10 



and assumes it as a duty " to expose tlie utter non-reliability of Professor 

 Henry's testimony ;" that testimony being supported by the most com- 

 petent authorities, and by the history of scientific discovery. He asserts 

 that he " is not indebted to him (Professor Henry) for any discovery in 

 science bearing on the telegraph," he having himself acknowledged such 

 indebtedness in the most unequivocal manner, and the fact being inde- 

 pendently substantiated by the testimony of Sears C. Walker, and the 

 statement of Mr. Morse's own associate. Dr. Gale. Mr. Morse further 

 maintains, that all discoveries bearing upon the telegraph, were made, not 

 by Professor Henry, but by others, and prior to any experiments of Pro- 

 fessor Henry in the science of electro-magnetism ; contradicting in this 

 proposition the facts in the history of scientific discovery perfectly estab- 

 lished and recognized throughout the scientific world. 



The essence of the charges against Professor Henry is, that he gave 

 false testimony in his deposition in the telegraph cases, and that he has 

 claimed the credit of discoveries in the sciences bearing upon the electro- 

 magnetic telegraph which were made by previous investigators ; in other 

 words, that he has falsely claimed what does not belong to him, but does 

 belong to others. 



Professor Henry, as a private man, might safely have allowed such 

 charges to pass in silence. But standing in the important position which 

 he occupies, as the chief executive officer of the Smithsonian Institution ; 

 and regarding the charges as undoubtedly containing an impeachment of 

 his moral character, as well as of his scientific reputation ; and justly 

 sensitive, not only for his own honor, but for the honor of the Institution, 

 he has a right to ask this Board to consider the subject, and to make 

 their conclusions a matter of record, which may be appealed to hereafter 

 should any question arise with regard to his conduct in the premises. 



Your committee do not conceive it to be necessary to follow Mr. Morse 

 through all the details of his elaborate attack. Fortunately, a plain 

 statement of a few leading facts will be sufficient to place the essential 

 points of the case in a clear light. 



The deposition already referred to was reluctantly given, and under 

 the compulsion of legal process, by Professor Henry, before the Hon. 

 George S. Hillard, United States commissioner, on the 7th of September, 

 1849. 



The following is the statement of the Hon. S. P. Chase, (now Gov- 

 ernor of Ohio,) one of the counsel in the telegraph cases, in a letter to 

 Professor Henry, dated Columbus, Ohio, November 26, 1856. 



In the year 1849, I was professionally employed in the defence of certaiu 

 frcntlemen engaged in the business of tclegraphirig between Louisville and New 

 Orleans, against whom a bill of complaint had been filed in the Circuit Court of 



