SEPTEMBER 3, 1858--SEPTEMBER 21, 1863
Visits Europe again with a large family party.--Regrets this.--Sails for
Porto Rico with wife and two children.--First impressions of the
tropics.--Hospitalities.--His son-in-law's plantation.--Death of Alfred
Vail.--Smithsonian exonerates Henry.--European honors to Morse.--First
line of telegraph in Porto Rico.--Banquet.--Returns home.--Reception at
Poughkeepsie.--Refuses to become candidate for the Presidency.--Purchases
New York house.--F.O.J. Smith claims part of European gratuity.--Succeeds
through legal technicality.--Visit of Prince of Wales.--Duke of
Newcastle.--War clouds.--Letters on slavery, etc.--Matthew Vassar.--
Efforts as peacemaker.--Foresees Northern victory.--Gloomy forebodings.--
Monument to his father.--Divides part of European gratuity with widow of
Vail.--Continued efforts in behalf of peace.--Bible arguments in favor of
slavery.
Many letters of this period, including a whole letterpress copy-book, are
missing, many of the letters in other copy-books are quite illegible
through the fading of the ink, and others have been torn out (by whom I
do not know) and have entirely disappeared. It will, therefore, be
necessary to summarize the events of the remainder of the year 1858, and
of some of the following years.
We find that, on July 24, 1858, Morse sailed with his family, including
his three young boys, his mother-in-law and other relatives, a party of
fifteen all told, for Havre on the steamer Fulton; that he was tendered a
banquet by his fellow-countrymen in Paris, and that he was received with
honor wherever he went. Travelling with a large family was a different
proposition from the independence which he had enjoyed on his previous
visits to Europe, when he was either alone or accompanied only by his
wife and niece, and he pathetically remarks to his brother Sidney, in a
letter of September 3, written from Interlaken: "It was a great mistake I
committed in bringing my family. I have scarcely had one moment's
pleasure, and am almost worn out with anxieties and cares. If I get back
safe with them to Paris I hope, after arranging my affairs there, to go
as direct as possible to Southampton, and settle them there till I sail
in November. I am tired of travelling and long for the repose of Locust
Grove, if it shall please our Heavenly Father to permit us to meet there
again."
[Illustration: MORSE AND HIS YOUNGEST SON]
Before returning to the quiet of his home on the Hudson, however, he paid
a visit which he had long had in contemplation. On November 17, 1858, he
and his wife and their two younger sons sailed from Southampton for Porto
Rico, where his elder daughter, Mrs. Edward land, had for many years
lived, and where his younger daughter had been visiting while he was in
Europe. He describes his first impressions of a tropical country in a
letter to his mother-in-law, Mrs. Griswold, who had decided to spend the
winter in Geneva to superintend the education of his son Arthur, a lad of
nine:--
"In St. Thomas we received every possible attention. The Governor called
on us and invited Edward and myself to breakfast (at 10.30 o'clock) the
day we left. He lives in a fine mansion on one of the lesser hills that
enclose the harbor, having directly beneath him on the slope, and only
separated by a wall, the residence of Santa Anna. He was invited to be
present, but he was ill (so he said) and excused himself. I presume his
illness was occasioned by the thought of meeting an American from the
States, for he holds the citizens of the States in perfect hatred, so
much so as to refuse to receive United States money in change from his
servants on their return from market.
"A few days in change of latitude make wonderful changes in feelings and
clothing. When we left England the air was wintry, and thick woolen
clothing and fires were necessary. The first night at sea blankets were
in great demand. With two extra and my great-coat over all I was
comfortably warm. In twenty-four hours the great-coat was dispensed with,
then one blanket, then another, until a sheet alone began to be enough,
and the last two or three nights on board this slight covering was too
much. When we got into the harbor of St. Thomas the temperature was
oppressive; our slightest summer clothing was in demand. Surrounded by
pomegranate trees, magnificent oleanders, cocoa-nut trees with their
large fruit some thirty feet from the ground, the aloe and innumerable,
and to me strange, tropical plants, I could scarcely believe it was
December....
"We arrived on Thursday morning and remained until Monday morning, Edward
having engaged a Long Island schooner, which happened to be in port, to
take us to Arroyo. At four o'clock the Governor sent his official barge,
under the charge of the captain of the port, a most excellent,
intelligent, scientific gentleman, who had breakfasted with us at the
Governor's in the morning, and in a few minutes we were rowed alongside
of the schooner Estelle, and before dark were under way and out of the
harbor. Our quarters were very small and close, but not so uncomfortable.
"At daylight in the morning of Tuesday we were sailing along the shores
of Porto Rico, and at sunrise we found we were in sight of Guyama and
Arroyo, and with our glasses we saw at a distance the buildings on
Edward's estate. Susan had been advised of our coming and a flag was
flying on the house in answer to the signal we made from the vessel. In
two or three hours we got to the shore, as near as was safe for the
vessel, and then in the doctor's boat, which had paid us an official
visit to see that we did not bring yellow fever or other infectious
disease, the kind doctor, an Irishman educated in America, took us ashore
at a little temporary landing-place to avoid the surf. On the shore there
were some handkerchiefs shaking, and in a crowd we saw Susan and Leila,
and Charlie [his grandson] who were waiting for us in carriages, and in a
few moments we embraced them all. The sun was hot upon us, but, after a
ride of two or three miles, we came to the Henrietta, my dear Edward and
Susan's residence, and were soon under the roof of a spacious, elegant
and most commodious mansion. And here we are with midsummer temperature
and vegetation, but a tropical vegetation, all around us.
