The party seems to have had a delightful time otherwise, for they were fêted wherever they stopped, notably at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and St. Johns, Newfoundland. At the latter place a return banquet was given on board the James Adger, and the toastmaster, in calling on Morse for a speech, recited the following lines:—
"The steed called Lightning (say the Fates)Was tamed in the United States.'T was Franklin's hand that caught the horse,'T was harnessed by Professor Morse."
To turn again for a moment to the darker side of the picture of those days, it must be kept in mind that annoying litigation was almost constant, and in the latter part of 1855 a decision had been rendered in favor of F.O.J. Smith, who insisted on sharing in the benefits of the extension of the patent, although, instead of doing anything to deserve it, he had done all in his power to thwart the other patentees. Commenting on this in a letter to Mr. Kendall of November 22, 1855, Morse, pathetically and yet philosophically, says:—
"Is there any mode of arrangement with Smith by which matters in partnership can be conducted with any degree of harmony? I wish him to have his legal rights in full, however unjustly awarded to him. I must suffer for my ignorance of legal technicalities. Mortifying as this is it is better, perhaps, to suffer it with a good grace and even with cheerfulness, if possible, rather than endure the wear and tear of the spirits which a brooding over the gross fraud occasions. An opportunity of setting ourselves right in regard to him may be not far off in the future. Till then let us stifle at least all outward expressions of disgust or indignation at the legal swindle."
And, with the keen sense of justice which always actuated him, he adds in a postscript: "By the by, if Judge Curtis's decision holds good in regard to Smith'sinchoateright, does it not equally hold good in regard to Vail, and is he not entitled to a proportionate right in the extension?"
During the early months of 1856 the financial affairs of the inventor had so far been straightened out that he felt at liberty to leave the country for a few months' visit to Europe. The objects of this trip were threefold. He wished, as electrician of the Cable Company, to try some experiments over long lines with certain English scientists, with a view to determining beyond peradventure the practicability of an ocean telegraph. He also wished to visit the different countries on the continent where his telegraph was being used, to see whether their governments could not be induced to make him some pecuniary return for the use of his invention. Last, but not least, he felt that he had earned a short vacation from the hard work and the many trials to which he had been subjected for so many years, and a trip abroad with his wife, who had never been out of her own country, offered the best means of relaxation and enjoyment. On the 7th of June, 1856, he sailed from New York on the Baltic, accompanied by his wife and his niece Louisa, daughter of his brother Richard.
The trip proved a delightful one in every way; he was acclaimed as one of the most noted men of his day wherever he went, and emperors, kings, and scientists vied with each other in showering attentions upon him. His letters contain minute descriptions of many of his experiences and I shall quote liberally from them.
To Cyrus Field he writes, on July 6, of the results of some of his experiments with Dr. Whitehouse:—
"I intended to have written you long before this and have you receive my letter previous to your departure from home, but every moment of my time has been occupied, as you can well conceive, since my arrival. I have especially been occupied in experiments with Dr. Whitehouse of the utmost importance. Their results, except in a general way, I am not at present at liberty to divulge; besides they are not, as yet, by any means completed so as to assure commercial men that they may enter upon the great project of uniting Europe to America with a certainty of success."
And then, after dwelling upon the importance of Dr. Whitehouse's services, and expressing the wish that he should be liberally rewarded for his labors, he continues:—
"I can say on this subject generally that the experiments Dr. Whitehouse has made favorably affect the project so far as itspracticabilityis concerned, but to certainly assure itspracticalityfurther experiments are essential. To enable Dr. Whitehouse to make these, and that he may derive the benefit of them, I conceive it to be a wise outlay to furnish him with adequate means for his purpose.
"I wish I had time to give you in detail the kind receptions I have everywhere met with. To Mr. Statham and his family in a special manner are we indebted for the most indefatigable and constant attentions. Were we relatives they could not have been more assiduous in doing everything to make our stay in London agreeable. To Mr. Brett also I am under great obligations. He has manifested (as have, indeed, all the gentlemen connected with the Telegraph here) the utmost liberality and the most ample concession to the excellence of my telegraphic system. I have been assured now from thehighest sourcesthat my system is not only the most practical for general use, but that it is fast becoming theworld's telegraph."
His brother Sidney was at this time also in Europe with his wife and some other members of his family, and the brothers occasionally met in their wanderings to and fro. Finley writes to Sidney from Fenton's Hotel, London, on July 1:—
"Yours from Edinburgh of the 28th ulto. is just received. I regret we did not see you when you called the evening before you left London. We all wished to see you and all yours before we separated so widely apart, but you know in what a whirl one is kept on a first arrival in London and can make allowances for any seeming neglect. From morning till night we have been overwhelmed with calls and the kindest and most flattering attentions.
"On the day before you called I dined at Greenwich with a party invited by Mr. Brett, representing the great telegraph interests of Europe and India. I was most flatteringly received, and Mr. Brett, in the only toast given, gave my name as the Inventor of the Telegraph and of the system which has spread over the whole world and is superseding all others. Dr. O'Shaughnessy, who sat opposite to me, made some remarks warmly seconding Mr. Brett, and stating that he had come from India where he had constructed more than four thousand miles of telegraph; that he had tried many systems upon his lines, and that a few days before I arrived he had reported, in his official capacity as the Director of the East India lines, to the East India Company that my system was the best, and recommended to them its adoption, which I am told will undoubtedly be the case.
"This was an unexpected triumph to me, since I had heard from one of our passengers in the Baltic that in the East Indies they were reluctant to give any credit to America for the Telegraph, claiming it exclusively for Wheatstone. It was, therefore, a surprise to me to hear from the gentleman who controls all the Eastern lines so warm, and even enthusiastic, acknowledgment of the superiority of mine.
"But I have an additional cause for gratitude for an acknowledgment from a quarter whence I least expected any favor to my system. Mr. Cooke, formerly associated with Wheatstone, told one of the gentlemen, who informed me of it, that he had just recommended to the British Government the substitution of my system for their present system, and had no doubt his recommendation would be entertained. He also said that he had heard I was about to visit Europe, and that he should take the earliest opportunity to pay his respects to me. Under these circumstances I called and left my card on Mr. Cooke, and I have now a note from him stating he shall call on me on Thursday. Thus the way seems to be made for the adoption of my Telegraph throughoutthe whole world.
"I visited one of the offices with Dr. Whitehouse and Mr. Brett where (in the city) I found my instruments in full activity, sending and receiving messages from and to Paris and Vienna and other places on the Continent. I asked if all the lines on the Continent were now using my system, that I had understood that some of the lines in France were still worked by another system. The answer was—'No,all the lines on the Continentare nowMorse lines.' You will undoubtedly be pleased to learn these facts."
While he was thus being wined, and dined, and praised by those who were interested in his scientific achievements, he harked back for a few hours to memories of his student days in London, for his old friend and room-mate, Charles R. Leslie, now a prosperous and successful painter, gave him a cordial invitation to visit him at Petworth, near London. Morse joyfully accepted, and several happy hours were spent by the two old friends as they wandered through the beautiful grounds of the Earl of Egremont, where Leslie was then making studies for the background of a picture.
