The motives behind Eli Whitney's acceptance of…
1798 CE
By the late 1790s, Whitney is on the verge of bankruptcy and the cotton gin litigation had left him deeply in debt.
His New Haven cotton gin factory had burned to the ground, and litigation has sapped his remaining resources.
The French Revolution has ignited new conflicts between Great Britain, France, and the United States. The new American government, realizing the need to prepare for war, began to rearm. The War Department issued contracts for the manufacture of ten thousand muskets.
Whitney, who has never made a gun in his life, obtains a contract in January 1798 to deliver ten thousand thousand muskets in 1800.
He does not mention interchangeable parts at this time.
Ten months later, the Treasury Secretary, Oliver Wolcott, Jr., sends him a "foreign pamphlet on arms manufacturing techniques," possibly one of Honoré Blanc's reports, after which Whitney first begins to talk about interchangeability.
In May 1798, Congress votes for legislation that will use eight hundred thousand dollars in order to pay for small arms and cannons in case war with France erupts.
They offer a five thousand dollar incentive with an additional five thousand dollar once this money was exhausted for the person that is able to accurately produce arms for the government.
Because the cotton gin has not brought Whitney the rewards he believed he would get, he accepts the contract.
Although the contract is for one year, Whitney will not deliver the arms until eight years later in 1809 using multiple excuses for the delay of such.
Recently, historians have found that during 1801–1806, Whitney took the money and headed into South Carolina in order to profit from the cotton gin.
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