“As to the Telegraph, I have been compelled from necessity to apply myself to those duties which yield immediate pecuniary relief.  I feel the pressure as well as others, and, having several pupils at the University, I must attend to them.  Nevertheless, I shall hold myself ready in case of need to go to Washington during the next session with it.  The one I was constructing is completed except the rotary batteries and the pen-and-ink apparatus, which I shall soon find time to add if required.

“Mr. Smith expects me in Portland, but I have not the means to visit him.  The telegraph of Wheatstone is going ahead in England, even with all its complications; so, I presume, is the one of Steinheil in Bavaria.  Whether ours is to be adopted depends on the Government or on a company, and the times are not favorable for the formation of a company.  Perhaps it is the part of wisdom to let the matter rest and watch for an opportunity when times look better, and which I hope will be soon.”

He gives freer vent to his disappointment in a letter to Mr. Smith, of November 20, 1839:—­

“I feel the want of that sum which Congress ought to have appropriated two years ago to enable me to compete with my European rivals.  Wheatstone and Steinheil have money for their projects; the former by a company, and the latter by the King of Bavaria.  Is there any national feeling with us on the subject?  I will not say there is not until after the next session of Congress.  But, if there is any cause for national exultation in being not merely first in the invention as to time, but best too, as decided by a foreign tribunal, ought the inventor to be suffered to work with his hands tied?  Is it honorable to the nation to boast of its inventors, to contend for the credit of their inventions as national property, and not lift a finger to assist them to perfect that of which they boast?

“But I will not complain for myself.  I can bear it, because I made up my mind from the very first for this issue, the common fate of all inventors.  But I do not feel so agreeable in seeing those who have interested themselves in it, especially yourself, suffer also.  Perhaps I look too much on the unfavorable side.  I often thus look, not to discourage others or myself, but to check those too sanguine expectations which, with me, would rise to an inordinate height unless thus reined in and disciplined.

“Shall you not be in New York soon?  I wish much to see you and to concoct plans for future operations.  I am at present much straitened in means, or I should yet endeavor to see you in Portland; but I must yield to necessity and hope another season to be in different and more prosperous circumstances.”