33D CONG....2D SESS.

be to double the aggregate amounts. But, to be entirely safe, I increase them only three fourths, making the yield from fees under the bill $268,085 831.

The expense under the bill will be $271,450. From this take fees collected, and it leaves the cost to the Treasury, $3,364 16.

Under the present system there is paid out of the Treasury annually, for salary to consuls, $27,800.

Showing a saving to the Treasury, in this particular, under the proposed bill, of at least $24,435 84. If to this be added-one-half would be right, but say one fourth-$40,000 of the $160,000 expended for destitute seamen, and we have by the bill an annual saving of $64,435 84.

Mr. Speaker, I have now gone through the explanation of this bill. I have desired to be brief, and with this view have confined myself to a mere statement of its provisions.

In submitting this diplomatic and consular reform to the action of the House, the committee have discharged a laborious duty. They entered upon it with reluctance, for they knew it to be of a character members would have little leisure to examine, and that the provisions of any bill they proposed could be easily misrepresented.

In behalf of the Committee on Foreign Affairs I now earnestly ask the House to adopt it.

It is utterly useless, under our existing system, to request of that committee an opinion upon the legality of any claim that is preferred against the Government by one in the foreign service. There is no law to guide its decisions, and almost every claim depends upon precedent or the discretion of the Secretary of State. These claims are multiplying with each year, and they will continue to multiply to a fearful extent unless there is some positive law defining the duties to be discharged, and fixing their proper remuneration. Last session about thirty thousand dollars were expended in meeting these demands. They come into the House without explanation, get attached to our general appropriation bills, no one knows how, and pass, no one knows why, running up our aggregate expenditures, each one becoming a precedent, prolific of similar demands in the future. This should not be. It is a great abuse. It reflects discredit upon those in the foreign service, subjects themr to pesonal humiliation, and is entirely opposed to the genius of our institutions.

Mr. Speaker, in all that I have said I have avoided reference either to party or to individuals.

This is a national reform, equally affecting every portion of the country, and, until it is accomplished, good men of all parties, engaged in the foreign service, will participate alike in the popular prejudice that now exists, created by the abuses of a defective system.

I have also avoided any reference to the foreign policy of our Government, either in the past or present. Its discussion has nothing to do with the reforms of this bill.

Although embarrassed by jealousies in our early relations with foreign Powers, we have found, in our remoteness from the conflicts of Europe, and our geographical position at the head of a great continent, advantages which, with the cautious maxims of Washington, are destined, beyond doubt, to make us the commercial and political center of the world.

In sixty-five years we have grown from a few comparatively feeble settlements into a great empire. Civilization has, within this period, poured its light into our great central valley, and forests have disappeared, cities sprung up, and a magnificent landscape every where spread itself out, beautiful in the results of religion, and law:

long since discovered that, with such rude implements, requiring a vast amount of labor, the tiller of the ground was able to realize but a tithe of the fruits the earth was capable of yielding. Mechan

what has been the result? Let the numerous improvements and inventions relating not only to the plow, but to every other agricultural implement, be brought into the account. Take note of the saving of two thirds of the labor, with the increase of two hundred per cent. in the amount of product, and we may form some idea of what inventive genius has done for agriculture.

The extension of our territory; the rapid development of our wealth; the opening of new, and the increase of old, sources of foreign trade; and the participation in it of the capital and products of all sections of the Union, have caused to sym-ical genius stepped in to obviate the evil. And pathize nearly every domestic interest with foreign affairs. It is no exaggeration to say that there is not an acre of corn or cotton grown in the West or South, not an American vessel in any port in the world insured, not a loan made, nor a note discounted at any of our banks, which is not affected in its value, or in some way acted upon, and made a vibration of the great political and financial movements of the rest of the world. fact that these domestic interests which thus, like nerves, spread all over the globe, connect remote localities with interior points of our own country, cannot be protected by our own legislation, but depend upon treaties and the regard of the other Powers of the earth for certain great principles of international law, makes the perfecting of the agency through which we communicate with the rest of the world a matter of great practical importance.

The

Why is not the cotton planter of the South at this moment employing twenty hands to pick the seeds from cotton for two weeks, which two hands, with a horse or mule, can do in as many hours? Because there arose a Whitney, whose practical eye saw the waste of labor, and whose ready and practical inventive genius soon discovered the means to counteract the evil.

Little more than a quarter of a century has elapsed since our farmers used the sickle as a harvester, and trod out the grain with horses, or

A distinguished statesman of England, speak-beat it out with flails. These means have been set ing on this subject, has called ministers and consuls "the ears, eyes, and mouths of a Government, by which it hears, sees, and communicates with the rest of the world." The object of this bill is to make these organs of communication respond more distinctly to the purpose of their creation.

It is time that something was done to reform existing abuses. Our interests at home and abroad demand it. The honor of the country requires it. The occasion is a fit one.

The bill introduced by the committee has been framed from a careful examination of the bills and reports of the committees of this House, aided by the personal and official experience of many who have been connected with our foreign service. It does not profess to be perfect. It is difficult to frame such a bill.

It embraces, however, features which have been unanimously recommended by previous reports, and it has sought to embody them in such a shape as to correct abuses, facilitate the public business, and serve as the basis of any further reform that may be found necessary.

THE COLT PATENT.

SPEECH OF HON. C. T. JAMES,
OF RHODE ISLAND,

On the bill to authorize the Commissioner of Pat-
IN THE SENATE, March 3, 1855.
ents to extend the Patent heretofore granted to
Samuel Colt for an improvement in Fire-Arms:
Mr. JAMES said:

Mr. PRESIDENT: Before this bill is finally disposed of, I hope the Senate will indulge me with the opportunity to make some remarks, which justice to Colonel Colt, to the law of patents, and to the public, would seem equally to demand, as well as to the committee who reported the bill. In doing this, I shall find it necessary to say something of the mutual or relative rights of the patentee and the public, the benefits derived to the public from inventions, and the particular merits of Colonel Colt's claims, as set forth in the bill and in the report of your Committee on Patents and the Patent Office. In the first place, permit me to allude to the value and importance of practical inventive genius to the public, as well as to individual interests and welfare.

