310 BULLETIN OF THE 



ject previous to experiment, at length convinces himself of the 

 certainty of the anticipated result. Having thus deceived him- 

 self by his sophisms, be calls upon his neighbors to accept his 

 conclusions as verified truths; and soon acquires the notoriety 

 of having made a discovery which is to change the civilization of 

 the world. The shadowy reputation which he has thus acquired, 

 is too gratifying to his vanity to be at once relinquished by the 

 announcement of his self-deception ; and in preference he ap- 

 ])lies his ingenuity in devising means by which to continue the 

 deception of his friends and supporters, long after he himself has 

 been convinced of the fallacy of his first assumptions. In this 

 way what was commenced in folly, generally ends in fraud."* 



In looking back upon the struggles, conflicts, and obstructions 

 of the past, it really seems quite marvellous that so much should 

 have been accomplished, with so limited expenditure. These 

 large results are partly due to the admirable method of the Sec- 

 retary, his clear presage of effects, and his high power of sys- 

 tematic distribution and appliance; partly to the intelligent zeal 

 and sympathetic energy of the able assistants whom he had asso- 

 ciated with him almost from the organization of the institution ; 

 and partly to the personal magic of the man, — to the surprising 

 amount of voluntary co-operation he was able to call forth in 

 almost every direction, by the sheer force of his own earnest in- 

 dustry, and the contagious influence of his own devotion to the 

 cause of scientific advancement. 



An unwarranted Arraignment. — In 1855, while still with 

 quiet determination maintaining the fundamental purpose of his 

 Smithsonian administration against the pressure and opposition 

 of powerful influences, (the discussion having been even carried 

 to the halls of Congress,) Henry was made the subject of a 

 most wanton and ungrateful public attack, in a pamphlet by 

 Prof Morse of Telegraph fame, impugning not only his scien- 

 tific reputation, but for the first time — the truthfulness of his 

 testimony given in certain telegraph suits some half a dozen 

 years previously, in reluctant obedience to legal summons. f 

 This testimony thus exacted, of course failed to sustain the 

 complainant's exorbitant claims to the absolute invention and 

 ownership of all possible forms of the electro-magnetic telegraph, 



* Smithsonian Report for 1875, pp. 39, 40. 



t The Hon. S. P. Chase, while Governor rf Oh'o, fsub.sequently Chief 

 Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,) in a letter dated 

 Columbus, Nov. 26, 1856, after reciting his professional connection witli 

 the litigations of 1849, says : " I remember very well that you were un- 

 willing 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." 



84 



