SAMUEL F.B. MORSE
HIS LETTERS AND JOURNALS
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME II
[Illustration: Sam'l. F.B. Morse]
SAMUEL F.B. MORSE
HIS LETTERS AND JOURNALS
EDITED AND SUPPLEMENTED
BY HIS SON
EDWARD LIND MORSE
ILLUSTRATED
WITH REPRODUCTIONS OF HIS PAINTINGS
AND WITH NOTES AND DIAGRAMS
BEARING ON THE
INVENTION OF THE TELEGRAPH
VOLUME II
1914
_Published November 1914_
"Th' invention all admir'd, and each how he
To be th' inventor miss'd, so easy it seem'd
Once found, which yet unfound most would have thought
Impossible."
MILTON.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXI
OCTOBER 1, 1832--FEBRUARY 28, 1833
Packet-ship Sully.--Dinner-table conversation.--Dr. Charles T. Jackson.--
First conception of telegraph.--Sketch-book.--Idea of 1832 basic
principle of telegraph of to-day.--Thoughts on priority.--Testimony of
passengers and Captain Pell.--Difference between "discovery" and
"invention."--Professor E.N. Hereford's paper.--Arrival in New York.--
Testimony of his brothers.--First steps toward perfection of the
invention.--Letters to Fenimore Cooper
CHAPTER XXII
1833--1836
Still painting.--Thoughts on art.--Picture of the Louvre.--Rejection as
painter of one of the pictures in the Capitol.--John Quincy Adams.--James
Fenimore Cooper's article.--Death blow to his artistic ambition.--
Washington Allston's letter.--Commission by fellow artists.--Definite
abandonment of art.--Repayment of money advanced.--Death of Lafayette.--
Religious controversies.--Appointed Professor in University of City of
New York.--Description of first telegraphic instrument.--Successful
experiments.--Relay.--Address in 1853
CHAPTER XXIII
1836--1837
First exhibitions of the Telegraph.--Testimony of Robert G. Rankin and
Rev. Henry B. Tappan.--Cooke and Wheatstone.--Joseph Henry, Leonard D.
Gale, and Alfred Vail.--Professor Gale's testimony.--Professor Henry's
discoveries.--Regrettable controversy of later years.--Professor Charles
T. Jackson's claims.--Alfred Vail.--Contract of September 23, 1837.--Work
at Morristown, New Jersey.--The "Morse Alphabet."--Reading by sound.--
First and second forms of alphabet
CHAPTER XXIV
OCTOBER 3, 1837--MAY 18, 1838
The Caveat.--Work at Morristown.--Judge Vail.--First success.--Resolution
in Congress regarding telegraphs.--Morse's reply.--Illness.--Heaviness of
first instruments.--Successful exhibition in Morristown.--Exhibition in
New York University.--First use of Morse alphabet.--Change from first
form of alphabet to present form.--Trials of an inventor.--Dr. Jackson.--
Slight friction between Morse and Vail.--Exhibition at Franklin
Institute, Philadelphia.--Exhibitions in Washington.--Skepticism of
public.--F.O.J. Smith.--F.L. Pope's estimate of Smith.--Proposal for
government telegraph.--Smith's report.--Departure for Europe
CHAPTER XXV
JUNE, 1838--JANUARY 21. 1839
Arrival in England.--Application for letters patent.--Cooke and
Wheatstone's telegraph.--Patent refused.--Departure for Paris.--Patent
secured in France.--Earl of Elgin.--Earl of Lincoln.--Baron de
Meyendorff.--Russian contract.--Return to London.--Exhibition at the Earl
of Lincoln's.--Letter from secretary of Lord Campbell, Attorney-General.
--Coronation of Queen Victoria.--Letters to daughter.--Birth of the Count
of Paris.--Exhibition before the Institute of France.--Arago; Baron
Humboldt.--Negotiations with the Government and Saint-Germain Railway.--
Reminiscences of Dr. Kirk.--Letter of the Honorable H. L. Ellsworth.--
Letter to F.O.J. Smith.--Dilatoriness of the French
CHAPTER XXVI
JANUARY 6, 1839--MARCH 9, 1839
Despondent letter to his brother Sidney.--Longing for a home.--Letter to
Smith.--More delays.--Change of ministry.--Proposal to form private
company.--Impossible under the laws of France.--Telegraphs a government
monopoly.--Refusal of Czar to sign Russian contract.--Dr. Jackson.--M.
Amyot.--Failure to gain audience of king.--Lord Elgin.--Earl of Lincoln.
--Robert Walsh prophesies success.--Meeting with Earl of Lincoln in later
years.--Daguerre.--Letter to Mrs. Cass on lotteries.--Railway and
military telegraphs.--Skepticism of a Marshal of France
CHAPTER XXVII
APRIL 15, 1839--SEPTEMBER 30, 1840
Arrival in New York.--Disappointment at finding nothing done by Congress
or his associates.--Letter to Professor Henry.--Henry's reply.--
Correspondence with Daguerre.--Experiments with daguerreotypes.--
Professor Draper.--First group photograph of a college class.--Failure of
Russian contract.--Mr. Chamberlain.--Discouragement through lack of
funds.--No help from his associates.--Improvements in telegraph made by
Morse.--Humorous letter
CHAPTER XXVIII
JUNE 20, 1840--AUGUST 12, 1842
First patent issued.--Proposal of Cooke and Wheatstone to join forces
rejected.--Letter to Rev. E.S. Salisbury.--Money advanced by brother
artists repaid.--Poverty.--Reminiscences of General Strother, "Porte
Crayon."--Other reminiscences.--Inaction in Congress.--Flattering letter
of F.O.J. Smith.--Letter to Smith urging action.--Gonon and Wheatstone.--
Temptation to abandon enterprise.--Partners all financially crippled.--
Morse alone doing any work.--Encouraging letter from Professor Henry.--
Renewed enthusiasm.--Letter to Hon. W.W. Boardman urging appropriation of
$3500 by Congress.--Not even considered.--Despair of inventor
CHAPTER XXIX
JULY 16, 1842--MARCH 26, 1843
Continued discouragements.--Working on improvements.--First submarine
cable from Battery to Governor's Island.--The Vails refuse to give
financial assistance.--Goes to Washington.--Experiments conducted at the
Capitol.--First to discover duplex and wireless telegraphy.--Dr. Fisher.
