counsels prevailed; and a memorial, acquiescing in the terms of the treaty, was addressed by the Chamber to the president, in replying to which, he expressed " his satisfaction to learn that the commercial part of his fellow citizens, whose interests were thought to be most deeply affected, so generally considered the treaty as calculated upon the whole to procure important advantages to the country." The action of the town meeting also had been sent to the president, who, in acknowledging its receipt, says one
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historian, "gave a gentle rebuke to the Bostonians on this occasion, which they indeed justly deserved, but which they would not have re- ceived from any other president, without a prompt expression of their feelings."
Early in 1498 the rulers of France issued a decree prohibiting the entrance into a French port of any vessel which at a previous part of hier voyage had touched at an English possession, and declaring good prize all vessels having merchandise on board, the production or manu- facture of England or her colonies, whoever the owners of the merchan - dise might be. This was regarded as being little short of a declaration of war, and authority was given to the American navy to seize vessels under the French flag, which had committed encroachments upon American commerce : commercial intercourse between France and the United States was suspended; treaties were declared to be no longer binding upon the latter; and letters of marque and reprisal were authorized. It was at this juncture, when French ships of war were capturing American vessels under the pretence that they were carry- ing contraband goods, and when British ships of war were claiming the right of search for British subjects beneath the American flag, that the outraged patriotism of the people manifested itself in a notable way. The ladies of Charleston, South Carolina, built the John Adams, and tendered her to the government; the inhabitants of Newburyport and its neighborhood built and presented the Merrimac; and the mer- chants of Salem built and presented the Essex, the first ship of war of the United States to double both the Capes of Good Hope and Horn. The merchants of Boston were not to be outdone in loyal devotion to the government, and in the Centinel of June 27, 1798, the following "Notice " appeared: "A subscription will be opened this day for the raising of a fund to purchase or build one or more ships of war, to be loaned to this government for the service of the United States. Those who would wish to join in this testimonial of public spirit are requested to meet in the chamber over Taylor's Insurance office [14 State street ], at 1 o'clock precisely, to affix their signatures and make the necessary arrangements." Three days later it was stated that a number of citi- zens had met at Taylor's Insurance office, in response to the call, and that " last evening the amount subscribed amounted to $115, 250 "; and, further: "We will not omit mentioning that the llon. William Phillips added $10,000 to this free-will offering. God bless him for it!" The subscription loan amounted to $136,500; other subscribers were David
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Sears, Stephen Higginson, Eben Parsons, John Codman, Joseph Coolidge & Son, Theodore Lyman, Boott & Pratt, Samuel Parkman, Samuel Eliot, Benjamin Joy, James & Thomas 11. Perkins, Thomas Walley, Thomas C. Amory, Benjamin & Nathaniel Goddard and Josiah Quincy.
Only a few weeks before, the merchants and tradesmen of England had offered their contributions for the support of their government in its great exigency. To receive the gifts, hustings, as though for an election, had been raised beneath one of the piazzas of the Royal Ex- change in London, and the receipts on the first day were £46,000. Mr., afterward Sir Robert, Peel, father of the future prime-minister, and a manufacturer of calicoes at Bury, in Lancashire, paid in, from a loyal impulse, £10,000. In relating the fact Mr. Macpherson, in his " History of Commerce, " asks: " Is there any other country on the globe that could produce a manufacturer who can spare such a sum?" Certainly, according to their ability, the loyal business men of the United States were as generous as their brethren beyond the sea.
On the 22d of August, 1298, the keel of the new frigate was laid in the yard of Mr. Hart, the builder of the Constitution, and on the 20th of the next May, receiving the name of Boston, she was launched, with much rejoicing, in the presence of the president of the United States, John Adams, the lieutenant-governor of the Commonwealth, Moses Gill, and an immense concourse of spectators. In the account given of the launch, it was said: " A more excellent piece of naval architecture cannot be produced in the United States. The dispatch used in her construction, the neatness of her workmanship, with the superior quality and durability of her material, do honor to Captain Hart, the master builder, Captain Little, her commander, the superintending committee of subscribers, and to the mechanics of the town. She is about eight hundred tons, and has the figure of an aboriginal warrior for her head." The Boston was rigged and equipped " with patriotic celerity, " and, on the 12th of June, she hauled off into the stream and began to enlist her crew. She sailed on her first cruise, under the command of Captain George Little, July 25, and during the next ten or twelve years did much effective work.
