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New Hampshire has but a single seaport, and her shipping interest is necessarily limited, yet her one sea-port has a safe and superior harbor, and its location is naturally a most advantageous one for commanding the trade, not only of a large section of New England, but far beyond. even to the great North-west. Portsmouth is, in fact, the nearest, and naturally the most readily accessible ocean port to Ogdensburg, and had its citizens, and the people of the State of New Hampshire generally, been thoroughly alive to their opportunity, and animated by a proper degree of local and State pride, our sea-port might have been to-day the successful rival of Boston-a great commercial emporium, commanding a vost foreign and domestic trade.

Something has been done, however, by Portsmouth in years past, in ship-building and the carrying trade, and, although it can never secure the position which it might once easily have attained, it is to be hoped that the future will witness, at least, a higher degree of prosperity in this direction than has heretofore been developed.

Among the representatives of the enterprise and industry of Portsmouth during the past half century, there is perhaps no one more worthy of mention, or who has attained in a higher degree the respect and esteem of the community

than the HON. DANIEL MARCY, and certainly no one has been the recipient of stronger tokens of public favor. Mr. Marcy was born in Portsmouth, November 7, 1810, being now in his sixty-eighth year. His father, Peter Marcy, was a native of Bordeaux, France, but came to this country in early youth, with Capt. George Huntress of Portsmouth, in which place he made his home, but pursued the occupation of a sailor, in the West India and coasting trade, attaining the position of ship-master. He married a Miss Knight, from one of the old families of Eliott, Me., by whom he had three sons-Samuel, Peter and Daniel. When Daniel, the youngest, was a child of two years, Mrs. Marcy died, leaving the boys to their father's care. He had little time to devote to their instruction and guidance, but did the best he could for them, with the limited means at his command, and himself died, ten years later, leaving to his sons the simple heritage of a good name and an honest example.

Samuel Marcy, the eldest of the brothers, went to sea, at twelve years of age, under Capt. Titus Salter. He followed a sailor's life for a number of years, but finally engaged in business as a stevedore at New Orleans, which city he thenceforth made his home, and was quite successful in business. He married a Miss

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Perkins of Dover, and died some years ago, at about sixty years of age, leaving his wife and three children. The widow and two surviving daughters still reside in New Orleans.

Peter Marcy, the second son, was apprenticed at an early age to Isaac Nelson, a prominent ship carpenter of Portsmouth, with whom he served the usual term of seven years, completing his service in 1828, when about twenty-one years of age. With a full stock of Yankee "pluck" and courage as his capital, with his chest of tools, he immediately embarked for New Orleans in the ship Wm. Badger, paying twenty-five dollars passage money, and working at his trade upon the ship during the voyage. Arriving in New Orleans, he was not long in laying the foundation for future success. He built the first dry dock in that city, and soon established a large and profitable business, in which, together with his subsequent shipping ventures, in company with Daniel, he has gained an ample fortune, although suffering greatly, as a matter of course, through the losses and depreciation con

sequent upon the late unhappy civil war. He has been prominently engaged in public affairs, and was for sixteen years a member of the Louisiana Legislature, and has held and retains in the fullest degree the confidence of the people among whom he resides. Although retired from public life and active business, he is still in the enjoyment of vigorous health and mental activity, and manifests a lively interest in all matters looking to a restoration of the commercial and general prosperity of the country. "Waverley," his family seat, located across the river in Algiers, now a part of the city of New Orleans, is the abode of substantial comfort and elegance, and commands an extensive view of the city and shipping. His wife was an accomplished Southern lady, intelligence of whose sudden death has just been received at Portsmouth at the time of writing this article. He has five children, two sons and three daughters.

Daniel Marcy, the subject of our sketch, at twelve years of age, or about the time of his father's death, went to work upon a farm in the vicinity, but the

inclination for a sea-faring life, always strong in the family, could not be overcome, and the following year found him engaged on board a vessel bound to Demarara, in the West Indies, under Capt. Sheafe. From this time until 1831 he followed the sea, in the coasting and West India service, the larger portion of the time, but remaining at home in Portsmouth a few months each year for several years to attend school, Mr. William Harris, a popular and successful teacher of those days, being his instruc

tor.

