JANUARY 9, 1848—DECEMBER 19, 1849
Preparation for lawsuits.—Letter from Colonel Shaffner.—Morse's reply deprecating bloodshed.—Shaffner allays his fears.—Morse attends his son's wedding at Utica.—His own second marriage.—First of great lawsuits.—Almost all suits in Morse's favor.—Decision of Supreme Court of United States.—Extract from an earlier opinion.—Alfred Vail leaves the telegraph business.—Remarks on this by James D. Reid.—Morse receives decoration from Sultan of Turkey.—Letter to organizers of Printers' Festival.—Letter concerning aviation.—Optimistic letter from Mr. Kendall.—Humorous letter from George Wood.—Thomas R. Walker.— Letter to Fenimore Cooper.—Dr. Jackson again.—Unfairness of the press. —Letter from Charles C. Ingham on art matters.—Letter from George Vail.—F.O.J. Smith continues to embarrass.—Letter from Morse to Smith.
The year 1848 was a momentous one to Morse in more ways than one. The first of the historic lawsuits was to be begun at Frankfort, Kentucky,— lawsuits which were not only to establish this inventor's claims, but were to be used as a precedent in all future patent litigation. In his peaceful retreat on the banks of the Hudson he carefully and systematically prepared the evidence which should confound his enemies, and calmly awaited the verdict, firm in his faith that, however lowering the clouds, the sun would yet break through. Finding relaxation from his cares and worries in the problems of his farm, he devoted every spare moment to the life out-of-doors, and drank in new strength and inspiration with every breath of the pure country air. Although soon to pass the fifty-seventh milestone, his sane, temperate habits had kept him young in heart and vigorous in body, and in this same year he was to be rewarded for his long and lonely vigil during the dark decades of his middle life, and to enter upon an Indian Summer of happy family life.
While spending as much time as possible at his beloved Locust Grove, he was yet compelled, in the interests of his approaching legal contests, to consult with his lawyers in New York and Washington, and it was while in the latter city that he received a letter from Colonel Tal. P. Shaffner, one of the most energetic of the telegraph pioneers, and a devoted, if sometimes injudicious, friend. It was he who, more than any one else, was responsible for the publication of Morse's "Defense" against Professor Henry.
The letter was written from Louisville on January 9, 1848, and contains the following sentences: "We are going ahead with the line to New Orleans. I have twenty-five hands on the road to Nashville, and will put on more next week. I have ten on the road to Frankfort, and my associate has gangs at other parts. O'Reilly has fifteen hands on the Nashville route and I confidently expect a few fights. My men are well armed and I think they can do their duty. I shall be with them when the parties get together, and, if anything does occur, the use of Dupont's best will be appreciated by me. This is to be lamented, but, if it comes, we shall not back out."
Deeply exercised, Morse answers him post-haste: "It gives me real pain to learn that there is any prospect of physical collision between the O'Reilly party and ours, and I trust that this may arrive in time to prevent any movement of those friendly to me which shall provoke so sad a result. I emphatically say that, if the law cannot protect me and my rights in your region, I shall never sanction the appeal to force to sustain myself, however conscious of being in the right. I infinitely prefer to suffer still more from the gross injustice of unprincipled men than to gain my rights by a single illegal step…. I hope you will do all in your power to prevent collision. If the parties meet in putting up posts or wires, let our opponents have their way unmolested. I have no patent for putting up posts or wires. They as well as we have a right to put them up. It is the use made of them afterwards which may require legal adjustment. The men employed by each party are not to blame. Let no ill-feeling be fomented between the two, no rivalry but that of doing their work the best; let friendly feeling as between them be cherished, and teach them to refer all disputes to the principals. I wish no one to fight for me physically. He may 'speak daggers but use none.' However much I might appreciate his friendship and his motive, it would give me the deepest sorrow if I should learn that a single individual, friend or foe, has been injured in life or limb by any professing friendship for me."
