spected the manufactories; and at Cambridge saw the great elm under which he took command of the patriot army. Upon his arrival at Boston a trade procession with banners appeared, its ranks opening from Roxbury line to the old State-house. He was highly pleased with the journey and greatly astonished both at the marvelous growth of manufactures and commerce in New England and at the general contentment of the people with the new government.*

On January 4, 1790, Congress reassembled, and on the 8th Washington's first annual address was delivered. The President spoke of the general prosperity of the country, and recommended that Congress take under consideration a number of important subjects, particularly the matter of providing proper means of defence for the sea coast. He said: "To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end, a uniform and well digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies." He suggested that means be provided to maintain

* Schouler, United States, vol. i., p. 130.

Lodge, George Washington, vol. ii., p. 76 et seq. For text, see Richardson, Messages and Papers, vol. i., pp. 65-67; Annals of Congress, vol. i., pp. 932-934.

*

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intercourse with foreign nations; that a uniform rule of naturalization be established, and that literature and science be promoted, since "Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness. In one in which the measures of government receive their impression, so immediately from the sense of the community as in ours, it is proportionately essentiol. Whether this desirable object will best be promoted by affording aids to seminaries of learning already established, by the institution of a national university, or by other expedients, will be well worthy of a place in the deliberations of the legislature." The speech closed with a recommendation that an efficient system for supporting the public credit be provided.

Among the laws of a general nature passed were those for the naturalization of aliens after two years' residence; for the patenting of inventions; for securing to authors the copyright of their productions; regulating the merchant marine in respect to the seamen engaged in it; forming the ground work for a criminal code; for a military establishment; for arranging the means of intercourse with the Indians regarding trade and the acquisition of territories owned by them, etc. After returning thanks to the corporation of the city of New York for the accommodations furnished, Congress adjourned August 12, 1790, to meet again in December at Philadelphia.

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As stated above, one of the acts of this session dealt with the patenting of inventions. The Eastern States had grown wonderfully during the past few years, and as commerce and manufactures advanced, new devices of all descriptions were invented. In order to ensure to the inventor the fruits of his labor, it was essential that some government office be established where a model of the invention could be registered for the purpose of determining possible infringements. Accordingly, Jefferson inspired a patent system, which formed the basis of the law of April 10, 1790.* This established a Patent Office and made the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and the Attorney-General a board of commissioners to examine the claims of inventors, and to issue patents to to deserving applicants. From the decision of this board there was to be no appeal. Only three patents were issued in 1790,† 33 in 1791, 11 in 1792, and 20 in 1793. But upon complaint of the unsuccessful applicants that the powers of the commissioners were too great and too arbitrary, in 1793 the patent law was revised for the worse, since it now

granted all those powers to the Secretary of State alone. This law contin

* Schouler, United States, vol. i., p. 143. Bishop, History of Manufactures, vol. ii., p. 21. McMaster, vol. ii., p. 160. For the year ending December 31, 1911, there were 33,927 patents granted, including designs, and 157 patents reissued. Prior to July 1, 1836, there were 9,957 patents issued, and up to December 31, 1911, this number had increased to 1,023,051. See the Annual Reports of the Commissioners of Patents.

ued in force for forty-three years (until 1836), when it was again revised.

That same year the Post Office Building, containing the Patent Office, was destroyed by fire, and in this conflagration 7,000 models were lost. Among them were models of a graincutter, a dock-cleaner, and a threshing-machine, the invention of Leonard Harbach, of Baltimore; a watermill for roping and spinning combed wool and flax; a candle-machine invented by Benjamin Folger, of Hudson, New York; a diving apparatus invented by Mr. Torrey, of Lebanon; and a new method of turning iron into steel, devised by Henry Voight.* The most famous, however, was the cotton-gin, invented by Eli Whitney, the essential features of which are used in cottonginning machinery at the present time the world over.† Whitney had invented this machine in Georgia, but before his patent had been secured, some rascals broke into his workshop and carried off the model. Whitney then went to Connecticut, where he completed a new model, upon which a patent was granted on March 14, 1794. To guard his rights, Eli Whitney was subjected to the annoyance of endless suits, losing many thousands of dollars in defending them.‡

* McMaster, vol. ii., p. 161.

