Although Alfred Vail had severed his active connection with the
telegraph, he and his brother George still owned stock in the various
lines, and Morse did all in his power to safeguard and further their
interests. They, on their part, were always zealous in championing the
rights of the inventor, as the following letter from George Vail, dated
December 19, 1849, will show:--

"Enclosed I hand you a paragraph cut from the 'Newark Daily' of 17th
inst. It was evidently drawn out by a letter which I addressed to the
editor some months ago, stating that I could not see what consistency
there was in his course; that, while he was assuming the championship of
American manufactures, ingenuity, enterprise, etc., etc., he was at the
same time holding up an English inventor to praise, while he held all the
better claims of Morse in the dark,--alluding 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