AUGUST 28, 1856--SEPTEMBER 16, 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.
His good democratic eyes a trifle dazzled by all this imperial
magnificence, Morse left St. Petersburg and, with his party, journeyed to
Berlin. What was to him the most interesting incident of his visit to
that city is thus described:--
"_August 23._ To-day I went to Potsdam to see Baron Humboldt, and had a
delightful interview with this wonderful man. Although I had met with him
at the soirées of Baron Gerard, the distinguished painter, in Paris in
1822, and afterward at the Academy of Sciences, when my Telegraph was
exhibited to the assembled academicians in 1838, I took letters of
introduction to him from Baron Gerolt, the Prussian Minister. But they
were unnecessary, for the moment I entered his room, which is in the
Royal Palace, he called me by name and greeted me most kindly, saying, as
I presented my letters: 'Oh! sir, you need no letters, your name is a
sufficient introduction'; and so, seating myself, he rapidly touched upon
various topics relating to America."
On the margin of a photograph of himself, presented to Morse by the
baron, is an inscription in French of which the following is a
translation:--
To Mr. S.F.B. Morse, whose philosophic and useful labors have rendered
his name illustrious in two worlds, the homage of the high and
affectionate esteem of Alexander Humboldt.
POTSDAM, August 1856.
The next thirty days were spent in showing the beauties of Cologne,
Aix-la-Chapelle, Brussels and Paris to his wife and niece, and in the
latter part of September the little party returned to London. Here Morse
resumed his experiments with Dr. Whitehouse and Mr. Bright, and on
October 3, he reports to Mr. Field:--
"As the electrician of the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph
Company, it is with the highest gratification that I have to apprise you
of the result of our experiments of this morning upon a single continuous
conductor of more than two thousand miles in extent, a distance, you will
perceive, sufficient to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Newfoundland to
Ireland.
"The admirable arrangements made at the Magnetic Telegraph office in Old
Broad Street for connecting ten subterranean gutta-percha insulated
conductors of over two hundred miles each, so as to give one continuous
length of more than two thousand miles, during the hours of the night
when the Telegraph is not commercially employed, furnished us the means
of conclusively settling by actual experiment the question of the
practicability as well as the practicality of telegraphing through our
proposed Atlantic cable.... I am most happy to inform you that, as a
crowning result of a long series of experimental investigation and
inductive reasoning upon this subject, the experiments under the
direction of Dr. Whitehouse and Mr. Bright which I witnessed this
morning--in which the induction-coils and receiving-magnets, as modified
by these gentlemen, were made to actuate one of my recording instruments
--have most satisfactorily resolved all doubts of the practicability as
well as practicality of operating the Telegraph from Newfoundland to
Ireland."
In 1838, Morse had been curtly and almost insultingly refused a patent
for his invention in England, a humiliation for which he never quite
forgave the English. Now, eighteen years after this mortifying
experience, the most eminent scientists of this same England vied with
each other in doing him honor. Thus was his scientific fame vindicated,
but, let it be remarked parenthetically, this kind of honor was all that
he ever received from the land of his ancestors. While other nations of
Europe united, two years later, in granting him a pecuniary gratuity, and
while some of their sovereigns bestowed upon him decorations or medals,
England did neither. However, it was always a source of the keenest
gratification that two of those who had invented rival telegraphs proved
themselves broad-minded and liberal enough to acknowledge the superiority
of his system, and to urge its adoption by their respective Governments.
The first of these was Dr. Steinheil, of Munich, to whom I have already
referred, and to whom is due the valuable discovery that the earth can be
used as a return circuit. The second was the Englishman, W.F. Cooke, who,
with Wheatstone, devised the needle telegraph.
On October 9, a banquet was tendered to Morse by the telegraph companies
of England. It was given at the Albion Tavern. Mr. Cooke presided and
introduced the guest of the evening in the following charming speech:--
"I was consulted only a few months ago on the subject of a telegraph for
a country in which no telegraph at present exists. I recommended the
system of Professor Morse. I believe that system to be one of the
simplest in the world, and in that lies its permanency and certainty.
[Cheers.] There are others which may be as good in other circumstances,
but for a wide country I hesitate not to say Professor Morse's is the
best adapted. It is a great thing to say, and I do so after twenty years'
experience, that Professor Morse's system is one of the simplest that
ever has been and, I think, ever will be conceived. [Cheers.]
"It was a great thing for me, after having been so long connected with
the electric telegraph, to be invited to preside at this interesting
meeting, and I have travelled upward of one hundred miles in order to be
present to-day, having, when asked to preside, replied by electric
telegraph 'I will.' [Cheers.] But I may lower your idea of the sacrifice
I made in so doing when I tell you that I knew the talents of Professor
Morse, and was only too glad to accept an invitation to do honor to a man
I really honored in my heart. [Cheers.]
"I have been thinking during the last few days on what Professor Morse
has done. He stands alone in America as the originator and carrier out of
a grand conception. We know that America is an enormous country, and we
know the value of the telegraph, but I think we have a right to quarrel
with Professor Morse for not being content with giving the benefit of it
to his own country, but that he extended it to Canada and Newfoundland,
and, even beyond that, his system has been adopted all over Europe
[cheers]--and the nuisance is that we in England are obliged to
communicate by means of his system. [Cheers and laughter.]
