flag been respected, even among barbarians, on account of the scrupulous punctuality and undeviating rectitude of the adventurous Yankee trader? Without the impulse afforded by commerce, the sciences of astronomy and navigation would have remained involved in the mists which for ages overhung them. The first has, through its encouragement, been made to disclose new wonders in the heavens; and in aid of the last, by new powers displayed in the magnetic needle, oceans have been explored, which were once thought untraversable, and designed to cut off all intercourse forever. Voyages, once of great risk and of long continuance, across the Atlantic and Pacific, are now made trips of safety and pleasure, performed in a few days or weeks in floating palaces, impelled by power which sets the wind at defiance. Nor has man alone been benefitted. Nations in their government relations, and in the entire pursuits and manners of their people, have been entirely revolutionized, through the influ ence of the peaceful conquests of commerce. Through it, statesmen have been silently forced to change systems of government, from systems of war and conquest to those of the arts of peace. Commercial treaties have proved stronger barriers than fortifications and cannon; and as consequences, not only have the nations themselves become richer and more powerful, but individuals have found their manners softened and refined, and their comforts largely increased and cheapened, in proportion as their intercourse with strangers has been extended, and their products and manufactures exchanged. To the means of communicating quickly with distant countries, thus the result of the extension of commerce, are nations, in times of calamity and famine, indebted for relief. The condition of Ireland during the past few years, furnishes a satisfactory illustration; when, from the full bosom of the new world, was poured out a stream, without which millions would have miserably perished.

In regard to the wealth of commercial men, it would be unjust not to say, that it is returned again generously into the community from which originally drawn. The riches of the farmer are expended in investments, which do not, and cannot, be so extensively beneficial. He becomes a large land proprietor, and there he centres his capital. But the merchant expends his in manufactures, internal improvements, railways, ships, steamboats, all receive his surplus, and in these a greater number are benefitted than in the mere extension of a landed interest. Besides, the largest donations ever made to educational establishments have been made by merchants; and of public libraries, lyceum associations, and free schools, they are almost the exclusive patrons. We do not mean by this to assert that planters are never the promoters of learning, or of social benevolences; but only to assume, that from the vocation of merchants, their residence in large cities, and the absence of other avenues, their wealth more frequently take these directions.

mercial men.

Taking these things into consideration, we hope to see a more liberal and enlightened enquiry indulged in with regard to the value of comThe writer, from long association, would naturally sympathize with the planter; but he feels this tribute due, not less to truth and justice, than to a class of citizens who do more to establish a nation's prosperity, and to lay the foundation of her fame for honor, than any other; who, without violence, are at once her strength and protection, and who contribute more to the extension of the triumphs of liberty and law, than all the military power ever displayed in war.

Art. VI.-MERCANTILE BIOGRAPHY.

A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE HON. ASA CLAPP.

[WITH A PORTRAIT.]

THE subject of this memoir, the Hon. Asa Clapp, died at his residence in Portland on the 17th of April, 1848, in the 86th year of his age. He was born in Mansfield, Bristol county, Massachusetts, on the 15th of March, 1762. He was the eldest son of Abiel Clapp, Esq., a farmer of high respectability, and who filled what were then considered very im portant stations in the towns of New England, the offices of magistrate, and the commander of the military company in that ancient municipality. Being deprived of his parents at an early age, he was left entirely dependent upon his own exertions for advancement. As an incipient indication of that ardent and daring spirit which characterized his whole career, this patriotic orphan boy, when only in the sixteenth year of his age, gallantly volunteered to act as a substitute for a young man who had been drafted as a soldier in the expedition under General Sullivan, for the expulsion of the British army from Rhode Island in 1778. He was immediately appointed a non-commissioned officer, and remained in service until the close of the campaign, when he went to Boston and commenced the adventurous life of a mariner, in one of the numerous private armed vessels which were fitted out in all the northern ports. After several cruises he entered as third officer in a large letter of marque commanded by Captain Dunn, in which, during three years, he made numerous suc. cessful voyages, and in the last returned as the first officer. He was in many desperate engagements, in one of which he was severely wounded.

He acquired such distinction by the intelligence, enterprize, and eminent skill he had evinced as a navigator, that he obtained the command of a ship at the conclusion of the Revolutionary war, when he had but just reached the era of manhood.

