ROBERT FULTON
AND THE
SUBMARINE
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
NEW YORK
SALES AGENTS
LONDON
HUMPHREY MILFORD
AMEN CORNER, E.C.
SHANGHAI
EDWARD EVANS & SONS, LTD.
30 NORTH SZECHUEN ROAD
[Illustration:
PORTRAIT OF FULTON
]
ROBERT FULTON
AND
THE SUBMARINE
BY
WM. BARCLAY PARSONS
[Illustration: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 1754–1893 IN LITTERIS LIBERTAS]
=New York=
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
1922
_All rights reserved_
_Copyright, 1922_
BY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Printed from type. Published December, 1922
PRINTED BY
THE PLIMPTON PRESS
NORWOOD · MASS · U·S·A
_To_
A. R. P.
WHO IN THE LINE OF DUTY DURING THE WORLD WAR
CROSSED AND RECROSSED THE HOSTILE SUBMARINE ZONE
THIS ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST SUBMARINE
IS INSCRIBED
W. B. P.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOREWORD
That Robert Fulton devoted some attention to the possibility of an
underwater boat during the years when his mind was laboring with plans
for the propulsion of boats by steam, has been known since that time.
Not, however, until 1896, did it become clear to what extent he had
carried his ideas. In that year Lieut. Emile Duboc discovered in the
Archives Nationales in Paris the full account of Fulton’s negotiations
with the French Government and the plans of the boat that he had
constructed, and in which he actually plunged. Other investigators,
chiefly Lieut. Maurice Delpeuch of the French navy and Mr. S. L. Pesce,
have made public this interesting record. To their respective treatises,
“Les Sous-Marines à travers les Siècles” and “La Navigation sous marine”
the author of this book is indebted for much information.
It was also known that Fulton left France for England in 1804 presumably
to work for the government of the latter country in the development of
torpedoes. It has been supposed that he made some suggestions for a
submarine, suggestions that were not taken seriously. His first
biographer, Cadwallader D. Colden, and his own published writings make
no reference to an underwater boat. But such a boat was the basis and
essence of his work and not merely an incidental suggestion. The lack of
knowledge and consequently the erroneous supposition are due to the fact
that what he actually proposed to the government was purposely kept
secret for political reasons. A manuscript wholly in Fulton’s
handwriting, signed in three places, and large, carefully executed
water-colored drawings made and each signed by him have recently been
found in England. This manuscript and drawings show that the main idea
that he laid before the British Government was a sea-going submarine
vastly superior to the one that he had previously submitted to the
French authorities. The manuscript and other substantiating documents
and letters that have been examined prove clearly that it was alarm on
the part of the British Admiralty regarding his initial French submarine
that led the government to induce Fulton to go to England and place
himself and his devices unreservedly at their service.
This record, now published for the first time, shows that Robert Fulton
was unquestionably the first one to design a practical vessel capable of
submerging and rising at will, that could keep the sea for an extended
period of time with a large crew, and that could be propelled either on
or beneath the surface, or that could lie safely at anchor under either
condition. The record also shows that Fulton foresaw with extraordinary
clearness conditions that might arise, and which actually did come to
pass in the great war recently ended.
Fulton’s manuscripts and letters are reprinted exactly as he wrote them
so far as access has been had to the originals, words that he erased are
enclosed in brackets. Some of his letters taken from books have
evidently been corrected in their orthography before publication. In
such cases the published text has been followed.
In the preparation of this book the author has been assisted, and for
which assistance he makes grateful recognition, by Mrs. Alice Crary
Sutcliffe and Mr. Edward C. Cammann, descendants of Mr. Fulton, who have
kindly placed at the author’s use their great grandfather’s papers; by
Mr. L. F. Loree who did the same with his collection of Fultoniana; by
the British Ambassador who procured a search of the British Government
records, and by the New Jersey Historical Society. The author has drawn
from a number of works on Fulton, particularly the biography by Colden
(1817) and “Robert Fulton” by H. A. Dickenson (1913), as well as the
French volumes above mentioned.
