JUNE 28, 1844--OCTOBER 9, 1846
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.
Morse's fame was now secure, and fortune was soon to follow. Tried as he
had been in the school of adversity, he was now destined to undergo new
trials, trials incident to success, to prosperity, and to world-wide
eminence. That he foresaw the new dangers which would beset him on every
hand is clearly evidenced in the letters to his brother, but, heartened
by the success which had at last crowned his efforts, he buckled on his
armor ready to do battle to such foes, both within and without, as should
in the future assail him. Fatalist as we must regard him, he believed in
his star; or rather he went forward with sublime faith in that God who
had thus far guarded him from evil, and in his own good time had given
him the victory, and such a victory! For twelve years he had fought on
through trials and privations, hampered by bodily ailments and the deep
discouragements of those who should have aided him. Pitted against the
trained minds and the wealth of other nations, he had gone forth a very
David to battle, and, like David, the simplicity of his missile had given
him the victory. Other telegraphs had been devised by other men; some had
actually been put into operation, but it would seem as if all the nations
had held their breath until his appeared, and, sweeping all the others
from the field, demonstrated and maintained its supremacy.
From this time forward his life became more complex. Honors were showered
upon him; fame carried his name to the uttermost parts of the earth; his
counsel was sought by eminent scientists and by other inventors, both
practical and visionary.
On the other hand, detractors innumerable arose; his rights to the
invention were challenged, in all sincerity and in insincerity;
infringements of his patent rights necessitated long and acrimonious
lawsuits, and, like other men of mark, he was traduced and vilified. In
addition to all this he took an active interest in the seething politics
of the day and in religious questions which, to his mind and that of many
others, affected the very foundations of the nation.
To follow him through all these labyrinthine ways would require volumes,
and I shall content myself with selecting only such letters as may give a
fair idea of how he bore himself in the face of these new and manifold
trials, of how he sometimes erred in judgment and in action, but how
through all he was sincere and firm in his faith, and how, at last, he
was to find that home and that domestic bliss which he had all his life
so earnestly desired, but which had until the evening of his days been
denied to him.
Having won his great victory, retirement from the field of battle would
have best suited him. He was now fifty-three years of age, and he felt
that he had earned repose. To this end he sought to carry out his
long-cherished idea that the telegraph should become the property of the
Government, and he was willing to accept a very modest remuneration. As I
have said before, he and the other proprietors joined in offering the
telegraph to the Government for the paltry sum of $100,000. But the
Administration of that day seems to have been stricken with unaccountable
blindness, for the Postmaster-General, that same wise and sapient Cave
Johnson who had sought to kill the telegraph bill by ridicule in the
House, and in despite of his acknowledgment to Morse, reported: "That the
operation of the Telegraph between Washington and Baltimore had not
satisfied him that, under any rate of postage that could be adopted, its
revenues could be made equal to its expenditures." Congress was equally
lax, and so the Government lost its great opportunity, for when, in after
years, the question of government ownership again came up, it was found
that either to purchase outright or to parallel existing lines would cost
many more millions than it would have taken thousands in 1844.
The failure of the Government to appreciate the value of what was offered
to them was always a source of deep regret to Morse. For, while he
himself gained much more by the operation of private companies, the evils
which he had foretold were more than realized.
But to return to the days of '44, it would seem that in the spring of
that year he met with a painful accident. Its exact nature is not
specified, but it must have been severe, and yet we learn from the
following letter to his brother Sidney, dated June 23, that he saw in it
only another blessing:--
"I am still in bed, and from appearances I am likely to be held here for
many days, perhaps weeks. The wound on the leg was worse than I at first
supposed. It seems slow in healing and has been much inflamed, although
now yielding to remedies. My hope was to have spent some weeks in New
York, but it will now depend on the time of the healing of my leg.
"The ways of God are mysterious, and I find prayer answered in a way not
at all anticipated. This accident, as we are apt to call it, I can
plainly see is calculated to effect many salutary objects. I needed rest
of body and mind after my intense anxieties and exertions, and I might
have neglected it, and so, perhaps, brought on premature disease of both;
but I am involuntarily laid up so that I must keep quiet, and, although
the fall that caused my wound was painful at first, yet I have no severe
pain with it now. But the principal effect is, doubtless, intended to be
of a spiritual character, and I am afforded an opportunity of quiet
reflection on the wonderful dealings of God with me.
