USA > New York > Portrait gallery of the Chamber of Commerce of the state of New-York : catalogue and biographical sketches > Part 3
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JOHN ALSOP, the subject of this sketch, was the eldest son of JOHN ALSOP and ABIGAIL SACKETT. The precise date of his birth is not known. He was brought up as a merchant, as his name appears signed JOHN ALSOP, Junior, to the agreement entered into by the principal merchants of the City, in December, 1753, "not to receive copper half- pence otherwise than fourteen for a shilling." About this time he engaged in business with his brother, RICHARD, under the firm of JOHN & RICHARD ALSOP. Their partnership was dissolved on the 30th of September, 1757, RICHARD removing to Middletown, Conn., and JOIN continuing the business in New-York in his own name. He soon reached the first rank among the merchants of the City. During the period which preceded and followed the passage and repeal of the Stamp Act, in 1765 and 1766, he was active with his fellow merchants in measures of resist- ance to the oppressive laws of the British Parliament, and in May, 1769, was chosen to read the acknowledgment of the merchants of the resolution adopted by the Assembly, thanking them for their faithful observance of the Non- Importation agreements. He was then a member of the Chamber of Commerce, which he had aided in founding the year before. In 1770 he was one of the Committee of In- spection to enforce the agreements which were still con- tinued. When the news of the passage of the Boston
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Port Bill reached New-York, in May, 1774, and a Com- mittee of Correspondence was raised to concert measures of resistance, JOHN ALSOP was the first named of the fifty- one members ; and, on the organization of the Committee, was chosen deputy Chairman. In the summer of the same year he was elected one of the New-York delegates to the First Continental Congress. In May, 1775, he was one of the Committee of One Hundred chosen by the citizens to take charge of the Government till a convention could be assembled : the following year he was re-elected to Con- gress. On the adoption of the Declaration of Independ- ence, Mr. ALSOP and his colleagues, representing the State of New-York, were recalled, the State not being prepared to ratify the Declaration of Independence. In a letter to the convention. he expressed surprise and indignation at the slight put upon the New-York delegation, in leaving it without instructions on this point, although such instruc- tions had been repeatedly sought for. Withdrawing to Middletown, where his brother's family was settled, he re- sided there until the close of the war. On his return to the City, in 1784, he renewed his connection with the Chamber of Commerce, and was one of the petitioners for a confirm- ation of the charter from the State in April of that year. On the re-organization of the Chamber he was the unani- mous choice of his fellow merchants for the Presidency of that body-a high tribute to the integrity of his character and the fidelity of his attachment to his native land- from men who had not always agreed with him in opinion. In 1785 he declined a re-election, owing to his failing health and advanced years, and he gradually withdrew from business.
Mr. ALSOP was for many years a Vestryman of Trinity Church, President of the Society of the New-York Hospi- tal from 1770 to 1784, and also served as Governor from 1784 to 1788. He was one of the incorporators of the Hospital.
Mr. ALSOP married, on the Sth June, 1766, MARY FROGAT, who died on the 14th April, 1772, at the early age of 28 years, leaving to his care an only child, MARY, who was
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married March 30th', 1786, to Hon. RUFUS KING, then a delegate from Massachusetts to the Congress sitting in New-York. Mr. ALSOP died on the 22d November, 1794, at an advanced age.
The descendants of JOHN ALSOP were well known in New- York. They were the Hon. JOHN ALSOP KING, formerly Governor of the State of New-York ; the Hon. CHARLES KING, LL. D., President of Columbia College ; the Hon. JAMES GURE KING, of the great banking house of PRIME, WARD & KING, who represented New-Jersey in the 31st Congress ; and who was also President of the Chamber of Commerce from 1845 to 1847, and from 1848 to 1849.
The name of ALSOP, extinct in the line of JOHN, is sus- tained by descendants of his brother, RICHARD. His grandson, RICHARD, was a distinguished merchant of Philadelphia, and the founder of the great house of ALSOP & Co., which, with its connections on the west coast of America, carried the name of ALSOP to the four corners of the earth, and made it a familiar sound on the com- mercial marts of the eastern and western hemispheres.
JOHN MURRAY.
