THE CABLE LAID--CABLE OF 1865 GRAPPLED FOR AND RECOVERED--PAYMENT OF
DEBTS
(1866)
Mr. Field said of this crisis:
"I reached London on the 24th of December, 1865, and the next day
was not a 'Merry Christmas' to me. But it was an inexpressible
comfort to have the counsel of such men as Sir Daniel Gooch and Sir
Richard A. Glass; and Mr. Brassey said, 'Mr. Field, don't be
discouraged; go down to the company and tell them to go ahead, and
whatever the cost, I will bear one-tenth of the whole.
"It was finally concluded that the best course was to organize a
new company, which should assume the work; and so originated the
Anglo-American Telegraph Company. It was formed by ten gentlemen
who met around a table in London and put down £10,000 apiece.
"The great Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company,
undaunted by the failure of last year, answered us with a
subscription of £100,000. Soon after, the books were opened to the
public through the eminent banking house of J. S. Morgan & Co., and
in fourteen days we had raised the whole £600,000. Then the work
began again, and went on with speed. Never was greater energy
infused into any enterprise. It was only the first day of March
that the new company was formed, and was registered as a company
the next day; and yet such were the vigor and despatch that in five
months from that day the cable had been manufactured, shipped on
the _Great Eastern_, stretched across the Atlantic, and was sending
messages, literally swift as lightning, from continent to
continent. The cable was manufactured at the rate of twenty miles a
day."
Captain Anderson wrote from the _Great Eastern_ at Sheerness on March
2d:
"I hope you are keeping well and not sacrificing your health for
even the Atlantic cable."
After referring to some slight complications, he adds:
"But this will all come right, as you so often say, and surely we
shall live to laugh at it yet. At least you ought to have your day
of triumph, as you have had your long years of struggle."
March 5th, Captain Moriarty wrote from H.M.S. _Fox_:
"I am as sanguine as even yourself in the practicability and almost
certainty of raising the present cable, and feel all the more
interested in it in consequence of the incredulity of naval men and
others."
Mr. Field gave a dinner at the Buckingham Palace Hotel on April 5th; the
American minister, Mr. Adams, sat on his right, and the Earl of
Caithness on his left. _The Morning Star_, in speaking of the dinner,
said: "Mr. Field, with almost inspired fervor, spoke of the certainty
with which it would soon be possible to speak between England and
America in a minute of time."
"ROCHDALE, _March 26, '66_.
"_My dear Mr. Field_,--I shall not be in London before the 9th
April, and therefore shall not be able to dine with you on the 5th,
which I much regret.
"If you could come down here on your way to Liverpool, I should be
very glad to see you. I expect to be at home till the end of the
week.
"I hope your telegraph labors have been successful, and that before
the summer is over you will see your noble effort successful.
"I am anxious about what is doing in Washington, but I have lost
faith in the President, and think Mr. Seward is allowing himself to
be dragged into the mud of his Southern propensities. If Grant
continues firm with the Republican party, he may prevent great
mischief. The power of the President seems too great in an
emergency of this nature. His language shows that his temper is not
calm enough for dangerous times. In this he falls immeasurably
below Mr. Lincoln.
"But if I despair of the President, I shall have faith in the
people.
"I wish you a pleasant voyage and a complete success in your great
undertaking.
"Always sincerely your friend,
"JOHN BRIGHT."
"ROCHDALE, _March 28, '66_.
"_My dear Mr. Field_,--I will try to come to Liverpool to meet you
on Friday, the 6th April, nothing unforeseen preventing.
"I shall be glad to spend a quiet evening with you before you sail.
I shall be glad also to meet Mr. Dudley.
"You seem, as usual, to be hard at work up to the last day of your
stay here.
Always truly your friend,
"JOHN BRIGHT."
He sailed from Liverpool on April 7th by the steamship _Persia_,
arriving in New York on Thursday, April 19th, and he immediately took
his return passage for England in the steamship _Java_, which was to
sail from New York on May 30th. May 1st he wrote to Captain Anderson:
"Many thanks for your kind letter the 13th ultimo, received yesterday."
Every word of encouragement was always helpful to his eager temperament,
and of course it was especially so at this time, after so many
disappointments.
Mr. Russell, in his book on _The Atlantic Telegraph_, says:
"It has been said that the greatest boons conferred on mankind have
been due to men of one idea. If the laying of the Atlantic cable be
among those benefits, its consummation may certainly be attributed
to the man who, having many ideas, devoted himself to work out one
idea, with a gentle force and patient vigor which converted
opposition and overcame indifference. Mr. Field maybe likened
either to the core or the external protection of the cable itself.
At times he has been its active life, again he has been its
iron-bound guardian. Let who will claim the merit of having first
said the Atlantic cable was possible, to Mr. Field is due the
inalienable merit of having made it possible and of giving to an
abortive conception all the attributes of healthy existence."
"_Friday evening, 29th May._
"_My dear Mr. Field_,--I had hoped to see you to-day, but I have
been a prisoner.... If I do not see you before you leave to-morrow,
I pray God to bestow His best favor on you and the noble work in
which you are so fervently engaged.
"You will be remembered by very many who will not cease to implore
success on your undertaking from Him who holds the winds and the
waves. Please present my best regards to Captain Anderson.
"Hoping for your safe return, with all the triumph which you have
so richly deserved,
"I remain, my dear sir,
"Your affectionate friend and pastor,
"W. ADAMS."
The great ship was ready to sail on the day that had been named so many
months before, and the London papers had daily messages from her:
"MARGATE, _July 1st_.
"The _Great Eastern_, with the Atlantic telegraph cable on board,
passed here at half-past 3 P.M."
"VALENTIA, _July 6th_.
"Shore end of the Atlantic cable successfully landed at 3 P.M.
Tests perfect. The _William Corey_ proceeding to sea, paying out
slowly. Weather fine. Cable of 1865 tested at noon to-day; is
perfect as when laid."
"VALENTIA, _July 8th_.
"Vessels _Blackbird_, _Pedler_, _Skylark_, and _William Corey_
returned to Berehaven at 3.30 A.M. All vessels will complete
coaling at Berehaven to-morrow night, and will proceed to sea to
splice main cable to shore end on Wednesday morning, weather
permitting. All going well.
"The _Great Eastern_, with the Atlantic cable on board, has arrived
at Berehaven, a natural haven on the western coast of Ireland, near
Foilhommerum Bay, from whence the proposed electric communication
is to start seawards towards America. Another vessel, the _William
Corey_, has had confided to it the duty of laying the shore end,
and it was intended when that was completed that the _Great
Eastern_ should run round at once, make the splice, and begin its
work."
"VALENTIA, _July 12th_.
"Canning to Glass.--Latitude 51° N., longitude 17° 29' W. Cable
paid out, 283 miles; distance run, 263. Insulation and continuity
perfect. Weather fine. All going on well. Seaman fell overboard
from _Terrible_; was picked up; life saved."
