Memoir of the Life of Eli Whitney. 229 



Legislature of South Carolina, that he conceives himself to have been 

 treated with unreasonable severity in the measures recently taken 

 against him by and under their immediate direction. — He holds that, 

 to be seized and dragged to prison without being allowed to be heard 

 in answer to the charge alleged against him, and indeed without the 

 exhibition of any specific charge, is a direct violation of the com- 

 mon right of every ciuzen of a free government ; that the power, in 

 this case, is all on one side, that whatever may be the issue of the 

 process now instituted against him, he must, in any case, be subjected 

 to great expense and extreme hardships ; and that he considers the tri- 

 bunal before which he is holden to appear, to be wholly incompetent 

 to decide, definitively, existing disputes between the State and Mil- 

 ler U Whitney. 



" The subscriber avers that he has manifested no other than a dis- 

 position to fulfil all the stipulations, entered into with the State of 

 South Carolina, with punctuality and good faith ; and he begs leave 

 to observe farther, that to have industriously, laboriously, and ex- 

 clusively, devoted many years of the prime of his life, to the inven- 

 tion and the improvement of a machine, from which the citizens of 

 South Carolina have already realized immense profits, — which is 

 worth to them millions, and from which their posterity, to the latest 

 generations must continue to derive the most important benefits, and 

 in return to be treated as a felon, a swindler, and a villain, has stung 

 him to the very soul. And when he considers that this cruel perse- 

 cution is inflicted by the very persons who are enjoying these great 

 benefits, and expressly for the purpose of preventing his ever deri- 

 ving the least advantage from his own labors, the acuteness of his 

 feelings is altogether inexpressible." 



At this time, a new and unexpected responsibility devolved on Mr, 

 Whitney, in consequence of the death of his partner, Mr. Miller, 

 who died on the 7th of December, 1803. Mr. Miller had, in the early 

 stages of the enterprise, indulged very high hopes of a sudden fortune ; 

 but perpetual disappointments appear to have attended him through- 

 out the remainder of his life. The history of them, as detailed in 

 his voluminous correspondence, which is now before us, affords an 

 instructive exemplication of the anxiety, toil, and uncertainty, that 

 frequently accompany too eager a pursuit of wealth, and the pain 

 and disappointments that follow in the train of expectations too highly 

 elated. If Mr. Miller anticipated a great bargain from an approach- 

 ing auction of cotton, some sly adventurer was sure to step in be- 



