iency, high and general, not particular expediency, how
and how far the rights of authorship should be protected. I confess
frankly that I see, or think I see, objections to make it perpetual. At
the same time I am willing to extend it further than at present, and am
fully persuaded that it ought to be relieved from all charges, such as
depositing copies, etc.

"'Yours, D. WEBSTER.'

* * * * *

"In the autumn of 1827 I applied to the Hon. Mr. Ingersoll, a
representative from Connecticut, stating to him the facts of an
extension of copyright in Great Britain, as also in France, and
requesting him to use his influence to have a bill for a new law brought
forward in Congress. Mr. Ingersoll very cheerfully complied. On the 17th
December, on the motion of Mr. Ingersoll, the House of Representatives
'_Resolved_, that the committee on the judiciary inquire into the
expediency of extending the time for which copyrights may be hereafter
secured to authors, beyond the period now allowed by law; and also of
affording further protection to authors against the publication of
abridgments or summaries of works, after the copyrights thereof have
been secured.' As the committee delayed several weeks to make a report,
Mr. Ingersoll conversed fully on the subject with one of the members,
and addressed a note to the committee, in which he stated the provision
of the British Statute 34th Geo. III., enlarging the rights of authors,
and the liberal provisions of the French laws on the subject. He stated
some of the defects of the old law of the United States, and urged the
expediency and justice of a more liberal law.

"A petition signed by many respectable literary men was, about this
time, presented to Congress, praying for the same object. Some members
of the committee were opposed to the measure; but at length, on the
first of February, 1828, the committee reported a bill consisting of
three sections only, extending the term of copyrights from fourteen to
twenty-eight years, and securing the benefit of the act to authors who
had previously obtained a copyright under the old law. On the 21st of
February, Mr. Verplanck submitted to the House of Representatives an
amendment to the bill reported by the committee, entitled an 'Amendment
to a Bill to amend and consolidate the Acts respecting Copyrights.' This
amendment was printed by order of the House. It was intended to embrace
all the material provisions of