"It has always seemed a mystery to me how I should have been led on to the acquirement of the knowledge I possess of painting, with so much sacrifice of time and money, and through so many anxieties and perplexities, and then suddenly be stopped as if a wall were built across my path, so that I could pursue my profession no longer. But, I believe, I had grace to trust in God in the darkest hour of trial, persuaded that He could and would clear up in his own time and manner all the mystery that surrounded me.
"And now, if not greatly deceived, I have a glimpse of his wonderful, truly wonderful, mercy towards me. He has chosen thus to order events that my mind might be concentrated upon that invention which He has permitted to be born for the blessing, I trust, of the world. And He has chosen me as the instrument, and given me the honor, and at the moment when all has been accomplished which is essential to its success, He so orders events as again to turn my thoughts to my almost sacrificed Isaac."
In this, however, he did not read the fates aright, for a letter from his friend, Reverend E. Goodrich Smith, dated March 2, 1847, conveys the following intelligence: "I have just learned to-day that, with their usual discrimination and justice, Congress have voted $6000 to have the panel filled by young Powell. He enlisted all Ohio, and they all electioneered with all their might, and no one knew that the question would come up. New York, I understand, went for you. I hope, however, you may yet yourself resume the pencil, and furnish the public the most striking commentary on their utter disregard of justice, by placing somewhere 'The Germ of the Republic' in such colors that shall make them blush and hang their heads to think themselves such men."
But, while he was to be blessed in the fulfilment, of a long cherished dream, it was not the dream of painting a great historic picture. He never seriously touched a brush again, for all his energies were needed in the defence of himself and his invention from defamation and attack.
In the summer of 1846 he met with another accident giving him a slight period of rest which he would not otherwise have taken. He writes of it to his brother on July 30: "On Monday last I had the misfortune to fall, into one of those mantraps on Broadway, set principally to break people's legs and maim them, and incidentally for the deposit of the coal of the household."
Vail refers jestingly to this mishap in a letter of August 21: "I trust your unfortunate and unsuccessful attempt to get down cellar has not been a serious affair."
And Morse replies in the same vein: "My cellar experiment was not so unsuccessful as you imagine. I succeeded to my entire satisfaction in taking three inches of skin, a little of the flesh and a trifle of bone from the front of my left leg, and, as the result, got one week's entire leisure with my leg in a chair. The experiment was so satisfactory that I deem it needless to try it again, having established beyond a doubt that skin, flesh and bone are no match against wood, iron and stone. I am entirely well of it and enjoyed my visit to the western lines very much."
It was characteristic of Morse that the first money which he received from the actual sale of his patent rights ($45 for the right to use his patent on a short line from the Post-Office to the National Observatory in Washington) was devoted by him to a religious purpose. From a letter of October 20, 1846, we learn that, adding $5 to this sum, he presented $25 to a Sunday School, and $25 to the fund for repairs.
The attachment of the three Morse brothers to each other was intense, and lasted to the end of their lives. The letters of Finley Morse to his brother Sidney, in particular, would alone fill a volume and are of great interest. Most of them have never before been published and I shall quote from them freely in following Morse's career.
Sidney and his family were still in Europe, and the two following extracts are from letters to him:—