“Please tell me how matters stand in relation to F.O.G.  I wish nothing short of entire separation from that unprincipled man if it can possibly be accomplished....I can suffer his frauds upon myself with comparative forbearance, but my indignation boils when I am made, nolens volens, a particeps criminis in his frauds on others.  I will not endure it if I must suffer the loss of all the property I hold in the world.”

The beloved country place was not sacrificed, and a way out of all his difficulties was found, but his faith and Christian forbearance were severely tested before his path was smoothed.  Among all his trials none was so hard to bear as the conduct of F.O.J.  Smith, whose strange tergiversations were almost inconceivable.  Like the old man of the sea, he could not be shaken off, much as Morse and his partners desired to part company with him forever.  The propositions made by him were so absurd that they could not for a moment be seriously considered, and the reasonable terms submitted by Mr. Kendall were unconditionally rejected by him.  It will be necessary to refer to him and his strange conduct from time to time, but to go into the matter in detail would consume too much valuable space.  It seems only right, however, to emphasize the fact that his animosity and unscrupulous self-seeking constituted the greatest cross which Morse was called upon to bear, even to the end of his life, and that many of the aspersions which have been cast upon the inventor’s fame and good name, before and after his death, can be traced to the fertile brain of this same F.O.J.  Smith.

While the inventor was fighting for his rights in his own country, his invention, by the sheer force of its superiority, was gradually displacing all other systems abroad.  Even in England it was superseding the Cooke and Wheatstone needle telegraph, and on the Continent it had been adopted by Prussia, Austria, Bavaria, Hanover, and Turkey.  It is worthy of note that that broad-minded scientist, Professor Steinheil, of Bavaria, who had himself invented an ingenious plan of telegraph when he was made acquainted with the Morse system, at once acknowledged its superiority and urged its adoption by the Bavarian Government.  In France, too, it was making its way, and Morse, in answer to a letter of inquiry as to terms, etc., by M. Brequet, thus characteristically avows his motives, after finishing the business part of the letter, which is dated April 21, 1851:—­

“To be frank with you, my dear sir (and I feel that I can be frank with you), while I am not indifferent to the pecuniary rewards of my invention (which will be amply satisfactory if my own countrymen will but do me justice), yet as these were not the stimulus to my efforts in perfecting and establishing my invention, so they now hold but a subordinate position when I attempt to comprehend the full results of the Telegraph upon the welfare of my fellow men.  I am more solicitous to see its benefits extended world-wide during my lifetime than to turn the stream of wealth, which it is generating to millions of persons, into my own pocket.  A few drops from the sea, which may not be missed, will suffice for me.”