WM. BARCLAY PARSONS
NEW YORK, 1922.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
FROM ART TO ENGINEERING 1
Instructions to Barlow regarding the “Drawings and
Descriptions”. Fulton’s youth (1765–1782). Residence in
England studying art (1786–1793). Change from art to
engineering as a vocation (1793). Arrival in France (1798).
CHAPTER II
EARLY ATTEMPTS AT SUB-SURFACE NAVIGATION 15
Fulton’s first efforts for mechanical navigation. Some early
submarines: Bourne, Van Drebbel, Mercenne, de Son, Wilkins,
Bushnell.
CHAPTER III
FULTON’S FIRST SUBMARINE 24
Fulton begins work on a submarine (1797). Nautilus launched at
Rouen (1800). Havre experiments. Fulton aided by Monge and
Laplace. Received in audience by Napoleon Bonaparte. Hopes and
disappointments.
CHAPTER IV
NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE 39
Nautilus reconstructed and tested at Brest (1801). Reports to
Monge, Laplace and Volney. Great expectations. Final rejection
(1802). Partnership with Robert R. Livingston. Work begun on
steamboat. British Admiralty aware of his submarine
accomplishment. Induced to return to England (May, 1804).
CHAPTER V
THE “DRAWINGS AND DESCRIPTIONS” 54
CHAPTER VI
THE BRITISH CONTRACT 78
Size of the “Drawings and Descriptions.” Pseudonyms.
Proposals. Contract with the British government. Was Fulton
false to his principles in supporting Great Britain against
France? His financial position under the contract.
CHAPTER VII
EXPERIENCE IN ENGLAND 93
Attack on fleet at Boulogne. Torpedoing of Dorothea (1805).
Effect of Trafalgar on Fulton’s work. Copies of “Drawings and
Descriptions.” Intent of government not to proceed with the
submarine. Correspondence with Lord Hawkesbury and Mr. Pitt
(1804). Commission of investigation appointed. Decision
adverse to a submarine. Nevertheless Pitt signs contract.
CHAPTER VIII
NEGOTIATIONS WITH CABINET 103
Fulton begins to have doubts of accomplishment (1805).
Correspondence with Mr. Pitt and Lord Castlereagh reciting his
contract, rights and claims. Pitt dies (Jan. 1806) and Fulton
begins anew with Lord Grenville and Lord Howick.
CHAPTER IX
FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE 114
Demand for arbitrators. Further correspondence with Lord
Grenville and Howick.
CHAPTER X
THE FAILURE OF THE NEGOTIATIONS 124
Arbitrators appointed. Fulton’s presentation of his case (Aug.
1806). Arbitrators decide against Fulton. He makes a last
appeal to Lord Grenville, reviewing whole case (Sept. 1806).
No reply.
CHAPTER XI
RETURN TO AMERICA 139
Summary of the British Negotiations. America used as a threat.
Offer of neutrality. Fulton’s review of the past and plans for
the future. Appeal to Jefferson. Departure for home.
CHAPTER XII
EXAMINATION OF FULTON’S DESIGN 146
What the Nautilus accomplished. The British design compared
with that of the Nautilus. Folding propeller. Horizontal
propeller. Details of machinery. Effectiveness of the vessel.
