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 LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
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 INCIDENTS 
 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA 
 
 HISTORICAL FACTS, HIS FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS WITH THE GOVERNMENT, 
 AND HIS COURSE ON IMPORTANT POLITICAL QUESTIONS, 
 
 FROM 1S00 TO 18 55. 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 1855.
 
 B 3 55 
 
 Q 
 
 •oj>> 
 
 0o 
 
 
 4^ 
 
 
 Fj 
 
 ing in the Hall— Mr. Madison re-elected 
 President — Declaration of War with Great 
 Britain — Convention at Albany — Memo- 
 rial to Congress to defer the War — Colonel 
 Taylor's Speech — Law passed to borrow 
 Sixteen Millions — Lends Large Sums to 
 Government — Opposition of Federal Party 
 to the War — Subscribers to the Loan for 
 Government. 
 
 16 
 
 W Page. 
 
 Family of Jacob Barker — Relationship with 5 
 
 Benjamin Franklin — Education — First 
 Speculations in Trade — Early History of 
 Nantucket — Perils of Whale Fishing — 
 First Purchase of Ships — Marries — Com- 
 mences Business — Loses his Capital — 
 Contracts with the United States to sup- 
 ply Light-houses with Oil. 
 becomes Owner of many Ships — Sends a 
 vessel to Nantucket with Flour — Captured 
 by a British Frigate — Establishes Steam 
 Communication between New Bedford 
 and Nantucket — Relieves the Banks of 
 Nantucket from Embarrassment — Im- 
 
 - fc -^ ports for Fulton first Steam Engine suc- 
 cessfully used for propelling Vessels — 
 
 "**^~ Methods of Book Keeping and Calculating 
 
 lv Interest — Aaron Burr's Conspiracy — In- 
 
 ^. terview with Thomas Jefferson. 
 W Non-importation Resolutions of Philadelphia 
 Merchants in 1765 — Mr. Barker meets 
 with great Marine Losses — Jefferson's Em- 
 bargo — SpeechofDe Witt Clinton — Trans- 
 actions with United States Branch Bank — 
 Opposes renewal of United States Bank 
 Charter — Supports the Non-intercourse 
 Laws — Letter of General Washington. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 V 
 
 
 19 
 
 _"i. Tammany Hall, New York, built— Mr. Bar- 55 
 ker one of Building Committee — First Meet- 
 
 Page. 
 Mr. Barker's exertions in raising money 41 
 
 made known to Congress — Enmity of the 
 Federal Party to those assisting in carry- 
 ing on the War — Investigation relative to 
 Sixteen Million Loan — Elisha R. Potter — 
 Contract between the Treasury and Girard 
 & Parish of Philadelphia. 
 
 Petition to Congress to establish a National 45 
 Bank — Plan of raising money — Contract 
 with the Treasury — Opposition to the Loan 
 — Correspondence with the Treasury De- 
 partment — Negotiation with the City Bank 
 — Issue of Funded Stock — Remonstrance 
 to the Secretary of the Treasury . 
 
 Opposition of the Treasury Clerks — Difficul- 75 
 ties of raising money — Supplemental Stock 
 — Project of establishing a National Bank 
 — A new Loan authorized by Congress — 
 Opinion of R. Rush, Attorney General — 
 New Certificates of Stock — Opinion of 
 William Pinckney — Mark of continued 
 confidence by the Treasury — Attempt to 
 sell Stock in London during the War — 
 Assignment to Creditors — Paper Currency 
 — Depreciated Paper accepted by the 
 Treasury. 
 
 Petition to Congress for relief — Referred to 96 
 Committee — Speech before Committee — 
 Committee report bill for relief — Court of 
 Claims established — Invasion of Washing- 
 ton by a British Army — Battle of Bladens- 
 burg — General Armstrong — Excitement in 
 Washington — Letter of General Arm- 
 strong — Resignation of General Harrison 
 — Appointment of General Jackson — Mrs. 
 Madison's departure from Washington — 
 Mr. Barker and Mr. De Peyster — Mis- 
 taken for English spies and arrested — 
 
 Si 
 
 70 
 
 <W4
 
 IV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 Preservation of Stuart's Washington at 
 request of Mrs. Madison— Disbanding of 
 troops at Montgomery Court House — No 
 provision, shelter, or camp equipage there 
 for the army — Expedition to Baltimore for 
 bread— Burning of the Capitol, President's 
 House, and other public buildings — Evacu- 
 ation of Washington by the British. 
 
 Portrait of Washington restored to the White 113 
 House — Letters from Mrs. Madison — Let- 
 ters to Daniel J. Carroll — Death of General 
 Armstrong — Defence of the General — Loss 
 of property — News of peace — United States 
 Bank — Establishes a Bank — Elected a 
 member of the New York Senate — Dis- 
 tressing commercial news from Liverpool — 
 Run on his Bank — Judgment on question 
 of deviation — New York politics — Estab- 
 lishes a newspaper. 
 
 Presides over meeting in New York nomina- 125 
 ting General Jackson for President — 
 Leaves New York for New Orleans — In- 
 terview with General Jackson at Wash- 
 ington — Views of a United States Bank — 
 Correspondence with Henry Clay — Pet 
 Banks, Specie Circular, repeal of Indepen- 
 dent Treasury — Independent Treasury re- 
 vived. 
 
 Mexican War — Finances — Reasons for estab- 127 
 lishing a United States Bank — Relations 
 with John Wells, esq. — Commercial Em- 
 barrassments — Life of John Wells — North 
 River Bank — A Director Challenged — 
 Prosecution — Election of Directors set 
 aside by Supreme Court — Trial for send- 
 ing Challenge — Verdict — Motion for new 
 Trial — Mr. Barker his own Lawyer — His 
 Speech — Restored to Citizenship — Lieu- 
 tenant William Howard Allen. 
 
 Failure of the Life and Fire Insurance Com- 150 
 pany and other Incorporations in New 
 York in 1826 — Prosecution of Directors 
 and of Mr. Barker, the latter his own 
 Lawyer — His Speech, and that of Mr. B. 
 F. Butler — Jury Disagrees — Mr. Barker 
 Fined $ 100 for Examination of Leavitt, a 
 
 Page. 
 Witness — Conduct of Maxwell, the Dis- 
 trict Attorney-*-New Trial — Speeches of 
 Defence. 
 
 Letter from James Boorman — Resolution of 178 
 various Corporations approving Mr. Bar- 
 ker'sconduct — Application to Judge Wood- 
 ward, of the Supreme Court, for writ of 
 Certiorari — Opinion of the Judge — Ex- 
 posure of Conspiracy against Mr. Barker — 
 Prosecution for Libel. 
 
 Speech of Thomas Addis Emmett, Counsel 184 
 for Mr. Barker — Conduct of Recorder 
 Riker — Memorial to Governor, praying 
 for Investigation — Result — Application to 
 the Supreme Court to change Venue in the 
 Prosecution for Conspiracy — Mr. Barker's 
 Speech — Third Trial for Conspiracy — 
 Speeches of Judge Spencer and T. A. 
 Emmett for Defence — Exceptions taken — 
 Application to Supreme Court — Conduct 
 of District Attorney Maxwell — Judge Ed- 
 wards — Final Result. 
 
 Suit in Chancery — Unparalleled Proceeding 203 
 of bringing forward as Witnesses the Pub- 
 lic Prosecutor and Grand Jurors — Re- 
 moval from Record and Suppressing Im- 
 portant Papers by Maxwell, the District 
 Attorney — Spirit of the Press — Letter from 
 a Friend — Poetical Satire — Publication of 
 Public Prosecutor's Statement — $300 paid 
 by Henry Eckford to Maxwell — Exposure 
 of Maxwell's Conduct — Letter of Henry 
 Eckford to Maxwell — Restitution of the 
 $300 by Maxwell— Article on Duelling. 
 
 Letter to Maxwell — Trade with Prussia — 215 
 Czar Nicholas — Purchase of a Ship by the 
 Czar from Mr. Barker — Russian Magna- 
 nimity — Louisiana Litigation — Conduct of 
 a Judge — Opportune arrival of a Witness — 
 Mr. Barker a Sugar Planter — An attempt 
 to substitute Free for Slave Labor — Views 
 regarding the Negro Race — Fortunes of a 
 Negro Family — Free People of Color in 
 New Orleans. 
 
 St. Charles Hotel at New Orleans— Its De- 222 
 struction by Fire — Proceedings of the
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 Stockholders — Hotel rebuilt — U. S. Branch 
 
 Mint at New Orleans — Yellow Fever — Mr. 
 Barker and his Doctor — Meeting at New 
 Orleans in favor of Texas Annexation — 
 Mr. Barker's Speech — Nomination of Gen- 
 eral Taylor for President — Mr. Barker's 
 exertions in support of the General — Reso- 
 lutions prepared by Mr. Barker — Commu- 
 nication to New York Herald, which was 
 extensively published in that and other pa- 
 pers throughout the nation. 
 
 General Taylor Elected— Views of Office- 233 
 holding — General Taylor relies on the 
 "Whig Party for support — Publication of 
 Mr. Barker's Views — Generals Cass and 
 Pierce — Address to the Jeffersonian Club 
 of New Orleans — Return of Clay and Gal- 
 latin from Ghent — Privateering — Adopted 
 Citizens — Sketch of Political Parties. 
 
 Mr. Barker's first appearance before the 250 
 New York courts. 
 
 York versus Chilton — Question of Consul's 251 
 authority to remove a Ship-master — Se- 
 questration of Chronometer — Difficulty 
 with the Mate — Legal Proceedings of the 
 Mate — Payment of Judgment and Costs — 
 Decision of the Supreme Court of Louisi- 
 
 Page. 
 ana — Verdict — Letters of Chilton to York — 
 
 Action for recovery of Chronometer — 
 Correspondence of Mr. Barker with the 
 British Gonsul — Agreement of York with 
 Owner — Sailing Orders — Plea of Mr. Bar- 
 ker in Recorder's Court — Proposed Com- 
 promise — Retraction by York of Offensive 
 Expressions — Illegal Proceedings of the 
 Clerk of the United States Admiralty 
 Court — Order of Court for the Delivery of 
 the Barque — Testimony of the Clerk — 
 Fraudulent Order obtained by Chilton's 
 Counsel — Rule for Contempt of Court — 
 Remarks of Mr. Barker in the District 
 Court — Captain York's Complaint to the 
 British Government — Reply of the British 
 Government — Letter of the British Consul 
 to the Earl of Aberdeen — Trial of the 
 Case — Evidence of Captain Berry — Ver- 
 dict for $7,500— Rule for a New Trial- 
 Mr. Barker's opposition. 
 
 The Judge refuses a New Trial on Plaintiff's 279 
 agreeing to reduce the Verdict to $3,000 — 
 Plaintiff's counsel files a remittiture. 
 
 Petition to Court of Claims — European war — 280 
 Policy of the United States — Finances of 
 Europe.
 
 IKE LIBRAE 
 
 OFThfc 
 
 UNIVERSITY Of ILLINOIS
 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The object of this book is to present the gene- 
 alogy of Jacob Barker to his fellow-citizens, 
 with some incidents of his eventful life, which 
 has already extended more than three-quar- 
 ters of a century, with a narrative of his 
 friendly relations with many distinguished men, 
 and of his combats with those who en- 
 deavored to impugn his every act. Mr. Bar- 
 ker is particularly anxious to have his polit- 
 ical opinions perpetuated, and that his ac- 
 tion in the support of his country at the time of 
 her greatest need should be known in detail, 
 and finally, that the facts which constitute the 
 merits of his existing claim on the government 
 of the United States for money lent to Carry on 
 the war with Great Britain of 1812, should be 
 placed before the public. He cannot but think 
 that if a member of the Federal party, when 
 they were in power, had rendered similar ser- 
 vices, he would have been dealt with very differ- 
 ently ; the whole land would have resounded 
 with his praise. 
 
 The reader may find some interest in the pe- 
 rusal of the letter of General "Washington to 
 Mr. Madison; the articles of the Philadelphia 
 Association, formed ten years before the revo- 
 lution, not to import British fabrics ; the history 
 of Nantucket; the character of John Wells; in- 
 cidents in the life of General Armstrong; the 
 opinions of many illustrious men as expressed 
 by themselves ; the speeches of Mr. Barker and 
 of his counsel on the duelling and conspiracy 
 trials ; the certiorari of Judge Woodworth ; a 
 review of the causes which led to the war of 
 1812; of the restrictive system; of the battle of 
 Bladensburg; of the capture of the city of Wash- 
 ington ; with Mr. Barker's remarks concerning 
 a national bank ; the finances of the nation ; its 
 currency; the Democratic and Federal parties; 
 a chronological sketch of the ancestry of Doc- 
 tor Franklin. From these points, taken to- 
 gether, some interesting facts connected with 
 the history of the country may be gathered. 
 
 The Author has had free access to the jour- 
 nal, correspondence, and other papers of Mr. 
 Barker, and been permitted to select therefrom 
 for publication such as he might think would 
 be of interest to the reader. 
 
 Mr. Barker's political opinions subjected him 
 and his measures to the uncompromising hos- 
 tility of those who entertained different views, 
 the effect of which was to sharpen his appetites, 
 lead him into combat, and urge him forward 
 totally regardless of consequences ; this, to- 
 gether with his pride of opinion and love of vic- 
 tory, occasioned him many difficulties which 
 men less impulsive and less confiding in them- 
 selves would have avoided ; the freedom with 
 which he handled his opponents indicated his 
 confidence in the goodness of his cause, and 
 established the independent character of his 
 mind. 
 
 From what was said and written by himself 
 and by his friends, the reader will be enabled 
 to form a better opinion than from anything the 
 Author can add ; his temperance, industry and 
 enterprise, may be thought worthy of imitation 
 by those youths who have to wrestle with the 
 rough and selfish world for fortune and fame ; 
 his example may inspire them with confidence 
 to undertake what otherwise would seem fraught 
 with too many difficulties. Although friendless 
 and pennyless, with a very limited education, 
 he did not hesitate to embark on a sea of un- 
 certainty in transactions of the first magnitude, 
 and accomplished much. 
 
 The result of some of Mr. Barker's operations 
 will be here detailed, and nothing will astonish 
 the reader more than to be told that the man 
 capable of originating and executing such 
 plans, who, by his own exertions, rose from 
 humble life to be the pivot on which this im- 
 portant nation rested at one of the most im- 
 portant periods of its history, had the control 
 of countless millions a great portion of his 
 life, owned fleets of ships, steamboats, num-
 
 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 berless houses and stores, dealt with emperors, 
 kings and republics, should, when those earthly 
 gods vanished, devote himself with apparent 
 pleasure and elasticity to an humble business 
 scarcely sufficient to maintain his family. 
 
 All impartial readers will feel pain that bet- 
 ter success had not rewarded such enterprise, 
 such plans, which, in many cases, came very 
 near resulting magnificently, frequently over- 
 thrown by unlooked for occurrences which no 
 human skill could have guarded against. 
 
 Matters relating to the demand of personal 
 satisfaction from a director in the North River 
 Bank, to the conspiracy trials, to the currency, 
 loans and a national bank, will occupy so much 
 room that many of the incidents of Mr. Barker's 
 life, of minor importance, and particularly of 
 those occurring at New Orleans, will be re- 
 served for a second volume. At the latter 
 place he was frequently publicly assailed by 
 editors and others who supposed they could make 
 political or financial capital from such generous 
 assaults ; on one occasion a gentleman from 
 an interior parish, who had recently taken 
 up his residence in the Crescent City, became 
 a candidate for political favor, and in an ad- 
 dress to an assembled multitude at St. Mary's 
 market, made what Mr. Barker considered an 
 illiberal reference to him. His speech was 
 published in the Delta of the 12th of October, 
 1851, and called forth a reply from Mr. Barker, 
 which is given as explanatory of his support of 
 General Taylor for the Presidency, and of his 
 disappointment at the political course of that 
 military chieftain after he was elected Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 The gentleman from the interior was not 
 elected, and thus discovered that he was in 
 error in relation to public opinion. 
 [To the Editor of the Delta.] 
 TACIT MORTGAGES AND FREE BANKING. 
 
 " Having been referred to by name in a 
 speech made at a public meeting by a candi- 
 date, and in the newspapers, in connexion with 
 these questions, which are expected to come 
 before the next legislature, a remark from me 
 may serve to correct error, and be otherwise 
 useful. 
 
 "The money referred to was lent on the se- 
 curity of plantations, supposed to be free from 
 incumbrance — so certified by the most able 
 counsel in the State. There having been de- 
 falcation in the payments, a foreclosure was 
 sought. In one case a preference was claimed 
 by the heirs of the deceased wife, under the law 
 
 establishing tacit mortgages, alleging that the 
 wife of the debtor had died twenty years before 
 the money was borrowed, and that her share of 
 the community interest had not been settled. 
 This claim, after fifteen years troublesome and 
 expensive litigation, was defeated by my being 
 enabled to establish the insolvency of the com- 
 munity at the death of the wife, and the whole 
 debt was collected, amounting to sixty-eight 
 thousand dollars. This, the orator, or his pub- 
 lisher, calls ' indifferent success.' The difficulty 
 of persons at a distance establishing the insol- 
 vency of parties residing here, after a lapse of 
 thirty or forty years, is so great that no prudent 
 man will lend his money on mortgages liable to 
 such an impediment. 
 
 " Again, had the community been solvent at 
 the death of the wife, the debt would have been 
 lost to the extent of her interest in the com- 
 munity. 
 
 " There is another fatal objection to mort- 
 gage security in Louisiana, viz : allowing syn- 
 dics and executors to cancel mortgages without 
 first paying the debt professed to be secured by 
 such mortgage; whenever it becomes necessary 
 to settle an estate, the residue interest of the 
 deceased or insolvent only should be sold by the 
 syndic or executor — in other words, should be 
 sold subject to the mortgages, leaving them in- 
 violate. 
 
 " Several of my clients have suffered severely 
 from the practice sanctioned by our courts in 
 relation thereto — I do not say by the operation 
 of the lrw, for I thiuk the law susceptible of a 
 different construction. 
 
 " In one case the executor cancelled the 
 mortgage, sold the property, and applied $1,500 
 to the payment of one counsel, and claimed 
 $700 for another, for services in settling the 
 estate, and a large amount for other expenses, 
 there being no other available property, leaving 
 a very small balance for the mortgage creditor. 
 Had the avails been less than these large fees 
 and other expenses, the whole claim I repre- 
 sented would have been lost. 
 
 '"These impediments cost Louisiana millions 
 every year, in commissions for acceptances, 
 and exorbitant interest, besides the inconveni- 
 ence arising from not being enabled to borrow 
 on mortgage security ; and so long as they are 
 permitted to last, it would be idle to attempt to 
 borrow money in other States, or in foreign 
 countries, on Louisiana mortgage security, al- 
 though money there is abundant on satisfac- 
 tory security, at an interest of three or four per 
 cent, per annum. Could money be borrowed 
 on such terms in Europe, and brought here, 
 there would not be any lack of capital where- 
 with to construct railroads, and to promote all 
 useful improvements ; in fact, every department 
 of trade would feel the beneficial effect of such 
 an expansion of active specie means — the me- 
 chanic, the laborer, the merchant, and the ten- 
 ant, as well as the owner of real estate. 
 
 "As to free banking, it is now as free as air,
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 with the exception of the oppressive tax im- 
 posed on those who conduct that business. 
 What those who ask for a law on the subject 
 want is an exemption from liability for their 
 banking operations beyond the amount they 
 think proper to embark, which law our consti- 
 tution prohibits the legislature from enacting, 
 — this they call free banking. I could not ob- 
 ject to such a law if constitutional, although con- 
 tent to remain liable to the extent of all my 
 operations, banking, equally with all my other 
 transactions in life. 
 
 "One word more for myself. I do not think it 
 was wise, politic, or in good taste, to mix the 
 name or business of any individual, not a can- 
 didate, with these discussions. They should be 
 general, not personal. 
 
 " I have been inactive business here for more 
 than seventeen years ; came here with my fam- 
 ily, my ships, my merchandise, my servants, 
 my furniture, and other appendages of life, in- 
 tending to make it the place of my permanent 
 residence, and expend my' earnings among 
 those from whom I should derive them ; have 
 passed fifteen summers here — the buildings 
 erected on Gravier street, the vessels dispatched, 
 and other business transacted by me, evidence 
 the number of persons who have found employ- 
 ment from my enterprise. I am known to the 
 whole community, every member is at liberty 
 to deal with me or not, as he may think proper. 
 If an active demonstration before their eyes for 
 seventeen years is not enough, human life will 
 be too short for them to acquire the necessary 
 information. 
 
 "I am not a candidate for professional em- 
 ployment, nor have I been for a long period; 
 the time wasted in hanging about the courts, 
 waiting for a cause to come on, is distasteful to 
 me, and at my time of life I cannot afford such 
 an encroachment on my enjoyments. 
 
 "Why these men continue to dwell upon the 
 support I gave to the nomination of General 
 Taylor, I do not know; the Democratic party 
 should be satisfied therewith ; they know full 
 well that I was as much disappointed in the 
 course pursued by General Taylor in the selec- 
 tion of his cabinet and the other appointments 
 to office as any man in the nation, and sincerely 
 wished it had been otherwise ; yet they were 
 minor considerations to the great questions 
 which led to his nomination. The Whigs had 
 obtained a majority in Congress — were opposed 
 to the further prosecution of the Mexican war — 
 there was no other way to counteract their 
 measures than to selectyb?" them a President in 
 favor of the vigorous prosecution of that war ; 
 and after the war had been gloriously termi- 
 nated, mainly by the bravery and skill of that 
 great military captain, no friend of mine could 
 wish me to have brokeu faith pledged in favor 
 of that nomination, or to have abandoned the 
 hero of that war; to honor him with the Presi- 
 dency was to give eclat to the daring deeds of 
 our soldiers and renown to our army ; the work 
 has been accomplished, every American heart 
 is reveling in the splendor of the position ac- 
 quired, and every Democratic friend of General 
 Taylor is found in the Jeffersonian ranks." 
 JACOB BARKER.
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 Doctor Benjamin Franklin and Jacob Bar- 
 ker both descended from John Folger and 
 Meribah Gibbs ; Peter, their only child, was 
 born at Norwich, in England, in 1618, and died 
 at Xantucket in 1690, and his wife in 1704; 
 they came to America in 1636, settled on Mar- 
 tha's Vineyard in 1659; he visited Nantucket 
 in the first boat that went there; accompanied 
 Christman Coffin as interpreter for the Indians, 
 by whom the island was inhabited; in 1644= he 
 married with Mary Morell; they had nine chil- 
 dren, two sons and seven daughters, of whom 
 Abiah was one; she was born in Nantucket in 
 1667. 
 
 Abiah was the mother of Doctor Benjamin 
 Franklin ; she married with Josiah Franklin, 
 of Boston, where Doctor Franklin was born on 
 the 6th of January, 0. S., 1706; he died at 
 Philadelphia, April 17, 0. S., 1790. 
 
 John Folger, jr., was another of the nine 
 children of Peter Folger, born in 1659, and died 
 in 1732; he married with Mary Barnard, daugh- 
 ter of Nathaniel; she was born February 24, 
 1657 ; died in 1736. They also had nine chil- 
 dren, of whom Bethiah was one; she married 
 in 1692 with Samuel Barker, the grandfather 
 of Jacob Barker; Samuel was the son of Isaac 
 Barker, of Duxbury, England. Samuel was 
 born September 2, O. S., 1667, and died Feb- 
 ruary 1,1739. 
 
 Eleazer Folger was also another of the afore- 
 said nine children of Peter; he was born in 
 164S, and died 1716, leaving five children, of 
 whom Nathan was one, born 1578, died July 
 2, 1747 ; he married with Sarah Church, daugh- 
 ter of Benjamin ; they left nine children ; Abisha 
 was one, born in 1700 ; he married with Sarah, 
 daughter of Payne Mahew; she died, leaving 
 four children; he married again with Dinah 
 Starbuck, widow of Benjamin, born May 23, 
 1713, died in Hudson, September 1, 1793, leav- 
 ing seven children, of whom Sarah, the mother 
 of Jacob Barker, was one. She was born at 
 Nantucket, October 16, 1739; she married with 
 
 Hezekiah Gardner; he died, leaving one child, 
 Gideon Gardner; she again married with Rob- 
 ert Barker ; he was born at Wood's Hole, Mas- 
 sachusetts, February 12, O. S., 1723. 
 
 The resemblance between the portrait of Dr. 
 Franklin and that of Jacob Barker is very great. 
 
 Jacob's father married and settled at Nan- 
 tucket in early life, removed with his family 
 from Nantucket at the commencement of the 
 revolution, in 1772, to Swan Island, Kennebec, 
 then the province and now the State of Maine, 
 where his father died on the 26th of April, 
 1780. 
 
 Jacob was born there on the 17th December, 
 1779, (the hard winter.) 
 
 Peace was concluded in 1783. 
 
 His mother was an exemplary member and 
 elder of the Quaker church ; Jacob's father not 
 being a member, their children were not born 
 members ; after the death of her husband she 
 associated them with that excellent religious 
 society, and returned with her family to her na- 
 tive island in April, 1785, where she died in 
 1833, in the 94th year of her age. 
 
 Jacob resided there until he reached the age 
 of sixteen ; he then entered the school of William 
 Sawyer Wall, in July, 1796, at New Bedford 
 which he attended until May, 1797, when learn- 
 ing of the death of his brother Isaac, at the 
 Havana, of the yellow fever, he returned to 
 his mother, and for a few months attended 
 the store of John Elkins at Nantucket; his 
 prospects there being unpromising, and he, 
 like most island boys, having a disposition 
 for a sailor's life, determined to seek fortune 
 and fame on the ocean ; for this purpose he 
 shipped as a green hand on board a packet 
 commanded by Wilson Rawson, bound for New 
 York, with the privilege of taking his discharge 
 at that place, his intention being to get a 
 berth on a ship bound for the East Indies. 
 At this time he had one hundred dollars in 
 money, and his absent adventures yielded 
 another hundred dollars ; those to Russia were
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 the most profitable, from thence he imported 
 feather beds and diapers. 
 
 At New York he was met by his brother 
 Abraham, then a partner in the respectable firm 
 of William Botch, jr., & Co., of New Bedford, 
 who induced him to restrain his roving dispo- 
 sition and enter the counting room of Isaac 
 Hicks, an extensive commission merchant at 
 New York. 
 
 Abraham Barker died at Philadelphia, of yel- 
 low fever, in 1819. 
 
 With Mr. Hicks Mr. Barker remained until 
 1800, when he formed a connexion with John 
 Bard, an insurance broker, and Jonas Minturn, 
 as commission merchants. Their connexion 
 was but of short duration. 
 
 Mr. Barker continued to reside in New York 
 until 1834, when he removed to New Orleans, 
 where he continues to reside, blessed with the 
 preservation of his physical and mental facul- 
 ties to a greater degree than is usually accorded 
 to persons of his age. 
 
 The family of Mr. Barker being of Nan- 
 tucket, he claims to be of that place, although 
 not born there. 
 
 On a recent visit to that island, it was his 
 intention to have essayed an article in relation 
 to its history, the pursuits of its inhabitants, 
 and its society, and to have portrayed the fas- 
 cinations of its lovely women ; but that pleas- 
 ant task has been so ably and so truthfully 
 performed by the Rev. H. W. Giles, that he 
 prefers to have the doctor's articles republished 
 from the Weekly Mirror, a newspaper published 
 at Nantucket, by Messrs. Hussey and Robinson: 
 
 "By the politeness of Mr. E. G. Kelley, we 
 have been furnished with a copy of the Au- 
 gusta Age, from which we cheerfully copy the 
 following poetical letter, from Rev. Henry W. 
 Giles, written in his own peculiarly rich, lively 
 and elegant style. Those who have ever been 
 favored by hearing him speak, will thank us for 
 affording them an opportunity to read his views 
 of our island. Mr. G. has an enviable reputa- 
 tion, both as a speaker and writer : 
 
 NANTUCKET. 
 
 "As we have been recently enjoying a sojourn 
 in Nantucket, we hope that a few notes on that 
 famous island may have interest for our readers. 
 The historical facts we give on the authority of 
 Obed Macy, whose history of the island, pub- 
 lished in 1835, is before us while we write. 
 
 " Nantucket was discovered in 1602, by an 
 Englishman, Captain Bartholomew Gosnold. 
 In 1641 Thomas Mahew and his son obtained a 
 
 deed of the island from James Forrett, agent 
 of William, Earl of Sterling. A title was not 
 obtained from the Indians — the native owners — 
 until 1659. This, as yet, was but by verbal 
 agreement. Mahew gave up his title to cer- 
 tain associates, for thirty pounds and two bea- 
 ver hats — one for himself and one for his wife — 
 which intended disposition of the hats is care- 
 fully noted in the deed of sale. The pound, 
 we think, must have been nearer to the Scotch 
 pound of twenty pence, than to the English 
 pound of twenty shillings. A full title in a 
 written document was obtained from the Indi- 
 ans in 1664. 
 
 "The island is situated 30 miles south of the 
 continent, and nearly 60 miles southeast of 
 New Bedford; north latitude 41° 15' 22"; 
 west longitude 70° Y 5V. It is 14 miles long, 
 east and west, 3J broad on an average, north 
 and south, and contains 30,000 acres in area. 
 It is almost in the shape of a crescent, and has 
 the town of Nantucket nearly in the middle 
 point of the hollow. The entrance to the har- 
 bor is obstructed by a bar. The soil is gen- 
 erally sandy, but it is green down to the strand, 
 and is capable of excellent agriculture. The 
 farms which are on it yield good crops ; and 
 vegetables, especially, are both large sized and 
 abundant. Wild grapes are there in plenty, 
 and the cultivated Isabella grape grows there 
 well. Numbers of farms are enclosed, and 
 have a thriving and most comfortable appear- 
 ance. Thousands of sheep formerly spread 
 over the island, but as they destroyed all tim- 
 ber in the bud, and were otherwise inconvenient, 
 they are no longer permitted to run at large. 
 There is now hopes that woods will again, as 
 they did in times past, give shade and beauty to 
 the land. But, though the surface wants shade, 
 it does not want beauty. It is partly level and 
 partly undulating, and rich with verdure and 
 wild flowers. It put us very much in mind of 
 the western prairies, so far as its limited extent 
 could remind us of such boundless spaces. 
 We were not aware, before being in Nantucket, 
 what a splendid flower the thistle could be. It 
 is here in extraordinary variety, and with glo- 
 ries of hue that shower brilliancy on the fields. 
 Swamps, too, there are, that are full of blos- 
 somed shrubs, sparkling to the sun and fragrant 
 in the air. Will the mention of utility blunt 
 the sense of beauty, when we say that these 
 swamps serve for use as well as ornament, and 
 yield peat, which does capitally for fuel. The 
 smell of it burning was to us, we confess, like 
 the sound of a song — like music sad and far 
 away — for it wrapt us in the dream of our early 
 days, it brought us back the vision of our native 
 Erin, with her bogs and her heaths ; we looked 
 across the ocean in that direction, where the 
 wave on the other side was kissing her shore, 
 and we said in our heart, when we forget thee, 
 oh, thou loved one, let our right hand forget 
 her cunning, and when we shall speak thee ill, 
 let our tongue cleave to the roof of our mouth.
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF NANTUCKET. 
 
 " Nantucket, it is thought, will, in course of 
 time, be washed away. It is as a napkin, with 
 which OIJ Ocean is constantly wiping his mouth, 
 it lessens with every clash of foam which he 
 clears away from his beard, until, at last, there 
 will not be two threads of it together. 
 
 "Thomas Macy was the first settler. He 
 was from Wiltshire, in England, whence he 
 came in 1G10, and acquired a good estate of 
 1,100 acres in Salisbury, Massachusetts. But 
 on a certain desolate rainy morning, when he 
 was not in his house, aud when his wife was 
 sick abed, four way-worn Quakers took refuge 
 under his roof, from the inclemency of the 
 storm. It was penal at the time to harbor 
 Quakers. Macy was persecuted, and was 
 obliged to flee his home. He took to the sea in 
 an open boat ; in this lonely island he found 
 security, and among the Indians he met with 
 humanity. What an historic picture we have 
 here, in this Christian victim taking to the waves 
 from stern Puritans — trusting to the mercy of 
 the elements and to the generosity of the roan of 
 nature, to save him from the cruelty of the man 
 of grace. His petition to the court to spare 
 him, with its bald simplicity and its bad Eng- 
 lish, is a most pathetic thing to read. A num- 
 ber of persons joined him afterwards from the 
 town of Salisbury. The island was divided 
 into twenty-seven shares, and this is the division 
 which still continues in the proprietary of the 
 soil. The number of inhabitants soon became 
 large enough to form quite a community ; as 
 they were industrious, they formed a prosperous 
 community ; as they were honest and virtuous, 
 they formed a peaceful community. The mem- 
 bers of the little commonwealth consisted of 
 farmers, fishers and mechanics. ' The first 
 mill of which we have any record,' the histo- 
 rian gravely tells us, 'was one built in 166G, 
 for grinding corn.' But, with honest particu- 
 larity, the worthy annalist informs us that the 
 town had voted ' during the previous year, to 
 have a mill to grind grain, which was to go by 
 horse power.' Why this vote was not carried 
 he does not know, and so it remains with many 
 other events among the secrets of history. A mill, 
 however, was erected, which was to go by water, 
 and such amill,we take itfor granted, could grind 
 both grain and corn. It was given to the charge 
 of Peter Folger, and Peter Folger, it appears, 
 was a person of many talents. He was ' to 
 officiate as miller, weaver and interpreter.' 
 y His son Eleazer was to act as shoemaker.' 
 Besides being miller, weaver and interpreter, 
 Peter Folger ' acted also as surveyor of land.' 
 
 " The whale fishery, which has been since the 
 leading business of Nantucket, began very 
 early. The first whales were captured near the 
 shores. They came and were killed. Even 
 still they have a sly liking to old Nantucket, aiid 
 occasionally a stray whale comes near to it to 
 give a puff and to take a peep — it may be, some 
 venerable fish of other days. But those who 
 make merchandise of oil care no more for a 
 
 whale of sentiment than for the most unpoetic 
 whale that swims, and so the romantic rover 
 gets harpooned in spite of his tender imagina- 
 tion, lie is most prosaically cut up, vulgarly 
 boiled, transmuted into fluid, and the only re- 
 mark which his unfortunate memory occasions 
 is as to how many barrels of oil he produced. 
 This might be thought in the way of nature, 
 but sometimes he is subjected to base indigni- 
 ties. While we were lately in Nantucket, a 
 whale paid a visit to the place. He came, we 
 supposed, to flounder for a while in the waters 
 of his ancestors, but he paid dearly for his do- 
 mestic affections in the loss of his life. He was 
 tugged into the harbor; then, instead of being 
 honorably cut up and boiled, he was first exhib- 
 ited at so many cents a head. A friend re- 
 marked to us that 'it was too bad, it was really 
 not right to have the great animal of the ocean 
 thus Barnumized. He will make sixty barrels, 
 and could not that suffice?' We were not so 
 shocked, we told our friend, because we once 
 heard of a man who exhibited his grandmother, 
 or all that remained of her. Her body was 
 found petrified in a cemetery. It was a curi- 
 osity, popular as well as scientific. Her grand- 
 son thought he might as well turn a penny on 
 her, and charged twenty-five cents to each per- 
 son who wished to take a sight. It is not easy 
 always to say what is property, and still less 
 easy to say what are the rights of property, and 
 we leave it to those learned in the law to deter- 
 mine whether a man has most real ownership 
 in the corpse of a dead grandmother or in the 
 carcase of a captured whale, and whether, when 
 exhibiting them for a fee, one has not as much 
 right as the other to do what he likes with his 
 own, be it a slaughtered whale or a petrified 
 grandmother. 
 
 "The whale fishery, once established, had re- 
 munerative success. When whales became 
 scarce in the neighboring ocean, the adventur- 
 ers extended their researches. The Indians 
 lived amicably with the whites, and joined with 
 them in this bold as well as gainful sport. Ves- 
 sel was added to vessel, until fleets peopled the 
 southern ocean, and the trade employed in its 
 service a great navy of its own. ' It is remark- 
 able,' observes Mr. Macy, 'that notwithstanding 
 the people had to leai-n the business of whaling, 
 and to carry it on under many hazardous cir- 
 cumstances, yet not a single white person was 
 killed or drowned in the pursuit in the course 
 of seventy years preceding 17G0.' The busi- 
 ness advanced, and it was found of such value 
 in all its departments, from the catching of the 
 whale to the wick of the candle or the lamp 
 which burned him, that besides New Bedford 
 and Cape Cod, many other portions of New 
 England became interested in it, and invested 
 no little in it of their industry and their capital. 
 It appears that this great business, of which 
 Nantucket was the parent, has of late years 
 made New Bedford its centre, and that though 
 oil is still manufactured in Nantucket, the largest
 
 8 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 portion of the shipping is owned in New Bed- 
 ford. 
 
 " Nantucket suffered much privation during 
 the revolutionary war. The prevailing religion 
 of that place since 1704 had been that of the 
 Society of Friends. The inhabitants on this 
 account were in conscience pledged against 
 war, and so they became exposed to the enemy 
 without having the sympathy of their country- 
 men. Their industry was paralyzed, their pro- 
 perty was seized, their persons were imprisoned. 
 They remonstrated with English officials, they 
 even petitioned English commanders; and if 
 they met with individual leniency or occasional 
 generosity, the usual treatment which they re- 
 ceived was that of harshness. The inhabitants 
 suffered severely also in the war of 1812. Be- 
 sides the loss to their commerce, they were at 
 one time so shut up, so surrounded by cruis- 
 ers of England, so unprotected by their ownna- 
 tion, that they were in danger of being reduced 
 to a state of famine. The British Admiral, 
 Cochrane, in granting them permission to ob- 
 tain supplies of food and fuel, wrenched con- 
 cessions from their necessities which brought 
 them to the verge of treason, namely, that they 
 should refuse to pay the direct taxes of the gen- 
 eral government. After the peace, Nantucket 
 made good its losses, but in the decline of its 
 general staple, and by emigration to California, 
 it is again upon the wane. It suffered a few 
 years ago from a destructive fire ; it is always 
 liable to vicissitudes at sea, not by shipwrecks 
 alone, but also by unprofitable voyages; much 
 of loss in both ways it frequently endures. 
 Still it keeps its ground. It maintains a popu- 
 lation of 8,000. Some of its people are rich; 
 most of them are in comfort; none of them are 
 allowed to want. It has excellent institutions, 
 intellectual, religious and benevolent. It has 
 its share of poverty, but is without crime. Its 
 poor-house is well cared for, and there is no 
 prisoner in its jail. The office of jailor has the 
 dignity of being a sinecure. It has its poetry, 
 too, and very exciting poetry it is — not poetry 
 in verse, but in narratives of shipwreck and 
 terror, fearful traditions of storms and human 
 struggle, accounts of lonely seas and of sailors' 
 dreams therein, with many an actual marvel, 
 with strange curiosities of imagination and of 
 fact. We can think of no place where, more 
 than in Nantucket, there is the wild story and 
 the charmed tale to make the lights burn blue, 
 and the listeners group around the fire, while 
 the winter wind blows through the starless 
 night, and the surge of the groaning Atlantic 
 ioins in its chorus. And lastly, Nantucket has 
 a watering place, a retreat by the sea from its 
 broad, heated spaces, where the weary that 
 travel over them can find rest, coolness — a re- 
 treat where those who are suffocated in the 
 crowds, bewildered wiih the noise and satiated 
 with the luxury of its metropolis, can put off 
 all the cares of fashion, and enjoy the simplicity 
 of nature. But seriously, Siasconset is a charm- 
 
 ing little nook, with its birds'-nest cottages 
 hugged in the embrace of the wave in which to 
 cool the brow, trauquilize the heart, and forget 
 the vexations of the world. If one cannot have 
 the poetry of a cottage, Mrs. P., in an excellent 
 hotel, will give him the comfort of a home, and 
 he who has been nearly blackened to a cinder 
 in the baking of a city, will in a few evenings 
 here find himself cooled and moistened to the 
 life and temperature of a man. 
 
 " We have some personal impressions of 
 Nantueket to record, but as our space is now 
 exhausted, we defer them to another time." 
 
 NANTUCKET. 
 
 BY REV. HENRY W. GILES. 
 
 "Before giving our personal impressions of 
 Nantucket, we have some remarks to make 
 upon its staple business. This, as every one 
 knows, is connected with the whale. We might 
 here, if we wished merely to fill space, go into 
 a disquisition on the great animal of the ocean, 
 describe their forms, trace them to their haunts, 
 and dwell minutely on their habits ; but our 
 readers will find such information, if any of 
 them should need it, in a child's book of natural 
 history. We have now to do with a whale sim- 
 ply as a source of business, and that in the 
 briefest manner. A species called the ' Right 
 Whale,' used to be found in the Gulf of St. 
 Lawrence, about the year 1761. A whale of 
 this species frequently yielded from 100 to 230 
 barrels of oil, with from 2,500 to 3,200 pounds 
 of bone, which sold for more than a dollar a 
 pound. But the sperm whale is of the most 
 worth, and until of late it was the only one 
 which the adventurers cared to capture. A 
 sperm whale 60 feet long, 24 feet around the 
 largest part of the body, will produce, accord- 
 ing to Nantucket estimate, 60 barrels of oil, and 
 Nantucket ought to know. 
 
 "To show at what cost this trade is carried 
 on, we will state, in the most condensed man- 
 ner, a few items of its expense. There is, 
 first, the expense of capital. ' A fair average 
 price of a ship,' says Mr. Macy, ' ready for the 
 reception of her appropriate stores for a three 
 years' voyage, is about $22,000, and the outfit 
 about $18,000 more. Some have sailed at a 
 much higher price, near $60,000.' This the 
 owners furnish. The captain and crew are 
 paid by shares of the whole, according to a cer- 
 tain scale. The scale varies, we suppose, with 
 circumstances, but it is so adjusted that the risk 
 may be as fair as can be, between capital on 
 one side, and life and labor on the other. Life 
 and labor constitute the second item of expense. 
 They make no light one. Life is endangered 
 in whaling as it is iu all navigation, but besides 
 the ordinary chances of the sea, it has fatalities 
 which are peculiar to itself. r ." whale occa- 
 sionally shows fight, turns on ita - x aers, and
 
 PERILS OF WHALE-FISHING. 
 
 9 
 
 whirls tbem to destruction ; or, sometimes, 
 with too short a line, dives and drags them into 
 the fathomless abyss. Instances occur when a 
 ship is lost by striking against a whale. In 
 1807. the ship Union, Captain Edmund Gard- 
 ner, sailing at the rate of seven knots an hour, 
 struck on a whale. The captain and crew had 
 merely time to provision and launch their boats, 
 and in less than an hour the ship went down. 
 After rowing and sailing for seven days andeight 
 nights — the latter part of the time without food 
 or water, having in a tempest been obliged to 
 lighten the boats— they gained an island of the 
 Azores, and obtained assistance. But a whale 
 will also attack a ship. A case of this kind 
 happened to Captain Pollard, of the ship Essex, 
 of Nantucket, in 1820. While he and most of 
 his men were in pursuit of a school of whales, 
 a single whale with two blows destroyed his 
 vessel. When he and his party returned, they 
 and those who had been with the ship, found 
 themselves on the desolate ocean, robbed of 
 their only refuge. They furnished their boats 
 as best they could from the wreck, and set out 
 to reach the nearest land, which was separated 
 from them by 1,000 miles. After enduring in- 
 credible hardships for twenty-eight days, they 
 arrived at Ducie's Island. They procured water 
 there, but could get no food. They ones more 
 embarked, steering for Easter Island, but 
 missed it. Now they aimed for Juan Fernan- 
 dez, which was about 2,500 miles E. S. E. from 
 them. They left Ducie's Island on the 27th of 
 December, and there were then three boats, 
 each respectively commanded by the captain, 
 the mate, and the second mate. On the 10th 
 of January the second mate died, and on the 
 12th the mate's boat parted from the others. 
 On the 17th of February the mate and such of 
 his companions as were alive were picked up 
 hy Captain Grozier, of the brig Indian, from 
 London. The captain and a single survivor 
 were rescued on the 23d of February, by Cap- 
 tain Zimri Coffin, in the ship Dauphin, of Nan- 
 tucket. The second mate's boat was never 
 heard of. Captain Pollard had the misfortune 
 to be afterwards totally wrecked on a coral 
 reef, which is another source of risk in this 
 navigation, all the more fearful that it is at 
 once terrible and unseen. Here are cases that 
 surpass for suffering and struggle the noted 
 stories of Bligh and Byron, yet they are but 
 instances out of numbers equally awful which 
 are on record. 'The whole number of vessels 
 lost, exclusive of captures,' Mr. Macy says, 
 writing in 1835, 'since the settlement of the 
 island, is 168; the loss of lives 414.' The 
 other part of this second item, labor, is very great. 
 We know that a sailor's work, under any cir- 
 cumstances, is severe as well as dangerous. 
 The toil is such as most men would shrink 
 from, and it is constant. It has few mitiga- 
 tions while it lasts. The sailor's food is coarse, 
 his sleep scar ' "hd uncertain ; and while en- 
 gaged in I . ^'oper employment, he is under 
 
 despotic command — often under fierce and ca- 
 pricious tyranny. But the ordinary merchant 
 sailor has constant changes in his life and lim- 
 ited intervals iu his engagements. He knows 
 exactly the point to which he goes, and he goes 
 to it in the shortest way. He sees many coun- 
 tries and cities, many varieties of civilization 
 and people ; his service is brief, and his remu- 
 neration is fixed. The whaleman has all that 
 is worst in this lot ; but his servitude is not for 
 weeks or months — it is for years. His toil i3 
 hazardous; he pursues it on the wild and lonely 
 seas, and if he gets a respite upon land it is 
 commonly among savages, or only in the des- 
 ert. His pay, too, is uncertain ; it depends on 
 his success, and the man who works the hardest 
 has the lowest share. We have not, however, 
 stated yet the item which should count for 
 most — that is, not the loss of comfort, not the 
 loss of ease, not the loss of luxury, but the loss 
 of home. In this the common man and the 
 captain are alike. Both are wanderers and 
 pilgrims upon the deep. The sky bounded 
 waste of waves is their great domain, and the 
 ship their only domicile. Their households 
 they see but with glimpses at distant intervals, 
 and wife and child they clasp only to feel that 
 life is only separation. The voyages have been 
 growing longer as whales have become scarcer. 
 The ordinary voyages used to be three years — 
 it is now, on the whole, five years ; so that in a 
 quarter of a century a man may interrupt by 
 six or seven hasty visits his strangeness towards 
 his family. Yet it is for them he thus make3 
 himself a stranger; for them he becomes the 
 long exile of the homeless seas. There was 
 more pathos than we have read in poems in a 
 few unaffected words which we heard a young 
 man say to another on board the steamboat, on 
 our way to Nantucket. ' I have been at sea,' 
 said he, ' since I was sixteen, and I have not 
 since, all put together, been three months on 
 land.' His age was probably six and twenty. 
 
 "We have been led into these general obser- 
 vations farther than we intended ; so far, in- 
 deed, as to leave us but small room for matters 
 personal. It is as well. 
 
 " Nantucket has a pleasing appearance from 
 the entrance of the harbor. We expected 
 merely to see a few straggling houses along the 
 shore, but were pleasantly surprised to behold 
 a town rising above the water with a sort of 
 steepled stateliness. As we entered the princi- 
 pal business street we were struck with the 
 names over the stores. We read at every point, 
 Macy, Coffix, Swaix. Barxard, Starbuck, 
 &c. When we came to know more of the place, 
 we found that these too were names among the 
 first settlers ; thus we learned how constant 
 their descendants have been to the soil of their 
 fathers. Here is one spot, at least, from which 
 Americans have not been given to change. 
 Another circumstance attracted our notice, 
 which spoke favorably for the people — that was, 
 everywhere I saw abundance of flowers. The
 
 10 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 greatest quantity and the finest of roses we 
 have ever seen, out of the south, we saw in 
 Nantucket. One house with which we were 
 for the time associated was literally clad and 
 covered with them. Wherever there is a love 
 of flowers there must linger yet something of 
 the soul of childhood; there must he there a 
 gentle and a humanizing influence. We are 
 inclined to ascribe this taste for flowers in Nan- 
 tucket to the predominance of womanhood in 
 it. Women form the majority of its permanent 
 residents, and left free to indulge their own 
 likings, we do not wonder at the show of flow- 
 ers. As we can mark the dwelling in which 
 the higher womanly tastes prevail, where re- 
 fined womanly cultivation rules, so we may 
 likewise mark a locality. By-the-by, this pre- 
 dominance of women in Nantucket is every- 
 where visibly observable — in the streets, at par- 
 ties, at concerts, at lectures, and at church. 
 They seemed to us cheerful, healthy — hand- 
 some we need not add, for that will be taken 
 for granted. Upon the whole, we did not ob- 
 serve that their loneliness wore much on them. 
 They did not appear despondent or woe-begone, 
 and bore, we fancied, their state of separation 
 with praiseworthy patience. We have read in 
 tales of chivalry of crusading barons who re- 
 turned home expecting to find their ladies clad 
 in the sorrow of absent wives, and found them 
 dazzling in the ornaments of expectant brides. 
 It would not be so with our knightly whalemen, 
 but in general, we think, they would find their 
 wives in good health and spirits, bright, bloom- 
 ing, and glad to meet them. None but puling 
 sentimentalists would wish it otherwise. And, 
 possibly, women are not so dependent for hap- 
 piness on the lords of creation as these same 
 lords would fain believe. As far as we could 
 judge, Nantucket stands high for female edu- 
 cation and intelligence. It has most excellent 
 schools for both sexes, as well public as pri- 
 vate. Besides opportunities of instruction, 
 there is that in the circumstances of the place 
 which tends to give the female mind a wider 
 scope than it has elsewhere. Women in other 
 places have those who are bound to them in 
 deepest and dearest interest in their home and 
 neighborhood. Here the opposite is the case ; 
 those in whom they are most concerned are re- 
 mote from them, and in many places, so that 
 hardly a woman but has correspondence far 
 and wide with lover, brother, husband, child. 
 Thus circumscription of space leads to enlarge- 
 ment of ideas. Boys next to women abound, 
 or seem to abound, in Nantucket. This seem- 
 ing, we suppose, arises from the absence of men. 
 Visitors, we were told, had complained as to 
 the conduct of these boys. It would not be 
 strange if, without the presence and control of 
 fathers, they were a little wild ; but for our part 
 we never met in any place more courteous 
 youth, more gentlemanly in manners and be- 
 havior ; and this we ascribed partly to the in- 
 fluence of mothers and partly to the excellence 
 
 of the schools. Nantucket is wisely generous 
 in the support of schools, and in addition to 
 those which are supplied by the public fund, 
 another is maintained by a donation from Ad- 
 miral Coffin. A beautiful building is just ready 
 for this school, and shortly it will be in opera- 
 tion under the very best of teaching. We had 
 only opportunity to visit two of the schools. It 
 was our loss. One was the high school, under 
 the admirable talent of Mr. Morse, and the 
 other a grammar school, conducted with felicit- 
 ous ability by Mr. Bunker. In the high school 
 a class was examined in astronomy ; in the 
 grammar school a class recited in anatomy, and 
 our surprise was equal to our delight in seeing 
 how these young minds traced, with a sure in- 
 telligence, with a clear knowledge of the sub- 
 jects in each science, complicated diagrams of 
 the heavens and the human body. Nor is it 
 in schools alone that Nantucket is liberal for 
 intellectual provision. It has two newspapers. 
 A good news room is there, with all the leading 
 journals of the country. Religion has compe- 
 tent support, and its services are numerously 
 attended. The AthenEeum Library consists of 
 some thousands of volumes, which are lodged 
 in a handsome building. This building has a 
 good public hall, which is every winter supplied 
 with a series of lectures, and filled with an in- 
 telligent audience. We know not if Nantucket 
 has done aught for literature, but she has done 
 her share for science. She claims William 
 Mitchell, eminent in astronomy, and his daugh- 
 ter Maria, who has not only contributed to the 
 scientific fame of the nation, but takes her 
 place among the thinking women of the world. 
 "We return once more to that pleasant little 
 r.ook, Siasconset. We wished we could have 
 staid some time in it, but we could not. We 
 regretted this, but there was no help for it. The 
 people there, in their village as well as in their 
 metropolis, were agreeable, kind and hospita- 
 ble, but we had no time for play or pleasure. 
 One part of a day we gave up the life within us 
 to the glory that was around us. The walk i3 
 fine on the green sod above the ocean. We 
 paced along it with the large joy which feeling 
 of heaven and of the sea gives to the heart. 
 The waves beat below us, and sang their great 
 song along the shore and up into the mighty 
 temple of the gorgeous day. We walked on to_ 
 Sancota Head, ascended the lighthouse under 
 the guidance of a bronzed and veteran sailor, 
 Captain Bunker, was interested in the exquisite 
 machinery, was interested in the brave and 
 truthful man who is genius of the lamp to pro- 
 tect his brethren among the billows, but turned 
 away at last from all, and looked with rapture 
 round upon the majesty of nature. A theorist 
 may tell us this is want of mind. We care not 
 what the theorist tells us; if it is so we are wil- 
 ling to want mind, for the rawest things in the 
 simple works of God give us more spiritual, 
 more thoughtful excitement than the ripest 
 things in the works of man. We got back to
 
 DISPOSITION FOR COMMERCIAL PURSUITS. 
 
 11 
 
 the village and found new gladness in the walk. 
 Long may you live, Nantucket, and may your 
 borders never be less. If Old Ocean does wipe 
 you away, we hope it will not be in our time. 
 We trust you will be spared many a century to 
 your sailor sons and to their children, and tbat 
 exultant and revengeful whales will never have 
 the malicious pleasure of spouting in your va- 
 cant place. If our wish could have effect, you 
 would last as long as the waves around you, 
 and as the sky above you." 
 
 Mr. Barker's disposition for commercial pur- 
 suits manifested itself at a very early period ; 
 he had supposed his first essay was three to- 
 bacco boxes. In this he was probably mistaken. 
 
 When last on the island, Captain Stephen 
 West, his senior by four years, in his youth 
 also in the service of James Barker, employed 
 on his packet trading to Boston, informed him 
 that he had sent a small sum of money by him 
 at an earlier period, as an adventure to Boston, 
 to purchase something for the Nantucket mar- 
 ket. 
 
 On the return of the packet he met him at 
 the wharf, and being told that he had invested 
 his money, and would hand him the merchan- 
 dise as soon as the sails were furled, whereupon 
 he accompanied him out on the bowsprit 
 shrouds and aided him in handing the jib. 
 
 The history of the tobacco boxes was this : 
 Mr. Barker was, as a relaxation from the fa- 
 tigues of attending store and other matters for 
 his brother James, permitted to go as cabin 
 boy in his packet to New York and Boston two 
 or three times a year. 
 
 On one occasion the passengers presented 
 him with 31] cents. This he invested at Bos- 
 ton in three iron tobacco boxes, and took them 
 to Nantucket, where he sold two of them for a 
 penny apiece profit ; the other got a little rusty, 
 and was sold at first cost. 
 
 When at Nantucket, forty years thereafter, 
 he met a poor old man hobbling along with the 
 aid of a staff, who abruptly observed, " Jacob, 
 will you take a piece of tobacco ?*' at the same 
 time presenting the box. Jacob replied, "no, 
 I thank you, I do not use tobacco in that way," 
 when the old man said, " do you know that 
 box?'' This brought its sale to the recollection 
 of Jacob, who seizing his hand, said, " is this 
 you, Mr. Ellis ? how do you do ? I am glad to 
 see you looking so well after so long a period." 
 
 Mr. Barker continued to indulge his disposi- 
 tion for traffic until he left the island. 
 
 On one occasion he accompanied his brother 
 James in a vessel loaded with fish, oil, and 
 sperm candles, intending to pass the winter at 
 Troy, New York. The passage beinglong, the 
 navigation of the Hudson became impeded by 
 ice, the vessel could not proceed above Pough- 
 keepsie, where she wintered. 
 
 The crew, with the exception of Mr. Barker, 
 were discharged, and Captain Barker went to 
 Saratoga to pass the winter with his family, 
 who were on a visit to the father of his wife, 
 William Coffin, residing at Easton. 
 
 Jacob, although very young, was entrusted 
 with the disposal of the cargo, which he barter- 
 ed with the country people for pork, lard, 
 wheat, corn, rye, and flax, generally brought to 
 that market during the winter in sleighs. He 
 wound up the whole concern to the satisfaction 
 of his brother James. 
 
 Jacob had one barrel of fish on his own ac- 
 count, which he sold, and trafficked a little in 
 other things, returning to Nantucket with a 
 capital of eight dollars. 
 
 Subsequently he addressed a letter to his 
 brother Gideon Gardner, residing at Hudson. 
 This letter, through the instrumentality of the 
 executor, found its way into the newspapers, 
 after the death of Mr. Gardner. It stated that 
 the writer wished to go to sea, learn a trade, or 
 go to school. The orthography of the letter 
 justified the. latter wish. 
 
 His brother Abraham arranged for him to 
 enter the family of Professor Wall, at New Bed- 
 ford, and attend his school. 
 
 He left the island in the mail packet Maria- 
 commanded by Silas Parker, and had for his 
 fellow passengers the family of Samuel Rod- 
 man, who left the island to take up their abode 
 at New Bedford. The weather was very fine, 
 with a gentle southwest wind ; after passing the 
 lone rock of Wood's Hole, where the tide runs 
 with remarkable swiftness, and the navigation 
 very dangerous, Captain Parker observed to 
 Mr. Rodman that there was another lone rock 
 in the bay which he could point out. Mr. Rod- 
 man replied, "do so, I should like to see it; I 
 did not know of its existence." The helm was 
 put down, the vessel luffed up two or three 
 points, and in fifteen or twenty minutes she 
 struck the rock with such violence that it was 
 very difficult for those on deck to maintain 
 their erect position, when Captain Parker very
 
 12 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 coolly observed, "there it is, Samuel." "Yes," 
 says Samuel, " I perceive." The vessel slid off, 
 and reached the port of her destination in safety. 
 
 Mr. Rodman's residence at New Bedford ma- 
 terially contributed to the great prosperity 
 which has crowned the labors of its enterpri 
 sing inhabitants. 
 
 The professor passed most of his evenings in 
 the room of Mr. Barker. On one occasion he 
 inquired of Mr. Barker how he liked the young 
 ladies of the place. "Very well," was the re- 
 ply, " but not so well as those of Nantucket." 
 "Wait a little," rejoined the professor, "you 
 have not yet seen the rose of my garden, Miss 
 Elizabeth Hazard ; she has been absent from 
 school many months, on a visit to her relations 
 in Naragansett." This young lady returned, 
 when the high commendation of the professor 
 was apparent. 
 
 Young Barker lost no opportunity of ingra- 
 tiating himself with her. After his return to 
 Nantucket the said mail packet Maria became 
 an object of deep interest to him. He watched 
 her arrival with deep solicitude, and the sig- 
 nals, blue, red, and white, streaming horizon- 
 tally from her mast-head, enabled those watch- 
 ful eyes to distinguish her approach at a great 
 distance. 
 
 This three colored piece of bunting made so 
 deep an impression on Mr. Barker that he 
 adopted it for the signal to be worn by his ships 
 in after life. 
 
 When he left New York other merchants 
 applied for it. Mr. Barker replied, "it has 
 proudly waved over my ships in every clime ; I 
 cannot consent for it to designate those owned 
 by others." 
 
 Samuel Hicks, a senior clerk with his brother, 
 reached his majority before Mr. Barker, and 
 embarked in the commission business with 
 Henry Post, under the firm of Hicks and Post. 
 
 Through them young Barker sent to foreign 
 places many adventures, became interested in 
 three ships and one brig, kept an account with 
 the United States branch bank, obtained an 
 accommodation from it, which was renewed 
 from time to time, until he was of age, after 
 which Isaac Hicks joked the directors about 
 discounting the notes of boys. When the note 
 came round it was thrown out, with the remark 
 that the bank could not discount the notes of 
 minors. It was informed that Mr. Barker was 
 
 no longer a minor, when the note was again 
 discounted. 
 
 At New York, while waiting for his brother 
 Abraham to procure for him a situation in a 
 commercial establishment, he visited the mu- 
 seum kept by Gardner Baker, at the foot of 
 Broad street, where he was much pleased with 
 a beautiful boy with blue eyes, rosy cheeks and 
 fine long flaxen hair hanging in ringlets, snow- 
 white skin, the son of the proprietor, by the 
 name of James Baker, who made music on the 
 bells for the amusement of visitors; there was 
 a beautiful wax figure of him exhibited in a 
 glass case. 
 
 Mr. Barker also attended street auctions and 
 other places of novelty to him. At one of those 
 auctions, regardless of the admonition often 
 heard from his seniors to avoid dealing in old 
 watches and old horses, he was tempted to bid 
 $20 for a gold watch, it was immediately struck 
 off to him, when he supposed he had been 
 taken in ; it proved otherwise ; this watch he 
 parted with to profit shortly after entering the 
 counting house of Mr. Hicks, a result not to 
 have been anticipated. 
 
 The circumstances of the sale were these: 
 Mr. Barker was sent to Messrs. James and 
 Samuel Watson, an extensive commission 
 house of Front street, by Mr. Hicks, for a note 
 for sperm candles sold them. Those extensive 
 merchants proposed to this small boy a sale of 
 ship bread, saying his fellow clerk, Mr. Samuel 
 Hicks, often purchased the article of them in 
 exchange for liver oil, for which article they 
 frequently had orders from Virginia, with which 
 bread he supplied the ships consigned to Mr. 
 Hicks to profit. Mr. Barker replied that he 
 had not any money wherewith to pay for bread; 
 they proposed to give him credit, a confidence 
 doubtless arising from his being in the employ 
 of Mr. Hicks. He thanked them, saying he dare 
 not incur a debt, a squeamishness which did 
 not last long, adding that he had not any liver 
 oil, nothing but a gold watch which he should 
 like to barter for bread. They asked to see the 
 watch, which being exhibited, and the price 
 named, payable in ship bread, they proposed to 
 have it left and they would decide in the morn- 
 ing, if he would call when he went to the post 
 office for letters, to which he assented, saying 
 "you wish to have it examined by a watch 
 maker. " I have had that service performed and 
 know the watch to be good."
 
 EARLY SPECULATIONS IN TRADE. 
 
 13 
 
 He called in the morning, when the Messrs. 
 Watson agreed to keep the watch on the terms 
 proposed. 
 
 Here we have a barter trade between mer- 
 chants of high standing in commercial circles 
 and a green boy from Nantucket. 
 
 The next object of Mr. Barker was to find a 
 market for his bread. He was sent by Mr. 
 Hicks to collect a note for codfish sold Thomas 
 Knox, esq., a very amiable, intelligent, aud lib- 
 eral merchant of Wall street. 
 
 Inquiry was made of Mr. Knox if he did not 
 wish to purchase some ship bread for stores for the 
 vessel on board which the fish had been sent ; 
 the reply was that the stores were all on board, 
 but that he had an order for three hundred bar- 
 rels of bread for a ship which was undergoing 
 repairs at the ship-yards, which would be wanted 
 in about three weeks, and inquired of the lad 
 at what price he would furnish that quantity. 
 He had but ten barrels; his reply was, that he 
 would go for and bring immediately a sample, 
 with the information required, for which he re- 
 paired to the store of Messrs. Watsons. They 
 expressed a great disposition to sell ; said it 
 was a consignment from Virginia, had been 
 long on hand, therefore they would sell cheap. 
 A conditional bargain was made, they to take 
 Mr. Knox' note at four months, without Bark- 
 er's endorsement, if he could not get it at a 
 shorter period. 
 
 A sample of the bread was taken to Mr. 
 Knox, the price named on a credit of sixty 
 days; an answer was promised the next morn- 
 ing, for which Barker was punctual to call, 
 when he was informed that John Hyslop, an 
 extensive baker, asked the same price for the 
 same quality of bread, on a credit of ninety days, 
 Mr. Knox remarking " you are a pleasant little 
 fellow, and if you will allow the same credit, I 
 will take the bread of you." This being agreed 
 to, Barker observed that he should like to have 
 a memorandum to that effect. Knox smiled, 
 gave the memorandum of the agreement, taking 
 an order on the Messrs. Watson for the bread; 
 when delivered, a note was drawn for the 
 amount due them, and as a matter of accom- 
 modation Mr. Knox paid the money for the bal- 
 ance. 
 
 Mr. Barker thus turned his watch into more 
 money than he gave for it, and made $125 pro- 
 fit on the bread, more than doubling the capi- 
 
 tal he brought with him from Nantucket in a 
 very few months after taking up his residence 
 in New York. 
 
 When the sickly season came on he had 
 leave of absence, visited Ballston, purchased a 
 horse, on which he travelled to New Bedford, 
 swapped the horse for crude sperm oil with 
 John Alden, a merchant of Fair Haven engaged 
 in the whale fishery, had the oil manufactured 
 and sent to New York, where it yielded double 
 the cost of the horse, which terminated Bar- 
 ker's traffic in old horses and old watches. 
 
 Mr. Barker and the other clerks of Mr. Hicks 
 followed up their speculations to such an ex- 
 tent that Mr. Hicks found it expedient to re- 
 strict them, allotting to his brother, Samuel 
 Hicks, the traffic in liver oil, and to young Bar- 
 ker the traffic in lime. 
 
 Subsequently, as he was ascending the stairs 
 in full view of a lot of soap which had been 
 very long on hand, he remarked, " Jacob, why 
 does thee not sell that soap?" The reply was, 
 "for the want of an applicant. I will purchase 
 it at eight cents if thee will give me four months' 
 credit and allow me to send it as an adventure 
 to the Havana." Mr. Hicks replied in his rapid 
 manner, " take it, take it, I am tired of the sight 
 of it." 
 
 It was shipped by a fast schooner, com- 
 manded by Daniel Waterman, (a native of 
 Nantucket) about sailing for the Havana at the 
 time when the British were capturing and send- 
 ing into New Providence all vessels in that 
 trade, depriving the inhabitants of their accus- 
 tomed supplies. Captain Waterman returned 
 safely in six weeks, bringing back fifty cents 
 per pound in specie for the soap, which was 
 brought to the office, and Jacob was engaged 
 in counting it, when Mr. Hicks came in from 
 breakfast remarked, " what's all this?" The re- 
 ply was, "money for the soap, and I am now 
 ready to pay for it, although not due for more 
 than two months. 1 ' Mr. Hicks appeared pleased 
 with the young man's success, and passed on. 
 
 During Mr. Barker's minority the whaling 
 business of Nantucket became very much de- 
 pressed, insomuch that many of the merchants 
 wished to sell their vessels. This being made 
 known by him to Robert Mott, — a gentle- 
 man of great merit, he proposed to his friends 
 Robinson and Hartshorn to join him in the 
 purchase of a ship at Nantucket, and to employ
 
 14 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 young Barker for the purpose. They offered 
 to be concerned in such a speculation, but re- 
 fused to entrust a boy with the mission, saying 
 that their Mr. Robinson would go. Mr. Mott 
 declined unless young Barker was employed ; 
 they finally compromised by agreeing that both 
 should go. Application was made to Mr. 
 Hicks for permission, to which he consented on 
 condition that he be paid a full commission of 
 two and a half per cent if a purchase was 
 made. 
 
 They both went, Barker not appearing to 
 have anything to do with the purchase. Robin- 
 son offered $9,000 for' the ship Portland; 
 $10,000 was required. After several days un- 
 successful negotiation he determined to offer 
 $9,500; had a meeting with the owners, of 
 whom an inquiry was made if they were dis- 
 posed to divide the difference. They replied, 
 " not a dollar less than $10,000 would be ac- 
 cepted." They separated, Robinson deliber- 
 ating how far it would be best to yield to the 
 requirements of $10,000, when young Barker 
 prevailed on him to repair to New Bedford 
 for a few days, leaving him to make the pur- 
 chase. He did so, and Barker succeeded — pur- 
 chased the ship for $9,000 in season to notify 
 Robinson by the first mail when he returned to 
 Nantucket to attend to her dispatch. On arri- 
 val at New York she was sold to George M. 
 Woolsey for $13,500, and young Barker em- 
 ployed to return immediately to Nantucket by 
 James Lyon, of New York, and John James, 
 of Philadelphia, to purchase a ship for them, 
 Jacob Valentine, Samuel Hicks and Samuel 
 Robinson, to purchase another for them. He 
 did so; the ship Rose for the former gentlemen, 
 and the ship Beaver for the latter, for which 
 service Mr. Hicks also received a full commis- 
 sion of two and a half per cent on the amount 
 of purchase. 
 
 In relation to the Rose, when that vessel was 
 ready for sea the vendors refused to let her go 
 without an endorser on the bills of exchange to 
 be given in payment, amounting to $10,000, 
 although it had not been before mentioned ; 
 this was very inconvenient. Barker not hav- 
 ing the means on the island to give a satisfac- 
 tory endorser, had to proceed to New Bedford 
 therefor. As there were not any steamboats 
 running, and the mail packet had been detained 
 some days by a northwest wind, a change 
 seemed probable, and in the afternoon of the 
 
 day of the occurrence it came round to west* 
 southwest; being rather scant for the mail 
 packet, her captain could not be induced to 
 leave. 
 
 Barker, impatient at the delay, took passage 
 on a lumber-loaded vessel that had put in for a 
 harbor, bound to the neighborhood of New 
 Bedford, which he discovered making sail to 
 leave, late in the afternoon. She proceeded 
 twenty-five miles when the wind turned back 
 to northwest, which obliged the vessel to come 
 to anchor at eight o'clock in the evening. At 
 daylight the next morning a signal was set for 
 a pilot; a boat soon appeared from the Vine- 
 yard, and was chartered to proceed to New 
 Bedford. 
 
 On reaching Wood's Hole found the current 
 running east too swift for the boat to encounter 
 that passage with an unfavorable wind; she there- 
 fore beat up the Vineyard sound and passed 
 through Quicksi's Hole, and arrived at New 
 Bedford as the bells, according the custom of 
 the place, were ringing for twelve o'clock. 
 
 The endorsement of William Rotch, jr., was 
 procured. 
 
 A vessel belonging to Westport, Aikins com- 
 mander, was chartered to take Mr. Barker back 
 to Nantucket, of which he had to stand pilot, 
 no one on board ever having been through 
 Wood's Hole or at Nantucket. She left at three 
 o'clock with a glorious west-northwest wind and 
 clear weather; at eight o'clock in the evening, 
 the moon shining brightly, she ran in alongside 
 the mail packet lying at the straight wharf, she 
 not having left. 
 
 Elated with this exploit, the first thing done 
 by Barker was to repair to the residence of 
 Moses Swain, the captain of the mail packet, to 
 let him know what he might have done if he 
 chose. He could not realize that Mr. Barker 
 had been to New Bedford and returned, until 
 the endorsement of Mr. Rotch was exhibited. 
 
 The wind came out that night from the east, 
 the ship Rose, commanded by Silas Jones, 
 sailed for New York in company with the mail 
 packet the next morning, and reached New 
 York before the mail packet got back to Nan- 
 tucket. 
 
 Insurances were then made by individual 
 subscription, conformable to the practice at 
 Lloyds, London. A celebrated underwriter was 
 in the habit of insuring Mr. Barker's adventuresj
 
 COMMISSION AND SHIPPING BUSINESS. 
 
 15 
 
 expecting the arrival of a vessel in the cargo of 
 which he was interested, he made a verbal bar- 
 gain with this gentleman to insure the said ad- 
 venture. 
 
 The next day news came to him through 
 Messrs. Hicks and Post, that some disaster had 
 overtaken the vessel. Wishing evidence of the 
 contract, he wrote a note to the underwriter, 
 requesting him to send the policy, provided it 
 had been filled up ; if it had not been not to 
 fill it up until he should see Mr. Barker. It 
 had not been prepared, the underwriter detain- 
 ed the messenger until he filled up the policy, 
 which was done in due form, pursuant to their 
 agreement, and sent by the messenger's return. 
 
 'This occurrence becoming public, and al- 
 though of a trifling amount, occurring during 
 Mr. Barker's minority, before he was establish- 
 ed in business, amicably settled by the parties 
 who were personal friends ever thereafter, has 
 been a fruitful source of misrepresentation, 
 from the day of its occurrence until the present 
 time. 
 
 The result of all Mr. Barker's traffic during 
 his minority was a profit of five thousand dol- 
 lars over and above the cost of his board, ap- 
 parel, and other expenses. 
 
 He resided in Mr. Hicks' family the last two 
 years of being in his employ, and paid him one 
 half the price for his board he had paid to oth- 
 ers. The other half was all the compensation 
 he had for his services. 
 
 With this capital he commenced business in 
 1801. On the 27th of August of that year, he 
 married with his schoolmate, Elizabeth Hazard, 
 the daughter of Thomas Hazard, jr., of New 
 Bedford. She was born at Newport, Rhode 
 Island, on the 2d December, 1783. 
 
 Mr. Barker had embarked extensively in the 
 commission business, and was employed by the 
 most respectable merchants of the nation. 
 Among the number was William Gray, of Sa- 
 lem, the owner of more ships than any other 
 merchant in America, who employed him to go 
 to New Bedford and negotiate for a cargo of 
 sugar, which had arrived at that place from 
 Manilla. The sugar was not purchased. He 
 endorsed and sold bills of exchange to a large 
 amount for Henry Deaves, an Irish merchant, 
 who had been an extensive shipper of cotton, 
 tobacco, potash, and breadstuffs, the price of 
 which had suddenly taken an unfavorable turn, 
 
 occasioning his bills to be dishonored, which 
 swept from Mr. Barker all he had ever earned, 
 leaving him barely sufficient to pay the debts 
 incurred. This news reached him by letter 
 while he was at his wedding dinner at Nan- 
 tucket, accompanied by Mr. Deaves, to whom, 
 after perusing the letter, he handed it. He read 
 it, when, at Mr. Barker's invitation, they took 
 wine together. No one else of the party knew 
 what had occurred. They remained friends 
 ever thereafter. 
 
 Mr. Barker was enabled to pursue his accus- 
 tomed occupation successfully. Not satisfied 
 with a large share of commission business, he 
 took an interest in several ships, and as his 
 business prospered, he extended that interest 
 until he became the owner of many vessels, and 
 felt a strong disposition to supply the United 
 States light-house establishment with oil. 
 Those engaged in the whale fishery from Nan- 
 tucket and New Bedford could not agree to 
 act together in supplying the article, and their 
 competition reduced the price to a very low 
 rate. 
 
 Mr. Barker undertook to, and succeeded, in 
 harmonizing their differences, and the oil was 
 supplied by him for their account for one year. 
 The account closed to the satisfaction of all 
 parties. 
 
 Mr. Barker supposed those for whom he act- 
 ed, and who had been greatly benefitted by the 
 arrangement, would be glad to continue his 
 agency. In this he was mistaken. When the 
 proposals were published by the Secretary of 
 the Treasury, not hearing from them, he in- 
 quired by letter, expressing his willingness to 
 continue his services, which they declined, inti- 
 mating that they had the command of nearly 
 all the oil in the country, that no one else 
 could supply it, therefore his services would 
 not be useful; admonishing him to beware how 
 he contracted on his own account, remarking 
 that nothing but the inordinate appetite of 
 youth for gain could induce any one to embark 
 on a sea of such uncertainty. 
 
 This did not intimidate. Mr. Barker counted 
 on the arrival of many ships before the oil would 
 be wauted, made proposals on his own account. 
 The eastern association, too confident of their 
 power, required so high a price that their young 
 competitor was enabled to obtain the contract 
 on Yery favorable terms, not only for that year,
 
 16 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 but for the five succeeding years, which he ful- 
 filled to profit and to the entire satisfaction of 
 the government. 
 
 He dealt with Mr. Gallatin, the then Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury, a gentleman of sterling 
 integrity and first rate talents, never afraid to 
 do right or to require of his subalterns to do 
 promptly all that was proper to be done in all 
 matters relating to the business of bis depart- 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. Barker being the owner of many ships, 
 extended his business to many nations, princi- 
 pally to Russia, where the flag of the United 
 States was always treated kindly and liberally, 
 insomuch that he never heard a complaint by 
 an American citizen against that government 
 or its officers. 
 
 In the appointment of commanders for his 
 vessels he usually selected those from Nan- 
 tucket. Among the number from that island were : 
 Myer Swain, commander of ship Uncle Toby. 
 Stephen Parr, « " " 
 
 Andrew Pinkham, " " President. 
 
 Daniel Waterman, " " Eliza. 
 
 David Allen, " " Betsey. 
 
 Peleg Barker, " " Liberty. 
 
 Charles Clark, " " Albert Gallatin. 
 
 Jonathan Smith, " " Mary. 
 
 Josiah Barker, " " Lady Gallatin. 
 
 James Lawrence, " " Mobile. 
 
 Robert Swain, " " Lady Madison. 
 
 Seth Swain, u " Jason. 
 
 Peter Gifford, " " Olive. 
 
 David Jenkins, a " Loan. 
 
 Ichabod Clark, " " Rodman. 
 
 Robert Waterman, a " Stranger. 
 
 Uriah Coffin, " « " 
 
 R. R. Macy, " " Beaver. 
 
 Abisha Swain, u brig Sarah. 
 
 Francis Paddock, u " President. 
 
 Charles Coffin, " " Clothier. 
 
 Jared Gardiner, " " Hero. 
 
 Richard Swain, u " Wilson. 
 
 Hamilton Darling, " " Catherine Jane. 
 
 Peter G. Fosdick, " " Speedy Peace. 
 
 Barzella Jones, " schooner Galliot. 
 James Russell, " " M.Washington. 
 
 Bethewel Pinkham " " Enterprise. 
 
 Samuel Gilston, " " Alert. 
 
 Chas. Coffin, " « William Tell. 
 
 John Cottle, " " Mt. Wollaston. 
 
 Ed. H. Barker, " steamboat Marco Bozarris 
 
 The other officers of his vessels were also 
 usually selected from Nantucket. 
 
 During the war Nantucket was in want of 
 supplies; Mr. Barker purchased the New York 
 pilot boat Champlain, and caused her to be 
 loaded at Norfolk with flour, and dispatched for 
 that place, under the command of Bethewel 
 Pinkham. When near the island a heavy fog 
 set in ; when it cleared away she was within a 
 half gunshot of a British seventy-four, captured, 
 and vessel and cargo lost. 
 
 In 1825 the merchants and banks at Nan- 
 tucket became much embarrassed in their pe- 
 cuniary concerns; they sent a committee to 
 New York who, through Barker's aid, procured 
 a loan of $300,000 on a pledge of oil to be left 
 on the island. 
 
 Subsequently he established steamboat com- 
 munication between that place and New Bed- 
 ford by placing on that line the Marco Bozar- 
 ris, under the command of Edward H. Barker. 
 
 Had Mr. Barker's affairs prospered as much 
 subsequent to Jefferson's embargo as they did 
 prior to that measure, the business of Nan- 
 tucket might at this day have been in a more 
 prosperous state, his predilections being in fa- 
 vor of his youthful playmates and their home, 
 which is celebrated for the excellence of their 
 codfish chowder for their evening repast, and 
 green corn puddings at their afternoon tea par- 
 ties. These exquisite dishes are seldom met 
 with at other places, except among those who 
 have left the island, or their descendants. 
 
 However, on one occasion when Mr. Barker 
 was dining with General Jackson at the Whit, 
 House, a first rate green corn pudding was 
 among the good things of which he partook on 
 that occasion, from which he concluded that the 
 Tennessee people had become possessed of the 
 secret how to make the best use of maize. 
 
 Colonel Boyd, of Massachusetts, having served 
 in the British army in the East Indies, was re- 
 warded with permission to export from Calcut- 
 ta a cargo of saltpetre to the United States, to 
 pay for which Mr. Barker's London correspond- 
 ent furnished the money; a British ship wa8 
 chartered for the purpose, loaded at Calcutta, 
 and sailed for New York, consigned to Mr. 
 Barker. 
 
 On her passage she called at the Cape of 
 Good Hope for refreshments, before which the 
 relations with the United States assumed so
 
 PLAN OF BOOK-KEEPING. 
 
 17 
 
 squally an appearance that Great Britain did 
 not like to supply her with such a quantity of 
 saltpetre, and on the pretence that it had been 
 shipped in violation of the rights of the East 
 India Company, the authorities of the Cape of 
 Good Hope seized it and sent the ship off in 
 ballast. 
 
 On her arrival below New York being an- 
 nounced, Mr. Barker thought his commission 
 was secure; on her coming up he found he had 
 calculated too fast. 
 
 Colonel Boyd was subsequently compensated 
 by the British government, leaving Mr. Barker 
 minus his anticipated commissions. This be- 
 ing in the early part of his commercial career 
 was a great disappointment to him. 
 
 Mr. Barker also received from those London 
 friends a consignment for account of Mr. Ful- 
 ton, of the first steam engine ever in successful 
 operation for propelling vessels. It was made 
 by Messrs. Bolton and Watts, celebrated for 
 constructing steam machinery. It remained in 
 Mr. Barker's store in South street many months 
 before Mr. Fulton could raise the funds to pay for 
 it. The engine was placed on the first steamboat 
 that navigated the Hudson; Mr. Barker thiuks 
 her name was the North River, and that she at- 
 tained the speed of four miles an hour. Little 
 did he then think this discovery of the immor- 
 tal Fulton would in less than half a century 
 regulate the commerce of the whole world, be- 
 come so powerful an auxiliary in all war meas- 
 ures, save time and shorten space to such a 
 degree that to be deprived of its use would 
 be universally considered a calamity of the first 
 magnitude. 
 
 Very soon after entering the employ of Mr. 
 Hicks, Mr. Barker acquired a thorough know- 
 ledge of the art of book-keeping, adopting the 
 plan of full explanation in the original entry, 
 referring to it thereafter by folios, and when 
 goods were purchased or sold for account of I 
 parties, or moneys drawn from different banks 
 and delivered among different parties, com- 
 mencing his entries "Sundry accounts debtor 
 to sundry accounts," debiting each receiver for 
 what he had received, and crediting each bank 
 or owner with their proportion of all that had 
 been parted with all in one entry; and when a 
 parcel of goods belonging to a single concern 
 has been sold to various parties, or money 
 drawn from a bank and divided among several 
 
 persons, a single entry of "Sundry accounts 
 debtor to the party," embracing the whole with- 
 out mingling it with the cash account, unless a 
 portion of the money remained, in which case 
 that account should become one of the sundry 
 accounts for such residue. 
 
 If young men wishing to acquire a know- 
 ledge of book-keeping would consider well this 
 form of entry, and understand the principle, 
 they would have but little more to do to ac- 
 quire the whole art, as nothing is more easy 
 than to transfer such entries from the waste to 
 the journal, and from the journal to the ledger. 
 
 His plan of calculating interest was to in- 
 crease the amount of each item of dollars by 
 multiplying them by the number of days, 
 (throwing away the fractions under fifty, adding 
 one dollar to the items where the fractions were 
 over fifty,) leaving a single sum (the balance of 
 debits and credits) on which to calculate the 
 interest for one day, thus having but one item 
 on which to calculate the interest, however 
 long the account might be, in place of calcu- 
 lating it on each item. 
 
 Mr. Barker soon acquired so thorough an 
 acquaintance with Mr. Hicks' business, and 
 made himself so useful, that he was entrusted 
 with its principal management, particularly 
 when that gentleman had occasion to be ab- 
 sent from the city. He was successful in 
 having all his transactions approved by his chief. 
 
 Mr. Barker's family, Isaac Hicks, from whom 
 he received his mercantile education, and his 
 father-in-law, Thomas Hazard, jr., all being 
 Democratic, it was to have been expected that 
 he would grow up in that faith, and so it turned 
 out, and he took an early part in political mat- 
 ters; before he had a vote his voice was heard 
 and his pen was felt in the good cause. 
 
 The odious alien and sedition law fettered 
 the press, and the stamp law of John Adams 
 bothered him in his business; its repeal became 
 an object of deep interest ; this urged him on 
 in the support of Jefferson. 
 
 In those days party feeling ran very high; 
 the purchase of Louisiana was a theme on 
 which the Federalists rang all their changes; 
 they denounced Jefferson as being under 
 French influence ; accused him when the Hor- 
 net was sent to Belgium with two millions of 
 specie to pay for Louisiana as paying tribute to 
 Bonaparte; ridiculed the purchase with the ap-
 
 18 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKEE. 
 
 plication of the terms salt mountain, prairie, 
 pig, and such like comparisons. On all occa- 
 sions Mr. Barker approved of and vindicated 
 this purchase, incurring the keenest enmity of 
 the opponents of the administration, who con- 
 sidered it the great gun by which they were to 
 regain power. 
 
 Mr. Barker passed with Mr. Jefferson at the 
 White House the evening of the day on which 
 he sent to Congress the message developing 
 Burr's conspiracy. He appeared much pleased 
 at the failure of the scheme, spoke of the arri- 
 val of Erick Bolman, one of the supposed con- 
 spirators, a prisoner from New Orleans, at 
 Charleston ; the interference of his political op- 
 ponents to have Bolman released, for which 
 purpose they took out a writ of habeas corpus, 
 and sent the sheriff with it, to bring the pris- 
 oner into court from Fort Sullivan, where he 
 was confined. 
 
 The colonel in command refused to receive 
 the mandate from the sheriff, on the ground 
 that a military officer could only receive orders 
 from his superior, therefore the sheriff must 
 proceed to "Washington, and serve the process 
 on the President of the United States, the com- 
 mander in chief of our whole military force. 
 This subterfuge enabled the colonel to retain 
 the prisoner until he should receive orders from 
 Washington. 
 
 The sage of Monticello remarked : " This 
 colonel seems to have been an old soldier, with 
 more respect for military discipline than for 
 civil authorities." 
 
 The conversation turned on Blennerhasset, 
 who was supposed to be concerned in the plot, 
 
 and those who came among us from foreign 
 countries. Mr. Jefferson said they were a 
 hardy and enterprising race, capable of endur- 
 ing great fatigue ; that we had been and con- 
 tinued to be greatly benefitted by their ser- 
 vices ; the shorter the period of their probation 
 before they become citizens the better. Exclude 
 them from the blessings of citizenship, and you 
 create a powerful set of men all over the nation, 
 who would act together on the sounding of a 
 single word, who might become very danger- 
 ous^ when a just and liberal course toward them 
 would have the effect to make them consider us 
 all of one family, embarked in the same ship. 
 They should, said he, be estimated by their vir- 
 tues and intelligence. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson also spoke of the European 
 war, and the injustice of the course of the bel- 
 ligerents towards the United States. Said our 
 merchants had better keep their property at 
 home than to be thus despoiled of it ; that 
 the Quaker policy was best, not to have 
 anything to do with those who would not deal 
 justly. 
 
 The Democratic party believed that, so far 
 as Great Britain was concerned, the restrictive 
 system would be far more powerful than any 
 war measures we could adopt. 
 
 This opinion prevailed among the most en- 
 lightened inhabitants of the United States. 
 
 Long before the revolution in 1765, they 
 formed a league at Philadelphia, which received 
 the signatures of men of the highest distinction, 
 of every political party, of which Mr. Barker is 
 in possession of an autographical copy, which 
 reads thus
 
 NON-IMPORTATION RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 19 
 
 NAMES OF THE MERCHANTS AND 0TEER CITIZENS OP PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 WHO SUBSCRIBED 
 
 TO THE NON-IMPORTATION RESOLUTIONS, OCTOBER 25, 17G5. 
 
 The merchants and traders of the city of 
 Philadelphia, taking into their consideration 
 the melancholy state of the North American 
 commerce in general, and the distressed situ- 
 ation of the province of Pennsylvania in par- 
 ticular, do unanimously agree : That the many 
 difficulties they now labor under, as a trading 
 people, are owing to the restrictions, prohibi- 
 tions, and ill-advised regulations made in sev- 
 eral acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, 
 lately ' passed to regulate the colonies, which 
 have limited the exportation of some part of 
 our country produce, increased the cost and 
 expense of many articles of our importation 
 and cut off from us all means of supplying our' 
 selves with specie enough even to pay the du- 
 ties imposed on us, much less to serve as a 
 medium of our trade. That this province is 
 heavily in debt to Great Britain, for the manu- 
 factures and other importations from thence } 
 which the produce of our lands have been 
 found unequal to pay for, when a free exporta- 
 tion of it to the best markets was allowed of 
 and such trades open as supplied us with cash 
 and other articles of immediate remittance to 
 Great Britain. That the late unconstitutional 
 law, the stamp act, if carried into execution in 
 this province, will further tend to prevent our 
 making those remittances to Great Britain, for 
 payment of old debts, or purchase of more 
 goods, which the faith subsisting between the 
 individuals trading with each other requires, 
 and therefore, in justice to ourselves, to the 
 traders of Great Britain, who usually give us 
 credit, and to the consumers of British manu- 
 factures in this province, the subscribers hereto 
 have voluntarily and unanimously come into 
 the following resolutions and agreements, in 
 hopes that their example will stimulate the 
 
 good people of this province to be frugal in 
 their use and consumption of all manufactures 
 excepting those of America, and lawful goods, 
 coming directly from Ireland, manufactured 
 there, whilst the necessities of our country are 
 such as to require it ; and in hopes that their 
 brethren the merchants and manufacturers of 
 Great Britain will find their own interest so 
 intimately connected with ours, that they will 
 be spurred on to befriend us from that motive, 
 if no other should take place. 
 
 First. It is unanimously resolved and agreed 
 that in all orders any of the subscribers to this 
 paper may send to Great Britain for goods, 
 they shall and will direct their correspondents 
 not to ship them until the stamp act is re- 
 pealed. 
 
 Secondly. That all those amongst the sub- 
 scribers that have already sent orders to Great 
 Britain for goods shall and will immediately 
 countermand the same until the stamp act is 
 repealed, except such merchants as are owners 
 of vessels already gone or now cleared out for 
 Great Britain, who are at liberty to bring back 
 in them on their own accounts, coals, casks of 
 earthenware, grindstones, pipes, iron pots, 
 empty bottles, and such other bulky articles as 
 owners usually fill up their ships with, but no 
 dry goods of any kind, except such kind of 
 dye stuffs and utensils necessary for carrying 
 on manufactures that may be ordered by any 
 person. 
 
 Thirdly. That none of the subscribers hereto 
 shall or will vend any goods or merchandize 
 whatsoever that shall be shipped them on com 
 mission from Great Britain, after the first day 
 of January next, unless the stamp act be re. 
 pealed. 
 
 Fourthly. That these resolves aud agree-
 
 20 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 ments shall be binding on all and each of us 
 the subscribers, who do hereby each and every 
 person for himself, upon his word of honor, 
 agree that he will strictly and firmly adhere to 
 and abide by every article from this time till 
 the first day of May next, when a meeting of 
 the subscribers shall be called, to consider 
 whether the further continuance of this obliga- 
 tion be then necessary. 
 
 Fifthly. It is agreed that if goods of any . 
 kind do arrive from Great Britain, at such 
 time or under such circumstances as to render 
 any signer of this agreement suspected of hav- 
 ing broken his promise, the committee now 
 appointed shall enquire into the premises, and 
 if such suspected person refuses or cannot give 
 them satisfaction, the subscribers hereto will 
 unanimously take all prudent measures to dis- 
 countenance and prevent the sale of such goods, 
 until they are released from this agreement by 
 mutual and general consent. 
 
 Lastly. As it may be necessary that a com- 
 mittee of the subscribers be appointed to wait 
 on the traders of this city, to get this present 
 agreement universally subscribed, the following 
 gentlemen are appointed for that purpose : 
 Thomas Willing and Samuel Mifflin, esq's, 
 Thomas Montgomery, Samuel Hewell, Samuel 
 "Wharton, John Rhea, William Fisher, Joshua 
 Fisher, Peter Chevalier, Benjamin Fuller, and 
 Abel James. 
 
 Thomas Willing, John Hart, 
 
 James Pemberton, Tench Tilghman, 
 Joseph Hoxe, Cad. & Sam'l C. Morris 
 
 Joshua Fisher & Son, Joseph Saunders, 
 B. Fuller, Baynton, Wharton & 
 
 Samuel Burge, Morgan, 
 
 Buckridge & Sims, Alexander Smith, 
 Thomas Bond, jr., Kearney & Gilbert, 
 
 T. Morris, jr., Samuel Smith, 
 
 Amos Strettell, Wm. Storrs Frey, 
 
 Joseph Swift, John Cox, jr., 
 
 Thomas Montgomery, Abraham Usher, 
 John Chew, Peter Wikoff, 
 
 Stamper & Bingham, Frs. Richardson, jr., 
 Abra. Mitchell, David Hall, 
 
 John Bayard, Stephen Carmick, 
 
 John Gibson, jr., William Scott, 
 
 Thomas Smith, James Budden, 
 
 Conyngham & Nesbitt, Samuel Mathew, 
 Carsan, Barclay & John Shee, 
 Mitchell, Robert Morris, 
 
 Israel Morris, jr., 
 Benjamin Gibbs, 
 Francis Teyes, 
 Robert Montgomery, 
 Samuel Caldwell, 
 John Ladd Howell, 
 
 Thomas Wallace, 
 Benjamin Levy, 
 Benjamin Swett, jr., 
 Thomas Wharton, 
 Daniel Rund & Co., 
 John Nixon, 
 
 Samuel Purviance, jr., Joseph Whorton, jr., 
 
 John Rose, jr., 
 Benjamin Wynkoop, 
 John Wikoff, 
 Francis Harris, 
 Samuel Morris, jr., 
 Daniel Roberdeall, 
 William Lloyd, 
 James Harding, 
 Peter Reeve, 
 Samuel Hudson, 
 Daniel Benezet, 
 Samson Levy, 
 Joseph Dean, 
 
 Persifor Frazer, 
 Enoch Story, 
 John Ord, 
 Caleb Jones, 
 Josiah Hewes, 
 Samuel Mifflin, 
 Thomas Riche, 
 Samuel Purviarce, 
 Willing & Tod, 
 George Clymes, 
 David Beveridge, 
 George Emlen, jr., 
 George Bryan, 
 
 John & Peter Chevalier 3 Townsend White, 
 
 David Deshber, 
 David Sproat, 
 William Richards, 
 David Potts, 
 Wells & Jackson, 
 
 Peter Knight, 
 Alexander Huston, 
 John Sparhawk, 
 Thomas Turner, 
 James & Drinker, 
 
 John and David Rhea, Francis Wade, 
 
 Keefe Meredith, 
 Joseph Richardson, 
 Joshua Howell, 
 Richard Parker, 
 Samuel Morton, 
 William Heysham, 
 John Peirse, 
 William Bradford, 
 Thomas West, 
 Benjamin Rawle, 
 James Harvey, 
 Zach. Hutchings, 
 Philip Benozet, 
 Tench Frances, 
 Joseph Wood, 
 Thomas Wharton, jr. 
 Benjamin Morgan, 
 William Dowell, 
 Charles Thomson, 
 William Sidgreaves, 
 James Benezet, 
 William Henry, 
 
 James Jann, 
 Samuel Howell, 
 William Rush, 
 Henry Donaldson, 
 Elijah Brown, 
 John Mifflin, 
 John Morton, 
 Archibald McCall, 
 John Measse, 
 John Armitt, 
 Samuel Meredith, 
 Charles Coxe, 
 Thomas Penrosse, 
 James Penrosse, 
 Dowers & Gooke, 
 Samuel Bunting, 
 Thomas Clifford, 
 Isaac Cox, 
 Samuel Smith, 
 James Hartley, 
 S. Shoemaker, 
 William Allison, 
 
 George and John Kidd,Hyman Levy, jr., 
 Peter Turner, sr., James Whardon, 
 
 Isaac and Jos Paschall, John Bell,
 
 NAMES OP MERCHANTS AND OTHER SIGNERS. 
 
 21 
 
 Lydia and Elizabeth Magee & Sanderson, 
 
 Hyde, Henry Kippell, jr., 
 
 Joseph Jacobs, John Hughes, 
 
 William Symonds, Reuben Haines, 
 
 John Test, Owen Jones, 
 
 Joseph Pennock, jr., Elijah Puschall, 
 
 Robert Taggart, Benjamin Davies, 
 
 William Talconer, Hudson Emlen, 
 
 William Craig, Richard Wain, 
 
 Owen Biddle, Peter Thomson, 
 
 Benjamin Hooton, William Pollard, 
 
 David Bacon, Thomas Lawson, 
 
 Samuel Carruthers, Judah Sonthe, 
 
 Jacob Shoemaker, jr., John Cox, 
 
 Bartram & Dundas, Theo. Gardner, 
 
 Robert Bass, Samuel Sansom, jr., 
 
 Peyton & Adiock, Th. Bond, 
 
 Nath. Tready, James Eddy, 
 Richard and Peter Foot -Philip Kearney, jr., 
 
 man, Richard Bache, 
 
 A. D. Hoops, Jona. Evans, 
 Caleb Hewes, Anthony Stocken, 
 Samuel Fisher, Jo. Smith, jr., 
 Joseph Baker, Hugh McCulloch, 
 Coxe & Trueman, John Knowles, 
 Robert Wain, Wm. Vanderspregoh, 
 George Robotham, Phil. Syng, 
 Andrew Bankson, Isaac Wikoff, 
 Hugh and Geo Roberts,Ann Pearson, 
 Jeremiah Warder, John Baldwin, 
 Robert Tuckniss, Benjamin Kendall, 
 John Steinnetz, William Hodge, 
 Hugh Forbes, John Fullerton, 
 
 B. F., for R. Mitchell, James Stuart, 
 Joseph Claypoole, Abraham Bickley, 
 Richard Swan, James Maccubbin, 
 Allen & Turner, Thomas Cadwalader, 
 John Ingles, James Tilghman. 
 John Pringle, William Bryan, 
 John Nelson, Hers. Courteney, 
 Garret & Geo. Meade, John Moore, 
 
 J. Craig, John Byrn, 
 
 William Morrell, Thomas Robinson, 
 
 John Bayly, Christopher Marshall & 
 
 John Peters, Sons, 
 
 Hubley& Graff, Benjamin Marshall, 
 
 Thomas Dicas, Benjamin Chew, 
 
 Mease & Miller, David Franke, 
 
 John Reynell, John White, 
 William and Andrew John Flanagan, 
 
 Caldwell, Ben. Booth, 
 
 James Searle, Wm. West, 
 
 John Leacock, 
 James White, 
 John Allen, 
 George Glontworth, 
 William Pussy, 
 Joseph King, 
 
 John & Thos. Phillij 
 Latham & Jackson, 
 Charles Wharton, 
 Alexander Dunan, 
 John Heaton, 
 Charles Batho, 
 
 William and Samuel Richard Budden, 
 
 Corry, John Dickinson, 
 
 Thomas Paschall, Philn. Dickinson, 
 
 Oswell Eve, Wm. Logan, 
 
 John Cottringer, John Boyle, 
 
 Wm. Ball, Robert Harris, 
 
 Wm. Moore, James Alexander, 
 
 Clement Biddle, Joseph & Amos Hill- 
 Jacob Duchs, born, 
 
 Joseph Richardson, Plan Heeson, 
 
 P. Turner, jr., Barnard & Jouquiz, 
 John and Lamb. Cad- James Clayprole, 
 
 wallader, Thomas Charlton, 
 
 Iona Brown, Isaac Mori-is, jr., 
 
 Will Humphreys, Peter Howard, 
 
 John Wharton, Marcy Gray, 
 
 Godfrey Laycock, Israel Pemberton, 
 Charles Stedman, (for Richard Humphreys, 
 
 self and brother.) Magdalen Devine, 
 Benjamin Armitage, jr,John Wallace, 
 
 Robert Wilson, Caleb Foulke, 
 
 Samuel Ormes, Richard Stevens, 
 
 Joseph Trotter, Wm. McMurtrie, 
 
 George Morrison, Francis Street, 
 
 E. Milne, Andrew Allen, 
 
 Cornelius Bradford, Wm. Fisher, 
 
 Abel Jamessigns, Ellis Lewis, 
 For Jonathan Zane, byNeave & Harman, 
 
 his desire. Lester Falkner, , 
 
 Samuel Pleasant, Mathias Bush, 
 
 Thomas Savage, Michael Graty, 
 
 Wm. Wilson, Bernard Graty, 
 
 Benjamin Harbeson, Daniel Williams, 
 
 Woodham & Young, Humphrey Robinson, 
 
 William Ibeson, John Bringhurst, 
 
 Stephen Collins, James Hunter, 
 
 John Head, Bartram & Lennox, 
 
 Jacob Winey, Philip Kinsey, 
 
 John Drinker, jr., Daniel Wister, 
 
 Samuel Cheesman, Henry Keppele, sr., 
 
 W. Shippen, jr., John Wister, 
 Isaac & Moses Bartram,Moses Mordecai, X his 
 Wm. Clampsery, mark, 
 
 A. Morris, jr., John Kidd, 
 T. S. Jones, for Jones Thomas Carpenter, 
 
 & Wall, Stephen Shewell,
 
 22 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 Shaw & Sprogell, 
 Henry Harrison, 
 P. Sonmans, 
 John Wilcocks, 
 John Priest, 
 
 George A. Morris, 
 John Wood, 
 Walter Shee & Sons, 
 John Keasslyn, 
 Murray & Blair, 
 
 Orr, Glunholm & Co., George Davis, 
 
 Wm. Nicholls, Wishart & Edwards, 
 
 W. Barker, Job Morris, 
 
 David McMurtrie, McNeill & Tolbert, 
 
 Eobert Hardie, Jos. Redman, 
 
 James Wallace, Samuel Mifflin for Phin- 
 
 James Fulton, eas Bond, 
 
 Hugh Bowes, Vincent Montgomery & 
 
 Charles Meredith, Son, 
 
 John Clayton, William Turner, 
 
 John Reefe, Tho. Lightfoot, 
 
 Stewart Duncan & Co., Thos. Mifflin. 
 
 Mr. Barker adopted the views of this asso- 
 ciation, and has always advocated them. 
 
 Seeking relaxation from the turmoil of poli- 
 tics and business, he, accompanied by his family, 
 that of a rich merchant residing in Broadway, 
 New York, and Myers Fisher, esq., of Philadel- 
 phia, was in 1807 at Ballston-Lake, where Mr. 
 Fisher and the merchant accompanied him in 
 a dug-out, on a fishing excursion. They were 
 very successful, and returned at noon, a calm, 
 hot day of August, when one of the ladies see- 
 ing the success which had crowned the efforts 
 of the fishing party, insisted on testing their 
 angling skill. The lady of the merchant, the 
 daughter of Mr. Fisher, and a small boy, the 
 eon of Mr. Barker, took their seats in the little 
 boat, and left, accompanied by Mr. Barker. 
 Whjn a short distance from the shore, Mr. 
 Fisher called " Jacob," (no doubt associating 
 him in his mind with Nantucket,) " do not re- 
 turn without a whale." Mr. Barker paddled 
 the boat to the upper end of the lake, where 
 success smiled on the fair, which so elated the 
 lady of the merchant that, after throwing over 
 her line, meaning to place her hand on the 
 gunwale of the boat, missed it, lost her bal- 
 ance, and went with the chair on which she 
 was sitting, into the lake. At the bottom the 
 grass had grown very high, in which the large 
 leghorn hat she wore got entangled. She did 
 not come up. Fortunately her foot was entan- 
 gled in the chair, which, although also sub- 
 merged, was within arm's length, which enabled 
 Mr. Barker to disengage the lady from the 
 grass and bring her to the surface of the water, 
 
 when a new difficulty presented itself. The 
 boat could not land on account of the extended 
 marsh, and being small, an attempt to take the 
 lady on board would have endangered the lives 
 of all. To prevent fatigue, she was requested 
 to refrain from all exertion, settle down in the 
 water to her chin, and hold on the gunwale of 
 the boat with one hand until it could be pad- 
 dled to the place of their embarkation, a dis- 
 tance of near two miles, with which she 
 promptly complied. 
 
 During the passage Mr. Barker exerted all 
 his conversational powers to divert her mind 
 from surrounding scenes. On approaching 
 the landing place her husband and Mr. Fisher 
 were on the shore, when Mr. Barker had great 
 difficulty in repressing a disposition he felt to 
 call out, " I have got the whale." The hus- 
 band rushed into the water nearly frantic, to 
 the rescue of his wife, who had borne the voy- 
 age with admirable fortitude and good nature. 
 She was received kindly at a cottage in the 
 neighborhood, and provided with dry garments. 
 The party lingered about the place till night- 
 fall, the lady not liking to return to the sans 
 souci with her borrowed apparel, lest her peril- 
 ous adventure should become public. Secrecy 
 was enjoined on all, particularly the little son 
 of Mr. Barker. He thought it was a secret 
 worth knowing; he therefore imparted it bright 
 and early the following morning to those who 
 occupied the neighboring rooms, and the as- 
 tonished lady received the congratulations of 
 the inmates of the establishment as she came 
 to the breakfast table. 
 
 Some years after Mr. Barker became estab- 
 lished in business, a shoemaker's boy called to 
 leave a pair of boots, when the beautiful museum 
 boy was recognized. Misfortune had overtaken 
 the family of Gardner Baker, the proprietor, 
 they had been dispersed, the museum broken 
 up, and little James bound to a shoemaker. 
 Mr. Samuel Thompson, a wealthy citizen, hap- 
 pened to be present, became interested in the 
 lad, interceded with Mr. Barker to take him 
 into his family and educate him, to which he 
 consented, if Mr. Thompson would obtain his 
 release from the shoemaker. He did so by 
 paying fifty dollars. 
 
 The lad was taken into the family of Mr. 
 Barker and brought up with the same care as 
 was bestowed on his own children, sent to
 
 NEW YORK CONSPIRACY TRIALS. 
 
 23 
 
 school in the United States and France; he re- 
 turned as he went, amiable and comely, when 
 he entered the counting house of Mr. Barker 
 and became a good book-keeper. He had not 
 the least turn for merchandising, and was to- 
 tally unfit to wrestle with the world. 
 
 When the war came on he obtained a com- 
 mission in the army, returning to civil life at 
 its close, married and settled in Virginia, where 
 he became religious, and has led a very exem- 
 plary life, always cherishing the greatest affec- 
 tion for Mr. Barker and his family. 
 
 Mr. Barker had scarcely retrieved the loss 
 sustained by Mr. Deaves, whose estate paid only 
 ten pence on the pound to his creditors, before 
 he encountered another loss of about forty 
 thousand dollars by the failure of a commercial 
 house at Portland. A ship of theirs consigned 
 to Mr. Barker was dispatched to New Orleans 
 to load cotton on account of her owners, to pay 
 for which bills were to be drawn on them or on 
 Mr. Barker, at the option of the shipper ; a part 
 was drawn on each. Mr. Barker intended only 
 to bind himself to honor such as should be 
 drawn on him ; his letter was so incautiously 
 worded that he was held liable for the whole, 
 although he had not any advice of those drawn 
 on the owners, nor any intimation that he was 
 considered liable therefor until after the failure. 
 He had some fifteen or eighteen ships decaying 
 by the wharves during the embargo of 1807. 
 
 Mr. Barker had the good fortune to have the 
 services of Fitz Green Halleck, esq., for nearly 
 twenty years, as his confidential clerk, when 
 his business ceased to yield him the power to 
 employ others. Mr. Halleck devoted himself 
 to literary pursuits, in the expectation that Mr. 
 Barker would retrieve his fortunes and have 
 occasion for his further services. Fortune con- 
 tinuing to frown on Mr. Barker's efforts, a 
 neighboring merchant offered Mr. Halleck em- 
 ployment at $1,500 per annum, which he named 
 to Mrs. Barker, when she inquired if he would 
 enter the service of another for the miserable 
 sum of $1,500. The reply was, " No, madam, 
 it is the miserable want of $1,500 that may 
 tempt me." The offer was declined, and he 
 soon thereafter entered the employ of John Ja- 
 cob Astor, with whom he continued until the 
 death of that gentleman. 
 
 On the great New York conspiracy trials of 
 1826, the public prosecutor called Miss Jarvis, 
 
 Mr. William R. Thurston, Mr. Halleck, and 
 many other friends and relatives of Mr. Barker 
 into court to prove who his intimates and asso- 
 ciates were, who visited his house — in other 
 words, with whom he would be likely to confer. 
 Mr. Halleck, with apparent astonishment, re- 
 peated the question and answered, "Jacob 
 Barker does in all things as he lists, without 
 counseling with any one." 
 
 Mr. Barker's confidence in his own views, 
 and on all subjects, his promptness in declar- 
 ing those views, and his pertinacity in ad- 
 hering to them, has operated to his pre- 
 judice through life more than any other 
 cause •, however quick his perception and sound 
 his conclusions, he is too rapid in advancing 
 them before others less intuitive have had time 
 to reflect and perceive their tendency. Few 
 men, whether they be judges, divines, doctors, 
 lawyers or philosophers, countenance self-suffi- 
 ciency in those who have not had the advan- 
 tage of instruction in their science. 
 
 Most things require combinations to effect 
 great objects, hence the utility of party discip- 
 line, mercantile and religious associations, 
 banking and other incorporations, for all which 
 Mr. Barker's course of life indicates that he felt 
 himself competeut, relying upon the intelligence 
 of the people to decide all things correctly, 
 without the aid of artificial combinations. 
 
 Clear-headed men of lofty minds are beyond 
 the reach of selfish and narrow consideration, 
 hence the influence of Mr. Barker's opinions 
 with such men as Madison, Hamilton, Arm- 
 strong, Clinton, Spencer, and generally with 
 the higher courts of New York. 
 
 The causes of complaint by the United 
 States against Great Britain and France were 
 equally imposing. The Berlin and Milan de- 
 crees of France, and the orders in council of 
 England, were alike just causes of war on the 
 part of the United States ; the only question to 
 be considered was expediency. 
 
 An embargo was recommended by Jefferson 
 and adopted by Congress. News thereof 
 reached New York on Christmas day, 1807 ; 
 the Democratic Club assembled at Benjamin 
 Cheatham's, in Pine street, on the evening of 
 that day, of which De Witt Clinton and Jacob 
 Barker were members and both present. Mr. 
 Clinton on that occasion broke ground against 
 what he called the rule of the ancient domin-
 
 24 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 ion;. said "that the United States should de- 
 clare war against France ; that the finger of 
 Napoleon was in the embargo ; that it was the 
 effect of French influence, and that he had evi- 
 dence thereof in his pocket/' meaning letters 
 from members of Congress. Mr. Barker ad- 
 vanced contrary opinions, justifying the em- 
 bargo. Mr. Clinton thereupon became estranged 
 from most of his political friends in the city. 
 He soon found out that he had been misin- 
 formed. He was at the time a member of the 
 New York Senate, where he took occasion to 
 make a speech of the following import: 
 
 LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW 
 YORK. 
 
 In Senate, Tuesday, January 31, 1809. 
 MR. CLINTON'S SPEECH. 
 
 " Mr. President : The critical situation in 
 which the United States are placed, assailed 
 from without and from within, menaced on the 
 one hand by foreign violence, and on the other 
 by domestic faction, renders it the incumbent 
 duty of the State governments to step forth and 
 unite their energies with those of the general 
 government. At no period since the revolution 
 have we been in greater jeopardy, and at no 
 period have harmony, patriotism and exertion, 
 been more necessary to ward off the dangers 
 with which we are menaced. When I can 
 plainly perceive a spirit of faction and sedition 
 exhibiting itself in the most odious light, and 
 evidently acting in obedience to the nod of a 
 foreign government, and that government at 
 the same time assailing our rights and tramp- 
 ling on our honor, I think it our duty to de- 
 clare our sentiments to the world, in a voice 
 that can be heard and understood. I have 
 therefore prepared some resolutions which I 
 will now present ; and upon which I will detain 
 the Senate with a few remarks. Indeed, the 
 subject is so well understood that I would have 
 preferred silence, if silence were compatible 
 with the importance of the occasion, and with 
 the respect due to the Senate. 
 
 "I shall pass over the inimical spirit which 
 has been generally evinced by Great Britain 
 during Mr. Jefferson's administration, her re- 
 strictions upon our commerce, and the unjust 
 decisions of her admiralty courts, the judges of 
 which are paid in proportion to the amount of 
 their condemnations. Nor will I particularly 
 dwell upon the numerous acts of violence and 
 insult which have been committed upon our 
 coasts and within our harbors. It has been 
 common for vessels of Great Britain to station 
 themselves at the mouths of our harbors, to 
 examine all vessels entering or departing, to 
 capture on the most frivolous pretexts, and to 
 expose us to all the evils of a blockade. An 
 English frigate has entered the port of New- 
 
 York, and has openly impressed seamen from 
 a merchant vessel at the quarantine ground. 
 Instead of being punished by his government 
 for this audacious outrage, it is said that the 
 captain was promoted to the command of a 
 seventy-four. Part of a French squadron was 
 pursued by a British fleet within the jurisdic- 
 tional line of the United States, and a French 
 seventy-four was burnt on the coast of North 
 Carolina. The murder of Pierce is fresh in 
 our memories. An American citizen, in the 
 pursuit of his ordinary business, and even when 
 obeying a command to come to, was murdered 
 within our waters, by the infamous Whitby. 
 At the time this atrocity was perpetrated, the 
 offending vessels were within a marine league 
 of our coast, and Pierce's vessel was near the 
 shore. The sensibility felt and expressed by 
 all parties on this occasion, excited terror in the 
 breast of the ruthless murderer, and in a strug- 
 gle between his pride and his fear, he wrote a 
 letter to me as chief magistrate of the city of 
 New York, attempting to palliate his enormity, 
 but at the same time criminating the magis- 
 trates, for the detention of some of his officers 
 in the city, (an allegation totally destitute of 
 truth,) and breathing insult and menace. The 
 conduct of Whitby was represented to the 
 President. A formal complaint was made to 
 the British ministry. A court martial was in- 
 stituted. Witnesses were sent over to England 
 at a great expense, who fully substantiated the 
 charges against him. The court acquitted him, 
 and his sword was restored to him with a com- 
 plimentary speech from the presiding officer. 
 This mock trial, by a packed court, was more 
 insulting than no trial at all, and one of the 
 most atrocious crimes that man can perpetrate 
 against man, one of the most insufferable in- 
 sults that nation can commit against nation, is 
 to this day unpunished and unexpiated. The 
 President of the United States, on this occa- 
 sion, issued his proclamation, interdicting the 
 offending vessels from the rights of hospitality. 
 One of them, the Driver, afterwards proceeded 
 to the port of Charleston, and the captain there 
 refused to comply with the injunctions of our 
 government in terms of insolence and defiance, 
 and compared our national chief magistrate to 
 one of the petty despots of the Barbary coast. 
 
 "But the great subject of controversy be- 
 tween the two governments is the impressment 
 of seamen from American vessels. The right 
 of impressment involves the right of search, 
 and the right of search extends by the law of 
 nations to two cases only, contraband articles 
 and enemy's property. The latter is even a 
 doubtful point. The great object of the armed 
 neutrality formed by the empress of Russia 
 was to assert and maintain the doctrine that 
 free ships make free goods. But as this point 
 has been conceded when General Washington 
 was President, and Mr. Jefferson Secretary of 
 State, it will not be proper to discuss our claims 
 on this occasion. But there is no law in the
 
 SPEECH OF MR. CLINTON. 
 
 25 
 
 code of nations, which authorizes a search and 
 an impressment of seamen on board of neutral 
 vessels. This is an odious extension of a sys- 
 tem of domestic tyranny to the citizens of for- 
 eign nations. The right to impress British 
 eubjects on British territory has been seriously 
 doubted, and is extenuated only on the ground 
 of necessity — the tyrant's plea. To apply this 
 assumed right, so questionable as it respects 
 their own subjects or territories, to the citizens 
 and vessels of foreign governments, is an exe- 
 crable encroachment on the independence and 
 rights of nations. The mode in which it is 
 exercised is calculated to produce the greatest 
 oppression. A merchant vessel is detained on 
 the highway of nations. A lieutenant or some 
 petty officer is sent on board, the sailors are 
 mustered on deck, and the slave of despotism 
 selects his victims without respecting the 
 claims of citizenship, the demands of justice, 
 or the prayers and supplications of the kneel- 
 ing, friendless sailor. All he regards are 
 physical ability and nautical dexterity. Thus 
 an ignorant, prejudiced and interested instru- 
 ment of tyranny is constituted a judge in our 
 own jurisdiction, (for I contend that we have 
 complete jurisdiction on board our vessels on 
 the high seas.) to determine on the citizenship 
 of Americans, to decide whether our brave tars 
 shall be slaves of the worst kind, or continue 
 freemen. The practice partook of the charac- 
 ter and nature of the preteusion j and on every 
 sea, and in every harbor, American citizens 
 were wrested from their ships by force, incar- 
 cerated on board foreign vessels, torn from 
 their family and country, and compelled, not 
 only to endure more than Egyptian bondage, 
 but also to fight the battles of the very tyrant 
 who enslaved them. The supplications of our 
 unfortunate seamen reached the government 
 from every quarter of the globe, and every 
 gazette was filled with melancholy accounts of 
 their sufferings. Our administration, ever at- 
 tentive to the interests of their country, have 
 not failed to call the attention of the British 
 ministry to this subject, to protest against their 
 usurpation, to demand redress, and insist upon 
 a relinquishment of their pretended right. 
 After many difficulties and great efforts, the 
 British ministry evinced a disposition to relax, 
 and in verbal conference it was at one time 
 agreed between Mr. King and Lord Hawkes- 
 bury, that Great Britain should not exercise 
 her pretended right of impressment on the high 
 seas. Had this modification been observed, 
 although not entirely satisfactory, yet it would 
 have been gaining a great deal, and would 
 have served as a preliminary step to a total 
 abolition of the practice. Before the articles 
 of the contemplated treaty were reduced to 
 form, however, unexpected difficulties were 
 raised — the omnipotence of the British navy 
 might be affected. And to enable Great Brit- 
 ain to back out of the negotiation with some 
 
 appearance of decency, a reservation of the 
 right within the four seas, and an implicit 
 acknowledgment of her exclusive dominion to 
 that extent was set up and made a sine qva 
 non, on the part of Great Britain. This broke 
 off the negotiation, and our seamen continued 
 exposed to vexation, to unrighteous imprison- 
 ment, and to every indignity and injustice — 
 "hewers of wood and drawers of water," the 
 mere slaves of British oppression. 
 
 "Messrs. Munroe and Pinkney, our ministers 
 at London, found that this usurpation was the 
 great stumbling-block in the way of a renewal 
 and arrangement of a treaty with Great Brit- 
 ain. With dispositions by no means unfriendly 
 to this country, the administration of Mr. Fox 
 were still unwilling to abandon the pretension, 
 and after much difficulty, it was finally agreed 
 that every obstacle in the power of the ministry 
 should be interposed against practical oppres- 
 sion. And the treaty was accompanied by a 
 written declaration of the British ministers, of 
 a right reserved, to violate it, with a view to 
 retaliation upon France. This unsatisfactory 
 provision for the protection of our seamen, and 
 this unprecedented declaration that the treaty 
 should be obligatory on us at all times, and 
 should only be binding on Great Britain when 
 she did not see fit to assert the law of retali- 
 ation, rendered its ratification impossible. And 
 the sending it back unratified, with a view to 
 the renewal of the negotiation, could not be 
 considered as offensive to Great Britain, be- 
 cause our ministers, at the formation of the 
 treaty, assured her ministers that they exceed- 
 ed their instructions, and did not consider their 
 government committed to sanction the ar- 
 rangement. With every disposition to benefit 
 their country, with talents adequate her rights, 
 and after the most earnest and commendable 
 exertions, after having exhausted every argu- 
 ment, and after having appealed in the most 
 powerful manner to her interests and her sense 
 of justice, all that our ministers could obtain 
 from Great Britain was an empty declaration in 
 favor of the rights of our seamen, which, how- 
 ever plausible on paper, would, in fact, have 
 been no barrier against the most enormous op- 
 pression. Small as our confidence was in the 
 justice of Great Britain, particularly after the 
 establishment of the present ministry, which is 
 composed of the understrappers and disciples 
 of Pitt, Dundas, and Jenkinson, the decided 
 foes of America, and as humble in talents as 
 they are destitute of integrity, still it was not 
 dreamed that an act so atrocious in its charac- 
 ter, so unauthorized in its principle, so unpre- 
 cedented in the annals of nations, and so 
 alarming to the world, as the attack on the 
 Chesapeake, could be committed. The nature 
 of this outrage is well understood. It has 
 commanded the attention and excited the in- 
 dignation of every American. An American 
 ship of war was detained on the ocean, under
 
 26 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 the pretence of the right of searching for de- 
 serters, was attacked, and was overpowered by 
 a British armed vessel, the lives of American 
 citizens destroyed, her crew was mustered on 
 deck, and some of them impressed and forcibly 
 dragged away, and to complete the inhuman 
 catastrophe, one or more murdered under the 
 forms of justice. When this event was an- 
 nounced, but one emotion thrilled the bosoms 
 of our citizens. Those of New York, of all 
 parties, laying aside their differences, assembled 
 together, and in the face of day, and in the 
 presence of their God, pledged themselves to 
 support the government in all measures that 
 might be adopted to vindicate our national 
 honor and to maintain our rights. Similar 
 declarations were made in all parts of the Uni- 
 ted States. All America appeared as if ani- 
 mated with but one feeling, as expressing one 
 voice, and tendering an united and energetic 
 support to the government. Would to God 
 that these sentiments and feelings had contin- 
 ued in force to this day. If they had, the storm 
 which now threatens our country would prob- 
 ably have passed by. If our national govern- 
 ment were actuated by that hostility to Great 
 Britain and that partiality to France which 
 have been so unjustly ascribed to them, this 
 would have been a period peculiarly favorable 
 to promote their views, to wreak their ven- 
 geance, and to gratify their prepossessions. 
 An immediate convocation of Congress at this 
 time, when the public sensibility was so strongly 
 excited, might have resulted in a declaration of 
 war. The President, desirous of maintaining 
 a friendly position with Great Britain, and 
 averse to close the door to conciliation, pre- 
 ferred the path of negotiation. Our ministers 
 were instructed to demand atonement for this 
 signal aggression, and as it had grown out of 
 the pretended right of search and impressment, 
 and as the calamities of our seamen were con- 
 tinually increasing, they were instructed to 
 strike at the root of the evil, and to connect 
 that usurpation with the institution and man- 
 agement of the negotiation. This mode was 
 opposed by Mr. Canning at the threshold. 
 His correspondence with our ministers was 
 characterized by arrogant severity, and they 
 were given to understand that a minister ex- 
 traordinary would be sent to this country to 
 tender an adequate reparation. Great Britain 
 had then a minister in this country, who might 
 have been instructed to make the necessary 
 explanations, without the pomp and pageantry 
 of a special mission. But it seems that views 
 far different from friendly ones were in agita- 
 tion. Mr. Erskine, the resident minister, was 
 the son of the ejected lord high chancellor. 
 He would not perhaps be as suitable, as trusty 
 and as confidential an instrument, to be initia- 
 ted in the arcana of ministerial policy as the 
 son of old George Rose, the unblushing advo- 
 cate of corruption, and the ready prostitute of 
 
 any ministry that would employ him in any 
 work however dirty or despicable. The con- 
 duct of the envoy extraordinary was corres- 
 pondent with the character and the views of hia 
 constituents. It demonstrated that he was not 
 sent here to furnish redress and maintain 
 peace, but that he was commissioned to dis- 
 grace our government by his Maehiavelian arts, 
 to embarrass the operations of our administra- 
 tion, to foster the spirit of discontent, to dis- 
 pense the ailment of faction, to cherish a Brit- 
 ish party in this country, and to spy out the 
 nakedness of the land. His arrival on our 
 coast, and before he set his foot on our shores, 
 was marked with a haughty air, and his affected 
 scruples about landing until certain formalities 
 were complied with, too palpably exhibited the 
 spirit and the future course of his mission. 
 The national government, in order to evince 
 their sincere disposition to maintain the rela- 
 tions of amity with Great Britain, consented at 
 once, with great frankness and cordiality, to 
 remove the obstacle which had taken place in 
 Europe, and to confine the negotiations to the 
 attack on the Chesapeake. But here an unex- 
 pected demand was made by Mr. Rose, which 
 demonstrated the most unfriendly disposition, 
 and a settled and inveterate design, either to 
 disgrace our government, or to preclude all 
 hope of amicable adjustment. When the at- 
 tack was made upon the Chesapeake, the Presi- 
 dent had issued a proclamation, as authorized by 
 an act of Congress, to prohibit all British armed 
 vessels from entering the waters of the United 
 States and partaking of the national hospitality. 
 " And here I would observe that, by the law 
 of nations no army has a right to enter or pass 
 through the territory of another government 
 without permission, and this is ever considered 
 a matter of courtesy or indulgence, and by no 
 means a question of right. The same rule is in 
 strictness applicable to naval armaments, and 
 under the law of nations no armed ship has a 
 right to enter the ports of a foreign country 
 without leave of the sovereign, unless in stress 
 of weather or to avoid the pursuit of an enemy. 
 As our treaty with Great Britain had expired, 
 she had upon general principles no right to 
 complain, unless a different system to a nation 
 hostile to her should indicate partiality. And 
 here the charge of partiality must fall, because 
 it is not alleged that the armed vessels of 
 France had insulted our government, murdered 
 our citizens, or trampled on our independence, 
 and therefore a similar rule applied to them 
 would have been unjust and unmerited. A 
 peremptory demand to revoke that proclama- 
 tion was made, and this, too, before any repar- 
 ation was offered for the insult on the Chesa- 
 peake. Thus a measure, flowing from an ag- 
 gression, was to have been rescinded before the 
 cause to which it was an effect was removed, 
 precisely reversing the order of events, and re- 
 quiring the injured party to make the first
 
 SPEECH OF MR. CLINTON. 
 
 27 
 
 apology to the aggressor. In vain was it urged 
 by our government that the proclamation was 
 a preventative, not a remedy ; a precaution, not 
 a punishment, and that until it was shown by 
 an adequate reparation that the injury should 
 not recur, it was proper that the precaution 
 should continue. Mr. Rose was inexorable. 
 In order to test the sincerity of his constituents, 
 and to silence every pretext for standing out, 
 our government made overtures the most fair 
 and conciliatory that could possibly be devised. 
 It was proposed that the revocation of the pro- 
 clamation, and the tender and acceptance of 
 an adequate expiation, should be concurrent 
 and contemporaneous. This unexceptionable 
 proposition was rejected, and thus terminated 
 the mission of Mr. Rose. Will it be believed 
 that any man in America would have the un- 
 blushing effrontery to criminate the conduct of 
 our government in the management of this ne- 
 gotiation ? And yet, I cannot mention it with- 
 out feelings of inexpressible regret, the legisla- 
 ture of Massachusetts, of Massachusetts, the 
 cradle of the revolution, have come forward 
 and have condescended to array themselves on 
 this subject in favor of a foreign government 
 against that of their country. To aggravate 
 the injuries we had already received, and to 
 exasperate our feelings, the king of Great 
 Britain issued a proclamation about this time, 
 under pretence of calling his subjects from for- 
 eign service, but evidently with a view to assert 
 the right of search and imprisonment, and to 
 evince his determination never to relinquish it. 
 This right is declared in the most broad and 
 unequivocal terms to exist and to apply to 
 merchant vessels, and it is indeed disclaimed 
 with respect to national ships, a case to which 
 it never was intended to apply till the occur- 
 rence of the Chesapeake. 
 
 "To persons acquainted with the character of 
 the British ministry, this unfriendly disposition 
 was the undoubted harbinger of an approach- 
 ing tempest. Whether it would burst in an 
 attempt on our seaport towns, or in a general 
 destruction of our commerce, was uncertain. 
 It was well known that the November orders of 
 1793, the prototype of those of November, 1807, 
 were issued in secret, and were only promul- 
 gated on the capture of an immense number of 
 our vessels, and that this piratical conduct pro- 
 duced the embargo under General Washing- 
 ton. And it was again apprehended that a 
 similar step might be taken to destroy the only 
 commercial rival which her rapacity had left 
 among the nations of the earth. The event 
 corresponded with the anticipation, and the 
 orders in council, in which the elements of ra- 
 pine were combined into a system, and by 
 which robbery and piracy were embodied in the 
 code of British morality, were issued. It is 
 well known that these orders excluded us from 
 all communication with France, her allies and 
 dependencies, which included almost the whole 
 
 of Europe, and that the only mode in which 
 any intercourse could take place was by first 
 paying tribute in the shape of duties. The im- 
 mense naval force of Great Britain enabled her 
 effectually to execute these edicts. The pre- 
 tences she used to justify this outrage, that thig 
 system was necessary to retaliate on France, 
 and our acquiescence in the decrees of the lat- 
 ter, were unjust and untenable. 1st. The Ber- 
 lin decree, declaring the British isles in a state 
 of blockade, had been officially expounded and 
 declared not to extend to this country, which 
 was excepted by treaty from operation. 2dly. 
 The first instance of the infraction of the treaty, 
 which was the case of the Horizon, had not 
 reached this country so as to enable us to take 
 ground against the unjust proceeding when the 
 orders in council were issued. 3d. Mr. Can- 
 ning has admitted that the orders in council of 
 November, 1807, were only a ramification of 
 those of 7th January, 1807, which prohibited 
 neutral nations from trading from port to port 
 of an enemy, and that they proceeded on the 
 same ground and were justified on the same 
 principles. The Berlin decree was issued on 
 the 21st November, 1806, and it was impossible 
 for us to resist its execution in any shape be- 
 fore the British orders of 7th January, 1807, 
 were promulgated. 4th. The only solid apolo- 
 gy for these outrages on the part of Great Brit- 
 ain is the plea of necessity, and this did not 
 exist in any shape whatever, as is expressly ad- 
 mitted by Mr. Canning, in his last letter to 
 Mr. Pinkney, wherein he vaunts of the power of 
 Great Britain, and her having broken into atom3 
 and totally destroyed the hostile plans of France. 
 "The extension of the Milan decree to us by 
 the French courts of prizes, and the audacious 
 letter of Champagny to our minister, wherein 
 he attempts to hector us into the plans of 
 France, evinced the blind, indiscriminating 
 fury of a military despot, who, in the execution 
 of his vengeance, and in the destruction of his 
 enemy, has no respect for the rights of inde- 
 pendence or the claims of neutrality. It was 
 therefore to be expected that French decrees 
 would follow on the heels of British orders, and 
 that neutral commerce would be banished from 
 the world. The Milan decree was issued on 
 the 7th December following. It denational- 
 ized all vessels which should have submitted 
 to the British orders, or which had been un- 
 happily subjected to their operation. This de- 
 cree was followed by the burning and capture 
 of several of our vessels. Between French vio- 
 lence on the one hand, and British rapacity on 
 the other, our commerce was swept from the 
 ocean. Evils assailed us from all sides. The 
 tyrant of the ocean and the tyrant of the east- 
 ern hemisphere had aimed a deadly blow at all 
 neutral commerce, and we (I intend no profane 
 allusion) were crucified between two thieves. 
 When these congregated storms, black with the 
 elements of destruction, were rolling towards
 
 28 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 our happy shores from the other side of the At- 
 lantic, and before the thunderbolt could burst 
 Upon its destined object, the national adminis- 
 tration, who had watched with anxiety the ap- 
 proach of the tempest, had taken measures to 
 guard against its fury. The embargo was re- 
 commended to Congress and immediately 
 adopted. This great precautionary measure, 
 which had been adopted by Washington in a 
 similar juncture, was the only one which could 
 protect our commerce from total destruction. 
 It has accordingly saved more property to this 
 country than would satisfy our whole national 
 debt, and the expense of three years' war, be- 
 sides preserving our national honor from hu- 
 miliation, and our independence from insult. I 
 call it a great precautionary measure, because 
 I have always considered it in that light. It 
 was recommended by the President with this 
 view. It was with this view adopted by Con- 
 gress, and as such it was announced to the bel- 
 ligerent nations. Its coercive quality was a 
 mere incident, subordinate to and which might 
 flow from its principle. A diversity of opinion 
 has arisen as to the duration of this precaution, 
 but none scarcely ever existed as to the pro- 
 priety of its institution. 
 
 "In the mean time our government urged the 
 most animated and able remonstrances against 
 these combined systems of oppression. Pro- 
 positions the most just and equitable that the 
 wit of man could devise were made to both the 
 offenders. It was supposed that Great Britain 
 particularly, who annually sent to this country 
 12,000,000 sterling of British manufactures, 
 who obtained from us some of the most import- 
 ant materials for her fabrics, and whose impo- 
 litic measures had driven from her her best and 
 most profitable customer, would be willing to 
 eucourage an arrangement that would exclude 
 even the pretext of complaint. It was accord- 
 ingly proposed that the British orders of coun- 
 cil should be rescinded as they respected this 
 country, and that the embargo should be re- 
 pealed as it respected Great Britain, and main- 
 tained against France, if France should persist 
 in her aggressions upon the law of nations. 
 Every professed purpose of Great Britain would 
 be fully realised by this arrangement. The 
 embargo in relation to our commerce with 
 France, her allies and dependencies, would 
 have the same operation as the orders of coun- 
 cil. This overture was rejected with insult by 
 the British ministry; and a similar one made 
 to France was, if possible, treated with more 
 indignity, by being passed over in contemptu- 
 ous silence. 
 
 "This result demonstrated, if any doubt could 
 have existed before, that the belligerents were 
 entirely deaf to the voice of justice. That in 
 their plans of exterminating each other they 
 had no regard to the rights of unoffending na- 
 tions. I entirely disclaim all partialities to 
 France or Great Britain. I consider the men 
 
 who preside over their destinies as equally in- 
 imical to the rights and interests of humanity. 
 But in their conduct to us, I consider Great 
 Britain the most criminal. The decrees of 
 France are not backed by a great naval force; 
 whereas Great Britain is mistress of the waters 
 of the world, the possessor of the trident of the 
 ocean, audi think I perceive in the whole course 
 of her measures a settled, systematic, deliberate 
 plan of crippling our commerce, and of destroy- 
 ing our national importance. To repel the ag- 
 gressions of France is her ostensible object, but 
 the real cause is to be found in her hatred and 
 jealousy. Two centuries have scarcely elapsed 
 since the discovery of this country, and but 
 thirty-two years since our national independ- 
 ence. The history of mankind cannot produce 
 a parallel instance of such rapid and extensive 
 prosperity. 
 
 "Next to Great Britain we have the greatest 
 commerce, next to her the most shipping, and 
 our neutral position amidst the wars and con- 
 vulsions of Europe had given us the carrying 
 trade of the world. Her ship-holders, her West 
 India planters and traders, her East India Com- 
 pany and her navy, have raised the voice of 
 murmuring and complaint against us. They 
 view our extensive commerce with envy, our in- 
 creasing opulence with jealousy, and our grow- 
 ing power with fear and terror. The hatred 
 which grew out of the revolution has not yet 
 subsided : it still rankles in the bosom of the 
 maniac on the throne, and the secret influence 
 which has encircled and controlled him from 
 his coronation to the present time, and which 
 has elevated the Cannings, the Hawkesburys, 
 the Percivals and the Castlereaghs, the ephem- 
 eral statesmen of the day, still perpetuates the 
 chagrin and still cherishes the deadly resent- 
 ments which sprung from our national inde- 
 pendence. The idea of extorting tribute from 
 neutral commerce, under the form of duty, ex- 
 isted before the Berlin decree, and was zeal- 
 ously inculcated some years ago in ministerial 
 publications. It is the offspring of deep delib- 
 ration and of many years consultation. The 
 ministers who have imposed it owe no small 
 portion of their popularity to their presumed 
 hostility and violent measures against this 
 country. The gasconading of the infamous 
 Cobbett, who glories in the idea of Copenhagen- 
 izing New York, and of burying us under the 
 ruins of our cities, is received with peals of ap- 
 probation ; and his scurrility against this coun- 
 try, his envenomed abuse of its governments, 
 its institutions and its inhabitants, have, to- 
 gether with his great ability as a writer, con- 
 tributed in no inconsiderable degree to give 
 him an absolute control ever the public senti- 
 ment of Great Britain. 
 
 "In this critical situation are we placed by 
 the belligerent nations ; we have our election 
 of evils: prostration on our knees for mercy, 
 abject submission and disgraceful vassalage, or
 
 SPEECH OP MR. CLINTON. 
 
 a manly assertion of our rights. The olive 
 branch has been tendered for the last time, our 
 vessels have for the last time been dispatched 
 on a mission of peace. The measures of pre- 
 caution will probably be superseded by meas- 
 ures of coercion, and our rights must be en- 
 forced at the point of the bayonet, and by the 
 thunder of our ordnance. This controversy is 
 not the strife of personal ambition, a contest 
 between rival parties, but it is a controversy 
 which involves the vital principles, the first 
 elements of our national rights and prosperity. 
 It is not a question of policy with regard to 
 ourselves, but of national policy in respect to 
 foreign nations. It is a question between our 
 nation and foreign nations, between our gov- 
 ernment and foreign governments. We should 
 therefore suppose that on this occasion party 
 spirit would be merged in love of country, that 
 the voice of faction would be silenced, and its 
 arm unnerved and withered; that there would 
 be no other dispute than who should most ef- 
 fectually serve his country; that America 
 would exhibit her children in a Macedonian 
 phalanx, presenting an impenetrable shield to 
 future outrage, and evincing that they inher- 
 ited the determination of their forefathers, to 
 perish rather than submit to insult and dis- 
 honor. Alas! these anticipations are proved 
 to be vain and idle. 
 
 I wish to be distinctly and explicitly under- 
 stood that what I now say is not intended to 
 criminate any body, description or party of our 
 fellow citizens. I believe that virtue and vice, 
 wisdom and folly, are generally distributed 
 among parties in proportion to their relative 
 strength and numbers. I believe that the 
 great body of every party mean to do right, and 
 I fully accord with a celebrated writer, that the 
 people are never wrong in their sentiments, in 
 their opinions often. But I do not mean to ex- 
 empt from censure the desperate leaders of a 
 profligate conspiracy against the good of our 
 country, who at this all important period are 
 scattering the firebrands of civil discord 
 through the United States. The opposition 
 now excited is not an ordinary opposition. It 
 does not merely aim a blow at a rival party, 
 nor is it confined to the destruction of a prom- 
 inent individual. It takes a more daring and 
 adventurous stand. It bids defiance to our 
 laws, and threatens the dissolution of the Union. 
 It is, perhaps, known to but few, that the pro- 
 ject of a dismemberment of this country is not 
 a novel plan, growing out of the recent meas- 
 ures of the government, as has been pretended. 
 It has been cherished by a number of individ- 
 uals for a series of years, and a few months 
 before the death of a distinguished citizen, 
 whose decease so deeply excited the public 
 sensibility, it was proposed to him to enlist his 
 great talents, in the promotion of this nefarious 
 scheme, and to his honor be it spoken, it was 
 rejected by him with abhorrence and disdain. 
 
 Some of the newspapers of New England have 
 at various times inculcated the treasonable 
 doctrine in elaborate esssays, and the match 
 appears to be now lighted to produce an explo- 
 sion which will overwhelm us with all the hor- 
 rors of civil war. It cannot be necessary, sir, 
 to expatiate on the calamities which will result 
 from a severance of the Union. I cannot pic- 
 ture to my imagination a greater evil. It will 
 be the opening of Pandora's box ; partial con- 
 federacies arrayed in hostile form against each 
 other; foreign influences infused into the very 
 heart of the body politic ; injurious restrictions 
 and vexatious regulations on commerce and 
 intercourse, standing armies, civil wars, mili- 
 tary despotism. Such, sir, will be the deplora- 
 ble situation of our country ; and this State 
 particularly, whichever way she turns, will 
 be a bordering State, and exposed to the great- 
 est injury. If she remains true to the western, 
 southern and middle States, she will be bound- 
 ed by three of the States of the eastern confed- 
 eracy. If she joins the eastern factionists, she 
 will border on some of the southern confedera- 
 tion. Our commercial emporium, the great 
 depot of the commodities and trade of more 
 than one-half of the United States, and the 
 greatest mart of foreign commerce, will be 
 exposed to plunder and contribution. The 
 narrow tongue of land which runs up from the 
 southern extremity of the State, will be liable 
 at all times to be overrun by a superior hostile 
 force. And after having travelled thi'ough a 
 sea of blood, some daring adventurer, some 
 Cassar, some Cromwell, or some Bonaparte, 
 will seize the government by force, and reduce 
 us and our posterity to slavery. My blood 
 freezes with horror, and every feeling of my 
 heart revolts at the dreadful prospect. May 
 God in his infinite mercy avert these disasters 
 from our beloved country. Should that direful 
 time ever occur, our sky will be enshrouded in 
 clouds and darkness, and the sun of American 
 glory will set forever. 
 
 " Look, sir, at the storm which is gathering 
 in the east, its clouds are black, heavy and 
 portentous. Look at the resolves of several of 
 the towns, and even of the capital of Massachu- 
 setts. Observe the disorganizing, Jacobinical, 
 seditious and traitorous spirit which prevades 
 them. The legislatures of the different States 
 are invited to array themselves against the 
 general government. The very men who a few 
 years since were the strenuous advocates for 
 melting down the State governments, for a 
 strong national executive, that would maintain 
 the union of the States, for an energetic, ab- 
 sorbing national government that would con- 
 trol and regulate the centrifugal force of the 
 local governments ; these men are now the 
 warm partizans of State supremacy, the devo- 
 ted friends of the State legislatures. The reso- 
 lutions of Boston are more seditious and repre- 
 hensible than any that were passed at the time
 
 30 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 of the western insurrection in Pennsylvania, 
 and they are certainly intended to infuse a 
 spirit of treason into the proceedings of the 
 State legislature. We are told that a special 
 session of the legislature of Connecticut is to 
 be had. Is this a link of the same chain? Is 
 this a part of a system of severence ? Is this 
 the commencement of the northern confederacy 
 which was threatened last summer ? It is time, 
 it is high time, that this great State should 
 come forth in all her strength, and exhibit a 
 decided front, and an erect attitude in favor of 
 the violated majesty of the laws, it should 
 frown into nothing the Catalines and the Bor- 
 gia's of our country ; it should let the eastern 
 States know at once that they have nothing to 
 expect from us but decided opposition to a dis- 
 memberment of the Union. I trust in God, 
 sir, that a majority, a great, a commanding 
 majority of our eastern brethren will be found 
 faithful to themselves, to their country, and to 
 posterity. I cannot believe that a people so 
 intelligent, so patriotic, so pure in morals, and 
 a people who have been the first in the ranks 
 of liberty and patriotism, will at once renounce 
 the high character they have hitherto sustained, 
 rally round a foreign government in opposition 
 to their own, and cherish the principle of dis- 
 organization, confusion and discord. Is there 
 not reason to apprehend that there is an inti- 
 mate understanding between the Essex junto 
 and the British ministry, and that foreign influ- 
 ence has struck its deadly roots deep in that 
 portion of our country? The publication of 
 Canning's false and malignant letter, the vio- 
 lent declamations in favor of Great Britain, the 
 servile vindication of her measures towards the 
 United States, and even of the attack on the 
 Chesapeake, show in colors as vivid as the 
 streams of lightning the hand of Joab, and 
 evince a deadly spirit of concert and co-opera- 
 tion with a foreign government. The leaders 
 of these factious proceedings are without the 
 semblance of excuse. Driven from power by 
 the indignant voice of an injured people, and 
 despairing to regain it by honest means, they 
 appear to be governed by the same unprinci- 
 pled sentiments, and actuated by the same hel- 
 lish principles which the greatest of poets 
 ascribes to the deceiver of mankind : 
 
 " better to reign in hell 
 
 "Than serve in Heaven." 
 better to regain office and elevation, through 
 blood, destruction and general ruin, than not 
 to obtain them at all. 
 
 " I have now done, sir. I have discharged a 
 great duty, which the situation of my country 
 demanded. I shall call for the ayes and nays 
 on the resolutions I now offer ; not with a view 
 of perplexing any member in giving his vote, 
 for I fondly hope that every vote will be freely 
 given in their favor — but that our names may 
 be put on record, so that when the feuds and 
 contentions which now agitate us are either 
 
 forgotten or remembered only in the historic 
 page — when we who are here assembled shall 
 live only in the memory of posterity, our con- 
 duct on this solemn occasion, and iu this event- 
 ful crisis, may be the subject of its impartial 
 judgment. 
 
 [Mr. Clinton then introduced the following reso- 
 lutions, which passed the Senate unanimously, 
 and were agreed to in the Assembly by a large 
 majority.] 
 
 Whereas the unjust and multiplied aggres- 
 sions of the belligerent national rights, their 
 obstinate refusal to render justice, and to listen 
 to the most fair, friendly, impartial and pacific 
 overtures, and their unrelenting perseverance in 
 a system of violence, rapacity and insult, have 
 rendered it the peculiar and incumbent duty of 
 all good citizens, attached to the rights and the 
 honor of their country, to bury in oblivion all 
 internal differences, and to rally round the 
 standard of the government in opposition to the 
 unjust pretensions and atrocious outrages of 
 foreign powers. And whereas, in defiance of 
 every dictate of patriotism and every considera- 
 tion of duty, the most unremitted and repre- 
 hensible attempts are making, with uncommon 
 industry and malignity, and by every art of 
 misrepresentation, to enfeeble and destroy the 
 exertions of the general government in vindi- 
 cating our national rights and honor, by en- 
 deavoring to alienate the affections of the 
 people, by opposing the authority of the laws, 
 and by menacing a dismemberment of the 
 Union ; and the legislature deeming it an in- 
 dispensible obligation, at this critical and 
 eventful period, to discountenance these daring 
 and factious proceedings, and to bear testimony 
 against the insolent encroachments of foreign 
 nations, and being fully satisfied that the con- 
 duct of the national government has been cal- 
 culated to secure the resources, to preserve the 
 peace, to maintain the honor, and to promote 
 the interests of the country, 
 
 Therefore, (if the honorable the Assembly 
 concur herein,) 
 
 Resolved, That we repose full confidence in 
 the wisdom, patriotism, and integrity of the 
 national administration: and that we will, at 
 every hazard, and to the full extent of our fac- 
 ulties, support them against the unjust attempts 
 of foreign powers ; and if a state of peace shall 
 no longer be a state of honor, and a continu- 
 ance of aggression shall render an appeal to 
 the sword inevitable, we pledge our lives and 
 our fortunes in defence of the just rights of our 
 injured country. 
 
 Resolved, That we consider the union of the 
 States as the palladium of our national safety, 
 the guarantee of our national prosperity, and 
 the pledge of our national glory, and that every 
 attempt to violate or sever the ties which bind 
 the confederated States together ought to 
 receive the most pointed reprobation, and the 
 most decided abhorrence. And we earnestly
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE RESTRICTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 31 
 
 exhort the good citizens of this State to be 
 vigilant and active in discountenancing and 
 suppressing all combinations and attempts to 
 evade or violate the laws, to detract from the 
 authority of the government, or to impair the 
 stability of the Union ; and we solemnly con- 
 jure them, by the sacred principles of liberty 
 and patriotism, to prepare themselves for the 
 crisis which is probably approaching, and to 
 be ready to cooperate with each other, and 
 with the constituted authorities, in resisting 
 and repelling the audacious aggressions of for- 
 eign nations. 
 
 Resolved, That his excellency the governor 
 be requested to transmit a copy of these reso- 
 lutions to the President of the United States, 
 as the sense of this State, and that our Senators 
 and representatives in Congress be and hereby 
 are requested to use every exertion to put the 
 United States in the best condition of defence, 
 so that we may be fully prepared to meet the 
 dangers which menace the peace of our country. 
 
 Mr. Barker having a great regard for Mr. 
 Clinton, and great respect for his distinguished 
 talents, was very anxious to retain him in the 
 party, it not having a surplussage of such men. 
 He caused a thousand extra copies of that 
 speech to be printed at New York by Mr. John 
 Crooks, of the Mercantile Advertiser, at his 
 own expense, in the hope that its perusal would 
 reconcile the party to Mr. Clinton. It did not 
 have that effect; he could not resist the influ- 
 ence of the adulation of the Federal party; his 
 subsequent course extended their estrangement 
 from each other until the war terminated. 
 
 Mr. Barker being deeply impressed with the 
 importance of the restrictive system, wishes his 
 views in relation thereto perpetuated ; he sup- 
 ported the embargo and non-importation laws 
 to the utmost of his power. He was a large 
 ship owner ; probably the largest in the United 
 States, with the exception of William Gray, of 
 Salem, and was conducting a large commission 
 business when Jefferson's embargo was adopt- 
 ed. This measure, followed up as it was by the 
 non-importation laws and war, greatly impaired 
 his fortune and future commercial prospects, 
 yet he did not faulter in their support. He had 
 a large and intimate acquaintance with the 
 mechanic and laboring classes from the great 
 numbers he had been in the habit of employing. 
 
 These men were thrown out of employment 
 by the restrictive measures of the Democratic 
 administration, and their political opponents 
 did all they could to fan the embers and in- 
 crease their discontent. 
 
 Mr. Barker, through the columns of the press, 
 constantly admonished those suffering to be- 
 ware of the designs of these opponents of the 
 administration, and spoke to them at the Bat- 
 tery and at the Park, where there were public 
 meetings called for the purpose of engendering 
 discontent. 
 
 The Federal party were incessant in their 
 exertions to make political capital out of the 
 distresses of the sailors, their landlords, the 
 mechanics, and others who had been thrown 
 out of employ. For this purpose they called 
 indignation meetings. Mr. Barker watched 
 them closely, attended their meetings, combat- 
 ing their doctrines, and so important did he 
 consider it to have a daily press which would 
 speak truth to the people, that he took the Pub- 
 lic Advertiser, the only paper in the city advo- 
 cating the restrictive system, three times out of 
 the hands of the sheriff, at a cost of three or 
 four thousand dollars, all of which he lost. 
 
 The Democratic party usually held their 
 meetings at Martling's old wigwam, called the 
 " Pig-pen," where Mr. Barker's voice was often 
 heard. 
 
 At this period the British ships-of-war con- 
 stantly infested our ports; and, on one occa- 
 sion, as a coasting vessel was approaching New 
 York from the mills in New Jersey, the cap- 
 tain, Pierce, was killed at the helm by a cannon 
 ball from the British ship Leander, of fifty 
 guns. When the mill boat arrived, the bleeding 
 corpse of her commander Pierce on her quarter 
 deck, with the stars and stripes for a pall, 
 there was a great excitement with all classes. 
 An important election was at hand, both politi- 
 cal parties endeavored to make political capi- 
 tal out of this terrible outrage, committed on a 
 native citizen quietly navigating his unarmed 
 barque along the New Jersey shore. 
 
 The Federal party held a meeting at the Ton- 
 tine coffee house, corner of Wall and Water 
 streets ; Mr. Barker attended, and listened to a 
 very inflammatory speech made by the most 
 distinguished member of that party. Among 
 other things he said that "the hands of Jeffer- 
 son were dyed in the blood of his countryman, 
 (Pierce) he not having resisted the Berlin and 
 Milan decrees of Bonaparte, and thereby saved 
 Britain the necessity of sending her ships of 
 war to our coast." The Democratic party held 
 a meeting in the Park, where Mr. Barker is
 
 32 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 said to have made one of his characteristic 
 speeches. 
 
 The occasion called forth the resources of 
 his mind; his very soul seemed wrapt up in the 
 matter ; he rebuked with great severity the 
 sympathy manifested by the Federal party. He 
 had the peculiar faculty of conveying his 
 thoughts to others in a language quickly com- 
 prehended, the meaning of which was not 
 easily mistaken. 
 
 Although subject to occasional reverses, 
 he prospered greatly in his commercial pursuits, 
 until he had the misfortune to incur the dis- 
 pleasure of Robert Lenox,avery rich Scotchmer- 
 chant; although a strong-minded, intelligent 
 man, his will and his prejudices were of the 
 character peculiar to the nation of his birth. 
 
 Mr. Barker had, as agent for the owner, char- 
 tered to James Scott the ship Live Oak, of 
 Portland, Maine, for a voyage to St. Domingo 
 and back. On her arrival off the port of des- 
 tination she found it blockaded; was ordered 
 off, when, according to custom, she proceeded 
 to the nest port; finding that in possession of 
 the slaves, they having revolted, the captain 
 prudently returned to New York with the out- 
 ward cargo. 
 
 A question arose whether or not the ship 
 was entitled to compensation. Mr. Barker ap- 
 plied immediately to his friend and professional 
 adviser, General Alexander Hamilton, for ad- 
 vice ; that gentleman advised him to retain a 
 sufficiency of the cargo to pay the amount of 
 charter until he could advise and receive an 
 answer from his employer, the owner of the 
 ship. A portion less than the amount of char- 
 ter was in money ; it was retained. 
 
 The following day his notes offered for dis- 
 count at the United States Branch Bank, where 
 he kept his account, were all thrown out, which 
 was followed up every discount day for two or 
 three weeks, when Mr. Barker began to feel the 
 effects. He knowing Mr. Lenox to be the most 
 influential director, applied to that gentleman 
 without the least idea of the cause, or that he 
 was the gentleman that had induced the rejec- 
 tion of the notes offered; named to him the lib- 
 erality with which he had always been treated 
 by the bank, the goodness of the notes offered 
 and their rejection, adding that he presumed 
 there must be some hidden cause which he could 
 satisfactorily explain if he knew what it waa. 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. Lenox, " there is a cause, 
 and if you expect any more discounts at the 
 Branch Bank you must deliver to Mr. Scott the 
 money you withhold from him." 
 
 Mr. Barker, astonished at the avowal, in- 
 quired if the board of directors undertook to 
 pass ex-parte on differences which arose among 
 merchants, neither of whom was of their num- 
 ber, and to enforce their decision against one 
 of the parties without having allowed him a 
 hearing. Mr. Lenox replied that he believed 
 every director at the board agreed with him in 
 opinion. 
 
 Application was immediately made to Gene- 
 ral Stevens, Thomas Buchanan, and other di- 
 rectors, who informed him that Mr. Lenox was 
 mistaken; that they were opposed to all such 
 assumption of power, and that if Mr. Lenox did 
 not withdraw his objection they would not 
 allow the notes of his friends to be discounted. 
 One or two opposing a note it could not, by the 
 rules of the board, be discounted. 
 
 This affair came to the knowledge of the 
 directors of the mother bank at Philadelphia, 
 yet they re-appointed Mr. Lenox a director of 
 the New York Branch. 
 
 Mr. Barker had not any redress but to op- 
 pose the renewal of the charter of the bank, 
 which was soon to expire. With this view he 
 caused the whole affair to be published by Mr. 
 Duane, in the Philadelphia Aurora. That able 
 editor entered into the matter warmly. Mr. 
 Barker enlisted the pen of his friend Thomas 
 English, esq., of Philadelphia, in the cause, 
 which greatly aided the editor in filling the col- 
 umns of that paper until the question of re- 
 newal was finally settled. 
 
 He visited Washington while the subject 
 was pending, urged on members of Con- 
 gress the objection to the bank, and supplied 
 the Public Advertiser of New York with 
 editorial articles, not ceasing his exertions un- 
 til the fate of the bank was sealed by the rejec- 
 tion of the bill for the renewal of the charter by 
 Congress. This was done by a majority of 
 only one, and as Mr. Barker's half-brother, Gid- 
 eon Gardner, was a member from Nantucket 
 and voted against the bank, it is not unrea- 
 sonable to conclude that he had some influence 
 in overthrowing the first United States Bank. 
 
 Mr. Barker's intercourse with mechanics, la- 
 borers, and others in humble life was very ex-
 
 LETTER OF GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 33 
 
 tensive, his influence with them was apparent, 
 to break clown which was an object of the first 
 importance to his political opponents in their 
 scramble for office and power; his activity, zeal 
 and perseverance very soon arrayed the Federal 
 party against him ; their newspapers denounced 
 him and misrepresented his every action, the 
 effect of which was to urge him on, hurling de- 
 fiance at all opponents. 
 
 The Evening Post, then the leading Federal 
 paper, was particularly violent, which induced 
 him to prepare an article, of which he sent in 
 the morning to the office of that paper a copy, 
 with notice that if it did not retract in the 
 evening edition its offensive articles it would 
 appear the next morning in the Public Adver- 
 tiser. 
 
 The severity of this article produced the de- 
 sired effect; it brought immediately to the resi- 
 dence of Mr. Barker David B. Ogden, esq., a 
 distinguished professional gentleman of great 
 merit, the friend of the editor, who notified Mr. 
 Barker that if his publication took place he 
 would have to settle it with Mr. Coleman on the 
 battle field of Hoboken. 
 
 The reply was, "it will appear in the morning 
 papers if the recantation is not made, be the 
 consequences what they may." 
 
 The matter was arranged, and the amende 
 honorable appeared in the Post of the same 
 evening. 
 
 Mr. Coleman and Mr. Barker became per- 
 sonal friends, which continued until the death 
 of Mr. Coleman. 
 
 The banks were generally conducted by gen- 
 tlemen of the Federal party, who were not dis- 
 posed to favor Democrats. 
 
 But few merchants advocated the Democratic 
 side of the question ; these few rarely attended 
 the Merchants' Exchange, then held at the 
 Tontine coffee house, Wall street. 
 
 The clamor of the opposition against the 
 embargo was so great that it was abandoned, 
 Congress relying on the influence of non-im- 
 portationlaws to bring Great Britain to a sense 
 of justice. 
 
 The Democratic party demanded that if the 
 Federal party would not acquiesce in the re- 
 strictive system, war against Great Britain 
 should be substituted therefor, insisting that a 
 declaration of war against France would be 
 yielding to the unjust requirements of Britain, 
 o 
 
 that we could not longer, without dishonor, 
 submit to her paper blockades, her impressment 
 of our seamen, and especially that we could not 
 tolerate our ships on their return voyages 
 j calling at British ports, paying toll for the 
 right to navigate the ocean, the great highway 
 of nations. There was great difficulty experi- 
 enced in enforcing the embargo. One half of 
 the nation opposed to it, mainly from political 
 considerations, many from the distress occa- 
 sioned by the want of employment and of a 
 market for the surplus of our agricultural pro- 
 ducts. Therefore, after more than a years 
 continuance it had been repealed, substituting 
 therefor a non-intercourse with Great Britain 
 and her colonies, which was equally opposed 
 by the Federal party in their efforts to regain 
 power, and consequently the loaves and fishes, 
 called spoils. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson's term was about expiring; 
 great and ineffectual efforts were made by the 
 Democratic party to induce him to consent to 
 be their candidate for a third term. James 
 Madison, the then Secretary of State, the friend 
 of Washington, was nominated by the con- 
 gressional Congress, and elected President of 
 the United States. 
 
 The letter of General Washington, a copy 
 herewith, may induce the reader to consider 
 Mr. Madison entitled to share with the general 
 the fame of his farewell address. 
 
 "Mount Vernon, May 30, 1792. 
 
 "My dear sir: As there is a possibility, if not 
 a probability, that I shall not see you on your 
 return home, or if I should see you, it may be 
 on the road, and under circumstances which 
 will prevent my speaking to you on the subject 
 we last conversed upon, I take the liberty of 
 committing to paper the following thoughts and 
 requests. I have not been unmindful of the 
 sentiments expressed by you in the conversa- 
 tion just alluded to ; on the contrary, I have 
 again and again revolved them with thoughtful 
 anxiety, but without being able to dispose my 
 mind to a longer continuance in the office I 
 have yet the honor to hold. I, therefore, still 
 look forward to the fulfillment of my fondest 
 and most ardent wishes to spend the remainder 
 of my days (which I cannot expect will be 
 many) in ease and tranquility. Nothing short 
 of the conviction that my dereliction of the 
 chair of government (if it should be the desire 
 of the people to continue me in it,) would in- 
 volve the country in serious disputes respecting 
 the Chief Magistrate, and the disagreeable con- 
 sequences which might result therefrom, in the 
 floating and divided opinions which so prevail
 
 34 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 at present, and in nowise induce me to relin- 
 quish the determination I have formed, and of 
 this I do not see how any evidence can be ob- 
 tained previous to the election. My vanity, I 
 I am sure, is not of that cast as to allow me to 
 view the subject in this light. Under these 
 impressions, then, permit me to reiterate the 
 request I made to you at our last meeting, 
 namely, to think of the proper time and the 
 best mode of announcing the intention, and 
 that you would prepare the latter. In revolv- 
 ing this subject myself, my judgment has 
 always been embarrassed. On the other hand, 
 a previous declaration to retire not only carries 
 with it the appearance of vanity and self- 
 importance, but it may be construed into a 
 manoeuvre to be invited to remain. And, on 
 the other hand, to say nothing implies consent, 
 or at any rate, would leave the matter in doubt, 
 and to decline afterwards might be deemed as 
 uncandid. I would fain carry my request to 
 you further than is asked above, although I am 
 sensible that your compliance with it must add 
 to your trouble ; but as the recess may afford 
 you leisure, and I flatter myself you have a dis- 
 position to oblige me, I will, without apology, 
 desire (if the measure in itself should strike 
 you as proper, and likely to produce public 
 good or private honor, that you would turn 
 your thoughts to a valedictory address to the 
 public, expressing in plain and modest terms, 
 that, having been honored with the presidential 
 chair, and, to the best of my ability, contributed 
 to the organization and administration of the 
 government; and, having arrived at a period of 
 life when the private walks of it, in the shade 
 of retirement, becomes necessary, and will be 
 most pleasant to me, and the spirit of the gov- 
 ernment may render a rotation in the elective 
 officers of it more congenial with their ideas of 
 liberty and safety, that I take my leave of them 
 as a public man, and in bidding them adieu, 
 (retaining no other concern than such as will 
 arise from fervent wishes for the honor of my 
 country,) I take the liberty at my departure 
 from civil, as I formerly did at my military 
 exit, to invoke a continuance of the blessings 
 of Providence upon it, and all those who are 
 the supporters of its interests, and the promo- 
 ters of harmony, order and good government. 
 
 "That to impress these things it might, among 
 other things, be observed that we are all the 
 children of the same country — a country great 
 and rich in itself — capable, and promising to 
 be as happy as any the annals of history have 
 ever brought to our view. That our interests, 
 however diversified by local and smaller mat- 
 ters, is the same in all the great and essential 
 concerns of the nation. That the contrast of 
 our country, the diversity of our climate and 
 soil, and the various productions of the States, 
 consequent of both, are such as to make one 
 part not only convenient, but, perhaps, indis- 
 pensably necessary to the other part, and may 
 render the whole, at no distant period, one of 
 
 the most independent in the world. That the 
 established government being the work of our 
 own hands, with the seeds of amendment en- 
 grafted on the Constitution, may, by wisdom, 
 good dispositions, and mutual allowances, aided 
 by experience, bring it as near to perfection as 
 any human institution ever approximated, and 
 therefore the only strife among us ought to be 
 who should be foremost in facilitating and 
 finally accomplishing such great, desirable ob- 
 jects, by giving every possible support and ce- 
 ment to the Union. That however necessary 
 it may be to keep a watchful eye over public 
 servants and public measures, yet there ought 
 to be limits to it, for suspicions unfounded and 
 jealousies too lively are irritating to honest 
 feelings, and oftentimes are productive of more 
 evil than good. 
 
 '•' To enumerate the various subjects which 
 might be introduced into such an address 
 would require thought, and to mention them 
 to you would be unnecessary, as your own judg- 
 ment will comprehend all that will be proper ; 
 whether to touch specially any of the excep- 
 tionable parts of the Constitution may be 
 doubted; all I shall add, therefore, at present, 
 is to beg the favor of you to consider — 1st, 
 The propriety of such an address. 2d, If ap- 
 proved, the several matters which ought to be 
 contained in it ; and 3d, The time it should 
 appear — that is, whether at the declaration of 
 my intention to withdraw from the service of 
 the public, or let it be the closing act of my 
 administration, which will end with the next 
 session of Congress, (the probability being that 
 that body will continue sitting until March) 
 when the House of Representatives will also 
 dissolve. 
 
 "Though I do not wish to hurry you, (the case 
 not pressing) in the execution of either of the 
 publications before mentioned, yet I should be 
 glad to hear from you, generally on both, and 
 to receive them in time, if you should not come 
 to Philadelphia until the session commences, 
 in the form they are to take. 
 
 "I beg leave to draw your attention also to 
 such things as you shall conceive fit subjects 
 for communication on that occasion, and noting 
 them as they occur, that you would be so good 
 as to furnish me with them in time to be pre- 
 pared and engrafted with others for the open- 
 ing of the session. 
 
 "With very sincere and affectionate regard, I 
 am ever yours. G. WASHINGTON. 
 
 " James Madison, sen., esq." 
 
 The nonimportation law was continued; the 
 belligerents nevertheless continued to trample 
 on our rights to such an extent that our honor, 
 as well as our interest, required that something 
 should be done to protect our mercantile marine, 
 as well as to vindicate the national honor. 
 
 Both political parties were opposed to further 
 submission to these encroachments en our
 
 FIRST MEETING AT TAMMANY HALL. 
 
 35 
 
 maritime rights ; the federal party were clamor- 
 ous for war against France. 
 
 The democratic party considered that we 
 mio-ht as well declare war against the moon as 
 against France ; that she had not any foreign 
 commerce for us to assail, nor any adjoining 
 territory for us to invade — hence the battle (of 
 trying which could do the other the most harm) 
 would prove an unequal contest; our ships, the 
 swelling sails of which whitened every sea, 
 would become an easy prey to her thousand 
 privateers, which would be dispatched to every 
 ocean in pursuit of such rich prey as our ex- 
 tended commerce would present to their keen 
 appetites ; that an embargo would be all suffi- 
 cient, insisting that as she had not any navy 
 at sea and would not send cut any other than 
 privateers, and no adjoining territory from 
 which to invade us, the injury would be much 
 less than from Britain with her powerful navy, 
 and from the facilities her adjoining territory 
 would afford her land forces, aided by their 
 savage allies in their assaults on our frontier 
 towns. 
 
 The question of establishing a bank with a 
 very large capital, to supply the void created 
 by the termination of the charter of the United 
 States Bank, was brought before the New York 
 legislature, advocated by the federal party and 
 opposed by the democratic party, both parties 
 became very violent on the subject. 
 
 On the supposition that there had been brib- 
 ery the governor, Daniel D. Tompkins, pro- 
 rogued the legislature. At this time the new 
 Tammany Hall was in progress of erection — 
 nearly completed. Mr. Barker was a member 
 of the building committee. He made prompt 
 exertions to have the carpenter benches and 
 other incumbrances removed, and the large 
 room prepared for the accommodation of a 
 public meeting ; it was there convened. This 
 first meeting held at the new Tammany Hall 
 was a tremendous gathering; not one-half of 
 those who assembled could get into the house. 
 The room was brilliantly lighted. Mr. Barker 
 and many others addressed the meeting, sus- 
 taining the action of Governor Tompkins, and 
 has often been heard to say that he has not, 
 on any other occasion, witnessed so electrifying 
 a scene as those three thousand human faces, 
 illuminated as well by the animating subject 
 under discussion as by the surrounding lights. 
 
 Many distinguished men advocated the em- 
 bargo. Among the number were ship owners, 
 who were the greatest sufferers. On that sub- 
 ject Wm. Gray, esq., wrote as follows: 
 
 "Boston, March 30, 1814. 
 
 "Friend Jacob Barker — Sir : I have re- 
 ceived your favor of 21st instant, with the en- 
 closure, for which I thank you. 
 
 "I was very much gratified to find Congress 
 come out so full against the repeal of the em- 
 bargo and non-intercourse. I should have con- 
 sidered the removal of those effectual engines 
 against our enemy a great calamity. 
 
 "I acknowledge some of the southern States, 
 particularly the State of Georgia, do suffer 
 more pecuniary loss than we do ; indeed, we 
 suffer nothing. Since the embargo our coast 
 is more free from British cruisers, and, of 
 course, our prizes arrive more frequently. We 
 are abundantly supplied with all foreigu ar- 
 ticles by neutrals, which is the only way we 
 can obtain them without great loss; indeed, 
 the imported articles, in general, will not sell 
 for more than the cost, freight, and impost; 
 and then, in our own vessels, all the risk is 
 lost, which, you know, in American bottoms, 
 is fifty per cent. Of course, it will be a ruinous 
 business, and we are abundantly supplied with 
 all articles by captures from the enemy. I am 
 convinced the embargo is the most effectual 
 measure that can be adopted. 
 
 "With respect to the loan, as soon as the 
 capitalists are convinced it has gone to the 
 lowest point, about three millions will be taken 
 and retained in this place. 
 
 "I will thank you for any information on 
 this or any other subject that will be interest- 
 ing to me or our friends here. 
 
 "I am, with real esteem, your friend, 
 
 "WM, GRAY." 
 
 Mr. Madison, near the close of his first term, 
 recommended a declaration of war against 
 Great Britain, and an embargo, as a prepara- 
 tory measure. The embargo was adopted, for 
 ninety days. Mr. Madison was nominated for 
 a second term. A majority of the democrats 
 of the State of New York preferred DeWitt 
 Clinton for the Presidency. The federalists, 
 despairing of their ability to elect a member of 
 their own party, resolved to support Mr. Clin- 
 ton. 
 
 A majority of the democratic party of the 
 State, including Chief Justice Spencer and 
 Martin Van Buren, united, they insisting that 
 war should be declared against France, or 
 against both France and England. Mr. Clin- 
 ton considered the recommendation of war 
 against Great Britain a political device to
 
 36 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 secure the re-election of Madison, and that he 
 had no belief that Congress would adopt the 
 measure he recommended. They were disap- 
 pointed by a declaration of war against Great 
 Britain, which took place on the 16th June, 
 1812. On the happening of that event Chief 
 Justice Spencer, and many others of Mr Clin- 
 ton's personal political friends, urged him to 
 withdraw his name as a candidate for the Pre- 
 sidency, to which he had been nominated by 
 the democratic party of the State. This, being 
 assured of the support of the federal party, he 
 refused to do ; which caused an estrangement 
 between the brothers Spencer and Clinton 
 which continued until after the close of the 
 war, when a reconciliation took place by the 
 interposition of Mr. Barker; from which time, 
 until the day of their death, those two distin- 
 guished men continued the devoted friends of 
 each other and of Mr. Barker, although the 
 political views of the Chief Justice often differed 
 from those entertained by Mr. Barker, and 
 both fearlessly put forth their opinions, and 
 severally sustained the political parties to which 
 they were attached with uncommon zeal. Mr. 
 CKnton and Mr. Van Buren both sustained the 
 war. They differed in their views in relation 
 to the measures adopted for carrying it on, 
 which estranged them from each other. Mr. 
 Van Buren, sustaining the administration, be- 
 came the opponent of Mr. Clinton's political 
 views. The political campaign progressed with 
 great ardor. The parties became very violent. 
 The legislature met for the appointment of 
 electors. Mr. Barker was, with Colonel Rut- 
 gers, Colonel Willett, and others, appointed, at 
 Tammany Hall, delegates to attend a demo- 
 cratic convention, at Albany, for the nomina- 
 tion of electors. The friends of the two can- 
 didates, in the legislature, held separate meet- 
 ings. According to the best of Mr. Barker's 
 recollection, Mr. Van Buren presided at the 
 meeting of the friends of Mr. Clinton ; and 
 Nathan Sanford, a senator from New York, 
 presided at that of the friends of Mr. Madison. 
 The former, having a majority and assured of 
 the support of the federalists at the election, 
 declined all propositions for a compromise and 
 nominated an entire ticket, friendly to the elec- 
 tion of their chief, who were elected by the aid 
 of federal votes. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren was esteemed the master- 
 
 spirit of the whole affair. Mr. Barker remons- 
 trated with him against their course, remarking 
 that he would, if they persisted, plan a pamph- 
 let describing their coalition with the federal- 
 ists in every hamlet in the State. This had no 
 influence. Mr. Van Buren was not to be di- 
 verted from the course he had adopted, vainly 
 imagining that it would be successful. 
 
 Pending the debates in Congress on the ques- 
 tion of war, Dr. Mitchell, a member from the 
 city of New York, being opposed to a war, ad- 
 dressed a letter to the Tammany Society, in 
 the hope of having his views sustained by that 
 patriotic body. He asked them, among other 
 things, if they were prepared to abandon their 
 fruitful maritime pursuits in exchange for the 
 frozen regions of Canada. To which they 
 promptly replied, in effect, that the nation's 
 honor must be sustained at every hazard. 
 
 About the same time Mr. Barker received, 
 from a correspondent in England, letters which 
 indicated that the British ministry would very 
 soon rescind the orders in council, when he 
 drafted a petition asking Congress to continue 
 the embargo and defer a declaration of war for 
 a short period, which was signed by men of 
 both political parties, of the greatest respecta- 
 bility, to whom he exhibited those letters. The 
 petition was presented to the Senate by Mr. 
 Smith, a member from New York, the day be- 
 fore war was declared ; which, on motion of 
 Colonel Taylor, of South Carolina, was ordered 
 to be printed. The petition and speech of 
 Colonel Taylor, in relation thereto, were as 
 
 follows : 
 
 [From Niles's Register, vol. 2, page 278.] 
 
 TWELFTH CONGRESS. 
 
 In Senate. — Monday, June 15, 1812. 
 
 Mr. Smith, of New York, presented the fol- 
 lowing petition of sundry inhabitants, mer- 
 chants and others, of the city of New York, 
 praying that the embargo and non-importation 
 laws might be continued as a substitute for war 
 against Great Britain : 
 
 MEMORIAL. 
 
 To the honorable ike Senate and House of Rep- 
 resentatives of the United States of America 
 in Congress assembled, the memorial of the 
 subscribers, merchants and others, inhabit- 
 ants of the city of Neiu York, respectfully 
 sheweth : 
 
 "That your memorialists feel, in common 
 with the rest of their fellow-citizens, an anxious 
 solicitude for the honor and interests of their
 
 MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS. 
 
 37 
 
 country, and an equal determination to assert 
 and maintain them ; 
 
 " That your memorialists believe that a con- 
 tinuation of the restrictive measures now in 
 operation will produce all the benefits, while 
 it prevents the calamities of war ; 
 
 "That when the British ministry become con- 
 vinced that a trade with the United States can- 
 not be renewed but by the repeal of the orders 
 in council, the distress of their merchants and 
 manufacturers, and their inability to support 
 their armies in Spain and Portugal, will, pro- 
 bably, compel them to that measure. 
 
 "Your memorialists beg leave to remark that 
 such effects are even now visible ; and it may 
 be reasonably hoped that a continuance of the 
 embargo and non-importation laws, a few 
 months beyond the fourth day of July next, 
 will effect a complete aud bloodless triumph of 
 our rights. 
 
