2'30 Memoir of the Life of Eli Whitney. 



fore him, and bid it out of his hands. If he looked to his extensive 

 rice crops, cultivated on the estate of General Greene, as the means 

 of raising money to extricate himself from the numerous embarrass- 

 ments into which he had fallen, a severe drought came on and shriv- 

 elled the crop, or floods of rain suddenly destroyed it. The mar- 

 kets unexpectedly changed at the very moment of selling, and always 

 to his disadvantage. Heavy rains likewise destroyed the cotton crops 

 on which he had counted for thousands ; and more than all, wicked 

 and dishonest men, contrived to cheat him of his just rights, and 

 thus his airy hopes were often frustrated, until at length, the specu- 

 lations in Yazoo lands beguiled him into inextricable difficulties, and 

 in the midst of all, and on the dawn of a brighter day, death step- 

 ped in and dissolved the pageant that had so long been dancing be- 

 fore his eyes. 



Mr. Whitney was now left alone, to contend singly against those 

 difficulties which had for a series of years almost broken down the 

 spirits of both the partners. The light moreover which seemed to 

 be rising upon theni from the favorable occurrences of the preceding 

 year, proved but the twilight of prosperity, and a darker night seemed 

 about to supervene. 



But the favorable issue of the affairs of Mr. Whitney, in South 

 Carolina during the subsequent year, and the generous receipts that 

 he obtained from the avails of his contracts with North Carolina, re- 

 lieved him from the embarrassments under which he had so long 

 groaned, and made him in some degree independent. Still, no small 

 portion of the funds thus collected in North and South Carolina, was 

 expended in carrying on the fruidess, endless law suits in Georgia. 

 , In the United States court, held in Georgia in December, 1807, 

 Mr. Whitney obtained a most important decision, in a suit brought 

 against a trespasser of the name of Fort. It was on this trial that 

 Judge Johnson gave his celebrated decision. It was in the following 

 words. 



" Whitney, survivor of \ 



Miller Sr Whitney, L^^^^^^^ 



Arthur Fort. J 



" The complainants, in this case, are proprietors of the machine 

 called the saw gin. The use of which, is to detach the short staple 

 cotton from its seed. 



