rstand, went for you. I hope, however, you
may yet yourself resume the pencil, and furnish the public the most
striking commentary on their utter disregard of justice, by placing
somewhere 'The Germ of the Republic' in such colors that shall make them
blush and hang their heads to think themselves such men."

But, while he was to be blessed in the fulfilment, of a long cherished
dream, it was not the dream of painting a great historic picture. He
never seriously touched a brush again, for all his energies were needed
in the defence of himself and his invention from defamation and attack.

In the summer of 1846 he met with another accident giving him a slight
period of rest which he would not otherwise have taken. He writes of it
to his brother on July 30: "On Monday last I had the misfortune to fall,
into one of those mantraps on Broadway, set principally to break people's
legs and maim them, and _incidentally_ for the deposit of the coal of the
household."

Vail refers jestingly to this mishap in a letter of August 21: "I trust
your unfortunate and unsuccessful attempt to get down cellar has not been
a serious affair."

And Morse replies in the same vein: "My _cellar experiment_ was not so
unsuccessful as you imagine. I succeeded to my entire satisfaction in
taking three inches of skin, a little of the flesh and a trifle of bone
from the front of my left leg, and, as the result, got one week's entire
leisure with my leg in a chair. The experiment was so satisfactory that I
deem it needless to try it again, having established beyond a doubt that
skin, flesh and bone are no match against wood, iron and stone. I am
entirely well of it and enjoyed my visit to the western lines very much."

It was characteristic of Morse that the first money which he received
from the actual sale of his patent rights ($45 for the right to use his
patent on a short line from the Post-Office to the National Observatory
in Washington) was devoted by him to a religious purpose. From a letter
of October 20, 1846, we learn that, adding $5 to this sum, he presented
$25 to a Sunday School, and $25 to the fund for repairs.

The attachment of the three Morse brothers to each other was intense, and
lasted to the end of their lives. The letters of Finley Morse to his
brother Sidney, in particular, would alone fill a volume and are of great
interest. Most of them have never before been published and I shall quote
from them freely in following Morse