FEBRUARY 26, 1864--NOVEMBER 8, 1867
Sanitary Commission.--Letter to Dr. Bellows.--Letter on "loyalty."--His
brother Richard upholds Lincoln.--Letters of brotherly reproof.--
Introduces McClellan at preëlection parade.--Lincoln reëlected.--Anxiety
as to future of country.--Unsuccessful effort to take up art again.--
Letter to his sons.--Gratification at rapid progress of telegraph.--
Letter to George Wood on two great mysteries of life.--Presents portrait
of Allston to the National Academy of Design.--Endows lectureship in
Union Theological Seminary.--Refuses to attend fifty-fifth reunion of his
class.--Statue to him proposed.--Ezra Cornell's benefaction.--American
Asiatic Society.--Amalgamation of telegraph companies.--Protest against
stock manipulations.--Approves of President Andrew Johnson.--Sails with
family for Europe.--Paris Exposition of 1867.--Descriptions of
festivities.--Cyrus W. Field.--Incident in early life of Napoleon III--
Made Honorary Commissioner to Exposition.--Attempt on life of Czar.--Ball
at Hôtel de Ville.--Isle of Wight.--England and Scotland.--The
"Sounder."--Returns to Paris.
All the differences of those terrible years of fratricidal strife, all
the heart-burnings, the bitter animosities, the family divisions, have
been smoothed over by the soothing hand of time. I have neither the wish
nor the ability to enter into a discussion of the rights and the wrongs
of the causes underlying that now historic conflict, nor is it germane to
such a work as this. While Morse took a prominent part in the political
movements of the time, while he was fearless and outspoken in his views,
his name is not now associated historically with those epoch-making
events. It has seemed necessary, however, to make some mention of his
convictions in order to make the portrait a true one. He continued to
oppose the measures of the Administration; he did all in his power to
hasten the coming of peace; he worked and voted for the election of
McClellan to the Presidency, and when he and the other eminent men who
believed as he did were outvoted, he bowed to the will of the majority
with many misgivings as to the future. Although he was opposed to the war
his heart bled for the wounded on both sides, and he took a prominent
part in the National Sanitary Commission. He expresses himself warmly in
a letter of February 26, 1864, to its president, Rev. Dr. Bellows:--
"There are some who are sufferers, great sufferers, whom we can reach and
relieve without endangering political or military plans, and in the
spirit of Him who ignored the petty political distinctions of Jew and
Samaritan, and regarded both as entitled to His sympathy and relief, I
cannot but think it is within the scope and interest of the great
Sanitary Commission to extend a portion of their Christian regard to the
unfortunate sufferers from this dreadful war, the prisoners in our
fortresses, and to those who dwell upon the borders of the contending
sections."
In a letter of March 23, to William L. Ransom, Esq., of Litchfield,
Connecticut, he, perhaps unconsciously, enunciates one of the fundamental
beliefs of that great president whom he so bitterly opposed:--
"I hardly know how to comply with your request to have a 'short, pithy,
Democratic sentiment.' In glancing at the thousand mystifications which
have befogged so many in our presumed intelligent community, I note one
in relation to the new-fangled application of a common foreign word
imported from the monarchies of Europe. I mean the word '_loyalty_,' upon
which the changes are daily and hourly sung _ad nauseam_.
"I have no objection, however, to the word if it be rightly applied. It
signifies 'fidelity to a prince or sovereign.' Now if _loyalty_ is
required of us, it should be to the _Sovereign_. Where is this Sovereign?
He is not the President, nor his Cabinet, nor Congress, nor the
Judiciary, nor any nor all of the Administration together. Our Sovereign
is on a throne above all these. He is the _People_, or _Peoples_ of the
States. He has issued his decree, not to private individuals only, but to
President and to all his subordinate servants, and this sovereign decree
his servant the is the Constitution. He who adheres faithfully to this
written will of the Sovereign is _loyal_. He who violates the
embodiment of the will of the Sovereign, is _disloyal_, whether he be a
Constitution, this President, a Secretary, a member of Congress or of the
Judiciary, or a simple citizen."
As a firm believer in the Democratic doctrine of States' Rights Morse,
with many others, held that Lincoln had overridden the Constitution in
his Emancipation Proclamation.
It was a source of grief to him just at this time that his brother
Richard had changed his political faith, and had announced his intention
of voting for the reelection of President Lincoln. In a long letter of
September 24, 1864, gently chiding him for thus going over to the
Abolitionists, the elder brother again states his reasons for remaining
firm in his faith:--
"I supposed, dear brother, that on that subject you were on the same
platform with Sidney and myself. Have there been any new lights, any new
aspects of it, which have rendered it less odious, less the 'child of
Satan' than when you and Sidney edited the New York Observer before
Lincoln was President? I have seen no reason to change my views
respecting abolition. You well know I have ever considered it the logical
progeny of Unitarianism and Infidelity. It is characterized by subtlety,
hypocrisy and pharisaism, and one of the most melancholy marks of its
speciousness is its influence in benumbing the gracious sensibilities of
many Christian hearts, and blinding their eyes to their sad defection
from the truths of the Bible.
"I know, indeed, the influences by which you are surrounded, but they are
neither stronger nor more artful than those which our brave father
manfully withstood in combating the monster in the cradle. I hope there
is enough of father's firmness and courage in battling with error,
however specious, to keep you, through God's grace, from falling into the
embrace of the body-and-soul-destroying heresy of Abolitionism."