The next letter to his brother Sidney is dated Copenhagen, July 19:—
"Here we are in Copenhagen where we arrived yesterday morning, having travelled from Hamburg to Kiel, and thence by steamboat to Corsoer all night, and thence by railroad here, much fatigued owing to the miserable _dis_commodations on board the boat. I have delivered my letters here and am awaiting their effect, expecting calls, and I therefore improve a few moments to apprise you of our whereabouts…. In Paris I was most courteously received by the Count de Vouchy, now at the head of the Telegraphs of France, who, with many compliments, told me that my system was the one in universal use, the simplest and the best, and desired me to visit the rooms in the great building where I should find my instruments at work. Sure enough, I went into the Telegraph rooms where some twenty of my own children (beautifully made) were chatting and chattering as in American offices. I could not but think of the contrast in that same building, even as late as 1845, when the clumsy semaphore was still in use, and but a single line of electric wire, an experimental one to Rouen, was in existence in France…. When we left Paris we took a courier, William Carter, an Englishman, whom thus far we find to be everything we could wish, active, vigilant, intelligent, honest and obliging. As soon as he learned who I was he made diligent use of his information, and wherever I travelled it was along the lines of the Telegraph. The telegraph posts seemed to be posted to present arms (shall I say?) as I passed, and the lines of conductors were constantly stooping and curtsying to me. At all the stations the officials received me with marked respect; everywhere the same remark met me—'Your system, Sir, is the only one recognized here. It is the best; we have tried others but have settled down upon yours as the best.' But yesterday, in travelling from Corsoer to Copenhagen, the Chief Director of the Railroads told me, upon my asking if the Telegraph was yet in operation in Denmark, that it was and was in process of construction along this road. 'At first,' said he, 'in using the needle system we found it so difficult to have employees skilled in its operation that we were about to abandon the idea, but now, having adopted yours, we find no difficulty and are constructing telegraphs on all our roads.'
"At all the custom-houses and in all the railroad depots I found my name a passport. My luggage was passed with only the form of an examination, and although I had taken second-class tickets for my party of four, yet the inspectors put us into first-class carriages and gave orders to the conductors to put no one in with us without our permission. I cannot enumerate all the attentions we have received.
"At Hamburg we were delighted, not only with its splendor and cleanliness, but having made known to Mrs. Lind (widow of Edward's brother Henry) that we were in Hamburg, we received the most hearty welcome, passed the day at her house and rode out in the environs. At dinner a few friends were invited to meet us. Mr. Overman, a distant connection of the Linds, was very anxious for me to stay a few days, hinting that, if I would consent, the authorities and dignitaries of Hamburg would show me some mark of respect, for my name was well known to them. I was obliged to decline as I am anxious to be in St. Petersburg before the Emperor is engaged in his coronation preparations."
While in Denmark Morse was granted a private interview with the king at his castle of Frederiksborg, whither he was accompanied by Captain Raasloff:—
"After a few minutes the captain was called into the presence of the king, and in a few minutes more I was requested to go into the audience-chamber and was introduced by the captain to Frederick VII, King of Denmark. The king received me standing and very courteously. He is a man of middle stature, thick-set, and resembles more in the features of his face the busts and pictures of Christian IV than those of any of his predecessors, judging as I did from the numerous busts and portraits of the Kings of Denmark which adorn the city palace and the Castle of Frederiksborg. The king expressed his pleasure at seeing the inventor of the Telegraph, and regretted he could not speak English as he wished to ask me many questions. He thanked me, he said, for the beautiful instrument I had sent him; told me that a telegraph line was now in progress from the castle to his royal residence in Copenhagen; that when it was completed he had decided on using my instrument, which I had given him, in his own private apartments. He then spoke of the invention as a most wonderful achievement, and wished me to inform him how I came to invent it. I accordingly in a few words gave him the early history of it, to which he listened most attentively and thanked me, expressing himself highly gratified. After a few minutes more of conversation of the same character, the king shook me warmly by the hand and we took our leave….
"We arrived in the afternoon at Copenhagen. Mrs. F. called in her carriage. We drove to the Thorwaldsen Museum or Depository where are all the works of this great man. This collection of the greatest sculptor since the best period of Greek art is attractive enough in itself to call travellers of taste to Copenhagen. After spending some hours in Thorwaldsen's Museum I went to see the study of Oersted, where his most important discovery of thedeflection of the needleby a galvanic current was made, which laid the foundation of the science of electro-magnetism, and without which my invention could not have been made. It is now a drawing school. I sat at the table where he made his discovery.
"We went to the Porcelain Manufactory, and, singularly enough, met there the daughter of Oersted, to whom I had the pleasure of an introduction. Oersted was a most amiable man and universally beloved. The daughter is said to resemble her father in her features, and I traced a resemblance to him in the small porcelain bust which I came to the manufactory to purchase."
"St. Petersburg, August 8, 1856.Up to this date we have been in one constant round of visits to the truly wonderful objects of curiosity in this magnificent city. I have seen, as you know, most of the great and marvellous cities of Europe, but I can truly say none of them can at all compare in splendor and beauty to St. Petersburg. It is a city of palaces, and palaces of the most gorgeous character. The display of wealth in the palaces and churches is so great that the simple truth told about them would incur to the narrator the suspicion of romancing. England boasts of her regalia in the Tower, her crown jewels, her Kohinoor diamond, etc. I can assure you that they fade into insignificance, as a rush-light before the sun, when brought before the wealth in jewels and gold seen here in such profusion. What think you of nosegays, as large as those our young ladies take to parties, composed entirely of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and other precious stones, chosen to represent accurately the colors of various flowers?— The imperial crown, globular in shape, composed of diamonds, and containing in the centre of the Greek cross which surmounts it an unwrought ruby at least two inches in diameter? The sceptre has a diamond very nearly as large as the Kohinoor. At the Arsenal at Tsarskoye Selo we saw the trappings of a horse, bridle, saddle and all the harness, with an immense saddle-cloth, set with tens of thousands of diamonds. On those parts of the harness where we have rosettes, or knobs, or buckles, were rosettes of diamonds an inch and a half to two inches in diameter, with a diamond in the centre as large as the first joint of your thumb, or say three quarters of an inch in diameter. Other trappings were as rich. Indeed there seemed to be no end to the diamonds. All the churches are decorated in the most costly manner with diamonds and pearls and precious stones."
The following account of his reception by the czar is written in pencil: "On the paper found in my room in Peterhoff." It differs somewhat from the letter written to his children and introduced by Mr. Prime in his book, but is, to my mind, rather more interesting.
"August 14, 1856.This day is one to be remembered by me. Yesterday I received notice from the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, through our Minister Mr. Seymour, that his Imperial Majesty, the Emperor Alexander II, had appointed the hour of 1.30 this day to see me at his palace at Peterhoff. I accordingly waited upon our minister to know the etiquette to be observed on such an occasion. It was necessary, he said, to be at the boat by eight o'clock in the morning, which would arrive at Peterhoff about 9.30. I must dress in black coat, vest and pantaloons and white cravat, and appear with my Turkish nishan [or decoration]. So this morning I was up early and, upon taking the boat, found our Minister Mr. Seymour, Colonel Colt and Mr. Jarvis, attachés to the Legation, with Mrs. Colt and Miss Jarvis coming on board. I learned also that there were to be many presentations of various nations' attachés to the various special deputations sent to represent their different courts at the approaching coronation at Moscow.
