PROFESSOR MORSE,--As an assistant in the telegraphic experiment contemplated by the Act of Congress lately passed, I can superintend and procure the making of the _Instruments complete_ according to your direction, namely: the registers, the correspondents with their magnets, the batteries, the reels, and the paper, and will attend to the procuring of the acids, the ink, and the preparation of the various stations. I will assist in filling the tubes with wire, and the resinous coating, and I will devote my whole time and attention to the business so as to secure a favorable result, and should you wish to devolve upon me any other business connected with the Telegraph, I will cheerfully undertake it. Three dollars per diem, with travelling expenses, I shall deem a satisfactory salary. Very respectfully, your ob't ser't, ALFRED VAIL. Professor Fisher was detailed to superintend the manufacture of the wire, its insulation and its insertion in the lead tubes, and Professor Gale's scientific knowledge was to be placed at the disposal of the patentees wherever and whenever it should be necessary. F.O.J. Smith undertook to secure a favorable contract for the trenching, which was necessary to carry out the first idea of placing the wires underground, and Morse himself was, of course, to be general superintendent of the whole enterprise. In advertising for lead pipe the following quaint answer was received from Morris, Tasker & Morris, of Philadelphia:-- "Thy advertisements for about one hundred and twenty miles of 1/2 in. lead tube, for Electro Magnetic Telegraphic purposes, has induced us to forward thee some samples of Iron Tube for thy inspection. The quantity required and the terms of payment are the inducement to offer it to thee at the exceeding low price here stated, which thou wilt please keep _to thyself undivulged to other person_, etc., etc." As iron tubing would not have answered Morse's purpose, this decorous solicitation was declined with thanks. During the first few months everything worked smoothly, and the prospect of an early completion of the line was bright. Morse kept all his accounts in the most businesslike manner, and his monthly accounts to the Secretary of the Treasury were models of accuracy and a conscientious regard for the public interest. One small cloud appeared above the horizon, so small that the unsuspecting inventor hardly noticed it, and yet it was destined to develop into a storm of portentous dimensions. On May 17, he wrote to F.O.J. Smith from New York:--