Memoir of the Life of Eli Whitney. 225 



" The Committee to whom was referred, &;c. Report : — 



" That they have carefully attended to that part of the communi- 

 cation which relates to the Cotton Gin, and cordially agree with the 

 Governor in his observations, that monopolies are at all times odious, 

 particularly in free governments, and that some remedy ought to be 

 applied to the wound which the cotton gin monopoly has given, 

 and will otherwise continue to give, to the culture and cleaning of 

 that precious and increasing staple. They have examined the Rev= 

 erend James Hutchinson, who declares that Edward Lyon, at least 

 twelve months before Miller & Whitney's machine was brought into 

 view, had in possession a saw or cotton gin, in miniature, of the same 

 construction ; and it further appears to them, from the information of 

 Doctor Cortes Pedro Dampiere, an old and respectable cidzen of 

 Columbia County, that a machine of a construction similar to that of 

 Miller &: Whitney, was used in Switzerland, at least forty years ago, 

 for the purpose of picking rags to make lint and paper, 



" That, however, as Congress has the constitutional power to es- 

 tablish patents of the nature of Miller &; Whitney's, the committee 

 uniting with the Governor in opinion that no Legislative power 

 but Congress can interfere, and also convinced that in the passage of 

 the law, Congress could have had no idea of laying the two Southern 

 States, and in all probability North Carolina and Tennessee, under 

 contribution to two individuals, (the article at the passing of the first 

 act not being thought of, as about to become the principal staple of 

 export from those States,) do recommend the following resolutions: — ■ 



" Resolved, That the Senators and Representatives of this State in 

 Congress be, and they hereby are, instructed to use their utmost en- 

 deavors to obtain a modification of the act, entided an act to extend the 

 privilege of obtaining Patents for useful discoveries and inventions, to 

 certain persons therein mentioned, and to enlarge and define the pen- 

 alties for violating the rights of patentees, so as to prevent the opera- 

 tion of it, to the injury of that most valuable staple cotton, and the 

 cramping of genius in improvements, in Miller &; Whitney's patent 

 Gin, as well as to limit the price of obtaining a right of using it, the 

 price at present being unbounded, and the planter and poor artificer 

 altogether at the mercy of the patentees, who may raise the price to 

 any sum they please. 



" And in case the said Senators and Representatives of this State 

 shall find such modification impracticable, that they do then use their 

 best endeavors to induce Congress, from the example of other nations, 



Vol. XXL— No. 2. 29 



