網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

enormous benefit to the planterscotton being then worth from twentyfive to thirty-three cents per pound. But no single manufactory could turn out the gins so fast ås wanted, and planters who might readily have consented to the terms of the patentees, had the machines been furnished so fast as required, could hardly be expected to acquiesce so readily in the necessity of doing without machines altogether because the patentees could not, though others could, supply them. And then the manufacture of machines, to be constructed and worked by the patentees alone, involved a very large outlay of money, which must mainly be obtained by borrowing. Miller's means being soon exhausted, their first loan of two thousand dollars was made on the comparatively favorable condition of five per cent. premium, in addition to lawful interest. But they were soon borrowing at twenty per cent. per month. Then there was sickness; Mr. Whitney having a severe and tedious attack in 1794; after which the scarlet fever raged in New Haven, disabling many of his workmen and soon the lawsuits, ; into which they were driven in defense of their patent, began to devour all the money they could make or borrow. In 1795, Whitney had another attack of sickness; and, on his return to New Haven, from three weeks of suffering in New York, learned that his manufactory, with all his machines and papers, had just been consumed by fire, whereby he found himself suddenly reduced to utter bankruptcy. Next came a report from England that the British manufacturers condemned and rejected the cotton cleaned by his machines, on the ground that the staple

was greatly injured by the ginning process! And now no one would touch the ginned cotton; and blockheads were found to insist that the roller-gin-a preposterous rival to Whitney's, whereby the seed was crushed in the fibre, instead of being separated from it-was actually a better machine than Whitney's! In the depths of their distress and insolvency, Miller wrote (April 27, 1796) from Georgia to Whitney, urging him to hasten to London, there to counteract the stupid prejudice which had been excited against ginned cotton; adding:

"Our fortune, our fate, depends on it. The process of patent ginning is now quite at a stand. I hear nothing of it except the

condolence of a few real friends, who express their regret that so promising an invention has entirely failed."

Whitney endeavored to obey this injunction, but could nowhere obtain the necessary funds; though he had several times fixed the day of his departure, and on one occasion had actually engaged his passage, and taken leave of some of his friends. October 7, 1797, Mr. Whitney wrote to an intimate friend a letter, wherefrom the following is an extract:

"The extreme embarrassments which have been for a long time accumulating upon me are now become so great that it will be impossible for me to struggle against them many days longer. It has required my utmost exertions to exist, without mahave labored hard against the strong current king the least progress in our business. I of disappointment, which has been threatening to carry us down the cataract; but I have labored with a shattered oar, and struggled in vain, unless some speedy relief is obtained. I am now quite far enough advanced in life to think seriously of marrying. I have ever looked forward with pleasure to an alliance with an amiable and virtuous companion, as a source from whence I have expected one day to derive the greatest happiness. But the accomplishment of my tour to Europe, and the acquisition of

WHITNEY AND HIS COTTON-GIN.

something which I can call my own, appear to be absolutely necessary, before it will be admissible for me even to think of family engagements. Probably a year and a half, at least, will be required to perform that tour, after it is entered upon. Life is but short, at best, and six or seven years out of the midst of it is, to him who makes it, an immense sacrifice. My most unremitted at

tention has been devoted to our business. I

have sacrificed to it other objects, from which, before this time, I might certainly have gained twenty or thirty thousand dollars. My whole prospects have been embarked in it, with the expectation that I should, before this time, have realized something from it."

At length the ridiculous prejudice against cotton cleaned by Whitney's gin gradually and slowly gave way, and the value of the invention began to be perceived and acknowledged. But Miller & Whitney's first suit against infringers now came to trial, before a Georgia jury; and, in spite of the judge's charge directly in the plaintiffs' favor, a verdict was given for the defendant-a verdict from which there was no appeal. When the second suit was ready for trial at Savannah, no judge appeared, and, of

course, no court was held.

Mean

time, the South fairly swarmed with pirates on the invention, of all kinds and degrees. In April, 1799, Miller writes to Whitney as follows:

"The prospect of making anything by ginning in this State is at an end. Surreptitious gins are erected in every part of the country; and the jurymen at Augusta have come to an understanding among themselves that they will never give a cause in our favor, let the merits of the case be as they may."

It would not be surprising if the firm would now have gladly relinquished the working of their machines, and confined themselves to the sale of patent rights. But few would buy what they could safely steal, and those few gave notes which |

63

pay.

they generally took care not to If sued, juries would often return a verdict of no consideration, or a trial would be staved off until collection was barred by the statute of limitation, which outlawed a debt that had existed through a period of four years. On one occasion, the agent of the patentees, who was dispatched on a collecting tour through the State of Georgia, was unable to obtain money enough to pay his exon his employers for nearly the full penses, and was compelled to draw

amount.

