and vex when you should be left quiet and undisturbed to pursue your
improvements and the enjoyment of what is most gratifying to you."

And Morse, writing to Vail somewhat later in this same year, exclaims:
"You say you hope I shall not forget that we have spent many hours
together. You might have added 'happy hours.' I have tried you, dear
Vail, as a friend, and think I know you as a zealous and honest one."

Still earlier, on March 18, 1845, in one of his reports to the
Postmaster-General, Cave Johnson, he adds: "In regard to the salary of
the 'one clerk at Washington--$1200,' Mr. Vail, who would from the
necessity of the case take that post, is my right-hand man in the whole
enterprise. He has been with me from the year 1837, and is as familiar
with all the mechanism and scientific arrangements of the Telegraph as I
am myself.... His time and talent are more essential to the success of
the Telegraph than [those of] any two persons that could be named."

Returning now to the letters to his brother Sidney, I shall give the
following extracts:--

"_March 29, 1847._ I am now in New York permanently; that is I have no
longer any official connection with Washington, and am thinking of
_fixing_ somewhere so soon as I can get my telegraphic matters into such
a state as to warrant it; but my patience is still much tried. Although
the enterprise looks well and is prospering, yet somehow I do not command
the cash as some business men would if they were in the same situation.
The property is doubtless good and is increasing, but I cannot use it as
I could the money, for, while everybody seems to think I have the wealth
of John Jacob, the only sum I have actually realized is my first dividend
on one line, about fourteen hundred dollars, and with this I cannot