AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 123 



protection thus afforded is not always perfect. It can only be 

 enforced by expensive and protracted litigation. And, some- 

 times, an invention proves to be of such general necessity, that 

 popular sentiment takes possession of it by storm, and justice, for 

 a time, flees from the earth. Thus, it is said of Whitney, that he 

 was so indignant that the South should have taken his great in- 

 vention from him by force, that he died with an unrevealed, but 

 yet greater invention, in the secret chambers of his mind. Im- 

 perfect though it is, however, if we will but think of it, we shall 

 perceive that the patent system is one of the mightiest agents of the 

 time, in advancing the civilization, the comfort, and the pros- 

 perity of the country. Strike that system from existence, and 

 all the ingenious devices and meclianisms it has fostered into 

 being, and you bring us into a rude and comfortless age, and shed 

 upon us the very night of barbarism. We should feel the depri- 

 vation ever hour and minute of oiu* lives. Steam would cease 

 to be a power on earth; but, sleeping in its native elements, 

 would no longer impel our locomotives, whirl the paddles of our 

 steamers, or move the infinite variety of machinery, that buzzes, 

 shrieks, and thunders through the land. Your messages, that 

 travel by lightning express on timipite of wire, would lumber 

 along on the backs of mules. A rude press might work off by 

 hand a few issues in a day, but where would be the astounding 

 engines that with steam fingers pick up the sheet with the quick- 

 ness of thought, and with steam arms hurl the imprinted pages 

 far and near. Stroll through the four thousand productive or 

 manufactui'ing establishments of the city of New- York, Avhich 

 have an invested capital of forty millions, employ a hundred 

 thousand hands, and turn out annually manufactui-ed articles to 

 the value of one hundred and twenty millions of dollars, and 

 you cannot find a motive power that does not work through 

 patented agencies, and scarcely an implement which has not been 

 called into existence by an ingenuity stimulated and protected by 

 the Patent Ofiice. Look through your own houses, and what 

 ai'ticle of adornment, luxury, comfort or utility, that has not been 

 the subject of profound study and protracted experiment, till the 

 trimnph of ingenuity was rewarded with a patent. Almost every 

 thing we wear, or eat, or use, has, at some stage, received impulse 

 or benefit from some patented device. 



If it require such incessant labors, such repeated trials, such 

 happy inspiration, to catch the flickering hint, and evolve, one 

 after another, these successive inventions, how much should we 



