222 Memoir of the Life of Eli 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 to 

 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 havB 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 beUeve that those who have contributed, in any degree, to 

 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 prosecu- 

 ting this undertaking, and desirous of obtaining some compensation for 

 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 Proposals : 



" The subscribers will relinquish and transfer to the legislature of 

 South Carolina, so much of their patent right, of the machine for 

 separating cotton from its seeds, commonly called the Saw Gin, as 

 appertains to said State, for the sum of one hundred thousand dol- 

 lars, the one half of the said sum to be paid on the transfer of said 

 right, the other by installments as shall be hereafter agreed upon. 



Miller &£ Whitney." 



After some discussion, it was agreed by the legislature to offer to the 

 patentees the sum o^ fifty thousand dollars. We subjoin a letter 

 addressed at this time by Mr. Whitney to his friend Slebbins, both 

 as a statement of the particulars relating to the contract, and as evin- 

 cive of the feelings of the writer. 



