uding to his bespattering Mr.
Bain and O'Reilly with compliments at our expense, etc.

"I would now suggest that, if you are willing, we give _Mr. Daily_ a
temperate article on the rise and progress of telegraphs, asserting
claims for yourself, and, as I must father the article, give the Vails
and New Jersey all the 'sodder' they are entitled to, and a little more,
if you can spare it.

"Will you write something adapted to the case and forward it to me as
early as possible, that it may go in on the heels of this paragraph
enclosed?"

F.O.J. Smith continued to embarrass and thwart the other proprietors by
his various wild schemes for self-aggrandizement. As Mr. Kendall said in
a letter of August 4: "There is much _Fog_ in Smith's letter, but it is
nothing else."

And on December 4, he writes in a more serious vein: "Mr. Smith
peremptorily refuses an arbitration which shall embrace a separation of
all our interests, and I think it inexpedient to have any other. He is so
utterly unprincipled and selfish that we can expect nothing but renewed
impositions as long as we have any connection with him. He asks me to
make a proposition to buy or sell, which I have delayed doing, because I
know that nothing good can come of it; but I have informed him that I
will consider any proposition he may make, if not too absurd to deserve
it. I do not expect any that we can accede to without sacrifices to this
worse than patent pirate which I am not prepared to make."

Mr. Kendall then concludes that the only recourse will be to the law, but
Morse, always averse to war, and preferring to exhaust every effort to
bring about an amicable adjustment of difficulties, sent the following
courteous letter to Smith on December 8, which, however, failed of the
desired result:--

"I deeply regret to learn from my agent, Mr. Kendall, that an unpleasant
collision is likely to take place between your interest in the Telegraph
and the rest of your coproprietors in the patent. I had hoped that an
amicable arbitrament might arrange all our mutual interests to our mutual
advantage and satisfaction; but I learn that his proposition to that
effect has been rejected by you.

"You must be aware that the rest of your coproprietors have been great
sufferers in their property, for some time past, from the frequent
disagreements between their agent and yourself, and that, for the sake of
peace, they have endured much and long. It is impossible for me to say