In another long letter to his brother Richard, of November 5, he firmly
but gently upholds his view that the Constitution has been violated by
Lincoln's action, and that the manner of amending the Constitution was
provided for in that instrument itself, and that: "If that change is made
in accordance with its provisions, no one will complain"; and then he
adds:--
"But it is too late to give you the reasons of the political faith that I
hold. When the excitement of the election is over, let it result as it
may, I may be able to show you that my opinions are formed from deep
study and observation. Now I can only announce them comparatively
unsustained by the reasons for forming them.
"I am interrupted by a call from the committee requesting me to conduct
General McClellan to the balcony of the Fifth Avenue Hotel this evening,
to review the McClellan Legion and the procession. After my return I will
continue my letter.
"_12 o'clock, midnight._ I have just returned, and never have I witnessed
in any gathering of the people, either in Europe or in this country, such
a magnificent and enthusiastic display. I conducted the General to the
front of the balcony and presented him to the assemblage (a dense mass of
heads as far as the eye could reach in every direction), and such a
shout, which continued for many minutes, I never heard before, except it
may have been at the reception in London of Blücher and Platoff after the
battle of Waterloo. I leave the papers to give you the details. The
procession was passing from nine o'clock to a quarter to twelve midnight,
and such was the denseness of the crowd within the hotel, every entry and
passageway jammed with people, that we were near being crushed. Three
policemen before me could scarcely open a way for the General, who held
my arm, to pass only a few yards to our room.
"After taking my leave I succeeded with difficulty in pressing my way
through the crowd within and without the hotel, and have just got into my
quiet library and must now retire, for I am too fatigued to do anything
but sleep. Good-night."
A short time after this the election was held, and this enthusiastic
advocate of what he considered the right learned the bitter lesson that
crowds, and shouting, and surface enthusiasm do not carry an election.
The voice of that Sovereign to whom he had sworn loyalty spoke in no
uncertain tones, and Lincoln was overwhelmingly chosen by the votes of
the People.
Morse was outvoted but not convinced, and I shall make but one quotation
from a letter of November 9, to his brother Richard, who had also
remained firm in spite of his brother's pleading: "My consolation is in
looking up, and I pray you may be so enlightened that you may be
delivered from the delusions which have ensnared you, and from the
judgments which I cannot but feel are in store for this section of the
country. When I can believe that my Bible reads 'cursed' instead of
'blessed' are the 'peacemakers,' I also shall cease to be a peace man.
But while they remain, as they do, in the category of those that are
blessed, I cannot be frightened at the names of 'copperhead' and
'traitor' so lavishly bestowed, with threats of hanging etc., by those
whom you have assisted into power."
In a letter of Mr. George Wood's, of June 26, 1865, I find the following
sentences: "I have to acknowledge your very carefully written letter on
the divine origin of Slavery.... I hope you have kept a copy of this
letter, for the time will come when you will have a biography written,
and the defense you have made of your position, taken in your pamphlet,
is unquestionably far better than he (your biographer) will make for
you."
The letter to which Mr. Wood refers was begun on March 5, 1865, but
finished some time afterwards. It is very long, too long to be included
here, but in justice to myself, that future biographer, I wish to state
that I have already given the main arguments brought forward in that
letter, in quotations from previous letters, and that I have attempted no
defense further than to emphasize the fact that, right or wrong, Morse
was intensely sincere, and that he had the courage of his opinions.
Returning to an earlier date, and turning from matters political to the
gentler arts of peace, we find that the one-time artist had always hoped
that some day he could resume his brush, which the labors incident to the
invention of the telegraph had compelled him to drop. But it seems that
his hand, through long disuse, had lost its cunning. He bewails the fact
in a letter of January 20, 1864, to N. Jocelyn, Esq.:--
"I have many yearnings towards painting and sculpture, but that rigid
faculty called reason, so opposed often to imagination, reads me a
lecture to which I am compelled to bow. To explain: I made the attempt to
draw a short time ago; everything in the drawing seemed properly
proportioned, but, upon putting it in another light, I perceived that
every perpendicular line was awry. In other words I found that I could
place no confidence in my eyes.
"No, I have made the sacrifice of my profession to establish an invention
which is doing mankind a great service. I pursued it long enough to found
an institution which, I trust, is to flourish long after I am gone, and
be the means of educating a noble class of men in Art, to be an honor and
praise to our beloved country when peace shall once more bless us
throughout all our borders in one grand brotherhood of States."
The many letters to his children are models of patient exhortation and
cheerful optimism, when sometimes the temptation to indulge in pessimism
was strong. I shall give, as an example, one written on May 9, 1864, to
two of his sons who had returned to school at Newport:--
"Now we hope to have good reports of your progress in your studies. In
spring, you know, the farmers sow their seed which is to give them their
harvest at the close of the summer. If they were not careful to put the
seed in the ground, thinking it would do just as well about August or
September, or if they put in very little seed, you can see that they
cannot expect to reap a good or abundant crop.
"Now it is just so in regard to your life. You are in the springtime of
life. It is seed time. You must sow now or you will reap nothing
by-and-by, or, if anything, only weeds. Your teachers are giving you the
seed in your various studies. You cannot at present understand the use of
them, but you must take them on trust; you must believe that your parents
and teachers have had experience, and they know what will be for your
good hereafter, what studies will be most useful to you in after life.