--Friends in Congress.--Finds his statuette of Dying Hercules in basement
of Capitol.--Alternately hopes and despairs of bill passing Congress.--
Bill favorably reported from committee.--Clouds breaking.--Ridicule in
Congress.--Bill passes House by narrow majority.--Long delay in Senate.--
Last day of session.--Despair.--Bill passes.--Victory at last
CHAPTER XXX
MARCH 15, 1848--JUNE 18, 1844
Work on first telegraph line begun.--Gale, Fisher, and Vail appointed
assistants.--F.O.J. Smith to secure contract for trenching.--Morse not
satisfied with contract.--Death of Washington Allston.--Reports to
Secretary of the Treasury.--Prophesies Atlantic cable.--Failure of
underground wires.--Carelessness of Fisher.--F.O.J. Smith shows cloven
hoof.--Ezra Cornell solves a difficult problem.--Cornell's plan for
insulation endorsed by Professor Henry.--Many discouragements.--Work
finally progresses favorably.--Frelinghuysen's nomination as
Vice-President reported by telegraph.--Line to Baltimore completed.--
First message.--Triumph.--Reports of Democratic Convention.--First
long-distance conversation.--Utility of telegraph established.--Offer to
sell to Government
CHAPTER XXXI
JUNE 23, 1844--OCTOBER 9, 1845
Fame and fortune now assured.--Government declines purchase of
telegraph.--Accident to leg gives needed rest.--Reflections on ways of
Providence.--Consideration of financial propositions.--F.O.J. Smith's
fulsome praise.--Morse's reply.--Extension of telegraph proceeds slowly.
--Letter to Russian Minister.--Letter to London "Mechanics' Magazine"
claiming priority and first experiments in wireless telegraphy.--Hopes
that Government may yet purchase.--Longing for a home.--Dinner at Russian
Minister's.--Congress again fails him.--Amos Kendall chosen as business
agent.--First telegraph company.--Fourth voyage to Europe.--London,
Broek, Hamburg.--Letter of Charles T. Fleischmann.--Paris.--Nothing
definite accomplished
CHAPTER XXXII
DECEMBER 20, 1845--APRIL 19, 1848
Return to America.--Telegraph affairs in bad shape.--Degree of LL.D. from
Yale.--Letter from Cambridge Livingston.--Henry O'Reilly.--Grief at
unfaithfulness of friends.--Estrangement from Professor Henry.--Morse's
"Defense."--His regret at feeling compelled to publish it.--Hopes to
resume his brush.--Capitol panel.--Again disappointed.--Another
accident.--First money earned from telegraph devoted to religious
purposes.--Letters to his brother Sidney.--Telegraph matters.--Mexican
War.--Faith in the future.--Desire to be lenient to opponents.--Dr.
Jackson.--Edward Warren.--Alfred Vail remains loyal.--Troubles in
Virginia.--Henry J. Rogers.--Letter to J.D. Reid about O'Reilly.--F.O.J.
Smith again.--Purchases a home at last.--"Locust Grove," on the Hudson,
near Poughkeepsie.--Enthusiastic description.--More troubles without, but
peace in his new home
CHAPTER XXXIII
JANUARY 9, 1848--DECEMBER 19, 1849
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
CHAPTER XXXIV
MARCH 5, 1850--NOVEMBER 10, 1854
Precarious financial condition.--Regret at not being able to make loan.--
False impression of great wealth.--Fears he may have to sell home.--
F.O.J. Smith continues to give trouble.--Morse system extending
throughout the world.--Death of Fenimore Cooper.--Subscriptions to
charities, etc.--First use of word "Telegram."--Mysterious fire in
Supreme Court clerk's room.--Letter of Commodore Perry.--Disinclination
to antagonize Henry.--Temporary triumph of F.O.J. Smith.--Order gradually
emerging.--Expenses of the law.--Triumph in Australia.--Gift to Yale
College.--Supreme Court decision and extension of patent.--Social
diversions in Washington.--Letters of George Wood and P. H. Watson on
extension of patent.--Loyalty to Mr. Kendall; also to Alfred Vail.--
Decides to publish "Defense."--Controversy with Bishop Spaulding.--Creed
on Slavery.--Political views.--Defeated for Congress
CHAPTER XXXV
JANUARY 8, 1855--AUGUST 14, 1856
Payment of dividends delayed.--Concern for welfare of his country.--
Indignation at corrupt proposal from California.--Kendall hampered by the
Vails.--Proposition by capitalists to purchase patent rights.--Cyrus W.
Field.--Newfoundland Electric Telegraph Company.--Suggestion of Atlantic
Cable.--Hopes thereby to eliminate war.--Trip to Newfoundland.--Temporary
failure.--F.O.J. Smith continues to give trouble.--Financial conditions
improve.--Morse and his wife sail for Europe.--Fêted in London.--
Experiments with Dr. Whitehouse.--Mr. Brett.--Dr. O'Shaughnessy and the
telegraph in India.--Mr. Cooke.--Charles R. Leslie.--Paris.--Hamburg.--
Copenhagen.--Presentation to king.--Thorwaldsen Museum.--Oersted's
daughter.--St. Petersburg.--Presentation to Czar at Peterhoff
CHAPTER XXXVI
AUGUST 23, 1856--SEPTEMBER 15, 1858
Berlin.--Baron von Humboldt.--London, successful cable experiments with
Whitehouse and Bright.--Banquet at Albion Tavern.--Flattering speech of
W. F. Cooke.--Returns to America.--Troubles multiply.--Letter to the
Honorable John Y. Mason on political matters.--Kendall urges severing of
connection with cable company.--Morse, nevertheless, decides to
continue.--Appointed electrician of company.--Sails on U.S.S. Niagara.--
Letter from Paris on the crinoline.--Expedition sails from Liverpool.--
Queenstown harbor.--Accident to his leg.--Valencia.--Laying of cable
begun.--Anxieties.--Three successful days.--Cable breaks.--Failure.--
Returns to America.--Retires from cable enterprise.--Predicts in 1858
failure of apparently successful laying of cable.--Sidney E. Morse.--The
Hare and the Tortoise.--European testimonial: considered niggardly by
Kendall.--Decorations, medals, etc., from European nations.--Letter of
thanks to Count Walewski
CHAPTER XXXVII