I am fully aware, sir, that the mechanic arts are considered, and justly, too, as being secondary to agriculture. Yet, sir, what would be the state of agriculture in our country at this moment, but for the aid of that secondary science, mechanics, aided, fostered, and brought into practical use by the application of inventive genius? Why is not the American farmer, in the middle of this nineteenth century, preparing his fields to receive the seed-the germ of his future harvest-with an apology for a plow in the form of a painted stick of wood-the primitive implement of the untaught barbarian, and still in use, with very trifling improvement, among many tribes and nations of the earth? Because, sir, the eye of skill and science

aside and superseded by the reaper, the threshing machine, &c.; and the amount of labor and expense thus saved on the immense quantities of the cereals produced in our country exceed all attempts at calculation. And to whom and what is agriculture indebted for these very numerous and important benefits? Not to itself, surely; for she is simply practical in her own field of labor. No. She is indebted for them entirely to inventive genius and the mechanic arts.

Mr. President, even the learned sci ces are under obligations, great and unmistakable, to inventive genius and mechanical skill. In thousands of instances, though men well versed in the speculative sciences may fully understand the results they wish to produce, and the laws that must govern the process, are yet dependent on the inventor and the mechanic for the means. Scientific men had long pondered on the power of steam, and had even made some impotent attempts to press it into the service of man; but they all failed. It required men with the mechanical and inventive genius of Bolton, Watt, Evans, and Sickels to carry out the sublime project, and to accomplish wonders of which the scientific world had never dreamed. The result to the civilized world has been far more wonderful than the invention itself. It has multiplied almost to infinity the luxuries, the elegances, and the comforts of life. By almost annihilating time and space, it has facilitated a hundred-fold, intercourse between towns, cities, States, and nations; thus diffusing knowledge, strengthening the bands of amity and friendship, and greatly multiplying the products of human skill. In short, the benefits of this noble invention, and which are daily on the increase, are beyond the utmost stretch of human calculation.

As respects manufactured articles of every description, invention and improvement are in continued progress, and scarce an article can be named that has not within half a century been improved from fifty to a hundred per cent. in quality and form, and mostly by machinery invented for the purpose, while they have all been reduced in cost in about the same ratio. Look, sir, at the Hindoo, as he sits under the thick foliage of some spreading tree top, and witness the slow and tedious process by which he draws out and twists the thread of cotton with his fingers. Look at another, who, with his web of yarn suspended from another tree, slowly, with his hands, inserts the woof, and converts the whole into cloth. Sir, scarce a century has passed away, since this, still practiced in Hindostan, was the only mode known in the world of the manufacture of cotton. Look now into the manufactory of modern days, as improved by mechanical skill and invention; and there you see manufactured, by means of the spindle and the loom, and their accompanying auxiliary machinery, apparently almost without the aid of human labor, a greater quantity of the fabric manufactured for each person employed in a given time, than could probably be made by five hundred Hindoo spinners and weavers with their primitive implements.

Once more on this subject. Turn back in our recollections, those who can, to the period some

33D CONG....2D SESS.

forty-five years since. Cotton goods then selling at thirty cents per yard can now be purchased at seven and a half cents; and yet the prices of labor, and the cost of living, have much increased since that period. And what causes have produced this reduction? Improvements in the cultivation of cotton, the introduction of the cotton gin, and the almost innumerable inventions and improvements made in the manufacturing machinery. Is it not wonderful? And shall we not highly appreciate the genius, the energies, the intellect, and the labors, by the combination and exercise of which Buch great results have been achieved? It need not be shown that all the causes named go to increase the means to subserve human wants, while they multiply, improve, and cheapen products. At the same time, it is equally plain that, by reducing the quantity of labor necessary to any given result, they leave a surplus to be applied to other objects which could not be attained without it, and thus facilitate and enhance the general wealth. The second point is, to inquire whether men who spend time, money, labor, and energy, as well as intellectual power, in bringing about these improvements which so much benefit mankind, have or have not the exclusive right to their inventions, and should or should not be protected in the enjoyment of that right?

It would seem to be supposed by many, I apprehend by most people, that a patent creates a right, which is conferred as a special favor on the inventor. From this view of the subject I must take the liberty to differ in toto. It is as plain as the light of the sun at noonday that the product, be it what it may, of a man's own industry, ingenuity, capital, and intellect, and by honest means, is as truly his own property, by virtue of natural right, as the same can be made so by legal enactment. The crop raised by the agriculturist on his own field even the savage recognizes as his own property. But the owner of this crop, dwelling in the midst of people without laws, may have it wrested from him by the hand of violence before he has had an opportunity to deposit it in a place of safety. What does man require? The strong arm of law to protect him in the possession and enjoyment of property already his own-not to give him the right of property, for that he already has. Thus with regard to all property, the laws create no right of possession; they only define the right, and sustain and protect it.

The original work of an author and the invention and discovery of a man of mechanical or scientific genius are just as truly and exclusively their property, on every principle of right and justice, as would be the products of their own fields, by the labor of their own hands, and should be just as thoroughly secured to them by the laws of the land. The laws fully recognize this principle, and are designed, as far as relates to this subject, to carry that principle out for a time, and for specific purposes.

Patent laws are a species of compromise between the public and the inventor. longs to him, his heirs, executors, and assigns, The invention beforever. He has the unquestionable right, as with any other species of his own property, either to dispose of it to the public or to individuals, or to suppress it, destroy it, or operate with it in secret, as he may deem proper; and no one can interfere with him as to the manner in which he may determine to dispose of it. It is deemed, however, that the invention would be valuable to the public; but it is also deemed unjust that its owner should be required to give it to the public, for their benefit, without securing to him the opportunity to realize from it a sum equivalent to the time and money expended in making his invention and bringing it into use, and a reward, by way of remunerating him as a public benefactor, in some degree proportionate to the benefits conferred. Such is the mutual contract, by law, between the public and the inventor.

