"Of course," says a writer who many years has witnessed the operations of the house, "the development and organization of such a business were due not to one brother alone, but to the cooperation of all.... The business was to James, as to the others, the great central interest, but prosperity could not relax his steady character. He did not forget his early faith, nor the counsels and the habits of his Long Island home. He remained strictly a 'temperance man,' and his marvelous physical vigor was claimed by the temperance advocates as that of a cold-water mans He was long an official member of John-Street Church, and when he left his house in Rose Street, and went to live in the upper part of the city, he joined the congregation of St. Paul's Church, in the Fourth Avenue. But with all his fidelity to his ancestral faith, he cherished the largest charity, and by much experience of the world had learned to agree with his favorite apostle, James, that pure religion and undefiled, is to visit the fatherless and widows, and keep himself unspotted from the world. Thus, with all his conviction and devotion, there was nothing hard or fanatical in his feeling or conduct, and he held pleasant personal relations with men of every faith. Few men indulged in so little harsh criticism of others, and he expressed censure or disapprobation by humorous indirection rather than by open accusation. 'We must not be too hard,' he was fond of saying, 'it is so difficult to know all the circumstances. If you should insist, for instance, that the use of tobacco is a sin, dear me! dear me!' "Mr. Harper was a Whig during the days of that party, and a natural conservative. But in politics he showed the same moderation and toleration. 'Don't try to drive men too roughly, my dear sir; it is much easier to draw than to push.' He took no conspicuous or active part in politics, except in 1844, when he was elected Mayor of the city. He was constantly asked to serve in Congress and in other public stations, but he steadily declined, saying, with a sly smile, that he preferred to stick to the business that he understood.