"I cannot but constantly exclaim, 'What hath God wrought!' When I look
back upon the darkness of last winter and reflect how, at one time
everything seemed hopeless; when I remember that all my associates in the
enterprise of the Telegraph had either deserted me or were discouraged,
and one had even turned my enemy, reviler and accuser (and even Mr. Vail,
who has held fast to me from the beginning, felt like giving up just in
the deepest darkness of all); when I remember that, giving up all hope
myself from any other source than his right arm which brings salvation,
his salvation did come in answer to prayer, faith is strengthened, and
did I not know by too sad experience the deceitfulness of the heart, I
should say that it was impossible for me again to distrust or feel
anxiety, undue anxiety, for the future. But He who knows the heart knows
its disease, and, as the Good Physician, if we give ourselves
unreservedly into his hands to be cured, He will give that medicine which
his perfect knowledge of our case prescribes.
"I am well aware that just now my praises ring from one end of the
country to the other. I cannot take up a paper in which I do not find
something to flatter the natural pride of the heart. I have prayed,
indeed, against it; I have asked for a right spirit under a trial of a
new character, for prosperity is a trial, and our Saviour has denounced a
woe on us 'when all men speak well of us.' May it not then be in answer
to this prayer that He shuts me up, to strengthen me against the
temptations which the praises of the world present, and so, by meditation
on his dealings with me and reviewing the way in which He has led me,
showing me my perfect helplessness without Him, He is preparing to bless
me with stronger faith and more unreserved faith in Him?
"To Him, indeed, belongs all the glory. I have had evidence enough that
without Christ I could do nothing. All my strength is there and I
fervently desire to ascribe to Him all the praise. If I am to have
influence, increased influence, I desire to have it for Christ, to use it
for his cause; if wealth, for Christ; if more knowledge, for Christ. I
speak sincerely when I say I fear prosperity lest I should be proud and
forget whence it comes."
Having at length recovered from the accident which had given him, in
spite of himself, the rest which he so much needed, Morse again devoted
himself to his affairs with his accustomed vigor. The Government still
delaying to take action, he was compelled, much to his regret, to
consider the offers of private parties to extend the lines of the
telegraph to important points in the Union. He had received propositions
from various persons who were eager to push the enterprise, but in all
negotiations he was hampered by the dilatoriness of Smith, who seemed
bent on putting as many obstacles in the way of an amicable settlement as
possible, and some of whose propositions had to be rejected for obvious
reasons. Before Congress had finally put the quietus on his hopes in that
direction, he considered the advisability of parting with his interest to
some individual, and, on July 1, 1844, he wrote to Mr. David Burbank from
Baltimore:--
"In reply to your query for what sum I would sell my share of the patent
right in the Telegraph, which amounts to one half, I frankly say that, if
_one hundred and ten thousand dollars_ shall be secured to me in cash,
current funds in the United States, or stocks at cash value, such as I
may be disposed to accept if presented, so that in six months from this
date I shall realize that sum, I will assign over all my rights and
privileges in the Telegraph in the United States.
"I offer it at this price, not that I estimate the value of the invention
so low, for it is perfectly demonstrable that the sum above mentioned is
not half its value, but that I may have my own mind free to be occupied
in perfecting the system, and in a general superintendence of it,
unembarrassed by the business arrangements necessary to secure its utmost
usefulness and value."
A Mr. Fry of Philadelphia had also made an offer, and, referring to this,
he wrote to Smith from New York, on July 17: "A letter from Mr. Fry, of
Philadelphia, in answer to the proposals which you sent, I have just
received. I wish much to see you, as I cannot move in this matter until I
know your views. I am here for about a fortnight and wish some
arrangements made by which our business can be transacted without the
necessity of so much waiting and so much writing."
All these negotiations seem to have come to nothing, and I have only
mentioned them as showing Morse's willingness to part with his interest
for much less than he knew it was worth, in order that he might not prove
an obstacle in the expansion of the system by being too mercenary, and so
that he might obtain some measure of freedom from care.
Mr. F.O.J. Smith, while still proving himself a thorn in the flesh to
Morse in many ways, had compiled a Telegraph Dictionary which he called:
"The Secret Corresponding Vocabulary, adapted for Use to Morse's
Electro-Magnetic Telegraph, and also in conducting Written Correspondence
transmitted by the Mails, or otherwise." The dedication reads as follows:
_To Professor Samuel F.B. Morse, Inventor of the Electro-Magnetic
Telegraph_
Sir,--The homage of the world during the last half-century has been, and
will ever continue to be, accorded to the name and genius of the
illustrious American philosopher, Benjamin Franklin, for having first
taught mankind that the wild and terrific ways and forces of the electric
fluid, as it flies and flashes through the rent atmosphere, or descends
to the surface of the earth, are guided by positive and fixed laws, as
much as the movements of more sluggish matter in the physical creation,
and that its terrible death-strokes may be rendered harmless by proper
scientific precautions.