to his principals that, though the Finally, in 1801, this agent wrote planters of South Carolina would not gested a purchase of the right of the pay their notes, many of them sugpatentees for that State by its Legislature; and he urged Mr. Whitney to come to Columbia, and try to make an arrangement on this basis. Whitney did so, taking some letters and testimonials from the new President, Jefferson, and his Secretary of State, Madison, which were doubtless of service to him in his negotiations. His memorial having been duly submitted to the Legislature, proposing to sell the patent right for South Carolina for one thousand dollars, the Legislature dehundred bated it, and finally offered for it fifty thousand twenty thousand down, and ten thousand per annum for three years. Whitney, in a letter written the day after the passage of

the act, says:

"The use of the machine here is amazingly extensive, and the value of it beyond all calculation. It may, without exaggeration, be said to have raised the value of seven-eighths of all the three Southern

States from fifty to one hundred per cent.
We get but a song for it in comparison with

the worth of the thing; but it is securing something. It will enable Miller & Whitney to pay all their debts, and divide something between them. It establishes a precedent which will be valuable as it respects our collections in other States, and I think there is now a fair prospect that I shall in the event realize property enough to render me comfortable, and, in some measure, independent."

He was mistaken. The next Legislature of South Carolina nullified the contract, suspended payment on the thirty thousand still due, and instituted a suit for the recovery of the twenty thousand that had been already paid! The pretenses on which this remarkable course was taken are more fully set forth in the action of the Legislature of Georgia in 1803, based on a Message from the governor, urging the inexpediency of granting any thing to Miller & Whitney. The Committee to whom this matter was referred, made a report, in which they

"cordially agreed with the governor in his observations, that monopolies are at all times odious, particularly in free governments, and that some remedy ought to be applied to the wound which the Cotton-Gin monopoly has given, and will otherwise continue to give, to the culture and cleaning of that precious and increasing staple. They

have examined the Rev. James Hutchinson, who declares that Edward Lyon, at least twelve months before Miller & Whit

ney's machine was brought into view, had in possession a saw or cotton-gin, in miniature, of the same construction; and it further appears to them, from the information of Doctor Cortes Pedro Dampiere, an old and respectable citizen of Columbia county,

that a machine of a construction similar to

that of Miller & Whitney, was used in Switzerland at least forty years ago, for the purpose of picking rags to make lint and paper."

This astonishing Committee closed their report with the following resolution:

"Resolved, That the Senators and Representatives of this State in Congress be, and they hereby are, instructed to use their utmost endeavors to obtain a modification

of the act, entitled, 'An act to extend the privileges of obtaining Patents for useful discoveries and inventions, to certain persons therein mentioned, and to enlarge and define the penalties for violating the rights of patentees,' so as to prevent the operation of it to the injury of that most valuable staple, cotton, and the cramping of genius in improvements on Miller & Whitney's patent Gin, as well as to limit the price of obtaining a right of using it, the price at present being unbounded, and the planter and poor artificer altogether at the mercy of the patentees, who may raise the price to any sum they please.

[ocr errors]

And, in case the said Senators and Representatives of this State shall find such modification impracticable, that they do then use their best endeavors to induce Congress, from the example of other nations, to make compensation to Miller & Whitney for their discovery, take up the patent right, and release the Southern States from so burthensome a grievance."

North Carolina, to her honor be it recorded, in December, 1802, negotiated an arrangement with Mr. Whitney, whereby the legislature laid a tax of two shillings and sixpence upon every saw employed in ginning cotton, to be continued for five years, which sum was to be collected by the sheriffs in the same manner as the public taxes; and, after deducting the expenses of collection, the avails were faithfully paid over to the patentee. The old North State was not extensively engaged in cotton-growing, and the pecuniary avails of this action were probably not large; but the arrangement seems to have been a fair one, and it was never repudiated. South Carolina, it should in justice be said, through her legislature of 1804, receded from her repudiation, and fulfilled her original contract.

Mr. Miller, the partner of Whitney, died, poor and embarrassed, on the 7th of December, 1803. At the term of the United States District Court for Georgia, held at Savannah

VALUE OF THE COTTON-GIN.

"With regard to the utility of this discovery, the court would deem it a waste of time to dwell long upon this topic. Is there a man who hears us, .who has not experienced its utility? The whole interior of the Southern States was languishing, and its inhabitants emigrating for want of some

65

in December, 1807, Mr. Whitney | thousand millions of dollars to the obtained a verdict against the pirates Slave States of this country, is to on his invention; his patent being place a very moderate estimate on now in the last year of its existence. its value. Mr. Whitney petitioned Judge Johnson, in entering judg- Congress, in 1812, for a renewal of ment for the plaintiff, said: his patent, setting forth the costly and embarrassing struggles he had been forced to make in defense of his right, and observing that he had been unable to obtain any decision on the merits of his claim until he had been eleven years in the law, and until thirteen of the fourteen years' lifetime of his patent had expired. But the immense value of his invention stood directly in the way of any such acknowledgment of its merits and his righteous claims as the renewal he sought would have involved. Some liberal members from the cotton-growing region favored his petition, but a majority of the Southrong fiercely opposed it, and it was lost.

object to engage their attention, and employ their industry, when the invention of this machine at once opened views to them which set the whole country in active motion. From childhood to age, it has presented to us a lucrative employment. Individuals who were depressed with poverty,

and sunk in idleness, have suddenly risen to wealth and respectability. Our debts have been paid off. Our capitals have increased,

and our lands trebled themselves' in value.

