he was harassed and plundered on every side.  America never presented a more shameful spectacle than was exhibited when the courts of the cotton-growing regions united with the piratical infringers of Whitney’s rights in robbing their greatest benefactor.  In 1807, Whitney’s partner died, and his factory was destroyed by fire.  In the same year his patent expired, and he sought its renewal from Congress.  Here again he was met with the ingratitude of the cotton States.  The Southern members, then all powerful in the Government, united in opposing the extension of his patent, and his petition was rejected.  At the same time a report was industriously circulated that his machine injured the fiber of the cotton; but it is a significant fact that, although the planters insisted vehemently upon this assertion while Whitney was seeking an extension of his patent, not one of them discontinued the use of his machine, or sought to remedy the alleged defect.

Whitney, thoroughly disheartened, now abandoned the manufacture of cotton gins in disgust, wound up his affairs, and found himself a poor man.  In spite of the far-reaching benefits of his invention, he had not realized one dollar above his expenses.  He had given millions upon millions of dollars to the cotton-growing States, he had opened the way for the establishment of the vast cotton-spinning interests of his own country and Europe, and yet, after fourteen years of hard labor, he was a poor man, the victim of a wealthy, powerful, and, in his case, a dishonest class, who had robbed him of his rights and of the fortune he had so fairly earned.  Truly, “wisdom is better than strength, but the poor man’s wisdom is despised.”

Whitney, however, was not the man to waste his time in repining.  He abandoned his efforts to protect his cotton gin because of his conviction that there was not honesty enough in the country to sustain him in his rights, but he did not abandon with it the idea of winning fortune.  He promptly turned his genius in another direction, and this time with success.

The fire-arms then in use were heavy, clumsy weapons, and effective only at very short range.  He examined the system closely, and quickly designed several important improvements in them, especially in the old-fashioned musket.  Although his improved arms were not to be compared with the terribly effective weapons of to-day, they were admitted to be the best then in use.  By examining the Springfield musket, which is due almost entirely to his genius, the reader can form an accurate estimate of the service he rendered in this respect.  He has the honor of being the inaugurator of the system of progressive improvement in fire-arms, which has gone on steadily and without flagging for now fully sixty years past.