"I as a director of an electric telegraph company, however, should be
ashamed of myself if I did not acknowledge what we owe him. But he
threatens to go further still, and promises that, if we do not, he will
carry out a communication between England and Newfoundland across the
Atlantic. I am nearly pledged to pay him a visit on the other side of the
Atlantic to see what he is about, and, if he perseveres in his obstinate
attempt to reach England, I believe I must join him in his endeavors.
[Cheers.]
"To think that he has united all the stripes and stars of America, which
are increasing day by day--and I hope they will increase until they are
too numerous to mention--that he has extended his system to Canada and is
about to unite those portions of the world to Europe, is a glorious thing
for any man; and, although I have done something in the same cause
myself, I confess I almost envy Professor Morse for having forced from an
unwilling rival a willing acknowledgment of his services. [Cheers.]
"I am proud to see Professor Morse this side of the water. I beg to give
you 'The health of Professor Morse,' and may he long live to enjoy the
high reputation he has attained throughout the world!"
Soon after this, with these flattering words still ringing in his ears,
he and his party sailed for New York and, once arrived at home, the truth
of the trite saying that "A prophet is not without honor save in his own
country" was soon to be brought to his attention. While he had been fêted
and honored abroad, while he had every reason to believe that his
petition to the European governments for some pecuniary compensation
would, in time, be granted, he returned to be plunged anew into vexatious
litigation, intrigues and attacks upon his purse, his fame, and his good
name. On November 27, 1856, he refers to his greatest cross in a letter
to Mr. Kendall:--
"I have just returned from Boston, having accomplished the important duty
for which I alone went there, to wit, to say 'yes' before a gentleman
having U.S. Commissioner after his name, instead of 'yes' before one who
had only S. Commissioner after his name; and this at a cost of exactly
twenty dollars, or, if the one dollar thrown away in New York upon the S.
Commissioner be added, twenty-one dollars and three days of time, to say
nothing of sundry risks of accidents by land and water travel.
"Well, if it will lead to a thorough separation of all interests and all
intercourse with F.O.J., I shall not consider the time and money lost,
yet, in conversation with Mr. Curtis, I have little hope of a change in
Judge Curtis's views of the point in which he decides that Smith has an
inchoate right, and our only chance of success is in the reversal of that
decision by the Supreme Bench, and that after another year's suspense....
"I wish there was some way of stopping this harassing, paralyzing
litigation. I find my mind wholly unfit for the studies which the present
state of the Telegraph requires from me, being distracted and irritated
by the constant necessity for standing on the defensive. Smith will be
Smith I know, and, therefore, as he is the appointed thorn to keep a
proper ballast of humility in S.F.B.M. with his load of honors, why, be
it so, if I can only have the proper strength and disposition to use the
trial aright.... Write me some encouraging news if you can. How will the
present calm in political affairs affect our California matters?"
The calm to which he referred was the apparent one which had settled down
on the country after the election of Buchanan, and which, as everybody
knows, was but the calm before the storm of our Civil War. He has this to
say about the election in a letter to the Honorable John Y. Mason, our
Minister to France:--
"I may congratulate you, my dear Sir, on the issue of the late election.
My predictions have been verified. The country is quiet, and, as usual
after the excitement of an election, has settled down into orderly
acquiescence to the will of the majority, and into general good feeling.
Europeans can hardly understand this truly anomalous phase of our
American institutions; they do not understand that it is characteristic
that 'we speak daggers but use none'; that we fight with ballots and not
with bullets; that we have abundance of inkshed and little bloodshed, and
that all that is explosive is blown off through newspaper safety-valves."
The events of the next few years were destined to shatter the peaceful
visions of this lover of his country, for many daggers were drawn, the
bullets flew thick and fast, and the bloodshed was appalling.
It is difficult to follow the history of the telegraph, in its relation
to its inventor, through all the intricacies involved in the conflicting
interests of various companies and men in this its formative period.
Morse himself was often at a loss to determine on the course which he
should pursue, a course which would at the same time inure to his
financial benefit and be in accordance with his high sense of right.
Absolutely straightforward and honest himself, it was difficult for him
to believe that others who spoke him fair were not equally sincere, and
he was often imposed upon, and was frequently forced, in the exigencies
of Business, to be intimately associated with those whose ideas of right
and wrong were far different from his own. The one person in whose
absolute integrity he had faith was Amos Kendall, and yet he must
sometimes have thought that his friend was too severe in his judgment of
others, for I find in a letter of Mr. Kendall's of January 4, 1857, the
following warning:--
"I earnestly beseech you to give up all idea of going out again on the
cable-laying expedition. Your true friends do not comprehend how it is
that you give your time, your labor, and your fame to build up an
interest deliberately and unscrupulously hostile to all their interests
and your own.... I believe that Peter Cooper is the only man among them
who is sincerely your friend. As to Field, I have as little faith in him
as I have in F.O.J. Smith. If you could get Cooper to take a stand in
favor of the faithful observance of the contract for connection with the
N.E. Union Line at Boston, he can put an end to all trouble, if, at the
same time, he will refuse to concur in a further extension of their lines
South."
