It was well that it was his invariable rule to be prepared for the worst, for, writing to his brother Sidney on February 24, he says:  “We have just had a lawsuit in Philadelphia before Judge Kane.  We applied for an injunction to stay irregular and injurious proceedings on the part of Western (Pittsburg and Cincinnati) Company, and our application has been refused on technical grounds.  I know not what will be the issue.  I am trying to have matters compromised, but do not know if it can be done, and we may have to contest it in law.  Our application was in court of equity.  A movement of Smith was the cause of all.”

Another sidelight is thrown on Morse’s character by the following extract from a letter to one of his lieutenants, T.S.  Faxton, written on March 15:  “We must raise the salaries of our operators or they will all be taken from us, that is, all that are good for anything.  You will recollect that, at the first meeting of the Board of Directors, I took the ground that ’it was our policy to make the office of operator desirable, to pay operators well and make their situation so agreeable that intelligent men and men of character will seek the place and dread to lose it.’  I still think so, and, depend upon it, it is the soundest economy to act on this principle.”

Just about this time, to add to Morse’s other perplexities, Doctor Charles T. Jackson began to renew his claims to the invention of the telegraph, while also disputing with Morton the discovery of ether as an anaesthetic, then called “Letheon,” and claiming the invention of gun-cotton and the discovery of the circulation of the blood.  Morse found a willing and able champion in Edward Warren, Esq., of Boston, and many letters passed between them.  As Jackson’s wild claims were effectually disposed of, I shall not dwell upon this source of annoyance, but shall content myself with one extract from a letter to Mr. Warren of March 23:  “I wish not to attack Dr. Jackson nor even to defend myself in public from his private attacks.  If in any of his publications he renews his claim, which I consider as long since settled by default, then it will be time and proper for me to notice him....  The most charitable construction of the Dr’s. conduct is to attribute it to a monomania induced by excessive vanity.”

While many of those upon whom he had looked as friends turned against him in the mad scramble for power and wealth engendered by the extension of the telegraph lines, it is gratifying to turn to those who remained true to him through all, and among these none was more loyal than Alfred Vail.  Their correspondence, which was voluminous, is always characterized by the deepest confidence and affection.  In a long letter of March 24, Vail shows his solicitude for Morse’s peace of mind:  “I think I would not be bothered with a directorship in the New York and Buffalo line, nor in any other.  I should wish to keep clear of them.  It will only tend to harass and vex when you should be left quiet and undisturbed to pursue your improvements and the enjoyment of what is most gratifying to you.”