This is a logical position for a protectionist, interested in the rights of labor, to have taken, and the followers of Henry Clay, who are to-day opposed to any measure of the kind, would do well to bear in mind this opinion of their ablest leader. No action was taken in regard to Mr. Clay's report or Lord Palmerston's proposal. In 1840 Mr. G. P. Putnam issued in pamphlet form "An Argument in behalf of International Copyright," the first publication on the subject in the United States of which I find record. In 1843 Mr. Putnam obtained the signatures of ninety-seven publishers, printers, and binders to a petition he had prepared, and which was duly presented to Congress. It took the broad ground that the absence of an international copyright was "alike injurious to the business of publishing and to the best interests of the people at large." A memorial was presented the same year in opposition to this petition, setting forth, among other things, that an international copyright would "prevent the adaptation of English books to American wants." In the report made by Mr. Baldwin to Congress twenty-five years later, he remarks that "the mutilation and reconstruction of American books to suit English wants are common to a shameless extent." In 1853 the question of a copyright convention with Great Britain was again under discussion, the measure being favored by Mr. Everett, at that time Secretary of State. Five of the leading publishing houses in New York addressed a letter to Mr. Everett in which, while favoring a convention, they advised-- 1st. That the foreign author must be required to register the title of his work in the United States before its publication abroad. 2d. That the work, to secure protection, must be issued in the United States within thirty days of its publication abroad; and 3d. That the reprint must be wholly manufactured in the United States. Shortly afterwards Mr. Carey published his "Letters on International Copyright," in which he took the ground that the facts and ideas in a book are the common property of society, and that property in copyright is indefensible. In 1858 a bill was introduced into the House of Representatives by Mr. Morris, of Pennsylvania, providing for international copyright on the basis of an entire remanufacture of the foreign work and its reissue by an American publisher within thirty days of the publication abroad. The bill does not appear to have received any consideration.