JOIIN MURRAY was of Scotch parentage, born in the town of Swataca, Pennsylvania, in 1737. Early in life he came to New-York City and entered the counting- house, or store, as the merchants of that day modestly designated their places of business, of an older brother, ROBERT, with whom he was at a later period associated in partnership, under the name of ROBERT & JOHN MURRAY. The house was later continued under the styles of JOHN MURRAY, JOHN MURRAY & SON and JOHN MURRAY & SONS.
He was a man of quiet and unobtrusive manners, and plain, simple habits, particularly averse to display of any kind ; as a citizen, among the foremost in the support of all the religious and philanthropic institutions of the day ;
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in his religious belief a Presbyterian, and for many years an elder in Dr. RODGERS' church.
As a business man he was comprehensive in his views, of strict integrity and successful.
He took no prominent part in public affairs, and is not known ever to have held any office. In his political opinions he was a Federalist, and among his most intimate friends were RUFUS KING and ALEXANDER HAMILTON.
During the later years of his life Mr. MURRAY was much engaged in acting as referee and arbitrator în cases of mer- cantile differences, and an appeal was rarely taken from his decisions.
Mr. MURRAY was admitted to the Chamber on the 3d of August, 1779. In 1788 he was elected Vice-President of the Institution, and in 179S advanced to the office of Presi- dent, which he held continually until 1806.
Mr. MURRAY died at his country seat on New-York Island, then three miles from the City, now that part of it known as "Murray Hill," on the 17th of October, 1808, aged 71.
ROBERT LENOX.
THE mercantile career of ROBERT LENOX is best summed up in the words of a resolution adopted by the Chamber of Commerce at his death, which occurred on December 13th, 1839, at the ripe age of 80 years. In that tribute he was declared to be "an eminent merchant who, for a period beyond the ordinary course of human life, had been distinguished for great prudence, a clear and sound judgment, and unblemished reputation." Mr. LENOX was born in the town of Kirkcudbright, Scotland, in De- cember, 1759, but came to this country when very young. After attending school for a brief period at Burlington, New-Jersey, he accepted a position in the office of an uncle, with whom he remained until the close of the war of the Revolution. After his marriage, in 1783, he re-
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visited the scenes of his birth and childhood, and in 1784 returned to New-York, where he at once commenced business in a moderate way, conducting it with that skill and prudence which characterized him throughout life. Dr. CHARLES KING, historian of the Chamber, says of him, " that he was one of the most extensive, as well as suc- cessful merchants in the United States, and such was his prudence and sagacity that it is believed there was not a year during the whole period of his actual mercantile life in which he did not find his property greater at the close than it had been at the commencement." This estimate of Mr. LENOX's character and ability is un- doubtedly a just one, and, in view of the danger at that time to American commerce, occasioned by the depreda- tions of maritime belligerents, Mr. LENOX seems to have escaped those reverses which befell other merchants of that day. He became a member of the Chamber of Com- merce on March 7th, 1786, and was rarely absent from his seat at the regular meetings. The records show that he was one of the most active members after the revival of the Chamber in 1817, and his name is found on several Committees, charged with the consideration of important questions. It is peculiarly interesting to record the fact, that the Chamber of Commerce was then interesting itself in the promulgation of the principles of free trade. A protective tariff was considered by many of the members as a " delusion and a snare." Mr. LENOX seems to have been impressed with free trade doctrines, for he appears as one of the delegates of the Chamber to the celebrated free trade convention held at Philadelphia in the fall of 1820, of which WILLIAM BAYARD, then President of the Cham- ber, was President. In January, 1824, Mr. LENOX was appointed Chairman of the Committee of Correspondence, organized to oppose the increase of the tariff, which was then threatened. The interest shown by Mr. LENOX, in matters affecting the mercantile prosperity of New-York, prompted the members of the Chamber, in 1819, to elect him Vice- President, which office he filled until the fall of 1826, when, upon President BAYARD's death, he was unani-
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mously elected to fill the vacancy. He continued to hold the office of President until he died, in 1839. In this brief sketch it is impossible to enumerate all the important questions of public interest which the Chamber discussed, and took action upon, during Mr. LENOX's official term. It earnestly sought to influence Congressional action in favor of free trade, and Mr. LENOX was, undoubtedly, an uncompro- mising free-trader in its widest sense, and lost no opportunity of impressing his views upon his colleagues. By virtue of his office as President of the Chamber, Mr. LENOX was a trustee of the Sailors' Snug Harbor and Chairman of the Board, and helped carry out many practical reforms in that noble institution. Permission was given to change the site of the hospital, the Staten Island property being purchased for that purpose ; part of the building was erected, and the humane work of caring for old sailors began ; and, in fact, the Sailors' Snug Harbor commenced to assume proportions which, since then, have become con- solidated into one of the most beneficent organizations of the world -- a noble monument to its founder, Capt. ROBERT RICHARD RANDALL.