In 1831, being then twenty-one years of age, Mr. Marcy went to New Orleans, where he engaged in the service of Messrs. R. D. Shepard and Judah Truro, two wealthy residents of that city, largely interested in shipping and commerce. He engaged as shipmaster in the foreign trade, and remained in their employ, in continuous service as shipmaster, for a period of eleven years. In 1842 he entered into an arrangement with his employers, Messrs. Shepard and Truro, and his brother Peter, for the building of a ship at Portsmouth, all taking an interest in the vessel, and he came to Portsmouth to superintend its construction. When it was completed, he took command of the ship for its first voyage.

This arrangement, by which a ship was built at Portsmouth each year under Capt. Marcy's supervision, and its first voyage made under his command, continued until 1851, when Messrs. Shepard and Truro withdrew from business. Capt. Marcy, however, in company with his brother Peter, inducing citizens of Portsmouth to share in each venture, continued his operations in the shipbuilding line until the outbreak of the rebellion, the consequences of which were fatal to the ship-building interest, and almost totally destructive to American commerce. He made his last voyage as master of a vessel in 1852, in which year he built the ship Franklin Pierce. This final voyage was from Portsmouth to New Orleans, from there to Liverpool with a cargo of cotton, and return to New York with eight hundred and fifty emigrant passengers. From that time Capt. Marcy remained mostly at home in

Portsmouth, although frequently called to the South through his business associations with his brother at New Orleans.

In the spring of 1854, when in New York on his return from a Southern trip, he received intelligence of his election to the Legislature of his native State, an honor which he had never sought or expected, for although an ardent Democrat, with decided political convictions, he had taken no part in active politics. He accepted the position, however, and attended faithfully to his duties as a servant of the public, acquitting himself so acceptably as to be continued in legislative service for several successive years, first in the House, and then for two years in the Senate. In 1861 he received the nomination of the Democracy of the First Congressional District for Representative to Congress, but was defeated by Gen. Marston of Exeter, the Republican candidate. At the next election, in March, 1863, Gen. Marston being then in service in the field, and Joel Eastman of Conway the Republican candidate, Capt. Marcy, who was again the candidate of the Democracy, was elected, and served as a member of the Thirty-Eighth Congress, performing honorable service for his district and State and the country at large.

The country was then in the midst of civil war, and while vast appropriations were necessary for the support of the army and the maintenance of the government in the contest with rebellion, numerous schemes were on foot for plundering the public treasury and robbing the people. All these schemes met the determined opposition of Capt. Marcy, but he never failed to give his vote for all necessary appropriations for the army and the public service. It was during his term that the measure by which the government surrendered its first mortgage upon the Union Pacific Railroad came up in Congress. This measure, which paved the way for the "Credit Mobilier" fraud, whose exposure so startled the country a few years subsequently, he opposed with his vote and influence at every stage, although acting with a small minority of the members.

During the period of his Congressional satisfactory. With these men, both on service the Washington hospitals were the way to Charleston and during the exfilled with sick and wounded soldiers, citing days of the session, he used all his and certainly no member from any State powers of argument to induce them to was any more assiduous in his efforts in stand by the party and the country and their behalf than Capt. Marcy. Hun- abide the result, but to no avail. Other dreds of sick and suffering soldiers from delegates, from New England, however, our State had their wants supplied at his including such men as Benjamin F. Buthands, while no service, in his power to ler and Caleb Cushing, then high in the render, was ever withheld from a New councils of the Democratic party, enHampshire soldier, whether in sickness couraged them in the course they had deor in health. He was the candidate of termined to pursue. They withdrew from his party for Congress at subsequent the Convention. The party was broken elections, but the Republicans were too and defeated as the result. Secession strongly in the ascendancy to admit of followed, with all its terrible consequenhis success. ces to the Sonth and to the nation. More than one of the Southern delegates whom Capt. Marcy urged to stand by their party associates of the North, have since acknowledged to him the grievous error of their course.

In the memorable campaign of 1871, Capt. Marcy was again the Democratic candidate for State Senator in the First District, William Marden being the Republican candidate. There was a third ticket in the field, receiving sufficient votes to defeat a choice of Senator by the people, but the result was the election of Capt. Marcy by the Legislature. The next year, and for two or three succeeding years, he was elected to the House by the people of his ward, who ever found in him an honest and faithful representative. This, with three years in the city government, as a member of the Board of Aldermen, constitutes the extent of his public service, with the exception of six years as a member of the Board of Trustees of the State Reform School, upon which he was appointed by Gov. Straw, and of which he was for five years president, taking great interest in the management of the institution. He was also a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1876.