To another name of another generation, yet of the same proud national
nativity, the glory has been reserved of having first taught mankind to
reach even beyond the results of Franklin, and to subdue in a modified
state, into the familiar and practical uses of a household servant who
runs at his master's bidding, this same once frightful and tremendous
element. Indeed the great work of science which Franklin commenced for
the protection of man, you have most triumphantly subdued to his
convenience. And it needs not the gift of prophecy to foresee, nor the
spirit of personal flattery to declare, that the names of Franklin and
Morse are destined to glide down the declivity of time together, the
equals in the renown of inventive achievements, until the hand of History
shall become palsied, and whatever pertains to humanity shall be lost in
the general dissolution of matter.
Of one thus rich in the present applause of his countrymen, and in the
prospect of their future gratitude, it affords the author of the
following compilation, which is designed to contribute in a degree to the
practical usefulness of your invention, a high gratification to speak in
the presence of an enlightened public feeling.
That you may live to witness the full consummation of the vast revolution
in the social and business relations of your countrymen, which your
genius has proved to be feasible, under the liberal encouragement of our
national councils, and that you may, with this great gratification, also
realize from it the substantial reward, which inventive merit too seldom
acquires, in the shape of pecuniary independence, is the sincere wish of
Your most respectful and obedient servant
The Author.
This florid and fulsome eulogy was written by that singular being who
could thus flatter, and almost apotheosize, the inventor in public, while
in secret he was doing everything to thwart him, and who never, as long
as he lived, ceased to antagonize him, and later accused him of having
claimed the credit of an invention all the essentials of which were
invented by others. No wonder that Morse was embarrassed and at a loss
how to reply to the letter of Smith's enclosing this eulogy and, at the
same time, bringing up one of the subjects in dispute:--
New York, November 13, 1844.
Dear Sir,--I have received yours of the 4th and 5th inst., and reply in
relation to the several subjects you mention in their order.
I like very well the suggestion in regard to the presentation of a set of
the Telegraph Dictionary you are publishing to each member of Congress,
and, when I return to Washington, will see the Secretary of the Treasury
and see if he will assent to it.
As to the dedication to me, since you have asked my opinion, I must say I
should prefer to have it much curtailed and less laudatory. I must refer
it entirely to you, however, as it is not for me to say what others
should write and think of me.
In regard to the Bartlett claim against the Government and your plan for
settling it, I cannot admit that, as proprietors of the Telegraph, we
have anything to do with it. I regret that there has been any mention of
it, and I had hoped that you yourself had come to the determination to
leave the matter altogether, or at least until the Telegraph bill had
been definitely settled in Congress. However much I may deprecate
agitation of the subject in the Senate, to mar and probably to defeat all
our prospects, it is a matter over which I have no control in the aspect
that has been given to it, and therefore--"the suppression of details
which had better not be pushed to a decision"--does not rest with me.
In regard, however, to such a division of the property of the Telegraph
as shall enable each of us to labor for the general benefit without
embarrassment from each other, I think it worthy of consideration, and
the principle on which such a division is proposed to be made might be
extended to embrace the entire property. The subject, however, requires
mature deliberation, and I am not now prepared to present the plan, but
will think it over and consult with Vail and Gale and arrange it, perhaps
definitely, when I see you again in Washington.
I have letters from Vail at Washington and Rogers at Baltimore stating
the fact that complete success has attended all the transmission of
results by Telegraph, there not having been a failure in a single
instance, and to the entire satisfaction of both political parties in the
perfect impartiality of the directors of the Telegraph.
While the success of the Telegraph had now been fully demonstrated, and
while congratulations and honors were showered on the inventor from all
quarters, negotiations for its extension proceeded but slowly. Morse
still kept hoping that the Government would eventually purchase all the
rights, and it was not until well into 1845 that he was compelled to
abandon this dream. In the mean time he was kept busy replying to
enquiries from the representatives of Russia, France, and other European
countries, and in repelling attacks which had already been launched
against him in scientific circles. As an example of the former I shall
quote from a letter to His Excellency Alexander de Bodisco, the Russian
Minister, written in December, 1844:--
"In complying with your request to write you respecting my invention of
the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph, I find there are but few points of
interest not embraced in the printed documents already in your
possession. The principle on which, my whole invention rests is the power
of the electro-magnet commanded at pleasure at any distance. The
application of this power to the telegraph is original with me. If the
electro-magnet is now used in Europe for telegraphic purposes, it has
been subsequently introduced. All the systems of electric telegraphs in
Europe from 1820 to 1840 are based on the _deflection of the magnetic
needle_, while my system, invented in 1832, is based, as I have just
observed, on the electro-magnet....