 " Your memorialists, therefore, respectfully 
 solicit of your honorable body the passage of a 
 law continuing the embargo, and giving to the 
 President of the United States power to dis- 
 continue the whole of the restrictive system on 
 the rescinding of the British orders in council. 
 
 " The conduct of France, in burning our 
 ships, in sequestrating our property entering 
 her ports expecting protection in consequence 
 of the promised repeal of the Berlin and Milan 
 decrees, and the delay in completing a treaty 
 with the American minister, has excited great 
 sensation, and we hope and trust will call forth 
 from your honorable body such retaliatory 
 measures as may be best calculated to procure 
 justice. 
 
 John Jacob Astor, William Lovett, 
 
 Samuel Adams, William Edgar, jr., 
 
 Howland & Grinuell, Amasa Jackson, 
 
 E. Slossou, Wm. J. Robinson, 
 
 Israel Gibbs, Joseph Strong, 
 
 Isaac Clason, Abr'm S. Hallot, 
 
 John Slidell, Joshua Jones, 
 
 John Townsend, Frederick Giraud, jr., 
 
 Andrew Ogden & Co., Robert Roberts, 
 
 Thomas Storm, John Crookes, 
 
 Amos Butler, Hugh McCormick, 
 
 Ebenezer Burrill, John Depeyster, 
 
 Isaac Heyer, Gilbert Haight, 
 
 Ralph Bulkley, James Lovett, 
 
 Samuel Bell, Leffer Lefferts, 
 
 John T. Lawrence, Augustus Wynkoop, 
 
 Joseph W. Totten, John W. Gale, 
 
 Isaac Schermerhorn, John F. Delaplaine, 
 
 Alexander Reeder, Peter Stagg, 
 
 Joseph Otis, David Taylor, 
 
 Lewis Hartman, William Adee, 
 
 Ganet & Storm, Samuel Stilwell, 
 
 George Bement, Jacob P. Geraud, 
 
 S. A. Rich, John Hone, 
 
 Abr'm Smith, John Kane, 
 
 Thos. H. Smith, jr., Thomas Rich, 
 
 Andrew Foster, Samuel Marshall, 
 
 Jacob Barker, Elbert Herring, 
 
 "After the same was read Mr. Taylor said 
 ' that the respectability of the subscribers to a 
 petition presented to this body, and the im- 
 portance of the matter therein contained, had, 
 on various occasions, been used as induce- 
 ments to us to give such a petition a respectful 
 disposition in the course of our proceedings. 
 He recollected a case in point. It was the case 
 of the petition of an eminent merchant of 
 Massachusetts, presented by an honorable sen- 
 ator from that State, and which, at the sugges- 
 tion of that honorable gentleman, was by the 
 Senate ordered to be printed. He was of 
 opinion that the petition just read ought not to 
 be treated with less attention ; that he had 
 seen the petition and inquired into the charac- 
 ter of its subscribers, and had been informed 
 that the fifty-six subscribers to it were among 
 the most respectable, wealthy, and intelligent 
 merchants of the city of New York. There 
 are to be found in that list the names of two 
 presidents of banks, three presidents of insur- 
 ance companies, thirteen directors of banks, 
 besides other names of pre-eminent standing 
 in the mercantile world. They had all united 
 in the sentiments contained in the petition, 
 notwithstanding that there existed among them 
 a difference of political opinions, for he under- 
 stood that of the petitioners forty-two were 
 federal and sixteen republican. Mr. T. added 
 that he considered some of the sentiments con- 
 tained in the petition as of the highest import- 
 ance. He hailed it as an auspicious occurrence 
 that these honorable merchants, in praying 
 that the evils of war might be averted from 
 them and from the nation, had, nevertheless, 
 held fast to the principles of resistance to the 
 aggressions and unhallowed conduct of Great 
 Britain towards our nation ; and had exercised 
 the candor and frankness to bear testimony to 
 the efficiency of the restrictive system for ob- 
 taining a redress of our wrongs and, of course, 
 the integrity and honor of those who had im- 
 posed this system for that purpose. He hoped 
 that the example of these petitioners would tend 
 to counteract those strenuous and unremitting 
 exertions of passion, prejudice, and party feel- 
 ing which had attempted to stamp upon the 
 majority in Congress the foul and unjust 
 censure of being enemies to commerce ; that, 
 however unfashionable and obstinate it might 
 appear, he still believed that the embargo and 
 non-importation laws, if faithfully executed, 
 were capable of reaching further than our 
 cannon. We are, at this very time, tendering 
 an urgent argument — an argument to be felt 
 by each city, village, and hamlet in England. 
 This, touching to the quick the vital interests 
 of that empire, would demonstrate to the people, 
 at least, the folly and absurdity of the orders 
 in council. The ordeal of the twenty weeks of 
 scarcity which the people of that unhappy 
 country are undergoing, to relieve which, but 
 for the madness and folly of their rulers, every 
 yard of American canvass would be spread to
 
 38 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 the gales ; the thousands of starving manufac- 
 turers thrown out of employ for want of our 
 custom, which custom, but for the injustice of 
 their masters, we were willing to give, now feel 
 the efficiency of the restrictive system. These 
 matter-of-fact arguments want no sophistry nor 
 long speeches to give them weight. But Great 
 Britain is proud and will never yield to this 
 sort of pressure. Hunger has no law. Where 
 was her pride during the last war, when she 
 exported to her enemy on the continent more 
 than eleven millions of pounds sterling for 
 provisions, and, meanly truckling to her enemy, 
 consented to buy the privilege of laying out her 
 guineas for bread, and actually submitted, on 
 the compulsion of Napoleon, to buy the wines, 
 brandies, and silks of France which she did 
 not want. This restrictive system, when com- 
 menced under the former embargo law, en- 
 countered every opposition among ourselves 
 which selfish avarice, which passion and party 
 rage, could suggest; and so successful were its 
 assailants that, while it was operating with its 
 fullest effects, (which the prices current of that 
 clay will show,) some of its greatest champions 
 in the national legislature abandoned it ; yes, 
 sir, in the tide of victory they threw down their 
 arms. How are the mighty fallen and the 
 shield of the mighty vilely cast away. The 
 disavowal of Erskine's arrangement was the 
 consequence of this retreat. But it may be 
 said that the sentiments in the petition were 
 extorted by the apprehension of a greater evil — 
 war. In all our trials those who had not pre- 
 determined to submit to Great Britain must 
 have anticipated this alternative. Let those 
 who, by their acrimony, sneers, and scoffs, have 
 thrown away this chief defence of our nation 
 be held responsible for the compulsion they 
 have imposed on us to take this dire alterna- 
 tive. He said that though he was unwilling 
 to abate a single pang which we might legally 
 inflict upon our enemy, and might, at the pro- 
 per time, oppose anything like the swap pro- 
 posed of one system for another, when we had 
 the power and the right to impose upon our 
 enemy both the one and the other, he never- 
 theless thought the petition was deserving of 
 the attention which he now moved it should 
 receive. He moved that the petition should be 
 printed ; which was agreed to.' " 
 
 This petition came too late ; the war party 
 could not recede or delay the measures they 
 had resolved on. The war was declared on 
 the 16th of June, and the orders in council 
 were rescinded on the 7th of July following, 
 before news of the war reached England, thus 
 establishing the power of the restrictive 
 measures. Congress, on a previous occasion, 
 empowered the President, in case the orders in 
 council should be revoked during the recess, to 
 annul, by proclamation, the non-importation 
 
 law; and so confident were the British minis- 
 try that he would suspend the war as soon as 
 he heard of the repeal of the orders in council, 
 they having been repealed before the war was 
 known in England, that they did not send a fleet 
 to our coast for more than three months — ocean 
 steamboat navigation being not then known. 
 
 In this confidence the United States minis- 
 ter at London participated to such an extent 
 as to authorizing the loading of all the Ameri- 
 can ships then in England with British fabrics 
 for the United States. They sailed under British 
 licenses and arrived in the United States safe. 
 A great drought occurred at the same time in 
 China, interrupting the navigation of her rivers, 
 so that teas and other of her products could 
 not reach Canton for a long time ; this de- 
 tained a large fleet of American ships at Can- 
 ton until after the news of the war reached 
 that place. 
 
 These measures combined saved the insur- 
 ance companies, the ship owners, and the im- 
 porters of British fabrics from ruin, which 
 seemed to be their impending fate when the 
 war was declared. 
 
 Mr. Madison did not feel authorized to sus- 
 pend the war, or relax the non-importation 
 law. He said the war having been declared it 
 must be continued until other matters were 
 settled. 
 
 When these ships arrived they, with their 
 cargoes, were forfeited to the United States by 
 the provisions of the non importation laws, 
 which remained in full force. 
 
 This immense amount of property was re- 
 leased on bond, and these bonds were cancelled, 
 on the payment of the duties, by an act of Con- 
 gress, which passed, after a hard struggle, by 
 the casting vote of the Hon. Langdon Chevis, 
 of South Carolina, then the Speaker of the 
 House of Representatives ; to the very great 
 and praiseworthy exertions of that distin- 
 guished man the merchants in general were 
 indebted for their escape from ruin. 
 
 Mr. Barker considers it a fortunate circum- 
 stance that the prayer of the petition was not 
 granted, and that the war was most glorious in 
 its results. Every American who visits a for- 
 eign country is made to feel and share in the 
 advantage of the high consideration we have 
 acquired. 
 
 The following, taken from Mr. Barker's
 
 NATIONAL LOAN OF SIXTEEN MILLIONS. 
 
 39 
 
 record, exhibits the conduct of himself and 
 others more fully than can be otherwise de- 
 scribed at this late day : 
 
 The declaration of war having taken place, 
 the leaders of the opposition revived their plan 
 to obtain possession of the reins of government 
 by depriving the administration of the means 
 of carrying it on, vainly imagining that they 
 could thus control the friends of the country, 
 and defeat the measures of government. Many 
 federal men, however, dissented from those who 
 were considered leaders ; and though they 
 maintained their political integrity, determined 
 to do everything in their power to nerve the 
 arm of government. This state of affairs 
 afforded me an opportunity of becoming useful, 
 because I had ascertained the fact that the op- 
 position party had not much money ; that the 
 whole secret was a bank-paper fiction ; and 
 that, although they had the control of the prin- 
 cipal banks in the United States, and were but 
 more liable to be influenced by whatever could 
 be made to appear for the manifest interest of 
 such banks, everything depended ou negotia- 
 tion, which is a science to be acquired only by 
 practice, as much as any of the mechanical 
 arts. 
 
 On the 8th of February, 1813, Congress 
 passed an act authorizing the borrowing of 
 sixteen millions of dollars. 
 
 For this loan the public were invited by ad- 
 vertisement to send in proposals to the Trea- 
 sury Department. This appeal to the patriot- 
 ism of the nation proved a lamentable failure, 
 only three millions nine hundred and fifty-six 
 thousand four hundred dollars having been 
 offered. Second notice was published 18th 
 March, 1813. — See Book of Finance, vol. 2, 
 page 646. 
 
 Having, for more than ten years imme- 
 diately preceeding the war, been very exten- 
 sively engaged in foreign and domestic com- 
 merce, I shall not be deemed vain to mention 
 that I considered myself tolerably well versed 
 in the operation and nature of the paper sys- 
 tem. Those circumstances determined me to 
 devote a great portion of my time to raising 
 money for the use of government, as I believed 
 it stood more in need of such assistance than 
 of any other which it was in my power to ren- 
 der. I had most cheerfully subscribed to the 
 excellent sentiment of an enlightened states- 
 
 man '•' that the declaration of war had put in 
 requisition the services of every American 
 citizen." At the commencement of hostilities 
 in June, 1812, I had an immense amount of 
 property at sea, and could not form a correct 
 opinion how my affairs would wind up. Al- 
 though I sustained extensive losses, I still 
 obtained a large amount safe back, which 
 placed my affairs in a favorable train, so that 
 in the March following, when Mr. Gallatin ad- 
 vertised for the sixteen million loan, I was 
 enabled to lend him twenty-five thousand dol- 
 lars, and prevailed on many of my friends, 
 also, to furnish him with considerable sums. 
 Under this advertisement Mr. Gallatin pro- 
 cured only about four millions. He afterwards 
 repeated his advertisement, offering more favor- 
 able terms not only to those who should, be- 
 fore a limited day, subscribe under this new 
 advertisement, but to those who had already 
 subscribed at the banks under such second 
 advertisement; he then repaired to Philadel- 
 phia and borrowed the deficiency of Girardj 
 Parish and Astor. 
 
 Mr. Gallatin immediately carried into full 
 effect the conditions contained in his adver- 
 tisement, without enquiring whether they were 
 favorable or unfavorable. His constant study 
 in relation to his contracts was how he could 
 best accommodate all parties. He knew full 
 well that it is the policy of all governments to 
 fulfil their contracts with perfect good faith, 
 and in such a manner as to prevent dissatisfac- 
 tion, inspire confidence, and invite the aid of 
 monied men towards the accomplishment of 
 public measures. On the other hand, he was 
 sensible that a different course of conduct 
 would occasion distrust, impair the national 
 credit, and detach the wealthy portion of the 
 community from the support of the govern- 
 ment at a time when their assistance was not 
 only valuable, but indeed, indispensable to the 
 general welfare. 
 
 The success of this loan, and the prospects 
 that a peace would ensue from the Russian 
 mediation, discouraged the opposition, and 
 for a while they appeared to abandon the hope 
 of prostrating the administration by crippling 
 their resources; but the probability of a speedy 
 accommodation with the enemy having dimin- 
 ished, and money becoming more scarce, they 
 derived fresh courage, and again renewed their
 
 40 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 exertions to prevent monied men from invest- 
 ing their funds in public stock. It was now 
 evident that the increased expenses of govern- 
 ment, together with the rigorous blockade of a 
 principal portion of our coast, would render it 
 requisite for government to resort to another 
 loan to carry on its necessary operations for 
 the year 1813. To accomplish such loan, I 
 considered it would only be required for the 
 friends of government to be active. I was, 
 therefore, diligent in my enquiries upon the 
 subject, and had the satisfaction to ascertain 
 that there were affluent individuals in New 
 York willing to form an association and to 
 tender to government a considerable sum. 
 
 To produce so desirable an event became an 
 object nearest to my heart, and as there were 
 many federal merchants willing to embark in 
 such laudable association, I was desirous to 
 induce some character of that description to 
 undertake the agency, lest if I undertook it 
 political prejudices, from my having ever been 
 very active in opposing the party views of the 
 federalists, should operate against the sub- 
 scription, or lest it should be supposed that I 
 was actuated by the commission of the quarter 
 of one per cent, on the amount of the sura 
 furnished, which government was in the habit 
 of allowing to the agent by whom subscriptions 
 were obtained, and thereby lose my influence 
 with individuals who had the ability to sub- 
 scribe. This compensation would be dearly 
 earned by the responsibility that would attach 
 on the agent, and doubtless, stimulate me, or 
 any other man of ordinary prudence, to great 
 exertions ; and when earned, we should insist 
 with the same pertinacity on receiving it, as 
 on the return of money lent. 
 
 With this view of the subject, I applied to 
 Oliver Wolcott, esquire, of New York, opened 
 the affair to him, and pressed him with con- 
 siderable earnestness to undertake the agency. 
 I promised, if he did so, to procure subscrip- 
 tions for him to a large amount. He applauded 
 the zeal which was manifested, and said he 
 would think of the matter. In a few days, 
 however, he not only declined the agency, but 
 even to become a subscriber, alleging that it 
 might interfere with existing arrangements 
 between Mr. Astor and the government. I 
 then applied to Augustine H. Lawrence, esq., 
 
 and pressed the agency on him, after some 
 consideration, he also declined. 
 
 My solicitude for the service to be performed, 
 was strengthened by the increased violence of 
 the opposition and the confidence which they 
 felt in being able to prevent the government 
 from obtaining money; and my want of sue" 
 cess with the gentlemen to whom I had ap- 
 plied at length determined me to take the 
 agency. I accordingly opened a subscription 
 book, and with much exertion and pains suc- 
 ceeded in procuring the following subscribers 
 to the loan to be offered the United States : 
 
 John Rathbone & Son - 
 
 - $20,000 
 
 Jacob Barker 
 
 100,000 
 
 James Lovett 
 
 25,000 
 
 Gabriel Havens - 
 
 10,000 
 
 John Bullus - - - - 
 
 10,000 
 
 Brockholst Livingston - 
 
 20,000 
 
 John Mason - 
 
 5,000 
 
 Stephen Whitney - 
 
 10,000 
 
 Freeman Allen 
 
 25,000 
 
 Thadeus Phelps - 
 
 10,000 
 
 John L. Broom 
 
 20,000 
 
 Smith & Nicoll - 
 
 20,000 
 
 Walsh & Gallagher 
 
 10,000 
 
 Post & Minturn - 
 
 50,000 
 
 John Howland ... 
 
 50,000 
 
 Benjamin Huntington - 
 
 10,000 
 
 Wright & Allen - 
 
 30,000 
 
 Ayer Bremner - 
 
 30,000 
 
 George W. Murray 
 
 10,000 
 
 Robert Chesebrough 
 
 10,000 
 
 Jonas S. Roulet - 
 
 10,000 
 
 John Colvill & Son 
 
 20,000 
 
 Norwood & Austin 
 
 10,000 
 
 Samuel Tooker 
 
 20,000 
 
 W. & L. Vandervoot 
 
 10,000 
 
 Robert Ainslow - 
 
 10,000 
 
 John Icard - - - - 
 
 20,000 
 
 Boorman & Johnson 
 
 10,000 
 
 Leonard Bleeker - 
 
 30,000 
 
 Thomas H. Smith - 
 
 10,000 
 
 John F. Delaplaine & Co. 
 
 10,000 
 
 Isaac Clason 
 
 500,000 
 
 Lawrence & Van Buren 
 
 10,000 
 
 Theodore Fowler - 
 
 150,000 
 
 Philips Brasher - 
 
 50,000 
 
 Kelly & Morrisen 
 
 20,000 
 
 Mollan & Rankin - 
 
 20,000 
 
 Teterel & Williams 
 
 20,000
 
 SUBSCRIBERS TO THE NATIONAL LOAN. 
 
 41 
 
 Gurdon S. Mumford 
 
 $20,000 
 
 B. T. Underbill .... $2,000 
 
 Benjamin Bailey - - - 
 
 10,000 
 
 John Lefferty .... 2,500 
 
 Peter EL Schenck 
 
 10,000 
 
 B. Andasiese .... 2,000 
 
 J. Prall --.- 
 
 10,000 
 
 Titus & Avery .... 6,000 
 
 Abraham Riker & Co. - 
 
 10,000 
 
 John Russ 4,000 
 
 John Clendening - 
 
 20,000 
 
 Irving & Smith .... 5,000 
 
 Thomas & Peter Stagg 
 
 25,000 
 
 John Shute 10,000 
 
 Joseph Dederic - 
 
 10,000 
 
 Henry W. Bool .... 6,000 
 
 Rensselaer Havens 
 
 20,000 
 
 StateBauk of New Brunswick, N. J. 50,000 
 
 James McBride 
 
 10,000 
 
 Jeremiah Akerly, jr. - - - 1,200 
 
 Peter Murphy 
 
 10,000 
 
 James Weeks .... c,000 
 
 Walter Morton 
 
 10,000 
 
 W. H. Ireland .... 2,000 
 
 John Grant «..-•- 
 
 10,000 
 
 Abraham Bishop - 25,000 
 
 James Thompson - 
 
 20,000 
 
 Jeremiah F. Randolph - - - 10,000 
 
 Thompson & Edger 
 
 10,000 
 
 David Dunham - - - - 16,000 
 
 Peter Crary, jr. - 
 
 10,000 
 
 H. C. De Rhan .... 32,300 
 
 Louis Larue • 
 Majahre& Tardy - 
 
 25,000 
 
 Luther Loomis .... 5,000 
 
 10,000 
 
 
 Irving & Smith - 
 
 50,000 
 20,000 
 
 2,400,000 
 
 P. & E. Irving & Co. - 
 
 A large proportion of my subscribers were 
 
 James C. Flack - 
 
 10,000 
 
 federalists. But I did not stop here, I pro- 
 
 James Kelso 
 
 10,000 
 
 ceeded to obtain additional subscriptions, and 
 
 Kelso and Crimp 
 
 10,000 
 
 made such further arrangements as would ena- 
 
 Bernard Keenan - 
 
 4,000 
 
 ble me to furnish five millions of dollars. 
 
 Garrit Storm 
 
 10,000 
 
 Having thus succeeded, I repaired to Wash- 
 
 Gamaliel Smith - 
 
 20,000 
 
 ington to perform, what I then considered, the 
 
 Jase. & W. Danlap 
 
 10,000 
 
 most pleasing duty of my life. I was now ena- 
 
 Austin & Andrews 
 
 20,000 
 
 bled to tender to the government of the coun- 
 
 Jonathan Lawrence 
 
 23,000 
 
 try which gave me birth a loan of five millions 
 
 Samuel Stillwill ... 
 
 10,000 
 
 of dollars, at a period when it was in the utmost 
 
 Van Horn & Morris 
 
 5,000 
 
 distress for money, for the purpose of defending 
 
 Isaac Lawrence - 
 
 25,000 
 
 the nation against the hostile attacks of a pow- 
 
 Nicolo Senchich - 
 
 40,000 
 
 erful and implacable foe. On the day of my 
 
 Leonard Bleeker - 
 
 20,000 
 
 arrival at that place, Alexander C. Hanson, a 
 
 Henry A. & John G. Coster 
 
 100,000 
 
 member from Maryland, and the reputed editor 
 
 John Grant - 
 
 20,000 
 
 of the " Federal Republican," a newspaper 
 
 Peter Feviere 
 
 10,000 
 
 printed at Georgetown, Columbia, delivered a 
 
 Joseph Burr - 
 
 6,000 
 
 very violent speech in Congress, in which, 
 
 Bradhurst & Field 
 
 5,000 
 
 among other things, he stated that the govern- 
 
 F. Wild man .... 
 
 4,000 
 
 ment was destitute of funds, and unable to 
 
 James Van Oyke - 
 
 5,000 
 
 procure a single million in all America ; that 
 
 S. M. Thompson - 
 
 10,000 
 
 the merchants would refuse to make further 
 
 Q. & S. Wildman - 
 
 6,000 
 
 advances ; and that the administration had 
 
 John & Jacob Drake 
 
 10,000 
 
 already obtained the last dollar in the power 
 
 John H. Douglas - 
 
 4,000 
 
 of its friends to furnish. He also ventured to 
 
 Philip S. Lebreton 
 
 6,000 
 
 declare, that gentlemen who had lent were sick 
 
 Mehitable Hunting 
 
 4,000 
 
 of their bargain and had been deceived by the 
 
 Samuel Watkins - 
 
 5,000 
 
 fallacious assurances of Mr. Gallatin that 
 
 W. Holly .... 
 
 5,000 
 
 peace would arise from the mission in which 
 
 Jacob M. & John M. Hicks - 
 
 2,000 
 
 he was employed, and in the fulfilment of the 
 
 Bank of Wiscasset 
 
 75,000 
 
 duties of which he was on the point of embark- 
 
 James Townsend, B. T. U. - 
 
 2,000 
 
 ing for Russia. Mr. Hanson, in this speech
 
 42 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 continued to allege, that his information was 
 derived from the best informed merchants in 
 America, and that he was sensible he could not 
 be mistaken. 
 
 An alarm of that nature had, indeed, gene- 
 rally prevailed. It was apprehended that the 
 government would not be able to procure re- 
 sources to supply its necessities, or to prosecute 
 its measures. Congress itself appeared dejected 
 at the gloomy prospect which was presented. 
 In the evening, I met with the honorable 
 Messrs. Cheaves and Calhoun, of South Caro- 
 lina, and Doctor Bibb, of Georgia, the latter a 
 member of the committee of ways and means. 
 In the course of conversation, I took occasion 
 to mention the business which had brought me 
 to Washington. He appeared highly pleased, 
 and requested my permission to state the facts 
 on the floor of Congress, in a reply which he, 
 the next day, intended to make to Mr. Han- 
 son's speech. I told him that I had not the 
 smallest objection to his stating that an agent 
 had arrived from New York, deputed by a large 
 number of merchants, without any political 
 distinction, and authorized to tender to gov- 
 ernment a loan of several millions of dollars. 
 On the next day he, accordingly, made such a 
 statement, which afforded the utmost satisfac- 
 tion to the Republican members, and filled the 
 opposition with astonishment and alarm. 
 
 However surprising it may appear, it is not 
 the less true, that neither party in Congress 
 had been apprised of the association which I 
 had succeeded in forming. The information 
 was received with the greatest emotions, and 
 the pleasures and regrets of that day will not 
 be soon effaced from the recollection of the 
 members who wei-e present. Mr. Bibb is said 
 to have rendered the utmost justice to the 
 subject. 
 
 Ignorant that he had afforded such state- 
 ment, shortly after the conclusion of his speech, 
 I attended in the gallery of the House, accom- 
 panied by my father-in-law, Thomas Hazard, 
 jun., where we were met by several of the mem- 
 bers, who were all anxious to learn the particu- 
 lars of the business, of which I informed them 
 without hesitation. Among the number were 
 Elisha R. Potter, a Federal representative from 
 Rhodelsland, and Judge Benson,a Federal mem- 
 ber from New York; they appeared distressed 
 at the prospect of the administration obtaining 
 
 money to carry on the war, and expressed an 
 anxiety to ascertain the names of the federal- 
 ists who had lent themselves for such purposes. 
 I readily mentioned the most conspicuous 
 characters among them, whom I knew him to 
 be acquainted with, and added, that if they 
 would call at my lodgings, they might examine 
 the subscription book, where they would dis- 
 cover the signatures and names of many of 
 their particular friends. They promised to do 
 so, and we parted. 
 
 Immediately after this, I became an object 
 of denunciation, calumny, and persecution. 
 The Federal papers were let loose upon me. 
 The Federal Republican, at Georgetown, com- 
 menced the attack, which was followed through- 
 out the eastern States, and even extended to 
 the three penny sheet which is printed at the 
 village of New Bedford. Several other of the 
 towns in Massachusetts united in the warfare 
 against an individual whose only offence was a 
 performance of his duties to his country. The 
 "Federal Republican," in particular, with the 
 liberality for which it is so justly distinguished, 
 proceeded to the length of declaring me an 
 impostor, and insinuated that the names of my 
 subscribers had been forged. The honorable 
 Rufus King, a Federal senator from New York, 
 called upon me, and requested to see the book 
 of subscriptions, to which I consented without 
 hesitation. After having examined it, he men- 
 tioned that the association was highly respecta- 
 ble; that among the subscribers he found many 
 of his particular friends, whom he knew to be 
 abundantly able to perform all the engage- 
 ments into which they had entered. Such de- 
 cided testimony, however, was unable to shield 
 me from slander. Many of the Federal mem- 
 bers became extreme in their violence of hatred, 
 and others attempted to intimidate me with 
 respect to the safety of the money to be lent. 
 Mr. Potter, a representative from Rhode Island, 
 declared with great seriousness, that the Federal 
 party would soon possess the powers of the gov- 
 ernment, and would never consent to impose 
 taxes on the people to pay either the principal 
 or the interest to carry on such a war. 
 
 I had not repaired to Washington to obtain 
 information, or to be schooled by individuals 
 whose experience and acquaintance with the 
 subject was not superior to my own. The only 
 effect produced by such conduct was, if possi-
 
 INVESTIGATION OF THE SIXTEEN MILLION LOAN 
 
 43 
 
 ble, to strengthen my determination, and to 
 increase my activity and zeal in supporting the 
 administration. I accordingly waited on the 
 acting Secretary of the Treasury, and tendered 
 to him a loan of five millions of dollars, on the 
 same terms as government had allowed for the 
 sixteen million loan, observing, that although 
 better terms might be obtained, we had deter- 
 mined to offer the money on such conditions 
 as had recently been agreed to by the gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 > The acting Secretary replied that, inasmuch 
 as no law authorizing a loan had as yet passed, 
 he could not say anything decisive on the sub- 
 ject In the course of a day or two afterwards, 
 a bill to authorize a loan was introduced ; 
 while it was under debate in the Senate, the 
 honorable Mr. King presented a resolution 
 calling for the documents and papers in rela- 
 tion to the terms on which the sixteen million 
 loan had been obtained. He stated, with great 
 earnestness, that the most injurious conditions 
 had been allowed, and that when papers came 
 to light a more disgraceful transaction would 
 appear than had ever been witnessed in the 
 treasury department of any country. 
 
 On taking his seat, he was asked by Jere- 
 miah Mason, a senator from New Hampshire, 
 how he obtained his information ? he replied 
 "from Mr. Sheldon, of the Treasury." 
 
 Mr. Barker and Mr. Hazard were in the gal- 
 lery and heard this conversation ; the former 
 being a subscriber to the amount of $25,000 to 
 Mr. Gallatin's loan, supposing himself, from 
 the tenor of the advertisement for the loan, 
 interested in the secret article, repaired imme- 
 diately to the Treasury departmentand inquired 
 of Mr. Sheldon how he came to allow Mr. 
 Gallatin to make such a disgraceful contract 
 with Messrs. Girard and Parish. 
 
 Mr. Sheldon replied, that Mr. Gallatin was a 
 thousand miles off before he found it out, and 
 then by accident he came across the paper 
 which had been endorsed and filed away by 
 Mr. Gallatin himself, no doubt for the purpose 
 of concealing it from the treasury clerks. 
 
 Mr. Barker inquired of him if it was kind in 
 him to expose the article to the political oppo- 
 nents of Mr. Gallatin, to be used against him 
 in his absence ; " yes,"' added Sheldon, " the 
 good of the country requires it, the administra- 
 tion are incapable to conduct the affairs of the 
 
 nation, and the sooner they are made to resign 
 the better." 
 
 About this time there was an intrigue on foot 
 to induce the President to dismiss his cabinet 
 ministers, or a great part of them, appointing 
 in their places his political opponents. Seven 
 or eight Democratic members of Congress 
 from New York, alarmed at the progress of 
 the war and the condition of the treasury, had 
 subscribed an address to the President to that 
 effect. 
 
 These men were led on by Jonathan Fisk, a 
 member from Orange county, New York, and 
 were opposed by a greater number of the New 
 York democratic members, at the head of whom 
 was John W. Taylor, a member from Saratoga, 
 New York. 
 
 Mr. Barker, having an intimacy with Mr. 
 Madison, had something to say on the subjeet; 
 this new device to distract and destroy the 
 party did not succeed. 
 
 The Federal party had opposed a proposed 
 land tax, because the Democratic party would 
 not reinstate the old Federal land tax ; on that 
 occasion, the Hon. Mr. Eppes, of Virginia, 
 chairman of the committee of ways and means, 
 said, the House would never agree to reinstate 
 that law ; the Democratic party had trouble 
 enough to get rid of the odious tax when it was 
 not wanted ; it was now wanted, and he would 
 vote for it for one year and so on annually, and 
 as long as it should be wanted, but the House 
 would not again lose the power of saying when 
 it should cease, which would be the case if made 
 dependent on the vote of the Senate, or the 
 veto of a President. I consider Mr. King to 
 be a man of too much intelligence and honor 
 to have rested an accusation upon so ground- 
 less a basis, had he been acquaiuted with its 
 imbecility ; and, therefore, I still retain the im- 
 pression, that he had been induced to attach 
 more weight to the information of Mr. Sheldon, 
 than it was afterwards found to merit. 
 
 Mr. King's resolution was as follows: 
 
 " Resolved, That the President of the United 
 States be, and he is hereby, requested to cause 
 to be laid before the Senate the terms upon 
 which the loan made in pursuance of 'An act 
 authorizing a loan for a sum not exceeding 
 sixteen millions of dollars,' passed the eighth 
 day of February last, has been obtained or con- 
 tracted for, together with a copy of such con- 
 tract."
 
 44 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 The resolution was unanimously passed on 
 the 26th of July, 1813. — (See Journal of the 
 Senate for 1813, page 352.) Responded to, 
 (Book of Finance, vol. 2, page 647,) being a 
 letter from David Parish and Stephen Girard, 
 accepted by Mr. Gallatin, in words and figures 
 following: 
 
 ''Philadelphia, April 5, 1813. 
 
 " In consequence of the notice given by the 
 Treasury Department under date of the 13th 
 of March, 1813, that proposals will be received 
 by you for the whole or part of the residue of 
 the loan of sixteen millions of dollars, we here- 
 with beg leave to offer to take as much stock 
 of the United States, bearing interest at six 
 per cent, per annum, payable quarter yearly, 
 the stock not to be redeemed before the 31st 
 December, 1825, at the rate of $88 for a cer- 
 tificate of $100, as aforesaid, as will amount to 
 the sum of eight millions of dollars, or to the 
 residue of the said loan, providing you will 
 agree to allow us the option of accepting the 
 same terms that may be granted to persons 
 lending money to the United States by virtue 
 of any law authorizing another loan for the 
 service of the year 1813 that Congress may 
 pass before the last day of the present year. 
 
 "With regard to the payments of the instal- 
 ments on the amount to be loaned by us, we 
 shall expect to enter with you into such arrange- 
 ments as will be mutually accommodating. 
 
 " We are, with high regard, sir, your most 
 obedient servants, 
 
 "DAVID PARISH, 
 "STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 " To Hon. Albert Gallatin, 
 
 " Secretary of the Treasury. 
 " To be paid at Stephen Girard's bank. Ste- 
 phen Girard for self and David Parish." 
 
 When this report from the President came 
 into the. Senate it was manifest that it had been 
 made necessary to enable the treasury to get 
 the money, and intended to have been kept a 
 secret pending the period it had to run, lest it 
 should affect the price of stock. It was an 
 indemnity to the lenders which all governments 
 have to make to support the price of their 
 stocks. 
 
 The acting Secretary of the Treasury in his 
 report of the terms on which this loan was 
 obtained, and the finances of the treasury gen- 
 erally, made to Congress on the 2d June, 1813, 
 does not mention the condition, or in any way 
 refer to it. 
 
 That part of the transaction alluded to by 
 Senator King, and with respect to which he 
 had been evidently misinformed, appeared upon 
 
 investigation to amount to nothing more than 
 this precise condition allowed by Mr. Gallatin 
 to Messieurs Girard and Parish, to wit : that if 
 any more favorable terms should be allowed by 
 the United States for money borrowed under 
 any law which should be passed before the last 
 day of that year to defray the expenses, that 
 they should have the benefit of such more 
 favorable terms. 
 
 The perusal of the documents rendered it 
 further evident that every possible exertion had 
 been made by Mr. Gallatin to obtain money 
 without granting such a condition, but without 
 success, and that no alternative had remained 
 except either to allow the condition required or 
 become unable to procure the money. 
 
 So well satisfied was Mr. King, and every 
 other member, of the propriety of Mr. Gallatin's 
 conduct, that after the documents had been 
 read not a single word of complaint was uttered 
 in the Senate. 
 
 My impression then was that Mr. Sheldon 
 had barely communicated his own opinions of 
 the transaction to Mr. King, without mentioning 
 to him the precise nature or terms of the con- 
 tract, or other circumstances upon which those 
 opinions had been formed. 
 
 On the 2d of August, 1813, a law was passed 
 authorizing a loan of seven millions and a half 
 of dollars. 
 
 I immediately afterwards waited on Mr. 
 Jones, and repeated my offer to loan five 
 millions upon the same terms which were 
 allowed for the sixteen million loan. He was 
 friendly and polite, but declined to enter upon 
 any decision for some days, and intimated that 
 he expected to obtain it on better terms, and 
 should probably advertise for it. He did so, 
 and when I offered two millions, and my friend, 
 Fitz G. Halleck, of New York, an additional 
 four hundred thousand dollars in my behalf, a 
 greater amount than seven and a half millions 
 having been offered, only seventeen hundred 
 and twenty three thousand dollars of the two 
 millions four hundred thousand offered by us 
 were accepted, this amount of money was 
 promptly furnished. 
 
 The "Federal Republican" and other news- 
 papers were severe and lavish in their censures 
 against those federal merchants of New York 
 who were advancing their monies to govern- 
 ment to support such a war.
 
 PETITION FOR A NATIONAL BANK. 
 
 45 
 
 Shortly after the seven and a half million 
 loan was closed, money became more scarce, 
 and the wants of government appeared to 
 increase. The alarm that it would not be 
 able to obtain resources became general, when 
 the solicitude I felt for the success of our arms 
 induced me to meet and consult with several of 
 my acquaintances for the purpose of devising 
 some plan to render efficient and acceptable 
 aid. Upon such consultation, we coincided in 
 opinion that the establishment of a national 
 bank would be the most beneficial measure 
 which government could adopt to procure 
 funds and to place its finances in a flourishing 
 situation. A petition to Congress for such an 
 institution was accordingly prepared. I pre- 
 sented it to many of our wealthy citizens, with- 
 out distinction of party, and obtained their 
 signatures. In making this application, John 
 Wells, esq., a distinguished federal lawyer of 
 this city, was very active, and, with pleasure, I 
 take this occasion to remark, that I consider 
 him one of the most enlightened and honorable 
 men in America, and one that would make as 
 great sacrifices as any man to promote her 
 best interest. Copies of it were transmitted 
 to Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, 
 Charleston, and Savannah, requesting a co- 
 operation, which succeeded at Philadelphia, 
 but not at the other places. Two petitions, 
 one from the latter place, and the other from 
 this city, were presented to Congress. I re- 
 paired to Washington in January, 1814, and 
 remained there until after Congress adjourned, 
 endeavoring to convince the members of both 
 houses that, without the establishment of a 
 national bank, government would be unable to 
 obtain a sufficiency of money for necessary 
 public purposes. Many of the members con- 
 curred in the same opinion, and endeavored to 
 procure the passage of a law for such estab- 
 lishment, but all their efforts proved unavailing. 
 
 I waited on the President, the Vice Presi- 
 dent, the Secretaries of State, the Treasury, of 
 War, and of the Navy, and, by the strongest 
 and most impressive arguments in my power to 
 suggest, represented the impossibility of bor- 
 rowing sufficient sums to answer national 
 exigencies, and that if Congress should adjourn 
 with a reliance upon loans they would be 
 awfully disappointed. I frequently heard the 
 late Vice President and the late Secretary at 
 
 War converse with members of Congress upon 
 the subject. They both repeatedly expressed 
 their opinion that if Congress should adjourn 
 without establishing a national bank that the 
 President would be under the necessity of 
 convening them in a few months for the 
 express purpose of providing ways and means. 
 Mr. Campbell, the new Secretary of the Trea- 
 sury, entertained also serious alarms with 
 respect to the inadequacy of the means which 
 had been adopted to call forth the public 
 resources, and used every argument in his 
 power with the committee, and with individual 
 members, to induce their exertions in favor of 
 a bank. Being unsuccessful in relation to this 
 measure, and believing that by prohibiting the 
 exportation of specie the existing banks would 
 be enabled to loan large sums, and that the 
 public interest, for other reasons, required such 
 prohibition, the measure was recommended by 
 the President in a message to both houses of 
 Congress. The subject was debated in the 
 House of Representatives, and not agreed to; 
 immediately after which Mr. Campbell applied 
 to members of the Senate, and pressed upon 
 them the necessity of the measure, when it was 
 taken up in that body, and disagreed to by 
 them. 
 
 Most of the federal members in Congress 
 opposed the establishment of a national bank 
 with great vehemence. Some of them took 
 occasion to reprobate the petitioners in its 
 favor, and Dr. Seybert, of Philadelphia, a 
 republican member, who was upon constitu- 
 tional grounds averse to the measure, appeared 
 to unite in the censure. He intimated that the 
 alleged difficulty of procuring money was 
 made as a threat with a view to coerce Con- 
 gress to consent to it. Such insinuation I 
 considered unkind. Nothing could be further 
 from the fact. I had expressed my real opin- 
 ions to that gentleman with perfect sincerity. 
 The information I had afforded him and others, 
 that money could not be borrowed, was not 
 grounded on a reason that the possessors would 
 withhold it for the purpose of compelling Con- 
 gress to institute a bank, but because the 
 money market was exhausted — because many 
 commercial men were averse to loaning, and 
 were equally averse to a bank, inasmuch as 
 they knew it would furnish the government 
 with means to borrow as much money as was
 
 46 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 wanted, and, thereby, defeat the prospect of 
 obtaining a new administration by embarras- 
 sing the operations of the present. I conversed 
 with some of the federal members on the sub- 
 ject of a national bank, they observed that if 
 the charter of the old bank had been renewed 
 the government would have had a plenty of 
 money ; so far from this opinion being well 
 founded, they would not have been able to 
 have borrowed so much money from the old 
 bank as they have borrowed of existing banks, 
 who have been induced to loan it in conse- 
 quence of having the benefit of the business of 
 government, which they would not have had if 
 the old bauk had been continued, the whole 
 circulation of the country would have been 
 occupied by its notes and its capital lent to 
 those who could not return it during the war ; 
 whereas the whole, by the establishment of the 
 new bank, could be converted to the use of the 
 government. The government would not, at 
 this time, have had the power to relieve itself 
 by the establishment of a national bank. The 
 opinions which I then entertained were ex- 
 pressed in a letter written by me to the Hon. 
 John Tayler, at Albany, the lieutenant gov- 
 ernor of the State of New York, requesting his 
 influence with the New York legislature to 
 pass a law conveying to Congress the right of 
 establishing a national bank in our city, believ- 
 ing that such a law would remove the consti- 
 tutional objections to such an establishment, 
 of which letter the following is an extract : 
 
 " I have been here about one month applying 
 for a national bank, in which I shall probably 
 be successful, as all seem convinced such an 
 establishment would be of very great assistance 
 to government, and there is not any truth of 
 which I am more thoroughly convinced than 
 that without a national bank it will be impossi- 
 ble for government to procure on loan the 
 present year one half the money which will be 
 indispensably necessary to conduct the war 
 with effect, and preserve the honor of the 
 nation, and nothing will be so injurious to the 
 nation, and so effectually prostrate the repub- 
 lican party at the feet of our opponents, as for 
 our resources to fail, it will cause the war to 
 languish, and the troops to be withdrawn from 
 the field." 
 
 On the 24th of March Congress passed a law 
 authorizing the President to borrow twenty-five 
 millions of dollars. It was advertised for, to be 
 closed on the 2d of May. 
 
 I procured a communication to be inserted in 
 
 the National Intelligencer, in which I en- 
 deavored to prove that it was not possible to 
 borrow more than seven and a half millions in 
 the United States, and that it would, therefore, 
 be exceedingly unwise for Congress to adjourn 
 without making further provision. 
 
 The Bpring campaign was opening, the 
 whole frontier exposed to the incursions of the 
 Indians and assaults of the British, who were 
 burning our frontier towns, and our coast par- 
 tially blockaded. Notwithstanding, Congress 
 adjourned the latter part of April, ignorant of 
 the fate of the loan so soon to be decided, and 
 without making other provision for the success 
 of the war. 
 
 Before leaving New York I had exerted myself 
 to the utmost of my power to form an association 
 to furnish the government with more money, and 
 procuring the following subscriptions: 
 
 Isaac Lawrence 
 
 - $25,000 
 
 Fred. De Peyster 
 
 - 25,000 
 
 John Rathbone, jr. - 
 
 - 25,000 
 
 Francis Depau 
 
 - 20,000 
 
 James Lovett - 
 
 - 20,000 
 
 Edmund Edmendorf 
 
 5,000 
 
 Wm. P. Van Ness - 
 
 - 25,000 
 
 Walter Morton 
 
 - 10,000 
 
 Benj. Huntington 
 
 - 10,000 
 
 AValter Bowen 
 
 - 20,000 
 
 Wm. Van Ness 
 
 - 20,000 
 
 Alex. Ferguson 
 
 200 
 
 Edmund Elmundorf 
 
 5,000 
 
 David Delapierre 
 
 3,000 
 
 Philip S. L. Breton 
 
 - 10,000 
 
 John L. Broome 
 
 - 20,000 
 
 Frederick Brune 
 
 - 15,000 
 
 James R. Wilson 
 
 - 30,000 
 
 John Icard 
 
 - 10,000 
 
 Earl De Pearce 
 
 5,000 
 
 Isaac Jones 
 
 4,000 
 
 John M. Hicks \ 
 HiVk" f 
 
 2,000 
 
 -LLlCiio J 
 
 
 
 309.200 
 
 Although this loan was to be closed on the 
 second of May, Congress adjourned on the 
 latter part of April, totally ignorant of the fate 
 which would attend it, without making any 
 other provision for the prosecution of the war. 
 It was the universal opinion of the nation that 
 it could not succed, and I do not believe there 
 was one solitary individual, acquainted with the
 
 OFFERS TO LOAN MORE MONEY 
 
 47 
 
 state of the money market, who believed that 
 the whole ten millions could be obtained on any 
 terms whatever. The Republican party felt 
 the greatest dejection on this account. I had 
 opened a subscription book in New York, but 
 had not yet procured two hundred thousand 
 dollars to be subscribed. On the other hand, 
 leaders of the Federal party were very much 
 elated by the prospect of the loan's failing. To 
 insure such failure, and to produce that state 
 of public embarrassment which they so much 
 desired, their speeches in Congress, and in the 
 several State legislatures, together with their 
 publications in the newspapers, were directed 
 to that end. The Boston brokers and stock- 
 jobbers acted their part in the plot with the 
 utmost industry, by running on the New York 
 banks for specie, by offering stock at auction, 
 by making sham sales, and by bidding it off 
 to each other with no other view than to de- 
 preciate and disgrace it ; at this time I held a 
 large amount of public stock, the sale of which 
 became necessary to enable me to furnish the 
 goverment with more money. I visited Wash- 
 ington, had several conversations with the 
 Secretary of the Treasury on the subject of 
 the proposed loan, informing him that I in- 
 tended to offer a half million of dollars at 85, 
 recpiiring the same condition that had been 
 allowed Messrs. Girard and Parish ; he ex- 
 pressed a wish to obtain the money at 88, the 
 same rate as Mr. Gallatin had allowed; he 
 thought such a contract would induce an im- 
 mediate peace, in which case the stock at 88 
 would be a good speculation ; and if the war 
 should be continued, the condition, if allowed, 
 would protect the holders of the stock, adding 
 that the President had received a confidential 
 letter from Mr. Gallatin, one of the peace mis- 
 sion under the Russian mediation, saying, that 
 the British ministry had advice from their 
 friends in the United States, that it would be 
 impossible for the Washington administration 
 to obtain a sufficiency of money to conduct 
 another campaign ; that if they would defer ne- 
 gotiations for peace, Mr. Madison and his cabi- 
 net would have to resign, their friends come 
 into power, with whom a peace could be nego- 
 tiated on more favorable terms. Therefore, 
 the Secretary urged the necessity of a contract 
 for a loan at old rates. 
 
 Mr. Barker never believed that if the Federal 
 
 party had got into power they would have made 
 any dishonorable concessions to Britain ; all 
 they wanted was the control of the government 
 and a division of the spoils; those objects 
 attained, he believed they would have been as 
 tenacious of the nation's honor and rights aa 
 the Democratic party. 
 
 Congress adjourned after passing a law 
 authorizing the issue of treasury notes and a 
 loan of twenty-five millions ; the treasury de- 
 partment invited, by advertisement, proposals 
 for 10 millions in part; a greater sum was wanted, 
 but the Secretary was apprehensive that if he 
 advertised for a larger amount, it would mili- 
 tate against offers, and so he stated in his 
 report to Congress. — See book of Finance, vol. 
 2, page 841. 
 
 When Mr. Gallatin contracted at 88, the 
 market price was 90 to 91, at this time it was 
 down to 85 to 88; it is the universal custom 
 when governments contract, to do it at a rate 
 several per cent, below the retail market price, 
 yet the considerations urged by the Secretary 
 induced Mr. Barker to offer at 88, addressing 
 to the Secretary a letter in words and figures 
 following: 
 
 " Washington, 4 Mo. 28, 1814. 
 
 " Respected Friend : I will loan to govern- 
 ment five millions of dollars, and pay £75,000 
 sterling of it to their bankers in London, on 
 or before the 10th of December next, to be 
 estimated at the current rate of exchange at 
 Philadelphia, on the 15th day of July next, 
 and the balance I will pay at the periods men- 
 tioned in thy advertisement of the 4th April, 
 to their credit, in such banks of the United 
 States, as may be agreeable to thee. 
 
 " On the payment of each installment, funded 
 stock to be issued for one hundred dollars for 
 each eighty-eight dollars received. It being 
 understood and agreed, that if terms more 
 favorable to the loaners be allowed for any 
 part of the twenty-five millions authorized to 
 be borrowed the present year, the same terms 
 are to be extended to this contract ; and that 
 such incorporated banks as may assist me in 
 carrying this contract into effect shall have 
 the business of government at the places of 
 their establishment, especially the collection of 
 bonds given for duties and other custom-house 
 deposits, thee being first perfectly satisfied as 
 to their solidity and capacity to do the business 
 well, and to retain the right to take it from 
 them, or either of them, the moment thee may 
 doubt as to the solidity of such bank or banks. 
 The notes of such of those banks as may be 
 established in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, 
 and Baltimore, to be received by all the col-
 
 48 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 lectors of the customs or imposts, and of inter- 
 nal taxes, and by all land officers the same as 
 specie, for which purpose, instructions to be 
 given, immediately, from the proper depart- 
 ment. The notes of no other bank, out of the 
 district where the collection is made, to be 
 received in such payments. If there is no 
 bank in such district, the notes of one other 
 bank may be received in such payment. Each 
 collector, or other officer who receives the notes 
 of any of the aforesaid banks, to remit them 
 weekly to the banks who issued them, to be by 
 them placed to the credit of government the 
 same as specie deposited, their receipt to be 
 stopped the moment thou doubts the solidity 
 of the banks issuing them. 
 
 " For the amount payable in London, funded 
 stock to be issued, bearing interest from the 
 fifteenth day of July, and delivered to me on 
 my giving satisfactory security that the money 
 shall be punctually paid. The rate of exchange 
 to be settled, on that day, by the presidents of 
 any three banks in Philadelphia which thou 
 may name. 
 
 " A commission of one quarter of one per cent. 
 to be allowed me on the amount loaned. 
 
 '' With great respect and esteem, I am thy 
 assured friend, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 "The honorable George W. Campbell, 
 
 " Secretary of Treasury." 
 
 The Secretary, after consideration, returned 
 the letter to me, saying, that he could not 
 take from the banks which had hitherto ac- 
 commodated government the whole of the 
 public business, and that he was not willing to 
 give so extensive an order to the collectors, but 
 that if he could not get the money otherways. 
 he might extend a reasonable proportion of 
 the public business to other banks, and that 
 he did not see any objection to ordering the 
 principal banks with which the treasury did 
 their business to receive from the collectors 
 the notes of some of the principal banks in the 
 large cities, which would answer all the pur 
 poses contemplated by me, as the collectors 
 were already ordered to receive all such bank 
 notes for duties and taxes as the banks where 
 they made their deposits would receive as 
 money, saying, that if the money should be 
 offered without the condition for further benefit 
 on admissible terms, he should not agree to 
 any condition not expressed in the treasury 
 advertisement, yet as it might not be offered 
 unconditionally, he desired me to make new 
 proposals, separating the offer of loan from 
 that requiring the patronage for the banks, and 
 in stating the patronage requisite to enable me 
 
 to procure five millions, he desired me to re- 
 quire as small a portion as possible, as he was 
 solicitous to favor the banks which had hitherto 
 accommodated government. He observed, that 
 he did not perceive any objection to receiving 
 a part of the money in Europe, as the govern- 
 ment would be under the necessity of pur- 
 chasing bills to remit in July or August, if 
 they did not receive a part of it there. Pur- 
 suant to his request, I separated my proposal, 
 and asked for only half the public business, 
 and adopted his plan in relation to the banks 
 receiving the notes of other banks in lieu of 
 the collectors receiving them, as appears more 
 fully by the two letters I delivered to him on 
 that subject, of which the following are copies: 
 
 "Washington, 4 Month 30, 1814. 
 
 " Esteemed Friend : Enclosed I hand thee a 
 proposal to loan five millions of dollars. In 
 case it should be accepted, it is to be understood 
 that such incorporated banks established at 
 Salem, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Balti- 
 more and Charleston, as should assist me in 
 carrying it into effect, shall have one half the 
 business of government, especially the collec- 
 tion of bonds given for duties and other cus- 
 tom-house deposits, thee being first perfectly 
 satisfied as to their solidity and capacity to do 
 the business, and to retain the right to take it 
 from them, or either of them, the moment thee 
 may doubt as to the solidity of such bank or 
 banks. The notes of such of those banks as 
 may be established in New York, Boston, 
 Philadelphia and Baltimore, to be received the 
 same as specie by all the banks with which 
 government may do business at New Orleans, 
 Savannah, Charleston, Norfolk, Baltimore, Wil- 
 mington, Delaware, Philadelphia, New York, 
 and in the New England States, for which pur- 
 pose instructions to be given from the proper 
 department. Each bank which receives the 
 notes of any of the aforesaid banks, to place 
 them to the credit of the bank that issued 
 them. The amount to be by such bank placed 
 to the credit of government, from time to time, 
 on a presentation of a certificate of the amount 
 thus placed at their disposal; the receipt of 
 any or all such notes to be stopped the moment 
 thee doubts the solidity of the banks issuing 
 them. I confidently hope to procure all the 
 assistance I shall require from the bank of 
 America in New York, and one of the most 
 respectable banks at Boston. My wish is to 
 confine all the operations to one or two banks. 
 
 " With great respect and esteem, I have the 
 honor to be, thy assured friend, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 
 ■' The honorable G. W. Campbell, 
 
 " Secretary of Treasury.' 1 ' 1
 
 NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE LOAN. 
 
 49 
 
 " Washington, 4 Mo., 30, 1814. 
 
 '• Respected Friexd : I will loan to govern- 
 ment five millions of dollars, and pay seventy 
 five thousand pounds sterling of it, to their 
 bankers in London, on or before the tenth of 
 December next, to be estimated at the current 
 rate of exchange at Philadelphia on the fif- 
 teenth day of July next, and the balance I will 
 pay in the proportions, and at the periods, 
 mentioned in thy advertisement of the 4th of 
 April to their credit, in such banks of the 
 United States as may be agreeable to thee. 
 
 " On the payment of each instalment, funded 
 stock to be issued for one hundred dollars for 
 each eighty-eight dollars received. It being 
 understood and agreed, that if terms more 
 favorable to the loaners be allowed for any 
 part of the twenty-five millions authorized to 
 be borrowed the present year, the same terms 
 are to be extended to this contract. 
 
 " A bond with suitable penalties to be exe- 
 cuted for the faithful performance of this 
 contract. 
 
 "For the amount payable in London, funded 
 stock to be issued, bearing interest from the 
 fifteenth day of July, and sent to your bankers 
 there, to be delivered to my order, on my paying 
 to such bankers the amount in money, or to 
 be delivered to me here, on my furnishing ap- 
 proved endorsed bills on London. The rate of 
 exchange to be settled on that day by the 
 presidents of any three banks in Philadelphia, 
 which thou may name. 
 
 " The commission of one quarter of one per 
 cent., mentioned in thy advertisement, to be 
 allowed me on the amount loaned. 
 
 " With great respect and esteem, I am thy 
 assured friend. "JACOB BARKER. 
 
 " The honorable George W. Campbell, 
 
 " Secretary of the Treasury. 1 '' 
 
 These letters, bearing the treasury endorse- 
 ment, remain in my possession. 
 
 On presenting the preceding letters, I ob- 
 served to the Secretary, that if the whole 
 amount which was advertised for should be 
 unconditionally offered on terms anything like 
 the market price for stock, that I was of 
 opinion the public interest would be promoted 
 by making an unconditional bargain for it; but 
 if it should not be unconditionally offered, that 
 I was confident I could furnish five or six mil- 
 lions, provided the banks from which I ex- 
 pected to borrow were favored with the patron- 
 age required; as all banks were desirous of 
 transacting a portion of public business, and 
 the advantages of having their notes received 
 for the taxes and duties throughout the United 
 States, would induce them to make very great 
 loans, the amount of such loans to be received 
 
 in their paper, sent to the army, and used to 
 pay the debts of government, and not drawn 
 out and placed in other banks. Such an ar- 
 rangement would give the banks the ability, as 
 well as the disposition, to loan large sums. 
 We had several subsequent conversations, in 
 which he fully agreed with me in opinion, that 
 the proposed patronage in favor of the banks 
 would enable me to furnish the money, and 
 felt apprehensive that he could not obtain it 
 by any other means ; he was, however, unwil- 
 ling to take so great a portion of the public 
 business from the banks which had already 
 assisted government. After the consideration 
 of a day or two, he returned me my proposal, 
 endorsed in his own hand writing, requesting 
 me to make a specific proposition of the amount 
 I was willing to engage to furnish, omitting the 
 subject of paying a part in England; adding, 
 that he would afford me an opportunity of 
 paying the amount mentioned in England; and 
 that he would allow such banks as should 
 assist me in particular places a portion of the 
 public business, not to exceed one third, for 
 two years, and to order the notes of some of 
 those banks to be received in the manner I 
 had suggested. He presented me with a memo- 
 randum to that effect, and handed back to me 
 my letter requiring patronage for the banks, 
 endorsed with his own hand writing, observing 
 that he did not wish it to form any part of our 
 contract, lest some of the other subscribers 
 might complain of partiality inconsistent with 
 the promise which the advertisement contained; 
 that he would give it as a free will offering ; 
 that government always had and would ac- 
 commodate and favor with their patronage 
 such banks as accommodated them ; and that, 
 although he would not engage for more than 
 two years, it was not probable that the govern- 
 ment would have any disposition to change at 
 the end of that period, provided the business was 
 conducted to satisfaction, and at all times the 
 Treasury Department must be at liberty to close 
 their accounts with such banks, even before the 
 expiration of the two years, in case the banks 
 should not conduct with propriety, or in case 
 government should deem its funds insecure in 
 their hands, adding that the principal part of 
 the money would be expended by the War and 
 Navy Departments who were, also, disposed to 
 do all they could in promoting the circulation
 
 50 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 of the paper of the banks who loaned money 
 to government. To this I replied, that as it 
 was known I could not furnish any money 
 without the patronage of government, I should 
 not object to leaving it out of the contract on 
 such an understanding, provided I was not 
 subjected to any forfeiture. The Secretary 
 rejoined, that government had never demanded 
 or exacted forfeitures in such cases, and would 
 not do it if parties acting in good faith used 
 their best endeavors to fulfil their engagements. 
 I again replied, that if the government ac- 
 cepted of my offer they had only to decide 
 upon giving the patronage or go without the 
 money ; for it was a fact that all my funds were 
 already invested in former loans ; that it was 
 out of my power to obtain much from indivi- 
 duals , and that the different banks could not 
 accommodate without the patronage required, 
 from which they would expect to derive the 
 power. 
 
 The Secretary expressed a wish, that for 
 each instalment paid I should consent to re- 
 ceive scrip in the ordinary way ; to this propo- 
 sition I objected, as being totally impracticable 
 for me to perform. He then requested me to 
 state in my letter, " that on the payment of 
 each instalment, and satisfactory assurance for 
 the payment of the others, funded stock to be 
 issued" — instead of saying, "a bond with suita- 
 ble penalties to be executed for the faithful 
 performance of this contract." I assented to 
 the modification waving the stipulation for 
 security, repeating that I wished him distinctly 
 to understand that I was incapable of doing 
 anything without funded stock for each instal- 
 ment, as fast and as soon as the money was 
 furnished, and that it was perfectly immaterial 
 in what terms my letter was expressed, pro- 
 vided the stock was so furnished. 
 
 Government had ever been in the habit of 
 confiding, without security, in the promise of 
 contractors for the payment of the first instal- 
 ment; it therefore appeared reasonable that 
 they should extend the same confidence with 
 respect to the other payments — as by the pay- 
 ment of one instalment with fidelity they had 
 entitled themselves to consideration. 
 
 We separated without concluding the busi- 
 ness ; when we again met he informed me that 
 Mr. Sheldon was much averse to the proposed 
 arrangement j that it would give the clerks 
 
 trouble in keeping their accounts ; for these 
 and other reasons he repeated that he was not 
 willing to agree to any positive stipulations 
 which should bind the government to give 
 their patronage to my particular banks; but as 
 government possessed the right of bestowing 
 its favors upon any institution it pleased, ad- 
 vised that it should be received as a free will 
 offering. I replied that, if the banks obtained the 
 patronage required, it was perfectly immaterial 
 to me whether it flowed from an honorable 
 understanding, or was secured by an absolute 
 contract, but that, at all events, I could not ob- 
 tain the money without it •} adding that high 
 minded men are, if possible, more solicitious 
 to fulfil their engagements of honor than even 
 their written promises ; but that, however I 
 might feel disposed to rest upon such an un~ 
 derstanding, the banks would not be so well 
 satisfied without an absolute contract. Mr. 
 Campbell replied that he had made such expla- 
 nations as he supposed would satisfy me, and 
 requested me to take the matter into considera- 
 tion. I promised to do so, and we parted. 
 When I waited on General Armstrong the 
 Secretary of War exhibited to him the memo- 
 randum I received from Mr. Campbell, and: 
 requested his opinion in relation to the pro- 
 bability of obtaining the solicited patronage,, 
 provided the expressed condition which had 
 been required for that purpose was waived, and 
 whether his officers would circulate the bills of 
 such banks as should loan the money? He 
 mentioned that they always drew out and cir- 
 culated the bills of those banks on which the 
 warrants were drawn, and that he would see 
 and converse with Mr. Campbell on the subject. 
 He did so, and subsequently informed me that 
 Mr. Campbell had expressed his willingness to 
 give all the assistance in his power to the per- 
 sons who should lend the money — mentioning 
 that the government had always given their 
 business to the banks which accommodated 
 them, and would continue to do so; but as the 
 present banks could not furnish all the money 
 which the public would require, it might be 
 necessary to give a portion of the patronage 
 to other banks, who should make further loans, 
 and that he should consider a bank loaning 
 any part of the five millions to me the same 
 as loaning it direct to the government, as it 
 was not to be imagined that I was able to lend
 
 NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE LOAN. 
 
 51 
 
 five millions of dollars unless I obtained them 
 from others ; he was, therefore, of opinion that 
 I should not be disappointed if I left the busi- 
 ness at the discretion of the Treasury Depart- 
 ment, but added that he had not anything to 
 do with it, and that I must act according to 
 my own judgement; whereupon I delivered to 
 Mr. Campbell a letter bearing the date of my 
 original proposition in words and figures fol- 
 lowing, observing to him, as you have already 
 got all my money, if you accept this proposi- 
 tion its fulfilment will depend on your afford- 
 ing the banks who may assist me the required 
 patronage. 
 
 "Washington, tth month, 30, 1814. 
 
 "Respected Friend : I will loan to the govern- 
 men lof the United States five millions of dol- 
 lar." receiving one hundred dollards in six per 
 ceL* t . stock for each eighty-eight dollars paid, 
 and will pay the money in the proportion, and 
 at the periods mentioned in thy advertisement 
 of the 4th of April, to their credit, in such 
 banks in the United States as may be agree- 
 able to thee. 
 
 "On the payment of each instalment, and 
 satisfactory assurances for the payment of the 
 others, funded stock to be issued — it being 
 understood and agreed, that if terms more 
 favorable to the loaners be allowed for any part 
 of the twenty-five millions authorized to be 
 borrowed the present year, the same terms 
 are to be extended to this contract. 
 
 " The commission of one quarter of oue per 
 cent, mentioned in thy advertisement to be 
 allowed me on the amount loaned. 
 
 " With great respect and esteem, I am thy 
 assured friend, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 
 " The Hon. G. W. Campbell, 
 
 " Secretary of the Treasury." 
 
 After I presented this letter, Mr. Campbell 
 repeated that the patronage required should be 
 afforded, but it must be considered aa a free 
 will offering, lest some exception might be 
 taken on account of the terms of his adver- 
 tisement. 
 
 On the morning of the day on which we 
 contracted, he informed me that he had con- 
 cluded to accept of my offer, with a slight 
 variation, allowing the holders of stock, when 
 more favorable terms should be allowed, the 
 benefit thereof, in place of making that allow- 
 ance to the contractors. 
 
 I replied with great earnestness, that if he 
 accepted of my offer, he must make the allow- 
 ance to the contractors for the loan, and not 
 to the holders, unless they should continue to 
 
 hold it, to which he objected. I then, in the 
 most forcible manner in my power, urged the 
 reason why such allowance should not be made 
 to the holders of stock, mainly because it 
 might operate as an inducement for them to 
 depreciate the value, alleging that when per- 
 sons purchase stock for the purpose of holding 
 it the cheaper it can be obtained the better ; 
 but when they purchase it to sell again it is 
 for their interest to keep it up at as high price 
 as possible ; that it was the same with respect 
 to stock as with every article of merchandise ; 
 when high it is demanded and of brisk sale ; 
 but when low, sales are extremely dull, and 
 when on the decline almost impossible to be 
 disposed of. 
 
 The Secretary of War and ihe Comptroller 
 were present at such conversations. We again 
 parted without coming to any final determina- 
 tion. 
 
 I took occasion to speak to Mr. Sheldon of 
 the impolicy of this course ; from his conver- 
 sation it appeared evident that it was a plan 
 of this treasury clerk, as more likely to defeat 
 me than leaving the benefit of the conditions 
 with the contractors ; he stated that he was 
 opposed to every part of the arrangement pro- 
 posed by me. 
 
 You cannot, said he, get the money ; the 
 nation is in a lamentable situation ; every- 
 thing is going to destruction ; the present ad- 
 ministration are incapable of conducting it ; 
 the sooner they are made to resign the better; 
 that he would not have anything to do with it ; 
 that he had so informed the Secretary ; that no 
 other person in the office knew anything about 
 such business, and that, if the Secretary would 
 make such bargains, he must get some one 
 else to carry them out. 
 
 I communicated this to the Secretary, and 
 inquired why he did not remove him and ap- 
 point another clerk. The Secretary replied 
 that Mr. Sheldon had been so long connected 
 with the office that he was au fait with all 
 the details thereof — believed to be very honest. 
 That he, the Secretary, knew nothing about 
 the details of the office, and was too unwell to 
 conduct its business with strangers. 
 
 I told him he could not do it with enemies 
 watching over him for evil, eager to convert their 
 position into engines of war against him and 
 his political friends.
 
 52 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 Soon afterward I received a note from Mr. 
 Campbell inviting mj attendance, of which the 
 following is a copy : 
 
 " Monday Morxixg, May 2, 1814. 
 
 " Mr. Campbell would be glad to see Mr. 
 Barker at the Treasury Department, if con- 
 venient. 
 
 " J. Barker, esq." 
 
 I called, when the Secretary informed me 
 that his mind was unalterably made up to give 
 the benefit of the condition to such persons as 
 might hold the stock when more favorable 
 terms should be allowed, which he said he did 
 not think would ever happen; that peace 
 would, in all probability, take place before 
 more money would be wanted ; said he be- 
 lieved the effect on the market price would be 
 more favorable than for it to remain with the 
 contractors ; that he had consulted the Presi- 
 dent and Cabinet ; that they all thought that 
 there would not be any difficulty about the 
 required patronage to the banks which should 
 aid me ; that they were all anxious for the loan 
 to be contracted for at 88. 
 
 The war had been induced by the orders in 
 council, impressment of our seamen, paper 
 blockades and some minor offences ; the orders 
 in council had been rescinded, and peace mes- 
 sengers had been sent out with instructions to 
 defer the other causes of complaint; hence the 
 great confidence of the administration that we 
 should soon have peace. Considering that 
 future opposition would be unavailing, I re- 
 luctantly yielded, when the Secretary delivered 
 to me a letter in words aud figures following : 
 "Treasury Department, May 2, 1814. 
 
 "Sir: The terms upon which the loan has 
 been this day concluded are as follows, viz: 
 Eighty-eight dollars in money for each hun- 
 dred dollars in stock; and the United States 
 engage, if any part of the sum of twenty-five 
 millions of dollars, authorized to be borrowed 
 by the act of the 24th of March, 1814, is bor- 
 rowed upon terms more favorable to the 
 lenders, the benefit of the same terms shall be 
 extended to the persons who may then hold 
 the stock, or any part of it. issued for the pres- 
 ent loan of ten millions. 
 
 " Your proposal of the 30th of April for five 
 millions of dollars of the loan having been at 
 the above rate, or at a rate more favorable 
 than the above to the United States, has been 
 accepted; and you will please to pay, or cause 
 to be paid, on the 25th day of the present 
 month, into the bank or banks you have 
 named, or into such as you shall name to the 
 Secretary of the Treasury on the receipt of 
 
 this letter, twenty-five per cent., or one fourth 
 part of the sum above stated, pursuant to the 
 notification from this department of the 4th of 
 of April last, and the remaining instalments 
 on the days fixed in the said notification. Yoa 
 will be pleased, also, on or before the 25th of 
 May, to furnish the cashier or cashiers of the 
 bank or banks where the payments under your 
 proposal are to be made with the names of the 
 persons in whose behalf the proposal has been 
 made, and the sums payable by each. 
 
 " The commission of one-fourth of one per 
 cent, will be paid from the treasury, after the 
 payment of the first instalment, on the 25th 
 day of the present month. 
 
 " I am, very respectfully, sir, your obedient 
 servant, 
 
 " G. W. CAMPBELL, 
 
 11 Secretary of the Treasury. 
 " To Jacob Barker, Esq., of New York." 
 
 These two letters form the contract; their 
 most important features are that if any part of 
 the twenty-five million loan should be borrowed 
 on terms more favorable to the lenders, the 
 benefit of the same terms should be extended 
 to the persons who might then hold the stock 
 issued for the ten million loan, and that funded 
 stock was to be furnished for each instalment 
 as fast as the money was received ; the certifi- 
 cates could have been prepared in a day ; and 
 all that was required was that they should be 
 sent to the loan officers and delivered on the 
 receipt of the money. Nothing was more 
 simple, and no more sure check or gauge 
 could have been adopted. 
 
 The Secretary was notified of the moneys 
 being ready at New York, and urged to send 
 on the certificates of stock before the appointed 
 day; that day arrived, and no certificates of 
 funded stocks had been received at the loan 
 office, or notice that he was not satisfied 
 with the assurance given that the money would 
 be forthcoming. 
 
 In place of funded stock, scrip certificates 
 had been received, which required that the 
 whole one million two hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand dollars should be held as security for the 
 payment of the other instalments, involving all 
 those who furnished me with money in the 
 issue. 
 
 I might as well have been required to have 
 furnished that number of moons as my security. 
 This was a plan of the treasury clerks to 
 break me down; it did not succeed, as will 
 appear from the correspondence published 
 herewith.
 
 THE LOAN ACCEPTED. 
 
 53 
 
 The receipt of letters from the banks, inform- 
 ing that I had deposited a million of dollars 
 subject to the order of the treasury, as soon as 
 the stock should be furnished, brought the 
 Secretary to terms. My having deposited this 
 million, without the aid of bank patronage or 
 stock, was deemed a sufficient assurance of 
 punctuality, aad the stock was promised; yet, 
 after this, he allowed its issue to be embar- 
 rassed by a connexion with the scrip certifi- 
 cates, and attempted to retain one twentieth 
 part on each scrip certificate as security for 
 the fulfillment of my contract, declaring at the 
 same time that he was satisfied, so far as I 
 was concerned, and that it was not deemed 
 necessary on my account. 
 
 This requisition was also resisted by me, 
 and yielded by the treasury, after the most 
 perplexing and injurious delays, which the 
 correspondence will show. 
 
 The whole machinery of the scrip certificates 
 was uncalled for, and not of the least utility ; 
 entailed on all parties great confusion and 
 perplexity; made it necessary to pay all the 
 instalments into the same banks where the 
 first instalment should be paid; and came very 
 near defeating the whole loan. 
 
 The Secretary having refused to allow the 
 benefit of the conditions to remain with the 
 contractors, stipulating that it should follow 
 the stock into the hands of those who might 
 hold it when more favorable terms should be 
 allowed, it was to have been presumed that 
 the certificates of stock would have borne on 
 their face the conditions; it was quite as im- 
 portant oh the market price as the rate of 
 interest or the period of redemption. 
 
 Yet the certificates, after the most injurious 
 delays, came on without such conditions; this 
 involved me in difficulties with those who had 
 furnished me w th money on my promise to 
 secure them with stock, bearing the conditions 
 which I understood the Secretary to have 
 promised the certificates should bear on their 
 face. 
 
 This promise the Secretary did not remem- 
 ber when remonstrated with for the omission; 
 whether he promised or not, it was equally his 
 duty to have had it put on — nothing could be 
 more reasonable than that those who parted 
 with their money should have written evidence 
 of their rights. 
 
 This difficulty I was enabled to overcome, jet 
 not without much cost and great inconvenience. 
 
 In the Secretary's report to Congress, on the 
 23d of September, 1814, he says: Under the 
 act of the 24th of March, 1814, by which the 
 President was authorized to borrow twenty-five 
 millions of dollars, a loan was opened on the 
 2d of May for ten millions of dollars, in part 
 of that sum. A loan for ten millions of dollars 
 was considered as more likely to prove success- 
 ful than if an attempt were made to obtain the 
 whole amount of twenty-five millions at once. 
 
 The sums offered for this loan amounted to 
 $11,900,806, of which $2,671,750 were at rates 
 less than 88 per cent., and $1,183,400 at rates 
 less than S5 per cent. Of the sum of §9,229,056 
 dollars, which were offered at 88 per cent., or 
 rates more favorable to the United States, five 
 millions were offered, with the conditions an- 
 nexed, that if terms more favorable to the lend- 
 ers should be allowed for any part of the twenty- 
 five millions authorized to be borrowed the pres- 
 ent year, the same terms should be extended to 
 those holding the stock of the ten million loan. 
 
 Taking into consideration the expectation 
 then entertained of any early return of peace, 
 and the importance of maintaining unimpaired 
 the public credit by sustaining the price of 
 stock in the meantime — and also considering 
 the measure was sanctioned by precedent, it 
 was agreed to accept the loan with that condi- 
 tion. Had the sum to which the condition 
 was annexed been rejected, the consequence 
 would have been to reduce the amount obtained 
 to less than five millions, a sum altogether 
 inadequate to the public demands; or by 
 depressing the stock to 85 per cent., to have 
 obtained only a little more than six millions, 
 which would still have been insufficient to 
 answer the purposes of government. 
 
 I here subjoin a list, A, of all the proposals 
 made to government for the ten million loan, 
 which were accepted on the 2d of May, and 
 also a list, B, of those that were rejected ; by 
 which it will be seen that Mr. Campbell could 
 not have procured more than about one million 
 and a half, in addition to what he accepted, 
 had he originally allowed 85, and only about 
 three millions had he originally allowed 75 ; 
 and of those sums rejected he subsequently 
 obtained a considerable proportion through 
 Mr. Whann.
 
 54 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 A. 
 
 New Tori: 
 
 John Tayler , 
 
 Alanson Douglas 
 
 Smith & Nicoll 
 
 Harman Hendricks . . . 
 
 G. B. Vroom 
 
 Samuel Flewelling 
 
 Jacob Barker 
 
 Whitehead Fish 
 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 Guy Bryan 
 
 Thomas Newman 
 
 Samuel Cars well 
 
 Paul Beck, jun 
 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 Peleg Tallman 
 
 Levi Cutler 
 
 John Woodman 
 
 John W. Treadwell 
 
 Thomas Perkins 
 
 William Gray 
 
 Samuel Dana 
 
 Jesse Putnam 
 
 Amos Binney 
 
 New Hampshire. 
 Henry S. Langdon 
 
 Amount of- 
 fered by 
 each person. 
 
 Rhode Island. 
 
 Nathan Waterman 
 
 James D. Wolfe 
 
 John R. Shearman 
 
 Connecticut. 
 
 Elisha Tracy 
 
 Michael Shepard 
 
 Abraham Bishop 
 
 Maryland. 
 
 Wm. Patterson & Sons 
 George T. Dunbar 
 James Cox 
 
 District of Columbia 
 
 Samuel Elliot, jun 
 
 Alexander Kerr 
 
 William Jones 
 
 William Whann 
 
 Anthony C. Cazenove 
 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Charles B. Cochran 
 
 David Alexander 
 
 John Lukens 
 
 Thomas W. Bacot 
 
 Kentucky. 
 James Taylor 
 
 $150, 000 
 
 50, 000 
 
 80, 000 
 
 42, 000 
 
 500, 000 
 
 257, 300 
 
 5, 000, 000 
 
 250, 000 
 
 50, 000 
 
 108,000 
 
 28, 000 
 
 50, 000 
 
 25, 000 
 94, 000 
 50, 000 
 
 416, 156 
 25, 000 
 
 197, 000 
 25, 000 
 67, 900 
 35,000 
 
 35, 300 
 
 100, 000 
 
 35, 000 
 
 30, 000 
 25, 000 
 25, 000 
 
 50, 000 
 
 191,000 
 
 71,900 
 
 100,000 
 33,000 
 
 200, 000 
 42, 500 
 30, 000 
 
 250, 000 
 60, 000 
 70, 000 
 
 115, 000 
 
 Totals. 
 
 $6,329,300 
 
 236,000 
 
 935,056 
 
 40,000 
 
 170,300 
 
 80, 000 
 
 312,900 
 
 405,500 
 
 495, 000 
 
 25, 000 
 , 029, 056 
 
 Amount advertised for. 
 
 Remaining uncontracted for on 
 
 the 2d of May , 
 
 Subsequently taken by D. A. 
 
 Smith 
 
 Subsequently taken by W. 
 
 Whann 
 
 More subsequently taken by W. 
 
 Whann 
 
 More subsequently taken by R. 
 
 C. Jennings 
 
 Remaining uncontracted for 
 when Mr. Campbell retired 
 from office 
 
 Amount of- 
 fered by 
 each person. 
 
 $200, 000 
 190, 000 
 200,000 
 176,000 
 
 Totals. 
 
 $10, 000, 000 
 
 970,944 
 
 766, 000 
 
 204,944 
 
 
 Amount of- 
 fered by 
 each person 
 
 Terms. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 New York. 
 W. Fish 
 
 $150, 000 
 25, 000 
 25,000 
 
 76 
 85 
 
 80 
 
 
 
 $200, 0GO 
 
 Pennsylvania. 
 J. Schotte 
 
 25, 000 
 
 192, 750 
 
 45,000 
 
 45, 000 
 
 30, 000 
 
 370, 000 
 
 142, 000 
 
 SO, 000 
 
 40, 000 
 
 25, 000 
 
 125, 000 
 
 320, 000 
 
 155, 000 
 
 10, 000 
 
 80 
 
 85 
 
 85 
 
 85 
 
 S7 
 
 85 
 
 85 
 
 85 
 
 85 
 
 85 
 
 85 
 
 82^ 
 
 80 
 
 85 
 
 McEuen & Co 
 
 Quintin Campbell 
 
 Biddle & Wharton. . . 
 
 Do 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Do 
 
 
 Do 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,554,750 
 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 Robert & John Sharp. 
 Jonathan Amory 
 
 20, 000 
 
 50, 000 
 
 42,000 
 
 30, 000 
 
 547, 100 
 
 300, 000 
 
 200, 000 
 
 80^ 
 
 85 
 
 86 
 
 SO a 87^ 
 
 75aS7 
 
 80 
 
 75 
 
 Gilbert & Dean 
 
 Do 
 
 
 
 1,189,100 
 27,000 
 57,500 
 
 124,000 
 
 3,152,350 
 
 Maryland. 
 
 27, 000 
 
 80 
 
 District of Columbia. 
 
 57,500 
 
 &5U 
 
 Virginia. 
 
 40, 000 
 84, 000 
 
 65% 
 
 84 
 
 
 
 | 
 
 On concluding the contract, I mentioned to 
 the Secretary my plan, which was to return 
 immediately home to raise the money, and 
 punctually pay the first instalments; by those 
 means I expected to establish a confidence in 
 the public mind, not only that my contract wa s
 
 OPPOSITION TO THE LOAN. 
 
 55 
 
 a real and bona fide one, but that I possessed 
 the disposition and the meaus to fulfil it. The 
 low price and dull sale of stock, the unexam- 
 pled scarcity of money, the general distress 
 which prevailed amongst merchants, together 
 •with the high price which I had agreed to pay 
 for the new stock, induced an impression, either 
 that my contract was a mere pretence, or that 
 I had so far taken leave of my senses as to 
 have entered into engagements which no man 
 in the community was able to fulfil. In fact 
 the best informed men in Baltimore, Philadel- 
 phia, New York and Boston, united in an opin- 
 ion that I could not raise even a million of 
 dollars, much less the sum of five millions. 
 
 I also informed him, that after having paid 
 my first instalment, it was my intention to pro- 
 ceed immediately to Philadelphia, Boston, and 
 Baltimore, at which cities I calculated to have 
 raised large sums from the banks from the in- 
 fluence of the promised patronage 5 also, that I 
 intended to send a portion of my stock to 
 London for sale. 
 
 He informed me that nearly all of the ten mil- 
 lions wanted had been contracted for, and that 
 for the deficiency, less than a million, he was 
 negotiating with the district banks, and ex- 
 pected to close with them that day, so that 
 I would have the market to myself until gov- 
 ernment wanted more money, before which 
 peace, in all probability, would take place. 
 
 I urged on the Secretary the necessity of 
 having the stock certificates prepared and 
 transmitted to New York without unnecessary 
 delay, that they might, without fail, be there 
 on the 25th of that month, when I had to pay 
 the first instalment of twelve hundred and fifty 
 thousand dollars, observing to him that not one 
 dollar could be furnished without full stock to 
 deliver to those who furnished the money. 
 
 The Secretary promised to have certificates 
 prepared immediately and transmitted to the 
 loan offices at New York and other places, 
 when I left for New York, carrying with me a 
 letter from the Secretary of War to his friend 
 Chief Justice Spencer, in words following : 
 
 " Washington, May 5, 1814. 
 
 u Barker wishes me to say that he expects 
 from you, and all other friends to the govern- 
 ment, the aid of your opinion in enabling him 
 to get along with his late engagements to the 
 public. 
 
 u My friend Campbell says he behaved very 
 
 well in the business, making his offers promptly 
 and openly, and that to him, in a great degree, 
 is owing the ability of the treasury to borrow 
 at 88 ; he therefore deserves well of his country. 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 "J. ARMSTRONG. 
 " To Judge A. Spencer." 
 
 " May 12, 1814. 
 
 "The enclosed will show you the opinion of 
 the Secretary of the Treasury in relation to 
 Mr. Barker. 
 
 " I have no objections that you shew it dis- 
 creetly and confidentially to such persons a3 
 you think fit ; let me add, that I hope you will 
 do everything in your power to aid Mr. Barker, 
 he certainly deserves it. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 "A. SPENCER. 
 " To T. Bailey, Postmaster, Neio York." 
 
 On the 25th of May I had to pay $1,250,000, 
 and the same amount on the twenty-fifth of each 
 succeeding month until the whole was satisfied; 
 so that I had scarce an interval of one short 
 month allotted me to make arrangements for 
 each instalment, the success of which depended 
 on seasonable orders issuing from the treasury, 
 to put the whole plan into operation, in such 
 form as would prevent the least interruption. 
 
 I calculated upon the promised patronage 
 of government towards the banks, who would 
 thereby be disposed to assist me, with as much 
 reliance as if I had obtained a positive stipula- 
 tion for the purpose. I had the utmost con- 
 fidence in its enabling me to raise the required 
 amount. I still believe it was as much the in- 
 tention of Mr. Campbell to have afforded that 
 patronage as though he had entered into a 
 written engagement to do so. 
 
 In passing through Philadelphia, on my way 
 home, I discovered not only an opinion that I 
 could not, but that a desire that I should not, 
 succeed prevailed among the merchants in that 
 place. 
 
 Before I reached New York I learned that 
 our whole coast had been blockaded. This 
 circumstance at once terminated my hopes of 
 assistance from the revival of commerce 
 through neutral vessels, and created an alarm 
 lest stocks should fall by the necessity which 
 government would be under to resort to new 
 loans in consequence of being disappointed in 
 the expectation of obtaining a revenue from 
 imposts. 
 
 Supposing that the loan had failed, the edi- 
 tors of the " Federal Republican"' came out
 
 56 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 ■with a most exulting paragraph ; they rejoiced 
 at the distresses in which they imagined the 
 administration and the nation to be involved ; 
 distresses which, instead of wishing to alleviate, 
 they discovered every disposition to increase. 
 As an evidence of their inveterate hostility to 
 the country which gave them birth, and affords 
 them protection, and of their systematic oppo- 
 sition to every measure of public defence and 
 preservation, I shall here transcribe the para- 
 graph to which I have alluded : 
 
 [Extract from the Federal Republican, May 3, 1814.] 
 "THE LOAN. 
 
 " 'I did send 
 To you for gold to pay iny legions, 
 Which you denied me.' 
 
 " The administration is likely to be left com- 
 pletely in the lurch by the prompters and advo- 
 cates of the disastrous war into which they 
 have plunged this once prosperous nation, not- 
 withstanding the shrewd calculations of that 
 wonderful financier Eppes, and vaporings of 
 Gales in the Court Gazette, it now amounts to 
 a certainty that the loan will utterly fail. In 
 Baltimore, where the warhawks have, again 
 and again, pledged their lives, their fortunes, 
 and their sacred honors, to strain every nerve 
 in aiding Mr. Madison and Company to take 
 the Canadas, blow up the British fleet, and 
 exterminate the Indians, the whole amount of 
 the loan bid for somewhat exceeds one hun- 
 dred thousand dollars, or about a two hundred 
 aud fiftieth part of the amount which the Presi- 
 dent is authorized to borrow, this will be rue 
 to the little monarch in his resentment, and 
 his case absolutely calls for commiseration. 
 What! in Baltimore, where patriotism glows 
 and splutters like a red hot poker thrust in a 
 pot of beer, is nothing but frothy words to be 
 expected? One hundred thousand dollars! 
 Call you this backing your friends? a plague 
 on such backing! How much ready money 
 liberality has been displayed towards the ad- 
 ministration in Philadelphia we have not yet 
 learned. With such a powerful advocate in 
 that city as Inchiguiu Whippoorwill, theamount 
 subscribed there will be at least as great as in 
 Baltimore. The sub-secretary of the treasury, 
 Jacob Barker, has long been on the alert in 
 New York, and it would be wouudrous pitiful 
 if the Democrats there should have forgotten 
 that Mr. Madison wants money and must have 
 it. Still greater hope, doubtless, rests on Bos- 
 ton. There, it was promised by the agent for 
 the loan that the names of all the subscribers 
 should be kept a profound secret. As the gov- 
 ernment is bound to comply with this condi- 
 tion, perhaps we shall never know how much of 
 the twenty-five millions is obtained in that place. 
 
 " It is said that the Baltimoreans, out of ex- 
 treme modesty, did not subscribe so largely to 
 to the loan as their dispositions prompted. They 
 were unwilling to be deemed extortioners, and 
 
 waited to learn what premium the Yankees 
 would demand for a loan, for the redemption 
 of which no revenue was provided. They ex- 
 pected that friend Barker, compounding with 
 his conscientious scruples, which forbids a 
 Quaker to lend aid to warlike operations, would 
 fix such a bonus as would justify a liberal ad- 
 vance to government, and they have sent 
 agents to trade with the Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury when it is determined how desperate the 
 fortunes of the administration have become. 
 ' From patriotism well paid much may yet be 
 expected.' ' Should the administration be 
 hard pushed, it cannot be doubted that their 
 western supporters will shell out a part of the 
 cash which has circulated so freely beyond the 
 mountains since the war was waged. A Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury has been selected among 
 the backwoodsmen, and in this republican gov- 
 ernment no office should be suffered to become 
 a sinecure.'" 
 
 About the 10th of May I arrived at New 
 York and immediately commenced the task of 
 raising money by disposing of the stocks which 
 I held in prior loans, which I was obliged to 
 do at a loss, borrowing from the banks at this 
 place and at Albany, and from individuals, and 
 by procuring it from such other sources as re- 
 mained within my power. 
 
 I was successful in forming my arrange- 
 ments for the payment of the first instalment. 
 Pending the negotiations for it I received let- 
 ters from the Hon. Charles J. Ingersoll, a 
 member of Congress from Philadelphia, a par- 
 ticular friend of Mr. Madison, an ardent sup- 
 porter of the war, and well acquainted with the 
 difficulties the administration were laboring 
 under ; and, although that gentleman volun- 
 teered to do me full justice, the Philadelphia 
 feeling towards New York seemed to lurk in 
 the background. 
 
 The correspondence reads as follows : 
 
 "Philadelphia, May 13, 1814. 
 
 ''Dear Sir: Without any business to trouble 
 you with, I beg leave, nevertheless, to pursue 
 you to New York with a letter of complaint 
 and compliment; of complaint that you did 
 not call to see me, as you promised you would, 
 on your transit through Philadelphia ; and 
 of compliment on the important pecuniary 
 services you have just rendered the country in 
 your liberal subscription to the loan, as well as 
 the very patriotic spirit in which this large 
 contribution appears to have been made. If I 
 had been a member of Congress during the 
 war of the revolution, and Robert Morris, just 
 after saving the nation from embarrassment, 
 had failed to keep a promise previously made 
 to honor me with a visit on his way through
 
 CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO THE LOAN. 
 
 57 
 
 Philadelphia, I should have been disappointed 
 at the same time that, in common with all 
 fellow-countrymen, I would have acknowledged 
 the obligation due to him from the public. 
 Now, as I believe this war to be quite as 
 momentous as that, and your aid to the trea- 
 sury, at the present crisis, quite as important 
 as Mr. Morris's ever was during the former 
 struggle, I can assure you, without compli- 
 ment, that I should have been very happy to 
 see you in my house, and that my complaint 
 will be less gentle if ever you omit me again 
 in your journeys from New York and Wash- 
 ington. Your enemies will say, no doubt, that 
 you consulted interest alone in this under- 
 taking. But who has not an eye to his interest? 
 And your friends may, with more justice, aver 
 that your motives were not, as they could have 
 been, merely interested. I wish, besides, that 
 the detractors from the merits of those who 
 stand by the country would never go so far as 
 to make it their interest to act with it. 
 
 "What a noble State New York is becom- 
 ing! Since your late elections I begin to fear 
 that Pennsylvania will no longer rank first. 
 
 " Very sincerely and respectfully, your friend 
 and humble servant, 
 
 "C. J. INGERSOLL. 
 
 "Mr. Barker." 
 
 " New York, fifth month, 20t7i, 1814. 
 
 "Dear friend : The mail from your city, 
 the last three days, has been heavily londed 
 with evil predictions in relation to my fulfill- 
 ing my contract for the loan. It is, therefore, 
 gratifying to my vanity to think that lam of so 
 much consequence in the estimation of the tories. 
 
 "As for them, the moment they are com- 
 pelled to abandon their exertions to bankrupt 
 the nation, and their predictions that govern- 
 ment could not get money to pay their debts, 
 that they should direct all their enmity and 
 similar exertions and predictions towards me. 
 
 "But I am at a loss to account why the 
 fustian gentry of Pennsylvania alone should 
 pursue this vile course. 
 
 "Do me the favor to contradict everything 
 thee may hear about my having any doubt 
 about my being enabled punctually to meet 
 my payments. 
 
 "On the 25th I shall put them to the blush 
 by paying every dollar of the first instalment, 
 without making application to borrow of any 
 individual out of this State, and without sell- 
 ing, or offering to sell, a single dollar of my 
 contract, unless persons should come forward 
 and offer me a liberal profit, in which case I 
 shall sell for the sake of profit, and not be- 
 cause I doubt the goodness of my bargain, nor 
 because it is necessary for me to sell to enable 
 me to meet the first payment. 
 
 "Every friend of America ought to wish me 
 success in this business. 
 
 "In England the ministerial party and news- 
 
 papers consider it a good cause of exultation 
 when the contractors for the loan make large 
 fortunes by it, and the government always and 
 publicly give preferences to old contractors; 
 but when I was in Washington there appeared 
 a durable fear on the minds of many members 
 lest I should make a little profit by a bank 
 charter, or some other operation with govern- 
 ment, although they all knew the happy sen- 
 sation produced last summer by my repairing 
 to Washington with an unexpected tender of a 
 loan of five millions of dollars; and from that 
 sensation, and from the fact of its being pub- 
 licly announced in the papers that the federal 
 merchants of New York had associated with 
 me to loan money to government, are govern- 
 ment indebted for the great appetite that was 
 created for the seven-and-a-half million loan. 
 
 "The whole nation came forward, because 
 they thought it must be a good business to in- 
 duce the federal merchants of New York to 
 embark in it; which brought down upon me 
 the abuse of the whole federal party, and not 
 one political friend was known to utter even a 
 whisper in my vindication, and the republican 
 newspapers tamely suffered the abuse of the 
 opposition to go unnoticed. 
 
 "At length an unknown friend in Virginia 
 has devoted his columns in the cause of truth, 
 as thee will perceive by an extract in the 
 National Advocate of this morning. 
 
 "Excuse my thus troubling thee, and believe 
 me, sincerely, thy assured friend, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 
 "Charles J. Ingersoll." 
 
 "Philadelphia, May 21, 1814. 
 
 "Dear sir: On your own account, and on 
 my own, and on all accounts, I am exceedingly 
 happy to learn from you, as I do by your letter 
 of yesterday, that there will be no difficulty nor 
 delay in the payment of the loan instalment 
 falling due on the 25th of this month. I had 
 heard a suspicion to the contrary expressed ; 
 but relied, nevertheless, on your means and deter- 
 mination to be punctual. In the present phrenzy 
 of parties that all prominent men should be de- 
 nounced is to be expected. You must not 
 flatter yourself with escaping the ordeal. But 
 as it never has hurt any person who had not 
 by misconduct prepared himself for injury, I 
 am sure you have nothing to apprehend. It 
 will afford me great satisfaction to discounte- 
 nance all unfounded rumors or assertions to 
 your prejudice in this business. 
 
 "I leave Philadelphia the 2d June to attend 
 the federal court of Delaware ; to be gone 
 for a few days. I hope, however, that this 
 temporary absence will not deprive me of the 
 pleasure of seeing you when you come this 
 way from New York. 
 
 "Your very faithful, obedient servant, 
 
 "C. J. INGERSOLL. 
 
 "Mr. Jacob Barker."
 
 58 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 During my negotiation for the loan I was in 
 correspondence with the Bank of America, 
 which had a very large capital, I believe the 
 largest of any bank in America, and supposed 
 the advantages of my plan would induce the 
 directors to embark in it. 
 
 Before the appointed day I received a letter 
 from the president of that bank proposing that 
 I should transfer the negotiation to them. 
 This I declined, promising to secure for the 
 banks who might assist me all possible aid 
 from the treasury, and to return to New York 
 and confer with them before I committed 
 myself to any other bank or made public my 
 plans. I did so, and used every argument in 
 my power to induce them to embark. They 
 loaned to me, through my brother Abraham, 
 who was a director, $250,000, declining all 
 further connexion with the subject. 
 
 Had that bank embarked to the extent of its 
 capacity the Secretary would have been likely 
 to have put my whole plan into immediate 
 operation, the circulation and deposits which 
 would have resulted therefrom would have 
 enabled it to have encompassed not only the 
 whole five millions, but the residue of the 
 twenty-five millions authorized by the law. It 
 would have given such a character to the stock 
 that the bank would have sold to monied men 
 as fast as their necessities required them to do 
 so. Large as was its capital, the profits of 
 those operations, had they been carried out 
 through that bank, would have gone far 
 towards doubling its capital. 
 
 A great majority of the directors were politi- 
 cally opposed to the administration, which, 
 doubtless, had an influence on their minds in 
 deciding the question, however much they 
 may have endeavored to rise above such con- 
 siderations. 
 
 What influence Messrs. Astor and Parish had 
 on the minds of individual directors cannot be 
 known. Those gentlemen, in connexion with 
 John Donald, of Baltimore, had a favorite pro- 
 ject of introducing British fabrics into the 
 United States through Canada, and supposed, 
 if they could defeat my operations, the neces- 
 sities of the government would induce the 
 administration to adopt their plan, hence their 
 opposition ; it did not arise from any political 
 feeling. Oliver Walcott, the president of the 
 bank, having previously refused to co-operate 
 
 in procuring subscriptions, lest it should inter- 
 fere with Mr. Astor's plans, it is not unreason- 
 able to conclude that the same influence con- 
 tinued to operate. 
 
 " New York, fifth month, Uth, 1814. 
 
 "Gentlemen: I wish to borrow of you one 
 million two hundred and fifty thousand, 
 ($1,250,000,) for which I will allow you six per 
 cent, per annum interest, to be paid in advance 
 every sixty days. 
 
 To secure the payment, I will transfer to 
 you a sufficient amount of funded stock in the 
 twenty-five millions loan, estimated at eighty- 
 eight, (88,) to cover your advances, this amount 
 to be placed to my debit and to the credit of 
 government in your books on the 25th instant. 
 It will be drawn out as sparingly as the con- 
 venience of government will permit, and great 
 pains will be taken when it is drawn out that 
 your bills be received for it and circulated 
 through the Union. 
 
 "Should I at any time be disposed to redeem 
 a part or the whole of this stock, I am to 
 be at liberty to do so, and, in that case, to have 
 the right, on giving three months' notice, to 
 require the same amount, or such part of it aa 
 I may choose, to be loaned to me again on a 
 like security, so long as the said bank shall 
 receive one-fourth part of the collection of 
 custom-house bonds, and one-fourth of the 
 other government business at this place, which 
 business I will undertake to procure from gov- 
 ernment, and if I do not succeed within thirty 
 days from the 25th instant, the bank shall have 
 a right to require me to refund the amount 
 loaued, and to sell the stock for the most it 
 will fetch to accomplish that object. And 
 although this loan may be refunded in a month, 
 and no other loan in lieu thereof be required, 
 the said bank may calculate on having the 
 benefits of said business from government for 
 at least two years, and that they will not be 
 disposed to change it after that period without 
 some more powerful cause exists than antici- 
 pated; and although I only stipulate for a 
 quarter of the government business, I will do 
 all in my power to increase that proportion. 
 
 " Very respectfully, I am your assured friend, 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 "To the President and Directors of the 
 
 Bank of America." 
 
 " New York, fifth month, Uth, 1814. 
 "Dear Friend: I have raised a large sum of 
 money, through my friends, and are selling my 
 old stocks at a loss, and shall be enabled to 
 pay the first instalment on the day promised, 
 although I find it totally impossible to make 
 any satisfactory arrangements with either of our 
 banks in season. I have thought it best to 
 leave the banks to reflect for a few days, and 
 to bring all my own resources into action for 
 the first payment. I therefore have to beg
 
 MISREPRESENTATIONS RELATING TO THE LOAN. 
 
 59 
 
 tbee to retain in thy own hands all the patron- 
 age of government, and not grant any favors 
 to any banks until thee hears again from me. 
 Please withhold from the City Bank all share 
 of the public deposits for a few weeks. 
 
 "I go this evening to Albany with the hope of 
 doing somethiug at that place; and depend 
 upon it that the scarcity of cash existing among 
 the banks is even more serious than we sup- 
 posed, and thee may also depend upon my 
 overcoming the difficulty, provided government 
 lend all their former aid in favor of the best 
 interest of the country. 
 
 "Avoid, if possible, drawing on New York for 
 a few weeks. A little repose for our banks is 
 absolutely necessary. 
 
 "I consider the news about the allies entering 
 as a palpable fabrication. 
 
 "In great haste, thy assured friend, 
 
 '"'JACOB BARKER. 
 
 "George W. Campbell." 
 
 On the 14th of May I notified the treasury 
 that I would place to the credit of the govern- 
 ment, on the 25th of that month, in the Me- 
 chanics' Bank $625,000, in the Bank of Amer- 
 ica $250,000, and in the City Bank $375,000, 
 as will be seen by the following : 
 
 [Extract.] 
 
 " 5th Month, Uth, 1814. 
 
 "I will place to the credit of government, on 
 the 25th of this month — in the Mechanics' 
 Bank, $625,000; in the City Bank of America, 
 $250,000; and in the City Bank, $375,000. 
 Please give the cashiers of those banks orders 
 to issue such scrip certificates as will enable 
 me to obtain funded stock for the whole, or 
 funded stock for a part, and scrip with only 
 one instalment endorsed on it for the balance. 
 If, however, there should be an objection to 
 my taking two descriptions of scrip I will take 
 funded stock for the whole. 
 
 " Very respectfully, thy assured friend, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 
 " G. W. Campbell, Secretary," 
 
 " New York, fifth month, lltTi, 1814. 
 " Dear General : The vast responsibility 
 which I have assumed engross a large portion 
 of my thoughts, because the difficulties I have 
 to overcome before I can accomplish the de- 
 sirable end are ten times greater than my 
 friends at Washington anticipated ; I, however, 
 reither doubt or despair, but, had my original 
 plan been adopted, to wit, had the Secretary 
 of the Treasury by contract given to the banks 
 the patronage which he will give as a free will 
 offering, I sbould have less trouble and anxiety ; 
 to remedy existing difficulties, I am sacrificing 
 a few thousand dollars in selling old stock and 
 and other ways converting my property into 
 cash, but for my misfortunes since the war, I 
 should have had an estate of nearly half a 
 
 million of dollars, the whole of which should 
 have been devoted to the service of my country, 
 and, as it is, I have about half that sum, of 
 which the last dollar, if necessary, shall be 
 sacrificed to enable me to fulfil my contract — 
 the pleasure of the nation at the success of the 
 loan, both as to rate and amount offered, is 
 more easily conceived than described. I have 
 not met a man of any political description 
 that has not expressed his disappointment — a 
 new current in respect to our loan will hence- 
 forth prevail. * * * * * 
 
 "It will require all the support and friendship 
 of theTreasury Departmentto carry methrough, 
 to the importance of which I beg thee to call 
 the attention of the Secretary of the Treasury. 
 I was at Albany yesterday and had a confer- 
 ence with the banks at that place, those insti- 
 tutions must all have a little time to reflect. I, 
 therefore, after exhibiting to their view the ad- 
 vantage to be derived from taking a share with 
 me in my contract, left them without manifest- 
 ing any solicitude for them to do so, and they 
 promised to send agents to this place to nego- 
 tiate with me. I shall do something to advan- 
 tage with them. ***** 
 
 " A cartel has arrived. My brother writes 
 from Liverpool that there will certainly be 
 peace in July or sooner — he is well informed. 
 
 Mullet & Co., of London, who are also well 
 informed, write a different opinion. 
 
 No news from the John Adams ; the season 
 had been so bad that 23 mails were due from 
 Gottenburg when the cartel left England. 
 
 " British manufactures fell 20 per cent, be- 
 tween the 15th of March and the 8th of April, 
 in consequence of the impossibility of selling 
 them in the continental markets, they were all 
 glutted, and no purchasers in consequence ; 
 very large quantities destined for the continent 
 had been shipped for Halifax, for which place 
 a richer convoy was near about sailing than 
 had ever been sent there, and the manufactories 
 were in great distress for cottons, which, 
 together with the general blockade will, I think, 
 convince every man in the nation of the bad 
 policy of repealing the restrictive system. 
 
 " The success of the allies and the general 
 blockade operate very much against the loan; 
 so difficult is it to raise money that Parish told 
 me it was impossible for him to raise a single 
 $100,000inPhiladelphiaonadepositeofUnited 
 States stock ; a Mr. Williams, a director in one 
 of the banks at Baltimore, and Mr. Lawrence, 
 a director in the Manhattan Bank, went to 
 Boston to borrow money for those banks, and, 
 although they offered to deposite United States 
 stock at 50 per cent, and the security of their 
 banks, they could not get a single $100,000. 
 
 "Thus, my friend, if I accomplish what I have 
 undertaken, my enemies, I hope, will give me 
 some credit. 
 
 " Very respectfully, your assured friend, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 
 "General Jonx Armstrong.
 
 60 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 [Extract.] 
 
 " New York, ffth month, IM, 1814. 
 "Esteemed Friend: I wrote thee under date 
 of the 14th, saying that I should paj, on the 
 25th instant, to the credit of government in 
 the Mechanics' Bank, $625,000; in the Bank of 
 America, $250,000; in the City Bank, $375,000; 
 in all, $1,250,000; the amount of the first instal- 
 ment on my subscription to the ten millions 
 loan, which I now confirm. 
 
 "I wish scrip issued by the Mechanics' Bank 
 for about $50,000 of the above ; and for the 
 balance I wish stock; if I cannot have both, I 
 wish funded stock for the whole. 
 
 "Please give timely instructions to the cashiers 
 of the different Banks. 
 
 "Some Philadelphians are here who have 
 been disappointed in getting part of the loan, 
 who say that I have backed out of the contract, 
 and that in consequence thereof new books for 
 subscription to the loan are open at the banks 
 in Philadelphia. 
 
 " This base fabrication cannot injure me, as I 
 look upon everything with composure, and am 
 determined to be quiet and apparently uncon- 
 cerned until after the first instalment is paid. 
 " Gallatin writes from Amsterdam, under date 
 of the 8th of March, that he left St. Peters- 
 burg on the 25th January, and reached Amster- 
 dam on the 4th March, where he only waited 
 the arrival of the Neptune to depart for 
 America ; she was frozen up in the outer har- 
 bor of Gottenburg, from which place no vessel 
 had departed for seven weeks previous, the 
 ■winter having been uncommonly severe. 
 
 " He expected her by the 15th, and to depart 
 by the 1st of April, but no packet reached Eng- 
 land prior to the 8th of April, the ice must have 
 detained the Neptune longer than he calculated. 
 " He had not the least intention of stopping 
 in England. Bayard would proceed to Gotten- 
 burg to attend to his new appointment. 
 
 "Gallatin had not received any information 
 of his new appointment, nor was it known in 
 Liverpool on the 8th of April. 
 
 "When he left St. Petersburg, he did not 
 know that the Russian mediation had been 
 entirely rejected, nor had he any official advice 
 of his own rejection by the Senate, his last 
 letters from the American government being 
 dated in June. 
 
 "At Amsterdam, Bayard received the informa- 
 tion in a letter from the Secretary of State, 
 dated January 8th. It is probable the John 
 Adams will arrive out in season to detain Gal- 
 latin in Europe. 
 
 "Thy assured friend, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 " George W. Campbell, esq". 
 The story of my having backed out of my 
 contract arose from subscriptions going on at a 
 bank in Philadelphia, through Cashier Whann, 
 of the District of Columbia, for a portion of 
 the remaining: million; the National Intelli- 
 
 gencer, the organ of the government, having 
 announced that the whole ten millions had 
 been taken, the Philadelphians concluded, from 
 books being immediately thereafter opened to 
 receive subscriptions in the ten millions loan, 
 that the contractors had backed out, and did 
 not hesitate to assume it as a fact and circulate 
 it to my prejudice. No banks had been opened 
 in Philadelphia by authority of government. 
 The whole proceeding was an effort of indi- 
 viduals to encompass this million, who were 
 aided by the bank doing business with govern- 
 ment, who wished to defeat my plan of taking 
 away a portion of its business. They failed 
 in their attempt to encompass the million. 
 
 " Washington, May 19, 1814. 
 
 "Dear Sir: I have to acknowledge the re- 
 ceipt of your several favors since you left this, 
 including those of the 14th inst., and the pres- 
 sure of current business alone prevented an 
 earlier answer to either of them. 
 
 "I regret you should have found it necessary 
 to make any sacrifice, in order to effect your 
 object in relation to the loan. I trust, however, 
 that the price of stock will soon advance so as 
 to enable the holders of it to realize without 
 difficulty, not only the full amount it cost them, 
 but such an additional profit as will be an 
 ample reward for their trouble and exertions, 
 as well as the dispositions by them manifested 
 to aid the fiscal operations of the government. 
 
 "You request tha.t directions may be given to 
 the cashiers to issue such scrips as will enable 
 you to obtain stock. The scrip is all issued in 
 the same manner. The instructions to issue 
 stock upon the scrip are given to the Commis- 
 sioner of Loans. It is, however, submitted 
 whether any real advantage would result to 
 you from authorizing stock to be issued on the 
 scrip immediately for the first instalment. 
 
 "The authority, if given, mustbe general, and 
 such as choose allowed to take advantage of 
 it. It would seem to me the scrip would be as 
 valuable, and would be made to answer all the 
 purposes of stock, at least for the one month; 
 after which stock would issue in the usual 
 course for the first instalment. The objections, 
 however, to issuing stock on each instalment 
 were not deemed insuperable, nor are they yet 
 considered so upon proper assurances being 
 given. It will, therefore, be done to such as 
 may require it, if you shall consider it neces- 
 sary to insist on it as it was stated in your 
 proposal. Some additional assurance, how- 
 ever, besides the retaining the one-fourth per 
 cent, would be desirable; not to stimulate you 
 to exertions, which is not considered necessary, 
 but for other reasons which you will readily 
 perceive, and to which you will no doubt give 
 their due weight. Your determination on this
 
 MISREPRESENTATIONS RELATING TO THE LOAN. 
 
 61 
 
 point you can make known to me at a day suffi- 
 ciently early to obtain stock as soon, probably, 
 as the new certificates for that purpose can be 
 prepared. No time, however, will be lost in 
 having them put in a state of readiness. 
 
 " Some inconvenience will be experienced in 
 issuing stock for every instalment, which it 
 would be desirable to avoid ; and you will con- 
 sider whether your interest would in reality 
 be promoted thereby; or whether it might not 
 excite some alarm that you intended throwing 
 the stock thus issued into the market, &c. 
 
 " These remarks are suggested merely for 
 your consideration, that you may view the 
 whole ground as it presents itself to me in 
 finally making up your opinion on the subject. 
 
 " No embarrassment, however, will be occa- 
 sioned by me to any of those engaged in the 
 loan, that can consistently with strict propriety 
 and the public interest be avoided. 
 
 " The late news from Europe is very unex- 
 pected, and in many respects extraordinary, 
 but will, upon the whole, it is presumed, im- 
 prove the price of stocks ; which are quoted in 
 England some at pa? - and others nearly so. 
 
 " Please tender my best respects to Mrs. Bar- 
 ker, and believe me, with sincere esteem, sir, 
 
 " Your friend and most obedient servant, 
 " G. W. CAMPBELL. 
 "Jacob Barker, esq." 
 
 [Extract.] 
 
 " 5th Month, 21st, 1814. 
 
 " The banks bave received from me the cir- 
 cular authorizing them to receive the first in- 
 stalments on the five millions I subscribe to 
 the present loan, and to issue scrip therefor. 
 Under those orders I fear I cannot get funded 
 stock for the amount of said instalments, as 
 the persons from whom I have borrowed the 
 money will not let me have it on scrip that 
 will subject them to loan further and greater 
 sums. I beg thee to give such further orders 
 as may be necessary to carry my agreement 
 into full effect ; do not let there be a day's de- 
 lay, as it would be to me a source of great mor- 
 tification not to pay the instalments regularly. 
 Such a circumstance will be used with avidity 
 by the public and ascribed to the want of mo- 
 ney, and be trumpeted all over the United 
 States, greatly to my injury and to the injury 
 of government, and of the public stocks. I 
 have borrowed of the City Bank, in this city, 
 §500,000 towards paying my second instal- 
 ment ; the directors of that bank have and will 
 do everything in their power to accommodate 
 government and to assist me through my con- 
 tract. I therefore take the liberty of recom- 
 mending that bank to thy notice, and to solicit 
 for it all the support and patronage in the 
 power of government to give. 
 
 " Very respectfully, thy assured friend, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 
 " George W. Campbell." 
 
 It is evident that one of the objects in 
 withholding the stock was to prevent my put- 
 ting it in the market for sale ; how else wa3 
 I to raise the money, and why was the mo- 
 ney required to be furnished in four monthly 
 instalments? Was it not to allow the contrac- 
 tors time to sell the stock received for one in- 
 stalment to pay the next, and so on to the end? 
 Again, was not the stock mine after I paid for 
 it, and if mine, had I not the right to do with 
 it as I chose ? 
 
 Having a million in money in readiness to 
 be placed at the disposition of the treasury, 
 without the aid of a dollar's worth of stock or 
 the promised bank patronage, I concluded 
 this, with my having previously lent more than 
 seventeen hundred thousand dollars to carry 
 on the war, would be & sufficient assurance for 
 the payment of the instalment. Security had 
 been expressly waived, and the Secretary in this 
 letter says, that so far as I was concerned that 
 it was not necessary, and that I was by my 
 contract entitled to the stock, which should be 
 issued as soon as the certificates could be pre- 
 pared. They should have been prepared long 
 before ; it was but the work of a day. The 
 delay was a manouvre of the treasury clerks j 
 the Secretary was made to believe I wished the 
 stock to throw into the market to break down 
 its price. Not doubting that the stock would 
 be at New York on the appointed day, I opened 
 a negotiation with the City Bank, who ap- 
 pointed a committee to negotiate with me, and 
 which committee made the following written 
 proposition, which was presented to me in the 
 hand writing of one of its members: 
 
 " The committee will propose to the board, 
 provided it meets the views of Mr. Barker, to 
 loan him $500,000 for one year, at 6 per cent, 
 per annum. 
 
 " Interest to be paid quarterly ; to secure pay- 
 ment of which, Mr. Barker shall transfer to the 
 bank a sufficient amount of funded stock of the 
 twenty-five millions loan, estimated at eighty- 
 five per cent. ($15,000 in a note endorsed by 
 Minturn and Champlin, to make up the differ- 
 ence between 85 and 88 per cent.) This amount 
 to be placed to his debit, and to the credit of 
 government on the 25th June next. 
 
 u Mr. Barker to have the privilege of redeem- 
 ing the whole, or any part of the stock so 
 pledged, at any time on or before the expira- 
 tion of the term for which the loan to him is 
 made. 
 
 " Mr. Barker immediately to obtain the trans- 
 fer of one-third of all the government business
 
 62 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 in this city to this bank, to continue for at 
 least two years." 
 
 To this proposition I agreed, oncondition that 
 it should be void if government did not give 
 them one-third of its business in this city. 
 "When the committee presented the proposition 
 to the board of directors, it was agreed to by 
 them, and the word " carried" written on it by 
 the president. The original paper, thus marked 
 by the president, was delivered to me and re- 
 mains in my possession. This arrangement 
 proves, beyond all controversy, that I had not 
 set too high a value upon the patronage of 
 government, and that if the expected patronage 
 was afforded I could do more than I had un- 
 dertaken to perform. 
 
 While I was engaged in the most active ex- 
 ertions to complete the necessary arrangements 
 to enable me to comply with my contract, a con- 
 siderable number of the Federalists were equally 
 active in their endeavours to frustrate my plans. 
 Not contented with the innumerable calumnies 
 which flow through the channel of private con- 
 versation and secret whispers, they continued 
 to resort to newspaper productions. Among 
 other incorrect publications on the subject, 
 I shall notice another article which appeared 
 in the Federal Republican, shortly after the 
 contract for the loan of the second of May was 
 made. In that article, with a view to allevi- 
 ate his mortification, and to recover from the 
 fall which he had sustained by the failure of 
 the strong predictions which he had so often 
 repeated that the loan would fail, and lest it 
 should become publicly discovered that the 
 Federal party did not possess all the wealth 
 and talents of the nation, the conductor of 
 that paper states, among other things, that the 
 money which I had lent was Federal money, 
 which gentlemen of that character had author- 
 ized me to contract for on their account, upon 
 condition of keeping their names a secret; and 
 that I had not only made private promises of 
 secrecy, but had caused a public promise to 
 that effect to be inserted in the Boston news- 
 papers. This is so far from being correct 
 that I never published any advertisement in 
 the Boston papers upon the subject, either with 
 or without such a promise ; nor have I the 
 smallest recollection of having entered into 
 such an engagement in any private conversa- 
 tion, much less iu an advertisement. No ne- 
 
 cessity ever existed for such a measure. I never 
 heard that any gentlemen who had subscribed 
 through me to the loan intimated a wish that 
 their names should be concealed; on the con- 
 trary, they appeared to consider themselves 
 performing a very pleasing and honorable duty 
 to their country. The only imaginable reason 
 to which I could attribute the statement of the 
 " Federal Republican," that I had obtained sub- 
 scriptions under such a promise at Boston, 
 was that its editor had ascertained that all the 
 subscribers on my public book in New York 
 did not collectively sign for much over four 
 hundred thousand dollars. It could not, there- 
 fore, have been Federal money, unless I had 
 secret subscribers for the money which I had 
 contracted to supply. That the editor of the 
 " Federal Republican" had procured informa- 
 tion of the little success I had met with in ob- 
 taining subscribers for the loan no one will 
 doubt who reads his previous article of the 
 third of May. 
 
 I now considered myself not only provided 
 with funds to pay my first instalment, but also 
 with half a million of dollars towards my sec- 
 ond one, when the following correspondence 
 took place: 
 
 "Fifth month, 21st, 1814. 
 
 "Esteemed Friend: I have had great success 
 in my operations, and, although I have not yet 
 got quite all the money for the first instalment, 
 I have borrowed $500,000 towards the second 
 instalment, and shall not have any difficulty in 
 getting the whole five millions in season punc- 
 tually to meet my payments. 
 
 "I have not as yet made many arrangements 
 predicated on the banks getting government 
 business. 
 
 "The accommodation I get from the City 
 Bank is to be immediately refunded them if 
 they do not get one-third part of all the gov- 
 ernment business done at this place, therefore 
 I beg the favor of thy giving the necessary 
 orders to that end, particularly to the col- 
 lectors of the customs, and to the collectors of 
 internal taxes for this and the neighboring 
 districts, and in relation to the deposits of 
 money collected in New England States. I 
 am very anxious for this to be done within a 
 very few days that there may not be any bar to 
 my proceedings. 
 
 '• This is the one-third of the business I con- 
 templated procuring for the Bank of America, 
 but as I could not get the accommodation ex- 
 pected, I have not promised them anything, 
 but they have lent me $250,000, and will 
 probably lend me more, therefore I feel very 
 desirous that they should have a part of gov-
 
 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE LOAN. 
 
 63 
 
 ernment business. Can thee not give them the 
 business which thee contem plated giving the City 
 Bank in the event of my getting such accom- 
 modation from the Bank of America as for 
 thee to have been induced to give them one- 
 third of the business which I now solicit for the 
 City Bank. At any rate, I wish thee to order 
 a few of the county collectors of internal taxes 
 in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, 
 to make their deposits in the Bank of America. 
 
 "In the course of a few weeks I calculate to 
 makejan arrangement with them about their notes 
 being received throughout the United States. 
 
 "I fear I shall suffer severely by my contract, 
 as money is very scarce, and I have to make 
 large advances, that is, I have to deposit the 
 stock as collateral security at a less price than 
 I give for it, some as low as 75 — consequently 
 I have to advance the difference, which on five 
 millions is more than any individual merchant 
 in America can spare from his other business 
 without great loss, and by the sale of old stocks 
 I shall lose all my commissions on the five mil- 
 lion loan. 
 
 "Be the loss what it may, I will persevere 
 through it, and prove to the world that I can do 
 what they say no other man in America could 
 have done, and what very few thought I could 
 do. The government have only to support and 
 protect me and I can give them all the aid 
 they want. I should be glad if thee could 
 address a letter immediately to the City Bank, 
 expressing pleasure at their haviug aided me, 
 &c, <fcc. I enclose for thy perusal an agree- 
 ment by which thee will perceive the terms on 
 which I am picking up the money in small lots, 
 which please return to me by mail. I am 
 sorry to say that Smith, and other Baltimore 
 people, are very hostile to me, and that Astor 
 is worse, and has spoken to the directors of the 
 bank, cautioning them against expecting favor 
 from government from my influence. Upon 
 all those things I smile with silent contempt — 
 carefully avoiding taking part in such un- 
 worthy feelings, or in any other way having my 
 mind diverted from the single object of punc- 
 tually fulfilling my contract, which is as near 
 my heart as my existence. 
 "With esteem, &c, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER, 
 
 "George W. Campbell." 
 
 "Since writing the above, I have seen the 
 Federal Republican of Friday, from several 
 articles in it, and from several which have pre- 
 viously appeared in that paper, I am satisfied, 
 beyond a doubt, that Smith, the cashier of 
 Baltimore, details to him all the facts thee 
 knows, and a great many conjectures as facts, 
 with a view to injure thyself in the estimation 
 of the public. J. B." 
 
 [Extract.] 
 
 " New York, ffth month, 23(7, 1814. 
 " I have only time by this mail to say, in 
 
 answer to thy esteemed favor of the 19th inst, 
 that it will not be possible for me to get on 
 without I get funded stock for each instalment 
 as fast as I pay them. 
 
 "I have mortgaged my stores to one of the 
 banks to secure them against loss for the money 
 lent me by a fall of the stock, and I have 
 given other security to other banks, and to 
 individuals I have hypothecated the stock 
 below the contract price, which subjects me to 
 a heavy advance." 
 
 The instalment day arrived, and no stock 
 had been received at the loan offices. To 
 pacify those who had agreed to furnish me 
 with a portion of the money on the security of 
 stock, and to prevent ultimate disappointment, I 
 induced them to place it in the New York banks, 
 each taking an agreement from the banks to 
 refund it in case the stock should not be received 
 within a limited number of days. Notification 
 was sent to the treasury by the banks that 
 they held the money subject to its order, pro- 
 vided the stock should be furnished within a 
 limited period. Under this arrangement I 
 placed one million of dollars in the banks on 
 the 25th May, 1814, and addressed a letter to 
 the Secretary of the Treasury as follows : 
 [Extract.] 
 
 "New Yore, fifth month, 26th, 1814. 
 
 "Every malice, political prejudice, scarcity 
 of money, timidity with the banks, commercial 
 distress, and the entire stagnation of commerce, 
 all operates against me, yet I have the vanity 
 to believe myself more than a match for the 
 whole. 
 
 " Thee knows I never represented my subscri- 
 bers as amounting to much, and they have 
 dwindled into mere nothing. 
 
 "The arrangements I have made with the 
 City Bank of this place are the most pleasing 
 and satisfactory, although I have not, as origin- 
 ally intended, placed any part of the first instal- 
 ment in that bank, yet I have an absolute en- 
 gagement from them to loan me $500,000 for 
 one year, and place it to the credit of govern- 
 ment on the 25th of next month, therefore I 
 have to request that thee will, without delay, 
 place one third of the business of this place 
 with that bank, of which the collection of inter- 
 nal taxes forms an important item. 
 
 "I have not as yet perfected any arrange- 
 ment about the notes of any bank being re- 
 ceived for duties and taxes in other parts of 
 the United States; that business has not lost 
 any of its importance, in my estimation, and 
 must use it to carry me through my other pay- 
 ments. 
 
 "On the payment of the first instalment on 
 my subscription of five millions to the last 
 loan, I was, by contract, to receive funded 
 stock. That not being in readiness to deliver
 
 64 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 me, I could not fulfill my engagements to the 
 money holders to whom I had agreed to hypothe- 
 cate it as collateral security for money they 
 agreed to loan ine. As they would not take a 
 scrip, the goodness of which depended on the 
 payment of another instalment, this difficulty 
 could not be entirely overcome, and if thee 
 knew what trifling circumstances frighten 
 money holders thee would be surprised at the 
 extent I have progressed in overcoming it, 
 which I have done so far as to deposit $150,000 
 in the .Mechanics' and Farmers' Bank of Albany, 
 $250,000 in the Bank of America in this city, 
 $025,000 in the Mechanics' Bank in this city, 
 and, I hope, in a day or two, to deposite the 
 remaining $225,000. It will, at all events, be 
 done the moment I can get full stock, and I 
 was not bound to pay before I got full stock." 
 
 "Washington: City, May 23, 1814. 
 
 "Dear Sir: Your favor of the 19th instant 
 has been received. I wrote you a few days 
 ago, informing you that the scrip for the loan 
 would issue as usual, that instructions to issue 
 stock must be given to the commissioners of 
 loans, who would then issue it on the scrip. In 
 addition to what I then said on this subject, I 
 •would now remark that instructions to com- 
 missioners of loans in relation to stocks are 
 generally given by the comptroller. Mr. Bacon 
 is now absent, but is expected about the first, of 
 next month, and though another person (Mr. 
 Luffborough) is authorized to act during the 
 absence of the former, yet it would be more 
 agreeable that instructions of such importance 
 should come from the comptroller himself. The 
 delay awaiting his return would occasion in 
 issuing stock could be only a few days. Ad- 
 vise me on receipt of this. 
 
 "With much respect, I am, sir, your friend 
 and most obedient, 
 
 "G. W. CAMPBELL. 
 
 " Jacob Barker, esq." 
 
 This letter completely establishes the very 
 material point that Mr. Campbell considered 
 me entitled to receive funded stock; for without 
 raising any objection, or mentioning any other 
 difficulty, he ascribes the delay merely to the 
 absence of the comptroller, assuring me that 
 the only inconvenience which would be ex- 
 perienced would be that of a few days delay. 
 
 The reason for the delay, in my estimation, 
 was totally inadequate. 
 
 In full reliance on the promise of the Secre- 
 tary to place a portion of the public patronage 
 at my disposal to such approved banks as 
 should aid me in supplying the necessities of 
 the government, I made application to the 
 Bank of America in relation to circulation, as 
 follows : 
 
 " Fifth month, 21th, 1814. 
 
 " Gentlemen : If you will loan to me $1,259,000 at 6 per 
 cent, per annum, I will secure the payment by transferring 
 to you $250,000 stock in your bank at the market price, and 
 $1,000,000 six per cent, stock in the 25 million loan at S3 — 
 $200,000 to be paid to me from time to time as I meet with 
 opportunities to purchase your stock, and of the $1,000,000, 
 $200,000 shall be returned you for money loaned to my 
 brother ; $250,000 placed to the credit of government on 
 the 25th June, same the 25th July, same the 25th August, 
 in the books of your bank, the whole, or any part thereof, 
 to be refunded at my pleasure, and to be reioaned to me on 
 like security, and three months' notice whenever I may 
 wish it, and I will undertake to procure from the Treasury 
 Department an order to the several banks at New Or- 
 leans, Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, North Caro- 
 lina, Norfolk, Wilmington, Delaware, and in the New Eng- 
 land States, who now or hereafter may do government 
 business, to receive your notes in all payments to the 
 United States, and to hold such notes at your disposal, 
 transmitting to the Treasury Department a weekly, monthly, 
 or quarterly certificate of their amount, which certificates 
 the Treasury Department shall transmit to you to place the 
 amount to the credit of government in your books ; this 
 arrangement shall continue for two years, and, if it oper- 
 ates to the satisfaction of government, they will be disposed 
 to continue it as it is believed to be capable of answering 
 all the purposes of a National Bank, and a substitute for 
 such an institution is very desirable — the collectors of in- 
 ternal and external taxes being instructed to receive all 
 the notes that the bank will receive where they do busi- 
 ness, a more extensive order from the Treasury Depart- 
 ment is not thought necessary to give your paper complete 
 circulation — before you loan the money the orders here 
 promised shall be issued, and the moment you are de- 
 prived of the business by government, my right to borrow 
 from you to cease, and all the money borrowed to be forth- 
 with refunded, and you to have a right to sell my stock for 
 the most it will fetch to accomplish that object. 
 
 " With esteem, your assured friend, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 
 "President and Directors of the Bank of America." 
 
 "Washington Citt, May 27, 1814. 
 
 " Dear Sir : Your favors of the 21st and 23d have been 
 received and duly considered. Indisposition for some days 
 has prevented me from answering them, or, indeed, attend- 
 ing to business, except in unavoidable cases. Enclosed 
 you will receive the letter that accompanied yours ; and 
 in a day or two shall answer them more in detail. In the 
 meanwhile no time shall be lost in sending on the certifi- 
 cates of stock to the loan office ; and the best instructions 
 in our power, on the subject, will be given at as early a 
 day as possible. No disposition is entertained to throw 
 any difficulties in your way; but we must act consistently, 
 and, as far as our judgment enables us to decide, correctly. 
 This is all I have written for some days. 
 
 " I am, sir, your friend and most obedient, 
 
 " G. W. CAMPBELL. 
 
 "Jacob Barker, esq. 
 
 "P. S. — We hope the next news from Europe will be more 
 acceptable than the last, and raise the price of stocks." 
 
 "Washington City, May 25, 1814. 
 
 "Dear Sir: Your favors of the 21st have 
 been duly received, and enclosed I return you 
 the letter which accompanied them. 
 
 "I regret very much you should meet with 
 difficulties in effecting payments on your part 
 of the loan. It is hoped money operations will 
 become more easy. The next news from 
 Europe may, probably, announce a continental 
 peace, whether Bonaparte or a Bourbon rules 
 in France. This would, undoubtedly, produce 
 a rise in stocks and greatly facilitate all our 
 fiscal operations. 
 
 "I am duly sensible of the liberality with 
 which the City Bank has at this eventful crisis 
 afforded its aid to the government. Its friendly 
 disposition is evinced as well by the amount of 
 the loan it has itself taken, as by the facilities
 
 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE LOAN. 
 
 65 
 
 it has afforded individuals in fulfilling their 
 engagements with the treasury. 
 
 " The application made by that bank, through 
 its president, for a portion of the public de- 
 posits has been held under consideration, and 
 a disposition is entertained to extend to it a 
 share of the benefits of such deposits. Should 
 this be done, however, it must be with a due 
 regard to the interests of other institutions 
 who have not failed, in like manner, to afford 
 their aids to government. 
 
 "May 28. — Your favor of the 23d instant has 
 been received. 
 
 "You may rest assured we shall not do any- 
 thing calculated to embarrass those engaged 
 in the loan that can consistently, with pro- 
 priety, be avoided. 
 
 "You observed in your letter to me on the 
 subject of stock, &c, you were desirous to retain 
 a certain part of the scrip without taking certifi- 
 cates of funded stock thereon. To effect your ob- 
 ject, therefore, as far as it appears to me practi- 
 cable, consistently with a due regard to the public 
 interest, and in compliance with jour proposal, 
 I have directed instructions to be given to the 
 proper loan officers by which you and other 
 large subscribers to the loan will be enabled, 
 on application, to obtain certificates of funded 
 stock for the amount of each instalment paid, 
 except one twentieth part thereof; for which 
 one-twentieth part certificates of stock are not 
 to be issued until the next instalment is paid. 
 This one-twentieth part is retained in scrip as 
 the assurance for the payment of the next in- 
 stalment. This cannot, it is presumed, in any 
 degree embarrass your arrangements ; bein?, 
 as nearly as may be, conformable to your own 
 views, as made known to me in your letter 
 already noticed. 
 
 "The instructions to the loan officers it was 
 expected would have been sent off this day. 
 The comptroller, however, has not been able 
 to prepare them. They will, without fail, go 
 on Monday next. 
 
 "The certificates of stock could not be pre- 
 pared at an earlier day, and your pressing soli- 
 citation alone induced me to cause the instruc- 
 tions to be now issued ; otherwise they would 
 have awaited the return of Mr. Bacon. 
 
 "The first part of this letter was written on 
 the 25th, and previous to the few lines lant 
 sent you. Indisposition prevented me from 
 then finishing it, or, indeed, attending to other 
 business during some days. My health is im- 
 proving, though still very delicate. 
 
 "Please make my compliments acceptable 
 to Mrs. Barker, and believe me, with much re- 
 spect, sir, your friend and most obedient, 
 
 "G. W. CAMPBELL. 
 "Jacob Barker, esq." 
 
 "P. S. — Since writing the above I have re- 
 ceived a letter from the Bank of America, ad- 
 vising the payment made by you, and that it 
 was not to be drawn from the bank until the 
 
 stock was issued. You can satisfy that, and 
 other banks, on that head, from the foregoing. 
 There will certainly be time for the instruc- 
 tions to reach the loan officer before the money 
 is called for, especially in that bank, or, in- 
 deed, as far as now known, in any other. 
 
 "No pressure shall be made on any bank 
 that can be avoided. 
 
 "We shall, probably, make a pretty large 
 draft in favor of Mr. Lee, on the Mechanics' 
 Bank ; but it is understood to be perfectly 
 agreeable to that bank, and most of the money 
 already advanced; otherwise it would be di- 
 vided, &c. 
 
 "Yours, &c, G. W. C." 
 
 "Note. — The foregoing arrangement, as to 
 issuing stock, is believed the most agreeable 
 to you, upon the whole, that could be adopted: 
 and far preferable to bonds, the scrip being 
 equally valuable, especially that small propor- 
 tion, as if in stock. And, moreover, the stock 
 and scrip being guarantied by government, at 
 least equal to the contract price for the present 
 year, or most of it, in effect, &c. Adieu.'" 
 
 John Donald, of Baltimore, and David 
 Parish were at Washington negotiating with 
 the Secretary for the introduction of British 
 goods through Canada, coupled with a loan of 
 their avails. These gentlemen assured the 
 Secretary that it was impossible for Mr. Barker 
 to furnish the first instalment. And so con- 
 fident of this were they that they tarried in 
 Washington until the result was known. On 
 it depended the success of that negotiation. 
 On receiving notice from the New York banks 
 that Mr. Barker had placed with them a million 
 of dollars, without the aid of stock or patron- 
 age for the banks, subject to the order of the 
 treasury, the Secretary informed the gentlemen 
 in attendance that the money was forthcoming. 
 They exclaimed " impossible," and would not 
 believe it until the Secretary exhibited to them 
 the letters from the banks. 
 
 How far they had influenced the withholding 
 the stock, and the conduct of the treasury 
 clerk, could not be ascertained. 
 
 " Washington City, May 30, 1814. 
 
 " Dear Sir : Your favors of the 26th inst. 
 have been received. 
 
 "Rest assured I dulyappreciate the exertions 
 you have made to fulfil the terms of your pro- 
 posals, as well on your own account as on that 
 of the public ; and sincerely hope and trust 
 you will be successful in doing so. I have re- 
 ceived letters from the banks showing the pro- 
 gress you have made; and from them I con- 
 clude you will overcome all difficulties. 
 
 "I have now time only to inform you that the
 
 66 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER 
 
 letter of instructions from the Comptroller, in 
 conformity with my last to you, authorizing 
 the Commissioners of Loans to issue certifi- 
 cates of funded stock on each instalment as 
 therein stated, has been this day forwarded. 
 The difficulty arising from the want of funded 
 stock will therefore be removed. Wishing you 
 every success. I am, sir, 
 
 " Your friend and. most obedient, 
 
 " G. W. CAMPBELL. 
 "Jacob Barker, esq." 
 
 " P. S. On the subject of receiving the notes 
 of certain banks, &c, I will only observe, I at 
 present doubt its practicability." 
 
 " New York, fifth Month, 31^, 1814. 
 " Esteemed Friend : It is totally out of the 
 question for me to go forward with my con- 
 tract, without receiving full stock for the money 
 paid the day on which I make the payment. 
 I cannot leave a cent unfunded. If I had more 
 money to spare, which is not the fact, I could 
 not do it, without embarrassing myself with all 
 those persons with whom I am dealing, as 
 thy plan will leave each man's scrip a fraction 
 to be settled hereafter, for which he would not 
 only hold the scrip, but charge me with vio- 
 lating my contract ; and I must, at all events, 
 honorably fulfil my contracts with the money 
 lenders, and I must have my scrip unembar- 
 rassed to negotiate for the other instalments. 
 The delay that has laken place in furnishing 
 funded stock has done more to injure my 
 future arrangements for paying the other in- 
 stalments than the whole exertions of the Fed- 
 eral party. I always told thee, that I could 
 not, and would not meddle with the business, 
 if I could not have funded stock for each in- 
 stalment on paying such instalments. One 
 single day's delay is little short of death, and 
 after death, all the medical aid in the world 
 will not avail. If thee had offered, me a com- 
 pensation of one hundred thousand dollars 
 commission, to make the first payment without 
 receiving funded stock for the same on the day 
 of paymeut, I would not have undertaken a 
 thing so totally impossible to perform. Yet, 
 when the day came, and the stock was not to 
 be had, I had either to be disgraced or procure 
 the money. I made an effort and succeeded, it 
 is true, but I would not again run the same 
 chance to be ruined for double the amount that 
 I shall make by the contract. I go to morrow 
 to Philadelphia, where I will wait thy answer, 
 as, if thee does not, without a single day's 
 delay, order funded stock to be issued for each 
 instalment, I must immediately repair to Wash- 
 ington, in the hope that a personal explanation 
 will remove the difficulties which, in thy esti- 
 mation, appear to exist ; and which, I cannot 
 but think, are altogether imaginary. To make 
 the matter short, I have to add that thee might 
 as well require of me to pay the whole five mil- 
 
 lions at once in eagles, as to require of me 
 more than I promised in my conversations with 
 thee ; and all that I promised, I can, and will 
 perform if thee permit me to do so. 
 
 " With great respect and esteem, I am thy as- 
 sured friend. 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 " To the honorable George W. Campbell, 
 
 " Secretary of the Treasury." 
 
 Agreeably to the promise made in the pre- 
 ceding letter, I proceeded to Philadelphia, and 
 there had the satisfaction to receive the follow- 
 ing letters from the Secretary of War, and the 
 Secretary of the Treasury : 
 
 " Mat 31, 1814. 
 
 " Dear Sir : I have been ill of a fever for 
 some time past, which has prevented my an- 
 swering your late letter. The rule adopted the 
 last year, between the Treasury and War De- 
 partments, was to direct the officer in whose 
 favor a warrant was drawn to let the same re- 
 main in the bank on which the draft was made 
 as long as was convenient, and in no case to 
 draw from one bank to deposite in another. 
 
 " This rule will still be adhered to. 
 
 " The President returned yesterday. 
 
 " The Secretary of the Treasury is disposed to 
 do for you all he can. 
 
 " I am, sir, very respectfully, yours, 
 
 "J. ARMSTRONG. 
 " Mr. J. Barker, New York.'" 
 
 " Washington; June 2, 1814. 
 
 "Dear Sir : Your favor of the 31st ultimo, is 
 just received. 
 
 " I do not probably perceive the ground upon 
 which you apprehend such serious inconve- 
 nience will be experienced by you, from the 
 manner in which certificates of funded stock are 
 directed to be issued. 
 
 " It is intended that certificates of stock may 
 be issued for the whole of the instalment paid 
 by any one subscriber, except one-twentieth 
 part. 
 
 " If the same subscriber took several scrip 
 certificates, it was not intended that one- 
 twentieth part of each should remain unfunded, 
 but one-twentieth of the whole. Suppose the 
 same subscriber took twenty scrip certificates 
 each of equal amounts, certificates of funded 
 stock may be issued on nineteen of them. It 
 appeared to me this would meet your views as 
 nearly as could be expected. 
 
 " You stated expressly your desire to retain 
 fifty thousand dollars in scrip. The sum that 
 will remain in scrip of the first instalment, until 
 the second is paid according to the instructions 
 given, will very little exceed that sum, (being 
 $62,500.) 
 
 " The instructions apply to the succeeding in- 
 stalment as well as to the present; there will,
 
 ISSUE OF FUNDED STOCK. 
 
 C7 
 
 therefore, be no cause of delay in issuing stock 
 for those instalments, in like manner, when 
 paid. 
 
 " After the foregoing explanation you will, it 
 is presumed, perceive no difficulty in completing 
 your engagements. 
 
 " There is no intention to embarrass you, or 
 withhold from you any facility that can con- 
 sistently be afforded. And the banks or indi- 
 viduals who furnished you their money for the 
 use of government on the ground of receiving 
 stock for the same, need not apprehend that 
 any disposition is entertained to disappoint 
 them in this respect. 
 
 •' And, if it shall be deemed absolutely neces- 
 cessary, special instructions will be directed to 
 be given to issue stock for the sums that the 
 banks have advised us are deposited with them, 
 subject to that condition. Though it is pre- 
 sumed this will not be the case. And, indeed, 
 it appears to me, your alarm has arisen from 
 misunderstanding the effect of the instructions 
 to the loan officers. 
 
 " With due respect, I am, sir, your most 
 obedient, 
 
 " G. W. CAMPBELL. 
 " Jacob Barker, esq." 
 
 u P. S. I am still indisposed, and nothing but 
 your seeming anxiety would have induced me 
 to write this hasty letter at this moment." 
 
 "Washington, June 3, 1814. 
 
 "Dear Sir: Since writing you on yesterday, 
 in order to remove, as far as practicable, all 
 difficulties that you seem to apprehend, and that 
 other large subscribers to the loan might ex- 
 perience in completing the several payments 
 thereon, instructions have this day been given 
 to the Commissioner of Loans of New York, 
 &c, to issue certificates of funded stock, on 
 application, for the whole amount of each 
 instalment paid by subscribers for sums more 
 than $300,000, &c. 
 
 " With due respect, I am, sir, your most 
 obedient, 
 
 "G. W. CAMPBELL. 
 
 "Jacob Barker, esq." 
 
 The Secretary here yields the point, and 
 directs funded stock to be issued for the full 
 amount of each payment. The mischief had 
 been done, an incurable injury had been in- 
 flicted on the government as well as on me. 
 His efforts to withhold a portion as security 
 for the performance was a most unfortunate 
 move on his part. I had incidentally men- 
 tioned in a letter that I wished to receive fifty 
 thousand dollars in scrip, for which, according 
 to the rules of the treasury, $12,500 would be 
 paid down and left a security for the payment 
 
 of the other $37,500, and full stock would 
 insure for the whole $50,000 as soon as paid, 
 without any connexion with the other parts of 
 my contract. This the Secretary construes 
 into my wishing to leave $50,000 unfunded 
 and expresses the opinion that $12,500 more 
 will make but little difference ; therefore requires 
 that one twentieth of the whole remain, put- 
 ting it out of my power to give full stock to 
 those who had loaned me money and who 
 should continue to do so. 
 
 Had such instructions been given imme- 
 diately after the contract was signed, as they 
 should have been, the whole operation would 
 have been smooth, and I should have been 
 saved infinite trouble and embarrassment. Any 
 amount of money in such case could have been 
 obtained. The delay, like the protest of a 
 merchant's note, occasioned a mildew not 
 easily removed ; besides, there was a blighting 
 change in public affairs between the 2d of May 
 and the 3d of June. I need not attempt to 
 describe the pleasing emotions with which 
 these letters were received. I then believed no 
 further hesitation or delay would take place in 
 carrying my whole plan into effect, and that 
 the difficulties which had before such period 
 arisen had been occasioned by the contrivances 
 and influence of hostile clerks, and doubts with 
 which they and others had poisoned the mind 
 of the Secretary with respect to my ability to 
 fulfil my engagements — doubts which had 
 been dispelled by the receipt of letters from 
 the banks slating that they held a million of 
 dollars on my account in readiness to be applied 
 to the credit of the government the moment 
 they received funded stock therefor. 
 
 Bat in a few short days these pleasing ideas 
 and prospects vanished, and a series of new 
 and unexpected difficulties again arose. 
 
 I received further letters from Mr. Campbell, 
 stating that it was not practicable to order the 
 notes of the banks to be received, agreably to 
 my proposition, and that the Treasury Depart- 
 ment was averse to increase the number of 
 their accounts with the bauks. 
 
 This strange and most unexpected informa- 
 tion, arising from remonstrances from Phila- 
 delphia, put an end to all my expectations, 
 and destroyed my hopes of proving further 
 serviceable in the cause I had so much at 
 heart.
 
 68 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 When the bank at Philadelphia discovered 
 that I was negotiating with neighboring banks 
 to have a portion of the patronage of government 
 transferred from it to others, heaven and earth 
 seemed to be invoked to counteract such an 
 arrangement. Wm. Jones, of Philadelphia, 
 who was a member of the cabinet, favored their 
 views, and the sick Secretary at Washington 
 lacked sufficient firmness to resist and trample 
 under foot their artillery, the consequence of 
 which was that the nation, as well as myself, 
 became the victims. 
 
 I informed the Secretary of the Treasury 
 that it was indispensably necessary that he 
 should immediately give to the City Bank in 
 New York and to the Mechanics' and Farmers' 
 Bank in Albany one-third of the public busi- 
 ness at those places, otherwise I should not be 
 able to proceed in the affair. That, with respect 
 to the other banks, I should not ask for patron- 
 age until we understood each other better. 
 
 On the receipt of these letters I put an end 
 to my negotiations with the Philadelphia bank. 
 I could not find much ability or disposition 
 with individuals in the city to loan money to 
 government or to any persons who wished to 
 obtain it for such purpose. Philadelphia is 
 rich in literature, in manufactures, in internal 
 trade, in public stock, and in houses and lands, 
 but the natural situation of New York will 
 always secure to her as great a superiority over 
 Philadelphia as a commercial city as Philadel- 
 phia has over New York in some other respects, 
 and the best interest of both cities requires that 
 they should not consider their respective advan- 
 tages as any cause of ill will and jealousy. 
 Each has great reason to be pleased with its 
 own advantages, and it is always to be ex- 
 pected that where there is the most foreign 
 commerce there will be the most active capital; 
 and when a war takes place the more capital 
 at liberty to be loaned to government. Conse- 
 quently, when the government, in the utmost 
 distress for money, appealed to the patriotism 
 of the whole nation, it is not surprising that 
 New York should have contracted to supply 
 more than six of ten millions advertised for 
 when Philadelphia only contracted to furnish 
 $236,000; yet the Philadelphians appeared 
 mortified at such apparent evidence of the 
 superior wealth of New York, and hence, I 
 
 suppose, arose a part of their desire that I 
 should not succeed in furnishing the money 
 which I had promised. This, however, princi- 
 pally existed among their coffee-house gentry, 
 whose enmity to the republican party was the 
 main cause. 
 
 During my stay at Philadelphia I applied to 
 the persons whose offers at 85 had been refused, 
 under the expectation of supplying them with 
 stock, but was disappointed to learn that as 
 many of them as wished had already been sup- 
 plied by Mr. Whann with stock in the ten million 
 loan at cost. 
 
 When the Secretary made his report to Con- 
 gress, it appeared that he had been totally un- 
 able to obtain the required sum to make up 
 the ten million, although he kept it open a 
 long time, and supplied Cashier Whann with a 
 portion, from time to time, as he could dispose 
 of it. He also sold Robert C. Jennings, of 
 Virginia, a part of it, and there remained on 
 hand when he made his report on the 23d of 
 September, 1814, $204,944. 
 
 This at once unfolded additional reasons 
 why I had not, at any period, been enabled to 
 sell stock with all the benefits of the conditions 
 to profit. 
 
 Nothing could be more manifest than that if 
 persons wanting stock could, by applying to 
 government, be supplied at the contract price, 
 that the contractors couM not dispose of theirs 
 to any profit. 
 
 He was also an unsuccessful competitor with 
 me for temporary loans from the local banks, 
 and in the stock market in Europe, where, 
 from the first, it was known I had calculated to 
 operate without any such competition. 
 
 Coming into the market with stock, im- 
 mediately after contracting with me, I consider 
 a most cruel part of Mr. Campbell's proceed- 
 ings, especially as he did not give me the least 
 intimation that he had not succeeded in making 
 the expected arrangement with Mr. Smith and 
 Mr. Whann for the remaining million. 
 
 The impression in Philadelphia was that 
 Mr. Campbell had been offered the whole at 
 85, and that the only inducement he had to 
 allow the condition was the difference between 
 85 and 88. 
 
 They, generally, considered me unwise for 
 paying so much for that condition, and on that 
 account many persons who had offered at 85
 
 OPPOSITION TO SALES OP STOCK. 
 
 69 
 
 would not take the stock at 88, with all the 
 benefit of the condition. 
 
 Little or no pains were taken to correct the 
 report that the whole ten millions were offered 
 at 85 without the condition, and most republi- 
 cans believed it true, because they wished it to 
 be so. 
 
 The truth was, that there were only about 
 seven millions offered at any fixed price, ex- 
 clusive of that offered by me, as appears by 
 the treasury report, vol. 2, page 845 ; and of 
 that less than six millions on such terms as 
 would have enabled Mr. Campbell to have 
 accepted it at 85. Things soon began to 
 change ; the prospect of peace vanished ; and 
 stocks fell. The condition became likely to 
 prove valuable, and the "Federal Republican," 
 and other papers, endeavored to make the peo- 
 ple believe that Mr. Campbell had made a bad 
 bargain. The Philadelphians also came into 
 this opinion, although they had originally most 
 decidedly believed that the bad bargain was on 
 my side ; and, like the old woman who was 
 never in the wrong, triumphantly exclaimed 
 "I told you so." At the same time the "Fed- 
 eral Republican" was endeavoring to prove 
 that Mr. Campbell had made a bad bargain. 
 Its editor pronounced me ruined by the con- 
 tract. He did not seem to suppose his readers 
 possessed of sufficient sagacity to know that if 
 Mr. Campbell had sold the stock to me too cheap 
 that I had not paid him too much for it. Had 
 peace, which was confidently expected, taken 
 place before the second contract was made, the 
 condition would not have benefited the con- 
 tractors or stockholders one cent. 
 
 While at Philadelphia, I learned the fall of 
 Bonaparte, which put the whole force of Bri- 
 tain at liberty to be used against the United 
 States, which I knew would increase our ex- 
 penses to a vast amount. My alarm became 
 increased lest the public should, on that ac- 
 count, lose confidence in stocks, which would 
 prevent my obtaining money to complete my 
 payments. I succeeded in making an arrange- 
 ment with McEwen, Hale and Davidson, a 
 very wealthy, respectable, and honorable house 
 at Philadelphia, for one hundred thousand dol- 
 lars, and returned home. Soon after which I 
 learned from the Secretary that he would give 
 to the City Bank only one quarter of the public 
 business in New York, instead of the one-third 
 
 which they recpuired before they would let me 
 have a dollar of the half million they had 
 promised, and that indisposition had prevented 
 his giving me this information at an earlier 
 period. 
 
 [Extract.] 
 "New York, sixth Month, \\th, 1814. 
 
 " Esteemed friend : I have this day been 
 informed by the collector of internal taxes that 
 he has not received any orders to deposite in 
 the City Bank a portion of the money he col- 
 lects. I therefore take the liberty of repeating 
 my request that orders be giveu to him, and to 
 all the other officers, to do a part of their busi- 
 ness with that bank. 
 
 "They promise to loan me $500,000, in the 
 full expectation of having immediately one- 
 third of the government business, and if they 
 do not get it before the 25th of the present 
 month they may disappoint me of that loan ; 
 and if I should meet with so serious a disap- 
 pointment, at so critical a moment, it would 
 be little short of ruin to me ; and if that bank 
 is to receive a portion of public business I can- 
 not conceive the necessity for a day's delay, 
 
 "I am also anxious that the Mechanics' and 
 Farmers' Bank, at Albany, should receive a 
 portion of public business. 
 
 "To enable me to complete my first pay- 
 ment I had to sell a large amount of old stocks, 
 j which I was doing rapidly, at 86f and 87, until 
 Denis Smith heard of it, when he sent a large 
 amount of similar stocks into our market for 
 sale without limitation, which induced me to 
 leave the market, notwithstanding which the 
 brokers sold nearly all of his stock at 8G ; 
 which, after deducting the brokerage and in- 
 terest due on it, will not net him more than 
 84|. 
 
 "His sales were completed this morning, 
 when I returned to the market and sold large 
 parcels at 87, the purchaser paying the broker- 
 age. 
 
 "If I had taken six millions, and kept Smith 
 out of the market, I could have managed that 
 amount more easily than I can five opposed by 
 competitors, as I suppose that if Smith had 
 not taken any in the ten million loan he would 
 not have sold those old stocks under 88. 
 
 "I am convinced that we shall have a speedy 
 and honorable peace, therefore lament the 
 necessity I am under to part with a portion of 
 my stocks. 
 
 "Sincerely thy assured friend, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 
 "George W. Campbell, esq." 
 
 "Boston, June 14, 1814. 
 "Friend Barker: I have received your let- 
 ter of the 11th, by which I observe we are not 
 to expect the pleasure of your company at Bos- 
 ton. I have been looking out for you some
 
 70 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 3. I think we may expect peace ; but I am 
 not so fully convinced of that happy event as 
 you are, or your people in general. If that 
 event should take place we shall have no re- 
 duction upon our stock, in which case it will 
 be more for my interest to buy the loan of 
 1812 at 86, upon which I still see lh interest 
 in fourteen days, which you will perceive is 
 the case, as those purchases cost me only 84J, 
 besides several who I took stock for now wish 
 to relinquish and I must take it ; besides I 
 think some very important news will soon 
 arrive from Europe, which will influence me 
 in determining whether to go further in the 
 stocks or not. 
 
 " I will lay your letter before the meeting of 
 the State Bank; perhaps they may think proper 
 to accept your proposals, though I rather think 
 they will not. 
 
 "I think with you there will be, and I think 
 ought to be, a National Bank, and that the 
 State Bank will surrender her present charter 
 to this State government and become a branch 
 of the National Bank; at least, this is what I 
 wish. Please to write me frequently, and be- 
 lieve me, 
 
 % "Your sincere friend, 
 
 • "WM. GRAY. 
 
 "Jacob Barker, esq., 
 
 "New York." 
 
 On my return from Philadelphia to New 
 York, my first study was to close the business 
 of the first instalment by accepting the scrip 
 certificate bearing the condition with one 
 instalment endorsed on them, and procuring 
 from the Commissioners of Loans funded stock 
 therefor, and delivering it to the parties who 
 had promised the money. When I applied for 
 the stock I found that the condition of further 
 benefit had not been placed on the certificates, 
 and that they did not bear evidence of the 
 stock being more valuable than other six per 
 cent, stock. It was as important as the rate 
 of interest and the period of redemption — they 
 were alike essential to appraise the purchaser 
 of the value of the stock and on what they had 
 to calculate. Without evidence of the con- 
 dition in the hands of the holder its value 
 would be of little avail in the market. Thus 
 new difficulties presented themselves, for I had 
 every reason to apprehend difficulty with the 
 persons who had agreed to lend me money on 
 my promising to secure them with stock bear- 
 ing the condition. I had no time to lose in a 
 further protracted correspondence, and, there- 
 fore, having no alternative, was under the 
 necessity of receiving the stock without the 
 
 condition, and making the best terms in my 
 power with the individuals who had promised 
 it. While struggling to overcome these diffi- 
 culties a letter was received from Mr. Camp- 
 bell, dated 16th June, the fair import of which 
 isa recognition of his promise to extend aportion 
 of public patronage to the banks which should 
 aid me in supplying the treasury with money ; 
 it infringes the promise he made me by giving 
 one-fourth, instead of one-third, to the City Bank. 
 The proposition was left with me to arrange, 
 in no case to exceed one-third, the treasury re- 
 taining the right to judge of the goodness of 
 the banks. 
 
 The City Bank, from which I calculated to 
 have received a half million, availed of this 
 variance, and presented me with a notice that 
 as they had not obtained the third of the pub- 
 lic business the contract between us was void, 
 and that they would not lend me a dollar. 
 
 I succeeded in satisfying all those with whom 
 I was dealing, and completed the payment of 
 the first instalment. This business having 
 occupied so much of the month, which I had 
 intended to devote entirely to the raising of 
 money for my second instalment, that I found 
 it impossible to visit Boston, as I had contem- 
 plated, and return in season to raise the money 
 in New York, in case I should find myself 
 disappointed at the former place; I was, there- 
 fore, compelled to remain at New York, and to 
 employ agents at other places, whose exertions 
 were attended with the most trifling success. 
 "Washington, June 16, 1814. 
 
 "Dear Sir: Your favors of the 9th and 11th 
 instant have been received. I wrote to the 
 City Bank on the 14th instant, stating the 
 terms upon which deposits are made in other 
 banks; and that upon their being agreed toon 
 the part of that bank, a portion of the public 
 deposits would be made therein; and I have 
 this day written to Mr. Gilston to place in the 
 City Bank, in future, about one-fourth of the 
 public deposits arising from customs, provided 
 that bank agrees to said terms. By this 
 arrangement the public deposits will be di- 
 vided between those three banks, nearly in 
 proportion to the capital of each, which places 
 them on an equal footing. More could not 
 with propriety be done for the City Bank, and 
 ought not to be expected. 
 
 "Other business of importance, together with 
 the delicate state of my health, prevented this 
 business from being attended to at an earlier 
 day. 
 
 "Every disposition is entertained to facilitate
 
 REMONSTRANCE TO THE SECRETARY. 
 
 71 
 
 the inonied operations of those who engaged 
 in the loan, and to evince a friendly disposition 
 towards such banks as have been liberal in 
 affording their aid to the government; but you 
 were expressly informed that no stipulations 
 whatever could or would be made on the sub- 
 ject of deposits, and that every application by 
 a bank must depend on its own merits, consi- 
 dering the very small amount of revenue that 
 is now received, and the great number of 
 banks already connected with the treasury. It 
 will be with much reluctauce the number will 
 hereafter be increased. 
 
 " The late extraordinary news from Europe 
 will, it is presumed, raise the price of stocks. 
 Peace on the continent must, in all probability, 
 produce a general peace. 
 
 "My health still continues delicate. 
 
 "With much respect, I am, sir, your most 
 obedient, 
 
 "G. W. CAMPBELL, 
 
 "Jacob Barker, esq." 
 
 "P. S. — The instructions to collectors of 
 internal taxes are given by the commissioner 
 of the revenue. He will be directed to instruct 
 the collector of internal taxes in the city to 
 deposite a part of the public moneys in the 
 City Bank, conformable to the arrangement 
 made in relation to the collector of the cus- 
 toms, &c" 
 
 To which Mr. Barker replied as follows: 
 
 "I am favored with thy letter of the 16th; 
 by the contents thereof, I am sorry to observe 
 the course pursued towards me; I am satisfied 
 that it does not arise from an indisposition to 
 serve me, but from an idea that propriety 
 requires it, in which I totally differ in opinion 
 with thee; and it should be remembered that 
 government will want more money, and that 
 if the war continues they will find great diffi- 
 culty in getting it; therefore, if there was not 
 any other reason, that is sufficient to dictate, 
 not only a liberal course towards those men 
 who have a disposition and ability to supply 
 the wants of the government, but such a course 
 as will foster their ability, if not their disposi- 
 tion, to serve government; and the course 
 pursued towards me is likely to destroy my 
 ability to render further aid, however much my 
 zeal for my country may resist its influence, 
 and continue my disposition to render aid in 
 the next loans. I am aware of my folly in 
 agreeing to make the loan of five millions, 
 without an absolute condition that the banks 
 which might assist me should have at least all 
 the favors mentioned in thy memorandum, and 
 nothing but the most thorough conviction that 
 they would get them as a free will offering, 
 and that, considering the terms of thy adver- 
 tisement, thee could not with propriety grant 
 such a condition, induced me to make the 
 contract whhout such a condition: for I always 
 believed, and stated to thee, that it would be 
 
 impossible for me to procure a fourth of the 
 money, without I could offer the contemplated 
 inducements to the banks." "I hope and trust 
 thee will reconsider this business, and by re- 
 turn of mail increase the business of the City 
 Bank to one-third, and give to the Albany 
 Bank one third or one half of the business of 
 that place. Trifling as the difference between 
 one-fourth and one-third is, it is necessary to 
 fulfil my engagements; and if I do not fulfill 
 my engagements, I cannot expect the bank 
 to fulfill theirs — and, besides, once let an 
 individual or institution justly charge me with 
 not having honorably fulfilled my engagement, 
 and all the money lenders and public institu- 
 tions will take the alarm, and magnify the 
 offence so as to defeat all my future operations. 
 I waive the favor asked by the Bank of North 
 America, Philadelphia, and for the Bank of 
 America, New York, and shall not make any 
 further stipulations about government business 
 until we understand each other better; but for 
 the City Bank of this place, and for the 
 Mechanics' and Farmers' Bank, Albany, I 
 must entreat thee to do all I ask. Curtailing 
 it, in the smallest degree, will be as fatal to me 
 as to refuse altogether. On Saturday next, I 
 have to pay the second instalment; a letter 
 from thee, in answer to this, may be received 
 before that day, and I beg thee to let me have 
 a letter before that time, saying the City Bank 
 shall have a third of the business. I cannot 
 do without it. It distresses me to have thus 
 to plead ; and if selling the stock at any mode- 
 rate loss would save me from this painful 
 service, it should be done before I would, for a 
 moment, appear in a soliciting attitude. It 
 can only be done by a sale of the stock, and 
 so large a sale could not be effected at 80. 
 Stocks will not bear to be pressed on the 
 market. I shall keep the market supplied 
 with all it can bear without depressing the 
 price. The City Bank has, in times of the 
 greatest distress, furnished a million of dollars, 
 in addition to what they had before done, 
 without receiving a farthing's benefit from 
 government; the other banks, who have been 
 fattening on the favors of government for 
 seven years, and who have never granted any 
 favors to government, and who, at the time 
 when the City Bank lent a million of dollars, 
 did not lend but a fourth of that sum, there- 
 fore, instead of having less, I should think that 
 bank should have more of the public business 
 than the others." 
 
 [Extracts.] 
 
 "Washington, June 21, 1814. 
 "Dear Sir: Your favors of the 17th and 18th 
 instant have been received. You will have 
 been informed by my last that instructions 
 were given directing a portion of the public 
 deposits to be made in the City Bank. It is 
 not recollected that the Farmers' and Me-
 
 72 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 chanics' Bank at Albany applied to this de- 
 partment, since I came into office, to receive a 
 part of the public deposits; and, in fact, the 
 amount of the moneys collected at that place 
 is so inconsiderable that a division of it does 
 not seem expedient; nor would the deposit of 
 a part of it be an object of any importance to 
 a bank. The question, however, has not been 
 taken into consideration with the view of 
 finally deciding it, the application from the 
 bank not having been made. 
 
 "Instructions have been given to the cashiers 
 named in your letter, and to some others, to 
 receive such payments on account of the loan 
 as may be made in their banks, and credit the 
 same m the manner therein stated; being the 
 only practicable mode in which the object you 
 have in view could be effected without pro- 
 ducing irregularity in the treasury accounts. 
 This will, it is presumed, answer your purpose; 
 a copy is herewith enclosed for your infor- 
 mation. 
 
 "I think it proper, however, to remark to 
 you that it is extremely inconvenient to make 
 unexpected innovations on the mode of con- 
 ducting the business of the loan; and nothing 
 but a strong desire to facilitate the operations 
 that relate to it would have induced me to 
 accede to such a course on the present 
 occasion. 
 
 "I trust you will meet with less difficulties 
 than you seem to apprehend in completing 
 your payments on the loan. You cannot doubt 
 my disposition to do whatever appears to me 
 correct, to enable you to effect that object. 
 
 "With much respect, I am, sir, your most 
 obedient, 
 
 "G.W.CAMPBELL, 
 
 "Jacob Barker, esq." 
 
 "P. S. — Since writing the above, your letter 
 of the 19th instant has come to hand, in reply 
 to which I must observe that it is impossible 
 for the treasury, without inconsistency, to go 
 further in ordering deposits in the City Bank 
 than it has done. Ample justice has been 
 done that bank — it ought not to expect more; 
 and a due regard to justice and impartiality 
 must be observed, whatever may be the 
 consequences." 
 
 Mr. Barker wrote to the treasury thus: 
 
 [Extract.] 
 
 "New York, sixth month, 26th, 1814. 
 " Dear Friexd : The mail has arrived this 
 day, and I have not received an answer to my 
 letter of the 20th. Do reflect on my humilia- 
 ting condition, and contrast it with what it 
 would have been but for a mere trifle ; nothing 
 too little to deliberate on a moment ; only the 
 difference between the advantage to a bank in 
 doing one third or one fourth of the public 
 business at this place, the whole of which is 
 scarce worth $1,000. I do not mind defeat or 
 misfortune, but it is truly mortifying to be 
 
 destroyed by a mere shadow. It will, how- 
 ever, if the war continues, prove the value 
 that my services might have been to govern- 
 ment far better than if I had succeeded. 
 
 " In the latter case my services would have 
 been forgotten or never known by seven-eighths 
 of the nation, and now, all will feel the ill 
 effects of not getting the money that could so 
 easily have been got through me. 
 
 " G-. W. Campbell." 
 
 The directors of the City Bank had assem- 
 bled at my request. I appeared before them, 
 pointed out the consequences that would 
 inevitably result to the bank, then a very large 
 holder of stock to the nation and to myself, if 
 they withheld the anticipated aid, expressing 
 the most confident opinion that the business 
 of the treasury would be extended to their 
 bank to the one third promised, and begged 
 them to name the terms on which they would 
 let me have the money ; they did so, doubtless 
 believing that it would be impossible for me to 
 accept the required terms, which were that I 
 should invest $550,000 dollars in six per cent. 
 stock at 88, and deliver it to the bank as a 
 security for the repayment of the $500,000 
 they proposed to let me have, and that I should 
 add thereto $450,000, and deposit the whole 
 $950,000 in their bank to the credit of govern- 
 ment, to be drawn out as the treasury might 
 have occasion to use it ; and further, that I 
 must return one half of the money thus lent 
 me, if government did not, within twenty days, 
 extend their share of the public business from 
 one quarter to one third ; to all which I 
 promptly agreed, although it withdrew from 
 my business for a whole year the capital of 
 fifty thousand dollars in cash, in lieu of the 
 note of fifteen thousand dollars, mentioned in 
 our agreement, without my having any stock 
 for it; and although the deposit of the addi- 
 tional $450,000 to the credit of government in 
 one of the other banks would have enabled 
 me to procure from such other bank an addi- 
 tional loan of at least $200,000, and notwith- 
 standing it would subject me to a sale of my 
 stock at a loss, to repay the half of the sum 
 borrowed withiii the twenty days, if govern- 
 ment did not extend its portion of the public 
 business from one quarter to a third. A most 
 trifling difference, yet it afforded an excuse for 
 vacating a bargain which a change of public 
 affairs had made the bank regret having made; 
 thus circumstanced, it had a legal right to
 
 SECOND INSTALMENT PAID. 
 
 73 
 
 make the best bargain in its power. If this one 
 third had been originally granted, and surely 
 I had every just claim and reason to expect it, 
 all my difficulties with this bank would have 
 been avoided. 
 
 Yielding it after having refused to do so, 
 and after having notified the bank that the 
 treasury would not increase their proportion 
 of public business, went far to establish my 
 right to demand it, and is the best commentary 
 can be made on its being withheld. 
 
 Anticipating difficulty from having received 
 scrip certificates on payment of the first instal- 
 ment, as I wished to pay other instalments in 
 other banks, I represented this difficulty to 
 Mr. Campbell, and requested him to instruct 
 the cashiers of other banks to receive the 
 money and endorse it on the scrip certificates ; 
 in reply to which he informed me that I might 
 pay the money in such other banks, and get 
 them to place it to the credit of the banks 
 issuing the scrip certificates, and who, on the 
 receipt of a certificate of such deposite, would 
 endorse the scrip certificates ; and that he 
 would by draft transfer the debt back to the 
 bank where I paid the money, so that they 
 might have the benefit of the deposit to the 
 credit of government. This plan, although very 
 inconvenient, obviated some of the difficulties, 
 so far as it applied to my payments in this 
 city, but rendered it very difficult to accomplish 
 my payments at other places. With respect 
 to the monies obtained from distant parts, I 
 was obliged to furnish the stock as security at 
 the same time of receiving the money. Now, 
 by this arrangement, stock could not be pro- 
 cured until after the money had been paid at 
 a distant place to the credit of the bank issuing 
 the scrip certificates, and a receipt produced 
 for it at such bank, when the cashier would 
 endorse it on the scrip certificate, after which 
 the Commissioner of Loans in this city would 
 fund it, and the stock must then be returned 
 to the distant place where the money had 
 been procured before the promised security 
 could be given. This difficulty prevented my 
 obtaining large sums at distant places, there- 
 fore 1 was obliged to make all my payments 
 in the banks in New York, excepting one hun- 
 dred thousand dollars in the Bank of Cape 
 Fear, and throe hundred thousand dollars in a 
 
 bank at Albany. I considered the Treasury 
 Department bound by the terms of our con- 
 tract to grant funded stock at each place on 
 the payment of the money, without going 
 through the scrip operation, in my case a use- 
 less contrivance to embarrass my operations 
 and defeat me, to which the Secretary yielded 
 assent, (not perceiving the object,) on the sug- 
 gestion that it would compel me to leave part 
 of the stock as security. In the letter of con- 
 tract I am put at liberty to pay the money in 
 any bank I may name. On the receipt of that 
 letter, I informed the Secretary that I would 
 pay the money into such banks in the different 
 parts of the United States as I could borrow 
 it from, but that I could not name them before 
 I had made my contracts with them, and he 
 agreed to leave that part of the business open, 
 desiring me to name them from time to time as 
 soon as possible. I had, however, no time to dis- 
 pute about the perplexities of forms, but con- 
 tinued my exertionsto fulfil my contract with the 
 City Bank and to complete the payment of my 
 second instalment. Such payment I had the 
 good fortune to accomplish and to pay a small 
 amount in advance on my two last instalments, 
 although most people on the exchange at Bos- 
 ton, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, 
 confidently calculated that I should not be en- 
 abled to raise the money on account of its 
 exceeding great scarcity, and because it was 
 impossible to effect any considerable sales of 
 stock. The Secretary, having declined extend- 
 ing further the public patronage to the banks 
 which were willing to lend me money, without 
 which he knew I was not bound to furnish a 
 dollar, imbibed the same opinion, and incon- 
 siderately expressed it to John Donald, D. A. 
 Smith, and David Parish, with whom he was 
 endeavoring to negotiate a further portion of 
 the loan, and probably to others. 
 
 I communicated every particular of my ne- 
 gotiation and contract with the City Bank to 
 Mr. Campbell, and my success in paying my 
 second instalment, and the following is the 
 answer received from him : 
 
 "Washington, June 29, 1814. 
 " Dear Sir: I congratulate you on having 
 completed the payment of the second instal- 
 ment announced in yours of the 27th instant, 
 just received. It is hoped that all will do well.
 
 74 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 It is not believed the late news is as alarming 
 as the newspapers represents. 
 
 " With due respect, I am in haste, but not in 
 full health, sir, your most obedient, 
 
 u G. W. CAMPBELL. 
 
 " Jacob Barker, esq." 
 
 Having completed sueh payments, it was 
 necessary for me to commence my operations 
 for the money to pay my third instalment, to 
 accomplish which I was very anxious to visit 
 Boston, but I was under the necessity of re- 
 pairing to Washington, to get the Secretary to 
 extend the business to the City Bank, from a 
 quarter to a third ; to bestow upon the Mechan- 
 ics' and Farmers' Bank, at Albany, a third of 
 the public business at that place ; to extend 
 patronage to such other banks as might assist 
 me in pursuance of my original plan. I accord- 
 ingly proceeded to Washington, where I arrived 
 on the fourth of July, and immediately had an 
 interview with the President of the United 
 States, when I explained to him the course 
 that had been pursued, and what was neces- 
 sary to be done ; he was knowing to the assu- 
 rances given me by the Secretary when the 
 contract was made, and approved of them; 
 he sent for Mr. Campbell, they conferred to- 
 gether on the subject. The President pointing 
 out to Mr. Campbell the consequences likely 
 to result from the course pursued by the Treas- 
 ury, that good faith required he should promptly 
 carry out every assurance given me when the 
 contract was made. Immediately after which, 
 I called on the Secretary, when he promised 
 to extend to the City Bank the business of the 
 department at New York, making it one-third 
 in place of one-fourth, and to confer on the 
 Mechanics' and Farmers' Bank, at Albany, one- 
 third of the business of the department at that 
 place. 
 
 The Secretary stated, that he felt every dis- 
 position to accommodate the parties loaning 
 moneys to government, and would take the mat- 
 ter into consideration, adding there was a great 
 complaint in Philadelphia and elsewhere that 
 he was favoring me ; that he had received let- 
 ters on the subject, and there always would be 
 dissatisfaction at the smallest appearance of 
 favoritism. I replied, that he knew the truth 
 to be, so far from my having received the least 
 possible favor from government, that I sup- 
 posed he might put his mind entirely at ease 
 upon that subject. The Secretary not having 
 
 replied to a letter which I wrote, complaining 
 that the condition had not been put on the 
 face of the stock, I asked his reason for omit- 
 ting it. He replied, generally, that he meant at 
 all events to do ri";ht ; that his reasons for order- 
 ing the stock to be issued without bearing the 
 condition on the face of it was, that the stock 
 was to be permanent, and when the additional 
 stock was issued the condition would be at an 
 end, after which it should not appear on the 
 stock, and once put on it, it could not be 
 taken off. 
 
 He mentioned, that he had not the least in- 
 tention of changing the rights of the parties by 
 omitting it, and that it could not injure them, 
 because they could prove their title without 
 difficulty, it being a thing of public record, of 
 public notoriety, contained in a circular letter 
 to all the subscribers to the loan, and not a 
 special condition with any particular individual. 
 
 Knowing that Mr. Sheldon had the prin- 
 cipal arrangement of the detail of the business 
 of the treasury department, and had the repu- 
 tation of understanding it very well, and 
 although it was manifest the person who had 
 the arrangement of conducting the business 
 with me understood very well how to reject 
 every request I made, and how to embarrass 
 all my proceedings, yet I applied to him, aud 
 desired him to cause such a course to be pur- 
 sued as would prevent further perplexity. At 
 the same time I pointed out to him, that if they 
 had determined to break me down, they could 
 not have pursued a course more likely to effect 
 that object ; to which he replied, that he had 
 nothing to do with it ; that he was opposed to 
 the terms of the contract made with me, and 
 as Mr. Campbell had thought proper to make 
 it in opposition to his opinions, that he would 
 not interfere with respect to the carrying it 
 into effect ; no motive could possibly exist to 
 induce a wish of breaking me down, except it 
 was to prevent the receipt of the money, and 
 thereby to injure the administration and 
 country. 
 
 Mr. Sheldon added, that he had the submis- 
 sion of the plans for conducting all the busi- 
 ness of the department, but that he had not 
 submitted, and would not submit, any plan for 
 the conducting of this business, nor would he 
 even read the letters I wrote to Mr. Campbell 
 on the subject ; that he had not read them, ex-
 
 IRREGULARITY OF CERTIFICATES. 
 
 75 
 
 cept one or two, which he required him pe- 
 remptorily to peruse. I replied to him, that 
 however proper it was for him to give his opin- 
 ion and advice to the Secretary before the con- 
 tract was made, that I considered he, as a clerk 
 in the office, was bound to do every thing in 
 his power to carry into effect such contracts as 
 the head of the department thought proper to 
 make. I left him, and waiting on Mr. Camp- 
 bell, informed him of the conversation with 
 Mr. Sheldon, adding that it was no longer 
 strange that I had been so much perplexed, 
 since an experienced clerk in so difficult and 
 extensive a business as fell to the lot of his de- 
 partment could at any time derange a portion 
 of the business, without its being possible for 
 the head of the department to discover it, es- 
 pecially if such principal had not occupied the 
 station sufficiently long to become acquainted 
 with its details. 
 