"Well, we always knew that Edward was a prince of a man, but we did not
know, or rather appreciate, that he has a princely estate and in as fine
order as any in the island. When I say 'fine order,' I do not mean that
it is laid out like the Bois de Boulogne, nor is there quite as much
picturesqueness in a level plain of sugar canes as in the trees and
shrubbery of the gardens of Versailles; but it is a rich and
well-cultivated estate of some fourteen hundred acres, gradually rising
for two or three miles from the sea-shore to the mountains, including
some of them, and stretching into the valleys between them."
His visit to Porto Rico was a most delightful one to him in many ways,
and I shall have more to say of it further on, but I digress for a moment
to speak of two events which occurred just at this time, and which showed
him that, even in this land of _dolce far niente_, he could not escape
the griefs and cares which are common to all mankind.
Mr. Kendall, in a letter of February 20, announces the death of one of
his early associates: "I presume you will have heard before this reaches
you of the death of Alfred Vail. He had sold most of his telegraph stocks
and told me when I last saw him that it was with difficulty he could
procure the means of comfort for his family."
Morse had heard of this melancholy event, for, in a letter to Mr.
Shaffner of February 22, he says: "Poor Vail! alas, he is gone. I only
heard of the event on Saturday last. This death, and the death of many
friends besides, has made me feel sad. Vail ought to have a proper
notice. He was an upright man, and, although some ways of his made him
unpopular with those with whom he came in contact, yet I believe his
intentions were good, and his faults were the result more of ill-health,
a dyspeptic habit, than of his heart."
He refers to this also in a letter to his brother Sidney of February 23:
"Poor Vail is gone. He was the innocent cause of the original difficulty
with the sensitive Henry, he all the time earnestly desirous of doing him
honor."
And on March 30, he answers Mr. Kendall's letter: "I regret to learn that
poor Vail was so straitened in his circumstances at his death. I intend
paying a visit to his father and family on my return. I may be able to
relieve them in some degree."
This intention he fulfilled, as we shall see later on, and I wish to call
special attention to the tone of these letters because, as I have said
before, Morse has been accused of gross ingratitude and injustice towards
Alfred Vail, whereas a careful and impartial study of all the
circumstances of their connection proves quite the contrary. Vail's
advocates, in loudly claiming for him much more than the evidence shows
he was entitled to, have not hesitated to employ gross personal abuse of
Morse in their newspaper articles, letters, etc., even down to the
present day. This has made my task rather difficult, for, while earnestly
desirous of giving every possible credit to Vail, I have been compelled
to introduce much evidence, which I should have preferred to omit, to
show the essential weakness of his character; he seems to have been
foredoomed to failure. He undoubtedly was of great assistance in the
early stages of the invention, and for this Morse always cheerfully gave
him full credit, but I have proved that he did not invent the
dot-and-dash alphabet, which has been so insistently claimed for him,
and that his services as a mechanician were soon dispensed with in favor
of more skilful men. I have also shown that he practically left Morse to
his fate in the darkest years of the struggle to bring the telegraph into
public use, and that, by his morbid suspicions, he hampered the efforts
of Mr. Kendall to harmonize conflicting interests. For all this Morse
never bore him any ill-will, but endeavored in every way to foster and
safeguard his interests. That he did not succeed was no fault of his.
Another reminder that he was but human, and that he could not expect to
sail serenely along on the calm, seas of popular favor without an
occasional squall, was given to him just at this time. Professor Joseph
Henry had requested the Regents of the Smithsonian Institute to enquire
into the rights and wrongs of the controversy between himself and Morse,
which had its origin in Henry's testimony in the telegraph suits, tinged
as this testimony was with bitterness on account of the omissions in
Vail's book, and which was fanned into a flame by Morse's "Defense." The
latter resented the fact that all these proceedings had taken place while
he was out of the country, and without giving him an opportunity to
present his side of the case. However, he shows his willingness to do
what is right in the letter to Colonel Shaffner of February 22, from
which I have already quoted:--
"Well, it has taken him four years to fire off his gun, and perhaps I am
killed. When I return I shall examine my wounds and see if they are
mortal, and, if so, shall endeavor to die becomingly. Seriously, however,
if there are any new facts which go to exculpate Henry for his attack
upon me before the courts at a moment when I was struggling against those
who, from whatever motive, wished to deprive me of my rights, and even of
my character, I shall be most happy to learn them, and, if I have
unwittingly done him injustice, shall also be most happy to make proper
amends. But as all this is for the future, as I know of no facts which
alter the case, and as I am wholly unconscious of having done any
injustice, I must wait to see what he has put forth."