SEPTEMBER 3. 1858--SEPTEMBER 21, 1863
Visits Europe again with a large family party.--Regrets this.--Sails for
Porto Rico with wife and two children.--First impressions of the
tropics.--Hospitalities.--His son-in-law's plantation.--Death of Alfred
Vail.--Smithsonian exonerates Henry.--European honors to Morse.--First
line of telegraph in Porto Rico.--Banquet.--Returns home.--Reception at
Poughkeepsie.--Refuses to become candidate for the Presidency.--Purchases
New York house.--F.O.J. Smith claims part of European gratuity.--Succeeds
through legal technicality.--Visit of Prince of Wales.--Duke of
Newcastle.--War clouds.--Letters on slavery, etc.--Matthew Vassar.--
Efforts as peacemaker.--Foresees Northern victory.--Gloomy forebodings.--
Monument to his father.--Divides part of European gratuity with widow of
Vail.--Continued efforts in behalf of peace.--Bible arguments in favor of
slavery
CHAPTER XXXVIII
FEBRUARY 26, 1864--NOVEMBER 8, 1867
Sanitary Commission.--Letter to Dr. Bellows.--Letter on "loyalty."--His
brother Richard upholds Lincoln.--Letters of brotherly reproof.--
Introduces McClellan at preëlection parade.--Lincoln reelected.--Anxiety
as to future of country.--Unsuccessful effort to take up art again.--
Letter to his sons.--Gratification at rapid progress of telegraph.--
Letter to George Wood on two great mysteries of life.--Presents portrait
of Allston to the National Academy of Design.--Endows lectureship in
Union Theological Seminary.--Refuses to attend fifty-fifth reunion of his
class.--Statue to him proposed.--Ezra Cornell's benefaction.--American
Asiatic Society.--Amalgamation of telegraph companies.--Protest against
stock manipulations.--Approves of President Andrew Johnson.--Sails with
family for Europe.--Paris Exposition of 1867.--Descriptions of
festivities.--Cyrus W. Field.--Incident in early life of Napoleon III.--
Made Honorary Commissioner to Exposition.--Attempt on life of Czar.--Ball
at Hotel de Ville.--Isle of Wight.--England and Scotland.--The
"Sounder."--Returns to Paris
CHAPTER XXXIX
NOVEMBER 28, 1867--JUNE 10. 1871
Goes to Dresden.--Trials financial and personal.--Humorous letter to E.S.
Sanford.--Berlin.--The telegraph in the war of 1866.--Paris.--Returns to
America.--Death of his brother Richard.--Banquet in New York.--Addresses
of Chief Justice Chase, Morse, and Daniel Huntington.--Report as
Commissioner finished.--Professor W.P. Blake's letter urging recognition
of Professor Henry.--Morse complies.--Henry refuses to be reconciled.--
Reading by sound.--Morse breaks his leg.--Deaths of Amos Kendall and
George Wood.--Statue in Central Park.--Addresses of Governor Hoffman and
William Cullen Bryant.--Ceremonies at Academy of Music.--Morse bids
farewell to his children of the telegraph
CHAPTER XL
JUNE 14, 1871--APRIL 16, 1872
Nearing the end.--Estimate of the Reverend F.B. Wheeler.--Early poem.--
Leaves "Locust Grove" for last time.--Death of his brother Sidney.--
Letter to Cyrus Field on neutrality of telegraph.--Letter of F.O.J. Smith
to H.J. Rogers.--Reply by Professor Gale.--Vicious attack by F.O.J.
Smith.--Death prevents reply by Morse.--Unveils statue of Franklin in
last public appearance.--Last hours.--Death.--Tributes of James D. Reid,
New York "Evening Post," New York "Herald," and Louisville
"Courier-Journal."--Funeral.--Monument in Greenwood Cemetery.--Memorial
services in House of Representatives, Washington.--Address of James G.
Blaine.--Other memorial services.--Mr. Prime's review of Morse's
character.--Epilogue
ILLUSTRATIONS
MORSE THE INVENTOR (Photogravure)
From a photograph.
DRAWINGS FROM 1832 SKETCH-BOOK, SHOWING FIRST CONCEPTION OF TELEGRAPH
MORSE'S FIRST TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENT
Now in the National Museum, Washington.
ROUGH DRAWING BY MORSE SHOWING THE FIRST FORM OF THE ALPHABET AND THE
CHANGES TO THE PRESENT FORM
QUANTITIES OF THE TYPE FOUND IN THE TYPE-CASES OF A PRINTING-OFFICE.
CALCULATION MADE BY MORSE TO AID HIM IN SIMPLIFYING ALPHABET
"ATTENTION UNIVERSE, BY KINGDOMS RIGHT WHEEL." FACSIMILE OF FIRST
MORSE ALPHABET MESSAGE
Given to General Thomas S. Cummings at time of transmission by
Professor S.F.B. Morse, New York University, Wednesday, January 24,
1838. Presented to the National Museum at Washington by the family
of General Thomas S. Cummings of New York, February 13, 1906.
DRAWING BY MORSE OF RAILWAY TELEGRAPH, PATENTED BY HIM IN FRANCE IN
1838, AND EMBODYING PRINCIPLE OF POLICE AND FIRE ALARM TELEGRAPH
FIRST FORM OF KEY.--IMPROVED FORM OF KEY.--EARLY RELAY.--FIRST
WASHINGTON-BALTIMORE INSTRUMENT
The two keys and the relay are in the National Museum, Washington.
The Washington-Baltimore instrument is owned by Cornell University.
S. F. B. MORSE
From a portrait by Daniel Huntington.
HOUSE AT LOCUST GROVE, POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK
SARAH ELIZABETH GRISWOLD, SECOND WIFE OF S. F. B. MORSE
From a daguerreotype.
MORSE AND HIS YOUNGEST SON
From an ambrotype.
HOUSE AND LIBRARY AT 5 WEST 22D STREET, NEW YORK
TELEGRAM SHOWING MORSE'S CHARACTERISTIC DEADHEAD, WHICH HE ALWAYS USED
TO FRANK HIS MESSAGES
MORSE IN OLD AGE
From a photograph by Sarony.
SAMUEL F. B. MORSE
HIS LETTERS AND JOURNALS
CHAPTER XXI
OCTOBER 1, 1832--FEBRUARY 28, 1833
Packet-ship Sully.--Dinner-table conversation.--Dr. Charles T. Jackson.--
First conception of telegraph.--Sketch-book.--Idea of 1832 basic
principle of telegraph of to-day.--Thoughts on priority.--Testimony of
passengers and Captain Pell.--Difference between "discovery" and
"invention."--Professor E.N. Horsford's paper.--Arrival in New York.--
Testimony of his brothers.--First steps toward perfection of the
invention.--Letters to Fenimore Cooper.