 The Secretary had been but a short time in 
 office, during the whole of which time he had 
 been in bad health. He was not experienced 
 in the detail of the department, and although 
 of industrious habits and with the best inten- 
 tions, he was not, under those circumstances, 
 equal to the task. 
 
 When he was appointed the office was in the 
 most deranged state, havingbeen for six months, 
 in the absence of Mr. Gallatin, conducted by 
 hostile clerks. 
 
 The duties of the acting secretary, as Secre- 
 tary of the Navy, occupied nearly all his time 
 in his own department. 
 
 The treasury was also almost destitute of 
 money; its revenue inadequate to the discharge 
 of the expenses of the war; the accustomed 
 receipts greatly reduced by the restrictive sys- 
 tem and the war. 
 
 The opposition took advantage of this state 
 of affairs, and denounced Mr. Campbell as an 
 ignorant backwoods-man. 
 
 On my return to New York, I found that in- 
 formation of the difficulty thrown in my way by 
 the treasury had preceeded me from those per- 
 sons who had repaired to Washington, and 
 who were negotiating a new loan, and that it 
 was already in possession of the Wall-street 
 gentry, which greatly impaired my operations, 
 and rendered it exceedingly difficult to perform 
 the whole operation in relation to an instalment 
 
 under the regulations of the treasury in the 
 one day prescribed. 
 
 "Washington City, July 14, 1814. 
 
 "Dear Sir: Enclosed you will receive 
 copies of two letters relating to deposits yes- 
 terday, written to effect the objects ucder con- 
 sideration when you left this. Should we make 
 no contract for a loan, in a short time we may 
 advertise to receive proposals, &c. A certain 
 portion of the fifteen millions, at least as 
 much as was contemplated, will, however, 
 according to our present views, be negotiated 
 in Europe, probably by our ministers there. It 
 is hoped prospects will brighten. There is 
 nothing known to the writer of this to justify 
 the editorial paragraph in the National Intelli- 
 gencer of this morning. 
 
 "In haste, with due respect, I am, sir, your 
 most obedient, 
 
 " G. W. CAMPBELL. 
 
 "Jacob Barker, esq." 
 
 For the purpose of gaining time necessary 
 in which to obtain the money and transfer the 
 promised securities to the lenders, I applied to 
 the loan office to ascertain whether, if I paid in 
 in anticipation, they would fund the scrip 
 certificates before the day mentioned. They 
 referred to their instructions, which being 
 silent on that subject, but directed the date to 
 be inserted in the certificate on which the 
 interest commenced, they replied to me, that 
 if I was willing to lose the few days' interest, 
 they did not discover any objections to granting 
 the stock. I therefore determined to pay a 
 part before it became due, and, accordingly, 
 paid about one hundred and fifty thousand 
 dollars on the fifteenth, sixteenth, eighteenth, 
 and nineteenth of July, which was endorsed on 
 the scrip certificates, and the Commissioner of 
 Loans issued funded stock for it, bearing inter- 
 est from the twenty-fifth of July, the day I 
 was bound to pay, as I preferred losing the 
 interest for those few days to being embarrassed 
 in my operations for the want of power to give 
 security in time. The stock was transferred to 
 my agents, McEwen, Hale and Davidson, of 
 Philadelphia, who were to have furnished me 
 with funds on it in season to have made addi- 
 tional payments on the twenty-fifth of July. 
 The certificates were sent to the Treasury 
 Department to be transferred to the Philadel- 
 phia books, when that department, after keeping 
 them many days, returned them to the loan 
 office in this city for the purpose of obtaining 
 an explanation with respect to the interest
 
 76 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 commencing at a period subsequent to their 
 date. The Commissioner of Loans returned 
 them to Washington with the explanation; the 
 Treasury Department again returned them to 
 him, stating that the business was irregular, 
 that the certificates must be cancelled aud new 
 ones issued, which was done. Those new cer- 
 tificates were forwarded to Washington, and 
 the warrants erroneously made out in the 
 Treasury Department and sent to Philadelphia, 
 when the Commissioner of Loans at that place 
 refused to place the stock on the books, on 
 account of an error which had occurred in the 
 treasury office, and the certificates were re- 
 turned again to Washington for correction 
 before the stock could be used. These repeated 
 blunders consumed between one and two 
 months, disappointed me of the money on 
 which I had calculated to complete the pay- 
 ment of the third instalment, and subjected me, 
 by the fall of stocks during the period of such 
 delay, to a considerable loss. This disappoint- 
 ment was not merely confined to the amount of 
 such stock, it also locked up the funds which I 
 had prepared to apply to secure the difference 
 between 88, which I had paid for stock, and the 
 low estimated value at which persons agreeing 
 to furnish me with moneys had agreed to take it 
 as collateral security. The only reason assigned 
 for a delay, in its consequences so prejudicial, 
 so fatal to me, was irregularity! Aud what 
 was that alleged irregularity? Why nothing 
 more than that I had paid the money ten days 
 before it was due, and obtained the certificates 
 dated when I paid the money. The amounts 
 of the certificates, the time when the interest 
 commenced, and every other part of the busi- 
 ness was conducted in perfect conformity with 
 the directions of the Treasury Department. Of 
 this reason I was informed on the eighth of 
 August, and on that very day treasury notes 
 were negotiated on the New York exchange, 
 which had been previously signed and issued 
 to contractors at Washington, bearing date the 
 eleventh of August, which proves that the 
 business of a great department is not con- 
 ducted by such rigid rules that it cannot in any 
 case bend to circumstances. 
 
 At this period the inconvenience arising 
 from not having the condition inserted on the 
 face of the stock became much more serious 
 than it had been. The public opinion had 
 
 undergone an entire revolution in relation to 
 the probability of peace, and, consequently 
 with regard to the value of the condition. I 
 was disappointed in carrying into effect con- 
 tracts I had made for money, and prevented 
 from making others, because it was not in my 
 power to satisfy persons with whom I dealt, 
 and who were not much acquainted with stock 
 operations, that they would as certainly receive 
 the benefit of the condition as if it appeared on 
 the face of the stock. On applying to the banks 
 which had assisted me for further accommoda- 
 tion, I was refused on the ground that for 
 the money lent their bills had not been sent to 
 the army, and applied for other payments of 
 government, as they had expected, but instead 
 thereof, the governmental agents who obtained 
 drafts for it would, in some instances, imme- 
 diately deposit such drafts in other banks, who 
 would demand specie for them. And in other 
 instances, the agents would draw the paper of 
 the banks on which the warrants were drawn, 
 and exchange such paper with the agents of 
 other banks, for which they procured a pre- 
 mium ; and the paper of other banks was taken 
 to the army, and used for the purposes of gov- 
 ernment, while the paper of the banks lending 
 money was immediately returned and specie 
 demanded therefor. The difficulties before 
 enumerated, and the general impression that 
 government would still remain under the 
 necessity of borrowing large sums, added to 
 the blockade of our whole coast, the constant 
 demand for specie, and the universal distress 
 among merchants, rendered it extremely diffi- 
 cult to raise money or to effect sales of stock 
 at any price. Stocks had very considerably 
 fallen, and their depreciation was, in a great 
 degree, occasioned by a report published iu the 
 newspapers that Mr. Campbell had, in the 
 beginning of that month, given to Mr. Parish 
 and others a refusal of a large amount of the 
 twenty-five million loan for some days at 85, 
 and that those gentlemen had declined his 
 offer. The public stocks were, likewise, injured, 
 on account of the protest of a number of bills 
 drawn by the navy officers on the lakes, and 
 which had been regularly accepted by the 
 proper officer of government, and not paid 
 when they became due. The payment of 
 treasury notes to persons to whom government 
 was indebted, and who, having long laid out of
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF THE THIRD INSTALMENT. 
 
 77 
 
 their money, were glad to obtain them, and 
 eager, from necessity, to place them in the 
 market, where they sold for whatever price 
 they could procure, was also another circum- 
 stance which greatly impaired the price of 
 stocks, and enabled the money holders to derive 
 great profit and advantage from the dealers in 
 stock, whose necessities for money obliged 
 them to sell. The ''Federal Republican" pur- 
 sued its course against me "with a step as 
 steady as time and an appetite as keen as 
 death/' At this time it declared that I had 
 failed in my two first instalments, although 
 every dollar had been punctually paid, and 
 every opposition in the power of too many of 
 the party who supported that paper was made 
 to prevent me from obtaining money. On this 
 occasion I addressed the Secretary as follows: 
 
 "New York, 8 Month, 4, 1814. 
 
 "Esteemed Friend: I have not yet received 
 any advice of the stock being placed on the 
 books of Pennsylvania which I got funded, bear- 
 ing interest from the 25th July, and transferred 
 immediately after I paid the money, which was 
 paid on the 15th, 16th, 18th, and 19th July. 
 If the difficulties have not been removed, I beg 
 thee to give early attention to this subject; the 
 stopping of only a few thousand dollars deranges 
 the whole business, as I find it, without any 
 such embarrassments, very difficult to advance 
 the difference between 88, and the price at 
 which I have to sell or hypothecate the stock. 
 
 " I have borrowed of the Mechanics' Bank 
 $100,000, and agreed to receive it in their 
 drafts, at sight, on the banks in Virginia, 
 North and South Carolina, which drafts I wish 
 to pay into the City Bank as cash. Will thee 
 do me the favor to order G. B. Vroom, cashier, 
 to receive them as cash? I cannot get them 
 from the Mechanics' Bank until I get the stock 
 for them, and I cannot get the stock until I 
 get the scrip endorsed ; therefore, if thee can- 
 not order Vroom to receive them as cash, I 
 cannot be benefited by the loan of the said 
 $100,000. When he has them, he can remit 
 those drafts to the banks on which they are 
 drawn, to be placed to the credit of the gov- 
 ernment, which will leave the business precisely 
 the same as if I had paid the money into these 
 southern banks. 
 
 " With esteem, &c, 
 
 " JACOB BARKER. 
 "G. W. Campbell." 
 
 The request contained in this letter was re- 
 fused, by which means I was unable to convert 
 the $100,000 borrowed of the Mechanics' Bank 
 towards the payment of my subscription to the 
 loan. 
 
 " Treasury Department, Augusts, 1814. 
 
 " Sir : The only mode in which the sum of 
 $100,000, mentioned in your letter of the 4th 
 instant, can be managed, is that which has 
 been already adopted in relation to payments 
 made by you on account of the loan into banks 
 other than those where the scrip certificates 
 were issued. The money must be credited to 
 the treasurer, in the bank where the scrip cer- 
 tificates were issued, and placed to the debit 
 of the bank where the payment is actually 
 made. And on receiving r.otice of the banks, 
 and the amounts respectively, thus debited, 
 drafts will be furnished from the treasury to 
 those banks, drawn on the bank where the 
 money has been credited to the treasurer. 
 But this cannot be extended to banks with 
 which the treasury has now no accounts. It 
 would be wholly impossible to couduct the 
 business of a great department, when the mode 
 of transacting that business and the forms 
 through which it is to pass are to be subjected 
 to continual variations. 
 
 " I am, sir, very respectfully, your most 
 obedient, 
 
 "G. W. CAMPBELL. 
 " Jacob Barker, esq., New York" 
 
 This letter, as the reader will observe, con- 
 tains notice that no more money would be 
 received in any bank with which the govern- 
 ment, at the date of such letter, had not an ac- 
 count. The restriction contained in this letter 
 destroyed my ability to make any considerable 
 further loans, as no bank would loan me money 
 for the purpose of being drawn out and de- 
 posited in other establishments, and the banks 
 with which government had opened accounts 
 were already exhausted by their loans to the 
 public. I considered this to be a manifest vio- 
 lation of the understanding between the Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury and myself; he could not 
 comprehend the necessity for granting facilities 
 to those engaged in supplying money, and like 
 most men when disappointments occur, in- 
 dulged the idea that fault was not at home ; 
 and he was misled by the supposition that I 
 intended to throw stock into the market for the 
 purpose of affecting the pending loan. 
 
 " Washington, August 11, 1814. 
 
 "Dear Sir: The necessary attention to the 
 current business of the office, with other causes, 
 among which was occasional indisposition, 
 has prevented me from replying to some sug- 
 gestions and remarks in several letters received 
 from you. 
 
 " It is not doubted that you have used your 
 utmost exertions to effect the payment of the 
 instalments on that part of the loan taken by 
 you, and these exertions are duly appreciated,
 
 78 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 but they will not justify the treasury in actions 
 otherwise than it deems perfectly correct. Be- 
 fore I close, it may not be improper to notice 
 an intimation given, it is believed, in one of 
 your last letters. 
 
 " If it be intended to announce to the treas- 
 ury that you are to throw stock into the market 
 at this time for the purpose of depressing its 
 price and thereby affecting the pending loan, 
 the reply can only be, that such a measure 
 must be considered altogether unjustifiable. 
 
 " I trust such a course is not intended. It 
 would be a matter of regret that intimations to 
 this effect, already announced, should be con- 
 firmed. 
 
 " With respect, I am, sir, your most obedient, 
 " G. W. CAMPBELL. 
 " Jacob Barker, esq." 
 
 A most unfortunate and extraordinary inter- 
 pretation, this, of my motive for selling stock, 
 a sale rendered necessary by the extraordinary 
 obsticles thrown in my way by the treasury, 
 and by the impossibility to raise money in any 
 other way. 
 
 The only reason which has, to my knowledge, 
 been assigned for a belief that it was my wish 
 to depreciate the price of stocks, arose from a 
 mistaken supposition that it was my interest 
 to do so; whereas, in reality, the very reverse 
 was the case, inasmuch as stocks once de- 
 pressed could not be advanced again until the 
 conclusion of the war, or the adoption of great 
 national measures, and I already held a large 
 amount which I could not continue to hold for 
 any considerable length of time, having bor- 
 rowed money on it payable at an early day ; 
 and so much did I dread a depreciation, that 
 I not only made every exertion to hold my 
 stock, but on discovering others, who had sub- 
 scribed, forced by the scarcity of money to sell 
 a part of their stock to enable them to make 
 good their payments, I entered into an agree- 
 ment with Harman Hendricks, a very wealthy 
 merchant who had liberally lent a large por- 
 tion of his fortune to government — he was also 
 an original contractor for the part of the ten 
 million loan, and was therefore equally inter- 
 ested with me in keeping up the price of stocks — 
 to borrow money on our joint security, and pur- 
 chase up all the stock in the ten million loan 
 which should come into the market below the 
 contract price ; in pursuance of this arrange- 
 ment we made extensive purchases, the whole 
 of which we held until after the second con- 
 tract was made. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, the best of all possible 
 evidence that the measures I adopted and pur- 
 sued went to sustain the price of the stock, and 
 that it was my manifest interest to do so, those 
 opposed to my success continued to insist that 
 it was for my interest to depress the market 
 price, and that I was doing all in my power to 
 effect that object; taking advantage of Mr. 
 Campbells sickness and ignorance of financial 
 matters, they managed to poison his ear, and 
 induced him to believe I had some such in- 
 tention ; those in his department constantly 
 calling his attention to the fall of stock and 
 such other occurrences as would be likely to 
 make such an impression on his mind. 
 
 Nothing could be more manifest that, but 
 for the scheme of issuing scrip certificates, all 
 would have gone on smoothly and without the 
 least inconvenience to the treasury. All it had 
 to do, was to have ordered the loan offices at 
 the different places where the money was to 
 be deposited to have issued full stock, agreeably 
 to the original contract, on the presentation of 
 a certificate of deposit from an approved bank. 
 All the machinery beyond this was a perplex- 
 ing surplusage without the least utility ; all ac- 
 countants will see, at first view, that this was 
 all that was necessary for the security of the 
 government, and simplicity in keeping the 
 treasury accounts. 
 
 The negotiation with Messrs. Astor and 
 Parish having resulted without any arrange- 
 ment or any loan from those gentlemen, the 
 Secretary, ou the 25th of July, sent six million, 
 a further portion of the twenty-five million, to 
 Europe for sale. 
 
 The following letter, received from the Comp- 
 troller of the Treasury, was not calculated to 
 encourage me to expect a better state of things: 
 
 "Washington, August 10, 1814. 
 
 ''Dear Sir: You will perceive that Congress 
 are called for the 19th of September. I pre- 
 sume that nothing can be inferred from this 
 in regard to our future prospects of peace, 
 either good or bad, only that about that period 
 it may probably be known with tolerable cer- 
 tainty whether it is to be peace or war, and 
 measures may be taken accordingly. It is 
 probable, too, that the Executive now realizes 
 (for it is impossible that he should not) the 
 distressing deficiency which must then exist 
 in our pecuniary means, and wishes Congress 
 here to devise some mode of meeting this 
 exigency, or at least to divide with him the
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF THE THIRD INSTALMENT. 
 
 79 
 
 dread responsilitv which this state of things 
 brings with it, and perhaps for the purpose of 
 merely "doing something,'' without any very 
 distinct views as to what that something is to 
 be. 
 
 " Yours of the 8th instant is received, and 
 its contents noticed. 
 
 "The Secretary of the Treasury is really 
 much unwell and looks broken down. I am a 
 good part of the time but little better, indeed, 
 my good sir, it is in truth pretty disconsolate 
 and sorrowful times here, I can assure you. 
 
 " Your friend, «tc, 
 
 "EZ. BACON. 
 
 "Mr. J. Barker." 
 
 "New York, eighth month, \1th, 1814. 
 
 " Esteemed Friexd : Will thee do me the 
 favor, personally, to see the errors or embar- 
 rassment in relation to my stock removed. I 
 do not know that the Treasury Department 
 can save me, if not, it will be the most cruel 
 sacrifice of an individual ever known. I say 
 cruel, because I could easily have been per- 
 mitted to have gone smooth through my busi- 
 ness. 
 
 " Thv assured friend, 
 
 " JACOB BARKER. 
 
 " George W. Campbell, esq." 
 
 After the receipt of the Secretary's letter, 
 dated the 8th August, I ineffectually remon- 
 strated against the requisitions it contained, 
 and sent him vouchers for one hundred thou- 
 sand dollars, which I wished him to receive at 
 the Bank of Cape Fear, to which I received 
 the following answer : 
 
 "Treasury Department, 
 
 August 19, 1814. 
 
 "Sir: Your letter of the 13th has been 
 received. The scrip certificate which you for- 
 merly enclosed to me was sent to the Cape 
 Fear Bank, as you desired, and I suppose the 
 arrangements in relation to it are in a course 
 of completion. The scrip certificate enclosed 
 in your letter of the 13th instant is herewith 
 returned. No more money can be received in 
 that bank, as we can make no use of it there, 
 and that bank being out of the chain of con- 
 nexion among the banks which we employ, 
 we cannot draw the funds into other banks 
 where they might be used. Though it will be 
 very inconvenient, yet the treasury may, per- 
 haps, authorize two or three banks at the east- 
 ward, not now connected with it, provided they 
 are such as shall be approved, to receive 
 monies on account of the loan. But in such 
 case, as before, the monies must be placed in 
 such banks to the credit of the bank where the 
 scrip certificate was issued, and the same 
 course tuken as heretofore. 
 
 " There is so much inconvenience attending 
 
 these operations that yon are to consider them 
 liable at any time to be discontinued when the 
 treasury shall see fit to put an end to them. 
 
 " I am, very respectfully, your obedient ser- 
 vant. 
 
 « G. W. CAMPBELL. 
 
 " Jacob Barker, esq." 
 
 In this letter he refuses to receive $100,000 
 for which I had already contracted in the 
 Cape Fear Bank, although in the same letter 
 he notices his acceptance of a previous $100,- 
 
 000 in that bank, for which he had. of course, 
 opened an account, but intimates that he might, 
 perhaps, so far relax from the rule laid down 
 in his letter of the 8th instant, as to receive it 
 in two or three of the eastern banks with 
 which the treasury was not then connected, 
 reserving to himself the right of terminating 
 such receipts at pleasure. This was altogether 
 too precarious a basis on which to found any 
 new contracts, and the refusal to receive 
 money in the Cape Fear Bank, for the single 
 reason that government could not use money 
 there, had left me to make the best settlement 
 in my power for the hundred thousand dollars 
 which I had engaged to receive there. This 
 refusal was the most unexpected thing imagi- 
 nable, because, in addition to the right I sup- 
 posed myself to possess of paying it there, 
 and this right the Secretary does not question 
 in his letter refusing it, but assigns a different 
 and distinct reason for such refusal, I be- 
 lieved that the wants of the treasury were so 
 great that they would be glad to receive it 
 wherever they could procure it; and I had under- 
 stood the government to be in so much distress 
 for money, particularly in North Carolina, that 
 the recruiting officers were under the necessity 
 of turning off men who offered to enlist, for 
 the want of funds to pay the bounty. The 
 Cape Fear Bank is one of the best establish- 
 ments in the Union, and its credit is not sur- 
 passed by any in North Carolina. The stock 
 before mentioned as having been transferred 
 to my friends at Philadelphia the middle of 
 July, had not been placed in the books in Phil- 
 adelphia. Unable to account for the delay in 
 any other way than from its having to pass 
 through the hands of federal clerks in the 
 Treasury Department, not receiving any satis- 
 factory reply, I repaired to Washington, when 
 
 1 found everything in confusion; nothing could 
 be done until the fate of the loan for ten mil-
 
 80 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 lions, which had been advertised for on the 2Gth 
 July, to be closed on the 22d of August, should 
 be known. It failed — no contract was made 
 on that day. The President with his cabinet 
 ministers left Washington on the 24th August, 
 1814. The British army entered that city on 
 the evening of that day. The banks at Balti- 
 more and in the District of Columbia sus- 
 pended specie payments, and sent off their 
 specie on the approach of the enemy. The 
 hostile army remained in possession of Wash- 
 ington until the night of the 25th, when they 
 evacuated that city, advice of which, from the 
 tenor of the following letter, seems to have 
 reached the President on the 26th. 
 
 u Brookville, August 2G, 1814. — 10 p. m. 
 
 " Dear Sir: I expected this morning to have 
 reached General W., and yourself, before your 
 departure from Montgomery C. H., but was 
 delayed, so that I did not arrive there till six 
 o'clock, partly to obtain quarters, partly to be 
 within communication with you. 
 
 " I have proceeded thus far in company with 
 Mr. Rush, General Mason, &c, and avail my- 
 self of the bearer to inform you that I will 
 either wait here till you join me, or follow and 
 join you, as you may think best. Let me know 
 your idea on the subject by the bearer. If 
 you decide on coming hither, the sooner the 
 better. Mr. Rush will remain here also ; Mr. 
 Jones is with my family and his own, on the 
 other side of the Potomac, but will come to the 
 city the moment he hears of its evacuation. 
 General Armstrong and Mr. Campbell are, I 
 understand, at Fredericktown. I shall give 
 them immediate notice of the change in the 
 state of things, and desire them to conform to 
 it. A letter from General Smith, of Win- 
 chester, to General A., was put into my hands 
 by express at Montgomery C. H., stating a 
 brigade of militia could come or not, as might 
 be desired. I have sent it open to General W., 
 who can judge best of the answer proper to be 
 given, and will act on the letter accordingly. 
 
 " Accept my best wishes, and great esteem, 
 •' J. MADISON. 
 "James Monroe, esq., Secretary of State.'''' 
 
 The cabinet ministers returned to Wash- 
 ington on the 30th ; the Secretary opened a 
 new negotiation for the six million loan, and 
 on the 31st of August, 1814, they contracted 
 with the officers of the District and Baltimore 
 banks, and Dennis A. Smith, of Baltimore, for 
 two millions two hundred and fifty-three thous- 
 and dollars, payable in the depreciated paper 
 of those banks, on the 20th September, 10th 
 October, 10th November, 10th December, one- 
 
 fourth each ; with various other persons for 
 the further sum of two hundred and seventy- 
 seven thousand three hundred dollars. From 
 this time forward the treasury conducted its 
 business with depreciated bank notes, and 
 treasury notes, which had also depreciated. 
 
 The National Intelligencer of the 1st Sep- 
 tember, 1814, announced that all the specie 
 had been removed from the Baltimore banks ; 
 and in that paper of the 3d September, 1814, 
 there was a publication from said banks, dated 
 the 1st, announcing that they had suspended 
 specie payments. 
 
 The day following the closing of the second 
 contract, I entreated the Secretary to give 
 such instructions to his subalterns as would 
 enable me to receive stock for the money on 
 its deposit in banks as had been agreed, to 
 which I received the following reply. 
 
 " Treasury Department, Sept. 3, 1814. 
 
 " Sir : Your letter of the 1st instant has 
 been received, proposing to pay the balance 
 due by you on the loan of ten millions on the 
 days fixed for the payment of the instalments 
 of the loan of six millions. 
 
 "I have consented to this proposal so far as 
 to permit your payments to be received at the 
 time fixed for the payment of the first instal- 
 ment of the six million loan ; and as this 
 instalment, from circumstances which have 
 recently occurred, has been permitted to be 
 paid either on the 10th September, the day 
 fixed by the public notification in relation to 
 this loan, or on the 20th day of the same 
 month, you are, in like manner, authorized to 
 make your payments on either of those days ; 
 and the cashiers of the banks where your scrip 
 certificates were issued have received instruc- 
 tions to accept the payment on either of those 
 
 " I am respectfully, sir, your most obedient, 
 " G. W. CAMPBELL. 
 " Jacob Barker, esq., Neiv York." 
 
 On receipt of this letter, I applied to the 
 Comptroller, urging him to give the necessary 
 instructions; to which I received the following : 
 " Treasury Department, 
 " Comptroller's Office, Sept. 12, 1814. 
 
 " Sir : Your letter of the 10th inst. was re- 
 ceived by yesterday's mail. 
 
 " The Commissioner of Loans, at New York, 
 has been instructed to issue funded certificates 
 of stock, for sums remaining due from you of 
 the third and fourth instalments of the loan of 
 ten millions of dollars, provided payments of 
 the same be made by you conformably to your 
 late arrangement with the Secretary of the 
 Treasury on that subject. That arrangement,
 
 REFUSAL TO ISSUE SUPPLEMENTAL STOCK. 
 
 81 
 
 however. doe3 not authorize the issuing, in 
 any ca-?, of funded stock on former payments, 
 on account of the said loan, for the difference 
 between the price at which it was taken and 
 that on which a part of the six million loan has 
 been recently obtained. 
 
 " No instructions, therefore, can, in the 
 present state of things, be given from this office 
 to the Commissioners of Loans, to issue funded 
 certificates of stock for the amount of that 
 difference. 
 
 " I am, respectfully, vonr obedient servant, 
 '• NATHAN LUFBOROUGH, 
 
 " Acting Comptroller. 
 u Mr. Jacob Bareer, New York." 
 
 Here we have a direct refusal to issue the 
 suplemental stock due on the instalments paid, 
 as well as a refusal to issue stock at 80 for the 
 money to be received for the balance of the ten 
 million loan. 
 
 Fatal consequences resulted to all parties 
 from refusing to issue the supplemental stock, 
 which government have, themselves, since de- 
 cided the parties were entitled to on the 31st 
 August. Of this supplemental stock, I was 
 then entitled to three hundred and forty-nine 
 thousand sis hundred and ten dollars and thir- 
 ty-five cents, and to have received stock at 80 
 for that portion of the five millions of dollars, 
 for which the treasury had not heretofore 
 thought proper to issue stock conformably to 
 the original agreement. 
 
 On reviewing the whole of this transaction, 
 it appeared to me one of the most extraordinary 
 which had ever occurred. 
 
 A nation in distress for money to prosecute 
 a war involving its very existence, allowing its 
 employees to thwart and embarrass all its 
 measures j a nation which had appealed in 
 vain to the whole community through the 
 newspapers for loans; pressed on every side by 
 the enemy; expenses rapidly accumulating, 
 hardly able to feed, clothe, or move an army. 
 I have heard, and believe, that in July, General 
 Izard was ordered to remove a portion of the 
 forces from Plattsburg to the Niagara frontier, 
 and could not, at that time, effect the measure 
 for the want of money. 
 
 Under such pressing circumstances, the treas- 
 ury not only refused that extension of public 
 business, which might have commanded any 
 amount of funds, but suffered the most per- 
 plexing embarrassments to arise in relation to 
 the receipts of money; issuing and transferring 
 
 stock and other details of office ; all of which, I 
 most sincerely believe, may be ascribed to the 
 employment of a large proportion of the clerks 
 in nearly all the departments of government 
 who were politically opposed to their chief. 
 
 The proper and obvious course which ought 
 to have been pursued, after making the con- 
 tracts on the 2d of May, was to have abstained 
 from all further negotiation for money until 
 another public offer had been deemed neces- 
 sary ; to have ordered funded stock, beariug the 
 condition issued for the money, as soon as it 
 was furnished ; to have promptly given one- 
 third of the public business to approved banks 
 contributing to such loan ; to have ordered the 
 notes of such banks to have been received for 
 duties and taxes, and to have received the 
 money contracted for at such places as the 
 parties wished to pay it. All this could have 
 been done without delay, trouble, perplexity, 
 expense or risk. Had this been done, I could 
 have borrowed a sufficiency of money of the 
 banks in different parts of the United States, 
 with my other resources, to have supplied the 
 government with all the money they had occa- 
 sion for through the whole of that year ; while 
 withholding the condition from the face of the 
 stock, and refusing a great portion of the pat- 
 ronage promised, and by perplexing the exe- 
 cution of the contract with useless forms and 
 delays, government disappointed itself, intimi- 
 dated and disgusted many of its friends, de- 
 preciated the price of public stock, and de- 
 feated the six million loan. 
 
 The parties from whom I had borrowed 
 money on a pledge of stock were alarmed by 
 its depreciation and by the treasury's thus re- 
 fusing to carry into effect the terms upen which 
 the loan had been contracted ; they demanded 
 further security or a return of the money. 
 Withholding the supplementary stock was, 
 therefore, very injurious; unable to obtain any 
 satisfactory reason why it was not furnished, 
 I was under the necessity of again visiting 
 Washington, in the hope of being enabled to 
 terminate this vexatious concern. 
 
 Congress had been convened for the especial 
 purpose of providing ways and means. A 
 national bank was deemed the only alternative ; 
 the President, Secretary of the Treasury, Secre- 
 tary of War, and, I believe, every member of 
 the cabinet, had become convinced that such
 
 82 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 an establishment was absolutely necessary to 
 sustain the nation, hence constitutional— that it 
 would command the major part of the circula- 
 tion of the United States. Its bills, being re- 
 ceivable for taxes, imposts, and for lands, would 
 get a preference over the bills of local banks ; 
 applying them to the use of the United States, 
 in place of lending them to individuals, would 
 furnish the government with, a hundred mil- 
 lions of available funds over the necessary 
 amount of specie for their redemption. 
 
 Previous to my leaving home a petition to 
 Congress for the establishment of a national 
 bank had been prepared, to which I obtained 
 the names of many of our most respectable and 
 wealthy citizens of both political parties, and 
 forwarded it to Washington ; it was presented 
 to both Houses of Congress, and referred to 
 the Committee of Ways and Means. 
 
 In promoting this petition, John Wells, esq., 
 was again very active, as was Isaac Lawrence, 
 a republican merchant of great wealth and 
 respectability. 
 
 On my journey to Washington, I learned 
 from the National Intelligencer that Mr. Camp- 
 bell's bad health had compelled him to resign, 
 and on my arrival I was informed he had left 
 the seat of government for his home in Ten- 
 nessee. I also learned that his health during 
 a long time had been so much impaired as in 
 a great measure to prevent his attention to 
 business. Samuel H. Smith had been appointed 
 acting Secretary. I therefore applied to him, 
 stated the hardship of my case, and requested 
 him to direct the supplementary stock to be issued. 
 He expressed great unwillingness to interfere 
 in the business, but promised to examine the 
 case and ascertain whether anything could be 
 done. The next day he informed me that he 
 had concluded to leave it until a Secretary was 
 appointed. I also applied to the Attorney 
 General, who stated that it would be improper 
 for him to interfere, but that if Mr. Smith de- 
 sired his opinion on any points relative thereto, 
 he had only to ask it and it would be promptly 
 given. I also applied to the acting Comptrol- 
 ler, who informed me that he could do nothing 
 in the business without directions from the 
 Secretary of the Treasury. I met Mr. Sheldon 
 and mentioned the business to him ; he replied, 
 
 I suppose you are not willing to give a re- j 
 ceipt in full on receiving the difference between I 
 
 80 and 88." I informed him that he supposed 
 very right, when he added, there must be an 
 end of the condition, and if could not be done 
 in any other way, that application would be 
 made to Congress to have the law repealed. 
 Such a measure I thought would be so mani- 
 fest a violation of national faith, that I replied 
 indignantly, " You had better attempt such a 
 thing." Feeling a perfect confidence in the 
 honor and integrity of government, such an 
 intimation from Mr. Sheldon, who, I believed, 
 would gladly see the administration disgraced, 
 gave me no uneasiness. I considered that the 
 government were bound in honor to borrow 
 money under the law authorizing the loan, 
 from time to time, as it might be wanted, and 
 opportunity presented of getting it, until the 
 whole had been obtained ; and that the stock- 
 holders in the ten million loan would be en- 
 titled to have their respective amounts at the 
 lowest rates which should be allowed for any 
 part of it. 
 
 My business in relation to the loan being 
 thus suspended, I had leisure to attend to the 
 subject of a national bank, which I considered 
 of the utmost importance to the nation. It 
 appeared to be the only way in which means 
 could be obtained sufficient to prosecute the 
 war to a successful issue. Without such a ter- 
 mination I had not any expectation of being 
 enabled to obtain the original cost of my stock. 
 I accordingly waited upon the individual mem- 
 bers of the Committee of Ways and Means, to 
 whom the petition had been referred. I was 
 informed that they had unanimously agreed to 
 recommend such an establishment, (their chair- 
 man, Mr. Eppes, a republican member of Con- 
 gress from Virginia, of great talents and purity, 
 excepted, who was opposed to it from consti- 
 tutional grounds.) The Hon. Mr. Fisk, of 
 Orange county, New York, one of the com- 
 mittee, was charged with preparing a bill. 
 
 With this gentleman I had several very 
 friendly conversations respecting the details of 
 a bill which I had submitted to his considera- 
 tion, the important principles of which were, 
 that the whole capital should consist of stock, 
 with which the notes to be issued by the bank 
 should be redeemed at the same price as the 
 bank allowed the government for it, so long as 
 government were indebted to the bank more 
 than half the amount of its capital; no injustice
 
 PROPOSALS FOR A NATIONAL BANK. 
 
 S3 
 
 in this, because all who should be offered the 
 notes would know on what they had to de- 
 pend, and might reject them if they chose. 
 When the debt should be reduced below half 
 the amount of the capital of the bank, to pay 
 specie, the directors to be left to procure the 
 specie on account of the bank ; no specie to be 
 required from the individual stockholders ; the 
 bank to loan as much money to government 
 as it should require ; the duties and taxes to 
 be received in the paper of the bank ; the 
 mother bank to be established in New York ; 
 the first set of directors to be named in the 
 bill. I was very anxious that no part of the 
 capital should be required to be paid in specie, 
 because I apprehended it would cause paper 
 money, generally, to depreciate, and because I 
 did not perceive any advantage likely to result 
 from requiring it. It is impossible for a na- 
 tional bank to relieve government and pay 
 specie before the other banks in the United 
 States resume such payments ; and when they 
 do that, the directors of the national bank 
 could easily supply themselves. My reasons 
 for wishing the bank bound to loan to govern- 
 ment as much money as it might require were, 
 that loans to individuals might be restrained ; 
 that such loans might not be subject to the 
 caprice of directors ; and confident that it would 
 not require more than it could use without de- 
 preciation, and a belief that the more the bank 
 lent the United States the better it would be 
 for the stockholders. I was also very anxious 
 for the first set of directors to be named in the 
 bill, because in that case the bank would go 
 into immediate operation, and supply the pre- 
 sent necessities of government ; whereas, if 
 they were left to be chosen by the stockholders 
 it would protract that relief at least six months, 
 when a month's delay might be fatal to the na- 
 tion ; and because I was very unwilling to 
 leave the control of an institution of so much 
 magnitude to chance, lest that chance should 
 put it into the hands of our political enemies, 
 who might either refuse to carry the law into 
 effect or use the funds of the bank, when es- 
 tablished, for political purposes, or to subserve 
 the views of favorites, or who might either re- 
 fuse to place a branch in any southern or west- 
 ern State, or, if they placed a branch there, 
 appoint our political opponents to direct its 
 affairs; and as New York has, in time of 
 
 peace, a commercial intercourse with the south- 
 ern States about ten times as great as Phila- 
 delphia, with the eastern States fifty times as 
 great, and with Europe about double, I sup- 
 posed her entitled to have the mother bank; for 
 the only reason why it should not be placed at 
 the seat of government was that it is supposed 
 necessary to place it in a commercial city, that 
 its affairs may be conducted by merchants and 
 intermingled with commerce. 
 
 While I was thus occupied, Alexander J. 
 Dallas, of Philadelphia, a lawyer of great 
 eminence, was appointed Secretary of the 
 Treasury, a triumph of Philadelphia over New 
 York. I did not wish a Secretary to be taken 
 from New York, and very much regretted that 
 he should be taken from Philadelphia. 
 
 Mr. Dallas entered on the duties of his office 
 on the 13th October, 1814, full of the notion of 
 establishing a national bank at Philadelphia, and 
 alarmed lest it should be located at New York, 
 a vote to that effect having passed the House 
 of Representatives. 
 
 On coming into office, Mr. Dallas determined 
 to annul the condition allowed the holders of 
 funded stock in the ten million loan. 
 
 Immediately after his installation I addressed 
 to him a letter, of which the following is a 
 copy: 
 
 "Washington, October 15, 1814. 
 
 "Respected Friend: I herewith beg leave 
 to hand the draft of a bill for the establishment 
 of a national bank. The fourth, tenth, and 
 twelfth sections contain the leading features of 
 the plan. I am one of an association who are 
 now petitioning Congress for an act of incorpo- 
 ration for banking purposes, for whom I beg 
 leave to solicit thy interest, and, at the same 
 time, I take the liberty of stating that I believe 
 it impossible to relieve the necessities of the 
 nation without the establishment of a national 
 bank, or without making paper money a legal 
 tender. Adopt either of these measures and 
 we shall not have anything to fear, but every- 
 thing desirable to expect, from the continuation 
 of the war. 
 
 "I represent important claims on the govern- 
 ment, which cannot, 1 fear, be paid until the 
 treasury is replenished, therefore I do not wish 
 to press these subjects on your attention at this 
 early period. I, however, beg leave to enclose 
 some letters on the subject from the parties 
 concerned, that you may look over them at 
 your leisure ; but being in the most awful dis- 
 tress for a decision on the stock in the ten 
 million loan, I must solicit to be heard on that 
 subject as soon as it can be allowed without
 
 84 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 interfering too much with other business. The 
 delay which has already taken place has pro- 
 duced the worst consequences to the public 
 interest, and little short of destruction to me. 
 The parties were, in my opinion, entitled to a 
 decision on the 31st August, and on that day 
 I understood from the Secretary of the Treasury 
 that it was made; after which, the first clerk in 
 the Treasury Department, Mr. Sheldon, infused 
 doubts and fears into his mind, the consequence 
 of which was, that he neither directed the stock 
 to be issued, nor gave an explanation to the 
 parties by which they could know what view he 
 took of "the subject, and we have, therefore, 
 been kept in a state of uncertainty — unable to 
 make any stock operations since that period 
 without the most ruinous sacrifices and per- 
 plexing conditions to all contracts. And 
 nothing is more easy than to adjust the busi- 
 ness to the satisfaction of all the parties, and 
 conformable to reason, justice and the public 
 interest and convenience. 
 
 "Very respectfully, I have the honor to be 
 your assured friend, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 "The Hon. Alexander J. Dallas, 
 
 "Secretary of the Treasury." 
 
 In a day or two I again mentioned the sub- 
 ject of supplemental stock to Mr. Dallas, when 
 he told me he had been reflecting upon it, and 
 wished to know when the condition would be 
 closed; I replied, not until the whole twenty- 
 five millions had been borrowed. He said that he 
 should not leave it open, and that after a reason- 
 able time it must be closed, but that he was so 
 much pressed with other business that he could 
 not attend to the subject at that time. His 
 observations afforded me considerable uneasi- 
 ness, because I had fondly calculated that he 
 would have ordered supplementary stock issued 
 to the extent of the admitted difference between 
 the two contracts the first day he came into 
 office. It appeared to me to be so clear a case, 
 and so unconnected with all other parts of the 
 business, that his enquiring mind would have 
 understood the subject at first view, and that 
 his usual promptness would have been dis- 
 played on this occasion. If he had not any 
 other inducements to do so, I supposed the 
 necessity he would find himself under of imme- 
 diately resorting to loans would urge him to it, 
 as he could not calculate to be enabled to 
 borrow any more money while so large a por- 
 tion of the money lenders considered them- 
 selves denied common justice. I was mistaken, 
 he was too much occupied in preparing a finan- 
 cial plan for the Congressional Committee of 
 
 Ways and Means to attend to me. He very 
 soon presented to that committee his views, in 
 which, among other things, he recommended 
 the establishment of a national bank at Phila- 
 delphia, presenting a bill in which it was pro- 
 vided that all directors should reside at Phila- 
 delphia, or in its neighborhood. This at once 
 convinced me that the New Yorkers had not 
 much to hope from the new Secretary. 
 
 As soon as this bill was received, the Hon. 
 John W. Eppes, a member of Congress from 
 Virginia, the chairman of the Committee of 
 Ways and Means, invited me to a conference 
 on the details of the bill. On my pointing out 
 the restricted residence of the directors, he 
 observed that it would be immediately stricken 
 out. On the same day I enquired from Mr. 
 Dallas what the New Yorkers had done to dis- 
 qualify them for directing the affairs of a bank. 
 He appeared not to comprehend the question. 
 On being informed of my interview with Mr. 
 Eppes he seemed to be much disconcerted. 
 
 I continued to urge him to cause the supple- 
 mental stock to be issued. He replied that it 
 was a very troublesome affair, and that he 
 would refer some questions respecting it to the 
 Attorney General, and have it settled as soon 
 as possible. The trouble was how to get rid 
 of the condition, and to deprive me of the bene- 
 fit, past and future, to be derived therefrom, 
 otherwise he would have left the stock as it 
 was, and ordered supplemental stock to be 
 issued to those who held the original stock 
 according to the books of the treasury when 
 the more favorable terms were allowed, bearing 
 interest from the time the money was received. 
 
 The Secretary says, among other things, in 
 his statement of the case, submitted late in 
 October, 1814, to the Attorney General for his 
 opinion: "There remains a considerable sum 
 of the twenty-five millions of dollars, author- 
 ized to be loaned, for which proposals have not 
 yet been invited, but they probably will be in- 
 vited soon." 
 
 In place of continuing to borrow under the 
 twenty-five million law, until the whole amount 
 was obtained, he applies to Congress for a new 
 law authorizing a loan of three millions of dol- 
 lars, which Congress passed on the loth of No- 
 vember, limiting its application to the precise 
 purposes to which the twenty-five million loan
 
 LAW FOR THREE MILLIONS LOAN. 
 
 85 
 
 was to be applied ; the 1st, 2d, and Sth sections 
 of that law read as follows: 
 
 Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and 
 House of Representatives of the United States 
 of America in Congress assembled, That the 
 President of the United States be, and he is 
 hereby, authorized to borrow, on the credit of 
 the United States, a sum not exceeding three 
 millions of dollars, to be applied, in addition to 
 the moneys now in the treasury, or which may 
 be received from other sources, to defray any 
 expenses which have been, or during the pres- 
 ent year may be, authorized by law, and for 
 which appropriations have been, or during the 
 present jear may be, made by law. 
 
 Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the 
 Secretary of the Treasury, with the approba- 
 tion of the President of the United States, be, 
 and he is hereby, authorized to cause to be 
 constituted certificates of stock, signed by the 
 Register of the Treasury, or by a commis- 
 sioner of loans, for the sum to be borrowed by 
 this act, or for any part thereof, and the same 
 to be sold. And the Secretary of the Trea- 
 sury shall lay before Congress an account of 
 all the moneys obtained by the sale of the cer- 
 tificates of stock in manner aforesaid, together 
 with the statement of the rate at which the 
 same may have been sold. 
 
 Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That it 
 shall be lawful for any of the banks in the 
 District of Columbia to lend any part of the 
 sum authorized to be borrowed by virtue of 
 this act, anything in any of their charters to 
 the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 On the same day that this law passed, the 
 Treasury advertised to borrow under it, although 
 the twenty -five million loan had not been half 
 exhausted, proposing to receive in payment 
 treasury notes or approved bank notes. 
 
 The reader will observe that, by this new 
 law, the suspended Banks of Washington were 
 authorized to lend the whole three millions, 
 and as they had no specie, and did not pretend 
 to pay specie, the loan was, of course, to be 
 in their depreciated notes. 
 
 On the 22d of October, he put in my hands 
 an opinion he had obtained from the Attorney 
 General, mentioning that he had adopted it, 
 and would carry it into immediate effect; and 
 stating further, that he should require a re- 
 lease of all further abatement from all the 
 parties before he would give them the stock ; 
 the Attorney General considering that the con- 
 dition in the letter of the Secretary of the Trea- 
 sury of the 2d May, 1814, to the subscribers 
 for the ten million loan, was closed on the 31st 
 August, 1814, and no longer remained open, 
 
 and executory subject to all the variations in 
 price which might mark subsequent loans, 
 until the whole twenty-five millions should be 
 exhausted. I replied to this that the Attorney 
 General's opinion appeared to me correct, ex- 
 cept with respect to the business being closed ; 
 and, as it would be time enough to discuss and 
 settle that point if any more of the loan should 
 be taken at a further reduced price, I presumed 
 that he would not insist upon a release, assur- 
 ing him that no earthly consideration would 
 tempt the parties to disgrace themselves so 
 much as to sign an instrument releasing govern- 
 ment from a claim which they considered just, 
 without receiving therefor the least quid pro 
 quo ; he, however, appeared determined to 
 insist upon it. On the same day I presented him 
 with a letter, of which the following is a copy: 
 "Washington, October 22, 1814. 
 
 "Respected Friexd: Your decision this day 
 in relation to the difference between 80 and 88, 
 perfectly accords with my view of the subject, 
 and with the expectation of all the parties, so 
 far as to issuing additional stock for that differ- 
 ence to all those persons, who, by the books of 
 the several commissioners of loans, held stock 
 in the ten million loan on the 31st August 
 last; but I am confident that you, on reflection, 
 will not insist on a release from further allow- 
 ance, because the stock has repeatedly changed 
 proprietors since that time, and a release from 
 the persons who are entitled to the present 
 difference would not be binding on any other 
 persons, and it is totally impossible for them to 
 procure a release from the persons who may 
 be proprietors when the next lower contract 
 may be made ; if there is a good claim for the 
 chance of a further abatement, there cannot 
 be any reason why that claim should be aban- 
 doned ; if there is not any claim there cannot 
 be anything to release. The government are 
 not under any obligation to allow any more 
 favorable terms, and, if they do so, they will 
 certainly be aware of the consequences and 
 take their measures accordingly; and, as no 
 legal claim can be supported against govern- 
 ment, they have not anything to fear; if a sub- 
 sequent claim should be made, they will then 
 decide on the equity thereof; and if, in the 
 estimation of government, equity should be on 
 the side of the claimants, they would not for a 
 moment hesitate to conform thereto; and if it 
 should be on the side of government, the claim- 
 ants must abide a decision against them. 
 
 " Very respectfully, vour assured friend, 
 ""JACOB BARKER. 
 
 "Hon. Alexander J. Dallas, 
 
 " Secretary of the Treasury." 
 
 On the twenty-fourth, I called on the Comp- 
 troller, and finding that he had not been in-
 
 86 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 structed to issue stock in any shape, I appre- 
 hended that new difficulties had arisen. I 
 wished, therefore, to obtain a copy of the At- 
 torney General's opinion, because it expressly 
 stated that parties were entitled to supplemen- 
 tary stock, on the 31st of August, which was 
 the grand point for which 1 had contended, 
 and justified all my complaints with regard to 
 'its not being furnished on that day; and this 
 opinion Mr. Dallas told me he had adopted, 
 and should carry it into effect, when I ad- 
 dressed to him a letter as follows : 
 
 "Washington, October 24, 1814. 
 "Will you be so good as to favor me with 
 the Attorney General's opinion. I wish to 
 take a copy of it, and I will return it to you 
 this evening. 
 
 "Yours, truly, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 "Hon. A. J. Dallas, 
 
 "Secretary of the Treasury." 
 
 The copy was furnished, in which, among 
 other things, he said: 
 
 "I believe that looking to Mr. Campbell's 
 letter of the 2d May, 1814, with a view to its 
 fair construction on behalf of the public credi- 
 tors, the first lenders are entitled to the benefit 
 of the terms of the second loan to the whole 
 amount of their subscriptions. Its language 
 could scarcely fail to have awakened in them 
 that expectation. 
 
 "I think that the owners of the previous 
 stock, at the time the second loan was made, 
 were the persons entitled to the additional 
 stock for the difference between the price of 
 the first and second loans." 
 
 A number of da)'s elapsed without my 
 making any further progress in the business, 
 when I sent another note to Mr. Dallas, of 
 which the following is a copy: 
 
 "November 5, 1814. 
 "Mr. Barker will thank Mr. Dallas if he 
 will inform him if there is any chance for the 
 order to issue this day for the additional stock. 
 To-morrow being Sunday, induces him again 
 to call your attention to this subject, m the 
 hope of avoiding a further delay of two days, 
 which will take place if that question is not 
 settled this day." 
 
 To which I received an answer, of which 
 the following is a copy: 
 
 "November 5, 1814. 
 "The pressure of public business has ren- 
 dered it impossible to attend to all the cases 
 of the ten million loan. So far as respects 
 the parties in whose cases no difficulty occurs 
 
 beyond the execution of the attorney general's 
 opinion, I propose to issue the necessary in- 
 structions to the Comptroller on Monday. 
 
 "A. J. D." 
 
 By the tenor of this note from Mr. Dallas 
 I observed that he intended to proceed to issue 
 supplemental stock in the ten million loan on 
 the Monday following to th6se who did not 
 hold such stock under my contract. 
 
 I applied at the Comptroller's office, and 
 continued my application daily, without suc- 
 cess, until the tenth. 
 
 In a conversation with the acting Comp- 
 troller on the subject of the business, he 
 assured me that there should not be any delay 
 after he received the necessary directions, but 
 that he could not do anything without orders 
 from the Secretary of the Treasury. I desired 
 him to speak to the Secretary, as the business 
 appeared to be neglected, and I apprehended 
 it was the effect of Mr. Sheldon's hostility. 
 Mr. Lufborough replied that it would be im- 
 proper for him to interfere before he got orders, 
 and that he knew Mr. Sheldon was very much 
 opposed to this business; that he (Sheldon) 
 told him that he had not only opposed the 
 making of the contract, but the whole business 
 in relation to its execution, from beginning to 
 end. At this conversation Richard Cutts, 
 esq., the brother-in-law of the President, was 
 present. 
 
 On the tenth of November, I met in the 
 street the Hon. Messrs. King, Gore, and Mason, 
 of the Senate. One of them congratulated me 
 on my success; 1 replied that I was not con- 
 scious of having been successful. He then 
 enquired, Why, have you not got your money? 
 by which I supposed he meant the supple- 
 mentary stock. I informed him that the trea- 
 sury had not, to my knowledge, decided on the 
 business. Yes, he observed, they have decided 
 in your favor; the Secretary has examined 
 into the business, and says you have a good 
 claim. Mr. King now remarked that he him- 
 self had examined into it with great attention, 
 and that the case appeared very clear in my 
 favor — so much so, that he could not imagine 
 why a doubt upon the subject had been in- 
 dulged. Nothing further was done by me in 
 relation to the loan until the 17th, when I 
 called on Mr. Dallas, and informed him that 
 the holders of funded stock would not receive
 
 OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL. 
 
 87 
 
 the supplemental stock unless it bore interest 
 from the time they paid the money into the 
 treasury, and expresssd a wish to have a 
 further conversation on the subject. He re- 
 plied, Do you wish to say anything more 
 respecting the declaration to be published? 
 adding that he had decided, and could not 
 hear anything more concerning it. I told him 
 that if he would give me but a moment, J 
 would confine myself to the single question, 
 When shall the interest commence? — that I 
 considered myself entitled to be heard ; that 
 he had promised to hear me before he finally 
 decided; that I had been seven weeks at 
 Washington waiting on the treasury for a 
 decision; that he had been in office five weeks 
 of the time, and been so much occupied that 
 he had not devoted a single half hour to hear 
 my explanations; that whenever I did call 
 upon him our conversation was interrupted by 
 others; and that, unless he would set apart an 
 hour to investigate the subject, I could perceive 
 no end to it. To this he replied that he was 
 then much perplexed in relation to paying 
 some treasury notes which were becoming due 
 in a day or two at Philadelphia, and had not 
 time to attend to the business at that moment; 
 but that he was entirely guided in respect to it 
 by the Attorney General's opinion. I then 
 desired him to state the question to the Attor- 
 ney General, and obtain his answer that day, 
 for I was in great distress for the stock. He 
 replied, "Take the original opinion back to 
 the Attorney General, and let him correct it if 
 it is wrong." 
 
 Mr. Dallas was in error in supposing the 
 Attorney General had decided the point in 
 question; the Attorney General's opinion did 
 not notice the subject of interest. I proceeded 
 to the Attorney General, with his original 
 opinion, and informed him that in making it 
 out he appeared to have been silent on that 
 point. He took it back, and, after entering 
 into a critical examination of the case, he 
 made an endorsement on the paper containing 
 bis original opinion, as follows: 
 
 "November 17, 1814. 
 
 "The Secretary of the Treasury having 
 further asked from what period the supple- 
 mental stock should bear interest, I answer 
 that I think interest ought to commence upon 
 and from the dates, respectively, at which 
 interest began to accrue upon the primary 
 
 stock, to which the supplemental is the 
 increase. 
 
 "A. RUSH, Attorney General:' 
 
 On handing it back to me he observed that 
 he supposed Mr. Dallas would not like it; that 
 he expected him to decide everything accord- 
 ing to the views of the treasury, adding, 
 "Yours is the hardest case that has come 
 before me since I have been in office. I wish 
 I could do something for you." 
 
 Here I beg leave to remark that the Attor- 
 ney General always attended to the part of the 
 business allotted to him without the least 
 delay; that he heard all my explanations 
 patiently; appeared to regret the delay which 
 had taken place — particularly that the supple- 
 mental stock had not been issued on the 31st 
 of August; was prompt in all his decisions, 
 and polite in all his deportment. I feel par- 
 ticularly called on to say this because he merits 
 it, and because I differ with him decidedly in 
 opinion on some of the points he determined — 
 in judging of which, however, it is to be remem- 
 bered that he is the law officer of government, 
 and considers himself bound to decide all 
 doubtful points in its favor. 
 
 I returned the Attorney General's decision, 
 together with the opinion he had just ex- 
 pressed in relation to the interest, to Mr. 
 Dallas, who, after perusing it, handed it to Mr. 
 Sheldon, with instructions to make the neces- 
 sary alterations in the letter to the Comptroller. 
 Mr. Sheldon read it and observed that in con- 
 sequence of the alteration it would take an- 
 other week to settle the business. I replied, 
 "If it takes another year, justice must be done; 
 and I will thank you, Mr. Dallas, not to permit 
 such delay." He very politely answered that 
 it should be attended to that morning. 
 
 Some delay took place, and I called on Mr. 
 Dallas again on Saturday, when he informed 
 me that a circular had been prepared to the 
 Commissioners of Loans, where loan offices 
 were established, ordering them to call in all 
 the funded stock in the ten million loan, and 
 to give in exchange new certificates, declaring 
 on their face that the suplemental stock had 
 been issued, requiring from each holder a re- 
 ceipt in full for the condition, with the notice 
 that it did not remain open subject to the fluc- 
 tuation which might mark contracts for further 
 portions of the twenty-five million loan, and
 
 88 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 that he had sent this circular notification to 
 the National Intelligencer for publication, and 
 that it would appear in that paper on Monday 
 morning : 
 
 " Treasury Department, 
 
 "November 19, 1814. 
 
 " Sir : Enclosed you will receive a copy of 
 the opinion of the Attorney General ou the 
 legal construction of the contract or contracts 
 made by the late Secretary of the Treasury on 
 the 2d May, 1814, for the loan of ten millions 
 of dollars, and of a notification issued from this 
 office founded upon it. I beg leave to request 
 that you will cause the necessary instructions 
 to be given to the several Commissioners of 
 Loans for issuing the additional stock con- 
 formably to the opinion of the Attorney Gen- 
 eral and to the said notification. 
 
 " I am, respectfully, sir, your obedient ser- 
 vant, 
 
 "A. J. DALLAS. 
 
 '■To the Comptroller of the Treasury" 
 
 On the same afternoon I was in conversation 
 on the subject with Mr. Gholson, a member of 
 Congress from Virginia. He expressed much 
 regret at the course proposed to be pursued by 
 the Secretary ; said it would disgrace the ad- 
 ministration, and that, although a poor man, 
 he would rather give a thousand dollars than 
 such a publication should be made, and urged 
 me to ask of the President to interfere to pre- 
 vent it. 
 
 I did so. The President expressed much 
 surprise at the course pursued by the trea- 
 sury; said that it was in a measure indepen- 
 dent of him, as it had to report direct to Con- 
 gress, therefore he was very unwilliDg to inter- 
 fere with the details of the department. Yet 
 the proposed course seemed to be so extraor- 
 dinary, that he would see Mr. Dallas that even- 
 ing on the subject, and he did so. 
 
 Not hearing anything further on the subject, 
 and unwilling that the circular should appear 
 without my objections, I prepared a protest, 
 and took it to the office of the National Intelli- 
 gencer, where I was informed that the circular 
 had not been received. 
 
 I waited for it until late in the day, when I 
 understood that if the notification came after 
 that it would be too late for Monday's publica- 
 tion. I dare not leave the protest, lest by some 
 accident its publication should precede that of 
 the circular. 
 
 Happening to dine at the same table with 
 Mr. Dallas on the following day, he observed 
 that he had good news for me. I inquired 
 what it was. He said he had concluded to 
 issue the supplemental stock without requiring 
 any release from the holders. When I re- 
 marked that I apprehended that it was too late 
 to do much good, that the publication of the 
 Treasury circular which he had informed me 
 the previous day he had sent to the National 
 Intelligencer would injure the market price of 
 the stock about as much as to require a release 
 from the holders, he replied that it would not 
 be published. Not having any clerks at hand 
 on that day, being Sunday, he had been him- 
 self down to the printing office and withdrawn 
 the circular, and had it then in his pocket. I 
 inquired of him what had brought about such 
 a sudden and wonderful change. He said: "I 
 have seen a friend of yours, in whom I have 
 full confidence, who understands the merits of 
 the whole transaction, about which I find I was 
 uninformed when I came into office." He de- 
 clined to tell me who that friend was. I knew 
 that it was the President. On the following 
 day he, through his clerk, Mr. Sheldon, directs 
 the Comptroller to suspend the measures for 
 completing the execution of the contract re- 
 lating to the ten million loan, in words follow- 
 ing: 
 
 " November 21. 
 
 u Mr. Dallas, late on Saturday, directed the 
 measures for completing the execution of the 
 contract relating to the ten million loan to be 
 suspended. The Comptroller is requested not 
 to issue the instructions to the Commissioners 
 of Loans until further advised on the subject. 
 
 " D. S." 
 
 The proposed circular notice stating the 
 Comptroller's plan, thus annulled, not having 
 been published, I cannot give copies. That 
 an important change was made therein is 
 manifest from the tenor of Mr. Dallas's letter 
 to the Acting Comptroller on the following 
 day, viz : 
 
 "Treasury Department, 
 
 "November 22, 1814. 
 u Sir : I have received your letter dated this 
 day, relative to the execution of the contracts 
 for the ten million loan. 
 
 " When I arrived at Washington I attended 
 to these contracts, in which no difficulty oc- 
 curred, as the contractors had fulfilled their 
 engagements. It was in relation to these cases
 
 NEW CERTIFICATES FOR STOCK. 
 
 89 
 
 that the opinion of the Attorney General was 
 taken. 
 
 " At a subsequent period I attended to the 
 contracts in which difficulties were supposed 
 to exist ; and on these cases I submitted the 
 views of a settlement to the President, who 
 signified that he saw no objection to the mode 
 of settlement proposed. 
 
 "Of the Attorney General's opinion and of 
 the views submitted to the President you have 
 copies. 
 
 "It is only necessary to add that all the 
 subscribers to the ten million loan are placed 
 on the same footing with respect to the instal- 
 ments actually paid; that the Attorney Gen- 
 eral's opinion is to be carried into effect, so far 
 as respects the persons entitled to the supple- 
 mental stock; but that it is not deemed proper 
 to iusist upon a release before the supplemental 
 stock is delivered. In this last respect the gov- 
 ernment will act upon its rights, without claim- 
 ing any concession from the creditors which 
 might hereafter be considered a sacrifice on 
 their pare. 
 
 " I am, very respectfully, sir, your obedient 
 servant, 
 
 "A. J. DALLAS. 
 
 " X. Lufborotjgh, esq., 
 
 "Adiug Comptroller." 
 
 By this letter it appears that Mr. Dallas in- 
 tended to have refused supplemental stock to 
 those deriving it from my contract and giving 
 it to others; that he had found out that there 
 was not any cause for any distinction, and that 
 the holders of funded stock were all entitled to 
 it without executing a release for further issues. 
 
 Mr. Luffborough, being discomforted by this 
 order to discontinue proceedings against me, 
 made a second application to Mr. Dallas, to 
 which the Secretary replied as follows : 
 
 " Treasury Department, 
 
 "November 22, 1814. 
 
 "Sir : I have just received your second note 
 of this day's date, relative to the execution of 
 the contracts for the ten million loan. 
 
 "Pursuing the principle that the corstruc- 
 tion given to the contracts by the Attorney 
 General is to be carried into effect without im- 
 pairing the rights or embarrassing the remedies 
 of the creditors, I mean that the supplemental 
 stock shall issue in such form and manner as 
 on the one hand to avoid any appearance of 
 acknowledging at the treasury that the con- 
 tracts remain open, and on the other leave the 
 creditors every proper facility to establish here- 
 after the identity of the supplemental stock, and 
 its connexion with the ten million loan. Al- 
 though I am not yet, perhaps, master of all the 
 details of office, I presume the best mode of 
 accomplishing the object which I have stated 
 
 will be to leave the certificate of original stock 
 as it now stands, and issue a new certificate for 
 the supplemental stock only. 
 " I am, &c, 
 
 "A. J. DALLAS. 
 "N. LuFBOROUcn, esq., 
 
 " Acting Comptroller." 
 
 Here Mr. Dallas comes fully into my views 
 in relation to allowing the existing stock to re- 
 main as it was he wa3 right when he said the 
 "best way of accomplishing the object will be 
 to leave the original stock as it now stands j" 
 there was not any occasion to distinguish the 
 supplemental stock from the original, and if 
 there had been any, the word " supplemental" 
 would have been a full distinguishing mark ; 
 yet he allowed himself to be overruled by the 
 acting comptroller, who withheld the supple- 
 mental stock until the 7th of December, the 
 date of his order for its issue, although the 
 Attorney General decided, on the 22d October, 
 that it was due on the 31st August to the then 
 holders of the original stock, which opinion 
 the Secretary adopted; the acting comptroller 
 also insisted on the surrender of the original 
 stock, although the Secretary said, the best way 
 was to leave it as it was, and otherwise pursued 
 a course avowing his object to be to destroy 
 the market value of the condition, as follows: 
 
 " Treasury Department, 
 " Comptroller's Office, Nov. 24, 1814. 
 
 "Sir: I take the liberty of enclosing, for your 
 approbation, forms of certificates proposed to 
 be printed and issued to the holders of stock 
 in the ten million loan, pursuant to the opinion 
 of the Attorney General enclosed to me in your 
 letter of the 19th instant. 
 
 "These forms have become necessary, in or- 
 der to carry into effect that part of your letter 
 to me of the 22d of this month, which requests 
 that every proper facility may be afforded to 
 the holders of certificates in the above-men- 
 tioned stock, ' to establish hereafter the iden- 
 tity of the supplemental stock,' (now about to 
 be issued to them,) and its connexion with the 
 ten million loan. The designation, in writing, 
 on the face of the* certificates to be issued for 
 the supplemental stock, is made for no other 
 purpose than that of enabling the holder, if he 
 chooses, to preserve its identity and its con- 
 nexion with the primary stock. The manu- 
 script addition made on the face of the condi- 
 tion intended to be issued in lieu of the original 
 stock, of the ten million loan now in circula- 
 tion, is intended — 1st, to guard the public 
 against imposition, by preventing more sup- 
 plemental stock from issuing, in any case, than 
 is actually due ; and, 2d, to give notice to sub-
 
 90 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 sequent purchasers of the stock, that the stipu- 
 lations contained in the contract between the 
 Secretary of the Treasury and the original sub- 
 scribers to the loan had been fulfilled or in 
 other words, that everything relating to that 
 contract, so far as respected the stock in exis- 
 tence, was deemed at the treasury to be settled 
 and closed. There is nothing in this that can 
 have a tendency ' to impair the rights or em- 
 barrass the remedies' of the public creditors 
 under the ten million loan for further issues of 
 supplemental stock. 
 
 "No exaction is made from them of any re- 
 lease whatever of their rights or claims in this 
 respect. Their rights will still remain with 
 themselves, and their remedies with Congress. 
 The notification, on the face of the certificate, 
 is nothing more than the simple statement and 
 exhibition of a fact which does exist, and which 
 ought to be known, as well to the subsequent 
 purchasers of the stock as to those who now 
 hold it — namely, that the supplemental stock, 
 stated on the face of the certificate to have 
 been issued, was deemed at the treasury to be a 
 full and complete execution of the original con- 
 tract on the part of the government, so far as 
 regarded the amount of stock to be issued un- 
 der that contract. This information is already 
 in possession of the agent of the present hold- 
 ers of the stock, or a great portion of it. To 
 keep it from subsequent holders, who might 
 purchase too under the impression that still 
 further benefits are to attach to the stock, might 
 subject the treasury, and with great reason, to 
 imputations which it has hitherto been free 
 from, and which it never will, I trust, bejustly 
 liable to, 1 have deemed it to be my duty to be thus 
 particular in explaining to you the causes for 
 my making the certificates of stock in the forms 
 you see them, and I hope this will be the last 
 time I shall have occasion to trouble you on 
 this very unpleasant business. 
 "With &c. 
 
 "NATHAN LUFBOROUGH, 
 
 " Acting Comptroller. 
 
 "Hon. Secretary of the Treasury." 
 
 The acting comptroller says, " to guard the 
 public against imposition, by preventing more 
 supplemental stock from issuing, in any case, 
 than is actually due." This is the most pre- 
 posterous pretence that could be penned, the 
 books of the treasury govern the issue, and the 
 papers themselves carry the evidence ; no addi- 
 tional protection was necessary, had there been 
 any, a thousand other checks could have been 
 adopted, without infringing the rights of those 
 who had lent their money. 
 
 Mr. Dallas adopted this plan of the acting 
 comptroller, and directed it to be carried into 
 effect; yet nothing was done for a week. 
 
 In the hope that the opinion of so distin- 
 
 guished a lawyer as the Hon. Wm, Pinkney, 
 of Baltimore, late Attorney General of the 
 United States, if it corresponded with the view 
 I had taken of the subject, would have an in- 
 fluence with the Secretary, I addressed to that 
 gentleman a note in words and figures follow- 
 ing: 
 
 " Mr. Barker will thank Mr. Pinkney to ex- 
 amine the Secretary of the Treasury's circular 
 letters of the 2d of May and 31st of August, 
 1814, and inform him whether the persons who 
 had stock in the ten million loan, on the day 
 more favorable terms were allowed for a por- 
 tion of the twenty-five million loan, are entitled 
 to the additional stock for the difference be- 
 tween 80 and 88, or whether it belongs to such 
 persons as may happen to hold the stock when 
 government delivers the additional stock. On 
 the payment of the money, government fur- 
 nished ordinary six per cent, stock to the 
 amount of one hundred dollars for each eighty- 
 eight dollars paid. The said original stock 
 did not contain any condition or other evidence 
 of its being entitled to the benefit of the addi- 
 tional stock. The whole question rests on the 
 condition contained in the Secretary's circular 
 
 "November 23, 1814." 
 
 Mr. Pinkney replied: 
 
 "1. I suppose that the person who held 
 stock in the ten million loan on the day when 
 a part of the sum of $25,000,000, authorized to 
 be borrowed by the act of the 4th of March, 
 1814, was borrowed on terms more favorable 
 to the lenders, was entitled, the moment such 
 new borrowing was effected, to the benefit of 
 those terms. His right to that benefit, was per- 
 fected by the coincidence of the two facts, the 
 borrowing by the government and the holding 
 of the stock by him. The word 'then' in the 
 letter of the 2d of Mav, 1814, can refer only to 
 the epoch of the borrowing on terms more 
 favorable to the lenders. It is impossible to 
 make it refer to any other epoch without direct 
 violence to the whole sentence. 
 
 " 2. If the right to the benefit in question 
 was completely vested in the holder of the stock 
 in the ten million loan as soon as the borrow- 
 ing on terms more favorable to the lender took 
 place, I do not think that he is to be con- 
 sidered as having transferred it by a new sub- 
 sequent assignment of the stock itself. 
 
 " The right to the benefit is collateral to the 
 stock, and rests upon an enjoyment distiuct 
 from that which is the evidence or certificate 
 of the stock. It is not made assignable by the 
 certificate, as the stock itself is, for the certifi- 
 cate of stock takes no notice of it, and con- 
 sequently does not even recognize it. An 
 assignment of the stock, before the borrowing 
 on the new terms, would doubtless have the 
 effect of entitling the assiguee to the benefit of
 
 OPINION OF MR. PINKNEY. 
 
 91 
 
 the new terms ; but it would Lave that effect, 
 for no other reason than that it would bring 
 the assignee within the collateral contract, by 
 making him holder of the stock at the time of the 
 borrowing on the new terms. Such an assign- 
 ment of the stock as would not make the 
 assignee holder of the stock at that time ; or, 
 in other words, an assignment alter that time, 
 would not so bring the assignee within the 
 collateral contract, and would not, therefore, 
 give him the benefit of that contract, unless it 
 can be shown that this benefit was by the cer- 
 tificate of stock made assignable as a consti- 
 tuent part of the stock, and under the name of 
 the stock, which cannot be pretended. 
 
 " The engagement of the Secretary of the 
 Treasury relates exclusively to the person who 
 should happen to hold the stock when the new 
 borrowing should take place; and the certifi- 
 cate leaves that engagement exactly as it 
 found it. That person, whoever he might be, 
 had, of course, upon the instant of the borrow- 
 ing, a right to receive the difference between 
 the price of the two loans, which would be so 
 complete that nothing could make it better. 
 This right, arising out of the first contract, 
 existed in him from that time, i. e., from the 
 time of the new borrowing, independently of 
 stock with which it never was incorporated, 
 although the holding of the stock on the day 
 of the new borrowing was made the condition 
 of its existence, and no subsequent act, amount- 
 ing to a transfer of the stock itself while the 
 government delayed to comply with its en- 
 gagement, could vary the right, already per- 
 fect, to have that engagement fulfilled, or could 
 pass it to another. 
 
 "Asfar as analogy can be brought to influence 
 this question, it is in favor of the claim of the 
 holder of the stock when the new borrowing 
 took place, and against that of a subsequent 
 holder. Interest and dividends of stock already 
 due are never understood, as, I believe, to pass 
 by the sale of the stock which has produced 
 them, and yet interest and dividends are the 
 direct offspring of the stock and the sole ob- 
 jects of it. The reason is, that interest, or a 
 dividend already due, has acquired an existence 
 separate from the stock from which it sprung, 
 is no longer dependent upon it, and has given 
 birth to a new right to which the continuance 
 of the title to the stock itself is not in any de- 
 gree necessary. This reason is conclusive here, 
 although if the rule had been otherwise, in the 
 case of interest or a dividend, it would not have 
 been conclusive the other way; because a rule 
 is here given by an express engagement which 
 one of the parties is not at liberty to modify 
 by notions deduced from supposed analogies. 
 I am not aware of any inconvenience (which 
 could found the argument ah inconvenienti) 
 likely to result from an admission of the claim 
 of the holder of the stock at the era of the new 
 borrowing, since the public books will show 
 who was that holder ; nor can I perceive that 
 
 the probable intent of the parties, or the pro- 
 priety of the thing, favors the claim of a sub- 
 sequent holder. On the contrary, I think that 
 every consideration which belongs to the sub- 
 ject recommends the admission of the claim of 
 him who held the stock at the time when the 
 claim became complete under the terms of the 
 contract to which it owes its being. 
 
 "WM. PINKNEY." 
 " November 25, 1814." 
 
 Upon receiving Mr. Pinkney's opinion, I 
 presented it to Mr. Dallas. 
 
 He observed that he entertained a high re- 
 spect for Mr. Pinkney's opinion, but as the 
 case was decided, declined reading it. 
 
 New difficulties suggested themselves to the 
 treasury officers, which, coming to my know- 
 ledge, on the 1st of December I presented a 
 written paper, of which the following is a copy : 
 
 " There is not a single reason why the pre- 
 sent stock in the ten million loan should be 
 cancelled and new stock issued therefor, nor is 
 there a single reason why a distinction should 
 be made between the new stock (if new stock 
 should be issued for the present stock) and the 
 supplementary stock. 
 
 " Mr. Barker totally objects to having the 
 stock certificates embarassed with ambiguous 
 sentences on their face. If a mark of distinction 
 is necessary, a figure or a letter will answer 
 every purpose. He thinks it is useless to can- 
 cel the present stock, and that the holders will 
 not do it. When each loan officer receives the 
 order to issue the additional stock, he has only 
 to make out the certificates in the ordinary 
 way (in the ten million loan) for the supple- 
 mentary stock in favor of the persons who may 
 then hold the stock, and not suffer any transfer 
 to be made until he has delivered the additional 
 stock to such persons, which will effectually 
 peevent confusion, mistake, or fraud, and gives 
 full effect to the Attorney General's opinion." 
 
 This remonstrance had no effect, as after a 
 further delay of many days the instructions 
 which had been prepared for the loan officers 
 at the different places to carry out the views of 
 the treasury were transmitted to the proper 
 officers, as follows : 
 "circular to certain commissioners of loans. 
 
 "Treasury Department, 
 
 " Comptroller's Office, Nov. 30, 1814. 
 
 Sir: I enclose, for your information and 
 government, a copy of a notification, bearing 
 date this day, issued by the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, respecting additional stock to be is- 
 sued to the subscribers, or those claiming 
 under them, to the loan of ten millions of dol- 
 lars of the 2d May, 1814. 
 
 " The additional stock in question is to be 
 issued to the persons holding, at the time of
 
 92 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 application for the additional stock, scrip cer- 
 tificates, or funded certificates of stock of the 
 aforesaid loan of ten millions of dollars, and 
 not to those who may have held the said cer- 
 tificates on the 31st of August last, the day on 
 ■which a part of the loan for six millions of 
 dollars was taken, unless they shall also hold 
 them at the time of application for the addi- 
 tional stock. 
 
 "The loan of 2d May, 1814, having been 
 effected at the rate of one hundred dollars in 
 stock for eighty-eight dollars in money, and 
 the loan of August, 1814, having been made 
 at the rate of one hundred dollars in stock for 
 eighty dollars in money, the amount of addi- 
 tional stock which the holders of the stock of 
 May, 1814, are entitled to receive, is ten dol- 
 lars on every hundred dollars of the stock they 
 may now hold. The additional stock thus to 
 be issued is, in conformity with the opinion of 
 the Attorney General of the United States, to 
 bear interest from the same day as the original 
 stock, to which it is an appendage. This fact 
 will be ascertained from the face of the original 
 certificate, in all cases where no dividend and 
 transfer on it have been made and declared; 
 and in cases where a dividend and transfer 
 have been made and declared, by having re- 
 course to the books of the treasury, or to those 
 of the Commissioner of Loans where the divi- 
 dend was declared. You will be pleased to 
 take care that no mistakes be made in regard 
 to the commencement of interest on the sup- 
 plemental stock. Where the dividends have 
 been declared on books other than those of 
 your office, you will, of course, obtain a certifi- 
 cate of the fact as to the time from which the 
 stock originally bore interest, from the Com- 
 missioner of Loans on whose books the divi- 
 dend may have been declared, or, if declared 
 at the treasury, from the Register of the Trea- 
 sury. 
 
 "Persons possessing a general and regular 
 power of attorney to transfer stock in the ten 
 million loan, and holding the stock, are to be 
 considered as entitled to the additional stock ; 
 and where a power is produced authorizing a 
 transfer to a particular person, that person is 
 to be considered as entitled to the additional 
 stock. In every case where the supplementary 
 stock may be applied for, and before it can be 
 delivered, the original certificate in the hands 
 of the party, at the time of such application, 
 is to be surrendered to you, and cancelled; 
 and, in lieu of it, you will issue a new certifi- 
 cate for the same amount, entitled 'Funded 
 six per cent, stock of 1814; loan of ten mil- 
 lions of dollars of the 2d May, 1814, on which 
 the supplemental stock has issued,' together 
 with a separate certificate, for the amount of 
 the supplemental stock, entitled ' Supplemental 
 funded six per cent, stock of 1814; loan of 
 ten millions of dollars of 2d May, 1814.' 
 
 "On the original certificate, thus surren- 
 dered, there must be an assignment by the 
 
 proprietor, or his attorney, agreeably to the 
 forms herewith, marked B. You will perceive 
 that the accounts of the old stock are to be 
 closed on your books, and new accounts opened, 
 corresponding with the alteration in the funded 
 certificates hereafter to be issued; a supply of 
 which will be transmitted to you by the Regis- 
 ter of the Treasury. 
 
 "You will make out duplicate abstracts of 
 the certificates of supplemental stock issued 
 by you, agreeably to the enclosed form, marked 
 C; one of which abstracts you will forward to 
 this office, quarter-yearly, and file the other in 
 your office. 
 
 "The separation which is to be made of the 
 original and supplemental stock is done for 
 the accommodation of the holders, to enable 
 them, if they choose, to establish hereafter the 
 identity of the latter, and its connexion with 
 the ten million loan. 
 
 "Although it is intended that different ac- 
 counts of the ten million loan are to be opened, 
 yet the whole amount on your books may be 
 included in one dividend. 
 
 "For such scrip certificates of the loan of 
 ten millions of dollars as may remain to be 
 funded, you will, on application being made to 
 fund them, issue a certificate of 'Funded six 
 per cent, stock of 1814, loan of ten millions 
 of dollars of 2d May, 1814, on which the sup- 
 plemental stock has issued,' at the rate of be- 
 tween eighty and eighty-eight, or ten per cent. 
 on the amount of the original certificate. 
 
 "It is proper to apprize you, that the Attor- 
 ney General has given an opinion to the Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury, setting forth, among 
 other things, that the condition in the letter of 
 the Secretary of the Treasury, of the 2d May, 
 1814, to the subscribers for the ten million 
 loan, ' attached as soon as the second loan 
 was made, (the loan of August, 1814;) that, 
 on the happening of that event, it (the con- 
 tract) no longer remafined opened and execu- 
 tory, subject to all the variations in price which 
 might mark subsequent loans, until the whole 
 twenty five millions should be exhausted.' 
 This opinion has been adopted at the treasury, 
 and the supplemental stock, now authorized to 
 be issued, is deemed to be in full of all de- 
 mands upon the government for further issues 
 of stocks in the ten million loan, under the 
 contract above mentioned. It is not thought 
 necessary, however, to take any release to this 
 effect from the stockholders, on delivering 
 them the supplemental stock. 
 
 "I am, very respectfully, &c, 
 
 "NATHAN LUFBOROUGH. 
 
 " To William Gardner, Benjamin Austin, 
 Charles Ellery, Jonathan Ball, Wm. Few, Ed- 
 ward Hall, Thomas Nelson, Thomas Leh're, 
 Sherwood Haywood, William White. 
 
 "Note. The words ' scrij) czriificate or' in 
 the second paragraph, and the whole of the 
 paragraph commencing with the words ' for
 
 UNSOLICITED TREASURY DRAFT. 
 
 93 
 
 such scrip certificates,' were omitted in the 
 letters to the Commissioners of Loans in Vir- 
 ginia and North Carolina. 
 
 By these instructions the reader will perceive 
 that the holders of funded stock in the ten mil- 
 lion loan are required not only to surrender 
 their certificates, but also to assign the same 
 to the United States, and accept in lieu thereof 
 new certificates declaring on their face that the 
 supplemental stock had been issued. These 
 instructions contain also notice that the Attor- 
 ney General had given it as his opinion that 
 the contract no longer remained open and exe- 
 cutory, subject to all the variations in price 
 which might mark subsequent loans, until the 
 whole twenty-five millions should be exhausted; 
 that the Treasury had adopted that opinion, 
 and that the supplemental stock then to be 
 issued was deemed to be in full of all demands 
 on the government for further issues of stock 
 in the ten million loan under the contract of 
 the 2d of May; carefully avoiding to state that 
 no release would be required, and that the rights 
 of the holders would remain with themselves, 
 and their remedies with Congress, as had been 
 determined by the President of the United 
 States and Secretary of the Treasury, as set 
 forth in the preceding letter. Why withhold 
 that fact? Could there have been any other 
 object than to destroy the beneficial effect of 
 the condition on the market value of the par- 
 ticular stock to which it referred? This object 
 he distinctly avows to have in view, as the 
 reader will have seen in his letter to the Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury dated the 24th of the same 
 month. 
 
 Being thus discomforted by the exertion of 
 power, I left Washington, first addressing 
 through the columns of the National Intelli- 
 gencer a letter to the parties interested, as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 "Washington, December 6, 1814. 
 
 "Gentlemen: The Treasury Department dif- 
 fers with me in opinion on several points in re- 
 lation to your rights. The construction I put 
 npon the contract, being supported by the opin- 
 ion of many professional men of the first stand- 
 ing in theUnion, induces me to believe the Trea- 
 sury Department has sanctioned a mistaken view 
 of the subject. And as it has published its opin- 
 ion on an important point, I herewith send for 
 publication the opinion of one of the most able 
 professional men in America on that point, whose 
 reasoning on the subject appears to me to be so 
 applicable, clear, and conclusive, that it must 
 
 carry conviction to the mind of every unpreju- 
 diced man. 
 
 "With great respect, I have the honor to be, 
 your assured friend, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 "To the Proprietors of the Stock in the Tkb 
 
 Million Loan." 
 
 "Navy Department, October 2, 1816. 
 
 "Sir: I request you to purchase immediately 
 for the account of the Navy Department £25,000 
 sterling, say twenty-Jive thousand pounds ster- 
 ling, in undoubted bills, amount of which shall 
 be transmitted to you in a draft of the United 
 States Treasury Department upon a bank in 
 New York city. 
 
 "You will be pleased to furnish a statement 
 of the bills, with the addition of your commis- 
 sion of one-quarter per cent., upon which the 
 draft will issue, and the amount of bills will be 
 passed to your credit against the warrant for 
 like sum. 
 
 " In case you cannot procure the whole 
 amount at six and a half advance, be pleased 
 to advise of the deficiency, that it may be pro- 
 cured in Boston. 
 
 " I am, respectfully, sir, 
 
 "BENJAMIN HOMANS. 
 
 " By order of the Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 "Jacob Barker, esq., New York." 
 
 Notwithstanding all the differences of opin- 
 ion between Mr. Barker and the treasury, he 
 so far retained their confidence as for them to 
 have sent him, unsolicited, about one hundred 
 and seventy thousand dollars, to be invested in 
 exchange at his discretion, as appears by their 
 letters, as follows : 
 
 "Nayy Department, October 7, 181G. 
 
 " Sir : Your letter of the 5th instant, with its 
 enclosures, has been received. 
 
 "A warrant has this day been issued in your 
 favor for $118,G29 14, the probable cost of 
 £25,000 sterling. 
 
 " You will furnish this department with a 
 statement of the bills purchased by you for ac- 
 count thereof, regularly signed, which will be 
 placed to your credit by the accountant of the 
 navy. 
 
 "N. B. It is necessary that the endorsers 
 should be responsible persons. 
 
 "I am very, respectfully, your obedient ser- 
 vant, 
 
 " BENJAMIN HOMANS. 
 
 "By order of the Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 "Jacob Barker, esq., New Yori:." 
 
 "Treasury of the United States, 
 " Washington, October S, I 
 "Sir: Enclosed vou will find my draft (No. 
 6,876) on G. B.Yroom, cashier, tor 81 Is. 629 14, 
 the amount of waraut No. 6,073, issued by the
 
 94 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 Secretary of the Navy, on receipt whereof be 
 pleased to favor me with an early acknowledg- 
 ment, specifying the sum received. 
 
 "With due consideration, I am, sir, your 
 obedient servant, 
 
 "TH. T. TUCKER, 
 u Treasurer of the United States. 
 "Jacob Barker, esq., New York." 
 
 The question of establishing a national bank 
 continued before Congress. In a conversation 
 with the committee to whom it had been re- 
 ferred, I solicited them to name the commis- 
 sioners for New York in the bill from among 
 the petitioners, naming David M. Clarkson, 
 John Wells, and Isaac Lawrence, as the most 
 suitable. 
 
 A national bank is understood to be a mer- 
 cantile establishment, so immediately and inti- 
 mately connected with commerce that I believed 
 mercantile men were particularly fitted to su- 
 perintend the organization of such an institu- 
 tion. It was one of the few opportunities which 
 Congress had of giving a place of distinction to 
 a merchant, which I had believed would induce 
 them to do so in part without hesitation ; at all 
 events, I thought that so much of the business 
 as was to be done in New York would be en- 
 trusted to distinguished persons who had been 
 long residents there. 
 
 The persons recommended by me for this 
 honorable employ are too well known to require 
 remark; and as to those who were selected by 
 Mr. Dallas in preference, they were not mer- 
 chants, neither of them had ever been a mer- 
 chant. One is an inhabitant of Suffolk county, 
 one of Dutchess county, and one of Connecticut, 
 all temporarily in New York. 
 
 Mr. King, chairman of the senatorial com- 
 mittee to whom the petition had been referred, 
 reported, on the petition of Daniel M. Clarkson 
 and others, citizens of New York, praying 
 the establishment of a national bank, a bill 
 to incorporate the subscribers to the Bank 
 of the United States of America, which was 
 read and passed to a second reading. Not- 
 standing the Philadelphia feeling against New 
 York triumphed, and a bill passed both houses 
 of Congress establishing a national bank at 
 Philadelphia, which was defeated at that ses- 
 sion of Congress by the news of peace, as the 
 reader will soon learn. 
 
 On reaching New York, I made immediate 
 application to the Commissioners of Loans for 
 
 the supplemental stock ordered so far as the 
 original stock was held for my account ; the 
 system adopted by the treasury occasioned 
 so much labor, that little was done before the 
 books closed. From Boston I received a let- 
 ter, dated 19th December, 1814, from my agent, 
 which stated that the Treasury Department had 
 not yet furnished the Commissioner of Loans 
 at that place with the blanks, nor pointed out 
 to him the mode of proceeding; therefore, I 
 shall have to wait until after new year for the 
 principal part of my supplementary stock, and 
 another quarter before I can receive the in- 
 terest due on a large amount thereof; a further 
 difficulty was experienced by its having been 
 made necessary to procure the return of all the 
 stock sent to Europe, with powers of attorney 
 from the holders of stock in Europe, before the 
 supplemental stock could be obtained thereon. 
 That which I sent could not be sold in Eng- 
 land, as will be seen by the following: 
 [Extract.] 
 
 "London, December 23, 1814. 
 " We cannot express to you the pain and 
 trouble of mind your sending to us stock of the 
 new loan (raised by your government for the 
 sole purpose of carrying on a war against this 
 country) has occasioned us. 
 
 " We shall return you the stock as it came, 
 not daring to entrust it to any notary for the 
 regular documents, as it would disclose the 
 affair ; this letter may enable you to obtain 
 the transfer. 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 "J. J.EVANS & CO., 
 " THOMAS MULLET." 
 
 Secretary Campbell, in his report to Con- 
 gress, on the 23d September, 1814, says : 
 
 " Moneys have been heretofore obtained by the 
 United States, on loan, in Europe, upon favor- 
 able terms, and the punctuality and fidelity 
 with which they were repaid has established 
 its credit there on a firm and respectable foot- 
 ing ; it was determined, in consequence of the 
 difficulties experienced in obtaining at home 
 the sums required for the public service, to try 
 the market in that quarter ; to effect this pur- 
 pose, the requisite powers and instructions 
 have been given for negotiating a loan for six 
 millions of dollars, as a further part of the loan 
 of twenty-five millions authorized by the act of 
 24th March last ; and in order to facilitate this 
 object, six per cent, stock to that amount has 
 been constituted and transmitted with direc- 
 tions for its sale, if that shall be found the 
 most advantageous for obtaining the money." 
 
 No money was obtained in Europe, the effort
 
 FIVE MILLIONS LOANED IN ONE YEAR. 
 
 95 
 
 to sell the stock there shared the fate which 
 attended my efforts in that direction. 
 
 Secretary Dallas, in his report to Congress, 
 says, that three millions had been borrowed 
 under the law of November loth", 1814. 
 
 I have not been able to ascertain the facts 
 attending this loan, probably obtained on simi- 
 lar terms as those allowed on the 31st of 
 August ; and it is believed that Mr. Dallas 
 sold some stock in the ten milion loan at 80, 
 receiving therefor the depreciated paper of 
 the banks of Washington. These terms being 
 the same as those allowed on the 31st August, 
 enabled the Secretary to say, on the 18th Feb- 
 ruary, 1820, in reply to an enquiry by the Sen- 
 ate in relation to Mr. Barker's petition, " that 
 no money was raised by loan under the act 
 authorizing a loan of twenty-five millions of 
 dollars, subsequent to the 31st of August, 1814, 
 upon terms more favorable to the lenders than 
 the loan of 2d May, 1814;" in place of which 
 he should have stated the terms upon which 
 all the loans had been made ; had he done so, 
 the treasury would have been deprived of the 
 pretence that it did not know of the deprecia- 
 tion when it made the contract on the 31st of 
 August. This pretence, not applying to trans- 
 actions after Mr. Dallas came into power, 
 which was more than six weeks after the fail- 
 ure of the banks, even if the fact had been as 
 thus assumed, it could not avail anything; as a 
 protection intended to have been given by the 
 condition was, that the contractors for the ten 
 million loan should, at all times, be enabled to 
 go into the market on equal terms with the 
 contractors for any other part of the twenty- 
 five million loan. 
 
 Whether the depreciated paper was origi- 
 nally contracted for, or subsequently accepted 
 by the treasury, it had the same effect on the 
 market price of stock. 
 
 That the holders of the stock in the ten mil- 
 lion loau are not on a par with those who made 
 subsequent contracts is manifest; the latter 
 could sell stock at 60 in Boston, purchase bro- 
 ken bank notes at a discount of 20 per cent., 
 obtain from the treasury stock therefor at 80, 
 and make a profit by the operation of 10 per 
 cent., while the contractors for the ten million 
 loan, if they settled at 80, would lose 10 per 
 cent. 
 
 When I contracted, I did not take ad- 
 
 vantage of the distresses of the nation and 
 squeeze hard terms out of the government. I 
 did not, as I might fairly have done, say, "you 
 must now allow me seventy-five or eighty; you 
 shall not have my money without you do so j 
 none others have offered it, and your distresses 
 are such as will compel you to agree thereto;" 
 in place of which I accepted of the Secretary's 
 own proposition, 88, with the condition, although 
 that was above the market price, knowing that 
 if the anticipated peace took place, the con- 
 dition would be valueless. 
 
 I had not the power, and therefore did not 
 make offers for the six million loan. I had 
 lent all the money I could raise, as it were, 
 without price, saying, "go all over the world 
 and borrow money for the residue of your 
 wants on the best terms in your power, and I 
 will be satisfied with your allowing me the 
 same terms you allow to others." This was 
 agreed to, the experiment made, and now, after 
 I have run all the risks, the benefits thereof 
 are withheld. 
 
 When the second contract was made, Wash- 
 ington had been the previous week destroyed ; 
 the cabinet dispersed ; Baltimore besieged ; 
 New York and Philadelphia, and many other 
 places expecting an attack ; an immense force 
 invading Plattsburg ; our whole coast block- 
 aded ; our merchants in the most awful dis- 
 tress ; the treasury nearly empty, and scarcely 
 able to feed and clothe the men called in from 
 the country to defend the aforementioned ci- 
 ties; the recollection of these things should at 
 least have protected Mr. Campbell from cen- 
 sure. A fair opportunity was given to every 
 individual in the nation to have lent the money 
 on terms more favorable to government, if they 
 had thought proper to have done so. 
 
 When it is considered that within less than 
 one year I paid into the treasury more than five 
 millions of dollars, in specie or its equivalent, I 
 hope that the magnitude of the amount, and the 
 difficulty of raising money during that year, will, 
 in the estimation of the public, entitle me to the 
 creditof having not only made every exertion in 
 my power to promote the general welfare, but 
 of having performed as much as was possible for 
 any individual to have done under similar cir- 
 cumstances ; and I hope that those who are inter- 
 ested with me in the question will be satisfied 
 that I understood, and did not shrink from vin-
 
 96 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 dicating their rights. I am of the opinion that 
 Mr. Dallas will do me the justice to say that I 
 pressed the claims of the parties with zeal. The 
 difficulties he has had in his endeavors to bor- 
 row the trifling sums wanted, to pay a single 
 quarter's interest, will give him a little idea of 
 the difficulties I had to overcome in procuring 
 so large au amount. 
 
 Since writing the preceding, I received ad- 
 vice from Philadelphia, that the Secretary of 
 the Treasury had not been enabled to borrow, 
 at that place, the trifling sum necessary to pay 
 the quarter's interest due on stocks on the 
 books of Pennsylvania the first of the present 
 month, and therefore, that he could not pay it, 
 except in Baltimore paper money, which I de- 
 sired my agents to receive, as I wished to invest 
 the amount in specie to enable me to place my 
 stock in the bank which CoDgress are about 
 establishing. They accordingly received pay in a 
 draft on Baltimore, of which the following is 
 a copy : 
 
 "Bank of Pennsylvania, Jan. 5, 1815. 
 
 ["No. 14,] 
 " Cashier of" the Mechanics 1 Bank, Baltimore, 
 " Pay to the order of Jacob Barker, esq., 
 
 fifteen hundred seventy-six 3-100 dollars, to be 
 
 paid in the notes of said bank. 
 
 "JON. SMITH, Cashier: 1 
 
 "$1570 3-100." 
 
 This draft I put into the hands of my broker 
 for sale, with orders to invest the amount in 
 specie. After he had made the necessary en- 
 quiry, he informed me that he could not sell it 
 for less than seven per ceut. discount, payable 
 in New York bank paper; and that for such 
 paper he could not purchase specie for less 
 than twenty per cent, premium; inconsequence 
 of which, and understanding that I could do 
 better at Philadelphia, I took back the draft 
 and returned it to that place, with orders to 
 convert it into specie ; which was done on 
 such terms, as for the fifteen hundred and sev- 
 enty-six 3-100 dollars, due in specie from gov- 
 ernment, I have received only twelve hundred 
 and sixty 33-100 dollars, which is a conclusive 
 exemplification of the difference between the 
 depreciated paper which government received 
 for their contract of the 31st August, 1814, and 
 the money which they received for the ten mil- 
 lion loan. 
 
 Mr. Barker, being unable to procure from the 
 treasury a settlement of the several questions 
 
 which had arisen under his contract of the 
 2d May, 1814, petitioned Congress, which pe- 
 tition was referred by the Senate to Wm. H. 
 Crawford, the then Secretary of the Treasury, 
 to which he responded on the 18th of Febru- 
 ary, 1820, saying, among other things: 
 
 " Without determining that the construction 
 given by the Attorney General to the terms of 
 the loan of the 2d May, 1814, was correct, it 
 was an act of justice to the community to make 
 it known as soon as it was formed. So long as 
 the expectation should be entertained, that a 
 loan might be negotiated more unfavorable to 
 the government than those which had been pre- 
 viously obtained, the price of the stock to 
 which the contingency was attached would be 
 affected by the possibility of its occurring." 
 
 Here is a distinct admission that the treasury 
 was aware of the effect of its measures on the 
 market price of stock, and of their designing 
 to destroy the value of the condition allowed 
 for the ten million loan. 
 
 The reader will observe how carefully Mr. 
 Crawford avoided ratifying the previous action 
 of the treasury. 
 
 The committee to whom it was referred, not 
 having been furnished by the treasury with all 
 the facts of the case which appeared on the 
 records of the department, came to the conclu- 
 sion that the ten per cent, supplementary stock 
 had been accepted in full satisfaction of all 
 claims which had arisen from the condition. 
 
 The delay in the settlement, with other disap- 
 pointments in the financial and commercial af- 
 fairs of Mr. Barker, imposedonhim the necessity 
 of making an assignment, following up the claim 
 by another petition to Congress, furnishing evi- 
 dence from the treasury books, that receiving 
 the ten per cent, supplemental stock was not to 
 be considered a full settlement of the question; 
 on the contrary, that it was agreed that the 
 rights of a further issue should remain with the 
 holders of funded stock, and their remedies 
 with Congress; which petition was also referred 
 to a committee, who, in their report say, in 
 effect, that the petition disclosed the fact of the 
 assignment, therefore Mr. Barker had no right 
 to petition. A strange conclusion this ; had the 
 prayer been granted, provision could have been 
 made for the payment to, or the consent of, the 
 assignees ; beyond this, the assignment did not 
 change the relation of the parties to each 
 other. 
 
 A petition was presented, by the assignees, to
 
 PETITION OP ASSIGNEES TO CONGRESS.. 
 
 97 
 
 a subsequent Congress, giving a succinct his- 
 tory of the affair, in which they remarked, 
 among other things, that — 
 
 " The former committee do not appear to 
 have noticed in their report, that the paper re- 
 ceived by the treasury, in fulfilment of the 
 second contract for the ten million loan, was 
 dishonored and depreciated, not only below the 
 specie standard, but greatly below the value of 
 New York bank notes, on which rests princi- 
 pally the claim of your memorialists. 
 
 u Whether Mr. Barker, by his insolvency, lost 
 the right of petitioning your honorable body, a 
 right secured to all by the constitution, cannot, 
 in the opinion of your memorialists, affect the 
 intrinsic merits of the question, since his credi- 
 tors cannot be considered also to have been 
 disfranchised by the " fact disclosed ;" which 
 fact is of public record, and could not have 
 happened without a previous notice of many 
 weeks in the newspapers at this place and at 
 Albany, according to the law ; and if it was 
 otherwise, it is believed that when your honora- 
 ble body reflect, that if the stock which became 
 due to Mr. Barker on the olstof August, 1814, 
 had been issued to him, his insolvency could 
 not have happened ; and that as soon as your 
 honorable body cause it to be issued, it will re- 
 lieve him therefrom, you will not consider his 
 having assigned his effects for the benefit of 
 his creditors, and that his person might, under 
 the benign influence of our laws, be exempt 
 from imprisonment, as furnishing a valid objec- 
 tion to a claim otherwise founded in the immu- 
 table principles of justice, as defined by the 
 unvarying laws of this land. 
 
 "In justification of Mr. Barker's having pe- 
 titioned, it may not be deemed amiss to state 
 that at the time he petitioned he held the power 
 of attorney of the assignee under the law to 
 collect and hand over all monies due him at 
 the date of his surrender under the aforesaid 
 law of this State ; and that he held then, and 
 still holds, a very great equitable interest in 
 the said claim ; the same, by the aforesaid con- 
 struction, amounting to more than ten times 
 as much as all the existing claims against 
 him. 
 
 "Upon the whole, your memorialists, respect- 
 fully requesting that yonr honorable body will 
 take into consideration all the facts and circum- 
 stances relating to the case in question, and 
 that they will either authorize the Attorney 
 General to agree to a statement of facts, to be 
 submitted to the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, to be decided by the same principles of 
 law and equity as if they had occurred between 
 individuals, or that they will grant such other 
 relief as may be equally calculated to sustain 
 the character and dignity of the nation. And 
 they humbly pray your honorable body to bear 
 in mind the declaration under which that part 
 of the supplemental stock due which has been 
 
 k 
 
 issued was delivered to the holders of stock in 
 the ten million loan, which was, as"Set forth in 
 the Comptroller's letter of the 22d of Novem- 
 ber, 1814, that 'their rights (for the residue) 
 will still remain with themselves, and their 
 remedies with Congress. 1 " 
 
 "And your memorialists, as in duty bound, 
 will ever pray. 
 
 "RICHARD R. WARD, 
 "FITZ G. HALLECK, 
 "JACOB LITTLE." 
 
 This petition was referred to the Judiciary 
 Committee of the House of Representatives, on 
 which no satisfactory action was had until 
 1834, when Mr. Barker asked and obtained 
 permission to appear before it. He did so, 
 accompanied by the Hon. Abijah Mann, a 
 member of Congress from New York. His ex- 
 planations induced the committee to call on 
 the treasury for information. The Secretary 
 of the Treasury and Comptroller responded as 
 follows : 
 
 " Treasury Department, 
 " Comptrollers Office, Jan. G, 1835. 
 " Sir: I have the honor to state, in answer to 
 the inquiries contained in the Hon. Mr. Foster's 
 letter to you of the 30th ultimo, and referred 
 by you to me, that there does not appear in this 
 office any other information on the subject of 
 Mr. Barker's claim than what is embraced in 
 the pamphlet accompanying the letter. There 
 are no documents on file which go to show 
 that 'the government knew that the District 
 and Baltimore bills, which it agreed to receive 
 at par, were depreciated at the time of the loan 
 negotiated by D. A. Smith on 30th of August, 
 1814.' 
 
 "I herewith return to you the letter and pam- 
 phlet. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, very respectfully, 
 your obedient servant, 
 
 "JOS. ANDERSON, 
 " Comptroller. 
 " The Hon. Levi Woodbury, 
 "Secretary of the Treasury." 
 
 " Treasury Department, 
 
 ''''January 27, 1 - >. 
 
 "Sir: In reply to your communication en- 
 closing ' the statement of Jacob Barker rela- 
 tive to the ten million loan of May 2, 1814,' I 
 have the honor to inform you that there is 
 nothing on file in this department which will 
 throw any additional light on the claim of Mr. 
 Barker. 
 
 " There is nothing in the records on files of 
 this office to show that at the time this loan 
 was negotiated by I). A. Smith the District and 
 Baltimore bills, which the government agreed
 
 98 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 to receive, were depreciated here. I transmit 
 herewith a report from the Comptroller, which 
 states there are no documents in his office to 
 show that the government were aware of any 
 such depreciation. 
 
 " I am, very respectfully, your obedient ser- 
 vant, 
 
 "LEVI WOODBURY, 
 u Secretary of the Treasury. 
 " Hon. Thos. F. Foster, 
 
 " Chairman Com. on the Judiciary, 
 
 " House of Representatives." 
 
 These letters admit the receipt of the depre- 
 ciated paper and the accuracy of Mr. Barker's 
 statement, placing the defence of the treasury 
 on the supposition that it did not know of the 
 depreciation when they contracted on the 31st 
 August. Whether they knew or not, as before 
 stated, was not material ; it was the receipt of 
 the depreciated paper at par and giving stock 
 for it at eighty which constituted the claim. If it 
 was not known when the contract was made, 
 it was known before the instalment days came 
 round, the last of which was the 10th of De- 
 cember, when Mr. Dallas had been near two 
 months in office. A great proportion of this 
 depreciated paper was received by him ; con- 
 sequently immaterial. 
 
 However, that the treasury did know of the 
 depreciation, when it contracted on the 31st 
 August, is as manifest as noonday light. 
 
 The Secretary of the Treasury writes, on the 
 the 17th October, 1814, in answer to a letter 
 of inquiry from John W. Eppes, chairman of 
 the Committee of Ways and Means : 
 
 "The benefits even of this paper currency is in 
 a great measure lost, as the suspension of pay- 
 ments in specie at most of the banks has sud- 
 denly broken the means of accommodation 
 that previously extended the credit and the 
 circulation of the notes which were emitted in 
 one State into every State of the Union. 
 
 •■'It may, in general, be affirmed, therefore, 
 that there exists at this time no adequate cir- 
 culating medium common to the citizens of the 
 United States. 
 
 "The mouied transactions of private life are 
 at a stand, and the fiscal operations of the 
 government labor with extreme inconvenience." 
 — (See Book of Finance, vol. 2. page 366.) 
 
 Mr. Barker set about procuring information 
 to satisfy the committee on that point; he being 
 under the necessity of leaving Washington for 
 New Orleans before the proofs were received, 
 Mathew St. Clair Clarke, esq., clerk of the House 
 of Representatives, undertook to perform this 
 
 service. The sickness and absence of witnesses, 
 with a press of other business, prevented its 
 being done in season for the committee to re- 
 port before the adjournment of Congress. Mr. 
 Barker has been informed that they were 
 unanimously of the opinion that he had made 
 out a very strong case, on which subject the 
 deposition of D. A. Smith, esq., and sundry 
 letters, were received, which are as follows : 
 
 "Uxited States of America, ) , 
 
 " State of Maryland, j t0 Wlt : 
 
 "I, John Gill, notary public by letters patent 
 under the great seal of the State of Maryland, 
 commissioned and duly qualified, residing in 
 the City of Baltimore, in the State aforesaid, 
 do hereby certify, attest and make known, that 
 on the day of the date hereof before me per- 
 sonally appeared Dennis A. Smith, of Balti- 
 more county, in the State of Maryland, and 
 made oath on the Holy Evangely of Almighty 
 God, that he resides in Baltimore county, in 
 the State aforesaid ; that on or about the 30th 
 August, 1814, he contracted with the Secretary 
 of the Treasury to loan to the United States 
 the sum of one million eight hundred thousand 
 dollars, being part of the 25 million of dollars 
 authorized to be borrowed by the act of Con- 
 gress of the 24th March, 1814, for which sum, 
 to be loaned by deponent to the United States, 
 he was to receive six per cent, stock to the 
 amount of $100 for each $80 paid; and it was 
 further understood and agreed between the 
 Secretary of the Treasury and him (deponent,) 
 that he (deponent) should pay for the same in 
 paper of ihe Banks of the District of Colum- 
 bia, and of the Banks of the City of Baltimore, 
 which banks their own paper at par ; and it 
 was further agreed that, on producing the pro- 
 per evidence of the payment of the said sum 
 of one million eight hundred thousand dollars 
 to the Commissioner of Loans of the United 
 States, funded stock to the amount of $100, bear- 
 ing interest of six per cent, per annum, should 
 issue for each $80 of the paper of the said 
 banks, the one million eight hundred thousand 
 dollars aforesaid, and did receive therefor 
 funded stock to the amount of two millions 
 two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; that 
 the said banks in whose paper this deponent 
 paid the said one million eight hundred thou- 
 sand dollars did not, at the time deponent so 
 paid, redeem their notes with specie ; that the 
 bank notes paid by deponent to the Secretary 
 of the Treasury were, at least, twenty per cent, 
 below the par value of silver and gold, and 
 that fact was well known to the Secretary of 
 the Treasury, and was a matter of notoriety, of 
 which an act having been ot me requested, I 
 have granted these presents to serve and avail 
 as need and occasion may require. 
 
 "In testimony whereof, the said appearer has 
 hereunto subscribed his name, and 1, the said
 
 DEPRECIATION OF PAPER CURRENCY. 
 
 99 
 
 notary, have hereunto set my hand and affixed "Hoping to hear from you, I am your obe- 
 my notarial seal the 11th day of March, 1835. I dient servant, 
 
 "D. A. SMITH. "M. ST. CLAIR CLARKE. 
 
 "JNO. GILL, [l. s.]i "Jacob Barker, esq." 
 "Notary Public" 
 
 "January 26, 1835. 
 
 "My Dear Sir: I have intended to do my- 
 self the honor of calling at your house for 
 three or four days, in respect to the subject of 
 your note of the 19th current, but a multi- 
 plicity of engagements have prevented. 
 
 "I am informed that the Judiciary Commit- 
 tee have decided substantially in favor of Mr. 
 Barkers claim, but they wish to have proof 
 that the government not only contracted for a 
 subsequent loan on betters terms, but that they 
 knew beforehand that the paper they were to 
 take was below par when they contracted. 
 
 "This I presume can be furnished. 
 
 "It is proper for me to reserve my own 
 opinion upon the merits of the matter. 
 "Yours, respectfully, 
 
 "A. MANN, jr. 
 
 "Washington-, February 10, 1835. 
 
 "Dear Sir: The very papers which I urged 
 you to leave with me have become the turning 
 point with the committee. 
 
 "The deposition of Dennis A. Smith going 
 to establish the fact that the paper received 
 from him in payment of his loan was below 
 par. and the banks not paying specie. 
 
 "Prime, Ward and Sands' certificate, &c, 
 &c. Mr. Foster has called on me for proof 
 that when the Secretary took up the loan from 
 Smith, he knew that the paper agreed to be 
 received was below par. 
 
 " To this I answered, that to convict him of 
 the actual knowledge was impossible; but if I 
 proved the fact to be so notorious that it was 
 his duty to know what everybody else knew, 
 would that not be considered sufficient. He 
 intimated that it would. 
 
 "On the 18th page of your pamphlet you 
 find the affidavit of D. A. Smith, and the cer- 
 tificate of P., W. and Sands. You must get 
 P., W. and Sands to make oath instead of a 
 certificate, and also to state the fact was 
 notorious to all commercial men, especially 
 those who dealt in stock and money, and send 
 it on to me forthwith. 
 
 "I have sent to Smith a copy of his deposi- 
 tion, and desired him to repeat it with the 
 addition, if possible, of the difference between 
 these notes and specie, and the notoriety of 
 that difference. 
 
 "I shall also get a deposition or two here, 
 if I can ; might you not add one or two others 
 in New York. 
 
 "I should not wonder if we get a bill reported 
 ordering the difference to be paid at once. 
 
 "New York, February 13, 1835. 
 
 "Dear Sir: Your letter of the 10th instant 
 came to hand yesterday, in reply to which I 
 have to inform you that Mr. Jacob Barker is 
 absent at New Orleans, where he will probably 
 remain until July next. 
 
 "I applied to Messrs. Prime, Ward and 
 Sands, and am sorry to say that Ward, the 
 only partner from whom I could get the neces- 
 sary certificate, is very ill — so much so that 
 he cannot be seen; 1 cannot, therefore, jret 
 the paper required until he recovers, which 
 will probably take some time. 
 
 "Mr. Prime has retired from business, in the 
 country, and Mr. Sands is dead. 
 
 "I have made exertion to get some other 
 certificates, and I regret that I have not suc- 
 ceeded, in consequence of the persons being at 
 the south to whom I applied. 
 
 "I shall, however, make further exertions to 
 procure certificates, and, if I succeed, will 
 forward them immediately. 
 
 "Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 "WM. H. BARKER, 
 
 "Mattiiew St. Clair Clarke, esq." 
 
 On this subject, Governor Kent, member of 
 the United States Senate from Maryland, re- 
 marked, in a speech before that body on the 
 23d of April, 1834: 
 
 "Notwithstanding the existence of the cir- 
 cumstances thus propitious, our public agents 
 could not be influenced by that good old adage 
 'Let well enough alone;' but they must try an 
 experiment upon the currency, a vital part of 
 the social system, if that could be called an 
 experiment which had before been tried and 
 totally failed. Sir, this scheme was fully tested 
 from 1811 to 1816. I was here an actor in 
 the scenes of those days, and well remember 
 the ruinous consequences that resulted from 
 them. The experiment made then soou ter- 
 minated in a paper currency of a description 
 so bad that I shall not undertake to describe it. 
 It continued to depreciate until it became so 
 worthless that the members of Congress refused 
 to receive it in payment for their per diem 
 allowance. They were paid in treasury notes 
 and drafts on northern banks where specie 
 payments had never been discontinued, and 
 those were sold for a premium which was 
 pocketed by the members, whilst their consti- 
 tuents were obliged to receive the depreciated 
 paper money in payment for their hard earn- 
 ings. What the people individually lost, and 
 what the government lost during the five years 
 that this first experiment was going on, and 
 which embraced the whole period of the late
 
 100 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 Avar. I will not attempt to estimate. We know 
 that there is enough of the trash of that day 
 now remaining in the public treasury, called un- 
 available funds; which, with the interest added 
 to it, would be sufficient to complete the Chesa- 
 peake and Ohio canal, the Baltimore and Ohio 
 railroad, and the Delaware breakwater, three 
 great and magnificent public works intimately 
 connected with the future prosperity of the 
 country. 
 
 "Sir, it is known to most of those whom I 
 have the honor to address, that the government 
 was obliged, during the greater part of the 
 late war, in making their loans, to give one 
 hundred dollars in stock of the United States, 
 bearing six per cent, interest, for eighty dollars 
 of this depreciated paper money, worth about 
 sixty-five dollars. On one occasion, the gov- 
 ernment was reduced so low that the Secretary 
 of the Treasury was compelled to entreat an 
 individual to obtain a loan of eighteen hundred 
 thousand dollars, at one hundred of stock for 
 eighty of this depreciated money, and which 
 was to have a retrospective effect upon a pre- 
 vious loan : in consequence of which it cost the 
 people of the United States twenty-nine hundred 
 thousand dollars, independent of interest, be- 
 fore it was paid off. The same individual was 
 intreated, at the same time, to procure an ad- 
 ditional loan of this depreciated paper money 
 at eight per cent. It has been well believed 
 that the most, if not all, of those losses could 
 have been avoided, if there had been, at that 
 time, a sound currencv, such as a national bank 
 would have given us. I know this was the 
 opinion of one of the purest and wisest men 
 that ever participated in the councils of this 
 country." 
 
 That the Secretary was apprised of the de- 
 preciation when he made the contract is too 
 manifest to admit of a doubt; it might as well 
 be supposed that he did not know that the 
 Capitol had been burned, as, in the face of all 
 these facts, to suppose that he did not know of 
 the depreciation. 
 
 Mr. Barker insists that the depreciation was 
 known at the treasury on the 31st August, 1814, 
 as deducible from the following facts: 
 
 1st. The banks of Baltimore and of Washing- 
 ton had suspended payment, and sent oft' all 
 their specie before the British entered Wash- 
 ington, which was on the 24th of August. 
 
 2d. That they did not resume specie pay- 
 ments until after the United States Bank was 
 established in 1817. 
 
 3d. The Bank of Columbia established an 
 office in the Treasury Department on the return 
 of the cabinet to Washington, where all the 
 business of the government was conducted by 
 
 Richard Smith, esq., with depreciated paper, 
 and no other payments could be obtained by 
 those having claims on the treasury. The daily 
 applicants were numerous, and their complaints 
 to the Secretary loud and incessant, at being 
 obliged to receive paper which had no circulation 
 beyond the localities of the banks issuing it. 
 
 The Secretary, in his report to Congress of 
 the 23d September, 1814, says: 
 
 4th. " The difficulties already experienced in 
 obtaining loans, and the terms on which it has 
 been found necessary to accept them, suffi- 
 ciently show the propriety of Congress adopting 
 effective measures for procuring the sums still 
 required, for the service of the residue of the 
 present as well as for that of the ensuing year. 
 
 " The suspension of payments in specie by 
 many of the most considerable banks in the 
 United States, and of those most important in 
 the money operations of the treasury, has pro- 
 duced, and will continue to cause, difficulties 
 and embarrassments in those operations. The 
 circulating medium of the country, which baa 
 consisted principally of bank notes, is placed 
 upon a new and uncertain footing, and those 
 difficulties and embarrassments will extend in 
 a greater or less degree into the pecuniary 
 operations of the citizens in general. The 
 powers of Congress, so far as they extend, will 
 be required to be exerted in providing a remedy 
 for these evils, and in placing, if practicable, 
 the currency of the country on a more uniform, 
 certain, and stable footing." 
 
 5th. Congress, by the recommendation of 
 Mr. Dallas, passed a law on the 15th of No- 
 vember authorizing these suspended banks to 
 loan to the government three millions of this 
 paper, and the Secretary advertised on the same 
 day, offering to take approved bank paper for 
 such loan. 
 
 6th. The Secretary says, in his report to Con- 
 gress on the 2d of December, (see Book of Fi- 
 nance, vol. 2, page 878,) that, being unable to 
 use the depreciated bank paper on hand in the 
 payment of dividends, it had been transferred 
 to the army and navy. 
 
 He also states that specie had been offered 
 below seventy-five, and therefore rejected. He 
 further says (see same book, page 841 to 845,) 
 that, unable to procure as much money as 
 would pay the interest and the treasury notes 
 maturing at Boston and other northern cities, 
 these creditors must wait. 
 
 Mr. Dallas in his report says $6,122,457 32 
 had been borrowed in local currency, and
 
 HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE. 
 
 101 
 
 $3,161,587 06 in treasury notes. — (See Reports 
 on Finance. 2d vol., page 57.) 
 
 7th. When peace took place stock and trea- 
 sury notes improved in price, while the depre- 
 ciated paper of the District of Columbia under- 
 went no amelioration, yet the Secretary con- 
 tinued to refuse to borrow specie, to which the 
 soldiers who had fought and won our battles 
 and others were entitled ; continuing to ex- 
 change government securities for this depre- 
 ciated paper, and paying it out at par, to the 
 profit of the treasury of $32,107 64, as reported 
 by him to Congress December 15, 1816, saying 
 to those hungry applicants " that he was sorry 
 that he had not anything better in which to pay 
 them ; that they were under no obligation to 
 take it ; that if they did not like it, they had 
 only to wait, till the treasury had something bet- 
 ter to offer." 
 
 The Secretary says in his report that the ob- 
 ject of a law authorizing a loan of $12,000,000 
 was to aid the treasury with a supply of the 
 local currencies of different places. 
 
 8th. The testimony of Dennis A. Smith and 
 Governor Kent. 
 
 Mr. Barker visited Washington several times 
 after this, but could not get a hearing before 
 the committee until June, 1854, when he ap- 
 peared before it and went as fully into the sub- 
 ject as the time allowed would permit. A 
 member being under the necessity of attending 
 to business before the House, suggested to Mr. 
 Barker to reduce to writing what further he 
 had to say. He did so in the committee room, 
 while waiting for the member to return, that 
 being necessary to form a quorum. It was as 
 follows : 
 
 " The intention of the condition was to pro- 
 tect the holders of the stock against a depre- 
 ciation by a future issue of stock at a less 
 price, which was certain to occur in case the 
 war continued, the necessities of the govern- 
 ment requiring the whole 25 millions, Congress 
 having adjourned without making any other 
 provision except the issuing of treasury notes. 
 
 " The manifest meaning of the law and of 
 the condition was, that the government should 
 continue to borrow under that law until the 
 whole amount should be obtained ; hence, put- 
 ting it on the shelf and borrowing under a new 
 law was a palpable violation of faith. 
 
 " Cutting off the holders of full stock in the 
 ten million loan from all further benefit from 
 the condition, on granting more favorable 
 terms for a small portion of the loan, while one 
 
 half of the 25 millions remained uncontracted 
 for, was an invasion of the vested rights of 
 those who had lent their money in good faith, 
 relying on the promise that, ' if more favor- 
 able terms should be allowed for any portion 
 of the 25 million loan, the holders of the full 
 stock in the ten million loan should have the 
 benefit thereof.' 
 
 " The holders of this stoc*k were deprived of 
 the benefit of the condition by the unlawful 
 action of the treasury as effectually as if they 
 had yielded to the first imposition attempted, 
 and subscribed the release attempted to be ex- 
 torted from them by withholding the supple- 
 mental stock to which they had become en- 
 titled. 
 
 " These holders depended on the market 
 price, having to sell their stock daily to get 
 money to meet their own engagements; they 
 were dealers, not mere money lenders ; had it 
 been otherwise, the injustice would have been 
 the same, although the injurious consequences 
 would have been less severe. 
 
 " Refusing the supplemental stock when it 
 became due, and then giving it to those who 
 had not any title, because the unlawful with- 
 holding had obliged the holders to part with 
 their certificates, was an invasion of rights 
 vested in the holders of full stock in the ten 
 million loan ; these certificates did not make 
 any reference to the condition ; they were sep- 
 arated from the contract which conferred the 
 right of the supplemental stock in terms on 
 the holders of the stock, when the more favor- 
 able terms should be allowed. 
 
 " It was not negotiable except by special 
 assignment. The practice of the government 
 and the States is to issue bonds with coupons 
 attached for the interest. If payment of the 
 interest should be refused, and the parties by 
 the defalcation be compelled to detach his ma- 
 tured coupons from the bonds and sell them, 
 their payment could not be refused to the new 
 holders because he did not also hold the bonds. 
 " It is the universal practice of the treasury 
 of the United States and of each State, to pay 
 the matured coupons when presented, without 
 requiring the certificates of stock or inquiring 
 who holds them, although these bonds promised 
 the interest on their face. 
 
 " For all the full stock in the ten million 
 loan the government received specie or its 
 equivalent; hence, when they relused specie 
 and took depreciated paper for other portions 
 of the 25 million loan, the holders of ft. 11 stock 
 in the ten million loan became entitled to the 
 beiifcfitof the difference, otherwise the intention 
 of the condition would be defeated; for instance, 
 a man with $80 specie could purchase £100 
 of this depreciated paper, and for it receive 
 $125 in stock, and thus drive the holders of the 
 tin million stock out of the market, or compel 
 them to sell it at a loss of IS per cent., while 
 the holders of the stocks obtained for the de- 
 preciated paper sold their stock at cost.
 
 102 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 " The question has become much simplified 
 by the government having taken up all the 
 stock, and there being no other claimants than 
 the holders when the more favorable terms 
 were allowed, the treasury books establish who 
 they were. 
 
 '• The government will not claim this benefit 
 by virtue of this possession, because a debtor 
 paying only a part of his debt is not released, 
 without an express article of release or com- 
 promise. 
 
 ''Those who purchased after the notification 
 from the treasury that the condition had been 
 finally settled, and that nothing more would be 
 allowed, paid nothing for the condition and 
 cannot interpose a claim adversely to those 
 who paid for it, and they never have claimed 
 or pretended any claim. 
 
 '• Suppose there had been several contracts, 
 each more favorable than the preceding one, 
 would not the benefits have been divided 
 among the holders at each period, accord- 
 ing to each difference ; if not, no settlement 
 could have been made until the whole _5 
 millions had been borrowed. Consequently, as 
 this has not occurred and never will occur, the 
 government would never be bound on that con- 
 struction to have issued a dollar of supple- 
 mental stock. 
 
 " Making the continued holding necessary 
 would have impaired the chances of sale by the 
 holders to a ruinous extent. The stock certifi- 
 cates did not mention the condition which was 
 spread on the scrip certificates. 
 
 " This omission was for the avowed reason, 
 that it did not follow the stock beyond the 
 period when more favorable terms should be 
 allowed, while the certificates were intended to 
 be permanent. 
 
 " Whether or not the holders would have 
 been entitled to the benefit of further more 
 favorable terms, bad they been allowed by a 
 third contract, may not be material to enquire, 
 since they are willing to relinquish all other 
 claims on being allowed the difference between 
 the market value of specie and the depreciated 
 paper received for the loan of the 31st August, 
 1814." 
 
 No quorum of the committee could be had 
 after this, and the subject was therefore laid 
 over until the next session of Congress ; in the 
 interim, Mr. Barker received the following 
 letter: 
 
 '•Newport, R. I, September 28, 1854. 
 
 "My Dear Sir: Observing that the subject 
 of your loans to the United States during the 
 war of 181^ with Great Britain have lately 
 been before Congress, it may be useful to 
 know the opinion of the late Hon. Elisha R. 
 Potter, a member of Congress from this State 
 for many years, which I will detail. 
 
 "Mr. Potter was one of the strongest oppo- 
 
 nents of the war, and generally considered the 
 leader of the opposition in the House. 
 
 "While the war question was pending, or 
 measures for prosecuting it were before Con- 
 gress, a number of southern members came to 
 Philadelphia to spend the Christmas holidays, 
 and among them was the loved and lamented 
 William Loundes, of South Carolina, then a 
 member of Congress from that State, in whose 
 company I chanced to dine, and I heard him 
 say to the guests that Mr. Potter, cf Rhode 
 Island, was the strongest opponent they bad to 
 contend with, and but for him they could 
 easily carry out their war measures. 
 
 "I resided in the immediate neighborhood of 
 Mr. Potter, saw him frequently, and heard him 
 converse about the war and other subjects. 
 And after you had made some unsuccessful 
 attempts to get a settlement with the govern- 
 ment, he made to me the following statement: 
 
 '"I remember very well, during the war, when 
 Mr. Calhoun informed the House that there 
 was a gentleman in the gallery who would fur- 
 nish government with three million of dollars. 
 
 "'I looked above to see who was there that 
 was probably the person alluded to, but saw no 
 one that appeared competent to the task except 
 my old friend Thomas Hazard, and came to 
 the conclusion that he was the gentleman Mr. 
 Calhoun alluded to. 
 
 '"We had been acquainted all our lives, and 
 I knew it was next to impossible to divert him 
 from his purpose, but I was determined to make 
 the attempt. Being most decidedly opposed 
 to the war, I would let no opportunity pass 
 without an effort on my part to put an end to 
 it, believing the interests of the country would 
 be advanced by a speedy peace, which was 
 likely to result from the want of means to carry 
 on the contest. 
 
 " ' I therefore proceeded to that part of ike 
 gallery where Mr. Hazard was seated, and on 
 his rising, with extended hand, to receive me, 
 I said " "Is it thee that proposes to lend govern- 
 ment three million of dollars to carry on this 
 iniquitous war?"" He replied ""No, not me, 
 but my son-indaw, Jacob Barker. I will intro- 
 duce him to thee'"*- — and did so. 
 
 '•"I had observed," continued Mr. Potter, 
 'when your uncle came in there was a young 
 man with him, who I supposed was a nephew, 
 or some young gentleman of his acquaintance, 
 who had availed himself of the opportunity of 
 visiting the capital with one so favorably known 
 there, and on its being annouuced to me that 
 this was the person who proposed furnishing 
 government with so large an amount I was 
 surprised, but congratulated myself with the 
 hope that I should find but little difficulty in 
 dissuading so youthful looking a person from 
 engaging in what I then believed to be a very 
 hazardous enterprise. 
 
 "'Accordingly I seated myself beside him, 
 and used all the arguments in my power to 
 stop the negotiation, but without effect. I
 
 REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 
 
 103 
 
 found him as hard to move from his purpose as 
 I had expected to find the elder gentleman, 
 and after exhausting all my arguments upon 
 him in vain I gave it up. 
 
 '"Mr. Barker made the contract, and fur- 
 nished government with a very large amount at 
 a most critical and trying time, and, I believe, 
 at that period was the only man in the Union 
 that could and would have done it, and we 
 were enabled, with the means he furnished us, 
 to prosecnte the war. Without it I could see 
 no way but to make a peace on such terms as 
 we could, which I then believed would be for 
 the interests of the country, and I opposed that 
 contract, in all its stages, with all my might, 
 and did everything I could to prevent it. 
 
 " ' But it was a fair contract, and, as things 
 turned, of great service to the country ; and I 
 would now, if in Congress, do all in my power 
 to have it fulfilled ; and I think Mr. Barker 
 should petition for the allowance <if his claims 
 until obtained, or if not successful in his life- 
 time, direct his descendants to pursue the sub- 
 ject unceasingly until they succeed.' 
 
 "In our conversations, years afterwards, Mr. 
 Potter several times reverted to the subject, 
 and spoke of the double obligation Congress 
 was under to fulfil that contract, alluding to the 
 fact of Mr. Barker's coming forward and risk- 
 ing everything he had to aid the government at 
 the time of its greatest necessity. 
 
 u About the time you were negotiating tins 
 loan, I (as a school-boy) was passing through 
 New York, and stopped at your .house with my 
 father, who was also much opposed to the war, 
 and to your making the loan, and after urging 
 many arguments against it, said : ' But, Jacob, 
 the government itself may be so embarrassed 
 with this ruinous and expensive war that it will 
 not be able to pay, and fail, or break down be- 
 fore the war is ended.' 
 
 " You replied, ' If government fails, I am 
 willing to fail with it, property and everything 
 else are of little or no consequence compared 
 to the success of my country — I am willing to 
 risk everything I have for her.' 
 
 ''Afterwards, when the prospects e»f our coun- 
 try assumed a more favorable aspect, and oth- 
 ers were offering money to government, my 
 father often remarked that ' when everything 
 wore the most gloomy aspect for the country, 
 Jacob Barker was the only man willing to risk 
 his all to sustain the administration, but now 
 when there appeared little or no risk there were 
 plenty of patriots willing to furnish, on better 
 terms than were allowed to him, and Congress 
 seemed to have forgotten the state of things 
 that existed when he came forward, or they 
 would be willing to fulfil the contract they had 
 made with him.' 
 
 " Hoping your present application to Con- 
 gress will result favorably, I remain, with great 
 regard, yours trulv, 
 
 " ISAAC PEASE HAZARD. 
 
 "Jacob Barker, esq." 
 
 Congress re-assembled, when Mr. Barker ap- 
 peared again before the Judiciary Committee, 
 urging a decision ; his closing remarks were : 
 
 " I am told that lobby influence is essential to 
 the success of the claim, none has ever been 
 exerted, the members of Congress have not 
 been besieged at their hotels ; I have not, in 
 any case, sought the influence of the lobby, but 
 have always relied on the intrinsic merits of 
 my case. I am poor enough, God knows, yet, I 
 do not come here to ask charity, nor do I ask pay 
 for my patriotism, all I ask is justice."' 
 
 The committee proceeded to the investiga- 
 tion of the documentary evidence adduced, and 
 the consideration of the subject, which resulted 
 in the following report : 
 
 "THIRTY-THIRD CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION. 
 "in the house of reps., feb. 25, 1855. 
 
 " Mr. F. P. Staxtox, from the Committee on 
 "the Judiciary, made the following 
 
 "REPORT. 
 " The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was 
 referred the memorial of R. R. Ward, F. G. 
 IlaUcrk. and Jacob Little, assignees of the 
 estate of Jacob Barker, having had the name 
 wider consideration, submit the following 
 report : 
 
 "By the act of the 21th March, 1814, Coi." 
 gress authorized the President to borrow twen" 
 ty five millions of dollars. The Treasury De- 
 partment advertised for ten millions of this loan, 
 to be taken on the 2d of May following. On 
 that day a contract was duly executed with Mr. 
 Jacob Barker and sundry other persons For a 
 portion of these ten millions, upon the follow- 
 ing terms and conditions, to wit: 'eighty-eight 
 dollars in money for each hundred dollars in 
 stock; and the United States engage, if any 
 part of the sum of twenty-five millions of dol- 
 lars authorized to be borrowed by the act of 
 24th March, 1814, is borrowed upon terms 
 more favorable to the lenders, that the benefit 
 of the same terms shall be extended to the per- 
 sons who may then hold the stock, or any part 
 of it, issued for the present loan of ten mil- 
 lions.' 
 
 " The necessity for resorting to this condition, 
 in order to secure the negotiation of even a 
 part of the loan, can be explained only by the 
 extreme embarrassment of the treasury, and 
 the uncertainty of its future resources, depend- 
 ing, as they did, upon the conclusion of the ex- 
 isting war. These extraordinary terms, how- 
 ever, were not unexampled, and did not origin- 
 ate with these contractors. A similar condi- 
 tion, differing only as to the persons entitled to 
 the benefit of it, had been allowed to Messrs. 
 Girard & Parish, upon the negotiation of the 
 loan of March, 1813; and there can be no doubt 
 that the terms stipulated in 1814- were sug- 
 gested by those of the preceding year.
 
 104 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER 
 
 "It was known that the enemy was relying 
 largely upon the embarrassments of our finan- 
 ces, and it v/as a matter of the first importance 
 to obtain the necessary funds for carrying on 
 the war at almost any sacrifice. The effect of 
 success in obtaining this loan was expected to 
 be favorable to the negotiation of peace. In 
 that event, the government stock would have 
 advanced so as to render the condition attached 
 to the above loan of no consequence whatever. 
 But, in the opposite contingency, which actu- 
 ally did happen, it was apparent that there 
 would be a tendency to decline in the govern- 
 ment stocks, which would bring ruin upon the 
 contractors, without such a condition as that 
 which was actually adopted. It is well known 
 that, upon such occasions, contractors for gov- 
 ernment loans, to be paid in instalments, usu- 
 ally rely upon the sale or pledge of the stocks 
 received for one instalment, in order to meet 
 the next. It is apparent, therefore, that in the 
 present case the contractors who took the loan 
 above its market price must, without the con- 
 dition, have suffered immense losses from the 
 continued depression of the market, owing to 
 the prolongation of the war. The terms of the 
 contract were perfectly legitimate, and afforded 
 only a fair security to the parties who, in that 
 dark period of our history, patriotically stepped 
 forward and risked their fortunes for the sup- 
 port of the government. 
 
 "In July following (1814) the government 
 advertised for another sum of six millions, part 
 of the twenty-five million loan, to be closed on 
 the 22d August next thereafter. This loan en- 
 tirely failed. The British forces entered the 
 city of Washington on the 24th of that month. 
 The banks of New York, and all south of that 
 city, suspended specie payments. The banks 
 of Baltimore and Washington sent off all their 
 valuable effects upon the approach of the ene- 
 my, and the members of the government dis- 
 persed, and did not again reassemble in Wash- 
 ington until after the evacuation of the city by 
 the British army, which took place on the night 
 of the 26th. On the 30th the Secretary of the 
 Treasury opened new negotiations for six of 
 the twenty-live millions authorized to be bor- 
 rowed as above stated. On the following day, 
 the 31st August, 1814, a contract was made 
 with the officers of the Baltimore and District 
 banks, and sundry other persons, for something 
 like two and a half millions of dollars, at eighty 
 per cent., payable in the depreciated paper of 
 the banks aforesaid. 
 
 " Upon the negotiation of this second part of 
 the twenty-five million loan, the holders of the 
 stock in the first part of the loan claimed the 
 performance of the condition incorporated in 
 the original contract. Upon this demand vari- 
 ous difficulties were started, of which the most 
 important were these : 
 
 " ' First. The Secretary of the Treasury in- 
 sisted that the parties entitled to the benefit of 
 the condition were not the parties holding the 
 
 first stock at the time of the second loan, but 
 the parties who held at the time of paying the 
 difference due on account of the condition. It 
 is apparent that this was a very material point, 
 and the position of the Secretary was in direct 
 conflict with the express terms of the contract. 
 This point, however, becomes less important, 
 as it is understood that the parties claiming the 
 supplemental stock have settled this question 
 among themselves. The committee, neverthe- 
 less, refer to the correspondence of the depart- 
 ment, and especially to the opinion of Mr. 
 Pinckney hereto appended, in which the full 
 discussion of this question will be found. 
 
 " ' Second. The Secretary of the Treasury in- 
 sisted, that upon the negotiation of the second 
 loan under the law of 1814, and upon the issu- 
 ance of the supplemental stock for the differ- 
 ence, in conformity with the terms of the con- 
 tract, the condition was exhausted, and the gov- 
 ernment might thereafter negotiate portions of 
 that loan upon any terms, without incurring 
 any additional obligations to the holders of the 
 original stock. Such was the decision of the 
 Attorney General, and the Secretary of the 
 Treasury acted upon it, for the express pur- 
 pose — as stated in the letter of the acting Comp- 
 troller of the 24th November, 1814 — of giving 
 notice to the subsequent purchasers of the stock 
 thatthestipulations contained inthecontraethad 
 been fulfilled ; ""or, in other words, that every- 
 thing relating to that contract, so far as respect- 
 ed the stock in existence, was deemed at the 
 treasury to be settled and closed." " The effect 
 of these proceedings must have been at once 
 to reduce the value of the original stock in the 
 market ; for it is plain that the condition at- 
 tached was an important element in the esti- 
 mate of its value. Indeed, the published let- 
 ters of the department avow the purpose of 
 notifying subsequent purchasers to prevent 
 their paying the additional value given to the 
 stock by the continuance of the condition. The 
 committee cannot concur in the decision of this 
 point, and they believe that nothing but the 
 great embarrassments of the treasury .would 
 ever have induced any public officer to place 
 such a construction upon the original contract. 
 It is well said by the memorialists, that if this 
 construction be correct, the treasury might 
 have equally exhausted the condition, and put 
 an end to the rights of the parties, by negoti- 
 ating any inconsiderable part of the loan at 
 one-eighth of one per cent, below the original 
 contract price, and then proceed to sell the 
 whole balance at a greatly reduced rate. Such 
 a construction would have placed it in the power 
 of the department to effect the complete ruin 
 of those who had generously aided the govern- 
 ment in its extremity.' 
 
 " It is true, however, that in adopting these 
 harsh and unjust measures, to the injury of the 
 holders of stock, the Comptroller of the Treas a v}\ 
 in his letter above quoted, says : ' No exaction 
 is made from them of any release whatever of
 
 REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 
 
 105 
 
 their rights and claims in this respect. Their 
 rights will still remain with themselves, and 
 their remedies with Congress.' But the officers 
 of the treasury do not seem to have had entire 
 confidence in the legality of their proceedings 
 and the soundness of their construction of the 
 the original contract; for, in a short time after- 
 wards, before the twenty five million loan had 
 been half exhausted, the Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury applied to Congress for power to make a 
 new loan, which was granted by the act of 15th 
 November, 1814. The 8th section of this act 
 expressly authorized the banks in the District 
 of Columbia to take any part of this new loan. 
 They accordingly did subscribe for it, paying 
 the amount in their own depreciated paper. 
 The effect of this statagem, if not its very 
 object, was to rid the government entirely of 
 the condition attached to the loan authorized 
 by the act of 24th March preceding. But while 
 the government was thus relieved from a trou- 
 blesome condition, the rights and interests of 
 the former contractors were wholly sacrificed. 
 Reasons of slate, arising from the emergencies 
 of the time, may have justified this evasion of 
 a fair and valid contract ; but it is doubtful 
 whether the strict maintenance of good faith, 
 on the part of the government, would not have 
 tended more to sustain its credit in the mar- 
 ket, and its strength in the confidence of the 
 people. However this may be, there can be 
 no question as to the propriety of doing com- 
 plete justice at the present time. 
 
 " The memorialists do not claim any re- 
 muneration for the injury done to the value of 
 their stock by notifying the parties that the 
 condition was exhausted ; or by the subsequent 
 act of setting aside the loan of March and re- 
 sorting to that of November. That these pro- 
 ceedings did result in great injury, must be 
 admitted from the very nature of things, 
 though it might be difficult to determine the 
 extent of loss incurred. But leaving these par- 
 ticulars entirely out of the case, the memorial- 
 ists place themselves upon the ground of a 
 single well-established fact, upon which they 
 claim what they believe to be an unquestionable 
 legal right. This fact is, that the loans nego- 
 tiated en the 31st of August, 1814, were taken 
 at the rate of eighty dollars in the hundred, 
 payable, and actually paid, indepreciated bank 
 paper. In settling with the holders of the 
 original stock upon the basis of this second 
 loan, the Secretary paid only the difference be- 
 tween eighty and eighty-eight, estimating the 
 depreciated bank paper, paid under the second 
 contract, as equivalent to so much specie. 
 The memorialists now claim the difference 
 between the value of money and the currency 
 in which the payments were stipulated and 
 received. 
 
 "It does not appear, so far as the committee 
 have been able to see, that the parties made 
 the claim in this form at the time of these 
 transactions. The only questions then dis- 
 
 cussed between the stockholders and the gov- 
 ernment were those already alluded to in this 
 report: first, as to the parties entitled to re- 
 ceive the supplemental stock; and, secondly, 
 as to the continuance of the condition afier the 
 second negotiation. But it will be readily 
 seen that, under the circumstances then exist- 
 ing, with the certainty that other negotiations 
 would be required for obtaining the balance of 
 the twenty-five million loan, the question which 
 is now so material was then of little import- 
 ance; because, upon any subsequent negotia- 
 tion, in which the terms might have been still 
 more favorable to the lender, the original stock- 
 holders would have been entitled to a sum 
 equal to the further depreciation of the stock, 
 and it was not very material whether that ad- 
 vantage continued attached to the original 
 stock or was added in the face of the supple- 
 mental stock. But the parties seem to have 
 been at the mercy of the department, and were 
 forced to receive whatever they could obtain. 
 The power of the government was exerted with 
 little regard to rights of the parties, and the 
 occasion was altogether unfavorable to the 
 assertion of the present demand, even if the 
 first contractors then knew the terms of the sec- 
 ond loan. But there is no evidence that they 
 were apprized of the fact that depreciated 
 paper was received, especially as the depart- 
 ment even now asserts that there is nothing 
 remaining on the books or records to show it. 
 
 "If the loan of the 31st of August was ac- 
 tually stipulated to be paid, or in fact was 
 paid, in a depreciated currency, the committee 
 do not see how the claim of the memorialists 
 cau be denied. In order to ascertain the facts, 
 application was made at the Treasury Depart- 
 ment for such information as could be furnished 
 from that quarter. But they received nothing 
 satisfactory in reply, as will be seen by the 
 correspondence appended. In looking, how- 
 ever, at, the history of the period, the testimony 
 presented, and the admissions made from lime 
 to time in the various treasury reports, the 
 committee cannot doubt that the facts are as 
 averred by the memorialists, and that the 80 
 percent, paid on the negotiation of the .'Us t 
 of August was entirely illusive, being paid in 
 the depreciated currency of the times. The 
 deposition of Dennis A. Smith, one of the con- 
 tractors, distinctly proves the fact. And it 
 further appears, that during the period from 
 the 20th of September to the 10th of December 
 following, in which the monthly instalments 
 were to be paid, the paper received varied from 
 ten to twenty-four per cent, below par. 
 
 "But, while the committee are satisfied of 
 these general facts, they deem it inappropriate 
 for them to attempt to determine, absolutely, 
 either the fact of depreciation in the funds re- 
 ceived at the treasury, or the amount to which 
 it would entitle the claimants. In their judg- 
 ment, however, it would be eminently just and 
 proper that the accounting officers of the treas-
 
 106 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 ury should be authorized to hear testimony 
 as to the fact and amount of depreciation, in 
 order that the faith of the government may be 
 redeemed, and the legal rights of the parties 
 under their contract with the government se- 
 cured, by paying the amount found to be due. 
 Considering with what cheerful patriotism Mr. 
 Jacob Barker gave bis energies, his eminent 
 financial talents, and his great pecuniary means, 
 to sustain his country in the darkest and most 
 perilous hour of the war of 1812, it can hardly 
 be supposed that Congress will deny him the 
 privilege of establishing, if he can, a clearly 
 legal demand, arising out of a recorded con- 
 tract, which, while it benefited the government, 
 resulted in his own ruin. The committee, 
 therefore, report a bill for the relief of the me- 
 morialists, and ask the favorable consideration 
 of the House." 
 
 A bill for the relief of R. R. Ward, F. G. 
 Halleek, and Jacob Little. 
 
 " Be it enacted by the Senate and House of 
 Representatives of the United States of America 
 in Congress assembled, That any person, or the 
 legal representative of any person, who, on the 
 thirty-first of August, eighteen hundred and 
 fourteen, was the holder of funded stock issued 
 in pursuance of the contract made on the sec- 
 ond of May, eighteen hundred and fourteen, 
 for part of the loan authorized by the act of 
 twenty-fourth of March, eighteen hundred and 
 fourteen, entitled ' An act to authorize a loan 
 for a sum not exceeding twenty-five millions 
 of dollars,' is hereby authorized to present his 
 or their claim to the Secretary of the Treasury; 
 and upon proof being made to the satisfaction 
 of the said Secretary that the part of said loan 
 of twenty-five millions subsequently taken by 
 other persons on the thirty-first of August, 
 eighteen hundred and fourteen, was payable, 
 or was actually received by the United States 
 in the paper of suspended banks, or in other 
 depreciated currency taken at par, the said 
 Secretary shall fairly estimate the amount of 
 such depreciation, and shall pay out of the 
 treasury to each one of the said holders of the 
 funded stock as aforesaid, such a per centum 
 upon the amount of stock then held by them, 
 respectively, as will be equal to the depreciation 
 of the currency aforesaid, so as to fulfill the 
 terms and conditions of the contract made as 
 aforesaid, on the second of May, eighteen hun- 
 dred and fourteen, between the United States 
 and the said contractors, for part of the twentv- 
 five million loan authorized by the said act of 
 twenty-fourth of March, eighteen hundred and 
 fourteen.'' 
 
 Immediately after the committee had closed 
 their deliberations and authorized their chair- 
 man to prepare a report, a law was passed 
 establishing the Court of Claims, to which all 
 
 cases on the private calendar of the House 
 were transferred by resolution. 
 
 The gentlemen who composed the Judiciary 
 Committee were the — 
 
 Hon. Frederick P. Stanton, Tennessee. 
 
 Hon. John T. Caskie, Virginia. 
 
 Hon. James Meacham, Vermont. 
 
 Hon. Oregon S. Seymour, Connecticut. 
 
 Hon. Sam'l W. Parker, Indiana. 
 
 Hon. Henry May, Maryland. 
 
 Hon. Hendrick B. Wright, Pennsylvania. 
 
 Hon. John Kerr, North Carolina. 
 
 Hon. F. B. Cutting, New York. 
 
 Great difficulty has heretofore been ex- 
 perienced in getting Congressional committees 
 to devote sufficient time to the investigation to 
 enable them to understand the subject. This 
 committee seemed to be duly impressed with 
 its importance ; and their honorable chairman, 
 Frederick P. Stanton, was particularly vigilant 
 in tracing out the facts which constitute the 
 merits of the case. They are such as must 
 convince every intelligent reader that the claim 
 is just; and the public being just, they feel in- 
 debted to their committee for their lucid ex- 
 pose of what every citizen is interested to 
 know. 
 
 Having given a full detail of matters relating 
 to finance during the war, the invasion of 
 Washington by a British army, their retreat 
 after burning the Capitol, and the sacking of 
 Alexandria by their licet, come next in order. 
 
 Mr. Barker thinks the battle of Bladeusburg 
 was more disastrous to the enemy than has 
 been generally supposed. He, a few days after 
 the battle, visited about fifty of their wounded 
 who had been left at Bladensburg, also the 
 graves of numerous British soldiers and officers 
 at that place. The accounts published in the 
 National Intelligencer of the 1st September, 
 1814, were as follows: 
 
 "The enemy continued last night still at 
 Alexandria, emptying the warehouses,as agreed 
 on in the capitulation, which will be found in 
 our columns ; a capitulation of such a nature 
 as the citizens of Georgetown indignantly re- 
 pelled an invitation to enter into. Two of the 
 frigates, or vessels-of-vvar, are said to have gone 
 down yesterday ; but there are, doubtless, others 
 below to supply their place." 
 
 "FURTHER PARTICULARS. 
 
 ["The following is. furnished the editors of 
 the Patriot by an officer of distinction, who 
 was in the battle.]
 
 BATTLE OP BLADENSBURG. 
 
 107 
 
 "The British left Bladensburg Thursday 
 night by the road to the Patuxent, carrying 
 with them as many of their wounded as forty- 
 nine horses could drag in wagons, carts, and 
 carriages. They left eighty-three wounded be- 
 hind and thirty men to take care of them; 
 among the former were two colonels and one 
 major. The last died a few hours after. It is 
 supposed their loss, in killed and wounded, 
 amounted to 500. The field and road in front 
 of Commodore Barney's battery was strew'd 
 with dead men and horses. None but officers 
 being on the latter their loss must have been 
 severe. Before the commodore ordered a re- 
 treat his horse was shot under him. He was 
 himself wounded, with several of his officers 
 and men ; and the enemy had surrounded his 
 brave band, having driven his right flank 
 (composed of regulars) from their post and 
 thereby got in his rear. General Ross ac- 
 knowledged his fire to have been tremendous, 
 and that his first gun laid ten of his men in the 
 dust. 
 
 "One advantage their men had over ours 
 was their carrying each from sixty cartridges 
 upwards. They, however, were so loaded with 
 their ammunition, knapsacks, &c, and were so 
 overpowered by their rapid march, that many 
 fell dead in the road. As they passed through 
 Bladensburg their mouths were open, gasping 
 for breath, and their officers were driving them 
 forward with their swords and espontoons. 
 Twelve were buried in one field that had not a 
 wound. 1 ' 
 
 On General Armstrong's return to Washing- 
 ton, he found the inhabitants in a state of 
 great excitement, a British fleet lying in full 
 view opposite Alexandria, sacking the stores of 
 the Quakers of their flour ; that they should 
 have been in a state of frenzy will not be 
 thought strange, when it is considered that the 
 Capitol had been lost ; that many of them had 
 been called out to defend it ; had been ex- 
 posed to great fatigue in marching and coun- 
 ter-marching, and finally ordered to retreat 
 without firing a gun, and no depot of stores or 
 camp equipage provided on which to fall back ; 
 they did not know, or if they knew, did not 
 remember, that these errors and omissions 
 could not properly be ascribed to a cabinet 
 minister, who is only a chamber officer, hence 
 their wrath was erroneously directed against 
 the Secretary of War, and a thousand false 
 reports circulated; among the number was, 
 that to favor the enemy he had caused Fort 
 Warburton to be blown up when it might 
 have been defended ; whereupon, the Secretary 
 sent an express to the commanding officer de- 
 
 manding an explanation ; his letter and the 
 answer thereto, were as follows: 
 
 " Wak Department, 
 
 "August 29, 1814. 
 "Sir: I send Captain Manigault with orders 
 to receive your written or verbal report of the 
 causes under which you left the post committed 
 to your charge. In this you will state the 
 orders under which you acted, and from whom 
 received. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, &c, 
 
 "JOHN ARMSTRONG. 
 " Captain Dyson, 
 
 " Corps of Artillery.' 11 
 
 " Camp at Mason's Island, 
 
 "August 29, 1814. 
 
 " Sir : I had the honor to receive your com- 
 munication of the 29th inst. The orders re- 
 ceived from Brigadier General Winder, through 
 Major White, verbally, on the 24th instant, were, 
 in case I was oppressed by, or heard of an enemy 
 in my rear, to spike our guns and make my 
 escape over the river. The enemy approached 
 by water on the 27th, and we had learned on 
 that day, through several channels, that the 
 enemy had been reinforced at Benedict 2,000 
 strong, and that ihey were on their march to 
 co-operate with the fleet, in addition to the 
 force which left the city. Under all these cir- 
 cumstances the officers under my command 
 were consulted, and agreed it was best to aban- 
 don the fort, and effect a retreat. The force 
 under my command was thought not equal to 
 a defence of the place. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, &c, 
 
 "SAMUEL T. DYSON, 
 
 " Captain Corps of Artillery. 
 
 "Hon. John Armstrong, 
 
 " Secretary of War, Wasltington." 
 
 For the protection of the city the Secretary 
 had put at the disposition of General Winder 
 a very large force, as appears by the following 
 letter: 
 
 " War Department, 
 
 "July 17, 1814. 
 
 "Sir: In addition to my circular letter of 
 the 12th inst., which subjects to your call the 
 quota of Maryland militia, you are also au- 
 thorized to draw from that of Virginia 2,000 
 men, and from the quota of Pennsylvania 
 5,000. The whole of the militia of the District 
 of Columbia, amounting to about 2,000, is 
 kept in a disposable state, and subject to your 
 orders. 
 
 " I am, sir, very respectfully, your most obe- 
 dient servant, 
 
 " J. ARMSTRONG. 
 
 "Brigadier General Winder.'' 
 
 To give time to sober reflection, and in the 
 hope that the angry passions of the vexed mul-
 
 108 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 titudes in and about Washington would yield 
 to truth and justice, the President recom- 
 mended General Armstrong to visit his family. 
 The General left on the morning followiug his 
 return ; on reaching Baltimore he caused a 
 publication to be made in the Baltimore Pa- 
 triot of the 3d of September, 1814, as follows: 
 
 •" LETTER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR. 
 
 il To the editors of the Baltimore Patriot: 
 
 " It may be due to myself, and is certainly 
 due to others, thai the reasons under which I 
 retired from the direction of the War Depart- 
 ment, at a juncture so critical as the present, 
 should be fully and promptly known to the 
 public. These reasons will be found in the 
 following brief expositions of facts. 
 
 "On the evening of the 29th ultimo the 
 President called at my lodgings and stated that 
 a case of much delicacy had occurred; that a 
 high degree of excitement had been raised 
 among the militia of the District ; that he was 
 himself an object of their suspicions and 
 menaces ; that an officer of that corps had 
 given him notice that they would no longer 
 obey any order coming through me as Secretary 
 of War ; and that, in the urgency of the ease, 
 it might be prudent so far to yield to the im- 
 pulse as to permit some other person to exer- 
 cise my functions in relation to the defence of 
 the District. 
 
 " To this statement and proposition I an- 
 swered substantially as follows : that I was 
 aware of the excitement to which he alluded ; 
 that I knew its source and had marked its 
 progress ; that the present was not a moment 
 to examine its more occult causes, objects, and 
 agents ; that it ostensibly rested on charges 
 known to himself to be false ; that it was not 
 for me to determine how far the supposed 
 urgency of the case made it proper for him to 
 yield to an impulse so vile and profligate, so 
 injurious to truth, and so destructive of order; 
 but that, for myself, there was no choice ; that 
 I could never surrender a part of my legitimate 
 authority for the preservation of the rest; that 
 I must exercise it wholly or not at all ; that I 
 came into office with objects exclusively pub- 
 lic; and that to accommodate my principles or 
 my conduct to the humors of a village mob, 
 stimulated by faction and led by folly, was not 
 the way to promote these ; and that, if his de- 
 cision was taken in conformity to the sugges- 
 tions he had made, I entreated him to accept 
 my resignation. This he declined doing. It 
 was an extent, he was pleased to say, to which 
 he meant not to go ; that he knew the excite- 
 ment was limited, as well with regard to time 
 as to place ; that he was now, and had always 
 been, fully sensible of the general zeal, dili- 
 gence, and talent which I had put into the dis- 
 charge of my duty ; and that it would give him 
 
 pleasure were I to take time to consider his 
 proposition. 
 
 " I renewed the assurance of my great per- 
 sonal respect, and my readiness to conform to 
 his wishes on all proper occasions. I remarked 
 that whatever zeal, diligence, and talent I pos- 
 sessed had been employed freely but firmly, 
 and according to my best views of the public 
 good, and that, as long as they were left to be 
 so exerted, they were at the service of my 
 country ; but that the moment they were made 
 to bow to military usurpation or political fac- 
 tion, there should be an end of their public ex- 
 ercise. We now parted, with an understanding 
 that I should leave Washington the following 
 morning. 
 
 " It has been since staled to me as a fact 
 (to which I give the most reluctant belief) that 
 on the morning of the 29th, and before my 
 arrival in the city, a committee of the inhabit- 
 ants of Georgetown, of whom Alexander C. 
 Hanson, editor of the Federal Republican, 
 was one, had waited on the President, by de- 
 putation, and had obtained from him a promise 
 that I should no longer direct the military de- 
 fences of the District. On this fact all com- 
 mentary is unnecessary. 
 
 "It but remains to exhibit and to answer the 
 several charges raised against me, and which 
 form the groundwork of that excitement to 
 which the President has deemed it prudent to 
 sacrifice his authority in declining to support 
 mine. They are as follows : 
 
 " 1st. That (from ill-will to the District of 
 Columbia, and a design to remove the seat of 
 government,) I gave orders for the retreat of 
 the army in the affair of the 24th ult., under 
 circumstances not making retreat necessary or 
 proper. 
 
 " This charge has not for its support the 
 shadow of truth. The commanding general 
 will do me the justice to say that I gave him 
 no such order, and that he was and is under 
 the impression that the retreat was made earlier 
 than I believed it to be proper. 
 
 "To the President I appeal whether I did not 
 point out the disorder and retreat of a part of 
 the first line soon after the action begau, and 
 stigmatize it as base and infamous. 
 
 " 2d. Thai, in spite of the remonstrance of 
 General Winder, and by the rnterposition of 
 my authority, I had prevented him from de- 
 fending the capital. 
 
 "This charge contains in it a total perver- 
 sion of the truth. When the head of the retiring 
 column leached the capital, it was halted for a 
 moment. General Winder here took occasion 
 to state to Mr. Monroe and myself that he was 
 not in condition to maintain another conflict, 
 and that his force was broken down by fatigue 
 and dispersion. 
 
 " Under this representation we united in 
 opinion that he should proceed to occupy the 
 heights of Georgetown. 
 
 " 3d. That I had withdrawn the covering
 
 PORTRAIT OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 109 
 
 party from the rear of Fort Washington, aud 
 had ordered Captain Dyson to blow up the fort 
 ■without firing a gun. 
 
 " This charge is utterly devoid of truth. The 
 covering party was withdrawn by an order from 
 General Winder, and Captain Dyson's official 
 report shows that the orders under which he 
 acted were derived from the same source, 
 though, no doubt, mistaken or misrepresented. 
 
 " 4th. That by my orders the navy yard had 
 been burned. This, like its predecessors, is a 
 positive falsehood. 
 
 " Perceiving that no order was taken for 
 apprising Commodore Tingey of the retreat of 
 the army, I sent Major Bell to communicate 
 the fact, and to say that the navy yard could 
 no longer be covered. The commodore was 
 of course left to follow the suggestions of his 
 own mind, or to obey the orders, if orders had 
 been given, of the Navy Department. 
 
 " 5th. Aud lastly, that means had not been 
 taken to collect a force sufficient for the occa- 
 sion. 
 
 "As the subject of this charge may very soon 
 become one of Congressional inquiry, I shall 
 at present make but a few remarks : 
 
 " 1st. That no means within reach of the 
 War Department had been omitted or with- 
 held ; that a separate military district, em- 
 bracing the seat of government, had been 
 created; that an officer of high rank and char- 
 acter had been placpd in charge of it ; that to 
 him was given full authority to call for sup- 
 plies and for a militia force of fifteen thou- 
 sand men ; that to this force was added the 
 36th regiment of the line, a battalion of the 
 38th, detachmentsof the 12th, of the artillery, and 
 of the dragoons, the marine corps, and the 
 crews of the flotilla under the special command 
 of Commodore Barney — making a total of 
 16,300 men. 
 
 " General Winder's official report of the en- 
 gagement of the 24th ult. shows how much of 
 this force had been assembled, and the causes 
 why a greater portion of it had not been got 
 together. These will be fouad to have been 
 altogether extraneous from the government, and 
 entirely beyond its control ; and — 
 
 11 2d. That from what is now known of the 
 enemy's force, of the loss he sustained in the 
 enterprise, of the marks of panic under which 
 he retreated, &c, &c, it is obvious that if all 
 the troops assembled at Bladensburg had been 
 faithful to themselves and to their country, the 
 enemy would have been beaten and the capital 
 saved. 
 
 "JOHN ARMSTRONG. 
 " Baltimore, September 3, 1814." 
 
 The facts attending the resignation of Gen- 
 eral Harrison and the appointment of General 
 Jackson were these: There had been a very 
 great expenditure of money — said to be some- 
 thing like twenty million of dollars — in the 
 
 Maiden expedition. The expense of the trans- 
 portation of each barrel of flour through the 
 wilderness is said to have cost little less than 
 a thousand dollars. This lavish use of money 
 alarmed the treasury, and crippled all the oper- 
 ations of the war in other directions. The War 
 Department, from the necessities of the case, 
 admonished General Harrison to be more pro- 
 vident in such strong terms that he took of- 
 fence, and resigned his commission, which the 
 then Secretary of War promptly accepted, with- 
 out consulting the President, who was absent 
 in Virginia; and it having been previously de- 
 termined in cabinet council to confer on Gen- 
 eral Jackson such an appointment as soon as 
 there should be a vacancy, the Secretary sent a 
 commission to him. 
 
 After the battle of Bladensburg, when the 
 British army was advancing on Washington, at 
 the request of President Madison's lady, Jacob 
 Barker and Robert G. L. Depeysler took from 
 the President's house the original portrait of 
 Washington, by Stuart. With it in charge, they 
 fell into the train of the American army, then 
 retreating past the house, continuing with it 
 until nightfall, when they turned off to a farm- 
 house near the margin of the Tiber, where they 
 passed the night and left the portrait for safe- 
 keeping. The American army encamped two 
 miles further on, and early the following day it 
 proceeded to Montgomery couit-house. 
 
 In the morning Barker and Depeyster seated 
 themselves on a fallen tree near a hotel, about 
 which many persons were congregating. Wish- 
 ing to proceed, Barker told a passing black 
 boy if he would go to a distant farm in view, 
 where there were several horses grazing, aud 
 procure a couple to take himself and his young 
 companion to the army, he would give him all 
 the money he had in his pocket, exhibiting it, 
 and saying, "Here are seven shillings.'' A 
 hard looking man, a butcher from Georgetown, 
 on horseback, hearing "shillings" mentioned, 
 eyed the strangers, spoke to the landlord, and 
 drove off at full gallop. Shortly after this De- 
 peyster said, "I am tired of sitting here, let us 
 proceed on foot." Barker replied, " Sit still, 
 we are prisoners ; that man," pointing to the 
 landlord, "is guarding us." "Impossible!"' 
 said Depeyster. Mr. Barker said, be quiet for 
 a few moments, and he would understand the 
 whole matter.
 
 110 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 In about fifteen minutes the butcher, accom- 
 panied by an officer and six or eight armed 
 troopers, all in uniform, and on horseback, came 
 galloping over the hill, halting at the tree. The 
 officer politely inquired of Barker and Depeys- 
 ter their names and residence. Their replies 
 were disputed by the butcher, who insisted that 
 they were English spies; that he had heard 
 Barker offer a black boy "shillings" to procure 
 horsps ; that if *,hey had such currency as shil- 
 lings, they must be Englishmen. This was too 
 much for the proud, youthful spirit of Depeys- 
 ter, who quickly rose from his seat, giving the 
 lie to the butcher. Barker took him by the arm, 
 begged him to resume his seat, and leave the 
 matter to him. He did so, and Barker inquired 
 of the officer what would be his course if they 
 were English. The officer replied, It will be 
 my duty to send you to the army to be tried as 
 spies. Barker rejoined, As we have no proof 
 at hand to establish our nationality, the sooner 
 you send us off the better; whereupon, the offi- 
 cer directed two of his troopers to dismount; 
 they did so, and Barker and Depeyster soon 
 occupied their vacated seats in the saddles. The 
 party rode off for the army, out of sight of the 
 butcher. The officer becoming satisfied who 
 these strangers were, gave them permission to 
 proceed at a more rapid rate, unaccompanied 
 by a single trooper. The weather was very 
 threatening. Barker profited by this indul- 
 gence, put spurs to his horse, while Depeyster, 
 feeling indignant at his arrest, preferred to go 
 as a prisoner to the army. They arrived in 
 season to escape a violent gust of wind and 
 rain, and had the honor of dining with General 
 Winder and General Armstrong. During din- 
 ner the colonels of two Virginia regiments 
 came in and reported the arrival of their regi- 
 ments, adding that the heavens had broke 
 loose ; that they had no means of feeding their 
 men, or sheltering them from the violence of 
 the storm then raging. The commanding gen- 
 eral replied, "Tell your men to go home to 
 their families. The whole material of the army 
 have crossed the Potomac into Virginia, leav- 
 ing us without meansof providing for our army." 
 Mr. Barker, amazed at such a state of things, 
 remonstrated, asking the general if he would 
 disband 2,000 troops anxious to fight, leaving 
 the capital of this country, not 15 miles distant, 
 in possession of an enemy only 4,500 strong. 
 
 The general replied, "Troops are pouring in 
 from every direction, and we shall have before 
 night, more men than we can feed." Mr. 
 Barker said, u Then send them on foraging 
 parties in every direction, but for God's sake 
 do not release a man." The two gentlemen 
 started immediately for Baltimore, where they 
 purchased all the hard bread to be found in the 
 city, obtained a requisition for teams from the 
 commanding officer of that city, and sent five 
 or six Pennsylvania covered wagons loaded 
 with biscuit the same night for the army, each 
 drawn by five horses. The expense attending 
 this proceeding was afterwards promptly re. 
 funded by government to Mr. Barker, allhough 
 incurred without authority. 
 
 The sudden tornado that occurred at this 
 time was so severe that it scattered the burning 
 fragments of the navy yard in every direction, 
 some of which fell into an old well in which the 
 Americans had thrown fifty kegs of powder, 
 when they abandoned the yard, which powder 
 exploded, killing and wounding very many of 
 the invaders. Their officers declared it to be 
 a damned Yankee trick, and, anticipating the 
 explosion of other mines at every step, they fled 
 to their ships under cover of the night. 
 
 After the lapse of a month or two, Mr. 
 Barker returned to the farm-house where the 
 painting had been left, and caused it to be 
 taken back to Washington, and delivered to 
 Mrs. Madison ; that good lady had it reinstated 
 in the White House as soon as it was rebuilt, 
 encircled by an appropriate frame. 
 
 The accuracy of a statement of this affair, 
 made by Mr. Barker and Mr. Depeyster, a 
 third of a century after its occurrence, was 
 questioned by Daniel J. Carroll, esq., when he 
 took occasion to indulge in some very extraor- 
 dinary remarks in relation to General Arm- 
 strong and Mr. Barker. 
 
 On the publication of Mr. Carroll's letter. 
 Mr. Depeyster applied to the venerable Mrs. 
 Madison for her version of the story. Her 
 reply appeared in the New York Express, with 
 a copy of a record made by herself on the 
 memorable day of its occurrence, which fully 
 confirms the statement of Messrs. Barker and 
 Depeyster: 
 
 "Washington, February 11, 1848. 
 
 "Dear Sir: I did not receive your favor 
 containing the newspapers, and therefore is
 
 RECORD OF MRS. MADISON. 
 
 Ill 
 
 my impatience to assure you of my gratitude 
 
 for the interest you take in my defence in the 
 little narrative of the picture rescue. 
 
 "You will see by the enclosed what was said 
 at the time. The impression that Mr. Carroll 
 saved Stuart's portrait of Washington is erro- 
 neous. The paper which was to accompany 
 your letter has not reached me, but I have 
 heard that his family believed he rescued it. 
 On the contrary, Mr. Carroll had left me to 
 join Mr. Madison, when I directed my servants 
 in what manner to remove it from the wall, 
 remaining with them until it was done. I saw 
 Mr. Barker and yourself (the two gentlemen 
 alluded to) passing, and accepted your offer to 
 aid me, in any way, by inviting you to help me 
 preserve this portrait, which you kindly carried, 
 between you, to the humble but safe roof which 
 sheltered it awhile. I acted thus because of 
 my respect for General Washington, not that I 
 felt a desire to gain laurels; but, should there 
 be a merit in remaining an hour in danger of 
 life and liberty, to save the likeness of anything, 
 the merit in this case belongs to me. 
 
 "Accept my respect and best wishes. 
 
 "D. P. MADISON. 
 
 "To Robert G. L. Depeyster, 
 
 " Westport, Connecticut" 
 
 "Extract from a letter to my sister, published in 
 the sketch of my life, written for the Na- 
 tional Portrait Gallery: 
 
 "Tuesday, August 22, 1814. 
 "Dear Sister: My husband left me yester- 
 day morning to join General Winder. He in- 
 quired anxiously whether I had courage or 
 firmness to remain in the President's house 
 until his return, on the morrow or succeeding 
 day, and on my assurance that I had no fear 
 but for him and the success of our army, he 
 left me, beseeching me to take care of myself, 
 and of the cabinet papers, public and private. 
 I have since received two dispatches from him, 
 written with a pencil — the last is alarming, be- 
 cause he desires I should be ready at a moment's 
 warning to enter my carriage and leave the city, 
 stating that the enemy seemed stronger than 
 had been reported, and that it might happen 
 that they would reach the city with intention 
 to destroy it. * * * * I was accordingly 
 ready; I have pressed as many cabinet papers 
 into trunks as to fill our carriage; our private 
 property must be sacrificed, as it is impossible 
 to procure wagons for its transportation; I am 
 determined not to go myself until I see Mr. 
 Madison safe, and he can accompany me, as I 
 hear of much hostility towards him. * * * 
 Disaffection stalks around us. * * * * 
 My friends and acquaintances are all gone — 
 even Colonel C, with his hundred men, who 
 were stationed as a guard in this enclosure. * 
 * * * French John, a faithful domestic, 
 with his usual activity and resolution, offers to 
 spike the cannon at the gate, and to lay a train 
 
 of powder which would blow up the British 
 should they enter the house. To the last pro- 
 position I positively objected, without being 
 able, however, to make him understand why 
 advantages in war may not be taken. 
 
 " Wednesday morning, twelve o'clock. — Since 
 sunrise, I have been turning my spyglass in 
 every direction, and watching with unwearied 
 anxiety, hoping to discern the approach of my 
 dear husband and his friends; but, alas, I can 
 descry only groups of military, wandering in all 
 directions, as if there was a lack of arms or of 
 a spirit to fight for their own firesides! 
 
 " Three o'clock. — Will you believe it, my 
 sister? We have had a battle or a skirmish 
 near Bladensburg, and I am still within sound 
 of the cannon! Mr. Madison comes not; may 
 God protect him! Two messengers, covered 
 with dust, come to bid me fly ; but I wait for 
 him. * * * * At this late hour a wagon 
 has been procured; I have had it filled with 
 the plate and most valuable portable articles be- 
 longing to the house; whether it will reach its 
 destination, the Bank of Maryland, or fall into 
 the hands of the British soldiery, events must 
 determine. 
 
 " Our kind friend, Mr. Carroll, has come to 
 hasten my departure, and is in a very bad humor 
 with me because I insist on waiting until the 
 large picture of General Washington is secured, 
 and it requires to be unscrewed from the wall. 
 This process was found too tedious for these 
 perilous moments ; I have ordered the frame to 
 be broken, and the canvass taken out; it is 
 done, and the precious portrait placed in the 
 hands of two gentlemen from New York for 
 safe keeping. And now, dear sister, I must 
 leave this house, or the retreating army will 
 make me a prisoner in it, by filling up the road 
 I am directed to take. When I shall again 
 w T rite to you, or where I shall be to-morrow, I 
 cannot tell! 
 
 "D. P. MADISON." 
 
 " Mrs. Madison was born on the 20th May, 
 1767. She was 83 years, 1 month, aud 22 
 days old at the time of her death. Her name 
 was Dolly Payne. Her parents were natives 
 of Virginia, and ranked among the most 
 respectable citizens of the State. While on a 
 visit to some of her friends in North Carolina, 
 Mrs. Payne gave birth to her eldest daughter, 
 the subject of this memoir, who, although acci- 
 dentally born in another State, claims the title so 
 dear to all who possess it of being a Virginian. 
 In disposition she is decidedly so, having been 
 imbued by nature with all that warmth, frank- 
 ness, and generosity which are the distinguish- 
 ing traits of the Virginian character. 
 
 " Soon after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Payne joined the Society of Friends, or 
 Quakers, manumitted their slaves, and re- 
 moved to Pennsylvania. The subject of this 
 memoir was educated in Philadelphia, accord-
 
 112 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 ing to the strict system of the society to which 
 her family belonged; a system which has 
 utility for its basis, and which forbids the 
 acquirement of those graceful and ornamental 
 accomplishments which are too generally con- 
 sidered the most important parts of female 
 education. 
 
 "At an early age Miss Payne was married to 
 Mr. Todd, a young lawyer of Philadelphia, and 
 a member of the Society of Friends. During 
 his lifetime she continued to live in the sim- 
 plicity and seclusion of that sect, though, 
 even then, the beauty which became after- 
 wards so celebrated began to attract atten- 
 tion. Soon, however, she was left a widow, 
 with an infant son. After the death of her 
 husband, her father also being dead, she 
 returned to live with her surviving parent, who 
 had fixed her residence in Philadelphia. 
 
 "The personal charms of the young widow, 
 united, as they were, with manners cordial, 
 frank, and gay, excited the admiration and 
 awakened the kind feelings of all who came with- 
 in her influence; and, unaided by the extrinsic 
 and accidental advantages of fortune or fashion, 
 she became a general favorite, and (he object 
 net only of admiration, but of serious and 
 devoted attachment. Among many lovers, 
 equally distinguished by their rank and talents, 
 who sued for her favor, she gave the preference 
 to Mr. Madison, then one of the most con- 
 spicuous and respectable members of Congress; 
 and, in the year 1794, became the wife of that 
 truly great and good man. From that time 
 until Mr. Madison came into the administration, 
 along with Mr. Jefferson, she lived in full 
 enjoyment of that abundant and cordial hospi- 
 tality which is the distinguishing characteristic 
 of a Virginia planter. The house was always 
 filled to overflowing with guests, who came not 
 ceremoniously invited to formal entertainments, 
 but freely and kindly bidden to the hospitable 
 board and social pleasures of the domestic 
 circle. Her widowed mother and orphan 
 sisters were made partners of the bounties and 
 blessings lavished on her by a kind Providence; 
 and the fond affection of her husband was 
 evinced by the regard and kindness he showed 
 to all whom she loved and cherished, and, on 
 her part, was reciprocated by a similar atten- 
 tion to the happiness and comfort of his aged 
 mother, who continued to dwell with her son. 
 In this situation Mrs. Madison appeared to be 
 in the very sphere for which nature had de- 
 signed her. Her circumstances were in perfect 
 accordance with her disposition, ant the liberal 
 gifts of fortune were liberally participated with 
 all around her. The happiness she herself en- 
 joyed she bestowed on others ; and the sunshine 
 of her own bosom gladdened with its warmth 
 and brightness the little world of which she 
 was the centre — her family and friends. 
 
 " Mr. Madison being appointed Secretary of 
 State, removed with his family from his happy 
 home to Washington, in April, 1801. 
 
 "After Mr. Jefferson left the city Mr. Madi- 
 son removed to the President's house, which 
 soon became the centre of a pay and brilliant 
 circle, and yet of social and delightful society. 
 In addition to large dinners every week, a 
 drawing-room was now opened, where the 
 beauty and fashion of the nation found the 
 best theatre for display. Those who remem- 
 bered the stiff formality and strict ceremonials 
 of Mrs. Washington's drawing-room, antici- 
 pated a renewal of the same dull scene. But 
 Mrs. Madison was a foe to dulness in every 
 form, even when invested with all the dignity 
 which high ceremonial could bestow. All 
 unnecessary etiquette was banished, and no 
 requisitions made beyond those which regulated 
 good society in private houses. 
 
