This was the beginning of Baltimore’s commerce, which for nearly seventy-five years after Stevenson’s pioneer line was established, almost rivalled New York’s commerce in general, and in many ways excelled it. This will be refreshing news to many, but is not by any means overdrawn. The work done by Stevenson in establishing trade for Baltimore was continued by the Purviances, William Patterson, Bowly, John O’Donnell, John Smith, William Smith, William McDonald, Robert and John Oliver, Wm. Wilson, Talbott Jones, Isaac McKim, Robert Garrett, Luke Tiernan, Cumberland Dugan, David Stewart, Stephen Stewart, James Calhoun, John Sterrett, John McLure, Thomas Russell, Samuel Hughes, William Neill, Hugh Young, Patrick Colvin, Alexander Pendergast, Patrick Bennett, Robert Welsh, Mark Pringle, William Kennedy, James O. Law, Hugh McElderry, Charles M. Dougherty, William Walters, John McCoy, D. J. Foley, Hamilton Easter, Robert Neale, Hugh Birchhead, John Coulter, and others, who, from time to time, have figured prominently in the shipping and commercial annals of Baltimore. Many of these men were not only the pioneers, but the leaders for years in the matters which concerned the carrying trade of Baltimore and also in the business concerns of the town and city. Their names are so closely associated with the history of Baltimore for the first hundred years of her history at least that it is impossible to disconnect them. They were honest merchants of the old school and their methods were direct and above suspicion. They laid the foundation of Baltimore’s reputation for business honesty. Their trade was with the East and West Indies, with South America and with Europe. Their white-winged clippers sailed every known sea, and their house flags were known in every country, aye, even by the savage African. It is highly interesting to trace the rise and rule of these expatriated Irish merchants who came to Baltimore, many of them with money and business experience, driven from Ireland by England’s unjust tariff laws, the same in character as those which now apply to our “possessions,” Porto Rico and the Philippines, to “encourage” their trade and commerce. These men hated England as strongly as they loved fair play. They waxed rich and placed everything they had at the services of their fellow citizens and of their country. They were well aware of England’s hypocritical methods and thus when the Revolution came on they cast their fortunes to a man with the colonies, and gave of their blood, their experience and their means to assist the patriots.