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."