Because the right of property in the invention would at once be invaded when introduced to the public unless invasions were prevented by means of legal restraint, the law volunteers to secure to the inventor and owner his right of property for a certain period, and holding out in prospective, also, on the principle of equity, that, if the period specified be not adequate to produce the remuneration and reward anticipated in the law, the period

The Colt Patent-Mr. James.

may be extended till the object shall have been secured.

ciples of right and justice. The public has no These remarks are founded on the eternal prinstronger or more rightful claim to an invention, other than by gift or purchase, than to the lands, goods, and chattels of the inventor; and he who would force it from him, or willfully invade his rights as an inventor, would perform acts morally any other property. On these grounds it is that no better than it would be to rob or swindle him of the inventor agrees to relinquish his invention to the public at a future day; and the consideration of his rights till that day shall have passed. is the promise of legal protection in the enjoyment

367

SENATE.

And

Mr. President, in what I have said, 1 do not lawyer. But, sir, it appears to ine to be fully in flatter myself with having exhibited much of the fellowship with the dictates of reason, justice, equity, human right, and common sense; and the true intent and meaning of the patent laws, as far From these premises it is my wish now to as I am qualified or able to understand them. examine, briefly, the claims of Colonel Colt for an extension of his patent, which has, without any sound reason, in my apprehension, been rejected in the other House. This it is my wish to do, in justice to your committee which reported in favor of the claim, and, incidentally, in justice to Colonel Colt.

Samuel Colt, the petitioner, the true inventor of The first inquiry which presents itself is, is the arm that bears his name? In other words, is the property of Samuel Colt, the petitioner? For all doubt or cavil, that the invention of him who the invention of Colt's revolving arms rightfully it has been shown, in my apprehension, beyond makes it and brings it into use, is his property by should, in justice and equity, be secured to him right, independent of legal sanction; and us such, by legal, and, if necessary, judicial action.

In answer to these queries, it will be necessary only to say the question has passed the ordeals of two of the severest judicial tests ever applied to any patent in the United States. The first trial was had in Boston, Massachusetts, in June, 1851, Supreme Court of the United States. The defendants in the case were the "Massachusetts Arms before his honor, the late and lamented Levi Woodbury, one of the Associate Justices of the plaintiff, for invasions of his patent rights. This Company," who were prosecuted by Samuel Colt, trial occupied the court for a long period, and the investigation was thorough and complete. Able counsel was employed on both sides. More than twenty witnesses were examined and cross-examined, at great length; many of them experts. The details of the trial cover more than three hundred closely printed octavo pages, including the charge testimony that had been given pro and con., reof the court. The jury, with that charge, and the quired but a brief space for deliberation, and soon returned into court with this verdict:

"The jury, in the case of Colt vs. the Massachusetts Arms Company, find in the plaintiff's gun, a new and novel comjury further find the defendants have infringed the first three bination to produce the effect described in bis patent, not found in any other fire-arm prior to his invention; and the claims of the plaintiff's patent, and assess damages in the sum of one dollar, according to the agreement."*

The second and last trial took place in the Judge Nelson, one of the Associate Justices of the southern district of New York, before his Honor Supreme Court of the United States, on applicaHiram Young and Francis Leavitt, as invaders tion of Samuel Colt for an injunction against a hard-fought struggle, Colt's priority of invenof Colt's patent rights. And in this case, too, after tion was firmly established, and the court issued the injunction asked for.

ing investigations, with the aid of able counsel, Sir, after these trials, attended with such searchdecisive results arrived at, it would be but a waste and under the direction of such courts, and the

*It was agreed between the parties before going to trial, that the amount of damages should be nominal. The question of damages being reserved.

33D CONG....2D SESS.

of time to offer any further proofs that Samuel Colt is the original inventor of the arm that bears his name, and that, consequently, the invention is his own property. Such being the facts, the next question that arises, is, has he the equitable right to claim, and is he entitled to a reasonable compensation for that right, or that property, as the consideration for its abandonment to the public? Having the provisions of law applicable to the case, common sense and common justice both reply in the affirmative, provided the invention be useful. That it is useful and valuable is abundantly evident, as well from the numerous testimonials of those qualified to judge as from the numerous infringements that have occurred, and the determined and persevering hostility of interested parties to the extension of the patent. It will be remembered that, while the patent was considered to be without value, no such hostility was manifested, and no infringements attempted.

The invention of Samuel Colt, then, is his property, and has value. No man has the just right to demand the surrender of this property at his hands without a consideration equivalent to its value; nor has the law the constitutional authority to wrest it from him without awarding to him a just compensation. The patent laws of this country, though they limit the period through which a patent shall extend, recognize the same general principle, by intimating, in one of its provisions, that the patentee is entitled, before the surrender of his invention to the public, to receive a full compensation for his labors and expenditures in making and perfecting his invention, and a reward besides in proportion to the benefits conferred on the public. Should he fail to realize such an amount during the period that the patent laws, or the commissioner under them, assign him, he has an appeal to Congress, who, in my estimation, are bound to aid him, by the extension of his pat ent, till the object contemplated in the law shall have been accomplished. To refuse, is to do an act of injustice; because the refusal is the indirect means of depriving the patentee of what is actually his due, and of that which the law virtually awards him. And to grant protection for the accomplishment of that object is not a special favor, but the fulfillment of an implied compromise-a virtual contract between the Government, on behalf of the public, and the patentee for the relinquishment of his right.

The next point to which I would call attention is, as to the reward and compensation received by Colonel Colt, and the inquiry, have they been such as to compensate him for his expenses of time and money, and in proportion to the value of his invention to the public?