"Canning to Glass.--
"_Noon (ship's time), July 16th._
"Latitude 52° N., longitude 20° 36' W. Cable paid out, 420 miles;
distance run, 378 miles. Weather fine. All on board well.
"Gooch to Glass.--Nothing can be more satisfactory than everything
is going on on board. Weather glorious."
"VALENTIA, _July 23d_, 5.30 P.M.
"The following telegram received from the _Great Eastern_ this day:
"'_Noon(ship's time), July 23d._
"'Canning to Glass.--Latitude 50° 16' N., longitude 42° 16' W.
Cable paid out, 1345.24 miles; distance run, 1196.9 miles.
Insulation and continuity perfect. Insulation improved 30 per cent,
since starting.'"
"VALENTIA, _July 27th_.
"_Great Eastern_ steaming up Trinity Bay at 4.25 this morning;
expect to land shore end at noon, local time."
"VALENTIA, _July 27th_.
"Shore end landed and splice completed at 8.43. Messages of
congratulation passing rapidly between Ireland and Newfoundland.
Insulation and continuity perfect. Speed much increased since
surplus cable has been cut off."
Mr. Field's own diary is interesting, but it is impossible to give here
more than a few extracts:
"STEAMSHIP 'GREAT EASTERN,'
"_Saturday, June 30, 1866_.
"Sailed at noon from her moorings off Sheerness. The _Great
Eastern_ has on board 2375 nautical miles of cable."
"_Sunday, July 1st_.
"Started at 12 noon, under easy steam, through the Alexander
Channel. Pilot left us. Squally weather, with rain at night."
"_Wednesday, July 4th_.
"Strong wind and heavy head sea. Made Fastnet light at about 8 P.M.
Celebrated the ninetieth anniversary of the independence of the
United States by hoisting the American flag and speeches at
dinner."
"_Wednesday, July 11th_.
"Completed coaling _Great Eastern_ and taking in provisions.
Received on board of _Great Eastern_ at Berehaven:
LIVE STOCK.
10 bullocks,
1 milch cow,
114 sheep,
20 pigs,
29 geese,
14 turkeys,
500 fowls.
DEAD STOCK.
28 bullocks,
4 calves,
22 sheep,
4 pigs,
300 fowls,
18,000 eggs."
"_Thursday, July 12th_.
"Religious service held at Valentia at 2.30 P.M."
"_Friday, July 13th_.
"The _Great Eastern_ and _Raccoon_ joined the _Terrible_, _Medway_,
and _Albany_ at buoy at the end of shore cable at 6 A.M.
"Splice between shore cable and main cable completed on board of
the _Great Eastern_ at 3.10 P.M. 3.50 Greenwich time the telegraph
fleet started for Newfoundland.
"The telegraph fleet sail as follows: The _Terrible_ ahead of the
_Great Eastern_ on the starboard bow, the _Medway_ on the port, and
the _Albany_ on the starboard quarter.
"It was foggy nearly all day and rained very hard most of the
forenoon. Signals through cable perfect."
"_Saturday, July 14th_.
"Wind W.S.W. Weather fine. Distance from Valentia, 135.5 miles;
from Heart's Content, 1533.5. Depth of water, 210 to 525 fathoms.
Cable and signals perfect."
"_Monday, July 16th_.
"Calm, beautiful day. Signals perfect."
"_Tuesday, July 17th_.
"Sent Mr. Glass at Valentia the following telegram:
"'Field to Glass.--Please write Mrs. Field to-day at Newburg, New
York, and tell her, "All in good health and spirits on board of
this ship, and confident of success." Machinery works perfectly,
and the cable pays out splendidly.'"
"_Friday, July 20th_.
"Total distance run, 830.4 miles. Distance from Heart's Content,
838.6 miles. Depth of water, 1500 to 2050 fathoms. Wind S.W., with
rain."
"_Sunday, July 22d_.
"_Great Eastern_ has passed the place where the cable was lost last
year, and all is going on well."
"_Monday, July 23d_.
"At 8.54 A.M. I sent the following telegram:
"'Field to Glass.--Please obtain the latest news from Egypt, China,
India, and distant places for us to forward to the United States on
our arrival at Heart's Content.'
"At 7.05 P.M. I sent the following telegram:
"'Field to Glass.--Please send us Thursday afternoon the price that
day for cotton in Liverpool and the London quotations for consols,
United States five-twenty bonds, Illinois Central and Erie Railroad
shares, and also bank rate of interest. The above we shall send to
New York on our arrival, and I will obtain the latest news from the
States and send you in return.'"
"_Tuesday, July 24th_.
"At 9.05 A.M. I sent the following telegram:
"'Field to Glass.--We are within four hundred miles of Heart's
Content, and expect to be there on Friday. When shall the Atlantic
cable be open for public business?'
"At 10.25 A.M. I received the following:
"'Glass to Field.--If you land the cable on Friday, I see no reason
why it should not be open on Saturday.'"
"_Thursday, July 26th_.
"Field to Glass.--We expect to land the cable at Heart's Content
to-morrow; all well."
"_Friday, July 27th_.
"At 7 A.M. made the land off Heart's Content. At 9 A.M. we sent the
end of the cable to the _Medway_ to be spliced. I left the _Great
Eastern_ in a small boat at 8.15 A.M., and landed at Heart's
Content at 9 o'clock.
"The shore end was landed at Heart's Content at 5 P.M., and signals
through the whole cable perfect.
"At 5.30 P.M., service held at the church at Heart's Content."
Nothing in this diary is so remarkable and characteristic as the tone of
absolute confidence while the issue of the voyage was still in doubt. It
was this confidence that not only sustained the projectors of the
enterprise through all its mutations, but that infected his associates.
Perhaps it was the moral effect of his mere presence, even more than the
labor of which he took so large a share, that made them so often appeal
for his return to England. Difficulties that looked insurmountable in
his absence seemed to vanish when he appeared.
Hope had so often been deferred that his family hardly dared to think
what a day might bring to them; and they went to church on Sunday, July
29th, and after the service it was suggested that before they return to
their home (Plum Point, below Newburg) they should drive to the
telegraph office. On their way there their attention was attracted to
the day boat, then coming to her dock, gayly dressed with flags, and
very quickly followed the news that the cable was laid, and that this
message had been sent to Mrs. Field:
"HEART'S CONTENT, TRINITY BAY,
"NEWFOUNDLAND, _Friday, July 27, 1866_.
"Mrs. CYRUS W. FIELD, Newburg, New York:
"All well. Thank God the cable has been successfully laid and is in
perfect working order. I am sure that no one will be as thankful to
God as you and our dear children. Now we shall be a united family.