Therefore buckle down to your studies diligently and very soon you will
get to love your studies, and then it will be a pleasure and not a task
to learn your lessons.
"We miss your _noise_, but, although agreeable quiet has come in place of
it, we should be willing to have the noise if we could have our dear boys
near us. You are, indeed, troublesome pleasures, but, after all, pleasant
troubles. When you are settled in life and have a family around you, you
will better understand what I mean."
In spite of the disorganization of business caused by the war, the value
of telegraphic property was rapidly increasing, and new lines were being
constantly built or proposed. Morse refers to this in a letter of June
25, 1864, to his old friend George Wood:--
"To you, as well as to myself, the rapid progress of the Telegraph
throughout the world must seem wonderful, and with me you will,
doubtless, often recur to our friend Annie's inspired message--'What hath
God wrought.' It is, indeed, his marvellous work, and to Him be the
glory.
"Early in the history of the invention, in forecasting its future, I was
accustomed to predict with confidence, 'It is destined to go round the
world,' but I confess I did not expect to live to see the prediction
fulfilled. It is quite as wonderful to me also that, with the thousand
attempts to improve my system, with the mechanical skill of the world
concentrated upon improving the mechanism, the result has been beautiful
complications and great ingenuity, but no improvement. I have the
gratification of knowing that my system, everywhere known as the 'Morse
system,' is universally adopted throughout the world, because of its
simplicity and its adaptedness to universality."
This remains true to the present day, and is one of the remarkable
features of this great invention. The germ of the "Morse system," as
jotted down in the 1832 sketch-book, is the basic principle of the
universal telegraph of to-day.
In another letter to Mr. Wood, of September 11, 1864, referring to the
sad death of the son of a mutual friend, he touches on two of the great
enigmas of life which have puzzled many other minds:--
"It is one of those mysteries of Providence, one of those deep things of
God to be unfolded in eternity, with the perfect vindication of God's
wisdom and justice, that children of pious parents, children of daily
anxiety and prayer, dedicated to God from their birth and trained to all
human appearance 'in the way they should go,' should yet seem to falsify
the promise that 'they should not depart from it.' It is a subject too
deep to fathom.
"... It is my daily, I may say hourly, thought, certainly my constant
wakeful thought at night, how to resolve the question: 'Why has God seen
fit so abundantly to shower his earthly blessings upon me in my latter
days, to bless me with every desirable comfort, while so many so much
more deserving (in human eyes at least) are deprived of all comfort and
have heaped upon them sufferings and troubles in every shape?'"
The memory of his student days in London was always dear to him, and on
January 4, 1865, he writes to William Cullen Bryant:--
"I have this moment received a printed circular respecting the proposed
purchase of the portrait of Allston by Leslie to be presented to the
National Academy of Design.
"There are associations in my mind with those two eminent and beloved
names which appeal too strongly to me to be resisted. Now I have a favor
to ask which I hope will not be denied. It is that I may be allowed to
present to the Academy that portrait in my own name. You can appreciate
the arguments which have influenced my wishes in this respect. Allston
was more than any other person my master in art. Leslie was my life-long
cherished friend and fellow pupil, whom I loved as a brother. We all
lived together for years in the closest intimacy and in the same house.
Is there not then a fitness that the portrait of the master by one
distinguished pupil should be presented by the surviving pupil to the
Academy over which he presided in its infancy, as well as assisted in its
birth, and, although divorced from Art, cannot so easily be divorced from
the memories of an intercourse with these distinguished friends, an
intercourse which never for one moment suffered interruption, even from a
shadow of estrangement?"
It is needless to say that this generous offer was accepted, and Morse at
the same time presented to the Academy the brush which Allston was using
when stricken with his fatal illness.
As his means permitted he made generous donations to charities and to
educational institutions, and on May 20, 1865, he endowed by the gift of
$10,000 a lectureship in the Union Theological Seminary, making the
following request in the letter which accompanied it:--
"If it be thought advisable that the name of the lectureship, as was
suggested, should be the Morse Lectureship, I wish it to be distinctly
understood that it is so named in honor of my venerated and distinguished
father, whose zealous labors in the cause of theological education, and
in various benevolent enterprises, as well as of geographical science,
entitle his memory to preservation in connection with the efforts to
diffuse the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and his
gospel throughout the world."
Curiously enough I find no reference in the letters of the year 1865 to
the assassination of President Lincoln, but I well remember being taken,
a boy of eight, to our stable on the corner of Fifth Avenue and
Twenty-first Street, from the second-floor windows of which we watched
the imposing funeral cortège pass up the avenue.
The fifty-fifth reunion of his class of 1810 took place in this year, and
Morse reluctantly decided to absent himself. The reasons why he felt that
he could not go are given in a long letter of August 11 to his cousin,
Professor E.S. Salisbury, and it is such a clear statement of his
convictions that I am tempted to give it almost in its entirety:--
"I should have been most happy on many personal accounts to have been at
the periodical meeting of my surviving classmates of 1810, and also to
have renewed my social intercourse with many esteemed friends and
relations in New Haven. But as I could not conscientiously take part in
the proposed martial sectional glorification of those of the family who
fell in the late lamentable family strife, and could not in any brief way
or time explain the discriminations that were necessary between that
which I approve and that which I most unqualifiedly condemn, without the
risk of misapprehension, I preferred the only alternative left me, to
absent myself altogether.
