Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals Volume II Part 26

In addition to the opposition of open enemies and unprincipled pirates, Morse and Kendall were sometimes hampered by the unjust suspicions of some of those whose interests they were striving to safeguard. Referring to one such case in a letter of June 15, 1855, Mr. Kendall says:--

"If there should be opposition I count on the Vails against me. Alfred has for some time been hostile because I could not if I would, and would not if I could, find him a snug sinecure in some of the companies. I fear George has in some degree given way to the same spirit. I have heard of his complaining of me, and when, before my departure for the West, I tendered my services to negotiate a connection of himself and brother with the lessees of the N.O. & O. line, he declined my offer, protesting against the entire arrangements touching that line.

"Having done all I could and much more than I was bound to do for the benefit of those gentlemen, I shall not permit their jealousy to disturb me, but I am anxious to have them understand the exact position I am to occupy in relation to them. I understood your purpose to be that they should share in the benefits of the extension, whether legally ent.i.tled to them or not, yet nothing has been paid over to them for sales since made. All the receipts, except a portion of my commissions, have been paid out on account of expenses, and to secure an interest for you in the N.O. & O. line."

It is easy to understand that the Vails should have been somewhat suspicious when little or nothing in the way of cash was coming in to them, but they seem not to have realized that Morse and Kendall were in the same boat, and living more on hope than cash. Mr. Kendall enlarges somewhat on this point in a letter of June 22, 1855:--

"Most heartily will I concur in a sale of all my interests in the Telegraph at any reasonable rate to such a company as you describe. I fully appreciate your reasons for desiring such a consummation, and, in addition to them, have others peculiar to my own position. Any one who has a valuable patent can profit by it only by a constant fight with some of the most profligate and, at the same time, most shrewd members of society. I have found myself not only the agent of yourself and the Messrs. Vail to sell your patent rights, but the soldier to fight your battles, as well in the country as in the courts of justice. Almost single-handed, with the deadly enmity of one of the patentees, and the annoying jealousies of another, I have encountered surrounding hosts, and, I trust, been instrumental in saving something for the Proprietors of this great invention, and done something to maintain the rights and vindicate the fame of its true author. Nothing but your generous confidence has rendered my position tolerable, and enabled me to meet the countless difficulties with which my path has been beset with any degree of success. And now, at the end of a ten years' war, I am prepared to retire from the field and leave the future to other hands, if I can but see your interests, secured beyond contingency, and a moderate competency provided for my family and myself."

The company referred to in this letter was one proposed by Cyrus W. Field and other capitalists of New York. The plan was to purchase the patent rights of Morse, Kendall, Vail, and F.O.J. Smith, and, by means of the large capital which would be at their command, fight the pirates who had infringed on the patent, and gradually unite the different warring companies into one harmonious concern. A monopoly, if you will, but a monopoly which had for its object better, cheaper, and quicker service to the people. This object was achieved in time, but, unfortunately for the peace of mind of Morse and Kendall, not just then.

The name of Cyrus Field naturally suggests the Atlantic Cable, and it was just at this time that steps were being seriously taken to realize the prophecy made by Morse in 1843 in his letter to the Secretary of the Treasury: "The practical inference from this law is that a telegraphic communication on the electro-magnetic plan may with certainty be established across the Atlantic Ocean! Startling as this may now seem I am confident the time will come when this project will be realized."

In 1852 a company had been formed and incorporated by the Legislature of Newfoundland, called the "Newfoundland Electric Telegraph Company." The object of this company was to connect the island by means of a cable with the mainland, but this was not accomplished at that time, and no suggestion was made of the possibility of crossing the ocean. One of the officers of that company, however, Mr. F.N. Gisborne, came to New York in 1854 and tried to revive the interest of capitalists and engineers in the scheme. Among others he consulted Matthew D. Field, and through him met his brother Cyrus W. Field, and the question of a through line from Newfoundland to New York was seriously discussed. Cyrus Field, a man of great energy and already interested financially and otherwise in the terrestrial telegraph, was fascinated by the idea of stretching long lines under the waters also. He examined a globe, which was in his study at home and, suddenly realizing that Newfoundland and Ireland were comparatively near neighbors, he said to himself: "Why not cross the ocean and connect the New World with the Old?" He had heard that Morse long ago had prophesied that this link would some day be welded, and he became possessed with the idea that he was the person to accomplish this marvel, just as Morse had received the inspiration of the telegraph in 1832.

A letter to Morse, who was just then in Was.h.i.+ngton, received an enthusiastic and encouraging reply, coupled with the information that Lieutenant Maury of the Navy had, by a series of careful soundings, established the existence of a plateau between Ireland and Newfoundland, at no very great depth, which seemed expressly designed by nature to receive and carefully guard a telegraphic cable. Mr. Field lost no time in organizing a company composed originally of himself, his brother the Honorable David Dudley Field, Peter Cooper, Moses Taylor, Marshall O.