 "The sunshine of prosperity shed its most 
 unclouded rays on this favorite of nature and 
 of fortune. But prosperity could not spoil 
 her — could not harden a heart susceptible of 
 all the tenderest charities of life. 
 
 "Much as she graced her public station, she 
 has been not less admirable in domestic life. 
 Neighborly and companionable among her 
 country friends as if she had never lived in a 
 city ; delighting in the society of the young, 
 and never better pleased than when promoting 
 every youthful pleasure by her participation. 
 She still proved herself the affectionate and 
 devoted wife during the years of suffering 
 health of her excellent, husband. Without 
 neo-lecting the duties of a kind hostess, a faith- 
 ful friend and relative, she smoothed and 
 enlivened, occupied and amused the languid 
 hours of his long confinement. He knew, 
 appreciated, and acknowledged the blessing 
 which Heaven had bestowed on him in giving 
 him such a wife." 
 
 On this subject Mr. Barker published the 
 following : 
 
 "New Orleans, February 8, 1843. 
 
 "Sir : I have this morning, for the first time, 
 seen your letter, dated New York, 1st Decem- 
 ber, 1847, entitled 'An important incident in 
 the last war with Great Britain,' published in 
 the New York Herald of the 31st January 
 ultimo. In that letter you undertake to ques- 
 tion the. accuracy of my reply to inquiries 
 made by Robt. Gr. L. Depeyster, esq., as to 
 that affair. I was mistaken in locating the 
 residence of your late father at Duddington, in 
 place of Bellevue. I believe those farms are 
 in sight of each other. I was not familiar with 
 ±he names of the various plantations in that 
 neighborhood, and was, therefore, dependent 
 on a gentleman here, from the district, for in- 
 formation as to residence. I was ignorant of 
 the fact that there were three Carroils of ad- 
 vanced age and great celebrity. My intention 
 in describing the residence of your venerable 
 father, Charles Carroll, of Bellevue, was to 
 distinguish him from the venerable Charles 
 Carroll, of Carroliton.
 
 LETTER TO DANIEL J. CARROLL. 
 
 113 
 
 "It is to be regretted that so slight and im- 
 material an error as the name of the planta- 
 tion on which a private individual resided — an 
 error which could so easily have been corrected 
 without exciting any of the angry passions — 
 should have provoked your ire to so high a 
 degree as to have induced you to write and 
 publish more than a column of closely written 
 matter, full of unkind and ungenerous personal 
 reflections. However, we will let those matters 
 pass; while it may be proper for me to point 
 out some little inaccuracies in your statement. 
 First: Mr. Madison and Mr. Monroe did not 
 leave Washington together, nor at the same 
 hour, on the memorable 24ih August, 1814, to 
 visit General Winder and to reconnoitre the 
 enemy at Bladensburg; consequently your 
 father could not have accompanied them both. 
 I was present and witnessed the departure of 
 Mr. Madison, accompanied by his servant and 
 Mr. Rush, the Attorney General, and I did not 
 see your father until my return to the White 
 House. I, therefore, presume he accompanied 
 Mr. Monroe and swapped horses with him. 
 
 "The day before the fall of the Capitol the 
 President, accompanied by General Armstrong, 
 (your father may have been of the party,) re- 
 paired to the Wood-yards, situated twelve miles 
 from Washington, where the American troops 
 were encamped, for the purpose of recon- 
 noitring and seeing General Winder. 
 
 "The general was not there, and they re- 
 turned without seeing him, convinced that the 
 enemy would be in the capital the next day. 
 Ou that occasion the President's horse may 
 have become lame, and your father may have 
 made the exchange with him, and returned to 
 the White House, by invitation, and remained 
 there until the next day ; or he may have ex- 
 changed horses with him at the house where 
 the cabinet council was held, before the Pre- 
 sident set out. Mr. Monroe and General Ma- 
 son were at Bladensburg assisting General 
 Winder in forming the troops for the fight. 
 General Armstrong, accompanied by George 
 Washington Campbell, reached the spot as did 
 the President, accompanied bv Richard Rush. 
 They were all there when the Congreve rockets 
 were first thrown, with which the battle and 
 fight commenced. At what time Mr. Monroe 
 went to Bladensburg I do not know, probably 
 very early, as he was not at the cabinet coun- 
 cil convened at seven o'clock a. m., on that day, 
 near the navy yard, at which the President, 
 General Armstrong, Mr. Campbell, Mr. Rush, 
 and Mr. Jones attended. And I think you 
 have also been led into error about your father 
 having been sitting at table with Mrs. Madison 
 after the dinner was over, when the servant 
 arrived with notice of the retreat of our troops. 
 "The President left Washington at about 9 
 a. m., in great haste, to recall General Arm- 
 strong, who had preceded him about an hour 
 with the President's order to supersede General 
 Winder in the defence of the capital ; and 
 
 8 
 
 reaching the ground a few minutes before the 
 figh< began, said to General Armstrong: 'It is 
 too late to make any change — come with me 
 and leave the defence with the military au- 
 thorities, where it belongs ;' then turned to Mr. 
 Monroe, and other officials who were on the 
 ground, and said the same thing to them. 
 They all bowed assent — General Armstrong 
 remarking, if the President would wait a mo- 
 ment he would see the effect of the Congreve 
 rockets; that the enemy were then preparing 
 to let them off. To which the President had 
 scarce time to reply before the rockets came 
 whistling about their ears, which caused an 
 instantaneous flight of the troops, with the ex- 
 ception of one or two regiments of Maryland 
 militia. I believe the 5th and 9th made fight 
 and distinguished themselves. To those regi- 
 ments which made good battle were attached 
 General Stausbury and Colonel Pinckney. 
 
 "On their retreat, about one mile and a half 
 from Bladensburg, towards the capital, the Pre- 
 sident met Commodore Barney and his brave 
 men, who dealt out death and destruction to 
 the enemy with tremendous effect, until the 
 commodore was shot down at his gun for the 
 want of having his flanks protected. I had 
 the relation of this affair from the President at 
 the White House, on the day of its occurrence. 
 He remarked that he never would have be- 
 lieved in the difference between regular troops 
 and militia, if he had not witnessed the sceues 
 of that day. 
 
 "As soon as our troops broke and retreated, 
 the President sent his servant express to warn 
 his good lady of her danger, with directions to 
 leave immediately. This messenger must have 
 reached the White House by two o'clock, and 
 Mrs. Madison, Mr. and Mrs. Cutts, and servants 
 left immediately thereafter, and there was not 
 any appearance of dinner, or preparation for 
 dinner, about the rooms where the family 
 usually dined. It was too early in the day for 
 such an expose. These facts, together with the 
 absence of the President, the occasion of his 
 absence, and the other attendant circumstances, 
 forbid the idea that your father had, by invita- 
 tion that day given by the President, been 
 dining with his lady; that the dinner was over; 
 and that they were sitting at the table, after the 
 cloth was removed, when the messenger ar- 
 rived. I presume he was there when the mes- 
 senger arrived, and that he had exchanged 
 horses with Mr. Monroe on the road, as you 
 intimate, and not with the President. Mrs. 
 Madison was not the lady to have had dinner 
 over, in the absence of her husband, before two 
 o'clock, when his return was momentarily ex- 
 pected, and especially not when her whole 
 thoughts, and those of her household, must 
 have been engrossed with the exciting occur- 
 rences of the day; nor was it the fashion at 
 the White House to have dinner over at that 
 time on ordinary occasions. The messen- 
 ger preceded me five or ten minutes, having
 
 114 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 passed me on the Pennsylvania avenue, and 
 given the information, with a request that I 
 would repair to the house and assist in their 
 departure. I do not perceive the importance 
 of whether this was before or after dinner, or 
 whether your father had, by special invitation 
 of Mr. Madison or otherwise, dined with his 
 lady on that or any other day ; nor do I per- 
 ceive why you have introduced it into your 
 strictures upon my narrative. Whether I found 
 your father there, or whether he came in subse- 
 quently, I do not know; but I do know that 
 he assisted in taking down the portrait of 
 Washington and left the house with the Presi- 
 dent, leaving the portrait on the floor of the 
 room in which it had been suspended to take 
 care of itself, where it remained until the rem- 
 nant of our army, reduced to about 4,000, 
 passed by, taking the direction of Georgetown, 
 when the portrait was taken by Mr. Depeyster 
 and myself, assisted by two colored boys, from 
 the said room ; and with it we fell into the 
 trail of the army and continued with it some 
 miles. Overtaken by night, and greatly fatigued, 
 we sought shelter in a farm house. No other 
 persons assisted in removing or preserving the 
 picture. I acted at the special request of Mrs. 
 Madison, and Mr. Depeyster co-operated with 
 me in carrying her wishes into effect. I always 
 supposed the praiseworthy solicitude originated 
 with her; it would require very positive and 
 clear proof to induce me to change that 
 opinion. It certainly did not originate with 
 me or with Mr. Depeyster; nor have I ever 
 intimated that any other than Mrs. Madi- 
 son was entitled to the least credit therefor. I 
 imported from London for Fulton the first 
 steam engine that was ever in successful oper- 
 ation for marine purposes ; yet it would have 
 been as preposterous for me to have claimed 
 any share in the merit of the invention, as for 
 a postboy who delivers the sealed letter con- 
 taining some beautiful effusion from a poet of 
 celebrity to claim a share of the bard's re- 
 nown ! 
 
 "You have seized on this occasion to repeat 
 the often-refuted calumnies against General 
 Armstrong. You say that your father grossly 
 insulted that meritorious minister of state on 
 his return to Washington, after the Vandals 
 had evacuated that city; and this too in the 
 presence of the President; and that your 
 father was the friend of the President. All 
 this may be true, although I am very unwilling 
 to believe that any gentleman of his high repu- 
 tation fordecornm should have so farencroached 
 on the rules of old-fashioned politeness and pro- 
 priety, as to take upon himself to judge of 
 matters of high state importance — matters con- 
 fided exclusively to the President and to Con- 
 gress — and condemn without a hearing. That 
 your father may have been excited at the mo- 
 ment, and given way to some rash expressions 
 at the prospect before him of having the seat 
 of government removed beyond the mountains, 
 
 which then appeared likely to happen, and the 
 consequent depreciation of the value of his 
 property, may very well be; but that he should 
 have cherished through life, and you inherited, 
 and allowed to fester in your bosom, for years 
 after both your father and General Armstrong 
 had been gathered to their fathers, the deep 
 animosity expressed in your letter was not to 
 have been expected; and furnishes a lamenta- 
 ble picture of poor human nature. Such feel- 
 ings are sometimes tolerated^ where there has 
 been a deep personal injury, but never imputed 
 to pure, disinterested patriotism. You say: 
 
 "'At their first meeting, which took place 
 soon after the enemy had evacuated the city, 
 in presence of the President himself, at the 
 moment General Armstrong on his return to 
 Washington rode up saluting him and shaking 
 hands with some of the members of the cabi- 
 net, and before the troops there assembled in 
 the field, who refused longer to acknowledge 
 or obey him, (General Armstrong,) on that 
 memorable occasion when Mr. Charles Carroll r 
 of Bellevue," etc. In this there is some mis- 
 take, as I was dining with the President in F 
 street when the Secretary of War returned to 
 Washington; he alighted at O'Neal's hotel, when 
 a messenger came to notify the President, who 
 withdrew from the table, saying. ' General 
 Armstrong has arrived; I must go and see 
 him ;' and repaired to the office of the Sec- 
 retary of State, which was very near said 
 hotel, where General Armstrong met him ; 
 they had a long interview — separated to meet 
 again at 8 o'clock that evening — they did 
 meet — had a very satisfactory interview, in 
 which the President told the Secretary he had 
 but one thing to complain of, which was his 
 'precipitancy in accepting the resignation of 
 General Harrison, and the appointment of 
 General Jackson, in his absence on a visit to 
 Virginia, without consulting him.' " 
 
 "When General Armstrong returned to the 
 hotel from this last interview, he informed me 
 that he should leave at sunrise the next morn- 
 ing for New York ; that as I was about taking 
 that course he would wait at Baltimore for me. 
 In the morning I accompanied him as far as 
 Bladensburg, and returned to the city; settled 
 all the accounts of the Secretary, and left the next 
 day for Baltimore, with a message from the 
 President to General Armstrong: 'that the 
 President expected him back after passing a 
 few weeks with his family, with assurances that 
 he would sustain him in the office of Secretary 
 of War, in despite of all opposition.' On 
 reaching Baltimore I delivered the message, 
 when General Armstrong replied: 'My deter- 
 mination is taken,' handing me a paper, saying 
 1 read that; it shall appear to-morrow if there is 
 a newspaper in Baltimore that will publish it.' 
 It was an address to the public, complaining 
 among other things of the influence of a faction, 
 a village mob, at Georgetown, over the Wash- 
 ington cabinet. I endeavored to dissuade the
 
 LETTER TO DANIEL J. CARROLL. 
 
 115 
 
 Secretary from his purpose — not succeeding, I 
 caused the address to be published in the Balti- 
 more Patriot on the following day, and thus 
 ended the connexion between General Arm- 
 strong and the cabinet of Mr. Madison. 
 
 "If your father entertained the opinions you 
 ascribe to him, he undoubtedly mentioned them 
 to his friend, Mr. Madison, although he did not 
 proclaim them in his presence at the time you 
 mention. His influence with Mr. Madison 
 could not have been very great, as he enter- 
 tained opinions directly the reverse, and was 
 determined to sustain Gen. Armstrong in despite 
 of the Georgetown faction, which was resolved 
 to put aside all obstacles to the election of Mr. 
 Monroe to the presidency. Two of their 
 militia generals, of Bladensburg celebrity, it 
 was said, had threatened to throw their epau- 
 lettes into the river if the President did not. 
 dismiss the Secretary of War. This was all 
 the refusal of the troops to obey him I ever 
 heard of, nor could they refuse, as it is not in 
 the province of the Secretary of War to have 
 any intercourse with the troops except through 
 the commanding general. There were not any 
 troops in the field to refuse to acknowledge or 
 to obey the Secretary of War. If there had 
 been, who ever heard of troops acknowledging 
 or refusing to obey the orders of a mere cham- 
 ber oflicer? Besides, General Armstrong was 
 the most unlikely man on earth to violate all 
 military usage by the assumption of such an 
 interference. 
 
 "At dinner on the day in question, the 
 President's lady, in his presence, observed 
 to me: 'Mr. Barker, your friend, General 
 Armstrong, is expected this day, and I have 
 sent a servant to meet and inform him that 
 there were certain individuals in Georgetown 
 determined to insult him as he passed through ; 
 therefore he had better come to the city by a 
 different route.' My reply was: that, as a 
 New Yorker, I should have been both pleased 
 and very much obliged if pistols had been sent 
 with notice of the threatened insult. The 
 threatened insult was not offered. Perhaps it 
 was those redoubtable men to whom you allu- 
 ded when you said 'troops in the field.' 
 
 "The President's omission to place those 
 two militia officers under arrest was the 
 probable cause why the Secretary would not 
 again take his seat in the cabinet. Mr. 
 Madison's position gave him a much better 
 opportunity to know the merits of General 
 Armstrong's conduct than any private individ- 
 ual had; hence, it was not strange that the 
 influence of your father, and that of the George- 
 town militia, who had not drawn a trigger in de- 
 fence of the Capitol, should not have prevailed.' 
 
 "General Armstrong was not out on horse- 
 back after his return until he left, then I was 
 with him, and no such meeting as that you 
 describe took place, hence I consider the whole 
 story a fiction, and for the reputation of your 
 honored father I hope it is so. 
 
 " You had better refer to the report of the 
 Congressional Committee of Investigation for 
 the causes which led to the loss of the Capitol, 
 when you will find that illustrious patriot ex- 
 culpate 1 from blame. lie was a chamber 
 officer, and could not, without special authority 
 from the President, take part in the field. His 
 efforts were confined to carrying into effect the 
 laws of Congress. He did this faithfully. 
 Washington was not a fortified city; not a gun 
 was mounted there for its defence. The 10th 
 military district, embracing Washington, was 
 created, and the command, by the influence of 
 Mr. Monroe, given to General Winder, for the 
 protection of the city. This appointment was 
 made in direct opposition to the advice of 
 General Armstrong. 
 
 "This happened soon after the unfortunate 
 convention was concluded by General Winder, 
 in Canada, under the direction of Mr. Monroe, 
 then Secretary of State, with Adjutant General 
 Baines, for the exchange of prisoners, giving 
 up the forty-six who had been imprisoned in 
 Ohio to abide the fate of the twenty-three 
 adopted citizens who had been sent to London 
 to be tried for their lives, having been taken 
 fighting against their king, leaving those 
 twenty-three adopted citizens at the mercy of 
 the king. 
 
 "And if General Winder did not establish 
 suitable depots of provisions and munitions of 
 war to fall back on in case of retreat, or 
 arrange the force placed at his disposal so as 
 to make a vigorous resistance, surely it was not 
 the fault of a chamber officer, unless he with- 
 held funds which had been appropriated by 
 Congress for that object, which no one pre- 
 tends. Look at the difference between the 
 battle of Bladensburg and those of Palo Alto, 
 Monterey, Buena Vista, Contreras, &c, in 
 nearly all of which the greatest number were 
 militia. In that of Bladensburg our forces 
 were more than double the number of the 
 enemy, in the other cases the enemy outnum- 
 bered our forces three or four to one. Suppose 
 the Secretary at War should attempt to appro- 
 priate the renown won by the skill and courage 
 of our officers and soldiers in these Mexican 
 battles, what would be thought of him ? And 
 if he has no claim to share therein, when the 
 case resulted otherwise the Secretary of War 
 could not be considered answerable. In Gen- 
 eral Armstrong's reply to the inquiry of the 
 Congressional Committee of Investigation, he 
 says: 'The loss of your Capitol is mainly to be 
 ascribed to that love of life which so generally 
 pervaded the ranks of your militia.' Washing- 
 ton was not, in a military point of view, an 
 object of attack, no one anticipated so desper- 
 ate an incursion for the mere purpose of de- 
 stroying legislative halls, and literary and 
 scientific institutions. 
 
 " At that time we were without money where- 
 with to enlist troops or build forts; we had not 
 enough to pay the enlisting bounty to the
 
 116 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 soldier, or to feed, clothe, or move a single 
 regiment — our imports cut off bj the war, non- 
 importation laws, and blockades, no money in 
 the treasury wherewith to pay the dividends 
 and stock and treasury not«s maturing, how 
 then could the Secretary of War have provided 
 for the defence of the city? His successor did 
 not take any steps to defend the city against 
 another attack, and, although thirty or forty 
 years have elapsed since that occasion, all the 
 financial embarrassments passed away, thirty 
 or forty millions of money given to the several 
 States because Congress did not know what 
 else to do with their surplus revenue, and yet 
 not a man of any party has suggested an appro- 
 priation for the fortification and defence of 
 Washington. What better commentary is re- 
 quired on the idle complaint made against 
 General Armstrong for neglecting the defence 
 of the Capitol? 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 " Daniel J. Carroll, esq." 
 
 " New Orleans, May 5, 1848. 
 
 " Dear Sir : Doctor Carroll has appeared 
 again in the columns of your paper. It is 
 strange that he does not understand human 
 nature better than to indulge in coarse epithets 
 and vulgar phrases. This is an age of reason 
 and dignity of thought, and he who expects to 
 make a favorable impression on the public 
 mind by such scurrility as the Doctor has in- 
 dulged in will find himself mistaken. 
 
 " I should have deemed the author of such 
 epistles unworthy of notice had they not found 
 a place in a respectable newspaper. Your hav- 
 ing thought proper to give publicity to this 
 man's abuse of me, it would have been kind in 
 you to have published in your invaluable paper 
 Mrs. Madison's statement and my reply to his 
 first effusion, which effusion appeared in the 
 Herald of the 31st January last. In days past 
 you seemed to delight in vindicating your old 
 friend, and did it with great ability and suc- 
 cess, insomuch that you corrected and con- 
 trolled the public opinion of the nation. 
 
 "The Doctor asks his readers to discredit 
 my statement, viz: 'As soon as our troops broke 
 and retreated, the President sent his servant 
 express to warn his good lady of her danger, 
 with directions to leave immediately. This 
 messenger must have reached the White House 
 by 2 o'clock, and Mrs. Madison, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Cutts, and servants, left immediately thereafter,' 
 because Mrs. Madison times a letter written to 
 her sister on that day, at the White House, '3 
 o'clock,' in which is mentioned the arrival of 
 the servant to bid her fly. The difficulty in 
 taking down the portrait, its accomplishment, 
 its delivery to two gentlemen from New York, 
 the arrival, dialogue, ill-humor, and departure 
 of the Doctor's father, leaving Mrs. Madison 
 dependent on her servants to complete the 
 
 work, with the arrangement of other matters 
 necessary for a journey and long absence, may 
 well have occupied an hour, and in nowise 
 rendered the use of the expressions 'imme- 
 diately thereafter' improper. Had it been other- 
 wise, no person can be expected to recollect 
 time vvith such precision as to state the exact 
 minute of an occurrence, after a lapse of thirty- 
 three years, without there having been some 
 incident to engrave it on the brain. 
 
 "Again: in naming the hour, Mrs. Madison 
 may not have consulted the clock. Had the 
 note been written twenty minutes after or 
 twenty minutes before 3 o'clock, that hour 
 might have been mentioned without subjecting 
 the writer to any unfavorable criticism ; hence 
 that record, so far from discrediting my state- 
 ment, fully sustains it. The Doctor seems to 
 have taken great offence at the belief expressed 
 by me that the alleged insult offered at that 
 place by his father to the Secretary of War was 
 a fiction. 
 
 " The Doctor professes to give the state- 
 ments of unnamed witnesses. Let the public 
 have their names before their pretended state- 
 ments are considered or discussed in detail. 
 There should not be any concealment. The 
 opposing party should have an opportunity to 
 ask explanations from all witnesses, and to test 
 their credibility before it is too late. I may 
 yet live a hundred years, but it is not probable 
 that many others who were in the vicinity of 
 the far-famed Bladensburg races will retain 
 their recollection of such unimportant matters 
 so long. Therefore the Doctor's witnesses 
 should appear immediately with his promised 
 statement of facts connected with this affair. 
 One position assumed by those vaunted state- 
 ments is, that when the Secretary of War re- 
 turned to Washington he was informed that the 
 President was at Windmill Hill, and that he 
 (the Secretary) repaired to that place for an 
 interview. The Secretary might have been so 
 informed without the President being there. I 
 was dining with him at that time at his brother- 
 in-law's, Mr. Cutts, on F street. While at din- 
 ner the Secretary's expected return was the sub- 
 ject of conversation; and before the cloth was 
 removed, or the company had left the table, 
 his arrival was announced. The President im- 
 mediately excused himself, and went to meet 
 him. The President and Secretary were to- 
 gether that afternoon at the house occupied by 
 Mr. Monroe, near O'Neal's hotel. They sepa- 
 rated at that place at about 7 o'clock, to meet 
 again at 8, at which hour they did meet, and 
 had their final interview. If the Secretary was 
 really informed, however erroneously, that the 
 President was at Windmill Hill, it is possible 
 that he went there to meet him; and the Pre- 
 sident, not finding the Secretary at the hotel, 
 may have followed him to Windmill Hill, which, 
 however, is not probable, as there was not any 
 other enemy in the field to reconnoitre than the 
 malcontents referred to by all parties. Yet
 
 EXPLANATION OF SAVING THE PORTRAIT. 
 
 117 
 
 they may have met there in presence of the 
 Doc or's father, who, in defiance of all rules of 
 decorum and respect for his superiors, may 
 have descended to the vulgar act of rudely in- 
 sulting a minister of state in the presence of 
 the President ; and the President and Secre- 
 tary may have proceeded thence to the office 
 of the Secretary of State. All I know of their 
 movements on that afternoon is, that the Pre- 
 sident left the house of Mr. Cutts between 4 
 and 5 o'clock, p. m., for the avowed object of 
 meeting the Secretary of War; that they were 
 in consultation before 7 o'clock, at about which 
 hour they separated, and General Armstrong 
 repaired to O'Neal's hotel, where I took tea in 
 his company between 7 and 8 o'clock. 
 
 ''The Secretary being informed, on his first 
 arrival, that the village mob had circulated a 
 falsehood, with the view of injuring him, viz: 
 that Fort Warburton had been blown up by his 
 order, sent an express to the commanding offi- 
 cer, (I believe Captain Dowson,) requiring him 
 to report under what circumstances, and by 
 •whose order, that fort had been blown up. An 
 immediate answer was received from the com- 
 manding officer, exonerating the Secretary from 
 all knowledge or a participation therein. 
 
 "If the disgraceful scene ever occurred which 
 the Doctor labors to brand on the memory of 
 his father, I conclude it must have been at 
 some other place than that mentioned. Yet, 
 as it is not of the least importance in the pro- 
 fessed object of the Doctor's appeal to the pub- 
 lic, which was to establish that his father saved, 
 or originated the thought of saving, the portrait 
 of Washington, I shall not pursue the subject 
 of the Windmill Hill further. 
 
 " The Doctor says, in his letter of the 31st of 
 January last, that 'by a cunning and insidious 
 falsification of history, I wish to appropriate to 
 myself the honor of an act which might serve to 
 elevate me to a political station.' Again: 'that 
 I wished to appropriate to myself the lion's share 
 of the merit, so clearly belonging to another, and 
 to ride into Cougresson the picture of Washing- 
 ton.' 
 
 " Such a tissue of falsehood and misrepre- 
 sentation does not merit notice; yet I may be 
 excused for remarking that, at all times, and 
 on all occasions, in public and in private, I 
 have declared that the idea of saving the por- 
 trait did not originate with me; that I acted 
 at the bidding of Mrs. Madison ; that all I did 
 was to carry out successfully the directions of 
 that excellent lady. 
 
 "In the first publication which excited the 
 Doctor's ire, I say: 'Several persons assisted in 
 taking down the portrait, and the most active 
 was the venerable Mr. Carroll, of Duddington,' 
 •when I should have said 'of Bellevue.' For 
 this unintentional and harmless mistake the 
 Doctor continues to empty his vials of wrath, 
 although I made prompt and full atonement 
 the moment the error was suggested. 
 
 "The reader may have been misled by my 
 
 having said the Doctor's father assisted in 
 I taking down the portrait. By Mrs. Madison's 
 record of the transaction, made at the time, it 
 would appear that the Doctor's father had not 
 much more to do with the affair than to remon- 
 strate in bad humor at that good lady's refusal 
 to leave until the work had been accomplished. 
 Having thus remonstrated, he went to join the 
 President, leaving her dependent on her ser- 
 vants to complete the work, about which she 
 wrote thus : 
 
 " 'Our kind friend, Mr. Carroll, has come to 
 hasten my departure, and is in very bad humor 
 with me because I insist on waiting until the 
 large picture of General Washington is secured, 
 and it requires to be unscrewed from the wall. 
 This process was found too tedious for those 
 perilous moments. I have ordered the frame 
 to be broken, and the canvass taken out. It 
 is done, and the precious portrait placed in the 
 hands of two gentlemen from New York for 
 safe-keeping.' 
 
 "And again, when writing to Mr. Depeyster, 
 she says: 
 
 " ' The impression that Mr. Carroll saved 
 
 Stuart's portrait of Washington is erroneous. 
 
 I have heard that his family believed that he 
 
 rescued it. On the contrary, Mr. Carroll had 
 
 left me to join Mr. Madison, when I directed 
 
 j my servants in what manner to remove it from 
 
 the wall, remaining with them until it was 
 
 I done. I saw Mr. Barker and yourself (the two 
 
 i gentlemen alluded to) passing, and accepted 
 
 I your offer to aid me in any way, by inviting 
 
 you to help me preserve this portrait, which 
 
 you kindly carried between you to the humble 
 
 but safe root which sheltered it a while.' 
 
 " Compare this with what the Doctor says, in 
 claiming that his father saved the portrait, viz: 
 
 " 'An act, doubtless the impulse of the mo- 
 ment, was a suggestion that might naturally 
 strike any right minded American, could not 
 escape a patriot and a citizen, one born and 
 reared there in sight of Mount Vernon, on the 
 very soil of his ancestors, and stamps at once 
 any other solution of the problem itself a 
 " "fraud." " He being there — fortunately, too, 
 in the room at the time — this picture caught his 
 eye, intuitively, as it were, almost as the alarm 
 was given, that so marvelously caused its pre- 
 servation.' 
 
 " Comment is unnecessary. I never con- 
 sidered this occurrence as entitling me to po- 
 litical favor. It was never spoken of, written, 
 or published in Louisiana, to my knowledge, 
 during the last congressional canvass, to which 
 the Doctor alludes. My political sentiments 
 are too well known over the whole nation, and 
 have been eversince the overthrow of the alien, 
 sedition, and stamp laws, with the reign of ter- 
 ror under the elder Adams, to require any such 
 collateral aid, and as to professions of patriot- 
 ism in the matter, no such idea ever occurred 
 to me. My thoughts were engrossed in carry- 
 ing out the wishes of the most distinguished
 
 118 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 lady in the nation, whose publication should 
 have operated as an extinguisher on the Doc- 
 tor's picture story, yet he takes exception at 
 Mr. Depeyster's saying, in his letter to the edi- 
 tor of the Express: 'It appears that he (Mr. 
 Charles Carroll) had no agency whatever in 
 this matter — the saving of the original portrait 
 of Washington.' 
 
 " My statement was written on the 8th of 
 February, and published in the New Orleans 
 Delta of the 11th February, and Mr. Depeys- 
 ter's letter was written in Connecticut on the 
 15th February, consequently before he had 
 seen my statement; and nothing could be more 
 natural than the conclusion he drew from that 
 of Mrs. Madison's, viz : that Mr. Charles Car- 
 roll had no agency whatever in this matter, 
 and as to Mr. Carroll's cutting the canvass 
 from the frame with a penknife, as the Doctor 
 alleges, no such thing happened. The canvass 
 was extended on a light wooden frame, placed 
 in the usual way within a gilt frame, and the 
 latter was secured to the wall, which latter was 
 broken down, and the light frame with the can- 
 vass taken out. perfect, and continued so until 
 it was returned to the White House. Whether 
 the large gilt frame was brcken down from the 
 wall with a penknife or with an axe is not of 
 the least consequence. 
 
 " It will have been percived that, so far as I 
 was concerned, no attempt has been made or 
 sanctioned by me to claim the honor of having 
 originated the thought, or of having removed 
 the portrait from the wall to the floor. My 
 statement is not only supported by the testi- 
 mony of Mrs. Madison and Mr. Depeyster, but 
 remains uncontradicted, which was, that at the 
 bidding of Mrs. Madison, the portrait was re- 
 mooed from the floor of the room in which it 
 had been hanging by Mr. Depeyster and myself 
 aided by two colored boys, and taken by us to 
 the woods, and subsequently returned by me. 
 Where, then, is the falsification of history al- 
 leged by this notable Doctor? 
 
 " The Docter characterized my letter as cun- 
 ning. If it were, as intended, an unvarnished 
 relation of facts, with self-evident deductions 
 and logical conclusions, it was cunning — attri- 
 butes nowise pertaining to the Doctor's sple- 
 uatic effusions. 
 
 "Your obedient servant, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER." 
 
 The intimacy existing between General Arm- 
 strong and Mr. Barker continued until the 
 death of the general, the character of which 
 may be estimated from a letter, of which the 
 following i:j an extract: 
 
 " Red Hook, February 23, 1839. 
 
 "MyDearFkiend: ****** 
 
 "I had the pleasure of seeing your son at 
 
 my cottage a short time ago, stout and strong. 
 
 My own health has been bad for a fortnight, 
 
 and with little prospect of its being better till 
 
 weather and roads permit me to take a little 
 exercise in the open air. Whatever be my 
 personal condition, sick or well, believe me to 
 be, unalterably, your affectionate friend, 
 
 "JOHN ARMSTRONG." 
 
 On the demise of the general, some errone- 
 ous and severe strictures appeared in the Com- 
 mercial Advertiser, of New York, of which Mr- 
 Barker felt called upon to take public notice a3 
 follows : 
 
 " New Orleans, April 20, 1843. 
 " To the Editors of the New York Commercial 
 Advertiser : 
 " 'Tread lightly on the ashes of the dead.' 
 
 "You have done great injustice to the fair 
 fame of a departed patriot, in the notice which 
 appeared in your paper on the death of Gen. 
 John Armstrong. 
 
 " You say he was dismissed from the cabinet 
 for neglect of duty in defending the capital; 
 this is a mistake ; and I call on the honorable 
 George Washington Campbell, and the honora- 
 ble Richard Rush, the two surviving members 
 of the then cabinet of Mr. Madison, to unite in 
 correcting that error. Pennsylvania will not 
 permit the jewell of which she is so justly 
 proud, nor Mr. Campbell the fair fame of his 
 departed friend, to be thus sullied, when they 
 have the means of doing justice to the memory 
 of the man whom the Almighty vouchsafed to 
 endow most bountifully with those attributes of 
 intellect which distinguish humanity from the 
 brute creation ; the true standard by which man 
 should be ranked by his fellows. 
 
 " What says Colonel Richard M. Johnson, 
 now in this city, who was chairman of the con- 
 gressional committee who investigated the 
 cause of the loss of Washington ? He also 
 was a soldier, fresh from the battle of the 
 Thames, the reputed slayer of Tecumseh, cov- 
 ered with honor and with wounds, having been 
 perforated with many balls. Would such a 
 man, still smarting with the wounds received, 
 have acquitted the Secretary of War — who had 
 gone into retiracy — if he had been faulty? 
 
 " The anecdote you relate, as told by Major 
 Fairlie, is full evidence that General Washing- 
 ton was knowing to the deliberations of the 
 officers of the army who had won for us our 
 liberty, and who were about being dismissed 
 without pay and without the least provision, 
 after seven years of the most arduous service 
 ever endured by brave soldiers, by a Congress 
 composed, as that body was, of a mixture of 
 patriots, pure spirits, stock jobbers and political 
 aspirants. 
 
 " The celebrated Newburg letters were the 
 offspring of those deliberations ; and General 
 Armstrong was no more answerable therefor 
 than was every member of the club, (which 
 you have thought proper to denominate a con- 
 spiracy, composed as it was of nearly all the 
 distinguished military men of the day,) except so
 
 DEFENCE OF GENERAL JOHN ARMSTRONG. 
 
 119 
 
 far as regards their inimitable style and com- 
 position, the merit of which belongs exclusively 
 to General Armstrong, he having been selected 
 by the assembly to embody their sentiments on 
 account of his wonderfully acute mind and hap- 
 py faculty of composition. He performed the 
 service at the bidding of his fellows; the New- 
 burg letters were the fruits, and to this hour 
 the palm of superiority to anything extant, in 
 point of composition and forcible argument, is 
 awarded them. They are often referred to by 
 professors in our literary institutions as models 
 of composition to be imitated, worthy of all 
 praise. They received the undivided approba- 
 tion of the assembled officers ; aud every true 
 hearted American who reads them at this day 
 cannot but feel proud that they were written 
 by a citizen of this republic, a soldier of the 
 revolutionary army. So much for the Newburg 
 letters. Now for General Washington's opin- 
 ion of the author. 
 
 11 After what you have published on the au- 
 thority of the late Major Fairlie, you cannot 
 doubt that the great and good father of our 
 liberties knew who wrote them. The fact was 
 doubtless so. They were from their first ap- 
 pearance imputed to General Armstrong, were 
 never disavowed, and were known by all the 
 officers of the army to have been written un- 
 der the aforesaid circumstances. 
 
 " The fair inference from your article is, that 
 General Washington knew that General Arm- 
 strong wrote those letters. 
 
 " To doubt that he knew what was known to 
 all the other officers, believed by the public, 
 and especially appertaining to matters over 
 which General Washington was particularly 
 watchful, would be denying to him the acute- 
 ness and penetration which he was known to 
 possess in an eminent degree, and which the 
 American people will be very unwilling to re- 
 fuse to accord to the bright intellect which, 
 during the long and desperate struggle of our 
 revolution, guided the citizen soldier safely 
 through so many perils. 
 
 " Immediately after the formation of the gov- 
 ernment, Alexander Hamilton, then Secretary 
 of the Treasury, wrote an official letter to Gen- 
 eral Armstrong, (the record of which is now on 
 the files of the department,) telling him that 
 by the command of General Washington, he 
 tendered to him the office of supervisor of New 
 York, stating that the President regretted that 
 he could not then offer him anything better; 
 that he wished to draw him near to his cabinet, 
 and hoped soon to have something to offer 
 commensurate with his talents, virtues, services, 
 and patriotism, and therefore begged him to 
 accept that office for the moment. This he 
 declined, and it was conferred on Colonel Fish, 
 another distinguished soldier and patriot of the 
 revolution. 
 
 "Following up this confidence, General 
 Washington subsequently tendered to General 
 Armstrong the appoiutment of minister to Por- 
 
 tugal, which he also declined. He was appoint- 
 ed Adjutant General of Pennsylvania, and en- 
 trusted with the direction of the war against 
 the Connecticut settlers. He was afterward 
 appointed minister to France, and five times 
 elected a member of the United States Senate 
 from New York and Pennsylvania. 
 
 '■ When minister at the court of St. Cloud, 
 he wrote as no minister, before or since, dared 
 to write to the emperor and his ministers ; and 
 pending a discussion which arose in conse- 
 quence of the burning of my ship, the Eliza, 
 on her passage from Liverpool to Charleston, 
 by a French fleet shortly out of Brest, he used 
 these emphatic words: ' call you this vindica- 
 ting the liberties of the seas?' 
 
 " After his return from France, he was called 
 again into the military service of his country, 
 and by the immaculate Madison, who had been 
 a close observer of his whole life, he was ap- 
 pointed a general, and given the command of 
 the most important military district of the na- 
 tion, embracing the city of New York, during 
 the glorious war of 1812. From this post he 
 was elevated to that of chief of the War De- 
 partment at Washington, where he served with 
 distinguished ability and benefit to his country, 
 until the city was entered by the Vandals of 
 England, when British prowess was exemplified 
 by the conflagration of halls devoted to legis- 
 lation, literature, and the sciences, and where 
 there had not been a single gun planted for its 
 defence. 
 
 •' The military ardor and patriotic spirit o# 
 General Armstrong induced him to enter the 
 continental service when only a boy; and as 
 early as 1779 he was a captain in the army on 
 the Penobscot expedition, in the bard winter of 
 that year, when only nineteen years of age, and 
 continued in the service until the peace of 1783. 
 And now, after having led such a life of useful- 
 ness to his country, when the grave has scarcely 
 closed over hi.s remains, you have thought 
 proper to attempt to attach to his name the 
 stigma of conspirator, to tarnish the unblem- 
 ished fame of that patriot of the revolution, 
 of the soldier of two wars, of the talented states- 
 man of whom all America and the whole lite- 
 rary world were justly proud. 
 
 " You denominate him a conspirator, at the 
 close of the revolutionary war, against the 
 peace and happiness of this republic: and you 
 invoke the name of the immortal Washington in 
 support of this charge. Yon charge him with 
 neglect of duty, and attribute to that neglect 
 the fall of the city of Washington in the last war. 
 
 "These charges are true or false. Washing- 
 ton knew the worth of the officers of the army- 
 and the justice of their cause; he knew all 
 about their deliberations, and that the New- 
 burg letters were the result of such delibert- 
 tions, although written by Armstrong, who 
 had been selected for that purpose on account 
 of his superior intellect, and approvi d by many 
 if not all the members of his military staff".
 
 120 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 His own acts furnish a better test of his opin- 
 ion of the individual in question than the 
 dictum of a man who never drew a trigger in 
 defence of any cause. 
 
 "General Alexander Hamilton also knew all, 
 and what said he? 
 
 "President Adams, the elder, knew all, and 
 what said he? Mr. Jefferson knew all, and 
 what said he? Mr. Madison knew all, and 
 what said he? The Livingston family, inclu- 
 ding the chancellor, knew all, and what said 
 they? His native State, Pennsylvania, and 
 his adopted State, New York, knew all, and 
 what said they? They all vied with each 
 other in confering honors on him. Would 
 they have done so if they had considered him a 
 conspirator against the peace and honor of 
 his country ? 
 
 "The editor of the United States Gazette, 
 taking your biographical notice for his guide, 
 . says : 
 
 "'General Armstrong distinguished himself 
 as a minister at Paris, but he lost nearly all 
 his credit by the loss of Washington city, when 
 he was Secretary of War, where he was 
 charged with total neglect of means to defend 
 the capital of the nation, even after he had 
 been earnestly solicited to supply those means. 
 That was the end of General Armstrong's 
 public career.' 
 
 "You have forgotten the history of that 
 transaction, or you could not have placed on 
 paper a statement so totally at variance with 
 the facts. 
 
 "You have been compelled to pass over a 
 long life devoted to the discharge of the duties 
 of various and numerous offices of high trust, 
 without a single occurrence furnishing food for 
 detraction, and go back to what at most can 
 only be viewed as an indiscretion of an ardent 
 youih, to enable you to administer to the appe- 
 tites of those who have watched over the life of 
 General Armstrong for evil. 
 
 "The defence of Washington city was en- 
 trusted to General Winder. Circumstances 
 arose connected with his negotiations with 
 Adjutant General Baynes of the British army 
 for the exchange of prisoners, which negotia- 
 tion resulted in a convention for the exchange 
 pf all the prisoners in America, by which the 
 safety of the twenty-three adopted citizens taken 
 in arms against the king, and sent to England 
 to be tried for their lives as traitors, had 
 been overlooked, and the forty-six British 
 prisoners who had been confined to abide the 
 fate of those adopted citizens, were set at 
 liberty by the terms of that convention. Th-s 
 occurrence, the particulars of which it is not 
 necessary here to mention, led to the creation 
 of the tenth military district, and the appoint- 
 ment of General Winder to the command. 
 
 " General Armstrong, although at the head 
 of the War Department, had no hand in this 
 selection, nor did he approve of it. Very soon 
 after this appointment the British landed their 
 
 forces in the Chesapeake, and were marching 
 on Washington. The capital could not have 
 been put in a state of defence without fortifica- 
 tions and regular troops, or the assembling of 
 the militia from the neighboring country. The 
 former required the authority of law, and a vast 
 expenditure of money which was not in the 
 treasury ; and Congress adjourned on the 27th 
 April previous without making any other pro- 
 vision than granting authority to the President 
 to borrow twenty-five millions of dollars with- 
 out limit as to the price to be allowed. 
 
 "The editors of the Commercial Advertiser, 
 and their political coadjutors, know full well 
 the pains they took to decry the credit of the 
 government, and to defeat that loan, and if on 
 this subject their recollection should prove 
 frail, let them turn to the files of their own 
 papers. 
 
 "The means, the sinews of war, being with- 
 held by these men, it ill becomes them to 
 attempt to stigmatize the illustrious dead for 
 not using that which they themselves denied to 
 the nation. 
 
 "As to the militia, the investigation which 
 took place by Congress immediately after the 
 invasion of Washington city, established that 
 General Armstrong issued his requisitions on 
 the governors of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsyl- 
 vania, and, I believe, Delaware, iu full season, 
 and for an adequate number of men to have 
 defended the capital against double or treble 
 the force sent against it by the British. These 
 requisitions were not successful — why, I will 
 not attempt to explain here; but surely it waa 
 not the fault of the Secretary of War, a mere 
 chamber officer, who urged them to the utmost 
 of his capacity. 
 
 "At the last moment there was a large 
 assemblage of volunteers and militia; but Gen- 
 eral Armstrong had no confidence in the 
 military skill of the commander to wield such a 
 force, and to make a successful defence. They 
 were principally encamped at the Wood-yards, 
 twelve miles from Washington city. The 
 Secretary communicated his apprehensions to 
 the President, and invited him to accompany 
 him to ihe camp, to which place they repaired. 
 The commanding general was not to be found, 
 and the troops appeared to be in a state of 
 great exhaustion from having been marched 
 and countermarched without the necessary 
 repose to fit them for battle, and few or no 
 scouting parties had been sent out to haras3 
 the enemy on their march, and they were then 
 within twenty or thirty miles of the city. 
 
 "The President and Secretary returned to 
 Washington, convinced that if the enemy 
 marched on the city they would have an easy 
 conquest. I was that evening present, and 
 heard General Armstrong make this statement 
 to George Washington Campbell, then Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury, and to William Jones, 
 then Secretary of the Navy. These high 
 functionaries replied to the Secretary: 'Why
 
 DEFENCE OF GENERAL JOHN ARMSTRONG. 
 
 121 
 
 do you not take command of the army your- 
 self, and defend the city? You are a revolu- 
 tionary officer, and understand military tac- 
 tics.' His answer was: 'I have no right to do 
 so ; my duties are by law confined to my cham- 
 ber.' 'But,' said Mr. Campbell, 'the President 
 can authorise you, and if he will do that will 
 you take the command?' ' I will,' said General 
 Armstrong, 'although it is rather late.' Where- 
 upon the Secretaries of the Treasury and of the 
 Navy repaired to the President's and solicited 
 his authority for General Armstrong to take 
 the field. The President deferred the matter 
 until the next morning, when he promised to 
 convene a cabinet council at 7 o'clock at the 
 navy-yard and decide. In the meantime 
 General Armstrong took a proposition to the 
 President, from a citizen not in the military 
 service, to blow up the Capitol with his own 
 hands, in case the enemy should enter the 
 buildings, provided he would authorise it, and 
 order to be furnished a corporal's guard, a few 
 miners, and the necessary quantity of powder. 
 This was declined, the President saying it 
 would have a better effect in arousing the 
 nation into resistance for the enemy to do it. 
 The cabinet council met at the appointed time 
 and place, and their deliberations resulted in 
 granting authority to General Armstrong to 
 take the command. For this purpose he, 
 accompanied by the Secretary of the Treasury, 
 left on horseback, setting off at full gallop for 
 Bladensburg, to which place our troops had 
 retreated fro.-n the Wood-yards. 
 
 "At nine o'clock of the fatal Wednesday, 
 which was the 24th of August, 1814, in less 
 than an hour, the President, accompanied by 
 the Hon. Richard Rush, then Attorney Gen- 
 eral, came out of the house where the cabinet 
 council had been assembled at the navy yard, 
 mounted their horses and also went off at full 
 gallop toward Bladensburg. I was present and 
 saw them all depart. They all arrived before 
 the battle commenced, and the President on 
 his arrival countermanded the authority given 
 to General Armstrong, and requested all the 
 members of the cabinet to accompany him off 
 the field of battle, leaving to the military au- 
 thorities, to whom it belonged, to conduct the 
 operations of the day, adding that it was too 
 late to make any change. 
 
 " The battle began immediately after this 
 announcement by the President, by a discharge 
 of Congreve rockets from the British lines, 
 whereupon the militia, for the most part, broke 
 and scattered in great disorder ; there were 
 some honorable exceptions — the 5th and 9th 
 regiments of Maryland and Stansbury's regi- 
 ment of volunteers fought well, and the lion. 
 Mr. Pinckney, one of their number, was se- 
 verely wounded. An express had been sent 
 to Commodore Barney, who was stationed at 
 the navy-yard for the protection of a bridge 
 across the Potomac, with somewhere about 300 
 sailors and 500 marines, to repair to Bladens- 
 
 burg; for which place they started on a dog 
 trot at the first notice, taking with them two 
 pieces of small artillery. Before they reached 
 Bladensburg our army had retreated, and the 
 British were advancing on Washington. Bar- 
 ney halted as soon as he got within the reach 
 of cannon shot, planted his guns on the public 
 road, and opened a destructive fire on the 
 British troops. Had our troops protected Bar- 
 ney's flank, he could with his small band have 
 annihilated the whole British force. As it was, 
 they suffered severely, losing nearly a fourth of 
 their number, including those who deserted, 
 and marched on,leavingtheirdeadand wounded 
 on the field. I visited the wounded at Bladens- 
 burg the same week ; there were nearly fifty, 
 many of them officers, and the limbs of many 
 of those who had been hastily buried by the 
 road side were to be seen projecting from their 
 rude graves. 
 
 " The President had a full view of the con- 
 flict, and noticed the havoc made. He said 
 the fire from Barney's guns made perfect lanes 
 through the ranks of the enemy, but that the 
 troops filled the voids thus created, without 
 turning to the right or to the left to see whether 
 their companions had lost a head, a leg, or an 
 arm, adding: 'I could never have believed 
 that so great a difference existed between reg- 
 ular troops and a militia force, if I had not 
 witnessed the scenes of this day.' I had this 
 from Mr. Madison's own lips at the White 
 House, before the enemy reached the city. 
 Barney's flanks not being protected, the ene- 
 my advanced on both sides of the road and shot 
 him down and many of his men at their guns, 
 and proceeded to the occupation and the burn- 
 ing of the city that night. 
 
 "With what justice, then, I would ask, could 
 General Armstrong be held answerable for this 
 disaster ? In his memorable answer to the let- 
 ter from the Congressional committee, in- 
 quiring into the causes which led to the loss of 
 the city, he, after assigning many other rea- 
 sons, said, ' that it was mainly to be attributed 
 to that love of life which so generally pervaded 
 the ranks of your militia.' 
 
 "As soon as the British had evacuated the 
 city, the militia officers of the district, who had 
 ingloriously fled from the field of battle with- 
 out firing a gun in their country's cause, or in 
 defence of their women, their little ones, or 
 their own firesides, attempted to excite against 
 the Secretary of War the most unwarrantable 
 prejudice, demanding of the President to dis- 
 miss him ; hoping thereby to make him the 
 scapegoat, knowing full well that the country 
 expected some atonement for the disgrace 
 which had come on our national arms by the 
 neglect of Congress to provide the means, and 
 by the absence of proper knowledge and want 
 of spirit on the part of those whose duty it was 
 to have died at their posts, and not have al- 
 lowed the capital to be entered by a hostile
 
 122 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 force, except over a bridge composed of the 
 dead and the dying. 
 
 " At this crisis, Mr. Madison recommended 
 General Armstrong to avail himself of that 
 opportunity to visit his family in New York 
 for a few weeks, when the excitement would 
 subside and he could return to his office in 
 quiet. 
 
 " General Armstrong, however, determined 
 immediately to leave the department forever, 
 thinking the President had listened too much 
 to the Georgetown militia officers, aud did 
 leave the next morning without resigning, 
 under an arrangement to wait at Baltimore 
 for me to join him, which I did on the follow- 
 ing day, and at Baltimore assured him, from 
 the President, that he had no wish nor expect- 
 ation that he would resign ; that he expected 
 him back as the chief of the War Department 
 in two or three weeks, and that he would 
 assuredly support him therein. 
 
 " General Armstrong's reply was : ' My de- 
 termination is taken ; here are my reasons, 
 (handing me a paper which he had that day 
 prepared;) they will appear in print if a news- 
 paper can be found fiee enough to give them 
 publicity.' They did appear the next morning 
 in the Baltimore Patriot, and the General thus, 
 by his own voluntary act, terminated his em- 
 ployment in the public service, retiring to his 
 estates in Dutchess county, where he passed in 
 affluence the remainder of a long lite, devoting 
 himself to the pursuits of literature and 
 agriculture. 
 
 " At President Madison's last interview with 
 General Armstrong, he stated to him that there 
 was but one thing in his whole administration 
 of the War Department with which he was not 
 well pleased, and that was, that during his 
 (Madison's) absence on a visit to Virginia, he 
 had accepted too hastily the resignation of 
 General Harrison, conferring the appointment 
 on General Jackson, who, it had been pre- 
 viously determined, should be called to fill the 
 first vacancy that should occur. 
 
 " Thus, you see, you are mistaken in saying 
 that ' he was dismissed from office.' 
 
 " General Armstrong was as true to his 
 friends and to his country as the needle to the 
 pole ; and the intimate relations which subsisted 
 between us for thirty or forty years will not 
 permit me to be silent when the fame of such 
 a man is assailed after he has been gathered 
 home, and especially not, when I recollect that 
 there are but few left who are knowing to all 
 the facts I have stated; and I am also anxious 
 that the hero of New Orleans should know, 
 before time shall have triumphed over nature, 
 before he too shall have bequeathed to his 
 country the immortality of his name, the undy 
 ing glory of his achievements — that General 
 Armstrong was his friend. 
 
 " Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 "JACOB BARKER." 
 
 Mr. Barker lost most of his vessels during 
 the war, namely: the "Catherine Jane," from 
 St. Petersburg to New York, and the " Rodman," 
 from New York to St. Petersburg, foundered 
 at sea; no insurance on vessel or cargo. The 
 "Dolphin," (the cargo but not the vessel belong- 
 ing to him,) from St. Petersburg to New York, 
 captured by the British and burnt off Halifax; 
 the "Joseph Rieketson,"from Archangel to Liver- 
 pool, captured, sent to Scotland, vessel and 
 cargo condemned, no insurance; the "Cham- 
 plain," from Norfolk to Nantucket, captured by 
 the British, vessel and cargo lost without insur- 
 awce; the "Eliza Ann" stranded on Ireland, 
 no insurance; the "Leander" on Narraganset 
 beach, no insurance; the "Juno," lost at St. 
 Michaels, no insurance ; the " Driade," de- 
 stroyed by a hurricane at New Orleans, no 
 insurance; and the "Lady Madison," from St. 
 Petersburg to London, stranded in the Baltic, 
 with a cargo which cost Mr. Barker £53,000 
 pound sterling, which had been sold to the 
 British government to great profit; arrange- 
 ments had been made to invest the proceeds in 
 British fabrics, to be shipped to New York 
 under the opinion of the American minister at 
 London, that, on receiving the news of the 
 repeal of the orders in council the President 
 would, by proclamation, recall the war and an- 
 nul the non-importation law. But for the loss 
 of this ship her voyage would have resulted in 
 a profit of something like $250,000, in place of 
 which Mr. Barker suffered a severe loss, there 
 being no insurance on freight or profit, the 
 ship insured for only half her value : the cargo 
 was insured in London with the clause of 
 honor, yet the underwriters refused to pay, on 
 the plea of its being enemies' property. Liti- 
 gation ensued, their plea was overruled, from 
 which they attempted to appeal, when the 
 court refused them a certificate, saying, that 
 after agreeing to the "clause of honor," and 
 receiving seven guineas per cent, premium, the 
 plea was too dishonorable to be entertained 
 by a British court. Pending this litigation 
 many of the subscribers to the policy failed, 
 and Mr. Barker lost ten thousand dollars by 
 their insolvency. The ship " Jason," from St. 
 Petersburg to New York, with a cargo of Rus- 
 sian goods, was stranded and lost in the North 
 Sea, immediately preceeding the war ; his other 
 marine losses during his commercial pursuits
 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF UNITED STATES BANK. 
 
 123 
 
 were very great, while some of his adventures 
 yielded magnificent profits. 
 
 When news of peace was received Mr. Barker 
 considered his fortune made. The bill to estab- 
 lish a national bank had, as he supposed, been 
 passed, giving a preference of the stock to the 
 holders of war loans, requiring only six per 
 cent, in specie; to enable him to benefit there- 
 by, he had purchased one hundred thousand 
 dollars in specie, paying therefor in the notes 
 of the New York Banks at a difference of 
 twenty-three per cent., called premium, for the 
 specie. Unfortunately, news of peace tra- 
 velled too soon, although we were not then 
 blessed with railroads and telegraphic commu- 
 nication; the bill had passed both Houses and 
 was lying on the clerk's table to have the sig- 
 gle question put, " will the House concur in 
 some (verbal or immaterial) alterations which 
 had been made by the Senate," a mere ques- 
 tion of time for organization, made necessary by 
 that which had been exhausted in debate after 
 the bill had been drawn, when an express on 
 its way to Alexandria for a speculation in 
 flour, passed through Washington with the 
 news of peace, which so elated Congress that 
 the members left their seats without waiting 
 for an adjournment, and they could not again 
 be induced to consider the question of a na- 
 tional bank during that session. This bill was 
 framed with a view to induce monied men to 
 subscribe to its stock; it was the best ever 
 devised ; it did not impose any bonus, and if it 
 had then become a law would have worked 
 wonders. 
 
 Specie and the paper of the New York 
 banks were very soon nearly equalized by the 
 operation of peace, so that in place of profit- 
 ing by putting it into a national bank, Mr. 
 Barker lost heavily by its disposal; while the 
 improvement of public stocks was trifling for 
 a long time on account of the very great 
 amount of money required to pay off the army, 
 and other expenses of the war, and the dispo- 
 sition of the mercantile men to use their funds 
 by a return to their ordinary commercial pur- 
 suits. 
 
 The embarrassments of the treasury con- 
 tinuing, and the banks that had suspended 
 specie payments being unable to resume, Con- 
 gress, at its next session, was induced to es- 
 tablish a United States Bank, the stock of 
 
 which soon advanced to fifty per cent, pre- 
 mium, although it had to pay into the treasury 
 fifteen hundred thousand dollars bonus, and 
 had not anything like the privileges set forth 
 in the bill which was defeated by the news of 
 peace. Had the news been delayed a single 
 hour the bill would have passed and its stock 
 would have been worth one hundred per cent. 
 premium. Mr. Barker considers this hour to 
 have varied his fortune to the extent of two 
 millions of dollars. 
 
 All those who had lent him money on a 
 pledge of the stock far below its cost, insisted 
 on a return of their money, wishing to invest 
 it in stock before the advance took place, 
 which was sure to follow the peace, or to em- 
 bark it in some commercial pursuit; leaving 
 Mr. Barker no alternative but to sell his stock 
 and forego the profit he had anticipated in 
 case peace found him in possession of it. 
 Hence one disappointment followed another. 
 Yet he continued buoyed up with hope and 
 resumed his commercial business at Liverpool 
 and at New York, and established a bank in 
 Wall street, became a candidate and was 
 elected a member of the New York senate. 
 His election was warmly contested by the 
 federal party, the Clintonians, and the Burrites. 
 Over their united forces his friends triumphed. 
 The effect of this combination, although it failed 
 in its chief object to defeat his election, was to 
 defeat the democratic ticket for the assembly, 
 with the exception of two Clintonian members. 
 The discipline of the party was such that it 
 gave to Mr. Barker a position the most likely 
 of all others to estrange his political partisans. 
 The offices of the State were distributed by a 
 council of appointment, consisting of four 
 members, one from each senatorial district, 
 and the governor, the latter making all the 
 nominations. He adopted a rule to take the 
 recommendation of hi« political friends, mem- 
 bers of the legislature, from their several 
 abodes. Mr. Barker being his only political 
 friend from the city in either House, the whole 
 patronage of the city centered in him. He 
 was particular not to recommend any one he 
 did not consider qualified to perform the duties 
 of the office, frankly telling those he could not 
 recommend of their want of qualification. A 
 vast proportion of the applicants were, of ne- 
 cessity, disappointed and became dissatisfied
 
 124 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 with him ; a result sure to follow the distribu 
 tion of the "loaves and fishes," for the want of 
 a sufficient number of offices to feed them all. 
 
 His banking operations were vehemently 
 opposed by the Wall street gentry. They insti- 
 tuted a suit against him, alleging that he was 
 violating the restraining act, which resulted in 
 a decree that the act was confined to associa- 
 tions and did not relate to individuals. Great 
 pains were taken to alarm the public in rela- 
 tion to his circulation and deposits; and, 
 finally, a law was procured from the legislature 
 extending the restraining act to individuals. 
 
 Before which, and while he was in attend- 
 ance on the Senate, a ship arrived from Liver- 
 pool with advice of the failure of his house at 
 that place, which caused a very great run on 
 his bank. On receiving notice of which he re- 
 turned to the city, was the first to land from 
 the steamboat, drove with great speed to Wall 
 street, the carriage making its way through the 
 crowd with some difficulty. He alighted at 
 the bank door, to the surprise of all, and to the 
 disappointment of his opponents, who were 
 ranged on the opposite side of the street in 
 momentary expectation of seeing the doors of 
 the bank close. They had not heard of the 
 boat's arrival, or of the river's being free from 
 ice. He was too quick for them, and remarked 
 to all how glad he was to see them, saying 
 *' Come in, come in — come in and get your 
 money ;" caused the back room to be thrown 
 open, additional clerks to be placed there, with 
 plenty of specie. All that wished it were sup- 
 plied. A great number put the notes in their 
 pocket and went home, believing that there 
 was no cause for the alarm which had been 
 created. Mr. Barker's stores were full of goods, 
 hemp, sail-cloth, iron, sugar, tea, salt, &c, &c, 
 of which he sold a sufficiency at auction to re- 
 plenish the vaults of his bank and returned to 
 Albany to his senatorial duties. 
 
 The members of the t Senate, with the chan- 
 cellor and judges of the supreme court, consti- 
 tuted at that time a "Court of Errors." As 
 member of this court, Mr. Barker's opinion 
 came in conflict with that of Chancellor Kent, 
 on the question of a ship's intended deviation 
 from a voyage insured. Mr. Barker held that 
 bo long as she remained within the limits pre- 
 scribed in the policy there could be no devia- 
 tion, however determined the insured might be 
 
 to deviate. The chancellor held that there 
 were exceptions to this rule ; and being in- 
 formed that Mr. B. intended to deliver a con- 
 trary opinion, he took great pains to demon- 
 strate, on paper, the soundness of his views on 
 the subject which are to be found in 14th 
 Johnson, page 46. There were but these two 
 opinions delivered on the occasion. The court 
 adopted Mr. B.'s opinion by a vote of 15 to 8 ; 
 which law, thus laid down, has not since been 
 disturbed either in England, France, or Ame- 
 rica. 
 
 Mr. Barker had the satisfaction to agree in 
 opinion with a large majority of the members 
 of the senate on nearly all the subjects which 
 came before that body while he was a member. 
 The duelling law was an exception. And 
 what is remarkable, he was the first and, the 
 writer believes, the only person who ever suf- 
 fered, judicially, under that law. The people 
 very soon took it in hand and annulled its 
 objectionable features. 
 
 Banks and canals were the order of the day, 
 Mr. Barker insisted on such legislative provi- 
 sions in bank charters as would secure specie 
 currency or its equivalent. "Pay or liqui- 
 date," was his doctrine; and as to the canal pro- 
 ject, which was zealously pressed by the friends 
 of Mr. Clinton, that gentleman having placed 
 his whole political fortunes on the issue, Mr. 
 B. doubted, his constituents were opposed to 
 connecting the treasury of the State with so 
 momentous an undertaking, most of the mem- 
 bers from the middle and southern districts 
 voted against it, while the western members 
 voted in its favor. 
 
 Senator Van Buren believed that sufficient 
 information had not been obtained to warrant 
 the experiment, suggested or yielded to a pro- 
 position to organize a board of canal commis- 
 sioners, and the appropriation of $25,000 for 
 the purpose of defraying the expense of the 
 necessary surveys to enable subsequent legisla- 
 tures to decide advisedly, which were adopted, 
 and Mr. Clinton was appointed one of the com- 
 missioners, for all which Mr. Barker voted ; the 
 project succeeded, it popularised itself, and Mr. 
 B. always thereafter insisted that Mr. Clinton 
 was entitled to the honor thereof. 
 
 The strife about the canal continued to agi- 
 tate the State for years; the dominant party 
 being opposed, flushed with victory, displaced
 
 LETTERS FROM DE WITT CLINTON. 
 
 125 
 
 Mr. Clinton from the board of commissioners; 
 this was over-acting, the people always being 
 just, when made to understand a subject, re- 
 torted on those unwise leaders, and elected him 
 governor, in which Mr. Barker took a conspicu- 
 ous part. 
 
 The division of the spoils soon produced an- 
 other revolution, and Mr. Clinton had to retire 
 from the gubernatorial chair for a season. On 
 the approach of another election, Mr. B. con- 
 sidering his restoration desirable, proposed to 
 him such a movement, it was resolved on ; 
 when Mr. B. induced Samuel H. Jenks, esq., 
 the celebrated editor of the Nantucket Enqui- 
 rer, to remove to New York and conduct a 
 newspaper in support of Mr. Clinton's election; 
 he did so, and Mr. B. established the "Union" 
 in New York, at his individual expense, for that 
 purpose, in relation to which Mr. Clinton wrote 
 
 thus : 
 
 " Albany, August 31, 1824. 
 
 "Dear Sir: Your very sensible letter of the 
 16th arrived when I was at Lebanon Springs ; 
 and it has confirmed the high opinion which I 
 have uniformly entertained of your discerning 
 views of men and things. 
 
 " I have recently seen C. G. H., and I am 
 persuaded that he is well disposed to you in all 
 respects. 
 
 " I have seen a letter, from a respectable 
 source, which mentions, as a certainty, that 
 Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana will go for Jackson. 
 
 " This, if true, will destroy the hopes of Clay, 
 and greatly undermine the imputed strength of 
 Adams. 
 
 " I have this moment heard from Onondaga 
 county. 
 
 " It has chosen friendly delegates. 
 
 u Madison will do the same to day. 
 
 " The Union is conducted with great ability. 
 Mr. J. has certainly genius of no common 
 order. 
 
 " Mrs. C. joins me in kind regards to you 
 and your excellent wife. 
 
 "I am, sincerely your friend, 
 
 "D. W. C. 
 
 " Jacob Barker, esq." 
 
 [Extract.] 
 
 "Albany, October 23, 1824. 
 
 " Dear Sir: I received your letter. A late 
 tour to Delaware on business as regent of the 
 University has interrupted the regularity of my 
 correspondence. The Union is conducted with 
 talent, and it will afford me great pleasure to 
 be of use to its able editor. 
 
 "Your exertions in getting the nominating 
 committee have been singularly useful, and 
 your views of its proper course are certaiuly 
 
 judicious. I would carry the conciliatory plan 
 to the fullest extent of honorable concession, 
 and its only limit should be the prescription of 
 honor, and the obvious necessity of not offend- 
 ing our own friends. 
 
 "Our adversaries here are very animated, 
 and have deluged the country with hand bills, 
 which are little better than so much waste 
 paper. 
 
 "Mrs. C. unites with me in sincere regards 
 to you and wife. 
 
 "I am, dear sir. yours, sincerely, 
 
 "DE WITT CLINTON. 
 
 " Jacob Barker, esq." 
 
 Mr. Crawford was at that time the demo- 
 cratic candidate for the presidency, he was 
 overtaken by sickness, which rendered his elec- 
 tion hopeless. 
 
 The electors for New York were to be appoint- 
 ed by the legislature of that State ; the two great 
 political parties were so nearly divided that the 
 few friends of General Jackson held the bal- 
 ance of power, they would not support Mr- 
 Crawford. Mr. Barker, by letter, suggested to 
 Mr. Van Buren that it would be good policy in 
 the friends of Mr. Crawford to support Gen- 
 eral Jackson ; that gentleman could not be in- 
 duced to withdraw his support from Mr. Craw- 
 ford. General Jackson, Mr. Clay, and Mr. 
 Adams were also candidates ; neither obtaining 
 a majority, the question went to Congress, 
 resulting in the election of Mr. Adams. 
 
 Immediately after his inauguration, he offer- 
 ed the mission to London to Mr. Clinton, being 
 declined, it was conferred on Rufus King. Mr. 
 Van Buren and his political friends thereafter 
 united in the support of General Jackson, and 
 never faltered in his support of that great 
 man. 
 
 A public meeting was held in New York 
 soon after the election of Mr. Adams, over 
 which Mr. Barker presided ; which meeting 
 put in nomination General Jackson for the next 
 President, Chief Justice Spencer for the next 
 Vice President, and recommended an amend- 
 ment of the Constitution, increasing the term for 
 which those public functionaries should be 
 elected, limiting their services to one term. 
 
 This was the first nomination of General 
 Jackson for the presidency after the election 
 of Mr. Adams. He was elected for the next 
 term. 
 
 The currency and the United States Bank 
 were among the most important subjects which
 
 126 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 agitated the public mind during his adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 Mr. Barker left New York for New Orleans 
 in 1834, during the money panic created for 
 the purpose of counteracting the measures of 
 General Jackson in relation to the United 
 States Bank. Passing through Washington he 
 had several conversations with him on the sub- 
 ject ; exhibited to him a bill he had prepared for 
 such an institution, to be established at Wash- 
 ington, with branches in such States as would 
 authorize them. The President examined the 
 bill attentively; said he believed such a bank 
 would be very useful ; that he had said the 
 same thing to Mr. Biddle ; was supposing he 
 could control the government and the nation 
 with the monied power of the bank; would not 
 listen to the necessary alterations in the charter 
 to render it acceptable to the people. The gene- 
 ral authorized Mr. Barker to say to Mr. Van 
 Buren, also to Senators Wright, Taney, Rives 
 and Talmadge, that if they would pass such a 
 bill he would sign it; these gentlemen, with 
 the exception of Messrs. Rives and Tal- 
 madge, replied that they could not support any 
 bank; that nothing would satisfy the people 
 but gold and silver. Mr. Talmadge replied 
 that he was prepared to support the measure. 
 Mr. Rives being about to resign his seat in 
 the Senate, no application was made to him. 
 
 The pet-bank experiment was adopted on 
 the removal of the deposits from the United 
 States bank; it failed, which induced the 
 favored measure of General Jackson, the specie 
 circular. 
 
 On Mr. Van Buren succeeding to the presi- 
 dency, the opposition made strenuous efforts to 
 get rid of the specie circular, which he success- 
 fully resisted, when there was a general sus- 
 pension of specie payments by the banks. 
 President Van Buren, by special message to 
 Congress on 4th September, 1837, recommended 
 the independent treasury; and in his mes- 
 sages of December, 1837, 1838, and 1839, 
 reiterated the recommendation of such a law: 
 it was adopted, and in his annual message of 
 December 5, 1840, he stated the beneficial 
 operation of the system during the brief time 
 it had been in force. 
 
 The irredeemable paper currency, the com- 
 mercial embarrassments and financial derange- 
 ments, caused universal distress ; and the peo- 
 
 ple were made to believe that it arose from the 
 measures of General Jackson and Mr. Van 
 Buren — measures adopted to cure evils arising 
 from extravagance and over-trading; evils fos- 
 tered and encouraged by the banking system 
 then in operation; this delusion led them to 
 the election of General Harrison and John 
 Tyler. 
 
 On General Harrison's coming into power, 
 Mr. Clay and his political partisans, composing 
 a decided majority of both Houses, set about 
 establishing a national bank, which would, 
 doubtless, have succeeded, but for the death of 
 General Harrison. Mr. Barker was in favor 
 of the measure; he apprehended that it would 
 be defeated if the sub-treasury should be pre- 
 viously repealed ; he considered the benefit of 
 the circulation of the nation so great that the 
 local banks would not allow a law to be made 
 which would transfer that benefit from them- 
 selves to a national bank, except for the pur- 
 pose of getting rid of the sub-treasury and 
 specie circular; these excellent measures ope- 
 rated so severely on the local banks as for them 
 to prefer a national bank. 
 
 The bill repealing the independent treasury 
 preceeded that establishing a bank. Pending 
 its discussion Mr. Barker recommended that 
 the bank charter should contain the repealing 
 clause, transferring the business of the sub- 
 treasury to the bank without producing any 
 interruption, so that if the bank bill failed the 
 sub-treasury might remain in full force, on 
 which subject Mr. Barker addressed Mr. Clay, 
 as follows: 
 
 [Extract.] 
 
 "New Orleans, May 13, 1841. 
 
 "Dear Sir: Having taken great pains for the 
 last ten years to impress the public of both 
 political parties of the absolute necessity of a 
 national bank and a national bankrupt law, I 
 beg leave to make a few remarks here on the 
 necessity for prompt action rather than on iheir 
 general utility, as you have been frequently fur- 
 nished with my opinionsin detailinprint,and for 
 reason that so far as I understand your opinions 
 you also favor both of these measures. 
 
 " The nation look to you for the adoption of 
 both, and if disappointed at the extra session 
 of Congress, the great object of the political 
 change which has taken place will be lost, as 
 new feelings, new men, with new objects, will 
 spring up before the annual session, which will 
 not be likely to pass either law. Allow me, 
 therefore, to entreat you to exert yourself in
 
 INDEPENDENT TREASURY REVIVED. 
 
 127 
 
 favor of prompt action. These measures, if 
 adopted at once, will have a very good effect 
 everywhere, and without them we shall linger 
 along for 10 or 15 years in our present palsied 
 and impaired state. 
 
 "It will not make any difference where you 
 place the 'mother bank ; ' it will do business 
 some hundred millions of dollars annually, and 
 that amount of business will afford profit 
 enough to compensate the most able men in 
 the nation for leaving their residence and adopt 
 that where the bank may be located, and the 
 fewer the directors for the mother bank the 
 better. The mother bank should not discount ; 
 that business should be left to the branches, and 
 for this purpose there should be a branch at the 
 same place where the mother bank is located, 
 as well as at other places ; and to get rid of 
 the constitutional objections as far as possible, 
 which will probably be the most formidable 
 the friends of the measure will have to contend 
 with, it will be best to establish the mother 
 bank at Washington, with power to establish 
 branches wherever the State legislature may 
 authorize it. 
 
 " You are in favor of the repeal of the sub- 
 treasury and specie circular : without under- 
 taking to discuss the objections to these mea- 
 sures, I beg leave to suggest that if you 
 repeal them in any other way than by substi- 
 tuting a national bank therefor, admitted to be 
 infinitely better, a national bank will not be 
 created. The local banks are too powerful to 
 be resisted, and if they can again get intrusted 
 with the public funds and enjoy the whole cir- 
 culation of the nation, they will not allow a 
 national bank to be established, which would 
 assuredly supplant them. The only way to 
 convince them is by continuing the sub-trea- 
 sury and specie circular until a national bank 
 is established ; that they, the local banks, have 
 no chance of again getting the least foothold 
 with the government. 
 
 " Excuse my freedom of expression, and 
 believe me, as ever, your assured friend, 
 
 "JACOB BAKKER. 
 " The Hon. Henry Clay." 
 
 Mr. Clay said to his friends, "No, it would be 
 better to repeal at once and have a clear stage 
 for a good bank." General Harrison's death 
 intervened, when Mr. Clay's friends remarked 
 to him, that there was no certainty that Tyler 
 would approve any bill establishing a national 
 bank. Mr. Clay replied, " Don't tell me that 
 any President dare veto a bill passed by a large 
 majority of both Houses of Congress, and called 
 for by the united voice of the nation." 
 
 Very soon after the death of General Har- 
 rison, the acting President, in a message to 
 Congress, recommended the repeal of the inde- 
 pendent treasury, saying, that it had been 
 
 twice condemned by the people. His recom- 
 mendation was adopted by Congress ; they re- 
 pealed the law, and then passed a bill incor- 
 porating a national bank, which he vetoed ; 
 | its friends, unable to procure a sufficient ma- 
 jority to pass the bill in despite of his veto, the 
 question was disposed of, probably for ages, if 
 not forever, leaving the local banks in pos- 
 session of the whole circulation of the nation. 
 
 The acting President was mistaken when he 
 said the people had twice condemned the inde- 
 pendent treasury ; the question had not been 
 put to them ; it was put immediately thereafter, 
 and was decided in its favor by the election of 
 James K. Polk to the presidency, under whose 
 administration the specie circulation was con- 
 tinued and the independent treasury revived. 
 For these two great measures, we are indebted 
 to General Jackson for the one, and Mr. Van 
 Buren for the other ; they have saved the na- 
 tion and its institutions, and entitled them to 
 be esteemed as public benefactors, and should 
 immortalize their names, if possible, far more 
 important than that of the glorious defence of 
 New Orleans. 
 
 During the Mexican war the opposition 
 again attempted to create a money panic, when 
 Mr. Barker procured the publication of the fol- 
 lowing article in the Commercial Time3 of 
 New Orleans : 
 
 [communicated.] 
 
 "We hear that money is very scarce in the 
 northern cities. This is all an artificial con- 
 trivance of the banks to make Congress repeal 
 the sub-treasury, or abandonthespecieclau.se. 
 They had better abandon the war with Mexico 
 than do either. 
 
 "It is idle to pretend that the government 
 cannot build as strong places of deposit as the 
 banks; appoint as competent clerks; make 
 their transfers from one city to another as 
 safely, with as little expense, and with as 
 much expedition as the batiks can do it. They 
 have taken the business into their own hands, 
 and are bound to employ able clerks and a suf- 
 ficient number to do the work well. 
 
 "For this, it is entitled to the benefit of the 
 circulation, a full indemnity for all the ex- 
 pense ; give it back to the banks, and they will 
 gladly loan money to the government. The 
 deposits and circulation w ill enable them to do 
 so, and the profits on the use of the money 
 derived therefrom abundantly pay all expenses. 
 
 " The government can furni&h a better cir- 
 culation than the local banks; why, then, yield 
 it to the banks? 
 
 " If the Secretary of the Treasury finds it in-
 
 128 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 convenient to attend to the business, and is 
 •willing to yield it, let a national bank be es- 
 tablished at Washington, to be conducted un- 
 der the supervision of Congress ; but by no 
 means let the funds of the nation return back 
 to the local banks, over which Congress has 
 not any control. 
 
 " The writer, has ever since the war of 1812, 
 considered a national bank necessary for the 
 prosperity and convenience of commercial men, 
 as well as of the government. A paper circu- 
 lation, equivalent to specie, is indispensable ; 
 habit is more powerful than law ; besides, we 
 have, with a mixed currency, prospered as a 
 nation, from its infancy to manhood, more than 
 any other nation ever before prospered ; why 
 then abandon it? A mechanic might as well 
 abandon the use of his tools ; and if the use of 
 paper is to be continued, why not subject it to 
 the supervision of Congress? 
 
 " Treasury notes, redeemable at sight with 
 specie, are better for a currency than the notes 
 of the local banks. The paper of a national 
 bank wid be more convenient than either, and 
 the profits on the public deposits and circula- 
 tion would more than pay all the expenses of 
 the establishment, and enable the bank to dis- 
 burse and transfer the funds of the govern- 
 ment to all parts of the nation, freeing the 
 government from the whole expense of eon- 
 ducting the sub-treasury. 
 
 " The specie clause in the sub-treasury, 
 does not do any harm ; it only gives to treasury 
 notes a preference over bank notes. 
 
 u Under the sub-treasury there will not be 
 half as great an accumulation of specie as 
 there would be in the banks, if they kept and 
 disbursed the public money ; because, if prop- 
 erly conducted, nearly all the receipts, except 
 for such loans as the government may nego- 
 tiate, will be in treasury notes. The money 
 borrowed should be made payable by instal- 
 ments, when one instalment would be paid out 
 to the public creditors before another became 
 due; and the money thus expended, in the 
 ordinary course of trade, would return to the 
 banks and to the loan contractors in season to 
 pay the next instalment, so that one or two 
 instalments would furnish a sufficient amount 
 of specie to pay fifty or a hundred instalments. 
 
 " The Secretary of the Treasury has made a 
 great mistake in sending specie to New Or- 
 leans; we have more than we know what to do 
 with, therefor shall have to send it back. 
 Treasury notes would answer every purpose 
 for currency, bearing only a nominal interest; 
 those they very properly redeem with specie at 
 sight ; and those bearing 5 2-5 per cent, for 
 exchange ; these, so far as not absorbed by 
 public dues, should be redeemed with stock 
 bearing six per cent, per annum, irredeemable 
 for 15 or 20 years, leaving the dealers in stock 
 to battle the price among themselves. Treas- 
 ury notes, this plan adopted and pursued, 
 will furnish the government with means suffi- 
 
 cient to go through with the war, however long 
 it may last, taking care not to put out more 
 treasury notes bearing only a nominal interest 
 than can be redeemed at sight with specie. 
 
 " It is not to be believed that the Secretary 
 wished the sub-treasury bill defeated in the 
 Senate, as has often been averred in the whig 
 newspapers, or that he is hostile to this favor- 
 ite measure of the democratic party; if he is 
 not hostile, he will not allow himself to be car- 
 ried by the local banks, who are invoking the 
 aid of heaven and earth to get back the depos- 
 its and circulation of which the independent 
 treasury deprives them. 
 
 "If the Secretary finds bank facilities essen- 
 tial, let him follow in the footsteps of the im- 
 maculate Madison, who originally had doubts 
 of the constitutionality of a national bank; 
 finding such an institution necessary to the 
 successful conducting of the war against Great 
 Britain, those doubts disappeared, and he re- 
 commended to Congress the establishment of a 
 national bank. 
 
 " Had the law allowed collections to be made 
 in the specie paying bank notes, the banks 
 would have been glad to receive treasury 
 notes at par to protect their specie; this not 
 having been done, to do it now would be ma- 
 king a great concession; but to allow the use 
 of bank notes after received for any other pur- 
 pose than to draw specie, would be to give up 
 the independent treasury and put the admin- 
 istration in the hands of the local banks. They 
 would control the destinies of the nation and 
 never allow Congress to establish a national 
 bank. 
 
 " Such an institution should be estab- 
 lished at Washington, with branches in such 
 States as may authorize the same; this will 
 obviate the constitutional objection. General 
 Jackson was in favor of such a bank, said he 
 believed it would be very useful, and authorized 
 the writer of this letter to say to Senators 
 Wright, Rives and Talmadge, that if Congress 
 would pass such a bill he would sign it. 
 
 "New Orleans, December 30." 
 
 He also caused to be published over his sig- 
 nature his financial views as follows: 
 
 " The panic-makers are the worst enemies 
 we have. In relation to other matteis, they 
 have been too successful. Their denunciations 
 of the annexation of Texas; of the stand taken 
 by our government on the Oregon question ; 
 and of the proposed independent treasury, 
 have done more mischief than could possibly 
 have resulted from those measures had they 
 been promptly carried into effect. 
 
 " The independent treasury should be es- 
 tablished without further hesitation, in order 
 that the funds of the nation may be kept sepa- 
 rate and distinct from the concerns of the 
 local banks, and when once adopted those 
 banks will be rendered harmless and it will 
 work well. It should not have been repealed
 
 REASONS FOR A NATIONAL BANK. 
 
 129 
 
 without the establishment of a national bank, 
 a better measure I admit, yet as the public are 
 deceived on the subject, a national bank can- 
 not be established until the public mind is dis- 
 abused of the prejudice which the local banks 
 are constantly inculcating. The whole ques- 
 tion is in a uut shell. Can we get rid of the 
 local banks? We cannot, and 1 confess that 
 however disagreeable it may be, we are doomed 
 to tolerate them. This being a settled ques- 
 tion, give us, say I, a national bank, subject 
 to the supervision of Congress, rather than local 
 banks in the back woods and commercial 
 cities. The local banks have possession of the 
 public funds, and so long as this be tolerated 
 we shall all be slaves to the money power. 
 Let Congress do its duty and pass the inde- 
 pendent treasury without further delay. It 
 is the best measure ever devised for the good 
 of the nation, save and except a national bank, 
 subject to the supervision of Congress. 
 
 '•Our habits make the use of bank notes 
 necessary. They answer in lieu of specie to 
 an amount, say one hundred millions of dollars. 
 The amount will be about the same whether 
 they be issued by a national or a State bank. 
 Consequently, if the local banks can prevent 
 the establishment of a national bank, they 
 have the exclusive use of this one hundred 
 millions of dollars of the people's money, with- 
 out paying any interest therefor; hence, they 
 are hostile to the establishment of a national 
 bank and, also, to the sub-treasury. The 
 latter is to take from them public deposits, but 
 not the circulation. 
 
 "These same men have been using the Ore- 
 gon question, the Texas question and the in- 
 dependent Treasury lor the purpose of crea- 
 ting a panic and thereby intimidating Con- 
 gress ; and so successful have they been in 
 alarming the public mind, by withholding the 
 ordinary facilities from businessmen, that they 
 have already done more mischief than would 
 have followed from the independent treasury 
 had it been promptly adopted. Let Congress 
 pass the law at once, if they wish to prove 
 to bank kings that they cannot rule the nation. 
 
 " When the Harrison Congress was about 
 repealing the sub-treasury, I addressed a letter 
 to Mr. Clay, telling him that if they did not 
 first create a national bank, no bank could be 
 established. The sub treasury once out of 
 the way, the public money would return to the 
 pet banks, and they would not permit a na- 
 tional bank to be established or any law to be 
 passed which would deprive them of the ad- 
 vantage of keeping it. Mr. Clay was not then 
 acquainted with the extent of the power of the 
 local banks. The sub-treasury was repealed, 
 the public money returned to the pet banks, 
 the bank bill defeated, and Mr. Clay enlight- 
 ened as to the power they exercise over the 
 concerns of the nation to create panics at 
 pleasure. 
 
 "Such has always been the use made of the 
 
 9 
 
 bank power. When Congress was about ter- 
 minating the existence of the first United 
 States Bank in I811j tiny threatened death 
 and bloody bones, and endeavored to intimi- 
 date Congress by prating about the ruin which 
 threatened our merchants. The moral firm- 
 ness of the democratic party was then equal to 
 the occasion — a renewal of the bank charter 
 was refused and no panic ensued. The bank 
 was glad to accommodate its debtors to aid its 
 collections, and it had debts of its own to pay, 
 and they worked together and the mammoth 
 was then extinguished with as little flickering 
 as is an exhausted candle. 
 
 "So will it be with the present panic as 
 soon as the independent treasury shall be 
 established. 
 
 " Jefferson's embargo, Madison's non-impor- 
 tation laws, and finally the prosecution of the 
 glorious war of 1S12, had to encounter the 
 same sordid, selfish conduct on the part of the 
 panic makers. 
 
 " Very sincerely, yours, &c, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 
 " New Orleans, May 8, 1846.'' 
 
 The good policy, nay, more, the absolute 
 necessity, of keeping the public money separate 
 and apart from the local banks has become so 
 apparent that all parties subscribe to its wis- 
 dom. 
 
 Whenever there are to be large payments 
 from the treasury the banking interests feel a 
 buoyancy, and every department of trade is 
 more or less invigorated by such feeling and 
 payments ; whereas, if the same amount of 
 money was to be drawn from the banks, it 
 would create a panic and vast derangement 
 among commercial men; and, while the writer 
 cordially approves, as he always has done, of 
 the specie circular and independent treasury, 
 he believes that a national bank would be very 
 convenient and serviceable to the commercial 
 interests of the country; that but for the gold 
 discoveries in California and Australia, specie 
 payments could not have been continued by the 
 local banks ; and should another general sus- 
 pension take place, resumption cannot be 
 brought about without the aid of such an insti- 
 tution, and, in case of an extended war, it will 
 become necessary to enable the government to 
 use the circulating medium, which would fur- 
 nish countless millions without interest, which 
 is now enjoyed by the local banks, in violation 
 of the spirit if not the letter of the Constitution, 
 which forbids the States issuing letters of 
 credit. This franchise of the public cannot be 
 used by them any way so beneficially as
 
 130 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 through a national bank. The next best plan 
 would be treasury notes. 
 
 On the subject of the currency and local 
 banks Mr. Jefferson remarks thus: — (Jeffer- 
 son's Works, volume 4, pages 198 and 220.) 
 
 "I am sorry to see our loans begin at so 
 exorbitant an interest; and yet, even at that, 
 you will soon be at the bottom of the loan-bag. 
 We are an agricultural nation. Such an one 
 employs its shavings in the purchase or im- 
 provement of lands or stocks. The lendable 
 money among them is chiefly that of orphans j 
 and wards in the hands of executors and guar- 
 dians, and that which the farmer lays by till he 
 has enousfh for the purchase in view. In such 
 a nation there is one, and one only resource 
 for loans sufficient to carry them through the 
 expense of a war, and that will always be suffi- 
 cient, and in the power of an honest govern- 
 ment punctual in the preservation of its faith. 
 The fund I mean is the mass of circulating 
 coin. Every one knows that, although not 
 literally, it is nearly true, that every paper 
 dollar emitted banishes a silver one from the 
 circulation. A nation, therefore, making its 
 purchases and payments with bills fitted for 
 circulation, thrusts an equal sum of coin out of 
 circulation. This is equivalent to borrowing 
 that sum, and yet the vendor, receiving pay- 
 ment in a medium as effectual as coin for his 
 purchases or payments, has no claim to interest. 
 And so the nation may continue to issue its bills 
 as far as its wants require and the limits of the 
 circulation will admit. These limits are under- 
 stood to extend with us, at present, to two 
 hundred millions of dollars, a greater sum than 
 would be necessary for any war. But this, 
 the only resource which the government could 
 command with certainty, the States have, un- 
 fortunately, fooled away, nay, corruptly alienated 
 to swindlers and shavers under the cover of 
 private banks. Say, too, as an additional evil, 
 that the disposable funds of individuals to this 
 great amount have thus been withdrawn from 
 improvement and useful enterprise and em- 
 ployed in the useless, usurious, and demora- 
 lizing practices of bank directors and their 
 accomplices." 
 
 " It is time, then, for the public function- 
 aries to look to this. Perhaps it may not be 
 too late. Perhaps, by giving time to the banks, 
 they may call in and pay off their paper by 
 degress. But no remedy is ever to be expected 
 while it rests with the State legislatures. Per- 
 sonal motives can be excited through so many 
 avenues to their will, that in their hands it will 
 continue to go on from bad to worse, until the 
 catastrophe overwhelm us. I still believe, how- 
 ever, that on proper representation of the sub- 
 ject, a great proportion of these legislatures 
 would cede to Congress their power of estab- 
 lishing banks, saving the charter rights already 
 granted. Aud this should be asked, not by 
 
 way of amendment to the Constitution, because 
 until three-fourths should consent nothing 
 could be done, but accepted from them, one by 
 one, singly, as their consent might be obtained. 
 Any single State, even if no other should come 
 into the measure, would find its interest in 
 arresting foreign bank paper immediately, and 
 its own by degrees. Specie would flow in on 
 them as paper disappeared. Their own banks 
 would call in and pay off their notes gradually, 
 and their constituents would thus be saved 
 from the general wreck. Should the greater 
 part of the States concede, as is expected, their 
 power over banks to Congress, besides insuring 
 their own safety, the paper of the non-conceed- 
 ing States might be so checked and circum- 
 scribed, by prohibiting its receipt in any of the 
 conceeding States, and even in the non-con- 
 ceeding as to duties, taxes, judgments, or other 
 demands of the United States, or of the citizens 
 of other States, that it would soon die of itself, 
 and the medium of gold and silver be univer- 
 sally restored. This is what ought to be done. 
 But it will not be done. Carthago non delibilvr. 
 The overbearing clamor of merchants, specula- 
 tors, and projectors, will drive us before them wi th 
 our eyes open, until, as in France, under the Mis- 
 sissippi bubble, our citizens will be overtaken by 
 the crush of this baseless fabric, without other 
 satisfaction than that of execratious on the 
 heads of those functionaries who, from ignor- 
 ance, pusillanimity, or corruption, have be- 
 trayed the fruits of their industry into the 
 hands of projectors and swindlers." 
 
 The business of Mr. Barker's Liverpool 
 house was principally with the United States, 
 which ceased with the declaration of war; its 
 affairs closed, debts paid, and Mr. Barker with- 
 drew from the firm; when the partner at that 
 place embarked largely in the trade between 
 England and Russia, and other foreign places, 
 on his individual account; which resulted very 
 disastrously, in consequence of the sudden 
 peace which took place between Great Britain 
 and the continental powers. 
 
 On the close of the American war, Mr. 
 Barker's connexion was resumed, he then 
 being ignorant of the extent of the business in 
 which his partner had been individually en- 
 gaged, who, in the hope of winding it all up 
 satisfactorily, incurred for the new firm respon- 
 sibilities, which brought about the failure, the 
 news of which came upon Mr. Barker by 
 surprise. 
 
 The effect of the Liverpool failure, and the 
 opposition to his banking operations, finally 
 overthrew his bank; all of its depositors, and 
 a vast proportion of its circulation, were paid
 
 JK iiBiuar 
 
 OFTHE
 
 CHARACTER AND HISTORY OF JOHN WELLS. 
 
 131 
 
 at sight: yet the suspension created a strong 
 prejudice with all those who continued to hold 
 his bank notes, which had a withering influence 
 on his further operations. 
 
 Distressed by numerous applications to re- 
 deem bank notes in the hands of needy per- 
 sons, which, although the amounts were small, 
 he had not the means at command to redeem, 
 on their first presentation, he called upon his 
 friend, John Wells, esq., stating his troubles, i 
 and observed, "I believe I had better shoot ; 
 myself."' That gentleman replied, "Are you j 
 crazy? How much do you want?" — taking [ 
 up his pen and commencing to write. Mr. i 
 Barker, wanting five thousand dollars, replied 
 three thousand. Mr. Wells gave him one of j 
 his most earnest looks, saying, "Is that all? — ' 
 if you want more, name it now, and forever 
 after hold your peace." 
 
 "That will answer; — but why do you give it 
 to me? If I should die you will never get a 
 cent." 
 
 Mr. Wells, saying "That's none of your 
 business," went on writing, and handed to 
 Mr. Barker an order for three thousand dollars 
 in the stock of the Bank of America, saying, 
 "I have no money; make that stock answer 
 your purpose." 
 
 The useful life of that meritorious gentleman 
 was soon after terminated by the yellow fever; 
 when Mr. Barker hastened to return the stock 
 to his administrator, as will be seen by the 
 following: 
 
 "February 23, 1824. 
 
 "This certifies that thirty shares of the 
 Bank of America, lent by John Wells to Jacob 
 Barker, have been transferred to the adminis- 
 trator of the estate of J. Wells. 
 
 H. LAIGHT, Administrator. 
 
 An admirable commentary on the life and 
 character of Mr. Wells is to be found in 2d 
 Cowen"s Law Reports. It speaks thus of that 
 good man: 
 SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MR. 'WELLS. 
 
 " It is by no means the least testimony to 
 the high stand which the late John Wells, esq. 
 occupied at the bar of this State, that his death 
 deranged and shortened, in a very considerable 
 degree, the calendar of the present session. 
 Repeated applications were made and granted 
 for the postponement of arguments to the next 
 term, with a view to the preparation of other 
 Upon making one of these motions, 
 Butler took occasion to bestow a 
 
 counsel. 
 Mr. B. F. 
 
 brief and extemporary, but beautiful and ap- 
 propriate eulogium upon the memory of this 
 distinguished advocate. The bar of Albany, 
 and those attending court from different parts 
 of the State, assembled at the court room in 
 the Capitol, (the lale Chancellor Kent in the 
 chair,) and, on motion of the late Chief Justice 
 Spencer, resolved to wear the accustomed 
 badge of mourning for thirty days. A similar 
 meeting was holden, and similar resolutions 
 passed by the bar of the city of New York; and 
 the obituary notices of the day abounded with 
 very just remembrances of Mr. Wells' worth 
 and genius. He was indeed the pride of our 
 bar; and I need make no apology for occupying 
 this place in presenting his surviving brethren 
 of the profession with such particulars of his 
 life and character as have come to my know- 
 ledge. 
 
 " John Wells was born on the farm now 
 owned by Mrs. E. Davis, about one half mile 
 south of the present village of Cherry Valley, 
 in the county of Otsego, in this State. The 
 accounts as to the time of his birth, which I 
 have been able to obtain, differ, between 1769 
 and 1770. The surrounding country was then 
 a wilderness. During the war of the revolu- 
 tion, which shortly followed, the settlement 
 where he was born took its full share in the 
 horrors and cruelties of Indian warfare; and 
 has recently been distinguished by lying in the 
 neighborhood which Mr. Cooper selected as the 
 scene of his beautiful novel, " The Pioneers." 
 Wells' paternal grand-parents were both natives 
 of Ireland, and formed part of a little band of 
 colonists, who, several years before, penetrated 
 the then extensive wilds of that region, and 
 settled in the valley where the village now 
 stands. His maternal grand-father was the 
 Rev. Mr. Dunlap, who came also from Ireland 
 with the colonists. 
 
 "His father, Robert Wells, owned a farm in 
 Cherry Valley, on which he resided in 1778, 
 with his wife, by whom he had five children, 
 John being the second. These, together with 
 an unmarried brother, John, and a maiden 
 sister, Jane, composed his family, who, with 
 him, were the only descendants of the 
 paternal grand-father, that bore the name of 
 Wells. 
 
 " During the summer of that year, the indi- 
 cations of a descent from the savages were so 
 numerous and striking, that the father became 
 seriously apprehensive for the safety of his fam- 
 ily; aud he accordingly removed them to Sche- 
 nectady, as a place of greater security. But, in 
 the autumn, his fears subsiding, they returned, 
 and arrived at the farm on the 11th of No- 
 vember, with the exception of his son John. 
 He had sometime before been placed by his 
 father at school in Schenectady; and having 
 become much engaged in his juvenile studies, 
 and being moreover a great^ favorite of his 
 aunt Eleanor Wilson, with whom he boarded 
 at that place, it was determined that his pro-
 
 132 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 gress as a learner should not be interrupted, 
 and he was left to continue his attendance at 
 school. It was probably owing to this circum- 
 stance that he survived the conflagration and 
 murders which soon after desolated the neigh- 
 borhood of his birth. 
 
 " His father's family, with several of his 
 neighbors, who had been driven abroad at the 
 same time, and for the same cause, had been 
 lulled into a fatal security by those false ap- 
 pearances which their aboriginal enemies knew 
 too well how to practice; and on the 11th 
 November, 1778, almost every family resident 
 at the valley, hud thus been lured to return 
 within reach of the tomahawk. During the 
 same month of November, and but a few days 
 after Wells' family had reached the valley, the 
 celebrated Brandt, learning that the harvest of 
 his vengeance was full, seized the opportunity 
 to effect a descent which he had for a long time 
 meditated. This chief, with one of the Butlers, 
 at the head of a party of savages and their 
 British allies, advanced upon the valley in the 
 night; and the connexions of young Wells 
 were among the first who fell victims to their 
 fury. All his relations, resident at the farm, 
 were murdered; Mrs. Dunlop, his maternal 
 grand-mother, then living at the valley, shared 
 the same fate; and her husband, with other 
 members of her family, were taken prisoners. 
 His paternal residence was burned to ashes, 
 and the whole settlement plundered and finally 
 destroyed. Young Wells had a brother Sam- 
 uel, who was older than himself by about two 
 years, Robert and William, who were younger, 
 and a sister Eleanor, aged about five years. 
 His youngest brother was not more than six 
 months old. Indeed, the massacre at Cherry 
 Valley affords one of the most awful illustra- 
 tratious of the rule which governs Indian war- 
 fare. ' The indiscriminate destruction of all 
 ages, sexes and conditions.' 
 
 " Cut off at this early age from the tenderest 
 attachments of life, and left (like Logan) with- 
 out one living mortal who was naturally and 
 immediately interested in his fate, young Wells 
 would have been either abandoned to poverty 
 and wretchedness, or bent down to the ordinary 
 drudgery of life, had not his warm hearted and 
 affectionate aunt, Mrs. Wilson, interposed in 
 his behalf, and formed him to a higher destiny. 
 For his future prospects in life, she saw him 
 thrown entirely upon her friendship and re- 
 sources ; and though I cannot learn that the 
 latter were very ample, he found the former 
 not of that sunshine character to be dissipated 
 by the dark cloud which had gathered over his 
 fortunes. Through her exertions, which were, 
 of course, indulged and aided by her very kind 
 and generous husband, he enjoyed the best 
 opportunity for acquiring an education which 
 the country then afforded. He continued sev- 
 eral years at the grammar school in Schenec- 
 tady, whence his aunt Wilson removed to Long 
 Island, where he studied with the Rev. Mr. 
 
 Cutting, of Jamaica. He was afterwards at 
 school in New York and at Newark, (New 
 Jersey,) at which last place he finished his stu- 
 dies preparatory to entering college. He pur- 
 sued his collegiate course at Princeton, where 
 he graduted in 1778, having an oration as- 
 signed him as his part in the commencement 
 of that year. He took both the degrees of 
 A. B. and A. M. at this college. 
 
 " Though of an age, at the time, not fully to 
 realize the appaling story of Brandt's descent, 
 and the fate of his family and neighborhood, 
 yet, accompanied as it was by scenes of simi- 
 lar cruelty, occurring throughout the whole 
 period of the revolution, the mental wound 
 which he had received was deepened by the 
 dreadful associations continually brought back 
 to his memory; and the recollection of his 
 early loss finally made a permanent impression 
 upon his mind. His health not being the best, 
 and his struggles to excel as a scholar unre- 
 mitted and severe, these causes combined, gave 
 him, at one time, an air of melancholy and 
 premature decay. Just before the close of his 
 studies at Princeton, his friends entertaining 
 serious apprehensions that he was in a hopeless 
 decline, he left college, for a short time, pur- 
 suant to their advice, with a view to recruit 
 his health. The experiment succeeded in a 
 very considerable degree; and he was enabled 
 shortly after to return, and complete his course 
 of classical studies. 
 
 " After graduating, he must shortly have 
 entered upon his clerkship; for his license as 
 attorney was signed in 1791. This clerkship, 
 together with the professional studies accom- 
 panying it, he pursued principally with Mr. 
 Edward Griswold, then in full practice as attor- 
 ney and counsel in the city of New York. Mr. 
 Griswold, some time since, retired from busi- 
 ness and now resides at Hempstead, in Queen's 
 county, (L. I.) He had arisen to very high 
 reputation in his profession. As a proof that 
 he eminently deserved this reputation, it is 
 enough to mention, that after a retirement of 
 several years, he is still sought out and con- 
 sulted with the greatest advantage and defer- 
 ence, by some of the most eminent counsel in 
 the city of New York; and this too upon the 
 most intricate heads of the common law. Col- 
 onel Burr lately mentioned to me that Mr. 
 Griswold was the only man he ever saw who 
 loved the black-lettered lore of the common 
 law for its own sake; and Mr. Wells, in the full 
 zenith of his reputation, always spoke of the 
 professional habits and acquirements of his 
 early tutor and friend, in terms of the highest 
 respect. The example alone of such a man 
 must have been of very great advantage to his 
 pupil; and I am told that in one respect, at 
 least, there was a remarkable similarity be- 
 tween them. This was in a most powerful and 
 singular habit of mental abstraction, which 
 enabled them to sit down in ihe midst of their 
 families, or a crowd of company, separate
 
 CHARACTER AND HISTORY OF JOHN WELLS. 
 
 133 
 
 themselves from the sports, or the business, or 
 the noise around them, and insulated and deaf 
 to every thing that was passing, pursue their 
 studies, equally unconscious of any thing like 
 interruption as in the deepest retirement of the 
 closet. 
 
 "On concluding his clerkship, Mr. Wells was 
 thrown upon his own resources; and these were 
 nothing beyond his profession. He immedi- 
 ately opened an office at a room in Pine street, 
 New York; but though the stores of legal 
 knowledge, which he laid in during his clerk- 
 ship, must have been more ample than usual, 
 his industry great, his attendance upon his 
 office constant, and the execution of what busi- 
 ness was committed to his hands faithful; 
 yet, absolutely precluded from the more splen- 
 did labors of the forum, by lacking the degree 
 of counsel, wanting in connexions, and those 
 friends who could successfully take any imme- 
 diate interest in his professional success, and 
 located among a large number of attorneys, 
 who had in a measure monopolized the man- 
 agement of those suits which are the most val- 
 uable to this class of the profession, it is not 
 singular that during the time which intervened 
 between his first and second law degree his 
 prospects should have been discouraging. His 
 business was accordingly very limited ; afford- 
 ing him but a scanty livelihood. But he was 
 not yet so far disheartened as to relax in his 
 studies; and he came to the bar, after the or- 
 dinary term of practice as an attorney, well 
 prepared for the higher duties of the profession. 
 His license as counsel was signed in 1795. 
 He still continued his practice in Pine street, 
 his business receiving some trifling accessions, 
 but not to an extent which would be, in the 
 least, flattering to the most sanguine temper; 
 and, for several years aftewards, he pursued the 
 humble avocation of a mere collecting attorney, 
 under very discouraging prospects. 
 
 " The step was deemed a hazardous one by 
 his acquaintances, when he added to his other 
 expenses by undertaking the charge of a fam- 
 ily in the city of New York, where, even at that 
 early day, the maintenance of a rank and ap- 
 pearance necessary to command respect re- 
 quired means far beyond his reach. The anx- 
 iety to fulfill an early matrimonial engagement, 
 seemed, therefore, to have got the better of his 
 prudence, when, in 179G, he intermarried with 
 Miss Lawrence, daughter of Mr. Thomas Law- 
 rence, of Newtown, Queen's county, (L. I.) 
 This respectable lady, though not portionless, 
 did rot bring an accession to Mr. Wells' means 
 of living, which would have prevented his fu- 
 ture embarrassment under a less fortunate 
 turn of his prospects, than afterwards followed. 
 But she brought him what was more im- 
 portant — an intelligence; evenness of temper; 
 patience and fortitude, which enlightened, sus- 
 tained and smoothed his passage along an ob- 
 scure and rugged path to fortune and emi- 
 nence ; illumined the gloomy period of adverse 
 
 vicissitude, and cheered his rising hopes with 
 the smile of sympathy and affection. 
 
 " There is nothing in Mr. Wells' history 
 manifesting that precocity of intellect, or 
 those intuitive offhand powers at the bar, 
 which has produced so many instances of pre- 
 mature and rapid elevation, in the morning of 
 manhood. Indeed, these are, in general, but 
 equivocal arguments for a well-earned and 
 stable reputation. Too often does such a ge- 
 nius blaze forth with a fire and imagination 
 sustained by very scanty materials, and exhib- 
 iting but a short lived beauty. It glides before 
 us like a meteor along the sky, till exhausted 
 by the excess of its own brilliancy, it sinks in 
 darkness, and is extinguished forever. 
 
 "It is remarkable, that with Mr. Wells, pos- 
 sessing the strength which he afterwards ex- 
 erted, not only the ordinary duties of his pro- 
 fession, but even his legal studies should have 
 been rather a matter of necessiiy than choice. 
 He has frequently been heard to declare, that 
 previous to 1804, a snug farm and five hun- 
 dred dollars would have separated him forever 
 from his profession. He was attended with a 
 modesty, a diffidence, an unassuming temper, 
 which he overcame with the greatest difficulty; 
 and it was with pain and reluctance that, he 
 commenced his career in the more public 
 walks of his profession. That he entertained 
 serious thoughts of abandoning it forever, be- 
 tween the years 1801 and 1804, there is little 
 doubt; for it was during this period that he 
 sought for and obtained the post of assistant 
 editor to one of the newspapers in the city of 
 New York. 
 
 " Those warm political contests by which 
 our country was distinguished during the pe- 
 riod of his more retired labors, among the 
 choice spirits which it called into action, did 
 not leave Mr. Wells unemployed. His pen 
 had been much engaged in the defence of his 
 political friends and their measures, as well as 
 in severe criticisms upon the measures and men 
 of the adverse party, in the course of which he 
 had produced several of the most respectable 
 essays with which the newspapers of the day 
 abounded. Few of these are preserved, (aa 
 event perhaps not to be regretted,) and they 
 were in no other respect useful to him than as 
 exercises in composition. In this point of view 
 they were much more so than is usual, from 
 the hasty manner in which they were produced. 
 But with him, having considerable leisure, and 
 being determined to make them a source of 
 improvement, he was able to bestow all the at- 
 tention of an Addison upon the style of his pro- 
 ductions. Almost the only flattering distinction 
 which he had received from any of his party 
 arose from this cause. The late General Ham- 
 ilton, having read in the newspaper some very 
 fine anonvmous articles, traced the authorship 
 to Mr. Wells. On this occasion, I am told, he 
 ascertained his residence, sought him out, and 
 complimented him for the genius he had dis-
 
 134 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 played in the character of a political essayist. 
 This flattering attention from the leader of his 
 part)', who was himself truly a model of fine 
 writing in the same department, probably 
 strengthened Mr. Wells' determination to turn 
 editor. The employment afforded him a prob- 
 able relief from the pressure of poverty; and 
 he believed himself more peculiarly qualified 
 to shine in this than in any other pursuit. 
 
 " There is an anecdote of Mr. Wells, relating 
 to the period of his editorship, which, as it ac- 
 cords with his exalted character for morality 
 during his whole life, may not be improperly 
 
 inserted here. Mr. , a friend of his, being 
 
 invited to the field, at a period when the prac- 
 tice of duelling was deemed most genteel and 
 fashionable, in the city of New York, called 
 upon Wells to act as his second. This he very 
 cheerfully and readily undertook; but with a 
 degree of adroitness, almost without a parallel 
 in those times, he succeeded in settling the dis- 
 pute without a meeting, and this even to the 
 satisfaction of those who entertained the great- 
 est scruples whether the (then) rigid code of 
 honor could be satisfied without blood or the 
 brand of cowardice upon, at least, one of the 
 parties. At a time when the laws of honor, 
 like those of Draco, may be said literally to 
 have been written in blood, it is no mean com- 
 pliment to the dexterity of Wells, that he 
 should have been enabled to compass such an 
 object, in so satisfactory a manner. To dis- 
 tinguish away a trial by battle, pending be- 
 tween two hot political combatants of that era, 
 by setting up an exception in the law, and con- 
 vincing the court of its existence, shows that 
 he was not aproficientin the common law alone. 
 'It may be truly said of him, (as of another 
 eminent lawyer) that he could walk a narrow 
 isthmus, between opposing doctrines, where no 
 man dare to follow him!' 
 
 " The station of an editor, it may well be sup- 
 posed, was the last which would inspire a con- 
 fidence in the client, that his professional busi- 
 ness, of an every day character, would be faith- 
 fully attended to; and his ordinary income as 
 a lawyer, small as it had been, was probably 
 diminished by this circumstance. But in the 
 end it proved what it is said the conduct of the 
 Edinburgh Review was to the famous Scotch 
 advocate, Mr. Jeffrey, 'both friendly and hos- 
 tile to him as a barrister.' His after efforts at 
 the bar shewed him a splendid illustration of 
 Lord Bacon's maxim, that writing forms the 
 correct man. But this alone is not the most 
 striking point of view in which it influenced 
 his success as an advocate. It finally proved 
 the direct and leading cause of bringing him 
 before the public with that blaze of talent (long 
 hidden by the force of adverse circumstances) 
 which shone with a brightening lustre to the 
 latest period of his li'e. 
 
 " The late Mr. Cheetham, (at the time of 
 which I am speaking) edited the leading paper 
 of the majority. As such, he had recognized 
 
 in Mr. Editor Wells his most formidable antag- 
 onist in the political tournament. Cheetham 
 had been prosecuted in the supreme court 
 of this State by Mr. W. S. Smith, the son- 
 in-law of the late President Adams, for a 
 libel, published in the ' American Citizen,' a 
 paper then edited by Cheetham. This publi- 
 cation, which reflected very severely upon the 
 conduct and character of Mr. Smith, a leading 
 member of the minority, called forth their great- 
 est animosity, embittered by their recent defeat 
 in the State. Encouraged by the hope of 
 wounding, and perhaps prostrating their oppo- 
 nents, by the destruction of their favorite edi- 
 tor, they had arrayed against him a veteran 
 host of talent, as one means of compassing their 
 object. Cheetham and his friends perceived, 
 that in justice to themselves a force should be 
 placed upon the defensive, qualified to meet 
 and sustain the attack with the most formida- 
 ble front, and the greatest possible firmness and 
 effect. And though little hope was entertained 
 of parrying or repelling it entirely, it was be- 
 lieved that proper arrangements would miti- 
 gate the blow, and prevent any decisive conse- 
 quences which might otherwise follow the 
 defeat. Reasoning from the force with which 
 Wells wielded the pen in the cause of the mi- 
 nority, Cheetham drew inferences directly the 
 opposite to those of his friends; and contrary 
 to their advice retained Mr. Wells as counsel in 
 the defence. He went further, and accom- 
 panied this retainer with a request that he 
 should not consider himself the mere associate 
 with the other very able counsel employed in 
 the defence, but should take a leading part in 
 the conduct of the trial. The cause was tried 
 in the city of New York, (myinformant thinks,} 
 in 1804. He did not, on this occasion, disap- 
 point the high expectations which his very 
 partial client had formed of him. His defence 
 was able and masterly, exhibiting a strong, 
 distinct and accurate view both of the law and 
 the facts of his case, vindicating those enlarged 
 and liberal boundaries which, founded in the 
 constitution and policy of his country, limit the 
 range of speech and of the press, in a manner 
 which would not have derogated from the char- 
 acter of an Erskine. The result was highly 
 favorable to the defendant. The damages 
 were mitigated to a trifle, compared with what 
 was confidently hoped on one side, and feared 
 on the other; and a crowd of listening citizens, 
 whom a deep interest in the event had drawn 
 together, as spectators of the trial, were left to 
 the full force of curiosity and wonder, on wit- 
 nessing the astonishing and apparently preter- 
 natural metamorphosis which the young advo- 
 cate had undergone. That a genius like his 
 should have been left, to plod on in the drudg- 
 ery of the profession, for a period of thirteen 
 years, in the city of New York, nearly unno- 
 ticed and unknown, with employment so scanty 
 as almost to have driven him from his profes- 
 sion in despair, seemed a reflection upon the
 
 CHARACTER AND HISTORY OF JOHN WELLS. 
 
 135 
 
 audience, who had been listening to him with 
 sensations of delight and admiration. But a 
 few weeks, and even days, shewed a disposition 
 to atone for their neglect. A spirit of self com- 
 placency, arising from a consciousness of his 
 superior discernment, mingled with gratitude 
 to Mr. Wells, fur his faithful exertions in the 
 del'euce, drew forth in the next American Citi- 
 zen one of the best of those pithy and ener- 
 getic compliments to his young friend and 
 counsellor, which Cheetham always knew how 
 to bestow with the finest effect. These things 
 were decisive of Mr. Wells' fate. The giant 
 was aroused from his slumbers, and stalked 
 abroad at noon-day. 
 
 '" From a stinted paucity of business and 
 clients, whose visits had heretofore been ' few 
 and far between,' he was daily retained in 
 causes of greater or less magnitude. Engage- 
 ments multiplied upon his hands, aud he soon 
 bade adieu to his editorial labors, and devoted 
 himself exclusively to the bar. Yet he was 
 the last to be pursuaded of his powers, and he 
 wou'd occasionally relapse into those fits of 
 self distrust, which had been one great cause 
 of so long withholding him from his proper 
 rank in the profession. He was, shortly after 
 the trial of Smith vs. Cheetham, retained as 
 counsel to defend a cause in the common pleas 
 of New York, a duty which he discharged in 
 his finest manner. For this he received a fee 
 ol five dollars. But, unconscious of hisstrength 
 and rising reputation, he forgot that even this 
 humble retainer was a debt due to his talents, 
 and construed it into an act of marked kindness 
 aud regard on the part of his client. So grate- 
 ful was he for what he considered a favor per- 
 sonal to himself, that he ever afterwards re- 
 membered this gentleman with the greatest 
 friendship aud affection ; and in his more pros- 
 perous days anxiously courted every opportu- 
 nity of doing him a favor. Mr. Cheetham was 
 never forgotten by him; and, I am told, that 
 the gratitude of the counsellor extended itself 
 to the children of the client, in various acts of 
 patronage and protection, when their father 
 was no more. 
 
 " By leading a life strictly temperate and 
 regular. Wells had overcome the frailty of his 
 constitution, and attained a state of cheerful- 
 ness and good health; two important and 
 essential requisites to sustain the amazing 
 weight of professional labor which was about 
 to devolve upon him. His rise was rapid; his 
 practice became extensive and lucrative. He was 
 snatched from want, and placed in easy cir- 
 cumstances, and an increasing reputation, both 
 for talents and industry, promised him a pro- 
 portional enlargement of business and profit. 
 He availed himself fully of all these advanta- 
 ges. He pursued the study and the duties of 
 his profession with unceasing assiduity. He 
 furnished his office with a respectable library, 
 which he was continually enlarging in pro- 
 portion to his means. He appeared at the bar 
 
 of the supreme court for the first time, in Kit- 
 ing and others VS. Scott and Seaman, (2 John. 
 Rep. 137,) in 1807, where he was sustained by 
 his able friend aud senior in the profession, 
 Mr. J. 0. Hoffman. Since that time his name 
 is associated with almost every volume of our 
 juridical history. 
 
 "Having taken up his pen in the cause of 
 the minority, which continued so with very 
 short intermissions, from 1801 to the present 
 time, he, of course, standing identified with 
 them, did not reap any of those advantages to 
 which an active politician of his intellectual 
 rank might otherwise have looked, as the re- 
 ward of his labor. He was, (I am told,) at one 
 time, a justice of the marine court during the 
 temporary ascendency of his party; but with 
 this trifling exception, I cannot learn that he 
 was ever, in the least, indebted to office, either 
 for the pro6ts or the honors in which he has so 
 copiously and deservedly shared. 
 
 "In 1812, he was visited by a severe do- 
 mestic calamity in the death of Mrs. Wells, 
 to whom he had always been very tenderly at- 
 tached. He remembered her meekness, her 
 kind attentions in adversity — she had shared 
 in his prosperity without ostentation. Her 
 death brought back to his mind associations 
 which awakened his early woes — he was a man, 
 aud he mourned the bereavement. But he was 
 a christian, and he bade her adieu with a full 
 persuasion that he should see her again; that 
 she had gone to sleep for awhile, but would 
 shortly awake to happiness forever. 
 
 "He was married again in 1816, to Miss 
 Huger, of the city of New York, daughter of 
 Charles Huger, deceased, late of Charleston, 
 (S. C.,) a highly respectable and accomplished 
 lady, who survived him, and still continues to 
 reside with his children at the family mansion. 
 
 " His health continued remarkably fine, and 
 almost without intermission, till within three 
 days of his death. On Wednesday evening, 
 the 3d September, 1823, having been actively 
 engaged in business duringthe day, he returned 
 to his family, complaining of extreme weakness 
 and languor, for which he said it was difficult 
 to account, as he had felt its approach but for 
 a few minutes. He continued in this situation 
 during the two following days, with very little 
 pain, but attended by a rapidly increasing de- 
 bility. It was not till Saturday, the 6th Sep- 
 tember, that any fears were entertained of his 
 approaching dissolution, either by himself or 
 his family; and he expired a few minutes after 
 these apprehensions arose, apparently falling 
 asleep as if from mere fatigue or exhaustion. 
 
 '• Mr. Wells did not aspire to the character 
 of an universal genius, and he undoubtedly se- 
 lected his fort, or strong ground, when he com- 
 menced the Study of the law. The foundations 
 of his reputation in this department were, a 
 mind naturally strong and comprehensive, im- 
 proved by the usual classical studies, a critical 
 acquaintance with English belles lellres, and a
 
 136 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 laborious systematic study of the common law, 
 both in its theory and practice. He despised 
 the character of a mere sciolist in his pro- 
 fession, the tame and idle spirit, which wanders 
 amonu- glossaries, digests and indices, content 
 with rules and principles in the abstract, with- 
 out knowing how they ever have been or can 
 be applied. He did not fear the imputation of 
 being a case-lawyer, because he had traced the 
 law to its ancient sources, by looking into and 
 studying the cases themselves, instead of re- 
 ceiving them upon trust, on the authority of 
 Blackstone, Comyn or Bacon. He was a prac- 
 tical refutation of that quackery which holds 
 any strength of mind in a lawyer, however great 
 it may be, a safe substitute for study and au- 
 thority. Accordingly, his library was early and 
 extensively stored with the books of common 
 law, indiscriminately, as well as those which 
 relate to the three kindred and closely con- 
 nected branches of international, maritime and 
 commercial law. As a proficient in the latter, 
 he was geuerally acknowledged to stand un- 
 rivalled at our bar. His law books and cases 
 had a decided preference with him, though they 
 by no means excluded the pursuits of various 
 literature. He was pleaded with the calls and 
 attention of his friends, but study and business 
 had ripened into a second nature, aud so far 
 from being a burthen, he could return to it with 
 zest from the greatest delights of social inter- 
 course. The transition from a state of high 
 enjoyment and glee in the circle of friendship 
 to one of the most profound engagement and 
 abstraction, did not appear to cost him a sin- 
 gle regret, or a single effort. 
 
 " The cause of his client was always an ob- 
 ject of peculiar solicitude. This he never neg- 
 lected. In addition to the general stock of 
 knowledge which he brought to his aid, it uni- 
 formly underwent the most exact and scrupu- 
 lous examination as to its particular features. 
 No principle, no case bearing upon the sub- 
 ject, which his various knowledge and exten- 
 sive library afforded, was omitted in the pro- 
 cess. The evidence was weighed ; the latent 
 defects explored; and his opinions, in cases of 
 doubt and difficulty, were seldom expressed till 
 he had attained the point of certainty as nearly, 
 perhaps, as it could be reached by legal de- 
 monstration. His conclusions, thus carefully 
 formed, were sustained by him be'ore the va- 
 rious courts where he practiced with a firmness 
 and boldness which pertained to a conscious- 
 ness of their accuracy, and a learning emi- 
 nently calculated to edify and aid the researches 
 v of the most enlightened and experienced 
 tribunal. ' He has,' said the late Chancellor 
 Kent, on hearing of his death, 'been pouring 
 instruction over my mind for fifteen years.' 
 
 " He was pursuaded that the lawyer, though 
 he has prepared his case by laying his premises, 
 and proceeding to a conclusion in his own 
 mind, has performed but the minor part of his 
 duty. The operations of the closet have yet to 
 
 withstand the criticisms of some lynx-eyed ad- 
 versary, and undergo the sittings and canvass- 
 ings of the bench. Successfully to conduct his 
 official auditors to the same conclusion, to sim- 
 plify, to elucidatp, to demonstrate, to convince, 
 to transfuse his own ideas into the minds of 
 others, to iefute the arguments of opposing 
 counsel, animated bv convictions perhaps 
 equally strong, and actuated by powers equally 
 commanding, to detect, the sophistries, dissi- 
 pate the obscurities, obviate the doubts, and 
 disentangle the subtilties in which zeal and 
 ingenuity have involved the subject, or to meet 
 all these by anticipation when the order of pro- 
 ceeding will not admit of a reply, was, in the 
 important, intricate, and nicely balanced causes 
 in which Mr. Wells was frequently engaged, 
 and before the courts where he usually ap- 
 peared, one of the loftiest efforts of human 
 genius. It was on occasions like these, ' when 
 the matter matched his mighty mind,' when 
 his highest powers were truly put in requisi- 
 tion, that he justified the public in the rank 
 which they had assigned him, of the most ac- 
 complished lawyer and eloquent pleader in the 
 State. 
 
 " In the discharge of his duty as an advo- 
 cate, he generally avoided anything like an ex- 
 ordium, and endeavored to lead his hearers by 
 the shortest and most distinct route to the real 
 point in controversy. In doing this, he was 
 rarely unsuccessful. The mind was suddenly 
 filled with his subject, stripped of every thing 
 trilling and impertinent, or connected only 
 with such agreeable associations as were calcu- 
 lated to interest his audience and fix their at- 
 tention. His power of simplifying the most 
 intricate cases has often been admired, and sel- 
 dom, if ever, excelled. This enabled him to 
 keep in constant view the strong points of his 
 cause. He was a perfect master of the narra- 
 tion ; his memory reached all its details; and 
 when interrupted as having maimed ordisturted 
 evidence, the explanation which followed gen- 
 erally resulted in the most triumphant accu- 
 racy. In the distribution of his subject he was 
 rigidly methodical, and his arrangement ap- 
 peared to be the most natural and lucid of 
 which it was susceptible. Indeed, he had no 
 wish to perplex, entangle, or mislead ; for he 
 would not violate his own clear convictions; 
 and having been cautious to be well persuaded 
 in his own mind that the cause was with his 
 client upon iis ultimate merits, his arguments 
 seldom rested on merely technical and formal 
 grounds. If he became satisfied that his ad- 
 versary could not be annoyed, unless by a pro- 
 fessional ruse de gverre, operating in deroga- 
 tion of his plain aud substantial rights, suc- 
 cess in such legal legerdemain had no charms 
 I'or him, aud he either advised a compro- 
 mise upon equitable principles, or withdrew 
 from the controversy. Heuuilbrmly examined 
 the whole range of discussion, and sought such 
 a result as he believed would be reflected by
 
 CHARACTER AND HISTORY OF JOHN WELLS. 
 
 137 
 
 the mirror of the law in its truth and purity. 
 To this result he adhered with a Spartan firm- 
 ness, which shewed that he considered its 
 maintenance not only a matter of private but 
 of public duty. Hence he gave no countenance 
 to uncertainty and innovation, by endeavoring 
 to substitute the maxims of a fanciful morality 
 for those of law ; though where the legal rule 
 which governed his case was doubtful, no one 
 was better qualified, by a philosophic view of 
 its moral merits, to show which side of the 
 scale should preponderate; and no one was en- 
 titled to assume a higher tone upon those 
 questions which have been treated as belonging 
 to the school of imperfect obligation. For, 
 
 '• Wells was a christian moralist. He had in 
 early life made the doctrine of ethics, as re- 
 fined and exalted by the promulgation of the 
 gospel, the subject of a thorough investigation. 
 The consequence was a profound sense of its 
 truth and importance. And though be viewed 
 its great and leading doctrines as extremely 
 simple and easily applicable to the ordinary 
 duties of life, he did not believe that one whose 
 profession or extensive connexions in business 
 was continually briuging under his review the 
 conduct of mankind in its greatest variety, 
 should content himself with the knowledge of 
 its rudiments. He, therefore, regarded it as a 
 part of his professional duty, to be well ac- 
 quainted with the moral code. And if the ef- 
 fect of its doctrines upon his heart, and his 
 practice in all the relations of life were to form 
 the test of its excellence, the scoffs of scepti- 
 cism would be silenced forever, and the maniac 
 ravings of theatheist regarded as doubly insane. 
 He was a most severe and critical judge of his 
 own conduct. He looked upon religion as in- 
 tended to regulate our intercourse with one 
 another here, by adding to the ordinary sanc- 
 tions of temporal morality the rewards and 
 punishments of another life, 'according to the 
 deeds done in the body.' His sense of duty 
 wa3 formed upon this foundation, and improved 
 into a habit; so that he presented one of the 
 finest models of everything excellent in private 
 life, and brought with bini an astonishing 
 weight of character to the bar. He thought it 
 his duty to make a public profession of religion. 
 Satisfied that the creed and practice of the 
 English Episcopal church were the nearest in 
 accordance with his views, as being the most 
 liberal and enlightened of any which prevailed 
 among the various, though respectable denom- 
 inations of christians in this country, these 
 circumstances determined his preference. For 
 several years before, and at the time of his 
 his death, he was a member of Grace church, 
 in the city of New York. But he was a pro- 
 fessor of religion — not a party professor. In 
 relation to all other christian.- - , professing or 
 Otherwise, he was mild and tolerant. Amidst 
 bitter railings, sectional accusations, harsh 
 epithets, vindictive jealousies, obstinate diver- 
 sities of sentiment in matters of trifling mo- 
 
 ment, adding fuel to schism and arguments to 
 infidelity, lie stood a firm, unshaken example 
 
 of forbearance, candor and charity. And while 
 he lived the life and maintained the character 
 of a sincere and pious believer, he was humble 
 and unobtrusive in his opinions, content and 
 happy that his ' serious thoughts should rest in 
 heaven.' 
 
 " ' As some tall cliff tlint lifts its awful form, 
 
 .Swells from til-- vale, and midwiiy I, a v.-s the storm, 
 Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
 Eternal sunshine settles on its head. ' 
 
 "I have noticed the morals of Mr. Wells in 
 this place, because they entered much into his 
 character as an advocate. His language to all 
 others, so far as their religious creed came into 
 question, was precisely that of our constitution. 
 ' You may be right, and I may be wrung.' 
 Hence no one could be less assuming, less dog- 
 matical, less the practical sectarian. But this 
 very circumstance rendered his rebuke of every 
 palpable deviation from the plaiu standards of 
 moral conduct the more awfully stern and se- 
 vere, and gave double point to those nne 
 strains of moral reasoning sometimes resorted 
 to by him, either with a view to strengthen the 
 legal inference for which he had been contend- 
 ing, or to elicit, explain or rectify a point left 
 in doubt by the obscurity, inaccuracy, or dis- 
 crepancy of the books, or the total absence of 
 authority. On these occasions he was truly 
 inimitable. While with his own master hand 
 he led you back to the infancy of the common 
 law, traced the various operation of moral 
 causes which gave it birth, and growth, and 
 maturity, and threw a blaze of light over that 
 which had been hidden in the darkness of ages, 
 you almost confounded the advocate with the 
 awful voice of Justice herself, teaching to her 
 own tribunals the first principles upon which 
 her laws should be administered. 
 
 " He was an orator of the first order. ' A 
 man may be called eloquent,' says Doctor 
 Goldsmith, ' who transfers the passion or senti- 
 ment with which he is moved himself into the 
 breast of another. An intimate persuasion of 
 the truth to be proved, is the sentiment and 
 passion to be transferred; a-id who etf. CIS this, 
 is truly possessed of the talent of eloquence. 
 Perhaps no man was ever a more perfect illus- 
 tration of this definition than Mr. Wells. Hav- 
 ing devoted himself to the forum, the talent 
 which he cultivated with the greatest assiduity, 
 and with the most complete success, was that 
 of ratiocination; and there is no doubt that 
 this formed the predominant character of his 
 eloquence. Yet he was seldom uninteresting 
 even in his most ordinary efforts: and be »■■ 
 far from being fettered to the dry details of 
 business-like discussion, when not, strictly re* 
 quired bv the matter under consideration. 
 Nature had given him al! the vehemence, the 
 fire, the mirth, the wit, and the pathos which 
 characterize so many of the bar in the country 
 of his European ancestors; but it was the
 
 138 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 study of his life to master his native propen- 
 sity, and make it give place to a substitute or- 
 dinarily more useful and efficient in the labors 
 of the forum. He so far succeeded as never to 
 overact, but always measure the exercise of 
 these interesting qualifications strictly by the 
 nature of the subject. Yet though the ground 
 which he trod was that of the philosopher, the 
 lawyer, the logician, he delighted to pluck the 
 flowers which sprang spontaneously in his path, 
 while he trampled with disdain the far-fetched 
 and tawdry exotic. He could laugh out of 
 countenance the foibles and follies of mankind ; 
 and meanness, treachery or fraud, touched by 
 bis sarcasm, intolerably pointed and severe, 
 started into their naked deformity. Sometimes 
 you might see affectation or hypocrisy writhing 
 under the lash of his irony, and when called to 
 act in the cause of oppressed and suffering 
 humanity, be awoke into the liveliest action 
 all the strings of the soul. 
 
 '"But his arguments were usually conducted 
 with direct and sober earnestness, and so 
 framed to convince rather than amuse. Some- 
 times they were terse and condensed; at others 
 full and illustrative; and though he was occa- 
 sionally pointed and sarcastic, he was com- 
 monly gentle and conciliating. His candor and 
 integrity ofteu drew the warmest sentiments of 
 approbation and respect from opposing coun- 
 sel. In his opening, he proceeded with slow, 
 regular and deliberate movements, occupying 
 as he advanced such strong, distinct, and well 
 fortified positions, directly on the road to his 
 object, as led you along a safe and willing fol- 
 lower, and prepared you at once to echo his 
 conclusion. The whole bore so much the ap- 
 pearance of study, system and preparation, as 
 induced you at times to place his great strength 
 in this department, and to doubt his powers of 
 reply. You were deceived. He could not only 
 seize on the most apposite arguments almost 
 intuitively, and wield aud fashion them as cir- 
 cumstances or inclination directed; but be was 
 prompt, skilful, and decisive, in meeting, at 
 every point, the various assaults of adverse 
 ingenuity. 
 
 " He had a masterly manner of clothing a 
 long chain of connected ideas in the choicest 
 language. His voice was flexible, under good 
 management, and easily accommodated to the 
 sentiment he was desirous to express; of a 
 fulness and compass which enabled him to 
 discuss a question for a long time, and in the 
 most animated manner, without faltering or 
 hoarseness; and so clear and loud as to render 
 one sitting near him slightly uneasy from the 
 weight and pungency with which it fell upon 
 the ear. It was naturally forcible and com- 
 manding ; and its softer tones of mild persua- 
 sion were evidently the result of cultivation 
 and discipline. 
 
 " In his person, Mr. Wells was slightly above 
 the middle size. He bestowed greater atten- 
 tion upon its neatness, and his dress was more 
 
 fashionable and better adjusted than is gener- 
 ally deemed consistent with his habits of study 
 and abstraction. His form was erect, solid, 
 firm, well proportioned, and apparently fitted 
 to endure great muscular exertion. His fea- 
 tures wore regular; and his complexion, wlii;;h 
 was somewhat lighter than might be expected 
 to accompany his glossy-black hair, his dark 
 eye brows, overshadowing a pair of keen, full 
 and black eyes, was tinged with a glow of good 
 health. Nature had probably thrown into his 
 countenance something which physiognomy 
 would call an air of archness, cunning and sub- 
 tilt v ; but this had long since been subdued to 
 the bold open front of honor and integrity. In 
 the excitement of debate, his eye sparkled 
 with peculiar lustre, and his whole countenance 
 beamed with intelligence. Engagements of 
 less importance, or the hour of total relaxation 
 from business changed these appearances only 
 in degree, and superadded a composure, mild- 
 ness and benignity, which would have led the 
 philosopher or the philanthropist, instinctively 
 to have sought him out as a brother. 
 
 " Of all men, perhaps, he was the least trained 
 ' to set his looks at va-iance with his thoughts.' 
 His countenance uniformly proved traitor to 
 the workings of his mind. I am told by a gen- 
 tleman who was for many years clerk of the 
 circuit and sittings in New York, that, he could 
 always discover, through this medium, Mr. 
 Wells' confidence or want of faith in his cause; 
 that, on some dark feature coming out against 
 his client, he would turn to him with a lour of 
 suspicion, and demand, in a peremptory under 
 tone, ' Sir, how can you explain this to me?' 
 His high cultivation of the moral sense ren- 
 dered him a most miserable advocate for a cli- 
 ent who failed to satisfy him that he deserved 
 his aid; but this very circumstance imparted 
 to him a zeal, acuteness, and perseverance in 
 the vindication of what he was persuaded to 
 be right, or in the refutation of what he believed 
 to be wrong, which, sustained by his high pow- 
 ers as a lawyer and orator, rendered him as 
 safe an advocate as justice herself could desire. 
 
 "His gestures were easy and dignified; 
 his delivery natural, firm and well accented, 
 occupying that happy medium between slow- 
 ness and impetuosity, which gave to every word 
 its full and distinct pronunciation, and dealt to 
 every sentence its proper measure and empha- 
 sis; so that with his perspicuity of arrange- 
 ment and expression, no speaker could be more 
 easily understood. There was nothing like hesi- 
 tation, ' recalling or re-casting of sentences as 
 he went along;' but, on the contrary, he wa3 
 perfect master of his language as well as of hia 
 subject; aud the occasional grandeur of his 
 peroration showed him no less the towering 
 and sublime, when his subject called for it, 
 than he was, on ordinary occasions, the forcible 
 aud argumentative speaker. 
 
 " Such is the life, such the death, such the 
 character of Mr. Wells. Perhaps no man in
 
 INSULTED ON THE NEW YORK EXCHANGE. 
 
 139 
 
 this country ever reached the same elevation 
 and occupied so large a space in the public eye, 
 upon the mere footing of professional eminence 
 and individual worth. 'Men of talents in the 
 United States,' it is said, 'are generally bred to 
 the bar;' and it is not to be denied that there 
 are many of these who have stood, and who 
 now stand, as high in the public estimation as 
 Mr. Wells; that the influence of their talents 
 and character has been equally benign, and 
 much more extensive, than we are entitled to 
 claim for him; and, consequently, that their 
 reputation filled a wider region. Such, per- 
 haps, were many of those who have departed 
 before him; among whom were a Hamilton, a 
 Parsons, a Dexter, a Pinckney, a Livingston. 
 Yet how far the high offices which these great 
 men held at various periods, and the disposi- 
 tion of the different political parties in which 
 they figured to make the most of their leaders 
 may have entered into the formation of their 
 characters, it is indeed impossible to determine; 
 but it is not dealing unfairly with their memory 
 when we make great allowance lor the force of 
 such circumstances. These adventitious causes 
 had no a?ency in the fortune and character of 
 Mr. Wells. He stood alone — the architect of 
 own greatness. The wreath which he wore 
 was not won in the race of plebian competi- 
 tors, for he was a master spirit in the ranks of 
 the American bar — the talent and the intellect- 
 ual enterprise of the republic — noble and gen- 
 erous rivals, who yielded him, with common 
 consent, and with cheerfulness and pride, the 
 honors he had achieved." 
 
 The failure of the Liverpool house came 
 upon Mr. Barker by surprise, he not haviug 
 the least intimation of its approach. On the 
 contrary he was in anticipation of great pro- 
 fits from the business it would be in his power 
 to influence to that establishment. 
 
 Subsequently, his friends through his agency 
 purchased and paid for a majority of the stock 
 of the North River Bank, the directors of 
 which, many of whom paid for their stock by 
 borrowing the money of the bank, made a vio- 
 lent war on Mr. Barker; one of them insulted 
 him on the exchange, on which occasion Mr. 
 Barker addressed to him the following letter : 
 
 '•New York, January 29, 1822. 
 
 "Sir: You having, without the least provo- 
 cation, grossly injured me, you are herebv re- 
 quirt-d to make such reparation as is due from 
 one gentleman to another. The friend that I 
 expected to deliver this being absent for the 
 day, he will call on you to-morrow, or very 
 soon thereafter, for your answer, &c. 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 
 "Mr. David Rogers." 
 
 The letter, of which the foregoing is a copy, 
 was delivered to Mr. Rogers, on the day of its 
 date, one hour after the insult was offered at 
 the coffee-house ; and on the following day, 
 John Wells, esq., on behalf of Mr. Barker, 
 called on Mr. Rogers to know if he would 
 make such explanations as Mr. Barker could, 
 consistently, be satisfied with, offering at the 
 same time to furnish such information as would 
 satisfy Mr. Rogers that he was totally mistaken 
 in the opinions he had expressed ; when Mr. 
 Rogers declared his unwillingness to see Mr. 
 Barker on the subject, which being proposed 
 to him, he promptly agreed to see Mr. Rjgers 
 in the presence of Mr. Wells and a friend on 
 the part of Mr. Rogers, but objected to seeing 
 him alone; whereupon Mr. Wells wrote the 
 following letter, which was delivered to Mr. 
 Rogers on the evening of its date : 
 
 " January 30, 1822. 
 
 "Dear Sir: I have seen Mr. Barker, who 
 begs that you would name as early a time and 
 place as possible, at which he can see you in 
 presence of myself and a friend on your part, 
 that he may have an opportunity of making 
 the fullest explanation of his affairs. 1 have 
 a private office in my house, (;!."> Murray street,) 
 which is entirely to your service, or you may 
 appoint any other place. 
 
 "I am, respectfully, your humble servant, 
 "JOHN WELLS. 
 
 "Mr. David Rogers." 
 
 On the morning of the 31st January, Mr. 
 Seely called upon Mr. Wells, in behalf of Mr. 
 Rogers, and by his conversation evinced an 
 indisposition to the proposed interview aud 
 explanations, and left Mr. Wells, observing 
 that he might hear from him again in the 
 course of one or two days. Nothing further 
 being heard from him on that or the next day, 
 Mr. Wells delivered to Mr. Barker the corres- 
 pondence, saying, nothing was likely to result 
 from his interference. On the evening of that 
 day Mr. Barker wrote the following note: 
 
 "New York, February 1, 1822. 
 
 "Sir: Will you be pleased to send me by 
 the bearer, my friend, William II. Allen, a 
 written answer to my note of 2'Jth ultimo. 
 
 '" Your obedient servant, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 
 "Mr. David Rogers." 
 
 This letter was delivered by Lieutenant 
 Allen to Mr. Rogers, with the pressing demand 
 of a categorical answer, which was evaded by
 
 140 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 the plea that the affair was in the hands of 
 Messrs. Wells and Seely, whereupon Mr. Wells 
 wrote the following letter: 
 
 "February 5, 1822. 
 
 "When I saw you last week (Thursday) on 
 the subject of Mr. Rogers and Mr. Barker, on 
 leaving me you said that you would see me 
 again in a day or two; not having since heard 
 from you, or seen you, I consider the business 
 at an end as regards my agency in it. 
 
 " Very respectfully, your humble servant, 
 "JOHN WELLS. 
 
 "Mr. Seely." 
 
 In place of affording the required satisfac- 
 tion, complaiut was made to the grand jury, 
 before whom Mr. Rogers testified that Mr. 
 Barker had challenged him to fight a duel, 
 whereupon they indicted him for such an of- 
 fence. 
 
 Before the case was tried an election for 
 directors of this bank came on; inspectors 
 were appointed to sustain the sitting members; 
 to make sure of this, one of their members 
 resignad and was appointed inspector; the 
 farce of an election was gone through, and 
 the sitting members declared to have been re- 
 elected; these proceedings were set aside by 
 the Supreme Court, which rendered a decree 
 in words following: 
 
 "IN SUPREME COURT, August term, 1S22. 
 
 u The people of the State, of New York, at the 
 
 relation of Jacob Barker and others, 
 
 "against 
 
 " Abram B. Mead and otJiers. 
 
 "Samuel A. Talcott, attorney general of the peo- 
 ple of the State of New York, moved on Tuesday, 
 the eighth instant, for leave to file an informa- 
 tion in the nature of a quo warranto against 
 the defendants above named, who claim to be 
 directors of the North River Bank of the city 
 of New York. This motion was founded on a 
 bill in chancery recently filed against the de- 
 fendants and others, by James D. P. Ogden, 
 Jacob Barker, and others, and on the answers 
 to that bill, and also on an affidavit showing 
 that the relators above named are stockholders 
 in the North River Bank. 
 
 " On Friday, Chief Justice Spencer delivered 
 the opinion of the court, to the following ef- 
 fect: 
 
 These applications being generally found 
 on the ex parte affidavit of the relators, it has 
 of late years been usual in ihe English Court 
 of King's Bench and in this court, to afford 
 the defendant an opportunity of being heard 
 against granting leave to file the information. 
 A rule to show cause is, therefore, generally 
 
 entered; and leave is afterwards granted or 
 refused, as circumstances shall appear upon 
 the cause shown. In the present case, the ap- 
 plication is for leave to file the information in 
 the first instance. There is no doubt that the 
 court are bound to exercise a reasonable dis- 
 cretion on the subject ; and this cause comes 
 before us in a manner so peculiar, that we 
 think it proper to except it from the general 
 rule. The application does not rest upon a 
 mere ex parte affidavit. The evidence placed 
 in our hands comes from the defendants them- 
 selves, or from a source most favorable to them. 
 We have the sworn answers of the defendants 
 to a bill in chancery, filed in relation to the 
 very election complained of. We have also 
 the answers of the inspectors of that election. 
 Upon a rule to show cause, nothing could be 
 alleged by the defendants against granting 
 leave to file the information which is not already 
 urged on their part, in the papers presented to 
 the court. We have looked into the answers, 
 and we find the defendants and the inspectors 
 admitting a state of facts, which not only ren- 
 der it proper to grant leave as applied for, but 
 which seem to us imperiously to require it at 
 our hands. To give time, under such circum- 
 stances, would be an abuse of the discretion 
 vested in this court. We will briefly advert to 
 a part of the case as admitted by the defend- 
 ants and inspectors. A controversy existed 
 among the stockholders of the bank, a portion 
 of whom were desirous to effect a change in 
 the direction. A few days before the election, 
 a bylaw was passed by the board of directors, 
 of which board most of the defendants were 
 members, and then present, authorizing any 
 stockholder to challenge the votes offered at the 
 election ; and if supported by affidavits or other 
 probable cause, to the satisfaction of the in- 
 spectors, that they might then require the per- 
 son whose vote should be challenged, to make, 
 on oath, answer to the cause of challenge, the 
 sufficiency of which should be determined by 
 the inspectors; and if such oath was refused, 
 that the vote should be rejected. Under this 
 bylaw, votes given upon the proxies of several 
 persons, who appeared, from the books of the 
 bank and the certificates of the cashier, as 
 stockholders to a large amount, were challenged 
 on the ground that the persons in whose names 
 the stock stood, and who held the certificates of 
 the bank, were not the exclusive owners, but 
 that some third person or persons had an equi- 
 table interest therein. This was considered by 
 the inspectors as good cause of cha'lenge; and 
 the persons whose proxies were thus objected to, 
 were required, notwithstanding the most urgent 
 remonstrance to the contrary, to make atlida- 
 vitsiu writing, in answerto these allegations, and 
 to answer, under an oath prescribed by men 
 who did not themselves act under the solemn 
 obligations of an oath, to various verbal inter- 
 rogatories, and to submit to a sort of inquisi- 
 torial examination at variance with the fuuda-
 
 TRIAL ON THE DUELLING LAW. 
 
 141 
 
 mental principles of our civil and political in- 
 stitution-;, at the pleasure of the inspectors. In 
 this manner, votes upon a great number of 
 shares were entirely disregarded by the inspec- 
 tors. It is evident, from the answers, that if 
 all the votes received into the hands of the in- 
 spectors, from persons duly authorized to give 
 such votes, had been estimated by the inspec- 
 tors, that the result would have been different 
 from that declared by the inspectors ; as, in 
 such a case, the persons whose seats are now 
 conti sted could not have been certified to have 
 been elected. 
 
 " ' Without entering any further, at this time, 
 into the facts disclosed, we are unanimously of 
 opinion, that the by-law, and the proceedings 
 under it at the election, were most illegal and 
 reprehensible. The act of incorporation pro- 
 vides, " "that each stockholder shall be entitled 
 to one vote on each share of the stock of the 
 bank', which he shall have held in his own name 
 at the last fourteen days previous to the time 
 of the voting." "— {Sess. 44, ch. 146, \ 8.) Fur- 
 ther than this the inspectors had no right to 
 inquire, as it was not competent for the direc- 
 tors to pass any by law at variance with the 
 positive provisions of the act incorporating the 
 bank. We therefore feel ourselves called upon 
 to grant the motion ; more especially as the 
 statute contemplates, in cases of this sort, the 
 most speedy and effectual proceedings which a 
 due regard to the rights of parties and the pro- 
 per administration of justice will permit.' 
 
 u Leave granted to file the information in- 
 stant er." 
 
 The trial of the alleged offence against the 
 duelling law came on, when David Rogers tes- 
 tified, that he had not ever dealt with Mr. Bar 
 ker ; that until the North River Bank affair, 
 tbeir acquaintance was so slight that they did 
 not, in passing, recognise each other; that the 
 remarks he made to Mr. B. on the exchange, of 
 which Mr. B. complained, detailing them, were 
 from information derived from others; that Mr. 
 B. left the room without saying a word ; that in 
 an hour thereafter he handed him the letter of 
 the 29th January ; that when he received it he 
 considered it a challenge to fight a duel. Mr. 
 Wells called upon him the following day ; that 
 he considered him the person alluded to in Mr. 
 B.'s letter ; that their negotiations were of a 
 pacific character ; that Mr. Seely had. at his re- 
 quest, conferred with Mr. Wells on the subject 
 without any satisfactory result ; that he received 
 the letter of Mr. B., of the 1st February, from 
 Lieutenant Wm. H. Allen; that he had testiBed 
 before the grand jury that he was sorry to have 
 been obliged to state the affair to them, that he 
 told the foreman so at the time. 
 
 Mr. Wells, a witness on the part of the pro- 
 secution, testified : That on the occasion, Mr. 
 Barker called on him, his feelings appeared to 
 be strongly excited, and detailed the occurrence 
 at the coffee-house; having, in the course of 
 professional duty, had an opportunity of know- 
 ing the affairs of defendant for several years, 
 believed that an amicable arrangement might 
 be made if Mr. Barker had an opportunity of 
 explaining his affairs to Mr. Rogers; witness, 
 with Mr. Barker's consent and concurrence, 
 called on Mr. Rogers on the 30th January ; had 
 a conversation with him, and requested of him 
 to see Mr. Barker, and hear an explanation of 
 his affairs ; and told him that Mr. B. had been 
 injured by what had occurred at the coffee- 
 house ; and explained to him his views, saying, 
 that from the character the witness had ever 
 understood that he (R.) sustained, he was led 
 to believe, that if he was convinced that Mr. B. 
 was really injured by any remarks he had made, 
 he would not hesitate to say so, or words to 
 that effect; to which Mr. Rogers assented, or 
 said, certainly, promising to send a friend to 
 confer with him. Mr. Seely called upon wit- 
 ness in behalf of Mr. Rogers ; they had some 
 conversation and correspondence, from which 
 no satisfactory result being probable, Mr. B. 
 was notified thereof, and the correspondence 
 delivered to him ; that the part he took iu the 
 affair was v holly of a pacific nature. Witness 
 added, in reference to the Exchange Bank notes, 
 that from his knowledge of the defendant and 
 his business, the money would be paid for them, 
 if Mr. Barker had it, as freely as the rain had 
 ever fallen from the heavens. 
 
 The district attorney called Mr. Halleck 
 and other friends of Mr. Barker, in the expecta- 
 tion of establishing from his confidential con- 
 versations what he meant Mr. Rogers should 
 understand from those letters. 
 
 M. M. Noah, a witness for the prosecution , 
 stated that defendant had called on him to publish 
 the correspondence, which he had declined. 
 
 James Orum, also a witness for the prosecu- 
 tion, stated that he had printed the pamphlet 
 in evidence, at the request of the defendant; 
 but not a word was elicited from any witness, 
 going to show that Mr. Barker had undertaken 
 to interpret his letters as meaning a challenge. 
 
 The cause was ably summed up by Thomas 
 Addis Einmit and Josiah Ogden Hoffman,
 
 142 
 
 LIFE OE JACOB BARKER. 
 
 esqs., on the part of the defendant, and by 
 Messrs. Maxwell, Benner and Price, on the 
 part of the prosecution, and given to the jury, 
 who, on retiring, agreed that a vote should be 
 taken and a verdict rendered "guilty" or " not 
 guilty," according as three-fourths of the 
 twelve jurors should decide; the vote resulting 
 against the defendant the verdict was rendered 
 in accordance therewith. 
 
 Mr. Barker asked for a new trial ; on the 
 hearing of the motion he appeared without 
 counsel and reviewed the whole case very 
 elaborately, saying that he did not complain so 
 much of the verdict as the manner in which it 
 was agreed upon ; that it was subversive of the 
 whole doctrine of jury trial, substituting the 
 will of a portion for that of an unanimous vote. 
 
 The recorder remarked, " Had this been 
 proven by legal testimony, we have no hesita- 
 tion in saying that the objection would be fatal. 
 You brought the declarations of jurors to prove 
 that the jury agreed that if nine of the pannel 
 should unite in a verdict, the other three should 
 fall in and find with them. Such conduct 
 would, undoubtedly, be reprehensible ; and this 
 court takes this occasion to say, that nothing 
 would be more alarming than for our jurors to 
 adopt such a method of making their verdicts. 
 You have only the proof which some of the 
 jury themselves gave; and it is a well settled 
 point, that, a juryman cannot be heard to dis- 
 parage his own verdict." 
 
 Mr. Barker responded: "My objections to 
 the conduct of the jury being overruled by 
 your honor, I shall not press that matter fur- 
 ther than to say, that when judgment shall be 
 passed, I do hope the irregularity will not 
 escape unnoticed; that there may not, at least, 
 be a recurrence of a practice fraught with 
 such incalculable mischief, and which must 
 impress with awe every member of a commu- 
 nity, whose life, honor, liberty, or fortune, may, 
 in its turn, become the sport of chance. 
 
 " I will proceed to show that the verdict was 
 not supported by the evidence ; the charge of 
 offence against the common law not having 
 been sustained by legal proof, and so ruled by 
 your honor. I shall devote my attention more 
 particularly to the law of the State, which I 
 consider to to be unconstitutional, and to some 
 of the remarks of the opposing counsel." 
 
 Mr. Barker haudled those gentlemen with 
 
 great freedom, seeming to consider the threat- 
 ened disfranchisement but a small penalty for 
 the pleasure of the battle. He insisted that 
 the damages to be awarded were to be mea- 
 sured by the provocation; hence all things re- 
 lating thereto were fit subjects for enquiry. 
 
 He referred to the language of Rogers, as 
 sworn to by himself; his ignorance as to the 
 matter spoken of; his refusal to hear testimony 
 and to make the required explanations ; and 
 to the continued injurious course of the direc- 
 tors of the North River Bank, as described by 
 the Supreme Court when they annulled the 
 illegal election. 
 
 "The guilty words are, doubtless, 'My friend 
 will call to-morrow;' and on the morrow Mr. 
 Wells did call. How, then, can it be doubted 
 that he was the friend alluded to? Still they 
 insist he was not the man alluded to, and again 
 I ask them, what proof they have of that? 
 Mr. Wells on his examination said, that if Mr. 
 Barker meant that letter as a challenge, and 
 the friend mentioned in it as a second, I could 
 not have meant him, because I never said one 
 word to him about fighting or challenging, or 
 anything more than the desire of an amicable 
 explanation. 
 
 "I felt, and do feel, the weight of my obliga- 
 tions to Mr. Wells, and that my whole life 
 would not repay the friendship of such a man; 
 and I most solemnly declare, that I never con- 
 sidered Mr. Wells in any other light than as a 
 peace-maker, and that if I ever had an inten- 
 tion of dealing out justice with my own hand 
 to Mr. Rogers, Mr. Wells was never thought of 
 as a party to such a purpose. He has testified; 
 his life and character speak volumes for the 
 truth of what he utters, and because he says 
 he never heard a word of fighting or of chal- 
 lenging, it must be that I sent some other 
 friend to challenge, and that must be Lieu- 
 tenant Allen, because I employed him to bear 
 a harmless note, and bring me a written an- 
 swer. Now, I put it to the court to say, 
 whether this is putting a fair construction on 
 the testimony, or whether it is not the fairer 
 and more rational inference that Mr. Wells 
 was the friend alluded to in my note of the 
 29th January, and that my only object was of 
 a pacific character. 
 
 " In affairs of honor, to be sure, it is a point 
 of honor to keep the secret, and the gentlemen
 
 ARGUMENT AGAINST THE VERDICT. 
 
 143 
 
 have said that I have exercised my accustomed 
 sagacity in doing so. I certainly kept the 
 secret, if there was one to be kept, with such 
 marked fidelity, that the gentlemen have not 
 been able to find a human being who had the 
 most distant hint of it, although they spread 
 their net wide indeed, sweeping my friends and 
 associates at random into court, to give evi- 
 dence touching my conversations; but it was 
 not in their power to extract a word of chal- 
 lenging from all the circle of my friends and 
 acquaintance, with all their diligence, which 
 went so far, that I wonder they had not called 
 upon Mrs. Barker and her daughter, and other 
 inmates of my house to detail the conversation 
 of the tea-table, &c. Therefore, I do think 
 this will be awarded to me, unless it should be 
 believed that there was not any secret to 
 keep; and I confess that is the natural infer- 
 ence, and particularly so as applicable to a per- 
 son so fond of talking as everybody who knows 
 Jacob Barker knows him to be. This is all 
 well. Let no guilty man escape. I am con- 
 tent. But if the district attorney had been 
 as active in doing his duty against others as 
 he has against me, against whom he has done 
 it nobly indeed, and vigorously, there might 
 have been some other victims to satisfy the 
 law. Certain it is, that others have sent, car- 
 ried, and accepted challenges, have fought 
 duels, and some have killed their neighbors. 
 
 "Mr. Allen was not called upon to testify ; 
 perhaps that might be from the apprehension 
 that he might refuse to answer in crimination 
 of himself, in which case, it is true, he would 
 he protected by the law. But the question 
 was asked, who is this William H. Allen? And 
 this question was to make it appear that he 
 was a lieutenant in the navy. I will now in- 
 form the gentlemen further, Mr. Allen is a 
 lieutenant in the navy of the United States. 
 He was second officer on board the Argus, 
 when the London editors accused her of having 
 set the whole Irish sea on fire ; when at Lloyd's 
 insurance could not be made across the Irish 
 channel from Liverpool to Dublin under 10 
 guineas per cent., notwithstanding the 1,000 
 British ships of war that covered all the seas; 
 and when his commander and namesake was 
 killed, and his superior officer wounded and 
 taken below, he fought the Argus against the 
 Pelican, a ship of double her force, for 20 
 
 minutes, until the wounds of the first officer 
 were dressed, and he came again on deck, and 
 ordered his flag to be lowered to save the fur- 
 ther effusion of blood. The gentlemen now 
 know all about Lieutenant Allen, and if they 
 can use this information to their advantage, 
 they are welcome to it; and I very much doubt 
 if they can give so good an account of them- 
 selves during the war. 
 
 " If the letter of the 20th January had been a 
 challenge, that of the 1st of February could 
 not have been one, nor could it support the 
 count at common law, which was for sending a 
 challenge by Wm. H. Allen ; he is a lieuten- 
 ant in the navy, that's it, therefore I am guilty; 
 whether he was or was not the friend alluded 
 to in my letter of the 29th, can have no bear- 
 ing on the question, and especially as it was 
 not proved that he delivered any challenge 
 whatsoever. But the first letter, they say, was 
 the challenge, and the friend intended in that 
 letter was Lieutenant Allen. 
 
 "The district attorney opened this cause by 
 saying, that I had offended against the laws of 
 God and man ; that I had a family ; that I 
 owed something to the community; and for 
 that should be made to suffer ; and some spoke 
 of my wife and children, and therefore that I 
 should answer to the community. It was the 
 first time I bad heard of a man's being pun- 
 ished for having a wife and children, though I 
 had often heard it urged in mitigation of his 
 sentence. I have, it is true, a wife, whose bo- 
 som is replete with every virtue that dignifies 
 the human character, and I have nine lovely 
 children, just bursting upon the world in pursuit 
 of honor, fame,and happiness; and may my heart 
 cease to palpitate when it ceases to feel for 
 them. My honor is their honor; and may my 
 tongue cease to articulate, and my arm be un- 
 nerved, when they cease to vindicate the honor 
 of such a family as God has given me to watch 
 over and protect. But I do not come to ask 
 for them the sympathy of this court, nor do I 
 know why they have been meutioned in this 
 cause. I equally disclaim being held guilty or 
 innocent the more or the less because I have a 
 family. Not one of my family, whilst one drop 
 of their parent's blood thrills through their 
 veins, would stoop to accept, much less solicit, 
 men's compassion. Fallen as our fortunes are, 
 our spirits remain unbrokeu. I cannot, per-
 
 144 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER 
 
 haps prevent their mourning over my misfor- 
 tunes, but I can assure them that they never 
 shall have just cause to blush at any action of 
 my life. They may regret that my enterprises 
 have not been crowned with more success, but 
 they shall never have cause to be ashamed of 
 me. It is true, also, that I owe much to the 
 communitv, a part of which is to oppose my 
 feeble voice against all attempts to invade its 
 laws and constitution — that debt I am at this 
 moment paying to the very best of my abilities. 
 " I have been charged with ambition, and I 
 acknowledge the weaknesses that belong to 
 frail man. My greatest ambition is to hold fast 
 by my rights, and on all occasions to defend 
 them. Of the fame of having sent a challenge 
 I am not, certainly, ambitious. No man holds 
 a professed duelist in more contempt than I do. 
 I wish it were not necessary, or held so in any 
 case, not even in that most cogent of all exi- 
 gencies, the vindication of a lady's honor. But 
 public opinion has willed it otherwise, and I 
 cannot help it, as I do not make public opinion, 
 however much I may be under the painful ne- 
 cessity of yielding to it, we are all slaves. 
 
 "The district attorney affected to consider this 
 case as one of small importance. Had he been 
 cradled in democracy he would have different 
 opinions ; and had he reflected that he received 
 his office from the hands of men who consider 
 the right of suffrage to be of vital importance, 
 he would not have betrayed his monarchical 
 sentiments. 
 
 " For what has so much blood and treasure 
 been lavished to secure our independence, and 
 recently to protect it? For what were the glo- 
 rious battles of New Orleans, of Erie, of Cham- 
 plain, of Bridgewater, and so many others 
 fought? For what has so much blood been 
 spilt in South America, and Europe, but to se- 
 cure and protect the rights of self-government? 
 To urge this further would be as idle as to at- 
 tempt to illuminate the sun. So important do 
 I consider the right to hold an office, civil or 
 military, that, were I possessed of the Indies, 
 or the mines of Peru, I would have sacrificed 
 the whole for the honor of commanding in the 
 armies of my country, and in her defence, on 
 such an occasion as that when the modern 
 Vandals entered Washington, where I witnessed 
 the flight of thousands from the enemy, with- 
 out their drawing a trigger in defence of the 
 
 capital of the nation, intrusted to their pro* 
 tection. Had I commanded on that day, I too, - 
 might have retired in that way, as no man 
 knows until he is tried. I, however, do think 
 I should not have done so until I had seen hu- 
 man blood, and that might have overcome my 
 nerves. Would it be nothing to have been put 
 in a situation to punish that insolent aggres- 
 sion? to be immortalised as were the leaders of 
 our troops at the battle of Bridgewater, and 
 the sortie from Fort Erie? Is it nothing to be 
 eligible to such employment? Is that of no 
 importance to a man who professes and ac- 
 knowledges himself to be ambitious of every 
 honorable distinction that a free people can 
 confer upon him. 
 
 " One of the counsel thought I deserved to be 
 convicted for not having come out in the public 
 prints and denied all intention to challenge Mr. 
 Rogers, that he might have been spared the 
 scoffs, and sneers, and ridicule of the world, 
 and that the boys and girls, the young, the 
 middle aged, and the old, might not consider 
 him as an object placed through life ' for the 
 hand of scorn to point its slow unerring fin- 
 ger at.' 
 
 "And did he think his employer entitled to this 
 kindness from me after he had heard his evi- 
 dence ? I cannot bring my mind to agree that 
 such was my duty. He also laid much stress 
 on my not having seriously denied the report 
 to my friends when they stated it to me. Cer- 
 tainly he had no solid ground for a conviction, 
 or he would not have seized, with such avidity, 
 on so flimsy a pretext. 
 
 " I shall now examine the circumstances of 
 aggravated provocation under which I was 
 placed. This cannot but be a fit subject of 
 inquiry, if the penalty be in the discretion of 
 the court. 
 
 "Your honors will recollect the time, place, 
 and extent of the insult offered to me. A 
 doubt was attempted to be raised, indeed, 
 whether I was under any necessity of consider- 
 ing the expressions used, as applicable to me. 
 But when my identity with the Exchange Bank, 
 and the Bank of Washington, and Warren is 
 considered, and that the management of these 
 banks was the immediate subject of conversa- 
 tion, no one can blame me for understanding 
 what it was intended the dullest should not 
 mistake. It is trifling with justice to say the
 
 ARGUMENT AGAINST THE VERDICT. 
 
 145 
 
 cap fitted, and I put it on. I had besides, in 
 my pocket, at that time, an anonymous letter, 
 ■which had been sent to my father-in-law, through 
 the post office, full of the same calumny, applied 
 to me by name. (Here the defendant produced 
 a letter, but the reading of it was objected to, 
 and he withdrew it.) Many of my friends have 
 received similar letters, which we believed to 
 have proceeded from the same source. And 
 was I tamely to submit to these gross wrongs? 
 Was I to hear all and to say nothing ? And 
 •when I sent an honorable friend to demand 
 some explanation, must I be punished? And, 
 if considered culpable, will all this provocation 
 go for nothing? Was my domestic peace to be 
 invaded with impunity? Was my aged father- 
 in-law, in the evening of his life, to be harrassed 
 and disturbed on my account? Were these at- 
 tempts to interrupt the confidence and affection 
 of my own family to be repeated by these men, 
 and I not allowed to use my feeble voice, my 
 pen, my skill, nor to make any effort in defence 
 of all that renders life desirable, or even sup- 
 portable ? Forbid it, my fellow citizens! forbid 
 it, this honorable court! forbid it, Heaven! 
 
 u The only thiug said by Rogers which can 
 have any legal bearing on the case, was, that 
 he gravely insulted me at the coffee-house ; 
 that my letter of the 29th was delivered to him 
 by myself, one hour after the insult, and at the 
 distance of or.e mile from the place where the 
 insult was given; that Mr. Wells called on him 
 the day following the date of that letter; that 
 he considered Mr. Wells the friend alluded to 
 therein; that Mr. Wells' conversation was en- 
 tirely of a pacific character, and that my letter 
 of the 1st of February was delivered to him by 
 Lieutenant Allen. This, considering that I 
 had to write a letter, look for a friend, find him 
 out of town, write another letter, and seek him 
 at so great a distance, was tolerably prompt; 
 perhaps not so much so as the insult merited. 
 
 " The gentlemen have accused me of too much 
 confidence. I have always felt great confidence 
 in the positions I supported, and I have seen 
 no cause to change my opinions; and if I 
 have succeeded in expressing the extent of the 
 confidence I feel, I have at least been success- 
 ful in one thing. 
 
 u One of the grounds they urge for my convic- 
 tion, is my want of gravity. A very slight 
 ground for conviction this. I do not know how 
 10 
 
 to be very grave; it is not in my nature to be so; 
 and even under the accumulation of injury 
 done me, I cannot but smile at their despera- 
 tion every time I think of their pretended elec- 
 tion for directors of the North River Bank the 
 present week, by which I have been greatly 
 injured in a pecuniary point of view. Yet I 
 cannot be grave when talking to my friends on 
 the subject. From this censure I wish to ex- 
 empt Mr. Jay. I consider him a gentleman, 
 and a man of honor. He was not at the board 
 when the illegal by-law was passed; and when 
 he heard how things were going on, he went 
 over to the bank to regain his proxy; it having 
 been used early in the morning, he was unfor- 
 tunately too late. 
 
 "They think I ought not to succeed, because 
 the learned gentlemen who honored me with 
 their aid on a former occasion did not urge at 
 the trial the objections I have urged, and be- 
 cause they are not now by my side, supporting 
 with their legal reputation and eloquence those 
 principles for which I contend with so much 
 zeal and confidence. They say, that if they 
 had not totally objected to risk their legal repu- 
 tation in so desperate a cause, I should have 
 had them here on this occasion, as I possess 
 abundance of means of paying them. Now, 
 in all this they are totally mistaken. I am not 
 able to pay them, and I could not consent to 
 tax their liberality further, by putting in requi- 
 sition such transcendent talents, which they are 
 now exerting in another part of this house, and 
 for which they will receive that pecuniary com- 
 pensation they so richly merit, and which, be- 
 ing their profession, is their dependence for the 
 support and fortune of their families; and I 
 will uot disguise that I felt competent to the 
 task I have undertaken. I have not paid them 
 one cent for the very able assistance they ren- 
 dered me on the trial ; but I had on former 
 occasions, when fortune smiled more kindly on 
 me, employed them and paid them too, and 
 they, true to their well known characters, did 
 not hesitate to come forward in aid of an old 
 friend, without stopping to inquire whether 
 they would be paid or not ; and so far from 
 their doubting the soundness of the objections 
 I have urged, one of them, Mr. Hoffman, told 
 me that there could be no question as to the 
 point of law; it was assuredly with me; the 
 duelling act, said he, being abrogated by the
 
 146 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 new constitution. And I understood Mr. Em- 
 met to express the same opinion ; but I do not 
 advance that with the same confidence, because 
 my conversation with him was more general. 
 
 " There can be no question but what the test 
 oath was unconstitutional, and that it was ab- 
 rogated by the new constitution; the gentlemen 
 say that the latter did not take effect until De- 
 cember next ; everything relating to the fran- 
 chise of the citizen took effect in March last, 
 and I insist that disqualifying an individual 
 from holding office under the State relates 
 directly to his franchise ; they also insist that 
 the test oath only was abrogated, and not the 
 whole law ; I insist that when the vital part of 
 any law is abolished the whole falls. 
 
 "I have a book in my hand which shows that 
 where a bond is void in part it is void in whole, 
 and so of conveyances, which are against the 
 provisions of a statute ; and I think it reasonable 
 that if a part of a statute is bad, being against 
 the provisions of the constitution, the like prin- 
 ciple should govern, as in the case of a bond 
 or conveyance made against a statute. In 14 
 Johnson's reports, 465, I find this passage : 
 
 "'It appears to be an established rule, that 
 where a bond is void in part, as against the 
 positive provisions of a statute, the whole bond 
 is void. This distinction was taken in the case 
 of Norton vs. Simmons, (Hob. 14,) between a 
 bond made void by the statute and by the com- 
 mon law ; for upon the statute 23 Hen. VI, if 
 a sheriff will take a bond for a point against 
 that law, and also for a due debt, the whole is 
 void, for the letter of the statute is so , for a 
 statute is a strict law; but the common law 
 doth divide according to common reason, and 
 having made that void which was against rea- 
 son, lets the rest stand, as in 14 Hen. VIII, 
 fol. 15. It is mentioned also, as a saying of 
 Lord Hobart, that the statute is like a tyrant, 
 where he comes he makes all void ; but the 
 common law is like a nursing father, and makes 
 void only that part where the fault is, and pre- 
 serves the rest.' 
 
 " To enable the court to decide whether the 
 statute be made in the spirit of the constitution, 
 or against it, it will be necessary to know its 
 true character; and to ascertain this, we must 
 look into its origin, birth, or first being. 
 
 " When before this honorable court, on a for- 
 mer occasion, I read the journals of the Senate, 
 showing the law to be founded upon a petition 
 from the Rev. Dr. Milledoller, and several other 
 reverend gentlemen, one of whom, if not more, 
 devoted at least a month to travelling through 
 
 the State to collect signatures to the said peti- 
 tion. In respect for these reverend men, I will 
 not yield to any one. I visit their churches ; I 
 listen to their eloquence from the pulpit with 
 attention ; I hear them expound the divine 
 law with delight; I hear them exhort their fel- 
 low beings to forsake their sins and become the 
 disciples of Christ with pleasing emotions, which 
 I lack words to express ; and when they crave 
 before the throne of grace omnipotent protec- 
 tion and forgiveness, my heart is filled with 
 reverence, and with them I crave from on high 
 divine illumination. But when I see them 
 overleap their prescribed bounds by meddling 
 with our political institutions, I turn from them 
 with alarm and concern. And if I shall here 
 be enabled to demonstrate to the satisfaction of 
 this court the true character of this law, I think 
 it will prove a wholesome admonition to these 
 reverend gentlemen to confine their future la. 
 bors to softening the heart and convincing the 
 understanding." 
 
 Mr. Barker insists that if the law has not 
 been abrogated, it is unconstitutional; he op- 
 posed it on that ground as a member of the 
 Senatorial Committee, again in the Senate, 
 from which body the bill went to the council of 
 revision, where, after a sharp conflict, it was 
 sustained by a vote of four to three. 
 
 " Chancellor Kent delivered a very able 
 opinion in opposition, and when the subject 
 was brought before the convention Mr. Jay 
 observed ' that he had originally introduced 
 this law; that he drafted the law; and, though 
 it was altered in its passage through the 
 House, he voted for it. It went to the council 
 of revision, which was said to be divided. But 
 I feel ready to confess that if I had seen the 
 objections to it presented by the honorable the 
 chancellor, I should not have voted for it; and 
 I am ready, therefore, to assent to the repeal 
 of the law on those grounds.' 
 
 " The court will please to remark what Mr. 
 Jay considered the question to be. 'I will' 
 said he ' vote for the repeal of the law' — not 
 the test oath, but the law. Chief Justice 
 Spencer considered the case originally uncon- 
 stitutional, and proposed an amendment; but 
 the convention, being bent on their purpose, 
 were not to be diverted from abolishing the 
 whole law; they rejected the amendment 74 
 to 45.
 
 RESTORED TO CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 147 
 
 "The legislature are competent to impose 
 any decree of punishment, provided they do 
 not infringe the franchise of the citizen; this 
 they cannot constitutionally do but for what 
 the law denominates an infamous crime; and 
 the ofi'ence under consideration is at most but 
 a misdemeanor. So far as they condemned 
 me, under the common law, their doings are a 
 nullity — they having done so without evidence." 
 
 Mr. Barker failed to convince the court that 
 the law of the State was unconstitutional, or 
 that the abrogation of a portion of it had the 
 effect of abrogating the whole. The court 
 said, among other things, that it was unani- 
 mously of the opinion that it would not be just 
 to inflict the penalty of both laws. 
 
 u As at common law, we shall not consider 
 the verdict, for, in the first place, we on the 
 trial considered only the statuteable offence. 
 The proof not having sustained the count at 
 common law, we put it to the jury only as an 
 offence against the statute, though they found 
 a general verdict against you. Should we go 
 further now, it would be inflicting a double 
 punishment, and contrary to the testimony in 
 the cause. 
 
 "As to the ground, that the jury found a 
 verdict against you on chance, you brought 
 the declarations of jurors to prove that the 
 jury agreed, if nine of the panel should unite 
 in a verdict, the other three should fall in and 
 find with them. Such conduct would undoubt- 
 edly be reprehensible; and this court takes 
 this occasion to say, that nothing would be 
 more alarming than for our juries to adopt any 
 other method of making their verdicts than the 
 true merits according to the evidence." 
 
 The recorder illustrated this opinion with 
 some feeling, and stated impressive cases 
 which might occur if there should be a recur- 
 rence of such a practice, and continued: 
 
 "We have no hesitation to say that that 
 objection would be fatal if established by legal 
 evidence; but you have only the proof which 
 some of the jury themselves gave; and it is a 
 well settled point that a juryman cannot be 
 heard to disparage his own verdict. 
 
 "The defendant's points have all failed him; 
 the sentence of the court, therefore, is ' That 
 you be incapable of holding, or being elected 
 to, any post of profit, trust, or emolument, 
 civil or military, under this State.' " 
 
 These disabilities were all removed, and Mr. 
 
 Barker restored to all the rights of a citizen, 
 by Governor Clinton. 
 
 The New York city press was generally sub- 
 servient to the monied aristocracy; and it 
 rarely happened that a sufficient moral courage 
 was found among individuals to take part in 
 resisting the storm which was raging against 
 Mr. B. The character of this hesitation may 
 be gathered from the following letter: 
 
 " March C, 1822. 
 
 "Sir: "We have been called upon this after- 
 noon by a number of gentlemen regarding the 
 documents of which your advertisement is com- 
 posed, who, upon hearing their contents, have 
 given us to understand that, if published, they 
 will involve us in difficulty with many of our 
 patrons and friends. 
 
 "Not feeling willing to encounter this disturb- 
 ed state of feeling, we are under the necessity 
 of declining the insertion of the advertisement. 
 
 "We are, with respect, your obedient servants, 
 
 "DWIGHT, TOWNSEND & WifLKER. 
 
 "Jacob Barker, esq." 
 
 Very soon after this occurrence, Mr. Barker 
 was called upon to mourn the untimely death 
 of his friend, Lieutenant William H. Allen. 
 
 " Lieutenant William Howard Allen, whose 
 enviable reputation is the common property of 
 the nation, was born in the city of Hudson, on 
 the 8th of July, 1790. 
 