"Should the Emperor be desirous of the superintendence of an experienced
person to put the Telegraph in operation in Russia, I will either engage
myself to visit Russia for that purpose; or, if my own or another
government shall, previous to receiving an answer from Russia, engage my
personal attendance, I will send an experienced person in my stead."
As a specimen of the vigorous style in which he repelled attacks on his
merits as an inventor, I shall give the following:--
Messrs. Editors,--The London "Mechanics' Magazine," for October, 1844,
copies an article from the Baltimore "American" in which my discovery in
relation to causing electricity to cross rivers without wires is
announced, and then in a note to his readers the editor of the magazine
makes the following assertion: "The English reader need scarcely be
informed that Mr. Morse has in this, as in other matters relating to
magneto telegraphs, only _re_discovered what was previously well known in
this country."
More illiberality and deliberate injustice has been seldom condensed
within so small a compass. From the experience, however, that I, in
common with many American scientific gentlemen, have already had of the
piratical conjoined with the abusive propensity of a certain class of
English _savans_ and writers, I can scarcely expect either liberality or
justice from the quarter whence this falsehood has issued. But there is,
fortunately, an appeal to my own countrymen, to the impartial and
liberal-minded of Continental Europe, and the truly noble of England
herself.
I claim to be the original inventor of the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph; to
be the first who planned and operated a really practicable Electric
Telegraph. This is the broad claim I make in behalf of my country and
myself before the world. If I cannot substantiate this claim, if any
other, to whatever country he belongs, can make out a previous or better
claim, I will cheerfully yield him the palm.
Although I had planned and completed my Telegraph unconscious, until
after my Telegraph was in operation, that even the words "Electric
Telegraph" had ever been combined until I had combined them, I have now
made myself familiar with, I believe, all the plans, abortive and
otherwise, which have been given to the world since the time of Franklin,
who was the first to suggest the possibility of using electricity as a
means of transmitting intelligence. With this knowledge, both of the
various plans devised and the time when they were severally devised, I
claim to be the first inventor of a really practicable telegraph on the
electric principle. When this shall be seriously called in question by
any responsible name, I have the proof in readiness.
As to English electric telegraphs, the telegraph of Wheatstone and Cooke,
called the Magnetic Needle Telegraph, inefficient as it is, was invented
five years after mine, and the printing telegraph, so-called (the title
to the invention of which is litigated by Wheatstone and Bain) was
invented seven years after mine.
So much for my _re_discovering what was previously known in England.
As to the discovery that electricity may be made to cross the water
without wire conductors, above, through, or beneath the water, the very
reference by the editor to another number of the magazine, and to the
experiments of Cooke, or rather Steinheil, and of Bain, shows that the
editor is wholly ignorant of the nature of my experiment. I have in
detail the experiments of Bain and Wheatstone. They were merely in effect
repetitions of the experiments of Steinheil. Their object was to show
that the earth or water can be made one half of the circuit in conducting
electricity, a fact proved by Franklin with ordinary electricity in the
last century, and by Professor Steinheil, of Munich, with magnetic
electricity in 1837. Mr. Bain, and after him Mr. Wheatstone, in England
repeated, or (to use the English editor's phrase) rediscovered the same
fact in 1841. But what have these experiments, in which _one wire_ is
carried across the river, to do with mine _which dispenses with wires
altogether_ across the river? I challenge the proof that such an
experiment has ever been tried in Europe, unless it be since the
publication of my results.
The year 1844 was drawing to a close and Congress still was dilatory.
Morse hated to abandon his cherished dream of government ownership, and,
while carrying on negotiations with private parties in order to protect
himself, he still hoped that Congress would at last see the light. He
writes to his brother from Washington on December 30:--
"Telegraph matters look exceedingly encouraging, not only for the United
States but for Europe. I have just got a letter from a special agent of
the French Government, sent to Boston by the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
in which he says that he has seen mine and 'is convinced of its
superiority,' and wishes all information concerning it, adding: 'I
consider it my duty to make a special report on your admirable
invention.'"
