USA > Connecticut > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 19
USA > Rhode Island > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 19
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generalizations resting on indisputable facts, and in connection with others of like character, must be of vast service to psychological physicians in the future.
Another pamphlet published by Dr. Stearns in 1877 discusses the question- " Are Boards of Lunacy Commissioners Expedient for American Asylums ?" It is an extract from the fifty-third annual report of the Retreat for the Insane. While conceding the excellence of the British system, under which men of eminent profes- sional ability and attainments, of special knowledge in relation to psychology, of recognized interest in the welfare of the insane, and with fitness for their special and very delicate line of duty, are selected by the crown as such commissioners, he yet, for reasons growing out of the political constitution of the United States, deems the adoption of a similar plan to be altogether impracticable for this country, under its present form of government. His conclusion is amply borne out by the considerations adduced.
In the Fifty-fifth Annual Report of the Officers of the Retreat for the Insane, April, 1879, Dr. Stearns-who is alluded to in respectful and pleasing terms by the Board of Medical Visitors-speaks of a visit to Europe made since his last annual report, in which, while in Scotland, he "embraced the opportunity to observe such changes as had occurred in a few of the institutions in that country, as well as the tendency of opinion on the question of asylum management among such superin- tendents" as he had the pleasure of meeting. This portion of his report was afterward published separately under the title of Recent Tendencies in Scotch Asylums. He sums up his observations " as to the tendency of change in buildings for the insane during the past five years in Scotland," by stating " that in all the large metropolitan institutions which provide for both pay and pauper patients, and which are situated near large cities, the tendency has been decidedly toward an increase in number, and improvement in the character of the accommodations, and that this has been done at a large outlay of money." In point of architectural display, decoration, beauty, and elegance of lawns and landscapes, the Scotch asylums surpass the Amer- ican. In Capar he examined the detached cottage-building, occupied by such of the convalescent as were designated by the Superintendent, and thought that in the future " the tendency" in Scotland "will be strongly toward provision for all the insane in institutions used exclusively for that purpose, and by those having special qualifications for their care."
To the following points in Scotch management he paid special attention : 1. Occupation for patients. 2. Non-restraint (so-called). 3. Personal freedom. 4. Path- ological investigations. These he criticised fairly, but found little in them, if anything, to modify his own practice.
Placed " above temptation to act except in such manner as in his judgment
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will prove to be for the best good of those under his care," he " visits all parts of the Retreat frequently, and sees all those cases daily, who, for any reason, may appear to require his personal attention. Many of these visits are made when unexpected by attendants and others. Requests and complaints can be made to him with entire freedom." Dramatic and musical entertainments, scientific lectures, quadrille parties, readings, private theatricals, exhibitions of pictures by the stereopticon, etc., etc., are all utilized in his treatment of the insane patients under his care.
In 1879 Dr. Stearns reprinted, in pamphlet form, an admirable and thought- provoking paper-first given to the public in the pages of Scribner's Monthly-on The Relations of Insanity to Modern Civilization. In this he holds that "for prac- tical purposes insanity may be considered as incident only to civilization," and that we "have no accounts which lead us to suppose the disease ever existed to any considerable extent either among the North American Indians, or the natives of the Pacific isles." Statisticians prove that it is on the increase both in Great Britain and in this country. Is it then an effect of which civilization is the cause ? IIe believes not, and yet regards it as an incident of civilization. Among the social conditions which produce it are a vicious, imperfect, and injudicious education. People generally have not "the true idea of education," which "is the uniform development of all the systems of the body together-a leading out, building up and strengthening of these several parts for whatever calling or profession may be chosen in life, in such a manner that the individual shall be qualified to adjust him- self or herself to the general conditions and requirements of society, without friction to self or others."