 " He possessed strong and vigorous intellec- 
 tual powers, and he mastered the sciences with 
 ease and laid a solid foundation for future use- 
 fulness. He always availed himself of every 
 opportunity that offered for distinguishing him- 
 self, and as occasion required he evinced both 
 skill and courage. He was appointed a mid- 
 shipman in 1808, and served on the gun boats, 
 ships Chesapeake and United States. In 1811 
 he obtained a furlough, and made a voyage to 
 Archangel in command of the ship Rodman. 
 On the approach of war he returned to the 
 United States service ; was promoted to the 
 second lieutenancy in 1812, when he entered 
 on board of the Argus. Her cruise continued 
 prosperous until she came in conflict with the 
 British sloop-of-war Pelican. Although this 
 vessel was superior to her in burden, men and 
 metal, yet the battle was long, severe aud 
 ' bloody. Early in the action, Captain William 
 Henry Allen was mortally wounded and carried 
 below: shortly after, the first lieutenant, Wil- 
 liam H. Watson, was severely wounded, and 
 taken to the wardroom. The command of the 
 Argus then devolved on Lieutenant William 
 Howard Allen; his conduct was cool, delibe- 
 rate, and such as received the admiration of 
 the crew, and the approbation and praise of 
 his superior officers. After lighting was use- 
 less, the Argus was surrendered to the Pelican 
 a perfect wreck. This was on the thirteenth
 
 148 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB EARKEE. 
 
 of August, lSlo. Lieutenant Allen was taken 
 to Ashburton, England, where he was detained 
 eighteen months a prisoner of war. In 1817, 
 he was promoted to a first lieutenancy, and 
 served on frigates United States, Independence, 
 Columbus, and Congress. He sailed as first 
 lieutenant of the latter in 1819 to the China 
 seas. She returned in 1821, and he was ap- 
 pointed to the command of the Alligator, in 
 1822. Sailed from New York on the 3d of 
 August of that year, on a cruise against the 
 pirates, in which he plucked a wreath of glory, 
 but the shaft cf death was in it. 
 
 " On his arrival at Havana, he was informed 
 that a gang of pirates, having in possession 
 some merchant vessels, bad stationed them- 
 selves in the bay of Le Juapo, in the neigh- 
 borhood of Matanzas ; without coming to an 
 anchor, he immediately proceeded in search of 
 them. He approached the place, saw the pi- 
 rate vessels, three in number, well armed and 
 supplied, and manned with a hundred or more 
 of these desperadoes, with the bloody flag 
 waving aloft and nailed to the mast. In pos- 
 session m these outlaws were five merchant- 
 men and several American citizens ; this pro- 
 perty and these citizens the gallant Allen 
 determined to rescue. The Alligator, in conse- 
 quence of the shoalness of the water, could 
 not approach them ; he ordered the boats to be 
 manned with about thirty of his crew ; put 
 himself in the van and led the attack and 
 boarded them. The outlaws resisted, but were 
 driven from their flag vessel, of which he took 
 possession. They fled to the other vessels, he 
 pursued them amidst a shower of musketry; a 
 musket ball struck him in the head, still he 
 pressed forward, cheering his men, and when 
 about to board them, another pierced his 
 breast; this was mortal; still he cheered his 
 gallant little crew as they lifted him on board 
 of the prize schooner, and laid him on the deck 
 he had so dearly won, and he died of his 
 wounds about three hours after. He called his 
 officers about him, gave directions respecting 
 the prizes, for the merchant vessels had been 
 rescued; conversed freely and cheerfully; hoped 
 that his friends and his country would be satis- 
 fied that he had fought well. He said he died 
 in peace with the world and looked for his re- 
 ward in the next. Although his pain, from 
 the nature of his wounds, was excruciating, 
 yet he did not complain, but died like a martyr, 
 without a sigh or a groan, and the spirit of a 
 braver man never entered the unseen world. 
 The body of the martyred Allen was conveyed 
 to Matanzas, in Cuba, where it was interred 
 on the 11th November, 1822, with the honors 
 due to his distinguished merit. 
 
 "Soon after the reception of this sad intelli- 
 gence at Hudson, which cast a gloom over the 
 city, the citizens of Hudson assembled at the 
 city hall, and it was a more numerous meeting 
 than had ever been witnessed in that city. 
 This was on the fifth of December, 1822, and 
 
 on motion of Elisha Williams, the honorable 
 Alexander Coffin was called to the chair; and 
 on motion of Ambrose L. Jordan, esq., Dr. 
 Samuel White was appointed secretary. The 
 Reverend B. F. Stanton opened the meeting 
 with an appropriate and impressive prayer. 
 The Hon. James Strong then pronounced a 
 splendid eulogy on the character of the late 
 gallant Lieutenant William Howard Allen. 
 
 "The common council of the city of Hud- 
 son requested of the Navy Department to have 
 the remains of Lieutenant Allen brought from 
 Matanzas to New York in a public vessel. 
 This request was promptly acceded to by the 
 Secretary of the Navy, and on the fifteenth of 
 December, 1827, the schooner Grampus ar- 
 rived at New York, having on board the 
 remains of the lamented hero. On the recep- 
 tion of this intelligence, the common council 
 of the city of Hudson deputed Mr. Reed, for- 
 mer mayor of this city, and Mr. Edmonds, the 
 recorder, to receive and bring them to his 
 native city. On the Wednesday following, 
 they were removed from the navy-yard at 
 Brooklyn, under the escort of the marine corps 
 of that station, and accompanied by Commo- 
 dore Chauncey and a numerous body of naval 
 officers. The colors at the yard, and at New 
 York, were at half-mast, and the procession 
 landed at New York amid the firing of a salute 
 from the Grampus, which had been moored in 
 the stream for that purpose. At New York 
 the procession was joined by the common coun- 
 cil of that city, and an immense concourse 
 of citizens and officers, and moved across the 
 city to the steamboat which carried them to 
 Hudson. There a salute was fired by a detach- 
 ment of artillery, and by the marine corps, and 
 the remains were delivered by Commodore 
 Chauncey to the Hudson deputation. His re- 
 mains were accompanied to Hudson by the 
 following officers of the navy : Lieutenants 
 Francis H. Gregory, George N. Hollins, Wil- 
 liam D. Newman, John R. Coxe, John Swart- 
 wout and Alexander M. Mull ; sailing master 
 Bloodgood; and midshipmen Lynch, Nichols, 
 Schermerhorn, Lawrence, and Pinckney, and 
 arrived early on Thursday morning. They 
 were welcomed by a national salute, and were 
 escorted to the dwelling of Captain Alexander 
 Coffin, the patriotic kinsman of the lamented 
 hero, by a detachment of military and a 
 numerous escort of citizens, which moved in 
 the following order: 
 
 " Hudson City Guards. 
 "Columbia Plaids. 
 "Athens Lafayette Guards. 
 "And the military under the command of Col. 
 William A. Dean, with standards furled 
 and drums muffled. 
 " The Reverend Clergy. 
 "The Corpse, 
 " Borne by Lieutenants Gregory, Hollins, New- 
 man, Coxe, Swartwout and Mull, and 
 Midshipmen Lynch and Nichols.
 
 FUNERAL CEREMONIES OF LIEUTENANT ALLEN. 
 
 149 
 
 "Mourner.-, including Messrs. Bloodgood,Scher- 
 
 merhorn, Lawrence and Pinckney of 
 
 the United States navy. 
 
 " Hudson Military Association. 
 
 "Brigadier General Whiting and his suite. 
 
 " The Mayor and Recorder. 
 
 " Aldermen. 
 
 u Assistant Aldermen. 
 
 " Clerk and Marshall of the city. 
 
 "Clerk and Sheriff of the county. 
 
 "Committee of Arrangements. 
 
 " Followed by a larger and more respectable 
 procession of citizens than had, for many years, 
 been witnessed in that city. While the proces- 
 sion moved, the bells of the city were tolled, 
 and minute guns were fired from parade hill. 
 On its arrival at the grave yard, the body was 
 conveyed in front of the line of the military 
 resting on arms reversed, and was committed 
 to the earth, near the grave of Lieutenaut 
 Allen's mother. The funeral service was read 
 by the Rev. Mr. Stebbins, and a volley fired 
 over the grave by the military. The proces- 
 sion then returned to the United States hotel, 
 where it was dismissed. 
 
 " At three o'clock, p. m., the naval officers 
 sat down to a public dinner, given them by the 
 citizens, at which about one hundred of the 
 most respectable citizens were present. 
 
 "The evening was spent at the hospitable 
 mansion of Col. Livingston. On Friday, the 
 officers paid their respects to the mayor, and 
 departed amid the roar of cannon, with the 
 heartfelt gratitude of the whole city for their 
 generous attention on this occasion. 
 
 " The following correspondence passed be- 
 tween the officers of the navy and the commit- 
 tee i 
 
 "'Hudson*, December 21, 1827. 
 
 u 'The officers of the navy assembled on the 
 present melancholy occasion, reciprocating the 
 sentiments expressed by the citizens of Hudson, 
 return their thanks for the unparalleled tri- 
 bute paid to the memory of their late gallant 
 associate. They at the same time return their 
 acknowledgments for the liberal hospitality 
 which has characterized the whole proceeding ; 
 and, in departing, beg leave to say, that whether 
 applied to the individual or professional stand- 
 ing of their departed member, the conduct of 
 the citizens is alike honorable to their feelings 
 and principles as men and patriots. Laboring 
 under emotions too powerful to be conveyed in 
 adequate language, they tender the committee 
 a grateful and affectionate farewell.' 
 
 "'Hudson*, December 21, 1827. 
 "'The committee of the citizens of Hudson, 
 in acknowledging the favor of the officers of 
 the navy, assembled on this occasion of pay- 
 ing the last honors to the memory of the 
 lamented Allen, gladly avail themselves of 
 this opportunity to assure those gentlemen of 
 the high sense entertained by this whole com- 
 munity of the obligation conferred upon them, 
 
 by the attendance of individuals deservedly 
 distinguished for their public and private worth; 
 as the committee cannot entertain a doubt that 
 the lives of those officers of the navy will be 
 as honorable, so they cannot help but hope 
 that their deaths will be as glorious, and their 
 memories as much respected, as those of the 
 gallant and unfortunate William Howard Allen. 
 '"By order of the committee. 
 
 '•'DAVID WEST, Chairman. 
 "'William A. Dean*, Secrelar>/. , " 
 
 The citizens of Hudson, who have always 
 been distinguished for their liberality and 
 patriotism, erected in 1833 a splendid monu- 
 ment to his memory. 
 
 Thus ended the career of one whose merits 
 as a citizen, son, brother, friend and officer, 
 have never been excelled and rarely equalled. 
 
 Before the trial of the indictment, he sailed 
 in command of the United States vessel of war 
 Alligator, in pursuit of the pirates, who then 
 infected the West Indies, and was killed in 
 1822 by a shot from a piratical boat when pur- 
 suing them at the head of his boats' crew, 
 inside a reef on which there was not sufficient 
 water for the Alligator to pass. 
 
 The following lines, from the pen of Hailcck, 
 
 commemorate his lamented fate : 
 
 " He hath been mourned as brave men mourn 
 
 the brave, 
 And wept as nations weep their cherished dead, 
 With bitter, but proud tears, and o'er bis head 
 The eternal flowers whose root is in the grave, 
 The flowers of fame, are beautiful and green ; 
 And by his grave's side pilgrim feet have been, 
 And blessings, pure as men to martyrs give, 
 Have there been breathed by those who died to 
 
 save. 
 — Pride of his country's banded chivalry, 
 His fame their hope, his name their battle cry ; 
 He lived as mothers wish their sons to live, 
 I He died as fathers wish their sons to die. 
 
 If on the grief-worn cheek the hues of bliss, 
 ' Which fade when all we love is in the tomb, 
 ! Could ever know on earth a second bloom, 
 ! The memory of a gallant death like his 
 i Would call them into being — but the few, 
 Who as their friend, their brother, or their son, 
 His kind, warm heart and gentle spirit knew, 
 Had long lived, hoped, and feared for him alone ; 
 His voice their morning music, and his eye 
 The only starlight of their evening sky, 
 Till even the sun of happiness seemed dim, 
 And life's best joys were sorrows but witli him ; 
 And when — the burning bullet in his breast, 
 He dropped, like summer fruit from off the bough, 
 There was one heart that knew and loved him 
 
 best — 
 It was a mother's — and is broken new.'' 
 
 The hostility to Mr. Barker's onward course 
 
 was continued, he being always ready to meet 
 
 his opponents in any field they might select for
 
 150 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 battle. Continuing to operate largely in Wall 
 street until the failure of the Life and Fire In- 
 surance Company, and many other incorpora- 
 tions, in 1826; when Hugh Maxwell, the dis- 
 trict attorney, endeavored to get him included 
 with the managers of these companies in an 
 indictment, against whom the grand jury found 
 bills ; he was not successful ; they refused to 
 include Mr. Barker therein. 
 
 The district attorney refused to bring the 
 persons indicted to a trial until another grand 
 jury was formed, in the hope that they could 
 be induced to include Mr. Barker ; in this he 
 was successful, they did so. 
 
 The trial came on, Mr. Barker relying on the 
 integrity of his cause and his own capacity to 
 establish his freedom from offence, declined the 
 aid of his professional friends, conducting the 
 defence himself, until near the close of the first 
 trial. 
 
 The testimony of the prosecution closed a 
 day sooner than was anticipated, when the 
 court called on the counsel to commence their 
 defence ; it was two o'clock, they asked until 
 next morning to look over their notes, consult 
 with each other, and arrange the order in which 
 they would speak ; the court refused, saying 
 they must commence at four o'clock, when 
 Thomas J. Oakley, esq., counsel for Mark Spen- 
 cer, said " perhaps Mr. Barker will be willing to 
 make his defence this afternoon ?" Mr. Barker 
 replied, " certainly," " yes," said Mr. Emmet, 
 who was counsel for Mr. Eckford, "if they were 
 all to be hanged, Mr. Barker would say hang 
 me first ;" the court adjourned, and met again 
 at four o'clock, when Mr. Barker spoke thus : 
 
 "Gentlemen of the Jury : The importance of 
 this subject makes some apology necessary from 
 me before I take up your time in showing you 
 how to attain a right understanding of its vari- 
 ous details. What is it for which I come here? 
 Do I not come to advocate the cause of the 
 father; the cause of you, gentleman of the jury, 
 of your wives and children, of this honourable 
 court and their children; the cause of the 
 mother and the cause of a family heretofore 
 happy and prosperous ? But not for these pur- 
 poses alone appear I before you. I advocate 
 the cause of public justice, no less than the 
 most powerful affections of human life. The 
 sorrow this trial inflicts upon many innocent 
 persons is of the deepest kind. It is from you, 
 gentlemen, that I confidently expect and hope 
 for aid to wipe away those stains. But the 
 number that will read an account of the re- 
 deeming qualities of this trial are few in com- 
 
 parison with those who have listened to the 
 slanders or believed the calumnies. For my- 
 self, I am willing to receive all the consequences 
 for the privilege of putting before the world 
 proof of my innocence, but I feel for others. 
 
 "The subject of finance is one of great mag- 
 nitude and mystery ; few understand it. I flat- 
 ter myself that I have some experience on the 
 subject, and it is on that account I am un- 
 willing to trust to counsel. I am well aware 
 that I am surrounded by great talents, greater 
 than I have any pretensions to. To the whole 
 bar I owe an apology for appearing here in my 
 own person, to do for myself what all the world 
 have told me they could do so much better for 
 me — they will excuse me, for they know I do 
 not intend any disrespect for them. They 
 know the high estimation in which I hold their 
 learning, their logic, their eloquence, and their 
 justice; and that venerable patriot, the pride 
 and glory of two nations, knows how I love him, 
 and how the story of his love of liberty warmed 
 and swelled my bosom in boyhood, how I greeted 
 him welcome when, flying from prejudice and 
 persecution, he first landed on this sacred spot, 
 and how constant I have been in my attachment 
 to him ever since. With all this I have no 
 fears of kindling unkind feelings with those who 
 love the law, and whose practice is to make 
 manifest the excellence of that which merits 
 their love. 
 
 " I come here under many disadvantages. 
 The odds are fearfully against me. I said that 
 this business was very difficult to understand, 
 and had many conflicting interests. I dare 
 not trust that I can separate them with sufficient 
 clearness, but I will try ; and, gentlemen, I 
 rely on your intelligence to separate these con- 
 flicting interests. The past has been a great 
 season of excitement among the dealers in 
 stock, bonds, bank notes, &c. In all these 
 difficulties I have more or less mixed — in the 
 financial concerns of this city I generally have 
 had a hand. It has been made manifest after 
 fourteen days' investigation before you, in which 
 I have stood here before my accusers, boldly 
 bidding them to tell all they knew, that not a 
 hem of my garment has been toiiched. I com- 
 plain that I do not come here upon equal terms 
 with any other man. Public prejudice has 
 been excited against me. The newpapers long 
 since called upon the grand jury to indict 
 Jacob Barker — his door has been chalked — he 
 has been called a rogue — every species of re- 
 proach has been heaped upon him. During 
 that time Jacob Barker pursued the even tenor 
 of his way. Witness after witness had been 
 examined, and that grand jury was dismissed 
 without finding a bill of indictment against me. 
 Hand-bills continued to be published — poem3 
 have been written — and all against Jacob Bar- 
 ker, stating that all was not unravelled. It was 
 published that this and that institution had 
 failed, the funds of which had all disppeared ; 
 all this had been laid at my door, and a second
 
 DEFENCE ON THE TRIAL FOR FRAUD. 
 
 151 
 
 grand jury indicted me. The moment I heard 
 of the indictment, I was ready and anxious for 
 trial. I wanted no books ; no preparation ; I 
 was willing to submit the cause, after all that 
 could be brought up, to a candid jury, but was 
 pressed on all sides not to go to trial. My friends 
 told me that I could not get an impartial one. 
 I was sorry to hear this, and I did not believe 
 it. I knew it was the court and jury that had 
 to try me, and I considered it impossible but 
 that I should have a fair trial, and therefore 
 demanded it forthwith. You have heard it 
 said in this court, that an acquittal by you 
 would do Jacob Barker no good. I know bet- 
 ter, and I will convince you by the zeal, the 
 ardour, the pertinacity with which I shall plead 
 before you, that I place a high value on what 
 the district attorney has dared to say would do 
 me no good from such men as you. I knew 
 your verdict would be valuable, and I asked it 
 as such. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I come here armed with justice, 
 and confident in the wisdom and integrity of my 
 conduct, I come here to clear myself from the 
 imputations that have so falsely been made 
 against me. I have brought with me these 
 four boys. (Here he pointed to four promising 
 young men, a part of those twelve children to 
 whom he alluded when speaking of the u beard- 
 less boy" who had been sent by the conspirators 
 on his oath to insult their father.) I have 
 brought them here that they may learn a useful 
 lesson — that they may see the excellence of the 
 motto I have from their infancy endeavored to 
 impress on their young minds. 'Be just and 
 fear not' — that they may feel, in listening to 
 my vindication, the force of truth and justice 
 over calumny and fraud — and that they may 
 know that they have not had, and will never 
 have cause to blush hereafter when they speak 
 of their father's memory, or hear their father's 
 name. To do myself justice is a great object, 
 to do my children justice, a greater. 
 
 u In his opening speech the district attorney 
 promised me a fair trial. The idea of such a 
 promise — of being promised a fair trial shocked 
 nieto the quick. What, is the trial to be given by 
 the district attorney ? is its impartility or fair- 
 ness left to him ? No, gentlemen, it is not so. 
 It is the judge on that bench, and the jury on 
 these chairs, and not the district attorney, that 
 can give me a fair trial. I am to be adjudged 
 by you on the evidence that is produced and 
 will be produced. But how dare the district 
 attorney name such a thing to a free citizen ? 
 Let your verdict, whether of guilt or innocence, 
 be delivered on the evidence under your oaths, 
 and who shall gainsay it? 
 
 u Gentlemen, I was very unexpectedly called 
 upon by counsel for the other defendants, after 
 I came into court this morning, to make an 
 opening, which was the first intimation that it 
 was their intention for me to lead the van, and 
 as I always keep my powder dry, I make no 
 complaint about being surprised into premature 
 
 battle. I live in the country, or I should have 
 heard the alarm gun last evening, and made a 
 little preparation ; not having done so, I hope 
 my deficiencies will be forgiven. So far as the 
 trial has proceeded I have reason, thank God, 
 to be satisfied. I have no brief, and have taken 
 no notes. 
 
 " The different classes of witnesses are very 
 numerous, and their testimony is mixed up in 
 such a manner as will make it very diificult to 
 be understood. There are the broker and 
 usurer — there are the debtors to the company, 
 and those who have failed to acquire fame in 
 the management of the business of finance, all 
 warring with each other, and at the same time 
 warring against me, and combining together 
 for my destruction ; the idea is shocking to 
 them, that amid the disasters, the wide-spread 
 ruin which has desolated so many of our monied 
 institutions, the affairs of the companies which 
 have, in a considerable degree, been intrusted 
 to my management, should have been so ably, 
 so prudently, and so successfully managed, as 
 to be preserved not only whole and sound, but 
 their dividends not curtailed. The debtors of 
 the Life and Fire Insurance Company, whose 
 want of punctuality has been the sole cause of 
 the failure, now wish to take advantage of the 
 ruin their own bad faith has occasioned, and to 
 purchase up the bonds for a mere song, and pay 
 them back to the company at par ; and to effect 
 this they cry ' fraud,' ' fraud,' against me, in 
 the hope of invalidating the transfer of the se- 
 curities to me. The bond holders are mortified 
 that I should have got my pay when they did 
 not, and therefor unite in the cry of ' fraud, 
 fraud,' in the hope of getting an equal dis- 
 tribution of the assets of the company ; for- 
 getting that they got 30, 40, and 50 per cent, 
 per annum for their money, and that mine was 
 lent without interest, commission, discount, or 
 usury, unaccompanied by any circumstance to 
 cloud or mar the purity of the transaction. 
 
 " The stockholders unite in the cry of ' fraud' 
 against all parties, in the hope of dividing all 
 the effects of the company, and defrauding all 
 the creditors of a participation therein, although 
 the present effects of the company are almost 
 exclusively the offspring, the fruits, the avails, 
 of the bonds out, or the bonds for which those 
 out were given in renewal. This, gentlemen 
 of the jury, is the first time it has been pre- 
 tended that partners in trade — and stock- 
 holders in an incorporation cannot be consi- 
 dered in any other light — it is, I say, the first 
 time that partners in trade have avowed an 
 intention to divide all the effects of the part- 
 nership among themselves, without paying a 
 single debt of the firm — the records of the 
 courts of all the world do not furnish a single 
 instance of such an enormity; and yet 1 am 
 now on my trial for a fraud against these 
 virtuous stockholders, for the single reason 
 that I am now an obstacle to the consumma- 
 tion of their iniquitous schemes. A great
 
 152 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 portion of the securities I received came to my 
 hands before I lent the money — why should 
 this prejudice them against me? Industry, 
 prudence, and talent, will succeed in any busi- 
 ness — a nd after lending so much money to 
 save the company from suspending its pay- 
 ments, and thereby protecting the stockholder 
 and bondholder from loss, they arm against 
 me because I could not advance more money 
 for their exclusive benefit. With another diffi- 
 culty I have to contend. Ancient prejudices 
 are revived and brought here, and combined 
 with the recent occurrences, for the purpose of 
 destroying me — prejudices, growing out of 
 misfortunes, occasioned by circumstances over 
 which I had no control — misfortunes I have 
 been struggling to surmount, as I would for 
 the preservation of the apple of my eye; and I 
 hope to satisfy all of the purity of my inten- 
 tions. I admit the very great prejudice against 
 me by the monied aristocracy of Wall street, 
 and that it is widely branched out, insomuch 
 that the very air of this hall has been filled 
 ■with accusations of guilt against me. But 
 this is a day of revolutions - , and I publicly 
 pledged myself, at the commencement of this 
 trial, to make a most thorough and perfect 
 revolution in the public opinion in relation to 
 Jacob Barker's guilt, and I think I have done 
 so. I love the world, and if I could make the 
 world love me, I should be happy. With the 
 mechanic, the cartman, the laborer, the men 
 who live by the sweat of their brow, and, con- 
 sequently, who think honestly on all subjects — 
 with this most meritorious portion of our citi- 
 zens, no such general prejudice exists against 
 Jacob Barker. With these, it is the pride and 
 delight of his heart to stand well; and of their 
 friendship and confidence, I assert, without the 
 fear of contradiction, no individual possesses a 
 larger share. 
 
 " Gentlemen, it has been asked over and over 
 again, why ha3 Jacob Barker been indicted ? 
 In vain have I listened and looked for a justifi- 
 able cause. I give you my honor that I am 
 yet ignorant, and therefore am obliged to fight 
 in the dark. Imagine for what it is that you 
 are to be required to convict me — you have 
 heard the district attorney more than once tell 
 me he would let me know, when he comes to 
 sum up the case. Observe, gentlemen, when 
 he comes to sum up: then I shall be bound 
 hand and foot, muffled and gagged ; then the 
 rules of the court will not permit me to call a 
 single witness, or to say a single word in ex- 
 planation or vindication of what he may then be 
 graciously pleased to say to my prejudice. It 
 is then, and not till then, that I am to know for 
 what I am now on my trial. I have said that 
 I did not know for what reason this bill of in- 
 dictment had been procured against me. There 
 are two circumstances that may have led to it, 
 which I will relate to you. First, when Mr. 
 Boyd told me of a project he had for harmon- 
 izing the then existing disputes between the 
 
 inns and the outs of the Tradesmen's Bank, 
 which was to leave in the pockets of the incau- 
 tious sellers $84,000 profit, to have the bank 
 returned to them, and for the 'great unknown' 
 quietly to resign the bank losing his $84,000, 
 for having dared to do what every man in the 
 community considers himself at liberty to do, 
 viz: purchase bank stock — when Mr. Boyd men- 
 tioned this splendid money making scheme to 
 me, I exclaimed, ' preposterous I nonsense! if 
 it was my case, I would make you disgorge 
 your ill-gotten gains.' For this high offence, 
 the high offence of expressing a sound opinion 
 of, and honest indiguation at such a proposi- 
 tion, the parties, or some of them, which I know 
 not, have been filling the ears of the district 
 attorney with suspicions of me. The other cir- 
 cumstance was that before my indictment I 
 heard everywhere that the district attorney was 
 proclaiming with apparent exultation, that the 
 gentlemen then indicted would all, to a cer- 
 tainty, be convicted, and that he held in his 
 pocket abundant evidence of their guilt. This 
 being repeated in my presence, at the funeral of 
 J udge Van Ness, and my friend Mr. Eckford being 
 one of the persons indicted, although I was not, 
 myself, at that time, so unfortunate, I could not 
 contain my indignation ; and I did say that the 
 district attorney was wrong; that the oath of 
 his office imposed on him the same obligation 
 to protect the innocent that it did to pu.iish the 
 guilty ; and that if such a man as Henry Eck- 
 ford, after a long life of private virtue and pub- 
 lic usefulness, should have been, either by a 
 combination of circumstances, a mistaken confi- 
 dence in those abouthim,ora momentary relaxa- 
 tion of those rigid principles of morality which 
 had hitherto regulated his every action, betray- 
 ed into error, it should fill the district attorney 
 with grief and horror ; and that he should go 
 on to discharge the duties of his office with 
 melancholy regret, and not go about the streets 
 prejudging the case, and prejudicing the public 
 mind ; (adding to Mr. Price, who was present,) 
 I wish you would say these things to the district 
 attorney, and tell him also that he has fallen, 
 very much fallen, in my estimation. Now it 
 may have been better that I had listened in 
 silence, and denied utterance to those offend- 
 ing words, and performed the difficult task of 
 restraining my tongue from pursuing its accus- 
 tomed frank and fearless course. 
 
 " Gentlemen of the jury, nothing can be more 
 obvious than that all these proceedings are a 
 crusade against Jacob Barker, who has done 
 no wrong. The district attorney spread and 
 drew his net again and again without catching 
 him. Others were indicted by the dozen — those 
 who had failed to protect the interests of the 
 stockholder and creditor of the companies in- 
 trusted toj their management were indicted ; 
 and although this happened days, weeks, and 
 almost months before he got me in the boat, yet 
 he never thought to bring one of the individu- 
 als thus indicted to trial. At length he induced a
 
 DEFENCE ON THE TRIAL FOR FRAUD. 
 
 153 
 
 too willing grand jury to gratify his wishes, by j 
 enrolling Jacob Barker among the number who 
 were to come here and meet their accusers, j 
 Please take notice, gentlemen, that Jacob Bar- j 
 ker had preserved from the calamities of the ! 
 times all the institutions which he had any 
 part in conducting. No delay, no excuse, no 
 plea is urged for postponing the trial ; every 
 other indictment is forgotten and left slumber- 
 ing on the dusty shelves of the district attorney. 
 This last of all is first called up, and for what? 
 For fear lest the hideous monster, prejudice, 
 which has been thus artificially got up in Wall 
 street, and about this house, should give way to 
 calm reflection, to reason, and to a becoming 
 sense of propriety. But, gentlemen of the jury, 
 I do not complain ; I have, from the hour of 
 indictment, been impatient for a trial ; and, in 
 truth I may say, the week which elapsed pre- 
 vious to its commencement has been the most 
 impatient in my life. 
 
 " [Mr. Barker having, when he first rose to 
 address the jury, borrowed of the clerk the bill 
 of indictment, and on the margin made a few 
 pencil memorandums to use in lieu of notes, 
 proceeded to comment on the allegations there- 
 in, in the order in which they stood.] With the 
 Mechanics' Fire Insurance Company (he said) 
 I never had a single transaction, nor did I ever 
 own a share of stock in that company; and if 
 the district attorney will ask its president and 
 directors, they will one and all say on their 
 oaths, that Jacob Barker has not, directly or 
 indirectly, defrauded that company. With the 
 Tradesmen's Bank, he has not had any deal- 
 ings, and he never owned a single share in it 
 during the whole course of his life. Eight 
 hundred shares of its stock were transferred to 
 Seth Sturtevant, a clerk in the Western Insur- 
 ance Company, for the use of that company, by 
 William P. Rathbone. Three hundred shares 
 were transferred back in a day or two ; Mr. 
 Rathbone wanted the whole, and it not being 
 convenient at the moment to transfer them, I, 
 being the active officer of the Western Com- 
 pany, gave a memorandum to Mr. Rathbone, 
 promising to deliver to S. L. Governeur, esq., 
 five hundred shares of bank stock. Observe, 
 'promised to deliver;' not borrowed, not re- 
 ceived, not to return, as has been proclaimed to 
 you iu triumph, but simply to 'deliver, 1 and 
 this promise was immediately thereafter openly 
 and publicly complied with ; to do which, I 
 drove to the Tradesmen's Bank at noon-day, in 
 my own carriage, amid the surrounding multi- 
 tude and publicly proclaimed my readiness to 
 comply on the surrender of my memorandum. 
 And is this open and prudent course to be 
 considered evidence of fraud ; does it not rather 
 indicate everything else? Had I been the 
 'great unknown' purchaser — had I been asecret 
 conspirator — had I been guilty of the least im- 
 propriety, should I not have sent a clerk or a 
 friend? If these men had been my agents, 
 my tools, my creatures, with whom I had in- 
 
 trusted four or five thousand shares of stock, 
 and the whole bank — should I have denied to 
 them so publicly, and at so critical a moment, 
 the trifling confidence of delivering five hun- 
 dred shares of stock, relying on their fidelity to 
 return the obligation for it. This single circum- 
 stance speaks, to my mind, volumes, but it is 
 like my every other act, to be tortured into evi- 
 dence of guilt — is declared to be ' my peculiar 
 way of doing things,' and to have been planned 
 on purpose to deceive. 
 
 "I perceive, by the course of the examina- 
 tion, that a great flourish is to be made by the 
 district attorney about this clerk's not being of 
 age. On this subject, I can only sav, that we 
 are not apt to consider wrong the things we 
 have openly practiced through life. I traded a 
 little when a boy, and before I was of age was 
 interested in four ships and a brig, and had my 
 note discounted and continued as an accom- 
 modation note at the United States Branch 
 Bank. I have, since I became of age, confided 
 a great portion of my business to young gentle- 
 men not 21 years old, and it never occurred to 
 me that such confidence could be made the 
 foundation of a criminal prosecution. In addi- 
 tion to this practice, Mr. Catlin, Mr. Fleming, 
 and I believe every witness who was examined 
 on the subject, told you, that it was the univer- 
 sal custom to pass stocks by blank powers, that 
 is, without naming the purchaser or seller ; by 
 which means it could pass through the hands of 
 persons without number, and not one of '.hem 
 appear, or be known. However, I will not de- 
 tain you longer about this custom, but exam- 
 ine the legal operations of the system. Stock 
 and all other property is the mere creature 
 of the law, and is equally amenable to that law 
 in the hands of a minor, as in the hands of a 
 person of age. If such minor has no interest 
 in it, the chancellor can take it from him, the 
 same as a court of law can take it from a per- 
 son of full age ; therefore, this tale about the 
 youth of Seth Sturtevant is got up for the sole 
 purpose of making a great noise about nothing, 
 and producing stage effect. 
 
 "In connexion with the Tradesmens' Bank, 
 there is another circumstance. Mr. Cox, who, 
 during the ten days' reign of the new dynasty 
 over that bank, was its cashier, was formerly in 
 my employ ; at which time, 1 left a message 
 for him to write some democratic tickets, for 
 the then pending election, to be furnished to a 
 stevedore, also in my employ, who could not 
 write, and who had applied for them. Mr. Cox 
 declined the service. I told him thai it had not 
 anything to do with his political principles ; 
 that I did not wish him to vote or give his 
 name to anything. He appeared totally to mis- 
 take the matter ; and being unwilling to part 
 with him, I recommended him to codboU his 
 friends. He did so. He consulted Mr. l.ydig 
 and others, and returned, saying, he should ad- 
 here to his refusal. The consequence was, he 
 left my employ, and the Evening Post charged
 
 154 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 we with dismissing a most worthy clerk because 
 he would not vote for the democratic ticket. 
 Mr. Cox seeing this, and being an honest and 
 generous man, although indignant at what he, 
 no doubt, supposed to be, on my part, oppres- 
 sion, came immediately forward, and published 
 to the world, that I had not in the whole course 
 of my life, said one word to him about voting, 
 or about his political principles ; nor had I, to 
 his knowledge or belief, even allowed myself to 
 to talk on the subject to a single clerk in my 
 employ. Mr. Cox, as you may well conclude, 
 soon found his way back into my counting- 
 house, and served me faithfully for a long time. 
 But in consequence of my misfortunes, he had 
 to seek employment elsewhere; and for about 
 seven years he had been in the employment of 
 others, until the recent difficulty at the Trades- 
 men's Bank ; about which time he suddenly fell 
 sick. I then, for the first time in my life, vis- 
 ited him, found him in a high fever, surround- 
 ed by a lovely wife, beautiful children, and two 
 not less lovely sisters, all in tears. They, with 
 trembling solicitude, told me that they supposed 
 Mr. Cox's apprehensions in relation to losing 
 his place, on the salary of which his family de- 
 pended, contributed greatly to increase his dis- 
 order. My reply was, 'no matter if he does 
 lose his place, there are others as good as that. 
 He has got into bad company, and the sooner 
 he clears out the better. Let him resign imme- 
 diately, and when he gets well, if he wants 
 employment, let him come back to me, and he 
 shall not want. He is an honest man, and I 
 dare employ him amid the cloud of suspicion 
 that for the moment surrounds him.' These 
 remarks animated him, and he approved of the 
 suggestion. I immediately drafted for him a 
 letter of resignation, which was instantly sent 
 to Mr. Governeur, and when he got well he did 
 come, and he found employment. And this, 
 gentlemen of the jury, is to be urged upon you 
 as evidence of my guilt. Wait, I beseech you, 
 wait until these lovely women come into court, 
 and relate the tale for themselves. Yes, I did 
 more. Mr. Cox has also been indicted. I ad- 
 vised him not to employ any professional man 
 to defend him, but to petition the court to grant 
 that favor to me, urging on him, that his whole 
 duties could, in the language of General Gaines, 
 be described in one word, and that word was obe- 
 dience. That his whole offence consisted in hav- 
 ing been obedient to his superiors, to men whose 
 duty it was to decide by their votes, that by law 
 he had no right to a voice in such decisions, but 
 was imperiously bound to carry into full and 
 prompt effect the decisions of the directors. 
 That he had not, according to the best of my 
 knowledge and belief, done anything more than 
 to be obedient, which, if I was allowed to plead 
 his cause, I supposed I could make as manifest 
 as the light of the sun, to any jury on earth. This 
 too, I suppose, is to be urged as further evidence 
 of my crime. Mr. Beers called on me, as he did 
 on others, shortly before the election of direc- 
 
 tors for the Tradesmen's Bank, and inquired if 
 I knew who had purchased the bank, and told 
 me that Mr. Cox was to be the cashier. I an- 
 swered that I had not the least interest in it, 
 and did not know who had, but that I supposed 
 I could find out. He wished me to do so, and 
 ascertain for him the terms on which it could 
 be purchased. I told him I would not inter- 
 meddle to the prejudice of Mr. Cox, that he 
 had been one of my boys, and been faithful, 
 that he was an honest man, that it was a sine 
 qua non with me that he must be provided for, 
 if I interfered, that I did not know anything 
 about his views, that I had not seen him for 
 more than a month, and did not before know 
 that he was to be the cashier. Mr. Beers gave 
 me to understand that everything should be 
 made satisfactory; and I made the effort to find 
 out the purchaser. I did not succeed, and so 
 reported the business. 
 
 " The Morris Canal and Banking Company 
 is also named as one of the institutions which 
 I am charged with defrauding. This institu- 
 tion I saved from insolvency. The president 
 and directors have sworn that I acted with zeal, 
 fidelity, and success; and that I did not defraud 
 the Morris Canal and Banking Company. 
 They promised me a fee of five thousand dol- 
 lars ; and you have seen the devices resorted to 
 for the purpose of chousing me out of the richly 
 earned commission. They, through Mr. Ver- 
 milyea, lent the Dutchess County Insurance 
 Company ten thousand dollars, which sum was 
 paid back to their cashier, the first time it was 
 applied for. When they were run for specie, 
 trembling, and expecting to stop every hour, 
 the Dutchess County Insurance Company lent 
 them five thousand dollars; and agreed to wait 
 six months for its return, without any other 
 compensation than simple interest; and the 
 •debt is still due from the Morris Canal and 
 Banking Company to the Dutchess company. 
 During the pressure on the bank, William Bay- 
 ard, esq., called on me with a letter from Mr. 
 Eckford, soliciting my assistance to the amount 
 of twenty-five thousand dollars, and guarantee- 
 ing to the amount of ten thousand dollars. The 
 ten thousand dollars I offered to furnish, with- 
 out any other compensation than lawful inter- 
 est, but the solidity of the notes offered as se« 
 curity for the other fifteen thousand dollars be- 
 ing to me unknown, I declined taking them. 
 At the same time, I stated that they could be 
 negotiated at a discount of 30, or 33£ per cent. 
 This was deemed too much, and the negotiation 
 fell through. 
 
 " The district attorney, in his opening speech, 
 told you that Mr. Vermilyea and myself had had 
 the management of the finances of the Morris Ca- 
 nal and Banking Company, and that Mr. Eckford 
 had stood aloof, but that the funds had been pur- 
 loined by Mr. Eckford, Mr. Davis, and some- 
 others. On the trial, the president, cashier, and 
 clerks, all swore that I had not, in a single in- 
 stance, intermeddled with their funds, nor had I
 
 DEFENCE ON THE TRIAL FOR FRAUD. 
 
 155 
 
 ever been in the office of the company ; but Mr. 
 Gilchrist, the cashier, said, that money to a vast 
 amount was paid to the other gentlemen, and 
 proved the checks of the Morris Canal Com- 
 pany on the Fulton Bank, in favor of Mr. Eck- 
 ford, Mr. Davis, &c, which checks had been 
 paid and not accounted for, and no memoran- 
 dum made of their indebtedness. This was no 
 concern of mine, the witnesses all exonerating 
 me ; but as the district attorney had coupled my 
 name with the alleged fraud, I took upon my- 
 self to interrogate Mr. Gilchrist, and exhibited 
 by him the whole imposition attempted to be 
 practiced. My questions were : ' Is the pub- 
 lished statement of the affairs of the Morris 
 Canal Company true or false?' He answered, 
 ' True.' ' Did you help make up that statement?' 
 'I did.' 'It states about $8,000 to be the whole 
 amount of the losses sustained by the bank 
 from its commencement ; did you mean tha,t 
 the whole losses of the bank had not been 
 greater?' ' I did ; and still think so.' 'Are 
 any part of those losses formed by the money 
 paid for those checks?' ' Not any.' ' Suppose 
 the money had been borrowed by the Morris 
 Canal Company of Mr. Eckford and others, and 
 the same deposited in the Fulton Bank to the 
 credit of the Morris Canal Company, and those 
 checks subsequently given to pay them there- 
 for, would not the affairs of the company have 
 stood as they now stand ?' ' They would.' 
 ' Then the company cannot have lost the money, 
 or any part of it.' 'No: It has lost nothing 
 by the money paid for those checks.' Here, 
 gentlemen, you see how monstrous is the con- 
 duct of these men, who are endeavoring to 
 make it appear, that giving checks to pay 
 money borrowed was making a fraudulent use 
 of the funds of the bank without security or 
 compensation. You will also bear in mind, 
 that Mr. Bayard stated, that Mr. Eckford had 
 often lent the company money, when it was in 
 want, and that the company had never lent 
 Mr. Eckford any. 
 
 " Here, gentlemen, you have the whole length, 
 breadth, body and soul of my offending against 
 the Morris Canal and Banking Company ; ex- 
 cepting, indeed, that I am to be blamed for 
 considering the laborer worthy of his hire. 
 For you must always remember that I met at 
 the threshold all applications for assistance 
 from that bank, with the declaration, 'if you wish 
 me to work for you, I must be paid ;' and that 
 the fee of five thousand dollars was stipulated 
 for at the commencement of the negotiation 
 for the return of the twenty-five hundred shares 
 of stock, and in the presence of Mr. Eckford 
 and Mr. Ogden, both of whom were directors 
 of that bank, and members of its finance com- 
 mittee. And yet you are told that I attempted 
 to procure a commission from both sides. Now 
 I never did attempt to charge or think of 
 charging Mr. Eckford anything, and if I had, 
 it would not have been charging both sides; 
 for Mr. Eckford and Mr. Ogden were, as to the 
 
 bargain to be made by me, on one and the 
 same side, and the Fulton Bank was on the 
 other side ; and surely it has not been, nor 
 will it be pretended, that I charged the Fulton 
 Bank a single cent for my services. On the 
 contrary, the moment the interest of my em- 
 ployers required a sacrifice on my part, I gra- 
 tuitously offer to surrender my whole commis- 
 sion, this mighty five thousand dollars, to the 
 Fulton Bank? and yet I am charged with at- 
 tempting to defraud both institutions. 
 
 " I am also charged with a conspiracy to 
 defraud Messrs. H. and G. Barclay, K. H. 
 Hough and E. W. King. The two former gen- 
 tlemen have been on the stand, and you have 
 heard them examined. Not one word to my 
 prejudice escaped their lips ; and the only con- 
 spiracy to defraud that I know of, in connexion 
 with them, is as sworn to by themselves; that 
 they, as stockholders, and as I have before 
 said, as partners in the concern, are endeavor- 
 ing to divide the effects of the Life and Fire 
 Insurance Company among the partners of the 
 firm, to the exclusion of their creditors, on the 
 dishonorable plea that the bonds were unlaw- 
 fully issued. With such a conspiracy, gentle- 
 men, please bear in mind that I had nothing 
 to do ; as I was not a stockholder, a director, 
 or an officer of the Life and Fire Insurance 
 Company; nor its agent in the issuing or sell- 
 ing a single bond. As to Alderman King, the 
 district attorney has not dared to call him. He 
 is an honest man, and my neighbor; and 
 should he be called, he would on his oath tell 
 you that Jacob Barker has not either defrauded 
 him, or done him or his family an unkindness 
 in his whole life. A lady is also introduced 
 into this part of the plot, a most worthy 
 woman, Miss Ann Titus, and what did she 
 swear? You must all remember how emphati- 
 cally she declared that Jacob Barker had not, to 
 her knowledge, directly or indirectly defrauded 
 her ; that she had never thought he had done so, 
 nor had she ever said to a single human being 
 aught to his prejudice. 
 
 "We now, gentlemen of the jury, come to 
 the most fruitful source of misrepresentation, 
 the affairs of the Life and Fire Insurance Com- 
 pany. So far as I have been connected there- 
 with, the district attorney has furnished abun- 
 dant testimony that I have not had any part 
 or lot in the management of their affairs, with 
 the exception of lending them money on satis- 
 factory security, selling some Fulton Bank 
 stock, and accepting a power of attorney to 
 collect debts due, to pay all my lawful claims, 
 and hand the excess over to the company; that 
 I have been faithful in my stewardship ; that I 
 offered to return all the securities received on 
 the payment of the money due; and that until 
 a decision of the chancellor could be had there- 
 on, I offered to pay all that could be collected 
 into the hands of Lynde Catlin, esq., president 
 of the Merchants' Bank. I never knew one 
 word about the manner in which the books
 
 156 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 have been kept, until after the failure ; and if 
 I should remain on trial until doomsday not a 
 single witness could be brought who could 
 gainsay that fact. I have had great confidence 
 in that company, and uniformly said so, and 
 all my conduct will square with that confidence. 
 
 " I have sold but few, very few bonds ; to 
 Garniss I sold some to raise money for the 
 Dutchess Iusurance Company to use during 
 ray absence, but I bought of him bonds to a 
 far greater amount. In 1819, when the aris- 
 tocracy of Wall street were levying all their 
 artilery at my Exchange Bank, and when other 
 men of wealth were frightened off from my sup- 
 port, Mr. Eckford generously loosened his 
 purse strings, and without pay, price or secu- 
 rity, lent me large sums of money ; the 18th of 
 June. 1819, when I had to lower my colors to 
 the allied forces, I, accompanied by my friend 
 Mr. Halleck, called him up at midnight and 
 gave him security. 
 
 "Gentlemen of the jury, the individual who 
 thus supported me, in turn was disappointed 
 in the receipts he had a right to have expected 
 in the payment for the frigates he had built, 
 which disappointment was wholly owing to the 
 failure of the Goldsmidts, great bankers of 
 London. Under these circumstances he ap- 
 plied to me to aid the Life and Fire Company. 
 I did so, and I believe to his entire satisfaction. 
 They secured me, and is Henry Eckford to be 
 blamed for approving of having done for Jacob 
 Barker in 1826, what Jacob Barker did for 
 Henry Eckford in 1819? 
 
 " 1 have now gone through the motley group 
 of offences in the indictment, in addition to 
 which, gentlemen of the jury, the district attor- 
 ney, in his opening, made some statements 
 which may be deemed worthy of notice. Among 
 other things he said that I went to the iron 
 chest of the Life and Fire Company, filled my 
 pockets with bonds and mortgages, and went 
 off with them. This allegation I pronounce in 
 all its parts destitute of truth, and notwith- 
 standing the pomp and parade with which the 
 district attorney put forth that flourish, he has 
 not asked a single witness a word about it, 
 although I have more than once lifted up to 
 bis recollection the iron chest. The district 
 attorney, for the purpose of casting an air of 
 suspicion on my conduct, declared that the 
 Mercantile Insurance Company and Jacob 
 Barker are one and the same thing; that Jacob 
 Barker had appointed one of his creatures its 
 president ; that he had so much of the stock as 
 to regulate the election as he pleased ; and that 
 his talk about William R. Thurston, or any 
 other of the directors, was a mere flourish ; 
 that as to William R. Thurston, he was a mere 
 'creature of Jacob Barker,' a 'man of straw' 
 in his fingers. On producing testimony of the 
 worth of that gentleman, the district attorney 
 admitted him to be a gentleman of exemplary 
 conduct, an old inhabitant of this city, retired 
 from a long life of commercial pursuits, living 
 
 on the fruits of his industry and economy, and 
 worth $300,000. It is not open for inquiry; 
 the district attorney gratuitously admitted it, I 
 accepted it, he drove the nail, and I clinched 
 it ; that point is therefore at rest, but I should 
 like to have a few more such men of straw in 
 my fingers. 
 
 "Now, gentlemen of the jury, I have always 
 considered a man of straw a very different sort 
 of thing, and as I am ignorant of what your 
 notions may be on the subject, and do not 
 know of any other rule of judgment than by 
 comparison, it becomes my duty to describe 
 what, in my judgment, ought be considered a 
 man in the hands of another, viz : the district 
 attorney is a taller man than Jacob Barker, 
 and probably stronger; if the testimony fur- 
 nished by the records of our criminal court ia 
 to be believed, the district attorney has had a 
 collegiate education, and therefore has learned 
 how to string together a great many highflown 
 and melodious words, and by their use to make 
 a great mystery of very simple things, and 
 when supported at his nightly meetings on the 
 one hand by that demon Leavitt, and on the 
 other by the grave Cheesbrough, with his argus 
 eyes, he trims his midnight lamp, dips his ma- 
 lignant pen in gall, and records the hellish deeds 
 to which these two preservers of the interests 
 of absent stockholders are to swear in court, 
 there Jacob Barker is a man of straw, a mere 
 creature, which crumbles into dust in the hands 
 of the district attorney ; but when he comes 
 forth and meets Jacob Barker by the light of 
 the meridian sun, before this learned and just 
 court, restrained and regulated by the rules of 
 evidence as laid down by Philips, to be passed 
 upon by an honest jury, then it is that the dis- 
 trict attorney is metamorphosed into a man of 
 straw, a mere creature in the hands of Jacob 
 Barker, and (here extending his arm and con- 
 tracting his fingers in the most impassioned 
 manner) I will crack him all to pieces, as I 
 would a pipe stem — pausing and gently saying, 
 gentlemen of the jury, observe, I do not mean 
 to do him any personal harm, no more than 
 the jolly tar meant to do to the $20 bank note 
 when he on his toplifts went into the Me- 
 chanics' Bank and threw it down on the counter, 
 exclaiming to the teller, 'there, damn you, crack 
 it all to pieces ; I want some shiners that will 
 jingle, jingle, jingle,' at the same time patting 
 his pocket. Now, I only mean that I will 
 here crack this district attorney, this mere man 
 of straw, this creature in my fingers all to 
 pieces, the mere mention of which, in connex- 
 ion with the highly celebrated iron chest, shall 
 not only jingle, jingle, jingle, at his honor the 
 mayor's levees, but at the tea party of every 
 lady in town, not even excepting that of the 
 lady brought into court by the district attorney 
 to detail the social conversations of the visitors 
 to the family of her uncle, one of the prisoners 
 at the bar. 
 
 " The district attorney stated that Mr.
 
 DEFENCE ON THE TRIAL FOR FRAUD. 
 
 157 
 
 Eckford and Mr. Barker had conspired to 
 change the directors of the Fulton Bank about 
 the middle of July for the purpose of fraudu- 
 lently using the funds of that bank, and that 
 we had a meeting at the Bank Coffee House 
 for the purpose of consummating the fraudu- 
 lent schemes. Now, gentlemen of the jury, 
 you must remember the testimony which has 
 been adduced in support of this charge. The 
 bank had very disastrous dealings. Reports 
 were abroad that it had lost half its capital. 
 Being very deeply interested in the stock, and 
 feeling that a failure of the bank would prove 
 disastrous to the moneyed interest of the city, 
 I stated these things to Mr. Eckford, and he 
 agreed with me in the opinion that the interest 
 of the bank required that it should be placed 
 under the administration of persons of great 
 respectability who resided in the neighborhood. 
 I told him that all Brown and Spencer appeared 
 to want was a loan ; and that he and I, in con- 
 nexion with the bank, had better make such 
 loan than for the bank to remain longer in 
 their hands. He told me to do what I liked 
 in the business, and if I lost by the operation 
 he would bear one half thereof. The nego- 
 tiation was set on foot, and it was successful ; 
 and Messrs. Spencer, Brown, Rathbone, Frank- 
 lin, McCready, and John Brown did resign on 
 the day, and the day following the Bank Coffee 
 House meeting Richard M. Lawrence, Thomas 
 Hazard, jr., William R. Thurston, Nathan 
 Comstock, Barney Corse, and Charles Dicken- 
 son were appointed to their places. Their re- 
 spectability, wealth, and intelligence, together 
 with that of William W. Fox, William W. 
 Mott, James Lovett, Robert C. Cornell, John 
 R. Willis, and John Flack — all of whom it is 
 in proof that Mr. Barker endeavored to induce 
 to accept of seats at that Board — forbid the 
 supposition that any improper use was to be 
 made of the funds about to be placed under 
 the control of such men. 
 
 " Many of them have testified that Mr. 
 Barker told them, when he applied to them to 
 take part in the management of the bank, that 
 all he wanted was for them to make it a good 
 bank in their own way. Mr. Eckford never 
 took part nor lot in forming the new direction, 
 nor intermeddled in the business further than 
 to recommend to Messrs. Franklin and Rath- 
 bone to resign, and to go with Mr. Barker to 
 the Bank Coffee House to unite in recom- 
 mending G. W. Brown to do the same thing, 
 and, further, to advance some of the money 
 towards the loan to the Hudson Insurance 
 Company. If Mr. Eckford wanted any in- 
 fluence at that bank, is it probable he would 
 have recommended Messrs. Franklin and Rath- 
 bone to resign ? 
 
 " The hardship and injustice of this mighty 
 mixture of insurance companies, banks, stock 
 dealers, carpenters, bankers, and brokers, are 
 greatly beyond my powers of description. The 
 district attorney seems to be a great proficient 
 
 in the art of compounding many simples into 
 one great mystery ; and he seems to have 
 electrified his packed audience with the bril- 
 liant display of the gigantic powers of his 
 mind in this particular quality — a quality, 
 however, better adapted for an apothecary than 
 the student of Blackstonc and Coke. 
 
 " I have not, gentlemen of the jury, taken 
 up your time in reading or referring to law 
 books, for a very good reason : I never read 
 one in my life, although I have looked into 
 many. I did in the early part of this trial 
 read half a page from Burke, and I here beg 
 leave to recommend to your grave considera- 
 tion the sentiments of that great man, so beau- 
 tifully expressed : 
 
 " ' My lords, the Commons wait the issue of 
 this cause with trembling solicitude. Twenty- 
 two years have been employed in it, seven of 
 which have passed in this trial. They behold 
 the dearest interests of their country deeply 
 involved in it; they feel that the very existence 
 of this constitution depends upon it. Your 
 lordship's justice stands preeminent in the 
 world ; but it stands amidst a vast heap of 
 ruins which surrounds it in every corner of 
 Europe. If you slacken justice, and thereby 
 weaken the bonds of society, the well tempered 
 authority of this court, which, I trust in God, 
 will continue to the end of time, must receive 
 a fatal wound that no balm can cure, that no 
 time can restore. 
 
 " 'My lords, it is not the criminality of the 
 prisoner, it is not the claims of the Commons 
 to demand judgment to be passed upon him, 
 it is not the honor and dignity of this court 
 and the welfare of millions of the human race, 
 that alone call upon you. When the devour- 
 ing flames shall have destroyed this perishing 
 globe and it sinks into the abyss of nature 
 from whence it was commanded into existence 
 by the great author of it, then, my lords, when 
 all nature, kings, and judges themselves must 
 answer for their actions, there will be found 
 what supersedes creation itself, namely, eternal 
 justice. It was the attribute of the great God 
 of nature before worlds were, it will reside with 
 him when they perish, and the earthly portion 
 of it, committed to your care, is now solemnly 
 deposited in your hands by the Commons of 
 England.' 
 
 "The district attorney, in his opening, also 
 told you about erasures and false entries in the 
 books of the Life and Fire Company. Be this 
 true or false, I had no knowledge, part, or lot 
 in it. It is enough for my purpose to know 
 that the books or the companies in which I am 
 employed are kept with marked exactness. I, 
 however, beg leave of such of the defendants 
 as are interested in that question to say, that 
 there is no evidence of false entries, and that 
 the two cases of erasures appear to be a mere 
 correction of a mistake in the original entry, 
 and the entries thus corrected, as sworn by the 
 receiver in chancery, are as they should be.
 
 158 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 "For the purpose of proving fraud on the 
 bondholders, the district attorney at one 
 moment makes the Life and Fire Company 
 utterly insolvent, and in the next, for the pur- 
 pose of proving fraud on the stockholders, he 
 makes out that there is something left for them 
 after paying all their debts. He reminds one 
 of the expressions of Robinson Crusoe's man 
 Friday to his master : ' You blow to warm 
 your ringers, you blow to cool your soup, you 
 blow hot and you blow cold with the same 
 breath ; you must be possessed with some evil 
 spirit.' So much and no more reason has the 
 district attorney for inferring fraud from the 
 evidence produced. 
 
 " I find myself denominated a broker in the 
 bill of indictment, which is not true. I am 
 not, nor was I ever a broker. I mean no dis- 
 paragement to the gentlemen who belong to 
 that profession. I know many of them to be 
 among our most meritorious citizens. Many 
 of them are my personal friends, that I not 
 only respect but love. But I am so described 
 on a sudden for a fraudulent purpose. A 
 broker's commission is one-fourth of one per 
 cent., while a commercial commission is two 
 and a half to five per cent., according to cir- 
 cumstances. I have charged the Life and Fire 
 Insurance Company two and a half per cent., 
 and this, for a broker, might well be considered 
 a fraud, if it was unaccompanied with any re- 
 deeming explanation, while perfectly fair and 
 proper in a commission merchant; but under 
 what circumstances is this made ? Mr. Eck- 
 ford had rendered me great assistance when I 
 was in difficulty, and in return he had a right 
 to expect me, when he requested it, to give 
 aid to the Life and Fire Insurance Company, 
 over which he presided, and in the support of 
 which his purse and pride were enlisted. 
 
 " He applied to me to become the agent ; I 
 cheerfully offered my services. He wished to 
 stipulate for an adequate compensation ; I 
 declined, and he promised to see me paid 
 when it was over. You have seen with what 
 fidelity and success I carried on all these nego- 
 tiations. The object for which I embarked 
 was lost in the failure of the company, and it 
 then became a mere matter of interest. I 
 therefore placed in the account rendered to the 
 receivers a commercial commission of two and 
 a half per cent., which I think I richly earned ; 
 but observe, gentlemen, the remarks I made 
 when I delivered the account. Mr. Hoffman, 
 one of the receivers, has told you, when called 
 as a witness by the district attorney on the 
 part of the people, that I stated that the charge 
 was only intended to lift the subject up to the 
 view of the chancellor, explaining, at the same 
 time, the terms on which I had embarked, and 
 that I considered the chancellor, when he 
 should pass on the accounts, to be at perfect 
 liberty to reduce or expunge the charge, if he 
 should think proper to do so; and that I 
 should not insist on any pay. In consequence 
 
 of this unexpected disclosure of the testimony, 
 you will not hear one word from the district 
 attorney about my being a broker, or the enor- 
 mity of the charge, both which would other- 
 wise have been most fruitful sources of crimi- 
 nation. 
 
 u Gentlemen of the jury, I have already 
 mentioned that I had not taken a single note, 
 nor have I read any of those taken by others. 
 One of the gentlemen, however, has furnished 
 me with a list of the names of the witnesses, 
 which will call to my recollection what they 
 said ; and so far as I may consider such testi- 
 mony as affecting me, I must examine it, 
 although very unwilling to trespass so long 
 on your time. These proceedings against me, 
 gentlemen of the jury, I have more than once 
 told you were urged on by the monied aris- 
 tocracy of Wall-street. They have become 
 desperate. They know it is now or never, and 
 that if they do not now succeed in destroying 
 Jacob Barker he will polish the paving of the 
 vaults of such of the banks as have joined in 
 this unholy war. 
 
 " Seixas Nathan. — This witness stated that 
 not one dollar was paid to me of the proceeds 
 of the water or gas stock sold by him for the 
 Life and Fire Insurance Company which had 
 been received from Malapar; and this, gentle- 
 men of the jury, you will recollect the district 
 attorney said most boldly had been put into my 
 pocket by Mr. Nathan. 
 
 "David B. Ogdeu, esq., told you that he was 
 a director and one of the finance committee of 
 the Morris Canal and Banking Company, and 
 that I had acted with fidelity, zeal, and capacity 
 in the agency I undertook for that bank ; that 
 I did all that was expected of me ; that Mr. 
 Eckford was present when he requested my 
 assistance, and when I required $5,000 com- 
 mission, if successful, and if not successful no 
 compensation, and that he promised to do all 
 he could to get for me the fee, and the minutes 
 of the proceedings of the directors of the 
 Morris Canal and Banking Company prove 
 that he had unlimited powers conferred on him 
 to consummate this negotiation ; and that after 
 this, and after knowing my terms, he urged me 
 to continue to exert myself; that I had either 
 for myself, or for the Dutchess County Insur- 
 ance Company, lent the Morris Canal and Bank- 
 ing Company $5,000 for six months, without 
 any other compensation than simple interest ; 
 and that I had not, to his knowledge, directly or 
 indirectly defrauded the Morris Canal Bank. 
 
 " Robert Gilchrist, cashier of the Morris 
 Canal Bank, confirmed the statement about the 
 loan of $5,000, its being yet due, and the re- 
 turn of the $10,000, and stated that I had not, 
 to his knowledge, defrauded that bank. 
 
 " Abraham Ogden, esq., confirmed the state- 
 ment of Mr. Gilchrist, adding that he had not 
 before heard of the claim for the $5,000, and 
 that he did not think it right for me to claim it. 
 Every one who knows Mr. Ogden, will give full
 
 DEFENCE ON THE TRIAL FOR FRAUD. 
 
 159 
 
 credit to his testimony, so far as to good inten- 
 tions and the facts within his recollection, but 
 he, no doubt, has forgotten the circumstance, 
 as David Leavitt swore that he communicated 
 the fact of the commission to the board of di- 
 rectors, when Mr. Ogden was present. 
 
 '• ^Viiliam Bayard, esq., the assistant presi- 
 dent of the Morris Canal Bank, confirmed on 
 his oath all my statements relative to that bank, 
 so far as they had come to his knowledge. 
 
 " A lad seventeen years of age swore that 
 I had borrowed ten thousand dollars of the 
 Morris Canal Bank ; that I had paid it ; that I 
 had leut that bank five thousand dollars ; that 
 it was yet due me ; but that my conduct had 
 been dishonorable. That he got his informa- 
 tion from others ; that he had not seen me, nor 
 heard me speak of the transaction to which he 
 alluded, except that when Mr. Tallman sent 
 him with part of the money to the Dutchess 
 Company, he saw me in the office, and I 
 painted out Mr. Halleck, the secretary of that 
 company, as the proper person to receive it.* 
 On being asked why he accused me of dis- 
 honor, he stated that his object was to do 
 away the testimony of Mr. Gilchrist, the cash- 
 ier, who he supposed did not understand the 
 subject. I asked him if he heard Mr. Gilchrist 
 give his testimony. He said no, but that he 
 had seen David Clarkson and Robert L. Reed 
 together. That Mr. Reed had told him what 
 Mr. Gilchrist had said, and that Mr. Clarkson 
 had sent him to the district attorney to confer 
 as to what he should say on the subject, and 
 that he had been with the district attorney be- 
 fore to explain as to the testimony he was to 
 give on this trial. On being questioned fur- j 
 ther as to his reasons for considering my con- 
 duct dishonorable, he stated that Mr. Gilchrist 
 had told him that I disputed the payment of a 
 trifling claim for interest. He was then re- 
 minded of the debt of $5,000, and asked if the 
 bank could not pay themselves the trifling in- 
 terest claim out of it. He said no, because 
 they had given security. The court then asked 
 what security? He answered Morris Canal 
 stock. This last fact sufficiently proves that 
 he did not understand what he was swearing 
 to, and that he had been a trained witness, sent 
 here by the conspirators for my destruction, to 
 insult me. Yes, gentlemen of the jury, a 
 beardless boy, in the employ of a bank which 
 I had saved from insolvency, was sent here to 
 insult the father of twelve children. As to the 
 security, the indebtedness of the company bound 
 all their stock and effects, and if they could not 
 pay the debt the stock was good for nothing. 
 What would it avail the holder of a life and 
 fire bond to have as security life and fire stock? 
 The object and effect of security is to have 
 
 * These $10,000 were in the notes of the Morris Canal 
 Bank ; to oblige the bank Mr. Barker undertook to u se 
 them in the business of the Dutchess Company, so far as 
 should be found convenient; most of thein, not having 
 been used, were returned, with the money for such as had 
 been used. 
 
 something to resort to in case the principal 
 fails. The stock, in case of the failure of the 
 company, would afford no such resort, any 
 more than for a man to endorse his own note 
 would give security for its payment. 
 
 " David Leavitt swore that he had divulged 
 to the directors of the Morris Canal Company 
 the communication that I had made in confi- 
 dence to the directors of the Fulton Bank 
 about my commissions. He swore that he, on 
 behalf of the Fulton bank, employed Mr. Bar- 
 ker to go and loan $20,000 to the IIudM.ii 
 Company, of which one half was to be fur- 
 nished by, and at the risk of, Mr. Barker and 
 Mr. Eckford, on the supposition that $100,000 
 would carry the Hudson Company through all 
 their difficulties; knowing at that time that the 
 bank had a claim at sight for $103,000 on that 
 company, with which he could overwhelm it at 
 any moment; and knowing also that they were 
 on the eve of bankruptcy, and that he, a day or 
 two before, had got all their securities that 
 were considered of any value ; the whole of 
 which he preserved a death-like secret from me. 
 
 " Gentlemen, you saw how he winced and 
 claimed protection from the court when I at- 
 tempted to make him tell his connexion with 
 Malapar, and the white lead works, and the 
 marble bonds. You heard him ask me ' if I 
 expected him to impeach himself;' and be- 
 cause I could not help telling him that ' he 
 had already done it,' this honorable court was 
 greatly offended, and required me to promise 
 to appear before them when this trial was 
 over and answer for the offence. You saw 
 how he prevaricated and attempted to evade 
 my every question put with the view, the single 
 view, of wringing from him the secrets of his 
 heart ; and I am greatly indebted to the unex- 
 ampled skill and success of Mr. Williams, coun- 
 sel for the other defendants in this case, in 
 eliciting from him what I had failed to make 
 him acknowledge. When this man first heard 
 of my indictment he clapped his hands, roared 
 out a loud laugh in the presence of all the 
 clerks in the bank, jumped over a beuch stand- 
 ing by his side, and spun round in a joyous 
 delirium at the prospect of glutting his ven- 
 geance. Not content with the mischief done 
 me, he calls on that venerable gentleman, 
 [pointing to Mr. Hazard,] whose head has 
 been whitened with the snow of nearly seventy 
 winters, and tells him that his son-in-law, Jacob 
 Barker, was very much depressed and dispirited 
 about this indictment. Gentlemen of the jury, 
 I put it to you to say whether I either look like, 
 or have acted in any part of the trial like, a de- 
 pressed and dispirited man, one overwhelmed 
 with conscious guilt. Please look at me, gen- 
 tlemen of the jury, and say on your oaths 
 whether or not you think any man could with 
 truth have thus characterized me. But sup- 
 pose it had been so, and that David Leavitt, a 
 hypocritical professor, had known it, was it 
 kind, was it fair, was it manly for him to dis-
 
 160 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 turb the happiness of such a man as Mr. Haz- 
 ard, and such a family as his, with the relation 
 of the dishonor of a branch of that family? 
 No ; such conduct could not have emanated 
 from any feeling but the most diabolical spirit 
 of malignancy. He swore, on this trial, to 
 state all the facts he knew ; in place of which 
 he travelled out of the record to insult a prisoner 
 at the bar, by swearing he had committed a 
 fraud, without telling in what particular ; and, 
 when he came to be cross-examined by that 
 prisoner in person, it turned out that he, Lea- 
 vitt, and not I, had committed the fraud. He 
 swore that the negotiation for the return of 
 Morris Canal stock was not completed, because 
 Jacob Barker iew from his bargain. On the 
 cross-examination it was proved that it was 
 Leavitt, and not Barker, who had flown from 
 the bargain ; and besides, that he had been 
 treacherous to his associate directors in the 
 business. He swore that Barker had nothing 
 to do with the final close of the bargain. On 
 the cross-examination it turned out that Jacob 
 Barker was the very pivot on which it turned. 
 He swore fraud in the lump against an indi- 
 vidual, and detailed facts which, if true, made 
 that individual carry off half the capital of the 
 bank ; and, at the very close of these denun- 
 ciations, he swore that that individual had not 
 intended to do any wrong. He swore that he 
 had communicated to Clarkson the secrets of 
 the bank, in violation of the resolution of the 
 directors, and thus enabled Clarkson, as he 
 swore he did, to palm off upon me a large 
 amount of stock at eighty which was only 
 worth twenty-five. He, Leavitt, swore that my 
 check received from Davis was only $1,000 or 
 $1,200, when it was proved to be for $12,757 50. 
 Yes, gentlemen of the jury, the man who swore 
 fraud against me made all these false state- 
 ments, and further admitted, on his cross-ex- 
 amination, the corrupt bargain he made with 
 Mr. Cheesbrough ; that the bank paid eleven- 
 twelfths of $2,000 of the $6,000 bonus, pursu- 
 ant to the terms of a resolution of the directors; 
 every line of which, when taken in connexion 
 with the deed it affected to hide from all the 
 other directors, carries fraud, falsehood, and 
 deception on the face of it. The residue of 
 this bonus, say $4,000, this Leavitt swore he 
 paid to Cheesbrough ; that he received back 
 $2,000 of it from Mark Spencer; that Mr. 
 Spencer was to be reimbursed for it by interest 
 on overdrawings ; that he ordered the clerk of 
 the bank to pay Mr. Spencer's checks for 
 $08,000, without funds and without security, 
 and to keep these checks in his drawer for 
 three weeks, by which means his account did 
 not appear overdrawn ; and the facts of the 
 case were thus hid from the directors, and Lea- 
 vitt enabled to pocket these two thousand dol- 
 lars interest money received from Mr. Spencer, 
 without appearing to rob the bank. He tells 
 you further, that he intended also to have got 
 the other two thousand dollars from the vaults 
 
 of the bank, but by what new device or fraud 
 he did not vouchsafe to tell you. 
 
 "The iniquity of this man does not end 
 here. After having, under the guise of paying 
 a president, and that in advance too, for his 
 most faithful services until April 1827, he 
 meant for him to resign the moment of the pas- 
 sage of that resolution, and from that time he 
 himself to have an equal salary from the stock- 
 holders, who had already lost almost their last 
 dollar by the conduct of these rapacious men. 
 But finding himself disappointed in his elec- 
 tion as president, he again resorts to bargain- 
 ing, and agreed with Mr. Brown, if he would 
 vote for his election, that he would allow him 
 to receive the whole salary for one year. 
 
 " The $68,000 before alluded to will be lost 
 to the bank, if the stockholders do not enforce 
 their legal rights against David Leavit's per- 
 sonal property. How did the accounts stand 
 during Mr. Cheesbrough's administration ? 
 Why, the Hudson Company and its president 
 were in the habit of drawing through the day 
 for what money they wanted, making the ac- 
 count good at three o'clock. In place of which, 
 David Leavitt, as soon as he was elected presi- 
 dent, according to his own account, orders the 
 checks to be paid and not charged, but to be 
 kept hid in the drawers for three weeks, to 
 enable him to get his $2,000 interest without 
 being detected, and that too to the amount of 
 $68,000, without a particle of security; and 
 thus the Hudson Company and its president 
 were released from all obligation to make de- 
 posits at three o'clock, or at any other time 
 before the expiration of three weeks ; and be- 
 fore that time, the Hudson Company and its 
 president failed. 
 
 " Monstrous! And are these things to be 
 permitted by men entrusted with the care of 
 the funds of others — men that are paid for 
 such care? And if one of the sufferers com- 
 plains of such faithless conduct, is it to be tol- 
 erated that he is to be dragged here, disquali- 
 fied from giving testimony, and branded with 
 infamy by the guilty offender who is yet per- 
 mitted to roam at large ? 
 
 "Here, gentlemen of the jury, I have given 
 you a faithful narration of this man's conduct 
 as sworn to by himself. It speaks for itself — 
 to attempt to delineate its enormity would be 
 insulting your understanding. And this is the 
 man who dared to swear fraud against me, 
 when there was no fraud ; and if there had 
 been, it was your and not his prerogative to 
 characterize it. 
 
 "David Clarkson swore that he purchased 
 of me large amounts of Fulton Bank stock, in 
 the months of March, April and May, on credit; 
 that he had paid for all except fifty shares; 
 that I had honorably fulfilled all my bargains 
 in relation thereto ; that about the 10th of July, 
 he gave me $50 for the privilege of delivering 
 to me 200 shares any time within 60 days 
 thereafter at 80; that he had delivered the
 
 DEFENCE ON THE TRIAL FOR FRAUD. 
 
 161 
 
 stock, and that I had paid hini for it; and he 
 exulting])' said, ' you lost greatly by the bar- 
 gain ;' but he did not say that David Leavitt 
 had communicated to him the disasters of the 
 bank by which the value of the stock was re- 
 duced to 25 per cent., and that this enabled him 
 to shave Mr. Barker. At the same time, gen- 
 tlemen of the jury, when one David was, by 
 his own oath, in constant communication with 
 the other David about the secrets of the bank, 
 he was, by the oath of Mr. Nevins, very re- 
 served in his communications to that gentle- 
 man about the business of the bank. Mr. 
 Clarkson also swore that when 100 of those 
 shares bought of Mr. Barker became due, he 
 called on him and refused to take them, sup- 
 posing they were part of the 2,000 shares re- 
 ceived by the Life and Fire Insurance Com- 
 pany in exchange for the Morris Canal and 
 Banking Company stock. On Mr. Barker's 
 assuring him they were not, he agreed to pay 
 for them ; .that he did pay $2,000 on account, 
 pursuant to agreement, and promised the bal- 
 ance in four days. At the expiration of which 
 he again refused, when some very hard words 
 passed between us; immediately after he sent 
 his partner to me with an apology and a thou- 
 sand dollars on account, as a pledge of his sin- 
 cerity. He further stated that the subject was 
 before the grand jury, (gentlemen, observe the 
 grand jury which refused to find a bill against 
 me,) when he refused complying with the terms 
 of adjustment stipulated at the termination of 
 his first dispute, no doubt, in the hope that the 
 grand jury would furnish him with an excuse for 
 not paying, by finding a bill against me. Mr. 
 Clarkson. on his oath, admitted that he had re- 
 fused to pay for fifty shares of Fulton Bank 
 stock purchased of me, because they were a 
 part of the 2,000 shares received by the Life 
 and Fire Company in exchange for Morris 
 Canal and Banking Company stock, which ex- 
 change he denominated a swindling transac- 
 tion, and that I had instituted a suit against 
 him for the recovery thereof; therefore he must 
 think if you should award the transaction 
 fraudulent, it will insure him success against 
 the pending suit for those 50 shares. A most 
 disinterested witness truly to give testimony 
 on this trial. If this was a suit for five dollars, 
 the testimony of such a witness would not be 
 taken; yet in a suit where every thing dear to 
 man is at issue, we are not allowed to put forth 
 that plea. 
 
 " Jacob Clinch, cashier of the Fulton Bank, 
 confirmed my statement as to the payment of 
 $30,000 to the credit of William P. Rathbone, 
 for the redemption of 300 shares of stock in 
 that bank, and of the little business 1 had 
 transacted with that bank. The Life and Fire 
 book with the Fulton Bank, together with the 
 clerk of the Mechanics' Bank, proved the check 
 of Jacob Barker, received by Mr. Leavitt from 
 Mr. Davis, to have been $12,757 50, on the 
 6th July ; and this check, gentlemen of the 
 11 
 
 jury, you will please to take notice, Leavitt 
 swore was for only 1,000 or 1,200 dollars, 
 although he never received but one check, per- 
 fectly recollected it, and the day on which he 
 received it, and urged the smallness of the 
 amount as an excuse for what he wished to 
 make criminal in the clerks. When he swore 
 to the amount, you must remember that I rose 
 and cautioned him to be careful and to reflect) 
 that I meant to tax his recollection severely ; 
 that I should hold him answerable for the mis- 
 take if he made any, and that if he did not re- 
 member, he had nothing to do but to say so. 
 He still persisted in averring that it was only 
 for 1,000 or 1,200 dollars. Using the mildest 
 terms, how frail was his recollection, and what 
 reliance can you place on any part of his tes- 
 timony ? 
 
 " I never entered into an association for 
 purchasing a controlling influence over but one 
 bank; and that was several years past, in rela- 
 tion to the North River Bank, and for the 
 most praiseworthy purposes. In that case, 
 myself and my associates purchased and paid 
 the money for a majority of the stock, and 
 were opposed by those who held their stock by 
 virtue of stock notes to the bank itself; and 
 yet we brought such a hornet's nest about our 
 ears, that we were glad to accept the first good 
 offer and sell out, since which, I have been 
 well pleased to keep clear of such scrapes. 
 
 " I have not had any part in the partial distri- 
 bution of the stock of the many banks and insu- 
 rance companies that have been incorporated. 
 I have not lent my name to others to subscribe 
 for stock, nor have I, with a trifling exception, 
 offered to subscribe to any of them for myself 
 or for others. Whenever I want stock, I do 
 not humble myself to commissioners or direc- 
 tors, but I go into Wall street, and there exert 
 the right secured to every citizen, viz: to pur- 
 chase and pay for as much or as little stock as 
 I please, without holding myself accountable 
 to a human being therefor. 
 
 " John I. Boyd swore that I met him on 
 Sunday morning and inquired the news ; that 
 he told me the Trademen's Bank had been en- 
 joined; that I replied, 'this is no news, I heard 
 it at Bloomingdale last evening ; ' that I told 
 him it would be a very serious thing for one of 
 the city banks to stop payment, that there was 
 no knowing where it would stop; that he should 
 go and see the president, and that they had 
 better consult Mr. Catiin, Mr. Fekf'ord and 
 others on the business, and that 1 would go to 
 my ollice and wait two hums, where he, Mr. 
 Boyd might apply in case he could make me 
 useful. And here is an attempt to make il a 
 crime in Jacob Barker to have heard in the 
 evening, four miles in the country, a matter of 
 fact known to the whole city early in the after- 
 noon ; a fact of such vast importance to the 
 city and to the nation, and which related so 
 immediately to the business in which he was 
 very extensively engaged.
 
 162 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 " Gentlemen of the jury, if Jacob Barker 
 had not known it that evening, the public 
 ■would have considered him totally unworthy of 
 the high reputation they had awarded him for 
 keeping, as the sailors say, ' a bright look out.' 
 
 "It is universally admitted that Wall street, 
 with all its sins, decried as it is, regulates the 
 finances of the nation — on the operations of 
 that street depends the whole commerce of the 
 country. It is like the heart of man, through 
 which the blood from every extremity of the 
 body has to circulate — then I ask you, was the 
 solicitude manifested by Jacob Barker on the 
 happening of what was likely to shock the fab- 
 ric on which the' finances of the nation de- 
 pended strange? So strange as to warrant the 
 conclusion that he was a guilty conspirator? 
 Had he been interested in the bank, would 
 not his own vanity, the confidence he feels in 
 his own ability to conduct a difficult affair, have 
 led him into the heat of the battle? Would he 
 not have done as he did at the Fulton Bank — 
 rushed into the thickest of it, placed himself in the 
 front ranks, pledged his own money and stock, 
 and exhorted the directors to save the bank 
 from ruin? But he goes quietly to his office, 
 promising to wait two hours to be called on by 
 Mr. Boyd, if he could be made useful — per- 
 haps he wanted another $5,000 fee. 
 
 " In relation to the Fulton Bank and the 
 Tradesmen's Bank, Mr. Barker's conduct was 
 as different as the interest he felt in the two 
 institutions ; and although directly opposite, 
 you, gentlemen of the jury, are called upon to 
 construe both alike as evidence of a guilty 
 conspiracy. 
 
 " Mr. Boyd tells you also that he was in the 
 constant habit of consulting Mr. Barker about 
 various branches of business; that he held the 
 opinions of Mr. Barker in high estimation, and 
 that Mr. Barker always gave them freely and 
 fearlessly, regardless of the consequences to 
 himself or to others. Mr. Boyd also confirmed 
 the statement about his plan for harmonizing 
 the difficulties in relation to the Tradesmen's 
 Bank, and stated that so far from considering 
 it a secret, or myself interested, I jocosely 
 mentioned the brilliancy of the scheme to Alder- 
 man Thorne, one of the disputants whom we 
 happened to meet at the time, whereupon Mr. 
 Boyd upbraided me for letting out his secrets. 
 Mr. Boyd also swore that nothing had happened 
 at any time, either before or after the election, 
 that led him to suppose I had any interest or 
 agency in the purchase of the bank. 
 
 " I do not mean, gentlemen of the jury, to 
 be understood, by the zeal manifested to rid 
 myself from all suspicion of being a partici- 
 pator therein, as subscribing to the doctrine 
 that I had not as much right to purchase stock 
 in the Tradesmen's Bank as any other stock. 
 But as the truth is that I had not any concern 
 therein, I feel it my duty to have the whole 
 truth set before yon. Purchasers of public 
 stock owe the stockholders no other duty than 
 
 the common duty of being good citizens. Not 
 so with the sellers in this case ; they were 
 directors, and became possessed of the power 
 to control the bank principally by using its 
 funds to buy up a majority of the stock. 
 Whether this was right or wrong is not now 
 the subject of inquiry; but it was certainly 
 wrong to dispose of the control of the bank 
 thus acquired to any person, and especially to 
 an unknown purchaser, without consulting the 
 stockholders, whose money they had been thus 
 diverting from legitimate banking to the ac- 
 quisition of such power, and whose funds were 
 thus to be set adrift, without compass or chart, 
 while their own stock was most carefully with- 
 drawn, and a bonus or premium of $84,000 
 obtained for the exclusive benefit of the selling 
 directors. I say, this was most certainly 
 wrong. When I first heard of the sale, which 
 was first mentioned to me by B. F. Butler, esq., 
 who had accidentally heard it in Wall street, I 
 exclaimed: 'If Jacob Barker had done this, 
 the world would ring with his infamy.' Now, 
 gentlemen of the jury, I do not mean to say 
 that the professional or other men concerned 
 in this sale supposed they were doing wrong — 
 such a thing never entered their heads. Their 
 whole life, and the faithful discharge of their 
 judicial and official duties in the situations 
 which some of them have so long and faith- 
 fully filled, forbids such a supposition ; but 
 they were deluded and captivated with the 
 boon held up to their view, and a profit of 
 $84,000 by a single bank speculation could not 
 be resisted. They had heard of Lawton's, of 
 Prime's, and of Garniss' splendid speculations, 
 and wished to figure alittle in the financial world; 
 and, having studied 'Coke upon Lyttleton' 
 more than they had ' Smith's Wealth of Na- 
 tions,' they considered only their legal rights 
 over the stock, forgetting at the moment their 
 duty to the widow and orphan, of whose rights 
 they had become the legal guardians. So bent 
 were they on securing the prize, that about the 
 very day of the election they distrusted the 
 commissioners appointed by themselves to 
 superintend the election, and, without any 
 fault on the part of those commissioners, 
 ingloriously dismissed them, and appointed 
 others more likely to consummate their wishes. 
 One of their own number resigned his seat as 
 a director for the purpose of becoming one of 
 those inspectors, and absolutely performed the 
 ceremony in such a manner as the Supreme 
 Court has since passed condemnation upon. 
 Yet most of these men escape the notice of the 
 district attorney further than to be brought 
 here to aid him in the unholy work of destroy- 
 ing me for daring to tell them of their errors, 
 and for having, as before stated, protected all 
 the institutions entrusted to my care. 
 
 " The district attorney, in his efforts to find 
 something to my prejudice, has not left any 
 stone unturned. He sent an officer to bring a 
 sick man from Flushing to say that I had told
 
 DEFENCE ON THE TRIAL FOR FRAUD. 
 
 163 
 
 him last October or November that I con- 
 sidered the Life and Fire bonds good, that I 
 repeated the same thing to him in April or 
 May, and that I was profiting by their purchase 
 and supposed he could not do a better business, 
 and not that I offered to sell him any, either as 
 principal or agent. 
 
 "If the district attorney had asked me, I 
 would have admitted that I should, had I been 
 consulted, have expressed every day in the 
 year the same strong confidence, down to five 
 days prior to the failure of the company. That 
 was my opinion ; and I have never been known 
 to disguise or withhold my opinion on any sub- 
 ject. Mr. Nevins has also been called to say 
 the same thing. To me it is astonishing, con- 
 sidering the pains the district attorney has 
 taken, that he could not fiud more than two 
 persons to say that I had intermeddled further 
 with this branch of the business. Much stress 
 is laid on the terms I used to convey the con- 
 fidence I felt. These two witnesses say, I said 
 I knew; I have no recollection of having used 
 that word ; I meant to convey the most im- 
 plicit confidence, and may have used it, but I 
 never did intend to convey the idea that I had 
 any other knowledge than that derived from 
 the representations of the officers of the com- 
 pany. I believed, and yet believe, they were 
 all sincere in their representations, and I can- 
 not think myself culpable for confiding therein. 
 Neither witness intimated that they supposed I 
 meant anything beyond what I have here stated, 
 nor do I believe such a thought ever entered 
 their heads; neither purchased in consequence 
 of my recommendation; neither lost by the 
 bonds; neither complains of being defrauded. 
 And what better proof can you have that no 
 evidence can be found against me, than the 
 shifts to which the district attorney resorts in 
 collecting together these straws and feathers 
 Might as air,' on which to erect a fabric of 
 guilt? My principal offence appears to have 
 been in inspiring confidence by imrchasing, 
 not selling those bonds. Are not Colonel Fish, 
 his broker, and all other purchasers alike 
 chargeable with the same sin, if a sin it be? 
 _No one thinks of indicting, much less of con- 
 victing, either of them for a conspiracy be- 
 cause thoy purchased and paid for those bonds, 
 any more than they do of indicting or con- 
 victing David Clarkson, or the numerous per- 
 sons who had Fulton Bank stock transferred to 
 them, which they advanced money on, sold, 
 paid for, or purchased, as best suited their 
 pleasure or convenience. Thus, what is con- 
 sidered perfectly innocent in others, is to be 
 considered a crime in me. 
 
 " I beg you to remember, that all my trans- 
 actions with the Life and Fire Company have 
 been of the most simple character, down to the 
 day of the failure, when they appointed me 
 their attorney in fact, to make certain collec- 
 tions for them. Since then, my conduct has 
 not been called in question. First, I lent them 
 
 money. Second, I sold for them 1,500 shares 
 Fulton Bank stock, the account of which, the 
 district attorney was pleased to say, he had not 
 the least doubt was correct, when he intro- 
 duced it as evidence. And I did, at the in- 
 stance of one of their directors, Mr. Rathbone, 
 give an obligation to deliver Mr. Gouverneur 
 five hundred shares Tradesmen's Bank Stock. 
 which obligation was promptly fulfilled. It 
 was given in consequence of the Western Com- 
 pany (in which I was an officer) having ad- 
 vanced on eight hundred shares, for which they 
 had not settled with Mr. Rathbone, and which 
 it was not convenient for them at the moment 
 to return. Here you have all my connexion 
 with the Life and Fire Insurance Company, 
 and I would ask you to say, in the sincerity of 
 your hearts, if I had not a perfect right to do 
 all these things, without subjecting myself to 
 the charge of impropriety of conduct or inten- 
 tion. 
 
 "Several witnesses testified that I had been 
 in the habit of regulating the price of the bonds 
 of the Life and Fire Insurance Company; but, 
 on being cross-examined, they all admitted that 
 they only meant that the extensive purchases 
 made by me disappointed them in a portion of 
 the profits they would have got had I not been 
 a competitor in the market. Hence the hos- 
 tility of the fraternity of brokers. An attempt 
 was made to enlist your prejudices on account 
 of the indignation manifested by me at the boy 
 being sent here from the Morris Canal and 
 Banking Company to requite me for saving 
 that bank from ruin. And if I should put my 
 threat, to dismiss that bank from Wall street, 
 into prompt and full effect, who would blame 
 me? Should I not be performing the duty of 
 a good citizen? Has it not been abundantly 
 proved that they are conducting a banking 
 business in Wall street in open violation of 
 the laws? — thus depriving the State of a tax 
 paid for the privilege of banking by all the 
 incorporated institutions in this State. 
 
 " Mr. Wetmore stated that Messrs. Brown 
 and Spencer told him that Mr. Elckford and 
 myself had promised to loan the Hudson Insur- 
 ance Company $100,000 ; that the agreement 
 was reduced to writing, but that he had not 
 seen it. Let the agreement be produced before 
 any bad faith is ascribed to me. Every promise 
 made to those gentlemen was honorably ful- 
 filled; and I defy the district attorney to pro- 
 duce a single witness who shall say that he 
 ever heard Mr. Spencer impute tome any want 
 of compliance; and, surely, after the disclosure, 
 no one will pretend that $100,000 would have 
 saved the two companies. 
 
 "Murray Hoffman, esq., a receiver appointed 
 by the chancellor to receive the effects of the 
 Lifeand Fire Companv, stated that that com pan J 
 were indebted to me 1 130,000, of which $98,000 
 had been lent without discount or commission? 
 and that the said company wire indebted 
 $80,000 or $90,000 to the Mercantile Company,
 
 164 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 and $50,000 or $60,000 to the Western Com- 
 pany; and he confirmed all my statements 
 about the securities received. And is there a 
 man on earth that would not have obtained pay 
 or security for such large debts if he had an 
 opportunity of doing so? 
 
 "Mr. Mitchel, and many others, will prove 
 great and complicated employments, and the 
 most faithful conduct. I say these things that 
 you may see that others besides the Life and 
 Fire Insurance Company have deemed me 
 worthy of the most extensive agencies. 
 
 "Thaddeus Phelps testified that Samuel 
 Ilicks, J. & C. Bolton, and himself, had been 
 employed in 1823 to negotiate a loan of 
 $200,000 or $300,000 for sundry persons at 
 New Orleans; that they had endeavored to 
 obtain it from Messrs. Costers, Prime, Hones, 
 and others, but that all their efforts were un- 
 availing; that application was made to Mr. 
 Barker; that he required a fee of $5,000; it 
 was paid him ; he undertook the agency, was 
 successful, and most completely satisfied his 
 employer, whose confidence in him remains 
 undiminished. 
 
 "The district attorney endeavored to makeR. 
 L. Nevins say that he had reasons for thinking 
 I knew about the affairs of the Life and Fire 
 Company, when he expressly swore that he had 
 not any other reason for thinking so than the 
 freedom with which I purchased the bonds, 
 and the confidence I expressed in their good- 
 ness. 
 
 "It hasbeen attempted to urge as a crime the 
 high fees I charge. Let it be remembered that 
 it has been proved that I work at any time, 
 and at all times, for my acquaintances when 
 required to do so, without price or pay, and with 
 equal zeal and fidelity, as if I were to receive 
 the highest commission. And let it be always 
 remembered that every man has a right to fix 
 his own price on his own property, and that a 
 man's faculties are his property, as much as 
 his horse, or his banel of sugar. It is the 
 very law of our nature to require pay for our 
 labor. No one has been invited to employ me; 
 and those who have were told my terms at the 
 commencement, and not surprised into a large 
 claim after the service had been performed. 
 
 " At length out comes a mighty volcano, 
 which is to envelope and burn up the life of 
 these defendants without Jire. 'The bonds 
 have been ante-dated for the purpose of con- 
 cealing this stupendous fraud,' said the district 
 attorney. 'Those issued only last May and 
 June are dated in 1823.' Tremendous! Only 
 think of the bonds being antedated. But, 
 gentlemen of the jury, allow me to remind you 
 of the facility witli which I put all his squad- 
 rons to flight in relation to the matter, by de- 
 siring the witness to turn over a few pages of 
 the Life and Fire books, and tell you the history 
 of those bonds thus ante-dated, when it turned 
 out that the Life and Fire had issued to Jacob 
 Barker, as agent for William Kenner & Co., of 
 
 New Orleans, on the 5th September, 1823, a 
 bond for $2,000, payable in three years. That 
 Jacob Barker held it until May, 1826, when he 
 returned it to the office and took in exchange 
 for it two bonds, each for $1,000, bearing equal 
 date with the original bond, and payable on 
 the same day that it became payable; and it 
 is hardly necessary for me to tell you that no- 
 thing is more common in the mercantile world 
 than when a note is found too large, to have it 
 divided, preserving the original date and time, 
 and would it be fraudulent to return a hundred 
 dollar bank note to the bank that had issued 
 it, and take in lieu thereof two notes of fifty 
 dollars each, or one hundred one dollar notes, 
 because these new notes bore the same date 
 with the one hundred dollar bill given in ex- 
 change for them ? 
 
 "Gentlemen, my losses in foreign business, 
 together with the money due from the govern- 
 ment, were the causes of the misfortunes of 
 the Exchange Bank in 1819 — since that time 
 I have labored, and that too with great success, 
 for the payment of the debts of that bank, and 
 of the Washington and Warren Bank. The 
 debts of the latter were all paid, and its credit 
 re-established more than two years ago, and 
 the Exchange Bank notes are nearly all re- 
 deemed from my new earnings. 
 
 " Gentlemen, if I am to be convicted, I pray 
 that it may be for something you understand ; 
 that you do not allow a mystery so wrought up 
 to induce you to infer fraud on account of such 
 mystery. I have been denominated a myste- 
 rious man, the most mysterious man of the 
 age. It has been so published in the daily 
 papers. Prejudicial as such a character may 
 be, there is to be found in it food, delicious 
 food for the vanity of man, for we all delight 
 to be thought to possess great intellectual 
 powers, and so great a share of vanity has fal- 
 len to my lot that I would plead guilty to that 
 charge if I was to be the only sufferer. But 
 as it may operate against the other defendants 
 as well as all those connected with me by blood 
 or feeling, I cannot consent to feast alone on 
 that delicate morsel, knowing as I do that no 
 one else can share with me in its delusive en- 
 joyment. Therefore, gentlemen, I deny, bold- 
 ly deny, that there is any mystery about me, 
 and I put it to you to decide whether every 
 thing that has come out has not been of the 
 most frank, open, and candid character. Has 
 there been the least appearance of trick, arti- 
 fice, or device in a single one of the many 
 transactions which have come under your no- 
 tice on this trial? Have I not told every wit- 
 ness to tell all he knew, as well as all he be- 
 lieved? Has not my conduct throughout sus- 
 tained the first declaration I made, ' let every 
 thing come out, if I have been guilty let the 
 world know it.' History tells us that the 
 Quakers were once put to death in our own 
 country, on account of the mysteries of their 
 religion, and that in all ages religious sects of
 
 DEFENCE ON THE TRIAL FOR FRAUD. 
 
 1G5 
 
 every denomination have, in turn, fallen victims 
 to the dominant church on account of the mys- 
 teries of their religion. Every thing not un- 
 derstood by short-sighted men was considered 
 as evidence of an evil spirit, and made the pre- 
 text for putting the innocent and the unoffend- 
 ing believer to death, for the single reason that 
 he attended to the manifestations of truth in 
 his own mind. 
 
 u Now, I trust in God, that those clays of dark- 
 ness and delusion, those days of murder and 
 rapine, have passed away, and that they are 
 not to be brought back in this enlightened a^e, 
 and under our happy form of government, when 
 it is our pride and boast that the human mind 
 has been emancipated, and that reason and 
 justice reign triumphantly as well in our courts 
 of law and justice as in our legislative halls 
 and sanctuaries of religion. Again, I repeat, 
 if I am to be convicted, let it be for something 
 you understand, and not because the district 
 attorney may so envelope in mystery and dark- 
 ness any particular transaction that you cannot 
 clearly see its purity. 
 
 "My negotiations have been with Mr. Eck- 
 ford. I am not conscious of meriting the cen- 
 sure of any one, but on the contrary, consider 
 myself entitled to the praise of 'well done, 
 good and faithful servant.' Be that as it may, 
 I hope that Mr. Eckford will not be made to 
 suffer for any errors of mine, if errors there 
 have been. If so, it will be more painful to me 
 than all I have suffered or may suffer. 
 
 " And here I beg leave to ask who is Henry 
 Eckford? Is he a needy adventurer? Is he a 
 a stock speculator and a schemer? No, gen- 
 tlemen, he is a man who, by his mechanical 
 skill, industry, and enterprise, has raised the 
 character of our country. Within the last year 
 he has built, fitted out, and equipped four 
 sixty-four gun ships. He has been the means 
 of bringing nearly two millions of dollars into 
 this country; not, gentlemen of the jury, the 
 fruits of stockjobbing and other speculations, 
 but of honest industry. It has been earned by 
 the hewer and feller of timber, the ship car- 
 penter, the smith, and artizans in general. 
 This money i3 the fruits of such enterprise as 
 no mechanic has ever before displayed. In his 
 case you have heard of no exorbitant commis- 
 sions, no disputes with agents, no quarrels 
 with foreign governments, no refusing to settle 
 differences, nor any compromise by which one 
 ship was to be sacrificed for the other. Who, 
 I ask again, is Henry Eckford? He is the 
 same who, during the late war, when the storm 
 howled along the frontier, built our fleets, those 
 fleets which led to victory, and covered the 
 nation with glory. This is the man, gentlemen, 
 whom it is sought to immolate. And who, gen- 
 tlemen of the jury, may I be allowed to ask, is 
 Jacob Barker? He is the man who, (and it is a 
 matter of historic record,) during the darkest 
 periods of that war, furnished the sinews of 
 that war. He furnished the money without 
 
 which those fleets could never* have been 
 equipped ; without which the army could not 
 have been fed or clothed, and without which 
 even the bounty to the recruits could not have 
 been paid. It was not all his own money, 
 gentlemen, but when the rich and fearful drew 
 close their purse strings, Jacob Barker, by the 
 exercise of that talent for which he is here 
 arraigned, brought capitalists together, and 
 effected arrangements by which five millions 
 were cast into the treasury. Such was Jacob 
 Barker during that memorable period — such is 
 the man who has now been arraigned here by 
 a co.nbination of rogues, who would run away 
 by the light of the funeral pile upon which they 
 would be happy to see him consumed. 
 
 " Whether the conspiracies alleged in the 
 bill of indictment have taken place or not, or 
 whether the frauds have been committed or 
 not, has nothing to do with my defence so long 
 as I had not the least participation therein. 
 Hence it follows that the district attorney must 
 request you to acquit me without leaving your 
 seats, or he must expect you to convict me for 
 having sold 1,500 shares Fulton Bank stock 
 for account of the Life and F'ire Insurance 
 Company, and accounting therefor to the satis- 
 faction of all parties ; for having, as the assist- 
 ant president of the Western Insurance Com- 
 pany, advanced money on 800 shares of Trades- 
 men's Bank stock, and given them back in 
 exchange for other securities, at the instance of 
 the persons for whom they were received ; for 
 having, in the most honorable manner, effected 
 the most salutary change in the direction of the 
 Fulton Bank; for having, by the loan of all 
 the money I could raise, endeavored to save 
 from insolvency the Life and Fire Insurance 
 Company; or for having preserved from failure 
 the Morris Canal and Banking Company, and 
 also the Fulton Bauk. This I aver to be what 
 I have done in the premises, and that there is 
 not a particle of testimony to connect me with 
 any of the frauds complained of, nor could 
 there with truth have been any such evidence, 
 as I had not the least connexion therewith. 
 But you have seen other conspiracies on the 
 part of my accusers brought to light in the 
 course of this tedious investigation, viz : 
 
 "To get possession of the Morris Canal and 
 Banking Company, through the instrumentality 
 of the $10,000 post note of the PhoBniz Dank. 
 
 "To cheat me more than once in the ap- 
 pointment of directors for the Fulton Bank. 
 
 "To apply the funds of the bank to the pri- 
 vate purposes of the two presidents. 
 
 " To induce me to loan money to a company 
 known to be insolvent. 
 
 "To palm off on me Fulton Bank stock to a 
 ruinous amount at 80, by some of its directors 
 and their associates, after they knew of the re- 
 cent losses of the bank. 
 
 "To procure my conviction at every hazard, 
 that I might be disqaaKfli i iving testi- 
 
 mony against the guilty offenders.
 
 166 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 It was new ten o'clock, when Mr. B. in- 
 formed the court that he was very much ex- 
 hausted, and asked an adjournment. The 
 court refused, saying his argument must be 
 closed that night. Mr. Barker replied that he 
 •wished time to collect his thoughts, and would 
 stipulate not to occupy the court more than 
 ten or fifteen minutes at its opening in the 
 morning. The court replied " Your argument 
 must be closed this night," when Mr. Barker 
 resumed, saying: 
 
 " This detail might be extended much fur- 
 ther were I not restricted in time, 
 
 "To David Leavitt, principally, am I to 
 charge this indictment. He has followed me 
 like a demon ; he waited at the jury-room till 
 I was denounced; he produced all these books 
 and papers ; he has stood forth and said that I 
 defrauded the Fulton Bank, knowing that there 
 had been no fraud in my transactions, that I 
 had saved the bank from failure; he sits at this 
 moment at the elbow of the district attorney, 
 and whispers him what question to ask ; and 
 with a keen eye he watches the progress of 
 this case, as the mother watches the unfold- 
 ings of her babe." 
 
 Benj . F. B utler, esq., made a very lucid and logi- 
 cal closing speech ; among other things, he said : 
 
 " It is known to you gentlemen of the jury, 
 that I was introduced into this cause, and have 
 hitherto appeared in it as one of the counsel 
 associated in the defence of Mr. Eckford ; my 
 learned associates will render him all the aid 
 his case requires, and with his consent I have 
 yielded to the request of Mr. Barker to present 
 his case; you will therefore consider me as ad- 
 dressing you exclusively in his behalf, and you 
 will consider hirn in thus committing his de- 
 fence to a junior counsel, and that counsel a 
 stranger, as giving the highest evidence he 
 could give of his confidence in the justice of 
 his cause, and in the intelligence and imparti- 
 ality of those by whom it is to be decided. In 
 that confidence, I can truly say, I fully partici- 
 pate ; yet it would be affectation to deny that I 
 enter on the duty assigned me with the live- ' 
 liest solicitude. Not that I have found any- 
 thing in all that mass of testimony that has 
 been laid before you to shake my faith in the 
 innocence of my client. No, 'tis neither the 
 evidence nor the learned counsel by whom it 
 is to be enforced that I fear. I have other and 
 more formidable antagonists. Rumor, with 
 her ten thousand tongues, and prejudice and 
 calumny are all arrayed against my client. 
 Interested men — men who have been disap- 
 pointed in their hopes of gain, brokers, bond- 
 holders, and stockholders, all, all have united in 
 a crusade against him. It has suited the pur- 
 poses of certain individuals, whose names and 
 motives have been dragged to light in the 
 
 course of this investigation, to charge on Mr. 
 Barker all the evils of a financial nature that 
 have recently fallen on this community. By 
 open maledictions, or insidious appeals to the 
 worst passions of our nature; by the most ex- 
 travagant tales concerning his connexion with 
 the companies that failed, and the profits al- 
 leged to have been realized therefrom ; by ex- 
 citing the jealousy of the suspicious, and the 
 hatred of the ignorant, they hoped to bring 
 down upon his head a storm of popular indig- 
 nation that should desolate him in its fury and 
 destroy him forever. To a considerable extent 
 their efforts were successful. The multitude of 
 bondholders and stockholders involved in the 
 recent failures, was more or less imposed upon 
 by the artifices I have mentioned, and with 
 them the clamor became too general. 
 
 "Emboldened by their success without doors, 
 the leaders of this conspiracy had the audacity 
 to pursue, even to this sanctuary of justice, and 
 within these sacred walls, their intended victim. 
 Yes, gentlemen, availing themselves of occa- 
 sions when the honest public was excluded, and 
 when this hall was filled with the prosecutors, 
 witnesses, and others equally interested in the 
 conviction of the defendants; and governed by 
 the same spirit that inflames the ferocious 
 savage, when he utters the yell of triumph in 
 the ears of a foe, prostrate at his feet, or bound 
 to the blazing tree ; they dared, once and again, 
 in a manner the most reprehensible, to inter- 
 rupt the solemnities of this trial, and to exult 
 in the anticipated martyrdom of my devoted 
 client, in the vain hope that you could be over- 
 awed by such nefarious attempts. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I know that you cannot be in- 
 fluenced by such exhibitions; but, at the same 
 time, I frankly confess to you, that I am not 
 without my fears that the prejudices and pas- 
 sions that rage without, may find their way into 
 this jury box. When I say this, let no one of 
 you understand me as distrusting his judgment 
 or his integrity. I have the most unlimited 
 confidence in both. I perceive you to be intel- 
 ligent, and though a stranger to all of you, I 
 believe you to be upright. I know you will 
 make a great effort to rise above all extraneous 
 considerations; and such is the trust I repose 
 in your love of justice, that I am persuaded, if 
 you should once suspect that your minds were 
 about to become the prey of prejudice, you 
 would expel the demon from your bosoms, and 
 fly, as it were with horror, from your very 
 selves. But, alas, you were created men, be- 
 fore you were appointed to be jurors, and he 
 knows but little of the human heart, who does 
 not know, that prejudices the most unfounded 
 and pernicious may be entertained in ignorance, 
 and even cherished as virtues. You will, there- 
 fore, bear with me, my friends, when I tell you 
 that I have but one lingering apprehension for 
 the safety of my client, and that is, lest you 
 should unconsciously imbibe the poison that has 
 been so widely diffused; and you will join me
 
 DEFENCE ON THE TRIAL FOR FRAUD. 
 
 1G7 
 
 in supplicating the Father of Lights, that he 
 may guide your deliberations, and arm you 
 against error, and save you from prejudice ; so 
 that in discharging the awful trust, which in 
 his Providence has devolved on you, you may 
 imitate — though at infinite distance and with 
 much imperfection — his own unerring and im- 
 partial justice! 
 
 " In the course of my remarks I shall endeavor 
 to guard you against some of those considera- 
 tions which are most likely to mislead; but 
 there is one against which I feel it my duty to 
 warn you at the very outset. An idea has gone 
 abroad, that stupendous frauds have been com- 
 mitted in the recent failures of your monied in- 
 stitutions, and that public justice demands the 
 punishment of some one. 
 
 '•'But however this may be, it is obvious that 
 these vague impressions that wrong has been 
 committed, and this thirst for vengeance, is 
 calculated to operate, in a thousand forms, to 
 the great injury of whosoever may chance to 
 be accused as the author of that wrong; and 
 in no way more effectually, than by incliniug 
 judges and jurors to regard the prosecution in a 
 favorable light. 
 
 "Attempts have already been made, and they 
 will doubtless be repeated, to impress it on your 
 minds that this prosecution is entitled to your 
 favor; and lest you should chance to have im- 
 bibed such an impression, I be» to direct your 
 attention to the motives in which it originated, 
 to the form in which it has been preferred, and 
 to the mode in which the public prosecutor has 
 attempted to sustain it. A brief consideration 
 of these three topics, will enable you to deter- 
 mine how much encouragement it should re- 
 ceive at the hands of an honest jury. 
 
 " 1. The motives in which it originated. 
 To discover these we should know the names 
 of the persons who made the accusation to the 
 grand jury. In that country from which we 
 derived our jurisprudence, no man can be put 
 on trial without a copy of the indictment and 
 a list of the witnesses by whose oath it was 
 obtained. This salutary practice is, in this 
 State, too generally neglected. It has not 
 been adopted in the present case. We must, 
 therefore, select the instigators of this proceed- 
 ing from among the prosecutor's witnesses. 
 Of the witnesses called by the district attorney 
 many — such, for example, as Mr. Catlin, Mr. 
 Nevins, Mr. Fleming, and others — had no con- 
 nexion with the institutions alleged to have 
 been defrauded, but were produced for the 
 mere purpose of proving independent facts 
 nowise suspicious in themselves, and never till 
 now the subject of complaint. They were not 
 the prosecutors. Others were connected with 
 the defendants, or some of them, by the ties of 
 friendship or of business. They also were not 
 the prosecutors. Now, when you select from 
 the witnesses on the part of the prosecution 
 those who belong to the two classes I have 
 named, all that remain have either strong per- 
 
 sonal enmities towards some or all of the de- 
 fendants, or are deeply interested in the insti- 
 tutions alleged to have been defrauded, or in 
 the employment of those institutions, or have 
 lost money by those that have failed. Let us 
 run over the list: Mr. Crane, secretary of the 
 Mechanics' Company; McCulloch, the worthy 
 commissioner of the Morris Canal Bank, who 
 would convict his brother commissioners as 
 conspirators for doing that which his own con- 
 spiracy rendered necessary ; Mr. Gilchrist, 
 cashier of the Morris Bank, and several of its 
 directors ; Mr. Cheesebrough, who has long 
 had his difficulties with two of the defendants 
 Leavitt, the president of the Fulton Bank ;; 
 Sprague, his clerk ; St. John, the youth who 
 was sent here by Clarkson and Reed ; Clark- 
 son and Reed themselves ; Falls, the cashier 
 of the Tradesmen's Bank; the pugnacious Mr. 
 Dyatt, and the whole corps of bondholders and 
 stockholders. Some, or all of these, it is rea- 
 sonable to infer, are the real complainants. 
 Without their oaths the prosecution could not 
 have breathed an hour. You see, then, that 
 the substratum of this prosecution has been 
 laid by the testimony of witnesses under the 
 double bias of personal animosity and private 
 interest. But you will be told that all criminal 
 proceedings are to be commenced by the com- 
 plaint, and generally to be supported by the 
 oath of the party injured. This is true, and 
 when the prosecution springs from a real 
 desire to advance the cause of justice, the 
 public good requires that you should act, 
 though even then with caution, on the evidence 
 of those whose property or whose persons have 
 been the subject of depredations. But the 
 present is no such case. It is the offspring of 
 feelings, motives, and designs altogether per- 
 sonal. Many of the witnesses have shown 
 this by their testimony or their conduct whilst 
 under examination. As to McCulloch, Leavitt 
 Sprague, Dyatt, and several others, this wa i 
 too palpable to escape your observation. 03 
 the bondholders, one and all, I risk nothing in 
 asking you whether there is one of them who," 
 if he could have obtained his money, though 
 at the expense of every other creditor, would 
 not gladly have taken it and remained quietly 
 at home, without dreaming of conspiracies or 
 appealing to public justice. 
 
 " 2. I request your attention to the form 
 which has been given to this prosecution. 
 Unless I am deceived you will find it such as 
 to demand your unqualified condemnation. 
 To enable you to understand- it I must detail 
 the facts. On the 12th of August last the 
 grand jury presented an indictment against 
 Messrs. Eckford, Swift, Rathboue, and \'<r- 
 milyea, for conspiring to defraud the Morris 
 Canal and Fulton Banks. That indictment 
 was founded on the fraud alleged to have been 
 committed in the exchange of stocks, one of 
 the principal subjects of the present investiga- 
 tion. The defendants appeared, pleaded, and
 
 168 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 demanded an immediate trial. A trial was 
 promised, but was deferred by the court from 
 want of time and the pressure of business. 
 On the loth of the same month an indictment 
 was found against the four persons just named, 
 together with Messrs. Spencer and Brown and 
 the cashier of the Morris Bank, Mr. Talman, 
 for a conspiracy to defraud the Morris Canal 
 Bank and the Fulton Bank. This indictment 
 was founded on the same transactions as the 
 former. On the same day, or the next, an 
 indictment was found against John Franklin 
 and Messrs. Eckford and Vermilyea, for a con- 
 spiracy to defraud the Mechanics' Insurance 
 Company, embracing the same subject matter, 
 so far as that institution is concerned, that is 
 now the subject of enquiry. A fourth indict- 
 ment was presented against Messrs. Spencer 
 and Brown, together with Leggett and Oakley, 
 clerks in the Fulton Bank, for a conspiracy to 
 defraud that institution by those overdrawings, 
 of which you have heard so much in the course 
 of the present trial. And by the same grand 
 jury a fifth indictment was preferred against 
 Mr. Davis, in conjunction with Messrs. Reed, 
 Governeur, and Cox, for a conspiracy to 
 defraud the Tradesmen's Bank, in the various 
 transactions which have been given in evidence 
 before you. All these indictments are yet 
 pending and untried. 
 
 "Thus you perceive, gentlemen of the j ury, that 
 every branch of the present accusation had been 
 made the subject of separate prosecutions be- 
 fore the present indictment was preferred ; and 
 that all the parties now on trial, with a single 
 exception, had been charged in one or other of 
 the proceedings I have mentioned. That ex- 
 ception, however, did not spring from any favor 
 on the part of the public prosecutor — it was 
 my client, Jacob Barker. Another grand jury 
 was summoned, and such was the increase of 
 prejudice, or of testimony, that he who in Au- 
 gust was untouched by a single accusation, was 
 indicted in September as a party to all the con- 
 spiracies charged in five several indictments ! 
 But mark the course of the public prosecutor. 
 Instead of finding five new indictments and in- 
 cluding in each the name of Jacob Barker, one 
 general indictment is found against him and his 
 seven co-defendants, comprehending not only 
 all the conspiracies embraced in the former 
 prosecutions, but adding to the institutions al- 
 leged to have been defrauded the ' Life and 
 Fire, and the stockholders thereof.' Under 
 this last indictment, the defendants have been 
 required to answer in the gross for all the 
 transactions they have had for the last three 
 years with either of the institutions enumera- 
 ted ; and that, too, whether jointly, singly, or 
 in pairs, with each other, or with parties not 
 on trial. 
 
 " This form of prosecution is not only ex- 
 tremely inconvenient, but, in my judgment, 
 was adopted without necessity. The defend- 
 ants, with the exception of Mr. Barker, could 
 
 have been tried under the former indictments - . 
 If there was ground to charge him, new bills 
 could have been preferred, and his name insert- 
 ed in each. If there was ground to charge the 
 whole eight, their names could have been in- 
 serted in each bill. In either case their trials 
 would have been confined to acts affecting 
 some particular institution ; each trial would 
 have been kept within moderate limits as to 
 time; and justice might have been administer- 
 ed impartially, understandingly, and without 
 embarrassment or doubt. The course pursued, 
 on this occasion, was not only unnecessary, but 
 unprecedented. Let the counsel for the prose- 
 cution produce its parallel if they can. Let 
 them ransack our judicial records from the 
 earliest period of the common law to the pre- 
 sent hour, and they will find none. No, not 
 even in the days of Jeffreys, nor among the 
 Irish state prosecutions. 
 
 " You may think this but idle declamation. 
 Advert then, I beseech you, to the evils that 
 have flowed from the blending together of so 
 many subjects of accusation. It has protract- 
 ed this trial to a length hitherto unparalleled 
 in this State. It has plunged us into an ocean 
 of evidence, through which none but a skilful 
 pilot can steer in safety. No human memory, 
 unaided by notes, can retain the details of the 
 testimony you have heard. Your situation 
 would not permit you to take notes, and you 
 are therefore obliged to rely on memory, or the 
 statements of others. With all the helps you 
 may receive, with all your circumspection, there 
 is great danger that you may err. It is the pre- 
 rogative of heaven to review the complicated 
 acts of a busy life, and to determine of the 
 whole, whether it demands punishment or re- 
 ward. Man can only judge of separate trans- 
 actions; and the rule that forbids multifarious- 
 ness in judicial proceedings, is not only intend- 
 ed to promote the attainment of truth, but is 
 rendered indispensable by the imperfection of 
 our nature. This mode of prosecution has 
 also subjected you to a severe trial. The inter- 
 ests of the defendants, being, in most cases, 
 really distinct, and sometimes in opposition, 
 they were obliged to employ separate counsel, 
 who have worn out your patience, even in the 
 necessary discharge of their duties. Nor is 
 this all ; Mr. Barker has omitted to call more 
 than thirty witnesses, who were summoned, but 
 not examined, lest he should prolong your im- 
 prisonment, and render insupportable the priva- 
 tions you have suffered. The defendants have 
 also been deprived of their constitutional right 
 to call each other as witnesses, in regard to 
 many of those transactions which are now the 
 subjects of accusation. But two of the de- 
 fendants, Messrs. Eckford and Vermilyea, are 
 implicated in the fraud alleged to have been 
 practiced on the Mechanics' Company. Brown 
 and Spencer are the only persons now on trial, 
 who are implicated in the overdrawings of the 
 Fulton Bank ; but then there is not a particle
 
 DEFENCE ON THE TRIAL FOR FRAUD. 
 
 169 
 
 of evidence to connect them with the Morris 
 Canal, the Tradesmen's Bank, the Mechanics 1 
 Company, or the Life and Fire. As to all those 
 subjects, they may have known facts of vital 
 importance to their co-defendants. If thetrans- 
 actions connected with the several institutions 
 alleged to have been defrauded had been sepa- 
 rately examined, as they ought to have been, 
 those of the defendants who were not affected 
 by the testimony would have been acquitted at 
 once, and might have been called as witnesses 
 for the others. By linking them together in 
 the present indictment, and including in that 
 indictment so many distinct transactions, this 
 has been prevented ; because there is no one 
 of the defendants who is not affected by some 
 portion of the evidence. Once more — by coup- 
 ling together these eight defendants, they are 
 brought to trial for the acts they have really 
 committed, under such circumstances as neces- 
 sarily to be prejudiced by the acts of others. 
 Mr. Barker had no connexion whatever with 
 the Mechanics' Company, nor with the over- 
 drawings of the Fulton Bank, and yet he is to 
 answer for his own sins in conjunction with the 
 sins of others. We read in classic fable, of a 
 tyrant who bound together the living and the 
 dead, and buried both in one common grave. 
 This prosecution proceeds on the same princi- 
 ple, but its cruelty is more refined. The crime 
 of the despot was not cloaked under the pre- 
 tence that both were dead ; but when your ver- 
 dict shall have bound together the guilty and 
 the innocent, the record will make you say, 
 and say upon your oaths, that each was guilty 
 of defrauding all the parties, political and natu- 
 ral, named in the indictment. Yes! if you con- 
 vict my client, the record will make you say, 
 that he conspired to defraud the Mechanics' 
 Insurance Company, when you know in your 
 consciences, that in that respect, at least, this 
 indictment is untrue. 
 
 " Thus, gentlemen, you perceive that I spoke 
 not lightly, when I complained of the form 
 which had been given to this prosecution. Why 
 these parties were put upon trial at the same 
 time, for so many distinct acts, it is not for me 
 to say. Was it done to prevent them from 
 calling each other as witnesses, and explaining 
 what is now said to be inexplicable? I hope 
 there was no such motive. Was it done in the 
 belief, that by connecting together a thousand 
 distinct transactions of various hue, some in- 
 nocent and some doubtful, the good, the bad, 
 and the indifferent; was it hoped, that by 
 blending all in one undistinguishable mass, 
 you might be induced to say of the whole lump, 
 it is bad, and fit only to be condemned? Was 
 that the object? Or was it hoped that the 
 defendants, goaded on by their desire to pro- 
 tect themselves, or jostling amid their conllic- 
 ing interests, might mutually contribute to the 
 ruin of each other? Was this the charitable 
 motive? 
 
 "3. I pass to the third topic I proposed to 
 discuss — the manner in which this prosecution 
 has been attempted to be sustained. I mean 
 not, in this place, to enter into details. I 
 only intend to call your attention to some of 
 the prominent features of this trial — features 
 of strong mark, which give character to the 
 cause. And first of all, I remind you of the 
 females, some of them clad in the habiliments 
 of woe, that were brought here to tell you of 
 their losses as bondholders or stockholders of 
 the Life and Fire. Why were these respect- 
 able persons dragged from their firesides, their 
 domestic avocatious, their children and their 
 friends, and kept in this hall from dav to day, 
 till, in the order of the proofs, it suited the conve- 
 nience of the public prosecutor to call them to 
 that stand, and to receive from their lips the 
 story of their sufferings? Shall I be told there 
 was any necessity for this? There is no man 
 who will dare to utter such a declaration. Why 
 then was it done/ There could have been 
 but one motive. It was to enlist against the 
 defendants those sympathies of our nature — ■ 
 the best and purest that have survived the fall 
 — which flow out spontaneously when we see 
 woman in distress ; which prompt us to fly to 
 her relief; and without inquiring how or why, 
 to ask but who has done it, and then to avenge 
 the wrong. Have we not a right to complain 
 of this as cruel ? Was it not enough that the 
 defendants had been charged with guilt, and 
 pursued by public prejudice even to this last 
 refuge of the oppressed? Was it right that 
 mothers should be made to teach their children 
 the story of that guilt, ere it was established 
 by the verdict of an honest jury? Or that 
 such a verdict should be sought for, by excit- 
 ing the sympathies, and rousing the indigna- 
 tion of our judges? This is not all. To sus- 
 tain this prosecution the friends and confidants 
 of the accused have been called upon to testily, 
 in the hope that by violating the confidence 
 reposed in them, they might contribute to the 
 ruin of their friends. Fortunately for the de- 
 fendants, they knew nothing to their prejudice, 
 and the effort was unavailing. But what are 
 we to think of the cause that requires such a 
 support? Confidence is the golden cord that 
 binds society together. Destroy it and man 
 becomes a hermit, and the world a solitude. 
 Never should a fibre be severed but from im- 
 perious necessity. This case presented no such 
 necessity. Or if it did, as to Mr. Halleck and 
 some others, what shall we say of that rode 
 invasion of the domestic hearth, which dragged 
 to this bar the orphan niece of one of the 
 defendants? Which called on her to reveal 
 the secrets of the family in which she found 
 an asylum, when both her parents were hur- 
 ried to the grave? Is there anything in all 
 those aceumulated charges which arc heaped 
 on the defendants, I do not ask to justify, but 
 even to excuse, this attempt to extort from the
 
 170 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 lips of one so circumstanced, evidence against 
 her friend and benefactor, her more than 
 father. 
 
 " Gentlemen, when I witness such an example 
 of the power of prejudice; when I see that even 
 the greatest minds are fated to bear its yoke, 
 I could weep over the frailty of man's nature. 
 And I assure the public prosecutor, that what 
 I have said on this point has been said in sor- 
 row and not in anger. But I tell him to his 
 face, and in the presence of this great audience, 
 that if he should succeed (which may heaven 
 forbid) in sustaining this prosecution, he will 
 have done to the cause of justice, and to this 
 community, an injury for which not all the 
 labors of his past life, useful as they have been, 
 nor all the public services he may hereafter 
 render, can furnish an atonement, for he will 
 have succeeded in establishing a precedent, 
 which, in times of popular excitement, and in 
 the hands of partial judges, may be wrested to 
 purposes the most fatal to private right and 
 public liberty. Which may involve not eight 
 but eighfi/ in one sweeping charge, aud offer 
 up at once whole hecatombs of victims. 
 
 "I will not detain you by entering into an 
 exposition of the law of conspiracy. What 
 does and what does not amount to conspiracy 
 will be the subject of discussion on the part of 
 the other counsel, and will be faithfully ex- 
 plained to you by the court; but there are one 
 or two general observations touching the law 
 of this case that I cannot omit 
 
 "I refrain from entering into the discussion, 
 because Mr. Barker has enjoined me to manage 
 my argument in the same liberal and fearless 
 spirit in which he conducted his defence; and, 
 above all things, he has commanded me not to 
 rest his cause on any technical ground. 
 
 "This injuction, I can assure him, I mean 
 faithfully to obey; but as a sworn defender of 
 the law, as a freeman and a lover of my 
 country, I cannot suffer a principle so reason- 
 able in itself, so necessary to the safety of the 
 citizens, so indispensable to the due adminis- 
 tration of justice, as that involved in this objec- 
 tion, to be trampled down in any cause in 
 which I am concerned without raising in its 
 behalf the voice of warning and remonstrance. 
 And I beg to assure my client, and you, also, 
 gentlemen of the jury, that this is no technical 
 objection. It stands on grounds of right, 
 reason, and eternal justice. That no man shall 
 be put on trial for one offence and convicted 
 of another; that he shall not be held to answer 
 for a crime against which he is not admonished 
 to defend himself; these are among the most 
 obvious principles of that law which has been 
 written on the heart of man by the hand of his 
 Creator. They are, therefore, to be found io 
 the penal code of every State that pretends to a 
 rational jurisprudence. They are among the 
 chief ornaments of our boasted common law, 
 and, with the invaluable right of a trial by one's 
 peers, create the difference between a trial in 
 
 New York and one at Madrid or Algiers. 
 Heaven grant that neither you, nor I, nor our 
 remotest posterity, may outlive their applica- 
 tion in this favored land of liberty and law. 
 
 " But I perceive that my client is impatient, 
 whilst I thus linger at the threshhold. He likes 
 not these distant approaches. He would have 
 me attack the enemy in his strong holds, and 
 would risk the issue on an open contest. I go 
 then to the evidence in the cause, and shall ex- 
 amine in detail all that relates to Mr. Barker. 
 And if He who is the author of reason shall 
 only enable me to express with clearness the 
 conceptions I have formed of this evidence, I 
 hope to satisfy you that not a fact has been 
 proved which can warrant you in believing 
 that Mr. Barker ever intended, either sepa- 
 rately or in conjunction with others, to defraud 
 any one of the parties named in the indictment. 
 In doing this I am aware that I shall trespass 
 largely on your patience. But I cannot help 
 it, my clienthas friends who love him, not only 
 in every part of the union, but in every quarter of 
 the globe. Wherever commerce has her patrons, 
 those are to be found who take an interest in 
 his welfare, and who wait with breathless 
 solicitude the issue of this trial. They shall 
 know that if condemned he was not condemned 
 unheard. If acquitted, your vindication and 
 his shall accompany your verdict. 
 
 " To reduce the mass of evidence that has 
 been offered to a manageable shape, I shall take 
 up the corporations and individuals named in 
 the indictment in the order in which they are 
 enumerated. I shall apply to each as I proceed 
 all the evideuce that touches Mr. Barker, but 
 shall not comment on that which relates to the 
 other defendants. 
 
 "I. The Mechanics' 1 Insurance Company. — The 
 facts relied on to show a conspiracy to defraud 
 this company relate exclusively to John Frank- 
 lin and Messrs. Eckford and Vermilyea. I will 
 not enter into the discussion of those transac- 
 tions, for Mr. Barker had no connexion with 
 either. He was never a director or stockholder 
 of the company; he has had no dealings with 
 it. After the consummation of the alleged 
 frauds, and after the failure of the Life and Fire, 
 it is in proof that the Life and Fire handed 
 over to him, among other claims, one against 
 the Mechanics' Company, which is now in suit. 
 If it is a just claim they ought to pay, aud the 
 court will see that they pay to the proper party. 
 If it is not a just claim they will be protected 
 against it, and indemnified for the expenses of 
 their defence. Perhaps I ought not to have 
 detained you by alluding to a matter which 
 evidently has nothing to do with this cause. 
 But as every part of Mr. Barker's conduct has 
 been exposed to misconstructions, I do not 
 know what may be said of this, and I can suffer 
 nothing to pass unnoticed. 
 
 "ZZ". The Morris Canal and Banking Com- 
 ])any. — It is said that this institution was de- 
 frauded:
 
 DEFENCE ON THE TRIAL FOR FRAUD. 
 
 171 
 
 " 1. In the apportionment of the stock by 
 the commissioners. 
 
 " 2. In the withdrawing of the capital paid 
 in by the discounting of stock notes, &e. 
 
 "3. In the paying out of $13,000 for procur- 
 ing the charter. 
 
 "4. In the issuing of the certificates for 
 2,500 shares of stock transferred to the Fulton 
 Bank as full stock, which certificates are said 
 to have been false. 
 
 "5. In the loan of $10,000 to the Dutchess 
 Company. 
 
 "I waive all discussion as to the four first 
 topics, for there is not a particle of proof to 
 connect Mr. Barker with either of them. And, 
 in addition to this absence of proof against him, 
 there is positive testimony that he was neither 
 an applicant for the bank, nor a commissioner, 
 nor a subscriber, real or fictitious, nor a stock- 
 holder, director or committee man. Till the 
 affair of the $10,000 loaned to the Dutchess 
 County Insurance Company his name was not 
 mentioned by any of the witnesses. This was 
 put forth by the district attorney as a fraudu- 
 lent transaction, and, I take it for granted will 
 again form a topic of crimination. Let us see 
 what it amounts to: It is admitted that the 
 money was repaid, but the charge is that it 
 was procured by Mr. Barker without security, 
 through the agency of Vermilyea, and remained 
 some time without interest. All the evidence 
 before you in regard to this transaction is the 
 memorandum of Mr. Talman, the former cash- 
 ier, aud the testimony of Newton St. John, Mr. 
 Gilchrist, and Mr. Halleck. The memorandum 
 of Talman simply states that $10,000 had been 
 lent to Jacob Barker by T. Vermilyea — $5,000 
 on the 29th of April, and $5,000 on the 11th of 
 May. This memorandum, it may be proper to 
 state, is not evidence against Mr. Barker. 
 Young St. John says that Vermilyea directed 
 the $10,000 to be sent to Mr. Barker; and that 
 be (St. John) took the money, or a part of it, 
 to the office of the Dutchess Company; that he 
 there saw Mr. Barker, who pointed out Mr. 
 Halleck, the secretary of the Dutchess, as the 
 person to receive it, and that he paid it to that 
 gentleman. He further testified that he never 
 saw Mr. Barker in the Morris Canal Bank; and 
 that he does not know that Mr. Barker had any 
 thing to do with the money except from the state- 
 ments of others and from what passed in the 
 office of the Dutchess, He added that the 
 money was returned about the 20th of July, 
 principally in the biils of the Morris Canal 
 Bank, and that was all the young gentleman 
 knew upon the subject. Mr. Gilchrist, the 
 present cashier, had no knowledge upon the 
 subject except that the money had been repaid. 
 Mr. Halleck told you that the Dutchess County 
 Insurance Company, some two or three months 
 before the 20th of July, received $10,000 in 
 Morris Canal bills on loan from Mr. Vermilyea; 
 but whether he brought them in person or sent 
 part by a boy he did not recollect. That on or 
 
 about the 20th July, Mr. Vermilyea, accom- 
 panied by Mr. Talman, came to tin' office of 
 the Dutchess, and requested that the money 
 might be repaid to the Munis Canal Bank, and 
 that he thereupon paid over the amount, 
 chiefly in bills of the Morris Bank to Mr. Tal- 
 man, in the presence of Vermilyea. He added 
 that no application had previously been made, 
 either by Mr. Vermilyea or the banlc, for the 
 money; and that Mr. Barker had no interest 
 in the loan except as a stockholder and officer 
 of the Dutchess. Thus you perceive that there 
 is no evidence to impeach the fairness of this 
 transaction. Whether securitv was given by 
 Mr. Vermilyea to the bank, or by the Dutchess 
 Company to Vermilyea, does not appear. Nor 
 is it material. The Dutchess Company was 
 always able to repay it at a moment's warning. 
 It was promptly returned on the first call; and 
 as to the trifling amount of interest, about which 
 so much clamor has been made, if any interest 
 was justly payable to the bank by the Dutchess, 
 it can be deducted from the $5,000 now owing 
 to that company. 
 
 "I have been thus minute in stating the tes- 
 timony concerning this transaction, because, 
 strange to tell, it was much insisted on by the dis- 
 trict attorney. Neither the cashier nor any of 
 the directors complained of it in their testimony; 
 indeed, they all said they knew of no fraud 
 committed by Jacob Barker upon their bank. 
 But of what avail is their united tribute to the 
 innocence of my client? The district attorney 
 has denounced the act as fraudulent, and young 
 Mr. St. John has told us that, in his opinion, 
 it was dishonorable! Who shall doubt the 
 justice of their decision? 
 
 "This affair of the $10,000 was the only 
 transaction of Mr. Barker's that was specified 
 by the district attorney, in his opening speech, 
 as a fraud on the Morris Canal ; but he as- 
 serted that Mr. Barker had an intimate con- ■ 
 nexion with its concerns, and that many other 
 circumstances would come out in evidence to 
 show the fraudulent nature of that connexion. 
 I have carefully examined the testimony, and 
 I find but three other facts to connect Mr. 
 Barker with that company. They are, first, 
 the application for a loan made to him by Mr. 
 Bayard; second, his agency in effecting the 
 return of the 2,500 shares of Munis Canal 
 stock; and, third, the loan of $5,(JU0 to the 
 bank. 
 
 " As to the application made by Mr. Bayard 
 — that gentleman, who was the assistant piv.-i- 
 dent of the bank, called on Mr. Barker on the 
 21st of July with a bast; note from Mr. Kck- 
 ford, stating that the bank was in distress, 
 and begging his assistance ; that they wanted 
 $25,000; that they would offer him securities, 
 and that he (Mr. Eckford) would guarantee to 
 the amount of $10,000. This v. a- strange 
 evidence to support a conspiracy. But the 
 district atrorney had an object in offering it. 
 He desired to fix ou Mr. Barker the charge of
 
 172 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 extortion ; and he proved by Mr. Bayard that 
 the former talked of taking the notes at a 
 discount of 30 or 33 per cent., which the latter 
 was unwilling to allow; and thus the negotia- 
 tion was, therefore, broken off. Motives of 
 delicacy restrained Mr. Barker from repelling 
 this charge by calling for the names and con- 
 dition of the parties to the notes, but he did 
 it with equal effect by asking Mr. Bayard 
 whether he did not state his willingness to 
 furnish the $10,000 which Mr. Eckford had 
 offered to guarantee at a moment's warning, 
 and upon lawful interest? You heard his 
 answer in the affirmative, and you required 
 nothing further on this point. 
 
 " The agency of Mr. Barker in the return of 
 the 2,500 shares is not complained of as inju- 
 rious to the bank. On the contrary, it is 
 admitted on all hands that if the return of this 
 stock had not been effected the bank would 
 have been ruined. And Mr. David B. Ogden, 
 a director of the Morris Canal, charged with 
 the negotiation on their part, testified that Mr. 
 Barker had conducted the negotiation with 
 great skill, fidelity, and success. Any agency, 
 therefore, that he may have had in this trans- 
 action, instead of furnishing evidence to crimi- 
 nate him, should entitle him to the thanks of 
 the institution ; unless, indeed, the district 
 attorney was correct in asserting as he did, in 
 his opening speech, that the stock was not 
 returned till after the complaint to the grand 
 jury, and then only because 'they feared the 
 penalties of the laivJ I cannot suffer this 
 observation to pass unanswered; it is impor- 
 tant to notice it for the purpose of enabling 
 you to form a just estimate of the character 
 and motives of Mr. David Leavitt. It is also 
 in proof, then, that the negotiation for the 
 return of the 2,500 shares was not completed 
 till the 10th day of August, when it was closed 
 at the office of Mr. David B. Ogden. It is 
 also in proof that a complaint was then pend- 
 ing before the grand jury, which resulted in a 
 bill — the first of the series. It is also true 
 that Mr. Leavitt, who represented the Fulton 
 Bank, had been before the grand jury prior to 
 the closing of the negotiation ; and" when it 
 became necessary, for the purpose of consum- 
 mating the arrangement, to deliver up the 
 certificates of the 2,500 shares, Mr. Leavitt 
 stated to Mr. Eckford that the certificates were 
 at the Fulton Bank, and left the office of Mr. 
 Ogden under the pretence that he would go to 
 the bank and obtain them. He was gone two 
 or three hours, and, when reproached for the 
 detention, he for the first time informed the 
 gentlemen that the certificates were in the 
 hands of the grand jury and could not be 
 obtained ; and the business was, therefore, 
 closed without their delivery. Till this dis- 
 closure by Mr. Leavitt neither of the gentle- 
 men with whom he was negotiating had any 
 reason to suspect that the matter was in the 
 hands of the grand jury. All this is in proof. 
 
 But we have something further. You heard 
 David Leavitt admit, on that stand, that when 
 he left the office of Mr. Ogden under the pre- 
 sence that the certificates were at the bank 
 and that he was going thither to procure them, 
 you heard him acknowledge, with his own lips, 
 that he then knew that the certificates were in 
 the hands of the grand jury, and that he 
 intentionally concealed the fact from Mr. Eck- 
 ford, Mr. Barker, and Mr. Ogden. 
 
 "I make no comments on this fact. It is 
 enough to state, that whilst David Leavitt was 
 negotiating with Henry Eckford as an honora- 
 ble man, he was plotting the ruin of his char- 
 acter and the destruction of his peace! 
 
 " But Mr. Barker claims a commission of 
 $5,000 for his services in this negotiation, the 
 payment of which is to be resisted by the bank. 
 Whether he is right or wrong in demanding 
 this commission, is really irrelevant to the 
 present inquiry. Even if his conduct, in this 
 respect, was fraudulent, it would be no evidence 
 of a conspiracy. In all the new law that this 
 trial has furnished, it still seems to be admitted 
 that the union of two or more minds is essen- 
 tial to a conspiracy; and this is an affair that 
 relates exclusively to Mr. Barker. Yet it is 
 my duty to place it before you in its true light. 
 The facts are simply these. After the failure 
 of the Life and Fire Company, there was much 
 excitement among the persons interested in the 
 Morris Canal Company, and among the hold- 
 ers of its bills, on account of the 2,500 shares 
 exchanged with the Life and Fire Company. 
 David B. Ogden, esq., one of the directors, had 
 two or three interviews with Mr. Eckford, in 
 which he pressed the return of the stock. The 
 latter respectfully declared that he would see 
 the stock returned, but he declined binding 
 himself by a written engagement to do so im- 
 mediately. Mr. Barker was present at the last 
 interview, having, at the request of Mr. Eck- 
 ford, accompanied him to Mr. Ogden's house, 
 for the purpose of explaining the effect a writ- 
 ten guarantee would have on the stock market. 
 The reasons he assigned were solid and forci- 
 ble. The Morris Canal stock had been ex- 
 changed with the Fulton Bank, and could not 
 be liberated without returning the 2,000 shares 
 of Fulton Bank stock, or making some other 
 arrangement with the Fulton Bank. Mr. Eck- 
 ford had engaged to return the Fulton Bank 
 stock on the 1st of March, 1827, but had not 
 contemplated an earlier return. It was appa- 
 rent to Mr. Barker, that the attempt to procure, 
 on a sudden, 2,000 shares of Fulton Bank stock 
 would enhance the price of that stock — ex- 
 pose Mr. Eckford to extortion — and perhaps 
 defeat the very object in view. Mr. Ogden felt 
 the force of these objections, but so pressing 
 were the necessities of the Morris Canal, that 
 he continued to urge upon Mr. Eckford the 
 immediate return of the stock. The latter, 
 though under no obligation to do this, was wil- 
 ling to make the attempt, and placing a just
 
 DEFENCE ON THE TRIAL FOR FRAUD. 
 
 173 
 
 confidence in the skill of Mr. Barker, appealed 
 to him as the person who should undertake the 
 negotiation with the Fulton Bank. Mr. Bar- 
 ker replied to this appeal, that he would do 
 anything for Mr. Eckford, but would not work 
 for the Morris Canal without pay. Mr. Ogden 
 asked what he would charge that company for 
 his services? He demanded $5,000. Mr. Og- 
 den tells you that he thought the terms rather 
 hard; but he at length engaged, if the result 
 was successful, to use his exertions to induce 
 the bank to pay the stipulated fee. Mr. Bar- 
 ker was too wise to leave the matter on this 
 footing. He therefore suggested that Mr. Og- 
 den should procure the sanction of the direc- 
 tors. The board was accordingly called, and 
 a resolution passed authorizing Mr. Ogden to 
 take such measures as he thought proper to 
 effect the return of the stock. After this, being 
 again urged by Mr. Ogden, Mr. Barker opened 
 the negotiation with the Fulton Bank, and 
 prosecuted it with his accustomed perseverance 
 until the desired end was accomplished, and 
 the Morris Canal saved from the ruin that 
 threatened it. In the meantime, however, Mr. 
 Leavitt had informed the directors of the Morris 
 Canal of Mr. Barker's offer to relinquish his 
 commission of $5,000 in favor of the Fulton 
 Bank. As Mr. Ogden had not thought it good 
 policy, at that stage of the business, to commu- 
 nicate to his fellow directors the details of the 
 arrangement with Mr. Barker, this information 
 was a surprise to the board, and laid the foun- 
 dation for the difference that now exists be- 
 tween them and Mr. Barker in regard to the 
 commissions. 
 
 " I have now given you a plain history of 
 this transaction as it appeared in the evidence, 
 and I should like to know what there was in it 
 that was wrong on the part of Mr. Barker? 
 Was he bound to save the Morris Canal Com- 
 pany without compensation? They were the 
 parties chiefly interested, andhe had a right to 
 insist on a quid pro quo, before he devoted to 
 their use his time, his funds, or his talents. 
 
 " Mr. David Leavitt, however, who has a 
 special desire to protect the Morris Canal and 
 every other institution, when he can do so to 
 the prejudice of Mr. Barker, has volunteered a 
 new objection to this charge, by which Mr. 
 Barker is not only to be deprived of his com- 
 pensation, but convicted of bad faith and per- 
 haps of fraud. He has sworn that Mr. Barker 
 ' did not effect the return of stock ; that he 
 commenced the negotiation, but flew from his 
 agreement, in consequence of which he (Lea- 
 vitt) requested Mr. Eckford to employ some 
 other agent or negotiate the business himself, 
 and that thereupon he and Mr. Eckford closed 
 the business themselves.' This statement is 
 entirely destitute of truth. Out of Mr. Leavitt's 
 own mouth, aided by the testimony of Mr. Em- 
 met and other unimpeachable witnesses, I will 
 convict him of falsehood. It is painful to make 
 such a charge, but I shall place it past doubt 
 
 or cavil. And it is important to do so at this- 
 stage of the cause, for the purpose of testing the 
 accuracy and credibility of Mr. Leavitt. You 
 said then, Mr. Leavitt, that Jacob Barker 'did 
 not effect the return of the stock, and that the 
 negotiation was closed without his agency.' 
 Who opened the negotiation with the Fulton 
 Bank? Jacob Barker, by his letter of the 31st 
 of July. Who conducted it until the 0th of 
 August, inclusive? Jacob Barker. When did 
 you tell Mr. Eckford that you would no longer 
 treat with Jacob Barker? On the 10th of 
 August. When and where was the negotiation 
 finally closed? On the 10th of August, at the 
 office of David B. Ogden. Whom did you see 
 on that day at that office with Mr. Eckford? 
 Jacob Barker. Who waited two or three hours 
 with Mr. Eckford when you went for the cer- 
 tificates, the same certificates which you said 
 were at the bank, when you knew them to be 
 in the hands of the grand jury? Jacob Bar- 
 ker. Who, when the certificates could not be 
 produced, and you supposed that the whole ne- 
 gotiation must therefore be broken off, and 
 went with your counsel to Mr. Ogden's office to 
 explain this to Mr. Eckford, who, I again ask, 
 proposed the mode of closing the arrangement 
 without them? Jacob Barker. Who delivered 
 the five hundred shares of Fulton stock 
 and the one hundred shares of Morris Canal 
 stock, in part execution of the arrangement? 
 Jacob Barker. What then remained to close 
 the business? Securities were to be delivered 
 for $50,000. Who gave you these securities, 
 Mr. Leavitt? Jacob Barker. These answers 
 are taken, mark it, gentlemen, from the testi- 
 mony of Mr. Leavitt himself, drawn out by Mr. 
 Barker on his cross-examination. But the 
 efficient instrumentality of Mr. Barker in clos- 
 ing this negotiation does not rest merely on 
 the admissions of Mr. Leavitt. All the testi- 
 mony on this point concurs in representing Mr. 
 Barker, not only as the person who commenced 
 and managed, but who closed this difficult and 
 important negotiation. Mr. David B. Ogden 
 swore that Mr. Barker did effect the return of 
 the stock. Mr. Emmet testified that he was 
 present as counsel for the Fulton Bank, at the 
 close of the arrangement, and that 'Jacob Bar- 
 ker took a very active part in the business.' 
 He also confirmed the admission of Mr. Lea- 
 vitt, that when the lawyers were at fault, (and 
 able ones they were too,) in consequence of the 
 non-production of the certificates, Mr. Barker, 
 with that readiness and tact of which you have 
 seen so man; striking examples duringtbia trial, 
 suggested the expedient that was finally adopted 
 for closing the business without them. And 
 yet Mr. Leavitt had the temerity to swear, that 
 Jacob Barker did not effect the return of the 
 stock. 
 
 "But I have not done with this gentleman. 
 He stated that 'Jacob Barker flew from his 
 agreement, and that he therefore declined any 
 further negotiation with him,' &C On his cross-
 
 174 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 examination, Mr. Barker showed a resolution 
 purporting to have been passed by the directors 
 of the Fulton Bank, on the 9th of August, by 
 which they agreed to the terms proposed by 
 Mr. Barker in behalf of Mr. Eckford, provided 
 the assent of Spencer and Brown was obtained, 
 and provided also that the directors could be 
 satisfied in regard to another matter specified 
 in the resolution. He then asked Mr. Leavitt 
 •whether this resolution was not passed by the 
 board ; to which he answered first in the af- 
 firmative, but afterwards doubtiugly; and he 
 turned to the book of minutes, which was in 
 proof, and told us there was no such resolution 
 entered in the minutes. On being pressed by 
 Mr. Barker, he admitted that the paper shown 
 him was in the handwriting of one of the di- 
 rectors, and had been approved of by several ; 
 and that he had no doubt it had been delivered 
 to Mr. Barker as a resolution of the board. He 
 further admitted that the two points reserved 
 were adjusted to the satisfaction of the board, 
 and Mr. Barker notified thereof; that Mr. Bar- 
 ker was willing to deliver the securities in con- 
 formity to the resolution; that he (Leavitt) 
 then called the board together, that all the di- 
 rectors except the president (David Leavitt) 
 voted in favor of receiviug the securities and 
 delivering up the Morris Canal stock agreeably 
 to their engagement with Mr. Barker ; that a 
 motion was then made to reconsider, which 
 prevailed ; and that a resolution was thereupon 
 unanimously passed rescinding the prior reso- 
 lution, and breaking off the negotiation. Thus 
 far Mr. Leavitt. Messrs. Jonathan Lawrence 
 and Richard M. Lawrence, two of the directors, 
 both testified that the unentered resolution 
 was unanimously passed on the i)th of August ; 
 that they and other directors delivered it to 
 Mr. Barker as the act of the board; that they 
 at the same time informed Mr. Barker that a 
 committee had been appointed to inquire as to 
 the two points reserved; that they did so, and 
 that those points being satisfactorily disposed 
 of, Mr. Barker was notified that the directors 
 would meet forthwith to consummate the ar- 
 rangement agreeably to the terms of the reso- 
 lution; that the boarddid accordingly meet, when, 
 to the astonishment of themselves and their 
 brother directors, Mr. Leavitt alone voted in the 
 negative ; whereupon, suspecting that he inten- 
 ded to cast upon them the responsibility of the 
 measure, one of them moved a reconsideration, 
 which passed, and which was followed up by a 
 a resolution rejecting the whole negotiation. 
 This, gentlemen, was the ' dying from his 
 agreement,' of which Mr. Leavitt spoke, and 
 which he falsely charged on Mr. Barker. 
 
 u You see that it was David Leavitt and not 
 Jacob Barker who broke faith on that occa- 
 sion ; and I confess to you I know not which is 
 most reprehensible, the audacity of Mr. Leavitt 
 in attempting to palm off this statement upon 
 you, or his treachery to his brother directors. 
 Look at it, gentlemen of the jury. He first 
 
 agrees to the unentered resolution of the 9th 
 of August. His brother directors, believing 
 that he is to share in the responsibility of the 
 measure, take the necessary steps to carry it 
 into effect — everything is* arranged in con- 
 formity with its terms — but at the last moment, 
 he alone, without deigning to assign reasons 
 for his conduct, interposes his veto. The mo- 
 tive was too palpable to be misunderstood. 
 Mr. Leavitt wanted a loophole through which 
 to crawl, in case the stockholders should com- 
 plain of the arrangement as improvident; con- 
 siderable excitement about the measure having 
 by this time been created out of doors among 
 the stockholders. In that event his protest 
 would enable him to say ' It was not I who did 
 it.' But Mr. Lawrence and the other directors 
 had too much sense and too much spirit to be 
 caught in the snare. They therefore broke off 
 the negotiation, and compelled Mr. Leavitt to 
 resume it in proper person. Ashamed to meet 
 Mr. Barker, he applies on the same day or the 
 next to Mr. Eckford, and wanting some excuse 
 for this step, he resorts to the pitiful expedient 
 of charging on Mr. Barker the failure of the 
 contemplated arrangement, and affects to be 
 unwilling to treat with him any longer. And 
 for the purpose probably of concealing the 
 facts, the original resolution was withheld from 
 the minutes, although, a copy was officially 
 served upon Mr. Barker, which ought not to 
 have been done until it had been recorded. 
 The rest you know." 
 
 [The cause went to the jury after a most 
 inflammatory speech on the part of the district 
 attorney, full of eloquence, full of sound rules 
 that ought to be observed in all well regulated 
 communities, but an entire misstatement of 
 the little testimony which he condescended to 
 notice, and, in fact, had scarcely any reference 
 to the case under consideration, but it had its 
 effect, and the jury could not agree. They 
 were equally divided, and having, at the com- 
 mencement, disagreed upon some cardinal 
 points, they, although kept together nearly a 
 week, never descended into particulars so as 
 to form an opinion how far any one individual 
 was, more than another, implicated in the mat- 
 ters submitted to them. They early commu- 
 nicated to the court that they could not, and 
 would not, agree, to which they adhered with 
 remarkable pertinacity, and were discharged at 
 the end of about a week.] 
 
 During the trial, Mr. Barker, in his cross-ex- 
 amination of David Leavitt, pressed him very 
 close. The district attorney interfered, and an 
 appeal was made to the court; it expressed great 
 dissatisfaction at the remarks made by Mr. 
 Barker to the witness, and said that when the 
 trial should terminate, he must appear and an- 
 swer for those expressions. 
 
 Accordingly, Mr. Barker, the moment the
 
 A NEW TRIAL. 
 
 175 
 
 jury were dismissed, without waiting to be called 
 to account, rose and stated that he presented 
 himself' before the court, in obedience to their 
 requisition, and was amenable to their directions 
 if they were still of the same opinion as to the 
 examination of David Leavitt. 
 
 Judge Edwards said thai the circumstances 
 had warranted the course pursued by the court; 
 Mr. Leavitt was on the stand, and a question 
 was put by Mr. Barker, of which the court re- 
 quired an explanation, as its relevancy was not 
 clearly perceived. 
 
 Mr. Barker said he intended to impeach the 
 witness : Mr. Leavitt then asked if he intended 
 that he should impeach himself? Mr. Barker 
 answered, that he had done so already, in his 
 opinion ; now, to the court, this declaration ap- 
 peared highly offensive, and a departure from 
 the respect due to the rights of the witness, and 
 to the dignity of the bench. 
 
 Mr. Barker disclaimed all intention of disre- 
 spect to the court; said that the recorded testi- 
 mony of Leavitt established that he had sworn 
 false, knowing it to be false ; that he could, by 
 other evidence prove it to be false, and that he 
 knew it when he gave his testimony ; that if the 
 court would permit the examination, if he 
 failed to establish these facts he would make 
 ample apology to Leavitt, but that he would not 
 make any apology to a man obnoxious to the 
 charges he made against Leavitt. 
 
 The court said, this examination cannot take 
 place, the question is not as to the accuracy of 
 Mr. Leavitt's testimony; the court will adjourn, 
 take the case into consideration, and meet to- 
 morrow morning, when they will decide what 
 atonement will be required. 
 
 The court adjourned, met the next morning, 
 the judge addressed Mr. Barker respecting the 
 grounds on which the displeasure of the court 
 had been founded, saying : The insult to Mr. 
 Leavitt could not be passed over ; the court is 
 satisfied that you did not intend any disrespect 
 to it, and yesterday you had an opportunity of 
 making satisfactory explanations in relation to 
 Mr. Leavitt, which you refused to do. 
 
 On the stand, you impeached him while 
 under the protection of the court, and for this 
 offence, you have, as far as the witness is con- 
 cerned, offered no atonement, but rather con- 
 firmed the accusation ; for this offence the 
 judgment of the court is, that you pay a fine of 
 
 one hundred dollars and stand committed until 
 the same is paid ; the smallness of the sum 
 arises from our having taken into consideration 
 the peculiar situation in which you were placed 
 when you made the objectionable declaration, 
 conducting your own defence, without the aid 
 of counsel. 
 
 Mr. Barker, smiling, turned to one of his 
 clerks who was in court, and said: "Go to 
 Wall street and bring me a hundred dollars in 
 those yellow bags." They were immediately 
 brought, and paid into court. 
 
 The day previous a ship arrived from Mexico 
 with two hundred thousand dollars in Mexican 
 doubloons, being a portion of the securities 
 pledged by Mr. Eckford for moneys borrowed 
 for the use of the Life and Fire Insurance 
 Company. 
 
 Elisha Williams, esq., in his speech to the 
 jury in defence of Mr. Eckford, stated that 
 "Leavitt had, by his own testimony, driven 
 the last nail in the coffin of his own reputa- 
 tion." 
 
 A second trial took place — that of Eckford 
 and Rathbone — being held over by the district 
 attorney, who then said they would be tried at 
 the proper time, and subsequently thi»t Rath- 
 bone had rendered the State some service, and 
 therefore he would not be tried ; that he was 
 regenerated but not disenthralled. 
 
 Observe, not "disenthralled ;" had he been 
 he could be examined as a witness ; and it is 
 not perceived what other reason could have 
 induced the district attorney to withhold a 
 nolle prosequi from a man who was not to be 
 tried, who had paid the price of his emancipa- 
 tion in the fraudulent use of those miserable 
 scraps, those " wooden daggers," in themselves 
 as harmless as the sweepings of a barber's 
 shop, with which the district attorney imagined 
 he could create a delusion, a mystery, operating 
 on the minds of the jury to Mr. Barker's 
 prejudice. 
 
 A new jury was empannelled, composed of 
 men many of whom were hostile to Mr. Barker 
 personally — one of their number a director in 
 the North River Bank, against whom he had 
 preferred the charge of fraud. Most of them 
 admitted, when challenged, that they were 
 prejudiced against the defendants in relation 
 to the matters to be tried ; yet they were ad- 
 mitted by the court as jurors in the case,
 
 176 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 although challenged and resisted by the de- 
 fendants to the utmost of their capacity. 
 
 After the evidence for the prosecution closed 
 Mr. Barker spoke thus : 
 
 " Gentlemen of the jury : I do not think you 
 are such a jury as was contemplated by the 
 framers of our happy Constitution, who pro- 
 , vided that every accused citizen should be 
 tried by an impartial jury; that men who had 
 prejudged the case, as most of you on oath 
 admitted you had done, cannot, in my opinion, 
 be legally considered an impartial jury. No 
 man on earth can be expected to admit that, 
 if he finds himself, by new testimony, in error, 
 he is not open to conviction ; if not, is it suffi- 
 cient for you to say, what every man might 
 say, that he considered himself equal to the 
 mighty task of conquering his own opinions 
 and rendering an honest verdict? All we 
 look after, when listening to testimony, is for 
 such things as will support and harmonize 
 with our previously expressed opinions, not 
 for an excuse for the conduct of the accused, 
 not for circumstances that will induce us to 
 give up unfavorable opinions formed, and to 
 reconcile affairs in themselves of doubtful ap- 
 pearance with fairness, with candor, and with 
 integrity. As lamentable as this is, I venture 
 to pronounce it a true picture of the human 
 mind. If you are in judgment of the law an 
 impartial jury, why are grand jurors and rela- 
 tions considered otherwise? 1 have taken a 
 juror's oath; I then considered my mind, as to 
 the case to be tried, like a clean sheet of paper, 
 ready to receive an entire new impression ; but 
 not so with yours. These defendants have a 
 twofold service to perform ; they have first to 
 remove a very deep impression already made 
 before there is any room for another ; the two 
 cannot exist at the same time, our duty is 
 therefore a very hard one. The law presumes 
 every individual innocent until he is proved 
 guilty. You have taken upon yourselves this 
 trial, presuming the defendants guilty ; you, 
 therefore, are at variance with the law. Now 
 it can never have been the intention for the 
 law and the jury to be at variance. I admit 
 the odds is vastly against us, and I feel thank- 
 ful that I have been favored with fortitude and 
 philosophy sufficient to come here and breast 
 the storm, unaided by counsel or friends. But 
 I come so strongly armed that I fear not ; my 
 shield is justice, through which not one of the 
 poisoned arrows of the conspirators could 
 penetrate — they have all fallen harmless at my 
 feet; I will pick them up and hurl them back 
 on my accusers. I took courage at the recol- 
 lection of those memorable words of our dying 
 naval hero, Lawrence: 'Don't give up the 
 ship' — words that should be written in letters 
 of gold, and placed in our public squares on 
 imperishable monuments, where all coming 
 ages may read them, and improve by their 
 courageous moral. 
 
 [•'Turning to the district attorney he request- 
 ed to see the wooden daggers furnished by Al- 
 derman Rathbone, describing the papers allud- 
 ed to. Two or three were furnished. I want 
 another of a deeper hue than either, said Mr. 
 Barker; when another was furnished.] This 
 is it on which I have written a memorandum, 
 which is as pure and harmless as the act of 
 furnishing it is vile. It is a contract, in the 
 handwriting of Alderman Rathbone, and dated 
 the 10th of May. It sets forth that Mr. Eck- 
 fbrd had borrowed from Messrs. Spencer and 
 Brown 2,000 shares Fulton Bank stock, in ex- 
 change for 2,500 shares stock in the Morris 
 Canal and Banking Company; promising to 
 exchange back, at his option, at any time prior 
 to the 1st of March next. This contract was 
 signed for H. E., W. P. R. ; and on its back is 
 a memorandum in my handwriting in these 
 words : ' As fast and in such proportions as 
 I deliver the Fulton Bank stock.' 
 
 " Nothing can be more harmless, more in- 
 nocent, than every part of the transaction, so 
 far as described in this agreement and in this 
 memorandum ; it is a simple exchange of 
 stock, an every day transaction. Nobody has, 
 nobody will dare to say that it was wrong ; but 
 if the stock had been fraudulently obtained, or 
 if the certificates were false, all parties to the 
 transaction who knew of such frauds, or either 
 of them, would be guilty. Now, as I knew 
 nothing- of either, and had not, at the time, the 
 slightest reason to suspect that anything was 
 wrong, there was no wrong on my part. Not 
 so with Rathbone ; he was a director in both 
 banks ; he procured the stock from the Morris 
 Canal ; he knew whether or not it had been 
 paid for ; and if the certificates were false he 
 knew it. The question that this memorandum 
 presents is, Was the memorandum to form a 
 part of the within contract, or is it a separate 
 contract, intended to be signed by some other 
 person ? The district attorney read the signa- 
 ture to the agreement Henry Eckford and 
 William P. Rathbone, and not for Henry Eck- 
 ford, William P. Rathbone, as he should have 
 done, which makes the memorandum 'I,' 
 being written in the singular, appear not to 
 belong to the contract; and, in the absence of 
 all proof, my handwriting is to be considered 
 as indicating a separate condition on my part, 
 connecting me with the whole transaction. 
 This error might have been to me fatal ; and 
 if I had not had the capacity or good fortune 
 to have detected it, I must have suffered. 
 
 I will now, gentlemen of the jury, unveil to 
 your view a nefarious attempt to sacrifice an 
 unoffending man. In the absence of Mr. Eck- 
 ford, Mr. Rathbone called at the office of the 
 Mercantile Insurance Company, and presented 
 to me this paper, drawn up by his own hand, 
 dated and signed before I saw it, and asked, as 
 the friend of Mr. Eckford, if its conditions 
 were clearly expressed. I suggested a slight 
 alteration. He requested me to reduce to
 
 DEFENCE ON THE NEW TRIAL. 
 
 177 
 
 writing the suggested alterations. Not sus- 
 pecting traps to be setting for me, I did so, on 
 the back of the agreement. Mr. Rathbone took 
 the paper with him from the office, since which 
 I have not seen or heard of it until produced 
 by the district attorney, which circumstance, 
 when taken in connexion with Mr. Rathbone's 
 being let off, forces on my mind the irresistible 
 conclusion, that he has furnished it for the 
 purpose of fixing on me a crime, of which he 
 knew, that I, at least, was not guilty. If 
 roguery there be in the transaction, he is the 
 rogue. W. P. Rathbone, I mean, gentlemen, 
 that man sitting there, [turning and pointing 
 at Rathbone,] to describe the enormity of 
 whose conduct requires powers far beyond my 
 capacity. Another of these notable papers is 
 a very rough memorandum, in the hand writing 
 of Brown, Spencer, Rathbone, and myself, 
 which seems to have reference to a negotiation 
 for a loan of $100,000, to support the Hudson 
 and the United States Lombard Companies, 
 which took place a few days before their fail- 
 ure; half of which it was expected would be 
 furnished by the Fulton bank, and the other 
 half by Messrs. Eckford and Barker. There 
 was nothing on this paper to connect Mr. Eck- 
 ford with this transaction, except the hand 
 writing of Mr. Rathbone, who was, at that time, 
 the partner of Mr. Eckford : and the only thing 
 to connect Mr. Barker with it was the last 
 memorandum on the paper, limiting the loan 
 to $1,000 per day, which was surely a prudent 
 precaution, as, if the intended object failed, the 
 obligation to loan would cease; and if the ob- 
 ject was obtained, the parties would benefit so 
 much by their collections during the hundred 
 days, that it would compensate them for their 
 great exertions to raise the $100,000. But so 
 far from the companies meeting their payments 
 as long as Napoleon reigned after his return 
 from Elba, they both failed within one week; 
 and although they got more than $17,000 of 
 the money, ten thousand times has it been al- 
 leged, to my prejudice, that they would not 
 have failed if I bad performed my promise. I 
 consider the production of this supposed dag- 
 ger, although intended for my destruction, a 
 most fortunate feature in the plot, as it frees 
 me, most triumphantly, from one charge; and, 
 although the last I knew of this paper it was in 
 the hands of Mr. Brown, I am not prepared to 
 believe that he furnished it ; and nothing can be 
 more honorable to Messrs. Spencer and Brown 
 than the part this negotiation locates on them. 
 The whole object, scope, and tendency, is to 
 borrow money on the best securities they held, 
 for the use of the companies under their man- 
 agement. The next in order is a memorandum 
 in my hand writing, purporting to be a con- 
 tract, dated the 21st day of July, written for 
 Messrs. Brown and Spencer to sign, for the 
 settlement of the contract of $G1,000 Fulton 
 Bank stock, which was not agreed to or signed 
 by either. The last I knew of this paper it 
 
 12 
 
 was in their hands. It is perfectly harmless 
 except as another evidence of the guilty con- 
 spiracy to destroy me. And now we come to 
 the fourth and last of these weapons of destruc- 
 tion: it is a plain contract for the purchase and 
 sale of six hundred and ten shares of Fulton 
 bank stock, dated the 21st of January, which 
 stock I held at the time. What possible use 
 of this contract the district attorney intends to 
 make I cannot image, and' therefore will not 
 remark on it. The last I knew of this paper 
 it was in the hands of Mr. Spencer. The par- 
 ties now on trial can, and I trust will, satisfac- 
 torily explain how they lost possession of them. 
 At present, I am inclined to believe that Rath- 
 bone either furnished or was instrumental in 
 furnishing them all; perhaps he borrowed them 
 for the purpose of negotiating for the exoner- 
 ation of a greater number of the defendants; 
 but as the district attorney could not have 
 found in them sufficient for their ransom, Rath- 
 bone, if my conjecture is right, converted the 
 whole to save himself. At these contrivances, 
 as at all my enemies, I boldly hurl defiance, 
 knowing that all the contrivances in the world 
 cannot convert innocence into guilt. Now, Mr. 
 District Attorney, if you have any more papers 
 that bear the mark of the finger of Jacob, let 
 him have them, that he may dispose of the 
 whole pack at the same time. 
 
 '•Gentlemen of the jury, the district attorney 
 took particular pains, in his opening speech, to 
 | draw down public indignation upon me. It was 
 J for the public and not you, as he has not fol- 
 | lowed up his most aggravated allegations with 
 I a particle of proof. For instance, he stated 
 j that within six months immediately preceding 
 the failure of the Life and Fire Insurance Com > - 
 ! pany, I had, as their agent, palmed off on the 
 j community their bonds to the amount of 
 $300,000, knowing them to be bad; thus lead- 
 ing every bondholder to suppose I had de- 
 frauded him of their amount, when it has been 
 proved, over and over again, that I never sold 
 a bond for the company; that I onlv sold 
 $10,000 worth, and that they belonged "to the 
 Mercantile and Western Insurance Companies, 
 and not to me or to the Life and Fire Company, 
 I and that of the person to whom I sold them I 
 j purchased a greater amount, and of others to a 
 vast amount. 
 
 "Not even an offer, on my part, to sell has 
 1 been proved, although he has unintentionally 
 | proved that I made vast purchases/' 
 
 The other testimony was much the same as 
 that adduced on the first trial, on which Mr 
 Barker remarked very much as he had then 
 done, insisting that the public prosecutor had 
 not established either of the charges made 
 against him, and that he was as free from 
 having done any wrong as a new born babe. 
 The case resulted unfavorablv.
 
 178 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 On the evening of that day, when sur- 
 rounded by his family and many sympathizing 
 friends, the bell announced another call, when 
 the servant brought a letter from a gentleman 
 of the first respectability, as follows: 
 
 Friday Evening, December 1, 7 o'clock. 
 
 Sir: This moment, the writer learns, from 
 Butler's Bulletin, that the jury have returned a 
 verdict of guilty in your trial, with others, for 
 a conspiracy, &c. 
 
 You will well know, from his signature, and 
 from his very slight acquaintance with you, 
 that he can have no interested motive in 
 addressing these lines to you. But he cannot 
 resist the impulse to say to you and your 
 family, in the hope of in some degree as- 
 suaging the feelings which this occurrence 
 must produce, that there is at least one wholly 
 disinterested observer of the recent proceed- 
 ings — who has given his best attention to the 
 published testimony in both trials — who be- 
 lieves that you are most unjustly given up in 
 this case as a victim to public prejudice. This 
 opinion he has uniformly expressed in conver- 
 sation, and will continue to do so, till cause 
 shall appear for changing his opinion. 
 
 "That individual is your obedient servant, 
 "JAMES BOORMAN. 
 
 "Jacob Barker, esq., present.". 
 
 In a very few days thereafter, he was pre- 
 sented with the proceedings of the directors of 
 the Insurance Companies with which he was 
 connected, as follows : 
 
 " Mercantile Insurance Comp., N. York, 
 
 " 12th month, ith, 1826. 
 " At a meeting of the directors of this com- 
 pany, on motion of Henry D. Sedgwick, esq., 
 it was this day unanimously resolved, that a 
 committee be appointed to investigate the books 
 and affairs of this company, and the conduct 
 of Jacob Barker thereto, as assistant president, 
 whereupon Benjamin Marshall, Francis Thomp- 
 son, and Robert IT. Bowne, were duly appoint- 
 ed to perform that service." 
 
 " 12th month, 6th, 1826. 
 
 u The board of directors again assembled, 
 when the aforesaid committee made the follow- 
 ing report: 
 
 "Report of the committee appointed by the 
 directors of the Mercantile Insurance Company 
 of New York, to examine the books and 
 effects of the company, to investigate the 
 conduct of Jacob Barker, in relation to the 
 performance of his duties as assistant president 
 of the said company, and whether or not any- 
 thing has occurred to diminish the confidence 
 reposed in him by the directors. 
 
 "Your committee have carefully examined 
 the situation of the books and accounts of the 
 company, as well as their securities and effects, 
 
 and report, that the books have been regularly 
 kept, and a balance sheet made out every 
 month for the inspection of the directors, 
 which, on a comparison with the books and 
 securities on hand, exhibits a correct and con- 
 cise view of the situation of the affairs of the 
 company, and that the conduct of Jacob Bar- 
 ker, throughout, has been marked with skill 
 and fidelity to the company, and in obtaining 
 payment for the debt due from the Life and 
 Fire Insurance Company, he did not, in the 
 opinion of this committee, do more than he 
 was bound to do in the faithful discharge of 
 the duties of his office. Your committee is of 
 opinion, that if he had done less, he would 
 have been wanting in his duty to the stock- 
 holders of this company ; and, so far as your 
 committee have been able to discover, nothing 
 has occurred to diminish the confidence hitherto 
 reposed in said Jacob Barker. That the Life 
 and Fire bonds sold by him on the 9th and 
 10th of June, as testified by John P. Garniss, 
 were the property of this company, sold for 
 their account, and the money received therefor 
 on those days. 
 
 "FRANCIS THOMPSON, 
 " BENJAMIN MARSHALL, 
 "ROBERT H. BOWNE. 
 
 " On reading the report of the committee 
 appointed to inquire into the conduct of Jacob 
 Barker — 
 
 " Resolved, unanimously, That we approve of 
 and accept the said report, and that the same 
 be entered on the book of miuutes of the board 
 of directors. 
 
 " Resolved, unanimously, That the secretary 
 of this company transmit a copy thereof, with 
 these resolutions, and of the resolution appoint- 
 ing the committee, to each of the stockholders 
 of this company, signed by the president and 
 secretary of this meeting. 
 
 " WILLIAM R. THURSTON, President. 
 
 " Thomas L. Wells, Secretary pro tern." 
 
 "Dutchess County Insurance Company, 
 
 "New York, December 6, 1826. 
 
 "At a meeting of the directors of this com- 
 pany, held at the company's office, this day — 
 
 "The committee appointed at the last meet- 
 ing to inquire into the conduct of Jacob Bar- 
 ker, as an officer of this company, and as to 
 the correctness of the reported indebtedness 
 of the Life and Fire Company to this company, 
 made the following report: 
 
 "The committee appointed to inquire into 
 the conduct of Jacob Barker, as an officer of 
 this company, respectfully report : That after 
 a careful examination of the published testi- 
 mony, given in the recent trials, and compar- 
 ing the same with all the information we could 
 obtain, and with our knowledge of the facts in 
 the case, we see no reason to withdraw from 
 Jacob Barker the confidence hitherto reposed 
 in him by the directors of this company : that
 
 RESOLUTIONS OP INSURANCE COMPANIES. 
 
 179 
 
 he appears always to have watched over the 
 interests of the stockholders with scrupulous 
 fidelity, and to have used his best exertions for 
 their interest; that the books of the company 
 have been always regularly posted, and a 
 monthly statement uniformly made for the in- 
 spection of the directors; and that the alleged 
 indebtedness of the Lite and Fire Company to 
 this company, as mentioned in the report pub- 
 lished in the newspapers of Judge Edwards' 
 charge to the jury on the late trial, probably 
 originated in mistake, as no such indebtedness 
 exists 
 
 "WILLIAM ISRAEL, 
 " ABRAHAM BELL, 
 "JOHN CLAPP. 
 
 u The above report being read : 
 
 " Resolved, unanimously, That the same be 
 adopted and entered on the minutes. 
 
 "Resolved, unanimously, That the confi- 
 dence of the directors of this company in 
 Jacob Barker, their assistant president, remains 
 undiminished. 
 
 "Resolved, That the president and secretary 
 be requested to sign the proceedings of this 
 meeting, and furnish Jacob Barker with a 
 copy thereof. 
 
 "A true copy from the minutes. 
 
 " STRONG STURGES, President. 
 
 "F. G. Halleck, Secretary" 
 
 "At a meeting of the board of directors of 
 the Western Insurance Company of the village 
 of Buffalo, held on the 7 th of December, 182G, 
 the annexed report was presented by the com- 
 mittee appointed at a previous meeting: 
 
 "Whereupon, it was 
 
 " Resolved, unanimously, That the same be 
 accepted, and that this board fully unite with 
 the said report. 
 
 "Resolved, unanimously, That a copy of 
 the same, and of these resolutions, signed by 
 the president and assistant secretary, on behalf 
 of this board, be presented to Jacob Barker. 
 " NATHAN COMSTOCK, President. 
 
 "A true copy from the minutes. 
 
 " Thomas J. Gardner, 
 Assistant Secretary." 
 
 "The undersigned, a committee appointed 
 at a meeting of the directors of the Western 
 Insurance Company of the village of Buffalo, 
 to investigate the conduct of Jacob Barker, 
 the assistant president of the said company, 
 respectfully report : 
 
 "That his agency in the management of the 
 affairs of this company is marked with fidelity, 
 and his unremitting exertions for the interest 
 of the institution entitles him to the unabated 
 confidence of the stockholders, and is attend- 
 ed with no circumstances calculated to excite 
 a suspicion of that honesty which should char- 
 acterize mercantile transactions, nor should 
 
 this confidence be diminished in the estimation 
 of your company by the recent investigation 
 before the Court of Oyer and Terminer. 
 
 "Your committee find that eight hundred 
 shares of the stock of the Tradesmen's Bank 
 were transferred to Beth Stnrtevant, a clerk of 
 this company, on or about the 12th of July 
 last, on which a loan was made by Jacob Bar- 
 ker, as an officer of this company, to the Life 
 and Fire Insurance Company, on or about the 
 14th of July, and that this stock was re trans- 
 ferred on the conveyance of a mortgage of 
 Thomas Gibbons, received on the 17th July 
 last. 
 
 "The manner in which the books and ac- 
 counts of the Western Insurance Company 
 have been kept is, on examination, found to 
 be highly satisfactory. The monthly exhibit 
 of a balance sheet, which your committee find 
 to be regularly recorded, presents a full and 
 correct view of the affairs of the company, and 
 has always been open to the inspection of 
 every director. 
 
