HELPER, Hinton Rowan, author, born near Mocskville, Davie County, North Carolina, 27 December, 1829. He was graduated at Mocksville academy in 184S. In 1851 he went to California by way of Cape Horn, and spent nearly three years on the Pacific coast. He was appointed United States consul at Buenos Ayres, Argentine Republic, in 1861, and held this office until 1867. In 1867 he returned to Asheville, North Carolina, where he resided until he settled in New York. He has travelled extensively through North, South, and Central America, in Europe, and also in Africa. He is the projector of the "Three Americas Railway," which he proposes shall eventually form one connected line from Bering strait to the Strait of Magellan. He was the originator and efficient promoter of the commercial commission from the United States to Central and South America. Mr. Helper was brought into notice just before the civil war by his "impending Crisis of the South" (New York, 1857). In this book he earnestly opposed slavery on economical grounds, although he was not friendly to the colored race. The work was used by the Republican party as a campaign document in 1860, and 140,000 copies were sold between 1857 and 1861. His other works are "The Land of Gold" (Baltimore, 1855); "Nojoque, a Question for a Continent" (New York and London, 1867); "The Negroes in Negroland, the Negroes in America, and the Negroes Generally" (New York, 1868); and "The Three Americas Railway" (St. Louis, 1881).