He was reassured by the following from Colonel Shaffner:—
"January 27. Your favor of the 21st was received yesterday. I was sorry that you allowed your feelings to be so much aroused in the case of contemplated difficulties between our hands and those of O'Reilly. They held out the threats that we should not pass them, and we were determined to do it. I had them notified that we were prepared to meet them under any circumstances. We were prepared to have a real 'hug,' but, when our hands overtook them, they only 'yelled' a little and mine followed, and for fifteen miles they were side by side, and when a man finished his hole, he ran with all his might to get ahead. But finally, on the 24th, we passed them about eighty miles from here, and now we are about twenty-five miles ahead of them without the loss of a drop of blood, and we shall be able to beat them to Nashville, if we can get the wire in time, which is doubtful."
There were many such stirring incidents in the early history of the telegraph, and the half of them has not been told, thus leaving much material for the future historian.
But, while so much that was exciting was taking place in the outside world, the cause of it all was turning his thoughts towards matters more domestic. On June 13, he writes to his brother: "Charles left me for Utica last evening, and Finley and I go this evening to be present at his marriage on Thursday the 15th."
It was at his son's wedding that he was again strongly attracted to his young second cousin (or, to be more exact, his first cousin once removed), the first cousin of his son's bride, and the result is announced to his brother in a letter of August 7: "Before your return I shall be again married. I leave to-morrow for Utica where cousin (second cousin) Sarah Elizabeth Griswold now is. On Thursday morning the 10th we shall (God willing) be married, and I shall immediately proceed to Louisville and Frankfort in Kentucky to be present at my first suit against O'Reilly, the pirate of my invention. It comes off on the 23d inst. So far as the justice of the case is concerned I am confident of final success, but there are so many crooks in the law that I ought to be prepared for disappointment."
Continuing, he tells his brother that he has been secretly in love with his future wife for some years: "But, reflecting on it, I found I was in no situation to indulge in any plans of marrying. She had nothing, I had nothing, and the more I loved her the more I was determined to stifle my feelings without hinting to her anything of the matter, or letting her know that I was at all interested in her."
But now, with increasing wealth, the conditions were changed, and so they were married, and in their case it can with perfect truth be said, "They lived happy ever after," and failed by but a year of being able to celebrate their silver wedding. Soon a young family grew up around him, to whom he was always a patient and loving father. We his children undoubtedly gave him many an anxious moment, as children have a habit of doing, but through all his trials, domestic as well as extraneous, he was calm, wise, and judicious.
[Illustration: SARAH ELIZABETH GRISWOLD Second wife of S.F.B. Morse]
But now the first of the great lawsuits, which were to confirm Morse's patent rights or to throw his invention open to the world, was begun, and, with his young bride, he hastened to Frankfort to be present at the trial. To follow these suits through all their legal intricacies would make dry reading and consume reams of paper. Mr. Prime in a footnote remarks: "Mr. Henry O'Reilly has deposited in the Library of the New York Historical Society more than one hundred volumes containing a complete history of telegraphic litigation in the United States. These records are at all times accessible to any persons who wish to investigate the claims and rights of individuals or companies. The testimony alone in the various suits fills several volumes, each as large as this."
It will, therefore, only be necessary to say that almost all of these suits, including the final one before the Supreme Court of the United States, were decided in Morse's favor. Every legal device was used against him; his claims and those of others were sifted to the uttermost, and then as now expert opinion was found to uphold both sides of the case. To quote Mr. Prime:
"The decision of the Supreme Court was unanimous on all the points involving the right of Professor Morse to the claim of being the original inventor of the Electro-Magnetic Recording Telegraph. A minority of the court went still further, and gave him the right to the motive power of magnetism as a means of operating machinery to imprint signals or to produce sounds for telegraphic purposes. The testimony of experts in science and art is not introduced because it was thoroughly weighed and sifted by intelligent and impartial men, whose judgment must be accepted as final and sufficient. The justice of the decision has never been impugned. Each succeeding year has confirmed it with accumulating evidence.