ISAAC CAROW.
ISAAC CAROW belonged to an old Huguenot family that settled in New-York about 1655. He was born at St. Croix, in the West Indies, March 29th, 1778, his father, ISAAC CAROW, being a merchant in the West Indian trade. His mother's name was ANN COOPER. ISAAC CAROW, the sub- ject of this sketch, moved to New-York in 1793, and mar- ried ELIZA MOWATT; his cousin, June 30th, 1803, by whom he had eight children. He was deeply interested in public affairs, and devoted considerable time and money to chari- table purposes. He was Warden of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, a Governor of New-York Hospital, a prominent member of the Bible Society and a warm promoter of the Society Library. He visited Europe in 1815, and again in
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1827. During the latter visit he was the guest of LAFAY- ETTE, in France.
His upright character and standing as a merchant led the members of the Chamber of Commerce to elect him their presiding officer, and Mr. CAROW served in that ca- pacity from 1840 to 1842. Dr. CHARLES KING, the histo- rian of the Chamber, says : "Of Mr. CAROw, who has since paid the debt of nature, we have not succeeded in obtaining any details that might aid our own recollection of him as an old acquaintance-a fellow passenger under trying circum- stances on a voyage to Europe towards the close of the war of 1812-and as a man of mark upon 'Change, though of the greatest modesty and simplicity, Mr. CAROW was of a very retiring disposition and habits-yet of very clear per- ceptions and decided convictions-amiable and gentle, though with a short, quick manner occasionally, that might be taken for impatience, but for the kind smile which so usually accompanied it. He was diligent, cautious and exact in business, and therefore successful, and at his death left behind him no enemies and a spotless name."
Mr. CAROW died in this City September 3d, 1850. The firm of which he was the head, and the one succeeding it bearing the CAROW name, are now extinct.
JAMES GORE KING.
JAMES GORE KING was the third son of RUFUS KING and MARY ALSOP, his wife. He was born in the City of New- York, on the 8th of May, 1791, at the residence of his grandfather, JOHN ALSOP, No. 38 Smith-street, afterwards known as 62 William-street.
He entered Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., in 1806, and graduated from it with honor in 1810.
In the summer of 1814, when a very large militia force was called out by the General Government and stationed in this City, JAMES GORE KING was selected as his Assistant Adjutant-General by Major-General EBENEZER
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STEVENS, who commanded in chief the whole militia con- tingent, in subordination to the general officer of the United States Army, to whom was assigned the command of the military district, and especially the defence of the City of New-York. The troops were disbanded at the commence- ment of the winter of 1814-15, and with the peace which was concluded at Ghent in December, 1814, closed his military service.
In the year 1815 he established, under the firm of JAMES G. KING & Co., a commission house in this City. In the year 1818, however, upon the recommendation of his father-in-law, Mr. GRACIE, he broke up his business in this City, and went to Liverpool, and there, with his brother-in-law, ARCHIBALD GRACIE, established the house of KING & GRACIE.
During a residence of nearly six years in this chief of English seaports, with a large business, and encountering heavy responsibilities, Mr. KING so skillfully steered his bark, that in despite of the wide-spread calamities which, both in England and America, marked the years 1822, 1823 and 1824, he maintained his own high character, fulfilled all the responsibilities of his house, and on leaving Eng- land, in 1824, in compliance with advantageous arrange- ments made for his future residence in New-York, left be- hind him an enviable name and reputation for urbanity, intelligence, promptness and integrity. He made many fast and valuable friends while abroad, and retained their good will and confidence unabated to the day of his death.
