6 



should subside, and that in the meantime the materials for a refutation of 

 the charge might bo collected and prepared, to be brought forward at 

 the proper time, if I should think it ne<i;ssary. 



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 to 

 your consideration, and I now (1857) embrace the first opportunity of 

 bringing the subject officially to your notice, and asking from you an 

 investigation into the justice of the charges alleged against me. And 

 this I do most earnestly, with the desire that when we shall all have 

 passed from this stage of being, no imputation of having attempted to 

 evade in silence so grave a charge shall rest onme ; nor on i/ou, of having 

 continued to devolve upon me duties of the highest responsibility, after 

 that was known to some of you individually, which, if true, should render 

 me entirely unworthy of your confidence. Duty to the Board of Regents, 

 as well as regard to my own memory, to my family, and to the truth of 

 history, demands that I should lay this matter before you, and place in 

 your hands the documents necessary to establish the veracity of my 

 testimony, so falsely impeached, and the integrity of my motives, so 

 wantonly assailed. 



My life, as is known to you, has been principally devoted to science, 

 and my investigations in different branches of physics have given me 

 some reputation in the line of original discovery. I have sought, how- 

 ever, no patent for inventions, and solicited no remuneration for my 

 labors, but have freely given their results to the world, expecting only, 

 in return, to enjoy the consciousness of having added, by my investiga- 

 tions, to the sum of human knowledge, and to receive the credit to which 

 they might justly entitle me. 



I commenced my scientific career about the year 1828, with a series 

 of experiments in electricity, which were continued at intervals up to the 

 period of my being honored by election to the office of Secretary of this 

 Institution. The object of my researches was the advancement of science, 

 without any special or immediate reference to its application to the wants 

 of life or useful purposes in the arts. It is true, nevertheless, that some 

 of my earlier investigations had an important bearing on the electro- 

 magnetic telegraph, and brought the science to that point of development 

 at which it was immediately applicable to Mr. Morse's particular inven- 

 tion. 



In 1831 I published a brief account of these researches, in which 1 

 drew attention to the fact of their applicability to the telegraph ; and in 

 1832, and subsequently, exhibited experiments illustrative of the appli- 

 cation of the electro-magnet to the transmission of power to a distance, 

 for producing telegraphic and other effects. The results I had published 