"One point was decided against the Morse patent, and it is worthy of being noticed that this decision, which denied to Morse the exclusive use of electromagnetism for recording telegraphs, has never been of injury to his instrument, because no other inventor has devised an instrument to supersede his.
"The court decided that the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph was the sole and exclusive invention of Samuel F.B. Morse. If others could make better instruments for the same purpose, they were at liberty to use electromagnetism. Twenty years have elapsed since this decision was rendered; the Morse patent has expired by limitation of time, but it is still without a rival in any part of the world."
This was written in 1873, but I think that I am safe in saying that the same is true now after the lapse of forty more years. While, of course, there have been both elaboration and simplification, the basic principle of the universal telegraph of to-day is embodied in the drawings of the sketch-book of 1832, and it was the invention of Morse, and was entirely different from any form of telegraph devised by others.
I shall make but one quotation from the long opinion handed down by the
Supreme Court and delivered by Chief Justice Taney:—
"Neither can the inquiries he made, nor the information or advice he received from men of science, in the course of his researches, impair his right to the character of an inventor. No invention can possibly be made, consisting of a combination of different elements of power, without a thorough knowledge of the properties of each of them, and the mode in which they operate on each other. And it can make no difference in this respect whether he derives his information from books, or from men skilled in the science. If it were otherwise, no patent in which a combination of different elements is used could ever be obtained. For no man ever made such an invention without having first obtained this information, unless it was discovered by some fortunate accident. And it is evident that such an invention as the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph could never have been brought into action without it. For a very high degree of scientific knowledge, and the nicest skill in the mechanic arts, are combined in it, and were both necessary to bring it into successful operation. And the fact that Morse sought and, obtained the necessary information and counsel from the best sources, and acted upon it, neither impairs his rights as an inventor, nor detracts from his merits."
The italics are mine, for it has over and over been claimed for everybody who had a part in the early history of the telegraph, either by hint, help, or discovery, that more credit should be given to him than to Morse himself—to Henry, to Gale, to Vail, to Doctor Page, and even to F.O.J. Smith. In fact Morse used often to say that some people thought he had no right to claim his invention because he had not discovered electricity, nor the copper from which his wires were made, nor the brass of his instruments, nor the glass of his insulators.
I shall make one other quotation from the opinion of Judge Kane and Judge
Grier at one of the earlier trials, in Philadelphia, in 1851:—
"That he, Mr. Morse, was the first to devise and practise the art of recording language, at telegraphic distances, by the dynamic force of the electro-magnet, or, indeed, by any agency whatever, is, to our minds, plain upon all the evidence. It is unnecessary to review the testimony for the purpose of showing this. His application for a patent, in April, 1838, was preceded by a series of experiments, results, illustrations and proofs of final success, which leave no doubt whatever but that his great invention was consummated before the early spring of 1837. There is no one person, whose invention has been spoken of by any witness, or referred to in any book as involving the principle of Mr. Morse's discovery, but must yield precedence of date to this. Neither Steinheil, nor Cooke and Wheatstone, nor Davy, nor Dyar, nor Henry, had at this time made a recording telegraph of any sort. The devices then known were merely semaphores, that spoke to the eye for a moment—bearing about the same relation to the great discovery before us as the Abbé Sicard's invention of a visual alphabet for the purposes of conversation bore to the art of printing with movable types. Mr. Dyar's had no recording apparatus, as he expressly tells us, and Professor Henry had contented himself with the abundant honors of his laboratory and lecture-rooms."
One case was decided against him, but this decision was afterwards overruled by the Supreme Court, so that it caused no lasting injury to his claims.
