JANUARY 8, 1856--AUGUST 14, 1856

Payment of dividends delayed.--Concern for welfare of his country.--
Indignation at corrupt proposal from California.--Kendall hampered by the
Vails.--Proposition by capitalists to purchase patent rights.--Cyrus W.
Field.--Newfoundland Electric Telegraph Company.--Suggestion of Atlantic
Cable.--Hopes thereby to eliminate war.--Trip to Newfoundland.--Temporary
failure.--F.O.J. Smith continues to give trouble.--Financial conditions
improve.--Morse and his wife sail for Europe.--Fêted in London.--
Experiments with Dr. Whitehouse.--Mr. Brett.--Dr. O'Shaughnessy and the
telegraph in India.--Mr. Cooke.--Charles H. Leslie.--Paris.--Hamburg.--
Copenhagen.--Presentation to king.--Thorwaldsen Museum.--Oersted's
daughter.--St. Petersburg.--Presentation to Czar at Peterhoff.

I have said in the preceding chapter that order was gradually emerging
from chaos in telegraphic matters, but the progress towards that goal was
indeed gradual, and a perusal of the voluminous correspondence between
Morse and Kendall, and others connected with the different lines, leaves
the reader in a state of confused bewilderment and wonder that all the
conflicting interests, and plots and counterplots, could ever have been
brought into even seeming harmony. Too much praise cannot be given to Mr.
Kendall for the patience and skill with which he disentangled this
apparently hopeless snarl, while at the same time battling against
physical ills which would have caused most men to give up in despair.
That Morse fully appreciated the sterling qualities of this faithful
friend is evidenced by the letter to Dr. Gale in the preceding chapter,
and by many others. He always refused to consider for a moment the
substitution of a younger man on the plea of Mr. Kendall's failing