t me to overcome the rascality of
mankind." His partner Miller, on the other hand, is inclined to be more
philosophical and suggests to Whitney that "we take the affairs of this
world patiently and that the little dust which we may stir up about
cotton may after all not make much difference with our successors one
hundred, much less one thousand years hence." Miller, however, finally
concluded that, "the prospect of making anything by ginning in this
State [Georgia] is at an end. Surreptitious gins are being erected in
every part of the country; and the jurymen at Augusta have come to an
understanding among themselves, that they will never give a verdict in
our favor, let the merits of the case be as they may."*

* Cited in Roe, "English and American Tool Builders", p.
153.

Miller and Whitney were somewhat more fortunate in other States than
in Georgia though they nowhere received from the cotton gin enough to
compensate them for their time and trouble nor more than a pitiable
fraction of the great value of their invention. South Carolina, in
1801, voted them fifty thousand dollars for their patent rights, twenty
thousand dollars to be paid down and the remainder in three annual
payments of ten thousand dollars each. "We get but a song for it," wrote
Whitney, "in comparison with the worth of the thing, but it is securing
something." Why the partners were willing to take so small a sum was
later explained by Miller. They valued the rights for South Carolina
at two hundred thousand dollars, but, since the patent law was being
infringed with impunity, they were willing to take half that amount;
"and had flattered themselves," wrote Miller, "that a sense of dignity
and justice on the part of that honorable body [the Legislature] would
not have countenanced an offer of a less sum than one hundred thousand
dollars. Finding themselves, however, to be mistaken in this opinion,
and entertaining a belief that the failure of such negotiation, after
it commenced, would have a tendency to diminish the prospect, already
doubtful, of enforcing the Patent Law, it was concluded to be best
under existing circumstances to accept the very inadequate sum of fifty
thousand dollars offered by the Legislature and thereby relinquish and
entirely abandon three-fourths of the actual value of the property."

But even the fifty thousand dollars was not collected without
difficulty. South Carolina suspended the contract, after paying