As decision after decision was rendered in his favor he received the news calmly, always attributing to Divine Providence every favor bestowed upon him. Letters of congratulation poured in on him from his friends, and, among others, the following from Alfred Vail must have aroused mingled feelings of pleasure and regret. It is dated September 21, 1848:—
I congratulate you in your success at Frankfort in arresting thus far that pirate O'Reilly. I have received many a hearty shake from our friends, congratulating me upon the glorious issue of the application for an injunction. The pirate dies hard, and well he may. It is his privilege to kick awhile in this last death struggle. These pirates must be followed up and each in his turn nailed to the wall.
The Wash. & N.O. Co. is at last organized, and for the last three weeks we have received daily communications from N.O. Our prospects are flattering. And what do you think they have done with me? Superintendent of Washington & N.O. line all the way from Washington to Columbia at $900!!!!!
This game will not be played long. I have made up my mind to leave the Telegraph to take care of itself, since it cannot take care of me. I shall, in a few months, leave Washington for New Jersey, family, kit and all, and bid adieu to the subject of the Telegraph for some more profitable business….
I have just finished a most beautiful register with a pen lever key and an expanding reel. Have orders for six of the same kind to be made at once; three for the south and three for the west.
I regret you could not, on your return from the west, have made us at least a flying visit with your charming lady. I am happy to learn that your cup of happiness is so full in the society of one who, I learn from Mr. K., is well calculated to cheer you and relieve the otherwise solitude of your life…. My kindest wishes for yourself and Mrs. Morse, and believe me to be, now as ever,
Yours, etc.,
ALFRED VAIL.
Mr. James D. Reid in an article in the "Electrical World," October 12, 1895, after quoting from this letter; adds:—
"The truth is Mr. Vail had no natural aptitude for executive work, and he had a temper somewhat variable and unhappy. He and I got along very well together until I determined to order my own instruments, his being too heavy and too difficult, as I thought, for an operator to handle while receiving. We had our instruments made by the same maker—Clark & Co., Philadelphia. Yet even that did not greatly separate us, and we were always friends. About some things his notions were very crude. It was under his guidance that David Brooks, Henry C. Hepburn and I, in 1845, undertook to insulate the line from Lancaster to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, by saturating bits of cotton cloth in beeswax and wrapping them round projecting arms. The bees enjoyed it greatly, but it spoiled our work.
"But I have no desire to criticize him. He seemed to me to have great opportunities which he did not use. He might have had, I thought, the register work of the country and secured a large business. But it went from him to others, and so he left the field."
This eventful year of 1848 closed with the great telegraph suits in full swing, but with the inventor calm under all his trials. In a letter, of December 18, to his brother Sidney, who had now returned to America, he says: "My affairs (Telegraphically) are only under a slight mist, hardly a cloud; I see through the mist already."
And in another part of this letter he says: "I may see you at the end of the week. If I can bring Sarah down with me, I will, to spend Christmas, but the weather may change and prevent. What weather! I am working on the lawn as if it were spring. You have no idea how lovely this spot is. Not a day passes that I do not feel it. If I have trouble abroad, I have peace, and love, and happiness at home. My sweet wife I find, indeed, a rich treasure. Uniformly cheerful and most affectionate, she makes sunshine all the day. God's gifts are worthy of the giver."
It was in the early days of 1849 that a gift of another kind was received by him which could not fail to gratify him. This was a decoration, the "Nichan Iftikar" or "Order of Glory," presented to him by the Sultan of Turkey, the first and only decoration which the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire had conferred upon a citizen of the United States. It was a beautiful specimen of the jeweller's art, the monogram of the Sultan in gold, surrounded by 130 diamonds in a graceful design. It was accompanied by a diploma (or berait) in Turkish, which being translated reads:—
IN THE NAME OF HIM
SULTAN ABDUL HAMID KHAN
Son of Mahmoud Khan, son of Abdul Hamid Khan—may he ever be victorious!