"You well know I never approved of the late war. I have ever believed,
and still believe, if the warnings of far-seeing statesmen (Washington,
Clay, and Webster among them) had been heeded, if, during the last thirty
years of persistent stirring up of strife by angry words, the calm and
Christian counsels of intelligent patriots had been followed at the
North, and a strict observance of the letter and spirit of the
Constitution had been sustained as the supreme law, instead of the
insidious violations of its provisions, especially by New England, we
should have had no war.
"As I contributed nothing to the war, so now I see no reason specially to
exult in the display of brave qualities in an isolated portion of the
family, qualities which no true American ever doubted were possessed by
both sections of our country in an equal degree. Why then discriminate
between alumni from the North and alumni from the South at a gathering in
which alumni from both sections are expected to meet?... No, my dear
cousin, the whole era of the war is one I wish not to remember. I would
have no other memorial than a black cross, like those over the graves of
murdered travellers, to cause a shudder whenever it is seen. It would be
well if History could blot from its pages all record of the past four
years. There is no glory in them for victors or vanquished. The only
event in which I rejoice is the restoration of Peace, which never should
have been interrupted....
"I have no doubt that they who originated the recent demonstration
honestly believed it to be _patriotic_, for every movement nowadays must
take that shape to satisfy the morbid appetite of the popular mind. I
cannot think it either in good taste or in conformity with sound policy
for our collegiate institutions to foster this depraved appetite. Surely
there is enough of this in the political harangues of the day for those
who require such aids to patriotism without its being administered to by
our colleges. That patriotism is of rather a suspicious character which
needs such props. I love to see my children well clad and taking a proper
pride in their attire, but I should not think them well instructed if I
found them everywhere boasting of their fine clothes. A true nobleman is
not forever boasting of his nobility for fear that his rank may not be
recognized. The loudest boasts of patriotism do not come from the true
possessors of the genuine spirit. Patriotism is not sectional nor local,
it comprehends in its grasp the whole country....
"I have said the demonstration at Commencement was in bad taste. Why? you
will say. Because Commencement day brings together the alumni of the
college from all parts of the Union, from the South as well as the North.
They are to meet on some common ground, and that common ground is the
love that all are supposed to bear to the old Alma Mater, cherished by
memories of past friendships in their college associations. The late
Commencement was one of peculiar note. It was the first after the return
of peace. The country had been sundered; the ties of friendship and of
kindred had been broken; the bonds of college affection were weakened if
not destroyed. What an opportunity for inaugurating the healing process!
What an occasion for the display of magnanimity, of mollifying the pain
of humiliation, of throwing a veil of oblivion over the past, of watering
the perishing roots of fraternal affection and fostering the spirit of
genuine union! But no. The Southern alumnus may come, but he comes to be
humiliated still further. Can he join in the plaudits of those by whom he
has been humbled? You may applaud, but do not ask him to join in your
acclamations. He may be mourning the death of father, brother, yes, of
mother and sister, by the very hands of those you are glorifying. Do not
aggravate his sorrow by requiring him to join you in such a
demonstration.
"No, my dear cousin, it was in _bad taste_ to say the least of it, and it
was equally _impolitic_ to intercalate such a demonstration into the
usual and appropriate exercises of the week. You expect, I presume, to
have pupils from the South as heretofore; will such a sectional display
be likely to attract them or to repel them? If they can go elsewhere they
will not come to you. They will not be attracted by a perpetual memento
before their eyes of your triumph over them. It was not politic. It is no
improvement for Christian America to show less humanity than heathen
Rome. The Romans never made demonstrations of triumph over the defeat of
their countrymen in a civil war. It is no proof of superior civilization
that we refuse to follow Roman example in such cases.
"My dear cousin, I have written you very frankly, but I trust you will
not misunderstand me as having any personal reproaches to make for the
part you have taken in the matter. We undoubtedly view the field from
different standpoints. I concede to you conscientious motives in what you
do. You are sustained by those around you, men of intellect, men of
character. I respect them while I differ from them. I appeal, however, to
a higher law, and that, I think, sustains me."
His strong and outspoken stand for what he believed to be the right made
him many enemies, and he was called hard names by the majority of those
by whom he was surrounded at the North; and yet the very fearlessness
with which he advocated an unpopular point of view undoubtedly compelled
increased respect for him. A proof of this is given in a letter to his
daughter, Mrs. Lind, of December 28, 1865:--
"I also send you some clippings from the papers giving you an account of
some of the doings respecting a statue proposed to me by the Common
Council. The Mayor, who is a personal friend of mine, you see has vetoed
the resolutions, not from a disapproval of their character, but because
he did not like the locality proposed. He proposes the Central Park, and
in this opinion all my friends concur.
"I doubt if they will carry the project through while I am alive, and it
would really seem most proper to wait until I was gone before they put up
my monument. I have nothing, however, to say on the subject. I am
gratified, of course, to see the manifestation of kindly feeling, but, as
the tinder of vainglory is in every human heart, I rather shrink from
such a proposed demonstration lest a spark of flattery should kindle that
tinder to an unseemly and destructive flame. I am not blind to the
popularity, world-wide, of the Telegraph, and a sober forecast of the
future foreshadows such a statue in some place. If ever erected I hope
the prominent mottoes upon the pedestal will be: '_Not unto us, not unto
us, but to God be the glory_,' and the first message or telegram: '_What
hath GOD wrought._'"
He says very much the same thing in a letter to his friend George Wood,
of January 15, 1866, and he also says in this letter, referring to some
instance of benevolent generosity by Mr. Kendall:--
"Is it not a noticeable fact that the wealth acquired by the Telegraph
has in so many conspicuous instances been devoted to benevolent purposes?