 "Respectfully submitted by 
 
 "THOMAS RICH, 
 "JOHN C. MERRITT, 
 "JOHN S. CONGER, 
 "P. W. ENGS." 
 Mr. Barker was so confident that when his 
 case should come before any tribunal beyond 
 the influence which had been exerted in the 
 city of New York for his destruction, that his 
 freedom from offence would be manifest, and 
 that the illegal verdict would be instantly set 
 aside, that it never gave him a moment's un- 
 easiness. Many of his friends were very much 
 alarmed, to all of whom he said: " Be of good 
 cheer, there is no danger." Application was 
 immediately made to the Hon. John Wood- 
 worth, judge of the Supreme Court, for relief, 
 who decided as follows : 
 
 JUDGE WOODWORTH'S OPINION. 
 Thomas Vermilyea and others, ] 
 ads in. > 
 
 The People. ) 
 
 "The defendants were convicted at a Court 
 of Oyer aud Terminer, held in the city of New 
 Y'ork, of a conspiracy to defraud certain i; 
 porated companies and individuals of their 
 goods, chattels, and effects. Application is 
 now made for the allowance of a certiorari, to 
 remove the record and proceedings into the 
 Supreme Court, for the purpose of reviewing 
 the decision of the court below, on a challi 
 taken to some of the jurors, and also on the 
 ground of fatal variance between the proof 
 offered at the trial and the charges contain* i 
 in the indictment. As to the latter, I will 
 merely observe that a certiorari removes the 
 record only ; and as the evidence produced on 
 the trial forms no part of the record, the writ
 
 180 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 would be a nugatory process. In criminal 
 cases, where questions of law arise at the trial, 
 either as to the admission of testimony, or its 
 legal effect when admitted, if doubts are en- 
 tertained, the facts are brought before this 
 court in the form of a report, or case agreed 
 on; if the objections afford reasonable ground 
 for doubt, the presumption is, that judgment 
 would be suspended until the opinion of the 
 superior court be known. As far as I know, 
 questions of this description have always been 
 submitted to the Supreme Court in that man- 
 ner. The experience of half a century has not 
 called for any legislative provision to varv this 
 course, or practice, or am I aware that com- 
 plaints have ever been made, that the exercise 
 of this discretion has been rigorous as respects 
 the accused. On the contrary, it will be found 
 that the cases from inferior tribunals, which 
 have been reviewed, furnish no inconsiderable 
 evidence of the solicitude and tenderness of 
 our courts in allowing even to the greatest cul- 
 prits the benefit of every legal objection. 
 
 "If, however, in any given case, the inferior 
 court should erroneously refuse to interfere, it 
 would afford no ground for a certiorari, be- 
 cause the remedy does not apply to, or reach 
 the error sought to be corrected. 
 
 " If a bill of exceptions would lie in a crimi- 
 nal case, the difficulty would be removed, but it 
 is well settled that it does not. 
 
 "With respect to the admission of the jurors, 
 I will confine my observations to the case of 
 Andrew S. Norwood. From the affidavits and 
 certificates of the clerk, it appears that Mr. 
 Norwood was challenged for principal cause, 
 and the decision of the challenge referred to 
 the court, without any objection on the part of 
 the district attorney. The specific ground of 
 the challenge was not in the first instance 
 stated. The juror testified that he had heard 
 all the evidence given on the former trial, hav- 
 ing been present at it; that he had made up his 
 opinion perfectly on the evidence that the de- 
 fendants were all guilty, and had frequently 
 expressed his opinion to that effect; upon being 
 inquired of by the district attorney, he stated 
 that he felt no bias or partiality against any of 
 the defendants; that if the testimony given on 
 this trial should appear as it did on the former, 
 be should certainly fiud the defendants all 
 guilty, and added, that he thought he felt com- 
 petent to give a verdict according to bis oath 
 and the evidence as it should appear. 
 
 " The court decided that the juror stood in- 
 different, and that the challenge was not true ; 
 he was accordingly sworn and sat on the trial. 
 
 " On this evidence two questions arise, first, 
 whetherthe challengeforms a part of the record 
 so as to be the subject of removal by certio- 
 rari? Second, whether the exception to the 
 juror was well taken? 
 
 " The first question depends on this, do the 
 facts constitute a principal cause of challenge? 
 This arises when there is a manifest presump- 
 
 tion of partiality; in that case it excludes the 
 juror; but a challenge to the favor, where the 
 partiality is not apparent, must be left to the 
 discretion of triers. The facts relied on gen- 
 erally consist of slight circumstances, respect- 
 ing which the law has not laid down any cer- 
 tain rule; in such cases the judgment of the 
 triers is conclusive. The question arising on 
 such a challenge is altogether extrinsic of the 
 record. Evidence may be reviewed in a supe- 
 rior court by a demurrer, or bill of exceptions; 
 but neither applies to evidence in support of a 
 challenge for favor. 
 
 " The next inquiry is, whether a principal 
 cause of challenge may become parcel of the 
 record, and under what circumstances? If it 
 cannot in any case, it is unnecessary to con- 
 sider the objection taken to the juror. 
 
 "It is laid down in 3 Bac. 766, that 'if a 
 challenge be taken and the other side demur, 
 and it be debated, and the judge overrules it, 
 it is entered upon the original record; and if 
 at Nisi Prius, it appears upon the pestea what 
 the judge hath done, but if the judge overruled 
 the challenge upon debate without a demurrer, 
 then it is proper for a bill of exceptions.' Chitty 
 I. v. 548, recognizes the same doctrine, he re- 
 fers to Skin. 101, and Hut. 24, it is also said 
 p. 549, that if a demurrer be resolved on either 
 to the array or to the polls, there is no occasion 
 for those circumstances which must attend a 
 demurrer to a plea, such as the signature of 
 counsel, but it is good as soon as agreed on at 
 the bar, and the prothonotaries ought of right 
 to enter it on the record. These cases suppose 
 a principal cause of challenge, and establish 
 the proposition, that where the facts alleged as 
 cause of challenge are not disputed, the ques- 
 tion is decided summarily by the court. On 
 the argument before me, the attorney general 
 conceded the law to be, that if the challenge 
 was good for principal cause, and the other 
 party demurred, it became parcel of the record 
 and might be removed; he contended, however, 
 that this was not a challenge of that descrip- 
 tion, that the facts made out a challenge for 
 favor, and that the judge was substituted in the 
 place of triers by consent of parties, and con- 
 sequently that the question was to be viewed 
 in the same manner as if it had been actually 
 decided by the latter. 
 
 "If it should turn out that the defendants 
 have not established a principle cause of chal- 
 lenge the argument is well founded. The real 
 difficulty, if any exists, is in ascertaining 
 whether the public prosecutor is to be con- 
 sidered as having demurred to the challenge. 
 The proceedings in this stage were somewhat 
 informal. The more regular course would have 
 been to have stated in the first instance the 
 facts relied on for cause; the prosecution would 
 then, probably, have elected to plead or demur. 
 It seems, however, that the juror was challenged 
 withour specifying the cause, and the question 
 referred to the court. What was referred to
 
 OPINION OF JUDGE WOODWORTII. 
 
 181 
 
 the court? The juror was examined; there 
 was no dispute about facts; when that happens 
 in the case of a principle challenge, as well as 
 in that for favor, triers are appointed. The 
 court were called upon to pronounce the law 
 to decide whether the facts made out a princi- 
 ple cause of challenge; or, in other words, 
 whether they are sufficient to exclude the juror. 
 I admit, if the facts were only proper to be 
 submitted to triers, in support of a challenge 
 for favor, the defendants are concluded by the 
 decision of the judge ; but if per se they formed 
 a principle cause they may avail themselves as 
 such. A demurrer is an admission of the fact, 
 submitting the law arising on that fact to the 
 court. On a demurrer to a challenge no strict 
 technical form seems to be required. Have 
 not both parties conceded that the testimony of 
 the juror was true? And have they not called 
 on the court to declare the law arisinjr on that 
 testimony? Will it be denied that this is in | 
 substance a demurrer? Or will it be gravely | 
 contended that because the party may not I 
 have said in terms he demurred to the chal- ' 
 lenge, but submitted to the court whether it 
 was sufficient in point of law, that therefore a 
 substantial difference exists between the two 
 cases — that the one shall be entered on the 
 record and shall be subject to review, while the 
 other is final and conclusive? I cannot per- 
 suade myself that the rights of any party are 
 held by such a tenure, and, particularly, in a 
 criminal case where there is no remedy by bill 
 of exceptions. I am, therefore, of opinion that 
 the judge having been called upon to decide 
 whether the challenge was valid in law, it is 
 in substance the same as if the party had de- 
 murred in express terms. If viewed in the 
 light of a demurrer, it becomes parcel of the 
 record, and is liable to be removed by certiorari. 
 That the counsel for the defendants considered 
 the decision on the challenges as subject to the 
 revision of a superior tribunal, and did all that 
 was deemed necessary to secure that right, is 
 apparent from the fact alledged in the affidavit 
 of Mr. Hoyt, who says that the defendants' coun- 
 sel requested the court to take down the testi- 
 mony as to the competency of the jurors, in 
 order to give the parties the benefit ot review- 
 ing the decision, and that the presiding judge 
 upon such request read over the notes of evi- 
 dence, and corrected the same in some particu- 
 lars on the suggestion of the defendants' coun- 
 sel. It is, however, contended that this case 
 falls within that part of the doctrine laid down 
 by Chitty and Bacon, where it is said that if 
 the challenge is overruled without demurrer, 
 on being debated, the objection may afterwards 
 be made the subject of a bill of exceptions ; 
 and as no bill was taken, the decision could 
 not be brought before the Supreme Court 
 unless by consent. It seems to me this rule 
 does not apply in criminal cases. Whether 
 the counsel demurs to the challenge, or merely 
 argues that it is not good in law, creates no 
 
 material distinction. If the distinction was 
 ever entertained in the English courts it must 
 have been founded on a belief that a bill of 
 exceptions would lie. But if it be a couceeded 
 point that no bill of exceptions will lie, I think 
 it goes far to show thai the rule laid down is not 
 applicable to criminal but civil cases. J have 
 traced the doctrine to its source by examining 
 the cases laid down by Chitty. Thev are to be 
 found in Skinner 101, Hut. 24. The case from 
 Skinner was decided 36 Charles II, between the 
 king and the city of Worcester. It was an itiior- 
 mation in the nature of a quo warranto. The case 
 states that the counsel for the city of Worces- 
 ter came with their bill of exceptions; they 
 challenged the array because the venire was 
 returned as by both the coroners, when, in 
 truth, but one of them returned it. They like- 
 wise challenged the polls, for want of freehold, 
 which was overruled. No question was raised 
 whether a bill of exceptions would lie. Saun- 
 ders, chief justice, said if the judge overruled 
 the challenge upon debate without a demurrer, 
 then it is proper for a bill of exceptions. There 
 are several answers to this case if pressed on 
 this application. The case in Skinner was not 
 strictly a criminal proceeding. Informations 
 at the common law partook of the nature of a 
 civil remedy. and in modern times are considered 
 as a civil remedy only. It must, I apprehend, have 
 been so considered by the court, otherwise a bill 
 of exceptions would not have been Suggested. 
 This is evident from the fact, that prior to the 
 35th of Charles II, the judges in England hud 
 expressed an opinion on this point. 
 
 " In the cases of Sir Henry Vane, reported 
 in Keelyn 15, 2 St. Tri. 443, 11 Cat. 2, a con- 
 struction is given to the statute, and held by 
 all the judges, that the statute of W. 2 C. 31, 
 which gives the bill of exceptions, extends only 
 to civil causes and not to criminal. Keelyn 
 states that the court agreed, the words of the 
 statute are as plain to this point. So, also, 1 
 Keb. 324, where the same case is reported, the 
 judges observe a bill of exceptions is not within 
 the statute, or ever heard of, the statute not ex- 
 tending to any indictment. This case having 
 been decided before the case of Skinner, it is 
 manifest the court had no reference to criminal 
 proceedings when speaking of a bill of excep- 
 tions as applicable to a challenge disposed of 
 
 without demurrer. As a civil remedy, it may, 
 undoubtedly, be pursued if there is no demur- 
 rer to the challenge in form ; bul even then, in 
 a civil case, its necessity maj well be ques- 
 tioned, as will present!; be shown. The 
 then leaves the principle untouched, that where 
 the jm.Ij- decides the law on ■ principal chal- 
 lenge, whether arising on demurrer or by a 
 submission of the question, an entry is made 
 on the record, which may be reviewed. 
 
 '• The decision in Skinner, upon which Chitty 
 
 and Bacon rest, is an authority to prove there 
 
 ; is a remedy where a L r '">d cause ofcballi uge is 
 
 overruled; it is au admission of this principle.
 
 182 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 The public prosecutor cannot be compelled to 
 demur; shall his refusal or omission deprive 
 the accused of a right ? can the right depend 
 on such a contingency? I think not. In ac- 
 cordance with this view of the subject, it seems 
 to me the case of Hesketh vs. Braddock, 3 Bur- 
 rows, 1347, decided on a writ of error, pro- 
 ceeded. The record states that the defendant 
 challenged the array, to which the plaintiff ds- 
 murred; the challenge was disallowed. The 
 defendant then ore terms, in open court, chal- 
 lenged the polls, because the jurors were citi- 
 zens and freemen of the city of Chester ; the 
 challenge was disallowed, and thereupon tho 
 issue was tried, and a verdict found for the 
 plaintiff. The Court of King's Bench consid- 
 ered the validity of the challenge, and passed 
 upon it, as parcel of the record ; there was no 
 suggestion by the court or counsel that the 
 challenge to the polls was improperly brought 
 up; the challenge to the polls was not demur- 
 red to, but it was disallowed. On what prin- 
 ciple did it become a part of the record? Mani- 
 festly because the decisions of the court upon 
 it was substantially the same as if a demurrer 
 had been filed in form. 
 
 " In 3 Woodesen, 357 N. in the form of the 
 record in the case from Burrow is given. The 
 challenge to the polls is thus entered: 'And 
 hereupon the said S. B. oreienus, in open court 
 challengeth the polls, because he says that the 
 jurors are citizens and freemen of the city of 
 Chester ; which said challenge by the court 
 here is disallowed.' Professor Woodeson states 
 that the challenge ore tenus was omitted in the 
 first engrossment of the record ; that the de- 
 fendant alleged diminution ; and that it was 
 then inserted by rule. The case sanctions the 
 doctrines contended for by the defendant's 
 counsel, that the challenge may be removed as 
 parcel of the record, provided it was a principal 
 cause of challenge. 
 
 " The only remaining question is, whether 
 the facts stated by the juror constituted a prin- 
 cipal cause of challenge. 
 
 " It will not be denied, that every man, 
 whether in a civil or criminal case, is entitled 
 to an impartial jury. Though our constitution 
 merely preserves the trial by jury inviolate for- 
 ever, and does not in express terms guarantee 
 an impartial jury, yet ex vi termini, it is em- 
 braced in its provisions, as much so, as that the 
 judges shall be impartial men. The same gen- 
 eral principle is adopted by the English law ; 
 the only question is as to the application of 
 that principle. Can a juror be impartial or in- 
 different to the question, who from a knowledge 
 of the facts, confesses that he has made up his 
 mind that the accused are guilty? It is a fal- 
 lacy to suppose such a man stands impartial, 
 merelv because he has no malice or ill-will 
 against the defendant. This doctrine, however, 
 has been strenuously urged, and cases have 
 been cited, to show that the law is so under- 
 stood in England. 
 
 "The case of the King vs. Edmunds and 
 others, 4 Barn, and Al. 170, Chief Justice Ab- 
 bot observes, that expressions used by a jury- 
 man are not a cause of challenge, unless they 
 are to be referred to something of personal ill- 
 will towards the party challenging. He relies 
 on the doctrine laid down in the year books, 7 
 Hen. 6, fol. 25, where Babington, justice, says, 
 ' if the juror has said he will pass with the one 
 party, for the knowledge he has of the matter, 
 and of the truth, he is indifferent ; but if he has 
 said so for any affection of the party, he is 
 favorable.' Hawkins, B. 2, ch. 43, S. 28, is 
 also referred to. He observes, 'that it hath 
 been allowed a good cause of challenge, that 
 the juror hath declared his opinion before band, 
 that the party is guilty, or w '. be 1 \nged, or 
 the like.' Hawkins adds, ' Yet it Laih been 
 adjudged that if it shall appear that the juror 
 made such declaration from his knowledge of 
 the cause, and not out of any ill-wil to the 
 party, it is no cause of challenge. The opin- 
 ion of the Court of Kind's Bench, in Barn, and 
 Al. rests on these ancient authorities ; it does 
 not profess to consider the soundness of the 
 doctrine advanced. Now, admitting the law 
 had been so applied at an early day, when the 
 prisoner did not possess even the right of pro- 
 ducing testimony, I apprehend that after the 
 lapse of centuries, when the rights of parties 
 are better understood, and have been more ac- 
 curately defined, it would not be presumption 
 to inquire whether the common law relative to 
 the right of challenge, had not, in this instance, 
 been misapplied ; or whether it was cons stent 
 with the law as laid down by Lord Coke, B. 2, 
 155 a., who says, 'The rule of law is, that the 
 juror must stand indifferent as he stands un- 
 sworn.' It seems to be admitted in some of the 
 old cases, that an opinion formed and expressed, 
 is good cause of challenge. Upon what is this 
 founded? On the supposition that it creates a 
 basis. All experience goes to prove the infir- 
 mity of human nature is such, that we cannot, 
 at pleasure, get rid of preconceived opinions. 
 The question is not how great is the bias, but 
 does any exist? The least is sufficient to ex- 
 clude. Can the source from whence it is de- 
 rived be material? As to the accused, it is the 
 same thing, whether the bias proceeds from a 
 preconceived opinion, or malice and ill-will ; 
 be it either, he is equally affected. Why then 
 superadd the necessity of proving malice or 
 ill-will? Without it, the parties do not contend 
 on equal ground, by requiring it to be proved 
 in order to exclude the juror, it only shows the 
 disparity to be greater. If the question was 
 entirely novel, I should think our courts would 
 incline to take a different view of the question. 
 But it has occurred here and has been well 
 considered. The Supreme Court decided in 
 the case of Blake vs. Millspaugh, J. John. 316, 
 it was good cause of challenge to a juror, 
 that he had previously given his opinion on the 
 question in controversy between the parties.
 
 OPINION OF JUDGE WOODTVORTH. 
 
 183 
 
 The case of Durree vs. Mosher, 8 John. 445, is 
 not contradictory; there the juror said, if the 
 reports of the neighbors were correct, the de- 
 fendant was wrong and the plaintiff was right ; 
 no definite opinion was expressed or formed — 
 the court so adjudged, and observed that the 
 declaration was hypothetical. It is no more 
 than saying, if the defendant has done an ille- 
 gal ac f , let him answer for it, which is no evi- 
 dence of partiality. In the case of Pringle vs. 
 Huse, 1 Cowan, 4H2, a juror was challenged for 
 having expressed an opinion against the plain- 
 tiff; it was held that this was a principal cause 
 of challenge, and should be tried by the court, 
 and that the juror challenged may be called as 
 a witness. In the case of Coleman vs. Hager- 
 man, the- same principle was adopted by the 
 Supreme Court. The late chief justice Spen- 
 cer has furnished me with a manuscript opinion 
 of his in that cause. It was an action for an 
 assault 'uid battery of an aggravated character; 
 the verdict was for four thousand dollars dam- 
 ages. The grounds of the motion were that 
 Graham, one of the jury, had made use of lan- 
 guage indicating an opinion that the defendant 
 ought to be exemplarily punished. It appeared 
 that Graham was wholly unacquainted with the 
 parties until after the trial; and that the opin- 
 ions expressed by him were founded on news- 
 paper publications. He swore that he had no 
 bias against, or partiality for either of the par- 
 ties, and personally knew nothing of the assault 
 and battery complained of; yet the court unani- 
 mously awarded a new trial, on the ground 
 that Graham did not stand indifferent in con- 
 sequence of the opinions he had expressed. In 
 the manuscript opinion referred to, the late 
 chief justice stated the principles adopted by 
 him, on the then recent trial of Van Anstyne, 
 for the murder of Huddlestone. It was thus : 
 if a person had formed or expressed an opinion 
 for or against the prisoner on the knowledge of 
 any of the facts attending the murder, or from 
 information of those acquainted with the facts, 
 he considered it good cause of challenge ; hut 
 if the opinions of the jurors were formed on 
 mere rumors and report, he decided that such 
 opinions did not disqualify the jurors; and as I 
 understood, the opinions delivered on that 
 solemn occasion met the decided approbation 
 of the Supreme Court. 
 
 " The principle upon which these cases were 
 decided was, that any opinirn formed and ex- 
 pressed by a juror is of itself evidence that he 
 did not stand indifferent between the parties. 
 I do not perceive how the case before me can 
 be distinguished. On the trial of Fries for 
 treason, before Judge Iredell, on an application 
 for a new trial, one question was as to the com- 
 petency of a juror who had expressed himself 
 in strong terms as to the prisoner's guilt. That 
 learned judge put the question on this ground, 
 that when a predetermined opinion is formed, 
 from whatever motives, it creates an improper 
 bias extremely difficult to get rid of, and may 
 
 influence an honest man unwarily to give a 
 wrong verdict; that he becomes less able to 
 discriminate facts. The reasoning of Chief 
 
 Justice Marshall, on the trial of Colonel Ban*, 
 (vol. 1, pp. 370, 419,) is directly in point. He 
 has shown in the most satisfactory manner that 
 a juror who has given his opinion cannot be 
 considered impartial; that the natural tenden- 
 cy of preconceived opinions in a juror is to ob- 
 struct the impartial administration of justice. 
 He asks why a distant relative, or he who ha3 
 prejudices, cannot serve on a jury? Became 
 he is presumed to have a bias. He may de- 
 clare that, notwithstanding, he is determined 
 to listen to the evidence and be goven ed by it; 
 but the law will not trust him. The chief jus- 
 tice observes: 'Is there less reason to suspect 
 him who has prejudged the case, and deliberate- 
 ly formed and delivered an opinion upon it? 
 The law suspects him, and not without reason, 
 he will listen with more favor to that testimony 
 which confirms, than to that which would 
 change his opinion. It is not to be expected 
 that he will weigh evidence or argument as 
 fairly as a man whose judgment is not made 
 up in the case.' These enlightened views place 
 the question upon the true ground ; not whe- 
 ther the juror feels resentment or ill-will, but 
 whether, for any cause, he has a bias on his 
 mind that may disqualify him from deciding 
 with strict impartiality. I entirely concur in 
 the reasoning of that case as containing a 
 luminous exposition of the ground upon which 
 the rule is founded. 
 
 u The result of my opinion is, that enough has 
 been shown to render the decision in the court 
 below questionable ; that the challenge forms a 
 part of the record; and that the defendants are 
 entitled to the allowance of a certiorari." 
 
 The reader of the preceding pages will have 
 no difficulty in discovering that the bone of 
 contention in the conspiracy against Mr. Bar" 
 ker has, in addition to the efforts of the guilty 
 to escape by creating suspicions against the in- 
 nocent, been the securities received from the 
 Life and Fire Company. 
 
 A conspiracy was formed, immediately after 
 the first trial, by a portion of the accused and 
 others connected with the incorporations inqnes- 
 tion, in which transactions Mr. Barker had no 
 part or lot, to shield the innocent and make 
 Mr. Barker answerable for the errors of the 
 guilty. This conspiracy was in part concocted 
 at the house of Josiah Baden. Maxwell there 
 met many of the untried individuals, who were 
 made to understand that, if Jacob Barker could 
 be convicted, Maxwell would be satisfied to let 
 the others off. Mr. Barker, having obtained 
 what he considered sufficient evidence of that 
 conspiracy, went before the grand jury and
 
 184 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 made a formal complaint against some of the 
 parties ; it was near the close of the session of 
 the "rand jury, so that they had no time to 
 investigate the matter. On receiviug notice of 
 this fact, Mr. Barker repaired again to the jury 
 room and requested a return of his proofs; 
 Maxwell appearing before them resisted his 
 application, demanding to have the papers 
 delivered to him; Mr. Barker objected, sa)ing 
 to the grand jury that, if they allowed Maxwell 
 to have them, he would not allow him the use 
 of them on his trial ; that his object was to 
 protect others at his expense. The grand jury 
 offered to return them to Mr. Barker if he 
 would withdraw his complaint; this he refused 
 to do, when Maxwell insisted on their being 
 filed in court, to be handed to the next grand 
 jury as unfinished business, pledging himself 
 that Mr. Barker should have the benefit of 
 them on his trial : whereupon they filed them 
 in court, to be presented to the next grand 
 jury. 
 
 Maxwell followed the grand jury into court 
 the moment they had delivered the papers to 
 the clerk ; he took up the bundle, selected 
 therefrom six letters from Mr. Eckford to Mr. 
 Barker, and attempted to leave the court. 
 Mr. Hatfield, the clerk, called him back before 
 he reached the door, that he might take a 
 memorandum of the papers he was about car- 
 rying off. He did so ; and these letters were 
 never thereafter seen by the court, nor by Mr. 
 Barker, or by the clerk of the court, until after 
 the whole proceedings had been dismissed. 
 
 So sacred have the files of the court hereto- 
 fore been considered, that papers once placed 
 there could not be obtained for the use of any 
 other court, except brought by its authority, 
 and then always accompanied by the clerk, 
 their legal guardian. 
 
 Pending the negotiation between Maxwell 
 and the conspirators to let them off if they 
 would furnish evidence to convict Jacob Bar- 
 ker, a lady called at Mr. Barker's house in the 
 night and informed him that she had overheard 
 a conversation of these men, or some of them, 
 when it was stated that they must destroy Mr. 
 Barker or he would destroy them. 
 
 The judge having made many errors in 
 stating the evidence to the jury, and Maxwell's 
 published speech being calculated to mislead, 
 Mr. Barker, knowing himself to be innocent, 
 
 reviewed the case, and made some remarks 
 about his previous difficulties with one of the 
 jury, and about the manner in which they 
 were drawn, which the district attorney de- 
 nominated libels and brought two suits there- 
 for. On the trial the ruling of the recorder 
 was such that Mr. Barker took exceptions 
 thereto, the recorder promising to give him an 
 opportunity to have the case reviewed by the 
 Supreme Court ; in consequence of which, 
 relying on the soundness of his exceptions, he 
 refused to sum up. 
 
 The jury, under an illegal charge from the 
 recorder, sustained the complaint. 
 
 Mr. Barker made the necessary statement to 
 have the case reviewed by the Supreme Court; 
 the recorder promised to consider it during the 
 coming vacation. Relying on this promise, 
 and that judgment would consequently be de- 
 ferred until the decision of the Supreme Court, 
 Mr. Barker made no preparation to meet the 
 case sooner. 
 
 On the last day of the term, when but for 
 the aforesaid arrangement it would have been 
 regular for judgment to have been pronounced, 
 the recorder, on going into court, met Dudley 
 Selden, esq., the friend of Mr. Barker, and 
 informed him that, if he had anything to say 
 on the subject of his case, it must be said 
 before one o'clock that day. Mr. Barker was 
 notified thereof, and hastened to the court for 
 the purpose of remonstrating. On his way 
 thither he had the good fortune to meet his 
 friend, Thomas Addis Emmett, esq., who ac- 
 companied him to the court and made the 
 following speech : 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM MR. EMMETT's SPEECH. 
 
 "Under any other circumstances I should 
 consider an apology due from me for the unpre- 
 pared state in which I undertake to discuss the 
 questions now before the court. It was not 
 until after the opening of the court this clay 
 that I was retained as counsel in this case; 
 and the circumstances of this trial, connected 
 with the facts set forth in the affidavit read to 
 the court, induced me to believe that au argu- 
 ment would not now be required. 
 
 "Although unprepared, I hope, from general 
 reasoning upon the law of libel, to be able to 
 satisfy the court that they ought not to suffer 
 sentence to pass against the defendant. The 
 argument I am about to offer to the court I can 
 present with the more confidence, from being 
 able to say, that when I read the testimony and 
 proceedings on this trial in the public news-
 
 EXTRACTS FROM MR. EMMETT'S SPEECH. 
 
 185 
 
 papers, and before I was engaged in, or could 
 have anticipated any connexion with this 
 cause, when it passed under my review merely as 
 a common observer, noting it among the occur- 
 rences of the day, I was surprised at the law 
 laid down in the course of the trial, and seri- 
 ously doubted its accuracy. 
 
 ''Setting aside the particular facts of this 
 case, it seems to me that a rule has been laid 
 down by this court which is matter of vast 
 public concern, and which it behooves us all to 
 examine well, if we would sustain the liberty of 
 the press, and give full and proper scope to the 
 freedom of discussion. 
 
 "I need not tell the court that I allude to 
 that rale wherein they have said that malice is 
 not a constituent part of the offence to be 
 passed upon by the jury; and wherein they 
 have also said, that unless the defendant can 
 prove the truth of the libel, proof of the motive 
 with which he published it is not to be ad- 
 dressed to the jury, but to the court in mitiga- 
 tion of punishment, after the verdict has been 
 rendered. 
 
 "Can this be law? In a civil action for a 
 libel, malice is the gist of the offence, either to 
 be inferred from the libel itself, or proved from 
 extraueous facts. Much more so in an indict- 
 ment. I scarcely know — indeed, I may say, 
 there is not in the whole range of criminal law 
 a case, except where an act has been created 
 a positive offence by statute, where the motives 
 of the defendant do not become the subject of 
 proof before the jury. In murder there must 
 be predetermined malice proved or inferred. 
 Even in manslaughter accidental killing is not 
 enough — there must be proof of sudden passion, 
 or death arising from an intentional wrong of 
 some kind. 
 
 "Let me not be understood that the prosecu- 
 tor must prove malice apart from the libel. The 
 doubt which may arise relative to the propo- 
 sition which I have laid down is not on account 
 of any defect in the proposition, but in the in- 
 troduction and application of testimony. Thus, 
 in murder, when it is proved that one man 
 killed another, the jury may infer from proof 
 of the fact and manner of killing, that it was 
 done maliciously, but it will not be urged that the 
 party charged cannot show it was done in self 
 defence. So in libel, the jury may infer from 
 reading the libel itself that the motive of the 
 publication was malicious, and they ought so to 
 infer when it calumniates character without 
 cause and without excuse — yet still the pub- 
 lisher may show from other parts of the pub- 
 lication, and from extrinsic facts, that the pub- 
 lication was without malice and for justifiable 
 cause. 
 
 "It may, perhaps, be said that malice is a 
 questiua of law and not of fact. To a certain 
 extent high authorities may be produced to 
 support and contradict that position, but only 
 to a certain extent; for I believe it never has 
 been maintained except where the defendaut 
 
 has offered no evidence to establish a justifying 
 excuse. Where he baa offered any, that, and 
 with that, the whole matter must be submitted 
 
 to the jury. But as it is unnecessary to discuss 
 that, point, I shall content mj8elf with saving 
 that 1 think the judges who have consid( r 1 
 malice under any circumstances as an inference 
 of law, have confounded prima fad presump- 
 tions from uncontradicted and unexplained 
 testimony, and therefore conclusive presump- 
 tions from evidence, with legal inferences^ I 
 do not believe that malicious intention is 
 properly a presumption of law, either in civil 
 or criminal cases; but even if it be, that can 
 make no difference in criminal prosecutions, 
 wherein our system of the law expressly pro- 
 vides that the jury are judges of the law as 
 well as of the facts, and, therefore, in either 
 point of view they are to pass on the intention 
 of the publisher as a constituent part of the 
 offence. Two of the jurors, at different times, 
 clearly expressed their opinions that malice 
 was not imputable to Mr. Barker; perhaps the 
 others thought the same thing. So strong was 
 that opinion, that the jury came in to ask the 
 opinion of the court whether they might acquit 
 the defendant if they thought he had no malice. 
 To which the court replied, by the charge of 
 which I most respectfully but strenuously com- 
 plain. Suppose the jury had brought in their 
 verdict that Mr. Barker had published the 
 matter set forth in the indictment, but not 
 maliciously, could the court consider this any- 
 thing but a general verdict of acquittal? At 
 any rate, could the court convict the defendant 
 on it? How then can it be said they have 
 nothing to do with the question of malice or no 
 malice when their verdict negativing it would 
 have acquitted the defendant? And can any 
 man undertake to say, that if the jury had not 
 received this explicit or erroneous charge from 
 the court, they would ever have brought in a ver- 
 dict of guilty ? 
 
 "During the struggles in England relative to 
 the law of libel, I do not believe that it was ever 
 seriously contended that malice was not at the 
 foundation of the offence, in all the inroads 
 which were made upon the law of libel before, 
 and more especially by, Lord Mansfield and his 
 successors, and to restore which tin ait ol Par- 
 liament was passed, the doctrine that the 
 malicious intent of the writer or publisher was 
 not, either as matter of law or fact, the lest 
 whereby the crime was to be judged, was never 
 avowed. I consider that the decisioua which 
 went to restrain the rights of jurors to judge. 
 whether the publication was a libel w not — 
 whether it improperly reflected upon the con* 
 duet or character of the pro» cutor which pre- 
 vented the truth from being evidence, were in- 
 novations upon the common law, and that the 
 intervention of legislative power was not to 
 Correct any error or supply any deficiency in 
 that law, but to put an end to tin.' innovations 
 upon the righls of jurors which Lord Manslield
 
 186 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 particularly had attempted to make. The 
 English statutes and our statutes were passed 
 not for the purpose of giving more extended 
 liberty to writers and publishers, but to restore 
 these rights in those parts where they have been 
 invaded, and for that reason their phraseology 
 and provisions are confined to those rights. 
 We must, therefore, not look to the statutes for 
 the purpose of ascertaining what defence the 
 publisher may make, or to show to what extent 
 he may prove his motives, or that he published 
 without malice, but we must look to the com- 
 mon law, and, although the statute says nothing 
 as to the malicious intent of the party, the 
 strong and only inference is, that in this par- 
 ticular the rights of the press had not been 
 openly violated. 
 
 " If the motives of the party be matter to be 
 passed upon by the jury as a constituent part 
 of the offence, then I say proof of those motives 
 is to be addressed to them, and not to the court, 
 in mitigation of punishment. Nothing is to be 
 submitted exclusively to the court by affidavit 
 that goes to the gist of the crime. The facts 
 which are to be presented to the court in miti- 
 gation are properly those which cannot be 
 resorted to as a defence — facts which do not 
 go to show that a verdict of guilty ought not to 
 be rendered, but that, although the crime has 
 been committed, it has been committed under 
 such circumstances as to call for mercy, even 
 at the hands of justice. 
 
 "If I am right in what I have said, then the 
 defendant ought to have been allowed to give 
 in evidence any facts, whether they constitute 
 a part of the publication or not, which can by 
 any possibility be associated with the motive 
 for publication, however slight that connexion 
 may be, and the jurors, either as passing on the 
 law or the fact, are to judge of the motive, 
 whether just or malicious, and the weight and 
 bearing of the testimony. Were it otherwise, 
 the court, by keeping back the testimony, would 
 constitute themselves the sole judges of the pur- 
 pose of the publication, and of the malice of the 
 publisher. Under this view it appears to me 
 that the testimony which was rejected by the 
 court, and which is set forth in the third" and 
 fourth points of the case read, ought to have 
 been admitted. As to the pamphlet itself, it 
 seems to me not susceptible of a doubt, but 
 that the defendant was entitled to have the 
 whole or any part of it read. 
 
 " But let us examine the libel itself as set 
 forth in the indictment, and the testimony given 
 for the purpose of seeing whether the testimony 
 offered ought not to have been received, in or- 
 der to show the truth of the publication. 
 
 " The nature of that publication, I confess, 
 as treated by the court, seems to me to have 
 been misunderstood. It has been taken for 
 granted as charging Mr. Hatfield with corrupt 
 conduct, and on that interpretation of it most 
 of the decisions of the court depend. I view it 
 differently. It charges no corruption on Mr. 
 
 Hatfield ; it only states facts, from which the 
 reader would be led to infer corruption ; but it 
 would be the inference of the mind, not the al- 
 legation of Mr. Barker. He stated them as cir- 
 cumstances which caused him alarm and anx- 
 iety, and he did no more. As to him, then, 
 the only inqury should have been, Were the 
 facts true? Were the alarm and anxiety real? 
 And had they a rational foundation? If these 
 matters were proved, he could certainly avail 
 himself of the constitutional defence, that he 
 published the truth, with good motives and for 
 a justifiable end ; and as the first thing to be 
 proved was that he published the truth, he 
 should have been permitted to give in evidence 
 everything that tended to prove the truth of the 
 facts he had stated in his publication. 
 
 " In addition to other facts, he has proved 
 that after the general panel had been drawn, 
 which consisted of two hundred, he informed 
 Mr. Strong that there were three on that panel 
 who ought not to sit on a jury to try him, that 
 they were personally hostile to him, and that 
 Mr. Davenport and Mr. Norwood were two of 
 them, and he thinks Mr. Mead was the third. 
 That Mr. Davenport was the first juror drawn 
 from that panel, and Mr. Norwood the second, 
 and Mr. Mead the fifth — that the mode in which 
 the box containing the ballots of jurors was 
 shaken by Mr. Hatfield attracted the observa- 
 tion of a bystander, who thought it was moved 
 in a manner not to agitate the ballots ; and at 
 the time it so much excited the defendant's at- 
 tention that he went to the clerk and asked for 
 liberty to shake the ballot-box, which was re- 
 fused. This testimony was given or offered to 
 prove the truth of the libel, by showing that the 
 facts averred in the publication were truly 
 stated, that there was apprehension, (and, if 
 the court please, good ground to apprehend,) 
 as to the accidental drawing of the jury, and 
 that the mind of the defendant was truly and 
 justifiably filled with doubt and alarm. In- 
 deed, there is but one assertion upon the face 
 of this libel the truth of which is not entirely 
 proved. 
 
 " I humbly contend that the court erred in 
 their view of the publication when they charged 
 the jury that they must either convict Mr. Hat- 
 field, a witness in the case, or Mr. Barker. As 
 the bringing home a paper by the accredited 
 agent, who received it from a member of the 
 legislature, was not criminal, and, therefore, if 
 an innocent though mistaken allegation of that 
 kind was made, it was not a libel ; and also, 
 that the court erred when they rejected all 
 proof that did not go to establish corruption in 
 Mr. Hatfield, and refused to admit proof of the 
 facts stated in the publication as the founda- 
 tion for the defendant's alarm, and which would 
 unquestionably show that there was very justi- 
 fiable cause for alarm. 
 
 "If we examine the facts admitted to have 
 been proved by the defendant, as they must 
 have presented themselves to his mind, it must
 
 MEMORIAL FOR THE REMOVAL OF RldlARD RTKER. 
 
 187 
 
 be obvious that it would have required more 
 than common confidence in individual integ- 
 rity, not to have apprehended that this was not 
 all the result of accident, and more especially 
 when we consider the situation of the defendant 
 as one on trial. Here are twelve jurors to be 
 drawn from a panel of two hundred, the chance 
 that Mr. Davenport was to be drawn first was 
 as one to two hundred. The chance that Mr. 
 Davenport and Mr. Norwood would be drawn 
 the two first, was as the square of two hun- 
 dred, or as one to forty thousand. When we 
 consider, in connexion with this, that Mr. 
 Mead was also on the jury, that the chances 
 that Mr. Davenport, Mr. Norwood, and Mr. 
 Mead, the only three persons previously desig- 
 nated as objectionable and hostile by Mr. Bar- 
 ker, would not all be on the jury would be infi- 
 nitely greater; and further, that the two first 
 jurors might become triers of the qualifications 
 of the other jurors, and admit them into the 
 jury box, and that these two jurors were the 
 personal enemies of the defendant; and I ask 
 "what ordinary mind could withstand the con- 
 clusion that all was not accidental in the draw- 
 ing of the jury? With chances forty thou- 
 sand — yes, forty millions — to one against the 
 happening of an event that did happen, at- 
 tended with the other circumstances which arose 
 on that trial, who will tell me that the mind of 
 any man whose interests were deeply involved 
 in the result would have no misgivings — that 
 the party on trial would be filled with doubt 
 and alarm? It is impossible; a mind so 
 situated could not resist such doubts — no con- 
 fidence is strong enough to encounter these 
 things and not hesitate. I, who in these latter 
 days are more ready to set down extraordinary 
 events to the roguery of man than to miracu- 
 lous interposition, would have doubted. If the 
 jurors had all the matters put before them, 
 they must have believed that there was good 
 ground for doubt, apprehension, and alarm." 
 
 This speech availed nothing, the recorder, 
 being bent on his purpose, proceeded to fine 
 Mr. Barker for the allegsd offence $2.30 in each 
 case ; they were taken to the supreme court, 
 which decided that the penalty being inflicted, 
 and the money paid, they could not interfere ; 
 that if they should reverse the judgment their 
 decison would be a nullity, the money having 
 passed beyond its control ; that the court never 
 allowed itself to do a thing which, when done, 
 would be a nullity. 
 
 For the particulars of the further action of 
 the recorder in the matter and the proceedings 
 before the supreme court, the reader is referred 
 to the petition of Mr. Barker to his Excellency 
 Martin Van Buren, the governor of the State, 
 
 complaining of the conduct of the recorder 
 which was as follows: 
 
 » UBMOBIAL 
 "To the Governor. I'm- Ihr n moval <>/' "Richard 
 
 Hiker, Recorder of the city <;/'.Y< /'• Fork. 
 
 "Jacob Barker, of the city of New York, 
 merchant, respectfully represents to His Ex- 
 cellency Martin Van Buren, Governor of the 
 State of New York, that there was a very dan- 
 gerous combination formed in the year 1826) 
 by Richard Riker, recorder of the said city of 
 New York, together with several aldermen of 
 the said city, and many other persons, some of 
 whom also held judicial and official statious in 
 the said city, which combination was a breach 
 of trust on the part of most or all of the par- 
 ties concerned therein, and-very disastrous in its 
 consequences to the Tradesmen's Bank, and 
 the Life and Fire Insurance Company, and, 
 consequently, to the creditors of, and the per- 
 sons interested in those institutions. That this 
 combination was denominated a fraudulent 
 conspiracy, and your memorialist was prose- 
 cuted as a party thereto, although he was not 
 only innocent, but ignorant of the matters 
 charged in the bill of complaint; and although 
 he was absent from the State of New York, on 
 a visit at Nantucket, when such combination 
 or conspiracy was formed. That Hugh Max- 
 well, the district attorne}', was induced to 
 abandon the prosecution of nearly all the real 
 parties, and to devote his utmost energies 
 against your memorialist; and while these 
 proceedings were going on, accepted of large 
 fees from some of the real parties, under the 
 pretence of serving them in some civil busi- 
 ness. That at the same time the said recorder, 
 and other members of the common council of 
 the said city, who were implicated in the un- 
 fortunate stock transactions in the year 1826 f 
 induced the said common council to lavish the 
 public treasure on the said district attorney by 
 increasing his salary one thousand dollars per 
 annum, expressly on the ground of his increased 
 duties, which increase grew out of his extra- 
 ordinary exertions in the proceedings com- 
 plained of. That they also induced them to 
 appropriate the funds of the said city to the 
 payment of five hundred dollars to Seth P. Sta- 
 ples, esq., a lawyer from the state of Connecti- 
 cut, recently established in the said city, and 
 who had been previously employed to defend 
 Matthew Reed, one of the said aldermen con- 
 cerned in the said combination or conspiracy, 
 and five hundred dollars to Ogden Hoffman, 
 esq., and large sums to other counsel, to assist 
 in such proceedings, and to the payment of 
 
 other great expenses attending these That 
 
 the said district attorney received his spoint- 
 ment from the court of which the recorder and 
 all the aldermen of the said city arc members, 
 and is dependent upon their pleasure for his 
 continuance in said office. That the .-aid EUchr
 
 188 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 ard Riker was examined as a witness on the 
 trial for the said alleged conspiracy, at which 
 time he was in possession of a contract for the 
 purchase and sale of one half of the stock of 
 the said Tradesmen's Bank, which contract he 
 did not produce, and which, if he had produced 
 it, would have developed the real parties to the 
 alleged conspiracy, and have led to testimony 
 that would have established your memorialist's 
 freedom from offence. That, misled by the 
 perjury of witnesses, by the suppression of 
 facts, by the misapprehension of the law on the 
 part of Judge Edwards, who presided on the 
 said trials, by the misstatement of testimony 
 made by the said judge, probably arising from 
 his deafness, and by the said district attorney's 
 combining together so many transactions and 
 individuals for alleged offences separate and 
 distinct from each other, insomuch that the 
 said judge declared that the human mind was 
 scarcely capable of comprehending the whole, 
 the petit jury was induced to pronounce an 
 opinion on the mystery unfavorable to your me- 
 morialist. That your memorialist knowing him- 
 self to be innocent, and that there had been 
 dreadful frauds resorted to in creating such 
 mystery, published an appeal to his fellow citi- 
 zens, in which he drew inferences unfavorable 
 to some of the officers of the court and jury. 
 That he may have been, and no doubt was mis- 
 taken in ascribing improper motives to some 
 of them, but his peculiar situation, his igno- 
 rance of the facts which have since been de- 
 veloped, and his knowledge that there was 
 fraud somewhere, will, he hopes and trusts, 
 furnish good reasons to believe that his publi- 
 cation was without malice. 
 
 u And your memorialist further represents, 
 that for such publication the said district attor- 
 ney procured two several bills of indictment 
 for libel against your memorialist, the one for 
 a libel upon Abraham B. Mead, one of the 
 jury, and the other for a libel upon Richard 
 Hatfield, clerk of the court of oyer and termi- 
 ner, which he tried before the court of sessions, 
 in which the said Richard R ker presided. 
 That the indictment for a libel on the said 
 Richard Hatfield was first tried. That the said 
 Richard Riker there refused to allow your me- 
 morialisttoprove that there was no malice in the 
 said publication, noted the exceptions made by 
 your memorialist, and promised to give him 
 an opportunity of having the case reviewed be- 
 fore the supreme court. That relying upon 
 that promise, and upon the certainty that his 
 errors were palpable and conclusive, and alto- 
 gether sufficient to render void the whole pro- 
 ceedings, your memorialist declined summing 
 up. That the said Richard Riker charged the 
 j ury that malice was not necessary to sustain 
 an indictment for a libel, and that the matters 
 published being true was no justification. That 
 by such means he induced the jury to pro- 
 nounce the said publication a libel, although 
 they, at the time, declared that they believed 
 
 that there was no malice in such publication. 
 That application was made on the coming 
 in of the verdict in the case of the said Richard 
 Hatfield, to the said Richard Riker for a state- 
 ment of the case to be taken to the supreme 
 court, and he promised Dudley Selden, esq., 
 the counsel of your memorialist, that the sub- 
 ject should be considered during the coming 
 vacation; on which promise, as also on the 
 previous promise of giving your memorialist an 
 opportunity of having the case reviewed, your 
 memorialist relied, and did not prepare to op- 
 pose a final decision at that term. That on the 
 last day of the term, the said Richard Riker 
 met the said Dudley Selden as he was going 
 into court, and stated to him, that if your me- 
 morialist had anything to say on the subject of 
 his case, it must be said before one o'clock on 
 that day. That your memorialist procured the 
 assistance of the late Thomas Addis Emmett, 
 esq., who reminded the said Richard Riker of 
 his promise to consider the case during the 
 coming vacation, and pointed out the unpre- 
 pared state of your memorialist for the argu- 
 ment, his cause for alarm, the absence of mal- 
 ice, and the errors of the said Richard Riker in 
 rejecting testimony, and in laying down the 
 law, and entreated a new trial, or, at any rate, 
 delay until the opinion of the supreme court 
 should be known, but all was unavailing, That 
 the said Richard Riker proceeded immediately 
 to pass sentence, imposing on your memorialist 
 a heavy fine, and requiring him to give secu- 
 rity in his own bond for two thousand dollars, 
 and two sureties of one thousand dollars each, 
 for his good conduct for two years. That this 
 latter condition was, in the opinion of your 
 memorialist, a violation of the constitution of 
 the State, and that had your memorialist been 
 guilty of the most malicious and unprovoked libel, 
 it would in no wise have warranted such a de- 
 cision, much less was the said Richard Riker 
 warranted in trampling on the law, and vio- 
 lating the constitution, to oppress your memo- 
 rialist, in a case where he knew the innocence 
 of your memorialist, and his own guilt, in rela- 
 tion to the transactions which gave rise to the 
 imputations against your memorialist, and 
 from which your memorialist, by the said pub- 
 lication, was endeavoring to vindicate himself. 
 That the said Richard Riker further stated from 
 the bench when he ihus imposed a fine upon 
 your memorialist, and placed him under the 
 heavy bonds above mentioned, that he might 
 have been much more severe; thatthelawauthor- 
 ized him to send your memorialist to prison ; 
 that he had been tampered with out of court, 
 which he afterwards said was to induce him to 
 send your memorialist to prison; that there- 
 upon your memorialist demanded that the said 
 Richard Riker should state to the court, and to 
 the public, the names of the persons who had 
 thus dared to tamper with a court of justice, 
 that they might be dealt with in a manner be- 
 fitting their high offence; but the said Richard
 
 MEMORIAL FOR THE REMOVAL OP RICHARD RIKER. 
 
 ISO 
 
 Biker utterly refused to give publicity to their 
 names, or exert the power of his court fcr their 
 punishment. That in stating the case for the 
 supreme court, the said Richard Riker omitted 
 the testimony of George W. Strong, esq., and 
 much other testimony; erroneously stated the 
 testimony of Samuel H. Macy, and denied, or 
 evaded the fact, that he charged the jury that 
 malice was not necessary to constitute a libel, 
 and inserted in his statement of the case, a de- 
 ceptive clause in the following words: 
 
 '"The defendant complains that, in both cases, 
 injustice has been done to him; that the court 
 and the jury have erred; that the jury have 
 found verdicts against him contrary to the evi- 
 dence, and that the court has misconceived the 
 law; that the court, in the first case, not only 
 excluded testimony, which ought to have been 
 admitted, but rendered a judgment not war- 
 ranted by law, and, in both cases, misdirected 
 the jury. If this be so, if the court has mis- 
 taken the law, or the jury found contrary to 
 the facts, Mr. Barker ought to have relief. It 
 is always the duty of the court to give to the 
 accused in a criminal case every legal advan- 
 tage. The maxim that it is better for ten guilty 
 men to escape than that one innocent man 
 should suffer, has its foundation in the un- 
 changeable principles of equity, as well as of 
 humanity. If, therefore, the jury have found 
 verdicts not justified by the proof, if the court 
 has rejected any evidence which ought to have 
 been admitted, if the court misdirected to the 
 prejudice of the defendant, or has rendered a 
 judgment not warranted by law, the mistake 
 of the court, or the misfinding of the jury 
 ought to be corrected. Every impartial tribu- 
 nal, and every upright judge, can have no wish 
 but to do justice, according to law. If an error 
 be committed, especially if against the accused, 
 let it be set right. 
 
 u ' To enable the defendant to avail himself of 
 any error committed by the court or jury, the 
 court will now proceed to state all the material 
 facts and circumstances which arose in each 
 case, and all the material principles of law 
 which were ruled by the court. If anything 
 essential fo a just decision of either of the 
 cases shall be omitted by the court, the defend- 
 ant may supply it by affidavit, which will be 
 certified by this court, so far forth as it may be 
 correct.' 
 
 " And your memorialist further represents 
 that the said Richard Riker denied your me- 
 morialist and his counsel all participation in 
 making up the said statement, and would not 
 allow either of them to see it until he should 
 have pronounced it in court, where he read it 
 from the bench, and handed it immediately to 
 a reporter for the newspapers for publication. 
 That your memorialist protested against such 
 a course, and entreated th^ said Richard Riker 
 not to poison the public mind with a publica- 
 tion fraught with errors and falsehoods, until 
 he should have an opportunity of having it 
 
 corrected, agreeable to the promise contained 
 in that very statement That all the efforts of 
 your memorialist were unavailing, and the said 
 
 reporter took away from court the said case 
 thus real. That, it not appearing in the news- 
 papers for some days, your memorialist inquir- 
 ed the cause, and learned thai th oenta 
 of the editor to whom it had been hand) d, with 
 the business of a theological convention then 
 in session, had prevented its publication for a 
 few days. That your memorialist availed him- 
 self of this delay by attempting to procure a 
 sight of the said statement lor the purpose of 
 correction, before it should be published, his 
 then critical situation rendering it particularly 
 desirable that no further excitement should be 
 created in the public mind against him; but 
 his efforts were, as before, unavailing, and the 
 said editor assured him that he was instructed 
 not to let any one see the said statement, and 
 particularly not to let your memorialist see it. 
 That after the publication took place your me- 
 morialist availed himself of the apparent fair- 
 ness of the promise therein contained, and pre- 
 sented his own affidavit and sundry other affi- 
 davits to the said Richard Riker, pointing out 
 his errors and omissions, particularly detailing 
 the testimony of Samuel H. Macy and George 
 W. Strong, that of Mr. Macy having, as afore- 
 said, been erroneously stated, and that of Mr. 
 Strong, the most material witness in the cause, 
 entirely omitted ; whereupon the said Riker 
 certified to the accuracy of the statement of 
 your memorialist, as to the testimony of the 
 said George W. Strong, recapitulating it, and 
 as to that of the said Samuel H. Macy, he re- 
 marked in the words following: 
 
 '"Mr. Macy swore, as stated by Mr. Barker, 
 that, by this certificate, it will be seen, that 
 the supreme court could not know to what the 
 said Samuel II. Macy had testified, without the 
 said affidavit. That, notwithstanding, the said 
 Richard Riker, unknown to your memoria 
 wrote a private letter to the judges of the said 
 supreme court, objecting to their receiving the 
 affidavits, and consequently requesting in 
 stance that, if they should pass judgment at all, 
 they should pass it on the false statement, which 
 leads to the conclusion that the said Richard 
 Riker intentionally denied your memorialist a fair 
 trial; that he intentionally made a false state- 
 ment of the case; that being conscious thereof, 
 he inserted the deceptive clause, promising to 
 correct his errors, if there were any, and that he 
 never meant to give your memorialist an oppor- 
 tunity to have the case reviewed. The above 
 mentioned letter was in the following words: 
 
 "'court of GENERAL SESSIONS. 
 Jacob Barker ad. The People. — Libel on Rich- 
 ard ii yield. 
 The Same ad. The Same. — Libel on Abraham 
 I'. Mt ad. 
 
 '"In the above causes, the defendant re- 
 quested the recorder to report to the supreme
 
 190 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 court the substance of the evidence and the 
 decision of the court upon the questions of law 
 •which arose upon the trials. Mr. Barker has 
 lately submitted his own deposition, and the 
 deposition of some of the jurors to the recorder, 
 which are marked "submitted." It is proper 
 that the supreme court should be apprised that 
 it is not intended by the court below, or by the 
 recorder, to admit either the accuracy of those 
 depositions, or the propriety of such deposi- 
 tions being received. 
 
 " ' Respectfully submitted, R. RIKER. 
 
 u ' To the Hon. the Judges 
 of the Supreme Court, 
 
 New York, May 21, 1827.' 
 
 "And your memorialist further represents? 
 that the judges of the supreme court, aware of 
 their duty not to permit any side bar influence, 
 and too much the lovers of justice to allow 
 any secret ex parte proceedings, read the above 
 letter in open court, and declared that they 
 considered it equivalent to a request that they 
 should not consider the case, as they never 
 gave advice at the instance of the parties, and 
 only when requested by the court below. That 
 on hearing the said very extraordinary letter 
 read, your memorialist immediately waited on 
 the said Richard Riker, and demanded a certi- 
 licate that the court below did request the 
 supreme court to consider the case, which he 
 gave in the words following: 
 
 "'court of general sessions. 
 
 Jacob Barker ] The same 
 
 ad. V ad. 
 
 The People. J The same. 
 
 "'It was the desire of the court of sessions, 
 and of the recorder, that the report and 
 opinion of the presiding judge should be re- 
 viewed by the supreme court, but we did not 
 think that the affidavits ought to be received. 
 
 " 'Respectfully submitted, 
 
 '"R. RIKER, Recorder. 
 
 " 'To the Hon. the Judges 
 of the Supreme Court, 
 May 25, 1827.' 
 
 "And your memorialist further represents, 
 that the supreme court continued to refuse to 
 consider the case, not on account of anything 
 said in the above letters, but 'because,' as the 
 chief Justice remarked, 'the court below had 
 proceeded to pass sentence before the case 
 could be got before them, which was unprece- 
 dented in judicial 2^'oceedinys, it being the 
 universal practice (in consulting that court) to 
 defer sentence until the opinion of the supreme 
 court was known.' That Judge AVoodworth 
 added, ' and this, too, when the counsel for the 
 party only suggested that there was good rea- 
 son to suppose an error had been committed 
 by the judge who tried the cause; and in a 
 case where that judge had promised to give 
 the party an opportunity to have the case 
 reviewed by the supreme court, the obligation 
 
 to have suspended further proceedings was 
 much greater; yet the court of sessions pro- 
 ceed to fine Mr. Barker, and the money has 
 been paid and passed beyond the control of 
 this court; therefore, if it should interfere, and 
 attempt to reverse the proceedings below, such 
 reversal would be unavailing;' and that Judge 
 Sutherland said, 'This court cannot consent 
 to take any proceedings, which, when taken, 
 would be a nullity.' 
 
 "And your memorialist further states, that 
 on the aforesaid trials for libel, the said Rich- 
 ard Riker, by charging the jury that malice 
 was not necessary to sustain an indictment for 
 a libel, procured the conviction of your memo- 
 rialist. That he, in substance, denied in the 
 written statement that he had so charged, and 
 as your memorialist is constrained to believe, 
 for the purpose of depriving your memorialist 
 of the benefit of urging the absence of malice, 
 and for the same purpose he omitted the testi- 
 mony of George W. Strong, as before stated; 
 that this was the most material point in the 
 case, and on which your memorialist was anx- 
 ious to obtain the opinion of the higher courts, 
 as well from a desire to preserve the liberty of 
 the press, as to protect his own rights. And 
 your memorialist, to show the pointed manner 
 in which the said Richard Riker laid down the 
 law in this respect, and the effect it had on the 
 jury, begs leave to refer to the following afli- 
 davits. 
 
 " ' Court of General Sessions of the Peace in and 
 for the city and county of New York. 
 
 Jacob Barker") 
 
 ads. > 
 
 The People, j 
 
 "'Edmund Haviland, being duly affirmed, 
 saith, that he was one of the late jury which 
 convicted Jacob Barker of publishing a libel 
 on Richard Hatfield; that after the recorder 
 had delivered his charge to the jury, and when 
 they were about retiring to deliberate on this 
 case, this affirmant inquired of the recorder, 
 'Must we convict Jacob Barker although we 
 should think there was no malice?' To which 
 the recorder replied 'Most certainly.' This 
 affirmant further states, but for this he should 
 not have agreed to the verdict. 
 
 "'EDMUND HAVILAND. 
 
 " 'Affirmed before me, this 17th day of May, 
 1827. 
 
 " ( W. SEAMAN, Commissioner:" 
 
 " 'Court of General Sessions of the peace in 
 and for the city and county of Kew York. 
 Jacob Barker 
 
 ads. 
 The people. 
 " 'William Galloway, being duly sworn, testi- 
 fieth and saith, that he was one of the jury 
 which tried Jacob Barker for publishing an al- 
 leged libel on Richard Hatfield, aud that the
 
 MEMORIAL FOR THE REMOVAL OF RICHARD BIKER. 
 
 191 
 
 recorder stated the law to the jury in such a 
 manner as for it to appear that malice was not 
 necessary to constitute a libel, and that after 
 the jurv retired, several of them stated to this 
 deponent that they did not believe the defen- 
 dant was influenced by any malicious inten 
 tion, but that as the recorder had charged that 
 that made no difference, they lelt it to be their 
 duty to agree to a verdict of guilty. This de- 
 ponent further testifies, that he does not now 
 believe, aud never did believe, that Jacob Bar- 
 ker either wrote or published the book in ques- 
 tion with any malicious intention. 
 
 '•'WILLIAM GALLOWAY. 
 u ' Sworn this 18th day of May, 1827, before 
 me, 
 
 '"JAMES OSWALD GRIM, 
 " ' Commissioner to take the acknowledgment 
 of deeds, dr.' ' ! 
 
 u l Court of General Sessions of the peace in 
 and for the city of New York. 
 Jacob Barker] 
 ads. > 
 
 The people ) 
 
 11 ' Samuel Candler, being duly sworn, testi- 
 fieth and saith, that he was one of the jury 
 which tried Jacob Barker for publishing an al- 
 leged libel on Richard Hatfield, and that the 
 recorder stated the law to the jury in such a 
 manner as for it to appear to this deponent 
 that, in the opinion of the recorder, malice was 
 not necessary to constitute a libel ; and after 
 the jury retired, several of them stated, in the 
 presence of this deponent, that they did not 
 believe the defendant was influenced by any 
 malicious intention, and that they believed he 
 had good cause for alarm : that this deponent 
 was of that opinion, and he believes all the 
 jury were of that opinion. 
 
 " ' SAMUEL CANDLER. 
 
 " ' Sworn this 18th day of May, 1827, before 
 me, 
 
 "'BEN J. DOUGLAS SILLIMAN, 
 
 " 'Commissioner, &ci 
 
 "And your memorialist further represents, 
 that in the opinion of your memorialist, the 
 said Richard Riker was not actuated in his 
 aforesaid conduct by any vindictive feelings 
 towards your memorialist, but that he was 
 under the influence of fear that his own con- 
 duct in relation to the aforesaid combination 
 or conspiracy might be made a subject of in- 
 quiry, and tha*-, to prevent such injury, he lent 
 himself and his office to the hostile feelings of 
 others. 
 
 " And your memorialist further shows, that 
 the said Richard Riker was examined as a 
 witness, before Thomas Bolton, esquire, a mas- 
 ter in chancery, in the month of November 
 last, in a suit in which your memorialist was 
 a party, relating to the affairs of the aforesaid 
 institutions, when his testimony was either 
 wanting in candor and veracity, or his recol- 
 
 lection had so totally failed him a-; to incapaet- 
 tate him for the performance of the duties of 
 recorder of the said city: That hi 
 himself the counsel of Matthew Reed, the late 
 president of the said Tradesmen's Hank, who 
 was one of the aldermen of the said city, and 
 of course, with the said Richard Biker, a'j 
 of the court of sessions in the said city, when 
 the aforesaid combination or c was 
 
 formed, and who was indicted lor the same, 
 and liable to be tried in the said court, of 
 which the said Richard Riker was presiding 
 judge; that the said Richard Riker urged he- 
 fore the said master in chancer)-, his being 
 such counsel as a reason why he was not then 
 bound to produce said paper, which paper 
 would have led to the necessary testimony to 
 establish the innocence of a person whom he 
 knew to have been falsely accused. 
 
 "And your memorialist respectfully insists, 
 that in addition to the judicial errors and 
 frauds committed by the said Richard Riker, 
 as hereinbefore described, his conduct, as guar- 
 dian of the interests of the billholders, stock- 
 holders, and depositors of the Tradesmen's 
 Bank, was wanting in fidelity, and calculated 
 to sacrifice the interests of those from whom 
 he had accepted the trust; that his motive for 
 such conduct was individual gain, and that if 
 he was faithless in his place as trustee, in that 
 case, he certainly is not fit to be the guardian 
 of the public chest, and much less of the pub- 
 lic morals. 
 
 " And your memorialist respectfully requests 
 that your excellency will recommend to the 
 honorable the Senate the removal of the said 
 Richard Riker from the office of recorder of 
 the city of New York, for reasons growing out 
 of his conduct hereinbefore stated. Aud if 
 proof should be deemed necessary before such 
 recommendation takes place, your memorialist 
 respectfully asks leave to produce testimony, 
 and pledges himself substantially to prove the 
 facts hereinbefore stated, whenever an oppor- 
 tunity shall be afforded him to do so. 
 
 '• Very respectfully, your excellency's obe- 
 dient servant, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER 
 
 "New York, January 23, 1829." 
 
 The governor so far sustained the petition 
 as to transmit a copy to the recorder, requiring 
 an answer to the several charge-. Before this 
 answer was received, Mr. Van Buren accepted 
 from General Jackson the appointment o! S 
 retary of State, vacating the executive chair, 
 leaving it to be filled by the lieutenant gover- 
 nor, who received from the recorder his vindi- 
 cation, and let him off mainly on his own 
 averment that he meant no wrong by the pro- 
 ceedings of which Mr. Barker complained. 
 
 Application having been made to the su-
 
 192 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 preme court to change the court where and 
 before whom the next conspiracy trial was to 
 take place, &c, Mr. Barker, among other things, 
 said : 
 
 " Believing, as I do, that I cannot get a fair 
 trial except I be tried by men capable of un- 
 derstanding the merits of the case and the law, 
 and the public prosecutor having promised me 
 a fair trial, I will now test his sincerity. It is 
 a conceded fact, that the monied interest of the 
 city have considered my operations for the last 
 ten years as adverse to their interests, and have 
 viewed me as competing with them for the same 
 boon. Hence they feel a degree of opposition 
 or hostility to me. Yet I am willing to be tried 
 by them. If they are prejudiced, I am not 
 afraid of it. There is too much integrity and 
 intelligence among them for there to be any 
 danger of my cause in their hands, and I now 
 propose to be immediately tried at the bar of 
 this court, and by a struck jury; that the panel 
 jury be taken from the presidents of all the 
 banks in this city, sixteen in number, the sur- 
 plusage of four to be stricken off by the court 
 after hearing argument. Let the public prose- 
 cutor agree to this, and I engage not to chal- 
 lenge a single man, and not to appeal if the 
 verdict should be against me. If objections 
 should be made on account of the smallness of 
 such a general panel, let the cashiers of all the 
 banks be added, which will make thirty-two ; 
 and if the general panel should still be con- 
 sidered too small, let the directors of all the 
 banks be added, which will amount to two or 
 three hundred, and will make the panel unu- 
 sually large. The power of the court thus to 
 form a jury, with the consent of both parties, 
 cannot, I think, be disputed; but if am mis- 
 taken, there are many other ways in which 
 they can direct a struck jury; but if I cannot 
 have an immediate trial at the bar of this court, 
 I will consent to the records being sent to a 
 distant county for the trial of the others, and 
 as soon as their trial is over I shall apply to ! 
 this court to bring me back to New York for : 
 trial, as I can never consent to be tried else- 
 where than in New York, unless it should be- j 
 come necessary for me to do so to procure jus- 
 tice for the other defendants. I have grown 
 up with the city, to its inhabitants I am in- 
 debted for the little consideration I have ob- 
 tained, and if they think me iinworthy of what 
 they have freely given, let them take it back, 
 let them deprive me of it at pleasure, let them 
 degrade and despise me, but I will not fly from 
 them. I will not attempt to seek protection 
 from their frowns at the hands of distant jurors. 
 Be public opinion favorable or unfavorable, I 
 am anxious to meet it. Here let me rise or 
 fall. I cannot and will not cpuit my home — a 
 home of which I am proud. I know my fel- 
 low citizens ai - e just and generous, and although 
 they may be deceived for a season, truth will 
 ultimately prevail. There are many reasons 
 
 why this cause should not go back to the court 
 of oyer and terminer: they are to be found in 
 the manner in which that court is constituted, 
 principally of laymen, totally destitute of law 
 knowledge or pretensions thereto, and it is 
 composed of the same, or nearly the same, 
 members as constitute the court of sessions, 
 where the two libel causes were tried ; and 
 these causes are a branch of the conspiracy 
 cause, all one great conspiracy for the destruc- 
 tion of Jacob Barker. The strange positions 
 assumed by the judge who tried the aforesaid 
 causes are sufficiently within the knowledge of 
 this court to remove all necessity for comment- 
 ing on them here, and I trust will furnish suffi- 
 cient reason for not placing my cause again 
 into their hands. Nearly one-half of the mem- 
 bers have sat on one or the other of the causes, 
 and two of the members are by law ex officio 
 directors of the United States Lombard Com- 
 pany, one of the institutions alleged to have 
 been defrauded. William P. Rathbone was a 
 member of that, court, and you have the re- 
 corder's certificate that the district attorney 
 had testified that Rathbone furnished the pa- 
 pers on which the public prosecutor endeavored 
 to procure my conviction of a crime, of which 
 crime Rathbone knew me to be innocent when 
 he gave the papers. Another member of that 
 court was also indicted, and many others were 
 found, by the testimony given on the trials, to 
 have been implicated in the transactions. The 
 court of oyer and terminer severely reprimanded 
 me, and fined me $100 for having told a wit- 
 ness of a mistake he had made in his testimony, 
 in which mistake I detected him while on the 
 stand. At the same time they imposed this 
 fine the presiding judge declared that the court 
 were perfectly satisfied that I meant no disre- 
 spect to them, and the court of oyer and ter- 
 miner have fined me twice, $250 each time, for 
 having published the most candid and sincere 
 statement of my cause of complaint which I 
 had the power of writing — a publication totally 
 void of malice — and in one instance for the 
 mere publication of a petition presented to the 
 court by permission previously obtained, and 
 which petition was received and entertained by 
 the said court, and this court know the obsta- 
 cles that have been thrown in the way of my 
 getting those decisions reviewed here. Under 
 such circumstances, can it be considered proper 
 to send me back to be tried again by those 
 men? And although none of the members, 
 thus circumstanced, will sit on a new trial if it 
 should be sent back to that court, yet their con- 
 stant intercourse with the other members on 
 political and official subjects gives them an im- 
 perceptible influence which might prove very 
 prejudicial to me, without the members who 
 should try the cause intending to do the le^st 
 wrong, or being aware of such influence. I 
 will now proceed to suggest the reasons for my 
 asking a separate trial, and to be allowed to 
 rise or fall by my own merits. They are, that
 
 APPLICATION FOR A SEPARATE TRIAL. 
 
 193 
 
 the case is so complicated that the human Their decisions amount to nothing. The 
 mind is scarcely capable of comprehending it manner of drawing and empanneUing the jury, 
 in its present form, and so much more simple who convicted of conspiracy without examin- 
 when separated, as manifested in the separate iug the papers, is known to the court, and this 
 trial of General Swift, which occupied but little court have before them the depositions of three 
 more than one day; that the grand jurors who of the jurors who convicted for libel; one of 
 found many of the indictments refused to couple them on his oath Bays that be dues nut now 
 me with the others; the efforts to get Mr. Oak- j and never did think .Jacob Barker had any 
 ley to join in the crusade against me, which he , malicious intention in the publication, and 
 indignantly rejected; the conduct of Rathbone, j that he had good reason for alarm; and that 
 in connexion with whom I am still liable to be | in substance he, the juror, did not know the 
 tried, and that three of the counsel for some of law, and therefore looked up to the court for it; 
 the other defendants assailed me on the last ] and the others also testify to my freedom from 
 
 trial. Their attacks were the most violent, 
 unfounded, unprovoked, and unmerited ever 
 made in a court of justice, and which the in- 
 terest of their clients in nowise called for. So 
 unwarrantable and improper was their conduct, 
 that it appeared to have excited the sympathy 
 of the public prosecutor, in so much that he 
 rose to call one of them to order, strongly re- 
 probating the course they were pursuiug. He 
 ■would not allow them to usurp his franchise. 
 That all the persons presented in the same in- 
 
 offence; and this honorable court will know, 
 when they examine the case, how egregionslj 
 the recorder mistook the law when he charged 
 the jury. The jury are not to blame; from 
 the very nature of the case they could not 
 know the law, and, like most other jurors, occu- 
 pied in daily pursuits to obtain for themselves 
 and families an honest livelihood by hard labor, 
 they have no leisure to study the law ; and the 
 law makers, aware of this, place a court over 
 them to whom it is the duty of all jurors to 
 
 dictment with me were directors or officers of look up for law, light, and truth, whenever 
 one or more of the institutions alleged to have i they are in doubt or darkness. I do not 
 been defrauded except myself, and that I occu- \ believe there was a particle of prejudice or 
 pied no such station in either of the companies. ! unfriendly feeling towards Jacob Barker in the 
 The improper attempts made on the court of breast of a single juror who sat on either of the 
 sessions to influence their judgment against me, : libel cases; and indeed one of them swore, as 
 the names and circumstances having been your honors will see by the affidavit in your 
 withheld from the public by that court, the possession, that it was a general conversation 
 facts disclosed by Mr. Raymond's affidavit pro- , among the jury after they retired to consider 
 
 duced by the district attorney, from which it is 
 fairlv to be inferred that all the artificial ex- 
 citement that has been produced has been 
 levelled at me ; that the others are nowise 
 connected with me, nor I with them; and 
 finally, that the court of oyer and terminer 
 refused me a separate trial, but granted it to 
 General Swift. 
 
 " I have throughout this business avoided 
 doing or saying anything which could militate 
 against the other defendants, and I hope that 
 what I am here called upon to say will not 
 have that effect; but I am constrained to dis- 
 sent from the opinion entertained by them, 
 that there is a widely extended prejudice. 
 
 " Great pains have been taken, by the con- 
 spirators for my destruction, to give everything 
 
 the case, that Mr. Barker had not any malicious 
 intention, and that he had good cause for 
 alarm; and that juror further swore that he 
 believed every one of the jury was of thai 
 opinion ; and although I have produced depo- 
 sitions from but three, I believe they would all 
 have given the same testimony if they had been 
 applied to — three were deemed sufficient, and 
 the first three applied to gave the evidence 
 freely. This testimony admonishes all of the 
 necessity of having an unprejudiced, impartial 
 court that knows the law. 1 am now in the 
 hands of such a court, and I trust they will not 
 part with my case leaving any uncertainty 
 about my having a fair trial. They have a full 
 view of the frightful state of things which sur- 
 round me, and I am sure this court never will 
 
 that appearance ; but it is all fraud, all trick, j expose to chance the right of a citizen to 
 all device — the result of measures got up to j having a fair trial, and no trial can be con- 
 destroy me. Men were sent to the hall to J sidered fair except it be by men competent to 
 make an excitement, as they were sent to the j understand the case. As to prejudice, tin- 
 judges of the court of sessions to influence; gentlemen have confounded terms; they con- 
 thefr decision. The gentleman who has made : strue the opinions of parties directly or in- 
 the deposition that, he thinks a fair trial cannot directly interested into prejudice, and be< 
 be had in New York is doubtless sincere in ! the parties to this busn *tiv numer 
 
 what he has stated, and has not been, to my 
 knowledge, concerned in the conduct of which 
 I complain; and there have been so many 
 fa^e lights exhibited, that it would be strange 
 if he did not think there was a widely extended 
 prejudice. The repeated decisions of the jurors 
 
 ous they think it is public prejudice. 
 public, who were not interested, entertained 
 the^e adverse opinions, I should think then- 
 was public prejudice. I know they <1>> I 
 that a different opinion prevails. The numer- 
 ous companies that cither failed or lost their 
 
 are relied upon as evidence of this prejudice.! funds, the numerous stockholders in thoso 
 
 13
 
 194 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 companies, and the numerous creditors of those 
 who were made insolvent by their losses by 
 the failures of the companies, embraced many 
 thousand persons, and they may all be con- 
 sidered interested in those prosecutions; hence 
 the vast odds against the defendants. So 
 many thousands on one side against a half 
 dozen individuals on the other is a frightful 
 difference; but it is not prejudice. So great 
 was the prospect of gain in the purchase of 
 bonds that almost every man, woman, and 
 child in the city, who had an idle hundred 
 dollars, was tempted to go in for a share. 
 They could not resist the prospect of getting 
 60 or 100 per ceat. for their money, and when 
 the hopes of one and all were swept into the 
 common vortex, mortified and disappointed in 
 not realizing the golden harvest, they had ex- 
 pected, they thought of nothing but their gold, 
 their lost gold, and in place of ascribing their 
 disappointment to their own imprudence and 
 their own inordinate appetites for gain, for 
 usurious interest, they were, without a particle 
 of evidence, easily led astray, and joined in the 
 cry of fraud against the innocent, got up by 
 those who wish to hide their own guilt by 
 diverting public attention therefrom. And 
 when the trick is discovered we are told it is 
 prejudice, public prejudice that has convicted 
 the innocent. It is no such thing; it was the 
 frauds, the falsehoods, the devices of the 
 wicked. 
 
 I will not, at this late hour, trespass further 
 on the time of the court, but I must be allowed 
 to press on them the importance of my case. 
 It is for reputation I am contending ; it is not 
 to avoid the penalties of the law. I care not 
 for them further than my character is con- 
 cerned. I was in hopes, before this argument 
 had come on, that my counsel would have 
 been heard in the libel cases. They would 
 have told the court, that to get back the $500 
 taken from me in those causes was the least of 
 all possible inducements for the zeal mani- 
 fested. It was to remove from the record the 
 stain. When that argument shall be heard 
 there will be such a development of facts as 
 will make every heart shudder at the enormi- 
 ties committed on Jacob Barker; but as the 
 court are in possession of documents sufficient 
 to establish how just is his cause of complaint, 
 I will only repeat the appalling fact, that the 
 jury whose verdict was to consign him and his 
 unoffending family to misery did not examine 
 the papers proved in the case, and on which 
 he relied for his entire exculpation. I can 
 never believe that a verdict given under such 
 circumstances will be considered of the least 
 validity or evidence of guilt, yet it furnishes an 
 additional reason why the case should be tried 
 by men who understand financial matters, and 
 this can only be attained by granting a struck 
 jury, such a jury as will be capable of under- 
 standing the true merits of the case, in whom 
 the public have implicit confidence, and whose 
 
 verdict, if favorable, will silence the tongue of 
 the slanderer. I beseech the court, as they 
 value the cause of truth and justice, not to 
 send me for trial where the jury, from the very 
 nature of the case and of their occupation, 
 will have to look to the court for the law — to 
 look for law where there is no law. What I 
 ask is, that the court, and jury who are to try 
 me be capable of deciding whether I am guilty 
 or innocent. I know myself to be innocent, 
 and all I ask is an opportunity to demonstrate 
 such innocence." 
 
 The supreme court did not sustain this ap- 
 plication. 
 
 A third trial took place, in which Mr. Bar- 
 ker was defended by Chief Justice Spence^ 
 Thomas Addis Emmett and George Griffin, 
 esqs., from whose speeches of the two latter 
 the following extracts are taken; 
 
 "Mr. Spexcer: Gentlemen of the jury, it 
 may perhaps surprise you that I should appear" 
 in this cause — that I should now be addressing 
 you in behalf of this defendant. Gentlemen, it 
 is not from pecuniary motives ; no reward in 
 the power of Mr. Barker to bestow could have 
 induced me to lend my aid to his cause. I be- 
 came acquainted with his ease from having 
 been engaged in the argument on the case be- 
 fore alluded to, and I came here under a per- 
 fect conviction from that knowledge of Mr. 
 Barker's innocence. I have known Mr. Barker 
 for the last twenty years. I know that there have 
 been reports and prejudices concerning him j 
 the voice of calumny has been raised against 
 his character. Yet, gentlemen, believe it not, 
 it strikes at all, and I here proclaim, aud were 
 I trumpet-tongued I would cry it aloud to the 
 world, that I believe him an honest, an honor- 
 able, and a hiyhminded man. Gentlemen, we 
 have much to complain of in this case. 
 
 " Mr. Barker is indicted of a conspiracy, 
 with intent to defraud the Morris Canal and 
 other companies, eight in the whole. To prove 
 this conspiracy a number of transactions have 
 been offered in evidence before you. The dis- 
 trict attorney does not rely upon the overt act; 
 but he has spread out these transactions, and 
 now means to urge them as proofs of ihe con- 
 spiracy. We come here hoodwinked ; we can- 
 not tell what use the learned gentleman intends 
 to make of these transactions. We are groping 
 in the dark. Transactions, innocent in them- 
 selves, are to be coupled together for our de- 
 struction. It is of this we complain, this blind 
 groping. The law on this subject is an anomaly. 
 There is no other offence in the whole cata- 
 logue of crimes where a defendant cannot fully 
 and clearly understand the defence he is to 
 make. In this we are totally in the dark. The 
 mind of man can scarcely conceive to what ex- 
 tent it may be carried. It was formerly cus- 
 tomary in the country from which we derive 
 our laws to indict men for high treason with-
 
 SPEECHES OF SPENCER AND EMMETT. 
 
 195 
 
 out setting forth the overt acts; and many 
 illustrious men have been brought to the block 
 without knowing u.itil the hour of trial the of- 
 fence for which they were to suffer. This law, 
 in the wisdom of English jurisprudence, was 
 altered and amended so as to require the defi- 
 nite crime to be set forth. The law of con- 
 spiracy still exists as it did before. Yet so 
 sensible were our legislators of the necessity of 
 a change in this respect that the senate of our 
 State, at their last session, passed a bill to that 
 effect, requiring the overt act to be set forth in 
 trials for conspiracy; and this bill is still pend- 
 ing before the other house. I mention this, 
 gentlemen, that you may perceive the peculiar 
 hardship of our case. I suspect, gentlemen, 
 yoa will find the task imposed on you one of 
 great difficulty; and if the question was now 
 put to you to say what particular acts have 
 been proved against Mr. Barker you will find 
 it impossible to point them out. There has 
 been an accumulation of evidence, a throwing 
 in of testimony, for what purpose I do not 
 know, though the district attorney says we 
 shall know by and by. So that you may per- 
 ceive we are still groping in the dark, even as 
 to the use to be made of this testimony. 
 
 "Gentlemen, you may suppose me bold, but, 
 believing it as I do, I dare utter it, that when 
 you come to an examination of the testimony 
 in this cause, you will not only not find a sin- 
 gle particle of evidence of guilt, but so far from 
 it you will not find cause for suspicion against 
 my client. The gentlemen may put it down ; 
 I have said it, and I will vindicate it. I have 
 carefully listened to the testimony that has 
 been given, and bestowed upon the case all the 
 thought of which I am capable; and if all my 
 capacity to understand and to discriminate be- 
 tween right and wrong has not forsaken me, I 
 am not mistaken when I say that the testimony 
 which has been given makes my client's con- 
 duct praiseworthy throughout. This I say con- 
 scientiously, and I wish the world so to under- 
 stand it."' 
 
 "Mr. Emmett: Gentlemen of the jury, I 
 most sincerely concur in the opinion expressed 
 by my learned friend, wlu has so emphatically 
 told you that our client stood before you, after 
 near three weeks' investigation, untouched by 
 the testimony. Nothing can be more manifest 
 than his freedom from offence. It is in proof 
 that his every act throughout this whole busi- 
 ness has been not only blameless, but praise- 
 worthy. This 1 declare to be my sincere opin- 
 ion, and I felt peculiar pleasure in hearing 
 Judge Spencer put forth corresponding senti- 
 ments in a manner that convinced all of his 
 sincerity — his course of reading and thinking, 
 his judicial duties, his habit of viewing both 
 sides of all subjects brought before him, have 
 particularly qualified him to form a correct 
 opinion of this very complicated case; there- 
 fore it is to me a source of much gratification 
 to know that he thinks with me, that there is 
 
 not even a cause of suspicion against my 
 client, and yet we find a must numerous array 
 of counsel brought here to endeavor to procure 
 his conviction. It naturally occurs, by whom 
 are they employed? Tbej have too much re- 
 putation, and their time is too valuable, for 
 them to come here and waste a month in pur- 
 suit of fame only. They must be paid by 
 somebody, and I demand to know who that 
 somebody is? I ask who paya theft? To this 
 question I demand an answer. My client is 
 entitled to the information. Every accused 
 man is entitled to know who his prosecutor is. 
 He has a right to show to the jury, as matter 
 of defence, the motives, the malice, the char- 
 acter and conduct of those who instigate or 
 carry on proceedings against him. He has a 
 right to proceed against them for a malicious 
 prosecution, and on that account to know who 
 they are. It is not a sufficient answer to shel- 
 ter them under the assertion that the people 
 prosecutes. The king prosecutes in England; 
 but that does not deprive the subject of the 
 right to know who maintains the prosecution. 
 The district attorney says he employs them ; 
 but the question still recurs who pays them ? 
 The governor has not ordered their employ- 
 ment. The corporation have not done it. No 
 order for that purpose appears on their minutes, 
 and they have no right to interfere or divert 
 the city funds for that purpose. The legisla- 
 ture have not done it. I ask then who has, 
 and studiously keeps himself concealed? 1 
 say again to the public prosecutor, who pays 
 and hides himself? Mr. Barker has always 
 charged this prosecution to be a wicked con- 
 spiracy to destroy him; and if the public pro- 
 secutor will tell who pays and keeps concealed, 
 it will give a clue to this foul conspiracy. Let 
 us know who are secretly devoting their thou- 
 sands to destroy an innocent man, and we shall 
 have no difficulty in developing the whole plot. 
 "The peculiar qualities of my client's mind 
 and disposition have rendered it utterly impos- 
 sible for his counsel to keep him within those 
 professional rules which would have governed 
 them, had the case been left entirely to them ; 
 but you have witnessed that he would not be 
 regulated by our advice ; he has provoked the 
 ire of our opponents, and they have premised 
 to re'aliate to the extent of their ability. 'Let 
 them do it,' says my client. Although v. 
 not approve of his course, we are perBuaded 
 that you see sufficient provocation fur it. His 
 outraged feelings at the enormity of these pro- 
 ceedings, at the tricks and devices that have 
 been resorted to to procure his conviction ; the 
 constant attempts to misrepres&nt all hi 
 duct, and to infer fraud from the mot j I 
 worthy and disinterested of hie acts are enough 
 to fill a mind less acute, less sensitive than his 
 with indignation. B r, a- he is, 
 
 a ser.se of the wrongs dona him, he 
 
 thrown off prudential restraint, and to 
 have had more pleasure in rebuking the gen-
 
 196 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 tlemen who are pursuing this course towards 
 him, than in any other branch of his defence. 
 I admire the spirit that has prompted this bold 
 and manly course, while I regret its want of 
 prudence. Yet there is, nevertheless, an ad- 
 vantage in it; such a course is utterly incon- 
 sistent with guilt. None but honorable, honest, 
 and high-minded feelings could have enabled 
 him to pursue it, and carry it through. Con- 
 sider this well ; give to it the influence to which 
 it is entitled, and you will say that the whole 
 nature of man has been changed in the forma- 
 tion of Mr. Barker, or that he is an innocent 
 man. It has been thought to procure his con- 
 viction chiefly on the testimony of David Lea- 
 vitt. He has stated that Mr. Barker told him, 
 about four days after the failure of the Hudson 
 Insurance Company, (which he fixed to be on 
 the 8th of July,) and before the failure of the 
 Life and Fire Insurance Company, that he had 
 the control of the notes deposited in the Fulton 
 Bank for collection by that company; and that 
 Mr. Barker told him, on Saturday, the loth of 
 July, three days before the failure, that it was 
 questionable whether the Life and Fire could 
 sustain itself or not. Had all this been so, 
 there was no harm in it. Barker had the right 
 to have the control over the property of any 
 individual or corporate company that thought 
 proper to give it to him and owed him largely; 
 and in this case, from the advances proved by 
 the prosecution to have been made by him, 
 there would have been a peculiar fitness in 
 their having given him the control of those 
 notes; and, as to his telling Leavitt that it was 
 doubtful if the Life and Fire would be enabled 
 to sustain itself, what harm was there in that? 
 The bank was itself, at that very time, hard 
 pressed; Barker deeply interested, and active- 
 ly engaged in sustaining it; the Hudson Com- 
 pany's failure that day, overdrawn more than 
 one hundred thousand dollars without security, 
 to the Fulton Bank; a great excitement about 
 the Tradesmen's Bank ; all confidence lost in 
 the bond companies; the Life and Fire having 
 a great issue; its dealers failing daily, was 
 there not cause enough to induce a prudent 
 man to give a word of caution to the presiding 
 officer of a bank in which he himself was deep- 
 ly interested, and in which that company kept 
 their account? 
 
 '' With this view of the subject, I should not 
 have attempted to contradict the witness, how- 
 ever incorrect the testimony he gave; but my 
 client knowing it to be untrue, and persuaded 
 that it was contrived to injure him, decided 
 instantly to detect the misstatements, and he 
 succeeded to his heart's content. 
 
 " The point of the evidence was, to make 
 out that Mr. Barker had the control of the 
 effects ot the Life and Fire before the failure 
 of the company, when the power of attorney 
 was given ; to make out Barker's knowledge 
 that the company was bad, and also to breed 
 a further quarrel between Barker and the Life 
 
 and Fire gentlemen, by making them believe 
 that Barker had not acted in good faith with 
 them. Had the district attorney given credit 
 to this improbable tale of his own witness, 
 would he not have asked the clerks of the Life 
 and Fire if Mr. Barker had any such control? 
 If he ever attempted to exercise any? If he 
 ever spoke of those notes? Ever looked at 
 their bank-book, or asked for authority to draw 
 them? Had he asked these questions he would 
 have been told 'no, never!' The public pro- 
 secutor knew better than to ask any such ques- 
 tion. And would Mr. Leavitt, who boasts of 
 his vigilance at this time in watching over the 
 concerns of the bank — would he, I ask, have 
 permitted the daily payment, to a great amount, 
 without funds, of the checks of a company in 
 full business, who had given to any individual 
 not connected with such company the control 
 over their bills receivable ? The story is too 
 ridiculous, too absurd, to gain credit for a mo- 
 ment; but my client does not depend upon in- 
 ferences to silence these calumnies; and I will 
 give you a short statement of the testimony in 
 relation to Mr. Leavitt. 
 
 " Mr. David B. Ogden told you that' Mr. Lea- 
 vitt intentionally deceived Mr. Eckford, and 
 those concerned in the settlement for the Mor- 
 ris stock, on the day of settlement, in this, that 
 he said the certificates were at the bank, when 
 he knew them to be in the hands of the grand 
 jury; and if he has sacrificed the truth on one 
 occasion, he must expect his testimony to be 
 more scrupulously canvassed on another. 
 
 " He testified that he had several conversa- 
 tions with Barker after the failure of the Hud- 
 son Company, and before the failure of the Life 
 and Fire. That in one of those conversations 
 Barker told him that be had the control over 
 the notes in the Fulton Bank deposited by the 
 Life and Fire, and that, as near as he could re- 
 collect, this conversation took place about four 
 days after the failure of the Hudson Company, 
 and a week before the failure of the Life and 
 Fire. That the Hudson failed the 8th of July. 
 That in speaking of the overdrawing of the 
 Life and Fire, Barker mentioned the note of 
 Allaire as one on which calculation could be 
 made towards the payment of such overdraw- 
 ings. That subsequently the Life and Fire 
 withdrew the note of Allaire; that such with- 
 drawal took place after the notice from Barker 
 that he had the control of that note; when 
 Barker heard of it he complained, alleging that 
 the bank had no right to give it to any other 
 person than himself. 
 
 "Kingsland testified that the note was with- 
 drawn by himself, pursuant to the orders of the 
 officers of the company, after the failure of the 
 Life and Fire, and before the account was made 
 good. Leavitt stepped up and disputed Kings- 
 land's testimony, and testified that if it was 
 withdrawn before the account was made good, 
 that it was withdrawn before the failure of the 
 company, and before the overdrawings; that
 
 SPEECn OF EMMETT. 
 
 197 
 
 be had never given up security while the ac- 
 count remained over. Kingsland was recalled, 
 and examined the books, and testified that the 
 note became payable on the 24th of July; thai 
 it was withdrawn after the failure and before 
 it was protested; he could not say on what day, 
 but it was on or about the 24th of July, he be- 
 lieved, on the very day it became due; it was 
 not protested ; it would have been, had it not 
 have been paid or withdrawn. Clinch testified 
 that it would have been protested if it remain- 
 ed in the bank until due; if paid, it would have 
 been entered to the credit of the Life and Fire ; 
 neither had happened; but from the erasure 
 on the note-book it had been withdrawn either 
 on the day it fell due or before. 
 
 "Kingsland, being further examined, testi- 
 fied that when he went to the bank to with- 
 draw the note the clerk refused to give it to 
 him. alleging that the Life and Fire account was 
 withdrawn, and that the note could not be 
 given up until the account was made good. 
 Leavitt was present; the clerk spoke to him, 
 and after some time spent in conference and 
 examination it was determined that, as there 
 ■were other satisfactory notes in the bank suffi- 
 cient to secure the amount overdrawn, Allaire's 
 note mi>rht be given up, whereupon tbe clerk 
 gave to Kingsland the note. 
 
 "Leavitt swore that Clinch came up to the 
 board of directors on Monday, the 17th July, 
 and said Barker had forbid the payment of Life 
 and Fire checks; that he came down and stated 
 to Barker that they must pay to the extent of 
 funds in hand, to which Barker made no reply. 
 Clinch stated that Barker did not attempt to 
 forbid the payment of any check, or did he in- 
 timate that Life and Fire checks ought not to be 
 paid to the extent ot funds in hand; that Bar- 
 ker called on Monday, the 17th of July, at the 
 close of the business of the day, and intimated 
 to him that it would be prudent not to pay Life 
 and Fire checks beyond funds in hand; that 
 he went immediately op stairs to the directors' 
 room, where they were assembled, and men- 
 tioned it to the president, who came down, and, 
 Clinch believer, invited Barker into the direct 
 ors' room : that he did not tell Leavitt that 
 Barker had forbid the payment of Life and Fire 
 checks, nor did he intimate to Leavitt that Bar- 
 ker had said they ought not to be paid to the 
 amount of funds in hand, but that he told Lea- 
 vitt that Barker had intimated that it would be 
 prudent not to pay them beyond funds in hand. 
 Leavitt testified that Barker told him on Satur- 
 day, the 15th of July, that he cons 'lend it un- 
 certain whether or not the Life and Fire would 
 be enabled to sustain itself; that he did not, 
 on receipt, of this information, give any caution 
 to the clerks of the bank not to pay Life and Fire 
 checks beyond funds in hand, because the clerks 
 bad previously received peremptory general or 
 dors not to pay beyond funds in band. Clinch 
 testified that they were in the daily habit of 
 paying Life and Fire checks for large amounts 
 
 in the course of the day without money in hand, 
 
 relying on its being made good before three 
 
 '< ; that this practice continued down to 
 
 the day of the failure; that Leavitt knew all 
 i it; that no order had, to his knowledge, 
 been given to refu8e Or tO examine Life and Fire 
 checks; that large amounts would have been 
 paid on the day of failure, had they been pre- 
 sented, whether there had been money in the 
 bank to the credit of the Life and I "ire or not. 
 
 " Kingsland testified that the Fulton Bank 
 were in the daily habit of paying checks for 
 large amounts, as they were presented, without 
 money in hand, and that he made the account 
 good daily by depositing about a quarter before 
 three o'clock. The amount overdrawn was 
 about $1,400 or $1,500, and happened the day 
 the company failed, which was made good, 
 partly on the 21st July and the residue on the 
 11th of August, by the collection of notes; that 
 the residue of the notes had been delivered to 
 the receivers, and that none of them bad been 
 delivered to Barker. 
 
 "Mr. Franklin- testified that he resigned his 
 seat as a director of the Fulton Bank about the 
 13th of July, and that the Hudson Company 
 did not fail until a day or two after such re- 
 nignation. Leavitt then came forward again 
 to correct his testimony, and said he had been 
 mistaken as to the time the Hudson Company 
 failed: that they had pad all their bonds on 
 
 the 14th of July. Leavitt came forward again 
 to explain, Btating that he had several conver- 
 sations with Barker about the state of the Life 
 and Fire; that he had not refreshed his mind 
 by examining the notes of the former trial, but 
 that he thought the conversation about his hav- 
 ing the control of the notes was before the fail- 
 ure of the Life and Fire; he also restated that 
 all his conversations with Barker in relation to 
 the Life and Fire notes were subsequent to the 
 failure of the Hudson Company. Mr. Butler 
 and Mr. Sparhawk stated that Mr. Leavitt had 
 testifil il on the former trial of this cause, that 
 
 when Barker told him that he had the control 
 of the Life and Fire notes deposited in the Ful- 
 ton Lank, they were conversing about the 
 overbadings of the Life and Lire, which over- 
 drawing took place on the day of the failure 
 of the Life and Fire; that Leavitt Btated it was 
 after the failure that this conversation took 
 place, but how long after Mr. Butler said he 
 did not recollect; that he had put down on his 
 at the time, that Leavitl stated that Mich 
 conversation was after the failure <>f the Life 
 and Fire, without mentioning how lone alter. 
 Mr. Sparhawk slated that Leavitl had on a 
 former trial Btan d that the first ooi 
 ab .nt the overdrawing was on Monday. 
 the failure of the Li: »nd 
 
 Fire failed on Tuesday, ihe l v ih of .Inly. The 
 
 M lay after was tbe 24th, the verj day when 
 
 Mr. Allaire's note became payable, and of 
 course the very day of all others wl en the par- 
 ties would be must likely to talk of it, and that
 
 198 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 after this it was that Barker told him that he 
 had control of the notes of the Life and Fire de- 
 posited in the Fulton Bank. Leavitt further 
 testified on the present trial, but at an early 
 stage of his examination, that he considered 
 Barker had been instrumental in getting him 
 removed from the presidency of the Fulton 
 Bank; superadding, 'but I have no prejudice 
 against him.' And when pressed to say whether 
 or not Barker hud been employed by the di- 
 rectors of the Fulton Bank, to assist theui in 
 sustaining the bank at the time it was run, 
 (the 17tb of July,) he insisted that Barker was 
 a volunteer, and seemed unwillingly to admit 
 that Barker's assistance was either acceptable 
 or beneficial ; the guaranty of Leavitt and 
 others expressly recognised Barker as assisting 
 by their request. Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Car- 
 ter testified to that fact; and Mr. Hicks testi- 
 fied that he heard Leavitt, during the run on 
 the Fulton Bank, request Barker to send the 
 specie immediately, and to get a carriage for 
 that purpose. 
 
 '•Mr. Leavitt said, in answer to a question 
 put by Mr. Barker: 'Do you not believe that 
 if Messrs. Spencer and Brown, and those 
 directors of the Fulton Bank under their in- 
 fluence, had not resigned, and Mr. Barker had 
 not rendered aid, that the bank would have 
 been compelled to stop payment?' 'I think 
 not.' ' Do you mean to say that the bank 
 could have met all its engagements punctually, 
 after the Hudson Company had failed, if the 
 president and directors of that company had 
 continued their controlling influence over the 
 direction of the Fulton Bank?' 'I think so.' 
 'Do you recollect the great excitement in the 
 city, and particularly against those men ; the 
 total prostration of credit; that the specie in 
 the bank was reduced to $3,000; and, in the 
 language of Mr. Clinch, that the bank was sur- 
 rounded by a mob to get their bills redeemed?' 
 'Notwithstanding all this, I think the bank 
 would have met its engagements, because an 
 arrangement had been made by which the 
 necessary aid was to have been procured from 
 the Tradesmen's Bank.' 'That is news to me. 
 Let us have the particulars.' Mr. Leavitt did 
 not make any explanation. Here let it be 
 remembered, as an established fact, on the 
 testimony of Falls and Nevins, that the Trades- 
 men's Bank was placed under an injunction on 
 the 15th of July, and that the run on the Ful- 
 ton was on the 17th July, and that, therefore, 
 it could not have got a dollar from the Trades- 
 men's Bank. 
 
 "The Rathbone paper is dated 12th July. 
 Messrs. Burrell and Humphreys were elected 
 on that day, as appears by the minutes of the 
 bank in proof. Mr. Catlin testified that they 
 were elected very soon after the conference 
 between himself, Mr. Leavitt, and Mr. Barker, 
 about new directors ; that he believed the very 
 next morning; could not say the precise time, 
 but that he perfectly recollected they were 
 
 elected very soon after such conference. Mr. 
 Carter testified that Messrs. Hazard, Corse, 
 Lawrence, Thurston, and Comstock, were elected 
 expressly on the ground of their being Barker's 
 friends, and tha: those five gentlemen were 
 very fit men for the situation, and that the 
 affairs of the bank were safe in their hands. 
 The minutes of the bank prove that they were 
 all elected on the 13th and 14th July, and by 
 Leavitt and bis friends, as neither Brown, 
 Spencer, Rathbone, Franklin, or their friends, 
 were at the board when the election of either 
 of them took place; although only one at a 
 time had resigned, and not another until the 
 previous vacancy had been filled. Mr. Carter 
 stated, also, that the bank had advanced $9,000, 
 and that he understood that Barker, or Eckford 
 and Barker, had advanced an equal sum for 
 the support of the Hudson Company. This 
 plainly proves that these things were all done 
 in pursuance of some arrangement with Spen- 
 cer and Brown, growing out of the negotiation 
 to which this paper, No. 3 and 4, was a part; 
 but it does not prove the precise terms of the 
 agreement, when the negotiation reached the 
 form of an agreement. 
 
 "Here we have the testimony of David B. 
 Ogden, esq., as to the inaccuracy of Mr. Lea- 
 vitt's declarations on settling for the Morris 
 stock. We confront Mr. Leavitt's declaration 
 on this occasion, that Barker told him he had 
 the control of the Life and Fire notes a week 
 before their failure, with his oath on the former 
 trial, where he said it was after the failure of 
 the Life and Fire that Mr. Barker told him 
 this; for which we have the testimony of Mr. 
 Sparbawk and Mr. Butler, sustained by their 
 separate notes taken at the time. And since 
 we are obliged to credit the oath he now makes, 
 or the oath he then made, we prefer trusting 
 his recollections for four rather than for twelve 
 months; as he would be much more likely to 
 relate accurately while the circumstances were 
 fresh in hi.s recollection than after a lapse of a 
 year, especially as in the interim he said he 
 had been removed from the presidency of that 
 bank by the instrumentality of my client. 
 
 "He stands contradicted by several witnesses, 
 as to the period of the failure of the Hudson 
 Insurance Company. Kingsland contradicts 
 him positively, as to the withdrawal of Al- 
 laire's note. Clinch contradicts him positively, 
 as to Mr. Barker's forbidding him to pay Life 
 and Fire checks. And will any one believe, if 
 Barker had given him the alleged information 
 on Saturday, that he would not, under the cir- 
 cumstances, have given an intimation to the 
 clerks of the bank? Clinch swears, that if the 
 checks of the Life and Fire Company had been 
 presented on the day of the failure, to the 
 amount of 20 or 30,000 dollars, they would 
 have been paid without funds, and without ex- 
 amination. 
 
 " Leavitt swore that he had no pique against 
 Mr. Barker, and this, too, without being asked.
 
 CASE PRESENTED TO THE SUfREME COURT. 
 
 199 
 
 He may not be conscious of it ; but can you 
 believe that assertion, gentlemen of the jury, 
 after the testimony you have heard? Why 
 then, did he, when asked if Mr. Barker had not 
 been invited to assist the bank in its troubles, 
 elude the admission, and declare Mr. Barker to 
 have been a volunteer? 
 
 " On this subject, how differently did Mr. 
 Lawrence, Mr. Catlin, Mr. Selden,and Mr. Car- 
 ter testify? And Mr. Hicks stated, that he 
 heard Leavitt apply to Barker to assist the bank, 
 to send the specie immediately, and to get a 
 carriage for the purpose. 
 
 " Mr. Clinch testified, than Barker brought 
 the specie in the time of their greatest need. 
 And, gentlemen of the jury, you heard Leavitt 
 Swear that the Rathbone paper, dated the 12th 
 of July, did not relate to the negotiation for 
 change of directors, which took place in the 
 Fulton Bank. The express words of that pa- 
 per are : 'to fill the two existing vacancies.' 
 The minute book and Mr. Carter proved to 
 you there never was two vacancies on any other 
 day. They were filled by Messrs. Burrell ai.d 
 Humphreys that very daj\ 
 
 "And Mr. Catlin further tells you, that Mr. 
 Leavitt and Mr. Barker called at his house to 
 consult him, and to procure his assistance in 
 selecting two good directors for the bank, the 
 preceding evening. Now, afier having heard 
 all this testimony, I should like to see the man, 
 if there be one, hardy enough to ask a jury to 
 place any reliance on the testimony of the wit- 
 ness in question. Be the misstatements he has 
 fallen into the result of a defective memory or 
 not, they are so great and glaring, that a dis- 
 creet jury would never permit themselves to act 
 on its evidence." 
 
 This trial resulting unfavorably, Mr. Barker 
 having takenmanyexcepiionstothe proceedings 
 on the trial, on which he intended to apply to 
 the supreme court to set aside the verdict, it 
 became important that the supreme court 
 should be furnished with a full statement of the 
 case. This was also necessary to enable the 
 court to regulate the degree of punishment, in 
 case they should confirm the verdict. Mr. Bar- 
 ker, therefore, prepared a statement of the 
 ■whole case, and presented it to the district at- 
 torney, who refused to look at it or make any 
 counter statement, whereupon Mr. Barker, ac- 
 companied by his counsel, George Griffin, esq., 
 applied to Judge Edwards, and requested him 
 to furnish a copy of his notes in the case, with 
 a copy of his charge to the jury, which the 
 judge utterly refused to furnish, adding that hifl 
 notes were not full, nor could he rely upon their 
 accuracy ; and that he would not make any re- 
 port of the trial to the supreme court, unless 
 
 that court should require hiin to do so; hut 
 that, if Mr. Barker should make a case, serve 
 it on the district attorney, and furnish a list of 
 exceptions, and the parties afterwards appear 
 before him, with such case and exceptions, he 
 would settle the same. Mr. Griffin then in- 
 formed the judge that Mr. Maxwell refused 
 either to look at that prepared by the defend- 
 ant or to prepare one himself, notwithstanding 
 which, the judge adhered to his refusal with 
 great pertinacity. Mr. Barker then gave the 
 district atttorney notice to appear before the 
 Hon. John Savage, chief justice, at his cham- 
 bers, in Albany, to show cause why a case 
 should not be made for the use of the supreme 
 court. On reaching Albany, Mr. Barker found 
 Judge Edwards and Mr. Maxwell there; he in- 
 formed Chief Justice Spencer, his counsel, of 
 Judge Edwards' refusal. "Very strange, this," 
 replied the judge, "let us go and see him, he 
 will not refuse me." Mr. Barker responded, 
 that such an application would be useless, that 
 he would certainly adhere to his refusal. "Im- 
 possible," said the chief justice, "let us go and 
 see." They did so, and repeated the applica- 
 tion for a report of the case from the judge, or 
 for a copy of his notes and charge to the jury, 
 which he again refused to furnish. The motion 
 before Chief Justice Savage coming on, Mr 
 Maxwell appeared and made one of his bois- 
 terous and inflammatory speeches, to which Mr. 
 Barker was about replying, when the chief jus- 
 tice observed to him, that a reply was unneces- 
 sary, that all he had to do was to verify his 
 own statement, and the court would, under the 
 circumstances, consider it the case to be passed 
 upon. 
 
 For the purpose of establishing, before the 
 supreme court, that Maxwell did not present 
 the complaint of Mr. linker, with his pi 
 to the next grand jury, the following testimony 
 was procured : 
 
 "Supkkme Com:.". 
 
 Jacob Barker and otl 
 ads. 
 The people. 
 
 phen Allen being duly sworn, d 
 
 :.i .1 saith, that the within certificate is it 
 handwriting of thia deponent, and lb At ll • 
 therein set forth, as oi his own knowledge, art 
 true. And this deponent further says, ibat he 
 was one of the grand jury for the court o1 ses- 
 sions for the month of July, 1--7. and that he
 
 200 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 acted as foreman thereof; that Mr. Jacob Bar- 
 ker applied to this deponent to know if sundry 
 papers had been placed in the hands of the 
 grand jury, which the said Barker alleged he 
 had placed in the hands of the previous grand 
 jury, and which they had handed over to the 
 court of sessions, as unfinished business, for 
 the purpose of having the inquiry continued 
 by the then sitting grand jury. This deponent 
 replied to the said Jacob Barker, that no such 
 papers had come before that grand jury, that 
 he had not heard or seen anything of them ; 
 and this deponent further saiih, that the said 
 papers were not submitted to the said grand 
 jnrv; that the said Barker said he very much 
 wished the use of some of the said papers on 
 the trial then going on against the said Barker 
 for an alleged conspiracy; that he considered 
 them as containing very important testimony 
 in his favor. 
 
 "STEPHEN ALLEN. 
 
 "Sworn, the 31st day of July, 1827, before 
 me. 
 
 " NATH. B. BLUNT, 
 
 " Commissioner, &c." 
 
 Mr. Barker, therefore, presented to the su- 
 preme court the ease prepared by himself, and 
 his counsel was about to argue thereon, among 
 other things, that the verdict was against evi- 
 dence, when the district attorney requested to 
 have such argument deferred until the judge's 
 report of the case should come in, which, he 
 stated to the court, was in progress of copying. 
 At that time Judge Edwards was in Utica, where 
 the supreme court was sitting, on his way to Pen- 
 field. Mr. Barker made application to him to 
 know if he was preparing a report of the case. 
 On being informed that he was not, and should 
 not, unless required to do so by the supreme 
 court, being again requested to examine the 
 case prepared by Mr. Barker, he declined. Mr. 
 Barker then requested him to examine his 
 statement of the judge's charge, and to certify 
 the same if correctly stated ; if not correctly 
 stated, to point out the errors for the use of 
 the supreme court, which he utterly refused to 
 do, aud repeated that he would not do anything 
 about the case, neither for the one party or the 
 other; that he had determined not to look at any 
 statement made by either, and, uuless the court 
 should require of him a report, he would not 
 make any. 
 
 Mr. Barker then informed him of Maxwell's 
 motion and statement to the supreme court, 
 and requested him to defer his departure for 
 the west until the court should meet the next 
 
 day, that he, Mr. Barker, might have time ta 
 apply for such order, which he declined to do, 
 and departed from Utica without making any 
 report. After his departure the district attor- 
 ney sent a messenger to him wi'th a statement 
 of the trial, prepared under the direction of the 
 district attorney, by his clerk or partner, with- 
 out reference to, or aid of the notes from the 
 judge. 
 
 Mr. Barker was assisted by Ambrose Spen- 
 cer, esq., who insisted that there was sufficient 
 error in the record to quash the whole pro- 
 ceeedings; and, therefore, it was unnecessary 
 to await the return of the public prosecutor's 
 messenger. 
 
 The writ of error was taken up and dis- 
 cussed at great length by the counsel on both 
 sides, in which Judge Spencer distinguished 
 himself, as usual, making a very logical, learned 
 and impressive speech. 
 
 The court sustained the writ of error. In pro- 
 nouncing their decision, they said, among 
 other things, that in the district attorney's an- 
 swer to Mr. Barker's application on the trial 
 to produce the papers delivered by Mr. Barker 
 to the grand jury, and removed by him from 
 the files of the court, he said " he had them 
 not," when he had them. This appears in the 
 decisions of the supreme court of New York, 
 for 1827. Alter this decision, Maxwell left 
 Utica; his messenger had not then returned. 
 When he came back he brought the case which 
 had been prepared by Maxwell, certified as 
 follows : 
 
 " Upon comparing the foregoing case with 
 my notes, 1 believe it to be substantially a cor- 
 rect report of the testimony of the witnesses as 
 given on the trial. The books and other docu- 
 ments, including the affidavits as to the testi- 
 mony of General Swift, will, I understand, be 
 exhibited by the district attorney to the court. 
 "OGDEN EDWARDS. 
 
 " Penfield, August 13, 1827." 
 
 That the judge should have so soon relin- 
 quished his determination, so often expressed, 
 not to take sides in relation to the report, not 
 to look at the statement of either party, and 
 not to report the case to the supreme court 
 until ordered by them to do so, is not less sur- 
 prising than that he should continue to with- 
 hold a copy of bis minutes aud of his charge, 
 and certify as correct the statement of the dis- 
 trict attorney, without giving Mr. Barker an
 
 PROCEEDINGS IN THE SUPREME COURT. 
 
 201 
 
 opportunity of pointing out the manifold errors 
 
 and discrepancies which run through the whole 
 document; which document, the judge states 
 in his certificate, he had compared with his 
 own notes, without saying that his notes were 
 short and imperfect; a fact within his own 
 knowledge, and which had induced him to de- 
 clare to Mr. Griffin and Mr. Barker, that he 
 could not rely upon them ; and yet he refers 
 to his own notes in his certificate in such terms 
 as would, iu the opinion of Mr. Barker, lead 
 the supreme court to suppose they were full 
 and accurate, and entitled to implicit con- 
 fidence. 
 
 Mr. Barker wishing the public to understand 
 the district attorney's version of all that had 
 occurred, borrowed the document from the 
 messenger, and with the assistance of three or 
 four friends, took a copy of it before the rising 
 of the sun on the following day, which copy, 
 although imperfect and full of errors, he caused 
 to be immediately published in pamphlet form. 
 
 The public mind was constantly poisoned by 
 the erroneous statements of Maxwell, his in- 
 flamatory speeches and newspaper misrepre- 
 sentations; in refuting which James Gordon 
 Bennet, esq., then editor of the National Advo- 
 cate, was particularly useful, and did more to 
 disabuse the public mind than all the other news- 
 papers of the nation; to him Mr. Barker feels un- 
 der lasting obligations. 
 
 The whole subject was finally disposed of by 
 the following proceedings : 
 
 "SUPREME COURT. 
 
 " Henry Eckford, Joseph G. Swift, William P 
 Rath bone, Thomas Vermilyea, George W. 
 Brown. Mark Speucer, Matthew L. Davis and 
 Jacob Barker, 
 
 ads. 
 
 The People. 
 "New i'ouk. October 2.",, 1827. 
 
 "Sin: You will please to take notice, that I in- 
 tend to move on Thursday of next week, the 
 first of November, the honorable the supreme 
 court at the capitol at Albany, or as .-nun there- 
 after as counsel can be heard, thai the indict- 
 ment in this case be quashed, or that a 
 prosequi be entered, lor reason that the 
 indictment is not supported by the authority 
 of law. 
 
 " Yuur obedient servant, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 "Hugh Maxwell, esq., District Attorney" 
 
 "In ,- I '■■urt, \\th Nbvemb r, 1827. 
 
 " Jacob Barker and others, 
 a<!s. 
 " The People. 
 "On motion, Ordered that the indictment in 
 in this cause be quashed. 
 
 "JOHN KEYES PAIGE, Clerk." 
 
 The conspiracy trials being over, and the 
 chancery suit continued, Mr. Barker caused 
 many members of the grand jury, the district 
 attorney, clerk of the court, many of the direc- 
 tors and officers of the institutions alleged to 
 have been defrauded, to be examined, under 
 oath, as witnesses before the master in chan- 
 cery, to whom the case had been referred, from 
 some of whom he obtained the original records 
 of the parties to the fraud on the Tradesmen's 
 Bank, fixing the date when it happened, at 
 which time he was not in the State of New 
 York ; that he had been wrongfully deprived 
 of his papers by Hugh Maxwell, who promised 
 the grand jury that they should be forthcoming 
 on the trial ; that he took from the clerk of the 
 court Mr. Barker's proofs as soon as the grand 
 jury filed them, and selected therefrom the let- 
 ters, six in number, from Mr. Eckford to Mr. 
 Barker, which west to contradict the declara- 
 tion that Maxwell graciously made, viz: "that 
 Mr. Eckford had been made the victim of 
 others." When he promised to restore him to 
 the good opinion of his acquaintances, the let- 
 ters he took off, leaving the other pa| erg. 
 When he was called upon to produce them on 
 the trial he said he had them not. Mr. Hat- 
 field proved he had them in court, and that, he 
 knew he had them there. The trial went on, 
 and he did not produce them ; that when he 
 was constrained by the court of chancer* long 
 alter the trial to account for them, he lilcd with 
 the clerk of the court from which he louk them 
 seven letters; that the seventh was not ad- 
 dressed to, or intended for, Mr. Barker, he had 
 never seen it, thus furnishing the 
 presumptive evidence that an unworlhjj intrigue 
 had been going on between the public pi 
 cutor and an indicted and aoacq litli ! indi- 
 vidual. This testimony also established Mr. B.'i 
 entire freedom from all the olfenees chai 
 whereupon he called a public meeting at tho 
 Merchant's Exchange, in Wall street, and 
 hibited the record of the midnight conspirator! 
 against the Tradesmen's Bank. The said re- 
 cord was in the handwriting of the recorder,
 
 202 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 who had wrongfully made Mr. B. pay five hun- 
 dred dollars for publishing alleged libels in re- 
 lation to the conspiracy trials, and put him 
 under bonds not to do so again. He urged on 
 the grand jury the importance of these papers, 
 stating he relied upon them as a shield in the 
 approaching trial ; that the object of the dis- 
 trict attorney in demanding to have them de- 
 livered to him was to shield those against 
 whom the complaint under consideration was 
 made for conspiring to make Mr. B. answer- 
 able for their own sins, and if he did get posses- 
 sion they would not be forthcoming on the 
 trial. The grand jurors testified to Mr. Bar- 
 ker's extreme reluctance at leaving them. De- 
 priving an accused party of the evidence on 
 which he relied for his defence, which was 
 documentary, in his own possession, and his 
 own property, was as great an outrage as was 
 ever committed by the public prosecutor of any 
 country. 
 
 Mr. Barker's anxiety that the public should 
 be kept informed of all the facts of the case, 
 applied to many of the city papers for the pub- 
 lication of the necessary proofs. The influence 
 of the moneyed aristocracy over the press was 
 great, as will be seen by the letter of Messrs. 
 D wight & Townsend, herein published, and the 
 following : 
 
 "My carriage is at the door, and I am this 
 moment stepping into it; but Icannotdoso with- 
 out first suggesting to you the necessity of fur- 
 nishing me with law authorities to my hand, for 
 you know I am incapable of stirring a step out 
 of mv office. 
 
 " Where is Mr. Selden ? 
 
 " Give me tools in my hands, and I will use 
 them, but I cannot seek them. 
 
 "WM. COLEMAN." 
 
 "April 19, 2 o'clock, 1828. 
 "Dear Sir: I find it utterly impossible to 
 become your public advocate without a greater 
 sacrifice than you would wish me to make, but 
 ask no questions. 
 
 " Noah and Graham have a fine opportunity 
 to show themselves to very desirable advantage. 
 " Hastily, 
 
 "WM. COLEMAN." 
 " New York, March 15, 1843. 
 "My Dear Sir: I received a few days since, 
 and have read with much pleasure, a recent 
 speech of yours before a parish court, in New 
 Orleans. As a forensic effort, it is truly origi- 
 nal ; for the occasion and object, truly admi- 
 rable. 
 
 " It embraces history, past and present, 
 biography, personal and political, together with 
 sketches and views of acts and things, of morals 
 and principle, all just and true, and, what is no 
 small addition, eloquently expressed. 
 
 " This speech, my friend, does you great 
 credit. 
 
 " It is a full and vigorous vindication of your 
 motives and character, and will, I hope, pro- 
 duce a just and salutary effect. 
 
 "Prejudice is not only the offspring of ig- 
 norance, but the mother of calumny, and is to 
 be corrected and silenced only by the lash. 
 
 " You have taught the rogues a lesson which 
 they will not soon forget. 
 
 " Your account of yourself was necessary, it 
 was indispensable to your justification, and the 
 open, frank, and manly manner of it does you 
 ^reat credit. 
 
 " I shall never forget the persecutions you 
 endured and triumphed over in ibis city. 
 
 "It was, in my judgment, bitter and malig- 
 nant in the extreme. 
 
 " I expressed my sense of it, at the time, in a 
 poetical satire; which, after all, I dared not 
 publish. 
 
 "It was a brief review of your history and 
 character, with a glance at the motives and 
 character of your assailants. 
 
 "I am almost tempted to give you some of 
 the concluding lines of it. 
 
 "Afier speaking of you with much freedom, 
 and, perhaps, some severity, it concludes as 
 follows : 
 
 " ' We lennw him well, and his most graceless deed 
 
 Is blazed so broad that he who runs may read ; 
 
 Yet do we hold him far above that crew, 
 
 Who erst, like blood-hounds, did his track pursue ; 
 
 Who basely joined the insensate rabble's cry, 
 
 And tried their utmost powers to crucify. 
 
 Hi- has, with all his faults, redeeminy traits — 
 
 That pride, which still on independence waits; 
 
 Strong sense, which no vain folly can efface ; 
 
 Domestic virtues, and affections, grace ; 
 
 Strength, that against oppression takes its stand ; 
 
 A manly spirit, and a liberal hand ; 
 
 A zeal that scorns e'en danger to elude; 
 
 Unfaltering faith and matchless fortitude. 
 
 While tltei/, by spite or meaner passions sway'd, 
 
 Have maiice, spleen, and impotence betrayed ; 
 
 A graceless corps, whom scarce a virtue warms, 
 
 No pride ennobles, and no vice alarms; 
 
 Alike devoid of spirit and of shame, 
 
 Who cringe to power and tremble at a name; 
 
 Who, destitute of merit as of wit, 
 
 Still strive to bite, yet grumble when they're bit; 
 
 Still prate of morals with malicious grin, 
 
 Yet canting, hide the lurking fiend within ; 
 
 Who boast of honor, yet to honor dead, 
 
 O'er truth and charity unblushing tread ; 
 
 Who envy practices beyond their skill, 
 
 And rail at vices which they practice still ; 
 
 Who, parrot-like, repeat each senseless tone, 
 
 And damn from spite or prejudice alone. 
 
 The muxe, though weak her voice, unfamed her song, 
 
 Indignant speaks her fix'd contempt of wrong. 
 
 She still resists where'er injustice rules, 
 
 And scorns the arts of knaves, the power of fools ; 
 
 The senseless prejudice, the furious zeal 
 
 Of those who neither know, nor think, nor feel, 
 
 liut as the vane of pop'lar passion plays, 
 
 Or as the sordid power of interest sways. 
 
 She scorns the oath combined with secret grudge, 
 
 The base caballer, and the bias'd judge ; 
 
 The selfish views that with ambitious aim 
 
 Build on the ruins of another's fame.
 
 TESTIMONY BEFORE THE MASTER IN CHANCERY. 
 
 203 
 
 She scorns the pliant tool that's hasely led 
 
 To hurl his vengeance at a guiltless head ; 
 
 Who, won by wealth, or bribed by vile applause, 
 
 Colleagues with malice, and perverts the laws; 
 
 She scorns the caitiff who would damn in spite 
 
 Of his own sense of justice and of right ; 
 
 Who to the favored few corruptly leans, 
 
 And kindred crimes with kindred baseness screens.' 
 
 "No man, except the person who wrote 
 them, can understand the above lines as well 
 as yourself. 
 
 "Very sincerely yours, 
 
 * # * * * 
 
 "Jacob Barker, esq., 
 
 "New Orleans." 
 
 In consequence of the avenues to the public 
 mind, through the daily press, being thus ob- 
 structed, Mr. Barker continued to address them 
 in pamphlet form, from which the following 
 extracts are taken. 
 
 Testimony taken before Thomas Bolton, master 
 in chancery, in the suit in chancery of Henry 
 Barclay, and others, vs. Henry Eckford, 
 Jacob Barker, and others: 
 
 " Clarkson Crolius, sworn on the part of Mr. 
 Barker, and being asked : Was you a member 
 of the grand jury for the city and county of 
 New York, for the month of June, one thou- 
 sand ei^ht hundred and twenty-seven ? 
 
 " He answers : He was a member of the 
 grand jury in the summer of that year, and he 
 thinks it was for the month of June. 
 
 "Being asked: Did yon see sundry letters 
 from Henry Eckford, documents and papers 
 appertaining, directly or indirectly, to the ac- 
 count and transactions between Jacob Barker 
 and the Life and Fire Insurance Company ? 
 
 " He answers : I did ; I saw said letters and 
 heard them read; other papers also. All said 
 papers, witness thinks, had a bearing, directly 
 or indirectly, on the subject enquired about. 
 Some of the documents related to the transac- 
 tions of Mr. Rathbone. 
 
 " Being asked : From whom did you receive 
 those papers? 
 
 " He answers : They were presented to the 
 grand jury by Mr. Barker. 
 
 " Being asked : Did the grand jury return 
 those papers to Mr. Barker? 
 
 "He answers: They did not. 
 
 "Being asked: What was done with those 
 papers ? 
 
 "He answers: They were handed to the 
 foreman of the grand jury to deliver to the 
 court, with the express understanding that Mr. 
 Barker should have them whenever he should 
 need them. This was so assented to by the 
 district attorney, and promised by him that 
 Mr. Barker should have the benefit of said 
 papers before the court whenever they should 
 be required. The reason of this pledge beinjj; 
 taken was because Mr. Barker slated to the 
 grand jury that he was afraid that if he parted 
 with them he should never be able to obtain 
 
 them again. The dislrict attorney stated that 
 the court was a safe deposite for those papers, 
 and that Mr. Barker could have them when 
 required. Mr. Barker gave them up with 
 great reluctance. He considered the district 
 attorney as expressing his opinion that it was 
 the duty of the grand jury to retain those 
 papers and hand them to the court. 
 
 "Being asked by Mr. Barker: Did I not 
 request the grand jury, during their session, to 
 return said papers to me, and object to their 
 being given to anyone else? 
 
 " He answers: I think you did. Mr. Barker 
 stated that there was a suit coming on shortly 
 against him for an alleged conspiracy, in which 
 those papers would be of the most essential 
 service to him. Mr. Barker parted with them 
 with great reluctance. 
 
 " Being examined by Mr. Hoffman, says : 
 He knows of no schedule of said papers being 
 made; cannot enumerate them. There may 
 have been one or two of them which were not 
 read. Says, there may have been from twelve 
 to fifteen papers, perhaps more, perhaps less ; 
 he cannot speak with certainty as to their 
 number ; rather thinks there were rising 
 twelve ; there were probably three letters from 
 Mr. Eckford. 
 
 " Edioard Probyn, sworn on the part of Mr. 
 Barker, and being asked: Was you a member 
 of the grand jury for the city and county of 
 New York for the month of June, one thousand 
 eight hundred and twenty seven? 
 " He answers : He was. 
 " The examination of Clarkson Crolius being 
 read over to him he says the same is correct, 
 and is a fair statement of what took place 
 before the grand jury on that occasion. Says 
 it was perfectly understood by the grand jury 
 that Mr. Barker was to have the benefit of the 
 papers at the approaching trial for the alleged 
 conspiracy, and that when Mr. Barker objected 
 to leaving his papers with the #rand jury, the 
 question was put to him whether he was will- 
 ing to leave the papers rather than withdraw 
 his complaint? Mr. Barker replied, if he could 
 not have them back on any other terms he 
 would rather leave them, and he left them with 
 extreme reluctance. Mr. Maxwell argued his 
 right to appear before the grand jury at that 
 time, and it was opposed by some of the grand 
 
 j UI 7- 
 
 " Anson G. Phelps, sworn on the part of Mr. 
 Barker, and being asked: Was you a member 
 of the grand jury for the city and county of 
 New York for the month of June, one thousand 
 eight, hundred and twenty-seven? 
 
 " He answers : I do not recollect the month, 
 but I was a member of the grand jury the fore 
 part of last summer. The testimony of Clark- 
 son Crolius and Edward Probyn being read 
 over to him, he says said testimony is generally 
 correct. The district attorney claimed that 
 these documents belonged to the court, and 
 that as such it was his duty not to allow them
 
 204 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 to be returned to Mr. Barker, but. that they 
 would at all times be accessible to Mr. Barker 
 on the files of the court. 
 
 " George P. Rogers, sworn on the part of 
 Mr. Barker, and asked : Was you not a mem- 
 ber of the grand jury in June, one thousand 
 eight, hundred and twenty-seven? 
 
 " He answers : I was a member of the grand 
 jury for the month of June, one thousand eight 
 hundred and twenty seven, for the city and 
 county of New York. The testimony of Clark - 
 son Crolius, Edward Probyn, and Anson G. 
 Phelps, being read over to him at his request, 
 he says it is generally correct throughout and 
 is substantially true. Mr. Maxwell was present, 
 and insisted upon his right to he present, before 
 the grand jury. Some of the jury were very 
 much opposed to it. There was some discus- 
 sion among the jury. There was a consider- 
 able number of papers laid before the grand 
 jury by Mr. Barker; they were handed to the 
 foreman. Mr. Barker objected very strongly 
 to their being retained by the jury and kept 
 from him. These papers were handed to the 
 court. The district attorney told the foreman 
 of the grand jury to retain them and hand 
 them to the court, and not to return them to 
 Mr. Barker. Witness thought they were to 
 become a record of the court, and that the 
 parties could have reference to them whenever 
 they might want them, or copies of them, by 
 application to the court. 
 
 " Hugh Maxwell, sworn on the part of Mr. 
 Barker, and being asked : Have you seen, 
 since the failure of the Life and Fire Insurance 
 Company, sundry original letters, in the hand- 
 writing of Henry Eckford, addressed to Jacob 
 Barker, or J. Barker? 
 
 " He answers : I have. 
 
 " Being asked : Have you had them in your 
 possession ? 
 
 " He answers : I have. 
 
 " Being asked : Were they in your possession 
 in the month of June, one thousand eight hun- 
 dred and twenty-seven, during the trial of Mr. 
 Barker for an alleged conspiracy? 
 
 "He answers: They were in my possession at 
 one time, having been procured by me from 
 the clerk of the court, Mr. Hatfield, to whom 
 they had been given by the grand jury. 
 
 ''Being asked: What is meant by one time? 
 
 " He answers: Part of them were in my pos- 
 session, I think, before the trial, and all of 
 them about the time of the trial. 
 
 "Being asked: Were all, or any of them, in 
 your possession at any time during the trial? 
 
 "He answers: They were all in my posses- 
 sion, I believe, at that time. 
 
 " Being asked: Did Mr. Barker apply to you 
 to produce them on that trial? 
 
 "He answers : Mr. Barker, or somebody else, 
 spoke to me about them, and I referred them 
 to Mr. Hatfield, supposing I had returned them 
 to Mr. Hatfield. 
 
 "Being asked: Did not Mr. Barker apply in 
 person ? 
 
 "He answers: I think he did; and that some 
 one else came with a subpoena duces tecum. 
 
 " Being asked : Were they produced on that 
 trial? 
 
 " He answers: I believe they were not, and 
 that no other application was made on the sub- 
 ject; and he says, if the mistake had been ex- 
 plained, they would have been exhibited ; they 
 were in court at the time in the bundle of 
 papers in my possession. 
 
 "Being asked: When you say that they had 
 been given to Mr. Hatfield, the clerk, by the 
 grand jury, do you mean to say that of your 
 own knowledge, or from the information of 
 others? 
 
 'He answers: I infer it because it was the 
 ordinary course of business for the grand jury to 
 return papers to the clerk, and I applied to 
 him for them. 
 
 "Being asked: Do you know how the grand 
 jury came in possession of the said letters 
 from Henry Eckford ? 
 
 "He answers: I decline answering this 
 question, because my information was officially 
 obtained. 
 
 "Being asked: Was you informed that the 
 grand jury had a special meeting of an after- 
 noon, towards the close of the session, imme- 
 diately preceding the delivery of said letters to 
 the clerk, to hear a complaint from Mr. Barker 
 against Richard Riker and William P. Rath- 
 bone, and others? 
 
 "He declines answering for the reasons 
 above assigned. 
 
 "Being asked: Did you not go to that grand 
 jury, and find Mr. Barker there, and demand 
 to be present during his complaint? 
 
 "He answers as last beforesaid. 
 
 "Being asked : Did not the grand jury decide 
 that you had no right to be present at the time 
 Mr. Barker was making his complaint, and did 
 you not retire in consequence thereof, first de- 
 manding of them to retain whatever papers 
 Mr. Barker should present in support of his 
 complaint? 
 
 " He answers as last aforesaid. 
 
 "Being asked: Have you been retained by 
 the Lite and Fire Insurance Company since 
 the failure of said company? 
 
 "He answers: I was employed as counsel 
 some two or three weeks before the indictments 
 were found against the individuals connected 
 with that company, by or on behalf of said 
 company; it was by letter from Mr. Vernihyea, 
 or some one of the directors or officers of said 
 company; and upon Mr. Lawrence and Mr. 
 Hoffman's being appointed receivers of said 
 company. I called on Mr. Lawrence and in- 
 formed 'him I had been so retained. I am 
 inclined to think, and am certain, the retainer 
 was sent to me after the failure of said com- 
 pany.
 
 TESTIMONY BEFORE THE MASTER IN CHANCERY. 
 
 205 
 
 "Being a>ked: Have you brought with you \ 
 a letrer from Henry Eckford to Jacob Barker, 
 bearing date on or about the seventh day of 
 May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty- 
 six, and three other letters from said Eckford 
 to said Barker, of the same year; also the 
 several papers which in the late trials for con- 
 spiracy v,-ere denominated the Rathbone papers; 
 also a receipt, bearing date on or about May 
 the tenth, one thousand eight hundred and 
 twenty six, for one thousand shares Fulton 
 Bank stock, signed H. Eckford & Co., or 
 Henry Eckford & Co.? 
 
 "He answers : The last paper I do not recol- 
 lect ever to have seen. With respect to the 
 others, they are in the possession of Mr.Hatfield, 
 the clerk of the said court, as I believe. They 
 are not in my possession. The letters referred 
 to were left with Mr. Hatfield some two or 
 three weeks ago. The four papers, denominated 
 the Rathbone papers, were left with him this 
 morning, since the service of the subpoena 
 duces tecum in this cause, the clerk being, in 
 the opinion of witness, the proper officer to 
 produce papers. 
 
 "Being asked: Was Mr. Hatfield clerk of 
 the court where the conspiracy trial aforesaid 
 took place, in June, one thousand eight hun- 
 dred and twenty-seven, when the papers were 
 demanded as aforesaid ? 
 
 "He auswers: Mr. Hatfield was not clerk of 
 the court where the cause was tried, Mr. Fair- 
 lie was. 
 
 "Here Mr. Maxwell required the questions 
 to be reduced to writing. To give time to pre- 
 pare them he was suffered to depart. Not 
 attending at the next meeting, a new subpoena 
 was sent him ; still he did not attend, and all 
 the efforts of Mr. Barker to induce him to give 
 further attendance before the master in chan- 
 cery have proved unavailing. 
 
 "Richard Hatfield, sworn on the part of Mr. 
 Barker, produces six original letters from 
 Henry Eckford to Jacob Barker, and one from 
 the same, dated July twenty-ninth, no direction. 
 Says : He believes said letters to be in the 
 hand writing and signature of Henry Eckford, 
 with the exception of the one dated the thir- 
 teenth September, one thousand eight hundred 
 and twenty-six. The body of this letter is in 
 the hand writing of some other person, but the 
 signature he believes to be Mr. Eckford's — has 
 seen Mr. Eckford write once or twice, perhaps 
 more, and he believes them to be Mr Eckford's. 
 The copies produced and left by witness are 
 true copies of said originals. 
 
 "Mr. Hatfield again called, by Mr. Barker, 
 and being asked : From whom did you receive 
 the letters alluded to in your former examina- 
 tion? 
 
 "He answers: I received them from the 
 grand jury, in May or June, one thousand eight 
 hundred and twenty-seven, I believe, or there- 
 abouts, with other papers. 
 
 "Being asked: Have they remained in your 
 possession ever since? 
 
 "He answers: He thinks on the very day 
 they were delivered, but is not certain as to the 
 day, but, at any rate, within a very few days 
 thereafter, he delivered to Mr. Maxwell, at his 
 request, six letters purporting to be from Hen- 
 ry Eckford to Jacob Barker, together with a 
 deposition of Mr. Barker. 
 
 " Being asked : When did you receive them 
 back from Mr. Maxwell? 
 
 " He answers : About two or three weeks 
 past, he thinks. 
 
 "Being asked: If you can particularize 
 which of the seven letters produced by you 
 compose the six referred to as above? 
 
 " He answers : He cannot say which. 
 
 " Being asked : Did you receive from Mr. 
 Maxwell the seventh letter with the six so re- 
 turned ? 
 
 "He answers: I received from Mr. Maxwell, 
 or from his clerk, a number of letters, which I 
 supposed to be the same I had delivered to 
 him ; there were seven letters so delivered to 
 witness, as the witness found upon examination 
 here before the master, and not before. 
 
 "Being asked: Was you served with a 
 subpoena duces tecum, on behalf of Mr. Barker, 
 to produce those letters in court on the con- 
 spiracy trial, in June, one thousand eight hun- 
 dred and twenty-seven, at the trial of Mr. Bar- 
 ker for an alleged conspiracy ? 
 
 " He answers : He was served with such sub- 
 poena to produce certain letters, he presumes 
 those inquired about. 
 
 " Being asked : Did you not appear in court 
 on that trial, and inform Mr. Barker that you 
 had no such papers in your possession ? 
 
 "He answers : He did. 
 
 "Being asked : Did you not at that time in- 
 form the district attorney that such subpoena 
 had been served on you, and that you, the 
 witness, had not the papers, but that he, the 
 district attorney, had them? 
 
 " He answers : He did. 
 
 " Being asked : Did Mr. Maxwell on that 
 occasion deny having them? 
 
 " tie answers : I think he did at first, but 
 afterwards, at the same interview, he, the dis- 
 trict attorney, became satisfied that he, the dis- 
 trict attorney, had them, as witness believes. 
 
 " Being asked : Do you know the hand-wri- 
 ting of the endorsement on a letter from H. 
 Eckford, which is not addressed to Jacob Bar- 
 ker or any other person, which letter is before 
 referred to in your previous examination, and 
 bears date July the twenty-ninth, one thousand 
 eight hundred and twenty six? 
 
 "He answers: He cannot say he does, but 
 he believes it to be Mr. Colden's. 
 
 "Mr. Hatfield again called by Mr. Barker, 
 and asked : When you say you delivered the 
 letters from Mr. Eckford, how do you mean to 
 be understood?
 
 206 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 u He answers : Mr. Maxwell asked me for 
 Barker's papers, received from the grand jury, 
 the same day, or very soon thereafter, on which 
 they were received from the grand jury — I 
 think it was in court where they were received 
 — I handed him the bundle to look at; he se- 
 lected out the letters of Mr. Eckford, and was 
 about taking them away, leaving the others. 
 I requested him to stop until I could take a 
 a list of them. He did so ; I made a memo- 
 randum on the bundle that six letters from 
 Henry Eckford to Mr. Barker had been taken 
 out and delivered to the district attorney, with 
 Mr. Barker's deposition, or words to that 
 effect. 
 
 " Being asked : Did Mr. Maxwell leave some 
 papers with you, on Friday, the twenty-fifth 
 day of January, one thousand eight hundred 
 and twenty-eight, denominated the Rathbone 
 papers ? and how many ? 
 
 " He answers: He left four papers with me, 
 marked 1, 2, 3, 4. 
 
 " Being asked : Did Mr. Maxwell require a 
 receipt for said papers? 
 
 " He answers : He did ; I gave it. 
 
 " Being asked : Were those papers ever in 
 your possession before? 
 
 " He answers : Never before. 
 
 "Being asked: Were they not among any 
 papers previously filed by you as clerk? 
 
 "He answers: They were not. 
 
 The reader will observe, that Mr. Maxwell, 
 under the solemnity of his oath, says: "If the 
 mistake had been explained, they would have 
 been exhibited;" and that Mr. Hatfield, under 
 the solemnity of his oath, says, " Thaton receiv- 
 ing the subpcena to produce the papers, he went 
 into the court, during the trial of Mr. Barker, 
 and informed the district attorney that he, Hat- 
 field, had them not, but that he, the district 
 attorney, had them." Thus, we see, the al- 
 leged mistake was explained, and yet the pa- 
 pers were not produced, and to believe they 
 were forgotten requires an uncommon share of 
 charity ; and in forming an opinion on this 
 solemn point, the mind is irresistibly led to 
 review the whole conduct of the district attor- 
 ney in the case, especially the manner in which 
 he obtained the papers, the solemn promise 
 made to the grand jury that the papers should 
 be produced on trial, the unlawful manner of 
 removing them from the files of the court, the 
 indignity with which he treated the supreme 
 court in defying their authority, by telling them 
 he would not submit to its exercise, when they 
 refused to allow the cause to go back to the 
 court of Oyer and Terminer, and by subse- 
 quently applying to the grand jury for new in- 
 
 dictments to enable him to cary that defiance 
 into effect. The few individuals who have 
 contributed their money towards the purchase 
 of a service of plate for the district attorney 
 are requested to consider these things, and also 
 to read the preceding testimony, that they may 
 know the character and conduct that they have 
 undertaken to sustain. 
 
 When I detected and exposed the appalling 
 fact that the district attorney had accepted of 
 three hundred dollars from Mr. Eckford, and 
 other sums from divers others of the indicted, 
 immediately after the first trial, it was at- 
 tempted by Mr. Maxwell or his friend, through 
 the columns of the Enquirer, to induce the pub- 
 lic to believe that the letters from Mr. Eckford, 
 of which the district attorney deprived me, 
 were of no consequence ; I ask the reader to 
 consider that of the seventh of May, and also 
 that of 21st July, which are in the words fol- 
 lowing: 
 
 " New York, May 7, 1826. 
 
 "Dear Sir: Jn consequence of advice from 
 Baltimore, it became necessary for me to go 
 on to-day. Have the goodness to send me, by 
 to-day's mail, the papers you talked of. It will 
 be 12 o'clock to-morrow before I leave Phila- 
 delphia. You will have the goodness to give 
 such aid as you can in completing the arrange- 
 ment with Mr. Spencer. 
 
 " Your friend, 
 
 "H. ECKFORD. 
 
 "Jacob Barker, esq. 
 
 " Directed, Jacob Barker, esq., 
 
 " Present. 
 
 " A true copy, 
 
 "R. HATFIELD." 
 
 " New York, July 21, 1826. 
 " Dear Sir : If you can obtain ten thousand 
 dollars for the Morris, I will guarantee it. Mr. 
 Bayard will hand you the notes and bonds for 
 $25,000 — it will accommodate very much. 
 " Yours, &c, 
 
 "H. E." 
 " 10 will be wanted to-day, and 5 probably 
 to-morrow, ar:d 5 when wanted after. You had 
 better negotiate this with Mr. Bayard. 
 " Directed to Jacob Barker, esq. 
 " A true copy, 
 
 " R. HATFIELD." 
 
 "Matthew Reed, sworn on the part of Mr. Bar- 
 ker, and being asked : Was you president of 
 the Tradesmens' Bank, in June and July, one 
 thousand eight hundred and twenty-six? 
 
 "He answers: He was then, and for more 
 than a year previous. 
 
 "Being asked: Was William P. Rathbone 
 elected a director of the Tradesmen's Bank, on
 
 TESTIMONY BEFORE THE MASTER IN CHANCERY. 
 
 207 
 
 the third of July, one thousand eight hundred 
 and twenty-six? 
 
 " He answers : He was. 
 
 " B^ing asked : Were you hoth directors of 
 the Life and Fire Insurance Company? 
 
 " He answers : Witness thinks he was, and 
 he believes William P. Rathbone was, during 
 June and July, one thousand eight hundred 
 and twenty-six, but he never met him there. 
 
 " Being asked : Were rising four thousand 
 shares of Tradesmen's Bank stock transferred 
 to Wiliiam P. Rathbone, in July, one thousand 
 eight hundred and twenty-six? 
 
 u He answered : There were. 
 
 "Being asked : Did William P. Rathbone be- 
 come indebted to said bank for a correspond- 
 ing amount, at the same time? 
 
 " He answers: A loan was agreed to be given 
 him for a corresponding amount, at the same 
 time, estimating the stock at par. 
 
 " Being asked : Was not a Life and Fire bond 
 received, for about two hundred and sixty thous- 
 and dollars, by said bank, as collateral secu- 
 rity for such indebtedness, by said Rathbone? 
 
 "He answers: There was a bond received, 
 which, he thinks, was for two hundred and six- 
 ty-two thousand dollars, in addition to which, 
 rising four thousand shares of Tradesmen's 
 Bank stock stood in Rathboue's name, which it 
 was agreed between the committee of the bank, 
 of which witness was one, and Rathbone, should 
 not be transferred. 
 
 " Being asked : Was Rathbone's account set- 
 tled by Governeur with the bank, and was all 
 the stock which had been transferred to Rath- 
 bone delivered to the bank ? 
 
 "He answers: The account was so settled, 
 and the stock so delivered. 
 
 " Being asked : Did the stock so delivered to 
 the bank embrace eight hundred shares which 
 had been transferred by Rathbone to Seth Stur- 
 tevant? 
 
 a He answers : It did. 
 
 "Being asked: Did you make the bargain 
 for the sale of the whole of the stock transfer- 
 red to Rathbone? 
 
 " He answers : He did. 
 
 "Being asked : With whom? 
 
 " He answers : With Mr. M. L. Davis, as 
 agent, as he (Davis) said, and not himself (Da- 
 vis) interested a shilling. 
 
 " Being asked : Did he tell you for whom he 
 made such purchase? 
 
 " He answers : He did not in distinct terms, 
 but gave him to understand, and in such man- 
 ner that Mr. Davis could not but have known 
 at the time the impression made on witness' 
 mind, which was, that Davis had been acting 
 in the business as agent of Mr. Eckford. His 
 reasons for thinking so were, that Mr. Davis 
 previously informed him he had consulted with 
 Mr. Eckford relative to said purchase, and that 
 about the time of concluding the purchase, Mr. 
 Davis told witness he had to consult two per- 
 sons, who were all that knew of the negotiation 
 
 for the purchase, except Mr. Davis. Witness 
 then asked Mr. Davis, who those pevsons were? 
 to which Mr. Davis replied, one is William P. 
 Rathbone, and hesitated about naming the 
 other, when witness said the other must be Mr. 
 Eckford ; and witness said so because Davis 
 had previously told him that he had consulted 
 Mr. Eckford. Upon witness naming Mr. Eck- 
 ford, Mr. Davis smiled, and confirmed the im- 
 pression upon witness' mind, that he was act- 
 ing for Mr. Eckford. 
 
 " Being asked : Did Mr. Davis enjoin upon 
 you not to let Mr. Barker know anything about 
 the purchase of the said bank? 
 
 "He answers: He enjoined him not to let 
 any one know about it, but did not mention Mr. 
 Barker in particular, further than sajing Mr. 
 Barker knew nothing about it. 
 
 "Being asked : Did you ever have any con- 
 versation with Mr. Barker relative to the pur- 
 chase or sale of said bank stock? 
 
 " He answers : Never. 
 
 " Being asked : Did Josiah Hedden call upon 
 you to obtain a contract for the purchase of the 
 Tradesmen's Bank, after the recent indictments 
 for alleged conspiracy? 
 
 "He answers : He did. 
 
 " Being asked : Did not Mr. Hedden tell you, 
 that if Mr. Barker could be convicted, Mr. 
 M-ixwell would be satisfied, and all the rest 
 would be let off? 
 
 " Witness answers: He did tell him so, but 
 it was at a previous conversation to the one in 
 which he applied for a contract. 
 
 "Being asked: Did you not reply to Mr. 
 Hedden, that you would not give up the con- 
 tract to be used against Mr. Barker, without 
 being called on the stand as a witness, where 
 you could explain it, and how it came to your 
 hands, and, by the God that made you, Barker 
 had nothing to do with it? 
 
 " He answers : That he held such conversa- 
 tion applicable to a paper in witness' posses- 
 sion, which Hedden alleged that he knew wit- 
 ness was in possession of, which paper pur- 
 ported to be a contract for the purchase and 
 sale of the aforesaid stock of the Tradesmen's 
 Bank, but which had not been executed by 
 witness ; and told Mr. Hedden, that I would not 
 part with it to be used to the prejudice of Mr. 
 Barker, excepting I was called as a witness to 
 explain how it came into my hands. Mr. Da- 
 vis told me that Mr. Barker knew nothing 
 about the purchase of the bank, and, by the 
 God that made me, it shall never be used, with- 
 out an explanation, to the injury of Mr. Barker. 
 
 "Being asked : Did you not afterwards meet 
 Mr. Maxwell at Hedden's house ? 
 
 " Witness answers : He did meet him there, 
 but he does not know whether it was before or 
 after the aforesaid application by Mr. Hedden. 
 
 " Being asked : Did Mr. Maxwell say to you 
 at that time, that he considered you innocent of 
 the charges made against you in relation to the 
 Tradesmen's Bank ?
 
 208 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 " He answers : Mr. Maxwell said be was per- 
 fectly satisfied with witness' conduct in relation 
 to the Tradesmen's Bank, and that he should 
 discharge the indictment: witness says it was 
 in the presence of Mrs. Hedden. 
 
 " Being asked : Did the said paper, for which 
 Hedden applied, mention Mr. Barker's name, 
 or anything to lead you to suppose that he, 
 Barker, had anything to do with the purchase 
 of the said stock in the Tradesmen's Bank? 
 
 " He answers : It did not. 
 
 "Being further asked by Mr. Barker: Did 
 some of the stockholders of the Tradesmen's 
 Bank meet at your house on the subject of dis- 
 posing of their stock as aforesaid ; if yea, when, 
 and who were they, and what was done ? 
 
 "He answers: That about the middle of 
 June, 182(3, he thinks it was on the evening of 
 the 14th, a number of stockholders met at his 
 house, when he stated to them that he had been 
 offered 24 per cent., and to retain the dividend 
 of 4 per cent, then about to be declared. The 
 payment as before stated, or, if we preferred it, 
 (in lieu of the Life and Fire bonds;) could have 
 the post notes of the Morris Canal and Bank- 
 ing Company, payable on the loth July then 
 ensuing; and that he felt it his duty to submit 
 said proposition to them for their considera- 
 tion. That he then left the room for a few ' 
 miuutes, and on his return was informed that ' 
 they had concluded to dispose of their stock, • 
 in amount $300,000, including the stock of 
 one other person not then present, each retain- \ 
 ing twenty-eight shares, excepting the honor- 
 able Richard Riker, who retained thirty shares. I 
 They then authorized the honorable R. Riker, 
 Judah Hammond, esq., and witness to dispose 
 of our stock in the way and manner before 
 mentioned. 
 
 "Being asked by Mr. Barker : Are the min- 
 utes of the meeting referred to in writing: and, 
 if so, are they in your possession, and will you ; 
 produce them? 
 
 " He answers : I shall decline answering the 
 question, on the ground that I have interest 
 depending which miy be materially affected. 
 
 " November 6. — The master ruled that Mr. 
 Reed is bound to answer the question asked 
 by Mr. Barker on the 5th instant, if the same ; 
 has a material bearing on the subject under 
 consideration. Mr. Barker states that it has a 
 material bearing on the paper marked N, filed 
 on the 3d instant. 
 
 " Mr. Reed then answers, and says : That 
 the minutes inquired about are in writing, and 
 produces a paper, which he requires to be re- j 
 delivered to him, and which is as follows: 
 
 " ''Resolved, That the directors here present 
 will agree to sell their stock in the Trades- , 
 men's Bank at 28 per cent, advance, provided 
 a majority assent thereto. 
 
 " 'Resolved, That G,394 shares be sold: 
 
 M.Reed 1,522 
 
 A. Mann 325 
 
 Mr. Mount 300 
 
 Mr. Schureman 225 
 
 R.Munson 220 
 
 R. Riker 480 
 
 J. Hammond 425 
 
 Mr. Purdy 295 
 
 R. Tillotson 439 
 
 Mr. Baker 310 
 
 Mr. Bovd 603 
 
 Mr. Field 600 
 
 Mr. Gouverueur 550 
 
 Mr. Bowue 100 
 
 6,394 
 
 " ' Resolved, That the above be secured to 
 the respective persons above named, and at 
 the discretion of the following committee. 
 
 "' Resolved, That the surplus of 394 shares 
 be retained by the said directors in equal pro- 
 portions. 
 
 "'ALDERMAN REED, 
 "'J. HAMMOND, 
 " ' R. RIKER, 
 
 " ' Coirmittee.'' 
 
 "Being asked : In whose handwriting is the 
 said paper or minute? 
 
 " He answers : In the handwriting of Rich- 
 ard Riker, esq. The persons therein named 
 were all present except Rodman Bowne, and 
 as to him he cannot speak with certainty. 
 They a 1 agreed to the sale of said stock, he 
 believes, and witness paid over to each of 
 them, individually, the premium received as 
 before stated. Says Matthew L. Davis called 
 at witness' house and paid the premium, with 
 the interest thereon. 
 
 " Richard Riker, being called by Mr. Barker, 
 and asked : Was Mathew Reed authorized by 
 yourself and others to sell a certain number of 
 shares in the Tradesmen's Bank, in 1826? 
 
 " He answers : I authorized Mr. Reed to bind 
 myself; I do not know what others did. 
 
 " Being asked : Was such authority in writ- 
 ing? 
 
 "He answers: I do not recollect; I am 
 under an impression it was in writing; at all 
 events I was bound by my promise. 
 
 "Being asked: Was a contract for the sale 
 of that stock reduced to writing, between Ma- 
 thew Reed, purporting to be ot one part, and 
 certain other persons of the other part? 
 
 " He answers : I never knew of such a thing, 
 until after the difficulties in the bank arose ; 
 then Mr. Reed showed me such a paper. 
 
 "Being asked: Did Mr. Reed deliver said 
 paper to you ? 
 
 '• He answers : Mr. Reed has assured me he 
 did. I may be mistaken as to its being a con- 
 tract for the sale of the stock. 
 
 "Being asked: Will you search for said 
 paper, and if you find it, will you leave it with 
 the master? 
 
 " He answers : I will search for it, and will 
 inform the master.
 
 TESTIMONY BEFORE THE MASTER IN CHANCERY. 
 
 209 
 
 " Being shown the copy of certain resolu- 
 tions, produced by Mr. Reed, purporting to be 
 the record of certain proceedings at Mr. Reed's 
 house, and entered on the master's minutes of 
 the 6th inst., and asked: Lid you attend said 
 meeting, and did the persons therein named 
 also attend that meeting, and was the object of 
 the meeting as specified in said paper? 
 
 "He answers: I did attend at Mr. Reed's: 
 it was probably the meeting referred to, and 
 most, if not all the gentlemen named were 
 present, and it related to the sale of the Trades- 
 men's Bank stock. 
 
 u Richard Biker, being again called, and 
 asked : Have you searched for the paper, re- 
 ferred to by you in your former examination, 
 as a contract for the sale of certain stock of 
 the Tradesmen's Bank, and have you found it? 
 
 " He answers : He has searched for it, and 
 he has found it ; that he believes it to be the 
 paper referred to, and has it now with him ; 
 he received the paper, as he verily believes, 
 from Matthew Reed, late president of the 
 Tradesmen's Bank. 
 
 " Mr. Barker then asked if he would produce 
 it, to which the said witness answered : That 
 he received it from Mr. Reed in confidence, 
 and, as witness understood, for the purpose of 
 advisement, and as his counsel; and he, wit- 
 ness, therefore respectfully submits to the mas- 
 ter, whether he shall return said paper to Mr. 
 Reed, now here present, to whose inspection 
 the witness has submitted the paper, or whether 
 he shall lay it immediately before the master. 
 
 "Being asked by Mr. Barker: Did not Mr. 
 Reed inform you that he had no objection to 
 your producing said paper before the master, 
 as an exhibt in this cause? 
 
 " The witness answers : That Mr. Barker, in 
 the presence of the witness, and of Mr. Murray 
 Hoffman, and of Mr. Selden, did ask, in sub- 
 stance, of Mr. Reed, whether he had any ob- 
 jections that said paper should be produced by 
 witness, to which Mr. Reed replied, in the pre- 
 sence of said persons, that he had looked at 
 the papers and had none. 
 
 "The master ruled that the witness must 
 either produce such paper, or deliver it to Mr. 
 Reed ; whereupon witness delivered forthwith 
 said paper to Mr. Reed. 
 
 " Mr. Reed being called, then produced said 
 paper, marked R. R. by said Richard Riker, in 
 words following : 
 
 "Paper R. R, 
 
 "This is to certify, that I, Matthew Reed, this 
 day sell to Samuel L. Gouverneur and Samuel 
 Cox, six thousand shares of the capital stock 
 of the Tradesmen's Bank, at one huudred and 
 twenty-eight per cent, for the following pay- 
 ments, viz. : ten per cent, cash, on or before 
 the 26th instant; also fourteen per cent, at the 
 same time, in Liiie and Fire bonds, or post notes 
 of the Morris Canal and Banking Company, 
 
 14 
 
 payable on or before the loth day of July next 
 ensuing, and four per cent., being the dividend 
 on the 1st day of July next, and the balance, 
 say one hundred per cent., on or before the 
 fifth day of July next, or that notes be substi- 
 tuted to relieve notes given for loans on said 
 stock, by myself and others, whom I may here- 
 after designate ; and it is further agreed, that 
 when the two first above-mentioned payments 
 of twenty-four per cent, is made, that I furnish 
 irrevocable proxies for the said purchaser, 
 Samuel Cox, to vote on the said six thousand 
 shares, at the next election for directors of the 
 said bank, say on the 3d of July next, and 
 also a power to transfer said stock, on the fifth 
 day of July, provided the whole of the fore- 
 going payments, in all, one hundred and 
 twenty-eight per cent, has been complied with. 
 
 " Now we, Samuel L. Gouverneur and Sam- 
 uel Cox, do agree to the above, in each of its 
 details, and by these presents do firmly agree 
 with Matthew Reed faithfully to perform the 
 payments as before mentioned, binding our- 
 selves, our heirs, executors, administrators, 
 and assigns. 
 
 " In testimony whereof, we, jointly with him, 
 
 set our hands and seals, this 21st June, 1826. 
 
 "MW. REED, [l. s." 
 
 " SAML. L. GOUVERNEUR, [u s." 
 
 " SAMUEL COX, [l. s/ 
 
 "Mem. — Agreement made before signing. 
 Interest, at seven per cent., to be allowed on 
 the whole of the payments from the fifteenth 
 day of June instant. 
 
 " MW. REED, [l. s." 
 
 " SAML. L. GOUVERNEUR, 'l. s." 
 " SAMUEL COX, [l. s/ 
 
 "Received, New York, 26th June, 1826, on 
 the above contract, thirty thousand dollars, it 
 being ten per cent., aud bonds and cash, forty- 
 two thousand dollars, it being fourteen per 
 cent., one hundred and one dollars and fifty 
 cents interest on the first ten per cent., and 
 also on the four per cent, dividend. 
 
 "MW. REED. 
 
 "Andrew 8. Barker, being duly affirmed on 
 the part of the defendant, Jacob Barker, and 
 examined by him, says : That he is the son of 
 the said Jacob Barker. Says he left New York 
 on Saturday, the 10th June, 1826, with his 
 father, mother, and some other of their chil- 
 dren, for Newport, in the State of Rhode Island; 
 they went in a steamboat, and he thinks it was 
 the Connecticut, Captain Comstook. From 
 Newport they all went to New Bedford by stage, 
 and from thence by water to Nantucket. His 
 father and mother remained at Nantucket until 
 about June 20, 1826, when they departed from 
 Nantucket for New Bedford, he thinks, leaving 
 witness at Nantucket. Witness is confident as 
 to the periods above mentioned, because he, 
 the witness, remained at Nantucket, to attend 
 a great sheep-shearing at the island, which took
 
 210 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 place the latter part of said month of June, and 
 after his father left them, as above stated. 
 
 " Strong S/urges, beingr called by Mr. Bar- 
 ker, and sworn, says : That Mr. Barker left 
 New York in June, 1826, on or about the 10th 
 of that month — it was not after the 10th — for 
 Nantucket, via Newport, in the steamboat Con- 
 necticut, and returned on or about the 22d of 
 the same month. 
 
 " F. G. ItallecJc, being called by Mr. Barker, 
 and sworn, says: Mr. Barker left New York for 
 Nantucket on the 10th June, 1826, and was 
 gone about a fortnight. 
 
 "November 20. — Matthew Reed again called 
 by Mr. Barker, and asked : Do you hold the 
 written authority of the parties to the sale of 
 the Tradesmen's Bank, heretofore testified to? 
 If yea, will you produce it? 
 
 "He answers : I was authorized, in writing, 
 to sell the said stock in the Tradesmen's Bank 
 by certain individuals. I consider it a private 
 paper. I cannot produce it unless ordered by 
 the master so to do. Master calls upon Mr. Bar- 
 ker to make affidavit of the materiality of said 
 paper, which was done and filed, in words fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 " IN CHANCERY. 
 
 " Henry Barclay and others, 
 
 vs. 
 u Jacob Barker and others. 
 
 "State of Neio York, ss. — Jacob Barker, the 
 above named defendant, being duly affirmed, 
 saith : That a certain paper, referred to by 
 Matthew Reed, as being a written authority 
 from certain persons to sell stock of the 
 Tradesmen's Bank, is, in informant's opinion 
 and belief, material in matters now in question 
 before the master. 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 
 "Affirmed, this 20th November, 1828, be- 
 fore me, 
 
 "THOS. BOLTON, 
 
 "Master in Chancer y. 
 
 " The master rules it must be produced. 
 
 " The paper is produced and filed, marked 
 M. R. 
 
 " Being asked : Are the signatures in the hand- 
 writing of the persons whose names appear to 
 said paper? 
 
 "He answers: They are. 
 
 "Being asked: Are the word and signatures 
 'New York, 19th June, 1826,' in the hand- 
 writing of Richard Riker? 
 
 "He answers: I think it is, and was written 
 at the time it bears date. I believe I saw him 
 write it. 
 
 " Paper M. R. 
 
 " We, the subscribers, do hereby authorize 
 Matthew Reed to sell and dispose of our stock 
 in the Tradesmen's Bank, the number of shares 
 set opposite our respective names, at twenty- 
 eight per cent, above par value, with interest, 
 from and after the 15th day of June, (instant.) 
 
 And we do agree to furnish proxies for the 
 purchaser to vote on the same at the next elec- 
 tion for directors of said bank, which election 
 is fixed for the od day of July next. Pay- 
 ments we agree to accept as follows, viz: Ten 
 per cent, on the 26th day of June (instant) 
 cash; fourteen per cent, same day in Life and 
 Fire bonds or post-notes of the Morris Canal 
 and Banking Company, payable on or before 
 the fifteenth day of July next ensuing, and 
 four per cent., the dividend on the stock, pay- 
 able on the 1st day of July next, and the bal- 
 ance one hundred per cent., on or before the 
 fifth day of July next, or that notes be substi- 
 tuted in every and all cases to relieve our notes 
 when given for loans on said stocks; and that 
 on the payment of the two first mentioned 
 above sums, say making twenty-four per cent., 
 that we do agree to furnish for the purchaser 
 irrevocable proxies to vote on the stock, and a 
 power to transfer the same on the 5th day of 
 July next, when the last instalment of one 
 hundred per cent., as above mentioned, shall 
 have been complied with. 
 "New York, June 19, 1826. 
 
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 Original No. 
 of shares. 
 
 Shares 
 retained. 
 
 Amount at 
 par. 
 
 10 per cent. 
 
 14 per cent. 
 
 4 per cent. 
 
 28 per cent. 
 
 12S per cent. 
 
 "Matheio Reed, being called agaiu and asked bj
 
 TESTIMONY BEFORE THE MASTER IN CHANCERY. 
 
 211 
 
 Mr. Barker to state, more precisely, the amount 
 received for premium on the stock of the 
 Tradesmen's Bank, sold in 182G, than when 
 formerly examined on the subject. 
 
 He answers : " The agreement was for 6,000 
 shares of stock, which, at par, amount to 
 $300,000, on which we were to receive 28 per 
 cent, premium." 
 
 It appears by the proceedings of the mid- 
 night meeting, in the handwriting of the re- 
 corder, that there were fourteen persons pre- 
 sent, who clubbed 6,394 shares of stock ; the 
 unknown purchaser would only take a suffi- 
 ciency to control the bank, say 6,000 shares ; 
 the remaining 394 the sellers agreed to divide 
 equally, when the recorder makes the follow- 
 ing calculation: 
 
 14)394(28 
 28 
 
 114 
 
 112 
 
 2 
 By reference to the power it will be seen 
 that these fourteen directors agree each to re- 
 tain 28 shares, and the recorder also agrees to 
 take those two remaining shares, in addition 
 to the 2S— in all 30. 
 
 " Samuel Cox again called by Mr. Barker 
 and desired to look at the paper marked R. It., 
 filed on the 19th instant, and asked : Did you 
 sign said paper ? 
 
 "He answers : I did. 
 
 "Being asked: Was the stock therein men- 
 tioned purchased in part or in whole on your 
 account? 
 
 "He answers: It was not. 
 "Being asked: At whose instance did you 
 sign that contract ? 
 
 "He answers: I am not very positive, but I 
 think I am not mistaken when I say it was at 
 the instance of Mr. Reed, the president of the 
 bank, though I have a faint recollection about 
 it. It might have been at the instance of Mr. 
 Governeur, or Mr. Davis, though I think it was 
 Mr. Reed. 
 
 "Being asked : Was any portion of this stock 
 transferred by the sellers, and to whom ? 
 
 "He answers: About 4,800 shares were 
 transferred to W. P. Rathboue ; but whether 
 directly or not he cannot say. 
 
 "Being asked: Did you mention to Jacob 
 Barker that you had signed, or was a party to, 
 a contract for the purchase of the Tradesmen's 
 Bank, or the stock thereof, before mentioned? 
 "He answers: Never, to my recollection or 
 belief. 
 
 "Being asked: Did you ever vote on the 
 proxy of the sellers, at the election for direc- 
 tors of said bank, on or about July 3, 1826 ; 
 
 and if so, from whom did you receive the list 
 of directors for whom you voted ? 
 
 "He answers: I did so vote. The proxies 
 were brought to me by a boy from the office of 
 the Life and Fire Insurance Company, enclosed 
 in an envelope, directed to me as cashier of 
 the bank, in the handwriting of Matthew L. 
 Davis. Matthew Reed, I believe, furnished 
 me with a list of the names to be voted for, 
 which, I think, I had printed. I wished to 
 have Henry Remsen's name on said list; it 
 was objected to, and, I think, by Matthew L. 
 Davis. It was not done. Mr. Davis told me 
 some persons interested in said stock objected 
 to Mr. Remsen. 
 
 William P. Rathbone being sworn, and 
 asked : Had Mr. Barker any interest in, know- 
 ledge of, or agency about, the purchase of four 
 or five thousand shares of Tradesmen's Bank 
 stock, in the summer of one thousand eight 
 hundred and twenty-six, which was transferred 
 to your name? 
 
 He answers : None that I know of. 
 
 Being asked : Was Mr. Barker ever con- 
 sulted as to the selection or appointment of 
 new directors of said bank, which took place 
 about that time? 
 
 He answers : I never heard that he was, nor 
 do I believe that he was. 
 
 Did you transfer eight hundred shares of 
 Tradesmen's Bank stock to Seth Sturtevant, 
 on or about the twelfth day of July, one thou- 
 sand eight hundred and twenty-six? 
 
 He answers : I did. 
 
 Being asked : Was it done at the request of 
 Mr. Eckford? 
 
 He answers : It was. 
 
 Being asked : Did you deliver to Mr. Barker 
 certificates, in the name of Seth Sturtevant, 
 for the said eight hundred shares of stock? 
 
 He answers : I did, by the request of Henry 
 Eckford. 
 
 Being asked : Did you ever have any con- 
 versation with Mr. Barker, in relation to said 
 stock, prior to the delivery of said certificates? 
 
 He answers : not one word. 
 
 Being asked : Had Mr. Barker any interest 
 in the exchange of the two thousand shares of 
 Morris Canal stock, for the twenty-five hundred 
 shares of Fulton Bauk stock, which took place 
 in May, one thousand eight hundred and 
 twenty-six? 
 
 He answers : None that I know of, except 
 his commissions which might grow out of 
 selling, buying, and hypothecating, the Fulton 
 Bank stock. 
 
 Being asked : Was not the exchange above 
 spoken of made expressly for the accommoda- 
 tion of the Life and Fire Insurance Company? 
 
 He answers : I so understood it. 
 
 Being asked : Did you apply to Mr. Barker 
 for advice and assistance in the business, by 
 the direction of Mr. Eckford? 
 
 He answers : Mr. Eckford directed, when he 
 left town, about the seventh of May, one thou-
 
 212 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 sand eight hundred and twenty-six, that the 
 Fulton Bank stock, which he had previously 
 agreed for, should be placed in the hands of 
 Mr. Barker when received; and I therefore 
 applied to him, as aforesaid, and delivered into 
 his hands the aforesaid two thousand shares of 
 Fulton Bank stock, transferred to Mr. Thurs- 
 ton, by the order of Mr. Barker. 
 
 Being asked: Had Mr. Barker, to your 
 knowledge, anything to do with the issuing of 
 the 2,500 shares of Morris Canal stock, as 
 principal or agent? 
 
 He answers: Not to my knowledge. 
 
 "Being asked: Did Mr. Barker, to your 
 knowledge, know that the Life and Fire bonds 
 had been given for the Morris Canal stock 
 until after the same had taken place? 
 
 " He answers : Not to my knowledge. 
 
 " Being asked : Did you or not, as a director of 
 the Life and Fire Insurance Company, in com- 
 mon with the officers and directors of that 
 company, or such of them as were then acting, 
 authorize the issuing of bonds of that company 
 to the amount of $250,000, in exchange for an 
 equal amount of Morris Canal stock, as a tem- 
 porary loan for the accommodation of the Life 
 and Fire? 
 
 "He answers: I was not present when it was 
 done, but knew it was to be done, and approved 
 of it, and after it was done sanctioned it. 
 
 "Being asked: Did you not, as a director of 
 the Morris Canal and Banking Company, sign 
 a resolution, in common with other directors, 
 authorizing the issuing of stock of that com- 
 pany in exchange for Life and Fire bonds, 
 with express reference to the said $250,000 of 
 stock ; and if any, what other security was un- 
 derstood to be given for its return? 
 
 "He answers: I did, except it was uncertain 
 whether the stock would be wanted to the 
 amount of one hundred and fifty or two hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand dollars at the time I 
 signed that resolution; and it was my under- 
 standing that Henry Eckford, esq., was to 
 guarantee the return of the Morris Canal stock, 
 by which return the said bonds would be can- 
 celled and returned to the Life and Fire Insur- 
 ance Company. 
 
 "Being asked: Did you apply to Mr. Barker, 
 in the absence of Mr. Eckford, for advice in 
 relation to the phraseology of a contract or 
 guaranty touching the exchange or return of 
 said stock, and when? 
 
 "He answers: According to my recollection, 
 I called on Mr. Barker on the morning of the 
 tenth of May, one thousand eight hundred and 
 twenty-six, and asked him to look at a paper 
 which 1 had previously drawn at the office of 
 the Life and Fire Insurance Company, and to 
 see if it sufficiently explained the object it pro- 
 fessed. Mr. Barker looked over it, and re- 
 marked it was a large amount, was the guar- 
 anty of Mr. Eckford, who was absent, and that 
 a single word might make a variation in its 
 import, and suggested that a clause be added 
 
 allowing Mr. Eckford to return the stock in 
 parcels, as might suit the convenience of Mr. 
 Eckford. As it was then drawn, Mr. Barker 
 stated, Mr. Eckford would be obliged to return 
 the whole stock together. Mr. Barker wrote 
 such clause at the bottom or on the back of 
 said paper, and I took said paper away. Wit- 
 ness says he heard said paper read by Mr. 
 Maxwell, the district attorney, on the late con- 
 spiracy trials." 
 
 When the testimony was about closing, Mr. 
 Biker appeared before the master and made the 
 following explanations, which, in my opinion, 
 afford no justification for the sale of the bank 
 to a concealed purchaser, much less for with- 
 drawing good notes to the amount of two or 
 three hundred thousand dollars, and leaving in 
 lieu thereof the checks of an irresponsible 
 person who had no money in the bank. 
 
 " Richard Riker again appears and states 
 that, from conversations with Mr. Reed about 
 the time of the agreement to sell the stock of 
 the Tradesmen's Bank, and frequently since, 
 and even to this time, deponent is firmly con- 
 vinced that Mr. Reed fully believed that Mr. 
 Henry Eckford was the purchaser or principal 
 purchaser of the stock of said bank, agreed to 
 be sold through Mr. Reed, as hereinbefore tes- 
 tified by deponent. He is so convinced because 
 Mr. Reed assigned to deponent several reasons 
 why he thought Mr. Eckford to be such pur- 
 chaser, among which were that Mr. Eckford 
 no doubt wished to increase his influence in 
 the upper part of the city, and that the control 
 of the bank would greatly enable him to do so; 
 and he, deponent, thinks Mr. Reed said it would 
 be beneficial in his business. The deponent 
 believes that Mr. Reed also referred to Mr. Eck- 
 ford's business as connected with his ship yards. 
 
 " Deponent recollects very well that Mr. 
 Reed mentioned that Mr. Eckford was ambi- 
 tious. Mr. Reed has frequently agreed with 
 deponent that the stock of said bank, if well 
 managed by Mr. Eckford, under the advantages 
 he possessed, might be made a nine per cent. 
 stock ; and witness believes Mr. Reed had no 
 doubt Mr. Eckford was a very wealthy man. 
 Deponent further says that Mr. Reed has not 
 only, as far as this deponent knows, spoken of 
 Mr. Eckford as being the purchaser, as he 
 believed — though he never has said that Mr. 
 Eckford was the purchaser of his own know- 
 ledge — yet has at no time intimated, to depo- 
 nent's knowledge, that any other person was 
 said purchaser. And deponent is fully satis- 
 fied that Mr. Reed, as well as this deponent, 
 has frequently declared that Mr. Barker had 
 nothing to do with said purchase, as he or this 
 deponent knew or believed ; and, as an addi- 
 tional reason, Mr. Gouverneur, according to 
 the best of this deponent's recollection and 
 belief, in open court, on the first trial, or sub-
 
 VINDICATION BY THE NEW YORK AMERICAN. 
 
 213 
 
 sequent to the conspiracy case, testified that 
 Mr. Barker had nothing to do with the purchase 
 of the stock of the Tradesmen's Bank. And 
 this deponent further says that it is his present 
 belief, and that deponent has never concealed 
 from any one the fact, that the deponent be- 
 lieved Mr. Eckford to be the purchaser, and 
 that Mr. Barker had nothing to do with said 
 purchase, though deponent must add that he 
 lias never been distinctly informed by Mr. 
 Reed who was the purchaser. Mr. Rathbone 
 attended at the bank and received the transfer 
 of deponent's stock. The witness conceived 
 Mr. Rathbone to be the agent of Mr. Eckford, 
 and that, among other things, greatly con- 
 firmed deponent in the belief that Mr. Eckford 
 was the purchaser." 
 
 The following persons, who were concerned 
 in managing the business of the companies 
 said to have been defrauded, were also exam- 
 ined in the said chancery suit, they, one and 
 all, testified that Mr. Barker had not had any 
 agency or concern therein: William Bayard, 
 David B. Ogden, Abraham Ogden, S. L. Gov- 
 erneur, J. J. Boyd, Matthew L. Davis, Thomas 
 Yermilyea, Wm. P. Rathbone, James T. Tall- 
 man, Jacob Clinch, George W. Browne, Mark 
 Spencer, Horatio Kingsland, Geo. W. Gants, 
 and Richard Gilchrist. 
 
 On the discovery of the records in the hand- 
 writing of Richard Riker, the recorder, of the 
 proceedings of those who divided the $84,000, 
 the editor of the New York American re- 
 marked thus : 
 
 "disclosure of the real parties to the 
 purchase and sale of tue tradesmen's 
 
 BANK, IN 1820. 
 
 " Under this title Mr. Jacob Barker has 
 printed a pamphlet of thirty-six pages, with a 
 view to exonerate himself from the imputation 
 pressed very heavily against him on the con 
 spiracy trials of having been concerned in this 
 (we must call it nefarious) transaction. This 
 pamphlet we have read with attention ; and, 
 as an act of justice to one whom we have not, 
 we confess, viewed or spoken of with any par- 
 tiality, though certainly not with any feelings 
 of personal hostility, we are bound to say that 
 Mr. Barker completely and entirely exonerates 
 himself from any agency in or knowledge of 
 what, as here exposed, appears to us a most 
 gross and abominable proceeding on all hands. 
 