And on January 18, 1845, he writes:--
"I am well, but anxiously waiting the action of Congress on the bill for
extension of Telegraph. Texas drives everything else into a corner. I
have not many fears if they will only get it up. I had to-day the
Russian, Spanish, and Belgian Ministers to see the operation of the
Telegraph; they were astonished and delighted. The Russian Minister
particularly takes the deepest interest in it, and will write to his
Government by next steamer. The French Minister also came day before
yesterday, and will write in its favor to his Government.... Senator
Woodbury gave a discourse before the Institute a few nights ago, in the
Hall of the House of Representatives, in which he lauded the Telegraph in
the highest terms, and thought I had gone a step beyond Franklin! The
popularity of the Telegraph increases rather than declines."
The mention of Texas in this letter refers to the fact that Polk was
elected to the Presidency on a platform which favored the annexation of
that republic to the United States, and this question was, naturally,
paramount in the halls of Congress. Texas was admitted to the Union in
December, 1845.
Writing to his daughter, Mrs. Lind, in Porto Rico on February 8, he
says:--
"The Telegraph operates to the perfect satisfaction of the public, as you
perhaps see by the laudatory notices of the papers in all parts of the
country. I am now in a state of unpleasant suspense waiting the passage
of the bill for the extension of the Telegraph to New York.
"I am in hopes they will take it up and pass it next week; if they should
not, I shall at once enter into arrangements with private companies to
take it and extend it.
"I do long for the time, if it shall be permitted, to have you with your
husband and little Charles around me. I feel my loneliness more and more
keenly every day. Fame and money are in themselves a poor substitute for
domestic happiness; as means to that end I value them. Yesterday was the
sad anniversary (the twentieth) of your dear mother's death, and I spent
the most of it in thinking of her...."
"_Thursday, February 12._ I dined at the Russian Ambassador's Tuesday. It
was the most gorgeous dinner-party I ever attended in any country.
Thirty-six sat down to table; there were eleven Senators, nearly half the
Senate.... The table, some twenty or twenty-five feet long, was decorated
with immense gilt vases of flowers on a splendid plateau of richly chased
gilt ornaments, and candelabra with about a hundred and fifty lights. We
were ushered into the house through eight liveried servants, who
afterward waited on us at table.
"I go to-morrow evening to Mr. Wickliffe's, Postmaster General, and,
probably, on Wednesday evening next to the President's. The new
President, Polk, arrived this evening amid the roar of cannon. He will be
inaugurated on the 4th of March, and I presume I shall be there.
"I am most anxiously waiting the action of Congress on the Telegraph. It
is exceedingly tantalizing to suffer so much loss of precious time that
cannot be recalled."
This time there was no eleventh-hour passage of the bill, for Congress
adjourned without reaching it, and while this, in the light of future
events, was undoubtedly a tactical error on the part of the Government,
it inured to the financial benefit of the inventor himself. The question
now arose of the best means of extending the business of the telegraph
through private companies, and Morse keenly felt the need of a better
business head than he possessed to guide the enterprise through the
shoals and quicksands of commerce. He was fortunate in choosing as his
business and legal adviser the Honorable Amos Kendall.
Mr. James D. Reid, one of the early telegraphers and a staunch and
faithful friend of Morse's, thus speaks of Mr. Kendall in his valuable
book "The Telegraph in America":--
"Mr. Kendall is too well known in American history to require
description. He was General Jackson's Postmaster General, incorruptible,
able, an educated lawyer, clear-headed, methodical, and ingenious. But he
was somewhat rigid in his manners and methods, and lacked the dash and
_bonhomie_ which would have carried him successfully into the business
centres of the seaboard cities, and brought capital largely and
cheerfully to his feet. Of personal magnetism, indeed, except in private
intercourse, where he was eminently delightful, he had, at this period of
his life, none. This made his work difficult, especially with railroad
men. Yet the Telegraph could not have been entrusted to more genuinely
honest and able hands. On the part of those he represented this
confidence was so complete that their interests were committed to him
without reserve."
Professor Gale and Alfred Vail joined with Morse in entrusting their
interests to Mr. Kendall's care, but F.O.J. Smith preferred to act for
himself. This caused much trouble in the future, for it was a foregone
conclusion that the honest, upright Kendall and the shifty Smith were
bound to come into conflict with each other. The latter, as one of the
original patentees, had to be consulted in every sale of patent rights,
and Kendall soon found it almost impossible to deal with him.