Mr. Kendall is prominent in his expenditures for great Christian
enterprises, and think of Cornell, always esteemed by me as an ingenious
and shrewd man, when employed by me to set the posts and put up the wire
for the first line of Telegraphs between Washington and Baltimore, yet
thought to be rather close and narrow-minded by those around him. But
see, when his wealth had increased by his acquisition of Telegraph stock
to millions (it is said), what enlarged and noble plans of public benefit
were conceived and brought forth by him. I have viewed his course with
great gratification as the evidence of God's blessing on _what He hath
wrought_."
It has been made plain, I think, that Morse was essentially a leader in
every movement in which he took an interest, whether it was artistic,
scientific, religious, or political. This is emphasized by the number of
requests made to him to assume the presidency of all sorts of
organizations, and these requests multiplied as he advanced in years.
Most of them he felt compelled to decline, for, as he says in a letter of
March 13, 1866, declining the presidency of the Geographical and
Statistical Society: "I am at an age when I find it necessary rather to
be relieved from the cares and responsibilities already resting upon me,
than to take upon me additional ones."
In many other cases he allowed his name to be used as vice-president or
member, when he considered the object of the organization a worthy one,
and his benefactions were only limited by his means.
He did, however, accept the presidency of one association just at this
time, the American Asiatic Society, in which were interested such men as
Gorham Abbott, Dr. Forsyth, E.H. Champlin, Thomas Harrison, and Morse's
brother-in-law, William M. Goodrich. The aims of this society were rather
vast, including an International Congress to be called by the Emperor
Napoleon III, for the purpose of opening up and controlling the great
highways from the East to the West through the Isthmus of Suez and that
of Panama; also the colonization of Palestine by the Jews, and other
commercial and philanthropic schemes. I cannot find that anything of
lasting importance was accomplished by this society, so I shall make no
further mention of it, although there is much correspondence about it.
The following, from a letter to Mr. Kendall of March 19, 1866, explains
itself: "If I understand the position of our Telegraph interests, they
are now very much as you and I wished them to be in the outset, not cut
up in O'Reilly fashion into irresponsible parts, but making one grand
whole like the Post-Office system. It is becoming, doubtless, a
_monopoly_, but no more so than the Post-Office system, and its unity is
in reality a public advantage if properly and uprightly managed, and
this, of course, will depend on the character of the managers. Confidence
must be reposed somewhere, and why not in upright and responsible men who
are impelled as well by their own interest to have their matters
conducted with fairness and with liberality."
As a curious commentary on his misplaced faith in the integrity of
others, I shall quote from a letter of January 4, 1867, to E.S. Sanford,
Esq., which also shows his abhorrence of anything like crooked dealing in
financial matters:--
"I wish when you again write me you would give me, _in confidence_, the
names of those in the Board of the Western Union who are acting in so
dishonorable and tricky a manner. I think I ought to know them in order
to avoid them, and resist them in the public interest. It is a shame that
an enterprise which, honestly conducted, is more than usually profitable,
should be conducted on the principles of sharpers and tricksters.
[Illustration: TELEGRAM SHOWING MORSE'S CHARACTERISTIC DEADHEAD, WHICH HE
ALWAYS USED TO FRANK HIS MESSAGES]
"So far as the Russian Extension is concerned, I should judge from your
representation that, as a stockholder in that enterprise to the amount of
$30,000, the plan would conduce to my immediate pecuniary benefit. But so
would the _robbery of the safe of a bank_. If wealth can be obtained only
by such swindles, I prefer poverty. You have my proxy and I have the
utmost confidence in your management. Do by me as you would do for
yourself, and I shall be satisfied.... In regard to any honorable
propositions made in the Board be conciliatory and compromising, but any
scheme to oppress the smaller stockholders for the benefit of the larger
resist to the death. I prefer to sacrifice all my stock rather than have
such a stigma on my character as such mean, and I will add villainous,
conduct would be sure to bring upon all who engaged in it."
In this connection I shall also quote from another letter to Mr. Sanford,
of February 15, 1867: "If Government thinks seriously of purchasing the
Telegraph, and at this late day adopting my early suggestion that it
ought to belong to the Post-Office Department, be it so if they will now
pay for it. They must now pay millions for that which I offered to them
for one hundred thousand dollars, and gave them a year for consideration
ere they adopted it."
There are but few references to politics in the letters of this period,
but I find the following in a letter of March 20, 1866, to a cousin: "You
ask my opinion of our President. I did not vote for him, but I am
agreeably surprised at his masterly statesmanship, and hope, by his
firmness in resisting the extreme radicals, he will preserve the Union
against now the greatest enemies we have to contend against. I mean those
who call themselves Abolitionists.... President Johnson deserves the
support of all true patriots, and he will have it against all the
'traitors' in the country, by whatever soft names of loyalty they
endeavor to shield themselves."
Appeals of all kinds kept pouring in on him, and, in courteously refusing
one, on April 17, he uses the following language: "I am unable to aid
you. I cannot, indeed, answer a fiftieth part of the hundreds of
applications made to me from every section of the country _daily_--I
might say _hourly_--for yours is the third this morning and it is not yet
12 o'clock."
