USA > New York > Portrait gallery of the Chamber of Commerce of the state of New-York : catalogue and biographical sketches > Part 9
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His subsequent labors in Parliament and out of it were de- voted to peace, reform, retrenchment and the introduction of arbitration in the place of war for the settlement of inter-
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national difficulties. He was urged to enter the Cabinet, by Lord JOHN RUSSELL, but declined. He was elected, in 1847, for the West Riding of Yorkshire, as well as for Stockport, and chose the former seat. In 1848 he supported a motion for the repeal of the navigation laws, making shipbuilding free, and the next year came out for electoral reform, secret voting and the shortening of the duration of Parliaments. In 1849 and the following years, he urged arbitration measures to prevent war, and the reduc- tion of revenue and expenditure, with much of his old force and vigor. Peace conferences, in which he was active, were held with good effect from 1849 to 1853, and were only discontinued during the Crimean war. In his opposition to that war, Mr. COBDEN and Mr. BRIGHT were again work- ing together. Their protests were earnest and dignified, but they did not avail, and the war went on. But when peace came, COBDEN's arbitration clause was inserted in the treaty. On the occasion of the Chinese war, Mr. COBDEN moved a vote of censure on the Government in Parliament, and Earl DERBY, one of the same tenor, in the House of Lords. COBDEN's motion was carried by 16 majority, while Earl DERBY's was defeated by 36. Lord PALMERSTON, then Premier, went to the country on the question, and the voters sustained him, and COBDEN, BRIGHT and many other eminent liberals were not elected. COBDEN had made the canvass for BRIGHT, who was very ill, and addressing the Manchester voters, after his defeat, he was affected to tears. COBDEN was for more than two years out of Parliament, part of the time travelling in this country.
On his return, he was offered by Lord PALMERSTON, in 1859, the office of President of the Board of Trade, which he declined, but consented to negotiate an important commercial treaty with France. This treaty was one of the best services he ever rendered to his country. The duties on beer, wine and brandy, and on manufactured goods, had been so heavy as to be almost prohibitory, and had caused much bitterness, and frequent rumors of war. After long negotiation, these were reduced to a very low
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tariff, and great relief was experienced by both countries. The treaty has been, as a whole, profitable both to England and France, and it has greatly diminished the fears which had periodically agitated the two countries lest there should be an invasion of the territory of one by the other. The adjustment of the details of this treaty, which was signed in October, 1861, occupied some time, and it was not till late in 1862, that he made his appearance in Parliament as member for Rochdale. He voted with his friend, BRIGHT, on the American question when there was any measure of importance up, but he never spoke upon it in Parlia- ment, addressing himself only to questions of the Govern- ment supplies or manufactures, and the reduction of national expenditures, on the only two occasions on which he addressed the Commons. His last public speech was delivered at Rochdale in November, 1864, and in this he alluded to the American war in such a way as to show that his heart was with the Union cause. In a letter, written from his sick room February 5, 1865, this is still more manifest, and he expressed joy that the Confederate cause was failing. He died on the 2d of April, 1865, of asthma. In him, England lost one of her greatest states- men.
JOHN BRIGHT.
JOHN BRIGHT was born at Greenbank, near Rochdale, Lancashire, November 16th, 1811. His family were mem- bers of the Society of Friends. JACOB BRIGHT, his father, had set up a hand-loom in the neighborhood of Roch- dale, in 1802, and thus laid the foundation of the vast cotton manufactures which have since made Rochdale famous. Young BRIGHT received a good early education, first at the excellent Friends' school at Ackworth, and later at York and Newton. At the age of fifteen he entered his father's business, but his leisure was fully occupied with political studies. In 1830, at the age of
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nineteen, he made his debût as a speaker on temperance ; and having committed his speeches to memory, acquitted himself moderately well.
When, a year or two later, he attempted to speak against the corn laws, he was not so successful at first; his manner was awkward, his voice somewhat harsh, and his sentences ill framed. But there were still evidences, that with prac- tice and self discipline, he would become an effective speaker, though not much promise of the eloquence, which eventually gave him the rank of the first orator in Great Britain.
