Perhaps I look too much on the unfavorable side.

I often thus look, not to discourage others or myself, but to check those too sanguine expectations which, with me, would rise to an inordinate height unless thus reined in and disciplined.
"Shall you not be in New York soon?
I wish much to see you and to concoct plans for future operations.

I am at present much straitened in means, or I should yet endeavor to see you in Portland; but I must yield to necessity and hope another season to be in different and more prosperous circumstances." Thus the inventor, who had hoped so much from the energy and business acumen of his own countrymen, found that the conditions at home differed not much from those which he had found so exasperating abroad.

Praise in plenty for the beauty and simplicity of his invention, but no money, either public or private, to enable him to put it to a practical test.
His associates had left him to battle alone for his interests and theirs.
F.O.J.Smith was in Portland, Maine, attending to his own affairs; Professor Gale was in the South filling a professorship; and Alfred Vail was in Philadelphia.

No one of them, as far as I can ascertain, was doing anything to help in this critical period of the enterprise which was to benefit them all.
When credit is to be awarded to those who have accomplished something great, many factors must be taken into consideration.