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property in man, and its jealous regard for the security of the people. I humbly supplicate, that slavery, with its odious form and revolting features, and its dreadful pretensions for the present and for the future, may not receive in this great tribunal, now, sanction and countenance, denied to it by a convention of the American states more than half a century ago. Let the spirit which prevailed in that august assembly, only find utterance here, and the time will come somewhat more speedily, when throughout this great empire, erected on the foundation of the rights of man, no court of justice will be required to enforce INVOLUNTARY obligations of LABOR, and uphold the indefensible law of PHYSICAL FORCE.

INVENTION.*

MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT, GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY,

The learned counsel who opened this case to you on the part of the defendants, began his argument by endeavoring to excite in your mind a prejudice against the system of the patent laws of your country, and he fortified his argument by calling the system one of monopoly. He pointed out no abuses which have ever existed in this country, but he spoke of abuses which occurred in England. It is true that at one time, in England, the system of monopolies had become oppressive and odious. This arose from no defect in the system, but was produced by the government itself. There was a time when all legislative and executive powers were united in a king. He abused the principle on which the system of the patent laws is founded, and he carried these abuses to the extent defined by the counsel. A Queen of England interdicted the manufacture of playing-cards, in order that she might grant the monopoly to a favorite, assigning as a reason, that her other subjects might be better employed. The patent for the colony of New York was granted by the king to his brother, on this principle. But the idea on which the system of our patent laws is founded, is, by those abuses of it, only proved to be the more true, wise and just. In the time of James I., when the legislature recovered its power, it declared the whole system of monopoly and its abuses to be contrary to the interests of society. Then the common law took up this principle, and established it in a system of patent laws, sound, wise and beneficent, and within the restraints then placed around it, it has continued until this day, under the administration of it by learned courts, until that nation which leads the march of the world in wealth, prosperity, and military power and renown, owes its position to nothing more than to this condemned principle.

* Argument on Invention—Many vs. Treadwell—Albany, Oct. 17, 1848.

What is that principle? Simply that it is the duty of the government to be a praise unto them that do well, and a terror to evil doers. Why is it important that the government should be a praise unto them that do well? It is not because by rewarding those that do well it promotes their welfare, but because it thereby exercises a protecting power over all the interests of society. And what is this, for which the government praises those that do well? It is the principle of invention. And what is that? There are two great principles of activity, in regard to the world. One is creation, the other is invention. Creation is the peculiar attribute of Him who made all worlds, all that is on the earth, in the earth, and in the waters under the earth, for the greatness and the welfare and the happiness of our race. He created nothing that is not adapted, fit, and useful in some way to promote our health, welfare, prosperity and happiness. He made it all, in the counsels of his own will. He spoke it into existence by a word, but he concealed it from his creatures, and made it their greatest glory to find out the purposes, principles, and adaptations of the things by which he surrounded them. Our duty consists in finding them out, and invention is nothing more than finding out what will promote the progress of society, through all time. He has hidden and concealed nothing so deeply that we cannot find out, as fast as is best for our welfare and consistent with his Providence, the uses and purposes of every thing. Invention, then, is worthy of the fostering care of every government. What would society be now, but for the exercise of invention in times past? Where lies our hope of progress in society, but in the exercise of invention for the future? Hope is, in this respect, the spring of youth to mankind and to nations. And in the exercise of invention, the world is renewing itself, and becoming wiser and better, as it approaches those latter days, when our species will have attained a comparative degree of perfection and exaltation.