In spite of this warning, or, perhaps, because Peter Cooper succeeded in
overcoming Mr. Kendall's objections, Morse did go out on the next
cable-laying expedition, and yet he found in the end that Mr. Kendall's
suspicions were by no means unjustified. But of this in its proper place.
The United States Government had placed the steam frigate Niagara at the
disposal of the cable company, and on her Morse, as the electrician of
the American Company, sailed from New York on April 21, 1857. Arriving in
London, he was again honored by many attentions and entertainments,
including a dinner at the Lord Mayor's. The loading of the cable on board
the ships designated for that purpose consumed, necessarily, some time,
and Morse took advantage of this delay to visit Paris, at the suggestion
of our Minister, Mr. Mason, in order to confer with the Premier, Count
Walewski, with regard to the pecuniary indemnity which all agreed was due
to him from the nations using his invention. This conference bore fruit,
as we shall see later on.
In a letter to his wife from Paris he makes this amusing comment on the
fashions of the day, after remarking on the dearth of female beauty in
France:--
"You must consider me now as speaking of features only, for as to form,
alas, that is under such a total crinoline eclipse that this season of
total darkness in fashion's firmament forbids any speculation on that
subject. The reign of crinoline amplitude is not only not removed, but is
more dominant than ever. Who could have predicted that, because an heir
to the French throne was in expectancy, all womankind, old and young,
would so far sympathize with the amiable consort of Napoleon III as to
be, in appearance at least, likely to flood the earth with heirs; that
grave parliaments would be in solemn debate upon the pressing necessity
of enlarging the entrances of royal palaces in order to meet the
exigencies of enlarged crinolines; that the new carriages were all of
increased dimensions to accommodate the crinoline? But so it is; it is
the age of crinoline.... Talk no longer of chairs, they are no longer
visible. Talk no longer of tête-à-têtes; two crinolines might get in
sight of each other, at least by the use of the lorgnette, but as for
conversation, that is out of the question except by speaking trumpets, by
signs, and who knows but in this age of telegraphs crinoline may not
follow the world's fashion and be a patroness of the Morse system."
All the preparations for the great enterprise of the laying of the cable
proceeded slowly, and it was not until the latter part of July that the
little fleet sailed from Liverpool on its way to the Cove of Cork and
then to Valencia, on the west coast of Ireland, which was chosen as the
European terminus of the cable. Morse wrote many pages of minute details
to his wife, and from them I shall select the most important and
interesting:--
"_July 28._ Here we are steaming our way towards Cork harbor, with most
beautiful weather, along the Irish coast, which is in full view, and
expecting to be in the Cove of Cork in the morning of to-morrow.... We
left Liverpool yesterday morning, as I wrote you we should, and as we
passed the ships of war in the harbor We were cheered from the rigging by
the tars of the various vessels, and the flags of others were dipped as a
salute, all of which were returned by us in kind. The landing stage and
quays of Liverpool were densely crowded with people who waved their
handkerchiefs as we slowly sailed by them.
"Two steamers accompanied us down to the bar filled with people, and
then, after mutual cheering and firing of cannon from one of the
steamers, they returned to port.... We shall be in Cork the remainder of
the week, possibly sailing on Saturday, go round to Valencia and be ready
to commence on Monday. Then, if all things are prosperous, we hope to
reach Newfoundland in twenty days, and dear home again the first week in
September. And yet there may be delays in this great work, for it is a
vast and new one, so don't be impatient if I do not return quite so soon.
The work must be thoroughly and well done before we leave it....
"_Evening, ten o'clock._ We have had a beautiful day and have been going
slowly along and expect to be in the Cove of Cork by daylight in the
morning. The deck of our ship presents a curious appearance just now;
Between the main and mizzen masts is an immense coil of one hundred and
thirty miles of the cable, the rest is in larger coils below decks. Abaft
the mizzen mast is a ponderous mass of machinery for regulating the
paying out of the cable, a steam-engine and boiler complete, and they
have just been testing it to see if all is right, and it is found right.
We have the prospect of a fine moon for our expedition.
"I send you the copy of a prayer that has been read in the churches. I am
rejoiced at the manner in which the Christian community views our
enterprise. It is calculated to inspire my confidence of success. What
the first message will be I cannot say, but if I send it it shall be,
'Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good will to men.' 'Not
unto us, not unto us, but to Thy name be all the glory.'"
"_July 29, four o'clock afternoon._ On awaking this morning at five
o'clock with the noise of coming to anchor, I found myself safely
ensconced in one of the most beautiful harbors in the world, with
Queenstown picturesquely rising upon the green hills from the foot of the
bay...."
"_August 1._ When I wrote the finishing sentence of my last letter I was
suffering a little from a slight accident to my leg. We were laying out
the cable from the two ships, the Agamemnon and Niagara, to connect the
two halves of the cable together to experiment through the whole length
of twenty-five hundred miles for the first time. In going down the side
of the Agamemnon I had to cross over several small boats to reach the
outer one, which was to take me on board the tug which had the connecting
cable on board. In stepping from one to the other of the small boats, the
water being very rough and the boats having a good deal of motion, I made
a misstep, my right leg being on board the outer boat, and my left leg
went down between the two boats scraping the skin from the upper part of
the leg near the knee for some two or three inches. It pained me a
little, but not much, still I knew from experience that, however slight
and comparatively painless at the time, I should be laid up the next day
and possibly for several days.
