220 Memoir of the Life of El Whitney. 
come very sanguine. The tide of popular opinion was running in 
our favor, the Judge was well disposed towards us, and many deci- 
ded friends were with us, who adhered firmly to our cause and inter- 
ests. ‘The Judge gave a charge to the jury pointedly in our favor; 
after which the defendant himself told an acquaintance of his, that 
he would give two thousand dollars to be free from the verdict ; and 
yet the jury gave it against us after a consultation of about an hour. 
And having made the verdict general, no appeal would lie. 
* On Monday morning, when the verdict was rendered, we appli- 
ed for a new trial; but the Judge refused it to us on the ground that 
the Jury might have made up their opinion on the defect of the law, 
which makes an aggression, consist of making, devising and using, 
or selling ; whereas we could only charge the defendant with using. 
“Thus after four years of assiduous labor, fatigue, and difficulty, 
are we again set afloat by anew and most unexpected obstacle. Our 
hopes of success are now removed to a period still more distant than 
before, while our expenses are realized beyond all controversy.” 
Great efforts were made to obtain trial in a second suit, at the ses- 
sion of the Court in Savannah, in May 1798. A great number of 
witnesses were collected from various parts of the country, to the 
distance of a hundred miles from Savannah, when, behold, no Judge 
appeared, and of course no court was held. In consequence of the 
failure of the first suit, and so great a procrastination of the second, 
the encroachments on the patent right had been prodigiously multi 
plied, so as almost entirely to destroy the business of the patentees- 
In April 1799, Mr. Miller writes as follows. “ The prospect of 
making any thing by ginning in this State, is at an end. Surreptr 
tious Gins, are erected in every part of the country ; and the juty- 
men at Augusta, have come to an understanding among themselves; 
that they will never give a cause in our favor, let the merits of the 
case be as they may.” 
The company would now have gladly relinquished the plan of 
working their own machines, and confined their operations t the sale of 
patent rights; but few would buy a patent right which they could 
use with impunity without purchasing, and those few, hardly in as!" 
gle instance, paid cash, but gave their notes, which they afterwards 
to a great extent avoided paying, either by obtaining a verdict 
the juries declaring them void, or by contriving to postpone the oy 
lection until they were barred by the statute of limitations, ah 
of only four years. When thus barred, the agent of Miller & Wht 
* 
