Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals Volume II Part 25

"For the simplification of my business transactions I prefer to let the Articles of Agreement, which expired on the 20th June, 1854, remain cancelled and not to renew them, retaining in my sole possession the _legal t.i.tle;_ but I hereby guarantee to you two sixteenths of such sums as may be paid over to me in the sale of patent rights, after the proportionate deductions of such necessary expenses as may be required in the business of the agency for conducting the sales of said patent rights, subject also to the terms of your agreement with Mr. Kendall.

"Mr. Kendall informs me that no a.s.signment of an interest in my second patent (the patent of 1846) was ever made to you. This was news to me. I presumed it was done and that the a.s.signment was duly recorded at the Patent Office. The examination of the records in the progress of obtaining my extension has, doubtless, led to the discovery of the omission."

After going over much the same ground in the letter to George Vail, also of July 15th, he gives as one of the reasons why the new arrangement is better: "The annoyances of Smith are at an end, so far as the necessity of consulting him is concerned."

And then he adds:--

"I presume it can be no matter of regret with Alfred that, by the position he now takes, strengthening our defensive position against the annoyances of Smith, he can receive _more pecuniarily_ than he could before. Please consult with Mr. Kendall on the form of any agreement by which you and Alfred may be properly secured in the pecuniary benefits which you would have were he to stand in the same legal relation to the patent that he did before the expiration of its original term, so as to give me the position in regard to Smith that I must take in self-defense, and I shall cheerfully accede to it.

"Poor Alfred, I regret to know, torments himself needlessly. I had hoped that I was sufficiently known to him to have his confidence. I have never had other than kind feelings towards him, and, while planning for his benefit and guarding his interests at great and almost ruinous expense to myself, I have had to contend with difficulties which his imprudence, arising from morbid suspicions, has often created. My wish has ever been to act towards him not merely justly but generously."

In a letter to Mr. Kendall of July 17, 1854, Morse declares his intention of publis.h.i.+ng that "Defense" which he had held in reserve for several years, hoping that the necessity for its publication might be avoided by a personal understanding with Professor Henry, which, however, that gentleman refused:--

"You will perceive what injury I have suffered from the machinations of the sordid pirates against whom I have had to contend, and it will also be noticed how history has been falsified in order to detract from me, and how the conduct of Henry, on his deposition, has tended to strengthen the ready prejudice of the English against the American claim to priority. An increasing necessity, on this account, arises for my 'Defense,' and so soon as I can get it into proper shape by revision, I intend to publish it.

"This I consider a duty I owe the country more than myself, for, so far as I am personally concerned, I am conscious of a position that History will give me when the facts now suppressed by interested pirates and their abettors shall be known, which the verdict of posterity, no less than that of the judicial tribunals already given, is sure to award."

While involved in apparently endless litigation which necessitated much correspondence, and while the compilation and revision of his "Defense"

must have consumed not only days but weeks and months, he yet found time to write a prodigious number of letters and newspaper articles on other subjects, especially on those relating to religion and politics. Although more tolerant as he grew older, he was still bitterly opposed to the methods of the Roman Catholic Church, and to the Jesuits in particular.

He, in common with many other prominent men of his day, was fearful lest the Church of Rome, through her emissaries the Jesuits, should gain political ascendancy in this country and overthrow the liberty of the people. He took part in a long and heated newspaper controversy with Bishop Spaulding of Kentucky concerning the authenticity of a saying attributed to Lafayette--"If ever the liberty of the United States is destroyed it will be by Romish priests."

It was claimed by the Roman Catholics that this statement of Lafayette's was ingeniously extracted from a sentence in a letter of his to a friend in which he a.s.sures this friend that such a fear is groundless. Morse followed the matter up with the patience and keenness of a detective, and proved that no such letter had ever been written by Lafayette, that it was a clumsy forgery, but that he really had made use of the sentiment quoted above, not only to Morse himself, but to others of the greatest credibility who were still living.

In the field of politics he came near playing a more active part than that of a mere looker-on and humble voter, for in the fall of 1854 he was nominated for Congress on the Democratic ticket. It would be difficult and, perhaps, invidious to attempt to state exactly his political faith in those heated years which preceded the Civil War. In the light of future events he and his brothers and many other prominent men of the day were on the wrong side. He deprecated the war and did his best to prevent it.

"Sectional division" was abhorrent to him, but on the question of slavery his sympathies were rather with the South, for I find among his papers the following:--

"My creed on the subject of slavery is short. Slavery _per se_ is not sin. It is a social condition ordained from the beginning of the world for the wisest purposes, benevolent and disciplinary, by Divine Wisdom.

The mere holding of slaves, therefore, is a condition having _per se_ nothing of moral character in it, any more than the being a parent, or employer, or ruler, but is moral or unmoral as the duties of the relation of master, parent, employer or ruler are rightly used or abused. The subject in a national view belongs not, therefore, to the department of Morals, and is transferred to that of Politics to be politically regulated.

