Memoir of the Life of Eli Whitney. — 237 
ent journeys to Georgia, several of which were accomplished by land 
at a time when, compared with the present, the difficulties of such 
journeys were exceedingly great, and exposed him to excessive fa- 
tigues and privations, which at times seriously affected his health, and 
even jeopardized his life. A gentleman* of much experience in the 
profession of law, who was well acquainted with Mr. Whitney’s af- 
fairs in the South, and sometimes acted as his legal adviser, observes, 
in a letter obligingly communicated to the writer of this memoir, that, 
“in all his experience in the thorny profession of the law, he has nev- 
et seen a case of such perseverance, under such persecution; nor 
(be adds) do I believe that I ever knew any other man who would 
have met them with equal coolness and firmness, or who would final- 
ly have obtained even the partial success which he had. He always 
called on me in New York, on his way South, when going to attend 
his endless trials, and to meet the mischievous contrivances of men 
who seemed inexhaustible in their resources of evil. Even now after 
thirty years, my head aches to recollect his narratives of. new trials, 
fresh disappointments, and accumulated wrongs.” 
We have thought the Cotton Gin, sufficiently instructive in its his- 
tory, and important in its consequences, to merit the attention we have 
bestowed upon it. After a more cursory notice of the other chief 
*terprise which occupied the life of Mr. Whitney, we shall hasten 
10 the conclusion of this memoir. 
fn 1798, Mr. Whitney became deeply impressed with the uncer- 
tainty of all his hopes founded upon the Cotton Gin, notwithstanding 
their high promise, and he began to think seriously of devoting himself 
© some business in which superior ingenuity, seconded by uncom- 
Mon industry, qualifications which he must have been conscious of 
Possessing in no ordinary degree, would conduct him by a slow but 
Sure route to a competent fortune ; and we have always considered 
indicative of a solid judgment, and a well balanced mind, that he 
id not, as is frequently the case with men of inventive genius, be- 
*ome so poisoned with the hopes of vast and sudden wealth, as to 
be disqualified for making a reasonable provision for life, by the sober 
mings of frugal industry. a 
he enterprise which he selected in accordance with these views ; 
"as the Manufacture of Arms for the United States. He accord- 
ngly addressed a letter to the Hon. Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the 
a 
* Hon. 8. M. Hopkins. 