After settling his affairs at home in his usual methodical manner, Morse
sailed with his wife and his four young children, and Colonel John R.
Leslie their tutor, for Europe on the 23d of June, 1866, prepared for an
extended stay. He wished to give his children the advantages of travel
and study in Europe, and he was very desirous of being in Paris during
the Universal Exposition of 1867.
There is a gap in the letter-books until October, 1866, but from the few
letters to members of the family which have been preserved, and from my
own recollections, we know that the summer of 1866 was most delightfully
spent in journeying through France, Germany, and Switzerland. The
children were now old enough not to be the nuisances they seem to have
been in 1858, for we find no note of complaint on that account.
In September he returned with his wife, his daughter, and his youngest
son to Paris, leaving his two older sons with their tutor in Geneva. As
he wished to make Paris his headquarters for nearly a year, he sought and
found a furnished apartment at No. 10 Avenue du Roi de Rome (now the
Avenue du Trocadero), and he writes to his mother-in-law on September 22:
"We are fortunate in having apartments in a new building, or rather one
newly and completely repaired throughout. All the apartments are newly
furnished with elegant furniture, we having the first use of it. We have
ample rooms, not large, but promising more comfort for winter residence
than if they were larger. The situation is on a wide avenue and central
for many purposes; close to the Champs Elysées, near also to the Bois de
Boulogne, and within a few minutes walk of the Champ de Mars, so that we
shall be most eligibly situated to visit the great Exposition when it
opens in April."
His wife's sister, Mrs. Goodrich, with her husband and daughters,
occupied an apartment in the same building; his grandson Charles Lind was
also in Paris studying painting, and before the summer of the next year
other members of his family came to Paris, so that at one time eighteen
of those related to him by blood or marriage were around him. To a man of
Morse's affectionate nature and loyalty to family this was a source of
peculiar joy, and those Parisian days were some of the happiest of his
life. The rest of the autumn and early winter were spent in sight-seeing
and in settling his children in their various studies.
The brilliance of the court of Napoleon III just before the _débâcle_ of
1870 is a matter of history, and it reached its high-water mark during
the Exposition year of 1867, when emperors, kings, and princes journeyed
to Paris to do homage to the man of the hour. Court balls, receptions,
gala performances at opera and theatre, and military reviews followed
each other in bewildering but well-ordered confusion, and Morse, as a man
of worldwide celebrity, took part in all of them. He and his wife and his
young daughter, a girl of sixteen, were presented at court, and were
fêted everywhere. In a letter to his mother-in-law he gives a description
of his court costume on the occasion of his first presentation, when he
was accompanied only by his brother-in-law, Mr. Goodrich:--
"We received our cards inviting us to the soirée and to pass the evening
with their majesties on the 16th of January (Wednesday evening). '_En
uniforme_' was stamped upon the card, so we had to procure court dresses.
Mr. Goodrich, as is the custom in most cases, hired his; I had a full
suit made for me. A _chapeau bras_, with gold lace loop, a blue coat,
with standing collar, single breasted, richly embroidered with gold lace,
the American eagle button, white silk lining, vest light cashmere with
gilt buttons, pantaloons with a broad stripe of gold lace on the outside
seams, a small sword, and patent-leather shoes or boots completed the
dress of ordinary mortals like Brother Goodrich, but for _extra_ordinary
mortals, like my humble republican self, I was bedizened with all my
orders, seven decorations, covering my left breast. If thus accoutred I
should be seen on Broadway, I should undoubtedly have a numerous escort
of a character not the most agreeable, but, as it was, I found myself in
very good and numerous company, none of whom could consistently laugh at
his neighbors."
After describing the ceremony of presentation he continues:--
"Occasionally both the emperor and empress said a few words to particular
individuals. When my name was mentioned the emperor said to me, 'Your
name, sir, is well known here,' for which I thanked him; and the empress
afterwards said to me, when my name was mentioned, 'We are greatly
indebted to you, sir, for the Telegraph,' or to that effect. Afterwards
Mr. Bennett, the winner of the yacht race, engaged for a moment their
particular regards.... [I wonder if the modest inventor appreciated the
irony of this juxtaposition.] After the dancers were fully engaged, the
refreshment-room, the Salon of Diana, was opened, and, as in our less
aristocratic country, the tables attracted a great crowd, so that the
doors were guarded so as to admit the company by instalments. I had in
vain for some time endeavored to gain admittance, and was waiting
patiently quite at a distance from the door, which was thronged with
ladies and high dignitaries, when a gentleman who guarded the door, and
who had his breast covered with orders, addressed me by name, asking me
if I was not Professor Morse. Upon replying in the affirmative, quite to
my surprise, he made way for me to the door and, opening it, admitted me
before all the rest. I cannot yet divine why this special favor was shown
to me.
"The tables were richly furnished. I looked for bonbons to carry home to
the children, but when I saw some tempting looking almonds and candies
and mottoes, to my surprise I found they were all composed of fish put up
in this form, and the mottoes were of salad."
It is good to know that Morse, ever willing to forgive and forget, was
again on terms of friendly intercourse with Cyrus W. Field, who was then
in London, as the following letter to him, dated March 1, 1867, will
show:--
"Singular as it may seem, I was in the midst of your speech before the
Chamber of Commerce reception to you in New York, perusing it with deep
interest, when my valet handed me your letter of the 27th ulto.
