On October 13, 1849, Mr.
Charles C.Ingham sent him a long letter detailing the trials and triumphs of the institution, from which I shall quote a few sentences: "'Lang syne,' when you fought the good fight for the cause of Art, your prospects in life were not brighter than they are now, and in bodily and mental vigor you are just the same, therefore do not, at this most critical moment, desert the cause.

It is the same and our enemies are the same old insolent quacks and impostors, who wish to make a footstool of the profession on which to stand and show themselves to the public....
Now, with this prospect before you, rouse up a little of your old enthusiasm, put your shoulder to the wheel, and place the only school of Art on all this side of the world on a firm foundation." Unfortunately the answer to this letter is not in my possession, but we may be sure that it came from the heart, while it must have expressed the writer's deep regret that the multiplicity of his other cares would prevent him from undertaking what would have been to him a labor of love.
Although Alfred Vail had severed his active connection with the telegraph, he and his brother George still owned stock in the various lines, and Morse did all in his power to safeguard and further their interests.

They, on their part, were always zealous in championing the rights of the inventor, as the following letter from George Vail, dated December 19, 1849, will show:-- "Enclosed I hand you a paragraph cut from the 'Newark Daily' of 17th inst.

It was evidently drawn out by a letter which I addressed to the editor some months ago, stating that I could not see what consistency there was in his course; that, while he was assuming the championship of American manufactures, ingenuity, enterprise, etc., etc., he was at the same time holding up an English inventor to praise, while he held all the better claims of Morse in the dark,--alluding to his bespattering Mr.
Bain and O'Reilly with compliments at our expense, etc.
"I would now suggest that, if you are willing, we give _Mr.Daily_ a temperate article on the rise and progress of telegraphs, asserting claims for yourself, and, as I must father the article, give the Vails and New Jersey all the 'sodder' they are entitled to, and a little more, if you can spare it.
"Will you write something adapted to the case and forward it to me as early as possible, that it may go in on the heels of this paragraph enclosed ?" F.O.J.Smith continued to embarrass and thwart the other proprietors by his various wild schemes for self-aggrandizement.

As Mr.Kendall said in a letter of August 4: "There is much _Fog_ in Smith's letter, but it is nothing else." And on December 4, he writes in a more serious vein: "Mr.Smith peremptorily refuses an arbitration which shall embrace a separation of all our interests, and I think it inexpedient to have any other.