ou will see that it is drawn altogether from the
works of others, many of whom have sunk their fortunes, while others have
lost their lives, in pursuit of the knowledge that I so cheaply give the
world. You will find there the essence of the works of Humboldt, and of
Wilkes. All of Franklin's discoveries are there, and I am now waiting only
for the appearance of McClure's voyage in the Arctic regions to give a new
edition of my book. Reflect, I beseech you, upon what you are about to do.
Very few persons have leisure to read, or means to pay for the books of
these travellers. A few hundred copies are sufficient to satisfy the
demand, and then their works die out. Of mine, on the contrary, the sale
is ten, fifteen, or twenty thousand annually, and thus is knowledge
disseminated throughout the world, enabling the men who furnish me with
facts to reap _a rich harvest of never dying fame_. Grant them a copyright
to the new ideas they may supply to the world, and at once you put a stop
to the production of such books as mine, to my great injury and to the
loss of mankind at large. Facts and ideas are common property, and their
owners, the public, have a right to use them as they will."

The historian would say: "Mr. Senator, if you persist in this course, you
will never again see histories like mine. Here are hundreds of people
scattered over the country, industriously engaged in disinterring facts
relating to our early history. They are enthusiasts, and many of them are
very poor. Some of them contrive to publish, in the form of books, the
results of their researches, while others give them to the newspapers, or
to the historical societies, and thus they are enabled to come before the
world. Few people buy such things, and it not unfrequently happens that
men who have spent their lives in the collection of important facts, waste
much of their small means in giving them to an ungrateful nation.
Nevertheless, they have their reward in the consciousness that they are
thus enabling others to furnish the world with accurate histories of their
country. I find them of infinite use. They are my hewers of wood and
drawers of water, and they never look for payment for their labor. Deprive
me of their services, and I shall be obliged to abandon the production of
books, and return to the labors of my profession--and they will be
deprived of fame, while the public will be deprived of knowledge."

The medical writer would say: "Mr. Senato