"My warm-hearted, generous friend, Sir William O'Shaughnessy, was on
board, and, being a surgeon, he at once took it in hand and dressed it,
tell Susan, in good hydropathic style with cold water. I felt so little
inconvenience from it at the time that I assisted throughout the day in
laying the cable, and operating through it after it was joined, and had
the satisfaction of witnessing the successful result of passing the
electricity through twenty-five hundred miles at the rate of one signal
in one and a quarter second. Since then Dr. Whitehouse has succeeded in
telegraphing a message through it at the rate of a single signal in three
quarters of a second. If the cable, therefore, is successfully laid so as
to preserve continuity throughout, there is no doubt of our being able to
telegraph through, and at a good commercial speed.
"I have been on my back for two days and am still confined to the ship.
To-morrow I hope to be well enough to hobble on board the Agamemnon and
assist in some experiments."
The accident to his leg was more serious than he at first imagined, and
conditions were not improved by his using his leg more than was prudent.
"_August 3, eleven o'clock A.M._ I am still confined, most of the time on
my back in my berth, quite to my annoyance in one respect, to wit, that I
am unable to be on board the Agamemnon with Dr. Whitehouse to assist at
the experiments. Yet I have so much to be thankful for that gratitude is
the prevailing feeling.
"_Seven o'clock._ All the ships are under way from the Cove of Cork. The
Leopard left first, then the Agamemnon, then the Susquehanna and the
Niagara last; and at this moment we are off the Head of Kinsale in the
following order: Niagara, Leopard, Agamemnon, Susquehanna. The Cyclops
and another vessel, the Advice, left for Valencia on Saturday evening,
and, with a beautiful night before us, we hope to be there also by noon
to-morrow.
"This day three hundred and sixty-five years ago Columbus sailed on his
first voyage of discovery and discovered America."
"_August 4._ Off the Skelligs light, of which I send you a sketch. A
beautiful morning with head wind and heavy sea, making many seasick. We
are about fifteen miles from our point of destination. Our companion
ships are out of sight astern, except the Susquehanna, which is behind us
only about a mile. In a few hours we hope to reach our expectant friends
in Valencia and to commence the great work in earnest.
"Our ship is crowded with engineers, and operators, and delegates from
the Governments of Russia and France, and the deck is a bewildering mass
of machinery, steam-engines, cog-wheels, breaks, boilers, ropes of hemp
and ropes of wire, buoys and boys, pulleys and sheaves of wood and iron,
cylinders of wood and cylinders of iron, meters of all kinds,--
anemometers, thermometers, barometers, electrometers,--steam-gauges,
ships' logs--from the common log to Massey's log and Friend's log, to our
friend Whitehouse's electro-magnetic log, which I think will prove to be
the best of all, with a modification I have suggested. Thus freighted we
expect to disgorge most of our solid cargo before reaching mid-ocean.
"I am keeping ready to close this at a moment's warning, so give all
manner of love to all friends, kisses to whom kisses are due. I am
getting almost impatient at the delays we necessarily encounter, but our
great work must not be neglected. I have seen enough to know now that the
Atlantic Telegraph is sure to be established, _for it is practicable_."
Was it a foreboding of what was to happen that caused him to add:--
"_We may not succeed in our first attempt_; some little neglect or
accident may foil our present efforts, but the present enterprise will
result in gathering stores of experience which will make the next effort
certain. Not that I do not expect success now, but accidental failure now
will not be the evidence of its impracticability.
"Our principal electrical difficulty is the slowness with which we must
manipulate in order to be intelligible; twenty words in sixteen minutes
is now the rate. I am confident we can get more after awhile, but the
Atlantic Telegraph has its own rate of talking and cannot be urged to
speak faster, any more than any other orator, without danger of becoming
unintelligible.
"_Three o'clock P.M._ We are in Valencia Harbor. We shall soon come to
anchor. A pilot who has just come to show us our anchorage ground says:
'There are a power of people ashore.'"
"_August 8._ Yesterday, at half past six P.M., all being right, we
commenced again paying out the heavy shore-end, of which we had about
eight miles to be left on the rocky bottom of the coast, to bear the
attrition of the waves and to prevent injury to the delicate nerve which
it incloses in its iron mail, and which is the living principle of the
whole work. A critical time was approaching, it was when the end of the
massive cable should pass overboard at the point where it joins the main
and smaller cable. I was in my berth, by order of the surgeon, lest my
injured limb, which was somewhat inflamed by the excitement of the day
and too much walking about, should become worse.
