11 



the United States for the district of Kentucky. The object of the bill was to 

 restrain the defendants, my clients, from the use in telegraphing of a certain 

 instrument called the Columbian Telegraph, on the ground that it was an infringe- 

 ment upon the rights of the complainants under the patents granted to Professor 

 Morse. It therefore became my duty, in the preparation of their defence, to 

 ascertain the precipe nature and extent of their rights. With this view I called 

 upon you, in August or September of that year, for your deposition. It was 

 taken before George S. Hillard, esq., a United States Commissioner for the Dis- 

 trict of IMas.-achusetts, in Boston. I remember very well that you were unwilling 

 to be involved in the controversy, even as a witness, and that you only submitted 

 to be examined in compliance with the requirements of law. Not one of your 

 statements was volunteered. They were all called out by questions propounded 

 either verbally or in writing I was not sufficiently ftxmiliar at the time with 

 the precise merits of the ease to know what would or would not be important, 

 and therefore insisted on a full statement, not merely of the general history of 

 electro-magnetism as applied to telegraphing, but of all your own discoveries in 

 that science having relation to the same art, and of all that had passed between 

 yourself and Professor Morse connected with these discoveries or with the tele- 

 graph. You could not have refused to respond to the questions propounded, 

 without subjecting yourself to judicial animadversion and constraint. Nothing 

 in what you testified, or your manner of testifying, suggested to me the idea that 

 you were animated by any desire to arrogate undue merit to yourself, or to detract 

 from the just claims of Professor Morse. 



S. P. CHASE. 



Previous to this deposition, Mr. Morse, as appears from his own letters 

 and statements, entertained for Professor Henry the warmest feelings of 

 personal regard, and the highest esteem for his character as a scientific 

 man. In a letter, dated April 24, 1830, he thanks Prof. Henry for a copy 

 of his "valuable contributions," and says, "I perceive many things (in the 

 contributions) of great interest to me in my telegraphic enterprise." Again, 

 in the same letter, speaking of an intended visit to the Professor at Prince- 

 ton, he says : "I should come as a learner, and could bring no 'contributions' 

 to your stock of experiments of any value." And still further: "I think 

 that you have pursued an original course of experiments, and discovered 

 facts more immediately bearing upon my invention than any that have been 

 published abroad." 



It appears, from Mr. Morse's own statement, that he had at least two 

 interviews with Prof. Henry — one in May, 1839, when ho passed the after- 

 noon and night with him, at Princeton ; and another in February, 1844 — 

 both of them for the purpose of conferring with him on subjects relating 

 to the telegraph, and evidently with the conviction, on Mr. Morse's part, 

 that Prof. Henry's investigations were of great importance to the success 

 of the telegraph. 



As late as 184G, after Mr. Morse had learned that some dissatisfaction 

 existed in Prof. Henry's mind in regard to the manner in which his re- 

 searches in electricity had been passed over by Mr. Vail, an assistant of 

 Mr. Morse, and the author of a history of the American magnetic tele- 



