"  The  committee  cannot  anticipate  any  reasonable  or  just
objection  to  a  measure  thus  guarded  and  restricted. It  mayi
indeed,  be  contended,  and  it  is  possible,  that  the  new  work,  whtf"
charged  with  the  expense  incident  to  the  copyright,  may  com^
into  the  hands  of  the  purchaser  at  a  small  advance  beyond  wh»*
would  be  its  price,  if  there  were  no  such  charge ;  but  this  is  by
no  means  certain. It  is,  on  the  contrary,  highly  probable  tha^
when  the  American  publisher  has  adequate  time  to  issue  care-
fully an  edition  of  the  foreign  work,  without  incuning  tha
extraordinary  expense  which  he  now  has  to  sustain  to  mate  •
hurried  pubUcation  of  it,  and  to  guard  himself  against  dangeroni
competition,  he  will  be  able  to  bring  it  into  the  market  as  ^eaplf
as  if  the  bill  were  not  to  pass. But,  if  that  should  not  prove  to  to
the  case,  and  if  the  American  reader  should  have  to  pay  a  6^
cents  to  compensate  the  author  for  composing  a  work  by  vbick
he  is  instructed  and  profited,  would  it  not  be  just  in  itself?  Hi*
any  reader  a  right  to  the  use,  without  remuneration,  of  intdlf^
tual  productions  which  have  not  yet  b€«n  brought  into  es^
ence,  but  lie  buried  in  the  mind  of  genius?  The  cowas^
think  not ;  and  they  believe  that  no  American  citizen  would  bO^


The  Copyright  Law. 229

<]uite  as  unjust,  in  reference  to  future  publications,  to
nate  to  himself  their  use,  without  any  consideration
laid  to  their  foreign  proprietors,  as  he  would  to  take  the

merchandise,  in  the  case  stated,  without  paying  for  it ;

would  the  more  readily  make  this  trifling  contribution,
t  secured  to  him,  instead  of  the  imperfect  and  slovenly
low  often  issued,  a  neat  and  valuable  work,  worthy  of
^ion,

ith  respect  to  the  constitutional  power  to  pass  the  proposed
)  committee  entertain  no  doubt,  emd  congress  as  before
has  acted  on  it. The  constitution  authorises  congress
(mote  the  progress  of  science  and  useful  arts,  by  securing,
lited  times,  to  authors  and  inventors,  the  exclusive  right

respective  writing  and  discoveries."  There  is  no  limit-
f  the  power  to  natives  or  residents  of  this  country. Such
fttion  would  have  been  hostile  to  the  object  of  the  power
L  That  object  was  to  promote  the  progress  of  science
sfiil  arts. They  belong  to  no  particular  country,  but  to
iA  generally. 