"Above my head the heavy rumbling of the great wheels, over which the
cable was passing and was being regulated, every now and then giving a
tremendous thump like the discharge of artillery, kept me from sleep, and
I knew they were approaching the critical point. Presently it came. The
machinery stopped, and soon amid the voices I heard the unwelcome
intelligence--'The cable is broke.' Sure enough the smaller cable at this
point had parted, but, owing to the prudent precautions of those
superintending, the end of the great cable had been buoyed and the
hawsers which had been attached secured it. The sea was moderate, the
moonlight gave a clear sight of all, and in half an hour the joyous sound
of 'All right' was heard, the machinery commenced a low and regular
rumbling, like the purring of a great cat, which has continued from that
moment (midnight) till the present moment uninterrupted.
"The coil on deck is most beautifully uncoiling at the rate of three
nautical miles an hour. The day is magnificent, the land has almost
disappeared and our companion ships are leisurely sailing with us at
equal pace, and we are all, of course, in fine spirits. I sent you a
telegraph dispatch this morning, thirty miles out, which you will duly
receive with others that I shall send if all continues to go on without
interruption. If you do receive any, preserve them with the greatest
care, for they will be great curiosities."
"_August 10._ Thus far we have had most delightful weather, and
everything goes on regularly and satisfactorily. You are aware we cannot
stop night nor day in paying out. On Saturday we made our calculations
that the first great coil, which is upon the main deck, would be
completely paid out, and one of our critical movements, to wit, the
change from this coil to the next, which is far forward, would be made by
seven or eight o'clock yesterday morning (Sunday). So we were up and
watching the last flake of the first coil gradually diminishing.
Everything had been well prepared; the men were at their posts; it was an
anxious moment lest a kink might occur. But, as the last round came up,
the motion of the ship was slightly slackened, the men handled the slack
cable handsomely, and in two minutes the change was made with perfect
order, and the paying out from the second coil was as regularly commenced
and at this moment continues, and at an increased rate to-day of five
miles per hour.
"Last night, however, was another critical moment. On examining our chart
of soundings we found the depth of the ocean gradually increasing up to
about four hundred fathoms, and then the chart showed a sudden and great
increase to seventeen hundred fathoms, and then a further increase to two
thousand and fifty, nearly the greatest depth with which we should meet
in the whole distance. We had, therefore, to watch the effect of this
additional depth upon the straining of the cable. At two in the morning
the effect showed itself in a greater strain and a more rapid tendency to
run fast. We could check its speed, but it is a dangerous process. _Too
sudden a check would inevitably snap the cable_. Too slack a rein would
allow of its egress at such a wasting rate and at such a violent speed
that we should lose too great a portion of the cable, and its future
stopping within controllable limits be almost impossible. Hence our
anxiety. All were on the alert; our expert engineers applied the brakes
most judiciously, and at the moment I write--latitude 52° 28'--the cable
is being laid at the depth of two miles in its ocean bed as regularly and
with as much facility as it was in the depth of a few fathoms....
"_Six P.M._ We have just had a fearful alarm. 'Stop her! Stop her!' was
reiterated from many voices on deck. On going up I perceived the cable
had got out of its sheaves and was running out at great speed. All was
confusion for a few moments. Mr. Canning, our friend, who was the
engineer of the Newfoundland cable, showed great presence of mind, and to
his coolness and skill, I think, is due the remedying of the evil. By
rope stoppers the cable was at length brought to a standstill, and it
strained most ominously, perspiring at every part great tar drops. But it
held together long enough to put the cable on the sheaves again."
"_Tuesday, August 11._ Abruptly indeed am I stopped in my letter. This
morning at 3.45 the cable parted, and we shall soon be on our way back to
England."
Thus ended the first attempt to unite the Old World with the New by means
of an electric nerve. Authorities differ as to who was responsible for
the disaster, but the cause was proved to be what Morse had foreseen when
he wrote: "Too sudden a check would inevitably snap the cable."
While, of course, disappointed, he was not discouraged, for under date of
August 13, he writes:--
"Our accident will delay the enterprise but will not defeat it. I
consider it a settled fact, from all I have seen, that it is perfectly
practicable. It will surely be accomplished. There is no insurmountable
difficulty that has for a moment appeared, none that has shaken my faith
in it in the slightest degree. My report to the company as co-electrician
will show everything right in that department. We got an electric current
through till the moment of parting, so that electric connection was
perfect, and yet the farther we paid out the feebler were the currents,
indicating a difficulty which, however, I do not consider serious, while
it is of a nature to require attentive investigation."
"_Plymouth, August 17._ Here I am still held by the leg and lying in my
berth from which I have not moved for six days. I suffer but little pain
unless I attempt to sit up, and the healing process is going on most
favorably but slowly.... I have been here three days and have not yet had
a glimpse of the beautiful country that surrounds us, and if we should be
ordered to another port before I can be out I shall have as good an idea
of Plymouth as I should have at home looking at a map."
While the wounded leg healed slowly, the plans of the company moved more
deliberately still. A movement was on foot for the East India Company to
purchase what remained of the cable for use in the Red Sea or the Persian
Gulf, so that the Atlantic Company could start afresh with an entirely
new cable, and Morse hoped that this plan might be consummated at an
early date so that he could return to America in the Niagara; but the
negotiations halted from day to day and week to week. The burden of his
letters to his wife is always that a decision is promised by "to-morrow,"
and finally he says in desperation: "To-day was to-morrow yesterday, but
to-day has to-day another to-morrow, on which day, as usual, we are to
know something. But as to-day has not yet gone, I wait with some anxiety
to learn what it is to bring forth."
