MoLEAN, JOHN. 



METALS. 



455 



a " true bill " was found against him. He re- 

 mained in the United States 1'ur ten Years, con- 

 nected lor u considerable time with the daily 

 press of New York City, and at one time made 

 himself quite notorious by the publication of a 

 collection of private letters of some prominent 

 political actors of the time, of which he had in 

 some way obtained possession. In 1849 the 

 British Government pardoned him, and he re- 

 turned to Canada, where the people raised a 

 sum sufficient to purchase him a homestead and 

 small annuity, on which he maintained himself 

 until his death. 



McLEAN, Jonx, LL. D., an American jurist 

 and statesman, born in Morris County, a. J., 

 March 11, 1785, died at Cincinnati, April 4, 

 1861. When he was four years of age his fa- 

 ther removed to the West and settled, first at 

 Morganstown, Virginia, subsequently at Nicho- 

 lasville, Ky., and finally, in 1799, on a farm in 

 Warren Co., Ohio. Young McLean, at the age 

 of 18, went to Cincinnati to study law, and en- 

 tered the office of Arthur St. Clair, then an 

 eminent lawyer. While studying his profession, 

 be supported himself by writing in the office 

 of the clerk of the county. In the autumn of 

 1807 he was admitted to the bar, and com- 

 menced practice at Lebanon, Warren Co., O. 

 In Oct. 1812, he was elected to Congress from 

 his district, which then included Cincinnati, by 

 the democratic party, and advocated the war 

 with England and supported the Administra- 

 tion of President Madison. In 1814 he was 

 unanimously reflected to Congress, in 1815 de- 

 clined a nomination to the United States Sen- 

 ate, and in 1816 was elected Judge of the Su- 

 preme Court of the State, in which position he 

 continued till 1822, when President Monroe 

 appointed him Commissioner of the General 

 Land Office. In July, 1823 he was appointed 

 postnmster-general, and by his energetic ad- 

 ministration made that department as remark- 

 able for order, efficiency, and economy, as it had 

 previously been for the reverse. The salary 

 of the office was raised from $4,000 to $6,000 

 by an almost unanimous vote of both Houses 

 of Congress during his administration. In 1829 

 President Jackson offered him the War and the 

 Navy Departments, but he declined both, and, 

 resigning the post of postmaster-general, ac- 

 cepted the appointment of Associate Justice on 

 the bench of the Supreme Court of the United 

 States, and entered upon his duties in January, 

 1830. He continued in this office till his death. 

 Several of his charges, opinions, and decisions, 

 have become historical. In Dec. 1838, he deliv- 

 ered a charge on " Aiding or favoring unlawful 

 military combinations by our citizens against 

 any foreign government or people with whom 

 we are at peace," having special reference to 

 the Canadian insurrection and its American 

 abettors. His opinion in the Dred Scott case, 

 in which he dissented from that of Chief-Jus- 

 tice Taney. is still more celebrated. It was the 

 first distinct enunciation from a member of that 

 bench, of the doctrine that " Slavery was con- 



trary to right, and was in our country only the 

 creature of local law." Judge McLean's name 

 was prominent among the candidates for the 

 presidency in 1856 and 1860. His health was 

 intinn during the January terra of 1861, and 

 after his return home his disease rapidly in- 

 creased till his death. 



METALS. Lake Superior Copper Mines. 

 The u Annual Review," of Messrs. Dupee. 

 Beck & Sayles of Boston, for 1861, says : Ii, 

 relation to the mining interests of Lake Supe- 

 rior, the year just now closed, will be long re- 

 membered as having witnessed the most extra- 

 ordinary fluctuations in the prices of ingot cop- 

 per, producing thereby the extremes of adver- 

 sity and prosperity. This metal was sold, in 

 July, at seventeen cents per pound, cash, the 

 lowest price in the market since 1850. To-day 

 (Jan. 1862) holders refuse twenty-seven cents, 

 cash. Before the present stock has passed into 

 the hands of the manufacturers, and, conse- 

 quently, before the profits of mining in ^861 can 

 be accurately ascertained, the prices may have 

 advanced to figures exceeding the maximum 

 of 1857, or thirty cents per pound, payable in 

 four months. These fluctuations in prices have 

 not been the result of speculation, but have 

 been caused by the disturbances of trade all 

 over the world. The ordinary consumption of 

 copper in the United States has usually been 

 estimated at twelve thousand tons per annum. 

 Lake Superior produced, in 1860, six thousand 

 tons. The remainder Avas obtained principally 

 from Tennessee, Canada, and Chili. The open- 

 ing of the lake navigation, in May last, brought 

 upon the market, already, in consequence of the 

 civil war, overstocked with foreign copper, the 

 accumulated product of the previous six months. 

 The necessities of several companies required 

 immediate sales, reducing the price, in one in- 

 stance, to the low rate named above. But the 

 disastrous prices were, after all, followed by 

 positively beneficial results to the mining in- 

 terests. A most rigid system of economical 

 management has been inaugurated, so that 

 every manager can give an estimate, closely 

 approximating to the truth, of the cost, per 

 pound, of ingot copper produced by his mine. 

 A new impulse has been given to the study of 

 the machinery for profitably reducing the lower 

 grades of stamp work, railways have in many 

 cases been substituted for hand-barrows un- 

 derground, and heavy chain work been intro- 

 duced. On the other hand, the low prices 

 of copper in the American markets in- 

 duced enormous shipments to the markets of 

 Europe, especially to those of the continent, 

 where its peculiar qualities of ductility and 

 toughness procured for it the preference in the 

 finer manufactures. In Rotterdam, Antwerp, 

 Havre, and Paris, the brands of the several 

 American smelting works are as well known as 

 in Boston and New York. The exportation of 

 copper continued until the price rose to twen- 

 ty-one or twenty-two cents, (November.) 

 Large purchases by the Federal Government 



