Lightning Man_ The Accursed Life of Samuel F. B. Morse - Kenneth Silverman [162]
I do claim to be the first person known, who ever even conceived the possibility of marking or printing intelligible characters at any distance by means of any power whatever.
Another time he tried out:
Telegraphic Speech by Electricity, as the principle of my whole invention.
Or again:
… the first application of magnetism produced by electricity to the imprinting of characters at a distance by which intelligence is communicated.
Until the end of his life, Morse went on adding this and crossing out that, revising his definition to account for and annul new objections raised by his opponents.
It upset Morse that his legal foes counted Professor Joseph Henry as an ally. He had made several attempts to placate the famous scientist, who still resented the omission of his name from Alfred Vail’s history of the telegraph. Morse drafted a letter for Vail to sign and send to Henry, explaining that if the history gave offense none was intended.
Henry did not reply. Morse wrote to Henry in his own person, promising that he had no share in writing Vail’s book: “I am sure of entertaining only the most exalted opinion of your genius, and your labors.” Henry acknowledged the letter and promised a fuller response, but never sent one. When Henry was chosen to preside over the just-created Smithsonian Institution in Washington—the most distinguished scientific post in the country—Morse tried to make amends by publishing a letter in the Observer supporting the choice: “no man in the country,” he wrote, “has all the qualifications for this high trust in a greater degree.” But as president, Henry excluded Vail’s history from the Smithsonian library. (He also refused to provide a room at the Institution for a talk by Frederick Douglass, saying he “would not permit the lecture of the coloured man.”)
Morse’s opponents used Henry’s testimony against him at court, with damaging effect. In one deposition Henry swore that Morse based the telegraph “upon the facts discovered by myself and others.” To his knowledge, he added, Morse had never “made a single original discovery, in electricity, magnetism, or electro-magnetism.” Henry’s antagonism saddened Morse. He so much respected Henry as a scientist that he had considered giving him several thousand dollars to pursue his electrical experiments. The respect survived, and however injured by Henry he resisted striking back. “I would bear & forbear to the last endurable moment, for the sake of science, & lest his relatives and friends should be innocent sufferers with him in his exposure.”
And to deepen distress there was always F. O. J. Smith—“Professor Morse’s worst enemy,” Kendall called him. Morse had hoped to cut loose from Smith almost from the time they became partners. Four years earlier, the hope had seemed realized. At the time, Kendall and Smith had joined forces in fighting O’Reilly. But they began to disagree on how to carry on the war with him. Kendall then negotiated a territorial division with Smith that divorced their business interests. The agreement was complex, involving a series of contracts. Basically Smith gained control over Morse telegraph lines in New England, New York, and the Old Northwest (Michigan, Wisconsin, and most of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois). Morse and Vail would receive stock in Smith’s western lines, and control the rest of the Union. At last Morse had freed himself of Smith, “this arch-fiend.”
But that was four years ago. Instead of cutting Morse loose from Smith, the agreement had generated heated quarrels about the meaning of its terms. At present, Morse found himself as much as ever the victim of Smith’s lust for the upper hand, his desire to gain advantage for the sake of advantage. Kendall