Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals Volume II Part 11

"But I will not complain for myself. I can bear it, because I made up my mind from the very first for this issue, the common fate of all inventors. But I do not feel so agreeable in seeing those who have interested themselves in it, especially yourself, suffer also. Perhaps I look too much on the unfavorable side. I often thus look, not to discourage others or myself, but to check those too sanguine expectations which, with me, would rise to an inordinate height unless thus reined in and disciplined.

"Shall you not be in New York soon? I wish much to see you and to concoct plans for future operations. I am at present much straitened in means, or I should yet endeavor to see you in Portland; but I must yield to necessity and hope another season to be in different and more prosperous circ.u.mstances."

Thus the inventor, who had hoped so much from the energy and business ac.u.men of his own countrymen, found that the conditions at home differed not much from those which he had found so exasperating abroad. Praise in plenty for the beauty and simplicity of his invention, but no money, either public or private, to enable him to put it to a practical test.

His a.s.sociates had left him to battle alone for his interests and theirs.

F.O.J. Smith was in Portland, Maine, attending to his own affairs; Professor Gale was in the South filling a professors.h.i.+p; and Alfred Vail was in Philadelphia. No one of them, as far as I can ascertain, was doing anything to help in this critical period of the enterprise which was to benefit them all.

When credit is to be awarded to those who have accomplished something great, many factors must be taken into consideration. Not only must the aspirant for undying fame in the field of invention, for instance, have discovered something new, which, when properly applied, will benefit mankind, but he must prove its practical value to a world const.i.tutionally skeptical, and he must persevere through trials and discouragements of every kind, with a sublime faith in the ultimate success of his efforts, until the fight be won. Otherwise, if he retires beaten from the field of battle, another will s.n.a.t.c.h up his sword and hew his way to victory.

It must never be forgotten that Morse won his place in the Hall of Fame, not only because of his invention of the simplest and best method of conveying intelligence by electricity, but because he, alone and unaided, carried forward the enterprise when, but for him, it would have been allowed to fail. With no thought of disparaging the others, who can hardly be blamed for their loss of faith, and who were of great a.s.sistance to him later on when the battle was nearly won, I feel that it is only just to lay emphasis on this factor in the claim of Morse to greatness.

It will not be necessary to record in detail the events of the year 1840.

The inventor, always confident that success would eventually crown his efforts, lived a life of privation and constant labor in the two fields of art and science. He was still President of the National Academy of Design, and in September he was elected an honorary member of the Mercantile Library a.s.sociation. He strove to keep the wolf from the door by giving lessons in painting and by practising the new art of daguerreotypy, and, in the mean time, he employed every spare moment in improving and still further simplifying his invention.

He heard occasionally from his a.s.sociates. The following sentences are from a letter of Alfred Vail's, dated Philadelphia, January 13, 1840:--

Friend S.F.B. Morse,

Dear Sir, It is many a day since I last had the pleasure of seeing and conversing with you, and, if I am not mistaken, it is as long since any communications have been exchanged. However I trust it will not long be so. When I last had the pleasure of seeing you it was when on my way to Philadelphia, at which time you had the kindness to show me specimens of the greatest discovery ever made, with the exception of the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph. By the by, I have been thinking that it is time money in some way was made out of the Telegraph, and I am almost ready to order an instrument made, and to make the proposition to you to exhibit it here. What do you think of the plan? If Mr. Prosch will make me a first-rate, most perfect machine, and as speedily as possible, and will wait six or nine months for his pay, you may order one for me.

Morse's reply to this letter has not been preserved, but he probably agreed to Vail's proposition,--anything honorable to keep the telegraph in the public eye,--for, as we shall see, in a later letter he refers to the machines which Prosch was to make. Before quoting from that letter, however, I shall give the following sentences from one to Baron Meyendorff, of March 18, 1840:

"I have, since I returned to the United States, made several important improvements, which I regret my limited time will not permit me to describe or send you.... I have so changed the _form_ of the apparatus, and condensed it into so small a compa.s.s, that you would scarcely know it for the same instrument which you saw in Paris."

This and many other allusions, in the correspondence of those years, to Morse's work in simplifying and perfecting his invention, some of which I have already noted, answer conclusively the claims of those who have said that all improvements were the work of other brains and hands.

On September 7, 1840, he writes again to Vail:--

"Your letter of 28th ult. was received several days ago, but I have not had a moment's time to give you a word in return. I am tied hand and foot during the day endeavoring to realize something from the Daguerreotype portraits.... As to the Telegraph, I know not what to say. The delay in finis.h.i.+ng the apparatus on the part of Prosch is exceedingly tantalizing and vexatious. He was to have finished them more than six months ago, and I have borne with his procrastination until I utterly despair of their being completed.... I suppose something might be done in Was.h.i.+ngton next session if I, or some of you, could go on, but I have expended so much time in vain, there and in Europe, that I feel almost discouraged from pressing it any further; only, however, from want of funds. I have none myself, and I dislike to ask it of the rest of you. You are all so scattered that there is no consultation, and I am under the necessity of attending to duties which will give me the means of living.