In a letter to his brother Sidney, of February 23, he philosophizes as
follows:--
"I cannot avoid noticing a singular coincidence of events in my
experience of life, especially in that part of it devoted to the
invention of the Telegraph, to wit, that, when any special and marked
honor has been conferred upon me, there has immediately succeeded some
event of the envious or sordid character seemingly as a set-off, the
tendency of which has been invariably to prevent any excess of exultation
on my part. Can this be accident? Is it not rather the wise ordering of
events by infinite wisdom and goodness to draw me away from repose in
earthly honor to the more substantial and enduring honor that comes only
from God? ... I pray for wisdom to direct in such trials, and in any
answer I may find it necessary to give to Henry or others, I desire most
of all to be mindful of that charity which 'suffereth long, which
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, hopeth all things, thinketh no
evil.'"
This check to self-laudation came at an appropriate moment, as he said,
for just at this time honors were being plentifully showered upon him. It
was then that he was first notified of the bestowal of the Spanish
decoration, and of the probability of Portugal's following suit. Perhaps
even more gratifying still was his election as a member of the Royal
Academy of Sciences of Sweden, for this was a recognition of his merits
as a scientist, and not as a mere promoter, as he had been contemptuously
called. On the Island of Porto Rico too he was being honored and fêted.
On March 2, he writes:--
"I have just completed with success the construction and organization of
the short telegraph line, the first on this island, initiating the great
enterprise of the Southern Telegraph route to Europe from our shores, so
far as to interest the Porto Ricans in the value of the invention.
"Yesterday was a day of great excitement here for this small place. The
principal inhabitants of this place and Guayama determined to celebrate
the completion of this little line, in which they take a great pride as
being the first in the island, and so they complimented me with a public
breakfast which was presided over by the lieutenant-colonel commandant of
Guayama.
"The commandant and alcalde, the collector and captain of the port, with
all the officials of the place, and the clergy of Guayama and Arroyo, and
gentlemen planters and merchants of the two towns, numbering in all about
forty, were present. We sat down at one o'clock to a very handsome
breakfast, and the greatest enthusiasm and kind and generous feeling were
manifested. My portrait was behind me upon the wall draped with the
Spanish and American flags. I gave them a short address of thanks, and
took the opportunity to interest them in the great Telegraph line which
will give them communication with the whole world. I presume accounts
will be published in the United States from the Porto Rico papers. Thus
step by step (shall I not rather say _stride by stride_?) the Telegraph
is compassing the world.
"My accounts from Madrid assure me that the government will soon have all
the papers prepared for granting the concession to Mr. Perry, our former
secretary of legation at Madrid, in connection with Sir James Carmichael,
Mr. John W. Brett, the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph
Company, and others. The recent consolidation plan in the United States
has removed the only hesitation I had in sustaining this new enterprise,
for I feared that I might unwittingly injure, by a counter plan, those it
was my duty to support. Being now in harmony with the American Company
and the Newfoundland Company, I presume all my other companies will
derive benefit rather than injury from the success of this new and grand
enterprise. At any rate I feel impelled to support all plans that
manifestly tend to the complete circumvention of the globe, and the
bringing into telegraphic connection all the nations of the earth, and
this when I am not fully assured that present personal interests may not
temporarily suffer. I am glad to know that harmonious arrangements are
made between the various companies in the United States, although I have
been so ill-used. I will have no litigation if I can avoid it. Even Henry
may have the field in quiet, unless he has presented a case too
flagrantly unjust to leave unanswered."
The short line of telegraph was from his son-in-law's house to his place
of business on the bay, about two miles, and the building of it gave rise
to the legend on the island that Morse conducted some of his first
electrical experiments in Porto Rico, which, of course, is not true.
There is much correspondence concerning the proposed cable from Spain or
Portugal by various routes to the West Indies and thence to the United
States, but nothing came of it.
The rest of their stay in Porto Rico was greatly enjoyed by all in spite
of certain drawbacks incidental to the tropics, to one of which he
alludes in a letter to his sister-in-law, Mrs. Goodrich, who was then in
Europe. Speaking of his wife he says: "She is dreadfully troubled with a
plague which, if you have been in Italy, I am sure you are no stranger
to. '_Pulci, pulci._' If you have not had a colony of them settled upon
you, and quartered, and giving you no quarter, you have been an exception
to travellers in Italy. Well, I will pit any two _pulci_ of Porto Rico
against any ten you can bring from Italy, and I should be sure to see
them bite the dust before the bites of our Porto Rico breed."
His letters are filled with apothegms and reflections on life in general
and his own in particular, and they alone would almost fill a book. In a
letter to Mr. Kendall, of March 30, we find the following:--
"I had hoped to return from honors abroad to enjoy a little rest from
litigation at home, but, if I must take up arms, I hope to be able to use
them efficiently in self-defense, and in a chivalrous manner as becometh
a '_Knight_.' I have no reason to complain of my position abroad, but I
suppose, as I am not yet under the ground, honors to a living inventor
must have their offset in the attacks of envy and avarice.
"'Wrath is cruel, but who can stand before envy?' says the wise man. The
contest with the envious is indeed an annoyance, but, if one's spirit is
under the right guidance and revenge does not actuate the strife, victory
is very certain. My position is now such before the world that I shall
use it rather to correct my own temper than to make it a means of
arrogant exultation."
He and his family left the island in the middle of April, 1859, and in
due time reached their Poughkeepsie home. The "Daily Press" of that city
gave the following account of the homecoming:--
"For some time previous to the hour at which the train was to arrive
hundreds of people were seen flocking from all directions to the railroad
depot, both in carriages and on foot, and when the train did arrive, and
the familiar and loved form of Professor Morse was recognized on the
platform of the car, the air was rent with the cheers of the assembled
multitude. As soon as the cheers subsided Professor Morse was approached
by the committee of reception and welcomed to the country of his birth
and to the home of his adoption.
