CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



The benefit of the Reaper to the nation, and 

 the fact that McCormick was its inventor, were 

 admitted freely enough. Senator Johnson, of 

 Maryland, estimated in 1858 that the Reaper 

 was then worth to the United States $55,000,000 

 a year. D. P. Holloway, the Commissioner of 

 Patents, sang an anthem of eloquent praise to 

 McCormick in 1861. "He is an inventor whose 

 fame, while he is yet living, has spread through 

 the world,*' he said. "His genius has done 

 honor to his own country, and has been the 

 admiration of foreign nations. He will live in 

 the grateful recollection of mankind as long as 

 the reaping-machine is employed in gathering the 

 harvest." Then, in an abrupt postscript to so 

 fine a eulogy, this extraordinary Commissioner 

 adds: "But the Reaper is of too great value to 

 the public to be controlled by any individual, 

 and the extension of his patent is refused." 



The truth seems to be that McCormick was 

 too strong, too aggressive, to receive fair play 

 at the hands of any legislative body. The 

 note of sympathy could never be struck in his 

 favor. He personally directed his own cases. 



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