Other occasions of insanity arc found in the increased facilities of gratifying physical passions, and consequent excesses ; in the practices and daily habits of life ; in too little sleep, and in the unequal distribution of the means of living. All these facts account for the increasing multitudes who are pushed to the wall in the grand struggle of life. "Christianity has taught us to pick them up, and try to nurse them to strength for further battle. She has built hospitals, and these weaker ones drift into these refuges from the storm. So it has been and so it will be in the future." While " the educational and disciplinary processes involved in passing to a higher state of civilization tend in the main to strengthen the nervous system, and to maintain a larger degree of mental health than would be possible without them," yet these incidental conditions "do largely conspire to act as causes" of that insanity in its multiform aspects of which he has made so close a study, and of which he is confessedly an able and successful healer.
Among the more recent of Dr. Stearns' pamphlet productions is a thoroughly digested and logically arranged "study" of Physiology vs. Philosophy, in which he
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contrasts, to some extent, the views of physiology with those of philosophy; intimat- ing, also, so far as is necessary to his purpose, points of agreement between the two. This brief, but masterly, attempt "to elucidate the still apparently unsettled problem of life and mind in their relation to body" encourages the hope that it is but the pre- decessor of a complete treatise on the subject, of which he is evidently a master-a treatise that will assist to scientifically settle, so far as may be, the faith of its readers on the old foundations, immovable hitherto by all assailants.
The Insane Diathesis, published in pamphlet forni, and a paper relating to "the Care of some classes of the Insane," are among the latest of Dr. Stearns' valuable contributions to medical literature, in the department in which he has devoted himself.
He has been for some years Lecturer on Insanity in Yale College.
URRILL, JAMES, JR., of Providence, R. I., United States Senator from Rhode Island. Mr. Burrill was of old English ancestry, and a member of that American branch of the family whose representatives have distinguished themselves in the public, professional, and business departments of American life. His natural endowments were of solid and brilliant character. At the early age of seventeen he graduated at Brown University, and at ninetcen commenced the practice of law in the courts of Rhode Island. His professional progress was rapid beyond all precedent, and at twenty-five he was appointed Attorncy-Gencral of the State. He held that office, by successive re-elections, until June, 1813, when bodily infirmities, emanating from the disease which ultimately proved fatal, compelled him to relinquish his office and also the practice of his profession.
In the same year his legislative carcer began by his election as representative of his town to the October session of the General Assembly. Soon afterward he was selected for the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives, and discharged the responsible duties of that official until his appointment as Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. In February, 1817, he was chosen to fill the post of Scnator from Rhode Island, in the Congress of the United States, and took his seat in the Senate on the 4th of March following. The talents, fidelity, and in- dustry illustrated by him in his new station soon acquired an influence in that
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assembly which was no less honorable to himself than highly advantageous to the interests of his native State. Consecutive sessions deepened the impressions at first produced, and personal influence continued to augment to the very close of his useful life.
Early, intense, and unremitting application to legal studies and practice allowed no time for the acquisition of extensive and critical acquaintance with elassieal literature. Eminence in his chosen profession demands not merely shining abilities, but close and laborious preparation. Yet, in his intervals of leisure he did obtain such a degree of familiarity with the immortal produetions of ancient intellectual genius as was quite sufficient for the ordinary necessities of a jurist and statesman. Ilis range of general information was wide. Valuable books on all matters of interest and importance were read with avidity, and at the epoch of his retirement from the bar, but few of his contemporaries were equal, and none superior to him- self in the magnitude and precision of acquired popular knowledge. From that time onward his reading was systematie, and its avails seientifically arranged. On almost every subjeet of human inquiry his conversation was characterized by eleganee, flueney, and force. Faets and principles, once appropriated, were a permanent pos- session. Memory was as tenacious as power of analysis was keen and persistent. On political affairs he was an authority. Past and present events supplied him with the materials of a system of political philosophy which not only cognizes faets, but ascertains their moral causes, conditions, and effects-both obvious and probable. Henee his conversations and addresscs on these matters were invested with peculiar instruetiveness and worth. Nor was he less at home in the lighter and more piquant departments of thought in which wit sparkles and innocent humor has free scope. His repertory of aneedote was inexhaustible ; his ready and apposite selections there- from judicious and telling. His oratory was not of florid description, but dealt rather