"The reason of its not being in operation is not _the fault of the invention_, nor is it _my neglect_. My faith is not only unshaken in its _eventual adoption throughout the world_, but it is confirmed by every new discovery in the science of electricity."

While the future looked dark and the present was darker still, Morse maintained a cheerful exterior, and was still able to write to his friends in a light and airy vein. The following letter, dated September 30, 1840, was to a Mr. Levering in Paris:--

"Some time since (I believe nearly a year ago) I wrote you to procure for me two lenses and some plates for the Daguerreotype process, but have never heard from you nor had any intimation that my letter was ever received. After waiting some months, I procured both lenses and plates here. Now, if I knew how to scold at you, wouldn't I scold.

"Well, I recollect a story of a captain who was overloaded by a great many ladies of his acquaintance with orders to procure them various articles in India, just as he was about to sail thither, all which he promised to fulfill. But, on his return, when they flocked round him for their various articles, to their surprise he had only answered the order of one of them. Upon their expressing their disappointment he addressed them thus: 'Ladies,' said he, 'I have to inform you of a most unlucky accident that occurred to your orders. I was not unmindful of them, I a.s.sure you; so one fine day I took your orders all out of my pocketbook and arranged them on the top of the companionway, but, just as they were all arranged, a sudden gust of wind took them all overboard.' 'Aye, a very good excuse,' they exclaimed. 'How happens it that Mrs. ----'s did not go overboard, too?' 'Oh!' said the captain, 'Mrs. ---- had fortunately enclosed in her order some dozen doubloons which kept the wind from blowing hers away with the rest.'

"Now, friend Lovering, I have no idea of having my new order blown overboard, so I herewith send by the hands of my young friend and pupil, Mr. R. Hubbard, whom I also commend to your kind notice, ten golden half-eagles to keep my order down."

CHAPTER XXVIII

JUNE 20, 1840--AUGUST 12, 1842

First patent issued.--Proposal of Cooke and Wheatstone to join forces rejected.--Letter to Rev. E.S. Salisbury.--Money advanced by brother artists repaid.--Poverty.--Reminiscences of General Strother, "Porte Crayon."--Other reminiscences.--Inaction in Congress.--Flattering letter of F.O.J. Smith.--Letter to Smith urging action.--Gonon and Wheatstone.-- Temptation to abandon enterprise.--Partners all financially crippled.-- Morse alone doing any work.--Encouraging letter from Professor Henry.-- Renewed enthusiasm.--Letter to Hon. W.W. Boardman urging appropriation of $3500 by Congress.--Not even considered.--Despair of inventor.

It is only necessary to remember that the year 1840, and the years immediately preceding and following it, were seasons of great financial depression, and that in 1840 the political unrest, which always precedes a presidential election, was greatly intensified, to realize why but little encouragement was given to an enterprise so fantastic as that of an electric telegraph. Capitalists were disinclined to embark on new and untried ventures, and the members of Congress were too much absorbed in the political game to give heed to the pleadings of a mad inventor. The election of Harrison, followed by his untimely death only a month after his inauguration and the elevation of Tyler to the Presidency, prolonged the period of political uncertainty, so that Morse and his telegraph received but scant attention on Capitol Hill.

However, the year 1840 marked some progress, for on the 20th of June the first patent was issued to Morse. It may be remembered that, while his caveat and pet.i.tion were filed in 1837, he had requested that action on them be deferred until after his return from Europe. He had also during the year been gradually perfecting his invention as time and means permitted.

It was during the year 1840, too, that Messrs. Wheatstone and Cooke proposed to join forces with the Morse patentees in America, but this proposition was rejected, although Morse seems to have been almost tempted, for in a letter to Smith he says:--

"I send you copies of two letters just received from England. What shall I say in answer? Can we make any arrangements with them? Need we do it?

Does not our patent secure us against foreign interference, or are we to be defeated, not only in England but in our own country, by the subsequent inventions of Wheatstone?

"I feel my hands tied; I know not what to say. Do advise immediately so that I can send by the British Queen, which sails on the first prox."

Fortunately Smith advised against a combination, and the matter was dropped.

It will not be necessary to dwell at length on the events of the year 1841. The situation and aims of the inventor are best summed up in a beautiful and characteristic letter, written on February 14 of that year, to his cousin, the Reverend Edward S. Salisbury:--

"Your letter containing a draft for three hundred dollars I have received, for which accept my sincere thanks. I have hesitated about receiving it because I had begun to despair of ever being able to touch the pencil again. The blow I received from Congress, when the decision was made concerning the pictures for the Rotunda, has seriously and vitally affected my enthusiasm in my art. When that event was announced to me I was tempted to yield up all in despair, but I roused myself to resist the temptation, and, determining still to fix my mind upon the work, cast about for the means of accomplis.h.i.+ng it in such ways as my Heavenly Father should make plain. My telegraphic enterprise was one of those means. Induced to prosecute it by the Secretary of the Treasury, and encouraged by success in every part of its progress, urged forward to complete it by the advice of the most judicious friends, I have carried the invention on my part to perfection. That is to say, so far as the invention itself is concerned. I _have done my part_. It is approved in the highest quarters--in England, France, and at home--by scientific societies and by governments, and waits only the action of the latter, or of capitalists, to carry it into operation.