His letters are filled with affectionate longing to be at home again and
with loving messages to all his dear ones, and at last he is able to say
that his wound has completely healed, and that he has decided to leave
the Niagara and sail from Liverpool on the Arabia, on September 19, and
in due time he arrived at his beloved home on the Hudson.
While still intensely interested in the great cable enterprise, he begins
to question the advisability of continuing his connection with the men
against whom Mr. Kendall had warned him, for in a letter to his brother
Richard, of October 15, 1857, he says: "I intend to withdraw altogether
from the Atlantic Telegraph enterprise, as they who are prominent on this
side of the water in its interests are using it with all then: efforts
and influence against my invention, and my interests, and those of my
assignees, to whom I feel bound in honor to attach myself, even if some
of them have been deceived into coalition with the hostile party."
It was, however, a great disappointment to him that he was not connected
with future attempts to lay the cable. His withdrawal was not altogether
voluntary in spite of what he said in the letter from which I have just
quoted. While he had been made an Honorary Director of the company in
1857, although not a stockholder, a law was subsequently passed declaring
that only stockholders could be directors, even honorary directors. He
had not felt financially able to purchase stock, but it was a source of
astonishment to him and to others that a few shares, at least, had not
been allotted to him for his valuable services in connection with the
enterprise. He had, nevertheless, cheerfully given of his time and
talents in the first attempt, although cautioned by Mr. Kendall.
He goes fully into the whole matter in a very long letter to Mr. John W.
Brett, of December 27, 1858, in which he details his connection with the
cable company, his regret and surprise at being excluded on the ground of
his not being a stockholder, especially as, on a subsequent visit to
Europe, he found that two other men had been made honorary directors,
although they were not stockholders. He says that he learned also that
"Mr. Field had represented to the Directors that I was hostile to the
company, and was using my exertions to defeat the measures for aid from
the United States Government to the enterprise, and that it was in
consequence of these misrepresentations that I was not elected."
He says farther on: "I sincerely rejoiced in the consummation of the
great enterprise, although prevented in the way I have shown from being
present. I ought to have been with the cable squadron last summer. It was
no fault of mine, that I was not there. I hope Mr. Field can exculpate
himself in the eyes of the Board, before the world, and before his own
conscience, in the course he has taken."
On the margin of the letter-press copy of a letter Written to Mr. Kendall
on December 22, 1859, is a note in pencil written, evidently, at a later
date: "Mr. Field has since manifested by his conduct a different temper.
I have long since forgiven what, after all, may have been error of
ignorance on his part."
The fact remains, however, that his connection with the cable company was
severed, and that his relations with Messrs. Field, Cooper, etc., were
decidedly strained. It is more than possible that, had he continued as
electrician of the company, the second attempt might have been
successful, for he foresaw the difficulty which resulted in failure, and,
had he been the guiding mind, it would, naturally, have been avoided. The
proof of this is in the following incident, which was related by a friend
of his, Mr. Jacob S. Jewett, to Mr. Prime:--
"I thought it might interest you to know when and how Professor Morse
received the first tidings of the success of the Atlantic Cable. I
accompanied him to Europe on the steamer Fulton, which sailed from New
York July 24, 1858. We were nearing Southampton when a sail boat was
noticed approaching, and soon our vessel was boarded by a young man who
sought an interview with Professor Morse, and announced to him that a
message from America had just been received, the first that had passed
along the wire lying upon the bed of the ocean.
"Professor Morse was, of course, greatly delighted, but, turning to me,
said: '_This is very gratifying, but it is doubtful whether many more
messages will be received_'; and gave as his reason that--'the cable had
been so long stored in an improper place that much of the coating had
been destroyed, and the cable was in other respects injured.' His
prediction proved to be true."
And Mr. Prime adds: "Had he been in the board of direction, had his
judgment and experience as electrician been employed, that great
calamity, which cost millions of money and eight years of delay in the
use of the ocean telegraph, would, in all human probability, have been
averted."
But it is idle to speculate on what might have been. His letters show
that the action of the directors amazed and hurt him, and that it was
with deep regret that he ceased to take an active part in the great
enterprise the success of which he had been the first to prophesy.
Many other matters claimed his attention at this time, for, as usual upon
returning from a prolonged absence, he found his affairs in more or less
confusion, and his time for some months after his return was spent mainly
in straightening them out. The winter was spent in New York with his
family, but business calling him to Washington, he gives utterance, in a
letter to his wife of December 16, to sentiments which will appeal to all
who have had to do with the powers that be in the Government service:--
"As yet I have not had the least success in getting a proper position for
Charles. A more thankless, repulsive business than asking for a situation
under Government I cannot conceive. I would myself starve rather than ask
such a favor if I were alone concerned. The modes of obtaining even a
hearing are such as to drive a man of any sensitiveness to wish himself
in the depths of the forest away from the vicinity of men, rather than
encounter the airs of those on their temporary thrones of power. I cannot
say what I feel. I shall do all I can, but anticipate no success.... I
called to see Secretary Toucey for the purpose of asking him to put me in
the way of finding some place for Charles, but, after sending in my card
and waiting in the anteroom for half to three fourths of an hour, he took
no notice of my card, just left his room, passed by deliberately the open
door of the anteroom without speaking to me, and left the building. This
may be all explained and I will charitably hope there was no intention of
rudeness to me, but, unexplained, a ruder slight could not well be
conceived."