with authentie facts and scientific deductions. His judgment, in the citation of evi- denee most pertinent to his purpose, was exeellent. Infercnee was added to inference -each onc strengthening eonvietion in the minds of his auditory-until his eloquenee became irresistible. Simplicity was the most remarkable trait of his style. Pronuneia- tion was distinct, periods harmonious, power of reasoning on his feet marvellous, and outpourings of constant reflection remarkable. Popular assemblics were swayed by his magnetism and mental force as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind. Moral worth was commensurate with intellectual grandeur, and endeared his memory to all who knew him and eould appreciate his scrviecs. The National Intelligencer, of Washington, D. C., under datc Dceember 27th, 1821, announeed his decease with expressions of sincere regret. The pulmonary ailment from which he had suffered so long had received a fresh aceess of violence, and, after a brief period, put an end to
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his useful life at the comparatively early age of forty-nine. Unaffected grief over his loss was manifest among the members of the National Legislature, and also among the citizens of Rhode Island, whose interests he had so faithfully conserved. The credit and usefulness with which he had exercised the legislative functions were freely admitted by all. Able, benevolent, candid, liberal, his utterances were listened to with profound respect, and unfailingly fell with fullest weight upon the minds and hearts of his fellow Senators, as well as upon those of his constituents. Senator Burrill's remains were conveyed to the Senate Chamber on the day of interment, Divine worship offered, lessons of human duty enforced, and thence were carried to the cemetery-six United States Senators acting as pall-bearers-there to rest until the final audit, with its impartial and irreversible decisions. In the customary eulogies which followed his removal, his memory received universal indorsement as that of a most distinguished statesman, one of the brightest ornaments of the Rhode Island bar, and of the social and literary institutions of the State ; and also as a son, father, friend, and citizen, whose loss would be long and deeply deplored.
W HITNEY, ELI, of Whitneyville, New Haven, INVENTOR OF THE COTTON GIN. Born at Westborough, Worcester County, Mass., on the 8th of December, 1765. His paternal ancestors emigrated from England with the early settlers of Massachusetts. Their descendants were among the most respectable agriculturists of Worcester County. His maternal ancestors bore the name of Fay, were English immigrants, and ranked with the substantial yeo- manry of the colony. The first of them, connected with the New World, was John Fay, who removed from Boston to Westborough, where he became the owner of a large tract of land, since known as the Fay farm.
Very early in life, the characteristically strong emotions, tempered by prudence, by which Mr. Whitney was distinguished, began to display themselves. Indications of his rare mechanical genius appeared about the same time. He learned the use of tools when very young, manufactured an excellent violin when about twelve years of age, and executed repairs on similar instruments to the astonishment and delight of his customers. One Sunday morning he feigned illness as an excuse for not going to church, and, in the absence of his father, took that gentleman's watch
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in pieces, and then put them together again with such singular skill that his inter- ference with the instrument was never suspected. His father married a second time when Eli was thirteen years old. The step-mother brought with her a handsome set of table-knives, as part of her furniture, and when one of them was broken, the boy made another like it in cvcry respect, except the stamp on the blade. When fifteen or sixteen, during the Revolutionary War, he embarked in the manufacture of nails, and continued the business with profit until the close of that period. Next, he made long pins for fastening on ladies' bonncts, and then added the manufacture of walking-canes. An uncommon fondness for figures, aptitude for arithmetical calculations, and power of acquiring general information, caused all his acquaintances to regard him as a very remarkable boy. At the age of nineteen he disclosed strong desire for liberal education, but was thwarted by Mrs. Whitney. Four years later, partly by the avails of manual labor, and partly by teaching a village school, he succeeded in entering the Freshman class at Yale College, in May, 1789. An . intelligent friend of the family observed that "it was a pity such a fine me- chanical genius as his should be wasted " in collegiate studies. The sequel proved that by disiciplining his powers those very studics had helped to perfect them, and to class their possessor with the most influential inventors of that or any other century. His collegiate education was completed with little help from his father ; and what moneys the father did advance were afterward repaid with interest.
