Preparation for lawsuits.--Letter from Colonel Shaffner.--Morse's reply deprecating bloodshed.--Shaffner allays his fears.--Morse attends his son's wedding at Utica.--His own second marriage.--First of great lawsuits.--Almost all suits in Morse's favor.--Decision of Supreme Court of United States.--Extract from an earlier opinion.--Alfred Vail leaves the telegraph business.--Remarks on this by James D. Reid.--Morse receives decoration from Sultan of Turkey.--Letter to organizers of Printers' Festival.--Letter concerning aviation.--Optimistic letter from Mr. Kendall.--Humorous letter from George Wood.--Thomas R. Walker.-- Letter to Fenimore Cooper.--Dr. Jackson again.--Unfairness of the press. --Letter from Charles C. Ingham on art matters.--Letter from George Vail.--F.O.J. Smith continues to embarrass.--Letter from Morse to Smith. The year 1848 was a momentous one to Morse in more ways than one. The first of the historic lawsuits was to be begun at Frankfort, Kentucky,-- lawsuits which were not only to establish this inventor's claims, but were to be used as a precedent in all future patent litigation. In his peaceful retreat on the banks of the Hudson he carefully and systematically prepared the evidence which should confound his enemies, and calmly awaited the verdict, firm in his faith that, however lowering the clouds, the sun would yet break through. Finding relaxation from his cares and worries in the problems of his farm, he devoted every spare moment to the life out-of-doors, and drank in new strength and inspiration with every breath of the pure country air. 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.