The history of every great invention is a record of struggle, sometimes
Heart-breaking, on the part of the inventor to secure and maintain his
rights. No sooner has the new step in progress proved itself to be an
upward one than claimants arise on every side; some honestly believing
themselves to have solved the problem first; others striving by dishonest
means to appropriate to themselves the honor and the rewards, and these
sometimes succeeding; and still others, indifferent to fame, thinking
only of their own pecuniary gain and dishonorable in their methods. The
electric telegraph was no exception to this rule; on the contrary, its
history perhaps leads all the rest as a chronicle of "envy, hatred,
malice, and all uncharitableness." On the other hand, it brings out in
strong relief the opposing virtues of steadfastness, perseverance,
integrity, and loyalty.
Many were the wordy battles waged in the scientific world over the
questions of priority, exclusive discovery or invention, indebtedness to
others, and conscious or unconscious plagiarism. Some of these questions
are, in many minds, not yet settled. Acrimonious were the legal struggles
fought over infringements and rights of way, and, in the first years of
the building of the lines to all parts of this country, real warfare was
waged by the workers of competing companies.
It is not my purpose to treat exhaustively of any of these battles,
scientific, legal, or physical. All this has already been written down by
abler pens than mine, and has now become history. My aim in following the
career of Morse the Inventor is to shed a light (to some a new light) on
his personality, self-revealed by his correspondence, tried first by
hardships, poverty, and deep discouragement, and then by success,
calumny, and fame. Like other men who have achieved greatness, he was
made the target for all manner of abuse, accused of misappropriating the
ideas of others, of lying, deceit, and treachery, and of unbounded
conceit and vaingloriousness. But a careful study of his notes and
correspondence, and the testimony of others, proves him to have been a
pure-hearted Christian gentleman, earnestly desirous of giving to every
one his just due, but jealous of his own good name and fame, and fighting
valiantly, when needs must be, to maintain his rights; guilty sometimes
of mistakes and errors of judgment; occasionally quick-tempered and testy
under the stress of discouragement and the pressure of poverty, but frank
to acknowledge his error and to make amends when convinced of his fault;
and the calm verdict of posterity has awarded him the crown of greatness.
Morse was now forty-one years old; he had spent three delightful years in
France and Italy; had matured his art by the intelligent study of the
best of the old masters; had made new friends and cemented more strongly
the ties that bound him to old ones; and he was returning to his dearly
loved native land and to his family with high hopes of gaining for
himself and his three motherless children at least a competence, and of
continuing his efforts in behalf of the fine arts.
From Mr. Cooper's and Mr. Habersham's reminiscences we must conclude
that, in the background of his mind, there existed a plan, unformed as
yet, for utilizing electricity to convey intelligence. He was familiar
with much that had been discovered with regard to that mysterious force,
through his studies under Professors Day and Silliman at Yale, and
through the lectures and conversation of Professors Dana and Renwick in
New York, so that the charge which was brought against him that he knew
absolutely nothing of the subject, can be dismissed as simply proving the
ignorance of his critics.
Thus prepared, unconsciously to himself, to receive the inspiration which
was to come to him like a flash of the subtle fluid which afterwards
became his servant, he went on board the good ship Sully, Captain Pell
commanding, on the 1st of October, 1832. Among the other passengers were
the Honorable William C. Rives, of Virginia, our Minister to France, with
his family; Mr. J.F. Fisher, of Philadelphia; Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of
Boston, who was destined to play a malign rôle in the subsequent history
of the telegraph, and others. The following letter was written to his
friend Fenimore Cooper from Havre, on the 2d of October:--
"I have but a moment to write you one line, as in a few hours I shall be
under way for dear America. I arrived from England by way of Southampton
a day or two since, and have had every moment till now occupied in
preparations for embarking. I received yours from Vevay yesterday and
thank you for it. Yes, Mr. Rives and family, Mr. Fisher, Mr. Rogers, Mr.
Palmer and family, and a full cabin beside accompany me. What shall I do
with such an _antistatistical_ set? I wish you were of the party to shut
their mouths on some points. I shall have good opportunity to talk with
Mr. Rives, whom I like notwithstanding. I think he has good American
feeling in the main and means well, although I cannot account for his
permitting you to suffer in the chambers (of the General). I will find
out _that_ if I can.
"My journey to England, change of scene and air, have restored me
wonderfully. I knew they would. I like John's country; it is a garden
beautifully in contrast with France, and John's people have excellent
qualities, and he has many good people; but I hate his aristocratic
system, and am more confirmed in my views than ever of its oppressive and
unjust character. I saw a great deal of Leslie; he is the same good
fellow that he always was. Be tender of him, my dear sir; I could mention
some things which would soften your judgment of his political feelings.
One thing only I can now say,--remember he has married an English wife,
whom he loves, and who has never known America. He keeps entirely aloof
from politics and is wholly absorbed in his art. Newton is married to a
Miss Sullivan, daughter of General Sullivan, of Boston, an accomplished
woman and a belle. He is expected in England soon.
"I found almost everybody out of town in London. I called and left a card
at Rogers's, but he was in the country, so were most of the artists of my
acquaintance. The fine engraver who has executed so many of Leslie's
works, Danforth, is a stanch American; he would be a man after your
heart; he admires you for that very quality.--I must close in great
haste."
The transatlantic traveller did not depart on schedule time in 1832, as
we find from another letter written to Mr. Cooper on October 5:--
"Here I am yet, wind-bound, with a tremendous southwester directly in our
teeth. Yesterday the Formosa arrived and brought papers, etc., to the
10th September. I have been looking them over. Matters look serious at
the South; they are mad there; great decision and prudence will be
required to restore them to reason again, but they are so hot-headed, and
are so far committed, I know not what will be the issue. Yet I think our
institutions are equal to any crisis....
"_October 6, 7 o'clock._ We are getting under way. Good-bye."
It is greatly to be regretted that Morse did not, on this voyage as on
previous ones, keep a careful diary. Had he done so, many points relating
to the first conception of his invention would, from the beginning, have
been made much clearer. As it is, however, from his own accounts at a
later date, and from the depositions of the captain of the ship and some
of the passengers, the story can be told.
