Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals Volume II Part 36

"In more recent papers, first published in 1857, it appears that Professor Henry demonstrated before his pupils the practicability of ringing a bell, by means of electro-magnetism, at a distance."

Whether Professor Blake was satisfied with this change from the original ma.n.u.script is not recorded. Morse evidently thought that he had made the _amende honorable_, but Henry, coldly proud man that he was, still held aloof from a reconciliation, for I have been informed that he even refused to be present at the memorial services held in Was.h.i.+ngton after the death of Morse.

In a letter of May 10, 1869, to Dr. Leonard Gale, some interesting facts concerning the reading by sound are given:--

"The fact that the lever action of the earliest instrument of 1835 by its click gave the sound of the numerals, as embodied in the original type, is well known, nor is there anything so remarkable in that result....

When you first saw the instrument in 1836 this was so obvious that it scarcely excited more than a pa.s.sing remark, but, after the adaptation of the dot and s.p.a.ce, with the addition of the line or dash, in forming the alphabetic signs (which, as well as I can remember, was about the same date, late in 1835 or early in 1836) then I noticed that the different letters had each their own individual sounds, and could also be distinguished from each other by the sound. The fact did not then appear to me to be of any great importance, seeming to be more curious than useful, yet, in reflecting upon it, it seemed desirable to secure this result by specifying it in my letters patent, lest it might be used as an _evasion_ in indicating my novel alphabet without recording it. Hence the _sounds_ as well as the imprinted signs were specified in my letters patent.

"As to the time when these sounds were _practically_ used, I am unable to give a precise date. I have a distinct recollection of one case, and proximately the date of it. The time of the incident was soon after the line was extended from Philadelphia to Was.h.i.+ngton, having a way station at Wilmington, Delaware. The Was.h.i.+ngton office was in the old post-office, in the room above it. I was in the operating room. The instruments were for a moment silent. I was standing at some distance near the fireplace conversing with Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton, the operator, who was by my side. Presently one of the instruments commenced writing and Mr.

Was.h.i.+ngton listened and smiled. I asked him why he smiled. 'Oh!' said he, 'that is Zantzinger of the Philadelphia office, but he is operating from Wilmington.' 'How do you know that?' 'Oh! I know his touch, but I must ask him why he is in Wilmington.' He then went to the instrument and telegraphed to Zantzinger at Wilmington, and the reply was that he had been sent from Philadelphia to regulate the relay magnet for the Wilmington operator, who was inexperienced in operating....

"I give this instance, not because it was the _first_, but because it is one which I had specially treasured in my memory and frequently related as ill.u.s.trative of the practicality of reading by _sound_ as well as by the written record. This must have occurred about the year 1846."

A serious accident befell the aged inventor, now seventy-nine years old, in July, 1869. He slipped on the stairs of his country house and fell with all his weight on his left leg, which was broken in two places. This mishap confined him to his bed for three months, and many feared that, owing to his advanced age, it would be fatal. But, thanks to his vigorous const.i.tution and his temperate life, he recovered completely. He bore this affliction with Christian fort.i.tude. In a letter to his brother Sidney, of August 14, he says: "The healing process in my leg is very slow. The doctor, who has just left me, condemns me to a fortnight more of close confinement. I have other troubles, for they come not singly, but all is for the best."

Troubles, indeed, came not singly, for, in addition to sorrows of a domestic nature, his friends one by one were taken from him by death, and on November 12, 1869, he writes to William Stickney, Esq., son-in-law of Amos Kendall:--

"Although prepared by recent notices in the papers to expect the sad news, which a telegram this moment received announces to me, of the death of my excellent, long-tried friend Mr. Kendall, I confess that the intelligence has come with a shock which has quite unnerved me. I feel the loss as of a _father_ rather than of a brother in age, for he was one in whom I confided as a father, so sure was I of affectionate and sound advice....

"I need not tell you how deeply I feel this sad bereavement. I am truly and severely bereaved in the loss of such a friend, a friend, indeed, upon whose faithfulness and unswerving integrity I have ever reposed with perfect confidence, a confidence which has never been betrayed, and a friend to whose energy and skill, in the conduct of the agency which I had confided to him, I owe (under G.o.d) the comparative comfort which a kind Providence has permitted me to enjoy in my advanced age."

In the following year he was called upon to mourn the death of still another of his good friends, for, on August 24, 1870, George Wood died very suddenly at Saratoga.