At first Kendall had great difficulty in inducing capitalists to
subscribe to what was still looked upon as a very risky venture. Mr.
Corcoran, of Washington, was the first man wise in his generation, and
others then followed his lead, so that a cash capital of $15,000 was
raised. Mr. Reid says: "It was provided, in this original subscription,
that the payment of $50 should entitle the subscriber to two shares of
$50 each. A payment of $15,000, therefore, required an issue of $30,000
stock. To the patentees were issued an additional $30,000 stock, or half
of the capital, as the consideration of the patent. The capital was thus
$60,000 for the first link. W.W. Corcoran and B.B. French were made
trustees to hold the patent rights and property until organization was
effected. Meanwhile an act of incorporation was granted by the
legislature of the State of Maryland, the first telegraphic charter
issued in the United States."
The company was called "The Magnetic Telegraph Company," and was the
first telegraph company in the United States.
Under the able, if conservative, management of Mr. Kendall the business
of the telegraph progressed slowly but surely. Many difficulties were
encountered, many obstacles had to be overcome, and the efforts of
unprincipled men to pirate the invention, or to infringe on the patent,
were the cause of numerous lawsuits. But it is not my purpose to write a
history of the telegraph. Mr. Reid has accomplished this task much better
than I possibly could, and, in following the personal history of Morse,
the now famous inventor, I shall but touch, incidentally on all these
matters.
On the 18th of July, 1845, the following letter of introduction was sent
to Morse from the Department of State:--
To the respective Diplomatic and Consular Agents of the United States in
Europe.
SIR,--The bearer hereof, Professor Samuel F.B. Morse, of New York,
Superintendent of Electro Magnetic Telegraphs for the United States, is
about to visit Europe for the purpose of exhibiting to the various
governments his own system, and its superiority over others now in use.
From a personal knowledge of Professor Morse I can speak confidently of
his amiability of disposition and high respectability. The merits of his
discoveries and inventions in this particular branch of science are, I
believe, universally conceded in this country.
I take pleasure in introducing him to your acquaintance and in bespeaking
for him, during his stay in your neighborhood, such attentions and good
offices in aid of his object as you may find it convenient to extend to
him.
I am, sir, with great respect,
Your obedient servant,
JAMES BUCHANAN,
_Secretary of State._
[Illustration: S.F.B. Morse
From a portrait by Daniel Huntington]
With the assurance that he had left his business affairs in capable
hands, Morse sailed from New York on August 6, 1845, and arrived in
Liverpool on the 25th. For the fourth time he was crossing from America
to Europe, but under what totally different circumstances. On previous
occasions, practically unknown, he had voyaged forth to win his spurs in
the field of art, or to achieve higher honors in this same field, or as a
humble petitioner at the courts of Europe. Forced by circumstances to
practise the most rigid economy, he had yet looked confidently to the
future for his reward in material as well as spiritual gifts. Now, having
abandoned his art, he had won such fame in a totally different realm that
his name was becoming well-known in all the centres of civilization, and
he was assured of a respectful hearing wherever he might present himself.
Freed already from pecuniary embarrassment, he need no longer take heed
for the morrow, but could with a light heart give himself up to the
enjoyment of new scenes, and the business of proving to other nations the
superiority of his system, secure in the knowledge that, whatever might
betide him in Europe, he was assured of a competence at home.
His brother Sidney, with his family, had preceded him to Europe, and
writing to Vail from London on September 1, Morse says:--
"I have just taken lodgings with my brother and his family preparatory to
looking about for a week, when I shall continue my journey to Stockholm
and St. Petersburg, by the way of Hamburg, direct from London.
"On my way from Liverpool I saw at Rugby the telegraph wires of
Wheatstone, which extend, I understood, as far as Northampton. I went
into the office as the train stopped a moment, and had a glimpse of the
instrument as we have seen it in the 'Illustrated Times.' The place was
the ticket-office and the man very uncommunicative, but he told me it was
not in operation and that they did not use it much. This is easily
accounted for from the fact that the two termini are inconsiderable
places, and Wheatstone's system clumsy and complicated. The advantage of
recording is incalculable, and in this I have the undisputed superiority.
As soon as I can visit the telegraph-office here I will give you the
result of my observation. I shall probably do nothing until my return
from the north."