 " Mr. Barker, as to himself, satisfactorily es- 
 tablishes an alibi. He was not in New York, 
 but at Nantucket, for many days before and 
 during the negotiation that led to this sale. 
 But not only does he prove his own entire in- 
 nocence and ignorance of this matter, but he 
 has been the instrument of bringing to light 
 such evidence concerning the real nature of, 
 
 and actors in, this whole operation as must 
 cover the latter with infamy ; and in the case 
 of Mr. Recorder Riker, who was a principal 
 one, must, we would fain hope, drive him from 
 the station which he dishonors. In regard to 
 this functionary, however, and his agency in 
 this affair, we shall have occasion to speak 
 again. At present, our business is to do jus- 
 tice in the transaction in question to Mr. Bar- 
 ker; and we accordingly have as much satis- 
 faction in expressing our conviction that, on 
 this head, he has been unjustly accused and 
 censured, as we always feel a pain when a 
 sense of duty compels us at any time to deal 
 in auimadversion and reproach." 
 
 A perusal of the testimony elicited in the 
 chancery suit after the termination of the "con- 
 spiracy trials" will satisfy the reader as to their 
 true character. It establishes, 
 
 1st. That Jacob Barker was to be offered up 
 as a victim for the supposed errors of others. 
 
 2d. That Hugh Maxwell, the district attor- 
 ney, deprived him, in the most illegal and arbi- 
 trary manner, of papers which established his 
 freedom from offence. 
 
 3d. That Hugh Maxwell had those papers 
 in court during the trial, denying that he had 
 them, and not only refused Mr. Barker the ben- 
 efit of their use, but kept them long after the 
 trials were all over, and when ordered by the 
 court of chancery to produce them refused to 
 obey the mandate of the court. 
 
 4th. That the grand jury were induced to 
 deprive Mr. Barker of his papers by the posi- 
 tive promise of Hugh Maxwell that he should 
 have the benefit of their use on the approach- 
 ing trial, he asserting that it was the duty of 
 the grand jury, whether they found a bill or 
 not, on the complaint of Mr. Barker, to retain 
 the papers to go before the next grand jury — 
 that they would always be safe on the files of 
 the court, where either party could have access 
 to them. 
 
 5th. That the excuse offered by the district 
 attorney for refusing to produce them on the 
 trial of Mr. Barker, namely, that he forgot the 
 papers were in his possession, was of the most 
 extraordinary character. Mr. Hatfield stated, 
 on his oath, that during the trial, being called 
 on by Mr. Barker for his papers, he applied to 
 Maxwell for the letters of Mr. Eckford, which 
 he (Maxwell) took from the file of the court, of 
 which he (Hatfield) was clerk. That Maxwell 
 admitted to him in court, at the very time they 
 were called for, that he had them, although
 
 214 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 when first charged by Mr. Hatfield with hav- 
 ing them he denied it. 
 
 6th. That the district attorney considered 
 himself so far above the law that he dispos- 
 sessed himself of those documents, after he was 
 served with a process from the court of chancery 
 to produce them, and otherwise disobeyed the 
 mandate of the court, to escape from which he 
 placed them in the office of the clerk of the 
 court where the conspiracy trials took place ; 
 this disposition of the papers was after his dif- 
 ficulties with Mr. Eckford had been renewed, 
 and after it became public that he had received 
 $300 from that gentleman. 
 
 These papers falsified his declaration " that 
 Mr. Eckford had been the victim of others." 
 
 8th. That Hugh Maxwell accepted of money 
 from " indicted but untried and unacquitted 
 individuals." The professed object may have 
 been to conduct civil suits for these " indicted 
 but untried and unacquitted individuals," yet 
 these " indicted but untried and unacquitted 
 individuals" were not either of them brought to 
 trial after the receipt of their money. 
 
 The district attorney promised to say to his 
 acquaintances "that Mr. Eckford had been the 
 victim of others," and that he would, on all 
 proper occasions, both public and otherwise, 
 state it as his opinion that he considered that 
 Mr. Eckford was justly entitled to the same 
 degree of confidence in society that he enjoyed 
 at any former period, and that he had full con- 
 fidence in his integrity and honor. 
 
 Mr. Eckford demanded a certificate to that 
 effect, which Mr. Maxwell refused to sigu, say- 
 ing in a letter addressed to him, under date of 
 27th November, 1827: "The circumstances to 
 which I alluded, as inducing the belief that you 
 had been the victim of individuals who had 
 abused your confidence, may, when more 
 severely examined, admit of a less charitable 
 construction." 
 
 Mr. Eckford failing to induce Maxwell to 
 put his often repeated declaration on paper 
 over his signature, demanded personal satis- 
 faction, which being refused, published him 
 in the following terms:. 
 
 " New York, Tuesday Evening, 
 
 "December 18, 1827. 
 "Sin: Your real character is at length un- 
 masked. You have exhibited yourself as a 
 man wholly destitute of truth and honor, and 
 
 have, in addition, proved yourself a contempti- 
 ble poltroon. 
 
 "You can only be noticed in future, by gen- 
 tlemen, as a cowardly retailer of falsehoods, 
 and as the pitiful tool of other artful and vin- 
 dictive miscreants. 
 
 "HENRY ECKFORD. 
 
 "Hugh Maxwell, New York." 
 
 The New York American of the 21st Decem- 
 ber, 1827, says that Hugh Maxwell,, the district 
 attorney, had Mr. Eckford taken up for sending 
 him a challenge, and William T. McCowen 
 and John P. Decatur, his accomplices, bound" 
 over to keep the peace, on which subject an 
 article appeared in the Literary Cadet of Provi- 
 dence, of the 2d January, 1828, as follows: 
 " DUELLING. 
 
 " The New Yorkers seem much agitated on 
 this subject, and, because a reputed challenge 
 has been sent to a public officer, their moral 
 sense is shocked, to the very centre. Our op- 
 position to duelling is not based on so slender 
 a foundation as for it to make any difference- 
 by whom a challenge is given, or by whom 
 carried. The thing is wrong, radically wrong 7 
 and all those who attempt to lay the least stress 
 on the fact of Mr. Maxwell's being a district 
 attorney, become, unconsciously, the apologists 
 of the dreadful practice. If there is any sting 
 in being branded a coward, poltroon, puppy, 
 liar, and the like, the wax of an attorney's 
 office affords a miserable salve, and he who 
 flies to it for protection, pays the greatest hom- 
 age at the shrine of duelling. 
 
 " If an inquiry is to be tolerated as to the 
 cause, motive, provocation, &c, we should hold 
 public officers to more rigid rules than private 
 citizens, because armed with authority, they 
 would otherwise have the power to oppress the- 
 private citizen with impunity; and no oppres- 
 sion is so odious as that practised under the- 
 semblance of law and authority. 
 
 " If the district attorney of New York did. 
 convert the power of bis office into an engine 
 of oppression and persecution, if he did over- 
 look those whom he believed had been faulty, 
 and pursued, like a demon, those whom he 
 knew to be faultless, then we say he merits the 
 execration of every good, honest, and honora- 
 ble citizen. Yet such conduct on the part of 
 the district attorney, would not, in any degree, 
 justify the injured parties in violating, by seek- 
 ing a duel, alike the laws of God and of maiu 
 
 " After a careful perusal of the different pub- 
 lications, we agree in opinion with the editor 
 of the National Advocate, that Mr. Maxwell 
 'went off half cocked.' At the same time, it 
 appears to us that Mr. Eckford too willingly 
 sanctions the idea attempted to be put forth by 
 the district attorney, that he, Mr. Eckford, is a 
 week, simple man, and easily duped by others.. 
 Whether lie is such or not, he certaiuly seems,
 
 LETTER TO HUGH MAXWELL. 
 
 215 
 
 not to have been aware of the traps of the 
 district attorney, who, finding that the jury 
 would nol convict so large a class as he had 
 united in the same bill, followed the example 
 of the boy in the fable, who, when his bundle 
 of sticks was so large that he could not break 
 them, divided and attempted t3 break them 
 singly or in pairs; and because the sacrifice 
 of Mr. Eckford was deferred until others had 
 been disposed of, he appears to have been 
 lured into neutrality or acquiescence, in the vain 
 hope, that when the district attorney had glutted 
 his vengeance with other victims, he would pa- 
 cify Mr. Eckford with his gracious certificate. 
 
 "All that surprises us is, that Mr. Eckford 
 should not, have sooner discovered the trick, 
 and not allowed Mr. Maxwell to have kept him 
 suspended between earth and heaven so long." 
 Colonel Decatur took the message to Max- 
 well from Mr. Eckford, demanding satisfaction 
 for his faithlessness ; the Colonel returned re- 
 porting that Maxwell had replied that Mr. 
 Eckford had better remember that he paid me 
 $300 to procure the conviction of Barker and 
 be quiet. No, says Eekford, proclaim it to the 
 world. I gave him the money as the unarmed 
 traveller, with a pistol at his breast, hands his 
 purse to the highwayman. Thus the report 
 came first to my knowledge, when I imme- 
 diately addressed to Maxwell a letter in words 
 and figures following : 
 
 " New York, January 1, 1828. 
 "Sir: Colonel Decatur stated that, when he 
 called on you in behalf of Mr. Eckford, you 
 told him that you had received three hundred 
 dollars from Mr. Eckford to aid in the late 
 prosecution of Jacob Barker. 
 
 "This statement becoming public led to an 
 enquiry of Mr. Eckford if he had joined in a 
 plan for my conviction. He assured me that, 
 although he did write you a letter enclosing 
 three hundred dollars in January last, (which 
 you know was immediately after the illegal 
 verdict,) and although you did receive the 
 money and did keep it, yet that the object of 
 sending it has been misrepresented. The letter 
 in which the money was enclosed, now in your 
 possession, may explain the true object for 
 which the money was paid. Will you please 
 furnish a copy for publication ? Mr. Eckford 
 says he has no objection. After you heard all 
 the testimony on the trial you made a most 
 inflammatory speech against Mr. Eckford, and 
 in resisting his motion in December to have 
 his trial postponed, you stated that the offended 
 laws required that there should be no delay ; 
 but after the receipt of the three hundred 
 dollars you stated that 'he was made the victim 
 of persons who abused his confidence,' and did 
 not bring on his trial. The source of revenue 
 to yourself was cut off by Mr. Eckford having 
 been placed beyond your reach by a power 
 
 above your control ; since which yon said, in a 
 letter addressed to him under date of the 27th 
 of November last: ' The circumstances to which 
 I alluded as inducing the belief that you had been 
 the victim of individuals who had abused your 
 confidence, may, when more severely examined, 
 admit of a less charitable construction.' 
 
 " You having thus taken back your friendly 
 declarations, the motive no longer exists which 
 induced you, in the most arbitrary manner, to 
 get possession of my four letters from Mr. 
 Eckford, and to withhold them in violation of 
 your solemn promise to the grand jury, and to 
 say when they were applied for to be used in a 
 case more important to me thax life, ' that 
 you had them not,' 1 when you had them. The 
 motive, I repeat, no longer exists; as those 
 letters prove, in distinct terms, that the part I 
 acted was by Mr. Eckford's direction and at 
 his request, and fully contradicted the impres- 
 sion intended to have been made at the time 
 referred to, when you used my name to Colonel 
 Decatur, and, consequently, when you said 
 that Mr. Eckford had been made the victim of 
 persons who abused his confidence. You will, 
 therefore, be pleased to return the said letters 
 to me without further delay ; they are wanted 
 to be used in an investigation now going on iu 
 the court of chancery. 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 
 " Hugh Maxwell, District Attorney" 
 
 To this letter no reply was made, but on or 
 about the same day, Maxwell, after having kept 
 the money about eleven months, attempted to 
 return it to Eckford ; Eckford refused to receive 
 it, when, as I was informed and believe, Maxwell 
 took it to the United States Branch Bank, New 
 York, and deposited it to the credit of Eckford, 
 where it remained when I last heard of it. 
 
 The disastrous effects these proceedings had 
 on Mr. Barker's business can be more easily 
 imagined than described; ruined as his for- 
 tunes were, he resolutely set about their liqui- 
 dation, and was enabled to continue his com- 
 mercial business to some extent; he inclined to 
 that with Russia; he gave the nameof Russia to 
 the last ship he had built; he had several ships 
 in that trade — among then umber was a very 
 fine New York built ship, the " United States." 
 
 This ship was lying at anchor at Cronstadt in 
 1820, when theyoung emperor, Nicholas, passing 
 by in his barge, on his way to the inspection of 
 his fleet, being attracted by her fine appear- 
 ance, the boatswain's whistle was sounded, the 
 men peaked their oars, while the emperor took 
 a full view of the vessel; it again sounded, the 
 boat went round the ship, and then landed;
 
 216 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 the captain was invited on shore, when the 
 emperor inquired of him if his ship was for 
 sale — if so, what was the price. The reply 
 was, "She was for sale until yesterday, when a 
 charter was obtained, to take a cargo of copper 
 &c, &c, to Bordeaux — price $30,000; she 
 cannot now he sold without the consent of the 
 charterers." The emperor responded, "I will 
 send down commissioners to inspect the vessel: 
 if they report favorably, I will obtain the con- 
 sent of the charterers, and give you the re- 
 quired $50,000 for the ship." On his return 
 to the city, he directed his minister of marine 
 to confer with the charterers; he did so, and 
 stipulated to pay a specified amount for their 
 annulling the charter, provided she, on inspec- 
 tion, should prove satisfactory — allowing three 
 days for the examination. She proved satis- 
 factory. The minister of marine omitting to 
 give the notice within the three days, the cargo 
 was sent down, and the ship commenced load- 
 ing. The emperor passed again the next day, 
 and perceived her to be a foot and a half 
 deeper in the water than when he resolved to 
 make the purchase. He returned immediately 
 to the city, and sent for the minister of marine 
 from whom he obtained an explanation ; in 
 place of directing him to disregard the delay in 
 giving the answer, as a frivolous objection, he 
 directed him to inform the captain that he 
 might proceed to Bordeaux with his cargo; 
 and, as it would be too late to return that 
 season to Russia, go to the United States and 
 procure another cargo, come back with it to 
 Europe, and then return to St. Petersburg, 
 when he would take the ship at the same price. 
 She did return, was received and promptly 
 paid for, the emperor personally superintending 
 the consummation of his bargain. 
 
 Such honorable conduct, such attention to 
 business, on the part of the emperor, so rarely 
 manifested by crowned heads, enlisted Mr. 
 Barker's sympathies in his favor, which con- 
 tinued down to the day of his death. 
 
 The British and French complain that our 
 sympathies are not with them in their present 
 war; when it commenced the subject was not 
 well understood in America; latterly, there 
 seems to be more light on the subject. The 
 two following articles are given as containing 
 better views of the Russian character than 
 have been heretofore entertained: 
 
 [From New Orleans Picayune, November 1, 1854.] 
 "RUSSIAN MAGNANIMITY. 
 
 " In the foreign papers lately received at this 
 office, we find an exceedingly interesting nar- 
 rative of the circumstances of the wreck of the 
 British steamer Tiger in the Black Sea, near 
 Odessa, at the commencement of hostilities by 
 the allies — the captivity of the crew and their 
 treatment in Russia. It is written by Lieuten- 
 ant Royer, who succeeded to the command on 
 the death of Captain Giffard. It is particularly 
 interesting from the picture which it draws of 
 the liberality and magnanimity with which 
 these prisoners were treated in Russia, and the 
 favorable account which it gives of the high- 
 bred courtesy and generosity of high Russian 
 functionaries, whom the common opinion in 
 this country classes with semi-barbarians. 
 
 " When the Tiger, having hopelessly ground- 
 ed, surrendered to the Russians, the officers 
 and crew were landed and conducted to the 
 quarantine ground, where they were hand- 
 somely lodged and well provided for in all re- 
 spects. The government allowance for the 
 boarding of prisoners, which was regulated to 
 suit the physical wants of the abstemious Turk, 
 was immediately found to be too small for 
 English appetites. The authorities instantly 
 trebled it, and there was abundance of the 
 best quality. General Osten Sacken made 
 daily visits of kindness and looked to the sup- 
 ply of their wants, and M'me Osten Sacken, 
 his wife, vied with him in considerateness and 
 attentions, particularly to the sick, supplying 
 them with delicacies from her own table. 
 When the powder-boy of the Tiger died, she 
 had an iron railing constructed around his 
 grave, and trees planted to overshadow it. 
 On the death of a young midshipman, she 
 had a portion of his hair enclosed in a gold 
 locket and sent to his mother. The same 
 kind spirit pervaded all the military officers 
 at Odessa, and Lieutenant Royer says, that 
 the only difficulties experienced were caused 
 by the multiplicity of orders, some of them con- 
 flicting with each other, and all springing out 
 of the anxiety to alleviate the condition of the 
 prisoners. They were permitted to draw on 
 their friends in England, for supplies aud 
 money, and their bills were negotiated for 
 them. 
 
 " The orders of the Emperor for disposing of 
 them, were that the commanding officer 
 should proceed to St. Petersburg, the other 
 officers to be sent as far as Riasan, a town 
 about a hundred miles from Moscow. The 
 four youngest midshipmen were to be sent to 
 the University of Moscow, to be placed under 
 the care of the director there, and to be 
 treated as the other pupils, who are of the 
 noblest families in Russia. By subsequent ar- 
 rangements, however, a change was effected, 
 and all but thirty of the crew were exchanged 
 at Odessa for Russian prisoners. Lieutenant
 
 RUSSIAN MAGNANIMITY. 
 
 217 
 
 E oyer, as commanding officer, was sent to St. 
 Petersburg. 
 
 " A trait of uncommon consideration for the 
 seamen is also recorded. When they were 
 about to start on their long journey for Riasan, 
 and afier their own officers had expressed 
 satisfaction with the clothing provided for 
 them, the Russian authorities gave to each 
 man an extra great coat and an extra pair of 
 thick boots for the journey. 
 
 On the arrival of Lieutenant Rover at St. 
 Petersburg, he was treated more like a wel- 
 come guest than a prisoner. In his first inter- 
 view with De Gorouki, the Russian minister of 
 war, the latter addressed him thus: ' Mons. 
 Le Lieutenant, the chances of war have thrown 
 you into a position which places us now in the 
 relation of friends, and I trust in our future 
 intercourse we shall esteem each other as 
 loyal gentlemen.' In this generous spirit he 
 had every indulgence, comfort, and liberty or- 
 dered him; and a short time afterwards was 
 personally presented to the Grand Duke Con- 
 stantine and the Emperor Nicholas. 
 
 "His visit to the Grand Duke is pleasantly 
 related. It was made during the temporary 
 absence of the Duke, and while waiting fur- 
 ther the Grand Duchess came in without for- 
 mality, and held a very unaffected conversation 
 with him. and concluded her courtesies by send- 
 ing him a cup of tea, and the latest Ei. 
 newspaper — in the days of Peter or Catharine, 
 it would have been a pint bumper of raw 
 brandy. The account of the interview with 
 the Grand Duke displays the latter in a very 
 amiable style, unaffectedly courteous, kind, 
 and extremely well informed. 
 
 " The interview with the Emperor had an 
 unexpected result, in the unconditional release 
 of Lieutenant Royer from captivity. It was 
 done with so much grace and good humor that 
 we make a long extract, particularly as it de- 
 scribes the personal appearance of the ' ter- 
 rible' Czar in June last, when, by the British 
 newspaper accounts, he was haggard with care 
 and apprehensions : 
 
 " The Emperor was standing in the middle of 
 the room, dressed in the plain dark blue uni- 
 form of a generalin-cbief, and wore a white 
 enamelled cross at the button-hole on his chest. 
 This, I believe, was the cross of the order of 
 St. George, an honor conferred only upon 
 persons who have rendered important services 
 to their country. I imagine that his Imperial 
 Majesty has not yet assumed the decoration of 
 the highest class of the order, which is won 
 by such men as Paskiewitch, Woronzoff, &c, 
 and which was described to me as different in 
 uze to that worn by the Emperor. I expected 
 b see a. fine tall man, but was not prepared to 
 fad his Imperial Majesty so much superior to 
 tl? generality of men in height and appear- 
 and. He certainly did not look more than 
 fift, nor were there any particular signs of 
 can on his countenance/at least not more than 
 
 one sees in every man of his age. His features 
 were fine and regular, his head bald in the 
 centre, and his eye expressive of mildness, 
 quite in accordance with his words. I was 
 aware that his Majesty spoke both English and 
 French, and hoped that he would address me 
 in my native tongue. 
 
 " As I bowed and stepped forward, he ad- 
 dressed me as ' Monsieur le Lieutenant,' and 
 inquired after my health, whether I had got 
 rid of my fever, and how and where I caught 
 it. He asked me about the loss of the Tiger, 
 j and inquired why we had not anchored, being 
 , so near the land. I replied that the fog was 
 I very thick, and that by our reckoning we were 
 | some distance from land when the vessel 
 i struck. He asked if I was married, made 
 ! some kind inquiries respecting the family of 
 ! my late captain, and informed me that Mrs. 
 Giffard had gone to Odessa to join her hus- 
 band, not having heard of his death. His 
 Imperial Majesty then said that it had been 
 his intention to grant the captain his liberty, 
 but as that was now impossible, he would ex- 
 tend that grace to me as the next in command, 
 and asked me how I should like to go home. 
 I was quite taken aback by this announce- 
 ment, as, although I had been told at Odessa 
 that I should have my liberty, still I did not 
 anticipate that it would be granted so soon 
 and so freely. I was therefore unprepared to 
 answer the question as to my intended route, 
 and said that I really had not thought of it ; 
 upon which His Imperial Majesty burst into a 
 fit of laughter, much amused at my surprise." 
 [From the New Orleans Delta of November 14, 1^54.] 
 
 Magnanimity and Barbarism. 
 
 " One good result of the war, which the allies 
 are now prosecuting against Russia, begins to 
 be quite manifest. It consists in the evident 
 change which British opinion is undergoing in 
 reference to the character of the Russians, their 
 government, their resources, gallantry, &c. For 
 a long time it has been quite the fashion in 
 England, and, of course, it is in this country, 
 where English ideas still exercise a powerful 
 influence, to represent the Russians as a race 
 of barbarians, of ill-used, degraded, servile, 
 ignorant serfs, tyranized over by a grim and 
 bloodthirsty despot. When the present war 
 broke out, this British prejudice and delusion 
 were augmented and invigorated by national 
 pride, and by a newly excited appetite for mili- 
 tary glory, for wars and bloodshed, though the 
 presence of the imperial family of Russia in 
 London, some ten or twelve years ago, dissi- 
 pated, to a degree, these previous misconcep- 
 tions ; when it became necessary to pander to a 
 mob passion for war, which has instigated the 
 present contest, it was necessary to revive all 
 the old ideas of the barbaric ignorance and 
 brutality of the Russians. When John Bull's 
 prejudice is aroused against a people or nation, 
 be is prepared to believe anything of them.
 
 218 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 There are no limits to his credulity ; no satiety 
 to his appetite for the horible ; hence the popu- 
 larity of and general belief in the most absurd 
 stories, which from time to time, since the war 
 broke out, have been invented, it would appear, 
 just to minister to this appetite of the English. 
 All people, especially a strong thinking and feel- 
 ing one, like the English, dislike to surrender 
 their pet prejudices and cherished passions, to 
 the clearest evidence. They are determined to 
 think, write and fight against the Russians, as 
 a set of savages, — to treat their whole army as 
 Cossacks, and degraded serfs. Woe be to him 
 ■who attempts to remove this delusion from 
 their minds. Just look at the spectacle re- 
 cently presented in London, which afforded so 
 striking a proof of the invincible bigotry of even 
 British dignitaries. When the great Sevastopol 
 hoax reached London, and the intelligence was 
 communicated by the Duke of Newcastle to 
 the lord mayor of London, that individual, 
 dressed in his gorgeous official robes, marched 
 at the head of a procession, composed of portly 
 liveried men, preceded by trumpeters dressed 
 in the fashion of four hundred years ago, and, 
 on his arrival at Guildhall, proclaimed to a 
 vast multitude, which had assembled around 
 that building, 'the glorious triumph of the allies 
 over our barbaric foes.' Thereupon, the crowd, 
 constituting that most enlightened of alltribes, a 
 London mob, yelled and screamed with delight 
 at the victory of Christian civilization and 
 philanthropy over Russian barbarism and bru- 
 tality. Now whilst this spectacle was being 
 exhibited in the great capital of Great Britain, 
 a young officer of the English navy, who had 
 been captured in the Black Sea, by the Rus- 
 sians, was receiving the congratulations of his 
 friends on his release from captivity. One of 
 his first tasks — for ingratitude is no vice of 
 the English character, on his arrival home — 
 ■was the vindication of the Russians from this 
 unmerited aspersion of the lord mayor. The 
 letter of Lieutenant Royer is a generous and 
 noble tribute, to a kind and magnanimous 
 enemy. The treatment of the unfortunate offi- 
 cers and men of the Tiger by the Russians 
 ■was marked by a refinement, a gentleness and 
 kindly consideration that have rarely been 
 equalled by the people or officers of any coun- 
 try or government. 
 
 " They were received by the emperor and his 
 family as old friends rathre than as enemies. 
 The young officers were placed at college in 
 order to continue their studies, the men were 
 taken care of in the most comfortable style ; 
 the oldest officer was released ; the wounded 
 attended by the highest ladies in the country, 
 and the dead were buried with all the honors 
 and respect that would be accorded to them in 
 their own country. Around their graves en- 
 closures were erected and trees planted by a 
 noble lady. 
 
 "The delicate consideration of transmitting 
 the relatives of the deceased medallions con- 
 
 taining locks of the hair of their unfortunate 
 friends, crowned the offices of a refined gene- 
 rosity and philanthropy. Nor let it be said 
 that such conduct as this proceeded only from 
 the highest classes of society; the people, the 
 peasantry, all classes displayed a like kind- 
 heartedness and refinement. The following 
 being the concluding portion of Lieut. Royer's 
 letter describing his treatment by the Russians, 
 conveys a bitter but deserved sarcasm on this 
 whole war, — got up to protect a set of real 
 barbarians, against a people who are giving 
 the most convincing proofs of their progress 
 in all the arts of Christian civilization and of 
 an enlarged philanthropy. 
 
 '"At first, unacquainted with the Russian 
 character, and apprehensive of ill-treatment in 
 case we were removed to some out-of-the-way 
 place in the interior of the country, the officers 
 resorted to various ingenious contrivances to 
 secrete the spare money they possessed. Some 
 sewed it in the stiff collars of their jackets ; 
 others wore the coin in belts around their waists, 
 &c. But that such precautions were perfectly 
 needless will be seen in the sequel. The first 
 lieutenant traversed the whole of Russia, often 
 leaving his portmanteau in the carriage upon 
 the high-road, while reposing at the inn during 
 the night, without losing the smallest trifle. 
 Indeed, the sympathy everywhere shown us 
 was remarkable; and the conduct of our civi- 
 lized enemies afforded a striking contrast to 
 that of our barbarous allies, to whose assist- 
 ance our country has generously proceeded. 
 While staying at Constantinople, we were often 
 spat upon in the streets by the Turkish children, 
 who certainly would not have felt such an ab- 
 horrence of us if it had not been instilled into 
 them by their parents, who, no doubt, expressed 
 in private feelings which were thus aped and 
 reflected by their little counterparts.'" 
 
 Some of the securities received from the 
 Life and Fire Insurance Company consisted in 
 mortgages on plantations in Louisiana, which 
 involved Mr. Barker in extensive litigation in 
 that State. 
 
 One of the suits resulting unfavorably, Mr. 
 Barker was induced to repair to New Orleans, 
 to superintend the others, and was admitted 
 ex gratia by Judge Harper, of the United 
 States district court, to take part with the coun- 
 sel in the argument, his name not being in the 
 record as a party, and he not being a member 
 of the legal profession, could not otherwise 
 have appeared in the case. The judge, being 
 determined to defeat the claim, soon discoverei 
 from Mr. Barker's advocacy that he would te 
 held to a judicial course in no ways suitedco 
 his purpose. 
 
 The term closed without any final deciion. 

 
 SUIT IN THE COURT AT NEW ORLEANS. 
 
 219 
 
 At the next terra the judge withdrew the per- 
 mission granted Mr. Barker to appear in the 
 case, when that gentleman, determining not to 
 be thus overthrown, commenced studying law, 
 and pursued the study until he got admitted. 
 At his first examination before the supreme 
 court his acquirements were not found to be 
 sufficient. He was thrown back on his books, 
 and continued his reading until he felt himself 
 to be qualified, when he presented himself 
 again to the supreme court for another exami- 
 nation, which resulted favorably. This en- 
 abling him to appear before Judge Harper 
 duly qualified as a counsellor at law, no further 
 objection was made, and he conducted the busi- 
 ness to a successful issue. Before this result, 
 however, the judge was removed by death. 
 
 A judgment had been rendered in favor of 
 the plaintiffs previous to Mr. Barker's visiting- 
 Louisiana by Judge Robertson, who was Judge 
 Harper's predecessor, Judge Harper being clerk 
 of the court at the time, whose duty it was to 
 have the judgment signed three days after its 
 rendition. Shortly after this Judge Robertson 
 died, and Harper was appointed judge, when 
 he refused to grant an execution, saying that 
 the judgment had never been signed ; that 
 when he presented it to Judge Robertson for 
 his signature he refused to sign it, saying it 
 was a rascally claim, and that he never would 
 sign ihe judgment. Judge Harper was then 
 requested to sign it himself, as it was his duty 
 to do. He refused. Application was made to 
 the Supreme Court of the United States at 
 Washington for a mandamus commanding him 
 to sign it, which was granted, and Mr. B. went 
 to New Orleans, armed with that document. 
 On its presentation Judge Harper signed the 
 judgment, and execution was issued. Soon 
 after which he granted an injunction staying 
 all proceedings, which, after a year or two, was 
 dissolved without requiring proof, the allega- 
 tion in the bill being insufficient. 
 
 After the death of Judge Harper, the origi- 
 nal judgment, duly signed by Judge Robertson, 
 was found in a trunk among Judge Harper's 
 waste papers, it having been removed by him 
 from the files of the court. This original judg- 
 ment, thus signed, Mr. Barker brought before 
 the State court, to which the debtor had applied 
 for the benefit of the insolvent law. Here the 
 district judge, holding court at Plaquemines, 
 
 held it to be necessary to prove the seal and 
 signatures of the Life and Fire Insurance Com- 
 pany. It was too late to send a commission, 
 and it was not known that there was a single 
 person in Louisiana who could give the re- 
 quired testimony. This ruling of the judge 
 was resisted, and while the associate counsel 
 was arguing the point a boat from New Or- 
 leans, for Louisville, stopped to land passen- 
 gers. Mr. Barker, hearing the steam blowing 
 off, repaired to the levee, in the hope of obtain- 
 ing a late newspaper. On approaching the 
 boat, he recognized William Porter among the 
 passengers. He knew that gentleman posses- 
 sed the necessary information. An arrange- 
 ment was made with the captain to delay big 
 departure. Mr. Porter attended court, and 
 gave the required testimony. He was the only 
 man in Louisiana sufficiently informed to have 
 given it. His arrival at the critical moment 
 seemed to be as miraculous as the discovery of 
 the judgment surreptitiously removed from the 
 files of the court, which, when considered with 
 the discovery of the original records of the 
 midnight proceedings of the New York con- 
 spirators against the Tradesmen's Bank, and 
 their attempts to make an innocent man an- 
 swerable for their errors, seemed calculated to 
 weaken a belief to which Mr. Barker has al- 
 ways adhered, viz : that there is not any divine 
 interference with the affairs of men while on 
 earth. 
 
 During the progress of these suits Mr. Bar 
 ker gave some attention to sugar planting, im- 
 agining that it could be more successfully con- 
 ducted with free than with slave labor. To test 
 this, he sent a ship to Hamburg and brought out 
 Germans, who were to work a certain number of 
 of years for the passages. The selection was un- 
 fortunate, his plantation was too near (forty-five 
 miles) New Orleans, where the high rate of wa- 
 ges and other seductions of a city life soon in- 
 duced these misguided persons to desert their 
 post, so that in about one year not one remaiued 
 to relate the failure of the experiment. 
 
 Mr. Barker abandoned the business, being 
 satisfied that it was not adapted to his course 
 of life, and that if the cultivation of sugar in 
 Louisiana by free white labor ever became gen- 
 eral, it could only be brought about on very 
 small plantations, by farmers and their sons 
 accustomed to labor taking an active part
 
 220 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 therein, each employing a few additional hands. 
 In that way, if the price of sugar afforded a 
 remunerating profit, slave labor could be dis- 
 pensed with, there not being anything in the 
 climate or cultivation more unfavorable to the 
 white than to the black population, both require 
 to be acclimated. 
 
 This experiment failing, Mr. Barker having 
 been taught to believe that the difference in the 
 races was attributable more to their education 
 and habits than to other causes, he took a fam- 
 ily from a plantation for the purpose of testing 
 this matter, and sent one of them, a promising 
 boy, by the name of Adam Baker Smith, to 
 Liverpool, per ship Russia, to John Fisher, 
 esq., an eminent merchant, to be educated, the 
 laws of Louisiana not allowing slaves to be 
 educated in the State. This boy was returned 
 to Mr. Barker, the schools in England refusing 
 to admit persons of color as scholars. On his 
 passages he acquired, by the kindness of the 
 captain of the ship, Samuel Elliot, some 
 knowledge of reading and writing. He became 
 a good house servant, and then a porter in Mr. 
 Barker's bank. At the age of twenty-one he 
 was made free, and employed on wages in the 
 bank, where he served faithfully for some 
 years, and then went to California. There he 
 found employment in a banking establishment, 
 which enabled him to remit to Mr. Barker 
 fifteen hundred dollars, with which his wife 
 and child were purchased and sent to him, 
 where they are all doing well. 
 
 Adam's sister he sent to New York, and 
 made her free. She returned to New Orleans, 
 where she now resides, without seeming to 
 benefit by her freedom, although the most 
 talented of the family. 
 
 Two other girls of the same family he sent 
 to Massachusetts to be educated. The young- 
 est is still there doing very well. The oldest 
 was enticed away from Mr. Barker's friends at 
 an early age, and he has no knowledge of what 
 became of her. 
 
 Another boy of great promise, at the age of 
 five years, Mr. Barker sent to Germany, and kept 
 him there at school several years, brought him 
 back to Philadelphia, where he behaved very 
 well for a year or two. Having contracted a 
 roving disposition, he left a very comfortable 
 home, and enlisted in the naval service of the 
 United States. Mr. Barker's son interposed, 
 
 and he was released on account of his youth. 
 He, however, very soon again embarked in the 
 sea service, and although several attempts have 
 been made to put him in the way of doing bet- 
 ter, they have all proved unavailing. In that 
 service he has suffered very much, and writes 
 home very sensible letters, from which it would 
 be inferred that once back he would remain on 
 shore; yet after a few months' laud service, 
 with very good prospects, he yields again to his 
 ruling passion to buffet the waves. 
 
 Another boy he sent to New York, and 
 placed him with a mechanic in Westchester 
 county to learn his trade. This boy may turn 
 out well, as he appears to have fine talents. 
 
 Another boy he took with him to the north, 
 and put to school in Westchester county, New 
 York, offering him his freedom if he would re- 
 main at the north. Very many persons inter- 
 ceded with him to do so; it was all in vain; 
 he could not be induced to accept his freedom 
 on such terms. 
 
 Although Mr. Barker has been greatly dis- 
 appointed in the result of these experiments, 
 he made one more effort by sending a female 
 child, an orphan, whose mother died in his 
 service, to Nantucket, where she was adopted 
 by a very respectable colored family, and ap- 
 pears likely to be an exception to the general 
 rule. 
 
 Many other of the Baker family remain in 
 Louisiana, it appearing useless to attempt to 
 improve their condition; and after more than 
 twenty years' residence in a slave State, Mr. 
 Barker has come to the conclusion that the 
 master is a greater slave than the bondsman; 
 that slavery operates prejudicially to the agri- 
 cultural interests of the State; but it is an 
 evil entailed by our ancestors which cannot be 
 abolished with the means within the power of 
 the State ; that the slaveholders would consent 
 to a general emancipation on receiving the 
 value of their slaves from the treasury of the 
 United States; yet they have no belief that 
 their condition would be improved. 
 
 Mr. Barker knows that they are more com- 
 fortably provided for when in health, better 
 taken care of when sick, and indulged in more 
 rational amusements than are enjoyed by the 
 laboring classes of any other country; have 
 full religious liberty, and are allowed to inter- 
 marry according to their own fancy, and their
 
 FREE PERSONS OF COLOR IN NEW ORLEANS. 
 
 221 
 
 children are generally treated with the same 
 kindness as those of their masters. 
 
 True, there are exceptions, and cruelties 
 practised in all countries, quite as much so in 
 free as in slave States. When a white man is 
 detected in a crime he is punished in free 
 Slates according to the nature of his offence; 
 and Mr. Barker witnessed, when very young, 
 the horrible scene of a white woman being tied 
 to a cart in a public square, and there receiv- 
 ing on her naked back many lashes, which had 
 been imposed by a court for a trifling theft. 
 When slaves are detected in crime they are 
 also punished, but the number of such punish- 
 ments is not believed to be comparatively as 
 great, or more severe than is inflicted on offen- 
 ders in free States : yet it is a constant prac- 
 tice of those who are opposed to the institution 
 of slavery to refer to these occurrences as evi- 
 dence of general cruel treatment of slaves. 
 
 These people are greatly deceived, and most 
 of them very honest in their zeal in favor of 
 freedom, and, Mr. Barker is persuaded, would 
 not meddle if they knew the unfavorable influ- 
 ence of their measures, causing much greater 
 restrictions on the slaves than would be other- 
 wise imposed. 
 
 That slavery is contrary to that great prin- 
 ciple which teaches us to do unto others as we 
 would they should do unto us, there can be no 
 doubt, yet it is idle to waste our substance, our 
 time, and our good feelings for each other on 
 what is utterly impracticable. How far the 
 slaves would make a valuable community, if 
 made free, and placed in a colony by them- 
 selves, where their children could be educated 
 and grow up free from the withering influence 
 arising from the supposition that they were to 
 be slaves for life, is problematical, but without 
 such an education, Mr. Barker is satisfied they 
 cannot be materially benefitted by the interpo- 
 sition of white men at a distance. 
 
 Many free persons of color being subject to 
 great hardships from the police of New Orleans, 
 Mr. Barker frequently interfered in their be- 
 half, creating very considerable prejudice 
 against him. His interference was constantly 
 misrepresented by interested parties and in the 
 newspapers. So great at one time was this 
 feeling that he considered it expedient to make 
 the following publication : 
 
 "TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 " My opinions and conduct having been 
 grossly misrepresented, I beg to be allowed to 
 speak for myself. All my exertions have been 
 and will continue to be confined to sending out 
 of and keeping away from the State free men 
 of color. This, when properly considered, will 
 be approved by every slaveholder. 
 
 "On the 3d July instant, I wrote to a gen- 
 tleman at Philadelphia, who had employed me 
 to present to court the proof of the freedom of 
 a man confined in prison, as follows: 
 
 "'You should publish in the newspapers, 
 and otherwise admonish all free people of color 
 to keep away from this place, and especially if 
 they have had their freedom established here they 
 should keep away, as all such persons are notified 
 to quit the State within sixty days, and if 
 they remain or return again after the sixty 
 days but for an hour, they are sent to the peni- 
 tentiary for twelve months, and then ordered 
 to quit in thirty days, and if they remain or 
 return again after the thirty days they are sent 
 to the penitentiary for life. 
 
 "'There is no safety for free men of color 
 not born here, or here before 1825, but to keep 
 away from this place. This community is 
 justly afraid of their contaminating influence 
 on the slaves, and they cannot be permitted to 
 mingle with each other; and while I shall at 
 all times be willing to aid in securing to free 
 men the exercise of their just right without 
 regard to color, I advocate all constitutional 
 and legal measures for keeping free people of 
 color away from slave holding States. I think 
 their friends in your quarter cannot do them a 
 better service than to admonish them not to 
 come here.' 
 
 "My conduct has alw r ays corresponded with 
 these opinions. I have not in the whole course 
 of my life, to my recollection, written or said a 
 word, in or out of court, at variance therefrom. 
 
 "When admitted to appear in the courts of 
 Louisiana, the laws of the State as well as my 
 duty imposed the obligation of fidelity to my 
 clients, and it is strange that any one should 
 complain of my having complied with the 
 requisites of that/obligation. It must have been 
 misrepresentation that has led them to do so. 
 
 "My family have a deep interest in slave 
 property, and no man is more tenacious of, or 
 will go further to protect the rights of slave- 
 holders than myself. 
 
 "If any man feels aggrieved, he has but to 
 point out in what particular, and I will afford 
 him all the satisfaction in my power, when he 
 will discover that he had no just cause of com- 
 plaint. 
 
 " Why pass laws protecting free men of color 
 if it is to be considered wrong for counsel to 
 appear in their behalf? No one will pretend 
 that they are capable of maintaining in court 
 their own rights. And if they were, they, at 
 work in irons on the highway, could not get
 
 222 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER, 
 
 their cases before the court with the proper 
 proofs. 
 
 "It may be here proper for me to state, for 
 the information of the public, some of the many 
 facts which have come to my knowledge in 
 relation to the treatment of free men of color 
 in the prison of the second municipality. 
 Having occasion to visit that prison, very many 
 prisoners poured forth their complaints through 
 the grates as I was passing through the road, 
 declaring themselves free, that they were un- 
 lawfully detained aud kept at work on the 
 highway in chains. It would have been in- 
 human to have turned a deaf ear. Many of 
 them appeared to be so white as f^r the law to 
 presume them free. I immediately represented 
 the case to his honor the recorder, who had six of 
 them brought up, and pronounced five of them 
 free from their complexion, without argument 
 and without requiring any other testimony; 
 and, on my enquiring why they had not been 
 liberated the morning after their arrest, their 
 degree being as visible then as at any other 
 time, his honor replied that they had been 
 placed in the chain gang by the officers of the 
 prison without having been brought up before 
 him for examination. Was it wrong to inter- 
 fere in behalf of these men? 
 
 "Public justice as well as every principle of 
 humanity requires that prisoners, however 
 great their offence, should have free communi- 
 cation with their counsel. 
 
 "On two occasions I was denied all access 
 to prisoners in the second municipality, in 
 whose defence I had been requested to assist, 
 on the plea that no such persons were confined. 
 After many months' perseverance, by the aid of 
 his honor, the recorder, I had an interview 
 with one of them, and the only excuse offered 
 for his concealment was that I had enquired 
 for Charles Chandler, when his name was 
 Charles C. Chandler; and by the aid of his 
 honor, the mayor, with the other, after less 
 delay, the excuse for his concealment was that 
 I inquired for James Lloyd Warner when they 
 had him on the prison books only by the name 
 of Warner. Are such practices to be tolerated 
 in this enlightened age? There was not any 
 pretence that either of these men were slaves. 
 
 "On a recent occasion, I was informed that 
 a colored man, born in my native State, Maine, 
 of free parents, was in the chain gang at work 
 on the highway — had been there since Sep- 
 tember last, although the driver of the gang 
 knew him to be free, was born in the same 
 town, went to school with him, and had known 
 him from his childhood. I communicated these 
 facts to his honor, the recorder, he had the 
 matter promptly inquired into, and the man 
 liberated, but without a penny's compensation 
 for nine months' services improving the second 
 municipality. 
 
 'At the prisons of the first and third munici- 
 pality I have been treated with the greatest 
 politeness, and every facility afforded by the 
 
 officers and keepers in bringing the law to the 
 relief of the prisoners. 
 
 "Again, it was the practice unlawfully to 
 retain prisoners in the second municipality for 
 their board, doctor's bills, &c, after their free- 
 dom had been established, until I brought the 
 matter before a higher court; and, on one 
 occasion, without crediting on the account 
 rendered the money taken from him when 
 arrested. The public will please to observe 
 that the rule in the second municipality was to 
 allow prisoners three picayunes a day for such 
 days as they labor on the public road, and to 
 charge three picayunes a day for their board, 
 in addition to the clothing supplied, the doctor's 
 bills, &c. Hence, as they cannot labor on Sun- 
 days, hollidays, or in stormy weather, they are 
 brought in debt, as soon as confined, the 
 amount of which is augmented weekly, and as 
 these men seldom have money, and have no 
 means of earning any during their confinement, 
 their simple arrest without being charged with 
 the slightest offence would amount to a decree 
 of perpetual imprisonment, if no person from 
 humane feelings had been allowed to interfere, 
 and no counsel allowed to bring their case 
 before the tribunals of the country. 
 
 "If the police officers of the second munici- 
 pality expect to escape exposure by their 
 attempts to light up the torch of suspicion 
 against others, and to continue their unlawful 
 and inhuman conduct towards their prisoners 
 with impunity, they will be mistaken. The 
 legislature is composed of slaveholders, who 
 understand their rights and their interest too 
 well to permit such abuses. They will enquire 
 into the matter and make all obedient to the 
 requirements of the law. 
 
 "JACOB BARKER." 
 
 On the failure of the bank which had built 
 the St. Charles Hotel at New Orleans, Mr. 
 Barker, being a large creditor, procured an 
 act of the legislature to have the hotel sold to 
 pay the debts of the bank; in this way he 
 became the owner of nearly one-half the cele- 
 brated St. Charles Hotel, which was burned 
 in 18ol. From the materials of which it was 
 built, and its position, three sides open to the 
 street, where the engines could operate without 
 obstruction, and a supply of water at hand, it 
 was believed that a fire could not damage it 
 more than one hundred thousand dollars, that 
 amount only was insured. It has been rebuilt 
 at a cost of more than $400,000; consequently 
 the actual loss was very great, from which the 
 old stockholders in a great degree escaped, as 
 they refused to undertake its rebuilding, in 
 relation to which the following proceedings 
 were had:
 
 REBUILDING OF THE ST. CHARLES HOTEL. 
 
 223 
 
 THE REBUILDING OF THE ST. CHARLES HOTEL. 
 
 A large meeting of citizens was held last 
 evening, pursuant to a notice, at the Mer- 
 chants' Exchange, to adopt measures for the 
 prompt rebuilding of the St. Charles Hotel. 
 
 On motion of Mr. C. Fellowes, Mr. John M. 
 Bell was appointed chairman, and W. S. Pickett 
 secretary. 
 
 Mr. Bell, on taking the chair, delivered a 
 neat and appropriate speech, returning his 
 thanks for the compliment, and explaining 
 briefly the object of the meeting. He re- 
 marked, in conclusion, that he thought the 
 merchants and citizens could take no steps in 
 the matter, with propriety, until the views of 
 the present company could be ascertained. 
 He saw that Mr. Egerton was present, and, 
 presuming that he was acquainted with the 
 wishes of the present board of directors, he 
 hoped he would present them. 
 
 Mr. Egerton remarked that he did not feel 
 authorized to speak the views and wishes of the 
 company, but would give his own as one of the 
 stockholders, and a member of the board of 
 directors, elected that day. He said he had 
 stated distinctly that he would not serve unless 
 it was the intention of the company to rebuild 
 the hotel without delay; and he believed that 
 but one feeling existed among the members of 
 the present company. He stated that the 
 charter authorized the sale of twenty thousand 
 shares of stock of twenty-five dollars each; 
 that thirteen thousand five hundred had been 
 sold, and the company found it unnecessary to 
 sell the remaining six thousand five hundred 
 shares. One thousand of the shares sold had 
 been bought in for account of the company, 
 leaving seven thousand five hundred shares 
 unsold. He thought these might now be 
 offered for sale, and that the proceeds, with the 
 amount to be collected from the insurance 
 offices, with the foundations already laid, and 
 the old materials, would be nearly or quite 
 sufficient to rebuild the hotel. He knew the 
 pride which was felt in it by our citizens 
 generally. It was the most beautiful edifice 
 he had ever seen, and constituted the chief 
 ornament of our city. Its celebrity was not 
 confined to the south, nor even to this country, 
 but extended to almost every part of the civil- 
 ized world. He had no doubt, therefore, that 
 our ciuzens would have it rebuilt, if they had 
 to do it by subscriptions and voluntary contri- 
 butions; that, however, would not be necessary. 
 
 Mr. Jacob Barker, having appeared and 
 taken his seat in the meeting while Mr. Eger- 
 ton was speaking, when he concluded, was 
 called on for his views. He said he repre- 
 sented a majority of the stock of the present 
 company, but he had not been authorized to 
 speak for the stockholders he represented — he 
 could only speak for himself. 
 
 He was one of the stockholders, and the 
 secretary of the board of directors, and he was 
 willing and anxious to resign and to sell out 
 
 his stock. He thought this would be the wish 
 of all the stockholders, and that it would be 
 best for them to do 20, and to allow a new 
 company to be formed, in which they would 
 become new stockholders to a liberal amount. 
 He thought the hotel might be rebuilt without 
 going in debt. He was opposed to going in 
 debt; pay-day would come bye-and-bye, and 
 he had no opinion of getting into the hands of 
 the sheriff. The company owed compara- 
 tively nothing. The books were all posted 
 and balanced, to a cent. He thought that to 
 require the new subscribers to pay $23 per 
 share for stock, while the value of that held by 
 the present company is only $12 50 to $14 
 per share, appeared to be so unreasonable that 
 he could not expect it to be agreed to. For 
 one, as a new subscriber he would not agree to 
 it, and he should blush to require such terms 
 as one of the present stockholders. 
 
 Subscribers, said he, for the whole 20,000 
 shares, as per charter, at $12 50 per share, 
 would leave $100,000 of the amount with the 
 company, for the 8,000 shares reserved stock, 
 in addition to the $10,000 expected to be 
 received from insurance companies. Thus, 
 the company would have the land, the founda- 
 tions, and the materials, liable only for $94,000, 
 payable in May, 1855, with seven per cent, 
 interest, payable half-yearly. 
 
 By this arrangement, he said, the new 
 directors will have $100,000 in hand with 
 which to commence the building. The other 
 $100,000 would not be wanted in less than 
 four, six, and eight months, and the present 
 stockholders would probably give a credit on a 
 part of the purchase of their stock, and would 
 also be likely to become new subscribers, on 
 the same terms mth their neighbors, to a rea- 
 sonable amount; but he said he only spoke for 
 those he represented — not as a director, but 
 with a confident belief that all would agree to 
 those terms. Very little money would be 
 required on making the subscriptions. 
 
 At the close of Mr. Barker's remarks, which 
 were received with much applause, 
 
 Mr. F. A. Lumsden rose and offered the 
 following resolutions: 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of seven disin- 
 terested persons be appointed by the chairman 
 of this meeting, to ascertain what arrangements 
 can be made with the present stockholders of 
 the St. Charles Hotel Company, relative to 
 disposing of their shares in the stock of said 
 company, and further to ascertain their views 
 relative to disposing of their charter, site, 
 foundations, materials, etc., and that said com- 
 mittee report to an adjourned meeting. 
 
 Resolved further, That said committee be 
 instructed to inquire and report what means 
 are necessary to reconstruct the St. Charles 
 Hotel. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Wm. Henderson, the 
 blank was filled with Wednesday evening, at 
 six o'clock. The resolution was then adopted.
 
 224 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 The chair then appointed the following 
 gentlemen to be of the committee: 
 
 F. A. Lumsden, H. S. Buckner, W. B. 
 Partee, J. G. Gaines, W. E. Sewell, J. R. 
 Marshall, W. W. Montgomery. 
 
 Mr. Lumsden requested to be excused, and 
 James J. Day was appointed in his place. On 
 motion, the chairman was added to the com- 
 mittee, and the meeting adjourned to meet on 
 Wednesday evening next, at six o'clock. 
 
 This plan was adopted, and the hotel re- 
 built more commodious and a3 magnificent as 
 ever, with the exception of the cupola, which, 
 some day or other, the public hope to see 
 added. Mr. Barker retained very little interest 
 in it, consequently took no part in the re- 
 building. 
 
 His banking operations have been greatly 
 restricted by the passage of a law inhibiting 
 individuals from issuing bank notes, and by 
 the deranged state of financial affairs through- 
 out the nation; this restriction Mr. Barker 
 approves, although he believes its operation on 
 those embarked in the business should have 
 been deferred, giving them reasonable time to 
 wind up their affairs without sacrifice, and es- 
 pecially until the expiration of the year for 
 which the State and city had granted licenses 
 and received the heavy tax imposed on the 
 business for the full year ; in place of which 
 the law went into immediate operation, and 
 Mr. Barker's bank notes all promptly redeemed 
 with specie. 
 UNITED STATES BRANCH MINT AT NEW ORLEANS. 
 
 Soon after Mr. Barker was admitted to the 
 bar, he was applied to by Mr. Rufus Tyler, 
 coiner of the United States Branch Mint at 
 New Orleans, and Mr. James Maxwell, melter 
 and refiner — two gentlemen of sterling in- 
 tegrity, with scientific attainments of the first 
 order — to defend them against complaints 
 made by the Superintendent of the Branch 
 Mint to the Secretary of the Treasury of the 
 United States against them. Mr. Barker, 
 being convinced that there were great irregu- 
 larities practised at the Branch Mint, and ihat 
 the cul] 1 le parties were endeavoring to make 
 these two unoffending men answerable for the 
 sins of others, embarked in their cause. 
 Proper representation was made to the govern- 
 ment, with a request for investigation. It was 
 ordered. Thomas Slidell, esq., the United 
 States district attorney, was appointed to hear 
 
 testimony and report thereon. The Secretary 
 of the Treasury offered to employ Mr. Barker 
 to assist in the investigation ; he declined the 
 service lest it might interfere with his duty to 
 his clients, although their pecuniary means 
 would not enable them to compensate for the 
 services their case required. The investiga- 
 tion was held at the mint daily for about forty 
 days in the hottest part of the season, meeting 
 at four o'clock, p. m., and continuing often 
 until after midnight. Mr. Barker embarked 
 with his accustomed zeal, and followed all the 
 witnesses through these various transactions, 
 which brought to light irregularities and trans- 
 actions of a very exceptionable character. No 
 one circumstance occurred in any way to im- 
 pugn the conduct of either Messrs. Tyler or 
 Maxwell. The judge's advocate in the case, 
 if we may so style the district attorney, was 
 thoroughly convinced of their freedom from 
 offence, and that those who complained of 
 them were unfit for the stations they occupied. 
 The evidence and the arguments of counsel 
 were transmitted to government, Messrs. Tyler 
 and Maxwell sustained, and the others released 
 from the employment. Unfortunately, both of 
 Mr. Barker's clients, with many other em- 
 ployees at the mint, became the victims of the 
 yellow fever before the result was known, their 
 anxiety about which greatly contributed to the 
 fatal effect of the fever. Mr. Barker found his 
 reward for the services rendered in the suc- 
 cessful issue of the combat, establishing the 
 character of Messrs. Tyler and Maxwell to be 
 without spot or blemish. 
 
 YELLOW FEVER. 
 Mr. Barker having occasion to attend courtin 
 a neighboring parish, in August, 1837, when the 
 yellow fever was raging in New Orleans, he, not 
 being acclimated, asked his physician, Dr. Kerr, 
 for a prescription to take with him to be used 
 in case of sickness; the Dr. prepared the 
 medicine with instructions under no circum- 
 stances to have a vein opened ; that as soon 
 as the approach of the enemy was perceptible, 
 usually indicated by a chill, to resort to cup- 
 ping of the head and ankle, baths of warm 
 water strongly impregnated with cayenne pep- 
 per and mustard, drinking warm lemonade, and 
 as soon as the skin became a little softened to 
 take the medicine. Should there be much 
 pain in the head or back, which is usual, ap-
 
 ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 
 
 225 
 
 ply ice constantly; refrain from all food save 
 ice, and eat as much of that as your inclina- 
 tion dictates. If the fever continue or return, 
 take twenty grains of calomel the following- 
 day, in either case in a day or two a large dose 
 of castor oil. Mr. Barker was taken at Pla- 
 quemine, in the office of the clerk of the court. 
 He immediately repaired to the hotel, pursued 
 the course recommended hy Dr. Kerr, sending 
 for Dr. Cummings, a highly respectable phy- 
 sician of that place, to visit him with his cup- 
 ping apparatus. He came, said he had no 
 such apparatus, and proposed to open a vein, 
 which Mr. Barker declined, upon which the 
 following took place: 
 
 " Sir," said the doctor, u you are a very sick 
 man, and ought to have some medicine im- 
 mediately."' 
 
 " I know that, but not until I have been 
 cupped/' 
 
 u Then, for what have you sent for me?" 
 
 " To cup me." 
 
 " You might as well have sent for a barber." 
 
 " Provided he could cup me as well." 
 
 Cupping apparatus not being found in Pla- 
 quemine, an express was sent to Baton Rouge. 
 Dr. Ogdeu came provided, the operation was 
 performed, when the doctor remarked: 
 
 "You are a very sick man, and- ought to 
 take some medicine immediately." " I intend 
 to do so," replied Mr. Barker, " for which pur- 
 pose I have it in my pocket." " I suppose," 
 said the doctor, " you have no objection to let 
 me see it," and who, having seen it, said, "I do 
 not think it will do you any harm, although I 
 should not give you half the quantity." Mr. 
 Barker took it, believing it to be fifty grains of 
 calomel, when the doctor remarked, " you seem 
 to love it." " Oh no," said Mr. Barker, " I do 
 it mechanically because it was to be done." 
 The prescriptions answered the purpose in- 
 tended, and Mr. Barker was well again in ten 
 days, and recommends to persons attacked by 
 the yellow fever, whether they adopt Dr. Kerr's 
 advice or not, that they apply to the stomach 
 early, and at all stages of the disease, very 
 large poultices of green okra well boiled, 
 which, if not to be had, flaxseed as a substi- 
 tute. 
 
 Modern practice favors more moderate pre- 
 scriptions, that is, castor oil in lieu of calomel 
 for persons of slender constitutions. Con- 
 
 15 
 
 valescent patients should refrain from indulg- 
 ing their returning appetites as long as possi- 
 ble, and not leave their beds or attempt the 
 least exertion until fully recovered, lest relapse 
 should be brought on, which is frequently the 
 case, and much more dangerous than the first 
 attack. Many persons have fallen victims to 
 this acclimating fever from omitting the pro- 
 per remedies until it got too deeply seated, 
 imagining that the headache or chill they felt 
 arose from a slight cold, which would pass 
 away by a another day, in place of which it 
 became seated beyond medical aid. This should 
 admonish all to make battle on the first ap- 
 proach of the enemy. 
 
 TEXAS. 
 The nation was very much agitated and divi- 
 ded in opinion on the subject of the annexation 
 of Texas. That republic was struggling with 
 difficulties that seemed insurmountable with- 
 out foreign aid. Money was what she wanted. 
 Ten millions of dollars would have relieved her 
 from all embarrassments ; leaving a sufficient 
 surplus to have established her nationality on 
 a firm basis. She sent ministers to Europe and 
 offered the most liberal terms for money. 
 France, England, and, probably, other nations 
 refused. It is difficult to understand this short- 
 sighted policy. They could have made the 
 loan three-fourths in Texas notes ; purchased 
 such notes at an average of twenty-five cents 
 on the dollar. They were selling in the United 
 States, in large amounts, at from three to five 
 cents on the dollar, consequently a loan of ten 
 millions would not have subjected them to an 
 advance of over half that sum in specie. Great 
 Britain was particularly interested in the ques- 
 tion ; and by making the loan she would have 
 prevented annexation, secured the independ- 
 ence of Texas, and a commercial treaty giving 
 her great advantages with a country capable 
 of receiving all her surplus population, and 
 after the lapse of some years furnishing cotton 
 sufficient for all her purposes, relieving her 
 from dependence on the United States for the 
 article so necessary to her existence. 
 
 Had these advantages been acquired they 
 would have been without the slaughter of her 
 subjects or the burning of gunpowder, conse- 
 quently wanting in that glory which has been 
 in too many cases the governing principle. 
 
 A public meeting was called at the Arcade
 
 226 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 to express the Xew Orleans sentiment in re- 
 lation to annexation. Mr. Barker attended, by 
 special invitation, and made the following re- 
 marks: 
 
 Mr. Barker said: " Texas must be ours — 
 'peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must' — 
 pointing out. the advantages which would ac- 
 crue to the northern manufacturers and ship- 
 owners from annexation. Yet they are op- 
 posed," he said, " as they were to Jefferson's 
 embargo and Madison's war in vindication of 
 free trade and sailors' rights. The fanaticism 
 of these men on the subject of slavery, and 
 their inordinate thirst for political power, 
 triumphed at that time, as it does now, over 
 their known appetite for gold, as is too plainly 
 indicated by the different sentiments put forth 
 now and previous to the dictum of their chief. 
 The enduring patience with which Calhoun 
 and the whole south sustained the measures 
 be had alluded to, while their crops were rot- 
 ting on their plantations, in their granaries, 
 gin-houses, and purgeries, won his whole heart, 
 and he was most happy to find that the same 
 feelings pervade bosoms of their descendants, 
 although they have nothing to gain but the 
 protection of our frontier and the preservation 
 of our institutions, while the eastern manufac- 
 turers are to enjoy a monopoly of the whole 
 consumption of Texas, and her ship owners 
 the earning trade. The south have no ships, 
 and especially Louisiana has none. The proud 
 Kentuckiau, in our infancy, hurled defiance at 
 Great Britain, and nobly supported the battle 
 until it was crowned with victory; and shall 
 we now, with our increased population, re- 
 sources, and prowess, quail before Mexico, 
 backed by the lion of England ? Some of my 
 hearers," said Mr. B., "being much younger 
 than I am, may console themselves with the 
 belief that they can acquire Texas by the sword 
 at pleasure — delay does not suit the tempera- 
 ment of my mind nor my age. I wish to see 
 the nail clenched before it is too late for me to 
 share in the fun or the fight. I have not a 
 word to say to the prejudice of Mr. Clay, or of 
 any other man, but to urge on this meeting 
 the necessity of filling all the departments, 
 Congress, the legislature, and the convention 
 with the friends of immediate annexation. 
 Annexation is to be brought about by the 
 power of public opinion ; and how is public 
 
 opinion to be known if not manifested by the 
 ballot boxes ? I do not come here the advo- 
 cate of men, but of measures. I speak to 
 whigs and to democrats the same language. I 
 say to you all, do not vote for a»>/ man, for 
 any subordinate situation, who is not known to 
 be in favor of immediate annexation. 
 
 11 If Mr. Clay should be elected President he 
 will be controlled by public opinion as much 
 as Mr. Polk, and I am persuaded that he will 
 be found as willing to yield to it. At all events, 
 the President, whoever he may be, is but the 
 servant of the people, and he must be con- 
 trolled by their opinion. 
 
 "Let the assent of Mexico be obtained, as 
 also that of all the world, if possible ; but to 
 make the consent of any nation on earth other 
 than Texas necessary, would, after having 
 acknowledged her independence, be highly dis- 
 honorable." 
 
 Mr. Barker adverted to the increased duty 
 in England on sugar from slaveholding States 
 over that from free States, and said : "Britain's 
 course was onward — she never receded ; she 
 was not a nation to retrace her steps. The 
 next thing would be a discriminating duty of 
 3d. sterling per pound on cotton, as a reward 
 to Texas for inhibiting slavery, in case we re- 
 ject her overtures for anuexatiou. ' Where, 
 then, will be the value of our cotton planta- 
 tions? She attempted this by encouraging the 
 culture of cotton in India; but the soil, the 
 climate, the want of operatives possessing that 
 information which was necessary for success, 
 and especially the length of the voyage and 
 consequent high rate of freight, defeated, for a 
 season, her humane intentions on her too suc- 
 cessful rival. The Territory of Texas borders 
 on Red river, which empties itself into the 
 oeean through the Mississippi. Her fleets, 
 therefore, have, according to the laws of na- 
 tions, equal rights with ourselves to navigate 
 both rivers ; and if we refuse annexation her 
 necessities may induce her to throw herself 
 into the kind embraces of Britain ; and how 
 would you like to see British fleets navigating 
 these rivers with equal authority with our own? 
 Let this take place and where would we quickly 
 find ourselves?" 
 
 Mr. Barker dwelt on other subjects to the 
 great satisfaction of the meeting, and closed 
 by commending the ability, ardor, and patriot- 

 
 DEFENCE OF GENERAL TAYLOR. 
 
 227 
 
 ism of Mr. Calhoun in supporting the war of 
 1812, and of his continuing willing again to 
 encounter the same lion which he had then 
 helped to vanquish; and said that his voice in 
 1848, if he lived so long, should be for Calhoun 
 for the next President, even if he should find 
 himself the only advocate left. 
 
 The enthusiasm manifested by the meeting 
 at the mention of Mr. Calhoun as the Presi- 
 dential candidate for the next canvass made 
 the welkin ring. 
 
 GENERAL TAYLOR. 
 
 Texas was annexed; taking possession oc- 
 casioned the war with Mexico, the effect of 
 which was a vast expenditure of money and 
 the depreciation of the market price of the 
 government securities, causing a great derange- 
 ment in the finances and commerce of the 
 nation, which enabled the opponents of the 
 war to mislead the public, and obtain a 
 majority in the House of Representatives who 
 were not likely to continue the war to a suc- 
 cessful termination. Therefore, numerous 
 democrats throughout the* nation, believing 
 their numbers sufficiently large with the aid of 
 either of the great political parties to control 
 the selection of President, nominated General 
 Taylor, in the hope that both parties would 
 unite therein in preference to defeat, which 
 seemed to await the party who might oppose 
 the election of an independent candidate. 
 General Taylor was then successfully conduct- 
 ing the war as commanding general, who had 
 publicly announced that he would not be the 
 candidate of any party, and was believed not 
 to have ever voted or taken part in politics. 
 
 A convention of the advocates of this 
 measure residing in Louisiana was resolved 
 upon. Mr. Barker was appointed one of the 
 delegates ; the meeting was of very short dura- 
 tion, and conducted in a very unsatisfactory 
 manner to the friends with whom it originated, 
 each party in the convention wishing to give 
 it such a character as would be likely to in- 
 fluence the coming administration in their 
 favor. No opportunity having been presented 
 at the meeting for a calm explanation, Mr. 
 Barker, immediately upon its adjournment, 
 caused to be published in the New Orleans 
 Commercial Times the views he intended to 
 have expressed in the convention, which were 
 as follows : 
 
 "Mr. President: The spirit of the pre- 
 • and resolutions adopted are very good 
 so far as they go, but they seem to evade the 
 great question at issue — ' the vigorous prosecu- 
 tion of the war until ■ le peace can he 
 obtain* f 
 
 " We, however, were not sent here to nomi- 
 nate a candidate for the presidency. The 
 people have done that for themselves. We 
 were sent here to further such nomination. 
 The momentous question, whether they be 
 allowed to decide for themselves or be subject 
 to certain cliques and managers, is now to be 
 tried; Wall street hoots at the idea to sever 
 the shackles of party. It has the money, and 
 we have the physical force. We shall see who 
 will prevail in this contest. Our opponents 
 are not suited to the emergency of the times. 
 What sort of battle do you suppose they would 
 have made had they composed the army at the 
 battle of Palo Alto or Buena Vista? They 
 may be very good auctioneers, but we will let 
 them know we are not to be knocked off for 
 gold like so many chests of tea. Jefferson 
 said that large cities were sores on the body 
 politic. Some of our friends indulge the idea 
 that General Taylor will be nominated by the 
 Baltimore or Philadelphia convention. 1 hope 
 both conventions will nominate him, and thus 
 end all political controversy. Yet it would be 
 preposterous for the friends of General Taylor 
 to take part in sending delegates to either con- 
 vention. If they did they would be compro- 
 mised, aud bound to support such candidates 
 as should be nominated, whether they be 
 Taylor, Clay, Cass, Calhoun, or Van Buren. 
 Now, as we mean, under all circumstances, to 
 support the election of General Taylor, we 
 cannot take part in any new nomination. The 
 work has been done by the people, and, being 
 well done, we will not allow it to be disturbed. 
 
 " The best man in the nation has been put 
 forth as the candidate. With such a chief, we 
 shall be excused for being a little clannish, 
 and for indulging in a little State pride. Look 
 at Virginia, in regard to Washington, Jefferson, 
 and Madison; South Carolina, in regard to 
 Mr. Calhoun ; Kentucky, in regard to Mr. 
 Clay ; New York, in regard to Messrs. Tomp- 
 kins, Clinton, and Van Buren : and Massa- 
 chusetts, in regard to Mr. Webster ; and will 
 not Louisiana exhibit on this occasion as 
 much zeal and fidelity to the man whom all 
 admit to be the noblest work of God, 'honest.' 
 intelligent, and brave — the man v. horn we are 
 all proud to call a citizen of Louisiana. Why 
 hesitate on this war question ? 
 
 " Our opponents have boldly put forth oppo- 
 sition to the war, and mean to fight the battle 
 on that ground. They have thrown down the 
 glove ; let us pick it up, aud as boldly bid 
 them to arms on that point. We cannot suc- 
 ceed on any other. An open, fearless, decisive 
 course, is the only one that will find favor with 
 the American people. Any one who looks for
 
 228 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 success on any other ground will find himself 
 disappointed. What carried us through the 
 revolution but the Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence ? Did we not put an end to the impress- 
 ment of our seamen by boldly declaring war, 
 and sustaining that war by hard fighting? 
 And what settled our account with France but 
 General Jackson's saying to the king that if 
 he did not pay, ' we will pay ourselves from 
 your ships found on the ocean.' 
 
 '• I consider General Taylor the bpst man 
 to conduct the war, if an honorable peace 
 cannot be obtained ; and the most likely to 
 obtain an honorable peace, if the thing be pos- 
 sible. With these opinions I come to this con- 
 vention, and, I presume, every member came 
 with the same view. We claim to represent 
 the peace party, always preferring peace, but 
 ever ready for war. Those most anxious for a 
 speedy and honorable peace believe it can be 
 obtained by hard fighting, and not otherwise, 
 and that all other questions are of minor im- 
 portance, and should be deferred until the war 
 is over. We are not to be diverted by ques- 
 tions of tariff or free trade, bank or currency, 
 sub-treasury, public lands, internal improve- 
 ments, or the exercise of the veto power. 
 
 " Our- opponents, for the purpose of embar- 
 rassing the operations of the war, discuss all 
 the great points of political economy. They 
 put forth the opinions of their great leader, 
 Mr. Clay, and demand his support, because he 
 has often been before the people for the same 
 office — a reason totally insufficient. It pre- 
 supposes that we incur an obligation by voting 
 for an individual to do the like again, when, if 
 there be auy obligation, it must be on the part 
 of the candidate. The idea of any individual 
 pretending a claim is revolting, and of itself 
 furnishes a good reason for leaving him at 
 home, in the enjoyment of quiet retirement, 
 the moment a claim is preferred. Further, 
 the principle of rotation in office renders it in- 
 expedient for any individual to monopolize all 
 the honors of his country. 
 
 "Mr. Clay is undoubtedly a great man, and is 
 entitled to much credit for the pertinacity with 
 which he seems to cling to the long-cherished 
 hope of inhabiting the White House — this 
 matter of hope, together with that of sleep, are 
 the kindest institutions of Heaven. 
 
 " The ground on which Mr. Clay, in his Lex- 
 ington speech, has invited us to contest the 
 presidential canvass, is not suited to the meri- 
 dian of the south and of the west, and his 
 friends in this quarter lament that he should 
 have found it necessary to rely on the fanatics 
 of the north, the church-burners — called natives, 
 the abolitionists, and the defenders of the Hart- 
 ford convention. With them the south can 
 never confederate. I do not perceive any dif- 
 ference between the opposers of the revolu- 
 tionary war, the war of 1812, and the present 
 war. It is enough that our country is at war, 
 to enlist the support of every patriot. I bid 
 
 all the opposers of the war to beware, or they 
 will have handed down to posterity the same 
 indignant feelings towards them and their 
 memory that were felt by our fathers towards 
 the tories of the revolution, and as the present 
 generation feel towards the advocates of the 
 Hartford convention. Had Mr. Clay come 
 out for a vigorous prosecution of the war, the 
 entire south and west would have gone for 
 him. They would have disregarded all other 
 questions — the pursuit of that phantom, free 
 trade without reciprocity — the tariff — the cur- 
 rency — the independent treasury and pet-bank 
 system, would all have dwindled into insignifi- 
 cance, and past opinions have been forgotten — 
 all confiding in his having sufficient wisdom to 
 adopt his opinions to the state of things as 
 they exist when called on to act ; although it 
 will be admitted that it is rather difficult to 
 induce old men to abandon pre-conceived 
 opinions. 
 
 " In this we have a remarkable instance in 
 the venerable Albert Gallatin — a purer man 
 than whom never lived — although nearly ninety 
 years of age, he has as clear an intellect and 
 holds as vigorous a pen as when the snows of 
 but half as many winters whitened his brow. 
 I have known him nearly fifty years, the same 
 cool, calculating«head, the friend of Jefferson, 
 and the pride of the democratic party, to whom 
 and to whose opinions every consideration is 
 due, quite as much so, as if he had been born 
 in any of the old thirteen States. Let light 
 come from whatever quarter it may, our win- 
 dows should not be closed, the light is not to 
 be shut out; aud I sincerely hope that there 
 has been some mistake in the publication of 
 the remarks made in the Senate of the United 
 States by the Hon. Solomon W. Downs, of 
 Louisiana. If there has not been an error, the 
 friends of Solomon will question his wisdom, 
 He should have remembered, that but for the 
 votes of adopted citizens he would not occupy 
 the seat with which he is now honored, and 
 that if such should be supposed to be the 
 opinions entertained by the democratic party, 
 the days of their ascendancy would be num- 
 bered. However, I undertake to say, that 
 there is not a single democrat in Louisiana, 
 and very few in the United States, who are not 
 ready to rebel against the doctrine said to have 
 been put forth by Senator Downs. The im- 
 mortal Washington did not think foreign birth 
 any reason for turning a deaf ear to the coun- 
 sel of Hamilton, Lafayette, Montgomery, or 
 Kosciusko; nor did Louisiana, when she ele- 
 vated Judge Porter, Soule, Benjamin, and 
 Peters, to places of great distinction, inquire 
 the places of their birth. Those styling them- 
 selves Native Americans have lighted up a 
 flame of indignation in the bosom of every 
 adopted citizen in the United States which can- 
 not be extinguished during the present genera- 
 tion. 
 
 " Mr. Gallatin knows, as well as auy man in
 
 DEFENCE OF GENERAL TAYLOR. 
 
 229 
 
 the world, the necessity to economize our 
 national resources, and to protect the public 
 funds from the inordinate appetite of the sur- 
 rounding multitude. He had the same praise- 
 worthy feeling during the last war, and knew 
 full well that money was the sinew of war; 
 and that if that failed, dismay and disgrace 
 would soon follow. He is, however, mistaken 
 in putting down as lost the time of the men, 
 and the supplies they draw from their own 
 country; he might as well denominate our 
 home-market a loss to the nation of all we con- 
 sume. So long as our own agricultural pro- 
 ducts are more than sufficient to supply our 
 wants, diverting a portion of the labor to other 
 objects is not injurious. It probably has not 
 occurred to him that a crop of 1,500,000 bales 
 of cotton will yield to the planter more money 
 than a crop of 3,000,000; and nearly the same 
 ratio with most other articles. Mr. Gallatin 
 does not seem to have recollected that our 
 population and resources have nearly tripled 
 since he was at the head of the treasury. The 
 power of resuscitation of the American people 
 is great, beyond the most sanguine calculations 
 of the best informed among us; and I would 
 say to him, as well as to Messrs. Clay, Calhoun, 
 and Webster, that they have lived to see a 
 people grow up and come forward, who, when 
 called on to resent an indignity offered to some 
 member of their family, v/ill fly to battle, and 
 expose their lives, without stopping to count 
 the cost of the pistols necessary for the mortal 
 strife. Whigs and democrats have alike shared 
 in the effects of the present war; they flew to 
 arms at their country's first call, and are in 
 like manner covered with glory by deeds of 
 valor; and now, when their ranks are thinned 
 by disease and death — by the slaughter inci- 
 dent to hard-fought battles — is there a man 
 with a real American heart, who will leave his 
 father, his child, his brother, his relation, or 
 his friend, to perish in a foreign country by 
 the knife or the lasso, for the want of timely 
 and adequate reinforcements and supplies to 
 preserve the trophies already won. and to com- 
 mand an honorable peace, by dispelling the 
 delusion infused into the Mexicans, that money 
 cannot be obtained to continue the war? 
 
 "We cannot recognize any distinction between 
 whigs and democrats, any more than we can 
 between the native born citizen and adopted 
 citizen. Gen. Taylor has been an eye witness 
 of the cool, persevering bravery of the Ger- 
 man, of the impetuosity and determined cour- 
 age of the Irish. They, alike, with all other 
 citizens of this republic, have marched up to 
 the cannon's mouth and met death as men 
 never before encountered the grim monster ; 
 and if Gen. Taylor should be elected, he will 
 spurn from his presence and his confidence 
 the man who should dare to say this, that, or 
 the other applicant for executive favor is whig, 
 democrat, or a foreigner by birth. He will 
 not, my word for it, permit any such invidious 
 
 distinctions to be made. Knowing this, the 
 
 Germans, the Irish, and every other patriot, 
 will vie with each other in the strife of who 
 shall do most to further the election of Gen. 
 Taylor. They will march up to the ballot-box 
 with the same ardor, the same enthusiasm, as 
 their countrymen cut their way through the 
 enemy's ranks at Palo Alto and Monterey. 
 They will not forget that their victorious chief 
 was, notwithstanding these splendid achieve- 
 ments, not allowed to command a division of 
 the army under Scott; in place of which, he 
 was shorn of the flower of his troops, and 
 recommended to retire within the walls of 
 Monterey, and there to defend himself. This 
 he declined, preferring the open field, and to 
 encounter with his volunteers four times their 
 number. There he met them commanded by 
 Santa Anna in person; and with his sword, at 
 the battle of Buena Vista, carved out an an- 
 swer to all those who doubted his superiority — 
 a battle which has not any equal on the page 
 of history. It surpasses those of Bonaparte 
 and Wellington ; and if such deeds of daring 
 valor had been achieved under a monarchical 
 form of government, dukedoms, principalities, 
 and the imperial diadem, would have been the 
 reward, in place of which we have only our 
 affections, our confidence, and our respect to 
 confer. And is there an American who will 
 withhold these from Gen. Taylor?" 
 
 The following remarks of a friend at the 
 period iu question will be read with interest by 
 politicians: 
 
 u When we consider the immediate causes 
 which led to the election of General Zachary 
 Taylor, and the prominent part taken therein 
 by Mr. Barker, we cannot resist the conclusion 
 that that gentleman, together with those of his 
 old political associates and friends who acted 
 with him, must have been sadly disappointed, 
 and that they regret the course which has been 
 pursued by the present administration. 
 
 "They, however, say that if they had known 
 what would have been the result, yes, more, if 
 they had known that the first fruits of the elec- 
 tion of General Taylor would have been the 
 removal of every democratic officeholder and 
 the appointment of the ranke- to the 
 
 places thus made vacant, they still would have 
 supported his election ; because those now in 
 power hold office but for four years, when the 
 democracy of the laud will be sure to re-estab- 
 lish their ascendancy, and when a clean sweep 
 will be made; because, if General Cass had 
 been elected, the many drones who were in 
 office would not have been removed ; because, 
 when they embarked for the election of General 
 Taylor, the opposition, by deceiving the people, 
 were gaining an ascendancy that threatened to 
 prolong the war, by withholding supplies, and 
 thus force our gallant army to retreat and in- 
 gloriously withdraw from Mexico ; because the 
 opposition had obtained a majority in the
 
 230 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 House of Representatives of the United States, 
 anil their leaders had advised the withholding 
 the requisite supplies for the prosecution of the 
 war until the administration should explain 
 and define their object in its further prosecu- 
 tion. 
 
 " Under these circumstances the independent 
 men of both parties deemed it to be of the first 
 importance to break down an opposition so un- 
 holy, and knew that it could be done by con- 
 straining the whigs to support General Taylor 
 for the presidency, (he having done more to 
 promote the success of the war than any other 
 citizen,) and they did it effectually. 
 
 "When the Philadelphia convention, acting 
 under such constraint, nominated General Tay- 
 lor, because they considered him the most 
 available, seven eighths of the whig party pre- 
 ferred Mr. Clay; yet a sufficient number of 
 them swallowed the pill, bitter as it was, in 
 order to ensure, with the co-operation of the 
 independent party, the election of General 
 Taylor, who, notwithstanding the aid of his in- 
 dependent friends, came out of the urn a minor- 
 ity President, so far as the popular vote was 
 concerned. 
 
 "He was elected by only five majority, by 
 electors chosen by the people; and as Loui- 
 siana gave six votes, she, a democratic State, 
 may be considered to have decided the ques- 
 tion, and the first act of General Taylor was 
 to exclude her citizens, as well as those of 
 New York, from a seat in his cabinet, urging 
 that as the President and Vice President came 
 from those States they had a full proportion 
 and influence in the administration — a most 
 unwise, injudicious, and unjust proscription. 
 
 "The public were entitled to the services of 
 the best men, without reference to the place of 
 their residence ; and, independent of this, the 
 citizens of Louisiana, and of New York, ought 
 not to have been thus proscribed, and ike selec- 
 tions for minor offices should have been made 
 according to General Taylors often reiterated 
 principles, irrespective of party distinctions. 
 
 "Had this been done, an administration 
 favorable to impartial appointments would 
 have been continued for many terms, whether 
 General Taylor wished to be re-elected or not. 
 It is to be presumed that, at his time of life, he 
 will prefer retirement to the perplexities and 
 responsibilities of an office which cannot add 
 renown to the glory which already surrounds 
 him. 
 
 "His election lias had the happy effect of 
 giving character to his military exploits, which 
 have immortalized him as the greatest captain 
 of the age, and this is worth to the nation more 
 than all the offices within the gift of any ad- 
 ministration — a re-election cannot add any- 
 thing to such glory. And if it were otherwise, 
 the great body of the independent party are 
 committed to the one-term principle, Mr. Bar- 
 ker in particular, he having presided at a demo- 
 cratic meeting, held in New York, at which 
 
 resolutions to that effect were unanimously 
 passed. 
 
 "As to who fills the various offices the peo- 
 ple at large have not any other interest therein 
 than that the men selected should be the best 
 and the most competent to perform the duties 
 required. Had that rule been observed, and 
 the men taken from the masses irrespective of 
 political parties, the supposed opinions of Gen- 
 eral Taylor would have been fulfilled ; and even 
 if nine-tenths of the men appointed to office 
 had been whigs, the administration would have 
 been popular had they made ten times as many 
 removals as they have done. As it is, the ad- 
 ministration cannot maintain their rule, and it 
 is not to be supposed that any sensible man 
 will doubt the power of the united democratic 
 party to regain their wonted ascendancy. 
 
 "The New York Herald, of the 7th August, 
 1849, put forth some very judicious remarks 
 on the course of the administration. This 
 paper may be considered to have given to 
 General Taylor's election more efficient support 
 than any other journal in the United States. 
 It was, in fact, the most serviceable in its truly 
 independent course, heralding the victories and 
 the merits of the h£ro of Buena A'ista, and in 
 a thousand ways leading public opinion to the 
 belief that he would be elected ; for on that 
 belief depended his election, as a vast propor- 
 tion of the floating population are greatly 
 pleased with all opportunities of throwing up 
 their caps and shouting victory 1 victory ! and 
 if you once make the electors believe that any 
 particular candidate will be elected, he is sure 
 to succeed." 
 
 General Taylor was nominated by the whig 
 convention at Philadelphia; General Cass was 
 nominated, about the same time, by the demo- 
 cratic convention at Baltimore. Messrs. Clay 
 and Van Buren, having unfortunately come 
 out in the public papers against the annexa- 
 tion of Texas, were set aside by their respec- 
 tive parties; immediately after which, Mr. 
 Barker, having embarked in this cause, united 
 with other independent democrats in calling a 
 meeting, to be held on the 24th of June, 1847, 
 of those favorable to the election of General 
 Taylor, and prepared the following resolutions, 
 with the intention of offering them for the con- 
 sideration of the meeting. They were not 
 presented, on account of the tumultuous 
 character of the meeting. Persons from both 
 of the old political parties attended, deter- 
 mined that no business should be done; the 
 one wished to prevent democrats from voting 
 for General Taylor — the other wishing to no 
 him wear the livery of the whig party.
 
 ELECTION OF GENERAL TAYLOR. 
 
 231 
 
 RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 Resolved, That this meeting concur in the 
 sentiments expressed in the proceedings of a 
 meeting of the friends of the election of 
 General Taylor, held at Philadelphia on the 
 6th of October instant. 
 
 Resolved, That it is the duty of every branch 
 of the government to enforce and practice the 
 most rigid economy in conducting our public 
 affairs, and that no more revenue ought to be 
 raised than is required to defray the necessary 
 expenses of the government, and for the 
 gradual but certain extinction of the debt 
 created by the prosecution of a just and neces- 
 sary war — peaceful relations having been 
 restored. 
 
 Resolved, That the separation of the moneys 
 of the government from local banks is indis- 
 pensable for the safety of the funds of the 
 government and the rights of the people. 
 
 Besolv d, That the liberal principles em- 
 bodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of 
 Independence, and sanctioned in the Constitu- 
 tion, which makes ours the land of liberty and 
 the asylum of the oppressed of every nation, 
 are cardinal principles of our faith; and every 
 attempt to abridge the present privilege of 
 becoming citizens and owners of soil among 
 us ought to be resisted wfth the same spirit 
 which swept the alien and sedition laws from 
 our statute books. 
 
 Resolved, That the proceeds of the public 
 lands ought to be sacredly applied to the 
 national objects specified in the Constitution, 
 and that we are opposed to any law for the 
 distribution of such proceeds among the States 
 as alike inexpedient in policy and repugnant 
 to the Constitution. 
 
 Resolved, That the war with Mexico, pro- 
 voked on her part by years of insult and 
 injury, was commenced by her army crossing 
 the Rio Grande, attacking the American 
 troops, and invading our sister State of Texas; 
 and that, upon all the principles of patriotism 
 and the laws of nations, it was a just and 
 necessary war on our part, in which every 
 American citizen should have shown himself 
 on the side of his country, and neither morally 
 nor physically, by word or deed, have given 
 "aid and comfort to the enemy." 
 
 Resolved, That the officers and soldiers, 
 native and adopted, who have carried the arms 
 of their country into Mexico, have crowned it 
 with imperishable glory. Their unconcpierable 
 courage, their daring enterprise, their unfalter- 
 ing perseverauce and fortitude when assailed 
 on all sides by innumerable foes, and that 
 more formidable enemy, the diseases of the 
 climate, exalt their devoted patriotism into 
 the highest heroism, and give them a right to 
 the profound gratitude of their country; in 
 relation to whom both General Scott and 
 General Taylor bear the same testimony; the 
 former expressed himself, at a public meetiug 
 on his arrival at New York, thus : 
 
 "A very large portion of the rank and file of 
 that army, regulars and volunteers, went forth 
 from the' city of New York to conquer or die. 
 it was my lot to observe their irresistible valor 
 and prowess; all dangers, difficulties, and 
 hardships, were met and conquered. The Irish 
 and the Germans, the Swiss and the French, 
 the Briton, and other adopted citizens, fought 
 in the same ranks, under the same colors, 
 side by side with the native-born Americans, 
 exhibiting like courage and efficiency, and 
 uniting, at every victory, in the same enthusi- 
 astic shouts in honor of our flag and country. 
 
 "From Vera Cruz into the capital of Mexico 
 there was generous rivalry in heroic daring 
 and brilliant achievements. Let those who 
 saw that career of valor and patriotism say, if 
 they can, what race, according to numbers, 
 contributed most to the general success and 
 glory of the campaign. 
 
 "On the many hard-fought fields there was 
 no room for invidious distinction. All proved 
 themselves the faithful sons of one beloved 
 country; and no spectator could fail to dismiss 
 any lingering prejudice he might have enter- 
 tained as to the comparative merits of Ameri- 
 cans by birth and Americans by choice and 
 adoption." 
 
 Resolved, That General Zachary Taylor ren- 
 dered the most essential aid in consummating 
 the annexation of Texas; and that his military 
 exploits, cool determined courage and perse- 
 verance at Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, 
 Monterey, and Buena Vista, electrified the 
 world, and filled every American heart with 
 joy, and, with the other victories won by our 
 brave soldiers and gallant officers, led to the 
 honorable peace that has been concluded. 
 
 Resolved, That the persons composing this 
 meeting fully concur in the nomination made 
 by the people of the United States, of General 
 Zachary Taylor for the presidency, since which 
 nothing has transpired to change their opinion 
 that his refusal to wear the livery of either 
 political party exalts him in our estimation; 
 and while this meeting rejoices that the whig 
 convention have united in his nomination, they 
 deeply regret that the democratic convention 
 did not also concur therein. 
 
 Subsequently he addressed the citizens of 
 the nation through the New York Herald, as 
 follows : 
 JACOB BARKER ON GENERA! TAYLOR'S ELECTION. 
 
 " New York, Sept. 5, 1848. 
 " James Gordon Bennett, esq., 
 
 " Dear Sir: You ask what will be the 
 course of the original southern friends of Gen. 
 Taylor in relation to the election of Mr. Fill- 
 more? I answer that they will support him 
 with the same fidelity they do the hero of 
 Buena Vista. They nominated General Taylor 
 from an earnest desire for peace with Mexico, 
 and from a conviction that a vigorous prosecu-
 
 232 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 tion of the war was the best, in fact the only 
 way to procure an honorable peace. To pro- 
 mote that object, together with a wholesome 
 restraint on the exercise of the veto power, 
 and a reformation in the administration of the 
 finances of the nation, they wished to see 
 General Taylor elected, and they fondly hoped, 
 from his peculiar fitness for the station, that 
 the Baltimore as well as the Philadelphia con- 
 vention would have concurred in his nomina- 
 tion. The Baltimore convention preferred 
 another ; we, therefore, owe them nothing. 
 The Philadelphia convention confirmed our 
 nomination, superadding that of Mr. Fillmore 
 for the vice presidency. This was a fair com- 
 promise ; it, therefore, behooves us to support 
 Mr. Fillmore with the same fidelity we expect 
 his friends to support General Taylor, and we 
 shall faithfully perform such duty, without 
 stopping to inquire how far others may act 
 with the same good faith. All should remem- 
 ber that every institution of society, and par- 
 ticularly the Constitution of the United States, 
 is the result of compromise. General Taylor 
 stands before the public committed to leave 
 all matters of national policy to the decision 
 of the people's immediate representatives. No 
 man acquainted with the general will doubt 
 as to his carrying out that opinion to the 
 letter. He is honest, prompt, intelligent, and 
 highly qualified to discharge the duties of the 
 presidency. Not so familiar with diplomacy as 
 Mr. Clay or Mr. Webster — and those gentlemen 
 may vainly imagine these qualifications essen- 
 tial for a candidate for the presidency — the 
 people believe that other qualifications pos- 
 sessed by General Taylor, and not by these 
 other gentlemen, are quite as important. 
 
 " General Washington and General Jackson 
 were both of the army, and they administered 
 the executive department quite as well as Mr. 
 Tyler or Mr. Polk, who were not of the army. 
 The original friends of General Taylor con- 
 sidered his past life a sufficient pledge for the 
 future, and so far from wishing him to wear 
 their livery, or pledge himself to any course, 
 they believe it to be far more important to him 
 to adhere to the independent position he origi- 
 nally assumed, than to be elected President of 
 the United States. Should he be elected, the 
 people will have a President free to act ac- 
 cording to his best judgment, uninfluenced by 
 party pledges or a kitchen cabinet. 
 
 " It is admitted at the south, as well as at 
 the north, that slavery and wars are great 
 curses. In this sentiment General Taylor par- 
 ticipates : yet, sooner or later, we must have a 
 war to exterminate British rule from this con- 
 tinent, and will any one pretend that General 
 Taylor would not be the best President for the 
 performance of such a holy work? His friends 
 do not approve of any attempt to detract from 
 the merit of his opponents. They think favor- 
 ably of their candidates, and that either General 
 Cass or Mr. Van Buren would make a good 
 
 President if elected. They consider General 
 Taylor preferable, and most likely to adminis- 
 ter the government iu accordance with the 
 wishes of the whole people. Yet, if either of 
 the other two should be elected, the nation 
 would have occasion to be proud of their Pre- 
 sident. As to slavery, as it now exists, they 
 all three, as far as I have been enabled to dis- 
 cover, hold the same opinions ; therefore, no 
 preference on that score ; and, as to its exten- 
 sion, I cannot believe that any sensible man 
 wishes to see it extended. It would be a last- 
 ing disgrace to this republic to authorize 
 slavery in countries where it does not now 
 exist. In saying this, I speak only for myself; 
 yet it is my opinion that such would be the 
 general opinion in Louisiana, if the subject 
 should there be discussed and considered. The 
 citizens of that State are, like most other 
 people, attached to their own interest. They 
 do not raise slaves for sale : they do not emi- 
 grate to new countries for agricultural pursuits ; 
 their soil is as good as can be wished. With 
 more lands than the owners can supply with 
 hands for a century to come, they are pur- 
 chasers rather than sellers of slaves ; hence, it 
 is not for their interest to extend the market 
 and thereby augment the price of slaves. I 
 believe, further, that the whole south would 
 gladly agree that all the slaves should be paid 
 for from the United States treasury, made free, 
 and sent to the newly acquired territory, aud 
 there formed into a separate nation, to be 
 governed by themselves. A great portion of 
 such territory I consider worthless to this 
 nation for any other purpose ; or if New and 
 Old England wish otherwise to emancipate 
 them, they have only to send back their ships 
 which brought them south with the money for 
 which they sold these unfortunate men into 
 slavery, and the present holders will gladly ex- 
 change them back. Britain forced them on 
 her colonies, which Virginia resisted to the 
 utmost of her power, and those who sent them 
 into slavery cannot, with any grace, ask their 
 emancipation from those to whom they sold 
 them, without returning the money. 
 
 " I have resided among those people for the 
 last fourteen years, during all which time I 
 have defended the free colored inhabitants to 
 the best of my ability, without accepting any 
 fees for my services, and have expended every 
 dollar I could afford in experiments to prove 
 to the slaveholders that it would be for their 
 interest to employ free laborers iu preference 
 to slaves, and otherwise in the cause of free- 
 dom. I consider the slaves of Louisiana better 
 fed, clothed, cared for when sick, and happier 
 than the working classes of any other part of 
 the habitable globe; they have not any care 
 for the morrow ; no terror of quarter day ; can 
 marry and have as many childreu as they like. 
 All this, however, does not sanctify the insti- 
 tution of slavery, aud should not abate the zeal 
 of freemen for their emancipation. The friends
 
 ELECTION OF GENERAL TAYLOR. 
 
 233 
 
 of free soil, as well as the abolitionists, should 
 read from the Delta newspaper, published at 
 New Orleans on the 27th of August, 1848, the 
 speech, herewith, of General Preston, in rela- 
 tion to Mr. Fillmore, delivered at Lafayette, 
 Louisiana. Tie is one of the most respectable, 
 talented, and worthy citizens of that place, 
 and whose object was to make capital for 
 General Cass. 
 
 " After reading this speech, let the freesoil 
 men say whether they will cast off Mr. Fillmore 
 by voting for Mr. Van Buren ; they cannot 
 both be elected. By voting for Mr. Van Buren, 
 they not only prefer General Cass to General 
 Taylor, but they cast off Mr. Fillmore, and, 
 what is of the highest importance, they throw 
 away their votes. As it does not seem possible, 
 in the present organization of parties, to elect 
 Mr. Van Buren, I would say to all parties, as 
 I would to irau and wife in case of domestic 
 contention, compromise your differences, yield 
 your prejudices, abstain from all unkind reflec- 
 tions, and co-operate for the general good. 
 How can the freesoil men, the abolitionist, and 
 the slaveholder do this better, than by the 
 support of General Taylor and Mr. Fillmore ? 
 
 " To do any good to the colored people, 
 some practicable plan must be devised to send 
 them off. or to fit them for freedom at home. 
 Suppose it were possible to turn three or four 
 millions of uneducated free laborers, penniless, 
 at once on this community, I would ask, would 
 it be prudent to do so ? Would our wives and 
 daughters like to encounter such a mass ? 
 Would the German, Irish, or other laborers, 
 like thus to be elbowed out of their accus- 
 tomed occupation? If not, let them beware 
 how they favor any project leading to such a 
 result. And to these men I think I have a 
 right to say a word or two, being a working 
 man myself, and having, during a long life, 
 been their fast friend and advocate, and espe- 
 cially so of the adopted citizens ; the Irish in 
 particular know this, and I say to them, if 
 General Taylor should be elected, they will 
 have a President whose benevolence is prover- 
 bial, and who will sympathize with the op- 
 pressed of all nations. I say this emphatically 
 from a por.-onal acquaintance with that good 
 man. 
 
 " Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 "JACOB BARKER." 
 
 General Taylor was elected. Very soon 
 after which Mr. Barker received numerous let- 
 ters from candidates for office soliciting his in- 
 terference in their favor. To one of these 
 applicants Mr. Barker addressed a letter in 
 words following. The extract from which it is 
 taken is published by the Concordia Intelli- 
 gencer : 
 
 "New Orleans, November 23, 1848. , 
 
 "The result of the election is as you may 
 
 well suppose, very gratifying to me, and I shall 
 rejoice if you can benefit thereby. If you 
 should have occasion to refer to me for your 
 qualification for office and devotion to the good 
 cause, your draft will meet due honor at sight. 
 The competition for office will be so great that 
 but few can succeed under General Taylor's 
 supposed plan of operations. Mine would be 
 different. I should be for a new deal, not to 
 turn out whigs to make place for democrats, 
 nor to turn out democrats to make place for 
 whigs, but to vacate all the offices on the prin- 
 ciple of rotation in office; that the incumbents 
 have held long enough for their full share ; 
 that a thorough investigation of their accounts 
 is necessary, and that this cannot be had while 
 they are in office. The offices being once 
 vacant I should fill them with the most com- 
 petent men to be found, without reference to 
 political party distinction ; and when any one 
 of the present incumbents is found to have 
 been particularly faithful and capable, I should 
 not think his having been in office any objec- 
 tion to his reappointment, or to his being 
 selected for any other office. You must' be 
 aware that it would be particularly indelicate 
 in me to intermeddle in the appointments to be 
 made unless applied to by General Taylor for 
 my opinion ; he knows me well, and that all I 
 ask of him is to administer the government on 
 sound democratic principles, such as I have 
 published to the world all my life ; and he may, 
 therefore, think it advisable to confer with me 
 occasionally. If he should confide in more 
 able friends, it will not estrange me from his 
 administration." * * * * . * 
 
 "I hope he will so far carry out your views 
 on the tariff as to recommend such a modifica- 
 tion as will best protect domestic industry, 
 always keeping within the bounds of our ne- 
 cessities, never collecting a dollar more than is 
 wanted for the expenses of the government and 
 to pay off the national debt. If this will not 
 sustain domestic manufactories, let them fall. 
 
 " I hope he will also recommend the im- 
 provement of the navigation of the western 
 waters, and such a modification of the inde- 
 pendent treasury as will more perfectly secure 
 a separation of the funds of the nation from the 
 local banks, at the same time giving to all dis- 
 bursing officers all the facilities a bank could 
 give if we had such an institution. 
 
 "Should the sub-treasury, rather the inde- 
 pendent treasury, law be repealed without pro- 
 viding a substitute, it would be a return to the 
 pet bank system, the most odious that could 
 be devised ; and any administration that should 
 do it would be doomed, as much so as we are 
 all, to die. Treasury notes furnish a better 
 currency than any bank ever did or ever could; 
 yet there would be so much risk and difficulty 
 in supplying such a currency that I should pre- 
 fer to see a national bank established at Wash- 
 ington, with branches in such States as should 
 authorize their establishment ; yet if General
 
 234 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 Taylor should ask my advice I should say to 
 him, 'do not mention the subject; leave that 
 matter to Congress — they are the people's im- 
 mediate representatives, and there ought not 
 to be a national bank until the people call for 
 it through their immediate representatives.'" 
 
 General Tajlor, very soon after his election, 
 became convinced that he could not conduct 
 the affairs of the nation without the aid of one 
 of the great political parties — it required such 
 a man as General Jackson to do that. The 
 democrats, as a party, had opposed his election, 
 and the whigs, as a party, had supported it ; 
 consequently he fell into the hands of the lat- 
 ter, and the democrats who had supported him 
 again became active under the Jeffersonian 
 flag. On this subject Mr. Barker made the 
 following publication : 
 
 GENERAL CASS. 
 
 To the Editors oftJie Daily Delta : You have 
 thought proper to refer to my political opinions. 
 Unimportant as I know the opinions of any indi- 
 vidual to be, I am nevertheless unwilling to be 
 placed before the public in a false position. 
 
 You say that I vigorously opposed Gen. Cass 
 at the last presidential election. In this you 
 are mistaken, unless there was opposition in 
 my entertaining the belief that the situation of 
 our sons, brothers, fathers, and friends engaged 
 in the Mexican war, was such that party con- 
 siderations should yield to the great question 
 of giving a vigorous support to that war. 
 
 In order to do this, it was necessary to 
 counteract the influence of its opposers, who 
 had acquired a majority in the House of 
 Representatives of the Congress of the United 
 States, and of their friends throughout the 
 nation, who were insisting on making the 
 administration declare for what they were 
 fighting, before the necessary supplies of 
 money, men, and munitions of war should be 
 furnished to protect our patriotic citizens, who 
 had exchanged their domestic comforts for the 
 hardships of the camp, in a foreign and un- 
 healthy climate, at the first call of their coun- 
 try. Thus circumstanced, the public good de- 
 manded a temporary suspension of party dis- 
 cipline. 
 
 General Taylor having declared emphatically 
 that he would not be the President of a party, 
 and having been the most energetic and suc- 
 cessful supporter of the war, it was deemed ex- 
 pedient to propose him as a candidate for the 
 presidency ; and for the aforesaid reasons I 
 embarked in his support with all my heart. 
 
 By the great skill and prowess of the candi- 
 date thus selected, and of his fellow-laborers in 
 the field of glory, the enemy were whipped into 
 submission before the election came on ; yet, 
 having enlisted for the campaign, I could not 
 retire from the service until our brave com- 
 
 mander-in-chief had been safely escorted to the 
 encampment destined for him at Washington. 
 
 The nomination of General Taylor took 
 place before the nomination of General Cass, 
 and therefore was not made in opposition to 
 him ; and so far from otherwise opposing 
 General Cass, I never thought, wrote, or spoke 
 a word against him in the whole course of my 
 life ; on the contrary, I have always been an 
 admirer of his public course, from the breaking 
 of his sword at Maiden to the compromise of 
 the questions which agitated the nation during 
 the last session of Congress, inclusive, and 
 particularly of the part he took when minister 
 at Paris in relation to the quadruple treaty, 
 and of the zealous support he gave to the war 
 with Mexico. 
 
 I should rejoice to see the honors of the two 
 first offices in the world conferred on him and 
 some other patriot like General Persifor F. 
 Smith, covered with millitary glory: yet if I 
 have any influence on the question, it will be 
 exerted in favor of the electiou of the nominees 
 of the Democratic National Convention. It 
 will be for them, and not for any individual, to 
 pass on the choice between Cass, Woodbury, 
 Douglas, Buchanan, Smith, Butler, King, and 
 many other patriotic and qualified sons of this 
 republic; and in support of such nominations, 
 all those called Taylor Democrats will cordially 
 unite. 
 
 Past experience admonishes us not again to 
 trust our national affairs to men who will disap- 
 point our most sauguine expectations ; and, in 
 order to ensure success, the individual selected 
 must be such as will not allow any impediment 
 or obstacle to be thrown in the way of our 
 fellow-men, who emigrate to this land of 
 liberty, becoming citizens according to the pro- 
 visions of the laws of the land as they now exist. 
 
 This, in the present state of the world, I con- 
 sider of such vast importance as for every other 
 question to dwindle into comparative in- 
 significance. 
 
 Your obedient servant. 
 
 JACOB BARKER. 
 
 From this time forward Mr. Barker exerted 
 himself to the utmost of his power to procure 
 the nomination of General Lewis Cass. The 
 democratic convention deeming it best to 
 nominate Franklin Pierce, Mr. Barker ad- 
 dressed the Jeffersonian Club, from which ad- 
 dress the following extracts are made : 
 
 " Fellow Citizens : Allow me to congratu- 
 late you on the nomination of Franklin Pierce 
 and William R. King — a triumph of the great- 
 est magnitude. 
 
 " This association was formed to carry out 
 the principles of the illustrious Jefferson, which 
 have always been advocated by Senator Cass. 
 He is a veteran iu the cause, always in the
 
 NOMINATION OF PIERCE AND KING. 
 
 235 
 
 battle field aud in the front ranks. The talents 
 and the zeal manifested by him for more than 
 forty years in the good cause, induced the 
 members of this club to exert themselves to 
 procure his nomination. Other distinguished 
 men had their advocates. To reconcile the 
 conflict of opinions thus produced, the Balti- 
 more convention deemed it best to overlook all 
 the prominent candidates, and present to the 
 people a new name, for whom there was not 
 any organization, any clique, any body-guard. 
 In carrying out this view of the subject, they 
 selected Franklin Pierce with an unanimity 
 scarcely ever witnessed in a deliberative body. 
 
 '"In the nominations of Messrs. Pierce and 
 King, we have a complete triumph of our prin- 
 ciples, which is of far more importance than 
 the mere triumph of an individual. And what 
 better evidence can we have of the worth of 
 Senator Cass, who was our first choice, than is 
 to be found in the hearty and cordial approval 
 of the nomination made, as manifested in the 
 zealous manner in which he immediately came 
 forward at a public meeting, urging his fellow- 
 citizens to exert themselves in their support. 
 
 " This public testimony of General Cass to 
 the merits of the honored individuals speaks 
 volumes in their favor, as it also does in favor 
 of their distinguished advocate. 
 
 " Our advices from every part of the nation 
 are the most cheering. There is a perfect 
 fusion of all sections of the party, and particu- 
 larly so in New York, where individual prefer- 
 ences had occasioned the most disastrous re- 
 sults to the democracy, so that in place of the 
 discord and bickering which have for years 
 distracted their ranks and thrown the political 
 power of the State into the hands of our oppo- 
 nents, there is now perfect harmony and more 
 enthusiasm displayed than ever before was 
 witnessed. In the Empire City at least 20,000 
 people assembled at their ratifying meeting, 
 whose united voices in favor of Pierce and 
 King rent the heavens, and stifled the roar of 
 the thousand cannons that were sounding forth 
 the glad tidings. And, subsequently, at the 
 great mass meeting at Newburg, democrats 
 assembled from every part of the country. 
 At least 30,000 were on the ground ; some 
 fifteen steamboats were chartered to take pas- 
 sengers from New York on the occasion. 
 They were all filled to overflowing. Among 
 
 the orators on the occasion were the Hon. 
 John A. Dix, of New York, the Hon. Mr. 
 Smith, of Connecticut, John Van Buren, esq., 
 and many others ; perfect unanimity prevailed, 
 and the enthusiasm for Pierce and King sur- 
 passed anything ever before witnessed. The 
 whole scene was magnificently grand, termi- 
 nating with a perfect conviction of the success 
 of our candidates. The more recent success 
 of that old and often tried friend of democracy 
 Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, and Governor 
 Beid, of North Carolina, speaks volumes for 
 the good cause. 
 
 " I have not the honor of a personal ac- 
 quaintance with Franklin Pierce, while I had 
 the pleasure to witness the patriotic career of 
 William R. King, during the war with Great 
 Britain. The nation was in the greatest 
 trouble for the sinews of war. The federal 
 party exerted themselves everywhere, in and 
 out of Congress, to embarass the administra- 
 tion and to impede the progress of the war, 
 denouncing it as unjust and unnecessary, thus 
 taking sides with the enemy. Mr. King was 
 then a member of Congress from North Caro- 
 lina ; he was a particular friend of Mr. Madi- 
 son ; on all occasions sustained the war and 
 the administration ; his course ever since has 
 been patriotic and onward ; his nomination is, 
 therefore, first rate. 
 
 " And, although not favored with a personal 
 acquaintance with Mr. Pierce, I am familiar 
 with his history, and know, from his uniform 
 course in favor of the cause of his country, 
 that a better selection could not have been 
 made, and if I had as many votes as I have 
 hairs on my head, Pierce and King should 
 have them all. 
 
 " So much has been said, and will continue 
 to be said by others, as to the particular merits 
 of the nominees, that I shall not dwell further 
 on the subject. 
 
 '■Much has also been said about slavery, 
 southern men, and southern opinions, all which 
 I think had better be omitted. The question 
 of slavery should not be considered open to 
 debate; the Constitution settled that question. 
 
 " In selecting candidates, patriotism, virtue, 
 and capacity for the discharge of the duties 
 appertaining to the high offices in question, 
 should be our only guide. Our polar star 
 should be the Union, and our watchwoi'ds
 
 236 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 should be the Constitution and the Compro- 
 mise. The terms of the compromise, though 
 not altogether satisfactory, were the best that 
 could be obtained ; and having been made, i,fc 
 must, at all hazards, be sustained as the best 
 means of preserving the Union. 
 
 " I introduced resolutions at a public demo- 
 cratic meeting, held at the Louisiana Hotel, in 
 February, 1851, in favor of the Compromise, 
 the L T nion, and the Constitution, and told that 
 meeting that whatever party should manifest 
 the most zeal in favor of those three great 
 measures would be in the ascendant. I failed 
 to convince a majority of the persons there 
 assembled of the expediency of being the first 
 in the field with such an avowal. Many whigs 
 who attended this meeting perceived Jhe im- 
 portance of the question, repaired to Donald- 
 sonville, where a whig convention soon after 
 assembled, which convention embodied, in their 
 platform, the spirit of these resolutions, which 
 had been offered by me at said democratic 
 meeting, and the race everywhere has been for 
 the supremacy in devotion to those several 
 principles ; and I have been made most happy 
 in seeing them adopted by all parties and on 
 all occasions. 
 
 " The strife has been, as I predicted it would 
 be, who should exhibit the greatest devotion to 
 the Union, the Constitution, and the Compro- 
 mise. This city was lost to the democratic 
 party by their reliance on the fact that there 
 was not any disunion party in the State, and, 
 therefore, useless to put forth such a platform; 
 they should have been leaders and not followers 
 in this patriotic course. 
 
 "All are now convinced of its wisdom, and 
 there will not be any more faltering. 
 
 u There are occasions when true patriotism 
 requires that party discipline should yield to 
 public good. Such was the case when the 
 prospect of disunion was overthrown by the 
 compromise, as also during the progress of the 
 war with Mexico ; no such necessity is likely 
 to occur again for a century. 
 
 "During the progress of that war our oppo- 
 nents had a majority in Congress. Mr. Clay 
 proclaimed that the administration should be 
 required to disclose for what they were fighting 
 before further appropriations were made for 
 continuing the war, and Mr. Calhoun wished 
 our troops withdrawn from the siege of the city 
 
 of Mexico and our forces concentrated on the 
 Rio Grande. 
 
 " The United States treasury was empty 
 and the treasury notes depreciated. Under 
 such circumstances many of the friends of 
 General Cass, myself of the number, considered 
 it far more important to carry out his prin- 
 ciples, by a vigorous prosecution of the war 
 with Mexico, than to elect him President. To 
 effect this, it was deemed best to pursue such 
 a course as would constrain the whigs to sup- 
 port a man favorable to the prosecution of the 
 war. With this view the independent men of 
 the nation nominated General Taylor, and the 
 whigs were constrained to adopt their nomina- 
 tion, although nine-tenths of them preferred 
 Mr. Clay ; thus our plan was successful. 
 
 "It is true that peace had resulted from the 
 success of our arms before the election, yet 
 those who had put forth the name of General 
 Taylor, having done it in good faith, they could 
 not recede, and no man who knew me could, 
 after my public declaration at the Commercial 
 Exchange, that 'I had shipped for the voyage,' 
 expect me to recede or relax until the setting 
 of the sun on the 7th of November. 
 
 "Under these circumstances I embarked in 
 favor of General Taylor, confiding in his pub- 
 lished declarations that he would not be the 
 President of a party ; and although I wrote for 
 the press and spoke at public meetings during 
 the whole canvass, it was not at whig meetings 
 I spoke, or for whig papers I wrote, nor did I 
 ever advar/ce a sentiment adverse to demo- 
 cratic principles; and no man in the nation 
 could have been more disappointed than I was 
 at the course pursued by General Taylor after 
 he was elected President. 
 
 "On his arrival at Washington, he found it 
 impossible to conduct the government without 
 the co-operation of one of the great political 
 parties. The democrats, as a party, had op- 
 posed his election, and the whigs, as a party, 
 had supported it; he therefore fell into the 
 hands of the latter. Had the Baltimore con- 
 vention adopted, as I fondly hoped it would 
 have done, the independent nominations, I am 
 confident that Gen. Taylor would have pur- 
 sued a course entirely satisfactory to them. 
 
 " Gen. Jackson encountered the same diffi- 
 culty. When Mr. Monroe was elected Presi- 
 dent, he wrote him a letter urging him to
 
 NOMINATION OF PIERCE AND KING. 
 
 237 
 
 disregard party considerations, and select the 
 best men in the nation for his cabinet and for 
 other high offices. Yet, when the General 
 became President, he found that would not 
 answer, and brought about him none but those 
 strictly of his own party. 
 
 "If a further motive for the perseverance in 
 the support of General Taylor after peace had 
 been concluded had been wanted, it would 
 have been found in the wish to perpetuate and 
 extend the renown of our victorious army, and 
 which could not be so effectually done as by 
 making the most successful general and the 
 greatest captain of the age President of the 
 United States. 
 
 "I never hesitated to commend the patriotic 
 course of General Cass, and to bear testimony 
 to his great worth. No expression was used 
 wanting in respect for him, or at variance 
 with those democratic principles taught me by 
 Jefferson. 
 
 " When the battle was over, the necessity for 
 the independent action no longer existed. The 
 democratic supporters of General Taylor, all 
 over the nation, returned with one accord to 
 the democratic party, wishing to fall into the 
 ranks as common soldiers, since which, none 
 have surpassed us in devotion to the party. 
 
 " We exerted ourselves to the last to procure 
 the nomination of General Cass. In this we 
 have been disappointed by a certain class of 
 men styling themselves ' Young America,' 
 who have not gained anything but a mortify- 
 ing defeat, while we have the gratifying reflec- 
 tion that the principles of Cass have triumphed, 
 which is of far more importance than the 
 the triumph of any individual. 
 
 " 'Young America' now professes a willing- 
 ness to support our nominations; to do this in 
 good faith they must fall into the ranks, and 
 conform to the usages of the party, and not 
 form separate cliques with the view of control- 
 ling the patronage of the new administration. 
 The chief of that party, Senator Douglass, 
 was one of the most eloquent orators at the 
 great Newburg meeting ; from the patriotic 
 sentiments expressed by him and the zeal he 
 manifested on the occasion, it is evident that 
 he will go heart and soul with the party for its 
 general good. The same with John Van 
 Buren, esq. 
 
 "Mr. Jefferson remarked to me that there 
 
 was much complaint about his selections to fill 
 offices. 'This,' said he, ' is inseparable from 
 the nature of our institutions; the people should 
 blame their delegates, not the President; it is 
 impossible for him to know the merits of the 
 innumerable candidates spread over such an 
 extent of country. The President's rule is, in 
 most cases, to be guided by the recommenda- 
 tion of the members of Congress from the dis- 
 trict; they come here fresh from their con- 
 stituents, and are presumed to know their 
 opinions and preferences, and if they make 
 impolitic recommendations, the people must, 
 thereafter, wrap their mantles about the heads 
 of more discerning men. Signatures are so 
 easily obtained to petitions, and town meetings 
 are so easily controlled by interested parties, that 
 I have deemed it the safest course to be guided by 
 the representative of the people in Congress.' 
 
 " These considerations should have admon- 
 ished 'Young America' to have wheeled into the 
 ranks, and obtained an influence by their zeal 
 and exertions in the commou cause, and not 
 to have attempted to take the control from the 
 successful party. The ' old fogies,' if you 
 please. 
 
 "All we wish is the success of our principles, 
 and as to the distribution of office, we have the 
 utmost confidence that the men best qualified 
 to perform the duties will be selected ; whether 
 they be of the 'Young America' class, 'Old 
 Fogies,' or Barn-burners. 
 
 " We extend the right hand of fellowship to 
 them all, adopting the principle of ' friends in 
 peace, enemies in war,' and so long as they are 
 disposed to give a free and full support to the 
 election of Pierce and King, we shall regard 
 them as friends. 
 
 " We have a great battle to fight. The pre- 
 sent incumbents will not willingly yield posses- 
 sion of the expenditure of fifty millions annu- 
 ally from the national treasury, and nearly as 
 much more from the treasury of New York and 
 Louisiana. This is too great a boon to be given 
 up without a desperate struggle. 
 
 " The democratic party are now happily 
 united in every State in the Union. The toma- 
 hawk has been buried, and we are once more 
 smoking the calumet of peace. This, with a 
 full organization, will ensure an easy victory. 
 We are working men, and when the day arrives 
 our battle-axes will be found not only bright,
 
 238 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 but sharp; and if every man does his duty, as I 
 trust he will, we shall on the first Monday of 
 November next be electrified with the cry of 
 ' Victory! victory!' throwing up our caps, pro- 
 claiming our party has triumphed. 
 
 " The money power with which we have to 
 contend is not only formidable, but frightful, 
 yet it will vanish before virtue, intelligence, 
 and the zeal of the hard-working population, 
 like an untimely snow of May and the morning 
 dews of June before the meridian sun. 
 
 " Pure and unspotted as our candidates are, 
 the envenomed shafts of detraction have already 
 been let loose against them by our opponents. 
 It was to have been expected that the delusion 
 which led to the coffin hand-bills, the slaves in 
 chains, the log cabins, and cider barrels had 
 passed away, and that reason had resumed her 
 seat. This gratifying anticipation is not likely 
 to be realized ; the private worth of the candi- 
 dates on both sides should have been a guaran- 
 tee against every unworthy insinuation. We 
 war against measures, not men; for principles, 
 not for office ; and the democratic party will 
 assuredly confine their opposition to a manly 
 criticism of the capacity of candidates for the 
 discharge of the duties of the offices for which 
 they are put forth, and a fearless criticism of 
 the measures which have been pursued by the 
 two parties. 
 
 "Our opponents say there are not any longer 
 any points of difference between the two par- 
 ties. Why, then, all this contention? We have 
 got all the offices, say they, why not leave us in 
 quiet possession of our very comfortable seats ? 
 We might content ourselves by asking how you 
 got office, what became of your complaints, loud 
 and long, reiterated from the days of Jefferson 
 against displacing faithful and capable officers 
 to make place for political favorites? Why 
 have you discarded President Fillmore, and put 
 forth General Scott ? Surely not for the gen- 
 eral's peculiar fitness for the discharge of the 
 civil duties of the office, not for his diplomatic 
 skill ? Not for logic and perspicuity in prose 
 writing. He is beyond all question a great 
 military captain; his deeds of valor at Lundy's 
 Lane and in Mexico have won for him imperish- 
 able honor, and for his country imperishable 
 renown. Yet his military exploits in nowise 
 qualify him for the duties of the closet any 
 more than they do to be a bishop. 
 
 " Our political family is sick. We must call 
 in such a physician as will be most likely tc 
 cure the patient, as we did in 1799. Our po- 
 litical family was then sick, we called in the 
 illustrious Jefferson in 1800, after the most des- 
 perate political battle ever fought in any coun- 
 try. The first fruits of this glorious victory was 
 the dismounting the twelve midnight judges 
 whom our opponents had, in the agonies of 
 death, at the last moment, endeavored to rivet 
 on the people for life. We also refused to con- 
 tinue the odious alien and sedition laws, the 
 land and the stamp tax, and reduced the period 
 of probation for exiles from foreign oppression, 
 before they could have the benefit of citizen- 
 ship, from fourteen years to five years. Here 
 were issues of the deepest interests, and why 
 are they not now, as then, issues between the 
 two parties ? The reason is obvious, because 
 we have whipped our opponents out of them, 
 consequently they are no longer made ques- 
 tions. And is such a victory any reason why 
 the vanquished should be allowed the posses- 
 sion of all political power and influence? 
 
 " We are now called upon to battle with the 
 same party, then called the federal party, some- 
 times the British party, the people's party, the 
 bank party, and now the whig party. No 
 matter by what name they are designated, it is 
 the old federal party with which we have to 
 contend. The members are indignant at the 
 neglect of Messrs. Clay, Webster, and Fillmore; 
 yet they will, before the day of battle, for the 
 most part, wheel into the ranks and play the 
 subservient part to the abolitionists. When 
 young I took an active part in this battle. It 
 is more than fifty years since I addressed a 
 political meeting at the old wigwam, kept by 
 Mr. Martling, at the junction of Chatham and 
 Nassau streets, New York, urging the friends 
 of freedom to exert themselves in the good 
 cause, incurring the displeasure of the federal 
 party, who denominated a certain class of us 
 as i Pat McCoy 's Bagged Regiment.'' 
 
 "During the war with Great Britain the na- 
 tion was in distress for money to carry on the 
 war. The federal party opposed a high tariff. 
 When she had surmounted her financial diffi- 
 culties they became clamorous for a high tariff. 
 During such a distress for money the demo- 
 cratic party proposed to renew the laud tax for 
 one year, and the federal party opposed this
 
 NOMINATION OF PIERCE AND KING. 
 
 239 
 
 financial measure and caused the bill before 
 Congress to be rejected, offering to support it 
 if made permanent, as it was under the admin- 
 istration of the elder Adams. On that occa- 
 sion the son-in-law of Mr. Jefferson, John W. 
 Eppes, from Virginia, then chairman of the 
 Committee of Ways and Means, told them that 
 the party had fought too hard a battle to get 
 rid of an unnecessary and oppressive tax ever 
 again to put themselves in the power of the 
 President or of the Senate to burden the peo- 
 ple with that tax when it was not necessary ; 
 that it had now become necessary, and that 
 they would impose it for one year, at the end 
 of which time they would re-enact the law, if 
 the necessity continued, and so on, from year 
 to year, to all eternity; but that the House of 
 Representatives would never again yield the 
 power of saying when the tax should cease. 
 The federal party was obdurate and rejected 
 the bill. Every other financial measure of the 
 administration was also opposed ; yet they suc- 
 ceeded in bringing the war to an honorable 
 termination, restoring the national credit, pay- 
 ing off all its debts, establishing and maintain- 
 ing the specie circular and a specie currency, 
 and by establishing the independent treasury 
 the finances of the nation were separated from 
 all banking institutions — a boon worth a seven 
 years' war. 
 
 "The democratic party are, and always have 
 been, the strenuous advocates of the extension 
 of the rights of suffrage and of universal edu- 
 cation, as the best means of preserving our 
 liberties. We abolished the law which made 
 the possession of real estate a necessary quali- 
 fication for a vote. This lordly doctrine was 
 carried so far in New York, previous to the 
 election of Jefferson, that a landholder could 
 vote in as many wards as he owned real estate. 
 
 '•'Believing that the Constitution does not 
 authorize the establishment of any great system 
 of internal improvements, it is not necessary to 
 discuss the policy of such a measure; and that 
 if it was otherwise, it would be impossible to 
 have harmonious action in the matter; every 
 village, town, city, and county in the nation 
 would consider their claims the best. Thanks 
 to the immortal Jackson for vetoing the Mays- 
 ville road bill, thereby preserving the Consti- 
 tution and saving the national treasury from 
 bankruptcy, as there were more projects con- 
 
 nected therewith before Congress than could 
 have been paid for in a hundred years. And 
 while Franklin Pierce is in favor of reason- 
 able appropriations for the improvement of 
 harbors and rivers, he denies the constitutional 
 power of Congress to adopt any general system 
 of internal improvements to be paid for from 
 the national treasury; hence our opponents 
 assume that he is opposed to removing the raft 
 in Red river, and to deepening the water at the 
 mouth of the Mississippi ; also to extending 
 the aid of the government to the Opelousaa 
 and Jackson railroads, by giving the right of 
 way through the public domain. In this they 
 are greatly mistaken. I call on all good citi- 
 zens to discountenance all such calumnies ; 
 my word for it, he will be in favor of all these 
 measures. 
 
 " If the old federal party should regain power 
 and feel sufficiently strong, can any man doubt 
 but that they will re-enact all those laws which 
 they have been compelled to abandon. Let 
 us take a retrospective view of their course. 
 They opposed the election of Jefferson, and 
 did all in their power to decide the question in 
 favor of Aaron Burr. When Louisiana was 
 purchased, they villified Jefferson, and accused 
 him of beiug under French influence, of having 
 sent the ship-of-war Hornet to the Helder with 
 two millions of money as a tribute to Bona- 
 parte; they represented the money paid for 
 Louisiana as so much thrown away — ihat we 
 got nothing for it but a prairie pig and salt 
 mountain. 
 
 " When Jackson, the British minister, was 
 dismissed for having insulted the President and 
 administration, they feasted and honored this 
 discarded minister with balls and all sorts of 
 attention. Let it be remembered that Pierce 
 was shot at the helm, when navigating his un- 
 armed vessel along our coast from New Jersey 
 to New York, by a cannon ball from the Brit- 
 ish ship Leander, which was cruising off the 
 coast. 
 
 " Their course has ever been the same. They 
 reviled the embargo of Jefferson, the non-im- 
 portation laws of Madison, the war with Great 
 Britain; used every possible endeavor to palsy 
 the arm of the government, to blight the credit 
 of the nation, constantly calumniating all those 
 who lent money, or in any way contributed to 
 the prosecution of the war. They would not
 
 240 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 allow their militia to cross the line in pursuit 
 of a retreating enemy who, with their Indian 
 allies, had dared to invade our territory, scalp- 
 ing our women and little ones, and applying 
 the torch to every town and hamlet they passed 
 through. 
 
 " The resolutions of Massachusetts, that it was 
 unbecoming a moral and religious people to 
 rejoice in victories won in such a war as that 
 against Great Britain, together with the objects 
 and proceedings of the Hartford convention, 
 are sufficient commentaries, without any neces- 
 sity of enlarging thereon. They were not for 
 us, and therefore against us ; and will you give 
 such men power, merely because they say there 
 is no longer any difference between the two 
 parties, when not one of these differences has 
 been yielded until after battle and defeat. They 
 upheld and defended the Bank of the United 
 States, the most profligate, corrupt, and dan- 
 gerous institution ever known. They opposed 
 the annexation of Texas. They not only op- 
 posed the war with Mexico, but did all in their 
 power to retard the prosecution of that war, 
 and when peace came they did all they could 
 to disparage the treaty. 
 
 " The restrictive measures so violently op- 
 posed by the peace party, brought Great Britain 
 to terms, compelling her to abandon her orders 
 in council, which was done before she heard of 
 the declaration of war. Had that event hap- 
 pened before the declaration of war, the Presi- 
 dent was authorized to rescind by proclamation 
 the restrictive system. Counting on his doing 
 so, and that the war would cease, the fleets of 
 Britain did not reach our coast for three 
 months; nearly all our vessels therefore got 
 safely into port. It has been the practice of 
 Britain to anticipate other nations in declaring 
 war, always striking the first blow. This was 
 an exception. The peace party in the United 
 States had induced their friends in England to 
 believe that Mr. Madison could not be ' kicked 
 into a war,' otherwise the orders in council 
 would have been repealed much sooner, as 
 Britain never intended to war with the United 
 States; we are too good customers. Mr. Madi- 
 son refused to issue his proclamation, saying it 
 was too late, the war having begun must go on, 
 until all points of difference were settled by 
 treaty. 
 
 " But for the native American principles of 
 
 Gen. Scott, democrats could support him with 
 much more grace than the whigs can support 
 him ; he was an original Jeffersonian democrat, 
 the friend of Madison, the supporter of all their 
 measures, and particularly of the war of 1812 ; 
 he also supported the war with Mexico, and 
 vindicated the peace made; all which mea- 
 sures the whig party opposed to the utmost of 
 their power, and now they allow their best men 
 to be put aside by the office-holders, their 
 minions, and a few tavern rowdies, who manage 
 to control the ward and town meetings, while 
 the great body of the party decline to mingle 
 with the crowd on such occasions. 
 
 "Our opponents don't seem duly to have 
 appreciated the advantage we have over them. 
 Had they considered our frantic joy, our inde- 
 scribable delight on the receipt of the news of 
 the capture of the Guerriere, the victories of 
 Perry, McDonough, Hull, Brown, Scott, Deca- 
 tur, and others, in the war of 1812, and the 
 news of the victories of Taylor and Scott in the 
 war with Mexico, the election of Jefferson, 
 Madison, Jackson, and our other successful 
 chiefs, and compared the same with their dis- 
 appointment and mortification at such results, 
 which so generally pervaded their ranks, they 
 would have better understood matters ; their 
 envy, and consecpuently their enmity, was con- 
 tinually excited to the highest degree, and 
 therefore they dwelt in a most unhappy atmos- 
 phere. 
 
 " All men are fond of displaying where they 
 think they perform well. General Scott seems 
 to have an inexhaustible appetite for combat ; 
 he has fought his own battles a3 well as the 
 battles of the democratic party and the battles 
 of the nation. 
 
 " In looking over the history of his life, we 
 find him at odds with Generals Wilkinson, 
 Jesup, Jackson, Macomb, Gaines, Worth, and 
 Taylor, the latter complaining bitterly of the 
 treatment received at the hands of Scott to the 
 day of his death. We find him also at variance 
 with Governors Clinton and Marcy. His dis- 
 position, if not petulant, must be hasty. To 
 have sustained himself under such a pressure 
 of opposition he must have managed his affairs 
 with consummate ability, and had great good 
 luck. However, the friends of those great men 
 will now have an opportunity of putting in a
 
 NOMINATION OP TIERCE AND KING 
 
 241 
 
 rejoinder, the effect of which remains to be 
 seen. 
 
 "General Scott made a great mistake in throw- 
 ing himself into the arms of the men against 
 whose measures he had fought all the early 
 part of his life, and particularly into the arms 
 of the abolition branch of that party; thereby 
 he has thrown away thousands of friends who 
 would have gladly supported him on his own 
 individual merits. His advocacy of the annex- 
 ation of Canada cannot advance his interests in 
 the southern States, and his Native American 
 doctrine must destroy every interest he had 
 with the adopted citizens. 
 
 " Should the great body of the whigs take 
 this occasion to let the office-holders and their 
 minions know that if they wish their support 
 they must cease their intrigues against those 
 most faithful and most capable, who have de- 
 voted their whole lives to the cause of the 
 party, should they do this, General Scott will 
 be left in a miserable minority. 
 
 " Why was the Native American Society 
 formed? The most pernicious association ever 
 formed in these United States. Why these re- 
 peated attempts to prolong the period of pro- 
 bation for naturalization, to exclude good men 
 from participating in the honors and profits of 
 office on account of their birthplace? The 
 reason is obvious, it flows from the principle 
 which they inherited from their fathers, and 
 whenever conceded it is from a knowledge of 
 the impolicy of any attempts to revive them. 
 
 " The minister plenipotentiary at London in- 
 terposed with the British government to prevent 
 those worthy patriots, Emmett and others, from 
 emigrating to the United States, and thereby 
 caused their detention in the gloomy cells of 
 British prison-houses for months, if not for 
 years. This course, although unauthorized by 
 our Constitution or laws, was approved by the 
 federal party; and when this minister was 
 brought forward for the governor's chair of 
 New York Mr. Emmett proclaimed the afore- 
 said fact. For this presumption the leading 
 men of that party cut his acquaintance, and 
 endeavored to trample him under foot, but his 
 many virtues, his great talents, extensive lite- 
 rary acquirements, and, more than all, his un- 
 surpassed eloquence, triumphed over every 
 opposition, and he left the world respected and 
 lamented by all. And is there an Irishman 
 
 16 
 
 that would support a political party known to 
 be hostile to all their aspirations ? 
 
 "The Germans, Hungarians, Swiss, Irish, and 
 all others who have emigrated from their father- 
 land, are equally interested in exerting their 
 political influence against a set of men who are 
 known to entertain opinions and feelings ad- 
 verse to human liberty. I have fought the 
 battles of the oppressed for fifty years, and bid 
 them beware how they expose this the only re- 
 treat on earth from the iron will of tyrants to 
 be closed up, for the want of timely precaution 
 in erecting barriers against the enemy. 
 
 "So highly did the adopted citizens appre- 
 ciate my advocacy of their cause that the good 
 old sixth ward (New York) gave me a freehold 
 democratic majority, the first ever given in 
 that ward. Every possible encouragement 
 should be afforded to foreigners to flee from 
 their oppressors ; here the battle of freedom is 
 to be fought ; not a gun should be fired, nor a 
 drop of blood wasted on the other side of the 
 Atlantic ; to those of foreign birth we are in- 
 debted for the great progress in constructing 
 railroads and canals; in bringing the wild 
 lands under the dominion of the plough, hoe, 
 and sickle, all which greatly promote com- 
 merce, consumption, and revenue, and will 
 enable this nation to give law to the whole 
 world one hundred years sooner than she other- 
 wise could do. This consideration is a full 
 equivalent for the privileges conferred by mak- 
 ing them citizens of this republic. 
 
 "A3 to General Scott, he was, like all other 
 free citizens, at liberty to form his own opinions. 
 Having done so, he put them forth publicly for . 
 the repeal of the naturalization laws. I lament 
 to see so brave a man offering modifications 
 making bad matters worse — he had much bet- 
 ter renounce altogether his former opinions 
 and come out manfully for the cause. 
 
 "The idea that a foreigner who has served 
 in the navy or army one or two years, without 
 any other residence, shall be entitled to citizen- 
 ship, is very well in its place; but it is idle to 
 suppose that this will operate favorably on 
 foreigners, all of whom are to be excluded, if 
 General Scott's doctrines of repealing all the 
 naturalization laws should be adopted, from 
 citizenship, with this trifling exception, when 
 nine hundred and ninety-nine of every thousand 
 of them have no expectation of rendering such
 
 242 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 service in a nation at peace with all the world, 
 and likely to be so until the present generation 
 has passed away ; you might as well send a 
 man to prison to preserve his liberty. 
 
 " We are not to look to what they promise, 
 to what they profess, and the expectations they 
 may encourage. They are, like the tree, to be 
 judged by its past fruits ; they have got the 
 offices, the patronage of the government, to re- 
 tain which they will promise anything and 
 everything, sacrificing their best men, as well 
 as all the political principles they have hereto- 
 fore professed. 
 
 "Suppose they should elect General Scott, 
 and he should be disposed to carry out, in good 
 faith, every expectation he encouraged, it would 
 avail nothing ; he could not do it. 
 
 "It is not with General Scott we have to 
 war ; it is with the old federal party. General 
 Taylor was elected with a confident expecta- 
 tion that he would not be the President of any 
 party. 
 
 "The good old man went to Washington 
 deeply imbued with these opinions and feelings, 
 but he found it impossible to carry on the gov- 
 ernment without the co-operation of one of the 
 two great political parties. The whigs, as a 
 party, supported his election, he, therefore, fell 
 into their hands ; and if there were no issues 
 open or pending, I would like to know why the 
 collector of the port of New York, one of the 
 most faithful and capable men ever in office, 
 and ten thousand others, without any other 
 fault than their political opinions, were re- 
 moved. 
 
 "In the case of the election of Harrison, as 
 well as in the case of General Taylor, Mr. Clay 
 was sacrificed by his political friends, for the 
 same reason that Mr. Fillmore has been now 
 sacrificed and Mr. Webster neglected. 
 
 " No one ever has, or ever will contend, that 
 General Harrison, General Taylor, or General 
 Scott had talents for the executive department, 
 equal to those of Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster, or 
 Mr. Fillmore. Why, then, were they selected? 
 Merely for their supposed availability, to en- 
 able the party to monopolise the crumbs of 
 office, and the power to tyrannise over their 
 fellow-men. 
 
 " The magic influence of the single word 
 'availability' seems to have controlled every 
 other consideration ; on this occasion, the whig 
 
 party will find out that they have missed a 
 figure in estimating what would be available. 
 Why did not the whigs put forth fearlessly 
 men of their own way of thinking, who had 
 served them with ability and fidelity? Why 
 oppose all our proceedings, and then select 
 from the most efficient supporters of our mea- 
 sures their standard bearers? 
 
 "They opposed the embargo and non-importa- 
 tion laws, after which they selected John Quincy 
 Adams for their standard bearer, although one 
 of the efficient supporters of those measures. 
 
 "They opposed the war of 1812, and after- 
 wards selected General Harrison for their 
 standard bearer, who was among the most 
 ardent supporters of that war. 
 
 "They opposed the war with Mexico, and 
 immediately after its successful termination 
 they selected Gen. Taylor, distinguished in 
 that war, as their standard bearer. 
 
 "They opposed the siege of Vera Cruz and 
 the city of Mexico, and found fault with all the 
 proceedings in relation to the Mexican war, as 
 well as in the war of 1812, and now select 
 Gen. Scott on account of his military prowess 
 in those wars. 
 
 "This looks like attempting to monopolize 
 our thunder, a course totally unworthy of a 
 great, high-minded political party. 
 
 "Gen. Scott helped us to whip the British, 
 consequently helped us to whip the federal 
 party. He helped us to whip the Mexicans, 
 consequently helped us to whip the whig party. 
 I dislike to take part in opposition to such a 
 man, nor would I if I was not satisfied that, if 
 elected, he cannot escape the designs of his 
 abolition and other whig supporters. 
 
 "It is not strange that such an array of facts 
 should have led the friends of Clay, Webster, 
 and Fillmore to resolve to remain at home, 
 and not longer to track after those whose only 
 object is the division of the spoils. 
 
 "Had not their selfishness excluded every 
 other consideration, they would not have embit- 
 tered the dying moments of Clay by disregard- 
 ing his opinions and wishes, by discarding Mr. 
 Fillmore, who had been faithful to their party, 
 and who was every way qualified for the office, 
 and to whom the only objection is, that he is a 
 whig of the old school. 
 
 "The indignity offered Mr. Clay would no
 
 NOMINATION OP PIERCE AND KING. 
 
 243 
 
 have appeared in such glaring colors had they 
 not selected in his place a military chieftain. 
 They did this knowing that Mr. Clay held 
 opinions in relation to military rule, expressed 
 by him in 1828, and maintained ever after, 
 namely : 
 
 "'I had thought that if any one more than 
 all other principles characterized the term "Re- 
 publican Part}'," it was their ardent devotion to 
 liberty. I had supposed that the doctrines of 
 that school had taught us to guard against the 
 danger of standing armies, to profit by the 
 lessons which all history inculcates, and never 
 to forget that liberty and the predominance of 
 the military principle were utterly incompatible. 
 In this modern, new fangled and heterogeneous 
 party, Cromwell and Caesar have recently found 
 apologists. The judgment of centuries is re- 
 versed, long established maxims are overturned. 
 The Ethiopian is washed white, and the only 
 genuine lovers of liberty were the Philips, the 
 Caesars, the Cromwells, the Mariuses and the 
 Syllas of the former ages. 
 
 " ' It is time for slumbering patriotism to 
 awake, when such doctrines as these are put 
 forth from the Capitol and from popular assem- 
 blies. It is time that the real republican 
 party — that party, under whatever flag its mem- 
 bers may have heretofore acted, that party 
 which loves freedom for freedom's sake — justly 
 to estimate the impending perils, and to pro- 
 ceed with an energy and union called forth by 
 the existing crisis in the republic' 
 
 " The soundness of Mr. Clay's views are 
 sadly exemplified in the military despotism to 
 which France is now subject. What encour- 
 agement have the young whigs to exert them- 
 selves in the cause of such a party, who slight 
 merit and who overlook the essential services 
 rendered ; with whom talent and merit are no 
 longer a passport to preferment. 
 
 " The democrats nominated Jackson for the 
 qualities of his mind particularly adapted to 
 the duties to be discharged ; Jefferson for his 
 transcendent talents, patriotism, and diplomatic 
 skill ; and the immaculate Madison for his pri- 
 vate worth and just appreciation of the people's 
 rights. 
 
 " The war against Britain was absolutely ne- 
 cessary; she trampled upon our rights; she cut 
 us off from the trade of the principal European 
 nations by her paper blockades ; she impressed 
 our citizens from our vessels, and made them 
 fight her battles; she seized our ships and plun- 
 dered their cargoes on the high seas; she com- 
 elled them on the great highway of nations, 
 
 returning from friendly ports with the proceeds 
 of our produce, to call at her ports, pay a duty 
 thereon, and take a license to come home. On 
 the arrival of the first ship at Baltimore what 
 did our people do? She was from Holland, 
 with a cargo of gin, purchased with a cargo of 
 Carolina cotton ; they took the gin to the fields 
 and made a bonfire of it. The President had 
 no alternative but to recommend war against a 
 nation practicing such outrages, and who had 
 turned a deaf ear to all our remonstrances. 
 
 "In evidence of Mr. Madison's great worth, 
 I beg leave to call the reader's attention to a 
 letter of General Washington,* for the publica- 
 tion of which we are indebted to the Hon. 
 Pierre Soule, who introduced it in his speech 
 in the United States Senate, for which, as well 
 as for the able and eloquent manner in which 
 he has represented this State, I feel very much 
 indebted to him. Although always an admirer 
 of Mr. Madison, I never before met this letter ; 
 his extreme modesty, like that of Franklin 
 Pierce, would not allow him to give it to the 
 public, although the author had been many 
 years dead when Madison was canvassing for the 
 presidency, and assailed throughout the whole 
 breadth of the nation most violently by men 
 claiming to be the disciples of Washington. 
 
 u Such are the men the democratic party 
 selected to carry out their principles, and it is 
 such men who will prove to be the most avail- 
 able ; hence the friends of good government 
 anticipate with the utmost confidence the elec- 
 tion of Franklin Pierce and William R. 
 King by triumphant majorities. 
 
 "Jacob Barker." 
 
 Mr. Madison's second presidential term being 
 about expiring, the friends of Mr. Clay confi- 
 dently expected that he would succeed to the 
 presidency. It was supposed that on his re- 
 turn from his peace mission to Ghent he would 
 be the most popular candidate. Mr. Barker 
 was among his admirers, and when the packet, 
 on which he and his associate, Mr. Gallatin, 
 had embarked, was signalized, off Sandy Hook, 
 a hard norther prevailing at the time, a revenue 
 cutter, with Mr. Barker on board, was dis- 
 patched to bring them to the city. What was 
 called the "era of good feelings" had taken 
 too deep a root, which, aided by the patronage 
 * To be found in page 33 of Uiis book.
 
 244 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 and influence of the then administration, was 
 too powerful to be resisted. Mr. Clay had 
 been too ardent a democrat to suit the times 
 and he declined to allow his name to be used 
 in opposition to the Congressional caucus, 
 which had decided, by a small majority, in 
 favor of Mr. Monroe. 
 
 Mr. Clay and Mr. Gallatin were both sterling 
 democrats of the Jefferson school, although 
 they subsequently became estranged from the 
 party, the cause of which is too well known to 
 require comment. 
 
 When the nation was agitated with the Cuba 
 question and the question of neutral rights, 
 growing out of the coalition between France 
 and England, pretending an extension of neu- 
 tral rights and hostility to privateering, Mr. 
 Barker made the following publication in a 
 New Orleans paper : 
 
 " PRIVATEERING. 
 
 "When a boy, my uncle told me not to go 
 fishing where I could not get a glorious nibble, 
 much less a bite. Queen Victoria seems to 
 have profited by the same admonition; hence 
 the significant words in her declaration of war 
 against Russia : 
 
 " 'It is not the present intention of her ma- 
 jesty to issue letters of marque for the com- 
 missioning of privateers.' 
 
 "A useless expense it would be to send out 
 privateers against Russia, when she has no 
 foreign commerce, and when the allied powers 
 proclaim the blockade of the Baltic and Black 
 sea; consequently, when the ice disappears, 
 the blockade will not allow bait enough to es- 
 cape to attract a glorious nibble, much less an 
 electrifying bite. Hence this contrivance to 
 induce all sailors to enter on board national 
 ships. Well may the English and French say 
 for the present privateering will not be allowed, 
 in the hope of cajoling the United States into 
 such an arrangement. 
 
 "The only arrangement the United States 
 will make is that private property shall be 
 respected, at sea and on shore, during war the 
 same as during peace. Anything short of this 
 would go to allowing the large fleets of the 
 enemy to annihilate our commerce, without a 
 corresponding effect from our privateers on 
 their commerce. What we insist on is the 
 right of firing our pistols so long as they fire 
 their big guns. 
 
 "In case we should be drawn into war, self- 
 preservation will force on us the necessity of 
 exerting all the power which God and the arts 
 have conferred on us to do mischief to the 
 enemy. 
 
 "We do not understand why France and 
 England should, at this particular juncture, 
 attempt to embroil the United States in this 
 
 matter. She is at peace with all the world; 
 knows her duties to the different belligerents ; 
 and, while she scrupulously performs those 
 duties, she will not degrade herself by an agree- 
 ment not to sin. 
 
 "Those good souls are now prating about 
 the immorality of privateering'; they should re- 
 member that their national ships of war stole 
 flour from the quakers at Alexandria, after 
 having applied fire and fagot to the legislative 
 hall and literary institutions, and to the Pre- 
 sident's house at Washington — the unfortified 
 city. 
 
 "In the battle of trying which can do the 
 other the most harm, our main reliance will be 
 on the enterprize, intrepidity, and powers of 
 our brave tars, in which traits of character 
 they excel those of all other nations. Well 
 may the British and their allies wish us to 
 abandon the use of that, the most powerful en- 
 gine we have, to make the war tell. 
 
 "But the friends of good morals preach as 
 much as they please against war in all its 
 forms ; without any of this hypocritical whining 
 about any particular branch or form of war, 
 we admit that it is all wrong, and should be 
 avoided whenever it can be done consistently 
 with national honor. 
 
 "Our alleged appetite for Cuba seems to at- 
 tract much attention in Britain. Although 
 fond of sweet things, we do not want Cuba ; 
 we have already more sugar land than we can 
 make profitable. What we do want is to see 
 the oppressed Creoles of that beautiful island 
 rise in their might and break the chains im- 
 posed on them by their despotic rulers. All 
 that is required to enable them to effect so holy 
 a purpose is the repeal, on our part, of what 
 are called the neutral laws — not an increase of 
 our navy. Relieve the people of all apprehen- 
 sion of government interference, and remove 
 all penalties, and they will at once do the need- 
 ful towards aiding the Cubans to establish and 
 maintain their independence. 
 
 "NESTOR." 
 
 ADOPTED CITIZENS. 
 
 Great efforts had always been made by the 
 party in opposition to the democratic adminis- 
 tration of the general government to induce 
 adopted citizens to vote their ticket ; one of 
 the means resorted to by a few thoughtless 
 electioneers was, to induce a judge at Lafayette, 
 of their own party, to issue naturalization 
 papers to persons not duly qualified ; the op- 
 posing party discovering this, some of their elec- 
 tioneers, equally thoughtless, used this judge 
 in the same way in favor of their party. This 
 thing becoming public produced a great ex- 
 citement, and became the subject of legislative 
 investigation. At this time Mr. Barker had
 
 ADOPTED CITIZENS. 
 
 245 
 
 been appointed one of the inspectors of the 
 pending election. The selection of inspectors 
 was vested in the opposition party, consequently 
 two-thirds were of their political faith. They 
 held a caucus and resolved to reject, without 
 investigation, the votes of all who had been 
 naturalized by the said judge ; he had been 
 many years in office, and issued a large num- 
 ber of legitimate certificates of naturalization. 
 Mr. Barker considering such indiscriminate 
 rejection would be a violation of his oath, an 
 invasion of the vested rights of many citizens, 
 notified the court from whom he received his 
 appointment that he could not be a party to 
 the carrying out of this manifest injustice, and 
 asked the appointment of another in his place ; 
 the request was not granted. The election 
 came on in the rotunda of the St. Charles 
 Hotel. It was filled to overflowing. On the 
 presentation of naturalization papers from the 
 judge in question, it was proposed to reject 
 them without investigation. This was re- 
 sisted by Mr. Barker, who insisted that the 
 case should remain under consideration the 
 whole day and no other vote received until it 
 was decided, providing the other inspectors 
 adhered to the objectionable caucus resolution; 
 this produced very great excitement among 
 those attending the polls. Violent speeches 
 were made threatening personal violence. Mr. 
 Barker remained calm and firm in his purpose. 
 The matter was compromised by the adoption 
 of a separate box in which to deposit ballots 
 of all persons who had been naturalized by the 
 said judge, that they might be subsequently 
 investigated by competent authority, after which 
 the election was conducted with great har- 
 mony. The majority being greater than could 
 be controlled by these votes, no investigation 
 took place. 
 
 Mr. Barker never has taken part in secta- 
 rianism of any kind; he has been admonished 
 by the history of the persecution of the quakers 
 and other sects to be aware of how he en- 
 couraged the feeling that seems to be growing 
 up against the Roman Catholics ; there are 
 good and bad in all societies ; they should be 
 allowed to work out their own salvation in 
 their own way and not pin their faith to the 
 sleeve of another. In the affairs of every in- 
 dividual religion is his republic, which he 
 should be allowed to govern in his own way ; 
 
 it is a secret converse between him and his 
 creator, and the most acceptable worship we 
 can perform is in our closets, in secret devotion, 
 removed from human observation. All we 
 have to do is to keep our hearts clean and con- 
 tinually in a state of prayer; observe this 
 every one according to the forms of his own 
 religion without inquisitorial interference. 
 
 Those who inconsiderately embark in the 
 present crusade against foreigners and Catho- 
 lics ought to remember that it may be their 
 turn next to fall under the influence of fanati- 
 cism or party spirit. Nothing is more uncer- 
 tain or unstable than political or public favor; 
 and Mr. Barker would suggest to those who 
 are crying out loudly against foreigners to con- 
 sider how far we, as a nation, are indebted to 
 them for our prosperity and present condition. 
 Those from every clime have been eminently 
 useful; the Irish were particularly so in rhe 
 revolutionary war. An account of the services 
 of some of those from the Emerald Isle will be 
 found in the history of the Irish settlers of 
 North America, from which the following is 
 taken : 
 
 [From the History of the Irish Settlers in North America.] 
 
 " The first blow struck for American inde- 
 pendence was by an Irishman. News having 
 reached Portsmouth, New Hampshire, that the 
 export of gunpowder into America was 'pro- 
 claimed,' Major John Sullivan and John Lang- 
 don, Irishmen, with a company of the towns- 
 men, surprised the fort of Newcastle, took the 
 captain and five men, carried off one hundred 
 barrels of gunpowder, fifteen light cannon, and 
 the entire of the small arms, all of which after- 
 wards did effectual service at Bunker Hill. 
 For this act Sullivan and Langdon were elected 
 to the Continental Congress, which met in May 
 1775, and Sullivan was the same year ap- 
 pointed by that body one of the eight brigadiers 
 general of the American army. 
 
 "The following Irishmen commanded at the 
 battle of Bunker Hill : Stark and Reed, both 
 of Londonderry, Ireland, commanded the New 
 Hampshire militia, led on by Brigadier Gen- 
 eral Sullivan, Major Andrew McClary, whose 
 great size and desperate valor made him pecu- 
 liarly conspicuous, fell while crossing 'the 
 Neck ;' eighteen others of Stark and Reed's 
 command were killed, and 89 were wounded 
 in the same eventful field. The contribution 
 of the Irish settlement in New Hampshire, to 
 the revolutionary forces, may be judged from 
 the share of the small town of Bedford. 
 
 "Colonel Daniel Moore, Major John Coffe. 
 Captain Thomas McLaughlin, Lieutenant J, 
 Patten and five sons, and 63 others, in all 72,
 
 246 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 many of whom lost their lives in the glorious 
 cause of their country. — History Colony of N. 
 Hampshire, vol. 1, page 291. Brigadier Gen- 
 eral Richard Montgomery, also commander at 
 Bunker Hill and during the course of the war. 
 A full third of the active chiefs of the army 
 were of Irish birth or descent. Of the rank 
 and file, New Hampshire's contingent were in 
 great part of Irish origin, and in other colonies 
 recruiting prospered in the Irish townships. 
 The command of the ordnance department 
 was conferred, by Washington, on Henry Knox. 
 The Irish in New York early enlisted in the 
 cause of the revolution, and James Clinton, 
 Irish, in 1775, was elected colonel of the third 
 regiment raised in that colony. His brother- 
 in-law, Colonel James McCleary, commanded 
 in the same militia, and is called 'one of the 
 bravest officers America can boast.' The elder 
 brother, George Clinton, after the death of 
 Montgomery, was appointed brigadier general 
 for New York, and in 1776, with his two kins- 
 men, gallantly defended the unfinished forts on 
 the Hudson, and held the Highlands against 
 the repeated assaults of the British general, 
 Sir H. Clinton. By this check he prevented 
 the junction of that commander with General 
 Burgoyne, which, with General Stark's (Irish) 
 victory at Bennington, cut him off from either 
 base, and compelled his surrender at Saratoga — 
 a victory which completed the French alliance 
 and saved the revolutionary cause. 
 
 "In Pennsylvania, where the Irish were more 
 densely settled, their martial ardor was equally 
 conspicuous. They inhabited chiefly in Ulster 
 and Chester counties, and in Philadelphia. In 
 the summer of 1775 Congress ordered the rais- 
 ing of several regiments in Pennsylvania, and, 
 among the rest, gave commissions to Colonel 
 Anthony Wayne, William Irvine, William 
 Thompson, Walter Stewart, Stephen Moylan, 
 and Richard Butler, all Irishmen. The regi- 
 ments of Wayne, Irvine, Butler, and Stewart, 
 formed part of the famous ' Pennsylvania line.' 
 Thompson's was a rifle regiment. Moylan, a 
 native of Cork, after being aid-de-camp to 
 Washington, and commissary general, was 
 finally transferred to the command of the dra- 
 goons ; and in almost every severe action of 
 the war, where cavalry could operate, we meet 
 with the fearless 'Moylan's dragoons.' Doctor 
 Edmund Hand, who came to Canada with the 
 Irish brigade as surgeon, was appointed lieu- 
 tenant colonel in Thompson's regiment, and 
 on the 1st of March, 1776, raised to the full 
 rank of colonel, and on the 1st of April, 1777, 
 was promoted to be a brigadier general. 
 Colonel Butler, a sound shoot of the Ormond 
 tree, and his five sons, displayed equal zeal, 
 and merited from Lafayette the compliment 
 that whenever he 'wanted anything well done 
 he got a Butler to do it." So actively did 
 these gentlemen exert themselves that on the 
 14th of August, 1776, a great part of the Penn- 
 sylvania line arrived in the camp at Cambridge, 
 
 which enabled General Washington, by the 
 beginning of September, to put his plans for 
 the siege of Boston into execution. 
 
 "The first commodore in the American navy 
 was John Barry, a native of county Wexford, 
 Ireland. He has been called by naval writers 
 'the father of the American navy.' The per- 
 sonal character of Commodore Barry was 
 made of noble stuff. When Lord Howe 
 tempted him by a vast bribe and an offer of a 
 British ship of the line, he replied: 'He had 
 devoted himself to the cause of his coun- 
 try, and not the value or command of the 
 whole British fleet could seduce him from it.' 
 He never was ashamed of his native land, and, 
 after the peace of Paris, paid a visit to the 
 place of his birth, which fact is still remem- 
 bered with gratitude in his native parish. 
 When hailed by the British frigates in the 
 West Indies, and asked the usual questions as 
 to the ship and captain, he answered: 'The 
 United States ship Alliance, saucy Jack Barry, 
 half Irishman, half Yankee — who are you ?' 
 
 "In 1778, Captain James McGee, (Irish,) 
 while commanding 'in the service of the com- 
 monwealth,' was shipwrecked in Massachu- 
 setts bay, and seventy-two of his men lost. 
 Two of the earliest prizes carried into the 
 United States were captured by five brothers 
 of Machias, named O'Brien, natives of Cork, 
 two of whom, Jeremiah and John, afterwards 
 held naval commissions. 
 
 "On board the other ships of the new navy 
 were several Irish officers of minor grades, 
 some of whom afterwards rose to independent 
 commands. Every one knows that Porter was 
 of Irish descent, and McDonough of Irish 
 birth. Under Commodore Barry, the most bril- 
 liant ornaments of the American navy were 
 trained — such as Murray, Dale, Decatur, and 
 Stewart — all of whom became conquerors and 
 commanders. In the war of 1812, all Barry's 
 pupils rose to eminent distinction. Colonel 
 Fitzgerald, another Irish officer, was aid-de- 
 camp to General Washington. Of the ninety- 
 three Philadelphia merchants who, in June, 
 1780, pledged their property to raise funds to 
 supply the troops who were in a state of mu- 
 tiny — and only for the extraordinary efforts of 
 patriotism on the part of these merchants the 
 army would have utterly fallen to pieces — 
 twenty of those merchants were of Irish origin, 
 and subscribed nearly half a million of dol- 
 lars. Charles Thompson, an Irishman, in 1774* 
 was chosen secretary to the first Congress, and 
 continued in that onerous office until 1789, 
 when the formal adoption of the Constitution 
 closed his functions. He wrote the Declaration 
 of Independence from Jefferson's draft, and 
 was the medium through which Franklin re- 
 ceived his instructions, aud Washington was 
 informed of his election for the first President 
 of the Union. He died on the 16th of August, 
 1824, within ten miles of Philadelphia. Mr. 
 John Dunlap, a native of Strabane, Ireland,.
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES. 
 
 247 
 
 who, in 1771, issued the 'Pennsylvania 
 Packet,' (the first daily paper published in 
 America,) was printer to the convention in 
 1774, and to the first Congress, and was the 
 first who printed the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence. That august document, copied by 
 Charles Thompson, was also first read to the 
 people, from the centre window of the hall in 
 which Congress first met by Colonel John 
 Nixon, an Irishman. In 1S15, Alderman John 
 Binns, of Philadelphia, another Irishman, pub- 
 lished the document for the first time, with a 
 fac simile of the signers' signatures. 
 
 "The Declaration of Independence wassigned 
 by fifty-six names, of whom nine were of Irish 
 origin. Mathew Thornton, born in Ireland, 
 1714, signed for New Hampshire; James 
 Smith, born in Ireland, 1713, signed for Penn- 
 sylvania ; George Taylor, for same State, born 
 in Ireland, 1716 ; George Reade, signed for 
 Delaware, he was born of Irish parents. It 
 was he who answered the British tempter — ' I 
 am a poor man, but, poor a3 I am, the King of 
 England is not able to buy me.' Charles Car- 
 roll, of Carrolton, was of Irish descent, and 
 very wealthy : Thomas Lynch, for South Caro- 
 lina, of Irish descent, as was also Thomas 
 McKean, who signed for Pennsylvania, and 
 Edward Rutledge, for South Carolina." 
 
 General Lafayette, of France, De Kalb, of 
 Germany, Kosciusko, of Poland, Pulaski and 
 others, also fought valiantly in the war of our 
 independence. The reader should think of 
 this, and allow justice to triumph over all other 
 considerations. 
 
 Adopted citizens are generally fired with 
 democracy, and vote the republican ticket. 
 This is their great offence. Should they em- 
 brace the opposite party, and support their 
 candidates with half the zeal they do the other, 
 we should not hear a word of this opposition, 
 except where it might be fostered by the anti- 
 republican spirit of sectarian bigotry. As to 
 their participating in office with natives after 
 they become citizens, there does not seem any 
 good reason for denying to men who have to 
 fight for the country, to pay taxes, to serve as 
 jurors and as firemen equally with the na- 
 tives, a participation in this boon. It is un- 
 fortunate that a love of office too generally 
 pervades the human breast, although it dam- 
 ages all those who take office. 
 
 Foreigners flying from European oppression 
 are, by our Constitution, wisely framed by the 
 founders of our liberty, invited to this happy 
 land. Their children intermarry with ours, 
 their bones are to bleach the same fields with 
 ours. They have dug our canals, constructed 
 
 our railroads ; they fill the ranks of our army, 
 and have greatly aided, by their labor, in en- 
 riching our country. Are these boons to be 
 considered as nothing worth? Would it be 
 fair or just to deny to them the fulfillment of 
 the conditions on which they left their homes 
 and became willing to inhabit a foreign land 
 among strangers, and to encounter the hazards 
 of our climate? Would it be wise to have 
 hundreds of thousands of hardy, industrious, 
 enterprising men scattered over the whole na- 
 tion in a state of proscription, who could be 
 brought into action by one common principle, 
 without any arrangement or co-operation, and 
 who, to free themselves from these invidious 
 marks of distinction, would be ready on the 
 sounding of a single word, to give effect to a 
 principle adverse to the common good? Far 
 better will it be to consider all of the same 
 family and all laboring for the same object. 
 POLITICAL PARTIES. 
 
 The New York Herald suggests that a 
 brief sketch of the various political parties of 
 the United States may not be uninteresting, 
 particularly to those whose recollections do not 
 extend beyond the formation of the present 
 national parties, which have divided the people 
 of the United States for the last twenty years. 
 
 "During the American revolution the only 
 political parties known were those of whigs 
 and tories — the former, comprising the great 
 mass of the people, being favorable to the 
 revolution ; and the latter, few in number, call- 
 ing themselves loyalists, were opposed to throw- 
 ing off the yoke of the British government. 
 After the war the tories mingled with the par- 
 ties that were afterwards formed, some of them 
 joining the federalists, and others becoming 
 part of the republican or democratic party. 
 The federal party arose on the formation of 
 the Constitution of the United States by a con- 
 vention of delegates at Philadelphia, in 1787. 
 The adoption of the Constitution by the several 
 States, in conventions of delegates called for 
 that purpose, was carried, after severe contests, 
 in some of the States, and nearly unanimously 
 in others. The friends of the Constitution as- 
 sumed the name of federalists, while its oppo- 
 nents were called anti-federalists ; and that 
 was the state of parties when the Constitution 
 went into operation, in 1789. The national 
 government, although one of deliberate con- 
 sent, encountered from its formation a power- 
 ful opposition. Washington, John Adams, and 
 Hamilton were at the head of the friends of 
 the Constitution when the first administration 
 was formed. In the first Congress there was 
 a considerable number of members who had
 
 248 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 opposed the adoption of the Constitution by 
 their respective States. In addition to these 
 there were some members who had supported 
 the Constitution in the national and State con- 
 ventions, but now, from various causes — prin- 
 cipal]}', however, from a desire to sustain them- 
 selves in their own States or districts, where 
 the Constitution was deemed unpopular — 
 joined the opposition to the administration of 
 Washington. Among these may be mentioned 
 Mr. Madison, of Virginia; Mr. Langdon, of 
 New Hampshire ; Doctor Williamson, of North 
 Carolina; Mr. Baldwin, of Georgia, and others. 
 Thus was formed what was afterwards called 
 the republican party, the name of anti-federal- 
 ists being disavowed by those who declared 
 themselves friendly to the Constitution. It 
 should be noticed that this republican party 
 was formed before Mr. Jefferson returned from 
 France. The first session of the first Congress, 
 which was held at New York, occupied nearly 
 six months — from the early part of April to 
 the 29th of September, 1789. Mr. Jefferson 
 returned from a mission to France in Novem- 
 ber, 1789, and assumed the duties of Secretary 
 of State in March, 1790, while the first Con- 
 gress was holding its second session at New 
 York, parties having been already formed at 
 the previous session, and the opposition called 
 republican, acting under the leadership of Mr. 
 Madison. With this opposition party Mr. Jef- 
 ferson immediately sympathized, from his dis 
 like to the strong measures, tending to consoli- 
 dation, recommended by Washington, Hamil- 
 ton, and other leaders of the federal party. Mr. 
 Jefferson did not hesitate to call the federal 
 leaders monarchists, and hence acknowledged 
 the propriety of denominating his own political 
 friends — the opponents of Washington's ad- 
 ministration — republicans. 
 
 " In the first Congress parties were nearly 
 equally divided. The opposition elected John 
 Langdon, of New Hampshire, President pro 
 tempore of the Senate, and Frederick A. Muh- 
 lenberg, of Pennsylvania, Speaker of the House 
 of Representatives ; but they were chosen in 
 the first part of the first session, when party 
 lines were not strictly drawn. The Washing- 
 ton administration were enabled to carry all 
 the important measures which they brought 
 forward through both Houses of Congress. 
 
 " The federalists continued to call the oppo- 
 nents anti-federalists, by which they meant 
 enemies to the Constitution, until the year 
 1793, when citizen Genet arrived in this country, 
 as the ambassador from the French republic. 
 The opposition to the administration of Wash- 
 ington warmly sympathized with the French 
 republicans, and received Genet with open 
 arms, although he sought to involve the United 
 States in a war with Great Britain, and issued 
 commissions to vessels of war to sail from 
 American ports and cruise against the enemies 
 of France. It appears to have been expected 
 in France that the United States would engage 
 
 on its side from treaty stipulations or inclina- 
 tion, against England. Washington and his 
 cabinet were of opinion that this country was 
 not bound to take part in a war begun by 
 France; and in April, 1793, the celebrated 
 proclamation of neutrality by President Wash- 
 ington was issued, which has been the guide 
 of the nation ever since in affairs with foreign 
 nations. 
 
 " M. Genet was said to have introduced into 
 this country the idea of 'democratic societies,' 
 which were first formed in the United States 
 about this time, in imitation of the Jacobin 
 clubs in Paris. After the fall of Robespierre, 
 these clubs or secret societies fell into disre- 
 pute both in France and America. From this 
 time the federalists stigmatized their political 
 opponents as 'Democrats,' but they always 
 refused to acknowledge the name, and called 
 themselves ' Republicans,' and their opponents 
 'Tories,' 'Monarchists,' or 'Aristocrats,' ac- 
 cording to circumstances. Some of the vio- 
 lent federalists called their opponents 'Jaco- 
 bins,' but the name never grew into general 
 use. It is to be observed that Mr. Jefferson, in 
 his writings, never used the name of ' demo- 
 crat' as applied to his political friends, but 
 uniformly calls them 'Republicans.' The 
 federalists, however, always called them, in 
 derision or otherwise, 'Democrats,' and these 
 terms of 'Federalists,' 'Republicans,' and 
 ' Democrats ' continued in use until after the 
 close of the war with Great Britain in 1815, 
 and the election of Mr. Monroe to the presi- 
 dency in 1816, when a revolution of the old 
 parties generally took place, and what was 
 called 'the era of good feelings' took place, 
 and continued until the presidential election in 
 1824. We must here allude to the formation 
 of various personal parties connected with the 
 politics in several of the States after the elec- 
 tion of Jefferson to the presidency in 1801. 
 Parties arose in various States where the re- 
 publican or democratic party were in the ma- 
 jority, but did not assume much importance 
 anywhere except in the State of New York. 
 In this State, Colonel Aaron Burr was the ac- 
 knowledged leader of the republican party. In 
 consequence of an equal vote between him and 
 Jefferson, it became the duty of the House of 
 Representatives in Congress, as the Constitu- 
 tion then stood, to decide which of the two re- 
 publican candidates should be President. The 
 federalists supported Burr, and the republicans 
 voted for Jefferson ; and, after a protracted con- 
 test, Jefferson was chosen President, and Burr, 
 of course, was declared Vice President. This 
 affair caused a division in the republican party 
 of New York. George Clinton, De Witt Clin- 
 ton, Judge Spencer, Morgan Lewis, the Liv- 
 ingstons, and other leading republicans enter- 
 ing the lists against the Vice President (Burr) 
 and his friends. Parties were then called 
 ' Clintonians' and 'Burrites;' and Burr, at- 
 tempting to run for governor against Morgan,
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES. 
 
 249 
 
 Lewis iu 1804. was compelled to rely mainly on 
 the federalists* for support. The consequence 
 was the political prostration of Burr and the 
 little band of republicans who supported him. 
 Subsequently, the republicans fell out with Gov- 
 ernor Lewis, but a few of his political friends 
 adhered to him, and the federalists endeavored 
 to sustain him ; but he was easily prostrated 
 by the superior popularity of Daniel D. Tomp- 
 kins, who was then a 'young man, and judge of 
 the Supreme Court. He was brought forward 
 by the Clinton portion of the republican party, 
 headed by De Witt Clinton and Judge Ambrose 
 Spencer , and, it is a curious fact, that these 
 same leaders were engaged years afterwards in 
 a crusade against Tompkins — De Witt Clinton 
 being the successful candidate against him for 
 governor in 1820. In the contest of the re- 
 publican party with Governor Lewis in 1807, 
 the few republicans who adhered to the gov- 
 ernor were called 'Lewisites.' The personal 
 friends of Colonel Burr, who were always active 
 in politics, retained the name of 'Burrites.' 
 
 "In 1812, De Witt Clinton was the favorite 
 candidate of the republican party of New York 
 for President, and he was nominated for that 
 high office by a large majority of the republi- 
 can members of the legislature. Mr. Madison, 
 however, received the nomination of the caucus 
 of the republican members of Congress at 
 Washington, and war having been declared 
 with Great Britain, Mr. Madison was consider- 
 ed the war candidate, and Mr. Clinton, who re- 
 ceived the support of the federalists in this and 
 other States, was called the peace party candi- 
 date. The friends of Clinton in this State were 
 called ' Clintonians,' and his opponents 'Madi- 
 sonians.' The success of Mr. Madison in his 
 re-election to the presidency, and the triumph 
 of the republican party generally, threw Mr. 
 Clinton and his republican friends into a mino- 
 rity in this State. In 1817, however, in con- 
 sequence of the election of Governor Tomp- 
 kins to the vice presidency, Mr. Clinton was 
 brought forward as the friend of the construc- 
 tion of the Erie and Champlain canals, and 
 was consequently nominated and elected gov- 
 ernor. Immediately after his election, an op- 
 position was organized in the democratic ranks 
 against him — this opposition being led by 
 Martin Van Buren. A majority of the demo- 
 cracy of the city of New York joined in this 
 opposition, and the party opposed to Clinton 
 soon became known as 'bucktails,' the symbol 
 of the Tammany society, which was the great 
 focus of the democracy in this part of the 
 State. The name 'bucktail' became one of 
 general application to the opponents of Clinton 
 throughout the State, while his friends, whether 
 republicans or federalists, were called ' Clin- 
 tonians.' The great mass of the old demo- 
 cratic party were opposed to Clinton, while the 
 largest proportion of his supporters had been 
 of the federal party. 
 
 " There were several local names applied to 
 
 the bucktail or democratic party in thi 8 , 
 city, such as ' Martling men/ from the name o 
 the keeper of the democratic headquarters, &c. 
 The term 'Coodies' was applied to the few 
 federalists who joined the democrats during 
 the war with Great Britain in 1812. Hugh 
 Maxwell is a living representative of the 
 'Coodies,' a small party, which were remarka- 
 bly fortunate in obtaining office at various 
 times from the people, or by appointment. 
 
 "As time rolled on there was nothing remark- 
 able to notice in the history of parties and party 
 names, until the year 1823, when the presidential 
 election approaching, Judge Ogden Edwards, of 
 this city, in order to defeat Martin Van Buren, 
 in a bargain he was supposed to have made to 
 give the electoral votes of this State to the late 
 William H. Crawford for President, started the 
 idea of transferring the choice of electors from 
 the legislature, who had previously chosen 
 them, to the people. Hence arose ' the people's 
 party,' so called, the leaders of which in the 
 legislature of 1824 were Gen. James Tallmadge 
 and Henry Wheaton. This party succeeded in 
 giving most of the electoral votes of the State 
 in 1824 to Adams, and in electing De Witt 
 Clinton and James Tallmadge to the offices 
 of governor and lieutenant governor. The 
 election of Clinton ruined the people's party 
 eventually, as a large portion of the party had 
 been 'bucktails,' and opposed to Clinton in 
 former years. To cap the climax, Clinton came 
 out for Gen. Jackson for President, and of 
 course threw the people's party into confusion. 
 After re-electing him governor iu 1826, with a 
 legislature opposed to him, the people's party 
 was broken up, some going for the re-election 
 of Adams as President, and others for the 
 election of Gen. Jackson. The Adams men 
 were subsequently called ' national republi- 
 cans;' but when joined by seceders from the 
 Jackson ranks, in 1833 and 1834, they adopted 
 the name of whigs. The ' anti-masonic' party 
 arose in the western part of New York in 1827. 
 It was founded on opposition to free masonry, 
 and extended into most of the middle and east- 
 ern States. After an existence of ten or twelve 
 years it gradually became merged in the whig 
 party. In 1829 there was organized in the 
 city of New York, and afterwards in Phila- 
 delphia, a party called the ' workingmen's 
 party,' which at one time threatened to do 
 great mischief to the Jackson democratic party; 
 but the workingmen soon became divided, some 
 of them going with Frances Wright and Robert 
 Dale Owen for the adoption of the doctrines of 
 the English infidels and radicals, and others 
 co-operating with the national republicans or 
 whigs. The workingmen's party became the 
 basis of the 'loco focos' or 'equal rights party,' 
 which was organized by the radical democracy 
 at Tammany Hall, in October, 1835, at a 
 meeting where loco foco matches were used to 
 supply the place of the lights in the hall, which 
 had been extinguished.
 
 250 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 "When General Jackson was elected Presi- 
 dent, his supporters claimed the name of 
 'democrats,' which had been a term rejected 
 by the republicans in Jefferson's and Madison's 
 time. In the southern States some of the 
 democracy became dissatisfied with Jackson's 
 administration and took the name of 'State 
 rights men,' some of whom joined the whigs, 
 and others returned to the democratic party 
 during Van Bureu's administration. While 
 Van Buren was President, the democrats who 
 disapproved of the Sub-Treasury scheme were 
 called 'conservatives,' many of whom joined 
 the whig party and assisted in the election of 
 Harrison and Tyler. 
 
 "About the year 1844, the democratic party 
 in the State of New York became divided into 
 two factions, which were severally called 
 'hunkers' and 'barnburners.' The hunkers 
 were similar to the conservatives of 1838, and 
 were favorable to banks and internal improve- 
 ments. The barnburners were also called 
 destructives and radicals, and generally opposed 
 banks and other charters, and the increase of 
 the debt of the State for internal improvements. 
 These names have since got out of use, the 
 terms free soilers and soil shells being applied 
 to the barnburners and hunkers who have joined 
 them, and the hunkers opposed to abolition and 
 free soil movements being called hard shells. 
 " We have not space to follow up the history 
 of parties in the various States. They have 
 generally been unimportant in their effects on 
 the politics of the nation. In Pennsylvania the 
 democrats, for some years after the year 1815, 
 were divided into old school and new school 
 democrats — the former being similar to the 
 Clintonians of New York, and the latter nearly 
 like the bucktails of this State. These distinc- 
 tions existed for some years, until parties be- 
 came formed for and against Jackson, Van 
 Buren, and other candidates for the Presi- 
 dency. 
 
