times past, such
truths have been regarded as common property; and so,' you will add, 'they
must continue to be regarded. Rely upon it, the best interests of society
require that such shall continue to be the case, however great the
apparent injustice to the discoverer.'

"Here, you will observe, you waive altogether the question of right which
you so strongly enforce in regard to yourselves. It may be that you have
reason; but if so, how do you yourselves stand in your relations with the
great mass of human beings whose right to this common property is equal
with your own? For thousands of years working men, collectors of facts and
philosophers, have been contributing to the common stock, and the treasure
accumulated is now enormously great; and yet the mass of mankind remain
still ignorant, and are poor, depraved, and wretched, because ignorant.
Under such circumstances, justice would seem to require of the legislator
that he should sanction no measure tending to throw unnecessary difficulty
in the way of the dissemination of knowledge. To do so, would be to
deprive the many of the power to profit by their interest in the common
property. To do so, would be to deprive the men who have contributed to
the accumulation of this treasure of even the reward to which, as you
admit, they justly may make a claim. If they are to be satisfied with
fame, we must do nothing tending to limit the dissemination of their
ideas, because to do so would be to limit their power to acquire fame. If
they are to be satisfied with the idea of doing good to their fellow-men,
we must avoid every thing tending to limit the knowledge of their
discoveries, because to do so would be to deprive them of much of their
small reward. The state of the matter is, as I conceive, as follows: On
one side of you stand the contributors to the vast treasure of knowledge
that mankind has accumulated, and is accumulating--men who have, in
general, labored without fee or reward; on the other side of you stand the
owners of this vast treasure, desirous to have it fashioned in a manner to
suit their various tastes and powers, that all may be enabled to profit by
its possession. Between them stand yourselves, middlemen between the
producers and the consumers. It is your province to combine the facts and
ideas, as does the manufacturer when he takes the raw materials of cloth,
and, by the aid of the skill of numerous working men, past and present,
elaborates them into