In 1835 he began to plead the cause of national education, and rendered good service by his addresses. The same year he first made the acquaintance of RICHARD COBDEN, who was seven years his senior, and who was, while an active manufacturer, largely interested in national edu- cation, and in the anti-corn law crusade. For thirty years the two men worked together, and were the best of friends, often speaking from the same platform in favor of electoral reform, and in opposition to the corn laws and other op- pressive measures of legislation. Mr. BRIGHT had already become a famous orator, and his addresses were, as a matter of choice, always clothed in the terse and vigor- ous Saxon speech, of which he was a master. He had, as early as 1838, become greatly interested in the Anti- Corn Law agitation, and when the Anti-Corn Law League was formed, in 1841, BRIGHT's name was second on the list of the Committee. From this time forward, though continuing his connection with Rochdale manufactures, Mr. BRIGHT was very active in public life. He spoke often and forcibly against the corn laws; and in Parliament, which he entered in 1843, became known as a tribune of the people. He was largely instrumental in securing the pow- erful assistance of Sir ROBERT PEEL, and, through his aid, in carrying the repeal of the corn laws.
As a member of the Society of Friends, he abhorred war, and, whenever it was threatened, he was active in his opposition to it, taking strong ground against the increase of armaments. In the Crimean war, he opposed the Gov-
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ernment and his own constituents, by his brilliant and memorable speeches against its continuance. In 1856 he was not re-elected, but the next year was returned from Birmingham. His next efforts were addressed to the termination of the East India Company's charter, and the transfer of the Government of India to the Crown, and to the extension of the elective franchise in England to all householders.
It was at this juncture that our own civil war commenced, and though his own business, and that of the whole Lancashire manufacturing districts, suffered terribly from it, JOHN BRIGHIT was, from the first news of the war, conspicuous in his support of the Union, while nearly every member of Parliament, and the nobility, gentry, clergy, army and navy, and most of the bankers, were bitterly hostile to the North. He was taunted with his inconsistency in advocating our war for the Union, when he had always opposed the wars in which England engaged. Very noble was his reply : "I cannot, for the life of me, see, upon any of those principles upon which States are governed now-I say nothing of the literal words of the New Testament- I cannot see how the state of affairs in America, with regard to the United States Government, could have been different from what it is at this moment. I say that the war, be it successful or not, be it Christian or not, be it wise or not, is a war to sustain the Government, and to sustain the authority of a great nation ; and that the people of England, if they are true to their own sympathies, to their own history, to their own great act of 1834, (the Emancipation Act,) to which refer- ence has already been made, will have no sympathy with those who wish to build up a great empire, on the perpetual bondage of millions of their fellow men."-[Speech at Rochdale, August 1, 1861.]
Nor did his ardor cool as the war went on, though for the first year or two, the greater measure of success seemed to be on the Southern side. He was no fair weather friend. In December, 1861, just at the time of the MASON and SLIDELL seizure, when the friends of the South in England
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were urging the immediate declaration of war against the United States, Mr. BRIGHT was invited by his fellow- townsmen in Rochdale to a banquet given in his honor. In his speech at that banquet he stated, with great force, the claims of the North on Great Britain from their ties of kindred. Millions of the Americans, he said, were either natives of Great Britain, or of British parentage. He con- cluded his address with these eloquent words :
"Now, whether the Union will be restored or not, or the South achieve an unhonored independence or not, I know not, and I predict not. But this I think I know ; that in a few years-a very few years-the 20,000,000 of free men in the North will be 30,000,000, or even 50,000,000-a pop- ulation equal to or exceeding that of this kingdom. When that time comes, I pray that it may not be said among them, that in the darkest hour of their country's trials, England, the land of their fathers, looked on with icy coldness and saw unmoved the perils and calamities of their children. As for me, I have but this to say : I am but one in this audience, and but one in the citizenship of this country ; but if all other tongues are silenced, mine shall speak for that policy which gives hope to the bondmen of the South, and which tends to generous thoughts and gen- erous words and generous deeds, between the two great nations who speak the English language, and from their origin are alike entitled to the English name."
