47 



Buchanan and Gillett were politicians. Buchanan was already, as 

 Secretary of State, trimming his sails for the Presidential nomination. 

 Gillett was from New York, and so great was the political pressure 

 brought to bear upon him that he could not be impartial. Burke, the 

 Commissioner of Patents, and the one who from his position knew 

 something of the justice of McCormick's claim, favored the extension, 

 but the other two opposed it. The injustice of the refusal to grant this 

 extension was commented on in the United States Senate by such 

 lawyers as Fessenden and Seward. Other senators (also skilled law- 

 yers) who opposed the extension in the Senate, unhesitatingly declared 

 that in this refusal the Board of Extension clearly exceeded its powers- 



Hussey and McCormick at once appealed to Congress for exten- 

 sions. McCormick, especially, had no chance in Congress. His pat- 

 ent was recognized as covering the essential elements of all successful 

 reaping machines, and so strong was the pressure on the part of those 

 who wished to copy it, that the Legislatures of the States of New York, 

 Michigan, Indiana, Tennessee and Ohio passed resolutions instructing 

 their representatives in Congress to oppose his extension Scarcely 

 a week passed, during the pendency of McCormick's bill, without long 

 remonstrances, signed by hundreds of names. They came from all 

 the wheat-growing states. The grounds of the remonstrances were 

 that McCormick's patent would cover every reaping machine made, 

 and thus levy a tribute upon the farmers of all the grain-growing states. 

 The further ground was stated that McCormick had already made large 

 profits, and it was therefore unjust to give him such a monopoly. The 

 effect of these long remonstrances upon the politicians is clearly shown 

 by the course of Senator Douglas. He said : 



" My objection is not to Mr. McCormick. He is a gentleman for 

 whom I have the highest respect. I think he has rendered a great 

 sen-ice to his country by his invention. ... I would do anything 

 that I could do properly to serve him, as he has served his country; but, 

 his patent having expired, and the right to manufacture and use the 

 machine having vested in the public, I know of no authority to divest 

 that right and put it back in him." 



Hussey was also an applicant before Congress at the same time, 

 and urged his claim on the ground of his poverty and his failure to 

 receive proper compensation. Certain senators made pitiful pleas in 

 his behalf, but they were unsuccessful- The stories of his poverty were 