Notwithstanding the perplexities and perils to which we have re- ferred as superadded to the ordinary risks of ocean commerce, the merchants of Boston, Salem, and other communities went forward in the prosecution of their plans with their accustomed energy and spirit.
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Captain Cleveland, in his journals, mentions four Boston ships met by him on the Northwest Coast in the spring of 1799, and says that ten others were to be dispatched thither from Boston during that season ; and while at Calcutta, in the following winter, he records: "During the three months of my residence in Calentta no less than twelve ships were laden with the produce and manufactures of Hindostan for the United States, whose cargoes would average about two hundred thou- sand dollars each."
In 198 the Messrs. Perkins bought and sent to Canton direct the ship Thomas Russell, and Mr. Ephraim Bumstead, then the oldest ap- prentice in their counting-house, went out as supercargo. In 1803 they made an arrangement with this young man to go to China and establish himself there for the' transaction of their own business, and of such other as might offer. Mr. Bumstead took passage in a ship from Providence, belonging partly to merchants there and partly to the Messrs. Perkins, and had as his clerk. John P. Cushing, who had also been in the employ of the firm in Boston. Soon after their arrival in China, Mr. Bumstead became very ill and embarked on a voyage for the benefit of his health, expecting to return before long; but he died at sea, and Mr. Cushing, at the early age of sixteen, found himself in sole charge, with many consignments to care for and important con- cerns to manage. He had "a good head," and he conducted affairs with so much ability that he was soon after taken into the firm, re- maining in it until its dissolution. He visited the United States in 1807, but soon returned to China, and did not leave it again for twenty years. "He was well repaid for his undertaking by the result."
Mr. Cushing was succeeded in the management of the Canton house by Mr. Thomas T. Forbes, a nephew of the Perkinses, who was lost soon after in the Canton River with his yacht Haidec. Mr. Cushing was in Europe when the news of this calamity came to hand, and he returned immediately to China to protect the interests of his firm. He and Mr. Forbes had been on intimate terms with the firm of Russell & Co., of which Mr. Samuel Russell was then at the head. It was now arranged to reorganize this house, and to transfer the business of Per- kins & Co. to it. Mr. Augustine Heard was admitted as a partner, and Mr. Forbes's youngest brother, John, then sixteen years of age, as a clerk. Mr. John M. Forbes subsequently became a partner, and, later, his older brother, Captain Robert Bennet Forbes, who was at the head of the house for several years, and of whom we shall speak
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again presently. Mr. Russell Sturgis, afterward of Baring Brothers & Co., was admitted to the firm in 1842.
Another youth, who was to become a very intelligent and successful merchant, graduated from the counting-house of the Messrs. Perkins in the early years of their business, and went to sea in one of their ships. This was William Sturgis, who had been with them for a few months only, when it became necessary for him, on the death of his father (1:98), to push his fortunes for himself; and he shipped before the mast in the Elisa, one hundred and thirty-six tons, then fitting out for a voyage to the Northwest Coast, San Blas on the western coast of Mexico, and China. The vessel was under the command of Captain James Rowan, who had made several voyages in the same trade, and had been very successful in his intercourse with the Indians. On reaching the Coast Captain Rowan advanced young Sturgis to be his assistant in the trading department; and the latter displayed so much industry, ability, and tact in his new position, and had improved himself so much in the study of navigation, that he attracted the attention of other shipmasters, and was called from the forecastle of the Elisa to be the chief mate of the Ulysses, the officers and crew of which vessel were in revolt against their captain. He proceeded in her to China, where he met the lilisa, and, by consent of all parties, joined her again as third mate. Of this voyage the Messrs. Perkins wrote to one of their partners, then in London, November 9, 1299, as follows: " We wrote you that the Elisa had succeeded on the Northwest, and had proceeded to China; that is, she was about leaving the Coast for China. We presume from the letters, which are dated off St. Blas, that she would dispose of her dry goods for about one hundred per cent. ad_ vance. The collection of skins exceeded that of Magee in the Margaret, or Swift in the Hasard, although they were two years, and the Elisa ninety days."
