Moody "were men of unsurpassed talent," but Lowell "was the
informing soul, which gave direction and form to the whole
proceeding."

The new enterprise was needed, for the War of 1812 had cut off
imports. The beginnings of the protective principle in the United
States tariff are now to be observed. When the peace came and
Great Britain began to dump goods in the United States, Congress,
in 1816, laid a minimum duty of six and a quarter cents a yard on
imported cottons; the rate was raised in 1824 and again in 1828.
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.