"The day is most beautiful, rendered doubly so by its contrast with so many previous disagreeable ones. On our arrival at the quay at Peterhoff we found, somewhat to my surprise, the imperial carriages in waiting for us, with coachmen and footmen in the imperial livery, which, as in England and France, is scarlet, and splendid black horses, ready to take us to our quarters in the portion of the palace buildings assigned to the Americans. We were attended by four or five servants in livery loaded with gold lace, and shown to our apartments upon the doors of which we found our names already written.
"After throwing off our coats the servants inquired if we would have breakfast, to which, of course, we had no objection, and an excellent breakfast of coffee and sandwiches was set upon the table, served up in silver with the imperial arms upon the silver waiter and tea set. Everything about our rooms, which consisted of parlor and bedroom, was plain but exceedingly clean and neat. After seeing us well housed our attendant chamberlain left us to prepare ourselves for the presentation, saying he would call for us at the proper time. As there were two or three hours to spare I took occasion to improve the time by commencing this brief notice of the events of the day.
"About two o'clock our attendant, an officer named Thörner, under the principal chamberlain who is, I believe, Count Borsch, called to say our carriages were ready. We found three carriages in waiting with three servants each, the coachman and two footmen, in splendid liveries; some in the imperial red and gold lace, and others in blue and broad gold lace emblazoned throughout with the double headed eagle. We seated ourselves in the carriages which were then driven at a rapid rate to the great palace, the entrance to which directly overlooked the numerous and celebrated grand fountains. Hundreds of well-dressed people thronged on each side of the carriageway as we drove up to the door. After alighting we were ushered through a long hall and through a double row of servants of various grades, loaded with gold lace and withchapeaux bras. Ascending the broad staircase, on each side of which we found more liveried servants, we entered an anteroom between two Africans dressed in the costume of Turkey, and servants of a higher grade, and then onward into a large and magnificent room where were assembled those who were to be presented. Here we found ourselves among princes and nobles and distinguished persons of all nations. Among the English ladies were Lady Granville and Lady Emily Peel, the wife of Sir Robert Peel, the latter a beautiful woman and dressed with great taste, having on her head a Diana coronet of diamonds…. Among the gentlemen were officers attached to the various deputations from England, Austria, France and Sardinia. Several princes were among them, and conspicuous for splendor of dress was Prince Esterhazy; parts of his dress and the handle and scabbard of his sword blazed with diamonds.
"Here we remained for some time. From the windows of the hall we looked out upon the magnificent fountains and the terrace crowned with gorgeous vases of blue and gold and gilded statues. At length the master of ceremonies appeared and led the way to the southern veranda that overlooked the garden, ranging us in line and reading our names from a list, to see if we were truly mustered, after which a side door opened and the Emperor Alexander entered. His majesty was dressed in military costume, a blue sash was across his breast passing over the right shoulder; on his left breast were stars and orders. He commenced at the head of the column, which consisted of some fourteen or fifteen persons, and, on the mention of the name by the master of ceremonies, he addressed a few words to each. To Mr. Colt he said: 'Ah! I have seen you before. When did you arrive? I am glad to see you.' When he came to me the master of ceremonies miscalled my name as Mr. More. I instantly corrected him and said, 'No, Mr. Morse.' The emperor at once said: 'Ah! that name is well known here; your system of Telegraph is in use in Russia. How long have you been in St. Petersburg? I hope you have enjoyed yourself.' To which I appropriately replied. After a few more unimportant questions and answers the emperor addressed himself to the other gentlemen and retired.
"After remaining a few moments, the master of ceremonies, who, by the by, apologized to me for miscalling my name, opened the door from the veranda into the empress' drawing-room, where we were again put in line to await the appearance of the empress. The doors of an adjoining room were suddenly thrown open and the empress, gorgeously but appropriately attired, advanced towards us. She was dressed in a beautiful blue silk terminating in a long flowing train of many flounces of the richest lace; upon her head a crown of diamonds, upon her neck a superb necklace of diamonds, some twenty of which were as large as the first joint of the finger. The upper part of her dress was embroidered with diamonds in a broad band, and the dress in front buttoned to the floor with rosettes of diamonds, the central diamond of each button being at least a half inch in diameter. A splendid bouquet of diamonds and precious stones of every variety of color, arranged to imitate flowers, was upon her bosom. She addressed a few words gracefully to each, necessarily commonplace, for what could she say to strangers but the common words of enquiry—when we came and whether we had been pleased with St. Petersburg.
"Gratifying as it was to us to see her, I could not but think it was hardly possible for her to have any other gratification in seeing us than that which I have no doubt she felt, that she was giving pleasure to others. To me she appeared to be amiable and truly feminine. Her manner was timid yet dignified without the least particle of hauteur. The impression left on my mind by both the emperor and empress is that they are most truly amiable and kind.
"After speaking to each of us she gracefully bowed to us, we, of course, returning the salutation, and she retired followed by her maids of honor, her long train sweeping the floor for a distance of several yards behind her. We were then accompanied by the master of ceremonies back to the large reception-room, and soon after we left the palace, descending the staircase through the same lines of liveried servants to the royal carriages drawn up at the door, and returned to our rooms. On descending to our parlor we found a beautiful collation with tropical fruits and confectionery provided for us. Our polite attendant, who partook with us, said that the carriages were at our service and waiting for us to take a drive in the gardens previous to dinner, which was to be served at five o'clock in the English Palace and to which we were invited.
"Two carriages called charabancs, somewhat like the Irish vehicle of the same name, with four servants in the imperial livery to each, we found at the door, and we drove for several miles through the splendid gardens and grounds laid out with all the taste of the most beautiful English grounds, with lakes, and islands, and villas, and statues, and fountains, and the most perfect neatness marked every step of our way.
"The most attractive object in our ride was the Italian villa, a favorite resort of the emperor, a perfect gem of its kind. We alighted here and visited all the apartments and the grounds around it. No description could do it justice; a series of pictures alone could give an idea of its beauties. While here several other royal carriages with the various deputations to the coronation ceremonies, soon to occur at Moscow, arrived, and the cortège of carriages with the gorgeous costumes of the visitors alone furnished an exciting scene, heightened by the proud bearing of the richly caparisoned horses, chiefly black, and the showy trappings of the liveried attendants.
"On our return to our rooms we dressed for dinner and proceeded in the same manner to the palace in the gardens called the English Palace. Here we found assembled in the great reception hall the distinguished company, in number forty-seven, of many nations, who were to sit down to the table together. When dinner was announced we entered the grand dining-hall and found a table most gorgeously prepared with gold and silver service and flowers. At table I found myself opposite three princes, an Austrian, a Hungarian, and one from some other German state, and near me on my left Lord Ward, one of the most wealthy nobles of England, with whom I had a good deal of conversation. Opposite and farther to my right was Prince Esterhazy, seated between Lady Granville and the beautiful Lady Emily Peel. On the other side of Lady Peel was Lord Granville and near him Sir Robert Peel. Among the guests, a list of whom I regret I did not obtain, was the young Earl of Lincoln and several other noblemen in the suite of Lord Granville…. Some twenty servants in the imperial livery served the table which was furnished with truly royal profusion and costliness. The rarest dishes and the costliest wines in every variety were put before us. I need not say that in such a party everything was conducted with the highest decorum. No noise, no boisterous mirth, no loud talking, but a quiet cheerfulness and perfect ease characterized the whole entertainment.
