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a bankrupt, round hirnself wealthy at its close."1 During the attack on New Orleans by the British forces, under Sir John Packenham in 1815, he had immense quantities of cotton in the city--all or which depended upon the issue of the struggle, whether it should change hands, or continue his property. The result or the attack is known; the British troops were repulsed, and New Orleans saved.2
A few years afler the termination of the war, about 1818, he abandoned his former business, removed his office to 46 Front Street, and entered into the shipping trade, building many fine ships, and sending them, laden with cargoes or his own, to all parts of the world, especially to China and the Dutch and English possessions in the East Indies. He also owned a large interest in the Kermet line of packets plying between New York and Liverpool. He invested extensively in real estate, principally in the first and seventeenth wards of the city; and the rapid rise in values added considerably to his wealth. He was among the projectors and founders of the great lines of railways and canals, which have done so much to increase the prosperity of New York, being largely interested in the New Jersey Railroad Co., the Delaware and Hudson Canal Co., the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Co., and many others. He was a director in the Bank of Commerce, the Bank of America, and several other banks and monied institutions. The last thirty years of his life were devoted entirely to the care and improvement or his property, which, soon after his death, was appraised, by the executors of his will, at $4,419,422.
The following extract from an obituary notice, which appeared in the Journal of Commerce at the time of his death, contains a correct estimate of his character: "One quality, always apparent was the remarkable evenness of his tcmpcr, which shielded him alike from undue elevation with good fortune, or depression with bad fortune. This calm, unruffled temper, aided by the strictest integrity, enabled him to comprehend clearly any enterprise or investment and endowed him with remarkably correct foresight. As he rarely formed erroneous estimates of measures presented for his consideration, and carefully avoided all schemes merely speculative, he uniformly secured favorable results. His intelligent simplicity enabled him to view men and measures without gliding into impetuous conclusions; but rather, coolly and deliberately determining on his plans, he adhered to them with uncommon tenacity of purpose. His course was always frank and straightforward. Discountenancing all devious ways of obtaining desired results; especially abhorring all schemes and subsidies employed by designing men, and enjoining. almost with his last words, against all concession to terrorists or tempters he patiently awaited results from causes obviously proper. Hence, he always turned from projects which created large indebtedness, and spurned the devices too often employed by capitalists to delude parties and disguise the true con-
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