WHITNEY 



027S 



WHITTIER 



In 1798, despairing of ever profiting by his 

 invontion. Whitney turned his attention to the 

 making of firearms. A manufactory was lo- 

 i at Whitneyville. Conn... and there he 

 first den; !' division of 



labor (see LABOR, DIVISION 01 >. by means of 

 which each part of the tin arm should be com- 

 plet. kely, The government pave him 



large orders for muskets, and he soon grew rirh. 

 So carefully had his ingenious mind planned 

 all details of his armory that it became the 

 model upon which the national armories were 

 later constructed. 



To the end of his life Whitney received only 

 the slightest credit for his invention of the 

 cotton gin; succeeding generations, however, 

 have dealt justly by his memory and credit 

 him with the greatness of his achievement. 



See COTTOX, for further information on the 

 revolution wrought by Whitney's invention. 



WHITNEY, SIR JAMES PUNY (1843-1914), a 

 leading Canadian lawyer and former premier 

 of Ontario. In that province, at Williamsburg, 

 he was born, and there his active life was spent. 

 He was admitted to the bar in 1876 and rose 



iily in his 

 profession, reach- 

 ing the post of 

 king's counsel in 

 1900. Before that 

 date, however, he 

 had identified 

 himself with the 

 Canadian militia, 

 in which he held 

 a commission as 

 :umt - colo- 

 nel, and he took 

 part in the Fenian 

 troubles. 



In 1886 he was defeated for membership in 

 the legislature, but was successful in 1888. 

 Reelection followed regularly, and in 1896 he 

 had become leader of the opposition. When 

 the Ross government was defeated in 1905 

 Whitney formed a new cabinet, in which he 

 held the post of attorney-general as well as 

 premier. He continued as premier until the 

 year of his death. In 1908 he was knighted. 



WHITNEY, WILLIAM COLLINS (1841-1904), 

 an American lawyer and statesman, of whom 

 Grover Cleveland said, "There have been men 

 who have had great qualities of mind, and men 

 who have had great qualities of heart, but very 

 few in whom both have been joined in such a 

 measure." Whitney was bora in Conway, 



SIR JA.MKS I'LJNY 

 WHITNEY 



Mass. After completing his education he be- 

 gan the practice of law in New York City, 

 where he became active in Democratic politics 

 and in the opposition to the corrupt Tweed 

 Ring. As corporation counsel of New York 

 City, he saved the city large sums of money 

 through honest and efficient management of his 

 department. He favored Grover Cleveland's 

 candidacy for the governorship of New York, 

 and when Cleveland became President Whit- 

 ney was appointed Snvtary of the Navy. In 

 this position he was active in building up the 

 navy. Whitney was the manager of Cl< 

 land's second campaign for the Presidency. He 

 was identified with important financial inter- 

 ests in New York, and left a great fortune to 

 his sons, Harry Payne Whitney and Payne 

 Whitney. The wife of the former, who was 

 Miss Gertrude Vanderbilt, is a sculptor of con- 

 siderable fame. 



WHITNEY, MOUNT, the highest mountain in 

 the United States, excluding Alaska. It has 

 an altitude of 14,502 feet and is situated in the 

 southern part of the beautiful Sierra Nevada 

 range of California. This portion of the Sierra 

 Nevada, just opposite Owen's Lake, with its 

 cluster of granite pinnacles and domes that rise 

 abruptly to a height of over 10,000 feet above 

 the valley below, presents some of the grandest 

 scenery in the United States. The mountain 

 was named after the American geologist, Josiah 

 Dwight Whitney (1819-1896), who was state 

 geologist of California from 1860 to 1874. 



WHITTIER, whit'icr, JOHN GREENLEAF 

 (1807-1892), one of the greatest of American 

 poets, was born at East Haverhill, Mass., De- 

 cember 17, 1807. His ancestors on both sides 

 had been New Englanders since about 1638. 

 His family, who were hard-working, influential 

 Quakers, are well described in Snow-Bound, 

 which gives also a very attractive picture of 

 the pleasures and the duties of the children in 

 the Whittier home. The Bible was almost his 

 entire library at first, until from the teacher 

 of the little district school he learned of Burns, 

 the poet who more than any other inspired him 

 in his work. This teacher, staying one night at 

 the Whittier home, read aloud from the Scot- 

 tish poet, and to the young Whittier it seemed 

 that a new earth was opening before him. 



From that time on he wrote verse, and at 

 eighteen he sent an anonymous poem to the 

 Free Press, at Newburyport. It was printed; 

 others followed, and finally the editor, William 

 Lloyd Garrison, became interested in the poet, 

 found out his whereabouts from the postman, 



