which he knows he has earned, and could have received for the same amount of labor from any other employer." It would be well for all communities if such views on the subject of pauperism, were generally adopted and carried into practice.

It is hardly necessary to state of one who has done so much business, and with so great success, that his business habits and morals were of the highest character. The punctual performance of every engagement, in its true spirit and meaning, was, with him, a point of honor, from which no consideration of temporary or prospective advantage would induce him to depart,—from which no sacrifice of money or feeling was sufficient to deter him. There was a method and arrangement in his transactions, by which every thing was duly and at the proper time attended to. Nothing was hurried from its proper place, nothing postponed beyond its proper time. It was thus that transactions, the most varied, intricate, and extensive, deeply affecting the interests of three adjoining states, and extending their influence to thousands of individuals, proceeded from their first inception to their final consummation, with an order, a regularity and certainty, truly admirable and instructive. The master's mind was equally present and apparent in every thing, from the imposing mass of the total to the most minute particular of its component parts.

Mr. Slater's private and domestic character was without a blemish. He was twice married, and had four children, all sons, by his first wife, and at his death left a pious and amiable widow, formerly Mrs. Parkinson, of Philadelphia, with an ample dowry, to receive from his family that protection and affection which her motherly attention to them has so well deserved. He was a sincere and practical Christian, and died, April 21st, 1835, in the cheering hopes and consolations which Christianity alone imparts.

We conclude this memoir with the following tribute to his memory, which is in substance the remarks of Mr. Tristam Burgess, in his address before the Rhode Island Agricultural Society :-"Forty years ago there was not a spindle wrought by water on this side the Atlantic. Since then, how immense the capital by which spinning and weaving machinery are moved! How many, how great, how various, the improvements! The farmers of Flanders erected a statue in honor of him who introduced into their country the culture of the potato. What shall the people of New England do for him who first brought us the knowledge of manufacturing cloth, by machinery moved by water? In England, he would in life be ornamented with a peerage, in death, lamented by a monument in Westminster Abbey. The name of Slater will be remembered as one of our greatest public benefactors. Let not the rich,

in his adopted country, envy the products of his labor-his extensive opulence-his fair and elevated character. Let the poor rise up and call him blessed; for he has introduced a species of industry into our country, which furnishes them with labor, food, clothing, and habitation."

ELI WHITNEY,

THE INVENTOR OF THE COTTON GIN.

Birth.-Anecdotes of his youth.-Manufactures nails.-Teaches school.-By his own exertions prepares for college.-Anecdotes of his college life.-Graduates. -Goes to Georgia as a teacher.-Disappointment.-Becomes an inmate in the family of Gen. Greene.-Ingenuity.-Low state of the cotton culture.-An introduction.-Old method of separating the cotton from the seed.-Invents the cotton gin.-Forms a co-partnership with Mr. Phineas Miller to manufacture gins.-Note, Description.-The first machine stolen.-Commencement of encroachments.-Disastrous fire.-A trial.-Its unfortunate issue.-Gloomy prospects. South Carolina purchases the patent right for that state.-Enters into a similar engagement with North Carolina and Tennessee.-South Carolina and Tennessee annul their contracts.-Increasing encroachments.-South Carolina Legislature, of 1804, rescind the act of annulment.-Death of Mr. Miller. Celebrated decision of Judge Johnson.-Lawsuits.-Commences manufacturing arms for government.-Difficulties to be surmounted.-Description of the system.-Rejection of the memorial to congress for a renewal of the patent right on the cotton gin.-Marriage.-Death.-A comparison.Character.

To the efforts of Whitney, our country is indebted for the value of her great staple. While the invention of the cotton gin has been the chief source of the prosperity of the southern planter, the northern manufacturer comes in for a large share of the benefit derived from the most important offspring of American ingenuity.

Eli Whitney was born in Westborough, Worcester county, Massachusetts, December 8th, 1765. His parents belonged to that respectable class in society, who, by the labors of husbandry, manage, by uniform industry, to provide well for a rising family,a class from whom have arisen most of those who, in New England, have attained to high eminence and usefulness.

The following incident, though trivial in itself, will serve to show at how early a period certain qualities, of strong feeling tempered by that discretion for which Mr. Whitney afterwards became distinguished, began to display themselves. When he was six or seven years old, he had overheard the kitchen maid, in a fit of passion, calling his mother, who was in a delicate state of health, hard "She names, at which he expressed great displeasure to his sister.

* Condensed from the able memoir by Professor Olmsted, published in the twenty-first volume of Silliman's Journal.