While much of sadness and sorrow clouded the evening of the life of this truly great man, the sun, ere it sank to rest, tinged the clouds with a glory seldom vouchsafed to a mortal, for he was to see a statue erected to him while he was yet living. Of many men it has been said that-- "Wanting bread they receive only a stone, and not even that until long after they have been starved to death." It was Morse's good fortune not only to see the child of his brain grow to a st.u.r.dy manhood, but to be honored during his lifetime to a truly remarkable degree.

The project of a memorial of some sort to the Inventor of the Telegraph was first broached by Robert B. Hoover, manager of the Western Union Telegraph office, Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. The idea once started spread with the rapidity of the electric fluid itself, and, under the able management of James D. Reid, a fund was raised, partly by dollar subscriptions largely made by telegraph operators all over the country, including Canada, and it was decided that the testimonial should take the form of a bronze statue to be erected in Central Park, New York. Byron M.

Pickett was chosen as the sculptor, and the Park Commission readily granted permission to place the statue in the park.

It was at first hoped that the unveiling might take place on the 27th of April, 1871, Morse's eightieth birthday; but unavoidable delays arose, and it was not until the 10th of June that everything was in readiness.

It was a perfect June day and the hundreds of telegraphers from all parts of the country, with their families, spent the forenoon in a steamboat excursion around the city. In the afternoon crowds flocked to the park where, near what is now called the "Inventor's Gate," the statue stood in the angle between two platforms for the invited guests. Morse himself refused to attend the ceremonies of the unveiling of his counterfeit presentment, as being too great a strain on his innate modesty. Some persons and some papers said that he was present, but, as Mr. James D.

Reid says in his "Telegraph in America," "Mr. Morse was incapable of such an indelicacy.... Men of refinement and modesty would justly have marvelled had they seen him in such a place."

At about four o'clock the Governor of New York, John T. Hoffman, delivered the opening address, saying, in the course of his speech: "In our day a new era has dawned. Again, for the second time in the history of the world, the power of language is increased by human agency. Thanks to Samuel F.B. Morse men speak to one another now, though separated by the width of the earth, with the lightning's speed and as if standing face to face. If the inventor of the alphabet be deserving of the highest honors, so is he whose great achievement marks this epoch in the history of language--the inventor of the Electric Telegraph. We intend, so far as in us lies, that the men who come after us shall be at no loss to discover his name for want of recorded testimony."

Governor Claflin, of Ma.s.sachusetts, and William Orton, president of the Western Union Telegraph Company, then drew aside the drapery amidst the cheers and applause of the mult.i.tude, while the Governor's Island band played the "Star-Spangled Banner."

William Cullen Bryant, who was an early friend of the inventor, then presented the statue to the city in an eloquent address, from which I shall quote the following words:--

"It may be said, I know, that the civilized world is already full of memorials which speak the merit of our friend and the grandeur and utility of his invention. Every telegraphic station is such a memorial.

Every message sent from one of these stations to another may be counted among the honors paid to his name. Every telegraphic wire strung from post to post, as it hums in the wind, murmurs his eulogy. Every sheaf of wires laid down in the deep sea, occupying the bottom of soundless abysses to which human sight has never penetrated, and carrying the electric pulse, charged with the burden of human thought, from continent to continent, from the Old World to the New, is a testimonial to his greatness.... The Latin inscription in the church of St. Paul's in London, referring to Sir Christopher Wren, its architect,--'If you would behold his monument, look around you,'--may be applied in a far more comprehensive sense to our friend, since the great globe itself has become his monument."

The Mayor of New York, A. Oakey Hall, accepted the statue in a short speech, and, after a prayer by the Reverend Stephen H. Tyng, D.D., the a.s.sembled mult.i.tude joined in singing the doxology, and the ceremonies at the park were ended.

But other honors still awaited the venerable inventor, for, on the evening of that day, the old Academy of Music on Fourteenth Street was packed with a dense throng gathered together to listen to eulogies on this benefactor of his race, and to hear him bid farewell to his children of the Telegraph. A table was placed in the centre of the stage on which was the original instrument used on the first line from Was.h.i.+ngton to Baltimore. This was connected with all the lines of telegraph extending to all parts of the world. The Honorable William Orton presided, and, after the Reverend Howard Crosby had opened the ceremonies with prayer, speeches were delivered by Mr. Orton, Dr. George B. Loring, of Salem, and the Reverend Dr. George W. Samson.

At nine o'clock Mr. Orton announced that all lines were clear for the farewell message of the inventor to his children; that this message would be flashed to thousands of waiting operators all over the world, and that answers would be received during the course of the evening. The pleasant task of sending the message had been delegated to Miss Sadie E. Cornwell, a skilful young operator of attractive personality, and Morse himself was to manipulate the key which sent his name, in the dots and dashes of his own alphabet, over the wires.