To the

It may be questioned if improvements in firearms are as generally useful to the public, and equally valuable as improvements in implements of agriculture, mechanics, manufactures, &c. Certainly, as relates to the general purposes of life, they are not. But to those to whom such weapons become necessary they certainly are. traveler, and to others, placed in situations and under circumstances warranting the probability, and perhaps certainty, of attacks from marauders, freebooters, or deadly assassins, arms for defense become absolutely necessary to the preservation of life. Until the arrival of a millennium, should such a happy period ever arrive, the Government, notwithstanding all the well-meant efforts of peace congresses and peace societies, will find it necessary to keep up an organized military force; even now, to prevent our frontiers from being ravaged and our citizens from being butchered by savage hordes. And, in the future, no one may presume to say how soon or how late our country may find the necessity forced upon her to defend herself against a foreign foe. To individuals, then, and especially to our Government, improvements in fire-arms, to make them more useful and effective, must certainly be of great value and importance. An arm capable of making six discharges in twice that number of seconds, with greater precision, and greater safety than any other weapon, cannot be otherwise than invaluable to him who is placed under the necessity of defending himself against the attack of the highwaymen, or protecting himself, his wife and children, and his home and property from the inroads of the midnight burglar and assassin.

The Colt Patent-Mr. James.

The superiority, the utility, and the consequent value of such an arm to military men against the savages on our frontier, and also on the field of battle with a disciplined foe, cannot be too highly estimated. The superiority which such an arm imparts to a given force over an equal force in point of numbers armed with the common weapon, is too obvious to demand proof; and yet I shall give it. I would first remark, however, that the benefits resulting from the use of the improved arm, are both to the Government and the soldier. To the latter it gives an unmistakable advantage over his opponent, both in attack and defense. To the Government it becomes the means of power, and the saving of life and money, because, one hundred men, furnished with the improved arm, are equal to three hundred, at least, furnished with that in ordinary use. Of course there must be a great saving of life and money. To show that I am well sustained in my views, I may be permitted to quote from the testimony of gentlemen whose qualifications to enable them to judge correctly no one will call in question, and all will readily admit.

In the first place, permit me to quote the opinion, and give the names of a long array of our gallant military officers, and among them many of high standing. They say:

"We, the undersigned, have examined Colt's repeating fire-arms, and some of us have witnessed sundry exper iments which have been made to prove their safety, simplicity, durability, accuracy, and celerity of fire, force of penetration, and security against moisture; and we are convinced that they possess many important advantages, both for public and private service. As an act of justice to the ingenious inventor, we most cordially recon.mend them to the patronage of the Government and the public. ALEXANDER MACOMB, Major General Commanding, United States Army.

HENRY STANTON, Colonel and Assistant Quartermaster General, United States Army.

J. J. ABERT, Colonel Topographical Engineers, United States Army.

JAMES KEARNEY, Lieutenant Colonel Topographical Engineers, United States Army.

R. B. MASON, Lieutenant Colonel First Dragoons, United States Ariny.

J. H. HOOK, Major and Assistant Commissary General Subsistence, United States Army.

HENRY WILSON, Major Third Infantry, United States Army.

JOHN GARLAND, Major Third Infantry, United States Ariny.

WILLIAM TURNBULL, Major Topographical Engineers, United States Army.

WILLIAM GIBBS MCNEILL, Major Topographical Engineers, United States Army.

L. WHITING, Brevet Major Artillery, United States Army.

J. P. SIMONTON, Captain First Dragoons, United States Army.

W. W. TOMPKINS, Captain Second Dragoons, United States Army.

R. B. SCREVEN, Captain Eighth Infantry, United States Army.

JOHN PAGE, Captain Fourth Infantry, United States Army.

A. R. HETZEL, Captain Quartermaster's Department, United States Army.

J. MCCLELLAN, Captain Topographical Engineers, United States Army.

A. CANFIELD, Captain Topographical Engineers, United States Army.

J. N. MACOMB, Captain Topographical Engineers, United States Army.

THOMAS J. LEE, Lieutenant Topographical Engineers, United States Army.

W. H. EMORY, Lieutenant Fourth Artillery, United States Army.

J. T. SPRAGUE, Lieutenant Eighth Infantry, United States Army.

M. KNOWLTON, Lieutenant First Artillery, and Instructor of Artillery United States Military Academy. LAWRENCE KEARNEY, Captain United States Navy.

THOMAS N. GROVERS, Lieutenant United States Navy.

JOIN BARNEY, Lieutenant United States Navy. M. C. BUCK, Military Storekeeper, and Paymaster Ordnance Department, United States Army," One would be led to suppose, if unacquainted with depraved human nature, that this array of testimony itself, aided by the legal decisions already quoted, would have settled the question of merit forever, and insured to Colonel Colt the reward due him for his invention. But other elements than those that should actuate the human mind have been busily at work for years to ruin | his fortunes and trample on his rights.

There is a large number of certificates, all of which have on a former occasion been before the Senate, all from competent and honorable witnesses, and all certifying the superiority of Colt's repeating arms over every other pistol for army

SENATE.

service, and for guerrilla and Indian warfare. Of these I shall quote but a few, and those mostly from officers who have made up their judgment from their personal experience. I give the opinionof the Board of Ordnance Practice. The members of that board say:

"From the examination and trials which they have made of these arms, the board are of opinion that Colt's revolving pistol is better adapted to the service of mounted troops than any other pistol offered to their notice, and may be advantageously substituted for the present cavalry pistol.

Signed-Brevet Col. R. L. BAKER,

66

Maj. A. MORDECAI,

66

Ordnance Board of

Maj. W. A. THORNTON, Practice."
Lieut. COL. TALCOTT.

The certificate I now give is particularly valuable from the experience of the signers in the use of Colt's pistol, and their opinion of its durability, &c.