"A great procession was then formed composed of the carriages of
citizens. The sidewalks were crowded with people on foot, the children of
the public schools, which had been dismissed for the occasion, being
quite conspicuous among them. Amid the ringing of bells, the waving of
flags, and the gratulations of the people, the procession proceeded
through a few of the principal streets, and then drove to the beautiful
residence of Professor Morse, the band playing, as they entered the
grounds, 'Sweet Home' and then 'Auld Lang Syne.'
"The gateways at the entrance had been arched with evergreens and
wreathed with flowers. As the carriage containing their loved proprietor
drove along the gravelled roads we noticed that several of the domestics,
unable to restrain their welcomes, ran to his carriage and gave and
received salutations. After a free interchange of salutations and a
general 'shake-hands,' the people withdrew and left their honored guest
to the retirement of his own beautiful home.
"So the world reverences its great men, and so it ought. In Professor
Morse we find those simple elements of greatness which elevate him
infinitely above the hero of any of the world's sanguinary conflicts, or
any of the most successful aspirants after political power. He has
benefited not only America and the world, but has dignified and benefited
the whole race."
His friends and neighbors desired to honor him still further by a public
reception, but this he felt obliged to decline, and in his letter of
regret he expresses the following sentiments: "If, during my late absence
abroad, I have received unprecedented honors from European nations,
convened in special congress for the purpose, and have also received
marks of honor from individual Sovereigns and from Scientific bodies, all
which have gratified me quite as much for the honor reflected by them
upon my country as upon myself, there are none of these testimonials, be
assured, which have so strongly touched my heart as this your beautiful
tribute of kindly feeling from esteemed neighbors and fellow-citizens."
Among the letters which had accumulated during his absence, Morse found
one, written some time previously, from a Mr. Reibart, who had published
his name as a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. In
courteously declining this honor Morse drily adds: "There are hundreds,
nay thousands, more able (not to say millions more willing) to take any
office they can obtain, and perform its functions more faithfully and
with more benefit to the country. While this is the case I do not feel
that the country will suffer should one like myself, wearied with the
struggles and litigations of half a century, desire to be excused from
encountering the annoyances and misapprehensions inseparable from
political life."
Thanks to the successful efforts of his good friend, Mr. Kendall, he was
now financially independent, so much so that he felt justified in
purchasing, in the fall of the year 1859, the property at 5 West
Twenty-second Street, New York, where the winters of the remaining years
of his life were passed, except when he was abroad. This house has now
been replaced by a commercial structure, but a bronze tablet marks the
spot where once stood the old-fashioned brown stone mansion.
While his mind was comparatively at rest regarding money matters, he was
not yet free from vexatious litigation, and his opinion of lawyers is
tersely expressed in a letter to Mr. Kendall of December 27, 1859: "I
have not lost my respect for law but I have for its administrators; not
so much for any premeditated dishonesty as for their stupidity and want
of just insight into a case."
It was not long before he had a practical proof of the truth of this
aphorism, for his "thorn in the flesh" never ceased from rankling, and
now gave a new instance of the depths to which an unscrupulous man could
descend. On June 9, 1860, Morse writes to his legal adviser, Mr. George
Ticknor Curtis, of Boston: "You may remember that Smith, just before I
sailed for Europe in 1858, intimated that he should demand of me a
portion of the Honorary Gratuity voted to me by the congress of ten
powers at Paris. I procured your opinion, as you know, and I had hoped
that he would not insist on so preposterous a claim. I am, however,
disappointed; he has recently renewed it. I have had some correspondence
with him on the subject utterly denying any claim on his part. He
proposes a reference, but I have not yet encouraged him to think I would
assent. I wish your advice before I answer him."
It is difficult to conceive of a meaner case of extortion than this. As
Morse says in a letter to Mr. Kendall, of August 3, 1860, after he had
consented to a reference of the matter to three persons: "I have no
apprehensions of the result except that I may be entrapped by some legal
technicalities. Look at the case in an equitable point of view and, it
appears to me, no intelligent, just men could give a judgment against me
or in his favor. Smith's purchase into the telegraph, the consideration
he gave, was his efforts to obtain a property in the invention abroad by
letters patent or otherwise. In _such_ property he was to share. No such
property was created there. What can he then claim? The monies that he
hazarded (taking his own estimate) were to the amount of some seven
thousand dollars; and this was an advance, virtually a loan, to be paid
back to him if he had created the property abroad. But his efforts being
fruitless for that purpose, and of no value whatever to me, yet procured
him one fourth patent interest in the United States, for which we know he
has obtained at least $300,000. Is he not paid amply without claiming a
portion of honorary gifts to me? Well, we shall see how legal men look at
the matter."
[Illustration: HOUSE AND LIBRARY AT 5 WEST 22'D ST., NEW YORK]
One legal man of great brilliance gave his opinion without hesitation, as
we learn from a letter of Morse's to Mr. Curtis, of July 14: "I had, a
day or two since, my cousin Judge Breese, late Senator of the United
States from Illinois, on a visit to me. I made him acquainted with the
points, after which he scouted the idea that any court of legal character
could for a moment sustain Smith's claim. He thought my argument
unanswerable, and playfully said: 'I will insure you against any claim
from Smith for a bottle of champagne.'"