Screening the Channel.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Robert Fulton (self-portrait) _Frontispiece_
TO FACE PAGE
Title page of “Report on the Canal between the Rivers
Heyl and Helford” 8
Jonathan Hulls’ Steamboat, 1737 16
de Son’s Underwater Boat, 1653 18
Fulton’s “Nautilus,” 1798 26
Manuscript page of “Drawings and Descriptions” with
Fulton’s signature 54
Manuscript page from “Drawings and Descriptions” 56
Fulton’s Drawings of Submarine: Plate the First 60
Plate the Second 61
Plate the Third 62
Plate the Fourth 63
Plate the Fifth 64
Plate the Sixth 65
Plate the Seventh 66
Plate the Eighth 68
Plate the Ninth 70
Plate the Tenth 72
Plate the Eleventh 74
Plate the Twelfth 76
Compressed Air Cylinder 76
ROBERT FULTON AND THE SUBMARINE
CHAPTER I
FROM ART TO ENGINEERING
Instructions to Barlow regarding the “Drawings and
Descriptions.” Fulton’s youth (1765–1782). Residence in England
studying art (1786–1793). Change from art to engineering as a
vocation (1793). Arrival in France (1798).
“... I am now busy winding up everything and will leave London about the
23rd inst. for Falmouth from whence I shall sail in the packet the first
week in October and be with you, I hope, in November, perhaps about the
14th, my birthday, so you must have a roast goose ready. The packet,
being well manned and provided will be more commodious and safe for an
autumn passage, and I think there will be little or no risk; at least I
prefer taking all the risk there is to idling here a winter. But
although there is not much risk, yet accidents may happen, and that the
produce of my studies and experience may not be lost to my country, I
have made out a complete set of drawings and descriptions of my whole
system of submarine attack.... These with my _will_, I shall put in a
tin cylinder, sealed and leave them in the care of General Lyman, not to
be opened unless I am lost. Should such an event happen, I have left you
the means to publish these works, with engravings, in a handsome manner,
and to which you will add your own ideas—showing how the liberty of the
seas may be gained by such means.”
Thus Robert Fulton wrote to Joel Barlow who had been his close friend
and faithful guide since his arrival in Paris in 1797. The letter of
which the above is but an extract is dated London, September, 1806, and
was written, as the context shows, on the eve of his final departure
from England, after a residence abroad of nearly twenty years. General
Lyman to whom he referred had been appointed American Consul in London
in 1805, in which capacity he served until he died in 1811.
Joel Barlow was in his day a person of considerable importance. Born in
1754, in Connecticut, educated at Dartmouth and Yale, he first studied
theology and then law. Though he practised these professions in turn for
a short time, he retired from both to devote himself to literature. In
1788, he went to London and Paris to market some lands in Ohio, an
unfortunate undertaking. While in Europe, he became interested in
liberal politics, even to the extent of standing as a candidate for
election to the French Convention of 1793. After having acquired a
competence in commerce, and after a short but highly creditable service
as American Consul at Algiers, he returned to Paris and resumed his
literary life, his principal production being a poem entitled, “The
Columbiad.” In 1805, he returned to America, remaining there until 1811,
when he was appointed American Commissioner to Emperor Napoleon. He
joined the latter at Vilna in 1812, during the Russian campaign and, as
the result of exposure to inclement conditions on the disastrous retreat
from Moscow in the same year, died in Poland on Christmas eve. Barlow
was enough older than Fulton to be accepted not only as a friend, but as
a counsellor, while his character, experience and views on world
questions appealed to the enthusiastic younger American in whom there
was curiously blended a high development of an artistic temperament and
scientific genius, and who was in thorough sympathy with the extreme
liberal movement of the period that Barlow to some extent approved.
When Fulton arrived in Paris in 1797, he at once called on Barlow. The
two men were mutually attracted and there soon sprang up an intimacy
that was to develop into the most affectionate friendship. This intimacy
has been compared to that existing between father and son, or rather
between parents and son because Mrs. Barlow joined with her husband in
taking Fulton into their lives. This they did the more readily as they
had no children of their own. As evidence of the relation, they gave
Fulton the nickname of “Toot.”
Cadwallader D. Colden, in his biographical memoir of Fulton, finds no
fitter words to describe this friendship than by quoting as he says,
“the warm language of one who participated in the sentiments expressed.”