Communication from the Texan Senators and Representatives in Congress, to the President of the United States. WASHINGTON CITY, March 3, 1848.

DEAR SIR: Possessing a thorough knowledge of Colt's patent repeating fire-arms, we feel it to be our duty to recommend them in the strongest terms to your favorable consideration.

The advantages that Texas has experienced from their use, in her struggle for independence, and against Indian aggression, has been incalculable.

The difficulties presented by some men without experience in the use of those arms, such as that they are too liable to get out of order, has been proved by ten years' constant use in Texas, to be without foundation. Some of these arms, purchased of Mr. Colt more than ten years ago, have been safely and successfully used in every engagement we have had with the Mexicans and Indians since that time, and are now in good serviceable condition, and are esteemed beyond price by their possessors.

Believing that the power rests with you to order a full supply of these valuable arms for the defense of our extended frontier, without further legislation, we most respectfully ask that you will at once order them to be made.

We do not doubt but that five thousand mounted men, armed with two of these pistols and a rifle, would do more service than twenty thousand armed in the ordinary way, thereby saving to the Government hundreds of thou ands of dollars annually, and affording protection as well to the frontiers against Indians as to all parties passing through the Indian country.

With great respect, your obedient servants,

THOMAS J. RUSK, U. S. Senate. DAVID S. KAUFMAN, House of Reps. SAM HOUSTON, U. S. Senate. T. PILSBURY, House of Reps. To the PRESIDENT of the United States. Colonel Jack Hayes, commanding the Texas rangers in Mexico, writes:

"I have had a good opportunity of testing the utility of Colt's pistols during the late Mexican war, and I feel no hesitation in saying they are superior (in my opinion) to any other now known for cavalry. The danger of accidental explosion has been obviated by the late improvement. They go off clear. The cylinders revolve with great rapidity; and the distance they carry a ball, (I mean the conical ball,) is, indeed, surprising. Soldiers should be practiced in the use of them. They soon become easy to the hand; the aim which you wish to draw can be easily caught; and when placed in the hands of those who understand the proper use of them, they are unquestionably the most formidable weapon ever used in battle. I therefore concur fully in the opinion that they can be used with the same advantage by the regular as volunteer forces."

No one, it is believed, will doubt the competency of this hero of the West to pronounce a correct judgment on this subject, and Brigadier General Shields, commanding first brigade volunteers in Mexico, reports that:

"Colt's last improved revolving pistol, in my opinion, is a most excellent and effective weapon in the present cayalry service in Mexico. It possesses an advantage of at least three to one over the common pistol. I find it, also, free from that complexity which it was feared would render it less serviceable in actual service and in a campaign. I do not hesitate to give it a decided preference in cavalry service in Mexico, over all other species of fire-arms, and recommend its general use in that service."

Brigadier General F. Pierce, now President of the United States, commanding volunteers in Mexico, reports that he had a pretty thorough knowledge of the weapon, and cheerfully concurs in the opinion of General Shields. And Major J. L. Freaner, General Scott's staff in Mexico, considers them the best arms in use; says that he was informed by Colonel Hays, if his men had not been armed with them, when Padre Jarauta attacked him at Teotoleucan, that he would have lost his command of seventy men; and that it was by the aid of this weapon that he was enabled to repulse the guerrilla chief without the loss of a man.

In addition to these testimonials, Brigadier General Joseph Lane, commanding volunteers in Mexico, writes:

330 CONG....2D SESS.

"I think I can say as much for and about this formidable weapon as any one now living, except Colonel Jack Hays, of Texas, (poor Walker is no more.) I have seen them tested in several severe and bloody conflicts, when a few men, armed with Colt's revolver, were equal to five, and in several instances to ten times their numbers. No weapon is equal to it. In close quarters, one man is always equal to three or more. I know the use of it well, and would recommend that all mounted forces be armed with them."

Brevet Brigadier General W. S. Harney, Colonel Second Dragoons, United States Army, reports that

"He has had more than ten years' experience in the use of Colt's repeating fire-arms, and to armi, in his judgment, ever yet constructed, can equal them; they are, with fair usage, as little liable to get out of order as any other arm, and they are, at leas', three times as effective. It is my intention to apply to the honorable Secretary of War, to have all the cavalry armed with them."

To these I will add only the testimony of the lamented Brigadier General Worth, who, in a letter to Mr. Colt, writes:

"The recent Mexican war has fully demonstrated the formidable character of this weapon in all mounted corps or partisan service. You can have no better or higher testimony than that of General Lane and Colonel Jack Hays, both gallant officers and of large experience. In a higher degree will its value be shown in our Indian contests, where the onset is sudden, and fierce, and momentary; where it is of first importance to deliver the largest amount of fire in the briefest time."

It would seem that, even were there no law to secure to the inventor the right to enjoy the sole and exclusive use and control of his invention till he shall have been amply compensated and rewarded, a generous, liberal, and honest community, for an invention so valuable to the public as that of Colonel Colt, would voluntarily and gladly confer that privilege on him, and aid him in the accomplishment of his object. But such does not, at least in his case, appear to be true. While contending with what would have been to most men insurmountable obstacles, and struggling with poverty, to complete his invention, others looked on with indifference, perhaps sneered at him as a visionary, and left him to work out, single handed, what they considered his absurd and worthless problem. But the moment they found his long protracted efforts had been crowned with success, and that his invention was a reality, a set of men, with little mechanical genius of their own, and moved by the spirit of avarice, endeavored to rob him of the triumph of his genius, so hardly earned, and to deprive him of the enjoyment of its fruits. Foiled in these nefarious attempts, by the decisions of courts of law, they have followed him, as a pack of hounds fellow at the heels of a wounded deer, from the courts to the Patent Office, and from the Patent Office to Congress, to work his ruin. Who are the parties that are most loud in their demands that Colonel Colt's patent shall expire with the expiration of its present term, and who make their demand on the pretended ground of public justice? Is it not a well known fact that these cries for justice come from those who have heir individual private interests to gratify, and whose sole object is to speculate on the misfortunes of another? And what arguments do they advance to justify their hostility, and to defeat Colonel Colt in his application to Congress to protect his right? It is that the patentee has realized all, and more than all, that the law contemplates, or justice awards, as a compensation and reward for his invention. And this statement has been sounded and reiterated by the press, in public, on one floor of Congress, and throughout the Union, with the untruth that Colonel Colt has amassed a fortune of $1,000,000, till most people believe it true. And yet, sir, it is destitute of any foundation in truth. But suppose it were true that the property in Colonel Colt's possession, and that his own, were to him, under the circumstances, for the time being, actually worth $1,000,000, his compensation and reward would still fall short of what they should be.