The affection of the three Morse brothers for each other was unusually
strong, and it is from the unreserved correspondence between Finley and
Sidney that some of the most interesting material for this work has been
gathered. Both of these brothers possessed a keen sense of humor and
delighted in playful banter. The following is written in pencil on an odd
scrap of paper and has no date:--
"When my brother and I were children my father one day took us each on
his knee and said: 'Now I am going to tell you the character of each of
you.' He then told us the fable of the Hare and the Tortoise. 'Now,' said
he, 'Finley' (that is me), 'you are the Hare and Sidney, your brother, is
the Tortoise. See if I am not correct in prophesying your future
careers.' So ever since it has been a topic of banter between Sidney and
me. Sometimes Sidney seemed to be more prosperous than I; then he would
say, 'The old tortoise is ahead.' Then I would take a vigorous run and
cry out to him,' The hare is ahead.' For I am naturally quick and
impulsive, and he sluggish and phlegmatic. So I am now going to give him
the Hare riding the Tortoise as a piece of fun. Sidney will say: 'Ah! you
see the Hare is obliged to ride on the Tortoise in order to get to the
goal!' But I shall say: 'Yes, but the Tortoise could not get there unless
the Hare spurred him up and guided him.'"
Both of these brothers achieved success, but, unfortunately for the moral
of the old fable, the hare quite outdistanced the tortoise, without,
however, kindling any spark of jealousy in that faithful heart.
While Sidney was still in Europe his brother writes to him on December
29, 1857:--
"I don't know what you must think of me for not having written to you
since my return. It has not been for want of will but truly from the
impossibility of withdrawing myself from an unprecedented pressure of
more important duties, on which to _write_ so that you could form any
clear idea of them would be impossible. These duties arise from the state
of my affairs thrown into confusion by the conduct of parties intent on
controlling all my property. But, I am happy to state, my affairs are in
a way of adjustment through the active exertions of my faithful agent and
friend, Mr. Kendall, so far as his declining strength permits.... I wish
you were near me so that we could exchange views on many subjects,
particularly on the one which so largely occupies public attention
everywhere. I have been collecting works pro and con on the Slavery
question with a view of writing upon it. We are in perfect accord, I
think, on that subject. I believe that you and I would be considered in
New England as rank heretics, for, I confess, the more I study the
subject the more I feel compelled to declare myself on the Southern side
of the question.
"I care not for the judgment of men, however; I feel on sure ground while
standing on Bible doctrine, and I have arrived at the conclusion that a
fearful hallucination, not less absurd than that which beclouded some of
the most pious and otherwise intelligent minds of the days of Salem
witchcraft, has for a time darkened the moral atmosphere of the North."
The event has seemed to prove that it was the Southern sympathizers at
the North, those "most pious and otherwise intelligent minds," whose
moral atmosphere was darkened by a "fearful hallucination," for no one
now claims that slavery is a divine institution because the Bible says,
"Slaves, obey your masters."
I have stated that one of the purposes of Morse's visit to Europe in 1856
was to seek to persuade the various Governments which were using his
telegraph to grant him some pecuniary remuneration. The idea was received
favorably at the different courts, and resulted in a concerted movement
initiated by the Count Walewski, representing France, and participated in
by ten of the European nations. The sittings of this convention, or
congress, were held in Paris from April, 1868, to the latter part of
August, and the result is announced in a letter of Count Walewski to
Morse of September 1:--
SIR,--It is with lively satisfaction that I have the honor to announce to
you that a sum of four hundred thousand francs will be remitted to you,
in four annuities, in the name of France, of Austria, of Belgium, of the
Netherlands, of Piedmont, of Russia, of the Holy See, of Sweden, of
Tuscany and of Turkey, as an honorary gratuity, and as a reward,
altogether personal, of your useful labors. Nothing can better mark than
this collective act of reward the sentiment of public gratitude which
your invention has so justly excited.
The Emperor has already given you a testimonial of his high esteem when
he conferred upon you, more than a year ago, the decoration of a
Chevalier of his order of the Legion of Honor. You will find a new mark
of it in the initiative which his Majesty wished that his government
should take in this conjuncture; and the decision that I charge myself to
bring to your knowledge is a brilliant proof of the eager and sympathetic
adhesion that his proposition has met with from the States I have just
enumerated.
I pray you to accept on this occasion, sir, my personal congratulations,
as well as the assurance of my sentiments of the most distinguished
consideration.
While this letter is dated September 1, the amount of the gratuity agreed
upon seems to have been made known soon after the first meeting of the
convention, for on April 29, the following letter was written to Morse by
M. van den Broek, his agent in all the preliminaries leading up to the
convention, and who, by the way, was to receive as his commission one
third of the amount of the award, whatever it might be: "I have this
morning seen the secretary of the Minister, and from him learned that the
sum definitely fixed is 400,000 francs, payable in four years. This does
not by any means answer our expectations, and I am afraid you will be
much disappointed, yet I used every exertion in my power, but without
avail, to procure a grant of a larger sum."