It is a pity that Morse did not close with the offer of the learned
judge, for, in spite of his opinion, in spite of the opinion of most men
of intelligence, in defiance of the perfectly obvious and proven fact
that Smith had utterly failed in fulfilling his part of the contract, and
that the award had been made to Morse "as a reward altogether personal"
(_toute personelle_), the referees decided in Smith's favor. And on what
did they base this remarkable decision? On the ground that in the
contract of 1838 with Smith the word "otherwise" occurs. Property in
Europe was to be obtained by "letters patent" or "otherwise." Of course
no actual property had been obtained, and Smith had had no hand in
securing the honorary gratuity, and it is difficult to follow the
reasoning of these sapient referees. They were, on Smith's part, Judge
Upham of New Hampshire; on Morse's, Mr. Hilliard, of Boston; and Judge
Sprague, of the Circuit Court, Boston, chairman.
However, the decision was made, and Morse, with characteristic
large-heartedness, submitted gracefully. On October 15, he writes to Mr.
Curtis: "I ought, perhaps, with my experience to learn for the first time
that _Law_ and _Justice_ are not synonyms, but, with all deference to the
opinion of the excellent referees, for each of whom I have the highest
personal respect, I still think that they have not given a decision in
strict conformity with Law.... I submit, however, to law with kindly
feelings to all, and now bend my attention to repair my losses as best I
may."
As remarked before, earlier in this volume, Morse, in his correspondence
with Smith, always wrote in that courteous manner which becomes a
gentleman, and he expresses his dissent from the verdict in this manner
in a letter of November 20, in answer to one of Smith's, quibbling over
the allowance to Morse by the referees of certain expenses: "Throwing
aside as of no avail any discussion in regard to the equity of the
decision of the referees, especially in the view of a conscientious and
high-minded man, I now deal with the decision as it has been made, since,
according to the technicalities of the law, it has been pronounced by
honorable and honest men in accordance with their construction of the
language of the deed in your favor. But 'He that's convinced against his
will is of the same opinion still,' and in regard to the intrinsic
injustice of being compelled, by the strict construction of a general
word, to pay over to you any portion of that which was expressly given to
me as a personal and honorary _gratuity_ by the European governments, my
opinion is always as it has been, an opinion sustained by the sympathy of
every intelligent and honorable man who has studied the merits of the
case."
He was hard hit for a time by this unjust decision, and his
correspondence shows that he regretted it most because it prevented him
from bestowing as much in good works as he desired. He was obliged to
refuse many requests which strongly appealed to him. His daily mail
contained numerous requests for assistance in sums "from twenty thousand
dollars to fifty cents," and it was always with great reluctance that he
refused anybody anything.
However, as is usual in this life, the gay was mingled with the grave,
and we find that he was one of the committee of prominent men to arrange
for the entertainment of the Prince of Wales, afterward Edward VII, on
his visit to this country. I have already referred to one incident of
this visit when Morse, in an address to the Prince at the University of
the City of New York, referred to the kindness shown him in London by the
Earl of Lincoln, who was now the Duke of Newcastle and was in the suite
of the Prince. Morse had hoped that he might have the privilege of
entertaining H.R.H. at his country place on the Hudson, but the Duke of
Newcastle, in a letter of October 8, 1860, regrets that this cannot be
managed:--
I assure you I have not forgotten the circumstances which gave me the
pleasure of your acquaintance in 1839, and I am very desirous of seeing
you again during my short visit to this continent. I fear however that a
visit by the Prince of Wales to your home, however I might wish it, is
quite impracticable, although on our journey up the Hudson we shall pass
so near you. Every hour of our time is fully engaged.
Is there any chance of seeing you in New York, or, if not, is there any
better hope in Boston? If you should be in either during our stay, I hope
you will be kind enough to call upon me. Pray let me have a line on
Thursday at New York. I have lately been much interested in some
electro-telegraphic inventions of yours which are new to me.
I am
Yours very truly,
NEWCASTLE.
Referring to another function in honor of the Prince, Morse says, in a
letter to Mr. Kendall: "I did not see you after the so-styled Ball in New
York, which was not a _ball_ but a _levee_ and a great jam. I hope you
and yours suffered no inconvenience from it."
The war clouds in his beloved country were now lowering most ominously,
and, true to his convictions, he exclaims in a letter to a friend of
January 12, 1861:--
"Our politicians are playing with edged tools. It is easy to raise a
storm by those who cannot control it. If I trusted at all in them I
should despair of the country, but an Almighty arm makes the wrath of man
to praise him, and he will restrain the rest. There is something so
unnatural and abhorrent in this outcry of _arms_ in one great family that
I cannot believe it will come to a decision by the sword. Such counsels
of force are in the court of passion, not of reason. Imagine such a
conflict, imagine a victory, no matter by which side. Can the victors
rejoice in the blood of brethren shed in a family brawl? Whose heart will
thrill with pride at such success? No, no. I should as soon think of
rejoicing that one of my sons had killed the other in a brawl.
