374 [Assembly 



This was the commencement of the patent system in the United 

 States, and every la^Y must conform to it. It flings the door open to 

 inventors throughout the workl ; it stands with a broad and full re- 

 cognition of the rights of the author of the new production, and gives 

 only power to the legislature to protect them. The grand features 

 of its policy are justice to the inventor, combined with public benefit, 

 but does not, like most foreign countries, sacrifice the former to the 

 latter. ^ 



And although the policy of the patent system had its origin in Eng- 

 land, and lias thus extended over the most of Europe, yet like every 

 other feature of public policy, founded on intelligence, and involving 

 the elevation and dignity of man, the system of protecting the authors 

 of new and useful inventions, is destined to display its most gigantic 

 w'orks in our own happy land, and to the glory and honor of this re- 

 public. 



There is no mystery in the prediction, and no vanity prompts its ut- 

 terance. The direct influence of this government, while dealing death 

 and extinguishment to everything founded on ignorance and degra- 

 ding servitude, imparts life, health, and the highest degree of progres- 

 sive prosperity to every enterprise and system which takes root in in- 

 telligence, and rides upon the march of mind. As the growing pro- 

 ducts of an improved plantation extract nourishment from the wild, 

 unwrought soil of the mountain and the glen, and yield in return, de- 

 licious and luxuriant fruits, so doth the Republic of America avail it- 

 self of all the useful fragments, even of monarchial policy, to ad- 

 vance and perfect its systems of enterprise for the elevation and good 

 of raan. 



To any observer of the signs of the times, and the present state 

 of the world, it must be apparent beyond all doubt, that the United 

 States is destined to speedily become the great theatre for the future 

 display of inventive genius and the accomplishment of its most gi- 

 gantic feats. 