The voyage was, on the whole, I believe, a pleasant one and the company
in the cabin congenial. One night at the dinner-table the conversation
chanced upon the subject of electro-magnetism, and Dr. Jackson described
some of the more recent discoveries of European scientists--the length of
wire in the coil of a magnet, the fact that electricity passed
instantaneously through any known length of wire, and that its presence
could be observed at any part of the line by breaking the circuit. Morse
was, naturally, much interested and it was then that the inspiration,
which had lain dormant in his brain for many years, suddenly came to him,
and he said: "If the presence of electricity can be made visible in any
part of the circuit, I see no reason why intelligence may not be
transmitted instantaneously by electricity."
The company was not startled by this remark; they soon turned to other
subjects and thought no more of it. Little did they realize that this
exclamation of Morse's was to mark an epoch in civilization; that it was
the germ of one of the greatest inventions of any age, an invention which
not only revolutionized the methods by which intelligence was conveyed
from place to place, but paved the way for the subjugation, to the uses
of man in many other ways, of that mysterious fluid, electricity, which
up to this time had remained but a plaything of the laboratory. In short,
it ushered in the Age of Electricity. Least of all, perhaps, did that Dr.
Jackson, who afterwards claimed to have given Morse all his ideas,
apprehend the tremendous importance of that chance remark. The fixed idea
had, however, taken root in Morse's brain and obsessed him. He withdrew
from the cabin and paced the deck, revolving in his mind the various
means by which the object sought could be attained. Soon his ideas were
so far focused that he sought to give them expression on paper, and he
drew from his pocket one of the little sketch-books which he always
carried with him, and rapidly jotted down in sketches and words the ideas
as they rushed from his brain. This original sketch-book was burned in a
mysterious fire which, some years later, during one of the many telegraph
suits, destroyed many valuable papers. Fortunately, however, a certified
copy had wisely been made, and this certified copy is now in the National
Museum in Washington, and the reproduction here given of some of its
pages will show that Morse's first conception of a Recording Electric
Magnetic Telegraph is practically the telegraph in universal use to-day.
[Illustration: DRAWINGS FROM 1832 SKETCH BOOK, SHOWING FIRST CONCEPTION
OF TELEGRAPH]
His first thought was evidently of some system of signs which could be
used to transmit intelligence, and he at once realized that nothing could
be simpler than a point or a dot, a line or dash, and a space, and a
combination of the three. Thus the first sketch shows the embryo of the
dot-and-dash alphabet, applied only to numbers at first, but afterwards
elaborated by Morse to represent all the letters of the alphabet.
Next he suggests a method by which these signs may be recorded
permanently, evidently by chemical decomposition on a strip of paper
passed along over two rollers. He then shows a message which could be
sent by this means, interspersed with ideas for insulating the wires in
tubes or pipes. And here I want to call attention to a point which has
never, to my knowledge, been noticed before. In the message, which, in
pursuance of his first idea, adhered to by him for several years, was to
be sent by means of numbers, every word is numbered conventionally except
the proper name "Cuvier," and for this he put a number for each letter.
How this was to be indicated was not made clear, but it is evident that
he saw at once that all proper names could not be numbered; that some
other means must be employed to indicate them; in other words that each
letter of the alphabet must have its own sign. Whether at that early
period he had actually devised any form of alphabet does not appear,
although some of the depositions of his fellow passengers would indicate
that he had. He himself put its invention at a date a few years after
this, and it has been bitterly contested that he did not invent it at
all. I shall prove, in the proper place, that he did, but I think it is
proved that it must have been thought of even at the early date of 1832,
and, at all events, the dot-and-dash as the basis of a conventional code
were original with Morse and were quite different from any other form of
code devised by others.
The next drawing of a magnet lifting sixty pounds shows that Morse was
familiar with the discoveries of Arago, Davy, and Sturgeon in
electro-magnetism, but what application of them was to be made is not
explained.
The last sketch is to me the most important of all, for it embodies the
principle of the receiving magnet which is universally used at the
present day. The weak permanent magnet has been replaced by a spring, but
the electro-magnet still attracts the lever and produces the dots and
dashes of the alphabet; and this, simple as it seems to us "once found,"
was original with Morse, was absolutely different from any other form of
telegraph devised by others, and, improved and elaborated by him through
years of struggle, is now recognized throughout the world as the
Telegraph.
It was not yet in a shape to prove to a skeptical world its practical
utility; much had still to be done to bring it to perfection; new
discoveries had still to be made by Morse and by others which were
essential to its success; the skill, the means, and the faith of others
had to be enlisted in its behalf, but the actual invention was there and
Morse was the inventor.
How simple it all seems to us now, and yet its very simplicity is its
sublimest feature, for it was this which compelled the admiration of
scientists and practical men of affairs alike, and which gradually forced
into desuetude all other systems of telegraphy until to-day the Morse
telegraph still stands unrivalled.
That many other minds had been occupied with the same problem was a fact
unknown to the inventor at the time, although a few years later he was
rudely awakened. A fugitive note, written many years later, in his
handwriting, although speaking of himself in the third person, bears
witness to this. It is entitled "Good thought":--
"A circumstance which tends to confuse, in fairly ascertaining priority
of invention, is that a subsequent state of knowledge is confounded in
the general mind with the state of knowledge when the invention is first
announced as successful. This is certainly very unfair. When Morse
announced his invention, what was the general state of knowledge in
regard to the telegraph? It should be borne in mind that a knowledge of
the futile attempts at electric telegraphs previous to his successful one
has been brought out from the lumber garret of science by the research of
eighteen years. Nothing was known of such telegraphs to many scientific
men of the highest attainments in the centres of civilization. Professor
Morse says himself (and certainly he has not given in any single instance
a statement which has been falsified) that, at the time he devised his
system, he supposed himself to be the first person that ever put the
words 'electric telegraph' together. He supposed himself at the time the
originator of the phrase as well as the thing. But, aside from his
positive assertion, the truth of this statement is not only possible but
very probable. The comparatively few (very few as compared with the mass
who now are learned in the facts) who were in the habit of reading the
scientific journals may have read of the thought of an electric telegraph
about the year 1832, and even of Ronald's, and Betancourt's, and Salva's,
and Lomond's impracticable schemes previously, and have forgotten them
again, with thousands of other dreams, as the ingenious ideas of
visionary men; ideas so visionary as to be considered palpably
impracticable, declared to be so, indeed, by Barlow, a scientific man of
high standing and character; yet the mass of the scientific as well as
the general public were ignorant even of the attempts that had been made.
