The year of 1765 was made famous by the birth of a man who was destined
to enrich his country millions of dollars.
Eli Whitney was born at Westborough, Massachusetts, December 8th, 1765,
and received a good education, graduating at Yale College. Going South
as a tutor in a private family, his attention was arrested by the slow
process by which the seed was extracted from cotton. At that time a
pound of greenseed cotton was all that a negro woman could clean in a
day.
At the instance of Mrs. Greene, widow of General Greene, he set about
constructing a machine to do the work. He had no facilities for pushing
the work, even having to manufacture his tools, but he persevered and
accomplished his purpose. Rumors of the machine spreading over the
State, a mob at night broke open the building wherein the machine was
stored, carried his precious model away, and before he could make
another, various machines were in use. However, he went North to
Connecticut and established a manufactory to make the machines. South
Carolina granted him $50,000 after long and vexatious litigation, and
North Carolina allowed him a percentage, which was paid in good faith.
But, although Eli Whitney had invented a machine which would do in one
day as much as an ordinary hand would in months, which has been worth
hundred of millions of dollars to the South; yet, through the influence
of Southern members, Congress would not renew his patent, and so much
opposition was raised that he actually never received from his invention
the money he had spent to perfect it. All efforts to obtain a financial
recognition in this invention failing, he abandoned the manufacture of
the cotton-gin. He was not discouraged, not at all, but turned his
attention to fire-arms. These he greatly improved, being the first to
make them adjustable, that is, any single piece to fit the same place in
any of the thousands of guns that might be in process of manufacture in
his works. He manufactured arms for the government, and reaped a fortune
which he had so honestly earned.
On January 8th, 1825, the country lost this wonderful genius, but his
fame is growing year by year, as one of the world's benefactors.