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244 Memoir of the Life of Eli Whitney. 
into every other considerable establishment for the manufacture of 
arms, both public and private, in the United States. 
The labors of Mr. Whitney in the manufacture of arms, have 
been often and fully admitted by the officers of the government, to 
have been of the greatest value to the public interest. In the year 
1822, Mr. Calhoun, then secretary of war, now vice-president of the 
United States, admitted, in a conversation with Mr. Whitney, that 
the government were saving twenty-five thousand dollars per annum 
at the two public armories alone, by his improvements. This ad- 
mission, though it is believed to be far below the truth, is sufficient 
to show, that the subject of this memoir deserved well of his coun- 
try in this department of her service; and we regret to learn, that 
the succeeding officers of the government have already so far over- 
looked his merits and his claims, as to permit the capital invested in 
his manufacturing establishment, which constitutes the greater patt 
of the earnings of his life, to lie, in part, idle and unproductive upon 
the hands of his heirs. 
It should be remarked, that the utility of Mr. Whitney’s labors 
during the period of his life which we have now been contemplating, 
was not limited to the particular business in which he was engaged. 
Many of the inventions which he made to facilitate the manufacture 
of muskets, were applicable to most other manufactures of iron an 
steel. ‘To many of those they were soon extended, and became the 
nucleus around which other inventions clustered ; and at the preseot 
time some of them may be recognised in almost every considerable 
workshop of that description in the United States. — 
In the year 1812, Mr. W. made application to congress for the re- 
newal of his patent for the cotton gin. In his memorial, he present- 
ed a history of the struggles he had been forced to encounter in de- 
fence of his right, observing that he had been unable to obtain any 
decision on the merits of his claim until he had been eleven acai 
in the law, and thirteen years of his patent term had expired. 1° 
sets forth, that his invention had been a source of opulence 1 thou 
sands of the citizens of the United States; that, as a labor saving 
machine, it would enable one man to perform the work of a thousand 
men ; and that it furnishes to the whole family of mankind, at a very 
cheap rate, the most essential article of their clothing. Hence, he 
humbly conceived himself entitled to a further remuneration from - 
country, and thought he ought to be admitted to a more liberal itt 
cipation with his fellow citizens in the benefits of his inventol™ Ar 
