younger and more healthy man, and better acquainted with regular
book-keeping, but I could not desire a more upright and more honorable
man. If he has committed errors, (as who has not?) they have been of the
head and not of the heart. I have had many years experience of his
conduct, think I have seen him under strong temptation to do injustice
with prospects of personal benefit, and with little chance of detection,
and yet firmly resisting."

Among the calumnies which were spread broadcast, both during the life of
the inventor and after his death, even down to the present day, was the
accusation of great ingratitude towards those who had helped him in his
early struggles, and especially towards Alfred Vail. The more the true
history of his connection with his associates is studied, the more
baseless do these accusations appear, and in this connection the
following extracts from letters to Alfred Vail and to his brother George
are most illuminating. The first letter is dated July 15, 1854:--

"The legal title to my Patent for the American Electro-Magnetic Telegraph
of June 20th, 1840, is, by the late extension of said patent for seven
years from the said date, now vested in me alone; but I have intended
that the pecuniary interest which was guaranteed to you in my invention
as it existed in 1838, and in my patent of 1840, should still inure to
your benefit (yet in a different shape) under the second patent and the
late extension of the first.

"For the simplification of my business transactions I prefer to let the
Articles of Agreement, which expired on the 20th June, 1854, remain
cancelled and not to renew them, retaining in my sole possession the
_legal title;_ but I hereby guarantee to you two sixteenths of such sums
as may be paid over to me in the sale of patent rights, after the