both
houses of Congress, and of how skilled he was in all the diplomatic moves
necessary to success, and finally, after a long delay, occasioned by the
difficulty of getting powers of attorney from all the proprietors, he was
authorized to go ahead. The sanguine inventor hoped much from this
unsolicited offer of assistance, but he was again doomed to
disappointment, for Mr. Coffin's glowing promises amounted to nothing at
all, and the session of 1841-42 ended with no action taken on the bill.

In view of the fact, alluded to in a former chapter, that Francis O.J.
Smith later became a bitter enemy of Morse's, and was responsible for
many of the virulent attacks upon him, going so far as to say that most,
if not all, of the essentials of the telegraph had been invented by
others, it may be well to quote the following sentences from a letter of
August 21, 1841, in reply to Morse's of August 16:--

"I shall be in Washington more next winter, and will lend all aid in my
power, of course, to any agent we may have there. My expenditures in the
affair, as you know, have been large and liberal, and have somewhat
embarrassed me. Hence I cannot incur more outlay. I am, however,
extremely solicitous for the double purpose of having you witness with
your own eyes and in your own lifetime the consummation in actual,
practical, national utility [of] this beautiful and wonderful offspring
of your mechanical and philosophical genius, and know that you have not
overestimated the service you have been ambitious of rendering to your
country and the world."

On December 8, 1841, Morse again urges Smith to action:--

"Indeed, my dear sir, something ought to be done to carry forward this
enterprise that we may all receive what I think we all deserve. The whole
labor and expense of moving at all devolve on me, and I have nothing in
the world. Completely crippled in means I have scarcely (indeed, I have
not at all) the means even to pay the postage of letters on the subject.
I feel it most tantalizing to find that there is a movement in Washington
on the subject; to know that telegraphs will be before Congress this
session, and from the means possessed by Gonon and Wheatstone!! (yes,
Wheatstone who successfully headed us off in England), one or the other
of their two plans will probably be adopted. Wheatstone, I suppose you
know, has a patent here, and has expended $1000 to get everything
prepared for a campaign to carry his project into ope