"After dinner all arose, both ladies and gentlemen, and left the room together, not after the English fashion of the gentlemen allowing the ladies to retire and then seating themselves again by themselves to drink, etc. We retired for a moment to the great reception-hall for coffee, but, being fearful that we should be too late for the last steamer from Peterhoff to St. Petersburg, we were hurrying to get through and to leave, but the moment our fears had come to the knowledge of Lord Granville, he most kindly came to us and told us to feel at ease as his steam-yacht was lying off the quay to take them up to the city, and he was but too proud to have the opportunity of offering us a place on board; an offer which we, of course, accepted with thanks.
"Having thus been entertained with truly imperial hospitality for the entire day, ending with this sumptuous entertainment, we descended once more to the carriages and drove to the quay, where a large barge belonging to the Jean d'Acre, English man-of-war (which is the ship put in commission for the service of Lord Granville), manned by stalwart man-of-war's-men, was waiting to take the English party of nobles, etc., on board the steam-yacht. When all were collected we left Peterhoff and were soon on board. The weather was fine and the moon soon rose over the palace of Peterhoff, looking for a moment like one of the splendid gilded domes of the palace.
"On board the yacht I had much conversation with Lord Granville, who brought the various members of his suite and introduced them to me,—Sir Robert Peel; the young Earl of Lincoln, the son of the Duke of Newcastle, who, when himself the Earl of Lincoln in 1839, showed me such courtesy and kindness in London; Mr. Acton, a nephew of Lord Granville, with whom I had some conversation in which, while I was speaking of the Greek religion as compared with the Romish, he informed me he was a Roman Catholic. I wished much to have had more conversation with him, but the time was not suitable, and the steamer was now near the end of the voyage.
"We landed at the quay in St. Petersburg about eleven o'clock, and I reached my lodgings in the Hotel de Russie about twelve, thus ending a day of incidents which I shall long remember with great gratification, having only one unpleasant reflection connected with it, to wit that my dear wife, my niece and our friend Miss L. were not with me to participate in the pleasure and novelty of the scenes."
Berlin.—Baron von Humboldt.—London, successful cable experiments with Whitehouse and Bright.—Banquet at Albion Tavern.—Flattering speech of W.F. Cooke.—Returns to America.—Troubles multiply.—Letter to the Honorable John Y. Mason on political matters.—Kendall urges severing of connection with cable company.—Morse, nevertheless, decides to continue.—Appointed electrician of company.—Sails on U.S.S. Niagara.— Letter from Paris on the crinoline.—Expedition sails from Liverpool.— Queenstown harbor.—Accident to his leg.—Valencia.—Laying of cable begun.—Anxieties.—Three successful days.—Cable breaks.—Failure.— Returns to America.—Retires from cable enterprise.—Predicts in 1858 failure of apparently successful laying of cable.—Sidney E. Morse.—The Hare and the Tortoise.—European testimonial: considered niggardly by Kendall.—Decorations, medals, etc., from European nations.—Letter of thanks to Count Walewski.
His good democratic eyes a trifle dazzled by all this imperial magnificence, Morse left St. Petersburg and, with his party, journeyed to Berlin. What was to him the most interesting incident of his visit to that city is thus described:—
"August 23.To-day I went to Potsdam to see Baron Humboldt, and had a delightful interview with this wonderful man. Although I had met with him at the soirées of Baron Gerard, the distinguished painter, in Paris in 1822, and afterward at the Academy of Sciences, when my Telegraph was exhibited to the assembled academicians in 1838, I took letters of introduction to him from Baron Gerolt, the Prussian Minister. But they were unnecessary, for the moment I entered his room, which is in the Royal Palace, he called me by name and greeted me most kindly, saying, as I presented my letters: 'Oh! sir, you need no letters, your name is a sufficient introduction'; and so, seating myself, he rapidly touched upon various topics relating to America."
On the margin of a photograph of himself, presented to Morse by the baron, is an inscription in French of which the following is a translation:—
To Mr. S.F.B. Morse, whose philosophic and useful labors have rendered his name illustrious in two worlds, the homage of the high and affectionate esteem of Alexander Humboldt.
POTSDAM, August 1856.
The next thirty days were spent in showing the beauties of Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, Brussels and Paris to his wife and niece, and in the latter part of September the little party returned to London. Here Morse resumed his experiments with Dr. Whitehouse and Mr. Bright, and on October 3, he reports to Mr. Field:—
"As the electrician of the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company, it is with the highest gratification that I have to apprise you of the result of our experiments of this morning upon a single continuous conductor of more than two thousand miles in extent, a distance, you will perceive, sufficient to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Newfoundland to Ireland.
"The admirable arrangements made at the Magnetic Telegraph office in Old Broad Street for connecting ten subterranean gutta-percha insulated conductors of over two hundred miles each, so as to give one continuous length of more than two thousand miles, during the hours of the night when the Telegraph is not commercially employed, furnished us the means of conclusively settling by actual experiment the question of the practicability as well as the practicality of telegraphing through our proposed Atlantic cable…. I am most happy to inform you that, as a crowning result of a long series of experimental investigation and inductive reasoning upon this subject, the experiments under the direction of Dr. Whitehouse and Mr. Bright which I witnessed this morning—in which the induction-coils and receiving-magnets, as modified by these gentlemen, were made to actuate one of my recording instruments —have most satisfactorily resolved all doubts of the practicability as well as practicality of operating the Telegraph from Newfoundland to Ireland."
In 1838, Morse had been curtly and almost insultingly refused a patent for his invention in England, a humiliation for which he never quite forgave the English. Now, eighteen years after this mortifying experience, the most eminent scientists of this same England vied with each other in doing him honor. Thus was his scientific fame vindicated, but, let it be remarked parenthetically, this kind of honor was all that he ever received from the land of his ancestors. While other nations of Europe united, two years later, in granting him a pecuniary gratuity, and while some of their sovereigns bestowed upon him decorations or medals, England did neither. However, it was always a source of the keenest gratification that two of those who had invented rival telegraphs proved themselves broad-minded and liberal enough to acknowledge the superiority of his system, and to urge its adoption by their respective Governments. The first of these was Dr. Steinheil, of Munich, to whom I have already referred, and to whom is due the valuable discovery that the earth can be used as a return circuit. The second was the Englishman, W.F. Cooke, who, with Wheatstone, devised the needle telegraph.
On October 9, a banquet was tendered to Morse by the telegraph companies of England. It was given at the Albion Tavern. Mr. Cooke presided and introduced the guest of the evening in the following charming speech:—
"I was consulted only a few months ago on the subject of a telegraph for a country in which no telegraph at present exists. I recommended the system of Professor Morse. I believe that system to be one of the simplest in the world, and in that lies its permanency and certainty. [Cheers.] There are others which may be as good in other circumstances, but for a wide country I hesitate not to say Professor Morse's is the best adapted. It is a great thing to say, and I do so after twenty years' experience, that Professor Morse's system is one of the simplest that ever has been and, I think, ever will be conceived. [Cheers.]
"It was a great thing for me, after having been so long connected with the electric telegraph, to be invited to preside at this interesting meeting, and I have travelled upward of one hundred miles in order to be present to-day, having, when asked to preside, replied by electric telegraph 'I will.' [Cheers.] But I may lower your idea of the sacrifice I made in so doing when I tell you that I knew the talents of Professor Morse, and was only too glad to accept an invitation to do honor to a man I really honored in my heart. [Cheers.]