See article by John R. Fordyce, Cotton-Ginning Machinery in Encyclopedia Americana, vol. v.

Bishop, History of Manufactures, vol. ii., pp. 48-50, 69-70; Hammond, The Cotton Industry, pp. 24-30; Olmsted, Memoir of Eli Whitney; Hammond (ed.), Correspondence of Eli Whitney

The invention of the cotton-gin gave a wonderful impetus to the cotton industry, but, as the machine for spinning the cotton was far from perfect, the cloth manufacturers complained that the machinery was worthless in its unimproved condition and would end in their ruin. In 1788 a mill was erected at Providence for the manufacture of "homespun homespun cloth," particularly jeans of linen warp spun by hand. Hugh Orr, of Bridgewater, now invented a spinning jenny; and the owners of the mill secured a model of it and built a carder. Then came a spinning frame with eight heads of four spindles each, operated by a hand-turned crank; but the mill owners found this method too laborious and attempted to use water power. This, too, failing, they sold the machine to Moses Brown, of Pawtucket. In November, 1789, Brown secured the services of Samuel Slater, an Englishman, who, after an apprenticeship in English shops where he had learned to work the Arkwright machine, recently arrived in the country. Brown requested Slater to devise a new style of jenny. The Englishman entirely discarded the old methods and in December had three carders and seventy-two spindles of the Arkwright pattern in operation in a mill at Pawtucket.*

Thenceforth

Relative to the Invention of the Cotton Gin, in American Historical Review, pp. 90-127 (October, 1897).

*Bishop, History of Manufactures, vol. i., pp. 402-403; Taussig, Tariff History, p. 26. See also S. Batchelder, Introduction and Early Prog

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the production and manufacture of cotton increased by leaps and bounds.*

Meanwhile, in 1789, Washington was gratified by the receipt of intelligence that on November 21 North Carolina had ratified the Constitution and had thus become one of the United States. † An act was passed by Congress accepting the cession of the claims of North Carolina in the West, and on May 20, 1790, provision was made for the government of these lands under the title "The Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio." Another State was added to the Union, when on May 29, 1790, Rhode Island adopted the Constitution and cast in her lot with the sister States. Early in 1790 the Rhode Island Legislature called a convention to consider the Federal Constitution. In In the upper house Governor Collins cast the deciding vote, which action cost him his place, for next spring the Anti-Federalists

ress of the Cotton Manufacture in the United States; G. S. White, Memoir of Samuel Slater; N. Appleton, Introduction of the Power Loom and Origin of Lowell; Hammond, The Cotton Industry, pp. 238-239; Young, The American Cotton Industry; Carroll D. Wright, Industrial Evolution of the United States, pp. 125–126.

* Coman (Industrial History of the United States, p. 149) says that thousand of acres in the South were soon brought under cotton culture; that in 1792 the Southern States sent 630 bales of lint cotton to England, in 1793 more than 7,000 bales and in 1800, 79,000 bales.

Schouler, United States, vol. i., p. 140. See also Elliott, Debates, vol. iv.; McRae, Iredell, vol. ii., chaps. xxi-xxii.; A. W. Clason, in Magazine of American History (April, 1886).

Richman, Rhode Island, pp. 255-256; Bates, Rhode Island and the Formation of the Union, pp. 173-200.

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dropped him and chose Arthur Fenner in his place. In the convention the

Anti-Federalists predominated and succeeded in carrying a motion for an adjournment of the convention from March to the latter part of May. The United States Senate now passed a bill prohibiting all commercial intercourse with that State and calling upon her to remit her quota of the Continental debt. This stubbornness on the part of Rhode Island met with general disapproval at Providence and Newport; and, being threatened with Federal coercion, on the one hand and with secession on the other, the State finally yielded. When on May 24, the convention reassembled at Newport, a motion for further adjournment was defeated and the Constitution was ratified by a majority of two. This ratification was not carried, however, says Schouler, "without a longer list of proposed amendments to the Federal Constitution than there were towns in the State."'* Early in January, 1791, representatives of the people of Vermont, in convention assembled at Bennington, adopted the Constitution, and applied to Congress for admission to the Union. As has been previously stated, both New Hampshire and New York claimed the territory in this State, and both had made grants within its limits. Refusing to submit to the authority of either State, the inhab

