tely occupy,
in groups of high relief, the sides of that pedestal, symbolizing, by
their established merits and cooperative works, the grandeur of the
researches and resulting discoveries of their leader and chief, who was
the first to announce and to demonstrate to a despairing world, by actual
mechanical agencies, the practicability of; an electro-magnetic telegraph
through any distances.

Much more of the same flatulent bombast follows which it will not be
necessary to introduce here. While Morse himself naturally felt some
delicacy in noticing such an attack as this, he found a willing, and
efficient champion in his old friend (and the friend of Henry as well)
Professor Leonard D. Gale, who writes to him on January 22, 1872:--

"I have lately seen a mean, unfair, and villainous letter of F.O.J.
Smith, addressed to H.J. Rogers (officer of the Morse Monumental
Association), alleging that the place on the monument designed to be
occupied by the statue of Morse, should be awarded to Henry; that Morse
was not a scientific man, etc., etc. It was written in his own peculiar
style. The allegations were so outrageous that I felt it my duty to reply
to it without delay. As Smith's letter was to Rogers, as an officer of
the Association, I sent my reply to the same person. I enclose a copy
herewith.

"Mrs. Gale suggests an additional figure to the group on the monument--a
serpent with the face of F.O.J.S., biting the heel of Morse, but with the
fangs extracted."

Professor Gale's letter to Henry J. Rogers is worthy of being quoted in
full:--

"I have just read a letter from F.O.J. Smith, dated December 11, 1871,
addressed to you, and designed to throw discredit on Morse's invention of
the Telegraph, the burden of which seems to be rebuke to the designer of
the monument, for elevating Morse to the apex of the monument and
claiming for Professor J. Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, that
high distinction.

"The first question of an impartial inquirer is: 'To which of these
gentlemen is the honor due?' To ascertain this we will ask a second
question: 'Was the subject of the invention a _machine_, or was it _a new
fact in science_?' The answer is: 'It was a _machine_.' The first was
Morse's, the latter was Henry's. Henry stated that electric currents
might be sent through long distances applicable to telegraphic purposes.
Morse took the facts as they then existed, invented a machine, harnessed
the steed therein, and set