While a member of the college Mr. Whitney paid more attention to mathe- matics, and especially to mechanics, theoretical and practical, than to classics. His compositions were marked by vividness of imagination, and his disputations by sound and correct reasoning. Political rather than literary subjects were discussed, and the orators were wont to maintain, in the spirit of prophecy, that all arbitrary govern- ments would be overthrown, and that the nascent republic would serve as a model to all the nations of the carth. His mechanical propensities lost nothing of strength or availability by his dialectic pursuits. One of the college tutors regretted that he could not exhibit an interesting philosophical experiment because his apparatus was out of order, and would have to be sent abroad for repairs. Mr. Whitney proposcd to undertake the necessary task, and performed it to the entire satisfaction of the Faculty. He also borrowed some tools of a carpenter, and manipulated them with such dexterity as to elicit the remark from the worthy artisan that " there was one good mechanic spoiled when you went to college."
Graduating in 1792, in the autumn of that year, he engaged to enter the fam- ily of Mr. B. of Georgia, as a private tutor. On his way thither he formed the acquaintance of the widow of General Grcene, who had been spending the summer at the North, and was invited by that lady to her home at Mulberry
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Grove, near Savannah. On his arrival there he found that Mr. B. had engaged another teacher, and had thereby occasioned the first of a long series of disappoint- ments that fell to the lot of the young scientist in Georgia. Mrs. Greene, with genuine kindness, said to him: " My young friend, you propose studying the law. Make my house your home, your room your castle, and there pursue what studies you please." The gracious offer was gratefully accepted, and he commenced the study of law under her hospitable roof.
Other fame than that of law courts awaited him-fame foreshadowed by the reputation acquired from the manufacture of a tambour frame, on an entirely new plan, for his good hostess, who thought it a wonderful proof of ingenuity. Not long afterward, Majors Bremen, Forsyth, Pendleton, and other officers, who had served under General Greene, were visiting his family, and " expressed great regret that there was no means of cleaning the green seed cotton, or separating it from its seed, since all the lands which were unsuitable for the cultivation of rice would yield large crops of cotton. But until ingenuity could devise some machine which would greatly facilitate the process of cleaning, it was in vain to think of raising cotton for market. Separating one pound of the clean staple from the seed was a day's work for a woman; but the time usually devoted to picking cotton was the evening, after the labor of the field was over. Then the slaves, men, women, and children, were collected into circles, with one whose duty it was to rouse the dozing and quicken the indolent." Olmsted's Memoir of Whitney.
Mrs. Greene advised application to her young friend, who, she affirmed, could make anything. The application was made, but with no promise of special results ; for he averred that he had never seen either cotton or cotton-seed in his life. There the matter apparently ended, but the direction had been imparted to Whitney's genius that was to immortalize his name, and that was to influence the future of his country with a passionate and terrible force beyond the range of wildest imaginings.
Mr. Whitney repaired to Savannah, searched the warehouses and boats until he discovered a small parcel of cotton, with which he returned home, and on which he purposed to experiment with a view to the solution of the problem so ardently desiderated. Phineas Miller, a native of Connecticut, a graduate of Yale College, a former private teacher in the family of General Greene, and subsequently the husband of his widow, incited Whitney to persevere in the undertaking, and assigned him a room in the basement of the mansion for a workshop. There, by the close of winter, he had so far perfected his machine as to leave no doubt of its success, either in his own mind or in the minds of Mr. Miller and Mrs. Greene, who were the only persons he admitted to its presence.