Nothing definite was accomplished during his short stay in London, and on
the 17th of September he left for the Continent with Mr. Henry Ellsworth
and his wife. Mr. Ellsworth, the son of his old friend, had been
appointed attaché to the American Legation at Stockholm. Morse's letters
to his daughter give a detailed account of his journey, but I shall give
only a few extracts from them:--
"_Hamburg, September 27, 1845._ Everything being ready on the morning of
the 17th instant, we left Brompton Square in very rainy and stormy
weather, and drove down to the Custom-house wharf and went on board our
destined steamer, the William Joliffe, a dirty, black-looking, tub-like
thing, about as large but not half so neat as a North River wood-sloop.
The wind was full from the Southwest, blowing a gale with rain, and I
confess I did not much fancy leaving land in so unpromising a craft and
in such weather; yet our vessel proved an excellent seaboat, and,
although all were sick on board but Mr. Ellsworth and myself, we had a
safe but rough passage across the boisterous North Sea."
Stopping but a short time in Rotterdam, the party proceeded through the
Hague and Haarlem to Amsterdam, and from the latter place they visited
the village of Broek:--
"The inn at Broek was another example of the same neatness. Here we took
a little refreshment before going into the village. We walked of course,
for no carriage, not even a wheelbarrow, appeared to be allowed any more
than in a gentleman's parlor. Everything about the exterior of the houses
and gardens was as carefully cared for as the furniture and
embellishments of the interior. The streets (or rather alleys, like those
of a garden) were narrow and paved with small variously colored bricks
forming every variety of ornamental figures. The houses, from the highest
to the lowest class, exhibited not merely comfort but luxury, yet it was
a selfish sort of luxury. The perpetually closed door and shut-up rooms
of ceremony, the largest and most conspicuous of all in the house, gave
an air of inhospitableness which, I should hope, was not indicative of
the real character of the inhabitants. Yet it seemed to be a deserted
village, a place of the dead rather than of the living, an ornamental
graveyard. The liveliness of social beings was absent and was even
inconsistent with the superlative neatness of all around us. It was a
best parlor out-of-doors, where the gayety of frolicking children would
derange the set order of the furniture, or an accidental touch of a
sacrilegious foot might scratch the polish of a fresh-varnished fence, or
flatten down the nap of the green carpet of grass, every blade of which
is trained to grow exactly so.
"The grounds and gardens of a Mr. Vander Beck were, indeed, a curiosity
from the strange mixture of the useful with the ridiculously ornamental.
Here were the beautiful banks of a lake and Nature's embellishment of
reeds and water plants, which, for a wonder, were left to grow in their
native luxuriance, and in the midst a huge pasteboard or wooden swan, and
a wooden mermaid of tasteless proportions blowing from a conchshell. In
another part was a cottage with puppets the size of life moving by
clock-work; a peasant smoking and turning a reel to wind off the thread
which his 'goed vrow' is spinning upon a wheel, while a most sheep-like
dog is made to open his mouth and to bark--a dog which is, doubtless, the
progenitor of all the barking, toy-shop dogs of the world. Directly in
the vicinity is a beautiful grapery, with the richest clusters of grapes
literally covering the top, sides and walls of the greenhouse, which
stands in the midst of a garden, gay with dahlias and amaranths and every
variety of flowers, with delicious fruits thickly studding the
well-trained trees. Everything, however, was cut up into miniature
landscapes; little bridges and little temples adorned little canals and
little mounds, miniature representations of streams and bills.
"We visited the residence of the burgomaster. He was away and his
servants permitted us to see the house. It was cleaning-day. Everything
in the house was in keeping with the character of the village. But the
kitchen! how shall I describe it? The polished marble floor, the dressers
with glass doors like a bookcase, to keep the least particle of dust from
the bright-polished utensils of brass and copper. The varnished mahogany
handle of the brass spigot, lest the moisture of the hand in turning it
should soil its polish, and, will you believe it, the very pothooks as
well as the cranes (for there were two), in the fireplace were as bright
as your scissors!
"Broek is certainly a curiosity. It is unique, but the impression left
upon me is not, on the whole, agreeable. I should not be contented to
live there. It is too ridiculously and uncomfortably nice. Fancy a lady
always dressed throughout the day in her best evening-party dress, and
say if she could move about with that ease which she would like. Such,
however, must be the feeling of the inhabitants of Broek; they must be in
perpetual fear, not only of soiling or deranging their clothes merely,
but their very streets every step they take. But good-bye to Broek. I
would not have missed seeing it but do not care to see it again."
Holland, which he had never visited before, interested him greatly, but
he could not help saying: "One feels in Holland like being in a ship,
constantly liable to spring a leak."