He was at Port au Prince, in the Island of St. Domingo, when the attack was made upon that city by the negroes; and with Joseph Pea body, Esq., of Salem, then in the merchant service, rendered most essential aid to the white population, who were exposed to plunder and slaughter during that horrible servile convulsion.

By many successful voyages, after becoming the owner of the vessel he commanded, he was enabled to establish himself as a merchant at Portland in 1796, where he continued to be one of the most fortunate and distinguished in Maine until a few years before his decease, when, from indisposition it became necessary to relinquish his commercial business. His navigation was so far extended, that he had vessels employed in the trade with Europe, the East and West Indies, and South America.

There are but few persons in New England who have built so many ships, and employed so many mariners, mechanics, and laborers in all the numerous branches of maritime industry as Mr. Clapp, or who have erected so many houses and stores, and done so much to promote the interest and prosperity of Maine.

Before the separation of the State from Massachusetts, he was one of the councillors of the united Commonwealth. Having been a strenuous advocate for the independence of Maine, he was elected one of the Dele

gates of the Convention, which was holden in October, 1819, for forming the Constitution; and was conspicuous for the able manner in which he participated in the laborious and highly responsible duties which were devolved on that important primary assembly of the people. He was for several years a representative from Portland in the Legislature, and there was not a member who was listened to with more profound attention, or whose opinions upon all the various subjects that were presented for consideration were more universally respected. As a faithful patriot he not only aided the government by loans, at a period when it was the most difficult to obtain them for a vigorous prosecution of the last war with Great Britain in vindication of "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights," but was a volunteer soldier in a corps of the most venerated citizens of the town, which was expressly organized for its defence against threatened invasion by the fleet and army which had taken possession of the seacoast from the Penobscot to Eastport.

He possessed a capacious and energetic mind, which was cultivated by study, and a constant intercourse with the most intelligent and illustrious gentlemen of all parts of the country. Mr. Clapp was ever the kind patron of enterprizing young men, and when satisfied with their integrity, he never hesitated to grant them liberal credits, without regard to their immediate means of payment, on the sale of the great variety of merchandise which he was constantly importing from all parts of the globe; and whenever there was experienced any of those disastrous revulsions in the commercial community which involve individual embarrassment, he was among the very first of the creditors to offer liberal terms of adjustment to those who were unable to meet the accumulated demands made upon them. His beneficence was expansive, and having acquired a very large fortune, his means were ample for its gratification; and to perpetuate his deep interest for the amelioration of the condition of the unfortunate, he has left a fund of eight thousand dollars for the education and relief of female orphan children, and four thousand dollars for furnishing fuel to unfortunate widows and other poor women.

Such remarkable exemplifications of the salutary influence and great advantages to be derived from activity of character, indomitable perseverance, rectitude of principle, and honorable deportment, are as instructive to the rising, as they were encouraging to the various generations which have succeeded since he assumed a position worthy of their imitation.

So perfectly did he retain the energies of his mind, and that moral firmness for which he had been pre-eminently distinguished, that daily, and up to within less than an hour of his decease, he attended to the management of his vast property, with the same calmness and exactitude as when in the full vigor of health, although entirely conscious that his end was near.

As a Christian, he relied upon the promise of the Messiah, for that life of heavenly immortality which he believed a merciful God was ever ready to confer upon those who acknowledged his divine power, and sought salvation with a contrite heart.

It is as true, as it is creditable to our glorious free institutions of gov ernment, that it matters not in what condition of society a man is born; for all the avenues to advancement, in wealth, letters, science, arts, and in civil, military, and naval distinction, are equally open to the children of

the humblest, as well as those of the most affluent citizens of the republic: and most often is it from the sons of the former, that are to be found the most celebrated physicians, divines, jurors, legislators, statesmen, philoso phers, generals and naval commanders, which have appeared in the United States.

If wealth is the object most desired to be attained, they have the successful examples of a Gerard and an Astor; if eloquence at the bar, or in the halls of Congress, they have only to emulate a Patrick Henry, Hamilton, a Wirt, a Webster, and a Clay; if military renown, let them read the lives of Washington, Jackson, Scott, and Taylor; and if they are ambitious to bear the thunders of their country in triumph round the globe, they must follow in the refulgent wake of Preble, Hull, Decatur, Stewart, Perry, and Macdonough, whose splendid victories emblazon the history of the Union for their instruction.