"But I have not time to add. I hope for the best, and even can see beyond
the clouds of the hour a brighter day. God bless the whole family, North,
South, East and West. I will never divide them in my heart however they
may be politically or geographically divided."
His hopes of a peaceful solution of the questions at issue between the
North and the South were, of course, destined to be cruelly dashed, and
he suffered much during the next few years, both in his feelings and in
his purse, on account of the war. I have already shown that he, with many
other pious men, believed that slavery was a divine institution and that,
therefore, the abolitionists were entirely in the wrong; but that, at the
same time, he was unalterably opposed to secession. Holding these views,
he was misjudged in both sections of the country. Those at the North
accused him of being a secessionist because he was not an abolitionist,
and many at the South held that he must be an abolitionist because he
lived at the North and did not believe in the doctrine of secession. Many
pages of his letter-books are filled with vehement arguments upholding
his point of view, and he, together with many other eminent men at the
North, strove without success to avert the war. His former pastor at
Poughkeepsie, the Reverend H.G. Ludlow, in long letters, with many Bible
quotations, called upon him to repent him of his sins and join the cause
of righteousness. He, in still longer letters, indignantly repelled the
accusation of error, and quoted chapter and verse in support of his
views. He was made the president of The American Society for promoting
National Unity, and in one of his letters to Mr. Ludlow he uses forceful
language:--
"The tone of your letter calls for extraordinary drafts on Christian
charity. Your criticism upon and denunciation of a society planned in the
interests of peace and good will to all, inaugurated by such men as
Bishops McIlvaine and Hopkins, Drs. Krebs and Hutton, and Winslow, and
Bliss, and Van Dyke, and Hawks, and Seabury, and Lord and Adams of
Boston, and Wilson the missionary, and Styles and Boorman, and Professor
Owen, and President Woods, and Dr. Parker, and my brothers, and many
others as warm-hearted, praying, conscientious Christians as ever
assembled to devise means for promoting peace--denunciations of these and
such as these cannot but be painful in the highest degree.... I lay no
stress upon these names other than to show that conscience in this matter
has moved some Christians quite as strongly to view _Abolitionism_ as a
sin of the deepest dye, as it has other Christian minds to view Slavery
as a sin, and so to condemn slaveholders to excommunication, and simply
for being slaveholders.
"Who is to decide in a conflict of consciences? If the Bible be the
umpire, as I hold it to be, then it is the Abolitionist that is denounced
as worthy of excommunication; it is the Abolitionist from whom we are
commanded to withdraw ourselves, while not a syllable of reproof do I
find in the sacred volume administered to those who maintain, in the
spirit of the gospel, the relation of _Masters and Slaves_. If you have
been more successful, please point out chapter and verse.... I have no
justification to offer for Southern _secession_; I have always considered
it a remedy for nothing. It is, indeed, an expression of a sense of
wrong, but, in turn, is itself a wrong, and two wrongs do not make a
right."
I have quoted thus at some length from one of his many polemics to show
the absolute and fearless sincerity of the man, mistaken though he may
have been in his major premise.
I shall quote from other letters on this subject as they appear in
chronological order, but as no person of any mental caliber thinks and
acts continuously along one line of endeavor, so will it be necessary in
a truthful biography to change from one subject of activity to another,
and then back again, in order to portray in their proper sequence the
thoughts and actions of a man which go to make up his personality. For
instance, while the outspoken views which Morse held on the subjects of
slavery and secession made him many enemies, he was still held in high
esteem, for it was in the year 1861 that the members of the National
Academy of Design urged him so strongly to become their president again
that he yielded, but on condition that it should be for one year only.
And the following letter to Matthew Vassar, of Poughkeepsie, dated
February 1, 1861, shows that he was actively interested in the foundation
of the first college for women in this country: "Your favor of the 24th
ulto. is received, and so far as I can further your magnificent and most
generous enterprise, I will do so. I will endeavor to attend the meeting
at the Gregory House on the 26th of the present month. May you long live
to see your noble design in successful operation."
In spite of his deep anxiety for the welfare of his country, and in spite
of the other cares which weighed him down, he could not resist the
temptation to indulge in humor when the occasion offered. This humor is
tinged with sarcasm in a letter of July 13, 1861, to Mr. A.B. Griswold,
his wife's brother, a prominent citizen of New Orleans. After assuring
him of his undiminished affection, he adds:--
"And now see what a risk I have run by saying thus much, for, according
to modern application of the definition of _treason_, it would not be
difficult to prove me a traitor, and therefore amenable to the halter.
"For instance--treason is giving aid and comfort to the enemy; everybody
south of a certain geographical line is an enemy; you live south of that
line, ergo you are an enemy; I send you my love, you being an enemy; this
gives you _comfort_; ergo, I have given comfort to the enemy; ergo, I am
a traitor; ergo, I must be hanged."
