38S j Assembly 



tend to things which are now necessarily neglected, to the great 

 grievance of applicants. 



I have taken the trouble to ascertain, that four additional men, at 

 an expense of about four or five thousand dollars a year, would be 

 sufficient to carry out such an arrangement, obviate delay, and 

 meet present and prospective demands. 



And why should not this be done ? Is the expense an objection 1 

 If so, it is well to know how this objection stands. 



Since the patent law went into operation, which was in 1790, three 

 years after the signing of the Constitution, the money paid into the 

 patent office, chiefly by inventors, and passed to the treasury of the 

 United Stales, am.ounts to $758,505 .70. Of this sum, $434,0^6.87 

 has been expended in conducting the business of the patent office, 

 including the amounts paid for agricultiiral statistics ; leaving a baknce 

 of $324,468.83. Of this balance, Congress spent $108,000 in con- 

 structing a building, nominally for a patent office, but practically for 

 a variety of other purposes. The reiJiainder of this balance, being 

 $216,468.83, on the 1st day of January, 1849, remained in the trea- 

 sury of the United States, and which Congress is now engaged in 

 spending in putting up buildings for the general use of the Home 

 Department. 



Now tell me, if you can, why inventors have been ridden with a 

 special tax for half a century, to accumulate funds to collect agricul- 

 tural statistics and erect buildings for the use of the country at large. 

 Why not tax every man, in like manner, for the use of law to protect 

 his property and his rights ? What high offence has the inventor 

 been guilty of, that he should be singled out and made a victim of 

 this special burden, to accumulate funds to be applied to the general 

 purposes of government? Not one dollar of this fund should be ap- 

 propriated to any other use until every necessary accommodation be 

 provided for issuing patents. 



But again, if there were no other way of meeting the expenses, in- 

 ventors would gladly, on condition of having their applications exa- 