"The accidents of the relation of master and slave, like the accidents of other social relations, are to be praised or condemned as such individually and in accordance with the circ.u.mstances of every case, and, whether adjudged good or bad, do not affect the character of the relation itself."

On the subject of foreign immigration he was most outspoken, and replying to an enquiry of one of his political friends concerning his att.i.tude towards the so-called "Know Nothings," he says:--

"So far as I can gather from the public papers, the object of this society would seem to be to resist the aggression of foreign influence and its insidious and dangerous a.s.saults upon all that Americans hold dear, politically and religiously. It appears to be to prevent injury to the Republic from the ill-timed and, I may say, unbecoming tamperings with the laws, and habits, and deeply sacred sentiments of Americans by those whose position, alike dictated by modesty and safety, to them as well as to us, is that of minors in training for American, not European, liberty.

"I have not, at this late day, to make up an opinion on this subject. My sentiments 'On the dangers to the free inst.i.tutions of the United States from foreign immigration' are the same now that I have ever entertained, and these same have been promulgated from Maine to Louisiana for more than twenty years.

"This subject involves questions which, in my estimation, make all others insignificant in the comparison, for they affect all others. To the disturbing influence of foreign action in our midst upon the political and religious questions of the day may be attributed in a great degree the present disorganization in all parts of the land.

"So far as the Society you speak of is acting against this great evil it, of course, meets with my hearty concurrence. I am content to stand on the platform, in this regard, occupied by Was.h.i.+ngton in his warnings against foreign influence, by Lafayette, in his personal conversation and instructions to me, and by Jefferson in his condemnation of the encouragement given, even in his day, to foreign immigration. If this Society has ulterior objects of which I know nothing, of these I can be expected to speak only when I know something."

As his opinions on important matters, political and religious, appear in the course of his correspondence, I shall make note of them. It is more than probable that, as he differed radically from his father and the other Federalists on the question of men and measures during the War of 1812, so I should have taken other ground than his had I been born and old enough to have opinions in the stirring _ante-bellum_ days of the fifties. And yet, as hindsight makes our vision clearer than foresight, it is impossible to say definitely what our opinions would have been under other conditions, and there can, at any rate, be no question of the absolute sincerity of the man who, from his youth up, had placed the welfare of his beloved country above every other consideration except his duty to his G.o.d.

It would take a keen student of the political history of this country to determine how far the opinions and activities of those who were in opposition on questions of such prime importance as slavery, secession, and unrestricted immigration, served as a wholesome check on the radical views of those who finally gained the ascendancy. The aftermath of two of these questions is still with us, for the negro question is by no means a problem solved, and the subject of proper restrictions on foreign immigration is just now occupying the attention of our Solons.

That Morse should make enemies on account of the outspoken stand he took on all these questions was to be expected, but I shall not attempt to sit in judgment, but shall simply give his views as they appear in his correspondence. At any rate he was not called upon to state and maintain his opinions in the halls of Congress, for, in a letter of November 10, 1854, to a friend, he says at the end: "I came near being in Congress at the late election, but had _not quite votes enough_, which is the usual cause of failure on such occasions."

CHAPTER x.x.xV

JANUARY 8, 1856--AUGUST 14, 1856

Payment of dividends delayed.--Concern for welfare of his country.-- Indignation at corrupt proposal from California.--Kendall hampered by the Vails.--Proposition by capitalists to purchase patent rights.--Cyrus W.

Field.--Newfoundland Electric Telegraph Company.--Suggestion of Atlantic Cable.--Hopes thereby to eliminate war.--Trip to Newfoundland.--Temporary failure.--F.O.J. Smith continues to give trouble.--Financial conditions improve.--Morse and his wife sail for Europe.--Feted in London.-- Experiments with Dr. Whitehouse.--Mr. Brett.--Dr. O'Shaughnessy and the telegraph in India.--Mr. Cooke.--Charles H. Leslie.--Paris.--Hamburg.-- Copenhagen.--Presentation to king.--Thorwaldsen Museum.--Oersted's daughter.--St. Petersburg.--Presentation to Czar at Peterhoff.

I have said in the preceding chapter that order was gradually emerging from chaos in telegraphic matters, but the progress towards that goal was indeed gradual, and a perusal of the voluminous correspondence between Morse and Kendall, and others connected with the different lines, leaves the reader in a state of confused bewilderment and wonder that all the conflicting interests, and plots and counterplots, could ever have been brought into even seeming harmony. Too much praise cannot be given to Mr.

Kendall for the patience and skill with which he disentangled this apparently hopeless snarl, while at the same time battling against physical ills which would have caused most men to give up in despair.