As the war progressed he continued to express himself in forcible
language against what he called the "twin heresies"--abolitionism and
secession. He had done his best to avert the war. He describes his
efforts in a letter of April 2, 1862, to Mr. George L. Douglas, of
Louisville, Kentucky, who at that time was prominently connected with the
Southern lines of the telegraph, and who had loyally done all in his
power to safeguard Morse's interests in those lines:--
"You are correct in saying, in your answer as garnishee, that I have been
an active and decided friend of Peace. In the early stages of the
troubles, when the Southern Commissioners were in Washington, I devoted
my time and influence and property, subscribing and paying in the outset
five hundred dollars, to set on foot measures for preserving peace
honorable to all parties. The attack on Fort Sumter struck down all these
efforts (so far as my associates were concerned), but I was not
personally discouraged, and I again addressed myself to the work of the
Peacemaker, determining to visit _personally_ both sections of the
country, the Government at Washington, and the Government of the
Confederates at Richmond, to ascertain if there were, by possibility, any
means of averting war. And when, from physical inability and age, I was
unable to undertake the duty personally, I defrayed from my own pocket
the expenses of a friend in his performance of the same duties for me,
who actually visited both Washington and Richmond and conferred with the
Presidents and chiefs of each section on the subject. True his efforts
were unsuccessful, and so nothing remained for me but to retire to the
quiet of my own study and watch the vicissitudes of the awful storm which
I was powerless to avert, and descry the first signs of any clearing up,
ready to take advantage of the earliest glimmerings of light through the
clouds."
He had no doubts as to the ultimate issue of the conflict, for, in a
letter to his wife's sister, Mrs. Goodrich, of May 2, 1862, he reduces it
to mathematics:--
"Sober men could calculate, and did calculate, the _military_ issue, for
it was a problem of mathematics and not at all of individual or
comparative courage. A force of equal quality is to be divided and the
two parts to be set in opposition to each other. If equally divided, they
will be at rest; if one part equals 3 and the other 9, it does not
require much knowledge of mathematics to decide which part will overcome
the force of the other.
"Now this is the case here just now. Two thirds of the physical and
material force of the country are at the North, and on this account
_military_ success, other things being equal, must be on the side of the
North. Courage, justness of the cause, right, have nothing to do with it.
War in our days is a game of chess. Two players being equal, if one
begins the game with dispensing with a third of his best pieces, the
other wins as a matter of course."
He was firmly of the opinion that England and other European nations had
fomented, if they had not originated, the bad feeling between the North
and the South, and at times he gave way to the most gloomy forebodings,
as in a letter of July 23, 1862, to Mr. Kendall, who shared his views on
the main questions at issue:--
"I am much depressed. There is no light in the political skies. Rabid
abolitionism, with its intense, infernal hate, intensified by the same
hate from secession quarters, is fast gaining the ascendancy. Our country
is dead. God only can resuscitate it from its tomb. I see no hope of
union. We are two countries, and, what is most deplorable, two hostile
countries. Oh! how the nations, with England at their head, crow over us.
It is the hour of her triumph; she has conquered by her arts that which
she failed to do by her arms. If there was a corner of the world where I
could hide myself, and I could consult the welfare of my family, I would
sacrifice all my interests here and go at once. May God save us with his
salvation. I have no heart to write or to do anything. Without a country!
Without a country!"
He went even further, in one respect, in a letter to Mr. Walker, of
Utica, of October 27, but his ordinarily keen prophetic vision was at
fault: "Have you made up your mind to be under a future monarch, English
or French, or some scion of a European stock of kings? I shall not live
to see it, I hope, but you may and your children will. I leave you this
prophecy in black and white."
In spite of his occasional fits of pessimism he still strove with all his
might, by letters and published pamphlets, to rescue his beloved country
from what he believed were the machinations of foreign enemies. At the
same time he did not neglect his more immediate concerns, and his
letter-books are filled with loving admonitions to his children,
instructions to his farmer, answers to inventors seeking his advice, or
to those asking for money for various causes, etc.
He and his two brothers had united in causing a monument to be erected to
the memory of their father and mother in the cemetery at New Haven, and
he insisted on bearing the lion's share of the expense, as we learn from
a letter written to his nephew, Sidney E. Morse, Jr., on October 10,
1862:--
"Above you have my check on Broadway Bank, New York, for five hundred
dollars towards Mr. Ritter's bill.
"Tell your dear father and Uncle Sidney that this is the portion of the
bill for the monument which I choose to assume. Tell them I have still a
good memory of past years, when I was poor and received from them the
kind attentions of affectionate brothers. I am now, through the loving
kindness and bounty of our Heavenly Father, in such circumstances that I
can afford this small testimonial to their former fraternal kindness, and
I know no better occasion to manifest the long pent-up feelings of my
heart towards them than by lightening, under the embarrassments of the
times, the pecuniary burden of our united testimonial to the best of
fathers and mothers."
This monument, a tall column surmounted by a terrestrial globe,
symbolical of the fact that the elder Morse was the first American
geographer, is still to be seen in the New Haven cemetery.
Another instance of the inventor's desire to show his gratitude towards
those who had befriended him in his days of poverty and struggle is shown
in a letter of November 17, 1862, to the widow of Alfred Vail:--
"You are aware that a sum of money was voted me by a special Congress,
convened at Paris for the purpose, as a personal, honorary gratuity as
the Inventor of the Telegraph.... Notwithstanding, however, that the
Congress had put the sum voted me on the ground of a personal, honorary
gratuity, I made up my mind in the very outset that I would divide to
your good husband just that proportion of what I might receive (after due
allowance and deduction of my heavy expenses in carrying through the
transaction) as would have been his if the money so voted by the Congress
had been the purchase money of patent rights. This design I early
intimated to Mr. Vail, and I am happy in having already fulfilled in part
my promise to him, when I had received the gratuity only in part. It was
only the last spring that the whole sum, promised in four annual
instalments (after the various deductions in Europe) has been remitted to
me.... I wrote to Mr. Cobb [one of Alfred Vail's executors] some months
ago, while he was in Washington, requesting an early interview to pay
over the balance for you, but have never received an answer.... Could you
not come to town this week, either with or without Mr. Cobb, as is most
agreeable to you, prepared to settle this matter in full? If so, please
drop me a line stating the day and hour you will come, and I will make it
a point to be at home at the time."