From this description of the quotation by Colden, it is evident that the
words were those of Mrs. Barlow herself, who was still alive when Colden
was writing the memoir in 1817. The quotation that Colden gives is as
follows:
Here commenced that strong affection, that devoted attachment, that
real friendship which subsisted in a most extraordinary degree between
Mr. Barlow and Mr. Fulton during their lives. Soon after Mr. Fulton’s
arrival in Paris, Mr. Barlow removed to his own hotel and invited Mr.
Fulton to reside with him. Mr. Fulton lived seven years in Mr.
Barlow’s family, during which time he learnt the French and something
of the Italian and German languages. He also studied the high
mathematics, chymistry and perspective, and acquired that science
which, when united with his uncommon natural genius, gave him so great
a superiority over many of those who, with some talents but without
any sort of science, have pretended to be his rivals.
The house in which the Barlows lived in Paris and where Fulton lived
with them for much of the time, was No. 59, Rue Vaugirard. The above
quotation gives a suggestion of what the Barlows must have been to
Fulton during his struggles in a foreign land, with visions of success
almost attained alternating with bitter disappointments. It was but
natural that the affection of Joel Barlow should be reciprocated and,
consequently, when facing in 1806 the then not inconsiderable danger of
a transatlantic voyage, it was to Barlow that he entrusted the task of
publishing the results of the discoveries and of his labors, should he
be lost at sea.
Fulton, as we know, reached America safely and, therefore, Barlow was
not called on to publish the “drawings and descriptions” that Fulton had
left behind in England. Due to the fact that Fulton lived for some years
and became very prominent in the successful development of steam
navigation, the drawings and accompanying manuscripts of a device that
had not attained practical recognition seemed to have for the moment
comparatively small value or importance and were put aside, perhaps
after the death of Consul Lyman. They made no appearance until 1870,
when they were sold at auction by a Mr. Andrews of Swarland Hall,
Felton, Northumberland, and apparently without attracting any comment.
Then for a period of 50 years, they rested quietly and unknown to the
general public in the family of the purchaser. In 1920, they once more
changed owners and passed into the possession of the writer. Now after a
lapse of 116 years, the request of Fulton to his dearest friend, Barlow,
a request that he realized when he made it might be his last, will be
complied with, and the interesting story of his work through several
years be made of record.
Could Fulton have foreseen the development that his conception of
submarine navigation would attain, it is well within the limit of
probability that he would have preferred that publication of his plans
be withheld until the basic principle had reached its present status of
complete application. Though he lived more than eight years after
writing his letter to Barlow, he made no effort to publish his plans,
nor did he in any of his subsequent writings refer to his submarine idea
nor what he had done in England. Apparently his sole thought of
publishing was in the event of his being lost at sea on his return. If
he could not carry his conception of submarine attack into actual
execution, he apparently preferred that his plans be allowed to rest
quietly in some English private library until the idea that he had
espoused had taken actual practical form, and the principles that he
advocated had been proved true. Absorbed at first on his return to
America in the construction of his steamboat, perhaps he realized in the
interval between 1806 and his death in 1815, that the world was not yet
ready to receive the innovation of sub-surface navigation, that the
state of the art of engine construction had not yet been advanced
sufficiently to render the theory feasible and, consequently, that
publication might have detracted from his fame as an engineer by
apparently showing that he was a dreamer. Sometimes it is a misfortune
to be ahead of the times. Better to wait until proved facts entitle one
to be accorded praise as a man of vision, rather than through premature
publication to be classed as a visionary man.
Robert Fulton was born on the 14th November, 1765, on his father’s farm
on Conowingo Creek in Little Britain Township, Pennsylvania. His father,
Robert Fulton, Sr., was of Scottish descent. To his mother, Mary Smith,
a woman of force and intelligence, young Robert owed his early
education, and from her he derived the personal qualities that were to
make him distinguished. His father was not successful as a farmer, so
that when he died in 1768 he left his widow and five children in very
straightened circumstances. Of the five children, three were girls, and
of the boys, Robert was the elder.