 "In Missouri, the parties which divided the 
 people, some ten or twelve years since, were 
 called hards and softs, the hards being in favor 
 of a specie currency, and the latter in favor of 
 banks. A similar division has often existed in 
 Ohio. 
 
 "We have in a former article given an ac- 
 count of the rise, progress and decline of the 
 various parties called Native American or 
 American Republicans. The secret order of 
 Know Nothings is more extensively organized 
 and prescriptive than their predecessors, in 
 their action against citizens of foreign birth 
 and Catholics. 
 
 "There has recently been a new formation 
 of parties in California, the democracy being 
 divided between the supporters of David Brode- 
 rick for United States senator, and those who 
 oppose him; the latter are called the chivalry. 
 At a recent State convention it appears that 
 the chivalry section was much smaller than the 
 Broderick wing, and therefore bolted, much 
 
 after the fashion of the New York hards at 
 Syracuse last year. They passed resolutions 
 endorsing Pierce and the Nebraska bill; while 
 the Broderick men do neither. The temperance 
 and Maine law organizations in various States 
 are too well known to require explanation." 
 
 Mr. Barker's early course before the differ- 
 ent courts of New York exhibited self posses- 
 sion, and a better knowledge of the intend- 
 ments of the law than is generally found 
 among laymen. 
 
 On one occasion he had an angry contro- 
 versy with an insurance company, in which 
 Messrs. Emmet and Coldin were concerned for 
 the company. It came before Chancellor 
 Lancing, who held his court in the old city 
 hall, situated in Wall street. Mr. Barker, 
 impatient at the delay which had been expe- 
 rienced, took the case into his own hands, 
 closed his argument at 4 o'clock, p. m., on 
 Friday, and at 10 o'clock on Saturday morning 
 the chancellor rendered his decision, decreeing 
 $27,000 to Mr. Barker, which had been depo- 
 sited in the court of chancery at Albany, by 
 the insurance company, to enable it to pro- 
 cure an injunction restraining further proceed- 
 ings at law. Mr. Barker dispatched an agent 
 to Albany with the decree, and had the silver 
 in his own house on the following Wednesday. 
 It is believed that this was the only case de- 
 cided by the chancellor at the same term he 
 heard the argument, during the whole period 
 of his chancellorship. 
 
 On another occasion, during Mr. Barker's 
 absence, a default was entered for about 
 $10,000 in a suit against him for damages, 
 alleged to have been sustained by his ship 
 "Lady Madison" landing her cargo at Lon- 
 don, she having been prevented from proceed- 
 ing to a continental port by the Berlin and 
 Milan decrees. On his return he requested 
 his counsel to apply for a new trial; the time 
 allowed for such application having expired, 
 the counsel declined to make the application, 
 saying it would be out of order and useless. 
 Mr. Barker enquired if the Supreme Court had 
 power to grant a new trial ; the answer being 
 in the affirmative, then, said he, if you will not 
 apply, I will. He did so, obtained a new 
 trial, and conducted the defence himself, 
 which resulted in a judgment against him for 
 $2,500. Not satisfied with this, he applied 
 for and obtained another trial, when a judg-
 
 YORK VERSUS CHILTON. 
 
 251 
 
 merit for only about $1,000 was rendered 
 against him; this he paid, in preference to 
 further litigation, although he was confident 
 that in the end the whole would have been 
 annulled, had he thought proper to have con- 
 tinued the contest. It was in reference to this 
 trial that Mr. Emmet said, at a dinner party, 
 when enquired of by the judge how it hap- 
 pened that he allowed Mr. Barker to worry 
 him so much, that he considered himself 
 fencing with a left-handed man, and "therefore 
 did not know how the blows would be aimed." 
 
 On another occasion, when the Exchange 
 Bank was unable to meet punctually its 
 engagements, a bill in chancery was filed, 
 enjoining all his proceedings, of which he got 
 notice at 2 o'clock, p. m. His impetuosity 
 would not allow him to wait to receive a copy 
 of the said bill from the officers of the court, 
 in place of which, at his request, his solicitor, 
 George W. Strong, esq., borrowed the original 
 bill; Mr. Barker took it with him to his 
 country seat, and, after having his dinner, 
 segar, and accustomed nap, he drafted an 
 answer, reviewing all his business transac- 
 tions, ships, houses, stocks, merchandize, &c, 
 and took it back to the city at daylight the 
 following morning, returned the original to 
 the clerk of the court, and placed his draft 
 in the hands of the said solicitor, to be thrown 
 into form and filed, which was done, com- 
 prising 80 folio pages; this answer underwent 
 most searching investigation, was sustained in 
 every particular, and the injunction dissolved. 
 
 Mr. Barker is now, and has been for more 
 than ten years last past, conducting a suit in 
 New Orleans in favor of William Broader 
 York, late master of the British barque Alde- 
 baran, against Richard H. Chilton, formerly 
 of Liverpool, involving the question of a con- 
 sul's authority to remove a ship master, and 
 which has occasioned great acrimony. Mr. 
 Barker was applied to by eight or ten masters 
 of British vessels, to claim a restoration of 
 Captain York's chronometer, which had been 
 sequestered on the affidavit of Mr. Chilton, 
 and to sustain Captain York in his command 
 against the efforts of William Mure, the British 
 consul, to displace him. 
 
 Mr. Barker declined to embark in the case, 
 except for the restoration of the chronometer, 
 until he could confer with Mr. Mure. 
 
 On the arrival of the barque at New Orleans 
 the captain applied to the consul for permission 
 to discharge James Scott, the mate, for neg- 
 lect of duty and rebellious conduct, the Brit- 
 ish law not allowing him to do so without the 
 permission of the consul; this permission being 
 refused, some angry words ensued, when Cap- 
 tain York told the consul that he would dis- 
 charge the mate whether he consented or not; 
 this enraged the consul, aud led to all the 
 difficulties which ensued. 
 
 The mate had instituted legal proceedings 
 against Captain York for an alleged debt of 
 $24; he obtained judgement, and made the 
 following affidavit, in the hope of having him 
 sent to prison: 
 
 THE STATE OF LOUISIANA— 1032. 
 
 City Court of New Orleans. Personally ap- 
 peared before me, George Y. Bright, one of 
 the associate judges of the City Court of New 
 Orleans, James Scott, who, being sworn, de- 
 poseth and saith: That William B. York, 
 master of the barque Aldebrau, is justly in- 
 debted to him for judgment rendered and exe- 
 cution issued in the sum of twenty-four dollars 
 and forty-four cents, and costs of suit No 1032 
 of the docket of this court; and that he verily 
 believes that the said William B. York, as 
 aforesaid, is about to depart permanently from 
 the State, without leaving in it sufficient prop- 
 erty to meet his demand; and that he does 
 not take this oath with the intention of vexing 
 the said Wm. B. York, as aforesaid, but only 
 in order to secure his demand of twenty-four 
 dollars and forty-four cents, and costs of suit 
 for judgment rendered in this court on the;,2d 
 of April, 1844, in the cause entitled James 
 Scott vs.Wm. B. York, &c. Wherefore, James 
 Scott, the plaintiff, prays that an order of 
 arrest (writ of bail) may issue against the 
 said Wm. B. York, master of the ship 
 Aldebaran. 
 
 JAMES SCOTT. 
 
 Sworn to and subscribed before me at the 
 city of New Orleans, this 3d day of April, 
 1845. 
 
 GEORGE Y. BRIGHT, 
 Associate Judge of the city of 
 New Orleans. 
 
 To the Marshal of the city of New Orleans, 
 Greeting: 
 You are ordered to arrest and hold to bail 
 the above named defendant, that he may an- 
 swer to the action brought against him, for 
 twenty-four dollars and forty-four cents, and 
 costs of suit. 
 
 GEORGE Y. BRIGHT. 
 Associate Judge of the city of 
 New Orleans.
 
 252 
 
 LIPE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 James Scott ] City Court, N. Orleans. 
 vs. > Before Geo. Y. Bright, 
 
 Capt. Wm. B. York. J Associate Judge. 
 
 Received, New Orleans, 3d April, 1845, of 
 Captain Wm. B. York, the sum of thirty-five 
 dollars and forty-four cents, in full — it being 
 the amount of the above judgment. 
 
 Judgment 24 44^ 
 
 Tax 2 00| P.JACOBS, 
 
 Taking testimony in V Marshal. 
 
 writing 4 00 
 
 Marshal's fees 5 00 J 
 
 April 3, 1845. $35 44 
 
 A severe tax this on defendant, for taking 
 down the testimony of drunken sailors; who 
 does your honor think instigated this, and for 
 what purpose? "Was it not with a view on 
 which to found the charge which the defendant 
 has urged on every trial, that on that trial 
 Captain York swore false? The marshal's 
 fees seem, also, very exorbitant; however, all 
 were promptly paid by the plaintiff. 
 
 Return of the officer. — Not executed — the 
 defendant having paid the amount of judg- 
 ment, April 3, 1845. 
 
 P. JACOBS, Deputy Marshal. 
 
 The defendant embarked zealously against 
 Captain York — invading his rights; for which 
 a suit was brought against him for ten thou- 
 sand dollars damages. The case has been 
 several times before the Supreme Court of 
 Louisiana; and the last jury gave a verdict for 
 seven thousand five hundred dollars to plain- 
 tiff — with which the defendant being dissatis- 
 fied, asked a new trial. The question has 
 been argued at great length on both sides. 
 From a brief submitted to the court by Mr. 
 Barker the following extracts are made: 
 
 The attempt to disgrace Captain York by 
 an imprisonment failing, the cousul, knowing 
 that his office did not confer on him authority 
 to displace him and appoint the rebellious 
 mate, Scott, to the command, looks up young 
 Chilton, the defendant, assuming that he was 
 the authorized agent of the owner, who ad- 
 dresses letters to the plaintiff as follows : 
 
 April 4, 1845. 
 
 Sir: Meet me at the British consul's to- 
 morrow morning. Bring the officers of the 
 ship and two of the boys with you. 
 Yours truly, 
 
 R. H. CHILTON. 
 Captain York. 
 
 New Orleans, April 5, 1845. 
 Sir : Her B. M. consul haviDg this day 
 placed Mr. Scott upon the register of the 
 
 Aldebaran, as master of said barque, you will 
 please give up charge of said barque to him. 
 Yours truly, 
 
 R. H. CHILTON. 
 Captain York. 
 
 Monday Evening, 
 on board barque Aldebaran. 
 
 Sir: Notwithstanding the consul's orders, 
 I understand you have been on board this 
 ship, interfering with Captain Scott in his 
 duty. I have now to say that you will be 
 allowed to come on board this vessel once 
 more only, which will be to allow you to take 
 your property, clothes, &c, out of her. After 
 that you will not be allowed over the gangway. 
 I have also to request that, as soon as pos- 
 sible, you will render me your accounts. 
 Yours truly, 
 
 R. H. CHILTON. 
 Mr. York. 
 
 These letters, without remark from me, 
 sufficiently indicate how proud the defendant 
 was to act as the instrument of H. B. Majes- 
 ty's consul. He neither signs as agent or 
 attorney for the owner, nor does he represent 
 himself as such or make any complaint of the 
 conduct of plaintiff in the discharge of his 
 duties as ship-master. They put his action 
 entirely on the ground of carrying out the will 
 of the consul. 
 
 His next move was to make the following 
 affidavit: 
 Thomas Hunter Holderness 1 
 
 vs. V City Court. 
 
 D. T. Lilly. ) 
 
 Richard Harrison Chilton, agent for the 
 plaintiff herein, being sworn, saith that D. T. 
 Lilly, the defendant, has in his possession a 
 chronometer, of the value of one hundred and 
 fifty dollars, belonging to the plaintiff and 
 owners of the barque Aldebaran, of which one 
 
 York was late master, and that he 
 
 fears that said chronometer will be removed 
 out of the jurisdiction of this court during the 
 pendency of this suit, and that Lilly refuses to 
 deliver possession of the same. 
 
 R. H. CHILTON, Agent. 
 
 Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 7th 
 April, 1845. 
 
 O. P. JACKSON, Judge. 
 
 To which the plaintiff put in the following 
 answer : 
 
 Thomas Hunter Holderness | 
 
 vs. > City Court. 
 
 D. T. Lilly. J 
 
 Wm. Broader York, Intervenor. 
 The petition of said York represents that he 
 is the owner of the chronometer in question ;
 
 YORK VERSUS CHILTON. 
 
 253 
 
 that it was so far in his possession as to have 
 been by him left with D. T. Lilly for repairs ; 
 that he be allowed to intervene in this cause ; 
 that he excepts to the right of R. H. Chilton 
 to appear as agent for the owners of the barque 
 Aldebaran, and demands proof of his authority to 
 act for such owners, and prays for an order for 
 the delivery of said chronometer to your peti- 
 tioner ; that the said Chilton be compelled to 
 pay all costs, with fifty dollars damages. And 
 in case this exception should be overruled, he 
 denies all the allegations of the petitioner, in- 
 sists that he is the commander of the said 
 barque, and as such, their duly constituted 
 agent, and prays that this suit be dismissed 
 with costs and damages, and for general relief, 
 and, as in duty bound, will ever pray. 
 JACOB BARKER, 
 Attorney for W. B. York. 
 
 Which suit was dismissed as follows : 
 The plaintiff discontinuing his suit against 
 defendant, and intervenor not having complied 
 with the requisitions of law in his intervention, 
 it is ordered that the intervention fall also, it 
 being understood that the intervenor is not 
 deprived of the right to claim by separate 
 suit. 
 
 0. P. JACKSON, Judge. 
 
 This decision entitles the plaintiff to re- 
 cover damages in this suit without further 
 
 proof. 
 
 The chronometer was seized under process 
 issned on this affidavit, and removed from Mr. 
 Lilly's, where, according to the universal cus- 
 tom of ship-masters, they deposited their 
 nautical instruments, and placed with the 
 plaintiff. The case was tried and not a word 
 of testimony offered in support of the accusa- 
 tion ; whether the chronometer belonged to 
 the plaintiff or to the owner of the Aldebaran 
 the allegation was equally libellous, as much 
 so as to deprive a naval or army officer of his 
 sword or epaulets by a false accusation. 
 
 Pending these proceedings the following 
 correspondence took place between Mr. Barker 
 and the consul : 
 
 New Orleans, April 14, 1845. 
 
 Dear Sir: Captain York, commander of 
 the barque "Aldebaran," has called upon me to i 
 aid him in restraining the interference of cer- 
 tain persons in the discharge of his duties as 
 master of said vessel; and from a letter re- 
 ceived by Captain York, from Mr. R. H. Chil- 
 ton, you are referred to as authorizing the pro- 
 ceedings complained of. 
 
 The friendly relations which have always 
 subsisted between us, induces me to notify you 
 of Captain York's determination to apply to 
 the courts of the United States to restrain all 
 
 interference with his authority as master of said 
 vessel, and to redress the wrongs which he 
 thinks have been p done him — before I proceed 
 to take out writs for the arrest of such tres- 
 passers as may be found on board, or such of 
 the crew as may refuse obedience to his orders. 
 Should any other person than Captain York 
 have authority to represent the owner of the 
 vessel, I presume the whole affair can be amica- 
 bly settled, the first step towards which will be 
 the exhibition of such authority. 
 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 JACOB BARKER. 
 Wm. Mure, esq., 
 
 Consul of Her Britannic Majesty, 
 
 Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 
 &c, &c, at Neio Orleans. 
 
 British Consulate, New Orleans, 
 
 April 14, 1845. 
 
 Dear Sir: I have received your letter of 
 this date, relative to the British barque "Alde- 
 baran," and notifying me that it is the intention 
 of Captain York to apply to the courts of the 
 United States to restore his authority as master 
 of said vessel. 
 
 In reply thereto I have only to state, that in 
 superseding Captain York in the command of 
 this vessel, for irregularities in his conduct, 
 and for violating the 46th and 47th sections of 
 the navigation act, 7th and 8th Vic. cap. 112, 
 by which he has been guilty of a misdemeanor, 
 and is liable to fine and imprisonment, " I 
 have acted with the sanction of the accredited 
 agent of the owners in this port," and I must 
 decline any further explanation regarding my 
 authority, as her Majesty's consul, for dismis- 
 sing, or sanctioning the dismissal of a British 
 captain. 
 
 I am, dear sir, your most obedient servant, 
 WM. MURE, 
 Her Britannic Majesty's consul. 
 
 Jacob Barker, esq., 
 New Orleans. 
 
 New Orleans, April 14, 1845. 
 
 Dear Sir: I have received your letter of 
 this date. In reply to the allegation about 
 Captain York "violating the 4(jth and 47th sec- 
 tions of the navigation act, 7th and 8th Vic, 
 cap. 112, by which he has been guilty of a 
 misdemeanor and is liable to fine and imprison- 
 ment," I have to remark that Captain York 
 will be prepared to defend himself, whenever 
 called to an account before a proper tribunal 
 to pass on the matter. 
 
 As to his having been superseded, he does 
 not admit that he has been, or that he can 
 be superseded in the command of the Alde- 
 baran, by any other authority than that from 
 which he derived his command ; to that au- 
 thority he is prepared to submit; and if, as 
 you say, you have acted with the sanction of the
 
 254 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 accredited agent of the owner, it would seem 
 to be incumbent on such agent of the owner to 
 produce his authority; beyond which it is not 
 my intention to ask for any explanation. 
 
 To prevent the possibility of a mistake, Cap- 
 tain York wishes you to be informed that his 
 instructions are precise as to all the points of 
 his duties; the observance of which disaffected 
 a portion of his crew, in which instructions is 
 to be found the following sentence: 
 
 " On arrival there, address the ship to Messrs. 
 Gordon, Wylie & Co., who will have instruc- 
 tions respecting the loading of the vessel." 
 
 No intimation is given of any other agent, 
 consequently he cannot recognize any other 
 person as the accredited agent of his owner, 
 without the production of credentials duly au- 
 thenticated. Mr. Gordon states that he has 
 not sanctioned any interference with his com- 
 mand ; that he is not knowing to any irregu- 
 larities on the part of Captain York; and that 
 so far as he knows, he has performed his duties 
 faithfully as commander of the Aldebaran. 
 
 I am, dear sir, your most obedient servant, 
 JACOB BARKER. 
 
 Wm. Mure, esq., 
 
 Her Britannic Majesty's consul, &c. 
 
 In place of producing authority, defendant's 
 next move was to make affidavit in words fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 Personally appeared before me, G. W. Lewis, 
 recorder municipality Fo. 3, of the city of New 
 Orleans, acting as justice of the peace, duly 
 commissioned and sworn, R. H. Chilton, who 
 being duly sworn, does depose and say, that he 
 is apprehensive and has strong reasons to be- 
 lieve aud fear that W. B. York is about to com- 
 mit a breach of the peace, by intruding himself 
 and interfering with the command of the Bri- 
 tish ship " Aldebaran," of which deponen tis 
 the agent in this city. Deponent has cause to 
 apprehend that said York will create a disturb- 
 ance on board of said vessel, unless he be ar- 
 rested and bound to keep the peace. Where- 
 fore he prays that said York be arrested and 
 dealt with according to law. 
 
 R. H. CHILTON. 
 
 DECISION OF THE COTJRT. 
 
 The being no just cause of apprehension of 
 an intention on the part of the accused to com- 
 mit a breach of the peace, proven in this case, 
 the complaint is therefore dismissed, without 
 prejudice to the rights of the parties. 
 
 G. W. LEWIS, 
 
 Recorder. 
 April 19, 1845. 
 
 The imprisonment of Captain York, and the 
 rejection of Mr. Barker's proposition to surren- 
 der the command on the production of au- 
 thority, induced him to embark in the whole 
 matter. The contest has been a very severe 
 
 one; during which the consul wrote a very 
 exceptional letter to the Earl of Aberdeen, 
 which the defendant produced in evidence in 
 support of his action. The letter aud Mr. 
 Barker's criticism, herewith, will be read with 
 deep interest by commercial and nautical 
 men. 
 
 Captain York held command under the fol- 
 lowing agreement: 
 
 MEMORANDA OF AGREEMENT. 
 Hull, January 1. 
 That Wiliam Broader York goes out master 
 of the Aldebaran, of Liverpool, and that his 
 wages are to be eight pounds per month. The 
 cabin to be found in all necessary stores by 
 the owners, the nett cabin freight to be divided 
 between the master and owners. The master 
 to have one-third cabin passage money. The 
 master also to find his own < hronometer, hav- 
 ing one guinea and a half per voyage allowed 
 him in consideration thereof; he is also to be 
 kept constantly insured from loss by the owners 
 for forty pounds on his clothes and wages, to 
 commence from the 16th of December, 1844. 
 These conditions to remain in force so long as 
 his services may be required, and no longer. 
 T. HOLDERNESS, 
 W. B. YORK. 
 
 SAILING ORDERS. 
 
 Hull, January 10, 1S45. 
 Sir: You will proceed with the Aldebaran 
 to New Orleans, making, of course, the best 
 of your way, and on your arrival there, address 
 the ship to Messrs. Gordon, Wylie & Co., who 
 will have instructions respecting the loading of 
 the vessel. We are informed that at this 
 season of the year it is advisable to make to 
 the southward as far as the latitude of Madeira, 
 before you make much westing, especially if 
 you can make good way to the south at the 
 same time, and you keep edging to the west- 
 ward. On your arrival, you will bear. in mind 
 that the house have the option of loading you 
 for Hull or Liverpool, and when your ship has 
 her ballast trimmed and your dunnage laid, 
 you will send a notice to Gordon, Wylie, & Co., 
 as per annexed, and you must copy it into 
 your log-book, and note therein the day and 
 hour you delivered it to them, and to whom it 
 was delivered; and you will not fail to send 
 us, per Halifax steamer, and also by packet 
 ship by New York, the price current last pub- 
 lished when you gave notice. You will inquire 
 if there will be much weight, and of what kind, 
 for your guidance in arranging your ballast 
 for the most advantageous and proper stowage. 
 Take care to preserve the cargo from damage 
 as much as possible, by matting the masts, 
 pump well, bitts, &c, and by putting old
 
 YORK VERSUS CHILTON. 
 
 255 
 
 boards in the sides of the ship. The freight of 
 cotton is agreed for, but for the freight of other 
 articles you will have to agree, and this must 
 be your guide: If cotton freights per Liver- 
 pool, per price current, are three farthings per 
 pound, flour must be six shillings per barrel; 
 linseed cake, in bulk, three pounds per ton, 
 and in casks ten shillings more; aud hogs- 
 heads of tobacco must be equal to ten barrels 
 of flour; wet salted hides one shilling each, 
 (not bundle.) and in the proportions, if cotton 
 is higher or lower, per price current. 
 
 You will pay great attention to the pressing 
 of the cotton, and if not done to your satisfac- 
 tion, object to it; if a small gratuity to the 
 foremen will get it better done, promise them 
 it, but of course give nothing if slovenly done, 
 and complain to the merchants, and say, as 
 the ship pays for it you expect it to be done in 
 the best possible manner. 
 
 Provision the ship for the homeward pas- 
 sage, that is, with beef and pork. But, as beef 
 and pork will be moderate in England, you 
 must see that the quality is such that it will 
 keep, before yoa take any very large stock. 
 Take care to keep your sails and rigging free 
 from chafe, and as we know studding sails are 
 often neglected, let them be well looked to as 
 well as others. Let the provisions be served 
 out in a proper manner, and let all have 
 enough, but nothing must be wasted ; in all 
 things try and keep your expenses down. 
 And do not be above asking advice from men 
 of more experience. 
 
 If Gordon, Wylie & Co. have no articles of 
 weight for you, apply to Mr. Peter Maxwell, 
 who may have some; but you are allowed to 
 take weight from other parties, namely: lead, 
 lard, seed, or flour. Messrs. Goidon, Wylie, 
 & Co. will supply you with what cash you 
 require for ship's use; and disburse your own 
 money and procure the largest discounts you 
 can. 
 
 Many accidents have occurred by vessels 
 getting foul of each other, which, in our 
 opinion, in nine cases out of ten, is owing to 
 want of a proper look-out ; you will therefore 
 insist on those who have charge of the watcb, 
 from time to time, that a proper look-out is 
 kept, and no skulking allowed. 
 
 We again call your particular attention to 
 not taking any wet bales of cotton ; if you see 
 any such, (and you must see every bale,) let 
 them be laid aside, and call the attention of the 
 house that ship3 them to their condition ; and 
 if they say they are in proper condition, and 
 desire you to take them, get a written order to 
 that effect ; but if they refuse to give a written 
 order, put in your log-book what passed, and 
 note in the log-book their mark, and say how 
 many of each mark are objected to, and sign 
 such account at the time, as well as your 
 mate ; but we hope no such will be offered to 
 you. From various attempts made to throw 
 the damages on the ship, you must perceive 
 
 how necessary it is to be on guard against 
 these things. 
 
 We understand that old " flat-boats" are to 
 be purchased in New Orleans at a very low 
 rate, and you must consult with Mr. Chilton as 
 to the best method of procuring one at as little 
 cost as possible, and with as little labor in 
 breaking up, for the purpose of dunnaging the 
 ship's sides, &c, <tc. 
 
 We are, sir, yours respectfully. 
 
 HOLDERXESS & CHILTON. 
 
 Captain W. B. York, 
 
 of the barque Aldebaran. 
 
 A jury were empanelled and the cause 
 came on for trial after strenuous efforts of the 
 defendant to procure a postponement. The 
 investigation and arguments occupied two full 
 days, when it was submitted to the jury, who, 
 after a short absence, returned a verdict for 
 the plaintiff of seven thousand five hundred 
 dollars, with which the defendant is dissatis- 
 fied, and now asks forJ^.new trial. He com- 
 plains that your honor^rretl in your charge to 
 the jury. It cannot be expected that the 
 plaintiff's counsel should undertake to defend 
 or justify to yourself that charge. He will be 
 prepared to sustain it when it comes before 
 the Supreme Court. It was lucid, laconic, and 
 to the point ; a more discreet and appropriate 
 charge could not have been delivered. The 
 defendant was present and took no exception 
 at it, further than to have the clause relating 
 to the loss of the plaintiff's baggage varied, 
 which your honor modified to the satisfaction 
 of both parties. Your honor will recollect that 
 this suit has been ten years pending, prose- 
 cuted with all the zeal aud industry the plain- 
 tiff's counsel was capable of, at very great cost, 
 labor, and inconvenience to the plaintiff, oc- 
 casioned by numerous unfounded excep- 
 tions, rules, unsound pleas, and commissions 
 to foreign countries never returned, for the 
 purpose of driving the plaintiff out of court. 
 To grant a new trial would be tantamount to 
 refusing the plaintiff justice altogether, as he 
 has no money wherewith to carry on another 
 ten year siege. The case should be allowed 
 to go to the Supreme Court, where* it has in 
 effect been already three times. That court is 
 fully competent to examine the whole subject, 
 and if there have been any error by your honor 
 or by the jury, it can correct such error, and 
 do justice to all parties without further trouble 
 to this court, jurors, or witnesses, who have 
 already, as your honor knows, devoted very 
 much time to the investigation of this subject, 
 and jurors certainly ought to be exempt from 
 the penalty of being again locked up by day 
 and by night in the jury room when there is 
 no occasion for it. The Supreme Court said, 
 in deciding in a former appeal, that it was the 
 peculiar province of the jury to terminate 
 questions of damages of this nature. 
 
 The defendant claimed a trial by jury before
 
 256 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 his honor Judge Buchannan, also before your 
 honor. The plaintiff on all occasions was 
 anxious to relieve the jury from the considera- 
 tion of such a complicated case, and proposed 
 to have the case tried first by Judge Buchan- 
 nan, and then by your honor, to which the de- 
 fendant would not consent, insisting on a jury, 
 and when one jury decided against him in a 
 very moderate sum, he refused to allow it to 
 go to the Supreme Court, demanded and ob- 
 tained a new trial, which has taken place. 
 
 A more intelligent jury were probably never 
 impanelled, and yet your honor is requested to 
 interpose your judgment in opposition to 
 theirs, vacating the same on the ground that 
 your honor's judgment in the matter is supe- 
 rior to that of the j ury. 
 
 So far from your honor entertaining an 
 opinion at variance with that of the jury, I am 
 persuaded your honor's judgment corresponds 
 therewith. Your honor having twice heard and 
 fully considered the testimony, cannot, I think, 
 but approve of the decision. 
 
 To annul their proceedings, after all that has 
 been said and done, written and published, 
 would be likely to create a feeling of opposi- 
 tion between courts and juries, which the pub- 
 lic good requires should be harmonious. 
 
 Again : increase the difficulties in obtaining 
 satisfaction for personal wrongs through the 
 courts of law, you encourage a resort to per- 
 sonal violence, which too often results fatally, 
 as the records of our criminal courts of late 
 furnish melancholy evidence. The damages 
 are excessive, say the gentlemen, this involves 
 an inquiry into the whole controversy. 
 
 This case is so fruitful of events, and the 
 testimony so voluminous, that no counsel can 
 do it justice in one day much less in one hour. 
 
 The plaintiff claimed $10,000 on the follow- 
 ing grounds : 
 
 1st. That the said defendant, under false 
 pretences, caused to be sequestered a chrono- 
 meter belonging to the plaintiff, thereby in- 
 juring his professional reputation. 
 
 2d. That said defendant interfered with 
 plaintiff's authority as commander of said 
 barque, and incited the crew of said vessel to 
 disobedience, thereby causing petitioner great 
 loss and trouble. 
 
 3d. That the said defendant caused the peti- 
 tioner to be arrested and confined in prison, 
 without any justifiable cause, thereby interfer- 
 ing with his business, causing him great loss, 
 and injuring his reputation as a shipmaster. 
 
 4th. That the said defendant caused the said 
 barque " Aldebaran" to be taken possession of 
 by unfounded, malicious, and calumniating 
 misrepresentations, to the great detriment of 
 petitioner. 
 
 5tL That the defendant, aided and assisted 
 by the British consul and others, got unlawful 
 possession of the said barque under a false 
 and void order, purporting to be from the 
 United States district court, and put her to sea, 
 
 not permitting petitioner to remove his wearing 
 apparel and other effects from said vessel, 
 and that a portion of his effects was thus lost 
 to him. 
 
 The various questions presented in this case 
 to the consideration of this honorable court 
 are of vast importance to all commercial and 
 mercantile men, who do not care a rush for 
 Captain York, Mr. Mure, Mr. Barker, or the 
 owners of the Aldebaran, but they are shocked 
 at the supposition that a consul, by virtue of 
 his office, has power to disposses their ap- 
 pointed agents in foreign countries of their 
 property. Establish or sanction this pretence 
 and no provident man would invest a dollar in 
 a vessel bound on any foreign voyage. 
 
 The most wealthy merchant would be ex- 
 posed to ruin by acts of irresponsible consuls, 
 over whom they would not have any control, 
 and in the selection or appointment of whom 
 they have no voice ; and if a British consul 
 has that power, an American and all other 
 consuls would have it. A great number of 
 persons are selected for such offices who would 
 not be trusted at home with a single hundred 
 dollars. On the trial of this cause in 1854, 
 the consul testified as follows : " I am the 
 British consul for the port of New Orleans. I 
 removed Captain York from the command ; in 
 doing so I acted in my official capacity ac- 
 cording to law. I have had four or five times 
 occasion to displace captains of vessels for 
 bad conduct. I did so in my capacity as con- 
 sul." 
 
 The evil of establishing such a principle 
 must be too apparent to receive the saction of 
 any court of law in the United States, or to 
 require remark from me. 
 
 I assume that neither the President of the 
 United States, with or without the advice of 
 the Senate and his cabinet ministers, nor the 
 Queen of England, with or without the advice 
 of the whole ministry, could legally remove a 
 commander of a private ship ; that they could 
 not confer on a consul powers they did not 
 possess themselves ; that a consul is a mere 
 commercial agent, with powers regulated by 
 provisions of law, and that if he wishes to estab- 
 lish his authority, be it what it may, he must 
 produce the law upon which he relies. 
 
 That an owner of a ship has full authority to 
 remove the commander, with, or without cause; 
 that his authority in no- wise justified false im- 
 prisonment, slander, or the sequestration of 
 baggage and nautical instruments without pro- 
 cess from a court. 
 
 That the power to remove must exist or be 
 established before an inquiry can be made 
 whether or not there was cause for removing 
 a commander in lawful possession ; that an 
 agent claiming authority to remove a com- 
 mander is bound to produce his authority be- 
 fore such commander is under any obligation 
 to respect it. 
 
 That a subsequent ratification cannot oper-
 
 YORK VERSUS CHILTON. 
 
 257 
 
 ate to the prejudice of third parties, and espe- 
 cially not if made on a false representation. 
 
 That all parties who attempt to establish a 
 point or position are bound to produce the best 
 testimony the case is capable of. 
 
 That the contents of a written paper cannot 
 be proved by oral testimony until the loss of 
 the original is established, and not then with- 
 out the production of verified copies, if ob- 
 tainable. 
 
 That verbal authority could not regulate or 
 control written or positive instructions, and if 
 it could, the verbal authority must have been 
 given subsequent to such written instructions. 
 
 That the rights of the parties must be de- 
 cided on the facts as they existed at the time 
 this suit was commenced. 
 
 That hearsay testimony, except what may 
 have been said by the parties is inadmissible. 
 
 That a ratification on a false representation 
 is void; that a ratification, no matter under 
 what circumstances given, could not by any 
 possibility impair the vested rights of a third 
 party. In the admiralty suit his honor Judge 
 McCaleb said a consul was a mere commercial 
 agent. 
 
 The plaintiff's testimony fully establishes all 
 the allegations set forth in the petition. 
 
 So far as I understand the defendant, he re- 
 lies on the plea that the plaintiff was deprived 
 of the command of the Aldebaran by the Bri- 
 tish consul. That consuls, by virtue of their 
 olEce, are authorized to remove ship-masters, 
 for what they may consider cause; that he was 
 the duly authorized agent of the owner ; that 
 his action was without malice, and that the 
 action of the consul and of the defendant were 
 approved and ratified by the owner of the Alde- 
 baran, and that of the consul by his govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The consul's representations to his govern- 
 ment are proved to have been false throughout. 
 The representations of defendant to the justice's 
 court, to the recorder's court and to the United 
 States court having been false, the legal pre- 
 sumption is, that his representations to Messrs. 
 Holderness & Chilton were false, his letter of 
 the 10th April, 18-45, sent by the consul to the 
 Earl of Aberdeen, was calculated to mislead. 
 
 Those representations being unfounded, any 
 ratification thereon, whether from the govern- 
 ment, the owner of the Aldebaran, or others, 
 would, if otherwise available, be valueless. 
 
 The defendant insists that it was the consul, 
 and not the defendant who deprived the plain- 
 tiff of the possession of the ship. 
 
 The plaintiff insists that the consul d'd not 
 and could not remove him; that two weeks 
 subsequent to the consul's attempt to place 
 Scott in command, he and the defendant recog- 
 nized the plaintiff in command, and gave per- 
 mission to remove the rebellious mate "Scott." 
 In proof of this, plaintiff refers to Mr. Barker's 
 correspondence with the consul, and to the con- 
 sul's correspondence with plaintiff. 
 
 17 
 
 During the proceedings before the recorder's 
 court, Mr. Barker negotiated a compromise 
 with the parties, as will be seen by the follow- 
 ing correspondence. 
 
 New Orleans, April 18, 1845. 
 
 DearSir: You having satisfied me that I was 
 in error in supposing that I could discharge the 
 mate of the barque Aldebaran, under my com- 
 mand, without the consent of Her Britannic 
 Majesty's consul, I have again to request your 
 consent to my discharging Mr. Scott, chief 
 mate of said vessel, for reasons heretofore as- 
 signed to you, and because I do not think that 
 harmony could prevail on the homeward voyage 
 if he should be continued. 
 
 The error of opinion under which I was la- 
 boring on the subject led me, when you refused 
 your consent, to the use of intemperate expres- 
 sions to you, near the post-office, which expres- 
 sions I withdraw, and regret having made use 
 of them. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 WM. B. YORK, 
 Master of the barque Aldebaran. 
 
 William Mure, esq., 
 
 Her Britannic Majesty's consul. 
 
 British Consulate, New Orleans, 
 
 April 21, 1845. 
 
 Sir : I have received your letter of the 18th 
 insc, in which you have expressed regret for 
 certain intemperate expressions made use of 
 towards me, in reference to my refusal to con- 
 sent to the discharge of the mate of the Alde- 
 baran ; I have merely to say that I accept the 
 apology tendered, which, however, was unneces- 
 sary, as I do not permit my private feelings to 
 influence my public duties. 
 
 In regard to my consent to your now dis- 
 charging the mate, I can only agree to your 
 doing so, upon the understanding that this is 
 not to compromise or prejudice any proceed- 
 ings which may be taken by him or others in 
 the courts of law in England. 
 
 I am, sir, yours, &c, 
 
 WM. MURE, 
 Her Britannic Majesty's consul. 
 
 Captain W. B. York. 
 
 British Consulate, New Orleans, 
 
 April 21, 1845. 
 
 Sir: In handing you the inclosed letter, I 
 have only to state that I act in this matter pas- 
 sively, having no desire that the interests of 
 the owners of the barque or the charterers 
 should suffer by delay, in offering opposition to 
 a jurisdiction over my consular duties, by tri- 
 bunals whose power, in this matter, I cannot 
 acknowledge. 
 
 The best course for you to pursue is, to lay
 
 258 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 the whole matter before the owners on your 
 arrival in England. 
 I am, sir, yours, &c, 
 
 WM. MURE, 
 Her Britannic Majesty's consul. 
 
 The plaintiff insists that he was not deprived 
 of the command of the Aldebaran until the 
 evening of the 28th April, 1845, when the de- 
 fendant took her from the possession of the 
 United States marshal's keeper, on a false order 
 from the clerk of the federal court. 
 
 The Aldebaran had been libelled in the 
 United States court by R. H. Chilton, represent- 
 ing her to belong to Thomas Hunter Holder- 
 ness, of Liverpool, and that he was the duly 
 authorized agent of the said Holderness, in 
 which libel suit the consul united. A rule was 
 taken to deprive plaintiff of the possession aud 
 to deliver the Aldebaran to the said Thomas 
 Hunter Holderness on his giving security. This 
 rule, after a severe contest, was on Friday, the 
 25th April, 1845, dismissed, the court saying 
 that he had not established either the owner- 
 ship or agency ; whereupon the counsel for 
 libellant asked a re-hearing on the ground that 
 he was taken by surprise, inasmuch as he had 
 supposed for the purposes of the rule the alle- 
 gation in the libel would be taken for true. 
 The counsel should have known that in neither 
 the court of chancery or the admiralty court 
 could a party claiming be put in possession 
 without proof, his allegations can only be taken 
 for true so far as to authorize an injunction or 
 sequestration. 
 
 The re-hearing was granted to take place the 
 following week. 
 
 In place of waiting for a re-hearing the de- 
 fendant and the consul resolved to take off the 
 Aldebaran by force, had a steamboat along- 
 side of the ship and made the other necessary 
 arrangements, when being foiled in their at- 
 tempt to take her off while the suit was pend- 
 ing, they employed more lawyers, and on Wed- 
 nesday evening William Mure, John Winthrop 
 and John Claiborne repaired to the residence 
 of Judge McCaleb, and obtained an order for 
 the discontinuance of the suit on payment of 
 the costs, as follows: 
 
 " The proctor for libellant in this case has 
 asked for an order to discontinue the libel ; ' as 
 there seems to be no reason why this order 
 should not be granted, the clerk will enter an 
 order to that effect, upon the payment of 
 costs.'" 
 
 Clerk's Office, April 29, 1845. 
 
 I hereby certify that the above are true and 
 correct extracts from the minutes, 
 
 N. R. JENNINGS. 
 
 On receiving the above a most extraordinary 
 scene took place at the office of the clerk of 
 the court, when he was induced to issue the 
 following order, without reading it, which was 
 drawn up by one of these lawyers : 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 
 
 EASTERN DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 The President of the United States of America, 
 to the Marshal of the Eastern District of 
 Louisiana, or his lawful deputy , greeting: 
 Whereas, in the district court of the United 
 States, in and for the eastern district of Loui- 
 siana, the judge has this day issued the follow- 
 ing order, to wit: Holderness vs. The barque 
 Aldebaran, the proctor for libelant in this case 
 has asked for an order to discontinue the libel, 
 as there seems to be no reason why this order 
 should not be granted, the clerk will enter an 
 order to that effect, upon payment of costs; 
 under this order of the court, the barque Alde- 
 baran, libeled by Thomas Hunter Holderness, 
 has been released from seizure, according to 
 law, aud the costs of suit up to this date having 
 been paid, you are hereby commanded, con- 
 formably to law, and the order of the said court, 
 to cause the said barque Aldebaran to be de- 
 livered to the said Thomas H. Holderness, or 
 his agent, and hereon make return. 
 Witness, the Hon. Theo. H. McCaleb, judge of 
 the said court, at New Orleans, 
 this 28th day of April, A. D. 1845, 
 aud sixty-ninth year of the Inde- 
 pendence of the United States of 
 America. 
 
 N. R. JENNINGS, Clerk. 
 The counsel for York, considering the cause 
 at rest for some days, left the city on Saturday 
 evening to visit his son then very sick on the 
 coast ; returning on Tuesday morning, found 
 the Aldebaran had been taken off; he repaired 
 to the United States district court, examined 
 the documents, and inquired of his honor, 
 Judge McCaleb, if he had authorized such an 
 order as the clerk had issued under the great 
 seal of the United States. The judge replied 
 that he had not, and advised that a rule be 
 taken on the parties, requiring them to ex- 
 plain. This was done, and the following rule 
 granted : 
 
 Thomas Hunter 1 District of ^ 
 
 Holderness I UnUed gtates for the 
 
 The British Barque I dist " Ct ° f Louisiana > 
 A May I, lo4o. 
 
 Aldebaran. J J ' 
 
 On the application of Jacob Barker, of New 
 Orleans, herein appearing as "amicus curias," 
 it is on Sling the deposition of William Broader 
 York, ordered that a rule be granted com- 
 manding N. R. Jennings, the clerk of this 
 court, to appear on the seventh day of May, 
 instant, at one o'clock, a. m., to answer a con- 
 tempt of this court for issuing improperly, and 
 causing the seals of the court to be affixed 
 thereto, an order in contravention to law, and 
 the authority possessed by said clerk, for the
 
 YORK VERSUS CHILTON. 
 
 259 
 
 delivery of the British barque Aldebaran under 
 seizure, and in the charge of the marshal of 
 the United States, to Thomas H. Holderness, 
 or his agent, without any authority for so 
 doing, and in contempt of this court. 
 
 And also, at the same time and place, that 
 Richard Harrisou Chilton, William Mure, John 
 Winthfop, and John Claiborne be also com- 
 manded to appear and answer a contempt of 
 this court in aiding and procuring said order 
 of said clerk, and in interfering with the orders 
 of this court by causing the said barque to be 
 removed beyond the jurisdiction of this court, 
 as set forth in the said affidavit of William B. 
 York. 
 
 The following testimony of the clerk of the 
 United States court, and R. M. Carter, the de- 
 fendant's attorney, tells the tale, and their next 
 move : 
 
 Holderness, &c, ") To the honorable 
 
 vs. judge of the dis- 
 
 The Barque Aldebaran. I trict court of the 
 
 Rule, t United States for 
 
 vs. the State ofLouisi- 
 
 The Clerk, &c, &c. J ana. 
 
 The clerk of this court, in answer to the rule 
 taken in the above entitled case, admits that 
 an order as stated in the rule issued from his 
 office under his signature and the seal of the 
 court, but utterly denies the charge as alleged 
 of being guilty of a contempt of court for 
 issuing an illegal order. Whatever was done 
 by this respondent was under the sincere belief 
 and conviction that he was doing no more 
 than his duty as clerk of this court, and he 
 begs leave, in further reply, to state the fol- 
 lowing circumstances, going to show that if 
 any error was committed by him, it was simply 
 an error of judgment. 
 
 On the evening of the 28th ult. Messrs. 
 Winthrop & Claiborne, accompanied by Mr. 
 Mure, the English consul, came into respond- 
 ent's office with a written order from the judge 
 of this court in the following words : " The 
 proctor for the libellants in this case have 
 asked for an order to discontinue the libel, as 
 there seems to be no reason why the order 
 should not be granted, the clerk will enter an 
 order to that effect upon the payment of costs." 
 This order was handed respondent by Mr. 
 Winthrop, who requested that he would, in 
 conformity thereto, enter up an order of dis- 
 continuance, and issue to the marshal a writ 
 of release of the barque Aldebaran. This re- 
 spondent refused to do so, stating that he would 
 give only a copy of the order of the judge, 
 under the certificate and seal of the court. 
 Mr. Winthrop then said that such a document 
 could be of no service, and in a peremptory 
 manner asked the respondent if he understood 
 him in the presence of these gentlemen as re- 
 fusing to follow the directions of the judge by 
 not giving such an order under the seal of the 
 
 court, as the judge directed, observing further 
 that he had already had trouble enough in this 
 business, and the parties had been subjected 
 to great expense. The respondent then, be- 
 coming considerably excited, and thinking, 
 perhaps, he was assuming a greater responsi- 
 bility than he ought in refusing to issue a writ 
 of release, observed to Mr. Winthrop that he 
 did not refuse to obey the order of the court, 
 but that he considered his tone and manner 
 unnecessarily captious, and that he would not 
 suffer himself to be dictated to in his office. 
 Mr. Winthrop disclaimed all such disposition, 
 saying that he wished only to have the order 
 of the judge carried into effect. Mr. Claiborne 
 then, perceiving that we both were much ex- 
 cited, came forward and said that he could 
 very easily explain the matter and prevent all 
 difficulty, as he was present when Mr. Win- 
 throp called upon the judge, and understood 
 perfectly what his order intended to embrace. 
 Mr. Winthrop, in the mean time, had asked one 
 of the clerks iu my office for a blank order of 
 release, which being brought to him, he ob- 
 served that in it would be expressed the proper 
 order to send to the marshal under the seal of 
 the court; still somewhat doubtful as to the 
 course, aud continuing not a little excited, this 
 respondent requested either Mr. Claiborne or 
 Mr. Wintrop (as he thinks) to draw up the 
 order themselves. Mr. Claiborne agreed then 
 to draw it up, or to fill up the blanks in such 
 a manner as to conform with the order of the 
 court as he understood it. He then drew up 
 the order, which I think at the time was read 
 over by Mr. Winthrop, (in this, however, I may 
 be mistaken,) it was then read aloud by Mr. 
 Claiborne, who observed that that was the 
 order of the judge. I then read it over rather 
 hastily, only looking particularly to that part 
 of it reciting the written order of the judge, 
 aud perceiving it to be correct, affixed my sig- 
 nature and the seal of the court thereto. 
 
 N. R. JENNINGS, Clerk. 
 May 7, 1845. 
 
 New Orleans, April 28, 1845. 
 Received from J. P. Walden, esq., in con- 
 formity with the within order of court, the 
 barque Aldebaran aud cargo. 
 
 Costs in full to be paid to the marshal. 
 Sixteen dollars paid men. 
 
 R. H. CHILTON, Agent. 
 
 All costs, as charged by the marshal, to be 
 paid by J. Winthrop. 
 
 R. M. CARTER. 
 
 This false and fraudulent order was obtained 
 by Chilton's counsel, accompanied by another 
 lawyer and the consul, repairing to the office 
 of the clerk of the United States court, who, 
 refusing to give the order they demanded, in- 
 volved him in such a discussion as must have
 
 260 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 deprived him of his reason, as he allowed 
 them to draw the order complained of, and 
 on one of the lawyers, telling him " that is 
 what the judge ordered," (his excitement con- 
 tinuing,) sigus it without reading it, attaching 
 to it the great seal of the United States, and 
 delivers it to the defendant's attorney. 
 
 For this order the defendant, with yet an- 
 other lawyer, was waiting at the steamboat 
 office ; and as soon as obtained, proceeded to 
 the Aldebaran, and presented it to the deputy 
 marshal, as set forth in the testimony of Carter, 
 who pointed out to him that Chilton was the 
 person to whom the ship was to be delivered, 
 and she was accordingly delivered to him. 
 
 Had the clerk appellate power over the 
 court, he could not have gone further after 
 hearing the argument, and yet it it was done 
 ex paHe, and in the evening ; and further, he 
 transfers to the marshal the power to decide 
 who the agent of the owner was, and in the 
 absence of the marshal the deputy undertakes 
 to exert the power thus conferred by the clerk 
 on the marshal, and absolutely delivers the 
 vessel and cargo to Mr. Chilton, taking his re- 
 ceipt as agent, although the court had two 
 d iys before decreed that he had not established 
 his agency or the ownership of the vessel, and 
 could not have the vessel on giving bond with 
 security. Thus we have a strange anomaly 
 presented, not only a clerk of the court, but a 
 ileputy marshal, reversing, ex parte, the de- 
 rision of the court, and without its knowledge 
 delivering to irresponsible persons the whole 
 property, worth near one hundred thousand 
 dollars, who sent it beyond the jurisdiction of 
 the court before the rising of the sun on the 
 following day, and before the court assembled, 
 or could get knowledge of what had been 
 done, announcing in the morning newspapers 
 their exploit. 
 
 No one would believe that any foreigner 
 would dare thus to trample on your laws, and 
 insult your ministers of justice, had not the tes- 
 timony elicited on the trial established all, and 
 more than all, charged in the petition. 
 
 Suppose the plaintiff had been wasting 
 the property, and the whole going to ruin, 
 would not the consul have had power to take 
 possession, asks the counsel. I say no ; our 
 courts are established for that power, and the 
 consul has the same remedy that every other 
 man, citizen or alien, has, and no more, which 
 is to invoke the • conservative power of the 
 court. In all such cases our courts grant 
 prompt relief by placing suitable guardians 
 over the property in danger. In this case all 
 the testimony goes to prove that the ship was 
 in the finest order, and Mr. Gordon, the con- 
 signee, testified that the plaintiff had not 
 drawn any unreasonable sums of money, that 
 he had never seen him drunk, and had no 
 complaint to make against him. This whole 
 difficulty has grown out of the contempt the 
 consul had for our laws, our courts, and our 
 
 public officers, disputing from the first the 
 jurisdiction, and defying their authority, and 
 in this he embarked young Chilton. 
 
 RULE FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT. 
 
 Richard H. Chinn, esq., appeared on behalf 
 of Richard H. Chilton, reading his answer : 
 
 Mr. Chinn insisted that the suit having been 
 discontinued, the cause was out of court; that 
 its power to punish for contempt was confined 
 to the officers of the court, and to acts com- 
 mitted by others in the presence or immediate 
 neighborhood of the court, and that there was 
 a special provision in the act of Congress re- 
 gulating proceedings in case of interference 
 with the marshal elsewhere in the performance 
 of his duties j which was by indictment by the 
 grand jury, and trial after such indictment for 
 a criminal offence ; and he supported this doc- 
 trine by alluding to the act of Congress passed 
 2d March, 1831, which provides — 
 
 Sec. 1. Be it enacted, &c., That the power 
 of the several courts of the United States to 
 issue attachments and inflict summary punish- 
 ments for contempt of court, shall not be con- 
 sidered to extend to any cases except the mis- 
 behavior of any person or persons in the pre- 
 sence of the said courts, or so near thereto as 
 to obstruct the administration of justice, the 
 misbehavior of any of the officers of said courts, 
 party, juror, witness, or any other person or 
 persons, to any lawful suit, process, order, rule 
 decree, or command of said courts. 
 
 Sec. 2. That if any person or persons shall, 
 corruptly, or by threats or force, endeavor to 
 influence, intimidate, or impede any juror, wit- 
 ness, or officer in any court of the United 
 States in the discharge of his duty, or shall 
 corruptly, or by threats or force, obstruct or 
 impede, or endeavor to obstruct or impede the 
 due administration of justice therein, every 
 person or persons so offending shall be liable 
 to prosecution therefor by indictment, and 
 shall, on conviction thereof, be punished by 
 fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by 
 imprisonment not exceeding three months, or 
 both, according to the nature and aggravation 
 of the offence. This law was passed on 30th 
 April, 1790. Section 23. See EngersolFs 
 Abridgement, page 494. 
 
 By the following proceedings in the United 
 States court, it will be perceived that the Hon. 
 Judge McCaleb excused these men from con- 
 tempt, on their own affidavits that they did not 
 mean any contempt of the court. It was lucky 
 for them that I was not judge. Had I been, 
 the clerk should have been dismissed, and the 
 whole of them imprisoned and punished to the 
 extent of the law. 
 Thomas H. Holderness, et al. } U. S. District 
 
 vs. > Court. 
 
 The British Bark Aldebaran. J May 19, 1845. 
 
 The rule taken in this cause, as continued 
 from the 7th instant, against the clerk and
 
 YORK VERSUS CHILTON. 
 
 261 
 
 others, to sbow cause why they should not be 
 punished for a contempt, came on this day for 
 trial, and the following parties, defendants, ap- 
 peared : 
 
 John Winthrop and John Claiborne in pro- 
 pria persona presented their answer, duly 
 sworn to, which was ordered to be filed. 
 
 N. R. Jennings, represented by R. N. Ogden, 
 esq., William Mure, represented by William 
 Christy, and R. H. Chilton, by A. H. Chinn, 
 esq., all of whom presented their answers, 
 duly sworn to, which were accordingly filed. 
 The argument of the parties and their counsel 
 being heard, the court, having considered the 
 answers of defendants, was satisfied that no 
 contempt of court was intended by the de- 
 fendants. Therefore, the rule is dismissed, re- 
 serving to the parties all the rights in civil 
 action, if any wrong has been done, to which 
 they may be entitled. 
 
 THEO. H. McCALEB. 
 
 In the case of the chronometer, the defend 
 ant himself determined to remove it beyond 
 the jurisdiction of the court, and swore that he 
 had good reason to believe that the chronome- 
 ter would be removed beyond the jurisdiction 
 of the court, meaning that it would be removed 
 by plaintiff. 
 
 No loss proved, said the counsel. Does he 
 consider the loss of one-third of the cabin 
 passage money of a ship of 600 tons nothing? 
 Does he consider the loss of one-half the cabin 
 freight of such a ship nothing? Does he con- 
 sider the loss of all the other perquisites 
 nothing? Does he consider the loss of em- 
 ployment nothing? Does he consider the loss 
 of professional reputation nothing? Does he 
 consider having his trunks broken open and 
 rifled of their contents nothing? Does he 
 consider the expense of the prosecution of the 
 various suits nothing? The successful defence 
 of those suits justifies his having defended 
 them, and the result of the employment of able 
 counsel; and was it not the illegal acts of the 
 defendant that involved him in this expensive 
 litigation? and do not the laws of Louisiana 
 say that "He who does another an injui'y shall 
 be liable to such other for such injury?" He 
 had to procure professional assistance in the 
 defence, and had the aid of Mr. Latour, Judge 
 Lacy, Judge Bullard, Mr. Soule, Mr. Frost, 
 Mr. Gaither, and Mr. Barker; and the supreme 
 court say he is bound to pay his counsel ; and 
 what estimate does the gentleman put on the 
 value of their services in such a protracted 
 litigation, when he says five hundred dollars 
 was the most the jury should have allowed? 
 
 My friend Roselius wished me to discuss 
 with him sundry law authorities; preferring to 
 deal in facts I left that field with himself, in 
 which he has been so justly conspicuous. 
 Confiding in your honor's knowledge of the 
 law, I did not think either of us could en- 
 lighten you thereon. Besides, all the time of 
 .the court which was proper for me to use on 
 
 the occasion was required in bringing to its 
 view matters having a direct bearing on the 
 issue. 
 
 I was very sorry that I could not remain in 
 court during his four hours' display. I am 
 always delighted when listening to the elo- 
 quence of that giant in the legal profession. 
 My other engagements imperiously demanded 
 my attention elsewhere, and I was compelled 
 to make the sacrifice. He dwelt at length on 
 my want of consideration for his law authorities. 
 
 My friend should have remembered that it 
 was little David who slew Goliah. 
 
 No malice, say the gentlemen. What said 
 the Supreme Court in the case of Barker vs. 
 York, et als.1 I beg leave to refer your honor, 
 for its opinion, to 3d Ann., p. 90. That court 
 said : 
 
 "The relations of counsel and client are too 
 sacred, too confidential, too important, to be 
 endangered by the presence of any adverse 
 interest. The plaintiff was employed by York, 
 who is bound to pay him. In the relentless 
 war carried on against him by Chilton, York 
 threw himself upon his legal rights. His 
 interests, to say nothing of his passions, re- 
 quired that he should be reinstated or main- 
 tained in the command of the barque. But 
 the defendant's interests? In respect to them, 
 we only feel ourselves called upon to say, that 
 they were not identical with those which were 
 avowedly maintained on behalf of York; in- 
 deed, under a full view of the critical and 
 embarrassing circumstances with which those 
 interests were surrounded, we consider them 
 to have been in conflict with the course which 
 York felt himself at liberty to adopt for the 
 protection of what he considered to be his 
 legal rights-" 
 
 Has not this relentless war continued down 
 to the present day? Was there no motive in 
 insisting on putting in that vile letter from 
 the consul to the Earl of Aberdeen? The 
 pretence that the plaintiff had originally called 
 for this letter, was not any excuse for intro- 
 ducing it a second and third time, after its 
 contents were known. 
 
 It was claimed that the consul's conduct had 
 been approved by his government. It was im- 
 possible to know how to estimate such ap- 
 proval, without knowing on what representa- 
 tion it had been made. To meet this objec- 
 tion, the consul's letter was originally pro- 
 duced. Its introduction as testimony has ever 
 since been strenuously resisted by plaintiff. 
 Was there no malice in introducing it on this 
 trial? Was there no malice in the defendant, 
 reading it himself to the jury, adopting and 
 confirming all the relations of the drunken 
 sailors, (hearsay testimony,) detailed by the 
 consul, as also all the consul had said iu that 
 letter? Your honor heard him tell the jury, 
 after reading to them the letter and the con- 
 sul's testimony, that it contained the whole 
 case. And you heard him, after reading the
 
 262 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 record in Scott's suit, say to the jury, that after 
 Scott had got judgment against York, the 
 scamp would not pay, when the record proved 
 that he had promptly paid, and, no doubt, 
 before leaving court. 
 
 What were the facts ? The vessel, with the 
 nautical instruments, charts and baggage of the 
 captain, was, in effect, although not in the 
 legal possession of Scott and his drunken 
 witnesses, from which he knew the $24, for 
 which he had obtained judgment, could be in- 
 stantly made on an execution, with which the 
 officer might have accompanied him to the 
 barque, there found ten times the amount due. 
 Hence no truth in the averment that " said 
 Wm. B. York is about to depart permanently 
 from the State without leaving in it sufficient 
 property to satisfy his demand, and that he 
 does not take this oath with the intention of 
 vexing said Wm. B. York, but only in order 
 to secure his demand." The object of which 
 was to imprison and disgrace Captain York, 
 in which he was disappointed, by the payment 
 of the money before the writ of arrest was ex- 
 ecuted, as the record produced in evidence by 
 the defendant proves. 
 
 The counsel for the defendant says the ac- 
 tion of defendant was without malice, and 
 endeavors to establish it by asking the opinion 
 of his partner and of his lawyer. Was there 
 ever such improper testimony before offered in 
 any court? It is the opinion of the jury, made 
 up, under the obligation of their respective 
 oaths, from the facts proven in the case, and 
 the testimony which is to govern your honor's 
 decision, and not the opinion of outsiders. 
 Your honor, on the former trial, heard the 
 counsel for the defendant justify the breaking 
 open and robbing of the trunks of the plaintiff, 
 by Scott, to pay himself a debt which he said 
 was due him by the plaintiff, which, said the 
 counsel, he had a moral although not a legal 
 right to do. He said this to the jury, knowing 
 that all accounts between Scott and York had 
 been litigated in the said suit, and resulted in 
 a judgment in favor of Scott for all he claimed, 
 and which had been promptly paid. Was there 
 no malice in this ? What better evidence can 
 there be than continuing to dispute that the 
 chronometer belonged to plaintiff? Your honor 
 heard what the counsel on the former trial said 
 about the plaiutiff having gone to Mexico to 
 purchase stock for the California market, and 
 about his boarding at the house of a colored 
 woman. I will not repeat what I know your 
 honor must recollect. Was there no malice in 
 this ? Was there no malice in attempting to 
 swear away the plaintiff's character as a ship- 
 master? Is there not malice in the continued 
 attempts to impugn the character of plaintiff? 
 Is there not malice in the unprovoked assaults 
 on the counsel of plaintiff, evidently to drive 
 him from sustaining the plaintiff's cause? 
 What possible object could there have been 
 for the oath by which the chronometer was 
 
 wrested from the possession of plaintiff other 
 than to wound the feelings and injure the re- 
 putation of the plaintiff? It was not necessary 
 to preserve the discipline of the ship or for the 
 dispatch of business. No dispute or question 
 had arisen as to its ownership ; no attempt to 
 misuse it or to remove it from its proper rest- 
 ing place, its value too insignificant to have 
 induced any such a harsh step to protect the 
 property from theft. 
 
 Was there no malice in writing scandalous 
 rhymes with the view of inducing counsel to 
 abandon plaintiff's cause, disparaging Captain 
 York as a ship master? Neither Mr. Barker's 
 innocent grand children, in their infancy, nor 
 his back parlor escaped the assaults of defend- 
 ant, and yet your honor is asked to believe all 
 was done without malice ! Those scandalous 
 rhymes were not made a part of the pleading, 
 therefore not allowed in evidence, yet, as your 
 honor was furnished by defendant during the 
 former trial with a printed copy, your honor 
 knows their import. 
 
 The defendant might as well attempt to dis- 
 enthral himself from his other sins, without 
 repentance, as to establish that every step he 
 has taken since he first embarked has not been 
 malicious — has not been from a determination 
 to triumph at the expense of faith, honor, 
 truth, and the rights of all others. 
 
 Infatuated with the doctrine that the king 
 could do no wrong — hence that the queen 
 could do no wrong, and that, as a matter of 
 course, her consul could do no wrong, for 
 Mure was a Scotchman, and Scott was a 
 Scotchman, and therefore to be sustained, right 
 or wrong, they resolved to set all your laws, 
 your courts, your public officers, and your 
 private citizens at defiance. These men must 
 be taught that they cannot do so in these United 
 States, so long as the stars and stripes wave 
 over her halls of justice. 
 
 The counsel for defendant denied the impri- 
 sonment charged in the petition, and said that 
 the plaintiff had been twice arrested and im- 
 prisoned on other charges by Scott, for drunk- 
 enness and disorderly conduct. He must have 
 been instructed by defendant to say so, as there 
 is not a word in the testimony to justify such 
 an allegation; no such complaints were ever 
 made against the plaintiff, nor did any such ar- 
 rests take place; if it had been otherwise, 
 would it not have been the duty of defendant 
 to have produced proofs from the public re- 
 cords in support of the charge, or some other 
 evidence of the arrest or imprisonment? They 
 brought into this court the record of the suit 
 of Scott vs. York, for the purpose of impeach- 
 ing the oath of plaintiff because drunken 
 sailors had sworn differently; the record did 
 not furnish any such testimony, to supply which 
 the officer was examined. The record should 
 have been considered to contain the whole case. 
 
 I would ask if there^was no malice in this? 
 
 Mr. Mure, in his dispatch to Lord Aberdeen,
 
 YORK VERSUS CHILTON. 
 
 263 
 
 complains that Mr. Barker said the ratification 
 by the owner was obtained on his (Mure's) ex- 
 parte representation. Whether the representa- 
 tion was made by Mure or Chilton, is a mere 
 matter of moonshine; they were so intimately 
 connected in every stage of the business, that 
 no one will suppose that either acted without 
 the privity and approbation of the other. Mr. 
 Mure does not say that Chilton did not apply 
 for the ratification, ac his instance, or on his 
 statement of facts ; all he says is, that his first 
 letter was dated on the 3d of May, therefore 
 that no letter could have been read from him 
 until a fortnight after the ratification. That 
 the application was ex-parte is certain ; and, 
 judging from Mr. Mure's statement to Lord 
 Aberdeen, such statement must have been a 
 most extraordinary affair, which we have not 
 as yet been permitted to see. 
 
 A certain pamphlet, said to have been circu- 
 lated by Mr. Barker, was made a matter of 
 great complaint by Mr. Mure, in his testimony 
 and in his dispatch to Lord Aberdeen, and is 
 referred to in his lordship's dispatch. Why did 
 not the gentleman produce the pamphlet and 
 allow the jury to form an opinion for them- 
 selves thereon? 
 
 The British government did not consider the 
 pamphlets of any importance, and refused to 
 enter into any investigation of the consul's 
 conduct, telling Captain York that he had not 
 made any distinct charges against him. 
 
 " Captain York's complaint to the British gov- 
 ernment. 
 "New Orleans, May 20, 1845. 
 
 u Honored Sir: Will your lordship be pleased 
 to peruse the accompanying pamphlet, touch- 
 ing the conduct of Wm. Mure, esq., her Britan- 
 nic Majesty's consul at New Orleans, to the end 
 that if his conduct therein should not be ap- 
 proved by the authorities at home, he be re- 
 moved from office? 
 
 " I, as a native born subject of her Majesty, 
 late commander of a barque sailing under her 
 royal colors, and owned by her faithful subjects, 
 respectfully ask an inquiry into this matter as 
 an act of justice. 
 
 " The original letters from Mr. Mure and Mr. 
 Chilton as her Majesty's subjects, of which 
 copies are put forth in the pamphlet of Mr. 
 Stringer, of this place, are in my possession, 
 ready to be produced if their authenticity 
 should be disputed. 
 
 " I have, &c, 
 
 "W. B. YORK, 
 Late master of the British barque 
 
 Aldebaran, of Liverpool." 
 
 11 Reply of the British government. 
 "Foreign Office, June 24, 1845. 
 "Sir: I am directed by the Earl of Aber- 
 deen to acknowledge the receipt of a letter ad- 
 
 dressed by you to Sir Robert Peel, dated the 
 20th ultimo, requesting that an inquiry be 
 made into the conduct of Mr. Mure, her Majes- 
 ty's consul at New Orleans, and that, if his 
 conduct be not approved, he may be removed 
 from office ; and I am to state to you, in reply, 
 that as no distinct charge is made by you 
 against Mr. Mure, Lord Aberdeen is not able 
 to enter into an investigation of the merits of 
 your complaint, and that the pamphlet which 
 you inclose does not appear to call for any 
 notice from his lordship. 
 
 "I am to add that no complaint has been 
 made to Lord Aberdeen against Mr. Consul 
 Mure by the owners either of the ' Aldebaran ' 
 or of the cargo. 
 
 " I am, sir, your most obedient, humble ser- 
 vant, 
 
 " CANNING." 
 
 The plaintiff has done everything in his 
 power to expedite the proceedings in this case; 
 he has not taken out any foreign commission. 
 When the peremptory exceptions were filed in 
 the case of Barker vs. York and others, he 
 agreed that the decision in that case should 
 govern this. When that case was appealed, 
 he agreed to suspend this suit until that was 
 decided, and that whatever points of law 
 should be thereby established, should be ap- 
 plicable to this suit. He also agreed that all 
 the evidence in the case of Barker vs. York 
 should be used in this case. He never de- 
 manded a jury; the defendant originally de- 
 manded a jury, which he on a subsequent trial 
 waived. When the plaintiff urged his honor 
 Judge Buchanan to try the case without a 
 jury, the Supreme Court having said that it 
 was a fit case to be determined by a jury, 
 "whose peculiar province it is to terminate 
 questions of damages of this nature," the 
 judge required there should be a jury. The 
 defendants refused to advance the fees ; to 
 obtain a trial, the plaintiff had to do so. The 
 jury were empannelled. At the close of the 
 testimony, his honor, the judge, charged, 
 among other things, that if the plaintiff had 
 not made out all the points of his complaint 
 against the defendant, the verdict must be for 
 the defendant. Notwithstanding this, as I con- 
 sider, erroneous doctrine, the jury found for 
 the plaintiff. 
 
 The defendant demanded and obtained a 
 decree for a new trial. Before it could take 
 place, his honor, Judge Buchanan, was ele- 
 vated to the Supreme Court, when your honor 
 was elected by your fellow-citizens to till the 
 vacancy ; and when the case was called in the 
 court calendar, the defendant's counsel, to 
 gain time, renewed their application for a jury, 
 which was resisted by the plaintiff, on the 
 ground that a former application for a jury by 
 defendant had been withdrawn. To transfer it 
 at that late period to the jury docket would 
 carry the case over another year before it could 
 be tried — insisting that he had the right to
 
 264 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 have it tried by the court. Your honor, how- 
 ever, granted the application for a jury, be- 
 cause the Supreme Court had spoken of it as 
 being the peculiar province of a jury to ter- 
 minate such matters. The case came on the 
 following year, on which the jury could not 
 agree. It again came on, when the plaintiff 
 proposed to dispense with a jury, and to try it 
 before the court, which proposition was rejected 
 by defendant, when a jury was empannelled, 
 who rendered the verdict from which this appeal 
 was taken, to disturb which would be fraught 
 with incalculable mischief. 
 
 The defendant's counsel have had much to 
 say about the many juries that have had this 
 case under consideration ; your honor will 
 bear in mind that no jury, who have ever been 
 allowed to hear the testimony, have made a 
 decision unfavorable to the plaintiff, and that 
 the case has never been before the Supreme 
 Court since it decided what testimony should 
 be received and what rejected. 
 
 Your honor recollects how strenuously Mr. 
 Barker opposed the introduction of the corre- 
 spondence between Mr. Mure and Lord Aber- 
 deen, and particularly tbe abusive letter of Mr. 
 Mure. It had not anything more to do with 
 the points at issue in this case than the 
 writings of Eugene Sue or other tales of 
 fiction. 
 
 All parties who questioned the authority of 
 her British Majesty's consul to displace cap- 
 tains of British ships by virtue of his official 
 station, incurred his deadly hostility ; hence 
 the relentless war on Mr. Barker as well as on 
 Captain York. Mr. Barker has fought against 
 British presumption and arrogance for more 
 than fifty years, and does not intend to haul 
 down his flag on this side of the grave. 
 
 Having established all the charges made in 
 the petition, I will proceed to the examination 
 of the correspondence of Mr. Mure with the 
 British government — a performance of a pain- 
 ful duty, which these gentlemen imposed upon 
 me, by insisting on the introduction of the 
 letter from Mr. Mure to Lord Aberdeen. 
 
 I admonished these gentlemen against so 
 rash a proceeding ; they would not heed my 
 advice — therefore, they must abide the conse- 
 quences. 
 
 Letter from Wm. Mure, H. B. M. Consul, to 
 to the Rigid Honorable the Earl of Aber- 
 deen, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 
 British Consulate, 
 New Orleans, June 16, 1845. 
 My Lord: I take the liberty of laying 
 before your lordship a statement of facts in 
 relation to the British barque Aldebaran and the 
 late commander, Captain York, which, in conse- 
 quence of the unprecedented course pursued 
 by the captain and his legal adviser, has been 
 the cause of a great deal of anxiety and 
 trouble in the discharge of my official duties. 
 I had hoped to have spared your lordship the 
 
 necessity of this communication, the more 
 especially as the course which I pursued was 
 sanctioned by the accredited agent of the 
 owner in this city, (Mr. R. H. Chilton,) and 
 his proceeding's as well as my own have since 
 been ratified by the owners themselves, Messrs. 
 Holderness & Chilton, Liverpool. From the 
 pertinacity, however, with which Captain York 
 has opposed my authority, and the misrepre- 
 sentations and garbled statements made by Mr. 
 Jacob Barker, his counsel, which have been 
 printed in pamphlets, and reiterated again 
 and again in the newspapers, I have been re- 
 commended by Mr. Paekenham, whom I ad- 
 vised on the subject, to furnish your lord- 
 ship with a detailed statement of the circum- 
 stances of the case. 
 
 The British barque Aldebaran, belonging to 
 Thomas Hunter Holderness, of the firm of 
 Holderness & Chilton, Liverpool, arrived here 
 from the port of Hull about the Hhb of March, 
 and soon after his (Captain York's) arrival he 
 lodged a complaint with me against his first 
 officer, James Scott, for alledged disobedience 
 of orders. On the 13th of March I entered 
 upon an investigation of the complaint, having 
 notified James Scott to attend to answer the 
 charge made against him. Mr. Scott accord- 
 ingly appeared, and Captain York was accom- 
 panied by Edward Mason, second mate, Wm. 
 Williams, William Knight, George Ritchie, 
 and James Seenior, seamen on board said ves- 
 sel. The captain also produced his loo-book. 
 I perceived that some of the men were groggy, 
 and the captain himself labored under the ex- 
 citement of strong drink, and after examining 
 them upon oath, I found that the captain had 
 suborned them, and had promised them a re- 
 ward if they would testify against Scott. I 
 also learned that the entry made in the log- 
 book, on the 27th of February, which was 
 produced in support of the charge against 
 Scott, was written upon the slate by the cap- 
 tain, and that Edward Mason, the second mate, 
 was ordered to insert it, exactly as the captain 
 had written it, and forbidden to alter a word of 
 it at the peril of his life. Edward Mason then 
 testified upon oath that the said was not cor- 
 rect or true in many particulars, and that he 
 had written it under fear of the captain. After 
 examining the rest of the witnesses, also under 
 oath, I found the charge of the captain against 
 the mate to be frivolous and unfounded, and 
 that unless Mr. Scott was willing to take hi3 dis- 
 charge from the vessel (a course which I some- 
 times recommend for the sake of peace) I could 
 not compell him to be discharged. Mr. Scott 
 stated that under the circumstances he could 
 not consent to leave the vessel, as that would 
 be tantamount to a confession that he was in 
 the wrong, and might ruin his prospects for 
 life. Upon this the captain became extremely 
 violent and abusive in his language; he threat- 
 ened to force the mate ashore at the peril of 
 his life, whether I agreed or not, and with an
 
 YORK VERSUS CHILTON. 
 
 265 
 
 oath and most indecorous language, told me 
 u that if I was consul he would show me that 
 he was captain of the ship." Learning that 
 this was his first voyage as captain, I en- 
 deavored to reason with him upon the impro- 
 priety of his conduct: exhibited to him the act 
 of Parliament of Tlh and 8th Vict., cap. 112 ; 
 pointed out to him the penalties he would in- 
 flict upon himself and the owners by perse- 
 vereuce iu such a course of conduct ; and, as 
 he was very much excited, I gave him a week 
 to consider of this matter. In the meantime, 
 in order to prevent bloodshed, which I was 
 apprehensive might follow if Mr. Scott perse- 
 vered in his intention of returning to the ves- 
 sel, I recommended him to go to a boarding- 
 house and remain passive for the time I had 
 specified. About a week after this examina- 
 tion I found he (the captain) was not only in- 
 tractable, but had also displaced his second 
 mate, Edward Mason, and had threatened to 
 force on shore the whole of his crew. On the 
 26th of March the crew appeared in a body at 
 my office and made a complaint against the 
 captain for having threatened the lives of some 
 of them, and in particular of having assaulted 
 John Lever and William Whitton without pro- 
 vocation, and of having pulled out a loaded 
 pistol upon Francis Mennill, the steward. The 
 crew stated that the captain was in the habit 
 of being frequently intoxicated, laboring under 
 the excitement of which he was so violent that 
 they apprehended danger to their lives. I told 
 the crew to return to the ship to their duty, 
 and I then notified the captain to attend at the 
 consulate office and give an account of his ex- 
 traordinary conduct. 
 
 To this, however, he paid no attention. On 
 the 31st of March the whole crew again ap- 
 peared at my office and stated that on the pre- 
 vious evening (Sunday 30th) the captain, who 
 was very much intoxicated, had gone forward 
 to ihe forecastle and stripped off his coat and 
 vtst and challenged the crew to fight him, one 
 after another, and on their refusal to take any 
 notice of him, he had pulled out a loaded pistol 
 and threatened with oaths that " if the consul 
 would not allow him to make a clean sweep of 
 them, he would do for them when he got to 
 sea." This testimony was coroborated by 
 Cornwall Meek, the cook, who has been thirty 
 years at sea, ten of which he was in the em- 
 ployment of the same owners, Messrs. Holder- 
 ness & Chilton. He adds that during all the 
 time he had been at sea he had never seen any 
 captain conduct himself in the same disgrace- 
 ful manner as Captain York. The crew there, 
 one and all, protested against returning with 
 the captain, as they were now deprived of the 
 countenance of the first and second officers, 
 whose presence might have been some protec- 
 tion against the violence of the captain, who 
 had apparently produced a feeling amongst the 
 crew almost amounting to mutiny. 
 
 I again notified the captain, on the 3d April, 
 
 to attend at the consulate office and produce 
 his log-book, in which application I was 
 seconded by Mr. R. H. Chilton, the agent, 
 whom I had apprized of Captain York's irre- 
 gularities and who promised to attend at the 
 time specified, and consult with me what was 
 best to be done in this emergency. To this 
 summons Captain York again paid no atten- 
 tion ; but meeting me accidentally a few days 
 afterwards in the street, attacked me with the 
 most opprobrious epithets, and employed the 
 most insulting language. The vessel being 
 chartered, I then applied to the agent of the 
 charterers, Messrs. Gordon, Wylie, & Co., 
 who, however, declined interfering, as thej 
 said they had nothing to do with the captain 
 or the discipline of the vessel, their responsi- 
 bility merely consisting in giving a certain 
 number of bales of cotton at a certain freight. 
 Upon consulting again with Mr. Chilton, I 
 suggested that the only course left was to re- 
 sort to the unusual step of superseding Capt. 
 York in the command of that vessel, in order 
 to preserve the property of the owners, to pre- 
 vent the forfeiture of the insurance, and, at 
 the same time, the expense of sending the 
 whole crew to Hull, which would have been 
 considerable, as there were no vessels loading 
 for that port at the time. Accordingly, on the 
 10th April, Mr. R. H. Chilton forwarded me a 
 letter, of which the following is a copy : 
 
 New Orleans, April 10, 1845. 
 
 Sir: As you have apprized me of the con- 
 duct of Captain York of the barque Alde- 
 baran, since his arrival in port, by which he 
 appears to have lost all discipline on board the 
 said vessel, occasioned by his irregularities and 
 misconduct towards the chief officer and others, 
 I concur with you in opinion, that it is abso- 
 lutely necessary for the interest of his owners, 
 my particular friends in Liverpool and Hull, 
 to supersede the command of the captain at 
 present, and I shall agree, upon the part of the 
 owners, to provide the said Captain York with 
 a passage to England, agreeably to the act of 
 Parliament. 
 
 In the meantime, I shall look out for a com- 
 petent captain to take charge of the vessel. 
 I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 R. H. CHILTON. 
 William Mure, esq., H. B. M. consul : 
 
 Captain York was notified of this by Mr. 
 Chilton, and Mr. Scott, the mate, was placed 
 in temporary command, until Mr. Chilton could 
 find a trustworthy and competent person to 
 take command of the vessel. A few days 
 thereafter, Mr. Chilton introduced to me a Cap- 
 tain Benjamin Turner, who exhibited to me 
 credentials of the very highest character, and 
 he was accordingly placed in command of 
 the vessel by Mr. Chilton, with my consent. 
 Captain York at first succumbed to his dis- 
 placement ; but in consequence of a morbid 
 sympathy created amongst a few of the British
 
 266 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 shipmasters, some of whom were his convivial 
 companions, he was induced to make applica- 
 tion to several lawyers for advice. None of 
 them, however, of any respectability would in- 
 terfere in the matter, but, unfortunately, he 
 was obliged to place his case in the hands of 
 Mr. Jacob Barker, who has rendered himself 
 notorious on former occasions. 
 
 On the 14th of April, Mr. Barker addressed 
 a letter to me, notifying me that it was Captain 
 York's determination to apply to the courts of 
 the United States to reinstate him in command 
 of the vessel, and required to know upon what 
 authority he was superseded. To this I simply 
 replied, on the same date, by stating that Cap- 
 tain York had been superseded in consequence 
 of the gross irregularities of his conduct, with 
 the sanction of the accredited agent of the 
 owners, and declining any further explanation 
 regarding my authority as her Majesty's con- 
 sul, in sanctioning the dismissal of a British 
 captain. 
 
 It appears that Mr. Barker being at a loss 
 what steps to take, recommended Mr. York to 
 muster a sufficient number of men, and take 
 possession of the vessel by force. On the fol- 
 lowing day, the 15th April, Captain York, 
 along with some eight or ten individuals, forci- 
 bly entered the cabin of the vessel, and inti- 
 mated his intention of retaining possession by 
 force, and turning the whole crew adrift. Mr. 
 Chilton, who happened to be on board at the 
 time, fearing from the menacing language em- 
 ployed by the captain that a breach of the 
 peace would ensue, repaired to the recorder's 
 office, and made an affidavit to that effect. The 
 recorder issued his warrant for the apprehen- 
 sion of Captain York, who was immediately 
 liberated on bail, and the cause came for trial 
 on 17th April. Mr. Barker, who had appeared 
 in the recorder's court, induced the recorder, 
 who was merely a committing magistrate, to 
 enter upon an irrelevant examination as to the 
 ownership of the barque and the authority of 
 the agent, against which Mr. Chilton, at the re- 
 quest of his counsel, protested, and withdrew 
 from the court. Although Mr. Chilton had 
 been acting for some years as the authorized 
 agent of the owners, in the management of 
 this and several other vessels belonging to the 
 firm of Holderness & Chilton, and although 
 Captain York had recognized his authority up 
 to the hour of dismissal, yet, having no special 
 written power of attorney from the individual 
 owners, but merely a general letter of autho- 
 rity from the firm, it became evident from the 
 course matters were taking, that considerable 
 difficulty would be experienced in getting the 
 vessel to sea, and as might be expected, on 
 19th of April, the recorder dismissed the com- 
 plaint. 
 
 Being extremely desirous to avoid any 
 damage to the interest of the owners by delay- 
 ing the vessel longer in port than was neces- 
 sary to complete her cargo, I had, in the in- 
 
 terim, been using my utmost endeavors to 
 effect an arrangement by which Mr. York 
 might be reinstated in the nominal command 
 of the vessel, and thus give him an opportunity 
 of redeeming himself. I had several inter- 
 views with Captain Turner, then in command, 
 with a view of persuading him to assume the 
 position of mate or first officer. Finding the 
 crew had great confidence in his management, 
 I had some hopes of inducing them to return 
 to the vessel notwithstanding all that had 
 passed. After some little demur, I succeeded 
 in my efforts, and persuaded all the crew, with 
 the exception of two, to remain by the vessel. 
 Mr. Barker, deeming Captain York's disgrace- 
 ful language towards myself required some 
 apology, induced him to sign a letter which he 
 had penned, retracting the offensive expres- 
 sions, which, however, I told him was unneces- 
 sary, as I did not allow my private feelings to 
 interfere with my public duties. On mention- 
 ing the terms of the compromise to Mr. Chil- 
 ton, and pointing out the difficulties of the 
 case, in consequence of the interference of the 
 recorder's court with the question of agency 
 and consulate authority, he concurred in the 
 proposed arrangement. I then waited upon 
 A. G. Gordon, the agent of the charterers, who 
 also, at once, gave consent. 
 
 Mr. Barker was again and again made cog- 
 nizant of the terms of the proposed arrange- 
 ment, and made no objection to Mr. Turner 
 remaining as mate, although your lordship will 
 see in the sequel that Mr. Barker had deter- 
 mined that his client, Mr. York, should violate 
 the very essence of the arrangement upon 
 which he was permitted to reassume that com- 
 mand which his conduct had so shamefully 
 forfeited. 
 
 This course of leniency is the only point I 
 can take blame to myself for having urged. If 
 I could have anticipated the faithless manner 
 and unprincipled conduct with which this act 
 of clemency would have been met, I would 
 have hesitated before I would have urged Mr. 
 Chilton to have adopted such a course. Your 
 lordship will, however, I trust appreciate the 
 motive, and see the difficulties with which the 
 case was surrounded. 
 
 The very first act of Capt. York, on getting 
 on board, was again to turn adrift the whole 
 crew, who came up to my office. Being heartily 
 tired of the whole proceedings, and being at a 
 loss what to do in the matter, I desired them 
 to go to Mr. Chilton and seek for redress. It 
 appears that Mr. Chilton, on ascertaining the 
 extraordinary course persevered in by Captain 
 York, repaired to the office of his counsel, Mr. 
 John Winthrop, for advice, who recommended 
 him, as a dernier resort, to libel the vessel 
 in the United States court of admiralty, 
 and at the same time to request my con- 
 currence in the proceedings, which, by the 
 laws of the United States, was necessary, as 
 this was the only court which could take cog-
 
 YORK VERSUS CHILTON. 
 
 267 
 
 nizance of a case involving the rights of owners 
 of British ships. I had no hesitation in giving 
 mv sanction to the proceedings. I mention 
 this fact particularly to your lordship, because 
 Mr. Barker, in an iiiflamatory article published 
 in one of the newspapers, says that this sanc- 
 tion was unnecessary, and denounces my con- 
 duct as a piece of tyrannical oppression. I take 
 the liberty of referring your lordship to a copy 
 of a letter from Mr. Winthrop addressed to me, 
 in which he points out the particular law in 
 question. On the vessel being loaded, Mr. 
 Chilton made application to the collector of 
 the port, who, under the advice of the United 
 States district attorney, cleared the vessel 
 under the command of Captain Benjamin 
 Turner. The shippers of the cargo took their 
 bills of lading, and the agent of the charterers 
 took his bill of exchange for the disbursements 
 of the vessel ; thus all parties interested recog- 
 nized the captain in his official capacity. Not- 
 withstanding all this the vessel was attached 
 on several different occasions at the suit of 
 York and Barker himself, the latter having 
 made a claim of $1,000 against the owners as 
 his fees as counsel for Captain York. He also 
 instituted a suit against Mr. Chilton for $10,000 
 damages. In spite of all these annoyous ob- 
 structions, Mr. Chilton succeeded, with great 
 exertion, and after incurring considerable ex- 
 pense, in getting the vessel to sea, on the 28th 
 April, in command of Captain Turner, along 
 with the whole crew of the vessel, not one of 
 whom had deserted the vessel, and who, so far 
 as I could learn, under trying circumstances 
 discharged their duties with punctuality and 
 fidelity. 
 
 Immediately on the departure of the vessel, 
 Mr. Barker, who seemed to have felt mortified 
 and chagrined at the result, and to have made 
 a personal matter of his client's case, resorted to 
 the most extraordinary proceedings for the 
 purpose of harassing myself and Mr. Chilton. 
 
 Under cover of an anonymous publication, 
 professing to give a report of proceedings, 
 which he (Barker) avows or disavows at his 
 pleasure, he has perverted the facts, and in- 
 troduced statements as correct reports of his 
 speeches which he never uttered in court, mis- 
 represented and falsified the conversation with 
 myself, and indeed has distorted the whole facts 
 of the case in a manner which has astounded 
 me. I am at a loss to conceive what object 
 he can have in view in thus continuing to in- 
 vent facts and publish calumnies. His male- 
 volence in this respect has become more con- 
 spicuous since the receipt of a letter from 
 Messrs. Holderness & Chilton, addressed to 
 me, transmitting an especial power of attorney 
 by Mr. Thomas Hunter Holderness in favor of 
 Mr. R, H. Chilton, of which letter the following 
 is a copy. This letter having been written by 
 the father of defendant was ruled out and not 
 read to the jury. 
 
 It appears that Mr. Chilton, when he was 
 apprised of the irregularities and misconduct 
 of Captain York, had written to the owner, re- 
 questing that a special power of attorney should 
 be transmitted to him. 
 
 Mr. Barker, however, is pleased to say that 
 the full recognition of Mr. Chilton and of the 
 act done by him in consenting to the super 
 seding of Captain York, was obtained at my 
 request, and upon ex parte statement furnished 
 by me, although I did not write them at all 
 until the 3d May, and therefore my letter could 
 not possibly have reached them for a fortnight 
 afterwards. This allegation of Mr. Barker is 
 in accordance with many others of a similar 
 nature and requires no comment. 
 
 There are other minor points and statements 
 made and alluded to by Mr. Barker, upon which 
 I forbear troubling your lordship with com- 
 ments. Indeed I regret the necessity of the 
 present lengthened communication. Had his 
 statements been confined to his locality, where 
 he is so well known, I would not have troubled 
 myself or intruded upon your lordship's valu- 
 able time by rebutting them. There is but one 
 opinion among the British or American mer- 
 chants, many of whom had volunteered to ad- 
 dress me a letter for the purpuse of being 
 transmitted to you, but I deemed this unneces- 
 sary, preferring to leave to your lordship's 
 judgment the plain statement of facts now 
 made, from which your lordship will readily 
 perceive that imperative necessity impelled me 
 to the course I pursued for the protection of 
 the British merchants and the preservation of 
 their property. 
 
 I have the honor to be, my lord, your lord- 
 ship's, &c, 
 
 WM. MURE. 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Aberdeen, B. G. 
 
 I hereby certify that the above is a correct 
 copy of my dispatch to Lord Aberdeen, copied 
 from the records in my office. 
 
 WM. MURE, 
 H. B. M. consul. 
 New Orleans, Marcli 1, 1851. 
 
 The consul here tells Lord Aberdeen that 
 he has been " recommended by Mr. Packen- 
 ham, (the British minister at Washington,) to 
 furnish your lordship with a detailed statement 
 of the circumstances of the case." 
 
 If ever there was a position imposing on a 
 public functionary the obligations of truth and 
 candor, it was this. 
 
 Reference to dates throughout this case is 
 highly important. 
 
 Mr. Mure, by giving dates, has aided me in 
 establishing his inaccuracies. 
 
 On the trial of this case before this court on 
 the 6th of March, 1851, Mr. Mure swore: "I
 
 268 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 proceeded with the investigation so far as I 
 could, and examined the log-book, and found 
 that the log-book, in relation to the charges 
 brought, had been erased and written over 
 again, which induced me to discharge the com- 
 plaint made against the mate as unfounded. I 
 applied to Chilton, and told him it was ab- 
 solutely necessary the captain shonld be re- 
 moved. Mr. Chilton concurred, and after noti- 
 fication of the fact to Captain York, he was 
 removed. The mate was appointed tempo- 
 rarily to take charge, until a fit captain could 
 be procured ; that some days after, York, be- 
 fore taking counsel, came to me, and begged 
 to be placed again on board ; that he was 
 sorry, and retracted the offensive remarks he 
 had made, and begged to be allowed another 
 trial." 
 
 Witness said he had no objections, provided 
 Chilton consented, which he did, and York 
 was put back in command. This, he says in 
 his testimony, given on the trial of this case, 
 was after the appointment of Scott, and before 
 the plaintiff consulted counsel; and goes on 
 to state to the earl, that shortly after plaintiff 
 began his acting again, displaced his second- 
 mate, and threatened to turn all the crew off, 
 and said he would not have one of them on 
 board. Compare this with Mr. Mure's letter 
 to Lord Aberdeen, where he speaks of York 
 being violent, insolent, impracticable, resisting 
 his authority, &c, and it will be seen that 
 Mure swore at random. How or when was 
 he put back in command ? 
 
 His recollection was again totally at fault in 
 the matter of the log-book. It had not been 
 erased and written over, nor did Mason, in his 
 testimony, sustain the allegation of the consul, 
 "That what he had written on the log was 
 written wh^n he was in fear of his life, or that 
 Captain York had suborned some of the 
 sailors, by promising them grog, to swear 
 against Scott." 
 
 That the log-book had not been erased and 
 written over, was established by its production 
 in the recorder's court, as well as by the testi- 
 mony of Mason; and Mr. Mure knew this; 
 he stated in his dispatch to Lord Aberdeen 
 that it had been written on a slate and copied 
 therefrom into the log-book. Mason swore 
 that the logs were not made up at the time of 
 their dates, but as soon thereafter as he had 
 time or leisure, sometimes a day or two after. 
 
 The defendant's first letter to plaintiff was 
 written on the 4th of April; on the 5th he 
 writes to him that the consul had that day 
 placed Mr. Scott upon the register of the 
 Aldebaran, &c, as master of said barque. 
 
 Mr. Mure tells Lord Aberdeen that on the 
 10th of April the defendaut forwarded to him 
 a letter, of which Captain York was notified; 
 and Scott, the mate, placed in temporary 
 
 command, furnished the earl with a copy of 
 the said letter, which was evidently written 
 long after the occurrence, got up and ante- 
 dated for the occasion, as was the bill of 
 parcels for the chronometer; had it been 
 otherwise, it would have been written on or 
 before the 4th of April, when he attempted 
 to appoint Scott, and notified Chilton thereof; 
 it is therefore evident that no letter was 
 written by the defendant to the consul on the 
 subject until the consul had occasion to dis- 
 play before Lord Aberdeen. 
 
 Mr. Mure, in his dispatch to Lord Aberdeen, 
 says that " Captain York at first succumbed to 
 his displacement." 
 
 1 will ask your honor whether this is not 
 contradicted by every action of Captain York, 
 as detailed by Mr. Mure, as well as the con- 
 current testimony of all the witnesses in 
 relation thereto. 
 
 Again, the consul says, when referring to 
 the said street conversation, which he says was 
 a few days after the summons of the 3d of 
 April, " I applied to the agents of the char- 
 terers, Messrs. Gordon, Wylie & Co., who 
 declined to interfere; and. upon consulting 
 again with Mr. Chilton, I suggested that the 
 only course left was to resort to the unusual 
 step of superseding Captain York in the 
 command." 
 
 On the 5th, Chilton tells York that H. B. M. 
 consul had that day placed Mr. Scott upon the 
 register of the Aldebaran as master of said 
 barque. 
 
 How then could he say that the suggestion 
 to Chilton to remove Captain York was after 
 the refusal to Messrs. Gordon, Wylie & Co. to 
 interfere; that the application to them was 
 after said street conversation, and that such 
 conversation was a few days subsequent to the 
 3d of April, and to his application to Chilton. 
 
 The relation of the day's work being kept on 
 a slate, and copied into the log-book on the fol- 
 lowing day by Mason, under the charge from 
 plaintiff to copy it at the peril of his life, word 
 for word, as it was written on the slate, was 
 intended to make his lordship believe that the 
 keeping work on a slate as it occurred, and 
 writing it into the log-book the next day, was 
 a fault, and that it had been there falsely re- 
 corded. 
 
 On the trial of this case on the 15th of Jan- 
 uary, 1855 —
 
 YORK VERSUS CHILTON. 
 
 269 
 
 Captain Charles A. Berry being sworn on 
 the part of the plaintiff, says that it is custom- 
 ary for the officer on watch to keep a record 
 of what occurs for the four hours of his watch 
 on a slate, and to copy it into the logbook as 
 soon as he had leisure, generally on the follow- 
 ing day. Having heard the testimony of Ed- 
 ward Mason read, as contained in the record 
 from the recorder's office of the third munici- 
 pality, says : 
 
 If anj mate of mine refused to obey my 
 orders at sea, I, as a ship master, would con- 
 sider it a case of mutiny, and put him off duty. 
 
 It was admitted that Captain Seth Foster, if 
 put upon the stand would corroborate the 
 statemeut of Captain Berry. 
 
 The whole story of the apology of Captain 
 York, after the appointment of Scott, which 
 was on the 5th of April, and before taking ad- 
 vice or counsel, which it is in proof he did do 
 as early as the 13th April, or sooner, is false. 
 
 No one who will compare this with the state- 
 ment of Mure in relation to Captain York's 
 rebelling against his authority from that time 
 forward, day by day, or who will trace the pro- 
 ceedings from the 5th to the 13th of April, can 
 help coming to the conclusion that this part 
 of Mure's testimony is clear fiction or the effect 
 of a distempered imagination. 
 
 If it had been erased and written over would 
 he not have said so in his letter to Lord Aber- 
 deen? 
 
 Whether the complaint was unfounded or 
 not depends on the facts. "What were they, 
 as recorded and sworn to by Mason, the second 
 mate, the enemy of York, sworn to after he had 
 embarked bitterly in this quarrel ? 
 
 The first great fault charged against Capt. 
 York was his having caused to have been 
 written in the log-book, on the 2Sth, under 
 date of the 27th, what happened on the 27th. 
 The practice, on further examination of the 
 witness Mason, turned out to be to put down 
 the work as it occurred on the slate, and to 
 copy into the log-book as soon thereafter as 
 they had time, sometimes not until a day or 
 two after. 
 
 The pretended error in the entry of the 2d 
 March is equally ridiculous. Scott had been 
 off duty four days, and was endeavoring to 
 create a disturbance among the crew, when 
 Captain York ordered him to desist. Scott's 
 reply, as put down in the log-book, was, "that 
 he would do as he liked for the master;" when 
 
 the language he used was, " that he should 
 speak to whom as he liked."' 
 
 In what particular he considered the entry 
 of the 11th of March untrue does not appear, 
 nor was it material. Scott, being off duty at 
 the time, having taken his clothes on shore, 
 and having been provided or recommended to 
 a boarding house by the British consul, with 
 advice not to return to the ship, as stated by 
 Mr. Mure, it is not likely that he had any in- 
 tercourse with Captain York on the subject of 
 consent, and Mason being of his party, proba- 
 bly considered the consul's consent as warrant- 
 ing him ia saying that the entry which stated 
 that he was on shore without consent was 
 untrue. 
 
 When Mr. Mure was on the stand as a wit- 
 ness, on the 28th of April, 18-47, in the suit for 
 counsel fee, Mr. Barker, wishing to refute the 
 falsehood which had been circulated, charging 
 him with improper conduct in this business of 
 the Aldebaran, requested him to explain, when 
 Mr. Mure testified that he did not know that 
 the plaintiff appeared iu any other way in the 
 matter except by suits and litigation; that 
 in the last conversation he had with the plain- 
 tiff, he (plaintiff) said that if he could get 
 witness to let York go back and take com- 
 mand, he should be gratified. Captain York 
 was not taken back; and when a witness for 
 the defendant, on a former trial in this case, 
 being cross-examined, he testified that "In the 
 first interview Mr. Barker manifested a dispo- 
 sition to have the matter amicably settled. A 
 few days after the correspondence villi Mr. 
 Barker — it might have been four or five 
 days — Mr. Barker called upon mo. Captain 
 York was constantly transgressing and beg- 
 ging for mercy until this suit was brought. I 
 did not allow Captain York to approach me 
 after the post office affair." 
 
 What becomes of Mr. Mure's statements 
 about Mr. Barker's conduct? What becomes 
 of his declaration that York had been rein- 
 stated? What interpretation is to be put on 
 his letter to Captain York of the 21st of April? 
 Was this letter a designed fraud to obtain the 
 apology from Captain York? If so, was it 
 not bad faith to Mr. Barker, as well as to 
 Captain York? 
 
 Mr. Mure, in his dispatch to Lord Aberdeen, 
 says: "The cause came on for trial on the 17th
 
 270 
 
 LIFE OP JACOB BARKER. 
 
 of April; Mr. Barker, who appeared in the 
 recorder's court, induced the recorder, who 
 was merely a committing magistrate, to enter 
 upon irrelevant examination as to the owner- 
 ship of the barque and the authority of the 
 agent, against which Mr. Chilton, at the re- 
 quest of his counsel, protested and withdrew." 
 
 Let this statement be compared with the 
 record of the proceedings, and it will be seen 
 that so far from Chilton's withdrawing; on the 
 17th under protest, he, although an alien and 
 not a member of the bar, appeared for the 
 State, was examined as a witness, employed 
 counsel, Mr. Winthrop, who appeared; Mr. 
 Mure also appeared, and made a speech, 
 insisting that he had the same authority over 
 ship-masters as he had over seamen, and the 
 cause was continued until the 18th, to give 
 Chilton an opportunity to consult counsel 
 about producing authority; not having such 
 authority, he did not produce it, or appear; 
 the cause was again adjourned to the 19th, to 
 give Chilton an opportunity to sustain his very, 
 extraordinary oath; on the 19th he appeared 
 and gave for reason of his not appearing at the 
 first adjourned session, that he was negotiating 
 a compromise. 
 
 This is very different from withdrawing 
 under a protest. Mr. Mure was also much 
 mistaken as to the recorder being only a com- 
 mitting magistrate. It was not Mr. Barker, 
 but the total want of evidence in support of 
 Chilton's oath, and the law, and the evidence 
 adduced by Mr. Barker, that influenced the 
 decision of the recorder. 
 
 Mr. Mure stated to the Earl of Aberdeen 
 that " Mr. Barker, being at a loss what step to 
 take, recommended Mr. York to muster a 
 sufficient number of men, and take the vessel 
 by force. On the following day, April 15, 
 Captain York, with some eight or ten indi- 
 viduals, forcibly entered the cabin of the 
 vessel, and intimated his intention of retaining 
 possession by force, and turning the whole 
 crew adrift." 
 
 When the consul was on the stand as a 
 witness, he said, in answer to an inquiry by 
 what authority he made that statement, that 
 Captain York said that he was acting by 
 advice of Mr. Barker; that he believed it 
 because Mr. Barker had, in an interview at 
 the consul's office, when negotiating a com- 
 
 promise, stated that Captain York's legal 
 rights were to eject by force any interference 
 which might be attempted with his command. 
 Being asked when the interview took place 
 with Mr. Barker, he said some days after his 
 correspondence commenced; it might have 
 been eight or ten days — certainly three or 
 four days. The complaint to the recorder 
 against Captain York had no foundation. Mr. 
 Barker's correspondence commenced on the 
 14th, and the oath of Chilton was on the very 
 next day. Mr. Barker, in his first letter, 
 dated the 14th of April, said: 
 
 " The friendly relations which have always 
 subsisted between us induce me to notify you 
 of Captain York's determination to apply to 
 the courts of the United States to restrain all 
 interference with his authority as master of 
 said vessel," &c The advice given Captain 
 York by Mr. Barker the preceding evening, as 
 sworn to by two witnesses, Thomas Fisher and 
 Thomas Hill, was in accordance therewith, 
 and directly the reverse of this allegation, 
 made by Mr. Mure; no intimation of such an 
 occurrence was given by Mr. Chilton in hia 
 testimony, or Mr. Winthrop, his counsel, nor 
 Mr. Mure, in their speeches before the recorder, 
 nor did any of their witnesses confirm this 
 statement. 
 
 Mr. Mure stated, on one examination before 
 this court, that Mr. Barker called at his office 
 soon after this correspondence commenced, 
 and appeared anxious to effect a settlement ; 
 and at another examination he stated he had 
 been there four or five times; expressed his 
 great desire to have Capt. York reinstated, and 
 not a word anywhere of any disagreement be- 
 tween them at that time, or of any complaint 
 by Mr. Mure of Capt. York having acted in 
 bad faith. If Capt. York had made any such 
 statement, on the day referred to, would not 
 Mr. Mure have been likely to have mentioned 
 it to Mr. Barker, there being no possible object 
 for concealment? Mr. Barker therefore con- 
 cludes that if Capt. York held any such con- 
 versations it was on some subsequent day, 
 which Mr. Mure counfounded with this occur- 
 rence, as it has been shown that he was not par- 
 ticular to make his dates square with the facts. 
 
 Had Capt. York forcibly retained possess-ion, 
 it would have been a mere exercise of his legal 
 rights, not a breach of the peace. He never 
 made any such demonstration. 
 
 Had it been true that Captain York, with 
 eight or ten individuals, forcibly entered the 
 cabin of the vessel, and intimated his intention 
 of retaining possession by force, and turning 
 the whole crew adrift, would not Chilton or 
 Mason have related it when under examination 
 as witnesses before the recorder? Would not 
 the consul have referred to it in. his speech 
 before the recorder?
 
 YORK VERSUS CHILTON. 
 
 271 
 
 Mr. Mure represented to the Earl of Aber- 
 deen that Mr. Barker recommended the de- 
 fendant to take forcible possession of the barque, 
 when he had a letter from him the preceeding 
 evening at direct variance, confirmed by the 
 testimony of Captain White, Fisher and Hill, 
 with whose testimony Mr. Mure was familiar, 
 when he thus wrote to Lord Aberdeen, on the 
 alleged authority of a man whom he had pro- 
 nounced to be totally unworthy of belief, 
 and this, too, without remonstrating or asking 
 any explanation of Mr. Barker, although car- 
 rying on a friendly negotiation with him. 
 
 " Permit led to return," says Mr. Mure. How 
 or when? He could not have meant permitted 
 by his letter of the 21st April, as he states it 
 was before taking advice of counsel, which he 
 did on or before the 13th of same month. 
 Counsel was at the time employed at his in- 
 stance and request, drawing a petition to dis- 
 place Captain York from the command of the 
 Aldebaran, falsely stating, among other things, 
 as a principle cause, that Messrs. Gordon, 
 Wylie & Co, merchants of this city, are now 
 loading the said barque, and have notified the 
 agent of libellant that they will protest against 
 her as unseaworthy in case the said York 
 should proceed in her to sea, as captain or 
 commander. Although Mr. Gordon had, on 
 the same day, written him a letter as follows: 
 
 New Orleans, April 21, 1845. 
 
 Dear Sir: Captain York, of the British 
 barque Aldebaran, has promised not to ship 
 any mate who shall not be approved by us, 
 which is all we can reasonably ask. 
 
 Dear sir, yours truly, 
 
 GORDON, WYLIE & CO. 
 
 Wm. Mure, esq. 
 
 On the trial of the rule in relation to this 
 libel, Mr. Gordon testified that he had not given 
 any such notice. Mr. Mure, on the trial of 
 this cause, stated that he had received the 
 aforesaid letter; that he had mislaid it, had 
 looked for, and could not find it. On the 
 morning of the 21st, Chilton swears to the pe- 
 tition, which stated that it was at the instance 
 and request of Mr. Mure, thus co-operating 
 with him as an ally or leader in the controversy, 
 which he continued to the end. These very 
 proceedings, he informed Mr. Moore, were about 
 commencing when he sent the message to Mr. 
 Barker that he was very sorry, and would en- 
 deavor to dissuade Chilton therefrom ; and he 
 says, in his dispatch to Lord Aberdeen, that he 
 had no hesitation in giving his sanction to 
 these proceedings. I would ask your honor if 
 such complete proof of faithlessness was ever 
 before brought before a court of law? 
 
 Let it be remembered that the cause in the 
 
 recorder's court was decided on the 19th April. 
 The letter of Mure to Captain York, detailing 
 the terms recognizing him in command, with 
 permission to discharge Scott, was written on 
 the 21st of April ; that he declared on that 
 evening, at the Commercial Exchange, to Mr. 
 Moore and Mr. Robinson, that the dispute was 
 all settled, and that he had washed his hands 
 clear of it, on this side the Atlantic. 
 
 On the trial of the cause, on the 19th inst., 
 Mr. Mure, a witness on the part of the defen- 
 dant, testified as follows : " In the conversation 
 which I had with Moore, my remarks were to 
 this effect: that the proceedings were now in 
 the United States court, and that I now washed 
 my hands of the matter, on this side the water. 
 I had conversations with Mr. Moore and with 
 Mr. Robinson several times; the first conversa- 
 tion was before the libel suit was instituted, 
 but after the suit had been recommended by 
 Mr. Winthrop." 
 
 For the first time, we are now told that he 
 excepted the libel in his disclaimer, and in the 
 message he sent to Mr. Barker, on the evening 
 of the 2lst. His letter of that date, in effect, 
 contradicted this, and the testimony of Mr. 
 Robinson and of Mr. Moore is indirect contra- 
 diction of what he says, as much as Mr. Gor- 
 don's was of the false declaration put forth on 
 the same day, in the petition for the libel. 
 How could the jury give credence to such a 
 witness ? 
 
 Mr. Mure, on the trial, perceiving the force 
 of the testimony, attempts to escape from the 
 odium thereof by saying that he excepted, in 
 his declarations to Messrs. Moore and Robinson, 
 the libel suit which was then preparing. Had 
 Mr. Mure made that exception or reservation, 
 would it not have been equally a violation of 
 the terms of his letter written to Captain York 
 that very afternoon? What sincerity could 
 there have been in consenting to York's dis- 
 charging Scott, if the ship was to be taken 
 from him the very next morning, at the request 
 of Mr. Mure? Therefore, if he did make that 
 exception, it could not relieve him from bad 
 faith. However, he did not, nor could he have 
 made that exception ; that was the whole ques- 
 tion, and nothing else to settle, and it would 
 have been ridiculous to have sent any such 
 word to Mr. Barker. 
 
 Messrs. Robinson and Moore contradict the
 
 272 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 statement. Mr. Moore testified as follows: 
 Michael Moore, being duly sworn on the part 
 of the plaintiff, says, "that on the evening of 
 the 21st of April, 1845, he met Mr. William 
 Mure at the reading-room of the Merchants' 
 Exchange, who inquired where Mr. Barker 
 was likely to be found, when I said that he 
 was no doubt at his house at that time. Mr, 
 Mure requested me to say to Mr. Barker, that 
 he believed Mr. Chilton was about to take fur- 
 ther proceedings in the Aldebaran case; but 
 as far as he was concerned, on this side the 
 water, he washed his hands of it, and would 
 persuade Mr. Chilton to do so likewise. The 
 above may not be the exact words used by Mr. 
 Mure, but they are as near as I can recollect 
 now, and I feel certain they contain the spirit 
 of his remarks. 1 ' 
 
 Mr. John 0. Robinson testified that he met 
 Mr. Mure at the Merchants' Exchange, on the 
 evening of the 21st of April, when he observed 
 that the difficulties in relation to the Aldebaran 
 had been settled, and that he washed his hands 
 clear of the subject on this side the Atlantic. 
 
 Mr. Robinson's recollection, as to time, was 
 not precise, but Mr. Mure's last testimony es- 
 tablished the fact of its being on the 21st. "It 
 was," said he, " after Mr. Winthrop advised the 
 libel and before it was filed." 
 
 Mr. Mure, in his dispatch to the Earl of 
 Aberdeen, says: 
 
 " Your lordship will see in the sequel, that 
 Mr. Barker had determined that his client, Mr. 
 York, should violate the very essence of the 
 arrangement upon which he was permitted to 
 re-assume the command which his conduct had 
 so shamefully forfeited." 
 
 Mr. Mure wrote thus, when Mr. Barker had, 
 from the first, advised Captain York not to un- 
 dertake to maintain his power by force ; to rely 
 on the courts of the United States to protect 
 him in his rights; negotiated the terms of the 
 settlement between Mure and Chilton, one con- 
 dition of which was, that York should satis- 
 factorily apologize to Mure, which he did do, 
 and which Mr. Barker prepared and delivered 
 in good faith, and which apology Mure says, in 
 his letter to Lord Aberdeen, Barker wrote ; 
 observe that while Mr. Mure was writing the 
 acceptance of the apology, the recognition of 
 Captain York being in command and the per- 
 mission to discharge the mate, their counsel, 
 
 Mr. Winthrop, was, at the request of the con- 
 sul, drawing the petition to turn him out. 
 
 Mr. Barker, under such circumstances, could 
 not help considering such a faithless violation 
 of every obligation held sacred by honorable 
 men, as doing him a personal wrong; but he 
 was neither mortified nor chagrined, he did not 
 consider faithlessness a victory obtained in a 
 battle of wits — a fool may put a torch to the 
 house of a man of talents and destroy his whole 
 family when sleeping. 
 
 Mr. Mure tells Captain York, in his letter of 
 the 21st: "I do not permit my private feelings 
 to influence my public duties." This he also 
 detailed in his dispatch to Lord Aberdeen. 
 
 Why this disclaimer? Why grant, on the 
 receipt of the apology, permission to discharge 
 the mate, which had been the whole bone of 
 contention? Why recognize Captain York in 
 command?' This permission and this recogni- 
 tion were conceived in sin and brought forth 
 in iniquity, or were basely violated the moment 
 of their inception, established beyond the pos- 
 sibility of a doubt, by the most conclusive tes- 
 timony ever produced in a court of law. Did 
 he not pursue him with "a step as steady as 
 time, and an appetite as keen as death," from 
 the hour that Captain York defied his authority, 
 to the end; and yet, he wishes it believed that 
 he did not allow his private freelings to inter- 
 fere with his public duties. What was the 
 course of Mr. Barker? Did he not, on the ap- 
 plication of Captain York for his professional 
 services, politely notify Mr. Mure? Did not 
 that gentleman reply that he was acting with 
 the "sanction of the accredited agent of the 
 owners?" Did not Mr. Barker say: "Let the 
 authority from the owner to any other agent 
 than Captain York be exhibited, and it will end 
 the whole matter?" In place of presenting such 
 an authority, was not a most abusive course 
 pursued towards Mr. Barker, as well as to Cap- 
 tain York, notwithstanding which did not Mr. 
 Barker continue his exertions to bring about a 
 compromise? Did he not advise Captain York 
 that he had no right to turn the mate on shore, 
 without the consent of the consul? that if he 
 did so, and left him in a foreign country, he 
 would be liable to be putushed, on his return to 
 England, according to laws referred to by the 
 consul; but that this would not give the con- 
 sul any authority to displace him, much less
 
 YORK VERSUS CHILTON. 
 
 273 
 
 would threatening to do 80 subject him to pun- 
 ishment or give authority to the consul; yet, 
 that he ought to apologize for having threat- 
 ened to do so. 
 
 I cautioned the gentlemen agaiustintroducing 
 this letter. They would not heed the admoni- 
 tion, and now have to take the consequences. 
 The public eye is scrutinizing these men. 
 Mr. Mure, in his letter to Lord Aberdeen, says : 
 Accordingly, on the 10th April, Mr. R. H. 
 Chilton forwarded me a letter to the Earl, of 
 which he sends a copy, (see page 265,) saying 
 that •"Captain York was notified of this by Mr. 
 Chilton, and that Mr. Scott, the mate, was placed 
 in temporary command.'' 
 
 Mr. Chilton informed Captain York, on the 5th 
 of April, that Scott's name had that day been 
 placed on the register as master of the barque. 
 How could Mr. Mure say that these transac- 
 : were subsequent to the 10th of April, 
 when he knew them to be prior. 
 
 The letter of the 10th was written for the 
 occasion, and ante-dated for the purpose of 
 making up a plausible story with which to de- 
 ceive Lord Aberdeen. 
 
 The allegation that Captain York was noti- 
 fied of its contents is false. 
 
 The selection of Scott was not intended to 
 be temporary : if it had been, why put his name 
 on the barque's register. That was not neces- 
 sary until the ship was loaded and ready to 
 clear at the custom-house. The appointment 
 of Turner to the command was not until the 
 consul was forced to believe in the un worthi- 
 ness of Scott. 
 
 The allegation that Scott was appointed 
 temporarily to the command of the Aldebaran 
 is false. 
 
 This letter was not received on the 10th 
 
 April, it was not written until long after that date. 
 
 When this was brought to the view of the 
 
 jury, the defendant said it was a clerical error. 
 
 Another falsehood. 
 
 The consul says that when he informed Cap- 
 tain York at the consul's office that he would 
 not grant permission to discharge Scott, which 
 permission had been applied for by York, "that 
 his charge was frivolous and unfounded, that 
 the captain became extremely violent and 
 abusive in his language ; he threatened to force 
 the mate on shore, at the peril of his life, 
 whether I agreed or not; and, with oath and 
 
 18 
 
 most indecorous language, told me that if I was 
 consul, he would show me he was captain of 
 the ship." He further says: "On the 26th of 
 March. I notified the captain to attend at the 
 consulate office — to this, however, he paid no 
 attention/' 
 
 "I again notified the captain, on the 3d 
 April, to attend at the consulate office. To 
 this summons Captain York again paid no at- 
 tention; but, meeting me accidentally, a few 
 days afterwards, in the streets, attacked me 
 with the most opprobrious epithets, and em- 
 ployed the most insulting language." Thus in 
 his testimony he calls the post-office affair. 
 
 On the 3d of April, two suits were com- 
 menced against Captain York by Mason in 
 Judge Blight's court. 
 
 The statement that Mr. Barker was at a loss 
 what steps to take is false. He had notified 
 Mr. Mure what steps would be taken. The 
 statement that he recommended Mr. York to 
 muster a sufficient number of men and take 
 possession of the vessel by force is false. 
 
 The statement that Mr. Barker misrepre- 
 sented aud falsified conversations with him is 
 false. 
 
 The statement that Mr. Barker avowed and 
 disavowed at pleasure certain publications is 
 false. The only thing which he ever disavowed 
 was a street report, which made him say, the 
 false aud fraudulent order drawn up by the 
 defendant's counsel, aud signed by the clerk of 
 the United States court, was a forgery. For 
 this he was called to an account, and promptly 
 denied ever having so characterized the paper, 
 telling the gentlemen that he had pronounced 
 it false and fraudulent. Which he should con- 
 tinue to do and which he has always done, in 
 and out of court, in the public papers and in 
 private correspondence. 
 
 A gentleman reported for the newspapers 
 the speech made by Mr. Barker in the United 
 States court, which not suiting the taste of the 
 consul, he demanded of Mr. Barker an expla- 
 nation, who replied that he was not answerable 
 for the errors of reporters — that he could not 
 undertake to say how far this speech had been 
 correctly reported — that if he had not said 
 what had been reported, he ought to have done 
 so, and held himself answerable therefore. 
 This the consul fa' -!y calls avowing and dis- 
 avowing at pleasure.
 
 274 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 The consul testified on the trial of this case, 
 that he had acted according- to the laws of En- 
 gland. This was false. None uf her laws 
 sanction the conduct of which we complain. 
 No such law has been given in evidence or 
 referred to. The law on which the consul re- 
 lied and referred to in his letter to Mr. Barker 
 is in evidence, and not a word to that effect is 
 to be found therein. Had Captain York de- 
 parted, leading his mate on shore, without the 
 consent of the consul, he would, by those laws, 
 have incurred heavy penalties — but not by 
 threatening to do so. Incurring these penal- 
 ties in nowise would have authorized the con- 
 duct of the consul. 
 
 His testimony when he swore that the log- 
 book had been erased and written over was 
 false. 
 
 His testimony that Thomas Hunter Holder- 
 ness resided at Hull was false. 
 
 The statement that there was but one opinion 
 among the British and American merchants, 
 meaning that it was in his favor, was false. 
 The verdict in question dues not sustain the 
 consul's declaration. 
 
 The statement that York was reinstated in 
 command, after the appointment of Scott and 
 before seeking counsel, is false. 
 
 The consul tells Lord Aberdeen that this 
 suit was among the difficulties which defendant 
 had to encounter in dispatching the Aldebaran, 
 which was false. It was not instituted until nine 
 days after her departure. 
 
 The consul testified on the trial that four out 
 of six of the crew were so drunk when they 
 came to his office as to disqualify them from 
 being witnesses in a court of justice, yet he 
 tells Lord Aberdeen that they had all discharged 
 their duties with punctuality and fidelity. This 
 is the first time I ever heard of an employee 
 getting drunk in the service of his employer 
 was discharging his duties with punctuality 
 and fidelity. 
 
 The statement that Mr. Barker resorted to 
 extraordinary proceedings for the purpose of 
 harrassing the consul and the defendant is 
 false. 
 
 The statement that Mr. Barker continued to 
 invent facts and publish calumnies is false. 
 
 The statement that the vessel had been at- 
 tached on several occasions, at the suit of York 
 and Barker himself, is false; she never was 
 
 attached by York, and only once by Barker, in 
 which York had no hand. 
 
 The statement that the charge against Scott 
 was unfounded was false. 
 
 The consul tells Lord Aberdeen that, by the 
 arrangement, he only intended that Captain 
 York should be reinstated to the nominal 
 command. Was not this treachery? Was not 
 this deception? Was not this a fraud on Mr. 
 Barker, who induced Captain York to make 
 the apology, as well as on the plaintiff? I 
 would ask your honor whether the consul's 
 agreeing to reinstate Captain York (see Mr. 
 Mure's letter of the 21st April) was for the 
 purpose of "preserving the property of the 
 owners — to prevent the forfeiture of the in- 
 surance?'' this being his justification for the 
 attempt to remove him. What does the consul 
 mean by nominal command? Was it that he 
 was to be sent home a prisoner in the keeping 
 of the rebellious crew, and Captain Turner, the 
 actual commander, to be denominated mate to 
 deceive Captain York ? 
 
 Chilton, in his application for a commission, 
 states that Thomas Hunter Holderness is of 
 Liverpool ; the alleged copy of the register and 
 power introduced on the part of defendant both 
 represent him to be of Liverpool. Mr. Peter 
 Maxwell testified that he was of Liverpool; 
 the consul testified that he was of Hull. Was 
 this from ignorance, or to aid in the deception 
 heretofore so successfully practised as to the 
 ownership of the vessel ? 
 
 No questions asked of the witness before the 
 recorder as to the plaintiff's attempts to suborn 
 the sailors to swear against Scott. If it had 
 been true, as stated by the consul in his letter 
 to Lord Aberdeen, it should have been proven 
 in that trial when the witnesses were in court, 
 and the plaintiff could have had an opportu- 
 tunity of interrogating them. 
 
 The accredited agent of the owner, says the 
 consul, recognized such by York ; this was 
 untrue, excepting that he was recognized as 
 the agent duly authorized to assist in the pur- 
 chase of an old flat-boat. 
 
 The consul tells Lord Aberdeen that Mr. 
 Barker and Captain York were constantly beg- 
 ging for mercy. Can any one, after hearing 
 his details of Captain York's conduct, believe 
 in the truth of this assertion as relates to him ? 
 And as to Mr. Barker, he admits that he ex-
 
 YORK VERSUS CHILTON. 
 
 275 
 
 hausted every argument in Lis power to pro- 
 duce a reconciliation. To call it begging for 
 mercy is a very unwind interpretation. 
 
 The consul tells the Earl of Aberdeen that 
 Mr. Barker informed him that Captain York 
 would apply to the courts of the United States 
 to reinstate him in the command of the Alde- 
 baran. So far from this being true, Mr. Bar- 
 kers letter to the consul says : "As to having 
 been superseded, he does not admit that he has 
 been or can be superseded in the conimand of 
 the Aldebarou by any other authority than that 
 from which he derived his command." 
 
 The defendant published over his signature, 
 on the 18th April, 1845, that " it was wholly 
 untrue that the consul cited any authority to 
 show the capacity in which he acted, or the 
 power with which he was clothed." 
 
 The consul, in his first letter to Mr. Barker, 
 referred to 4(3 and 47 sections of the naviga- 
 tion act, 7th andSth Vict., chap. 112. 
 
 The consul tells Lord Aberdeen that, a few 
 days after the 3d of April, Captain York met 
 him accidentally in the street, and attacked 
 him with the most opprobrious epithets; that 
 he then applied to Messrs. Gordon, Wylie & 
 Co., who, your honor will recollect, were the 
 regular consignees of the ship ; that they de- 
 clined to interfere ; and that, on the 10th April, 
 R. H. Chilton forwarded him a letter, of which 
 he inclosed a copy — Scott having been placed 
 on the register as master on the 5th — those 
 few days dwindled down to at least one . 
 
 The consul tells Lord Aberdeen that Mr. 
 Barker, under the pretence of giving a report 
 of the proceedings, he perverted facts, &c, 
 when the proof is that the commanders of 
 British vessels in port made a subscription to 
 pay the expense of printing the legal proceed- 
 ings without the intervention of Mr. Barker. 
 
 More faithless conduct has never been 
 unveiled to the view of any court than was 
 that of the consul and defendant in this pre- 
 tended adjustment of the difficulty. 
 
 No circumstance, not one word of evidence, 
 no equivocal proceeding, has been produced 
 on any of the trials, which indicate on the 
 part of the counsel for plaintiff any departure 
 from his professional duty. On the contrary, 
 from the commencement to the libel suit, his 
 whole mind was devoted to an amicable 
 settlement. 
 
 The consul tell3 the Earl of Aberdeen that 
 the malevolence of Mr. Barker surprised him. 
 I would ask your honor if the evidence does 
 not falsify the charge? Was it to be found in 
 the letters of Mr. Barker or the letters of 
 plaintiff drafted by Mr. Barker? Was it to be 
 found in the apology of Captain York? 
 
 The consul complains to the Earl of Aber- 
 deen that Mr. Barker had denounced his con 
 duct as tyrannical, &c; did not the testimony 
 establish the truth of this charge? Mr. Barker 
 has been, from infancy, in the habit of calling 
 things by their right names. It is now too 
 late in life for him to change the practice. 
 
 I would ask your honor on whom the testi- 
 mony locates the malevolence. 
 
 Mr. Barker insists that his offence consisted 
 in his embarking in defence of an oppressed 
 prisoner, in a strange land, without money to 
 fee lawyers, and his fidelity to that client after 
 he had embarked. 
 
 The consul on one trial testified that Mr. 
 Barker was incessant in his exertions to ter- 
 minate the difficulties. On another trial he 
 said Mr. Barker proposed to give his services 
 gratuitously, if he could effect that object. 
 Subsequently, he said Mr. Barker did not talk 
 of giving up his fee, but said he was not actu- 
 ated by his fee. 
 
 Mr. Mure tells Lord Aberdeen that the con- 
 sul's consent to the proceedings was necessary 
 to give them validity; such consent could not 
 give them validity or confer jurisdiction on a 
 court of the United States ; this, however, is a 
 point of law about which there may be a dif- 
 ference of opinion, therefore I should not 
 blame Mr. Mure for this part of his statement, 
 if that had been all he had done, if he had 
 otherwise washed his hands clear of the whole 
 affair on this side of the Atlantic, although he 
 should have considered well that matter before 
 making the promise which we find in his letter 
 to Capt. York of 21st April, before making the 
 declaration on the same evening to John G. 
 Robinson, esq., at the Commercial Exchange, 
 "that the whole affair was settled, and that he 
 had washed his hands clear of it on this side 
 of the Atlantic, before he sent to Mr. Barker 
 by Michael Moore, esq. On the same evening 
 a similar message, adding that Mr. Chilton was 
 about taking proceedings for which he was very
 
 276 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 sorry, and that he should endeavor to dissuade 
 him therefrom. 
 
 Mr. Mure did not tell Lord Aberdeen that 
 after Chilton had taken the ship forcibly from 
 the officer of the United States court, and after 
 she, by order of that court, had been brought 
 back by the marshal, who sent a steamboat and 
 arrested their criminal proceedings ; that after 
 this, he had, accompanied by some young law- 
 yers, visited the judge's house late in the day 
 to get an order to send off the ship; failing in 
 this, that he accompanied the said lawyers to 
 the clerk's office in the evening, who also re- 
 fused to give such an order, on which an alter- 
 cation ensued. The clerk became excited, and 
 did not know what he did, when one of the ac- 
 companying lawyers drew up a false order, to 
 which the clerk's signature with the great seal 
 of the United States was fixed. 
 
 I would ask if such interference had also be- 
 come necessary to give jurisdiction to the court, 
 was it washing the consul's hands clear of the 
 whole affair on this side of the Atlantic? 
 
 "At the instance and requesting" are very 
 different from a mere consent to give jurisdic- 
 tion. 
 
 Mr. Mure tells Lord Aberdeen that some 
 English and American merchants had tendered 
 him a certificate, I suppose of good conduct, 
 which he demed unnecessary. How self-re- 
 lying ! It is to be regretted that the consul had 
 not, cap in hand, courteously accepted their 
 proffered civility, made his best bow, and sent 
 the inestimable document to Lord Aberdeen. 
 Had he done so, we should have had an op- 
 portunity of unveiling British influence. 
 
 I have been greatly aided by Britons, and on 
 this occasion they made a subscription to have 
 the proceedings published. British merchants 
 made a subscription to pay Judge Lacy a fee 
 for the services he rendered Captain York before 
 the United States court. This may be news to 
 Messrs. Chilton and Mure. These contributors 
 do not wish to be known, lest they should 
 have to encounter the undying hostility which 
 Mr. Barker has had to encounter for his fidelity 
 to his client. It is not against Englishmen, be- 
 cause they are English, that I would level my 
 batteries; it is against the doctrine that our 
 courts are to be influenced in their decisions by 
 the British minister of foreign affairs, or some 
 
 other political minister of that or some other 
 country ; it is the presumption, usurpation and 
 arrogance of their officials, with which I war. 
 I did say to the jury, when it was attempted to 
 introduce the opinions and sayings of Lord 
 Aberdeen as a controlling authority for the de- 
 cision of this court, that I thanked my God 
 that the stars and stripes waved over this hall, 
 and that the British cross, the lion and the 
 unicorn are not the emblems of this court. 
 
 Both parties in this case are English ; the 
 witnesses on the part of the plaintiff are nearly 
 all English or Scotch. Englishmen are among 
 my best friends ; the recorder's court was 
 thronged with Englishmen, who sympathised 
 with Captain York ; a public subscription was 
 made by the masters of British vessels in port 
 to pay the expenses of publishing the pro- 
 ceedings. It was a novel assumption of Mr. 
 Mure, in that notorious speech he made on the 
 trial before the recorder, that he had the same 
 power over the captains of British ships that he 
 had over British seamen, which aroused ship- 
 masters of every nation against him. 
 
 Again, Mr. Mure says, in his dispatch to Lord 
 Aberdeen : "Captain York at first succumbed 
 to his displacement, but in consequence of a 
 morbid sympathy, created among a few of the 
 British ship-masters, some of whom were his 
 convivial companions, he was induced to make 
 application to several lawyers for advice. 
 None of them, however, of any respectability, 
 would interfere in the matter, but unfortu- 
 nately he was obliged to place his case in his 
 hands of Mr. Ja3ob Barker, who has rendered 
 himself notorious on former occasions." 
 
 Why tell this to the British government ? 
 They knew it to their cost. Mr. Barker's in- 
 fluence and advocacy of the embargo and of 
 the non-importation laws were well known and 
 felt by them. They refused even to negotiate 
 for peace at Ghent, until they knew the fate of 
 the American loan, which had been advertised 
 for; the British party in America, as Mr. 
 Gallatin informed Mr. Madison, in his dis- 
 patches from Ghent, had made the British 
 ministry believe that the Washington cabinet 
 could not raise money enough to continue the 
 war, or even to commence the spring campaign. 
 At this juncture Mr. Barker furnished his 
 government with large sums, and during the 
 war more than five millions of dollars, while
 
 YORK VERSUS CHILTON. 
 
 277 
 
 most others drew tight their purse strings ; thus 
 blasting British hopes and idle anticipations. 
 The administration was sustained, and an 
 honorable peace was the result. These events, 
 to which Mr. Barker owes his notoriety, form 
 a part of our country's history. "Morbid sym- 
 pathy created among a few of the British ship- 
 masters," said Mr. Mure to Lord Aberdeen. 
 Mr. Chilton, in his advertisement in the Bul- 
 letin, calls those gentlemen a crowd of ship- 
 masters. I believe every ship-master in port 
 reprobated the conduct of Mure, and disputed 
 the authority of a consul to remove the master 
 of a ship. These highly respectable men, 
 many of whom were witnesses in the case 
 before the recorder's court, came in for a 
 portion of the odium Mr. Mure has been 
 distributing broadcast. 
 
 Mr. Barker does not pretend to know much 
 law, and he is not now, nor has he been for a 
 long time, a candidate for professional busi- 
 ness. It is, however, strange that Mr. Mure 
 could not have found sufficiently opprobrious 
 epithets to apply to him to have satisfied his 
 spleen, without slandering the whole bar of 
 Louisiana. He should have remembered that 
 they were like other men, having an eye to 
 their own interest, and if York had had money 
 he could have procured the aid of the most 
 respectable. Suppose the fact had been other- 
 wise — it would have been an indelible stain 
 on the whole legal profession of the city. He 
 wa3 mistaken in thus presuming that British 
 influence was paramount to all other con- 
 siderations. 
 
 Captain York at that time had been aided 
 by Judge Lacy, Z. Latour, esq., and Mr. 
 Barker; since which he has been aided by 
 Judge Bullard, the Hon. Pierre Soule, J. W. 
 Frost, and Horace Gaither, esquires. 
 
 Again, Mr. Mure tells Lord Aberdeen that 
 "CaptaiuYork at first succumbed to his dis- 
 placement." This is falsified by his own and 
 the most positive testimony of others. 
 
 York, from the commencement down to the 
 apology drawn by Mr. Barker, manifested the 
 most positive opposition. Look at hi3 inter- 
 view at the consul's office, when the complaint 
 against Scott was inquired into; look at hi3 
 defiance of the consul's authority; look at his 
 refusal to appear there again; look at his 
 remarks in the street to Mr. Mure, as detailed I 
 
 by himself; look at the manner in which all 
 the measures against him were followed up, 
 day by day, by Chilton's letters, by the seizure 
 of his chronometer, by his arrest and impris- 
 onment. What authority, then, had the consul 
 for saying that Captain York at first suc- 
 cumbed to his displacement? 
 
 How did he succumb? Mr. Mure says when 
 he notified Captain York of his determination 
 not to grant the solicited permission to dis- 
 charge Scott, the mate — 
 
 "The captain became extremely violent and 
 abusive in his language; he threatened to 
 force the mate on shore at the peril of his life, 
 whether I agreed or not; and, with oaths and 
 most indecorous language, told me that 'if I 
 was consul, he would let me know that he was 
 captain of the ship.' 
 
 •'About a week after, I found the captain 
 was not only intractable, but had committed 
 sundry other offences. 
 
 "I then notified the captain to attend at the 
 consulate office, and give an account of his 
 extraordinary conduct. To this, however, he 
 paid no attention. 
 
 "I again notified the captain on the 3d of 
 April, to attend at the consulate and produce 
 his log-book; to this summons Captain York 
 again paid no attention; but meeting me 
 accidentally a few days afterwards, in the 
 street, he attacked me with the most oppro- 
 brious epithets, and employed the most insult- 
 ing language, after which I did not allow him 
 to approach me." 
 
 The consul says he was passive in the mat- 
 ter. I ask, was he passive? 
 
 The counsel for defendant said that plaintiff 
 and defendant, being both Englishmen, should 
 have gone to England and had their contro- 
 versy settled there. The Supreme Court de- 
 cided differently. 
 
 The Constitution and the law regulate that 
 matter. Suppose one Englishman rob another, 
 must that other go to England before he can 
 prosecute the robber? 
 
 The case of Rev. Alex. Campbell, the Presi- 
 dent of Bethany College, Virginia, vs. Rev. 
 James Robinson, was decided by the lords of 
 council and session, in favor of Mr. Campbell, 
 giving him two thousand pounds sterling for 
 false imprisonment. He was on a tour through 
 Scotland, in 1847, was arrested and imprisoned
 
 278 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 in Edinburg, through the agency of the Rev. 
 James Robinson, for having, while discoursing 
 on the subject of slavery, uttered sentiments 
 offensive to that gentleman. 
 
 Since these proceedings have been pending, 
 a case has been decided at St. Louis, where the 
 professional character of the commander had 
 been improperly impugned; in which the jury 
 gave a verdict for twenty-seven thousand dol- 
 lars. 
 
 The counsel lay great stress on what they 
 call ratification or approval. Does not the 
 British government always approve the action 
 of its officers? And was it not natural for the 
 father to do all in his power to protect his son? 
 Yet he did not swear in the case — although 
 Mr. Winthrop swore that his testimony was 
 material, and proponded to him questions di- 
 rectly to the point of ownership. 
 
 The frailty of the recollection of the defend- 
 ant and of Mure, having been established by 
 such an abundance of testimony, I think that 
 all they have said to the prejudice of the plan- 
 tiff, together with the hearsay testimony from 
 drunken sailors, will be excluded as unworthy 
 of your honors consideration. 
 
 Your honor will bear in mind that there has 
 not been any testimony showing violation or 
 an intention to violate the terms of any agree- 
 ment by Captain York ; he promised an 
 apology, which he made, to the satisfaction of 
 the consul ; he promised not to ship any mate 
 not approved by his consignees, Messrs Gor- 
 don, Wylie & Co. ; he did not, nor did he at- 
 tempt to do so, while Scott was retained, and 
 sent to sea in the ship by Chilton, notwith- 
 standing the consul's consent that Captain 
 York should discharge him. 
 
 Judging from the conduct of Mr. Mure 
 throughout this business, his deportment to de- 
 fendant, York, must have been provoking in 
 the extreme; and is it strange that he promptly 
 resented it — a young English shipmaster, in a 
 foreign country, finding his complaint against 
 a rebellious and abusive mate, proven to have 
 been so by the clearest testimony, declared to 
 be frivolous and unfounded, and disregarded 
 by the consul — a mate that he had found ne- 
 glecting his duty — the ship off her course in 
 the night, during the mate's watch, in immi- 
 nent danger of being stranded ; refusing to 
 obey the legitimate orders of the captain, 
 
 whose sailing instructions were not to allow 
 any of the crew to skulk. How could he help 
 resenting it? It was enough to make a 
 Merino lamb run mad. 
 
 It has been objected that the petition was 
 too digressive. The duty of all plaintiffs is 
 to spread their case before the court so dis- 
 tinctly that the defendant may know what he 
 has to meet on trial. If, in doing this, the 
 counsel for plaintiff went too much into detail, 
 it could not harm the defendant although it 
 might the plaintiff. 
 
 If there was any defect in the pleadings, the 
 defendant's counsel had a remedy in applying 
 to have the objectionable part stricken out, or 
 of filing a peremptory exception ; failing to do 
 this before they answered and before they went 
 to trial, the question is not open for argument. 
 
 Your honor cannot be unmindful of the 
 various devices resorted to to avoid a fair trial 
 on the merits of this case, saying nothing of 
 what happened when Judge Buchanan pre- 
 resided. Enough has occurred under your 
 eye to convince any court that a fair trial is 
 not the object of the defendant, viz : peremp- 
 tory exception, because Mure had not been 
 made a defendant ; that after having demanded 
 a jury, and waived the exercise of that privi- 
 lege, he waited until it was too late in the term 
 to get it tried by a jury, and when called to be 
 tried by your honor, he repeated his demand 
 for a jury. He then urged that the plaintiff 
 was dead, and that the suit should abate. Then 
 came a motion to dismiss the suit, on the aver- 
 ment that the plaintiff had abandoned the 
 cause, and that the counsel was prosecuting it 
 for his own benefit. Then came the plea of 
 sickness; then came the plea of absence of 
 counsel ; and finally came the plea that the 
 costs of court had not been secured. And not 
 a particle of testimony in support of any of 
 those pleas except sick?iess. 
 
 With such demonstration fresh on the recol- 
 lections of your honor, it cannot be expected 
 that you will aid further procrastination. 
 
 DECISION OF A RULE FOR A NEW 
 TRIAL. 
 
 York ) 
 vs. > Fifth District Court. 
 Chilton. J 
 
 This cause has, during more than ten years, 
 occupied nearly one half of the jury terms of
 
 YORK VERSUS CHILTON. 
 
 279 
 
 this court. After several mistrials, a jury, 
 some years ago, found a verdict of oue hun- 
 dred dollars for plaintiff. My learned prede- 
 cessor on this bench, Judge Buchanan, on 
 defendant's application, set aside this verdict, 
 and granted a new trial. Now a jury, com- 
 posed of intelligent and respectable citizens, 
 have thought proper to bring in a verdict of 
 seven thousand five hundred dollars for 
 plaintiff. 
 
 After an attentive consideration of all the 
 circumstances attending this remarkable case, 
 there is no doubt in my mind, that the plain- 
 tiff is fairly entitled to a verdict for some 
 reasonable amount of damages, viz.: First. 
 For the unlawful and offensive manner in 
 which plaintiff was dispossessed of his ship by 
 defendant, by means of an illegal order ob- 
 tained from the clerk of the United States 
 court. Second. The abrupt removal beyond 
 the limits of this State of the said ship, 
 occasioning the plaintiff the loss of a portion 
 of his personal effects on board. Third. The 
 unjust persecution and incarceration of plain- 
 tiff at the suit of defendant, without any just 
 or probable cause. 
 
 However, considering that the jury has 
 lost sight of several mitigating circumstances, 
 the most important of which are, First. That 
 the defendant is the son of one of the 
 charterers of the ship; that, ahhough he could 
 not prove at the lime that he was an accred- 
 ited agent of his father, still that relation, 
 although it will not justify his oppressive acts, 
 will operate, however, as a mitigating circum- 
 stance — creating a presumption that his acts 
 could not have been exclusively controlled by 
 malice. Second. That the defendant's acts 
 were subsequently ratified by plaintiff's em- 
 ployers, Chilton & Holderness, who had, by 
 the written original contract, reserved the 
 right of dismissing him at pleasure. 
 
 Therefore, as establishing a fair proportion 
 of the actual loss sustained by the plaintiff at 
 the hands of the defendant, aiid also as exem- 
 plary damages to vindicate the offended ma- 
 jesty of the law, I consider the verdict to be 
 excessive and exorbitant. 
 
 At the trial of this case, the defendant labor- 
 ed under a very serious disadvantage. The 
 able counsel who had during so many trials 
 successfully struggled in his defence, was ab- 
 sent from the State. 
 
 The defendant, instead of securing the re- 
 liable services of the distinguished counsel who 
 has so ably argued this rule on his behalf, did, 
 in an evil hour of mistaken confidence, and 
 inexperienced as he was in the strategy of the 
 law,enter himself the list, single handed, against 
 one of the oldest champions of this bar. Before 
 a jury, and in a cause like the present one, he 
 had as much'chance of success as the retiarius 
 with his net and spear, coping in deadly con- 
 flict with a steel clad warrior, armed with battle 
 axe and sword. Excepting only the latter one, 
 
 which is defendant's own fault, the above con- 
 siderations should operate and have their due 
 weight in support of the action made for a new 
 trial. 
 
 This court, however, is not inclined to dis- 
 regard entirely in this case the verdict of an 
 intelligent jury; when by a legal course that 
 verdict may possibly be reduced, and the cause 
 be placed before the Supreme Court upon a 
 reasonable award of damages, when the 
 whole matter will be supervised and finally 
 disposed of. This case would, probably, upon 
 a new trial, take up one-half of the jury terms 
 of this court during another lapse of ten years, 
 to the unjust detriment of the other causes on 
 the jury dockets. 
 
 It is therefore ordered, that in case the 
 plaintiff, by his agent and counsel, will file, 
 within a delay of ten days, a remittitur of the 
 amount of Jmir thousand Jive hundred dollars, 
 and his acceptance of a judgment of three thou- 
 sand dollars, then in that case let the new trial 
 be refused. Otherwise, and on the non-com- 
 pliance by said agent and counsel with the 
 above requisitions, and in that case only, let a 
 new trial be granted. 
 
 REMARKS BY MR. BARKER. 
 
 Although Mr. Barker considers that his 
 honor, Judge Augustin, has taken a mistaken 
 view of that part of the evidence on '.vhich he 
 bases his opinion, that the damages allowed by 
 the jury were excessive and exorbitant, he, con- 
 formably to the judge's suggestion, enters the 
 remittitur of forty five hundred dollars, because 
 he is anxious to terminate litigation, and because 
 he does not believe that more than three thou- 
 sand dollars could be collected from the de- 
 fendant. 
 
 Mr. Barker is of the opinion that the dam- 
 ages awarded by the jury, so far from being 
 excessive and exorbitant, should, from the tes- 
 timony on record, have been for ten thousand 
 dollars, the full amount claimed. 
 
 Mistaken, inasmuch as Messrs. Holderness & 
 Chilton were not the employers of Captain 
 York; they never had a written contract with 
 him, nor were they the charterers, unless they 
 represented the Hull Flax and Cotton Mills 
 Company; or unless, as ship brokers, they pro- 
 cured from that company the charter, they 
 never had the right to dismiss Captain York 
 at pleasure, consequently could not have re- 
 tained it by a written stipulation, or otherwise. 
 
 Those facts not being material, were not 
 discussed on either trial; nor was any other 
 than incidental testimony given in relation 
 thereto by either party. The judge, doubtless,
 
 280 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 was led into this error from the fact of Holder- 
 ness& Chilton having signed the sailing orders, 
 and that of Thomas Holderness, of Hull, the 
 owner of the ship, (who is a very different per- 
 son from Messrs. Holderness & Chilton, of Liv- 
 erpool,) having retained that right, in terms, in 
 his original contract with Captain York, dated 
 the 1st of January. (See page 254.) 
 
 CAPX. YORK'3 POWER TO MR. BARKER. 
 
 New Orleans, August 2, 1849. 
 
 Sir: Being about leaving Louisiana for Cali- 
 fornia, I have to request that you press my 
 claim on Richard Harrison Chilton to final 
 judgment with all possible diligence, either in 
 the existing suit or in such other legal pro- 
 ceedings as you may think best; and should a 
 compromise be deemed expedient, you are 
 hereby authorised to settle the matter as you 
 may think best; to give, grant, and deliver all 
 necessary and proper releases, and I hereby 
 agree to ratify whatever you may do in the 
 premises. 
 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 W. B. YORK. 
 
 Jacob Barker, esq. 
 
 Wm. B. York, 
 
 vs. 
 R. H. Chilton. 
 
 Fifth District Court of 
 New Orleans. 
 
 In this case, his honor, Judge Augustin, 
 haviug this day rendered judgment on the rule 
 of defendant to show cause why a new trial 
 should not be granted dismissing said rule on 
 condition that plaintiff's counsel should enter 
 a remittitur of forty-five hundred dollars of the 
 verdict for seveu thousand five hundred dollars 
 rendered by the jury. 
 
 The plaintiff's counsel and agent hereby re- 
 mits four thousand five hundred dollars of the 
 said verdict. The said counsel and agent 
 hereby agrees that the said verdict shall be 
 considered as for three thousard dollars, and 
 prays that judgment be rendered against II. H. 
 Chilton in favor of plaintiff for that sum. 
 
 JACOB BARKER, 
 Counsel and Agefit for 
 
 w. b. york: 
 
 THE WAR LOAN. 
 
 To the Honorable Court of Claims of the Unit- 
 ed Slates, sitting in Washington, D. C. 
 
 Your petitioners, Richard R. Ward, Fitz 
 Green Halleck and Jacob Little, of New York, 
 assignees of Jacob Rarker, respectfully repre- 
 sent that on the second of May, 1814, the said 
 Jacob Barker became a subscriber to the first 
 loan, denominated the ten million loan, made 
 under the act of Congress passed the 24th of 
 
 March, 1814, chap. 29. The terms of the con- 
 tract upon which the said loan was taken, are 
 fully set forth in the following correspondence 
 between the said Jacob Barker and the Hon. 
 Gr. W. Campbell, Secretary of the Treasury of 
 the United States, to wit: 
 
 Washington, Uh month 30, 1814. 
 
 "Respected friend: I will loan to the gov- 
 ernment of the United States five millions of 
 dollars, receiving one hundred dollars in six 
 per cent stock for each eighty-eight dollars 
 paid, and will pay the money in the proportion, 
 and at the period mentioned in the advertise- 
 ment of the 4th of April, to their credit, in such 
 banks of the United States as may be agreea- 
 ble to thee. 
 
 "On the payment of each instalment and 
 satisfactory assurances for the payment of the 
 others, funded stock to be issued. It being 
 understood and agreed that if terms more fa- 
 vorable to the loaners be allowed for any part 
 of the twenty-five millions authorized to be 
 borrowed the present year, the same terms are 
 to be extended to this contract. 
 
 "The commission of one quarter of one per- 
 cent, mentioned in the advertisement to be 
 allowed me on the amount loaned. 
 
 "With great re?pect and esteem, I am thy 
 assured friend, 
 
 "JACOB BARKER. 
 
 "The Hon. G. W. Campbell, 
 
 "Secretary of the Treasury." 
 
 Treasury Department, May 2d, 1814. 
 
 Sir: — The terms on which the loan has been 
 this day concluded, are as follows, viz: 
 
 Eighty -eight dollars in money for each hun- 
 dred dollars in stock; and the United Slates 
 engage, if any part of the sum of twenty-five 
 millions of dollars authorised to be borrowed 
 by the act of the 24th of March, 1814, is bor- 
 rowed upon terms more favorable to the lend- 
 ers, the benefit of the same terms shall be 
 extended to the persons who may then hold 
 the stock or any part of it issued for the pres- 
 ent loan of ten millions. 
 
 Your proposal of the 30th April, for five mil- 
 lions of dollars of the loan having been at the 
 above rate, or at a rate more favorable than 
 the above to the United States, has been ac- 
 cepted; and you will please to pay, or cause to 
 be paid, on the 25th day of the present month, 
 into the bank or banks you have named, or 
 into such as you shall name to the Secretary of 
 the Treasury, on the receipt of this letter, 
 twenty-five per cent, or one-fourth of the sum 
 above stated, pursuant to the notification from 
 this Department of the 4th April last, and the 
 remaining instalments on the days fixed in the 
 said notification. You will be pleased, also, 
 on or before the 25th of May, to furnish the 
 cashier or cashiers of the bank or banks, where 
 the payments under your proposal are to be 
 made, with the names of persons in whose be-
 
 THE WAR LOAN. 
 
 281 
 
 half the proposal has been made, aad the sums 
 payable by .each. 
 
 The commission of one-fourth of one per cent, 
 will be paid from the Treasury, after the pay- 
 ment of the first instalment on the 25th day of 
 the present month. 
 
 I am respectfully, sir, your obedient servant, 
 G. W. CAMPBELL. 
 Jacob Barker, Esq., New York. 
 
 Your petitioners further represent that the said 
 Jacob Barker furnished large sums of money to 
 the government, paying in specie, or its equiva- 
 lent, receiving stock therefor pursuant to the 
 said contract, of which stock there were three 
 millions four hundred and forty-six thousand 
 one hundred and three 57-100 dollars held by 
 sundry individuals and institutions on which he 
 was entitled to the benefit of the condition, near 
 three million of which was held in trust for his 
 account, and the residue had been sold reserving 
 the benefit of the condition ; for the amount 
 held by each, your petitioners refer to the books 
 of the United States loan offices, the use of 
 which they invoke. 
 
 Your petitioners further represent that the 
 Secretary of the Treasury, on the 31st of Au- 
 gust, 1814, under the said law of 24th March, 
 1814, entered into another contract with divers 
 persons and especially with Dennis A. Smith, 
 of Baltimore, for a further loan, payable on the 
 20th September, 10th of October, 10th of No- 
 vember and 10th of December of that year, 
 one-fourth each, which was received in the 
 notes of the banks of the District of Columbia 
 and of Baltimore, and that the said banks were 
 then in a state of suspension and their notes 
 depreciated from ten to twenty-five per cent, 
 dependent on the dates when each instalment 
 was received ; for each eighty dollars of such 
 notes received, the Treasury of the United 
 States issued one hundred dollars stock. 
 
 Your petitioners further represent that they 
 have been informed, and believe that further 
 portions of the said twenty-five millions loan 
 were negotiated by the Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury subsequent to the 31st of August, 1814, 
 for which depreciated paper was received, giv- 
 ing one hundred dollars six per cent, stock for 
 each eighty dollars of such depreciated paper. 
 
 Your petitioners insist that upon these facts, 
 by virtue of the contract made by Jacob Barker, 
 as aforesaid, the holders of funded stock in the 
 ten million loan, became entitled on the 31st 
 August, 1814, to an amount of supplemental 
 stock, equal to the difference between eighty- 
 eight dollars in money paid for it. and the 
 value of eighty dollars in depreciated bank 
 paper paid by the subscribers for the second 
 loan. 
 
 But the Secretary of the Treasury, estimat- 
 ing the payments for the second loan as so 
 much money, and taking no account of the 
 depreciation of the currency received, allowed 
 supplemental stock only to the amount of ten 
 
 19 
 
 per cent, on the original stock, which was the 
 mere nominal difference between the rates of 
 the two loans, while the real difference was 
 about three times that amount; and to make 
 the injustice of this proceeding still more pal- 
 pable, the Secretary of the Treasury refused to 
 issue this supplemental stock to the persons 
 who were the holders of the original stock on 
 the 31st August, 1814, finally insisted on their 
 surrendering the 'certificates of stock which 
 were held by them, although there was not any 
 reference to the condition on the face of said 
 certiricates, and after a long delay issued it to 
 those who happened to hold them at the time 
 they should be thus surrendered. 
 
 In the judgment of your petitioners this was 
 a manifest departure from the terms of the 
 contract, which greatly embarrassed and injur- 
 ed the said Jacob Barker in the large interests 
 affected by this unsound decision. Nevertheless 
 the parties who might have profited by this 
 advantage, in most cases proved to be suffi- 
 ciently just to hand over to him this supple- 
 mental stock of ten per cent, issued on that 
 portion of the loan on which he was entitled to 
 the benefit of the condition. 
 
 The only claim, therefore, now insisted upon 
 is the allowance for the difference between the 
 nominal and real value of the paper currency 
 received at the Treasury. 
 
 It is true that the government acted oppres- 
 sively towards the said Jacob Barker in other 
 important respects and thereby inflicted upon 
 him the most serious and fatal injuries, in evi- 
 dence of which your petitioners refer to the 
 letter of Nathan Lufborough, Comptroller of 
 the Treasury, dated 24th November, 1814, ad- 
 dressed to the Secretary of the Treasury and 
 by him adopted, in words and figures following: 
 
 "Treasury Department, 
 "Comptroller's office, Nov. 24, 1814. 
 
 "Sir: I take the liberty of enclosing, for 
 your approbation, forms of certificates proposed 
 to be printed and issued to the holders of stock 
 in the ten million loan, pursuant to the opinion 
 of the Attorney General enclosed to me in your 
 letter of the 19th instant. 
 
 "These forms have become necessary, in or- 
 der to carry into effect that part of your letter 
 to me of the 22d of this month, which requests 
 that every proper facility may be afforded to 
 the holders of certificates in the above mention- 
 ed stock, ; to establish hereafter the identity of 
 the supplemental stock,' (now about to be issu- 
 ed to them,) and its connexion with the ten 
 million loan. The designation, in writing, on 
 the face of the certificates to be issued for the 
 supplemental stock, is made for no other pur- 
 pose than that of enabling the holder, if he 
 chooses, to preserve its identity and its con- 
 nexion with the primary stock. The manu- 
 script addition made on the face of the condi- 
 tion intended to be issued in lieu of the origi- 
 nal 6tock, of the ten million loan now in circu-
 
 282 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 lation, is intended — 1st, to guard the public 
 against imposition, by preventing more supple- 
 mental stock from issuing, in any case, than is 
 actually due; and, 2d, to give notice to subse- 
 quent purchasers of the stock, that the stipula- 
 tions contained in the contract between the 
 Secretary of the Treasury and the original sub- \ 
 scribers to the loan had been fulfilled, or in j 
 other words, that everything relating to that 
 contract, so far as respected the stock in exist- 
 ence, was deemed at the treasury to be settled ; 
 and closed. There is nothing in this that can 
 have a tendency 'to impair the rights or em- 
 barrass the remedies' of the public creditors | 
 under the ten million loan for further issues of j 
 supplemental stock. 
 
 ''No exaction is made from them of any j 
 release whatever of their rights or claims in this j 
 respect. Their rights will still remain with i 
 themselves, and their remedies with Congress, j 
 The notification, on the face of the certificate, 
 is nothing more than a simple statement and \ 
 exhibition of a fact which does exist, and 
 which ought to be known, as well to the subse- \ 
 quent purchasers of the stock as to those who 
 now hold it — namely, that the supplemental 
 stock, stated on the face of the certificate to 
 have been issued, was deemed at the treasury 
 to be a full and complete execution of the 
 original contract on the part of the govern- 
 ment, so far as regarded the amount of stock 
 to be issued under that contract. This inform- 
 ation is already in possession of the agent of 
 the present holders of the stock, or a great 
 portion of it. To keep it from subsequent 
 holders, who might purchase too under the 
 impression that still further benefits are to 
 attach to the stock, might subject the treasury, 
 and with great reason, to imputations which it 
 has hitherto been free from, and which it never 
 will, I trust, be justly liable to, I have deemed 
 it to be my duty to be thus particular in 
 explaining to you the causes for my making 
 the certificates of stock in the forms you see 
 them, and I hope this will be the last time I 
 shall have occasion to trouble you on this very 
 unpleasant business. 
 
 "Without, &c, 
 "NATHAN LUFBOIIOUGH, 
 
 "Acting Comptroller. 
 "Hon. Secretary of the Treasury." 
 
 And to another letter from said Comptroller, 
 dated 30th November, 1814, addressed to the 
 Commissioners of Loans, from which the fol- 
 lowing extracts are taken : 
 " CIRCULAR TO CERTAIN COMMISSIONERS OF LOANS. 
 
 " Treasury Department, 
 "Comptroller's Office, Nov. SO, 1814. 
 
 "Sir: I enclose, for your information and 
 government, a copy of a notification, bearing 
 date this day, issued by the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, respecting additional stock to be 
 issued to the subscribers, or those claiming 
 
 under them, to the loan of ten millions of dol- 
 lars of the 2d May, 1814. 
 
 "The additional stock in question is to be 
 issued to the persons holding, at the time of 
 application for the additional stock, scrip cer- 
 tificates, or funded certificates of stock of the 
 aforesaid loan of ten millions of dollars, and 
 not to those who may have held the said cer- 
 tificates on the 31st of August last, the day on 
 which a part of the loan for six millions of dol- 
 lars was taken, unless they shall also hold 
 them at the time of application for the addi- 
 tional stock. 
 
 "On the original certificate, thus surrender- 
 ed, there must be an assignment by the propri- 
 etor, or his attorney, agreeably to the forms 
 herewith, marked B. You will perceive that 
 the accounts of the old stock are to be closed 
 on your books and new accounts opened, cor- 
 responding with the alteration in the funded 
 certificates hereafter to be issued, a supply of 
 which will be transmitted to you by the Regis- 
 ter of the Treasury. 
 
 " You will make out duplicate abstracts of 
 the certificates of supplemental stock issued 
 by you, agreeably to the enclosed form, marked 
 C ; one of which abstracts you will forward to 
 this office quarter yearly, and file the other in 
 your office. 
 
 "It is proper to apprize you, that the Attor- 
 ney General has given an opinion to the Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury, setting forth, amongother 
 things, that the condition in the letter of the 
 Secretary of the Treasury, of the 2d May, 1814, 
 to the subscribers for the ten million loan, 
 'attached as soon as the second loan was made, 
 (the loan of August 1814;) that, on the hap- 
 pening of that event, it (the contract) no longer 
 remained open and executory, subject to all the 
 variations in price which might mark subse- 
 quent loans, until the whole twenty-five mil- 
 lions should be exhausted.' This opinion has 
 been adopted at the treasury, and the supple- 
 mental stock, now authorized to be issued, is 
 deemed to be in full of all demands upon the 
 government for further issues of stocks in the 
 ten million loan, under the contract above 
 mentioned. It is not thought necessary, how- 
 ever, to take any release to this effect from the 
 stockholders, on delivering them the supple- 
 mental stock. 
 
 " lam, very respectfully, &c, 
 
 "NATHAN LUFBOROUGH." 
 
 The intention of this position that, the con- 
 dition attached to the first loan was fully satis- 
 fied and discharged by payment of the difference 
 between the first and second loan, was to ena- 
 ble the government to put its stock upon the 
 market at any price whatever, without any 
 further responsibility to the holders of the 
 original stock. This decision of the Treasury 
 was published to the world for the express and 
 avowed purpose of destroying the value of the 
 condition contracted for, and which was to be
 
 THE EUROPEAN WAR. 
 
 283 
 
 enjoyed by those who should hold the stoke 
 whenever more favorable terms should be al- 
 lowed to any subsequent subscriber lor any 
 part of the twenty-five millions. 
 
 And further, to accumulate hardship and 
 oppression upon the first contractors, of whom 
 Jacob Barker was the most important, the 
 government finally determined to destroy the 
 effect of the condition by applying to Congress 
 for authority to make another loan under a dif- 
 ferent law. Before one-half the sum authorized 
 to be borrowed by the act of 24th March, 1814, 
 had been obtained by the government, the act 
 of loth November, 1814, chap. 4, not only au- 
 thorized a new loan, but expressly empowered 
 the banks of the District of Columbia, then in 
 a state of suspension, to take any part of it. 
 They accordingly did subscribe, and paid their 
 subscriptions in their own depreciated paper. 
 This new loan was made when only about one- 
 half of the twenty-five million loan had been 
 borrowed, a great portion of which yet remains 
 unnegotiated. The effect of this proceeding 
 was to avoid the condition attached to the first 
 loan under the act of the 24th March preced- 
 ing ; but it was evidently a mere evasion which 
 the power of the government rendered effectual 
 to destroy the rights of the parties interested, 
 so far as depended on the market value of the 
 stock, but which no human authority or inge- 
 nuity can make consistent with the terms of 
 the original contract, and the sanctity of the 
 national faith. 
 
 Your petitioners further state that the said 
 Jacob Barker, in the first instance, and them- 
 selves, as his assignees, afterwards, repeatedly 
 applied to Congress for relief, but without 
 effect. At the second session of the lGth Con- 
 gress, the Senate Committee on Claims made 
 report No. 56 adverse to the claim. At the 
 first session of the 17th Congress the same 
 Committee made Senate report No. 40, and the 
 application was rejected by the Senate. Refer- 
 ence is made to these reports to show that the 
 grounds assumed therein are wholly untenable 
 in law, and in fact. Not convinced by the 
 reasoning of these honorable committees, but 
 still satisfied of the substantial justice of the 
 claim asserted, the petitioners again and again 
 presented their application to Congress, but the 
 same was not definitely acted upon until the 
 second session of the 32d Congress, when, in the 
 House of Representatives the Committee on the 
 Judiciary made report 140, accompanied by bill 
 No. 793, both of which, with all the accompa- 
 nying papers, were, by resolution of said House, 
 referred tothisbonorable court forinvestigation. 
 Your petitioners further state that on the 
 10th of April, 1820, the said Jacob Barker 
 made an assignment of this claim, for the ben- 
 efit of his creditors, to your petitioners and 
 Jesse Hoyt. The latter gentleman declined the 
 trust. No other person, except the said Jacob 
 Barker and his creditors, have any interest 
 whatever in the claim herein presented. 
 
 In consideration of the premises, and in pur- 
 suance of the reference made by the House of 
 Representatives, your petitioners pray that the 
 court will investigate the demand herein set 
 forth; and believing themselves entitled, as 
 assignees of the said Jacob Barker, to an allow- 
 ance on three millions four hundred and forty- 
 six thousand one hundred and three 57-100 
 dollars, equal to the difference between lawful 
 money and the depreciated paper received un- 
 der the loan of 31st of August, 1814, which 
 said difference was due in stock bearing an in- 
 terest of six percent, per annum from the time 
 the money was received by the Treasury of the 
 United States, they pray that the just amount 
 of this allowance may be fairly estimated and 
 reported to Congress for payment. 
 
 BROWN, STANTON & WALKER, 
 Attorneys. 
 
 THE EUROPEAN WAR. 
 
 Humanity demands an immediate peace, its 
 importance to the manufacturing and commer- 
 cial interests of the world is not questioned. 
 The war was commenced by France to cement 
 and perpetuate the Napoleon dynasty, and by 
 England to protect her East India possessions. 
 
 The idea that it was embarked in from sym- 
 pathy for Turkey is preposterous. Christians 
 who felt so much sympathy for the oppressed 
 Greeks, would not war in support of infidelity 
 from any such feeling. 
 
 The object of France has been attained, 
 while the effect of the war has been to transfer 
 the balance of power from Russia to France. 
 The humiliation of Russia, if that were possi- 
 ble, could not restore to England the prestige 
 she has lost in this war. 
 
 Money and men are the great elements of 
 war. The scrupulous fidelity Britain has pre- 
 served in all her stock operations has enabled 
 her paper mills to supply the one, of the other 
 she is destitute; her people will not enlist in 
 her armies for foreign service, they prefer to 
 die at home, and the recruits her money pro- 
 cures from the miserable, petty states she has 
 subsidized, cannot restore the glory she has lost. 
 
 The use of steam navigation has deprived 
 her of the superiority she enjoyed on the ocean 
 for more than a century; she has to submit, as 
 mortifying as it is, to being considered a second- 
 rate power: hence, the sooner she falls back on 
 her manufacturing and commercial interests 
 the better for her, therefore a general peace 
 may be expected without another year's cam-
 
 284 
 
 LIFE OF JACOB BARKER. 
 
 paign. These interests will not be promoted 
 by doing Russia further mischief. 
 
 As to France, she has already won glory 
 enough in the present war to last her through 
 the reign of her present Emperor, besides, she 
 cannot continue it single-handed without en- 
 dangering all she has won. She, like her 
 neighbors, lacks money and bread. 
 
 The true policy of the United States is to 
 cultivate our commercial relations with all the 
 nations of the earth; to keep out of debt; to 
 keep down taxation ; not to waste money on use- 
 less fortifications, or naval equipments; have 
 her youths instructed in the art of war, relying 
 on the people to fill the ranks of the army in 
 case such a calamity should befal us, and on 
 small armed vessels, to destroy the enemy's 
 commerce, with which the ocean could be cov- 
 ered in ninety days. Neither prizes or prison- 
 ers should be sent home. Such an armament 
 would do the enemy more harm than fifty line- 
 of-battle ships of the largest class could do. 
 This, aided by an embargo and non-importation 
 law, would soon restore peaceful relations. 
 
 The intelligence from France indicates that 
 she contemplates abandoning the metallic cur- 
 rency; this apprehension has alarmed the Bank 
 of England ; the drain of specie leads to the 
 belief that France means to suspend specie 
 payments full handed. 
 
 To arrest so direful a catastrophe there ap- 
 pears to be many projects under consideration, 
 they are all palliatives; peace is the only j 
 remedy. The project of doubling the capital 
 of the Bank of France, may have the effect of 
 putting off the evil day for a short time, as it j 
 will enable the bank to extend greater facilities 
 to the government; yet pay- day will come, and 
 if the war continues she will have to resort to 
 the paper system, and tender laws; whether 
 the present Emperor is equal to this task is 
 problematical. 
 
 The banks of the United States have timely 
 notice, and it behoves them to curtail their 
 liabilities; they should remember that no one 
 can draw their specie who has not a claim 
 therefor, and that the banks are as much bound 
 to pay their debts as individuals are, and there- 
 fore have no right to complain when specie is 
 called for. Further contributions from Mr. 
 Barker, on the subject of the finances of the 
 world, were expected for this volume, his other 
 
 occupations have prevented their being fur- 
 nished; therefore we close it by adding an ex- 
 tract from the New York Herald. 
 
 [From the New York Herald, October 20, 1855.] 
 THE COMMERCIAL NEWS BY THE ATLANTIC— FINAN- 
 CIAL CONDITION OF EUROPE. 
 
 The commercial community will find else- 
 where a number of extracts from British jour- 
 nals respecting the condition of the finances of 
 the Western Powers. They will not only repay 
 perusal from their intrinsic interest, but may 
 be worth preserving for future reference as 
 materials for the history of finance. 
 
 In studying them, care must b2 taken not to 
 allow the technical phrases of the bankers and 
 financiers to create confusion. The facts are 
 very simple. Here are three nations at war. 
 They start with the following debts: 
 
 England $3,869,615,000 
 
 France 1,165,000,000 
 
 Russia 340,080,000 
 
 The first year of the war passes over. It is 
 found that it has cost, in round numbers, $1,- 
 500,000,000, divided in the proportion of one- 
 third each to Russia and France, and the re- 
 maining third divided between England, Tur- 
 key, and Sardinia. The loans have been as 
 follows : 
 
 France #500,000,000 
 
 England 1 10,000,000 
 
 Russia must have been 600,000,000 
 
 Now, it may be a question whether any one 
 of these three nations can stand an expenditure 
 of this amount, or maintain its credit while using 
 it at this rate. Of the three Russia would, of 
 course, stand it best, because it has least com- 
 merce, its money is in fewest hands, and the 
 government is of that paternal character that 
 measures of gentle coercion can be adopted 
 with regard to property owners without any 
 difficulty. But without entering into a discus- 
 sion of the effects of the continuance of such 
 a drain on the national resources of the 
 belligerents, two collateral facts of present 
 significance afford quite ample food for reflec- 
 tion. 
 
 A kw months ago, two alarming phenome- 
 na were noticed by the French government 
 — the first was the gradual disappearance of 
 gold, the second was the bad promise of the 
 crops. The former could only be accounted 
 for by the supposition that the bourgeoisie of 
 France, who had come forward in such a spe- 
 culative spirit to subscribe for the imperial 
 loans had repented, lost confidence in the gov- 
 ernment and were hoarding money; which was 
 the fact. Half a dozen French statutes, de- 
 claring it a capital offence to secrete or export 
 gold, prove how prone the French have been to 
 deal thus with their specie, whenever alarm 
 seized them. The second phenomenon was 
 equally unpromising. Ignorant as the French 
 are of political economy, they invariably fly to
 
 FINANCIAL CONDITION OF EUROPE. 
 
 285 
 
 the government when famine breaks out, and 
 demand the passage of a law to fix the price of 
 bread and other necessaries; the State having, 
 on many occasions, foolishly yielded to the cla- 
 mor, passed the law, and made up the differ- 
 ence to the producers itself. The forced con- 
 sequence therefore of the failure of the crops 
 and the general dearness of provisions was the 
 promulgation by the Emperor of two ordinances, 
 the one regulating the price of corn, the other 
 the price of butchers meat. Needless to ex- 
 plain that these ordinances involve the govern- 
 ment in a new expenditure, which cannot be 
 less than several hundred thousand dollars a 
 week. Coming at the very time when the 
 drain on the bank had already embarrassed it, 
 a panic was inevitable. One false step leads 
 to another. After paying to give cheap bread 
 and cheap beef to the Parisians, the Emperor 
 was next forced to pay to give them cheap 
 gold. In other words, the Bank of France, to 
 avoid a suspension, resorted to the despairing 
 experiment of sending to London, buying gold 
 there at a premium, and selling it to its custo- 
 mers at par. Of course, this resource could 
 not be expected to last long. The Bank of 
 England, already fearfully weakened by the 
 secret drafts made by the Russian fund 
 holders, retaliated on its neighbor by raising 
 the rate of interest to 5^ ; and if the drain 
 continued, it was well understood that it would 
 be raised to 6, or to whatever figure might be 
 necessary to keep the gold at home. What is 
 Napoleon to do? Rumor says that he is about 
 to permit the bank to suspend specie payments 
 and at the same time to double the capital of 
 the bank. When the like measure was pro- 
 posed in 1806 to his uncle, he answered " That 
 would be for the bank to be coining false mo- 
 ney. So clearly do I see the dangers of such 
 a course that if necessary I would stop the pay- 
 ment of my soldiers rather than persevere in it." 
 The other point which financiers would do 
 well to meditate at the present time is the dif- 
 ference between the position of the belligerents 
 arising out of the difference between their re- 
 spective currencies. The Western Powers, it 
 must be remembered, work on a specie curren- 
 cy ; Russia wholly on a currency of paper, 
 which is made a legal tender. This makes all 
 the difference in the world. Russia only needs 
 to pay a paper maker and an engraver to pay 
 for all the corn, provisions, arms, transporta- 
 tion and soldier's pay she needs. For what 
 saltpetre and other military stores she requires 
 from abroad, she can pay with the gold she 
 draws from Great Britain by selling out the 
 ten or more millions the imperial family have 
 long held in the funds. Whereas the moment 
 France and England cannot pay their debts on 
 demand, their own subjects turn round upon 
 their governments, and a suspension of specie 
 payments becomes inevitable. The very readi- 
 ness with which the people of France sub- 
 scribed for the imperial loans may be fatal to 
 
 the Emperor in the end ; for among so many 
 people some are sure to take fright, sell their 
 rentes and demand specie, and spread a panic 
 through the market. As to England, the case 
 is still clearer. The amount of specie in the 
 bank is now a trifle over twelve millions. It 
 was nearly twenty in January ; about half 
 the difference has gone to France and the rest 
 has been divided between Russia and the Cri- 
 mea. It is now understood that an amount of 
 £100,000 in gold goes to the army every week. 
 £5,200,000 a year. It is likewise understood 
 that the amount of funds owned by the family 
 of the late Czar was £10,000,000, in supposing 
 that no portion of the 150,000,000 francs sold 
 out of the French rentes in 1848 and 1849 was 
 re-invested in British securities. These facts 
 make it plain that unless peace is speedily 
 made, or some wonderful miraculous change 
 takes place, the event not obscurely foretold by 
 the sagacious writer in the British Economist, 
 namely, the repeal of Peel's act and the sus- 
 pension of specie payments by the Bank of 
 Englaud, will be inevitable, if the government 
 of Great Britain desire to avoid a national 
 bankruptcy. 
 
 To show the effect of a suspension of specie 
 payments, we subjoin the following table, show- 
 ing the depreciation of the British currency 
 during the Napoleonic wars, -when specie pay 
 ments were suspended : 
 
 Average price Value of £100 Depreciation 
 of gold per oz. in bank notes. percent. 
 
 £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. 
 
 1800 3 17 10± 100 Par. 
 
 1801 4 5 0" 91 12 4 8 7 8 
 
 1802 434 93 90 6 110 
 
 1803 436 93 53 6 14 9 
 
 1804 4 97 6 10 2 13 2 
 
 1805 4 97 6 10 2 13 2 
 
 1806 4 97 6 10 2 13 2 
 
 1807 4 97 6 10 2 13 2 
 
 1808 4 97 6 10 2 13 2 
 
 1809 4 97 6 10 2 13 2 
 
 1810 4 10 9 86 10 6 13 9 6 
 
 1811 4 5 6 91 1 7 8 18 5 
 
 1812 4 17 10 79 12 20 8 
 
 1813 5 2 3 76 3 2 23 16 10 
 
 1814 5 6 4 73 4 9 26 15 3 
 
 1815 4 17 9 79 13 4 20 6 8 
 
 1816 4 11 8 84 19 1 15 11 
 
 1817 3 19 8 97 15 2 5 
 
 1818 3 19 9 97 12 11 2 7 1 
 
 1819 4 11 6 95 11 4 9 
 
 1820 3 19 1 98 9 5 1 10 7 
 
 1821 3 17 10i 100 Par. 
 
 One sovereign weighs 5 dvvts. 3j grs., which, 
 at par, or 77s. 10|d. per oz., is worth 20s., or a 
 bank note of one pound. 
 
 When gold rises in England to £4 and £5 
 the ounce, our banks may cease to publish 
 weekly statements, and to talk about a specie 
 reserve. Every dollar of gold they have will 
 go, and nothing but a suspension of specie 
 payments here will save the commercial com- 
 munity from a crisis as fatal as, though of a 
 totally different character from, that of 1837.
 
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