DISCOURSE OF \V. B.TAYLOR: — NOTES. 387 



and signed in December, 1853, and in January of 1855, under 

 tin' ill-advised promptings of interested supporters, caused to be 

 published in a pamphlel of 96 pages, an elaborate and artfully 

 contrived attack upon Henry's character as a scientific explorer, and 

 as a trustworthy man; undertaking the hazardous task of exposing 

 •'the utter non-reliability of Henry's testimony." [n this assault — 

 so unfortunate for his own reputation, (if not for candor, at least 

 for intelligence,) he announced: 



"1st. I certainly shall show that T have not only manifested every 

 disposition to give due credit to Professor Henry, but under the 

 hasty impression that he deserved credit for discoveries in science 

 bearing upon the telegraph, I did actually give him a degree of 

 credit not only beyond what he had received at that time from the 

 scientific world, but a degree of credit to which subsequent research 

 lias proved him not to be entitled. 2<\. 1 shall show that I am not 

 indebted to him for any discovery in science bearing on the tele- 

 graph, and that all discoveries of' principles having this bearing 

 were made not by Professor Henry, but by others and prior to tiny 

 experiments of Professor Henry in the science of electro-magnetism. 

 .'Id. I shall further show that the claim set up for Professor Henry 

 to the invention of an important part of my telegraph system, has 

 no validity in fact." * 



N lectinsr entirelvthe first allegation, — as a sufficient answer to 



the second, Henry simply appealed to the unimpeachable testimony 

 of Dr. Gale, who certainly had a much more precise knowledge of 

 Professor Morse's early experiments and apparatus than the inventor 

 himself. And in reply to the third allegation, driven in self-defence 

 to the unusual step of self-assertion, Henry presented to the Regents 

 for their adjudication, the evidences of his discoveries and of their 

 respective dates of application and promulgation, j" 



Professor Gale, who still preserved a faithful friendship for his 

 former colleague, yet in the interests of' truth did not hesitate to 

 renew his former testimony to the vital bearing of Henry's researches 



■ .1 Deft nee against the injurious '!< ductions drawn from the Deposition of Professor 

 lb ,<i<i. New York, 1855, p. 8. 



\ select committee appointed by tin- Board of Regents to investigate the 

 imputations made by this remarkable assault— against the truthfulness of their 

 Secretarj . after a careful examination of all the evidences presented or accessible, 

 submitted through iis chairman, President Felton of Harvard University, a very 

 able and exhaustive report, in which tin- tenor of the pamphlet is characterized 



as "a disingenuous piec f sophistical argument," ami the conclusion is 



announced, "that Mr. Morse lias failed to substantiate any one of the charges he 

 has iiiadc against Professor Henry, although tin- burden of proof lay upon him; 

 and that all the evidence— including the unbiased admissions el' Mr. Morse him- 

 self, is .hi the other side. Mr. Morse's charges not only remain unproved, but 

 they an- positively disproved." (Smithsonian !;■ port for 1857, pp. 88-98.) 