On the 18th of December, 1862, he spoke at Birmingham on the war, which was, at that time, exhibiting results very discouraging to the North ; but his faith did not fail ; he said : "The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. GLAD- STONE) as a speaker is not surpassed by any man in Eng- land, and he is a great statesman ; he believes the cause of the North to be hopeless, and that their enterprise cannot succeed." After denouncing the leaders who sought to force into the family of nations a State based upon the mon- strous principle of the extension and perpetuation of slavery, Mr. BRIGHT continued : " I have another and far brighter
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vision before my gaze. It may be but a vision, but I will cherish it. I see one vast confederation, stretching from the frozen North in unbroken line to the glowing South, and from the wild billows of the Atlantic, westward to the calmer waters of the Pacific main-and I see one people and one language, and one law and one faith, and over all that wide continent, the home of freedom, and a refuge for the oppressed of every race and of every clime."
When the Chamber of Commerce of New-York, in March, 1862, sent to Mr. BRIGHT, through the American Minister in London, the following resolution : " Resolved, That the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New-York does hereby record its grateful sense of the intelligent, eloquent, just and fearless manner in which Mr. JOHN BRIGHT, of Birmingham, has advocated, before the people of England and in the British Parliament, the principles of constitutional liberty and international justice, for which the American people are contending ; and that these pro- ceedings be communicated to Mr. BRIGHT ;" the statesman responded in a very beautiful letter. The testimonial was fully deserved. The gift sent over to his Lancashire con- stituents by the Chamber of Commerce in January, 1863, to supply their needs, which had been caused by the war, called out from Mr. BRIGHT one of his most eloquent ad- dresses, closing with this glowing peroration : "From the very outburst of this great convulsion, I have had but one hope and one faith, and it is this, that the result of this stupendous strife may be to make freedom the heritage forever of a whole continent; and that the grandeur and the prosperity of the American Union may never be impaired." Everywhere : in Parliament, against Mr. ROEBUCK and our other enemies there, he had made, on every important occasion, his powerful and effective ap- peals ; at the trades' unions, in the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, at repeated calls from them, and at gatherings of workingmen and manufacturers. In all places, and at all times, he was our effective and powerful advocate. Well did he deserve the name, by which he is most widely known in this country, "The Friend of America."
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We pass hastily over his history since our war. It was a noble and glorious fight which he waged in behalf of household suffrage, and it ended by his enemies yielding to his persistent demands, even more than he had asked. In 1868, he became President of the Board of Trade, in Mr. GLADSTONE's administration, but in 1870 was compelled to resign from ill health. In 1873 he again entered the Cabinet, as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and went out with his colleagues in 1874. In 1880 he again ac- cepted a seat in the Cabinet, as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, but resigned in 1882, in consequence of his objection to the Egyptian war. In the autumn of 1888, Mr. BRIGHT's health began to fail, pneumonia and pulmonary congestion set in, and though he rallied after the first severe attacks, and there was some hope of his recovery, a relapse occurred in the spring, and on the 27th of March, 1889, he died, as he had lived, peacefully, honored, mourned and lamented, the world over.
At the news of his death, the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New-York passed resolutions expressing their appreciation of his great services and noble Christian char- acter, declaring that his splendid fame as a statesman and orator were the peculiar inheritance of the English speaking race, and that his firm adherence to his convictions of right and duty was worthy of the highest honor. They also placed on record their loving tribute of gratitude to his memory for his unwavering friendship for the United States, and his powerful advocacy of the preservation of the Union during the late struggle.
GIDEON LEE.
GIDEON LEE was one of the many noted men of New- England birth who have found their way to the metropolis of the Republic in quest of occupation and fortune during the century. Having lost his father at an early age, and been thrown upon his own resources before he was four-
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teen, the success of his efforts to achieve fame and fortune were due wholly to his native energy of character. There was so much of him and in him that he would have distin- guished himself in any calling in life to which choice or circumstances had assigned him. His intellect was so superior that it qualified him for leadership in spite of his lack of opportunities for acquiring education. We are accustomed to the phrase, "a self-made man," and the popular partiality runs strongly in favor of those who have worked their way up to position and influence without any adventitious aid. GIDEON LEE was one of the finest types of this class, and every step in his useful and honor- able career may be studied with advantage by the young men of later generations who are to compete for the prizes of thrift and industry.