Roberts, and Chandler White. After a liberal charter had been secured from the legislature of Newfoundland the following names were added to the list of incorporators: S.F.B. Morse, Robert W. Lowber, Wilson G.

Hunt, and John W. Brett. Mr. Field then went to England and with characteristic energy soon enlisted the interest and capital of influential men, and the Atlantic Telegraph Company was organized to cooperate with the American company, and liberal pledges of a.s.sistance from the British Government were secured. Similar pledges were obtained from the Congress of the United States, but, quite in line with former precedents, by a majority of only _one_ in the Senate. Morse was appointed electrician of the American company and Faraday of the English company, and much technical correspondence followed between these two eminent scientists.

In the spring of 1855, Morse, in a letter to his friend and relative by marriage, Thomas R. Walker, of Utica, writes enthusiastically of the future: "Our _Atlantic line_ is in a fair way. We have the governments and capitalists of Europe zealously and warmly engaged to carry it through. _Three years_ will not pa.s.s before a _submarine telegraph communication will be had with Europe_, and I do not despair of sitting in my office and, by a touch of the telegraph-key, asking a question simultaneously to persons in London, Paris, Cairo, Calcutta, and Canton, and getting the answer from all of them in _five minutes_ after the question is asked. Does this seem strange? I presume if I had even suggested the thought some twenty years ago, I might have had a quiet residence in a big building in your vicinity."

The first part of this prophecy was actually realized, for in 1858, just three years after the date of this letter, communication was established between the two continents and was maintained for twenty days. Then it suddenly and mysteriously ceased, and not till 1866 was the indomitable perseverance of Cyrus Field crowned with permanent success.

More of the details of this stupendous undertaking will be told in the proper chronological order, but before leaving the letter to Mr. Walker, just quoted from, I wish to note that when Morse speaks of sitting in his office and communicating by a touch of the key with the outside world, he refers to the fact that the telegraph companies with which he was connected had obligingly run a short line from the main line (which at that time was erected along the highway from New York to Albany) into his office at Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie, so that he was literally in touch with every place of any importance in the United States.

Always solicitous for the welfare of mankind in general, he says in a letter to Norvin Green, in July, 1855, after discussing the proposed cable: "The effects of the Telegraph on the interests of the world, political, social and commercial have, as yet, scarcely begun to be apprehended, even by the most speculative minds. I trust that one of its effects will be to bind man to his fellow-man in such bonds of amity as to put an end to war. I think I can predict this effect as in a not distant future."

Alas! in this he did not prove himself a true prophet, although it must be conceded that many wars have been averted or shortened by means of the telegraph, and there are some who hope that a warless age is even now being conceived in the womb of time.

On July 18, 1855, he writes to his good friend Dr. Gale: "I have no time to add, as every moment is needed to prepare for my Newfoundland expedition, to be present at laying down the first submarine cable _of any considerable length_ on this side the water, although the first for telegraph purposes, you well remember, we laid between Castle Garden and Governor's Island in 1842."

On the 7th of August, Morse, with his wife and their eldest son, a lad of six, joined a large company of friends on board the steamer James Adger which sailed for Newfoundland. There they were to meet the Sarah L.

Bryant, from England, with the cable which was to be laid across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The main object of the trip was a failure, like so many of the first attempts in telegraphic communication, for a terrific storm compelled them to cut the cable and postpone the attempt, which, however, was successfully accomplished the next year.

The party seems to have had a delightful time otherwise, for they were feted 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 partners.h.i.+p 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's _inchoate_ right, does it not equally hold good in regard to Vail, and is he not ent.i.tled 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 a.s.sure 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 its _practicability_ is concerned, but to certainly a.s.sure its _practicality_ further 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 a.s.siduous 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 a.s.sured now from the _highest sources_ that my system is not only the most practical for general use, but that it is fast becoming the _world'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 pa.s.sengers 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 grat.i.tude for an acknowledgment from a quarter whence I least expected any favor to my system. Mr. Cooke, formerly a.s.sociated with Wheatstone, told one of the gentlemen, who informed me of it, that he had just recommended to the British Government the subst.i.tution 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 circ.u.mstances 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 throughout _the 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 Continent_ are now _Morse 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 semaph.o.r.e 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 pa.s.sed, 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 pa.s.sport. My luggage was pa.s.sed with only the form of an examination, and although I had taken second-cla.s.s tickets for my party of four, yet the inspectors put us into first-cla.s.s 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, pa.s.sed 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 the _deflection of the needle_ by 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 a.s.sure 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 a.r.s.enal 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 k.n.o.bs, 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."