International Copyright | Page 9

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.
In March, 1868, a circular letter headed "Justice to Authors and
Artists," was issued by a Committee composed of G. P. Putnam, Dr. S.
I. Prime, Henry Ivison, James Parton, and Egbert Hazard, calling

together a meeting for the consideration of the subject of international
copyright. The meeting was held on the 9th of April, Mr. Bryant
presiding, and a society was organized under the title of the "Copyright
Association for the Protection and Advancement of Literature and Art,"
of which Mr. Bryant was made president and E. C. Stedman secretary.
The primary object of the Association was stated to be "to promote the
enactment of a just and suitable international copyright law for the
benefit of authors and artists in all parts of the world."
A memorial had been prepared by the above-mentioned Committee to
be presented to Congress, which requested Congress to give its early
attention to the passage of a bill "to secure in all parts of the world the
rights of authors," etc., but which made no recommendations as to the
details of any measure. Of the 153 signatures attached to this memorial,
101 were those of authors, and 19 of publishers.
In the fall of 1868 Mr. J. D. Baldwin, member of Congress from
Worcester, Mass., reported a bill that had been prepared with the
co-operation of the Executive Committee of the Copyright Association,
which provided, That a foreign work could secure a copyright in this
country provided it was wholly manufactured here and should be issued
for sale by a publisher who was an American citizen. The benefit of the
copyright was also limited to the author and his assigns.
The bill was recommitted to the Joint Committee on the Library, and
no action was taken upon it. The members of this Committee were
Senators E. D. Morgan, of New York, Howe, of Wisconsin, and
Fessenden, of Maine, who were opposed to the measure, and
Representatives Baldwin, of Massachusetts, Pruyn, of New York, and
Spalding, of Ohio, who were in favor of it. The bill was also to have
been supported in the House by Michael C. Kerr, of Indiana. Mr.
Baldwin explains that an important cause for the shelving of the
measure without debate was the impeachment of President Johnson,
which was at that time absorbing the attention of Congress and the
country. No general expression of opinion was therefore elicited upon
the question from either Congress or the people, and in fact the
question has never reached such a stage as to enable such an expression

of public opinion to be arrived at.
It is my own belief that if the issue were fairly presented to them, the
American people could be trusted to decide it honestly and wisely.
The active members of the committee of the Copyright Association,
under whose general suggestions this bill of Mr. Baldwin's had been
framed, were Dr. S. Irenæus Prime, George P. Putnam, and James
Parton. Dr. Prime published in Putnam's Magazine in May, 1868, a
paper on