in account with Samuel Slater; which contains the following item of credit to Samuel Slater :-" Nov. 25th, 1792. By the one half of the proceeds from the sales of yarn spun at the mills, and of credit taken to our account, and accounted for by us as sold— £882 4s. 11 d. Providence Dec. 3d, 1792. ALMY & BROWN." I find also these charges on the same settlement : 1792, Feb. 17. To the one half of our account against spinning mills for machinery, &c. up to Feb. 11th, 1792, To one half of do. for stock up to same date, £252 1 6 210 19 13 The above documents show what was finally determined on between the parties in the business. The following letter from Mr. Smith Wilkinson, written at my request, corroborates the above:— POMFRET, May 30th, 1835. Mr. Samuel Slater came to Pawtucket early in January 1790, in company with Moses Brown, Wm. Almy, Obadiah Brown, and Smith Brown, who did a small business in Providence, at manufacturing on billies and jennies, driven by men, as also were the carding machines. They wove and finished jeans, fustians, thicksetts, velverets, &c.; the work being mostly performed by Irish emigrants. There was a spinning frame in the building, which used to stand on the south-west abutment of Pawtucket bridge, owned by Ezekiel Carpenter, which was started for trial (after it was built for Andrew Dexter and Lewis Peck) by Joseph and Richard Anthony, who are now living at or near Providence. But the machine was very imperfect, and made very uneven yarn. The cotton for this experiment was carded by hand, and roped on a woollen wheel, by a female. Mr. Slater entered into contract with Wm. Almy and Smith Brown, and commenced building a water frame of 24 spindles, two carding machines, and the drawing and roping frames necessary to prepare for the spinning, and soon after added a frame of 48 spindles. He commenced some time in the fall of 1790, or in the winter of 1791. I was then in my tenth year, and went to work for him, and began at tending the breaker. The mode of laying the cotton was by hand, taking up a handful, and pulling it apart with both hands, and shifting it all into the right hand, to get the staple of the cotton straight, and fix the handful, so as to hold it firm, and then applying it to the surface of the breaker, moving the hand horizontally across the card to and fro, until the cotton was fully prepared. The first frame of 24 spindles, was much longer erecting than anticipated, because cards and other things, even tools to work with, could not be obtained; all these were made by Mr. Slater's own hands, or by his directions. He laboured night and day under every disadvantage, to accomplish his purpose, but the hope of future reward sweetened his labour.* Mr. Slater once said to me, when speaking of labour, that he had laboured sixteen hours a day, for twenty years successively, and he might have added, in the most laborious occupations. The assertions which have been made in public, representing that Mr. Slater brought with him from England, models and patterns, drawings of machinery, &c., we know, from the best possible * In the fourth of July oration of Edward Everett, is the following valuable letter, and its accompanying remarks::- quote a sentence from it, in spite of the homeliness of the details, for which I like it the better, and because I wish to set before you, not an ideal hero wrapped in cloudy generalities, and a mist of vague panegyric, but the real, identical man, with all the peculiarities of his life and occupation. Your letter,' says he, 'gave me the more pleasure, as I received it among barbarians and an uncouth set of people. Since you received my letter of October last, I have not slept above three or four nights in a bed; but after walking a good deal all day, I have lain down before the fire, upon a little hay, straw, fodder, or a bearskin, whichever was to be had—with man, wife, and children, like dogs and cats; and happy is he who gets the berth nearest the fire. Nothing would make it pass off tolerably, but a good reward. A doubloon is my constant gain every day, that the weather will permit my going out, and sometimes six pistoles. The coldness of the weather will not allow of my making a long stay, as the lodging is rather too cold for the time of year. I have never had my clothes off, but have lain and slept in them, except the few nights I have been in Fredericksburg.' If there is an individual, in the morning of life, in this assembly who has not yet made his choice, between the flowery path of indulgence, and the rough ascent of honest industry—if there is one who is ashamed to get his living by any branch of honest labour, let him reflect, that the youth who was carrying the theodolite and surveyor's chain, through the mountain passes of the Alleganies, in the month of March-sleeping on a bundle of hay before the fire, in a settler's log cabin, and not ashamed to boast that he did it for his doubloon a day, is George Washington; that the life he led trained him up to command the armies of United America; that the money he earned was the basis of that fortune which enabled him afterwards to bestow his services, without reward, on a bleeding and impoverished country. For three years, was the young Washington employed, the greater part of the time, and whenever the season would permit, in this laborious and healthful occupation; and I know not if it would be deemed unbecoming, were a thoughtful student of our history to say, that he could almost hear the voice of Providence, in the language of Milton, announce its high purpose 'To exercise him in the wilderness :- authority, to be incorrect; he told me that he had not a single pattern or memorandum to assist him in his calculations in constructing his first machinery; but he was favoured with an excellent memory, which never failed him in a single particular, until he accomplished his purpose. This was corroborated by the testimony of Moses Brown and William Almy. It was then that his mathematical talents were put to the test. Whoever is acquainted with "The Carding or Spinning Master's Assistant, or the theory and practice of cotton spinning, showing the use of each machine employed in the whole process, how to adjust and adapt them to suit the various kinds of cotton, and the different qualities of yarn; and how to perform the various calculations connected with the different departments of cotton spinning," will be satisfied that Mr. Slater's first work, in Pawtucket, was a proof of his knowledge and experience, as well as of his mathematical and mechanical genius. At the same time, it will be evident how much assistance he might have derived from such a publication; but nothing of the kind was then in existence. It is only within a few years that such helps have been prepared. Mr. Slater had seen the spinning frames that were constructed under the auspices of Arkwright himself, and had been brought to a very high state of improvement. The machines which have been generally used, since his time, are constructed upon the very same principle; any alterations that have been made, are chiefly upon the form or framing of the machine: as that which was formerly made of wood, is now made of cast iron, which gives it a more neat and handsome appearance, and also renders it more durable. In reference to the introduction of this machinery, Mr. Burgess observed, in a speech in congress, in 1825, and also at a public dinner in Pawtucket, R. I., June 16, 1828-"At the commencement of our present national government, a man arrived in this very place (I do not call his name, because it belongs to history, and must be known to all); and he brought with him that art, in those manufactures, which enables England, in the progress of its improvements, so to multiply labour, and accumulate wealth, that she did, by the aid of her machinery, in the close of the last, and the beginning of the present century, stand between the military despotism of one part of Europe, and the entire liberties of the world." The annexed plate represents the machinery which Mr. Slater erected, and operated in the old fulling mill at Pawtucket. The clothier's shop alluded to by Mr. Wilkinson, was washed away Feb. 15, 1807; but the two frames which Mr. Slater first made and |