"I have been thinking during the last few days on what Professor Morse has done. He stands alone in America as the originator and carrier out of a grand conception. We know that America is an enormous country, and we know the value of the telegraph, but I think we have a right to quarrel with Professor Morse for not being content with giving the benefit of it to his own country, but that he extended it to Canada and Newfoundland, and, even beyond that, his system has been adopted all over Europe [cheers]—and the nuisance is that we in England are obliged to communicate by means of his system. [Cheers and laughter.]
"I as a director of an electric telegraph company, however, should be ashamed of myself if I did not acknowledge what we owe him. But he threatens to go further still, and promises that, if we do not, he will carry out a communication between England and Newfoundland across the Atlantic. I am nearly pledged to pay him a visit on the other side of the Atlantic to see what he is about, and, if he perseveres in his obstinate attempt to reach England, I believe I must join him in his endeavors. [Cheers.]
"To think that he has united all the stripes and stars of America, which are increasing day by day—and I hope they will increase until they are too numerous to mention—that he has extended his system to Canada and is about to unite those portions of the world to Europe, is a glorious thing for any man; and, although I have done something in the same cause myself, I confess I almost envy Professor Morse for having forced from an unwilling rival a willing acknowledgment of his services. [Cheers.]
"I am proud to see Professor Morse this side of the water. I beg to give you 'The health of Professor Morse,' and may he long live to enjoy the high reputation he has attained throughout the world!"
Soon after this, with these flattering words still ringing in his ears, he and his party sailed for New York and, once arrived at home, the truth of the trite saying that "A prophet is not without honor save in his own country" was soon to be brought to his attention. While he had been fêted and honored abroad, while he had every reason to believe that his petition to the European governments for some pecuniary compensation would, in time, be granted, he returned to be plunged anew into vexatious litigation, intrigues and attacks upon his purse, his fame, and his good name. On November 27, 1856, he refers to his greatest cross in a letter to Mr. Kendall:—
"I have just returned from Boston, having accomplished the important duty for which I alone went there, to wit, to say 'yes' before a gentleman having U.S. Commissioner after his name, instead of 'yes' before one who had only S. Commissioner after his name; and this at a cost of exactly twenty dollars, or, if the one dollar thrown away in New York upon the S. Commissioner be added, twenty-one dollars and three days of time, to say nothing of sundry risks of accidents by land and water travel.
"Well, if it will lead to a thorough separation of all interests and all intercourse with F.O.J., I shall not consider the time and money lost, yet, in conversation with Mr. Curtis, I have little hope of a change in Judge Curtis's views of the point in which he decides that Smith has an inchoate right, and our only chance of success is in the reversal of that decision by the Supreme Bench, and that after another year's suspense….
"I wish there was some way of stopping this harassing, paralyzing litigation. I find my mind wholly unfit for the studies which the present state of the Telegraph requires from me, being distracted and irritated by the constant necessity for standing on the defensive. Smith will be Smith I know, and, therefore, as he is the appointed thorn to keep a proper ballast of humility in S.F.B.M. with his load of honors, why, be it so, if I can only have the proper strength and disposition to use the trial aright…. Write me some encouraging news if you can. How will the present calm in political affairs affect our California matters?"
The calm to which he referred was the apparent one which had settled down on the country after the election of Buchanan, and which, as everybody knows, was but the calm before the storm of our Civil War. He has this to say about the election in a letter to the Honorable John Y. Mason, our Minister to France:—
"I may congratulate you, my dear Sir, on the issue of the late election. My predictions have been verified. The country is quiet, and, as usual after the excitement of an election, has settled down into orderly acquiescence to the will of the majority, and into general good feeling. Europeans can hardly understand this truly anomalous phase of our American institutions; they do not understand that it is characteristic that 'we speak daggers but use none'; that we fight with ballots and not with bullets; that we have abundance of inkshed and little bloodshed, and that all that is explosive is blown off through newspaper safety-valves."
The events of the next few years were destined to shatter the peaceful visions of this lover of his country, for many daggers were drawn, the bullets flew thick and fast, and the bloodshed was appalling.
It is difficult to follow the history of the telegraph, in its relation to its inventor, through all the intricacies involved in the conflicting interests of various companies and men in this its formative period.
Morse himself was often at a loss to determine on the course which he should pursue, a course which would at the same time inure to his financial benefit and be in accordance with his high sense of right. Absolutely straightforward and honest himself, it was difficult for him to believe that others who spoke him fair were not equally sincere, and he was often imposed upon, and was frequently forced, in the exigencies of Business, to be intimately associated with those whose ideas of right and wrong were far different from his own. The one person in whose absolute integrity he had faith was Amos Kendall, and yet he must sometimes have thought that his friend was too severe in his judgment of others, for I find in a letter of Mr. Kendall's of January 4, 1857, the following warning:—
"I earnestly beseech you to give up all idea of going out again on the cable-laying expedition. Your true friends do not comprehend how it is that you give your time, your labor, and your fame to build up an interest deliberately and unscrupulously hostile to all their interests and your own…. I believe that Peter Cooper is the only man among them who is sincerely your friend. As to Field, I have as little faith in him as I have in F.O.J. Smith. If you could get Cooper to take a stand in favor of the faithful observance of the contract for connection with the N.E. Union Line at Boston, he can put an end to all trouble, if, at the same time, he will refuse to concur in a further extension of their lines South."
In spite of this warning, or, perhaps, because Peter Cooper succeeded in overcoming Mr. Kendall's objections, Morse did go out on the next cable-laying expedition, and yet he found in the end that Mr. Kendall's suspicions were by no means unjustified. But of this in its proper place.
The United States Government had placed the steam frigate Niagara at the disposal of the cable company, and on her Morse, as the electrician of the American Company, sailed from New York on April 21, 1857. Arriving in London, he was again honored by many attentions and entertainments, including a dinner at the Lord Mayor's. The loading of the cable on board the ships designated for that purpose consumed, necessarily, some time, and Morse took advantage of this delay to visit Paris, at the suggestion of our Minister, Mr. Mason, in order to confer with the Premier, Count Walewski, with regard to the pecuniary indemnity which all agreed was due to him from the nations using his invention. This conference bore fruit, as we shall see later on.
In a letter to his wife from Paris he makes this amusing comment on the fashions of the day, after remarking on the dearth of female beauty in France:—
"You must consider me now as speaking of features only, for as to form, alas, that is under such a total crinoline eclipse that this season of total darkness in fashion's firmament forbids any speculation on that subject. The reign of crinoline amplitude is not only not removed, but is more dominant than ever. Who could have predicted that, because an heir to the French throne was in expectancy, all womankind, old and young, would so far sympathize with the amiable consort of Napoleon III as to be, in appearance at least, likely to flood the earth with heirs; that grave parliaments would be in solemn debate upon the pressing necessity of enlarging the entrances of royal palaces in order to meet the exigencies of enlarged crinolines; that the new carriages were all of increased dimensions to accommodate the crinoline? But so it is; it is the age of crinoline…. Talk no longer of chairs, they are no longer visible. Talk no longer of tête-à-têtes; two crinolines might get in sight of each other, at least by the use of the lorgnette, but as for conversation, that is out of the question except by speaking trumpets, by signs, and who knows but in this age of telegraphs crinoline may not follow the world's fashion and be a patroness of the Morse system."