We leave in about a week to recover the cable of last year. Please
telegraph at once and write in full, and I shall receive your
letters on my return here.
"On the 15th inst. I received through the cable from Valentia your
message from Newport and Grace's telegram from Newburg, and on the
22d inst. your telegraphic despatch of the 10th inst., and this
moment your letter of the 12th inst.
"CYRUS W. FIELD."
It was on the 28th of July that these resolutions were passed:
"_Resolved_, The directors of the Telegraph Construction and
Maintenance Company and the directors of the Anglo-American
Telegraph Company wish in some substantial manner to express their
high appreciation of the good conduct and admirable way in which
all engaged in the work of laying the Atlantic cable have performed
their duties.
"It has given them great pleasure to order that a gratuity of a
month's pay be presented to each man on his return to England.
"The directors, while thanking the men for the past, feel confident
that in the more difficult task yet before them they will display
the same hearty zeal in the performance of the work."
Mr. Willoughby Smith mentioned this incident at a dinner given in
London:
"I remember well, in 1866, during the laying of the Atlantic cable,
as we went on day by day, Mr. Field used to say to me: 'Thank
goodness, we are over another day; only let us get safely across
with the cable, and I will retire on the largest farm in America
and keep the largest cows and fowls, and receive my dividend daily
in the shape of eggs and milk.'"
The account of these days is contained in this letter:
"'GREAT EASTERN,'
"HEART'S CONTENT, _August 7, 1866_.
"_My dear Mrs. Field_,--Thanks for your kind note of July 30th. I
am, of course, much pleased that the result of all these efforts of
thought, and concentration of experiences, and long-continued
indomitable energy, and expenditure of such heaps of gold, has been
a success. It was very, very near failing. Do what you will, the
laying of cables (threads!!!) across deep oceans of great breadth
will always be speculative; although when laid, so far as we can
conjecture or reason from scientific knowledge or all that is known
of physical geography, there is no one reason having any sound
basis in it that can tell us in what direction to apprehend any
danger, always excepting man's malice or enmity. The very thing we
proved last voyage, and go to verify in a few days, proves that any
enemy well equipped can destroy what has cost all these years to
accomplish.
"I have no fear of completing the cable of 1865, although I never
quite got rid of the feeling that it is a very odd thing to do, and
we can fancy bad weather exhausting our stock of coals, materials,
and perhaps hopes, by frequent breakages; but we have 7700 tons of
coal, twenty miles of ropes for grappling, three ships fully
coaled and provisioned and equipped for the purpose. Two ships are
now on the ground. Given, then, the opportunity, there is no known
reason to prevent us being here a fortnight hence with the double
success. Then what next? God knows. But Mr. Field is not one bit
quieter than he was in London. He wants a third cable laid, and two
complete lines from here to New York, before he will be satisfied.
The success of this one will make the others comparatively easy,
but I am not sure if he will even then take the repose both he and
you deserve. He is very well; but how he stands the endless
excitement I do not know. One thing I may give you now as a sound
opinion: he would not stand many more London campaigns without you
or one of your daughters with him. He takes absolutely no repose
when in London, and it is only because he cannot help himself that
he gets it at sea. I heartily congratulate him and you upon this
good termination to the real foundation of future oceanic
telegraphy; he deserves all honor from his countrymen.... To your
husband especially belong the creation and the perseverance that
have moved so many into the vortex.... With every kind wish to you
and yours,
"Sincerely yours,
"JAMES ANDERSON."
Bishop Mullock wrote on August 6th:
"In my answer to a society who addressed me yesterday on the
occasion of my departure for Europe I alluded to your example as a
great lesson of perseverance, showing that to a man of good energy
nothing almost is impossible, and telling them in all difficulties
to have the example of Mr. Cyrus W. Field before their eyes.
"May God grant that you may be able to resuscitate the old cable. I
have myself no doubt but that you will accomplish it, and exhibit
to future generations the greatest example of energy and
perseverance ever shown by an individual.
"You ought to be a proud man, for like the name of Columbus, yours
will be in Europe and America a household word."
Whittier's "Cable Hymn" responds to the feeling experienced at this
time:
"O lonely bay of Trinity,
O dreary shores, give ear!
Lean down unto the white-lipped sea,
The voice of God to hear.
"From world to world His couriers fly,
Thought-winged and shod with fire;
The angel of His stormy sky
Rides down the sunken wire.
"What saith the herald of the Lord?
'The world's long strife is done;
Close wedded by that mystic chord,
Its continents are one.
"'And one in heart, as one in blood,
Shall all her peoples be;
The hands of human brotherhood
Are clasped beneath the sea.
"'Through Orient seas, o'er Afric's plain,
And Asian mountains borne,
The vigor of the Northern brain
Shall nerve the world outworn.
"'From clime to clime, from shore to shore,
Shall thrill the magic thread;
The new Prometheus steals once more
The fire that wakes the dead.'
"Throb on, strong pulse of thunder! beat
From answering beach to beach;
Fuse nations in thy kindly heat,
And melt the chains of each!
"Wild terror of the sky above,
Glide tamed and dumb below;
Bear gently, ocean's carrier-dove,
Thy errands to and fro.
"Weave on, swift shuttle of the Lord,
Beneath the deep so far,
The bridal-robe of earth's accord,
The funeral shroud of war.
"For lo! the fall of ocean's wall,
Space mocked and time outrun;
And round the world the thought of all
Is as the thought of one!
"The poles unite, the zones agree,
The tongues of striving cease;
As on the Sea of Galilee
The Christ is whispering Peace!"
We find in Mr. McCarthy's _History of Our Own Times_ these words:
"Just before the adjournment of Parliament for the recess a great
work of peace was accomplished, perhaps the only work of peace then
possible which could be mentioned after the warlike business of
Sadowa without producing the effect of an anti-climax. This was the
completion of the Atlantic cable....
"Ten years, all but a month, had gone by since Mr. Cyrus W. Field,
the American promoter of the Atlantic telegraph project, had first
tried to inspire cool and calculating men in London, Liverpool, and
Manchester with some faith in his project. He was not a scientific
man; he was not the inventor of the principle of inter-oceanic
telegraphy; he was not even the first man to propose that a company
should be formed for the purpose of laying a cable beneath the
Atlantic....
"But the achievement of the Atlantic cable was none the less as
distinctly the work of Mr. Cyrus W. Field as the discovery of
America was that of Columbus. It was not he who first thought of
doing the thing, but it was he who first made up his mind that it
could be done, and showed the world how to do it, and did it in the
end. The history of human invention has not a more inspiriting
example of patience living down discouragement and perseverance
triumphing over defeat....
"At last, in 1866, the feat was accomplished, and the Atlantic
telegraph was added to the realities of life. It has now become a
distinct part of our civilized system. We have ceased to wonder at
it. We accept it and its consequent facts with as much composure as
we take the existence of the inland telegraph or the penny post."