The object of the present sovereign decoration of Noble Exalted Glory, of Elevated Place, and of this Illustrious World Conquering Monogram is as follows:
The bearer of this Imperial Monogram of exalted character, Mr. Morse, an American, a man of science and of talents, and who is a model of the Chiefs of the nation of the Messiah—may his grade be increased—having invented an Electrical Telegraph, a specimen of which has been exhibited in my Imperial presence; and it being proper to patronize knowledge and to express my sense of the value of the attainments of the Inventor, as well as to distinguish those persons who are the Inventors of such objects as serve to extend and facilitate the relations of mankind, I have conferred upon him, on my exalted part, an honorable decoration in diamonds, and issued also this present diploma, as a token of my benevolence for him.
Written in the middle of the moon Sefer, the fortunate, the year of the Flight one thousand two hundred and sixty-four, in Constantinople the well-guarded.
The person who was instrumental in gaining for the inventor this mark of recognition from the Sultan was Dr. James Lawrence Smith, a young geologist at that time in the employ of the Sultan. He, aided by the Reverend C. Hamlin, of the Armenian Seminary at Bebek, gave an exhibition of the working of the telegraph before the Sultan and all the officers of his Government, and when it was proposed to decorate him for his trouble and lucid explanation, he modestly and generously disclaimed any honor, and begged that any such recognition should be given to the inventor himself. Other decorations and degrees were bestowed upon the inventor from time to time, but these will be summarized in a future chapter. I have enlarged upon this one as being the first to be received from a foreign monarch.
As his fame increased, requests of all sorts poured in on him, and it is amazing to find how courteously he answered even the most fantastic, overwhelmed as he was by his duties in connection with the attacks on his purse and his reputation. Two of his answers to correspondents are here given as examples:—
January 17, 1849.
Gentlemen,—I have received your polite invitation to the Printers' Festival in honor of Franklin, on his birthday the 17th of the present month, and regret that my engagements in the city put it out of my power to be present.
I thank you kindly for the flattering notice you are pleased to take of me in connection with the telegraph, and made peculiarly grateful at the present time as coming from a class of society with whom are my earliest pleasurable associations. I may be allowed, perhaps, to say that in my boyhood it was my delight, during my vacations, to seek my pastime in the operations of the printing-office. I solicited of my father to take the corrected proofs of his Geography to the printing-office, and there, through the day for weeks, I made myself practically acquainted with all the operations of the printer. At 9 years of age I compiled a small volume of stories, called it the 'Youth's Friend,' and then set it up, locked the matter in its form, prepared the paper and worked it off; going through the entire process till it was ready for the binder. I think I have some claim, therefore, to belong to the fraternity.
The other letter was in answer to one from a certain Solomon Andrews, President of the Inventors' Institute of Perth Amboy, who was making experiments in aviation, and I shall give but a few extracts:—
"I know by experience the language of the world in regard to an untried invention. He who will accomplish anything useful and new must steel himself against the sneers of the ignorant, and often against the unimaginative sophistries of the learned….
"In regard to the subject on which you desire an opinion, I will say that the idea of navigating the air has been a favorite one with the inventive in all ages; it is naturally suggested by the flight of a bird. I have watched for hours together in early life, in my walks across the bridge from Boston to Charlestown, the motions of the sea-gulls…. Often have I attempted to unravel the mystery of their motion so as to bring the principle of it to bear upon this very subject, but I never experimented upon it. Many ingenious men, however, have experimented on air navigation, and have so far succeeded as to travel in the air many miles, but always with the current of wind in their favor. By navigating the atmosphere is meant something more than dropping down with the tide in a boat, without sails, or oars or other means of propulsion…. Birds not only rise in the air, but they can also propel themselves against the ordinary currents. A study, then, of the conditions that enable a bird thus to defy the ordinary currents of the atmosphere seems to furnish the most likely mode of solving the problem. Whilst a bird flies, whilst I see a mass of matter overcoming, by its structure and a power within it, the natural forces of gravitation and a current of air, I dare not say that air navigation is absurd or impossible.