This story is not concerned with the history of the Fulton family which
has been thoroughly set forth by others, except to recall those salient
steps in Robert’s career that led to his investigation of the
possibilities of submarine navigation, and the designing of a boat to
accomplish the end so far as the then state of the art of boat and
engine construction would permit.
At school he did not excel in his studies which he neglected for
sketching and mechanical experiments. When he was seventeen years of
age, he set out to make his own career. As the village of Lancaster,
where he was living with his mother, offered narrowly limited
opportunities, he went to Philadelphia, then in many respects the most
important city in the colonies. Not much is known of his early
struggles, though apparently he devoted part of his time to art, because
the City Directory in 1786, puts him down as a miniature painter, and
some of his miniatures are in existence. Under the patronage of Benjamin
Franklin, he made progress and earned enough money to purchase a farm
for his mother.
But the spirit that was within him—the spirit that was to record his
name indelibly in history—led him to think of the greater world that lay
beyond the colonies, even though the colonies were at last successful in
their struggle for independence and were then engaged in the equally
difficult and more prolonged struggle to weld themselves into a nation.
In 1786, he sailed for England provided only with a letter from his
protector, Franklin, to Benjamin West. At that time West was approaching
the height of his career as painter in London, being chosen president of
the Royal Academy in 1792. Under the guidance of and probable
instruction by West, Fulton made progress as an artist, the Royal
Academy accepting some of his pictures.
The path of a young artist is rarely a smooth one. It is no smoother
when the young artist is working in a foreign land without fame, friends
or private means. What Fulton did and how he lived in London during the
first four years of his stay in England, is best told by himself in his
own words, in a letter to his mother under date of January 20, 1792, a
letter given at full length by Dickenson.
... And I must now Give Some little history of my life since I Came to
London. I Brought not more than 40 Guineas to England and was set down
in a strange Country without a friend and only one letter of
Introduction to Mr. West—here I had an art to learn by which I was to
earn my bread but little to support whilst I was doing it And numbers
of Eminent Men of the same profession which I must Excell before I
Could hope to live—, Many Many a Silant solitary hour have I spent in
the most unnerved Studdy Anxiously pondering how to make funds to
support me till the fruits of my labours should sifficant to repay
them. Thus I went on for near four years—happily beloved by all who
knew me or I had long ear now been Crushed by Poverties Cold wind—and
Freezing Rain—till last Summer I was Invited by Lord Courtney down to
his Country seat to paint a picture of him which gave his Lordship so
much pleasure that he has introduced me to all his Friends—And it is
but just now that I am beginning to get a little money and pay some
debtt which I was obliged to Contract so I hope in about 6 months to
be clear with the world or in other words out of debt and then start
fair to Make all I Can.
In 1793, when he was on the very threshold of a successful career as an
artist, he suddenly, and without any explanation that is known, gave up
the art of painting and turned to the science of engineering as his
life’s vocation. It is an interesting fact that two great American
engineers—Fulton who made steam navigation practical, and Morse who did
the same for the electric telegraph—were both artists before they became
engineers. The only hint as to the cause of his change of occupation is
given by himself in the introduction to his first and greatest literary
production, “A Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation,” which
appeared in 1796. In this introduction he said: “On perusing a paper
descriptive of a canal projected by the Earl of Stanhope in 1793, where
many difficulties seem to arise, my thoughts were first awakened to this
subject.”
But Fulton in 1796 was something more than an author and investigator of
canals. He was at that date actually in the field as a practicing
engineer as is shown by a printed report, dated London, November 24th,
1796, addressed to “Sir Francis Buller, Bart. and the Gentlemen
interested in the Helston Canal.” This report is of particular interest
in that it is not recorded in any Fulton bibliography and no copy is to
be found in the British Museum, or in the Congressional or other
American public libraries. Perhaps the copy lying before the writer is
the sole survivor. The edition was undoubtedly very small and the few
copies, as soon as immediate interest was lost, were likely to be thrown
aside as of no value. The title page is reproduced in facsimile on the
opposite page.