While in Liverpool he was brought into relations of business and much personal intimacy with the late JOIIN JACOB ASTOR, who was on a brief visit to Europe; and such was the impression made upon that sagacious observer and almost unerring judge of character, by the business tact and promptness of Mr. KING, and his general charac- ter, that, upon his return to the United States, Mr. ASTOR invited him to come to New-York, and take the chief di- rection of the American Fur Company, with a very liberal salary. This offer Mr. KING declined, but Mr. ASTOR con- tinued his fast friend always, and had another occasion of
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proving his friendship about the close of 1823. Consulted by Mr. PRIME, then at the head of the house of PRIME, WARD, SANDS & Co., as to his knowledge of some fitting person upon whom Mr. PRIME might safely devolve a portion of the business of his house, Mr. ASTOR at once suggested the name of JAMES G. KING, and accompanied it with such eulogies as to determine Mr. PRIME, who it seems, from some business intercourse between their houses, had him- self thought of Mr. KING, to invite him to become a partner in his house.
This proposal Mr. KING accepted, and came back to New-York, and on the 1st of May, 1824, became a partner of the house of PRIME, WARD, SANDS, KING & Co., which then consisted of NATHANIEL PRIME, SAMUEL WARD, JOSEPH SANDS, JAMES GORE KING and ROBERT RAY.
In 1826 the death of Mr. SANDS caused a dissolution of the firm, which was reconstituted under the name of PRIME, WARD, KING & Co., consisting of all the surviving partners of the firm, with the addition of EDWARD PRIME, eldest son of the senior partner.
In 1834 he became warmly interested in the success of the great undertaking-the New-York and Erie Railroad- then all but hopeless, so great was the indifference of the public to its claims, and so general the distrust of its feasibility.
After considering the subject well, and satisfying him- self both of the practicability and the advantages of such a road, in 1835 he consented to accept the Presidency of the Company-declining, however, to receive any salary. A new subscription was started, with gratifying success. Mr. KING, in the summer of that year, visited and inspected the whole line of the road, new surveys were made, and a con- siderable portion of the road along the Delaware was put under contract, and in the following year, 1836, the Legis- lature of the State, moved thereto in no slight degree by the high character of Mr. KING, under whose management it was felt that whatever aid might be appropriated by the State would be faithfully applied, granted to the Company
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the credit of the State to the amount of three millions of dollars.
In 1837 failures of largely extended houses, commencing at New-Orleans, spread throughout the land. New-York had its full proportion. In London, too, several houses, chiefly connected with the commerce of the United States, were brought to a stand. The Bank of England set its face against a further extension of credit, and this policy re-acted with great intensity in New-York.
The seasons, too, had been unfavorable to agriculture, and, for the first time in our history as a nation, even wheat was imported from abroad for our own consumption. Nearly a million and a half bushels of wheat were brought from Europe into New-York in the course of the spring of 1837. In that year the banks of the City of New-York, after a long and honest struggle, came to the conclusion that a sus- pension of specie payments was unavoidable, and, indeed, indispensable, in order to avert the necessity of further sacrifice of property by the struggling merchants in the effort to meet their engagements.
Accordingly, after deliberate consultation among the officers and directors of the banks, on Wednesday, 10th of May, the following notice was issued : 1
" NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC IN RELATION TO THE BANKS.
" At a meeting last evening of all the banks in this City, " except three, it was
" Resolved, That under existing circumstances, it is ex- " pedient and necessary to suspend payments in specie.
" In the mean time, the notes of all the banks will be " received at the different banks as usual in payment of " debts and on deposit; and as the indebtedness of the " community to the banks exceeds three times the amount " of their liabilities to the public, it is hoped and expected " that the notes of the different banks will pass current as " usual, and that the state of the times will soon be such as
" torender the resumption of specie payments practicable."
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The merchants and traders of the City met the same day at the Exchange, in pursuance of a call numerously signed by leading men of all parties and pursuits ; JAMES G. KING presented himself, and after reading the call, enforced its objects with great power and effect. He con- cluded by moving the following resolutions, which were seconded by NATHANIEL PRIME, and adopted :
" Resolved," (after reciting the resolution of the banks just given,) "That relying upon the above statement, we have full confidence in the ultimate ability of the banks of this City to redeem all their bills and notes, and that we will, ourselves, continue to receive, and we recommend all our fellow-citizens to receive them as heretofore.