All the preparations for the great enterprise of the laying of the cable proceeded slowly, and it was not until the latter part of July that the little fleet sailed from Liverpool on its way to the Cove of Cork and then to Valencia, on the west coast of Ireland, which was chosen as the European terminus of the cable. Morse wrote many pages of minute details to his wife, and from them I shall select the most important and interesting:—
"July 28.Here we are steaming our way towards Cork harbor, with most beautiful weather, along the Irish coast, which is in full view, and expecting to be in the Cove of Cork in the morning of to-morrow…. We left Liverpool yesterday morning, as I wrote you we should, and as we passed the ships of war in the harbor We were cheered from the rigging by the tars of the various vessels, and the flags of others were dipped as a salute, all of which were returned by us in kind. The landing stage and quays of Liverpool were densely crowded with people who waved their handkerchiefs as we slowly sailed by them.
"Two steamers accompanied us down to the bar filled with people, and then, after mutual cheering and firing of cannon from one of the steamers, they returned to port…. We shall be in Cork the remainder of the week, possibly sailing on Saturday, go round to Valencia and be ready to commence on Monday. Then, if all things are prosperous, we hope to reach Newfoundland in twenty days, and dear home again the first week in September. And yet there may be delays in this great work, for it is a vast and new one, so don't be impatient if I do not return quite so soon. The work must be thoroughly and well done before we leave it….
"Evening, ten o'clock.We have had a beautiful day and have been going slowly along and expect to be in the Cove of Cork by daylight in the morning. The deck of our ship presents a curious appearance just now; Between the main and mizzen masts is an immense coil of one hundred and thirty miles of the cable, the rest is in larger coils below decks. Abaft the mizzen mast is a ponderous mass of machinery for regulating the paying out of the cable, a steam-engine and boiler complete, and they have just been testing it to see if all is right, and it is found right. We have the prospect of a fine moon for our expedition.
"I send you the copy of a prayer that has been read in the churches. I am rejoiced at the manner in which the Christian community views our enterprise. It is calculated to inspire my confidence of success. What the first message will be I cannot say, but if I send it it shall be, 'Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good will to men.' 'Not unto us, not unto us, but to Thy name be all the glory.'"
"July 29, four o'clock afternoon.On awaking this morning at five o'clock with the noise of coming to anchor, I found myself safely ensconced in one of the most beautiful harbors in the world, with Queenstown picturesquely rising upon the green hills from the foot of the bay…."
"August 1.When I wrote the finishing sentence of my last letter I was suffering a little from a slight accident to my leg. We were laying out the cable from the two ships, the Agamemnon and Niagara, to connect the two halves of the cable together to experiment through the whole length of twenty-five hundred miles for the first time. In going down the side of the Agamemnon I had to cross over several small boats to reach the outer one, which was to take me on board the tug which had the connecting cable on board. In stepping from one to the other of the small boats, the water being very rough and the boats having a good deal of motion, I made a misstep, my right leg being on board the outer boat, and my left leg went down between the two boats scraping the skin from the upper part of the leg near the knee for some two or three inches. It pained me a little, but not much, still I knew from experience that, however slight and comparatively painless at the time, I should be laid up the next day and possibly for several days.
"My warm-hearted, generous friend, Sir William O'Shaughnessy, was on board, and, being a surgeon, he at once took it in hand and dressed it, tell Susan, in good hydropathic style with cold water. I felt so little inconvenience from it at the time that I assisted throughout the day in laying the cable, and operating through it after it was joined, and had the satisfaction of witnessing the successful result of passing the electricity through twenty-five hundred miles at the rate of one signal in one and a quarter second. Since then Dr. Whitehouse has succeeded in telegraphing a message through it at the rate of a single signal in three quarters of a second. If the cable, therefore, is successfully laid so as to preserve continuity throughout, there is no doubt of our being able to telegraph through, and at a good commercial speed.
"I have been on my back for two days and am still confined to the ship. To-morrow I hope to be well enough to hobble on board the Agamemnon and assist in some experiments."
The accident to his leg was more serious than he at first imagined, and conditions were not improved by his using his leg more than was prudent.
"August 3, eleven o'clock A.M.I am still confined, most of the time on my back in my berth, quite to my annoyance in one respect, to wit, that I am unable to be on board the Agamemnon with Dr. Whitehouse to assist at the experiments. Yet I have so much to be thankful for that gratitude is the prevailing feeling.
"Seven o'clock.All the ships are under way from the Cove of Cork. The Leopard left first, then the Agamemnon, then the Susquehanna and the Niagara last; and at this moment we are off the Head of Kinsale in the following order: Niagara, Leopard, Agamemnon, Susquehanna. The Cyclops and another vessel, the Advice, left for Valencia on Saturday evening, and, with a beautiful night before us, we hope to be there also by noon to-morrow.
"This day three hundred and sixty-five years ago Columbus sailed on his first voyage of discovery and discovered America."
"August 4.Off the Skelligs light, of which I send you a sketch. A beautiful morning with head wind and heavy sea, making many seasick. We are about fifteen miles from our point of destination. Our companion ships are out of sight astern, except the Susquehanna, which is behind us only about a mile. In a few hours we hope to reach our expectant friends in Valencia and to commence the great work in earnest.
"Our ship is crowded with engineers, and operators, and delegates from the Governments of Russia and France, and the deck is a bewildering mass of machinery, steam-engines, cog-wheels, breaks, boilers, ropes of hemp and ropes of wire, buoys and boys, pulleys and sheaves of wood and iron, cylinders of wood and cylinders of iron, meters of all kinds,— anemometers, thermometers, barometers, electrometers,—steam-gauges, ships' logs—from the common log to Massey's log and Friend's log, to our friend Whitehouse's electro-magnetic log, which I think will prove to be the best of all, with a modification I have suggested. Thus freighted we expect to disgorge most of our solid cargo before reaching mid-ocean.
"I am keeping ready to close this at a moment's warning, so give all manner of love to all friends, kisses to whom kisses are due. I am getting almost impatient at the delays we necessarily encounter, but our great work must not be neglected. I have seen enough to know now that the Atlantic Telegraph is sure to be established,for it is practicable."
Was it a foreboding of what was to happen that caused him to add:—
"We may not succeed in our first attempt; some little neglect or accident may foil our present efforts, but the present enterprise will result in gathering stores of experience which will make the next effort certain. Not that I do not expect success now, but accidental failure now will not be the evidence of its impracticability.
"Our principal electrical difficulty is the slowness with which we must manipulate in order to be intelligible; twenty words in sixteen minutes is now the rate. I am confident we can get more after awhile, but the Atlantic Telegraph has its own rate of talking and cannot be urged to speak faster, any more than any other orator, without danger of becoming unintelligible.
"Three o'clock P.M.We are in Valencia Harbor. We shall soon come to anchor. A pilot who has just come to show us our anchorage ground says: 'There are a power of people ashore.'"
"August 8.Yesterday, at half past six P.M., all being right, we commenced again paying out the heavy shore-end, of which we had about eight miles to be left on the rocky bottom of the coast, to bear the attrition of the waves and to prevent injury to the delicate nerve which it incloses in its iron mail, and which is the living principle of the whole work. A critical time was approaching, it was when the end of the massive cable should pass overboard at the point where it joins the main and smaller cable. I was in my berth, by order of the surgeon, lest my injured limb, which was somewhat inflamed by the excitement of the day and too much walking about, should become worse.