The youthful should remember, that to be respected and honored, they have only to avail themselves of those precious advantages which have been so bounteously secured to them by their bold, enlightened, deter mined, and patriotic ancestors, in the establishment of this vast and flour. ishing republic, where freedom of thought, speech, and action, give independence and confidence to genius, and the vigor of bope to cheer on the labors of enterprizing experiment.

Thus it is, that the eventful life of such self-taught and self-directed men as was illustrated in the late venerated patriarch of Portland, is a perpetual stimulant to that commendable ambition, which seeks to be wor thy of the respect of the good and the great through all succeeding ages. Like him, they must fearlessly advance, for success never fails to crown the honest efforts of untiring industry.

On the 20th April last, the religious ceremonies at the funeral of the late Honorable Asa Clapp were performed at his mansion-house in Congress-street.

There was an immense assemblage of relatives, friends and fellow citizens; among whom we noticed his sons-in-law, the Honorable Justice Woodbury, of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Samuel R. Brooks, of New York, and grandsons-John C. Holland, Esq., President of the Worcester and Norwich Railroad, Horace Brooks, Esq., of New York, and Charles L. Woodbury, Esq., of Boston, and General H. A. S. Dearborn, Mayor of Roxbury, whose only daughter is the wife of Mr. Clapp's second son. A most appropriate and impressive prayer was made by the Reverend Dr. Nichols, in which he eloquently alluded to the fact, that the venerable man, whose death was so universally lamented, was the oldest patriarch of the first church which was established in Portland; and not only lived to witness the rise of this city from an humble village to the affluent commercial emporium of Maine, but by his enterprize and public spirit, had done as much as any other person to promote its prosperity.

The exalted estimation in which this excellent aged citizen was held by the whole community was strikingly evinced by the mournful suspension of the flags of all the vessels in the harbor, and on the signal staffs of the Observatory, at half mast, and the vast concourse of people who thronged the streets through which the large procession moved, to the cemetery where his remains were entombed. There could be seen his eged contemporaries, representatives of the adventurous storm-beaten offi.

cers and seamen of the fleets of navigation, of all the various branches of mechanical industry, and of every other class of society.

Never has the death of any other person excited more deep and universal lamentation. It was like the solemn and emphatic expression of grief in an immense household, for the loss of its venerated progenitor.

Art. VII-GRACE ON DRAFTS AT SIGHT.

FREEMAN HUNT, Esq.-Sir:-The decision in Louisiana, mentioned in your number for August, that bills of exchange at sight are entitled to days of grace, seems to have called forth no little excitement in some quarters. We are told in a tone of alarm that the business transactions of New Orleans, amounting to some $100,000,000 annually, will be seriously affected, if this decision be allowed as good law, and that confi. dence in bills of exchange as a medium of transfer will be shaken.

There is certainly nothing very startling or novel in the decision itself. What is most surprising is, that there should be so little that is definite in the reports or text-books on the subject, and that what is briefly laid down as law in the books, should vary from what is said to be the uniform course in practice. But when we consider how comparatively modern and new commercial law really is, the youngest and most vigorous branch of modern jurisprudence, we find less room for surprise at the unsettled state of the law on this and many other points.

It was actually not until 1791, that it was decided, in the case of Brown vs. Harraden, (4 T. R., 148,) that promissory notes were entitled to any grace at all.

As to the amount involved in the decision of this question, if we admit the custom in the United States to be, as stated, to protest once only for non-payment, on presentment and dishonor, we must remember, that while the aggregate dealings through bills of exchange are very heavy, the use of strictly sight drafts is not so very general, in comparison with other descriptions of bills. To such drafts only, the question is confined. All other bills, including those payable any length of time after sight, it is not denied, are entitled to grace.

That this point is not a new one, will appear on reference to the authorities. The earliest cases (such as they are) are Dekers vs. Harriot, (1 Shower, 163,) and Coleman vs. Sayer, (1 Barnard, 303.) In Dekers vs. Harriot, decided about 1690, the reporter states that sundry mercantile points were referred to twenty merchants, who all agreed that, "if there were an acceptance, the protest must be at the day of payment; if at sight, then at the third day of grace. And that a bill negotiated after day of payment was like a bill payable at sight."

In the case in Barnardiston, (anno 1728,) which was an action against the endorser of an inland bill, the point in dispute seems rather taken for granted than decided, as if it were well settled at that time. The bill was payable six days after sight; and one of the questions that "fell out, was whether the three days' grace are allowable by the custom of London as well where a bill is payable at certain days after sight, as where