Mr. LEE was born in Amherst, Mass., April 27th, 1778. In his fourteenth year he was apprenticed to a tanner and shoemaker, the two occupations being at that time com- bined. He worked at tanning in summer and at shoe- making in winter.
After learning his trade he began business on his own account in Worthington, Mass. The first hundred dollars he earned he expended in increasing his stock of learning at Westfield Academy. He was associated with a Mr. HUBBARD, the firm being HUBBARD & LEE. In the course of business he became acquainted with WILLIAM EDWARDS, then of the firm of DWIGHT & EDWARDS, of Cummington, Mass. ; and in 1807 they made him an offer of $1,000 a year to go to New-York and sell their leather, which he accepted. After acting in that capacity a year, he decided to operate for himself. Accordingly he hired an old store on the corner of Ferry and Jacob streets, and there the foundation was laid of the great house of GIDEON LEE & Co., which for thirty years thereafter was the synonym of financial reliability and commercial rectitude. Nobody ever doubted GIDEON LEE'S word, whether it was oral or written. It was equally and absolutely good in either case.
In 1819 he admitted his confidential clerk, SHEPHERD KNAPP, into partnership, and they continued together till
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1839, when both retired. In 1837 CHARLES M. LEUPP, Mr. LEE'S son-in-law and a clerk in the house, was accorded a place as junior partner.
Mr. LEE took high rank among the merchants of the metropolis at an early stage of his career and held it to the end.
In 1822 he was elected to the lower house of the New- York Legislature. For three years, from 1828 to 1830, in- clusive, he was an Alderman. These were days when few if any but men of acknowledged worth were chosen to the municipal councils. In 1833 he was elected Mayor of New-York by the Common Council. That was before Mayors were voted for by the people. During his term the noted election riot occurred, in which the State Arsenal was attacked ; it was promptly suppressed, owing to his energy and courage. In 1834 he was elected to Congress and served one term, from March 4, 1835, to March 4, 1837. He declined a re-election, with the intention of retiring from business, and leaving city life for the quiet of a rural home. In May, 1837, the memorable panic arose, which
brought innumerable houses to bankruptcy. GIDEON LEE & Co. held large stocks of leather in their stores and in tanneries. It was impossible, in that momentous crisis, to realize upon them. The firm were leaned upon by several concerns to whom they had been accustomed to render assistance. They were obliged, to use an expression much in vogue in periods of financial straits, to "take care of both sides of the bill book." Their bills payable they met at maturity ; their bills receivable they could not collect. To fortify themselves against any and every danger, Mr. KNAPP was despatched to Boston to negotiate a loan from EBENEZER FRANCIS, on the pledge of leather at half price as security. Mr. FRANCIS received the pro- posal with satisfaction, perceiving a good opportunity to put some of his money where it would command good interest. But he warned Mr. KNAPP that he should charge him a high rate. His idea of usance, however, was some- thing like that of OLIVER SURFACE, in SHERIDAN'S great comedy, for when he was asked, "how much ?" he said,
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with an evident misgiving that he would be taken for a SHYLOCK, "eight per cent. per annum." Mr. KNAPP felt relieved ; he had just come from a city where a man was considered very lucky if he could prevail upon anybody to lend him money on first class collaterals, at twelve per cent., and there were borrowers who were forced to pay thirty per cent. The bargain was closed without further parley, and leather sent on to Boston to be stored, insured and hypoth- ecated to an amount on which Mr. FRANCIS advanced $100,000. That made the firm comparatively easy till the crisis was passed. Two years and a half later, that leather was sold for almost double what it would have brought- if it could have been sold at all-at the time the loan was procured. Eight months after it was all closed out the market price declined about thirty-three and a third per cent.
