bill and its supporters before the
Committee of the Senate, and, after a sharp contest, procured its
rejection in the Senate, and the adoption, by a vote of 13 to 7, of a
substitute granting me _right of way_ and _corporate powers_, which bill,
after violent opposition in the House, was finally passed, 44 to 27. So a
mean intrigue was defeated most signally, and I came off triumphant."

"_April 27._ This you will recognize by the date is my birthday; 36 years
old. Only think, I shall never be 26 again. Don't you wish you were as
young as I am? Well, if _feelings_ determined age I should be in reality
what I have above stated, but that leaf in the family Bible, those boys
and that daughter, those nieces and nephews of younger brothers, and
especially that _grandson_, they all concur in putting twenty years more
to those 36. I cannot get them off; there they are 56!...

"There is an underhand intrigue against my telegraph interests in
Virginia, fostered by a friend turned enemy in the hope to better his own
interests, a man whom I have ever treated as a friend while I had the
governmental patronage to bestow, and gave him office in Baltimore.
Having no more of patronage to give I have no more friendship from him.
Mr. R. has proved himself false, notwithstanding his naming his son after
me as a proof of friendship."

The Mr. R. referred to was Henry J. Rogers, and, writing of him to Vail
on April 26, Morse says: "I am truly grieved at Rogers's conduct. He must
be conscious of doing great injustice; for a man that has wronged another
is sure to invent some cause for his act if there has been none given. In
this case he endeavors to excuse his selfish and injurious acts by the
false assertion that 'I had cast him overboard.' Why, what does he mean?
Was I not overboard myself? Does he or anyone else suppose I have nothing
else to do than to find them places, and not only intercede for them,
which in Rogers's case and Zantziger's I have constantly and
perseveringly done to the present hour, but I am bound to force the
companies, over which I have no control, to take them at any rate, on the
penalty of being traduced and injured by them if they do not get the
office they seek? As to Rogers, you know my feelings towards him and his.
I had received him as a _friend_, not as a mere employee, and let no
opportunity pass without urging forward his interests. I recollected his
naming his son for me, and had determined, if the wealt