Before the two weeks were passed the _Great Eastern_ was at sea and on
her way to recover the cable lost the year before, and from his diary we
copy these short extracts:
"_Thursday, August 9th._
"The _Great Eastern_ and _Medway_ left Heart's Content at noon."
"_Sunday, August 12th_, at 3 P.M.
"_Great Eastern_ and _Medway_ joined the _Terrible_ and _Albany_."
"_Monday, August 13th._
"At 1 P.M. commenced to lower grapnel from _Great Eastern_; at 2
P.M. grapnel down; at 8.30 P.M. commenced to heave up grapnel, as
_Great Eastern_ would not drift over cable."
"_Wednesday, August 15th._
"At 2 P.M. commenced lowering grapnel; at 8.30 P.M. grapnel hooked
cable. Hove up 100 fathoms and paid out again to wait until
morning."
"_Friday, August 17th._
"At 4.30 A.M. commenced heaving up cable; at 10.45 A.M. cable above
water; at 10.50 A.M. cable parted about ten feet above the water."
"_Monday, August 27th._
"At 2.30 P.M. got cable from buoy in over the bow and found, by
tests, it to be only a short length of a few miles which must have
been cut from the main cable by grapnel."
_"Saturday, September 1st._
"At 4.50 A.M. cable up to 800 fathoms from the surface.
"At 5 P.M. commenced heaving up; found the cable to be hooked."
"Sunday, September 2d.
"12.50 A.M.--Cable above the surface.
"2.16.--Bight of 1865 cable on board.
"3.11.--End brought into testing-room.
"3.50.--Message received. 'Cable of 1866 and Gulf cable both O. K.'
"3.52.--Cable taken from test-room to make splice.
"6.50.--Shipped from bow to stern.
"7.01.--Commenced paying out cable.
"At 9.28 A.M. I sent the following telegram 720 miles east of
Newfoundland:
"'Mrs. CYRUS W. FIELD, Newburg, New York:
"'The cable of 1865 was recovered early this morning, and we are
now in perfect telegraphic communication with Valentia, and on our
way back to Heart's Content, where we expect to arrive next
Saturday. God be praised. Please telegraph me in full at Heart's
Content. I am in good health and spirits. Captain Anderson wishes
to be kindly remembered to you.
CYRUS W. FIELD.'"
"_Saturday, September 8th._
"Landed cable at Heart's Content.
"Position of ships entering Trinity Bay:
_Lily_, _Great Eastern_, _Terrible_,
_Medway_, _Margaretta Stevenson_."
Of his own feeling, as he stood waiting on the _Great Eastern_ at dawn
on Sunday morning, September 2d, Mr. Field told in a speech made in
London on March 10, 1868:
"One of the most interesting scenes that I ever witnessed ... was
the moment when, after the cable had been recovered on the _Great
Eastern_, it had been brought into the electrician's room, and the
test was applied to see whether it was alive or dead. Never shall I
forget that eventful moment when, in answer to our question to
Valentia, whether the cable of 1866, which we had a few weeks
previously laid, was in good working order, and the cable across
the Gulf of St. Lawrence had been repaired, in an instant came back
those six memorable letters, 'Both O. K.' I left the room, I went
to my cabin, I locked the door; I could no longer restrain my
tears--crying like a child, and full of gratitude to God that I had
been permitted to live to witness the recovery of the cable we had
lost from the _Great Eastern_ just thirteen mouths previous."
(From the London _Times_ of Wednesday, September 5th.)
"The recovery of the cable of 1865 from the very lowest depths of the
Atlantic seems to have taken the world by surprise. It is not, however,
too much to say that no class of the community has felt more
astonishment than those who are best acquainted with the difficulties of
the task--the electricians....
"Night and day for a whole year an electrician has always been on duty
watching the tiny ray of light through which signals are given, and
twice every day the whole length of wire--1240 miles--has been tested
for conductivity and insulation.... Suddenly last Sunday morning at a
quarter to six, while the light was being watched by Mr. May, he
observed a peculiar indication about the light, which showed at once to
his experienced eye that a message was near at hand. In a few minutes
afterwards the unsteady flickering was changed to coherency, if we may
use such a term, and at once the cable began to speak:
"'Canning to Glass.--I have much pleasure in speaking to you through the
1865 cable. Just going to make splice.'"
(From _Harper's Magazine_, October, 1866.)
"A great historical event has occurred since our last talk, and it has
been received almost as a matter of course. The distance between Europe
and America has been practically annihilated; the Atlantic Ocean has
been abolished; steam as an agent of communication has been antiquated.
We read every morning the previous day's news from London or Paris, and
there is no excitement whatever. Scarcely a bell has rung or a cannon
roared. Not even a dinner has been eaten in honor of the great event,
except by the gentlemen immediately concerned; and the salvo of speeches
which usually resounds upon much inferior occasions from end to end of
the country has been omitted.... The steamers bring the cream no longer.
That is shot electrically under the sea, and the ships suddenly convey
only skim-milk. They are yet young men who remember the arrival of the
_Sirius_ and the _Liverpool_ and the _Great Western_. Their coming was
the occasion of a thousandfold greater excitement than the laying of the
cable. Yet if some visionary enthusiast had said to his friend as they
watched with awe the steaming in or out of those huge ships, 'Before we
are bald or gray we shall look upon these vessels as we now look from
the express train upon the slow old stage-coaches,' he would have been
tolerated only as a harmless maniac.... The name which will be always
associated with this historical event is that of the man who has so
patiently and unweariedly persisted in the project, Cyrus W. Field. With
an undaunted cheerfulness, which often seemed exasperating and
unreasonable and fanatical, he has steadily and zealously persevered, no
more dismayed or baffled by apparent failure than a good ship by a head
wind. We remember meeting him one pleasant day during the last spring in
the street by the Astor House in New York. He said that he was going out
to England by the next steamer.
"'And how many times have you crossed the ocean?'
"'Oh,' he replied, with the fresh enthusiasm of a boy going home for
vacation, 'this will be the twenty-second voyage I have made upon this
business.' And his eyes twinkled as we merrily said good-bye. We heard
of him no more until we saw his name signed to the despatch announcing
the triumph of his blithe faith and long labor."
The number of voyages is understated here. That made on May 30th, he
writes, was his thirty-seventh.
In his lecture on "The Masters of the Situation" Mr. James T. Fields has
said:
"There is a faith so expansive and a hope so elastic that a man
having them will keep on believing and hoping till all danger is
past and victory sure. When I talk across an ocean of three
thousand miles with my friends on the other side of it, and feel
that I may know any hour of the day if all goes well with them, I
think with gratitude of the immense energy and perseverance of that
one man, Cyrus W. Field, who spent so many years of his life in
perfecting a communication second only in importance to the
discovery of this country. The story of his patient striving during
all that stormy period is one of the noblest records of American
enterprise, and only his own family know the whole of it. It was a
long, hard struggle."
