The failure of the Government to appreciate the value of what was offered to them was always a source of deep regret to Morse. For, while he himself gained much more by the operation of private companies, the evils which he had foretold were more than realized.
But to return to the days of '44, it would seem that in the spring of that year he met with a painful accident. Its exact nature is not specified, but it must have been severe, and yet we learn from the following letter to his brother Sidney, dated June 23, that he saw in it only another blessing:—
"I am still in bed, and from appearances I am likely to be held here for many days, perhaps weeks. The wound on the leg was worse than I at first supposed. It seems slow in healing and has been much inflamed, although now yielding to remedies. My hope was to have spent some weeks in New York, but it will now depend on the time of the healing of my leg.
"The ways of God are mysterious, and I find prayer answered in a way not at all anticipated. This accident, as we are apt to call it, I can plainly see is calculated to effect many salutary objects. I needed rest of body and mind after my intense anxieties and exertions, and I might have neglected it, and so, perhaps, brought on premature disease of both; but I am involuntarily laid up so that I must keep quiet, and, although the fall that caused my wound was painful at first, yet I have no severe pain with it now. But the principal effect is, doubtless, intended to be of a spiritual character, and I am afforded an opportunity of quiet reflection on the wonderful dealings of God with me.
"I cannot but constantly exclaim, 'What hath God wrought!' When I look back upon the darkness of last winter and reflect how, at one time everything seemed hopeless; when I remember that all my associates in the enterprise of the Telegraph had either deserted me or were discouraged, and one had even turned my enemy, reviler and accuser (and even Mr. Vail, who has held fast to me from the beginning, felt like giving up just in the deepest darkness of all); when I remember that, giving up all hope myself from any other source than his right arm which brings salvation, his salvation did come in answer to prayer, faith is strengthened, and did I not know by too sad experience the deceitfulness of the heart, I should say that it was impossible for me again to distrust or feel anxiety, undue anxiety, for the future. But He who knows the heart knows its disease, and, as the Good Physician, if we give ourselves unreservedly into his hands to be cured, He will give that medicine which his perfect knowledge of our case prescribes.
"I am well aware that just now my praises ring from one end of the country to the other. I cannot take up a paper in which I do not find something to flatter the natural pride of the heart. I have prayed, indeed, against it; I have asked for a right spirit under a trial of a new character, for prosperity is a trial, and our Saviour has denounced a woe on us 'when all men speak well of us.' May it not then be in answer to this prayer that He shuts me up, to strengthen me against the temptations which the praises of the world present, and so, by meditation on his dealings with me and reviewing the way in which He has led me, showing me my perfect helplessness without Him, He is preparing to bless me with stronger faith and more unreserved faith in Him?
"To Him, indeed, belongs all the glory. I have had evidence enough that without Christ I could do nothing. All my strength is there and I fervently desire to ascribe to Him all the praise. If I am to have influence, increased influence, I desire to have it for Christ, to use it for his cause; if wealth, for Christ; if more knowledge, for Christ. I speak sincerely when I say I fear prosperity lest I should be proud and forget whence it comes."
Having at length recovered from the accident which had given him, in spite of himself, the rest which he so much needed, Morse again devoted himself to his affairs with his accustomed vigor. The Government still delaying to take action, he was compelled, much to his regret, to consider the offers of private parties to extend the lines of the telegraph to important points in the Union. He had received propositions from various persons who were eager to push the enterprise, but in all negotiations he was hampered by the dilatoriness of Smith, who seemed bent on putting as many obstacles in the way of an amicable settlement as possible, and some of whose propositions had to be rejected for obvious reasons. Before Congress had finally put the quietus on his hopes in that direction, he considered the advisability of parting with his interest to some individual, and, on July 1, 1844, he wrote to Mr. David Burbank from Baltimore:—
"In reply to your query for what sum I would sell my share of the patent right in the Telegraph, which amounts to one half, I frankly say that, if one hundred and ten thousand dollars shall be secured to me in cash, current funds in the United States, or stocks at cash value, such as I may be disposed to accept if presented, so that in six months from this date I shall realize that sum, I will assign over all my rights and privileges in the Telegraph in the United States.
"I offer it at this price, not that I estimate the value of the invention so low, for it is perfectly demonstrable that the sum above mentioned is not half its value, but that I may have my own mind free to be occupied in perfecting the system, and in a general superintendence of it, unembarrassed by the business arrangements necessary to secure its utmost usefulness and value."