By the way, before proceeding further to examine this point, I will introduce an interesting item of foreign testimony to the merits of Colonel Colt's invention. The British Army Register says:

"As Englishmen, we frankly and fairly admit it: Colonel Colt has the claim of precedence, and the patent of superiority; and we scorn to deny either one or the other."

In addition to this, Colonel Colt_received the large medal at the World's Fair in London, as a testimonial of the superiority of his revolving arm NEW SERIES.-No. 24.

it would not be pretended by any liberal-minded man that that sum would be anything like a reward proportionate to the benefits conferred on the public by this great invention. But, sir, there is yet more to be taken into the account.

From the period at which a man commences to make a useful and important invention till the period of its completion and perfection, is a period of experiment and expense. And if, during that time, he finds it necessary to resort to new and expensive means to perfect his invention and to increase its value and utility to the public, even the cost of these means becomes a legitimate and proper item in the list of expenses, which should be repaid to him, especially if the means adopted are useful only for the production of the result in

view.

Let us suppose a case. Suppose, then, a person now sets himself at work to make an important invention. In the course of a year, he so far succeeds as to satisfy himself and others of the correctness of the principle and the feasibility of his plan, and produces an implement that effects the result intended. To secure his interest for the time, he applies for and obtains a patent. The machine produced is imperfect and costly, as well as dangerous. After a course of experiments for near twenty years to come, and the loss of $300,000, the machine has been brought so near perfection as to become highly useful. But here other difficulties occur, and a set of harpies who have been watching for their prey, step in, and by base imitations and infringements on the inventor's patent rights, come in competition with him, to ruin him and swindle the public. There is one only way in which he can prevent this, and that is, by the use of machinery for the manufactured article, which would be nearly useless and worthless for any other purpose. This machinery he procures. By means of it he makes his petented article perfect and complete, enhances its value to the public, and, at the same time, reduces its cost by more than sixty per cent. But, on the other hand, by the time he has effected this great object his patent has expired. It cannot be renewed. His funds are all expended. The market is taken possession of by those who will impose a base article on the public. They will not purchase his machinery, because they can bring out the counterfeit without it cheaper than the genuine with it. The inventor loses his all, and is left in poverty. Is this right? Is it just?

I have here stated a case very similar to that of Colonel Colt, merely taking the prospective instead of retrospective view. That gentleman commenced on his invention nearly twenty-five years ago. Though fully satisfied of the correctness of the principle, and of final success, his first essay was imperfect, and the arm produced, when compared with present specimens, imperfect, clumsy in appearance, and sometimes dangerous in use. Nineteen years were years of experiment, to bring the arm to a state of comparative perfection; and during that time, he and his friends sunk, in the manufacture, more than $300,000. All this time and money, as any reasonable man will see, should be put down in the list of expenditures of time and money made in bringing out the invention and perfecting it. These, reckoning his time at a reasonable rate, together with the interest on the money actually expended, would now amount to more than $750 000. Suppose, then, his property worth $1,000,000, subtract this outlay from it, and you would leave him only $250,000. And surely

Up to a late period, but a few years since, Colform and condition, could not be manufactured at a cost less than forty-five dollars each. This fact gave rise to two very serious evils. In the first place, the high price put them out of the reach of many to whom they were necessary; and, in the second place, it encouraged unscrupulous men to manufacture and palm upon the public a worthless and dangerous arm, composed of cast iron, at less than one fourth the cost of the cast steel arm manufactured by Colonel Colt. By this means he saw both the public and himself must suffer; and relying on the justice of his cause for protection, either from the Patent Office or from Congress, he followed the suggestions of his fertile genius and enterprising spirit to remedy or counteract these evils. The result has been the invention of very ingenious tools and machinery adapted to the manufacture of his arms, and to nothing else, by which the price has already been reduced from forty-five to fifteen dollars, and which, with improvements now in progress, and those which will hereafter be adopted, would, doubtless, under the operation of Colonel Colt's patent for a proper time, bring the cost down quite as low as that of the miserable cast iron imitation. During all this time, the quality of this arm has been in a state of progressive improvement; and, at this moment, it is the most beautiful, and the most perfect and efficient pistol the world has ever known. But, sir, all this has not been done without the expenditure of much time and money. A full remuneration for all the time and money thus expended in bringing out all these important improvements, Colonel Colt should, according to my notions of simple justice, be furnished with the opportunity to realize, under the operation of an extended patent, for which he has applied. And now how stands the case?

Suppose, as Colonel Colt's opponents aver, his property actually amounts to $1,000,000; we have seen that, after having deducted the actual losses and expenditures, there is left but $250,000. Even his opponents reckon the cost of his tools and machinery at no less than some $300,000, or more; and these, as before noticed, have been made with the view to perfect the arm, and to cheapen it to the public. They are, therefore, as much to the public benefit, as the original invention itself; and for them the public should pay in proportion to the benefits received. Deduct from their cost the amount left to Colonel Colt from the imaginary $1,000,000, namely, $250,000, and you leave his invention still indebted to him in the amount of 30me hundreds of thousands.

