Morning journal and courier., 1894-04-10

zEgapRM S5IMw 9 Webster, Charles Chauncey and Abel Bur ritt.
 Abraham Bishop, graduate of Yale of tho class of 1776, was now coming into l prominence as an ardent advocate of l change of administration in state and na- | tion, and his orations and addresses on l various occasions are the spiciest of the l time. President Madison made him col lector of the port, and he lived to 1544, leaving an estate of $126, 900.
 Noah Webster, who had now permanent ly abandoned law for literature and jour- nalism, had settled here two years before, whore he was soon to begin his labors on his famous dictionary.
 Judge Chsuneey was one of the leaders of the Connecticut bar, . successful teacher of lay .t;os for , forty .yss1as years, Doctor of Laws by Middlebury college3 and the principal founder Gin 1794) and president of the first agricultural society in the state.
 It would have been difficult, in any city of the Union, to have named stronger committes. A charter was obtained in 1901, for "Ths Company for Mutual As. surancs Against Fire" and in September of that year 1t commenced to issue policies. later (1S18), . stock company, by the name of the New Haven Fire Insurance oom- pany, was incorporated, the twelfth of the kind organized In the United States. Its capital was $200, ,0O0, but it mot with ill fortune and was dissolved in 1929.
 In 1903, a committee was appointed to ascertain whether g grant of tho hospital money reserved, under the laws of the United States. from-fhs wages of our sea- men, could not be obtained for use in erecting hospital in New Haven; and another to procure the erection of light. house on Five Mile point, task which. in 1907, was successfully achieved. Forty years later, in 1S46, a similar action was taken towards securing . new light house. The impressment of American seamen by British men-of-war, and the insufficient cy of our own naval force to protect our merchant men, were the subject of 8 me- on early in 1906, and published in the newspapers of the day. It was prepared by committee of which Noah Webster was chairman and came probably from his hand.
 The non-intercsurse act and the embargo were severe blows to the interests of the city. On April 26, 1911, committee con- sisting of Noah Webster, Wm. w. Wool. sey, Elias Shipman, Wm. LeHingwell. Isaac Tomlinson, Henry Daggett, IT,, Elizur Goodrich and James Hillhouse was ap- pointed to confer with the merchants of other cities as to the bsst measures 1 to be adopted ''for relief from tho op- | pressive restrictions on our foreign trads. " | A strong protest against the non-importa- tion acts was drawn up and adopted, look 1 ing to concerted action in the eastern ard middle states, and expressing the belief that the spirit of party had not yet "so far debased and enfeebled the public mind that majority of our citizsns will any longer submit to a policy which, if not dicvated by foreign prince, serves at least to second his views"
 | In 1913 scale of charges was adopted to regulate commissions on sales of car goes and 200 copies were printed. A later | revision of thia was issued In 1926, con. taining also statement of the duties and perquisites of masters and mates, of which copy hangs in the room where VIC hold our meetings.
 The Second bank of the United States had hardly been chartered in 1816, when the chamber appointed @ committee, con- eisting of Senator Daggett, ex-Ssnato1 man, Abraham Bishop, Charles Mon son, jr., and William Lsfhngwsll to urge tho establishment of branch in this city. At their solicita tion, the state banks of New Haven sought and obtained amendments to their char ters. authorizing them to subscribe to the extent of half their capital to the stock oi the Bank of the United States. The Eagle bank did subscribe $11O,O00. and one ot the committee, Abraham Bishop, was ths largest individual subscriber in the state Middletown, however, got the prize.
 At the annual meeting In 1891 twenty six new members were admitted Among them were William Mosely, William J Forbes, Hez=kish Howe, Henry Trow bridge, Joel Root, William H. Elliot Charles Atwster, Roger Sherman, Abra ham Heaton, Timothy Bishop and Nerve! Sanford.
 In 1927 the chamber invested $100 in tn, purchase of three shares of stock in thu
 New Haven Packet company.
 A more patriotic and probably nor,
 profitable investment was made the mex
 year in an American flag, to be displayed when directed by the presidsnt, secretar, or treasurer or any ten members.
 Il At various times during the early year
 of the century the chamber took actior unfavorsble to the imposition of hisl tariffs. In 1881 an "anti tariff con
 vention'' was to meet ct Philadelphia and six delegates were commissioned to 1t, among whom were Chief Justic, Dsggett and Roger Minott Sherman o
 Fairfield. At the meeting at which they were appointed 1t was on the report of committee, Resolved, that the system o protecting manufacturers, commonly called She American system, by the imposition o, prohibitory duties upon foreign importa tions is, in our opinion, unequal and op l nraasiva in its oneratfo~ D
 The era of manufacturing in New Haver had not yet fairly opened. That our for eign trade was waning was only too evi dent, and as Connecticut produced little of the material for manufactures the cham ber could hardly have anticipated the days soon to come when the chief industries ot the place would be found in its factories and the chief commerce of the place an in land commerce by rail and 8 subsidiary transportation by water, largely to bring us coal to transmute to steam
 At a special meeting in 1850 action was taken towards securing larger sppropria. tions by congress for the improvement of our harbor as e place of refuge in north. easterly storms, for vessels bound to the east, by the removal of Middle rock, near Southwest ledge.
 In 1853 at a special meeting petition which had been numerously signed by cit I lLoub kcAcEoAy 4OE Q A0W CuotOu uOu6c building here was formally approved.
 The meetings of the chamber, at first monthly, soon sank to being quarterly, :, and from 1907, annual. In 1910 foes for non- attendance were abolished. In 1S48 the annual meeting failed to call out quorum and the game thing happened on the ap- poiRted day in each successive year down to 1852, when the faithful secretary, Henry Prescott, sadly records that he was the l only member present.
 As the state discovered, however, three years ago, in the great struggle as to the election of the governor, annual officers hold over until their successors are duly chosen and qualified; and Harry Prescott, as secretary, represented the chamber for twenty years, in solitary dignity, until May Ash, 1872. Upon that day, at a meeting of some of the remaining members and other citizens held at the mayors office, under the auspices of our late associ- ate, Henry G. Lewis, always one of the foremost in every matter where public l spirit was the moving power, 1t was re- solved to reorganize the chamber. MT. 1 Prescott was the secretary of the meeting, and, in few days, he was duly reelected to his old position, and Thomas R. Trow. bridge, who had been member of the chamber for over forty years, was made president, to fill the vacancy accustomed by the death of Ezra Hotchkiss, which had occurred in 1866. A charter was also ob- | knk- S.,k kA- kI.-