Now as an addition to the Fulton bibliography, this, his second book and
first published account of his own engineering work, is of importance
and merits a brief description.
The pamphlet consists of fifteen pages, those of the copy referred to
measuring 4⅞ by 7¾ inches, with an engraved map 10¾ by 7¾ inches,
showing the route of the proposed canal from the headwaters of St. Ives
Bay to the navigable waters of the Helford River in Cornwall.
[Illustration:
REPORT
ON THE
PROPOSED CANAL
BETWEEN THE
RIVERS
_HEYL AND HELFORD_.
BY
ROBERT FULTON,
_ENGINEER_.
]
The report possesses no scientific or constructive value. It presents
neither plans nor details, except estimates of cost and earnings,
obviously imperfect. Had Sir Francis and his friends followed the advice
of their professional advisor, it is probable that they would have
suffered financial disappointment. The report, however, is full of a
young man’s optimistic hopes, a spirit of altruism and a plea for
economy. These are sentiments that always actuated Fulton and frequently
find expression in his other writings. It is not impossible, in fact it
is quite probable, that a desire to be of tangible service to others was
one of the compelling reasons that led him to devote himself to
construction rather than to art. The underlying thought on which this
report is based is shown by the following extracts in which Fulton after
pointing out how in his professional opinion he believes that the
operations of this enterprise will be lucrative, gives his own views of
such undertakings as follows:
But I hope the gentlemen of Cornwall will view them in a better light;
and, considering them as of national utility, contemplate the infinite
advantages they give to the numerous operations of society....
In such investigation, if by a facility in carriage I find the expence
of manure reduced, I then see that the farmer may improve more land,
give a greater polish to his estates, and nourish agriculture to the
benefit of the mass of society and the emolument of his landlord....
In towns, if the grocers, carpenters, ironmongers, or other tradesmen,
have the carriage of their commodities reduced, they or their
customers are benefitted; and so on in all professions where much
carriage is required. If the housekeeper or cottager have their coals
reduced, the comfort becomes more extended. In fact there is no point
in which a canal can be viewed but it exhibits advantages to the mass
of the people; and for an evident reason, because all improvements
which reduce manual labour, or which give a greater produce with the
same quantity of labour, will render the conveniences of life more
abundant, cheap and diffused....
By 1786, Fulton had definitely devoted himself to canal engineering, or,
as he says himself in the Report of the Board of Commissioners of the
Western Canal, published at Albany and dated February 22, 1814:
I passed three years at various canals in England to obtain practical
knowledge on the manner of constructing them and to make myself
familiar with their advantages.
With Fulton’s work on canals, his designs for inclined planes to take
the place of locks, his financial difficulties and his acquaintance with
the Earl of Stanhope, the present story has no concern, except as such
work is the intermediate step in Fulton’s career between art and
mechanical navigation.
That Fulton was sorely pressed as to money in these days, the following
extract from a long letter addressed to Lord Stanhope, and given in full
in Dickenson’s “Robert Fulton,” clearly proves:
Works of this kind Require much time, Patience and application. And
till they are Brought About, Penury frequently Presses hard on the
Projector; And this My Lord is so much my Case at this Moment, That I
am now Sitting Reduced to half a Crown, Without knowing Where to
obtain a shilling for some months. This my Lord is an awkward
sensation to a feeling Mind, which would devote every minuet to
Increase the Comforts of Mankind. And Who on Looking Round Sees
thousands nursed in the Lap of fortune, grown to maturity, And now
Spending their time In the endless Maze of Idle dissipation. Thus
Circumstanced My Lord, would it be an Intrusion on your goodness and
Philanthropy to Request the Loan of 20 guineas Which I will Return as
Soon as possible. And the favour shall ever be greetfully Acknowledged
By your lordship’s
Most obliged
ROBERT FULTON
In 1797, Fulton conceived the idea of making a short trip to France and
then returning to America. From various letters he appears to have had
expectations, or perhaps they were only hopes, that he could find
opportunity to apply his canal ideas in his own country. Accordingly,
the summer of 1797 finds him in France en route for America. But instead
of tarrying for a few weeks as he had in mind, he remained seven
fruitful and critical years.