"Thus after several years' expenditure of time and money in the expectation (of my friends, _never of my own_ except as I yielded my own judgment to theirs) of so much at least as to leave me free to pursue my art again, I am left, humanly speaking, farther from my object than ever.

I am reminded, too, that my prime is past; the snows are on my temples, the half-century of years will this year be marked against me; my eyes begin to fail, and what can I now expect to do with declining powers and habits in my art broken up by repeated disappointments?

"That prize which, through the best part of my life, animated me to sacrifice all that most men consider precious--prospects of wealth, domestic enjoyments, and, not least, the enjoyment of country--was s.n.a.t.c.hed from me at the moment when it appeared to be mine beyond a doubt.

"I do not state these things to you, my dear cousin, in the spirit of complaint of the dealings of G.o.d's Providence, for I am perfectly satisfied that, mysterious as it may seem to me, it has all been ordered in its minutest particulars in infinite wisdom, so satisfied that I can truly say I rejoice in the midst of all these trials, and in view of my Heavenly Father's hand guiding all, I have a joy of spirit which I can only express by the word 'singing.' It is not in man to direct his steps.

I know I am so short-sighted that I dare not trust myself in the very next step; how then could I presume to plan for my whole life, and expect that my own wisdom had guided me into that way best for me and the universe of G.o.d's creatures?

"I have not painted a picture since that decision in Congress, and I presume that the mechanical skill I once possessed in the art has suffered by the unavoidable neglect. I may possibly recover this skill, and if anything will tend to this end, if anything can tune again an instrument so long unstrung, it is the kindness and liberality of my Cousin Edward. I would wish, therefore, the matter put on this ground that my mind may be at ease. I am at present engaged in taking portraits by the Daguerreotype. I have been at considerable expense in perfecting apparatus and the necessary fixtures, and am just reaping a little profit from it. My ultimate aim is the application of the Daguerreotype to acc.u.mulate for my studio models for my canvas. Its first application will be to the study of your picture. Yet if any accident, any unforeseen circ.u.mstances should prevent, I have made arrangements with my brother Sidney to hold the sum you have advanced subject to your order. On these conditions I accept it, and will yet indulge the hope of giving you a picture acceptable to you."

The picture was never painted, for the discouraged artist found neither time nor inclination ever to pick up his brush again; but we may be sure that the money, so generously advanced by his cousin, was repaid.

It was in the year 1841 also that, in spite of the difficulty he found in earning enough to keep him from actual starvation, he began to pay back the sums which had been advanced to him by his friends for the painting of a historical picture, which should, in a measure, atone to him for the undeserved slight of Congress. In a circular addressed to each of the subscribers he gives the history of the matter and explains why he had hoped that the telegraph would supply him with the means to paint the picture, and then he adds:--

"I have, as yet, not realized one cent, and thus I find myself farther from my object than ever. Upon deliberately considering the matter the last winter and spring, I came to the determination, in the first place, to free myself from the pecuniary obligation under which I had so long lain to my friends of the a.s.sociation, and I commenced a system of economy and retrenchment by which I hoped gradually to ama.s.s the necessary sum for that purpose, which sum, it will be seen, amounts in the aggregate to $510. Three hundred dollars of this sum I had already laid aside, when an article in the New York 'Mirror,' of the 16th October, determined me at once to commence the refunding of the sums received."

What the substance of the article in the "Mirror" was, I do not know, but it was probably one of those scurrilous and defamatory attacks, from many of which he suffered in common with other persons of prominence, and which was called forth, perhaps, by his activity in the politics of the day.

That I have not exaggerated in saying that he was almost on the verge of starvation during these dark years is evidenced by the following word picture from the pen of General Strother, of Virginia, known in the world of literature under the pen name of "Porte Crayon":--

"I engaged to become Morse's pupil, and subsequently went to New York and found him in a room in University Place. He had three other pupils, and I soon found that our professor had very little patronage. I paid my fifty dollars that settled for one quarter's instruction. Morse was a faithful teacher, and took as much interest in our progress--more indeed than--we did ourselves. But he was very poor. I remember that when my second quarter's pay was due my remittance from home did not come as expected, and one day the professor came in and said, courteously:--

"'Well, Strother my boy, how are we off for money?'

"'Why, Professor,' I answered, 'I am sorry to say I have been disappointed; but I expect a remittance next week.'

"'Next week!' he repeated sadly. 'I shall be dead by that time.'

"'Dead, Sir?'

"'Yes, dead by starvation.'