"Above my head the heavy rumbling of the great wheels, over which the cable was passing and was being regulated, every now and then giving a tremendous thump like the discharge of artillery, kept me from sleep, and I knew they were approaching the critical point. Presently it came. The machinery stopped, and soon amid the voices I heard the unwelcome intelligence—'The cable is broke.' Sure enough the smaller cable at this point had parted, but, owing to the prudent precautions of those superintending, the end of the great cable had been buoyed and the hawsers which had been attached secured it. The sea was moderate, the moonlight gave a clear sight of all, and in half an hour the joyous sound of 'All right' was heard, the machinery commenced a low and regular rumbling, like the purring of a great cat, which has continued from that moment (midnight) till the present moment uninterrupted.
"The coil on deck is most beautifully uncoiling at the rate of three nautical miles an hour. The day is magnificent, the land has almost disappeared and our companion ships are leisurely sailing with us at equal pace, and we are all, of course, in fine spirits. I sent you a telegraph dispatch this morning, thirty miles out, which you will duly receive with others that I shall send if all continues to go on without interruption. If you do receive any, preserve them with the greatest care, for they will be great curiosities."
"August 10.Thus far we have had most delightful weather, and everything goes on regularly and satisfactorily. You are aware we cannot stop night nor day in paying out. On Saturday we made our calculations that the first great coil, which is upon the main deck, would be completely paid out, and one of our critical movements, to wit, the change from this coil to the next, which is far forward, would be made by seven or eight o'clock yesterday morning (Sunday). So we were up and watching the last flake of the first coil gradually diminishing. Everything had been well prepared; the men were at their posts; it was an anxious moment lest a kink might occur. But, as the last round came up, the motion of the ship was slightly slackened, the men handled the slack cable handsomely, and in two minutes the change was made with perfect order, and the paying out from the second coil was as regularly commenced and at this moment continues, and at an increased rate to-day of five miles per hour.
"Last night, however, was another critical moment. On examining our chart of soundings we found the depth of the ocean gradually increasing up to about four hundred fathoms, and then the chart showed a sudden and great increase to seventeen hundred fathoms, and then a further increase to two thousand and fifty, nearly the greatest depth with which we should meet in the whole distance. We had, therefore, to watch the effect of this additional depth upon the straining of the cable. At two in the morning the effect showed itself in a greater strain and a more rapid tendency to run fast. We could check its speed, but it is a dangerous process.Too sudden a check would inevitably snap the cable. Too slack a rein would allow of its egress at such a wasting rate and at such a violent speed that we should lose too great a portion of the cable, and its future stopping within controllable limits be almost impossible. Hence our anxiety. All were on the alert; our expert engineers applied the brakes most judiciously, and at the moment I write—latitude 52° 28'—the cable is being laid at the depth of two miles in its ocean bed as regularly and with as much facility as it was in the depth of a few fathoms….
"Six P.M.We have just had a fearful alarm. 'Stop her! Stop her!' was reiterated from many voices on deck. On going up I perceived the cable had got out of its sheaves and was running out at great speed. All was confusion for a few moments. Mr. Canning, our friend, who was the engineer of the Newfoundland cable, showed great presence of mind, and to his coolness and skill, I think, is due the remedying of the evil. By rope stoppers the cable was at length brought to a standstill, and it strained most ominously, perspiring at every part great tar drops. But it held together long enough to put the cable on the sheaves again."
"Tuesday, August 11.Abruptly indeed am I stopped in my letter. This morning at 3.45 the cable parted, and we shall soon be on our way back to England."
Thus ended the first attempt to unite the Old World with the New by means of an electric nerve. Authorities differ as to who was responsible for the disaster, but the cause was proved to be what Morse had foreseen when he wrote: "Too sudden a check would inevitably snap the cable."
While, of course, disappointed, he was not discouraged, for under date ofAugust 13, he writes:—
"Our accident will delay the enterprise but will not defeat it. I consider it a settled fact, from all I have seen, that it is perfectly practicable. It will surely be accomplished. There is no insurmountable difficulty that has for a moment appeared, none that has shaken my faith in it in the slightest degree. My report to the company as co-electrician will show everything right in that department. We got an electric current through till the moment of parting, so that electric connection was perfect, and yet the farther we paid out the feebler were the currents, indicating a difficulty which, however, I do not consider serious, while it is of a nature to require attentive investigation."
"Plymouth, August 17.Here I am still held by the leg and lying in my berth from which I have not moved for six days. I suffer but little pain unless I attempt to sit up, and the healing process is going on most favorably but slowly…. I have been here three days and have not yet had a glimpse of the beautiful country that surrounds us, and if we should be ordered to another port before I can be out I shall have as good an idea of Plymouth as I should have at home looking at a map."
While the wounded leg healed slowly, the plans of the company moved more deliberately still. A movement was on foot for the East India Company to purchase what remained of the cable for use in the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf, so that the Atlantic Company could start afresh with an entirely new cable, and Morse hoped that this plan might be consummated at an early date so that he could return to America in the Niagara; but the negotiations halted from day to day and week to week. The burden of his letters to his wife is always that a decision is promised by "to-morrow," and finally he says in desperation: "To-day was to-morrow yesterday, but to-day has to-day another to-morrow, on which day, as usual, we are to know something. But as to-day has not yet gone, I wait with some anxiety to learn what it is to bring forth."
His letters are filled with affectionate longing to be at home again and with loving messages to all his dear ones, and at last he is able to say that his wound has completely healed, and that he has decided to leave the Niagara and sail from Liverpool on the Arabia, on September 19, and in due time he arrived at his beloved home on the Hudson.
While still intensely interested in the great cable enterprise, he begins to question the advisability of continuing his connection with the men against whom Mr. Kendall had warned him, for in a letter to his brother Richard, of October 15, 1857, he says: "I intend to withdraw altogether from the Atlantic Telegraph enterprise, as they who are prominent on this side of the water in its interests are using it with all then: efforts and influence against my invention, and my interests, and those of my assignees, to whom I feel bound in honor to attach myself, even if some of them have been deceived into coalition with the hostile party."
It was, however, a great disappointment to him that he was not connected with future attempts to lay the cable. His withdrawal was not altogether voluntary in spite of what he said in the letter from which I have just quoted. While he had been made an Honorary Director of the company in 1857, although not a stockholder, a law was subsequently passed declaring that only stockholders could be directors, even honorary directors. He had not felt financially able to purchase stock, but it was a source of astonishment to him and to others that a few shares, at least, had not been allotted to him for his valuable services in connection with the enterprise. He had, nevertheless, cheerfully given of his time and talents in the first attempt, although cautioned by Mr. Kendall.
He goes fully into the whole matter in a very long letter to Mr. John W. Brett, of December 27, 1858, in which he details his connection with the cable company, his regret and surprise at being excluded on the ground of his not being a stockholder, especially as, on a subsequent visit to Europe, he found that two other men had been made honorary directors, although they were not stockholders. He says that he learned also that "Mr. Field had represented to the Directors that I was hostile to the company, and was using my exertions to defeat the measures for aid from the United States Government to the enterprise, and that it was in consequence of these misrepresentations that I was not elected."
