PEOCEEDINGS OF THE REGENTS. 87 



In the latter part of 1837 I became personally acquainted with Mr. 

 Morse, and at that time, and afterwards, freely gave him information 

 in regard to the scientific principles which had been the subject of my 

 investigations. After his return from Europe, in 1839, our intercourse 

 was renewed, and continued uninterrupted till 1845. In that year, 

 Mr. Vail, a partner and assistant of Mr. Morse, published a work pur- 

 porting to be a history of the Telegraph, in which I conceived manifest 

 injustice was done me. I complained of this to a mutual friend, and 

 subsequently received an assurance from Mr. Morse that if another 

 edition were published, all just ground of complaint should be removed. 

 A new emission of the work, however, shortly afterwards appeared, 

 without change in this respect, or further reference to my labors. Still 

 I made no public complaint, and set up no claims on account of the 

 telegraph. I was content that my published researches should remain 

 as material for the history of science, and be pronounced upon, accord- 

 ing to their true value, by the scientific world. 



After this, a series of controversies and lawsuits having arisen be- 

 tween rival claimants for telegraphic patents, I was repeatedly ap- 

 pealed to, to act as expert and witness in such cases. This I uniformly 

 declined to do, not wishing to be in any manner involved in these lit- 

 igations, but was finally compelled, under legal process, to return 

 to Boston from Maine, whither I had gone on a visit, and to give evi- 

 dence on the subject. My testimony was given with the statement that 

 I was not a willing witness, and that I labored under the disadvantage 

 of not having access to my notes and papers, which were in Washing- 

 ton. That testimony, however, I now reaffirm to be true in every 

 essential particular. It was unimpeached before the court, and exer- 

 cised an influence on the final decision of the question at issue. 



I was called upon on that occasion to state, not only what I had pub- 

 lished, bat what I had done, and what I had shown to others in regard 

 to the telegraph. It was my wish, in every statement, to render Mr. 

 Morse full and scrupulous justice. While I was constrained, there- 

 fore, to state that he had made no discoveries in science, I distinctly 

 declared that he was entitled to the merit of .combining and applying 

 the discoveries of others, in the invention of the best practical form of 

 the magnetic telegraph. My testimony tended to establish the fact 

 that, though not entitled to the exclusive use of the electro-magnet for 

 telegraphic purposes, he was entitled to his particular machine, register, 

 alphabet, &c. As this, however, did not meet the full requirements of 

 Mr. Morse's comprehensive claim, I could not but be aware that, while 