After a painful experience was past he never cared to recall it, and for
that reason the world never knew to what straits he and his family were
often pushed. Not a luxury was allowed, and during those twelve years
any wish that might be expressed could only be gratified "when the cable
was laid." All waited for that day, but not always patiently, for one or
another was often heard to explain, "Oh, if that old cable was only at
the bottom of the ocean!" and to this he would invariably answer, "That
is just where I wish it to be."
Neither does the world know what his books tell, that at this very time
his hand was stretched out to both his relations and friends. The
surrogate was so impressed with his management of a trust estate that he
could not believe his statement, and said that he must take the papers
home and verify them, for he had never before known that such an
increase was possible.
It was in London, in March, 1868, that he told of the strange
fluctuations he had seen in the stock of the two telegraph companies in
which he had so long been interested.
"It is within the last six months only that we have received the
first return from the money we had put at the bottom of the
Atlantic. I do not believe that any enterprise has ever been
undertaken that has had such fortune: that has been so low, and,
one might almost say, so high. I have known the time when a
thousand pounds of Atlantic telegraph stock sold in London at a
high premium. I have known the time when a thousand pounds of the
same stock was purchased by my worthy friend, the Right Honorable
Mr. Wortley, for thirty guineas. At one time when I was in London
trying to raise money to carry forward this great enterprise, a
certificate for ten thousand dollars (£2000 sterling) in the New
York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company sold at the
Merchants' Exchange in New York by public auction for a ten-dollar
bill (£2). On my return home the gentleman handed the certificate
to me and asked me if it was worth anything. I said to him, 'My
dear sir, what did you pay for it?' and to my mortification he
showed to me the auctioneer's bill for ten dollars. I said to him,
'I shall be happy to pay you a good profit on your investment.' He
replied, 'No; what do you advise me to do with it?' I rejoined,
"Lock it up in your safe. Do not even think about or look at it
until you receive a notice to collect your dividends.' The holder
now receives a dividend of eight hundred dollars per annum or
(£160) in gold for his investment. If any gentleman here has ever
possessed a more fluctuating investment I should like to hear it."
Later in the evening the Right Honorable Mr. Wortley said:
"I have been a shareholder from the first, and I am somewhat proud
of my original £1000 shares, and of those shares to which you have
alluded, which I truly bought at £30 each. I am anxious, however,
that those gentlemen who heard that statement should understand
that I have not yet made a fortune out of the cable. The
vicissitudes we have gone through have prevented us from doing much
financially, and, indeed, we have had difficulty at times in
keeping the enterprise afloat."
The following telegram and letters are among those received at this
time:
"21 REGENT STREET, LONDRES.
"Envoyez télégramme suivant à FIELD, _Great Eastern_:
"Félicitations pour persévérance et grand succès.
"LESSEPS."
"11 CARLTON HOUSE TERRACE. S.W.,
"_August 28, '66_.
"_My dear Sir_,--The message which you did me the honor to send me
from Newfoundland at the commencement of this month, embodying in
part the contents of a speech delivered by me in the House of
Commons a few hours before, was a signal illustration of the great
triumph which energy and intelligence in your person, and in those
of your coadjutors, have achieved over difficulties that might well
have been deemed insurmountable by weaker men. I offer you my
cordial congratulations, and I trust that the electric line may
powerfully contribute to binding our two countries together in
perfect harmony.
"The message reached me among friends interested in America and
produced a very lively sensation.
"We live in times of great events. Europe has not often of late
seen greater than those of the present year, which apparently go
far to complete the glorious work of the reconstruction of Italy,
and which seem in substance both to begin and complete another
hardly less needed work in the reconstruction of Germany. But I
must say that few political phenomena have ever struck me more than
the recent conduct of American finance. I admire beyond expression
the courage which has carried through the threefold operation of
cutting down in earnest your war establishments, maintaining for
the time your war taxes, and paying off in your first year of peace
twenty-five millions sterling of your debt. There are nations that
could lay an electric telegraph under the Atlantic and yet could
not do this. I wish my humble congratulations might be conveyed to
your finance minister. This scale can hardly be kept up, but I do
not doubt the future will be worthy of the past, and I hope he will
shame us and the Continent into at least a distant and humble
imitation."
"I remain very faithfully yours,
"W. E. GLADSTONE.
"CYRUS W. FIELD, Esq."
Captain Anderson's letter of September 9th is to Mrs. Field, and was
written on board the _Great Eastern_:
"I cannot tell you how I have felt since our new success. It is
only seventeen months since I first walked up to the top of the
paddle-box of this ship at Sheerness upon a dark, rainy night,
reviewed my past career in my mind, and tried to look into the
future, to see what I had undertaken, and realize, if possible,
what the new step in my career would develop. I cannot say I
believed much in cables; I rather think I did not; but I did
believe your husband was an earnest man of great force of
character, and working under a strong conviction that what he was
attempting was thoroughly practicable; and I knew enough of the
names with which he had associated himself in the enterprise to
feel that it was a real, true, honest effort, worthy of all the
energy and application of one's manhood, and, come what might of
the future, I resolved to do my very utmost and do nothing else
until it was over. More completely, however, than my resolve
foreshadowed, I dropped, inch by inch, or step by step, into the
work, until I had no mind, no soul, no sleep, that was not tinged
with cable. I am fortunate that my duties were such that I might
well ask a blessing upon it, or I had better never have gone to
church or bent a knee--in a word, I accuse your husband of having
pulled me into a vortex that I could not get out of, and did not
wish to try. And only fancy that the sum total of all this is to
lay a thread across an ocean! Dr. Russell compared it to an
elephant stretching a cobweb. And there lay its very danger. The
more you multiply the mechanism the more you increase the risk.
With all the vigilance and honesty of purpose of chosen men,
exigencies must arise and may occur. When the nights are dark and
stormy there comes the torture that may ruin all if not
successfully met. And so that task has been a series of high hopes
and blank, dark hours of disappointments, when it seemed as if the
difficulties were legion and we were beating the air. Mr. Field, at
least, never gave out. He never ceased to say, 'It would all come
right,' even when his looks hardly bore out the assertion. But at
last it did. We came through it all, and I feel as if I had said
good-bye and God bless you to a wayward child who had cost me great
thought and was at last happily settled for life just where I
wished her. I do not think, though, that I could or would have
nursed the wretch for twelve years, as your husband has done, to
the destruction of the repose of himself and all the rest of his
family. I should have discarded her and adopted some other. He has
persevered, however, and to him belongs all the credit your country
can bestow."
Professor Wheatstone wrote:
"According to my promise I enclose a copy of my letter of
September, 1866, to the Secretary of the Privy Council, in answer
to his inquiry respecting the persons most deserving of honor in
connection with the successful completion of the Atlantic
telegraph.