He says farther on: "I sincerely rejoiced in the consummation of the great enterprise, although prevented in the way I have shown from being present. I ought to have been with the cable squadron last summer. It was no fault of mine, that I was not there. I hope Mr. Field can exculpate himself in the eyes of the Board, before the world, and before his own conscience, in the course he has taken."
On the margin of the letter-press copy of a letter Written to Mr. Kendall on December 22, 1859, is a note in pencil written, evidently, at a later date: "Mr. Field has since manifested by his conduct a different temper. I have long since forgiven what, after all, may have been error of ignorance on his part."
The fact remains, however, that his connection with the cable company was severed, and that his relations with Messrs. Field, Cooper, etc., were decidedly strained. It is more than possible that, had he continued as electrician of the company, the second attempt might have been successful, for he foresaw the difficulty which resulted in failure, and, had he been the guiding mind, it would, naturally, have been avoided. The proof of this is in the following incident, which was related by a friend of his, Mr. Jacob S. Jewett, to Mr. Prime:—
"I thought it might interest you to know when and how Professor Morse received the first tidings of the success of the Atlantic Cable. I accompanied him to Europe on the steamer Fulton, which sailed from New York July 24, 1858. We were nearing Southampton when a sail boat was noticed approaching, and soon our vessel was boarded by a young man who sought an interview with Professor Morse, and announced to him that a message from America had just been received, the first that had passed along the wire lying upon the bed of the ocean.
"Professor Morse was, of course, greatly delighted, but, turning to me, said: 'This is very gratifying, but it is doubtful whether many more messages will be received'; and gave as his reason that—'the cable had been so long stored in an improper place that much of the coating had been destroyed, and the cable was in other respects injured.' His prediction proved to be true."
And Mr. Prime adds: "Had he been in the board of direction, had his judgment and experience as electrician been employed, that great calamity, which cost millions of money and eight years of delay in the use of the ocean telegraph, would, in all human probability, have been averted."
But it is idle to speculate on what might have been. His letters show that the action of the directors amazed and hurt him, and that it was with deep regret that he ceased to take an active part in the great enterprise the success of which he had been the first to prophesy.
Many other matters claimed his attention at this time, for, as usual upon returning from a prolonged absence, he found his affairs in more or less confusion, and his time for some months after his return was spent mainly in straightening them out. The winter was spent in New York with his family, but business calling him to Washington, he gives utterance, in a letter to his wife of December 16, to sentiments which will appeal to all who have had to do with the powers that be in the Government service:—
"As yet I have not had the least success in getting a proper position for Charles. A more thankless, repulsive business than asking for a situation under Government I cannot conceive. I would myself starve rather than ask such a favor if I were alone concerned. The modes of obtaining even a hearing are such as to drive a man of any sensitiveness to wish himself in the depths of the forest away from the vicinity of men, rather than encounter the airs of those on their temporary thrones of power. I cannot say what I feel. I shall do all I can, but anticipate no success…. I called to see Secretary Toucey for the purpose of asking him to put me in the way of finding some place for Charles, but, after sending in my card and waiting in the anteroom for half to three fourths of an hour, he took no notice of my card, just left his room, passed by deliberately the open door of the anteroom without speaking to me, and left the building. This may be all explained and I will charitably hope there was no intention of rudeness to me, but, unexplained, a ruder slight could not well be conceived."
The affection of the three Morse brothers for each other was unusually strong, and it is from the unreserved correspondence between Finley and Sidney that some of the most interesting material for this work has been gathered. Both of these brothers possessed a keen sense of humor and delighted in playful banter. The following is written in pencil on an odd scrap of paper and has no date:—
"When my brother and I were children my father one day took us each on his knee and said: 'Now I am going to tell you the character of each of you.' He then told us the fable of the Hare and the Tortoise. 'Now,' said he, 'Finley' (that is me), 'you are the Hare and Sidney, your brother, is the Tortoise. See if I am not correct in prophesying your future careers.' So ever since it has been a topic of banter between Sidney and me. Sometimes Sidney seemed to be more prosperous than I; then he would say, 'The old tortoise is ahead.' Then I would take a vigorous run and cry out to him,' The hare is ahead.' For I am naturally quick and impulsive, and he sluggish and phlegmatic. So I am now going to give him the Hare riding the Tortoise as a piece of fun. Sidney will say: 'Ah! you see the Hare is obliged to ride on the Tortoise in order to get to the goal!' But I shall say: 'Yes, but the Tortoise could not get there unless the Hare spurred him up and guided him.'"
Both of these brothers achieved success, but, unfortunately for the moral of the old fable, the hare quite outdistanced the tortoise, without, however, kindling any spark of jealousy in that faithful heart.
While Sidney was still in Europe his brother writes to him on December 29, 1857:—
"I don't know what you must think of me for not having written to you since my return. It has not been for want of will but truly from the impossibility of withdrawing myself from an unprecedented pressure of more important duties, on which towriteso that you could form any clear idea of them would be impossible. These duties arise from the state of my affairs thrown into confusion by the conduct of parties intent on controlling all my property. But, I am happy to state, my affairs are in a way of adjustment through the active exertions of my faithful agent and friend, Mr. Kendall, so far as his declining strength permits…. I wish you were near me so that we could exchange views on many subjects, particularly on the one which so largely occupies public attention everywhere. I have been collecting works pro and con on the Slavery question with a view of writing upon it. We are in perfect accord, I think, on that subject. I believe that you and I would be considered in New England as rank heretics, for, I confess, the more I study the subject the more I feel compelled to declare myself on the Southern side of the question.
"I care not for the judgment of men, however; I feel on sure ground while standing on Bible doctrine, and I have arrived at the conclusion that a fearful hallucination, not less absurd than that which beclouded some of the most pious and otherwise intelligent minds of the days of Salem witchcraft, has for a time darkened the moral atmosphere of the North."
The event has seemed to prove that it was the Southern sympathizers at the North, those "most pious and otherwise intelligent minds," whose moral atmosphere was darkened by a "fearful hallucination," for no one now claims that slavery is a divine institution because the Bible says, "Slaves, obey your masters."
I have stated that one of the purposes of Morse's visit to Europe in 1856 was to seek to persuade the various Governments which were using his telegraph to grant him some pecuniary remuneration. The idea was received favorably at the different courts, and resulted in a concerted movement initiated by the Count Walewski, representing France, and participated in by ten of the European nations. The sittings of this convention, or congress, were held in Paris from April, 1868, to the latter part of August, and the result is announced in a letter of Count Walewski to Morse of September 1:—
SIR,—It is with lively satisfaction that I have the honor to announce to you that a sum of four hundred thousand francs will be remitted to you, in four annuities, in the name of France, of Austria, of Belgium, of the Netherlands, of Piedmont, of Russia, of the Holy See, of Sweden, of Tuscany and of Turkey, as an honorary gratuity, and as a reward, altogether personal, of your useful labors. Nothing can better mark than this collective act of reward the sentiment of public gratitude which your invention has so justly excited.
The Emperor has already given you a testimonial of his high esteem when he conferred upon you, more than a year ago, the decoration of a Chevalier of his order of the Legion of Honor. You will find a new mark of it in the initiative which his Majesty wished that his government should take in this conjuncture; and the decision that I charge myself to bring to your knowledge is a brilliant proof of the eager and sympathetic adhesion that his proposition has met with from the States I have just enumerated.