He says farther on:  “I sincerely rejoiced in the consummation of the great enterprise, although prevented in the way I have shown from being present.  I ought to have been with the cable squadron last summer.  It was no fault of mine, that I was not there.  I hope Mr. Field can exculpate himself in the eyes of the Board, before the world, and before his own conscience, in the course he has taken.”

On the margin of the letter-press copy of a letter Written to Mr. Kendall on December 22, 1859, is a note in pencil written, evidently, at a later date:  “Mr. Field has since manifested by his conduct a different temper.  I have long since forgiven what, after all, may have been error of ignorance on his part.”

The fact remains, however, that his connection with the cable company was severed, and that his relations with Messrs. Field, Cooper, etc., were decidedly strained.  It is more than possible that, had he continued as electrician of the company, the second attempt might have been successful, for he foresaw the difficulty which resulted in failure, and, had he been the guiding mind, it would, naturally, have been avoided.  The proof of this is in the following incident, which was related by a friend of his, Mr. Jacob S. Jewett, to Mr. Prime:—­

“I thought it might interest you to know when and how Professor Morse received the first tidings of the success of the Atlantic Cable.  I accompanied him to Europe on the steamer Fulton, which sailed from New York July 24, 1858.  We were nearing Southampton when a sail boat was noticed approaching, and soon our vessel was boarded by a young man who sought an interview with Professor Morse, and announced to him that a message from America had just been received, the first that had passed along the wire lying upon the bed of the ocean.

“Professor Morse was, of course, greatly delighted, but, turning to me, said:  ’This is very gratifying, but it is doubtful whether many more messages will be received’; and gave as his reason that—­’the cable had been so long stored in an improper place that much of the coating had been destroyed, and the cable was in other respects injured.’  His prediction proved to be true.”

And Mr. Prime adds:  “Had he been in the board of direction, had his judgment and experience as electrician been employed, that great calamity, which cost millions of money and eight years of delay in the use of the ocean telegraph, would, in all human probability, have been averted.”

But it is idle to speculate on what might have been.  His letters show that the action of the directors amazed and hurt him, and that it was with deep regret that he ceased to take an active part in the great enterprise the success of which he had been the first to prophesy.

Many other matters claimed his attention at this time, for, as usual upon returning from a prolonged absence, he found his affairs in more or less confusion, and his time for some months after his return was spent mainly in straightening them out.  The winter was spent in New York with his family, but business calling him to Washington, he gives utterance, in a letter to his wife of December 16, to sentiments which will appeal to all who have had to do with the powers that be in the Government service:—­