The vast audience was hushed into absolute silence as Miss Cornwell clicked off the message which Morse had composed for the occasion: "Greeting and thanks to the Telegraph fraternity throughout the world.

Glory to G.o.d in the highest, on earth peace, good will to men."

As Mr. Orton escorted Morse to the table a tremendous burst of applause broke out, but was silenced by a gesture from the presiding officer, and again the great audience was still. Slowly the inventor spelled out the letters of his name, the click of the instrument being clearly heard in every part of the house, and as clearly understood by the hundreds of telegraphers present, so that without waiting for the final dot, which typified the letter e, the whole vast a.s.sembly rose amid deafening cheers and the waving of handkerchiefs.

It was an inspiring moment, and the venerable man was almost overcome by his emotions, and sat for some time with his head buried in his hands, striving to regain his self-control.

When the excitement had somewhat subsided, Mr. Orton said: "Thus the Father of the Telegraph bids farewell to his children."

The current was then switched to an instrument behind the scenes, and answers came pouring in, first from near-by towns and cities, and then from New Orleans, Quebec, San Francisco, Halifax, Havana, and finally from Hongkong, Bombay, and Singapore.

Mr. Reid has given a detailed account of these messages in his "Telegraph in America," but I shall not pause to reproduce them here; neither shall I quote from the eloquent speeches which followed, delivered by General N.P. Banks, the Reverend H.M. Gallagher, G.K. Walcott, and James D. Reid.

After Miss Antoinette Sterling had sung "Auld Lang Syne," to the great delight of the audience, who recalled her several times, Chief Justice Charles P. Daly introduced Professor Morse in an appropriate address.

As the white-haired inventor, in whose honor this great demonstration had been organized, stepped forward to deliver his, valedictory, he was greeted with another round of cheering and applause. At first almost overcome by emotion, he soon recovered his self-control, and he read his address in a clear, resonant voice which carried to every part of the house. The address was a long one, and as most of it is but a recapitulation of what has been already given, I shall only quote from it in part:--

"Friends and children of the telegraph,--When I was solicited to be present this evening, in compliance with the wishes of those who, with such zeal and success, responded to the suggestion of one of your number that a commemorative statue should be erected in our unrivaled Park, and which has this day been placed in position and unveiled, I hesitated to comply. Not that I did not feel a wish in person to return to you my heartfelt thanks for this unique proof of your personal regard, but truly from a fear that I could use no terms which would adequately express my appreciation of your kindness. Whatever I say must fall short of expressing the grateful feelings or conflicting emotions which agitate me on an occasion so unexampled in the history of invention. Gladly would I have shrunk from this public demonstration were it not that my absence to-night, under the circ.u.mstances, might be construed into an apathy which I do not feel, and which your overpowering kindness would justly rebuke....

"You have chosen to impersonate in my humble effigy an invention which, cradled upon the ocean, had its birth in an American s.h.i.+p. It was nursed and cherished not so much from personal as from patriotic motives.

Forecasting its future, even at its birth, my most powerful stimulus to perseverance through all the perils and trials of its early days--and they were neither few nor insignificant--was the thought that it must inevitably be world-wide in its application, and, moreover, that it would everywhere be hailed as a grateful American gift to the nations. It is in this aspect of the present occasion that I look upon your proceedings as intended, not so much as homage to an individual, as to the invention, 'whose lines [from America] have gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.'

"In the carrying-out of any plan of improvement, however grand or feasible, no single individual could possibly accomplish it without the aid of others. We are none of us so powerful that we can dispense with the a.s.sistance, in various departments of the work, of those whose experience and knowledge must supply the needed aid of their expertness.

It is not sufficient that a brilliant project be proposed, that its modes of accomplishment are foreseen and properly devised; there are, in every part of the enterprise, other minds and other agencies to be consulted for information and counsel to perfect the whole plan. The Chief Justice, in delivering the decision of the Supreme Court, says: 'It can make no difference whether he [the inventor] derives his information from books or from conversation with men skilled in the science.' And: 'The fact that Morse sought and obtained the necessary information and counsel from the best sources, and acted upon it, neither impairs his rights as an inventor nor detracts from his merits.'