It certainly was a pitiful return for the millions of dollars which
Morse's invention had saved or earned for those nations which used it as
a government monopoly, and while I find no note of complaint in his own
letters, his friends were more outspoken. Mr. Kendall, in a letter of May
18, exclaims: "I know not how to express my contempt of the meanness of
the European Governments in the award they propose to make you as _the_
inventor of the Telegraph. I had set the sum at half a million dollars as
the least that they could feel to be at all compatible with their
dignity. I hope you will acknowledge it more as a tribute to the merits
of your invention than as an adequate reward for it."
And in a letter of June 5, answering one of Morse's which must have
contained some expressions of gratitude, Mr. Kendall says further: "In
reference to the second subject of your letter, I have to say that it is
only as a tribute to the superiority of your invention that the European
grant can, in my opinion, be considered either 'generous' or
'magnanimous.' As an indemnity it is niggardly and mean."
It will be in place to record here the testimonials of the different
nations of Europe to the Inventor of the Telegraph, manifested in various
forms:--
_France._ A contributor to the honorary gratuity, and the decoration of
the Legion of Honor.
_Prussia._ The Scientific Gold Medal of Prussia set in the lid of a gold
snuff-box.
_Austria._ A contributor to the honorary gratuity, and the Scientific
Gold Medal of Austria.
_Russia._ A contributor to the honorary gratuity.
_Spain._ The cross of Knight Commander de Numero of the order of Isabella
the Catholic.
_Portugal._ The cross of a Knight of the Tower and Sword.
_Italy._ A contributor to the honorary gratuity, and the cross of a
Knight of Saints Lazaro and Mauritio.
_Württemberg._ The Scientific Gold Medal of Württemberg.
_Turkey._ A contributor to the honorary gratuity, and the decoration in
diamonds of the Nishan Iftichar, or Order of Glory.
_Denmark._ The cross of Knight Commander of the Dannebrog.
_Holy See._ A contributor to the honorary gratuity.
_Belgium._ A contributor to the honorary gratuity.
_Holland._ A contributor to the honorary gratuity.
_Sweden._ A contributor to the honorary gratuity.
_Great Britain._ Nationally nothing.
_Switzerland._ Nationally nothing.
_Saxony._ Nationally nothing.
The decorations and medals enumerated above, with the exception of the
Danish cross, which had to be returned at the death of the recipient, and
one of the medals, which mysteriously disappeared many years ago, are now
in the Morse case at the National Museum in Washington, having been
presented to that institution by the children and grandchildren of the
inventor. It should be added that, in addition to the honors bestowed on
him by foreign governments, he was made a member of the Royal Academy of
Sciences of Sweden, a member of the Institute of France and of the
principal scientific societies of the United States. It has been already
noted in these pages that his _alma mater_, Yale, conferred on him the
degree of LL.D.
I have said that I find no note of complaint in Morse's letters. Whatever
his feelings of disappointment may have been, he felt it his duty to send
the following letter to Count Walewski on September 15, 1858. Perhaps a
slight note of irony may be read into the sentence accepting the
gratuity, but, if intended, I fear it was too feeble to have reached its
mark, and the letter is, as a whole and under the circumstances, almost
too fulsome, conforming, however, to the stilted style of the time:--
On my return to Paris from Switzerland I have this day received, from the
Minister of the United States, the most gratifying information which Your
Excellency did me the honor to send to me through him, respecting the
decision of the congress of the distinguished diplomatic representatives
of ten of the August governments of Europe, held in special reference to
myself.
You have had the considerate kindness to communicate to me a proceeding
which reflects the highest honor upon the Imperial Government and its
noble associates, and I am at a loss for language adequately to express
to them my feelings of profound gratitude.
But especially, Your Excellency, do I want words to express towards the
august head of the Imperial Government, and to Your Excellency, the
thankful sentiments of my heart for the part so prominently taken by His
Imperial Majesty, and by Your Excellency, in so generously initiating
this measure for my honor in inviting the governments of Europe to a
conference on the subject, and for so zealously and warmly advocating and
perseveringly conducting to a successful termination, the measure in
which the Imperial Government so magnanimously took the initiative.
I accept the gratuity thus tendered, on the basis of an honorary
testimonial and a personal reward, with tenfold more gratification than
could have been produced by a sum of money, however large, offered on the
basis of a commercial negotiation.
I beg Your Excellency to receive my thanks, however inadequately
expressed, and to believe that I appreciate Your Excellency's kind and
generous services performed in the midst of your high official duties,
consummating a proceeding so unique, and in a manner so graceful, that
personal kindness has been beautifully blended with official dignity.
I will address respectively to the honorable ministers who were Your
Excellency's colleagues a letter of thanks for their participation in
this act of high honor to me.
I beg Your Excellency to accept the assurances of my lasting gratitude
and highest consideration in subscribing myself
Your Excellency's most obedient humble servant,
SAMUEL F.B. MORSE.