"I consider the difficulties to be overcome are the combining of strength with lightness in the machine sufficient to allow of the exercise of a force without the machine from a source of power within. A difficulty will occur in the right adaptation of propellers, and, should this difficulty be overcome, the risks of derangement of the machinery from the necessary lightness of its parts would be great, and consequently the risks to life would be greater than in any other mode of travelling. From a wreck at sea or on shore a man may be rescued with his life, and so by the running off the track by the railroad car, the majority of passengers will be saved; but from a fall some thousands, or only hundreds, of feet through the air, not one would escape death….
"I have no time to add more than my best wishes for the success of those who are struggling with these difficulties."
These observations, made nearly sixty-five years ago, are most pertinent to present-day conditions, when the conquest of the air has been accomplished, and along the very lines suggested by Morse, but at what a terrible cost in human life.
That the inventor, harassed on all sides by pirates, unscrupulous men, and false friends, should, in spite of his Christian philosophy, have suffered from occasional fits of despondency, is but natural, and he must have given vent to his feelings in a letter to his true friend and able business agent, Mr. Kendall, for the latter thus strives to hearten him in a letter of April 20, 1849:—
"You say, 'Mrs. Morse and Elizabeth are both sitting by me.' How is it possible, in the midst of so much that is charming and lovely, that you could sink into the gloomy spirit which your letter indicates? Can there be a Paradise without Devils in it—Blue Devils, I mean? And how is it that now, instead of addressing themselves first to the woman, they march boldly up to the man?
"Faith in our Maker is a most important Christian virtue, but man has no right to rely on Faith alone until he has exhausted his own power. When we have done all we can with pure hands and honest hearts, then may we rely with confidence on the aid of Him who governs worlds and atoms, controls, when He chooses, the will of man, restrains his passions and makes his bad designs subservient to the best of ends.
"Now for a short application of a short sermon. We must do our best to have the Depositions and Affidavits prepared and forwarded in due time. This done we may have Faith that we will gain our cause. Or, if with our utmost exertions, we fail in our preparations, we shall be warranted in having Faith that no harm will come of it.
"But if, like the Jews in the Maccabees, we rely upon the Lord to fight our battles, without lifting a weapon in our defence, or, like the wagoner in the fable, we content ourselves with calling on Hercules, we shall find in the end that 'Faith without Works is dead.' … The world, as you say, is 'the world'—a quarrelling, vicious, fighting, plundering world—yet it is a very good world for good men. Why should man torment himself about that which he cannot help? If we but enjoy the good things of earth and endure the evil things with a cheerful resignation, bad spirits—blue devils and all—will fly from our bosoms to their appropriate abode."
Another true and loyal friend was George Wood, associated with Mr. Kendall in Washington, from whom are many affectionate and witty letters which it would be a pleasure to reproduce, but for the present I shall content myself with extracts from one dated May 4, 1849:—
"It does seem to me that Satan has, from the jump, been at war with this invention of yours. At first he strove to cover you up with a F.O.G. of Egyptian hue; then he ran your wires through leaden pipe, constructed by his 'pipe-laying' agents, into the ground and 'all aground.' And when these were hoisted up, like the Brazen Serpent, on poles for all to gaze at and admire, then who so devout a worshipper as the Devil in the person of one of his children of darkness, who came forward at once to contract for a line reaching to St. Louis—and round the world—upon that principle of the true construction of constitutions, and such like contracts, first promulgated by that 'Old Roman' the 'Hero of two Wars,' and approved by the 'whole hog' Democracy of the 'first republic of the world,' and which, like the moral law is summarily comprehended in a few words—'The constitution (or contract) is what I understand it to be.'
"Now without stopping to show you that O'Reilly was a true disciple of O'Hickory, I think you will not question his being a son of Satan, whose brazen instruments (one of whom gave his first born the name of Morse) instigated by the Gent in Black, not content with inflicting us with the Irish Potato Rot, has recently brought over the Scotch Itch, if, perhaps, by plagues Job was never called upon to suffer (for there were no Courts of Equity and Chancery in those early days) the American inventor might be tempted to curse God and die. But, Ah! you have such a sweet wife, and Job's was such a vinegar cruet."
