Obed Hussey | Page 9

as a part of the proceedings of Congress, by the press
throughout the United States, and every body thus notified of your
application.
[Sidenote: Mr. Hussey's Methods]
"From that period to the present time, I do not think there has been a
single Congress at which all proper efforts were not made to obtain the
action of that Body. Members were not annoyed with indecent
importunity; nor were any powerful combinations of interested
individuals resorted to, to force your Claim upon the consideration of
Congress. This was not in accordance with your taste, or your means. I
well remember, however, that you frequently visited this City on that
business; and that at almost every session, you either brought or sent to
me, to be laid before Congress, some new evidence of the triumph of
your great invention. These documents were faithfully laid before that
body, or sent to the senators from Maryland for that purpose. On one
occasion, as your agent, I addressed a somewhat extended
communication to the Senators from Maryland, attempting to show the
vast importance of your invention to the Agricultural interests of the
United States, and the strong claims you had to a renewal of your
patent, and requested them as the Representatives of your State in the
Senate, to give their attention and influence to accomplish that end.

"At a subsequent Session, this request was repeated, to one or both of
the Senators from that State.
"I can also state with certainty that hardly a Session of Congress has
passed since your memorial was first presented, at which prominent
and Scientific Agriculturalists, in different parts of the Country, who
were acquainted with the merits of your invention, have not used their
influence with Members of Congress to obtain a renewal of your patent.
Any pretense, therefore, that your Claim has not been duly presented,
notified to the public, and urged with all proper care and diligence upon
the attention of Congress, I repeat is totally unfounded.
"It will be a stain upon the justice of the Country, if one whom truth
and time must rank among its greatest Benefactors, shall be stricken
down and permitted to die in indigence by the interested and unworthy
efforts thus made to defeat you.
"You are at liberty to use this statement in any manner you may desire.
"Very truly and respectfully,
"Your Ob't Ser'vt,
"CHA'S E. SHERMAN."
Although not coming in the natural order of events, I quote from an
enclosure found in a letter written to Hon. H. May, evidently a member
of Congress. Mr. Hussey having failed to apply for an extension of his
1833 patent early enough, a bill was introduced in Congress with an
extension in view. In some correspondence between Mr. Hussey and
the Hon. H. May an enclosure is found reading as follows:
[Sidenote: Mr. Hussey's Defense]
"During the examination of my case in the Committee-room on the 21st
inst. you asked me a question, and accompanied it with a remark to the
effect 'Why could I not raise a company in Baltimore with sufficient
capital and make as many machines as Howard & Co. and compete

with them on equal ground? The excitement of the occasion
disqualified me for giving a full reply to your question and remarks. I
was at the time so impressed with the injustice and the great hardship
of being compelled to compete with the world for what of right
belonged to myself exclusively that I had not the words to express my
feelings. Could any gentleman look back twenty-one years and see me
combating the prejudices of the farmers, and exerting the most intense
labor of body and mind, and continuing to do so from year to year, at
the very door of poverty, and also look back on those New York parties
through the same period, accumulating wealth by the usual course of
business, and perhaps watching my progress, and waiting for the proper
moment to step in with their money power and grasp the lion's share of
the prize which justly belongs to myself. If they could look back on the
circumstances and comprehend the case in all its reality and truth I
should have no fear of a just decision by the Committee in the House of
Representatives. The Government which can tolerate and uphold such a
state of things would appear to me to be a hard Government.
"The end and design of the Patent Laws was to reward the inventor for
a valuable invention by giving him the exclusive right to make and
vend the article which he had invented and fourteen years was deemed
a sufficient time in which to secure that reward. The telegraph was
perfect on its first trial. It required no improvement. On the contrary,
half the wire was