"'19 PARK CRESCENT,
"'PORTLAND PLACE, N.W., _September 22, 1866_.
"'_My dear Sir_,--The following is my opinion respecting the
principal co-operators in the establishment of the Atlantic
telegraph:
"'The person to whose indomitable perseverance we are indebted for
the commencement, carrying on, and completion of the enterprise is
undoubtedly Mr. Cyrus Field. Through good and through evil report
he has pursued his single object undaunted by repeated failures,
keeping up the flagging interest of the public and the desponding
hopes of capitalists, and employing his energies to combine all the
means which might lead towards a successful issue. This gentleman
is a citizen of the United States, and there would perhaps be a
difficulty in conferring on him any honorary distinction.
"'From the staff of officials by whose practical skill and
unwearied attention the great project has been at last achieved, it
appears to me there are four gentlemen who might, in addition to
special merits of their own, be taken as the representatives of all
those who have labored under or with them in their respective
departments.
"'Public opinion, I think, would ratify the selection.
"'These are:
"'Mr. Glass, the manager of the Telegraph Maintenance Company,
under whose superintendence the great connecting link has been
manufactured, and to whose former firm is mainly owing the high
perfection which the construction of submarine cables has now
attained.
"'Mr. Canning, the able engineer of the same company, to whose
experience and skill we are chiefly indebted for the successful
laying down of the new cable and the restoration of the old.
"'Captain Anderson, the commander of the _Great Eastern_ steamship,
who under new and untried circumstances brought this leviathan of
the waters to work in subjection to the requirements of the great
operation. An honorary distinction to this gentleman would no doubt
be received as a compliment by the mercantile marine.
"'Dr. W. Thomson, who, distinguished already in the highest fields
of science, has devoted his talents to improvements in the methods
of signalizing, and whose contrivances specially appropriated to
the conditions of submarine lines have resulted in the attainment
of greater speed than was at first expected.
"'In naming these gentlemen I have limited myself to those actually
engaged in the great enterprise which at present occupies so much
public attention. I have left out of consideration the claims of
others, however great, who have preceded them in similar
undertakings of less importance, or who have either in thought or
deed worked out results which have rendered the present great work
practicable or even possible.
"'I remain, my dear sir,
"'Yours very truly,
"'C. WHEATSTONE.
"'ARTHUR HELPS, Esq.'"
At the banquet given at Liverpool on October 1st, the chairman read this
letter:
"BALMORAL, _29th September, 1866_.
"_Dear Sir Stafford_,--As I understand you are to have the honor of
taking the chair at the entertainment which is to be given on
Monday next in Liverpool to celebrate the double success which has
attended the great undertaking of laying the cable of 1866 and
recovering that of 1865, by which the two continents of Europe and
America are happily connected, I am commanded by the Queen to make
known to you, and through you to those over whom you are to
preside, the deep interest with which Her Majesty has regarded the
progress of this noble work, and to tender Her Majesty's cordial
congratulations to all of those whose energy and perseverance,
whose skill and science, have triumphed over all difficulties, and
accomplished a success alike honorable to themselves and to their
country, and beneficial to the world at large.
"Her Majesty, desirous of testifying her sense of the various
merits which have been displayed in this great enterprise, has
commanded me to submit to her for special marks of her royal favor
the names of those who, having had assigned to them prominent
positions, may be considered as representing the different
departments whose united labors have contributed to the final
result.
"Her Majesty has accordingly been pleased to direct that the honor
of knighthood be conferred on Captain Anderson, the able and
zealous commander of the _Great Eastern_; on Professor Thomson,
whose distinguished science has been brought to bear with eminent
success upon the improvement of submarine telegraphy, and on
Messrs. Glass and Canning, the manager and engineer respectively of
the Telegraph Maintenance Company, whose skill and experience have
mainly contributed to the admirable construction and successful
laying of the cable.
"Her Majesty is further pleased to mark her approval of the public
spirit and energy of the two companies who have had successively
the conduct of the undertaking by offering the dignity of a
baronetcy of the United Kingdom to Mr. Lampson, the deputy chairman
of the original company, to whose resolute support of the project,
in spite of all discouragements, it was in great measure owing that
it was not at one time abandoned in despair; and to Mr. Gooch,
M.P., the chairman of the company which has finally accomplished
the great design.
"If among the names thus submitted to and approved by Her Majesty
that of Mr. Cyrus Field does not appear, the omission must not be
attributed to any disregard of the eminent services which from the
first he has rendered to the cause of transatlantic telegraphy, and
the zeal and resolution with which he has adhered to the
prosecution of his object, but to an apprehension lest it might
appear to encroach on the province of his own government if Her
Majesty were advised to offer to a citizen of the United States,
for a service rendered alike to both countries, British marks of
honor which, following the example of another highly distinguished
citizen, he might feel himself unable to accept.
"I will only add, on my own part, how cordially I concur in the
object of the meeting over which you are about to preside, and how
much I should have been gratified had circumstances permitted me to
have attended in person.
"I am, dear Sir Stafford,
"Very sincerely yours,
"DERBY."
The celebration on the western shore of the Atlantic was not less
general and cordial. We quote from the report of a New York newspaper:
"A dinner was given in this city on the evening of the 16th instant
by the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company to
Cyrus W. Field, who has recently returned to this country, after
assisting in the successful laying of the Atlantic telegraph
cable, with which movement Mr. Field has been more prominently
identified from the beginning than any other of its advocates and
supporters. A considerable number of our first citizens were
present, including the honorary directors of the Atlantic Telegraph
Company.... Mr. Peter Cooper told of the formation of the New York,
Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, and then said: 'On
those eventful evenings we became fully magnetized and infatuated
with a most magnificent idea. We pictured to ourselves that in a
short time we should plant a line of telegraph across the vast and
mighty ocean. We as little dreamed of the difficulties at that time
that we were destined to encounter as did the Jews of old dream of
the difficulties that they were doomed to meet in their passage to
the promised land. We, like the Jews of old, saw the hills green
afar off, and, like them, we had but a faint idea of the bare
spots, the tangled thickets, and rugged cliffs over and through
which we have been compelled to pass in order to gain possession of
our land of promise. We have, however, been more fortunate than the
Jews of old; we have had a Moses who was able to lead on his
associates, and when he found them cast down and discouraged, he
did not call manna from heaven nor smite the rock, but just got us
to look through his telescope at the pleasant fields that lay so
temptingly in the distance before us, and in that way he was able
to inspirit his associates with courage to go on until, with the
help of the _Great Eastern_, and the means and influence of the
noble band of men that Mr. Field has been able to enlist in the
mother country, we have at last accomplished a work that is now the
wonder of the world.