But Colonel Colt has no such amount of property as $1,000,000. That amount is utterly fabulous, and the means by which that amount was made out, was one of that hocus pocus sort of operations, by which a mole hill is magnified into a mountain. If a matter so serious as a statement made under oath were fit subject for merriment, surely that by which this amount was made out, and the evidence by which the statement was attempted to be sustained, might stand in the front rank of laughable subjects. But as it can hardly be supposed that sensible men could believe such a statement, founded on such evidence, the actors in the affair are rather subjects of pity than of ridicule. And how was the statement made? It was made in its broad and naked form; that Colonel Colt was actually worth more than $1,000,000, the profits of his business, the manufacture of his repeating arm. And how was this statement sustained? Let me explain. Thus the case stands: A cast iron pistol is brought forward, made in imitation of Colt's cast steel revolver, and taken as the standard of cost for each. Then, the number of revolvers manufactured by Colonel Colt is calculated. The excess of the market price of the latter over the cost of the other is determined, and the aggregate of that excess in the number of Colt's revolvers that had been made, was set down as the amount of his profits. Thus, if the cost of the cast iron counterfeit was five dollars, and the price of the genuine article fifteen dollars, then

33D CONG....2D SESS.

suppose one hundred thousand of the latter to have been made and sold, the profit on one would be ten dollars, and on the whole, in the aggregate, $1,000,000. And this was the actual process by which the clear profits of the patentee were made to amount to that sum. This was a wonderful piece of legerdemain.

To a person at all acquainted with working the two metals it is hardly necessary to say a word to point out the fallacy of such a mode of calculation. In one case, the barrel, cylinder, &c., are wrought out of solid bars of cast steel; in the other case, the parts are of cast iron. Between casting these in moulds, and giving them a polish in a lathe, and boring, planing, turning, and polishing the solid cast steel, it need not be said, there is a very great difference, to say nothing of the immense difference in the cost of materials. But, to come directly to the point, when the cast iron arm was sold at some six or seven dollars each, in 1846, Colt's cast steel revolvers could not be afforded even at twenty-eight dollars, by the aid of all the improvements in the tools and machinery for their manufacture up to that time. To this fact we have the statement of Colonel Colt, under oath, made in May, 1854, to the Senate Committee on Patents and the Patent Office. Colonel Colt, the deponent, says:

"That he entered into a contract with the Government of the United States, in the latter part of the year 1846, for the manufacture and delivery to the Government of one thousand repeating dragoon pistols, for which the Government paid the sum of $28,150, as it appears by the accounts of this deponent; that the contract was closed in the fall of 1847 by the payment of the money and the delivery of the arms; that the arms were constructed with as much economy as this deponent was able to exercise in their manufacture, and that he attended personally to their construction; that he now has the accounts before him of the disbursements made for materials, work, and incidental expenses in their construction, and that this deponent paid $27,063 81, as the accounts show, leaving a balance of $786 19, after these payments were made, with which to pay traveling expenses and the personal expenses of this deponent, and his attention to the manufacture for nine months. And this deponent saith that the whole profit which he received out of the contract was not sufficient to pay his board bills at his boarding house, and that he was compelled to postpone their payment till he could get the money from another source. And this deponent further saith, that since the year 1847 he has supplied the Government with four thousand pistola, and that the accounts show that the Government was supplied with the three thousand, before the last thousand, at an actual loss of profit to this deponent of more than $2,000; but that he continued to supply the arms under this constant loss for the purpose of submitting them to the test of actual service, and benefiting by the experience which could thus be gained. And this deponent further saith, that the profit on the last thousand arms sold to the Government is not equal to the loss of profit resulting from the contract with the Government to supply the three thousand arms which were sold to the Government next before this last contract was executed, as it appears by a comparison of the cost with the prices at the tines of the respective contracts."

How does this statement make the case appear, when compared with that of his opponents who made it out, by their calculations, that Colonel Colt had been reaping large profits when he had - actually been losing money? The false statement of his great profits and his vast accumulation of property would never have been suffered to go uncontradicted, or without refutation, on to the records of the Patent Office, had Colonel Colt, or his counsel, been present at the time. They were not there, either of them. His opponents, of course, had it all their own way. The examination was ex parte, and they swore to what they pleased; and his application for the renewal of his patent was rejected. There is one point here which, it is believed, has not been generally understood.

The patent I have referred to, an application for the extension of which was under consideration by the Commissioner when the above examination was had, was not the same as that for the extension of which an application is now before the Senate. This is the patent for the pistol itself. The other was for the rammer with the compound lever. Therefore, the assertion sometimes made, that Colonel Colt came to Congress to ask for an extension which had been refused to be granted by the Commissioner of Patents, is not true. I will now show, in brief, and by unimpeachable testimony, that the declaration made before the Commissioner, that Colonel Colt had accumulated $1,000,000 by means of his patent, is equally void of truth.

When we reflect that the statement of Colonel

The Colt Patent-Mr. James.

Colt's alleged wealth was ex parte, founded on vague, and at best assumed, grounds, without being questioned, and made, too, by interested opponents determined to use all means to divest him of his patent, no doubt can rest in the mind of a candid and intelligent man, that the statement was a sheer fallacy.

