In seven years he made over fifty thousand dollars. He paid
the closest attention to his business, and nothing could draw him from
it in working hours. After these were over he would take his pleasure.
His aim was to keep every thing in the most complete state possible.
During the first seven years of his business he never allowed a bill
against him to stand unsettled over the Sabbath. If he made a purchase
of goods on Saturday, and they were delivered to him that day, he always
examined and settled the bill by note, or by crediting it, and leaving
it clear, so that there should be no unfinished business to go over to
the next week, and make trouble for his clerks in case he should not be
at his post. "Thus," said he, "I always kept my business _before_ me,
instead of allowing it to drive me."
The first years of Mr. Lawrence's mercantile experience covered the
darkest period of the history of the Republic. They were marked by the
embargo, the crippling of our commerce by the hostility of England and
France, and the second war with Great Britain, in all of which there was
much to dis-hearten a beginner, even if he escaped positive loss.
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