We cannot express the weight of the obligation which the country owes to this inven

tion. The extent of it cannot now be seen.

Some faint presentiment may be formed from the reflection that Cotton is rapidly supplanting Wool, Flax, Silk, and even Furs, in manufactures, and may one day profitably supply the use of specie in our East India trade. Our sister States also participate in the benefits of this invention; for, beside affording the raw material for their manufacturers, the bulkiness and quantity of the article afford a valuable employment for their shipping."

Mr. Whitney's patent expired in 1808, leaving him a poorer man, doubtless, than though he had never listened to the suggestions of his friend Mrs. Greene, and undertaken the invention of a machine, by means of which the annual production of cotton in the Southern States has been augmented from some five or ten thousand bales in 1793 to over five millions of bales, or one million tons, in 1859; this amount being at least three-fourths in weight, and seven-eighths in value, of all the cotton produced on the globe. To say that this invention was worth one 5

Mr. Whitney, in the course of a correspondence with Robert Fulton, inventor of the first successful steamboat, remarks :

contend have originated, principally, in the want of a disposition in mankind to do justice. My invention was new and distinct

(6 The difficulties with which I have had to

interwoven with anything before known; from every other: it stood alone. It was not and it can seldom happen that an invention or improvement is so strongly marked, and and I have always believed that I should can be so clearly and specifically identified; have had no difficulty in causing my rights to be respected, if it had been less valuable, community. But the use of this machine and been used only by a small portion of the being immensely profitable to almost every planter in the cotton districts, all were inand each kept the other in countenance. terested in trespassing upon the patent right, Demagogues made themselves popular by both against the right and the law made for misrepresentation and unfounded clamors, its protection. Hence there arose associations and combinations to oppose both. At one time, but few men in Georgia dared to come into court and testify to the most sim

66

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

He was now married to Miss Henrietta F. Edwards, daughter of the Hon. Pierpont Edwards, United States District Judge for Connecticut; and four children, a son and three daughters, were born to him in the next five years. In September, 1822, he was attacked by a dangerous and painful disease, which, with alternations of terrible suffering and comparative ease, preyed upon him until January 8, 1826, when he died, not quite sixty years of age.

The African Slave-Trade, so far as it had any legal or tolerated existence, was peremptorily closed, as we have seen, on the 1st day of January, 1808. This was the period from which, according to the fond antici

In 1798, Mr. Whitney, despairing of ever achieving a competence from the proceeds of his cottongin, engaged in the manufacture of arms, near New Haven; and his rare capacity for this or any similar undertaking, joined with his invincible perseverance and energy, was finally rewarded with success. He was a most indefatigable worker; one of the first in his manufactory in the morning, and the last to leave it at night; able to make any imple-pations of optimists and quietists, ment or machine he required, or to invent a new one when that might be needed; and he ultimately achieved a competency. He made great improvements in the manufacture of firearms-improvements that have since been continued and perfected, until the American rifled musket of our day, made at the National Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts, is doubtless the most effective and perfect weapon known to mankind. In 1817, Mr. Whitney, now fifty-two years old, found himself fully relieved from pecuniary embarrassments and the harassing anxieties resulting therefrom.

• The inventor of the cotton-gin is not deemed worthy of even the slightest distinct biographical notice in the Encyclopædia Britannica. The only, and not very accurate, allusion to him that I have been able to find in that immense work, is as follows:

"The Upland Cotton is a different species from the Sea Island, and is separated with such difficulty from the seed, that the expense of cleaning the wool must have put a stop to its further cultivation, had not a machine, by which

Slavery in our country should have
commenced its decadence, and thence
gone steadily and surely forward to its
ultimate and early extinction. And
these sanguine hopes were measura-
bly justified by the teachings of his-
tory. In all former ages, in all other
countries, Slavery, so long as it ex-
isted and flourished, was kept alive
by a constant or frequent enslave-
ment of captives, or by importations of
bondmen. Whenever that enslave-
ment, that importation, ceased, Sla-
very began to decline. The grati-
tude of masters to faithful, devoted
servants, who had nursed them in ill-

the operation of cleaning is easily and success、
This ma
fully accomplished, been invented.
chine was invented in 1795, by Mr. Eli Whitney,
of Massachusetts. There are two qualities of
this cotton, the one termed Upland Georgia,
grown in the States of Georgia and South Car
olina, and the other of superior quality, raised
upon the banks of the Mississippi, and dis-
tinguished in the market by the name of New
Orleans cotton," &c., &c.-Encyclopædia Britan-
nica, Eighth (last) Edition, vol. vii., p. 447 .

Truly, the world knows little of its greatest men.

« 上一頁繼續 »