CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



may fairly say that the immense McCormick 

 Company of to-day is no more than the length- 

 ened shadow of this farm-bred Virginian. 



By 1855 McCormick realized that the Federal 

 Government was not the impartial tribunal that 

 he had believed it to be. He saw that he could 

 not depend upon it for protection, so he made a 

 characteristic decision he resolved to protect 

 himself. He, too, would hire a battery of law- 

 yers and charge down upon these manufacturers 

 who were unrighteously making his Reaper and 

 depriving him of his patents. He engaged three 

 of the master lawyers of the American bar, 

 William H. Seward, E. N. Dickerson, and 

 Senator Reverdy Johnson, and brought suit 

 against Manny and Emerson, of Rockford, 

 Illinois, for making McCormick Reapers with- 

 out a license. 



Then came a three-year struggle that shook 

 the country and did much to shape the history 

 of the American people. Manny and Emerson, 

 who were shrewd and forceful men, hired twice 

 as many lawyers as McCormick and prepared 

 to defend themselves. They selected as the 



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