[Illustration: LOADING COTTON AT NEW ORLEANS.]
Before Eli Whitney[2] invented his machine, we sent hardly a bale
of cotton abroad. Now we send so much in one year that the bales can
be counted by millions. If they were laid end to end, in a straight
line, they would reach clear across the American continent from San
Francisco to New York, and then clear across the ocean from New York
to Liverpool, England. It was Eli Whitney, more than any other man,
who helped to build up this great trade. But at the time when he
invented his cotton-gin, we did not own New Orleans, or, for that
matter, any part of Louisiana or of the country west of the
Mississippi River. The man who bought New Orleans and Louisiana for
us was Thomas Jefferson.
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