The fact of any of them having been published in some magazine at the
time, whose circulation may be two or three thousand, and which was soon
virtually lost amid the shelves of immense libraries, does not militate
against the assertion that the world was ignorant of the fact. We can
show conclusively the existence of this ignorance respecting telegraphs
at the time of the invention of Morse's telegraph."
The rest of this note (evidently written for publication) is missing, but
enough remains to prove the point.
Thus we have seen that the idea of his telegraph came to Morse as a
sudden inspiration and that he was quite ignorant of the fact that others
had thought of using electricity to convey intelligence to a distance.
Mr. Prime in his biography says: "Of all the great inventions that have
made their authors immortal and conferred enduring benefit upon mankind,
no one was so completely grasped at its inception as this."
One of his fellow passengers, J. Francis Fisher, Esq., counsellor-at-law
of Philadelphia, gave the following testimony at Morse's request:--
"In the fall of the year 1832 I returned from Europe as a passenger with
Mr. Morse in the ship Sully, Captain Pell master. During the voyage the
subject of an electric telegraph was one of frequent conversation. Mr.
Morse was most constant in pursuing it, and _alone_ the one who seemed
disposed to reduce it to a practical test, and I recollect that, for this
purpose, he devised a _system of signs for letters_ to be indicated and
marked by a quick succession of strokes or shocks of the galvanic
current, and I am sure of the fact that it was deemed by Mr. Morse
perfectly competent to effect the result stated. I did not suppose that
any other person on board the ship claimed any merit in the invention, or
was, in fact, interested to pursue it to maturity as Mr. Morse then
seemed to be, nor have I been able since that time to recall any fact or
circumstance to justify the claim of any person other than Mr. Morse to
the invention."
This clear statement of Mr. Fisher's was cheerfully given in answer to a
request for his recollections of the circumstances, in order to combat
the claim of Dr. Charles T. Jackson that he had given Morse all the ideas
of the telegraph, and that he should be considered at least its joint
inventor. This was the first of the many claims which the inventor was
forced to meet. It resulted in a lawsuit which settled conclusively that
Morse was the sole inventor, and that Jackson was the victim of a mania
which impelled him to claim the discoveries and achievements of others as
his own. I shall have occasion to refer to this matter again.
It is to be noted that Mr. Fisher refers to "signs for letters." Whether
Morse actually had devised or spoken of a conventional alphabet at that
time cannot be proved conclusively, but that it must have been in his
mind the "Cuvier" referred to before indicates.
Others of his fellow-passengers gave testimony to the same effect, and
Captain Pell stated under oath that, when he saw the completed instrument
in 1837, he recognized it as embodying the principles which Morse had
explained to him on the Sully; and he added: "Before the vessel was in
port, Mr. Morse addressed me in these words: 'Well, Captain, should you
hear of the telegraph one of these days as the wonder of the world,
remember the discovery was made on board the good ship Sully.'"
Morse always clung tenaciously to the date of 1832 as that of his
invention, and, I claim, with perfect justice. While it required much
thought and elaboration to bring it to perfection; while he used the
published discoveries of others in order to make it operate over long
distances; while others labored with him in order to produce a practical
working apparatus, and to force its recognition on a skeptical world, the
basic idea on which everything else depended was his; it was original
with him, and he pursued it to a successful issue, himself making certain
new and essential discoveries and inventions. While, as I have said, he
made use of the discoveries of others, these men in turn were dependent
on the earlier investigations of scientists who preceded them, and so the
chain lengthens out.
There will always be a difference of opinion as to the comparative value
of a new discovery and a new invention, and the difference between these
terms should be clearly apprehended. While they are to a certain extent
interchangeable, the word "discovery" in science is usually applied to
the first enunciation of some property of nature till then unrecognized;
"invention," on the other hand, is the application of this property to
the uses of mankind. Sometimes discovery and invention are combined in
the same individual, but often the discoverer is satisfied with the fame
arising from having called attention to something new, and leaves to
others the practical application of his discovery. Scientists will always
claim that a new discovery, which marks an advance in knowledge in their
chosen field, is of paramount importance; while the world at large is
more grateful to the man who, by combining the discoveries of others and
adding the culminating link, confers a tangible blessing upon humanity.
Morse was completely possessed by this new idea. He worked over it that
day and far into the night. His vivid imagination leaped into the future,
brushing aside all obstacles, and he realized that here in his hands was
an instrument capable of working inconceivable good. He recalled the days
and weeks of anxiety when he was hungry for news of his loved ones; he
foresaw that in affairs of state and of commerce rapid communication
might mean the avoidance of war or the saving of a fortune; that, in
affairs nearer to the heart of the people, it might bring a husband to
the bedside of a dying wife, or save the life of a beloved child;
apprehend the fleeing criminal, or commute the sentence of an innocent
man. His great ambition had always been to work some good for his
fellow-men, and here was a means of bestowing upon them an inestimable
boon.
After several days of intense application he disclosed his plan to Mr.
Rives and to others. Objections were raised, but he was ready with a
solution. While the idea appeared to his fellow-passengers as chimerical,
yet, as we have seen, his earnestness made so deep an impression that
when, several years afterwards, he exhibited to some of them a completed
model, they, like Captain Pell, instantly recognized it as embodying the
principles explained to them on the ship.
Without going deeply into the scientific history of the successive steps
which led up to the invention of the telegraph, I shall quote a few
sentences from a long paper written by the late Professor E.N. Horsford,
of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and included in Mr. Prime's biography:--
"What was needed to the _original conception_ of the Morse recording
telegraph?
"1. A knowledge that soft wire, bent in the form of a horseshoe, could be
magnetized by sending a galvanic current through a coil wound round the
iron, and that it would lose its magnetism when the current was
suspended.
"2. A knowledge that such a magnet had been made to lift and drop masses
of iron of considerable weight.
"3. A knowledge, or a belief, that the galvanic current could be
transmitted through wires of great length.
"These were all. Now comes the conception of devices for employing an
agent which could produce reciprocal motion to effect registration, and
the invention of an alphabet. In order to this invention it must be seen
how up and down--reciprocal--motion could be produced by the opening and
closing of the circuit. Into this simple band of vertical tracery of
paths in space must be thrown the shuttle of time and a ribbon of paper.