"I regret exceedingly that I shall not have the great pleasure I had
anticipated, with other friends here, who were prepared to receive you in
Paris with the welcome you so richly deserve. You invite me to London. I
have the matter under consideration. March winds and that boisterous
channel have some weight in my decision, but I so long to take you by the
hand and to get posted upon Telegraph matters at home, that I feel
disposed to make the attempt. But without positively saying 'yes,' I will
see if in a few days I can so arrange my affairs as to have a few hours
with you before you sail on the 20th.
[Illustration: MORSE IN OLD AGE]
"I send you by book post the proceedings of the banquet given to our late
Minister, Bigelow, in which you will see my remarks on the great
enterprise with which your name will forever be so honorably associated
and justly immortalized."
It will be remembered, that the Atlantic cable was finally successfully
laid on July 27, 1866, and that to Cyrus Field, more than to any other
man, was this wonderful achievement due.
In a letter of March 4, 1867, to John S.C. Abbott, Esq., Morse gives the
following interesting incident in the life of Napoleon III:--
"In 1837, I was one of a club of gentlemen in New York who were
associated for social and informal intellectual converse, which held
weekly meetings at each other's houses in rotation. Most of these
distinguished men are now deceased. The club consisted of such men as
Chancellor Kent, Albert Gallatin, Peter Augustus Jay, Reporter Johnson,
Dr. (afterwards Bishop) Wainwright, the President and Professors of
Columbia College, the Chancellor and Professors of the New York City
University, Dr. Augustus Smith, Messrs. Goodhue and De Rham of the
mercantile class, and John C. Hamilton, Esq. and ex-Governor W.B.
Lawrence from the literary ranks.
"Among the rules of the club was one permitting any member to introduce
to the meetings distinguished strangers visiting the city. At one of the
reunions of the club the place of meeting was at Chancellor Kent's. On
assembling the chancellor introduced to us Louis Napoleon, a son of the
ex-King of Holland, a young man pale and contemplative, somewhat
reserved. This reserve we generally attributed to a supposed imperfect
acquaintance with our language. At supper he sat on the right of the
Chancellor at the head of the table. Mr. Gallatin was opposite the
Chancellor at the foot of the table, and I was on his right.
"In the course of the evening, while the conversation was general, I drew
the attention of Mr. Gallatin to the stranger, observing that I did not
trace any resemblance in his features to his world-renowned uncle, yet
that his forehead indicated great intellect. 'Yes,' replied Mr. Gallatin,
'there is a great deal in that head of his, but he has a strange fancy.
Can you believe it, he has the impression that he will one day be the
Emperor of the French; can you conceive of anything more ridiculous?'
"Certainly at that period, even to the sagacious eye of Mr. Gallatin,
such an idea would naturally seem too improbable to be entertained for a
moment, but, in the light of later events, and the actual state of things
at present, does not the fact show that, even in his darkest hours, there
was in this extraordinary man that unabated faith in his future which was
a harbinger of success; a faith which pierced the dark clouds which
surrounded him, and realized to him in marvellous prophetic vision that
which we see at this day and hour fully accomplished?"
Morse must have penned these words with peculiar satisfaction, for they
epitomized his own sublime faith in his future. In 1837 he also was
passing through some of his darkest hours, but he too had had faith, and
now, thirty years afterwards, his dreams of glory had been triumphantly
realized, he was an honored guest of that other man of destiny, and his
name was forever immortalized.
The spring and early summer of 1867 were enjoyed to the full by the now
venerable inventor and his family. The Exposition was a source of
never-ending joy to him, and he says of it in a letter to his son-in-law,
Edward Lind:--
"You will hear all sorts of stories about the Exposition. The English
papers (some of them), in John Bull style, call it a humbug. Let me tell
you that, imperfect as it is in its present condition, going on rapidly
to completion, it may without exaggeration be pronounced the eighth
wonder of the world. It is the world in epitome. I came over with my
children to give them the advantage of thus studying the world in
anticipation of what I now see, and I can say that the two days only in
which I have been able to glance through parts of its vast extent, have
amply repaid me for my voyage here. I believe my children will learn more
of the condition of the arts, agriculture, customs, manufactures and
mineral and vegetable products of the world in five weeks than they could
by books at home in five years, and as many years' travel."
He was made an Honorary Commissioner of the United States to the
Exposition, and he prepared an elaborate and careful report on the
electrical department, for which he received a bronze medal from the
French Government. Writing of this report to his brother Sidney, he
says: "This keeps me so busy that I have no time to write, and I have so
many irons in the fire that I fear some must burn. But father's motto
was--'Better wear out than rust out,'--so I keep at work."
In a letter to his friend, the Honorable John Thompson, of Poughkeepsie,
he describes one of his dissipations:--
"Paris now is the great centre of the World. Such an assemblage of
sovereigns was never before gathered, and I and mine are in the midst of
the great scenes and fêtes. We were honored, a few evenings ago, with
cards to a very select fête given by the emperor and empress at the
Tuilleries to the King and Queen of the Belgians, the Prince of Wales and
Prince Alfred, to the Queen of Portugal, the Grand Duchess Marie of
Russia, sister of the late Emperor Nicholas, a noble looking woman, the
Princess Metternich of Austria, and many others.
