Memoir of the Life of Eli Whitney. ^ 237 



ent journeys to Georgia, several of which were accomplished by land 

 at a time when, compared with the present, the difSculties of such 

 journeys were exceedingly great, and exposed him to excessive fa- 

 tigues and privations, which at times seriously affected his health, and 

 even jeopardized his life. A gentleman* of much experience in the 

 profession of law, who was well acquainted with Mr. Whitney's af- 

 fairs in the South, and sometimes acted as his legal adviser, observes, 

 in a letter obligingly communicated to the writer of this memoir, that, 

 " in all his experience in the thorny profession of the law, he has nev- 

 er seen a case of such perseverance, under such persecution ; nor 

 (he adds) do I believe that I ever knew any other man who would 

 have met them with equal coolness and firmness, or who would final- 

 ly have obtained even the partial success which he had. He always 

 called on me in New York, on his way South, when going to attend 

 his endless trials, and to meet the mischievous contrivances of men 

 who seemed inexhaustible in their resources of evil. Even now after 

 thirty years, my head aches to recollect his narratives of new trials, 

 fresh disappointments, and accumulated wrongs." 



We have thought the Cotton Gin, sufficiently instructive in its his- 

 tory, and important in its consequences, to merit the attention we have 

 bestowed upon it. After a more cursory notice of the other chief 

 enterprise which occupied the life of Mr. Whitney, we shall hasten 

 to the conclusion of this memoir. 



In 1798, Mr. Whitney became deeply impressed with the uncer- 

 tainty of all his hopes founded upon the Cotton Gin, notwithstanding 

 their high promise, and he began to think seriously of devoting himself 

 to some business in which superior ingenuity, seconded by uncom- 

 mon industry, qualifications which he must have been conscious of 

 possessing in no ordinary degree, would conduct him by a slow but 

 sure route to a competent fortune ; and we have always considered 

 it indicative of a solid judgment, and a well balanced mind, that he 

 did not, as is frequently the case with men of inventive genius, be- 

 come so poisoned with the hopes of vast and sudden -wealth, as to 

 be disqualified for making a reasonable provision for life, by the sober 

 earnings of frugal industry. 



The enterprise which he selected in accordance with these views ; 

 was the Manufacture of Arms for the United States. He accord- 

 ingly addressed a letter to the Hon. Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the 



* Hon. S. M. Hopkins. 



