Portland Gazette, And Maine Advertiser

Extract from the Memorial of Oliver Evans, Esq. to Congress.
"Since the age of twenty your memorialist has devoted much time, labour and study, to discover and invent many new and useful improvements, some of which have been put in operation, and are acknowledged to be of the first importance and benefit to the American people.
That, at the age of fifty one years, despairing of ever receiving any reward from the public and to rid his mind of the incumbrance of his discoveries, he collected, bound and sealed, in a bundle all the drawings, specifications, explanations and minutes of his inventions not yet in use, which he endorsed, 'Not to be opened until after my decease.' But, on more mature reflection, apprehending that these papers might lead his children or grand children into the same path of vexation and ruin which he had traversed, and subject them to the same persecution which had so long paralyzed his efforts, he assembled his family, and stated to them, that the expense of time, labor and thought which the contents of these papers had cost him, was the true reason why he owned no property, notwithstanding his known economy and indefatigable industry; and that he feared, for the above reason, to leave them. They all burst into tears, and unanimously urged him to burn them. Without hesitation he acquiesced in this request, and committed his papers to the flames, as the most efficacious means of averting the impending ruin of himself and of his children.
Thus went his mental productions, the fruits of a long and laborious life. Yet he felt as one having just escaped from thraldom, and he still deems this as the most fortunate transaction of his life.
Your memorialist then cheerfully commenced the world anew; and at the age of sixty-one, he resolved to pursue his own private interest.—Whenever the inventor of any useful improvement called to consult him, his uniform reply was, 'I have been damaged by such pursuits already; I cannot waste, even for a moment, on the subject.'"