d
in all directions. As might be expected then, I have my plans interfered
with by mercenary speculators who threaten to put up rival telegraphs and
contest my patent. _I am ready for them._ We have had to apply for an
injunction on the Philadelphia and Pittsburg line. The case is an
aggravated one and will be decided on Monday or Tuesday at Philadelphia
in Circuit Court of United States. I have no uneasiness as to the result.
[It was decided against him, however, but this proved only a temporary
check.]

"There are more F.O.Js. than one, yet not one quite so bad. I think amid
all the scramble I shall probably have enough come to my share, and it
does not matter by what means our Heavenly Father chooses to curtail my
receipts, for I shall have just what he pleases, none can hinder it, and
more I do not want.... House and his associates are making most strenuous
efforts to interfere and embarrass me by playing on the ignorance of the
public and the natural timidity of capitalists. I shall probably have to
lay the law on him and make an example before my patent is confirmed in
the minds of the public. It is the course, I am told, of every
substantial patent. It has to undergo the ordeal of one trial in the
courts....

"Although I thus write, you need have no fears that my operations will be
seriously affected by any schemes of common letter printing telegraphs. I
have just filed a caveat for one which I have invented, which as far
transcends in simplicity and efficiency any previous plan for the
purpose, as my telegraph system is superior to the old visual telegraphs.
I will have it in operation by the time you return."

Apropos of the attacks made upon him by would-be infringers, the
following from a letter of his legal counsel, Daniel Lord, Esq., dated
January 12, 1847, may not come amiss: "It ought to be a source of great
satisfaction to you to have your invention stolen and counterfeited.
Think what an acknowledgment it is, and what a tribute to its merits."

Referring to this in a letter to Mr. Lord of a later date, Morse answers:
"The plot thickens all around me; I think a _denouement_ not far off. I
remember your consoling me under these attacks with bidding me think that
I had invented something worth contending for. Alas! my dear sir, what
encouragement is there to an inventor if, after years of toil and
anxiety, he has only purchased for himself the pleasure of being a target
for every vile fellow to shoot a