The Middlebury Register

For the Middlebury Register.
New York Correspondence.
New York, March 17, 1851.

Since the name of Franklin Haven, Esq., of Boston, has been connected with Allen's outrageous libel on Mr. Webster, and Otis's mendacities, it may not be a work of supererogation to inform some of your country readers who Mr. H is.

At Washington, and in all commercial circles in this country, and to some extent in Europe, he is well known as the prominent financier of New England. Mr. Haven is emphatically 'a self-made man,' in the usual acceptation of that term. He rose without patronage or influence, from the smallest possible mercantile beginning, passing rapidly through all the subordinate grades, to the Presidency of the Merchants' Bank in Boston, now the largest institution of the kind in New England. But upon his attaining to this elevated commercial station, the bank was inferior in capital and importance to some other corporations of the kind, of which it is now, through his ability, far in advance, both in its prosperity and amount of specie basis. Its capital is three millions of dollars, and the number of its customers proportionate. For a number of years it was the Boston depository of the Government specie. Since it ceased to be so, Mr. Haven has acted officially as Assistant Treasurer of the United States; still retaining, at the solicitation of the Directors, the presidency of the bank, and discharging the laborious duties of both offices with a thoroughness that would be utterly impossible in a man of less rapid thought and action, prompt decision, systematic detail, and indefatigable industry. Miss Martineau called Webster the "Iron Man"; she would have said perhaps of Franklin Haven that his mental and physical muscles were composed of steel springs, incapable of fatigue and never losing their elasticity.

Some years ago, while a resident in Boston, I was a clerk in the institution of which he was in charge, and used to be astonished to observe how comprehensive was his knowledge of the multifarious transactions of the bank, even to details the most minute. There was not one, of the numerous persons employed, but felt that Mr. Haven knew just the condition of each clerk or teller's books or cash account, and, if need be, could perform at a pinch any subordinate duty himself. They knew that from his familiarity with their respective duties he appreciated their labor; and this, not less than his invariably urbane and gentlemanly manner towards them, has rendered him beloved by all in the bank.

Grateful for his own success in life, Franklin Haven is the friend of new beginners in commerce, and when money was short in the market and applications for discounts numerous even from the best houses, I have known him (while steadily refusing accommodations to some of the largest firms) to assist younger merchants of more limited means, when he felt assured that they would pay their notes at maturity. And the bank has lost little or nothing by this liberality.

Winter seems to have settled down very deliberately "in the lap of Spring." The weather yesterday was cold and stormy and to-day ditto. It is snowing while I write. A very bad day for the first trip of the new crack steamship Brother Jonathan, bound for Chagres. The recent frequent captures of the numerous gamblers in Boston, ought to invite the New York authorities to "light on" some of the many "hells" in this city. There are probably not less than 600 establishments in this city devoted almost exclusively to gambling Many of them are in the most elegant buildings in the genteel quarter of the city, and are conducted with so much politeness and magnificence, that, once in the trap, a man finds it rather difficult to resist the invitations to play. Not a few strangers that come to this city to spend a day or two, leave thousands of dollars in these brilliant but detestable places; and many a failure, ascribed to "bad debts" may be attributed to "debts of honour."

George Thompson, and some other prominent anti-American abolitionists have set on the negroes of this vicinity to hold a "Grand Convention of Colored Citizens," in the Shiloh Presbyterian Church. The nominal topic is to render statistics of their number, increase, schools, property, employment, &c., &c., and consider their social condition, political relations, emigration, &c., but undoubtedly we must infer from the character of the prime mover, Geo. Thompson, that the chief aim and end in view is to foment agitation, and keep the Disunion Pot a boiling. One would suppose that from the mere fact, that an Englishman is the leader in these infernal orgies, and is pensioned by foreigners to keep alive the excitement, every true American would set his face resolutely against such nefarious proceedings. I am happy to say that 4-5ths of our citizens are heartily opposed to the movement, and even the colored people themselves are not all in favor of it. It may deceive the ignorant into their toils, but it is only the most malignant intelligences that hold the reins.

We are to have a weekly mail to California commencing to-day.

The deistical letter of Davis, "the spirit world" man, in reply to the communication of the father of Grieve (who with his wife committed suicide in Quincy, Mass.) may be properly classed with such writings as the letter of One-Eyed Thompson. Under the assumption of "pity and sympathy," the letter wounds the bleeding heart of the father, by insinuating that he himself destroyed his son by transmitting to him his own moral obliquities, and misdirecting his education. With studied malignity, it advises him to read the writings of Davis and thereby become a "Christian," "not in the abusive sense of the word, but a true Christian."