It is said that Lowell was influential in winning the support of
John C. Calhoun for the impost of 1816.
Lowell died in 1817, at the early age of forty-two, but his work
did not die with him. The mills he had founded at Waltham grew
exceedingly prosperous under the management of Jackson; and it
was not long before Jackson and his partners Appleton and Moody
were seeking wider opportunities. By 1820 they were looking for a
suitable site on which to build new mills, and their attention
was directed to the Pawtucket Falls, on the Merrimac River. The
land about this great water power was owned by the Pawtucket
Canal Company, whose canal, built to improve the navigation of
the Merrimac, was not paying satisfactory profits. The partners
proceeded to acquire the stock of this company and with it the
land necessary for their purpose, and in December, 1821, they
executed Articles of Association for the Merrimac Manufacturing
Company, admitting some additional partners, among them Kirk
Boott who was to act as resident agent and manager of the new
enterprise, since Jackson could not leave his duties at Waltham.
The story of the enterprise thus begun forms one of the brightest
pages in the industrial history of America; for these partners
had the wisdom and foresight to make provision at the outset for
the comfort and well-being of their operatives.
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