That Morse fully appreciated the sterling qualities of this faithful friend is evidenced by the letter to Dr. Gale in the preceding chapter, and by many others. He always refused to consider for a moment the subst.i.tution of a younger man on the plea of Mr. Kendall's failing health, and his carelessness in the keeping of their personal accounts.

It is true that, because of this laxity on Mr. Kendall's part, Morse was for a long time deprived of the full income to which he was ent.i.tled, but he never held this up against his friend, always making excuses for him.

Affairs seem to have been going from bad to worse in the matter of dividends, for, while in 1850 he had said that only 509 miles out of 1150 were paying him personally anything, he says in a letter to Mr. Kendall of January 8, 1855:--

"I perceive the Magnetic Telegraph Company meet in Was.h.i.+ngton on Thursday the 11th. Please inform me by telegraph the amount of dividend they declare and the time payable. This is the only source on which I can calculate for the means of subsistence from day to day with any degree of certainty.

"It is a singular reflection that occurs frequently to my mind that out of 40,000 miles of telegraph, all of which should pay me something, only 225 miles is all that I can depend upon with certainty; and the case is a little aggravated when I think that throughout all Europe, which is now meshed with telegraph wires from the southern point of Corsica to St.

Petersburg, on which my telegraph is universally used, not a mile contributes to my support or has paid me a farthing.

"Well, it is all well. I am not in absolute want, for I have some credit, and painful as is the state of debt to me from the apprehension that creditors may suffer from my delay in paying them, yet I hope on."

Mr. Kendall was not so sensitive on the subject of debt as was Morse, and he was also much more optimistic and often rebuked his friend for his gloomy antic.i.p.ations, a.s.suring him that the clouds were not nearly so dark as they appeared.

Always imbued with a spirit of lofty patriotism, Morse never failed, even in the midst of overwhelming cares, to give voice to warnings which he considered necessary. Replying to an invitation to be present at a public dinner he writes:--

GENTLEMEN,--I have received your polite invitation to join with you in the celebration of the birthday of Was.h.i.+ngton. Although unable to be present in person, I shall still be with you in heart.

Every year, indeed every day, is demonstrating the necessity of our being wide awake to the insidious sapping of our inst.i.tutions by foreign emissaries in the guise of friends, who, taking advantage of the very liberality and unparalleled national generosity which we have extended to them, are undermining the foundations of our political fabric, subst.i.tuting (as far as they are able to effect their purpose) on the one hand a dark, cold and heartless atheism, or, on the other, a disgusting, puerile, degrading superst.i.tion in place of the G.o.d of our fathers and the glorious elevating religion of love preached by his Son.

The American mind, I trust, is now in earnest waking up, and no one more rejoices at the signs of the times than myself. Twenty years ago I hoped to have seen it awake, but, alas! it proved to be but a spasmodic yawn preparatory to another nap. If it shall now have waked in earnest, and with renewed strength shall gird itself to the battle which is a.s.suredly before it, I shall feel not a little in the spirit of good old Simeon-- "Now let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."

Go forward, my friends, in your patriotic work, and may G.o.d bless you in your labors with eminent success.

It has been shown, I think, in the course of this work, that Morse, while long-suffering and patient under trials and afflictions, was by no means poor-spirited, but could fight and use forceful language when roused by acts of injustice towards himself, his country, or his sense of right.

Nothing made him more righteously angry than dishonesty in whatever form it was manifested, and the following incident is characteristic.

On June 26, 1855, Mr. Kendall forwarded a letter which he had received from a certain Milton S. Latham, member of Congress from California, making a proposition to purchase the Morse patent rights for lines in California. In this letter occur the following sentences: "For the use of Professor Morse's patent for the State of California in perpetuity, with the reservations named in yours of the 3d March, 1855, addressed to me, they are willing to give you $30,000 in their stock. This is all they will do. It is proper I should state that the capital stock of the California State Telegraph in cash was $75,000, which they raised to $150,000, and subsequently to $300,000. The surplus stock over the cash stock was used among members of the Legislature to procure the pa.s.sage of the act incorporating the company, and securing for it certain privileges."

Mr. Kendall in his letter enclosing this nave business proposition, remarks: "It is an impressive commentary on the principles which govern business in California that this company doubled their stock to bribe members of the State Legislature, and are now willing to add but ten per cent to be relieved from the position of patent pirates and placed henceforth on an honest footing."

Morse more impulsively exclaims in his reply:--

"Is it possible that there are men who hold up their heads in civilized society who can unblus.h.i.+ngly take the position which the so-called California State Telegraph Company has deliberately taken?

"Accept the proposition? Yes, I will accept it when I can consent to the housebreaker who has entered my house, packed up my silver and plated ware, and then coolly says to me--'Allow me to take what I have packed up and I will select out that which is worthless and give it to you, after I have used it for a few years, provided any of it remain!'

"A more unprincipled set of swindlers never existed. Who is this Mr.

Latham that he could recommend our accepting such terms?"