It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to explain that F.O.J. Smith was nicknamed "Fog" Smith, and that the "Scotch Itch" referred to the telegraph of Alexander Bain, which, for a time, was used by the enemies of Morse in the effort to break down his patent rights. The other allusions were to the politics of the day.
Another good friend and business associate was Thomas R. Walker, who in 1849 was mayor of Utica, New York. Mr. Walker's wife was the half-sister of Mrs. Griswold, Morse's mother-in-law, so there were ties of relationship as well as of friendship between the two men, and Morse thought so highly of Mr. Walker that he made him one of the executors of his will.
In a letter of July 11, 1849, Mr. Walker says: "The course pursued by the press is simply mercenary. Were it otherwise you would receive justice at their hands, and your fame and merits would be vindicated instead of being tarnished by the editorials of selfish and ungenerous men. But— 'magna est veritas et prevalebit.' There is comfort in that at any rate."
It would seem that not only was the inventor forced to uphold his rights through a long series of lawsuits, but a great part of the press of the country was hostile to him on the specious plea that they were attempting to overthrow a baleful monopoly. In this connection the following extract from a letter to J. Fenimore Cooper, written about this time, is peculiarly apt:—
"It is not because I have not thought of you and your excellent family that I have not long since written to you to know your personal welfare. I hear of you often, it is true, through the papers. They praise you, as usual, for it is praise to have the abuse of such as abuse you. In all your libel suits against these degraded wretches I sympathize entirely with you, and there are thousands who now thank you in their hearts for the moral courage you display in bringing these licentious scamps to a knowledge of their duty. Be assured the good sense, the intelligence, the right feeling of the community at large are with you. The licentiousness of the press needed the rebuke which you have given it, and it feels it too despite its awkward attempts to brave it out.
"I will say nothing of your 'Home as Found.' I will use the frankness to say that I wish you had not written it…. When in Paris last I several times passed 59 Rue St. Dominique. The gate stood invitingly open and I looked in, but did not see my old friends although everything else was present. I felt as one might suppose another to feel on rising from his grave after a lapse of a century."
An attack from another and an old quarter is referred to in a letter to his brother Sidney of July 10, also another instance of the unfairness of the press:—
"Dr. Jackson had the audacity to appear at Louisville by affidavit against me. My counter-affidavit, with his original letters, contradicting in toto his statement, put him hors de combat. Mr. Kendall says he was 'completely used up.' … I have got a copy of Jackson's affidavit which I should like to show you. There never was a more finished specimen of wholesale lying than is contained in it. He is certainly a monomaniac; no other conclusion could save him from an indictment for perjury.
"By the Frankfort paper sent you last week, and the extract I now send you, you can give a very effective shot to the 'Tribune.' It is, perhaps, worthy of remark that, while all the papers in New York were so forward in publishing a false account of O'Reilly's success in the Frankfort case, not one that I have seen has noticed the decision just given at Louisville against him in every particular. This shows the animus of the press towards me. Nor have they taken any pains to correct the false account given of the previous decision."
Although no longer President of the National Academy of Design, having refused reëlection in 1845 in order to devote his whole time to the telegraph, Morse still took a deep interest in its welfare, and his counsel was sought by its active members. On October 13, 1849, Mr. Charles C. Ingham sent him a long letter detailing the trials and triumphs of the institution, from which I shall quote a few sentences: "'Lang syne,' when you fought the good fight for the cause of Art, your prospects in life were not brighter than they are now, and in bodily and mental vigor you are just the same, therefore do not, at this most critical moment, desert the cause. It is the same and our enemies are the same old insolent quacks and impostors, who wish to make a footstool of the profession on which to stand and show themselves to the public…. Now, with this prospect before you, rouse up a little of your old enthusiasm, put your shoulder to the wheel, and place the only school of Art on all this side of the world on a firm foundation."