In France he began at once to devote himself, as he had been doing in
England, to the development of small canals, republishing in French his
“Treatise on Canals” under the title, “Recherches sur les Moyens de
Perfectionner les Canaux de Navigation, etc.” It bore date an 7, the
French revolutionary equivalent to 1799, and contained not only all the
matter of the English edition of 1796, but also new material of
particular application to France. In 1798, he was granted a French
patent for certain details of canal construction, and in the same year
attempted to secure the interest of Napoleon in the utilization of his
ideas. The letter in which he makes the attempt was written in French,
and a copy made by Fulton is now preserved in the New York Public
Library.[1]
To General Bounaparte
Citizen General
Citizen Perier having advised me that you desire to know of my work on
the System of Small Canals, I take the liberty of presenting you a
copy of that book, only too happy if you will find therein some means
of improving the industry of the French Republic.
Of all the causes of War, every day, it is true, sees those disappear
which appertain to the existence of kings, priests and all that
accompany them. But, nevertheless, republics will not be free of these
lamentable properties so long as they do not free themselves from the
erroneous systems of _exclusive commerce and distant possessions_. It
is therefore a reason for every man who loves his fellows to endeavor
to destroy these errors. Even ambition cannot seek a greater glory
than in pointing out to men the path of truth and removing obstacles
that impede nations from arriving at a durable peace. What glory can
stand against time if it does not receive the approval of philosophy?
In order to free nations, Citizen Bounaparte, you have executed vast
enterprises and the glory with which you are covered should be as
permanent as time itself. Who then can support with more efficacious
approbation, projects which contribute to the general welfare? It is
with this idea that I submit to you my work, hoping that if you find
therein any useable truths that you will deign to support them with an
influence as powerful as your own, and in effect to patronize projects
the execution of which should render millions of men happy. Can there
be for virtuous genius a more delicious reward? It is from this point
of view that interior improvements and freedom of commerce are of the
highest importance.
Should success crown the efforts of France against England, there will
remain but gloriously to terminate this long war, to give freedom to
commerce and make other powers adopt the system. Political liberty
will then acquire that degree of perfection and breadth of which it is
susceptible and philosophy will see with joy the olive branch of an
eternal peace shade the course of science and industry.
This letter possesses two great points of interest. One that it marks
the first approach of Fulton to Napoleon, leading as will be seen below
to a far more important suggestion than that of building small canals;
and the other that it is animated by an intense desire for French
success over England. That this was in the beginning Fulton’s hope is to
be borne in mind when, as will be shown, having developed in 1804 the
opposite or pro-British sympathy, he lived and worked during two years
in England for the destruction of Napoleon’s power though perhaps not of
French ascendancy. The letter speaks of a “lasting peace.” That is
something that the same nations a century and a quarter later are still
seeking.
How delightfully charming and naïve is Fulton’s confidence that his
picture of an altruistic ambition would excite a sympathetic emotion in
Bonaparte. If Napoleon read the letter he must have smiled at Fulton’s
enthusiastic simplicity.
Fulton’s leaning to French views at this time is explained by the fact
that in politics he was intensely republican, in fact, somewhat extreme,
a position that was undoubtedly encouraged and strengthened by his
mentor, Barlow, who we have seen was a candidate for the celebrated
Convention of 1793. This same leaning very likely influenced his
remaining in France, rather than undertaking his contemplated return to
his native land, because at this period his political ideals seemed more
probable of realization in the former than in the latter country.