"In the accomplishment of this work it is our privilege to regard
it as a great and glorious means for diffusing useful knowledge
throughout the world.... I trust our united efforts will hasten the
glorious time when nations will have war no more; when they will
beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into
pruning-hooks. I trust our own country and government will always
stand as a bright and shining light in the pathway of nations to
cheer on with hope the suffering millions of mankind who are now
struggling for life, liberty, and happiness--a happiness that is
possible to men and nations who will cultivate the arts of peace
instead of wasting their energies in wars of mutual destruction.
"Let us hope that the day will soon come that will secure peace and
good-will among the nations of the earth."
Mr. Cooper concluded with a toast to "The health and happiness of our
Moses, Mr. Cyrus W. Field."
The Common Council of New York passed these resolutions on the 8th of
October:
"_Whereas_, The recent arrival at his home in this city of Cyrus W.
Field, Esq., seems peculiarly appropriate for testifying to him the
gratification felt by the authorities and people of the city of New
York at the success attending his unexampled perseverance in the
face of almost insuperable difficulties, and his fortitude and
faith in the successful termination of the herculean labor to which
he has devoted his rare business capacity, his indomitable will,
and his undaunted courage for a series of years--that of uniting
the two hemispheres by telegraphy;
"_Resolved_, That the municipal authorities of the city of New
York, for themselves and speaking in behalf of their constituents,
the people, do hereby cordially tender their congratulations to
Cyrus W. Field, Esq., on the successful consummation of the work of
uniting the two hemispheres by electric telegraph--a work to which
he has devoted himself for many years, and to whom, under Divine
Providence, the world is indebted for this great triumph of skill,
perseverance, and energy over the seemingly insurmountable
difficulties that were encountered in the progress of the work; and
we beg to assure him that we hope that the benefits and advantages
thus secured to the people of the two nations directly united may
be shared by him to an extent commensurate with the energy and
ability that have characterized his connection with the
undertaking.
"_Resolved_, That a copy of the foregoing preamble and resolution
be properly engrossed, duly authenticated, and presented to Cyrus
W. Field, Esq., as a slight evidence of the appreciation by the
people of this city of the service he has rendered in uniting the
old and new worlds in the electric bands of fraternity and peace."
The invitation to a banquet to be given by the New York Chamber of
Commerce is dated October 15th, and in it "the members request that they
may hear from your lips the story of this great undertaking;" and the
evening of November 15th was the one chosen.
The toast to which he replied was:
"Cyrus W. Field, the projector and mainspring of the Atlantic
telegraph: while the British government justly honors those who
have taken part with him in this great work of the age, his fame
belongs to us, and will be cherished and guarded by his
countrymen."
"The story of this great undertaking" has been told, and as far as
possible in his own words, in these chapters; but there are two or three
further extracts from his speech that it seems expedient to give, for
they explain the pages just read; they refer to the voyage, grappling,
and manner of working the cable.
"Yet this was not a 'lucky hit'--a fine run across the ocean in
calm weather. It was the worst weather I ever knew at that season
of the year. In the despatch which appeared in the New York papers
you may have read, 'The weather has been most pleasant.' I wrote it
'unpleasant.' We had fogs and storms almost the whole way. Our
success was the result of the highest science combined with
practical experience. Everything was perfectly organized to the
minutest detail. We had on board an admirable staff of officers,
such men as Halpin and Beckwith; and engineers long used to this
business, such as Canning and Clifford and Temple, the first of
whom has been knighted for his part in this great achievement; and
electricians, such as Professor Thomson, of Glasgow, and Willoughby
Smith, and Laws; while Mr. C. F. Varley, our companion of the year
before, who stands among the first in knowledge and practical
skill, remained with Sir Richard Glass at Valentia, to keep watch
at that end of the line, and Mr. Latimer Clark, who was to test the
cable when done. We had four ships, and on board of them some of
the best seamen in England, men who knew the ocean as a hunter
knows every trail in the forest. Captain Moriarty had, with Captain
Anderson, taken most exact observations at the spot where the cable
broke in 1865, and they were so exact that they could go right to
the spot. After finding it they marked the line of the cable by a
row of buoys, for fogs would come down and shut out sun and stars,
so that no man could take an observation. These buoys were anchored
a few miles apart. They were numbered, and each had a flag-staff on
it, so that it could be seen by day, and a lantern by night. Thus
having taken our bearings, we stood off three or four miles, so as
to come broadside on, and then casting over the grapnel, drifted
slowly down upon it, dragging the bottom of the ocean as we went.
At first it was a little awkward to fish in such deep water, but
our men got used to it, and soon could cast a grapnel almost as
straight as an old whaler throws a harpoon. Our fishing-line was of
formidable size. It was made of rope, twisted with wires of steel,
so as to bear a strain of thirty tons. It took about two hours for
the grapnel to reach bottom, but we could tell when it struck. I
often went to the bow and sat on the rope, and could feel by the
quiver that the grapnel was dragging on the bottom two miles under
us. But it was a very slow business. We had storms and calms and
fogs and squalls. Still we worked on day after day. Once, on the
17th of August, we got the cable up, and had it in full sight for
five minutes--a long slimy monster, fresh from the ooze of the
ocean's bed--but our men began to cheer so wildly that it seemed to
be frightened, and suddenly broke away and went down into the sea.
"This accident kept us at work two weeks longer; but finally, on
the last night of August, we caught it. We had cast the grapnel
thirty times. It was a little before midnight on Friday night that
we hooked the cable, and it was a little after midnight Sunday
morning that we got it on board. What was the anxiety of those
twenty-six hours? The strain on every man's life was like the
strain on the cable itself. When finally it appeared it was
midnight; the lights of the ship, and in the boats around our bows,
as they flashed in the faces of the men, showed them eagerly
watching for the cable to appear on the water. At length it was
brought to the surface. All who were allowed to approach crowded
forward to see it; yet not a word was spoken; only the voices of
the officers in command were heard giving orders. All felt as if
life and death hung on the issue. It was only when it was brought
over the bow and on to the deck that men dared to breathe. Even
then they hardly believed their eyes. Some crept towards it to feel
of it--to be sure it was there. Then we carried it along to the
electrician's room to see if our long-sought treasure was alive or
dead. A few minutes of suspense and a flash told of the lightning
current again set free. Then did the feeling, long pent up, burst
forth. Some turned away their heads and wept. Others broke into
cheers, and the cry ran from man to man and was heard down in the
engine-rooms, deck below deck, and from the boats on the water and
the other ships, while rockets lighted up the darkness of the sea.
Then with thankful hearts we turned our faces again to the west.
But soon the wind arose, and for thirty-six hours we were exposed
to all the dangers of a storm on the Atlantic. Yet in the very
height and fury of the gale, as I sat in the electrician's room, a
flash of light came up from the deep which, having crossed to
Ireland, came back to me in mid-ocean telling that those so dear to
me were well.