To what has already been said permit me to add facts stated by Messrs. Luther P. Sargeant and William Fuller, sworn to before the district court of the United States for the southern district of New York, in January, 1854. Mr. Sargeant has been the managing agent of Colonel Colt since the year 1847, and is intimately acquainted with all the details of his business. With this gentleman there could be scarcely a possibility of mistake, and his character for uprightness and integrity places his testimony beyond the reach of suspicion. He states that the value of Colonel Colt's property, as near as he could estimate it, was $335,000, including that, of every description, connected with his manufacture, besides which he had about $20,000, and that his contracts and engagements, on account of his armory, would require to meet them a much larger sum. Here, sir, is a reliable account made up from books and figures, and not from estimates and vague conjecture. And there is some difference between the two sums-the one an imaginary $1,000,000, and the other only a real substantial $335,000, a rather heavy discount of about sixty-five per cent. This amount would just about cover the actual loss sustained some fifteen or sixteen years since, minus the interest for that period, and the time and money expended by the patentee on his invention from its incipient state twenty-four years since. The other witness, whose veracity will not be called in question by any one who knows him, has been employed as chief inspector of arms in Colonel Colt's armory since 1847. He testifies that all the outlays of Colonel Colt have been necessary to enable him to perfect his arms and to reduce their cost. "The whole of this work," he says, "has been done by Colonel Colt in pursuance of a plan laid out by him at an early day in the manufacture, which, when carried out, will subdivide the processes of manufacture, and the machinery by which the result is produced, so that no machine will be required to perform more than one operation, and consequently the highest degree of perfection will be reached. To accomplish this result will require many times more machinery than is now employed, and at least three times the capital now invested; but, when it is accomplished, the most perfect arms can be made at so low a price as to compete successfully with spurious imitations made by a cheap process as this deponent believes." He further states that the tools and machinery being of novel character, their cost has been very great, and that they would not be worth more than one fifth of that cost to be applied to any other business.

But we hear it declared and reiterated along the ranks of the opponents of this bill, that Colonel Colt owns a tremendous armory in England, of great value, and by means of which he is literally coining money. In short, sir, there are certain lovers and retailers of the marvelous, who seem to attribute to his patent invention all the wonderful properties of Alladin's lamp. But, sir, what have we to do with that? Suppose he had, by his enterprise, built up in London, under British patronage, a large manufactory of his arms, and by it accumulated a princely fortune-what have we to do with that? What business is that of ours?

Sir, the British Government will regulate its affairs under its own patent laws. That Government does not require of us an account of what a patentee may make out of his patent invention here, in order to determine how much he may be entitled to realize there. For an invention, in this country, the patentee is, under the law, and in justice, entitled to the opportunity to realize from his invention here an amount equivalent to full compensation, and a reward in proportion to the benefits that invention may have conferred on the public-on this public. Whatever privileges or immunities any other Government may have conferred on the same patentee for the same invention is no question and no concern of ours. But, sir, this statement of Colonel Colt's wealth and his great armory in London is, like the other, the

SENATE.

mere baseless fabric of a vision. Sir, he owns no armory there. He has not there the ownership of a solitary square foot of land, nor of a stone, or a brick, or an inch of any other material, in a building on any foreign soil. In London, sir, where this much talked of armory is located, he occupies, on sufferance, an old Government building. In that building he has placed some tools and machinery, with a limited number of workmen, as the commencement of an armory. This stock of tools and machinery-the value of them

go to swell the amount of his whole property to $335,000, already stated. Thus stands the business, as proved beyond dispute.

Mr. President, as fast as profits have accrued, they have been applied to improvements in the patented arm, and in tools and machinery to carry out those improvements and to reduce the cost for the benefit of the public. These are his stock in trade, valuable only in his hands, for the manufacture of the genuine cast steel repeating arms. Independent of these, Colonel Colt has little or nothing in the form of property. Deprive him of his patent and you destroy the value of these in a great measure, and leave him to commence life anew in a state of comparative poverty, after having spent more than twenty of the best years of his existence on improvements highly honorable to himself and his country, and of incalculable benefit to the public. And this, by some people, is miscalled justice. I consider it wrong, arbitrary, and oppressive.

Sir, attempts have been made, in a very strenuous manner, to cast contumely and reproach on the conduct of Colonel Colt, mainly through attacks on his friends. It would not become me in this place to point out the source of these attacks, nor the actors in the drama. The ultimate object, I may be permitted to say, was to wrest from him what I consider to be his natural and legal right. I regret that the attempt has been successful, while I rejoice that the result leaves no stain on the character or conduct of him and his friends; that not a shadow of proof has been elicited to tarnish their fame or their honor.

Mr. President, the declaration may be boldly made here and elsewhere, and that without hazard, and with the strictest regard for truth, that no more honest, honorable, and high-minded man breathes the breath of life than Colonel Samuel Colt. From his youth up, his life has been almost one continued series of vicissitude and change. Sometimes in prosperity, but more frequently in adversity; he has enjoyed the one with the zest of a man who knows how to appreciate the blessings and pleasures of life, and in the other, when the dark clouds of adversity rested on him, and seemed to shut out all hope for the future, he has manfully struggled with apparent destiny, conquered all obstacles, and emerged again triumphantly to the light of day. Sir, had not Colonel Colt been a man of the most fertile genius, of indomitable energy, and perseverance, with a mind well endowed with some of nature's best and noblest gifts, and conscious uprightness and rectitude, he would long since have been borne down by the hostile forces arrayed against him, and crushed into the earth beneath the heels of his mercenary foes. But, sir, he is indomitable-destroy him, and he rises, like the Phenix from his ashes, with renewed life and vigor. Like the geometrical arch-with the increase of the burden you enhance his power of resistance.

Mr. President, it is not my intention to eulogize Colonel Colt. His standing, as a man of honor and a gentleman, is too well known to require it. His reputation, also, as the inventor of the arm which bears his name, is world-wide, and his genius, his talents, and his valuable services to the public are well and truly appreciated, except by the harpies who, to increase their wealth, would prey on his vitals, and by the ignorant and prejudiced, who either know not how to appreciate merit, cast it aside as a thing of naught, or knowing it, sully their own consciences, by regarding it with envy and hatred, and refusing for it its just reward. Through an array of hosts of the latter description of men has he been compelled to make his way. Against them his probity and honor have enabled him to stand firm, and justice for him has usually triumphed, as it will in the future. But, sir, let the final results, as to his pecuniary