Hamburg he found more to his taste:--
"_September 26._ Hamburg, you may remember, was nearly destroyed by fire
in 1842. It is now almost rebuilt and in a most splendid style of
architecture. I am much prepossessed in its favor. We have taken up our
quarters at the Victoria Hotel, one of the splendid new hotels of the
city. I find the season so far advanced in these northern regions that I
am thinking of giving up my journey farther north. My matters in London
will demand all my spare time."
"_September 30._ The windows of my hotel look out upon the Alster Basin,
a beautiful sheet of water, three sides of which are surrounded with
splendid houses. Boats and swans are gliding over the glassy surface,
giving, with the well-dressed promenaders along the shores, an air of
gayety and liveliness to the scene."
It will not be necessary to follow the traveller step by step during this
visit to Europe. He did not go to Sweden and Russia, as he had at first
planned, for he learned that the Emperor of Russia was in the South, and
that nothing could be accomplished in his absence. He, therefore,
returned to London from Hamburg. He was respectfully received everywhere
and his invention was recognized as being one of great merit and
simplicity, but it takes time for anything new to make its way. This is,
perhaps, best summed up in the words of Charles T. Fleischmann, who at
that time was agent of the United States Patent Office, and was
travelling through Europe collecting information on agriculture,
education, and the arts. He was a good friend of Morse's and an
enthusiastic advocate of his invention. He carried with him a complete
telegraphic outfit and lost no opportunity to bring it to the notice of
the different governments visited by him, and his official position gave
him the entree everywhere. Writing from Vienna on October 7, he says:--
"There is no doubt Morse's telegraph is the best of that description I
have yet seen, but the difficulty of introducing it is in this
circumstance, that every scientific man invents a similar thing and,
without having the practical experience and practical arrangement which
make Morse's so preferable, they will experiment a few miles' distance
only, and no doubt it works; but, when they come to put it up at a great
distance, then they will find that their experience is not sufficient,
and must come back ultimately to Morse's plan. The Austrian Government is
much occupied selecting out of many plans (of telegraphs) one for her
railroads. I have offered Morse's and proposed experiments. I am
determined to stay for some time, to give them a chance of making up
their minds."
Two other young Americans, Charles Robinson and Charles L. Chapin, were
also travelling around Europe at this time for the purpose of introducing
Morse's invention, but, while all these efforts resulted in the ultimate
adoption by all the nations of Europe, and then of the world, of this
system, the superiority of which all were compelled, sometimes
reluctantly, to admit, no arrangement was made by which Morse and his
co-proprietors benefited financially. The gain in fame was great, in
money nil. It was, therefore, with mixed feelings that Morse wrote to his
brother from Paris on November 1:--
"I am still gratified in verifying the fact that my Telegraph is ahead of
all the other systems proposed. Wheatstone's is not adopted here. The
line from Paris to Rouen is not on his plan, but is an experimental line
of the Governmental Commission. I went to see it yesterday with my old
friend the Administrator-in-Chief of the Telegraphs of France, Mr. Poy,
who is one of the committee to decide on the best mode for France. The
system on this line is his modification.... I have had a long interview
with M. Arago. He is the same affable and polite man as in 1839. He is a
warm friend of mine and contends for priority in my favor, and is also
partial to my telegraphic system as the best. He is President of the
Commission and is going to write the History of Electric Telegraphs. I
shall give him the facts concerning mine. The day after to-morrow I
exhibit my telegraphic system again to the Academy of Sciences, and am in
the midst of preparations for a day important to me. I have strong hopes
that mine will be the system adopted, but there may be obstacles I do not
see. Wheatstone, at any rate, is not in favor here....
"I like the French. Every nation has its defects and I could wish many
changes here, but the French are a fine people. I receive a welcome here
to which I was a perfect stranger in England. How deep this welcome may
be I cannot say, but if one must be cheated I like to have it done in a
civil and polite way."
He sums up the result of his European trip in a letter to his daughter,
written from London on October 9, as he was on his way to Liverpool from
where he sailed on November 19, 1845:--
"I know not what to say of my telegraphic matters here yet. There is
nothing decided upon and I have many obstacles to contend against,
particularly the opposition of the proprietors of existing telegraphs;
but that mine is the best system I have now no doubt. All that I have
seen, while they are ingenious, are more complicated, more expensive,
less efficient and easier deranged. It may take some time to establish
the superiority of mine over the others, for there is the usual array of
prejudice and interest against a system which throws others out of use."