Eager to communicate the tidings of his success to her friends, Mrs. Greene
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invited gentlemen from all parts of the State to her house, and on the first day after they were assembled, conducted them to a temporary building, which had bccn ereeted for the machine, where they saw, with astonishment and delight, that more cotton could be separated from the seed in one day, by the labor of a single hand, than could be donc in the usual manner in the space of many months. Visions of unbounded wealth and luxury floated before the eyes of the spectators. The market was glutted with their agricultural products, and nothing could be found to give employment to the negroes and support to the white inhabitants. But in the machine before them lay the visible solution of all their difficulties. It would certainly be the factor of enormous riches and political power. Whitney's friends urged him to seeure a patent at once. But he hesitated, in view of the great cxpense attending the introduction of a new invention, of the difficulty ineident to the enforcement of a law in favor of the patentees, in opposition to the individual interests of so large a number of persons as would be concerned in the culture of . cotton, and also because he was reluetant to abandon the profession of law for which he was then preparing. But the zeal and liberality of Mr. Miller overeame all seruples. He proposed to become joint adventurer with Mr. Whitncy, "and to be at the whole cxpense of maturing the invention until it should be patented." If the machine should sueeeed in its intended operation, the parties agreed, under legal formalities, "that the profits and advantages arising therefrom, as well as all privileges and emoluments . to be derived from patenting, making, vending, and working the same, should be mutually and equally shared between them." This instrument bears date May 27th, 1793, and immediately afterward they eommeneed business, under the firm of Miller & Whitney.
Multitudes pourcd in from every part of the State to sec the maehinc, and when for prudential reasons they were denied admission to the building, broke it open by night and carried off the maehinc. This flagrant violation of all justiee and cquity was portentous of the injustiec with which he was uniformly trcated until the expiry of his patent. Imitations of the machine, deviating in unimportant par- tieulars from the original, werc soon put upon the market, and went into successful operation. All manner of shifts and evasions were employed to rob the inventor of the fruits of his genius. Seareely had he left Georgia for Conneetieut, where he was, as far as possible, to perfect the machine, obtain a patent, and manufacturc and ship to the former State such a number of machincs as would supply the demand, before his partner, Miller, began his long correspondence relative to the COTTON GIN. This was not the title applied to the maehinc by the inventor, but the one bestowed by the public. "I am informcd," wrote Miller, three days after Whitney's departure, "of two other claimants for the honor of the invention of cotton gins, in addition
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to those we knew before." Their claims were wholly unfounded; but in common with people of their class, they were ready to dispute the honors of those who had attained the goal toward which themselves were only blindly groping.
On the 20th of June, 1793, Whitney presented his petition for a patent to Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State; and as he could not, because of the prevalence of yellow fever in Philadelphia, conclude the business relevant thereto, he made oath to the invention before the Notary Publie of the city of New Haven, on the 28th of October, in the same year. Mr. Jefferson assured Whitney, by letter, that a patent would be granted as soon as the model should be lodged in the Patent Office. Miller proved to be too sanguine, and somewhat too. grasping. His plan, in which Whitney eoneurred, was to erect machines in every part of the cotton district, and to engross the entire business themselves. Had they confined themselves to the manufacture of the machines, and to the sale of patent rights, some of their troub- lous complications might have been averted. But the prospect of suddenly making an enormous fortune by the business of ginning, in which every third pound of cotton-worth at that time from twenty-five to thirty three cents-was too alluring Miller was adventurous and imprudent, and accepted hazards that the cautious spirit of Whitney wished to deelinc. Money was greatly needed, and was extremely searce. The rate of interest demanded was ruinous to the borrowers. The first loan con- tracted by Whitney was regarded as peculiarly favorable, although he paid a premium of five per cent, in addition to the lawful interest. Illness attacked him in July, 1794, and a number of his workmen at New Haven were also stricken down. The imperious demand for machines could not be supplied, and marauders on their patent rights were becoming increasingly numerous and bold. The roller gin was a formidable but unsuccessful competitor. The saw gin, which appeared in 1795, was a more dangerous rival. " It was Whitney's gin, except that the teeth were eut in eircular rims of iron, instead of being made of wires, as was the case in the carlicr forms of the patent gin." To crown their misfortunes, Whitney's shop at New Haven, together with all his machines and papers, was consumed by fire in March, 1795. By this catastrophe he was reduced to absolute bankruptey, and saddled with debts to the amount of four thousand dollars.
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