Wherein consisted the advantage of the Spaniard over the Peruvian and the Mexican, when he subverted the empires of America? It was in this, that the invader had invented the power which resides in the combination of sulphur, saltpetre and charcoal. Wherein our superiority over the enemy, whom we have recently defeated in the centre of this continent, but that we have rewarded invention? Look, too, at the dignity of this principle of invention. It stands in contrast with the power of the

Almighty. He creates instantly; man finds out slowly, progressively, laboriously. When you reflect, you will see that there is danger of misapprehension. You have been imagining that somebody made, or created, a railroad wheel. But no human being creates. God alone creates. It is our province, worthy of the patronage of government, and the highest exercise of human power, to follow the clues which lead us to his designs, with regard to matter, for our happiness and welfare. And what is there wrong in this system? Society says to all alike, that if they will devote talent to the discovery of any thing which will contribute to the welfare of society, they shall have the first enjoyment of it for fourteen years, on condition that they will then publish it for the benefit of the world at large, for this and future generations. If, then, there is an honest thought in your hearts, do not your cheeks blush with shame, not because your country has conferred this benefit, here and there, on a struggling inventor, but because you are filled with virtuous indignation, that Fulton sleeps in his grave, while his family are mendicants, and while the production he gave to the world has become the engine of your commerce, the great uniting power that binds your confederacy together, and is revolutionizing the East, bringing Africa and Asia into the great fold of the family of civilized man? It is a burning reproach, that he who made the lightning your messenger, and bids it carry for you messages of love, and grief, and joy, and triumph, and trouble, is standing here this day, in this court, a suppliant to the laws of the land, to protect him for fourteen years in the enjoyment of that instrument, the effects of which, to benefit mankind, cannot be bounded by time, and will be felt when time shall have ceased to exist.

Where, then, is the monopoly? In what? Why, it is said, that although the patentee may sell for fourteen years, still he may refuse to sell; and he is compared to the dog in the manger. How can a man have a right to sell, unless he has a right to name his price? Still it is said, no other man may compete with him. But I can realize nothing from a patent, unless I sell, and the more I sell, the greater my profits. Where is the unreasonableness of this? No invention was ever brought to perfection, without the expenditure of money and labor. Truscott & Dougherty, the inventors of this wheel, were poor, laboring men. The first thing they did, was to bring in a third person, to furnish the small

amount of money, that was necessary to convert an old spokewheel pattern into this wheel. Woodworth's planing machine costs now some three or four hundred dollars, yet Woodworth was obliged, before he could begin to build his machine, to sell the half of his invention to the man who furnished the capital.

The human race is yet enthralled in ignorance, and to a great degree in poverty, and suffering. Society is to be disenthralled by finding out the properties which God has conferred on matter.

If the merit of invention is so great, it must be a pleasing gratification to him who organized the system on which human society is established, when he sees one of his creatures so employed. And there must have been a beneficent smile from on high, lighting up a halo around the head of Fulton, when he invented a steamboat. No less beneficent must have been the smile when these poor and humble citizens produced an invention which would save the loss of human life on railroads. You are the interpreters of the Omniscient Eye in regard to the aptitude of iron for the purpose which we have been discussing. You must perform your duty under the belief that He sees your hearts, and tries your reins, and that whatever judgment is meted by you, shall be meted to you again. For there is an all-seeing Eye, that renders to us even in this life, the reward we merit for doing justly.

But the atrocious assault that has been made on the policy of your country has a mitigation pleaded for it. It is said that the true inventors, Truscott, Wolf and Dougherty, might be entitled to recover, but that this action is brought by a speculator, who has no business but to prevent people from making railroad wheels. This apology is as atrocious as the other offence. The patentees made these wheels for four years, struggling all the while against the power and wealth of railroad companies, and the capital of such men as Baldwin & Tiers. They put in use a thousand of them. Then Bush & Lobdell, of Wilmington, commenced making wheels in defiance of this patent, and on its principle, because the patentees had no pecuniary ability to defend themselves. Then, Eddy of Waterford, commenced making the Wolf wheel; and then the Sizers and Kinsley covered the whole of New England with them. It is no wonder, then, that they discontinued the manufacture. All wheels that can be used on railroads, and are not spoke wheels, are Wolf wheels. There is not a double plate car wheel, or a hollow car wheel in America, that is not made

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