It was a feeble child
indeed, ungainly in its dress, stammering in its speech; but it had then
all the distinctive features and characteristics of its present manhood.
It found a friend, an efficient friend, in Mr. Alfred Vail, of New
Jersey, who, with his father and brother, furnished the means to give
the child a decent dress, preparatory to its' visit to the seat of
Government.'
When we remember that even by this time Vail had entirely altered the
system of signals, and introduced the dot-dash code, we cannot but
regard this as a stinted acknowledgment of his colleague's work. But
the man who conceives the central idea, and cherishes it, is apt to be
niggardly in allowing merit to the assistant whose mechanical skill is
able to shape and put it in practice; while, on the other hand, the
assistant is sometimes inclined to attach more importance to the working
out than it deserves. Alfred Vail cannot be charged with that, however,
and it would have been the more graceful on the part of Morse had he
avowed his indebtedness to Vail with a greater liberality. Nor would
this have detracted from his own merit as the originator and preserver
of the idea, without which the improvements of Vail would have had no
existence. In the words of the Hon.
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