SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE. 245 



in construction at home, and in the next year trie telegraph 

 reached from Washington through Philadelphia and New York 

 to Boston, from New York to Buffalo by way of Albany, and 

 there were many branch lines in operation. Morse's system 

 had been adopted by the Austrian Government early in the 

 year. 



That success has its perils was early shown in the case of 

 the telegraph. Unauthorized attempts to use Morse's system, 

 in whole or in part, began soon after its value was demon- 

 strated. They rapidly became numerous and appeared in the 

 most varied forms, and were often accompanied by malicious 

 defamation of the inventor and barefaced denials of his claims 

 to originality and priority. Mr. Kendall was vigilant in de- 

 fending the legal rights of the Magnetic Telegraph Company 

 and entirely successful. The first suit for infringement was 

 brought against one Henry O'Rielly, who had built a line to 

 the West under license from the company and then attempted 

 to establish a branch line without authority. The suit was 

 tried in the summer of 1848 at Louisville, Ky., and Morse's 

 patent^was sustained. O'Rielly and his associates then made 

 attempts to evade the injunction granted against them and 

 finally carried the matter to the Supreme Court of the United 

 States. All the historical and expert evidence that could be 

 brought to bear on the matter was now passed in review, with 

 the result that on January 30, 1854, Chief Justice Taney de- 

 livered an opinion, Justices Daniel, Catron, and McLean con- 

 curring, in which Samuel F. B. Morse was declared to be the 

 first and sole inventor of the electro-magnetic recording tele- 

 graph, although it was denied that he had the right to the ex- 

 clusive use of electro-magnetism for a recording telegraph. 

 The minority opinion differed in the direction of being more 

 favourable to Morse. Other suits were decided in the same 

 way, and the rights and achievements of Morse were impreg- 

 nably established. 



In 1847 Prof. Morse bought a tract of two hundred acres 

 on the Hudson River just below Poughkeepsie. Naming his 

 place Locust Grove, he built a tasteful mansion upon it and 

 gathered his children and grandchildren about him. He had 

 never been able to enjoy a home since he left his father's roof 

 up to this time, for even when his little family was established 

 at New Haven he could be there but little. The next year he 



