America I shall go with the machine which I am now making, to
Georgia, where I shall stay a few weeks to see it at work. From
thence I expect to go to England, where I shall probably continue
two or three years. How advantageous this business will
eventually prove to me, I cannot say. It is generally said by
those who know anything about it, that I shall make a Fortune by
it. I have no expectation that I shall make an independent
fortune by it, but think I had better pursue it than any other
business into which I can enter. Something which cannot be
foreseen may frustrate my expectations and defeat my Plan; but I
am now so sure of success that ten thousand dollars, if I saw the
money counted out to me, would not tempt me to give up my right
and relinquish the object. I wish you, sir, not to show this
letter nor communicate anything of its contents to any body
except My Brothers and Sister, ENJOINING it on them to keep the
whole A PROFOUND SECRET."

* Then the national capital.

** Hammond, "Correspondence of Eli Whitney," American Historical
Review, vol. III, p. 99. The other citations in this chapter are
from the same source, unless otherwise stated.


The invention, however, could not be kept "a profound secret,"
for knowledge of it was already out in the cotton country.
Whitney's hostess, Mrs. Greene, had shown the wonderful machine
to some friends, who soon spread the glad tidings, and planters,
near and far, had come to Mulberry Grove to see it. The machine
was of very simple construction; any blacksmith or wheelwright,