"When the first cable was laid in 1858 electricians thought that to
send a current two thousand miles it must be almost like a stroke
of lightning. But God was not in the earthquake, but in the still,
small voice. The other day Mr. Latimer Clark telegraphed from
Ireland across the ocean and back again with a battery formed in a
lady's thimble! And now Mr. Collett writes me from Heart's Content:
'I have just sent my compliments to Dr. Gould, of Cambridge, who is
at Valentia, with a battery composed of a gun cap, with a strip of
zinc, excited by a drop of water, the simple bulk of a tear!'"
These were among the toasts given on the same evening:
"Captain Anderson and the officers of the _Great Eastern_ and the
other ships engaged in the late expedition: they deserve the thanks
not only of their own country, but of the civilized world."
"The capitalists of England and America who use their wealth to
achieve great enterprises, and leave behind them enduring monuments
of their wise munificence."
And this sentiment was read:
"While expressing our grateful appreciation of the energy and
sagacity that practically achieved the spanning of the Atlantic by
the electric current, let us not fail to do honor to those whose
genius and patient investigation of the laws of nature furnished
the scientific knowledge requisite to success."
A reception was given to Mr. Field by the Century Club on Saturday
evening, November 17th.
It was in a speech made at Leeds early in October that Mr. John Bright
had said:
"To-morrow is the greatest day in the United States, when perhaps
millions of men will go to the polls, and they will give their
votes on the great question whether justice shall or shall not be
done to the liberated African; and in a day or two we shall hear
the result, and I shall be greatly surprised if that result does
not add one more proof to those already given of the solidity,
intelligence, and public spirit of the great body of the people of
the United States. I have mentioned the North American continent. I
refer to the colonies which are still part of this empire, as well
as to those other colonies which now form this great and free
republic, founded by the old Genoese captain at the end of the
fifteenth century. A friend of mine, Cyrus Field, of New York, is
the Columbus of our time, for after no less than forty passages
across the Atlantic in pursuit of the great aim of his life, he has
at length by his cable moved the New World close alongside the Old.
To speak from the United Kingdom to the North American continent,
and from North America to the United Kingdom, now is but the work
of a moment of time, and it does not require the utterance even of
a whisper. The English nations are brought together, and they must
march on together."
And Mr. Bright also wrote:
"ROCHDALE, _November 23, 1866_.
"_My dear Mr. Field_,--I sent a short message to Sir James
Anderson, that he might send it on to the chairman of the banquet.
I have not heard from him since, but I hope it reached you in
proper time. The words were as follows: 'It is fitting you should
honor the man to whom the whole world is debtor. He brought
capital and science together to do his bidding, and Europe and
America are forever united. I cannot sit at your table, but I can
join in doing honor to Cyrus W. Field. My hearty thanks to him may
mingle with yours.'
"This is but a faint expression of my estimation of your wonderful
energy and persistency and faith in the great work to which so many
years of your life have been devoted.
"The world as yet does not know how much it owes to you, and this
generation will never know it. I regard what has been done as the
most marvellous thing in human history. I think it more marvellous
than the invention of printing, or, I am almost ready to say, than
the voyage of the Genoese. But we will not compare these things,
which are all great. Let us rather rejoice at what has been done,
and I will rejoice that you mainly have done it.
"I wish I could have been at the dinner, for my reluctance to make
a speech would have given way to my desire to say something about
you and about the cable, and its grand significance to our Old
World and your New one.
"I need not tell you how much I am glad to believe that in a sense
that is very useful in this world you will profit largely by the
success of the great enterprise, and how fervently I hope your
prosperity may increase....
"Your elections have turned out well. I hope you will yet be
'reconstructed' on sound principles, and not on the unhappy
doctrines of the President.
"If I were with you I could talk a good deal, but I cannot write
more, so farewell.
"With every good wish for you,
"I am always sincerely your friend,
"JOHN BRIGHT."
A joint resolution presenting the thanks of Congress to Cyrus W. Field
was introduced in the Senate of the United States on December 12th, and
it was reported by Mr. Sumner without amendment on December 18th.
"_Resolved._ By the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America, in Congress assembled,
"That the thanks of Congress be, and they hereby are, presented to
Cyrus W. Field, of New York, for his foresight, courage, and
determination in establishing telegraphic communication by means of
the Atlantic cable, traversing mid-ocean and connecting the Old
World with the New; and that the President of the United States be
requested to cause a gold medal to be struck, with suitable
emblems, devices, and inscription, to be presented to Mr. Field.
And be it further
"_Resolved_, That when the medal shall have been struck, the
President shall cause a copy of this joint resolution to be
engrossed on parchment, and shall transmit the same, together with
the medal, to Mr. Field, to be presented to him in the name of the
people of the United States of America. And be it further
"_Resolved_, That a sufficient sum of money to carry this
resolution into effect is hereby appropriated out of any money in
the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.
"Approved March 2, 1867."
Immediately on his return to New York Mr. Field sold enough of his cable
stock to enable him early in November to write to those who had
compromised with him in 1860 and enclose to each the full amount of his
indebtedness, with seven per cent. interest to date. One check was for
$68 60, another was for $16,666 67; in all he paid $170,897 62.
The New York _Evening Post_ wrote of this act:
"We hope we do not violate confidence in stating a fact to the
honor of a New York merchant, which, though a private transaction,
ought to be known. Our fellow-citizen, Mr. Cyrus W. Field, whose
name will always be connected with the Atlantic telegraph, has
twice nearly ruined himself by his devotion to that enterprise.
Though a man of independent fortune when he began, he embarked in
it so large a portion of his capital as nearly to make shipwreck of
the whole. While in England engaged in the expedition of 1857 a
financial storm swept over this country and his house suspended;
but on his return he asked only for time, and paid all in full with
interest. But the stoppage was a heavy blow, and being followed by
a fire, in 1859, which burned his store to the ground, and by the
panic of December, 1860, just before the breaking out of the war,
he was finally obliged to compromise with his creditors. Thus
released, he devoted himself to the work of his life, which he has
at last carried through. The success of the Atlantic telegraph, we
are happy to learn, has brought back a portion of his lost wealth,
and his first care has been to make good all losses to others. He
has addressed a letter to every creditor who suffered by the
failure of his house in 1860, requesting him to send a statement of
the amount compromised, adding the interest for nearly six years,
and as fast as presented returns a check in full. The whole amount
will be about $200,000. Such a fact, however he may wish to keep it
a secret, ought to be known, to his honor and to the honor of the
merchants of New York."
It was at this time that Mr. George Peabody gave him a service of
silver, and asked that this inscription should be engraved on each
piece:
GEORGE PEABODY
TO
CYRUS W. FIELD,
In testimony and commemoration
of an act of very high
Commercial integrity and honor.
New York, 10th November, 1866.