It must be seen how a lever-pen, alternately dropping upon and rising at
defined intervals from a fillet of paper moved by independent clock-work,
would produce the fabric of the alphabet and writing and printing.
"Was there anything required to produce these results which was not known
to Morse?...
"He knew, for he had witnessed it years before, that, by means of a
battery and an electro-magnet, reciprocal motion could be produced. He
knew that the force which produced it could be transmitted along a wire.
He _believed_ that the battery current could be made, through an
electro-magnet, to produce physical results at a _distance_. He saw in
his mind's eye the existence of an agent and a medium by which reciprocal
motion could be not only produced but controlled at a distance. The
question that addressed itself to him at the outset was, naturally, this:
'How can I make use of the simple up-and-down motion of opening and
closing a circuit to write an intelligible message at one end of a wire,
and at the same time print it at the other?'... Like many a kindred work
of genius it was in nothing more wonderful than in its simplicity.... Not
one of the brilliant scientific men who have attached their names to the
history of electro-magnetism had brought the means to produce the
practical registering telegraph. Some of them had ascended the tower that
looked out on the field of conquest. Some of them brought keener vision
than others. Some of them stood higher than others. But the genius of
invention had not recognized them. There was needed an inventor. Now what
sort of a want is this?
"There was required a rare combination of qualities and conditions. There
must be ingenuity in the adaptation of available means to desired ends;
there must be the genius to see through non-essentials to the fundamental
principle on which success depends; there must be a kind of skill in
manipulation; great patience and pertinacity; a certain measure of
culture, and the inventor of a recording telegraph must be capable of
being inspired by the grandeur of the thought of writing, figuratively
speaking, with a pen a thousand miles long--with the thought of a postal
system without the element of time. Moreover the person who is to be the
inventor must be free from the exactions of well-compensated, everyday,
absorbing duties--perhaps he must have had the final baptism of poverty.
"Now the inventor of the registering telegraph did not rise from the
perusal of any brilliant paper; he happened to be at leisure on
shipboard, ready to contribute and share in the after-dinner conversation
of a ship's cabin, when the occasion arose. Morse's electro-magnetic
telegraph was mainly an invention employing powers and agencies through
mechanical devices to produce a given end. It involved the combination of
the results of the labors of others with a succession of special
contrivances and some discoveries of the inventor himself. There was an
ideal whole almost at the outset, but involving great thought, and labor,
and patience, and invention to produce an art harmonious in its
organization and action."
After a voyage of over a month Morse reached home and landed at the foot
of Rector Street on November 15, 1832. His two brothers, Sidney and
Richard, met him on his arrival, and were told at once of his invention.
His brother Richard thus described their meeting:--
"Hardly had the usual greetings passed between us three brothers, and
while on our way to my house, before he informed us that he had made,
during his voyage, an important invention, which had occupied almost all
his attention on shipboard--one that would astonish the world and of the
success of which he was perfectly sanguine; that this invention was a
means of communicating intelligence by electricity, so that a message
could be written down in a permanent manner by characters at a distance
from the writer. He took from his pocket and showed from his sketch-book,
in which he had drawn them, the kind of characters he proposed to use.
These characters were dots and spaces representing the ten digits or
numerals, and in the book were sketched other parts of his
electro-magnetic machinery and apparatus, actually drawn out in his
sketch-book."
The other brother, Sidney, also bore testimony:--
"He was full of the subject of the telegraph during the walk from the
ship, and for some days afterwards could scarcely speak about anything
else. He expressed himself anxious to make apparatus and try experiments
for which he had no materials or facilities on shipboard. In the course
of a few days after his arrival he made a kind of cogged or saw-toothed
type, the object of which I understood was to regulate the interruptions
of the electric current, so as to enable him to make dots, and regulate
the length of marks or spaces on the paper upon which the information
transmitted by his telegraph was to be recorded.
"He proposed at that time a single circuit of wire, and only a single
circuit, and letters, words, and phrases were to be indicated by
numerals, and these numerals were to be indicated by dots and other marks
and spaces on paper. It seemed to me that, as wire was cheap, it would be
better to have twenty-four wires, each wire representing a letter of the
alphabet, but my brother always insisted upon the superior advantages of
his single circuit."
Thus we see that Morse, from the very beginning, and from intuition, or
inspiration, or whatever you please, was insistent on one of the points
which differentiated his invention from all others in the same field,
namely, its simplicity, and it was this feature which eventually won for
it a universal adoption. But, simple as it was, it still required much
elaboration in order to bring it to perfection, for as yet it was but an
idea roughly sketched on paper; the appliances to put this idea to a
practical test had yet to be devised and made, and Morse now entered upon
the most trying period of his career. His three years in Europe, while
they had been enjoyed to the full and had enabled him to perfect himself
in his art, had not yielded him large financial returns; he had not
expected that they would, but based his hopes on increased patronage
after his return. He was entirely dependent on his brush for the support
of himself and his three motherless children, and now this new
inspiration had come as a disturbing element. He was on the horns of a
dilemma. If he devoted himself to his art, as he must in order to keep
the wolf from the door, he would not have the leisure to perfect his
invention, and others might grasp the prize before him. If he allowed
thoughts of electric currents, and magnets, and batteries to monopolize
his attention, he could not give to his art, notoriously a jealous
mistress, that worship which alone leads to success.
An added bar to the rapid development of his invention was the total lack
(hard to realize at the present day) of the simplest essentials. There
were no manufacturers of electrical appliances; everything, even to the
winding of the wires around the magnets, had to be done laboriously by
hand. Even had they existed Morse had but scant means with which to
purchase them.
This was his situation when he returned from Europe in the fall of 1832,
and it is small wonder that twelve years elapsed before he could prove to
the world that his revolutionizing invention was a success, and the
wonder is great that he succeeded at all, that he did not sink under the
manifold discouragements and hardships, and let fame and fortune elude
him. Unknown to him many men in different lands were working over the
same problem, some of them of assured scientific position and with good
financial backing; is it then remarkable that Morse in later years held
himself to be but an instrument in the hands of God to carry out His
will? He never ceased to marvel at the amazing fact that he, poor,
scoffed at or pitied, surrounded by difficulties of every sort, should
have been chosen to wrest the palm from the hands of trained scientists
of two continents. To us the wonder is not so great, for we, if we have
read his character aright as revealed by his correspondence, can see that
in him, more than in any other man of his time, were combined the
qualities necessary to a great inventor as specified by Professor
Horsford earlier in this chapter.
