308 COTTOX PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



and many an honest man might think himself justified in 

 using it. This machine made its appearance in 1795. The 

 year after for each year brought to Whitney its new calam- 

 ity the fatal intelligence was brought from England that the 

 manufacturers rejected the cotton cleaned by the gin, because 

 the staple was supposed to be injured. This at once lowered 

 the price of his cotton in the market, and gave boldness to the 

 trespassers upon his rights. At this moment the company 

 had thirty gins stationed at eight different places in the State 

 of Georgia, and $10,000 invested in real-estate, for the pur- 

 poses of their enlerprise. Near the close of the following 

 year the stout heart of Whitney begins to yield, and he writes 

 as follows : " I have labored hard against the strong current 

 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." 

 And in the same letter " I have sacrificed to it [our business] 

 other objects, from which, before this time, I might certainly 

 have gained twenty or thirty thousand dollars." During this 

 year, however, the reports from England, in respect to the 

 quality of the cotton from the new machines were entirely 

 reversed, and a preference began to be given to it over every 

 other in the market. 



But the peculiar calamity of this year (1797) was, that the 

 first trial of their patent at law which could be obtained, issued 

 against them. Notwithstanding the charge of the judge was 

 pointedly in their favor, and the defendants expected a verdict 

 of heavy damages, the plaintiffs lost their case, and an appli- 

 cation for a new trial was denied. Thus, after four years had 

 been consumed in a protracted effort to test the validity of the 

 patent, at the first issue that was joined there was an entire 

 failure. Vigorous efforts were made to bring another suit to 

 trial at Savannah, in the year following, 1798. Witnesses 



