922 Memoir of the Life of El Whitney. 
«“ That no right of property is so well founded in nature, as that of 
one’s own invention : that their fellow citizens by their representatives 
in the national Government, from considerations both of policy and 
justice, have declared that individuals who will use their exertions 10 
acquire this species of property, shall enjoy an exclusive right in the 
same for fourteen years: That influenced by, and relying on, these 
declarations of their country, they have spent a number of years, and 
exhausted their funds, in inventing and bringing into use, their Saw 
Gin: That notwithstanding the innumerable misrepresentations and 
prejudices which have gone forth respecting this concern, they have 
firm reliance on the laws of their country, and feel a conscious recti- 
tude in the justice of their cause. 
« When we look around and see many of our fellow citizens, who 
are engaged in pursuits exclusively for their own benefit, guarded 
and protected, in those pursuits, by the laws of their country, We 
cannot believe that those who have contributed, in any degree, 1° 
benefit their fellow citizens and the public, will be deprived of the 
same protection, and abandoned to poverty. 
* We will not go into any-detailed calculations as to the value of 
this invention, but only observe, that the citizens of South Carolina 
have gained, and will gain many millions of dollars by the use of this 
machine, which they never could have acquired without it. Being 
under embarrassments in consequence of debts incurred in prosect 
ting this undertaking, and desirous of obtaining some compensation fot 
our labors, we will not measure our demand by the value of the prop” 
erty, but are willing to dispose of it to the State of South Carolina 
for a sum far below its real value; and therefore we submit to the 
committee the following Proposats : 
“The subscribers will relinquish and transfer to the legislature of 
South Carolina, so much of their patent right, of the mac vag lor 
separating cotton from its seeds, commonly called the Saw Gin, * 
appertains to said State, for the sum of one hundred thousand “A 
lars, the one half of the said sum to be paid on the transfer of sal 
right, the other by installments as shall be hereafter agreed upo™ 
Minter & Wartse® 
After some discussion, it was agreed by the legislat 
ure to offer t0 the 
patentees the sum of fifty thousand dollars. We sunjr both 
addressed at this time by Mr. Whitney to his friend a vin 
an 
as a statement of the particulars relating to the contract, 
cive of the feelings of the writer. 