Reference to another of these voyages will throw further light upon the way in which this distant trade was carried on, and indicate what were its perils and its profits. The ship Atahualpa, Captain Dixey Wildes, sailed from Boston, August 31, 1800. She was owned by Messrs. Theodore Lyman, Kirk Boott and William Pratt. She was of 209 tons and mounted eight guns, and her cargo consisted of broadcloth, flannel, blankets, powder, muskets, watches, tools, beads, wire, looking-glasses and various other articles. She remained on the Coast about eighteen months, until the end of September, 1802, "cruising up and down
Lcfc.
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through the dangerous waters of the great northwestern archipelago from the forty-eighth to the fifty-ninth parallels of latitude, trading with the capricious and treacherous natives, repeatedly baffled by con- trary winds, and encountering constant perils." At length, having collected about thirty-five hundred skins and twenty-four hundred tails of the sea otter, with a few other furs, the Atahualpa sailed for China, touching for supplies at the Sandwich Islands. The skins sold for twenty dollars each, and the tails for two dollars ; and the proceeds were invested in teas, silks, porcelains, satins, sugars, etc., to the value of over fifty-seven thousand dollars. The good ship arrived in Bos- ton harbor, June 14, 1803, after an absence of ten hundred and twenty days. Her supercargo on this voyage was Mr. Ralph Haskins, who soon became a prominent merchant on his own account.
From June 11, 1800, to January 9, 1803, 34,357 sea otter skins were imported into China, worth on the average from eighteen to twenty dollars cach. Of this quantity, says Pitkin, 30,40; were carried in Boston vessels. During the same period, 1,048, 250 seal skins were imported, worth on the average from eighty to ninety cents each. " Though the first adventures in the fur trade inet with a good market at C'anton, as the number increased the profits diminished, and it was always in the power of the Cohoang, to be regulated by its members at their pleasure." The Cohoang, or Co-Hong, was a trading company consisting of thirteen native merchants, which had a monopoly of the foreign trade, and was held responsible for the collection of the revenue, being the only medium of communication between the government and foreigners. It paid a considerable sum for the exclusive privileges which it enjoyed. Hlouqua was at its head carly in this eentury-a man of high character and of great influence.
To return to William Sturgis and his fortunes: On his arrival in Boston in the Elisa in the spring of 1800, he was engaged as first mate and assistant trader on board the Caroline, owned by James and Thomas Lamb and others, then fitting out for a three years voyage to the Pacific and China, under Captain Charles Derby, of Salem. The ship touched at the Sandwich Islands on the way ont, and Captain Derby died there : whereupon, Mr. Sturgis, then nineteen years of age, became command- er of the vessel and sole manager of her business. He came back to Boston in 1803, having made the voyage "to the great satisfaction and profit of his employers." He made another voyage, terminating in June 1806. In the autumn of the same year he started on his fourth voy-
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age round the world in the . Atahualpa, with supervision over two other vessels, belonging to the same owners, already on the Coast. He spoke the language of the Indians, studied their characteristics carefully, and was always successful in his dealings with them. He returned to Bos- ton in June, 1808, and, soon after, sailed in the same ship for Canton direct, with an outfit exceeding three hundred thousand Spanish milled dollars. He was accompanied on his voyage by Mr. John Bromfield, as supercargo, who was under engagement to remain in Canton for a year as Mr. Lyman's factor, and who, afterward, became an influential Boston merchant. It was on this voyage that the ship had a desperate encounter with pirates in the mouth of the Canton River. Captain Sturgis reached Boston again in 1810, and joined Mr. John Bryant in business under the firm name of Bryant & Sturgis. Their business was principally with the Pacific Coast and with China, and "from the year 1810 to 1840 more than half of the trade carried on with those coun- tries, from the United States, was under their direction. They occasion- ally, however, had commercial intercourse with nearly every quarter of the globe."
The Thomas Russell was dispatched in May, 1800, under command of Captain Henry Jackson, to Malaga and ports in the Mediterranean, loaded with teas and nankeens, " the ultimate object of the voyage being the purchase of a cargo in Calcutta, and the speedy conversion of the present lading into dollars to be the governing object in the opera- tions." The trade to the Mediterranean had been seriously interrupt- ted by the Barbary corsairs.