"The display was gorgeous, and as the number of guests was limited (only
one thousand!) there was more space for locomotion than at the former
gatherings at the Palace, where we were wedged in with some four
thousand. There was dancing and my daughter was solicited by one of the
gentlemen for a set in which Prince Alfred and the Turkish Ambassador
danced, the latter with an American belle, one of the Miss Beckwiths. I
allowed her to dance in this set once. The Empress is truly a beautiful
woman and of unaffected manners."
In a long letter to his brother Sidney, of June 8, he describes some of
their doings. At the Grand Review of sixty thousand troops he and his
wife and eldest son were given seats in the Imperial Tribune, a little
way behind the emperor and the King of Prussia, who were so soon to wage
a deadly war with each other. On the way back from the review the
following incident occurred:--
"After the review was over we took our carriage to return home. The
carriages and cortège of the imperial personages took the right of the
Cascade (which you know is in full view from the hippodrome of
Longchamps). We took the left side and were attracted by the report of
firearms on our left, which proceeded from persons shooting at pigeons
from a trap. Soon after we heard a loud report on our right from a
pistol, which attracted no further attention from us than the remark
which I made that I did not know that persons were allowed to use
firearms in the Bois. We passed on to our home, and in the evening were
informed of the atrocious attempt upon the Emperor of Russia's life. The
pistol report which I heard was that of the pistol of the assassin."
Farther on in this letter he describes the grand fête given by the City
of Paris to the visiting sovereigns at the Hotel de Ville. There were
thirty-five thousand applications for tickets, but only eight thousand
could be granted. Of these Morse was gratified to receive three:--
"Well, the great fête of Saturday the 8th is over. I despair of any
attempt properly to describe its magnificence. I send you the papers....
Such a blaze of splendor cannot be conceived or described but in the
descriptions of the Arabian Nights. We did not see half the display, for
the immense series of gorgeous halls, lighted by seventy thousand
candles, with fountains and flowers at every turn, made one giddy to see
even for a moment. We had a good opportunity to scan the features of the
emperors, the King of Prussia and the renowned Bismarck, with those of
the beautiful empress and the princesses and princes and other
distinguished persons of their suite.
"I must tell you (for family use only) that the Emperor Napoleon made to
me a marked recognition as he passed along. Sarah and I were standing
upon two chairs overlooking the front rank of those ranged on each side.
The emperor gave his usual bow on each side, but, as he came near us, he
gave an unusual and special bow to me, which I returned, and he then,
with a smile, gave me a second bow so marked as to draw the attention of
those around, who at once turned to see to whom this courtesy was shown.
I should not mention this but that Sarah and others observed it as an
unusual mark of courtesy."
Feeling the need of rest after all the gayety and excitement of Paris,
Morse and part of his family retired to Shanklin, on the Isle of Wight,
where in a neat little furnished cottage--Florence Villa--they spent part
of two happy months. Then with his wife and daughter and youngest son he
journeyed in leisurely fashion through England and Scotland, returning to
Paris in October. Here he spent some time in working on his report to
the. United States Government as Commissioner to the Exposition.
Among his notes I find the following, which seems to me worthy of
record:--
"_The Sounder._ Mr. Prescott, I perceive, is quoted as an authority. He
is not reliable on many points and his work should be used with caution.
His work was originally written in the interest of those opposing my
patents, and his statements are, many of them, grossly unjust and
strongly colored with prejudice. Were he now to reprint his work I am
convinced he would find it necessary, for the sake of his reputation, to
expunge a great deal, and to correct much that he has misstated and
misapprehended.
"He manifests the most unpardonable ignorance or wilful prejudice in
regard to the _Sounder_, now so-called. The possibility of reading by
sound was among the earliest modes noticed in the first instrument of
1835, and it was in consequence of observing this fact that, in my first
patent specifications drawn up in 1837-1838, I distinctly specify these
_sounds_ of the signs, and they were secured in my letters patent. Yet
Mr. Prescott makes it an accidental discovery, and in 1860 (the date of
his publication) he wholly ignores my agency in this mode. The sounder is
but the pen-lever deprived of the pen. In everything else it is the same.
The sound of the letter is given with and without the pen."
On November 8, 1867, he writes from Paris to his friend, the Honorable
John Thompson:--
"I am still held in Paris for the completion of my labors, but hope in a
few days to be relieved so that we may leave for Dresden, where my boys
are pursuing their studies in the German language.... I am yet doubtful
how long a sojourn we may make in Dresden, and whether I shall winter
there or in Paris, but I am inclined to the latter. We wish to visit
Italy, but I am not satisfied that it will be pleasant or even safe to be
there just now. The Garibaldian inroad upon the Pontifical States is,
indeed, for the moment suppressed, but the end is not yet.
"Alas for poor Italy! How hard to rid herself of evils that have become
chronic. Why cannot statesmen of the Old World learn the great truth that
most of their perplexities in settling the questions of international
peace arise from the unnatural union of Church and State? He who said 'My
kingdom is not of this world' uttered a truth pregnant with consequences.
The attempt to rule the State by the Church or the Church by the State is
equally at war with his teachings, and until these are made the rule of
conduct, whether for political bodies or religious bodies, there will be
the sword and not peace.
"I see by the papers that the reaction I have long expected and hoped for
has commenced in our country. It is hailed here by intelligent and
cool-headed citizens as a good omen for the future. The Radicals have had
their way, and the people, disgusted, have at length given their command
--'Thus far and no farther.'"