In this connection I shall quote from a letter to Mr. George Vail,
written much earlier in the year, on May 19:--
"It will give me much pleasure to aid you in your project of disposing of
the _'original wire'_ of the Telegraph, and if my certificate to its
genuineness will be of service, you shall cheerfully have it. I am not at
this moment aware that there is any quantity of this wire anywhere else,
except it may be in the helices of the big magnets which I have at
Poughkeepsie. These shall not interfere with your design.
"I make only one modification of your proposal, and that is, if any
profits are realized, please substitute for my name the name of your
brother Alfred's amiable widow."
Although the malign animosity of F.O.J. Smith followed him to his grave,
and even afterwards, he was, in this year of 1862, relieved from one
source of annoyance from him, as we learn from a letter of May 19 to Mr.
Kendall: "I have had a settlement with Smith in full on the award of the
Referees in regard to the 'Honorary Gratuity,' and with less difficulty
than I expected."
Morse had now passed the Scriptural age allotted to man; he was
seventy-one years old, and, in a letter of August 22, he remarks rather
sorrowfully: "I feel that I am no longer young, that my career, whether
for good or evil, is near its end, but I wish to give the energy and
influence that remain to me to my country, to save it, if possible, to
those who come after me."
All through the year 1863 he labored to this end, with alternations of
hope and despair. On February 9, 1863, he writes to his cousin, Judge
Sidney Breese: "A movement is commenced in the formation of a society
here which promises good. It is for the purpose of Diffusing Useful
Political Knowledge. It is backed up by millionaires, so far as funds go,
who have assured us that funds shall not be wanting for this object. They
have made me its president."
Through the agency of this society he worked to bring about "Peace with
Honor," but, as one of their cardinal principles was the abandonment of
abolitionism, he worked in vain. He bitterly denounced the Emancipation
Proclamation, and President Lincoln came in for many hard words from his
pen, being considered by him weak and vacillating. Mistaken though I
think his attitude was in this, his opinions were shared by many
prominent men of the day, and we must admit that for those who believed
in a literal interpretation of the Bible there was much excuse. For
instance, in a letter of September 21, 1863, to Martin Hauser, Esq., of
Newbern, Indiana, he goes rather deeply into the subject:--
"Your letter of the 23d of last month I have just received, and I was
gratified to see the evidences of an upright, honest dependence upon the
only standard of right to which man can appeal pervading your whole
letter. There is no other standard than the Bible, but our translation,
though so excellent, is defective sometimes in giving the true meaning of
the original languages in which the two Testaments are written; the Old
Testament in Hebrew, the New Testament in Greek. Therefore it is that in
words in the English translation about which there is a variety of
opinion, it is necessary to examine the original Hebrew or Greek to know
what was the meaning attached to these words by the writers of the
original Bible.... I make these observations to introduce a remark of
yours that the Bible does not contain anything like slavery in it because
the words 'slave' and 'slavery' are not used in it (except the former
twice) but that the word 'servant' is used.
"Now the words translated 'servant' in hundreds of instances are, in the
original, 'slave,' and the very passage you quote, Noah's words--'Cursed
be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren'--in the
original Hebrew means exactly this--'Cursed be Canaan, a _slave_ of
_slaves_ shall he be.' The Hebrew, word is _'ebed'_ which means a bond
slave, and the words _'ebed ebadim'_ translated 'slave of slaves,' means
strictly _the most abject of slaves_.
"In the New Testament too the word translated 'servant' from the Greek is
_'doulas,'_ which is the same as _'ebed'_ in the Hebrew, and always means
a bond slave. Our word 'servant' formerly meant the same, but time and
custom have changed its meaning with us, but the Bible word _'doulos'_
remains the same, 'a slave.'"
It seems strange that a man of such a gentle, kindly disposition should
have upheld the outworn institution of slavery, but he honestly believed,
not only that it was ordained of God, but that it was calculated to
benefit the enslaved race. To Professor Christy, of Cincinnati, he gives,
on September 12, his reasons for this belief:--
"You have exposed in a masterly manner the fallacies of Abolitionism.
There is a complete coincidence of views between us. My 'Argument,' which
is nearly ready for the press, supports the same view of the necessity of
slavery to the christianization and civilization of a barbarous race. My
argument for the benevolence of the relation of master and slave, drawn
from the four relations ordained of God for the organization of the
social system (the fourth being the servile relation, or the relation of
master and slave) leads conclusively to the recognition of some great
benevolent design in its establishment.
"But you have demonstrated in an unanswerable manner by your statistics
this benevolent design, bringing out clearly, from the workings of his
Providence, the absolute necessity of this relation in accomplishing his
gracious designs towards even the lowest type of humanity."