Early in the year 1805 an association was formed, called the Boston Importing Company, with the design of regulating the shipping trade with Liverpool and London with special reference to the interests of the Boston importers. Stockholders, as we suppose, were to have the preference in the shipment of goods, and when the rates were high, they would receive a rebate in the shape of a larger dividend on their shares. We judge also that the company was to import goods on its own account. An advertisement appeared in some of the newspapers May 8, as follows: " The associates of the Boston Importing Company are hereby notified that an assessment of ten dollars on each share is to be paid to the subscriber on or before the 14th inst. By order of the Board of Trustees. T. W. Storrow, Treasurer." A few days later Wood & Rollins announced that the ship Sally, Captain Seth Webber, "intended for a regular ship between this port and Liverpool," would
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have immediate dispatch ; she was 323 tons, "coppered to the bends," and had elegant accommodations for passengers. Whether this vessel, and the others run by the company, were purchased or chartered, we have no means of knowing positively. When the Legislature met, John Gore and others in behalf of the company applied for an act of incorporation ; the committee to which the question was referred re- ported favorably, but its report was not accepted, and the petitioners had leave to withdraw. We have been unable to find Mr. Gore's petition on the files at the State House. The Sally returned in September, making the passage in twenty-eight days, and bringing several passen- gers, among them Captain Winslow Lewis, Samuel Appleton, Daniel Parker, jr., and Henry Gassett, jr. She took her departure two months later, under the command of Captain Lewis. Ammidon & Boyle, who seem to have been the agents of the line, advertised the copper-bottomed ship Packet, Captain Scott, to sail October 15; and again in the following spring. They also advertised in the spring of 1806, " the Boston Im- porting Company's ship Romco, John Le Bosquet, for Rotterdam and London, to sail about March 25, and return from London early in the fall." Other regular traders to London, not controlled by the company of which we have been speaking, were the President Adams, John Adams, New Packet, and Boston, and to London, the New Galen. They were advertised by Haven, Williams & Co., Trott & Blake and Wood & Rollins.
Referring to the Boston Importing Company, Mr. Sabine says: "The War of 1812 put an end to our intercourse with England, and the company closed their affairs. One of the ships was detained by France, but was released to bring home Mr. Armstrong, the American minister." We have succeeded in fully verifying this statement. Gen- eral Armstrong arrived at New London, November, 1810, in the ship Sally, Captain Scott, from Bordeaux. The Sally had been "seques- tered " at St. Sebastian, June 1, and released by the emperor in Sep- tember for General Armstrong's use.
The growth of the American mercantile marine from the adoption of the Federal constitution to 1804 was something amazing. During this period of eighteen years, the registered tonnage of the country was multiplied seven fold; from 119; to 180; the increase was a quarter of a million of tons, or forty-two per cent. The figures for 180; were 848,306. Of this amount, more than one-third, 310,309 tons, belonged to Massachusetts. While the great powers in Europe had been intent
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on the destruction of each other's commerce, the merchants of the United States had seen their great opportunity and had made the most of it. The old colonial and commercial systems, to which the European governments had elung so pertinaciously, had, under the necessities of the case, been either entirely abandoned, or greatly relaxed; and the British Government had been obliged to open even the trade of the West India Islands to the American flag, from time to time, for a limited period. But, whether from a jealousy of the growing commercial power of this young nation, or from a haughty and fatnous indifference to the rights of others upon the ocean, British officials persisted in their inter- ference with the American flag, and in grossly insulting it. American ships were seized, and were ruthlessly condemned by the British admiralty courts. Oppressive orders in council followed, of which we shall speak more particularly, and the people of the seaboard towns were thoroughly aroused and indignant. Even the Federalist leaders in the town of Boston, which was the last stronghold of conservatism, "were properly helpless before the righteous indignation which blazed up more fiercely than ever when the English, not content with despoil- ing our merchant vessels, fired upon the national flag, flying from a national ship." "If Mr. Jefferson," says an able writer, Mr. Cabot Lodge, "had at that supreme moment declared war and appealed to the country, he would have had the cordial support of the mass of the people not only in New England but in Boston itself." The president, however, relied upon his theory of non-intercourse, and pressed the Embargo Act through both houses of Congress; as the consequence of this, the support of New England in the trying times which were at hand was lost to the administration, and Federalism, in this part of the country, had a new lease of life.
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