PROCEEDINGS OF THE REGENTS. 85 



Professor Felton, in behalf of the special committee to whom the 

 following communication of Professor Henry of March 16, 1857, 

 together with accompanying documents, &c., were referred, presentej^ 

 a report. 



COM.MUNICATION FROM PROF. HENRY, SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN 

 INSTITUTION, RELATIVE TO A PUBLICATION BY PROF. MORSE. 



Gentlemen : In the discharge of the important and responsible 

 duties which devolve upon me as Secretary ot the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, I have found myself exposed, like other men in public positions, 

 to unprovoked attack and injurious misrepresentation. Many instances 

 of this, it may be remembered, occurred about two years ago, during 

 the discussions relative to the organic policy of the Institution ; but, 

 though very unjust, they were suffered to pass unnoticed, and gene- 

 rally made, I presume, no lasting impression on the public mind. 



During the same controversy, however, there was one attack made 

 upon me of such a nature, so elaborately prepared and widely circu- 

 lated, by my opponents, that, though I have not yet publicly noticed 

 H, 1 have from the first thought it my duty not to allow it to go un- 

 answered. I allu<le to an article in a periodical entitled " Shatfner's 

 Telegraph Companion," from the pen of Prof. S. F. B. Morse, the 

 celebrated inventor of the American electro-magnetic telegraph. In 

 this, not my scientific reputation merely, but my moral character was 

 pointedly assailed ; indeed, nothing less was attempted than to prove 

 that in the testimony which I had given in a case where I was at 

 most but a reluctant witness, I had consciously and wilfully deviated 

 from the truth, and this, too, from unworthy and dishonorable 

 motives. 



Such a charge, coming from such a quarter, appeared to me then, as 

 it appears now, of too grave a character and too serious a consequence 

 to be withheld from the notice of the Board of Regents. I, therefore, 

 presented the matter unofficially to the Chancellor of the Institution, 

 Chief Justice Taney, and was advised by him to allow the matter to 

 rest until the then existing excitement with respect to the organiza- 

 tion of the Institution should subside, and that in the meantime the 

 materials for a refutation of the charge might be collected and pre- 

 pared, to be brought forw^ard at the proper time_, if I should think it 

 necessary. 



The article of Mr. Morse was published in 1855, but at the session 

 of the Board in 1856 I was not prepared to present the case properly 



