e a law. In the same winter the Legislature of
Massachusetts enacted a copyright law, procured, probably, by the agency
of the Rev. Timothy Dwight, then a member of the House of
Representatives.

"As Congress, under the Confederation, had no power to protect literary
property, several gentlemen, among whom was Joel Barlow, presented a
memorial to that body, petitioning them to recommend to the several
States the enactment of such a law. In May, 1783, on the report of Mr.
Williamson, Mr. Izard, and Mr. Madison, Congress passed a resolution,
recommending to the several States to secure to authors or publishers of
new books, not before printed, the copyright of such books for a term
not less than fourteen years. In December, 1783, Governor Livingston
informed me by letter that the Legislature of New Jersey had passed a
law agreeable to the recommendation of Congress.

"In May, 1785, I undertook a journey to the Middle and Southern States,
one object of which was to procure copyright laws to be enacted. I
proceeded to Charleston, but the legislature not being in session, I
returned to Baltimore, where I spent the summer. In November I visited
General Washington at his mansion; he gave me letters to Governor
Harrison in Richmond, and to the speakers of both houses of the
legislature. The law desired was passed for securing copyrights. In
December I visited Annapolis, where the legislature was in session; and
in February I visited Dover, in Delaware, for the same purpose. On
petition, the Legislature of Delaware appointed a committee to prepare a
bill for a copyright law, just at the close of the session, but the
enactment was deferred to the next session. In the year 1790 Congress
enacted their first copyright law, which superseded all the state laws
on the subject.

"When I was in England in 1825 I learned that the British Parliament
had, a few years before, enacted a new law on copyrights, by which the
rights of authors were much extended. This led me to attempt to procure
a new law in the United States, giving a like extension to the rights of
authors. My first attempt appears in the following letter [to the Hon.
Daniel Webster, dated September 30, 1826]:--

"'Since the celebrated decision, respecting copyright, by the highest
British tribunal, it seems to have been generally admitted that an
author has not a permanent and exclusive right to the publication of his
original works at common law; and that he must depend