Although soon to pass the fifty-seventh milestone, his sane, temperate habits had kept him young in heart and vigorous in body, and in this same year he was to be rewarded for his long and lonely vigil during the dark decades of his middle life, and to enter upon an Indian Summer of happy family life.
While spending as much time as possible at his beloved Locust Grove, he was yet compelled, in the interests of his approaching legal contests, to consult with his lawyers in New York and Washington, and it was while in the latter city that he received a letter from Colonel Tal.

P.Shaffner, one of the most energetic of the telegraph pioneers, and a devoted, if sometimes injudicious, friend.

It was he who, more than any one else, was responsible for the publication of Morse's "Defense" against Professor Henry.
The letter was written from Louisville on January 9, 1848, and contains the following sentences: "We are going ahead with the line to New Orleans.

I have twenty-five hands on the road to Nashville, and will put on more next week.

I have ten on the road to Frankfort, and my associate has gangs at other parts.