AMOS LAWRENCE-one of the most pure and lovely of all selfmade men-was born at Groton, Massachusetts, on the 22d of April, 1786. His ancestors were English, and probably migrated to this country in 1630. His father served in the Revolutionary war, and was wounded at the battle of Bunker Hill. His mother was a woman of the best affections, and of strongly-marked character, capable and willing in the discharge of all those duties that make home delightful.

Young Amos, a weakly child, was often detained from school he in consequence of ill health; but, being a lad of quick parts, made considerable progress in the rudiments of a solid English education, despite this drawback. The master of the district school was frequently a visitor at his father's house, a house famed for its hospitality, and young Amos delightedly listened to the patriotic sentiments which were uttered in those times that tried men's souls.

In 1799, being still too weak to assist on the farm, he was placed at a small store in the town of Dunstable, where he remained a few months. He was then transferred to the counting

house of James Brazer, Esq., of Groton, an enterprising and thrifty country merchant. Several clerks were employed, and as Mr. Brazer, after a few years, ceased to take an active part in the business, much of the responsibility of the establishment rested on young Lawrence. By attention, probity, and fairness, he had justly entitled himself to this confidence. An instance may be given of the self-control which, even at this early day, he was capable of exercising. Mr. Brazer's store contained all sorts of merchandise. It was intended to, and really did, supply the wants of a small neighborhood. In those days temperance was little understood, and total abstinence scarcely thought of. Huge quantities of liquors were retailed daily, and imbibed with the regularity of clock-work. The clerks were accustomed to take their morning draught, and Amos, falling into the habit without thought, joined them. At first he had no appetite for the thing, and merely took it because it appeared to be the fashion; but after a while he began to look forward to the hour for imbibing with pleasure. Alarmed at this circumstance, he immediately resolved that he would break off. The task was an easy one so far as his mere palate was concerned, but delicacy in the matter of drinking was a thing that was looked on as supremely ridiculous by his companions, and his determination excited their laughter and contempt. Unmindful of these, he resolved on total abstinence, and adhered to his resolution in spite of the natural sensitiveness of youth and the unmerciful ridicule of his companions. "My first resolution," he says, was to abstain for a week, and, when the week was out, for a month, and then for a year. Finally, I resolved to abstain for the rest of my apprenticeship, which was for five years longer. During that whole period I never drank a spoonful, though I mixed gallons daily for my old master and his customers. I decided not to be a slave to tobacco in any form, though I loved the odor of it then, and even now have in my drawer a superior Havana cigar-given me, not long since, by a friend-but only to smell of. I have never in my life smoked a cigar; never chewed but one quid, and that was before I was fifteen; and never took an ounce of snuff, though the scented rappee of forty years ago had great charms for me.”

During the term of his apprenticeship he met with an accident which was near proving fatal. In assisting an acquaintance to unload a gun, by some accident the charge exploded, and passed

directly through the middle of his hand, making a round hole like a bullet. Sixty-three shot were picked out of the floor after the accident, and it seemed almost a miracle that he ever again had the use of his hand.

After the expiration of his apprenticeship (which lasted seven years), Mr. Lawrence, now in his twenty-first year, made a journey to Boston for the purpose of establishing a credit which might enable him to commence business in Groton on his own account. He had not been many days in Boston when he received the offer of a clerkship from a respectable house. Wishing to familiarize himself with the metropolitan way of doing business, he accepted the offer. His employers were so well satisfied with the capacities of their new clerk, that in a few months they proposed to receive him as a partner. For reasons of his own, Mr. Lawrence declined the honor, but soon after started in business for himself (Boston, December 17th, 1807). He was then, in the matter of property, not worth a dollar, but his character was so well known and appreciated that he had little difficulty in obtaining a sufficient credit. For the rest he was indebted to his father, who mortgaged his farm in order to assist his son with a thousand dollars. In the conduct of his business he adopted a rigid code of principles, beginning with the maxim, "Business before friends." Writing of this period, he says: "I adopted the plan of keeping an accurate account of merchandise bought and sold each day, with the profit, as far as practicable. This plan was pursued for a number of years, and I never found my merchandise fall short in taking an account of stock, which I did as often at least as once in each year. I was thus enabled to form an opinion of my actual state as a business man. I adopted also the rule always to have property, after my second year's business, to represent forty per cent. at least more than I owed; that is, never to be in debt more than two and a half times my capital. This caution saved me from ever getting embarrassed. If it were more generally adopted we should see fewer failures in business. Excessive credit is the rock on which so many business men are broken. * * I made about fifteen hundred dollars the first year, and more than four thousand the second. Probably, had I made four thousand the first year, I should have failed the second or third year. I practiced a system of rigid economy, and never allowed myself to spend a fourpence for unnecessary objects until I had acquired it.”