In following Morse's career at this critical period it will be necessary
to record his experiences both as painter and inventor, for there was no
thought of abandoning his profession in his mind at first; on the
contrary, he still had hopes of ultimate success, and it was his sole
means of livelihood. It is true that he at times gave way to fits of
depression. In a letter to his brother Richard before leaving Europe he
had thus given expression to his fears:--
"I have frequently felt melancholy in thinking of my prospects for
encouragement when I return, and your letter found me in one of those
moments. You cannot, therefore, conceive with what feelings I read your
offer of a room in your new house. Give me a resting-place and I will yet
move the country in favor of the arts. I return with some hopes but many
fears. Will my country employ me on works which may do it honor? I want a
commission from Government to execute two pictures from the life of
Columbus, and I want eight thousand dollars for each, and on these two I
will stake my reputation as an artist."
It was in his brother Richard's house that he took the first step towards
the construction of the apparatus which was to put his invention to a
practical test. This was the manufacture of the saw-toothed type by which
he proposed to open and close the circuit and produce his conventional
signs. He did not choose the most appropriate place for this operation,
for his sister-in-law rather pathetically remarked: "He melted the lead
which he used over the fire in the grate of my front parlor, and, in his
operation of casting the type, he spilled some of the heated metal upon
the drugget, or loose carpeting, before the fireplace, and upon a
flagbottomed chair upon which his mould was placed."
He was also handicapped by illness just after his return, as we learn
from the following letter to his friend Fenimore Cooper. In this letter
he also makes some interesting comments on New York and American affairs,
but, curiously enough, he says nothing of his invention:
"_February 21, 1833._ Don't scold at me. I don't deserve a scolding if
you knew all, and I do if you don't know all, for I have not written to
you since I landed in November. What with severe illness for several
weeks after my arrival, and the accumulation of cares consequent on so
long an absence from home, I have been overwhelmed and distracted by
calls upon my time for a thousand things that pressed upon me for
immediate attention; and so I have put off and put off what I have been
longing (I am ashamed to say for weeks if not months) to do, I mean to
write to you.
"The truth is, my dear sir, I have so much to say that I know not where
to commence. I throw myself on your indulgence, and, believing you will
forgive me, I commence without further apology.
"First, as to things at home. New York is _improved_, as the word goes,
wonderfully. You will return to a strange city; you will not recognize
many of your acquaintances among the old buildings; brand-new buildings,
stores, and houses are taking the place of the good, staid, modest houses
of the early settlers. _Improvement_ is all the rage, and houses and
churchyards must be overthrown and upturned whenever the Corporation
plough is set to work for the widening of a narrow, or the making of a
new, street.
"I believe you sometimes have a fit of the blues. It is singular if you
do not with your temperament. I confess to many fits of this disagreeable
disorder, and I know nothing so likely to induce one as the finding,
after an absence of some years from home, the great hour-hand of life
sensibly advanced on all your former friends. What will be your
sensations after six or seven years if mine are acute after three years'
absence?
"I have not been much in society as yet. I have many visitations, but,
until I clear off the accumulated rubbish of three years which lies upon
my table, I must decline seeing much of my friends. I have seen twice
your sisters the Misses Delancy, and was prevented from being at their
house last Friday evening by the severest snow-storm we have had this
season. Our friends the Jays I have met several times, and have had much
conversation with them about you and your delightful family. Mr. P.A. Jay
is a member of the club, so I see him every Friday evening. Chancellor
Kent also is a member, and both warm friends of yours....
"My time for ten or twelve days past has been occupied in answering a
pamphlet of Colonel Trumbull, who came out for the purpose of justifying
his opposition to measures which had been devised for uniting the two
Academies. I send you the first copy hot from the press. There is a great
deal to dishearten in the state of feeling, or rather state of no
feeling, on the arts in this city. The only way I can keep up my spirits
is by resolutely resisting all disposition to repine, and by fighting
perseveringly against all the obstacles that hinder the progress of art.
"I have been told several times since my return that I was born one
hundred years too soon for the arts in our country. I have replied that,
if that be the case, I will try and make it but fifty. I am more and more
persuaded that I have quite as much to do with the pen for the arts as
the pencil, and if I can in my day so enlighten the public mind as to
make the way easier for those that come after me, I don't know that I
shall not have served the cause of the fine arts as effectively as by
painting pictures which might be appreciated one hundred years after I am
gone. If I am to be the Pioneer and am fitted for it, why should I not
glory as much in felling trees and clearing away the rubbish as in
showing the decorations suited to a more advanced state of
cultivation?...
"You will certainly have the blues when you first arrive, but the longer
you stay abroad the more severe will be the disease. Excuse my
predictions.... The Georgia affair is settled after a fashion; not so the
nullifiers; they are infatuated. Disagreeable as it will be, they will be
put down with disgrace to them."
In another letter to Mr. Cooper, dated February 28, 1833, he writes in
the same vein:--
"The South Carolina business is probably settled by this time by Mr.
Clay's compromise bill, so that the legitimates of Europe may stop
blowing their twopenny trumpets in triumph at our _disunion_. The same
clashing of interests in Europe would have caused twenty years of war and
torrents of bloodshed; with us it has caused three or four years of wordy
war and some hundreds of gallons of ink; but no necks are broken, nor
heads; all will be in _statu ante bello_ in a few days....
"My dear sir, you are wanted at home. I want you to encourage me by your
presence. I find the pioneer business has less of romance in the reality
than in the description, and I find some tough stumps to pry up and heavy
stones to roll out of the way, and I get exhausted and desponding, and I
should like a little of your sinew to come to my aid at such times, as it
was wont to come at the Louvre....
"There is nothing new in New York; everybody is driving after money, as
usual, and there is an alarm of fire every half-hour, as usual, and the
pigs have the freedom of the city, as usual; so that, in these respects
at least, you will find New York as you left it, except that they are not
the same people that are driving after money, nor the same houses burnt,
nor the same pigs at large in the street.... You will all be welcomed
home, but come prepared to find many, very many things in taste and
manners different from your own good taste and manners. Good taste and
good manners would not be conspicuous if all around possessed the same
manners."