Unfortunately the answer to this letter is not in my possession, but we may be sure that it came from the heart, while it must have expressed the writer's deep regret that the multiplicity of his other cares would prevent him from undertaking what would have been to him a labor of love.
Although Alfred Vail had severed his active connection with the telegraph, he and his brother George still owned stock in the various lines, and Morse did all in his power to safeguard and further their interests. They, on their part, were always zealous in championing the rights of the inventor, as the following letter from George Vail, dated December 19, 1849, will show:—
"Enclosed I hand you a paragraph cut from the 'Newark Daily' of 17th inst. It was evidently drawn out by a letter which I addressed to the editor some months ago, stating that I could not see what consistency there was in his course; that, while he was assuming the championship of American manufactures, ingenuity, enterprise, etc., etc., he was at the same time holding up an English inventor to praise, while he held all the better claims of Morse in the dark,—alluding to his bespattering Mr. Bain and O'Reilly with compliments at our expense, etc.
"I would now suggest that, if you are willing, we give Mr. Daily a temperate article on the rise and progress of telegraphs, asserting claims for yourself, and, as I must father the article, give the Vails and New Jersey all the 'sodder' they are entitled to, and a little more, if you can spare it.
"Will you write something adapted to the case and forward it to me as early as possible, that it may go in on the heels of this paragraph enclosed?"
F.O.J. Smith continued to embarrass and thwart the other proprietors by his various wild schemes for self-aggrandizement. As Mr. Kendall said in a letter of August 4: "There is much Fog in Smith's letter, but it is nothing else."
And on December 4, he writes in a more serious vein: "Mr. Smith peremptorily refuses an arbitration which shall embrace a separation of all our interests, and I think it inexpedient to have any other. He is so utterly unprincipled and selfish that we can expect nothing but renewed impositions as long as we have any connection with him. He asks me to make a proposition to buy or sell, which I have delayed doing, because I know that nothing good can come of it; but I have informed him that I will consider any proposition he may make, if not too absurd to deserve it. I do not expect any that we can accede to without sacrifices to this worse than patent pirate which I am not prepared to make."
Mr. Kendall then concludes that the only recourse will be to the law, but Morse, always averse to war, and preferring to exhaust every effort to bring about an amicable adjustment of difficulties, sent the following courteous letter to Smith on December 8, which, however, failed of the desired result:—
"I deeply regret to learn from my agent, Mr. Kendall, that an unpleasant collision is likely to take place between your interest in the Telegraph and the rest of your coproprietors in the patent. I had hoped that an amicable arbitrament might arrange all our mutual interests to our mutual advantage and satisfaction; but I learn that his proposition to that effect has been rejected by you.
"You must be aware that the rest of your coproprietors have been great sufferers in their property, for some time past, from the frequent disagreements between their agent and yourself, and that, for the sake of peace, they have endured much and long. It is impossible for me to say where the fault lies, for, from the very fact that I put my affairs into the hands of an agent to manage for me, it is evident I cannot have that minute, full and clear view of the matters at issue between him and yourself that he has, or, under other circumstances, that I might have. But this I can see, that mutual disadvantage must be the consequence of litigation between us, and this we both ought to be desirous to avoid.
"Between fair-minded men I cannot see why there should be a difference, or at least such a difference as cannot be adjusted by uninterested parties chosen to settle it by each of the disagreeing parties.
"I write this in the hope that, on second thought, you will meet my agent Mr. Kendall in the mode of arbitration proposed. I have repeatedly advised my agent to refrain from extreme measures until none others are left us; and if such are now deemed by him necessary to secure a large amount of our property, hazarded by perpetual delays, while I shall most sincerely regret the necessity, there are interests which I am bound to protect, connected with the secure possession of what is rightfully mine, which will compel me to oppose no further obstacle to his proceeding to obtain my due, in such manner as, in his judgment, he may deem best."