Schouler, United States, vol. i., p. 141. See also Sparks' ed. of Washington's Writings, vol. x., App. 6: Staples, Providence, p. 329.

itants declared themselves independent in 1777. A long and vexatious controversy ensued, but, the various disputes being finally settled, Vermont, on February 18, 1791, was admitted to the Union by act of Congress, taking her place among the States on March 4.*

Kentucky also was soon to become a State, having succeeded, after seven years of argument and petitioning, in gaining her separation from Virginia. The Federal Constitution had been adopted September 17, 1787, although it was not ratified until June 26, 1788. After receiving this news, and in anticipation of ratification, the petition which the Kentuckians addressed to the Virginia Assembly at each succeeding convention was accompanied by one to Congress asking admission to the Union. While Virginia al· ways gave her consent to ratification, she attached conditions which were not acceptable to the people of the district. Congress was slow to act, and before Kentucky was admitted, the Constitution had been ratified by the necessary number of States and the old Confederation was no more. In a letter to Judge Muter, dated June 10, 1788, John Brown, of Danville, one of Virginia's Representatives from Kentucky, thus explains the action of Congress:

"The Eastern States would not, nor do I think they ever will, assent to the admission of the District into the Union, as an independent State,

* Robinson, Vermont, chap. xvii.; Thorpe, Federal and State Constitutions, vol. vi., p. 3761.

unless Vermont or the province of Maine is brought forward at the same time. The change which has taken place in the general government is made the ostensible objection to the measure, but the jealousy of the growing importance of the Western Country, and an unwillingness to add a vote to the Southern interest are the real causes of opposition."

Finally, on December 18, 1789, Virginia passed an act of separation in a form acceptable to the Kentuckians, and on July 26, 1790, a convention

met. The conditions of the Virginia

act were accepted and the day on which Kentucky should become a separate and independent State was fixed as June 1, 1792, a convention to frame a constitution for the new com

monwealth being called for April 2, 1792. On February 4, 1791, Congress passed an act, which received the President's signature February 14, admitting Kentucky into the Union to date from June 1, 1792, and after

the constitution of the new State had been adopted, Kentucky took her place as the fifteenth member of the union.§ At this time (1790), the population of Kentucky is believed to have been 73,677, and for 1792 R. T. Durrett

estimated it to be 100,000.

*The South in the Building of the Nation, vol. i., pp. 257-258. Brown was wrong in this, however, for the delegates from all the States except Virginia had voted favorably. See Roosevelt, Winning of the West, vol. iii., p. 228.

†The South in the Building of the Nation, vol. i., p. 258.

For text, see Thorpe, Federal and State Constitutions, vol. iii., p. 1264.

For text, see Thorpe, vol. iii., pp. 1264-1277. § Shaler, Kentucky, p. 107; McMaster, vol. ii., p. 35; The South in the Building of the Nation, vol. i., p. 263 et seq.

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Isaac Shelby was Kentucky's first Governor.

One of the sad events of the period was the death of Benjamin Franklin on April 17, 1790. He was buried in the cemetery of Christ Church, more than 20,000 people attending his funeral. Congress resolved to wear mourning for one month “ as a mark of veneration due to the memory of a

citizen, whose native genius was not

more an ornament to human nature, than his various exertions of it have been precious to science, to freedom, and to his country."* In the national assembly of France, Mirabeau delivered an oration extolling the great services of Franklin to mankind,† and Lafayette seconded a motion directing the members to wear mourning for a period of three days.‡ Throughout the world there was a general feeling of sadness at the loss of this illustrious patriot.

During the year Washington made another trip to the New England States, particularly for the purpose of visiting Rhode Island, which he had avoided on his previous trip. He made the journey in August, 1790,|| but, being again taken seriously ill, he was compelled the very next month. to hasten to Mt. Vernon for a much needed rest. There, after his recu

* Parton, Life of Franklin, vol. ii., p. 620. The speech is given by Parton, pp. 621-623. Mirabeau's address is also in Hale, Franklin in France, vol. ii., pp. 408-409.

‡ Weld, Life of Franklin, pp. 545-548.

Sparks, Life of Washington, p. 429; Lamb, City of New York, vol. ii., p. 376.