"That in an emergency like the present, it is alike the dictate of patriotism and self-interest to abstain from all measures tending to aggravate existing evils, and by mu- tual forbearance and mutual aid to mitigate as far as prac- ticable the existing difficulties, and thus most essentially. to assist in the restoration of specie payments."
These resolutions were put separately, and each was unanimously adopted. The sanction thus given by all the leading men of business produced an instantaneous effect ; a sense of relief was felt, as if a heavy pressure were re- moved. Stocks and other securities rose in price, and business became more active.
It is a coincidence which at the time was gratifying to Mr. KING, and in the retrospect is now not less gratifying to his family, that on occasion of suspending specie pay- ments by the banks in 1812-13, during the war with Eng- land, RUFUS KING was called from his retirement on Long Island to urge the same views as those presented by his son in 1837, and that in each case the speaker carried his hearers and the country with him.
Throughout the summer of 1837, Mr. KING, with others of like views, was earnest in preparing measures for the speediest possible return to specie payments.
When in London, whither he went in October of that year,
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he undertook to show to the leading capitalists and to the Bank of England, that in their own interest, if from no other view, they should aid the Americans struggling to extricate themselves from embarrassments and to return to specie payments.
In conformity with these opinions of Mr. KING, the Bank of England resolved to confide to his house the con- signment of one million pounds sterling in gold, upon the responsibility of his house and the guaranty of BARING, BROTHERS & Co.
The first shipment of eighty thousand sovereigns was made by the bank the next day, per packet ship "Gladiator," and Mr. KING himself soon followed, with a much larger sum. The solicitude of Mr. KING to hasten resumption by the banks of New-York and throughout the United States, which has been already dwelt upon, lay at the bottom of this great operation, and he was naturally and reasonably elated at his success.
The anticipation of Mr. KING, that with the aid this opportunity fortunately brought to them, the banks of New-York would resume and maintain specie payment, was abundantly realized.
As the coin from the Bank of England arrived, it was disposed of on easy terms to the banks here and in Boston- a large sum offered to the Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania was at first declined, but afterwards availed of-and thus the City of New-York, which had seen itself compelled to lead the way in suspension, had the great honor and satisfaction to lead the way itself in resumption, and to smooth the way for others.
The signal confidence reposed by the Bank of England in the house of PRIME, WARD & KING, in this important transaction, was fully justified by the event, as were the sagacious provisions of Mr. KING, as to the good results to be effected by such a use of the bank's treasure.
It is satisfactory to be able to add, that a concern of so large import, entered into not without high motives on the part of the Bank of England, and conducted with equal
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skill and fidelity by the New-York house, was wound up without loss and with great promptness.
In the autumn of the year 1839 SAMUEL WARD died, but the partnership, according to its tenor, was continued, the eldest son of Mr. WARD, and the son-in-law of Mr. KING, DENNING DUER, having been admitted as partners in the previous month of May.
In 1844, A. GRACIE KING, son of JAMES G. KING, became a partner, and the house then consisted of JAMES G. KING, EDWARD PRIME, SAMUEL WARD, DENNING DUER and A. GRACIE KING. A diversity of views as to the proper scope and business of the house led, in 1847, to its dissolution. JAMES G. KING, with his son-in-law and son, continuing business under the firm name of JAMES G. KING & SONS, in which firm his eldest son, Judge JAMES G. KING, sub- sequently became a partner.
Mr. KING was elected a member of the Chamber of Commerce April 15, 1817. In 1841 he was chosen first Vice- President, and annually re-chosen for four years, when, in 1845, he became President, and served in that station three years.
He took his seat in the House of Representatives, at Washington, as a member of the 31st Congress, on Monday, December 4th, 1849.
On a bill for the collection of the revenue, his efficiency and his practical ability were specially manifested. The House had talked over and cavilled at and delayed a joint resolution from the Senate, authorizing the requisite ex- penditure for defraying the cost of collecting duties at the Custom House. The matter was urgent, for there was no appropriation, and no money, therefore, available for such uses. In consequence, the business of the Custom House was seriously embarrassed ; every other desk almost was vacant, for lack of means to pay for services, and ships arriving with full cargoes were unable to discharge, because there were not officers to attend. Mr. KING, feeling the great wrong and the great suffering arising from delay, applied himself strenuously to the subject, digested the various amounts needed under specific heads, so as to
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