On the 1st of February, 1839, Mr. LEE and Mr. KNAPP retired, the former to remove to Geneva, N. Y., where he had purchased a fine estate, and the latter to assume the Presidency of the Mechanics' Bank, in Wall-street, which he held with so much distinction for thirty or more years. It was Mr. KNAPP who made the brief but highly effective speech at the meeting of bankers, held in 1861, to consider the appeal of SALMON P. CHASE, Secretary of the Treasury, for their co-operation to sustain the Government. "Why, of course," said Mr KNAPP, "we must support the Secre- tary to the fullest extent our means will allow ; if the Government is not sustained we shall not be good long ; we must stand or fall together." The force of this argu- ment was irresistible, and from that moment there were always funds enough available for the vigorous prosecution of the struggle against rebellion. Mr. KNAPP died on the 22d of February, 1875, at the age of about eighty years.
In 1840 Mr. LEE was selected as one of the electors of the State of New-York, and voted for HARRISON and TYLER. He had been a democrat all his life until 1837. At that time he took issue with the VAN BUREN adminis- tration on the currency question, and seceded from the party, with a number of others, including NATHANIEL P.
8
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TALMADGE, United States Senator. They called them- selves " Conservatives," and kept up an organization for a year or two, but gradually gravitated to and were merged in the Whig party. That was his last official position.
He died on the 24th of August, 1841, aged 63 years.
In person, GIDEON LEE was a man of commanding appearance. There was a blending of amiability with firmness in his countenance which gave it a peculiar fascination. Strangers when they met him were very apt to look at him intently as if impressed with his striking personality. He was tall, erect and dignified. He was sometimes stern of aspect, but never forbidding, for there was so much kindness in his nature that it was pleasingly expressed in his features. He had a thoroughly generous heart, and was always ready to extend a helping hand to young men seeking to make their way in life, if he had faith in their integrity. He had no toleration for anybody who was untruthful and disingenuous. If a man deceived him once, he wanted as little as possible to do with him ever thereafter. His sterling uprightness was the most conspicuous trait in his character.
He was so good, so true, so just, that if the human race were up to his standard in an ethical point of view, the mil- lennium would be with us. It seems hardly possible that any human being could be more scrupulously observant than he was of the Scriptural injunction, "Do unto others as ye would others should do unto you."-ISAAC H. BAILEY.
AMBROSE C. KINGSLAND.
AMBROSE C. KINGSLAND was born in this City May 24th, 1804, and died here October 13th 1878, in the 75th year of his age. He was Mayor of New-York from 1851 to 1853 ; a member of the Chamber of Commerce from 1851 to 1878, and for many years was one of New-York's representative merchants. His father was also a resident of this City, and was descended from a family which came from England
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about the year 1665, and settled upon a tract of land situ- ated on what is known as Barbadoes Neck, between the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers, in the State of New- Jersey. The patent for this track of land, amounting to several thousand of acres, had been obtained from the British crown. Mr. KINGSLAND was educated at the Friend's Seminary in this City, and, about the year 1820, formed a partnership with his brother, DANIEL C. KINGS- LAND, under the firm name of D. & A. KINGSLAND, and conducted a grocery business at No. 49 Broad-street, within a few doors of the place occupied by the firm in later years. The scope of the firm's business was after- wards enlarged, greater risks were assumed, and the house became prominent in the shipping trade, whale oil being its specialty. This firm fitted out, and sent from this port the first ship to cruise for sperm whales. CORNELIUS K. SUTTON, a cousin of the KINGSLANDS, entered the firm in 1843 as a partner, and the firm name was then changed to D. & A. KINGSLAND & Co., which afterwards became D. & A. KINGSLAND & SUTTON. Mr. AMBROSE C. KINGSLAND married in 1833 Miss MARY LOVETT, a daughter of GEORGE LOVETT, a successful merchant of this City, over half a century ago.
The firm of D. & A. KINGSLAND & SUTTON continued until the death of DANIEL C. KINGSLAND in 1873; at that time it was transacting a large business with England, China and the East Indies, the firm's vessels being con- stantly employed between those countries and the United States.
Mr. KINGSLAND was the first Mayor of New-York elected to serve for the term of two years, and to him is due the credit of suggesting a large public park for the City. The development of this idea resulted in the estab- lishment of the present Central Park. Many will remember that during Mr. KINGSLAND's term of office a proposition was made to extend Pine-street through Trinity Church Yard. The scheme was, however, strongly opposed by the Mayor and the Church corporation, and finally de- feated.
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