th my Telegraph in competition with
my European rivals, backed as they are with the purses of the kings and
wealthy of their countries, while our own Government leaves me to fight
their battles for the honor of this invention fettered hand and foot.
Thanks will be due to you, not to them, if I am able to maintain the
ground occupied by the American Telegraph."

Shortly after his return from abroad, on April 24, Morse wrote the
following letter to Professor Henry at Princeton:--

My Dear Sir,--On my return a few days since from Europe, I found directed
to me, through your politeness, a copy of your valuable "Contributions,"
for which I beg you to accept my warmest thanks. The various cares
consequent upon so long an absence from home, and which have demanded my
more immediate attention, have prevented me from more than a cursory
perusal of its interesting contents, yet I perceive many things of great
interest to me in my telegraphic enterprise.

I was glad to learn, by a letter received in Paris from Dr. Gale, that a
spool of five miles of my wire was loaned to you, and I perceive that you
have already made some interesting experiments with it.

In the absence of Dr. Gale, who has gone South, I feel a great desire to
consult some scientific gentleman on points of importance bearing upon my
Telegraph, which I am about to establish in Russia, being under an
engagement with the Russian Government agent in Paris to return to Europe
for that purpose in a few weeks. I should be exceedingly happy to see you
and am tempted to break away from my absorbing engagements here to find
you at Princeton. In case I should be able to visit Princeton for a few
days a week or two hence, how should I find you engaged? I should come as
a learner and could bring no "contributions" to your stock of experiments
of any value, nor any means of furthering your experiments except,
perhaps, the loan of an additional five miles of wire which it may be
desirable for you to have.

I have many questions to ask, but should be happy, in your reply to this
letter, of an answer to this general one: Have you met with any facts in
your experiments thus far that would lead you to think that my mode of
telegraphic communication will prove impracticable? So far as I have
consulted the savants of Paris, they have suggested no insurmountable
difficulties; I have, however, quite as much confidence in your judgment,
from your valuable experience, as in that of an