Capt. Marcy was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Charleston in 1860. He was in New Orleans when chosen, and proceeded to Charleston in company with many of the delegates from the Southern States. The spirit of secession had already begun to manifest itself, and many of the party leaders at the South were outspoken in their determination to withdraw from the Convention, if they could not control its action, even as they proposed that the South should secede from the Union if the result of the election should not be

In January, 1876, the Democratic State Convention, with great unanimity, presented the name of Capt. Marcy as the candidate of the party for Governor. The nomination was entirely unsought and undesired by him, yet, upon the urgently expressed desire of his party friends, he accepted it, and, although there was no general expectation of a Democratic triumph, the campaign was a vigorous one at least. He was again the candidate of his party in 1877, but the result of the presidential canvass had so discouraged the Democracy that they had little heart in the contest, and the Republicans again succeeded.

During the past few years Capt. Marcy has lent his aid and example toward the revival of ship building at Portsmouth, and with his brother and others as partners in the enterprise, has built several of the finest ships ever launched at that port. The Wm. H. Marcy, a splendid vessel of 1700 tons, built in 1874, made its first voyage to California in the autumn of that year under command of his second son, Capt J. Truro Marcy, and still remains in the California trade, under his command. The Frank Jones, another fine ship of 1600 tons, was built the following year. Last year he built the ship Granite State, a vessel of 1800 tons register and the largest ever built at Portsmouth. This vessel sailed on its

first voyage in October last, bound to Rio Janeiro, under command of Capt. Wm. Ross, with a cargo of ice and apples, and is now making a voyage from Montevideo to San Francisco.

Capt. Marcy has been twice marriedfirst in 1839, to Miss Henrietta Priest of Portsmouth, who died in 1850, leaving him three children, two sons and a daughter, all living at the present time. Both of the sons are ship captains, and have been in service on ship board since leaving school in youth. The younger, J. Truro Marcy, we have heretofore alluded to; the elder, Henry L. Marcy, is in command of the ship "Coldstream"" now on a voyage to China. The daughter is now the wife of S. B. Cunningham of Portsmouth. Subsequently he married Miss Catherine Lord, his present wife, and the daughter of Eben Lord, Esq., of Portsmouth, by whom he has one son, George L., a lad of eleven years.

The house in which Capt. Marcy was born, on Water St., is yet standing. His residence, which has been his home for the last thirty-five years, is a substantial mansion on Pleasant street-the abode of comfort and of a generous hospitality. His religious associations, for the great

er portion of his life, have been with the Universalist denomination, in which doctrine he is a firm believer, but he has for the past few years attended public worship at the Episcopal Church.

While his business interests have been mainly in connection with ship building and the carrying trade, Capt. Marcy has long been connected with the banking institutions of Portsmouth, being a Director in the N. H. National Bank from its organization, and also of the Portsmouth Guarranty and Trust Company, which he was active in organizing. He is also a Director of the Portsmouth and Dover Railroad Company.

Although well advanced in years, Capt. Marcy is in vigorous health, bodily and mental, and still manifests a lively interest in all matters affecting the welfare of the community and the business prosperity and progress of the country. Intimately associated, as he has been, with our commercial and shipping interests, he fully realizes their importance, and urges the necessity for the adoption of such measures by the government as shall tend to their encouragement and revival, as a most practical means for the advancement of general prosperity.

NOT OLD.

BY MARY HELEN BOODEY.

Grief does not make one old, though Death hath crossed Life's shining web, so that one side is bright

With the effulgence of dear Heaven's own light,

The other dark with woe for what is lost;

Nay, though the anguish of the soul thus tossed
Upon the waves of life may seem to be
The centred sorrow of a century,

Youth is not added to the general cost.
The soul may cease to wonted hopes to cling,
And turn indifferent from what once was dear,
But time will prove there bubbles yet a spring
That will entice it with its waters clear;
The bird flies from the South that yet shall sing
A soothing song, and Summer-time is near.

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