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Having become firmly established in Boston, he resolved to take his brother Abbott (afterward minister to the court of St. James) as an apprentice (October, 1808). Abbott was in his fifteenth year, and made his appearance in Boston with a bundle under his arm, and less than three dollars in his pocket. was a bright lad, but needed the watchful eye of his brother to keep him from the snares and pitfalls with which a large city abounds. In 1814 he was taken into partnership by Amos. Previous to this the latter had taken unto himself the great comfort of the world, a wife (1811). With this estimable lady he lived a life of domestic bliss, cut short by her untimely death in January, 1819. The character of Mrs. Lawrence is touchingly expressed in an incident which occurred a few hours before her dissolution. She called for paper, and with a pencil traced in a trembling hand some directions respecting small memorials to friends, and then added, "Feeling that I must soon depart from this, I trust, to a better world, I resign my very dear friends to God, who has done so much for me. I am in ecstasies of love. How can I praise him enough!"

The loss of his wife (by whom he had three children) was an affliction so severe that Mr. Lawrence became utterly prostrated by it. A gloomy despondency settled on his mind, his health failed, and it became necessary, to avert dire consequences, that he should obtain a change of scene. Under the advice of his physician, he made a tour through Virginia, and paid a visit to Washington, where he had the good fortune to hear Daniel Webster. On his return he was able to resume his usual avocations with greater composure.

Conducted on the surest basis of commercial prosperity, it is not remarkable that the business of the Lawrence establishment prospered. At a time when credit was shaken in every leading city of the Union by the wild and heedless thirst for speculation; when houses that were considered the most secure tottered and fell in the general crash, Lawrence and his brother pursued their quiet, unpretending way, unseduced by the hope of sudden wealth, unterrified by the dread of prospective ruin. By well-directed prudence and easily contented expectations, they weathered the storm that destroyed their neighbors, and possibly derived some benefit from the superior wisdom which enabled them to do so.

In April, 1821, Mr. Lawrence married his second wife, and in

the same year was elected a representative from Boston to the Legislature for the session of 1821-1822. This was the only occasion on which he ever served in a public legislative body. He attended faithfully to the duties of his office, although with much sacrifice to his own personal interests.

From this point it is unnecessary to pursue the history of Mr. Lawrence's career. The "Diary and Correspondence" given to the world by his son, Dr. Lawrence, supply all the information that the student may require, and to that work we cheerfully direct the attention of young men, who, on entering life through one of the many channels of trade, desire, and to a great extent need, the encouragement of a successful model. By carefully and earnestly applying himself to the duties of life, Mr. Lawrence became rich, but he did not allow himself to be engrossed by the cares of wealth. On more than one occasion, when he found that he was making too much money, he limited the extent of his trade, so that he might not be tempted. When at length he found himself in the receipt of an income more than sufficient for the frugal wants of his own home, he extended his generous hand, and, with a wise philanthropy, relieved the destitute, assisted the needy, succored the weak, and built up charities with the strong faith of an enlightened Christian. No man knows the extent of his bounties, for it was one of the glories of his life that he seldom spoke of what he did. Throughout all his career he was governed by the pious hope that he would be rewarded with the "Well done!" of his heavenly Master.

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With the object of knowing the amount of his expenditures for purposes other than the support of his family, he commenced, in 1829, to keep a particular account of charities and appropriations for others. This was kept up perpetually until the year of his death, a period of twenty-three years. During that time this good man expended in the most wise and beneficent ways no less than six hundred and thirty-nine thousand dollars. Many persons have done more," says his son, modestly, "but few, perhaps, have done as much in proportion to the means which they had to bestow." The passion for accumulation was entirely unknown to Mr. Lawrence. If he made twenty thousand dollars more in one year than another, he rejoiced simply because it enabled him to expend twenty thousand dollars more for charitable objects. His philanthropy extended to all classes, all sects, all purposes. He