"The inventor must seek and employ the skilled mechanician in his workshop to put the invention into practical form, and for this purpose some pecuniary means are required as well as mechanical skill. Both these were at hand. Alfred Vail, of Morristown, New Jersey, with his father and brother, came to the help of the unclothed infant, and with their funds and mechanical skill put it into a condition to appear before the Congress of the nation. To these New Jersey friends is due the first important aid in the progress of the invention. Aided also by the talent and scientific skill of Professor Gale, my esteemed colleague in the University, the Telegraph appeared in Was.h.i.+ngton in 1838, a suppliant for the means to demonstrate its power. To the Honorable F.O.J. Smith, then chairman of the House Committee of Commerce, belongs the credit of a just appreciation of the new invention, and of a zealous advocacy of an experimental essay, and the inditing of an admirably written report in its favor, signed by every member of the committee.... To Ezra Cornell, whose n.o.ble benefactions to his state and the country have placed his name by the side of Cooper and Peabody high on the roll of public benefactors, is due the credit of early and effective aid in the superintendence and erection of the first public line of telegraph ever established."

After paying tribute to the names of Amos Kendall, Cyrus Field, Volta, Oersted, Arago, Schweigger, Gauss and Weber, Steinheil, Daniell, Grove, Cooke, Dana, Henry, and others, he continued:--

"There is not a name I have mentioned, and many whom I have not mentioned, whose career in science or experience in mechanical and engineering and nautical tactics, or in financial practice, might not be the theme of volumes rather than of brief mention in an ephemeral address.

"To-night you have before you a sublime proof of the grand progress of the Telegraph in its march round the globe. It is but a few days since that our veritable antipodes became telegraphically united to us. We can speak to and receive an answer in a few seconds of time from Hongkong in China, where ten o'clock to-night here is ten o'clock in the day there, and it is, perhaps, a debatable question whether their ten o'clock is ten to-day or ten to-morrow. China and New York are in interlocutory communication. We know the fact, but can imagination realize the fact?

"But I must not further trespa.s.s on your patience at this late hour. I cannot close without the expression of my cordial thanks to my long-known, long-tried and honored friend Reid, whose unwearied labors early contributed so effectively to the establishment of telegraph lines, and who, in a special manner as chairman of your Memorial Fund, has so faithfully, and successfully, and admirably carried to completion your flattering design. To the eminent Governors of this state and the state of Ma.s.sachusetts, who have given to this demonstration their honored presence; to my excellent friend the distinguished orator of the day; to the Mayor and city authorities of New York; to the Park Commissioners; to the officers and managers of the various, and even rival, telegraph companies, who have so cordially united on this occasion; to the numerous citizens, ladies and gentlemen; and, though last not least, to every one of my large and increasing family of telegraph children who have honored me with the proud t.i.tle of Father, I tender my cordial thanks."

CHAPTER XL

JUNE 14, 1871--APRIL 16, 1872

Nearing the end.--Estimate of the Reverend F.B. Wheeler.--Early poem.-- Leaves "Locust Grove" for last time.--Death of his brother Sidney.-- Letter to Cyrus Field on neutrality of telegraph.--Letter of F.O.J. Smith to H.J. Rogers.--Reply by Professor Gale.--Vicious attack by F.O.J.

Smith.--Death prevents reply by Morse.--Unveils statue of Franklin in last public appearance.--Last hours.--Death.--Tributes of James D. Reid, New York "Evening Post," New York "Herald," and Louisville "Courier-Journal."--Funeral.--Monument in Greenwood Cemetery.--Memorial services in House of Representatives, Was.h.i.+ngton.--Address of James G.

Blaine.--Other memorial services.--Mr. Prime's review of Morse's character.--Epilogue.

The excitement caused by all these enthusiastic demonstrations in his honor told upon the inventor both physically and mentally, as we learn from a letter of June 14, 1871, to his daughter Mrs. Lind and her husband:--

"So fatigued that I can scarcely keep my eyes open, I nevertheless, before retiring to my bed, must drop you a line of enquiry to know what is your condition. We have only heard of your arrival and of your first unfavorable impressions. I hope these latter are removed, and that you are both benefiting by change of air and the waters of the Clifton Springs.

"You know how, in the last few days, we have all been overwhelmed with unusual cares. The grand ceremonies of the Park and the Academy of Music are over, but have left me in a good-for-nothing condition. Everything went off splendidly, indeed, as you will learn from the papers.... I find it more difficult to bear up with the overwhelming praise that is poured out without measure, than with the trials of my former life. There is something so remarkable in this universal laudation that the effect on me, strange as it may seem, is rather depressing than exhilarating.

"When I review my past life and see the way in which I have been led, I am so convinced of the faithfulness of G.o.d in answer to the prayers of faith, which I have been enabled in times of trial to offer to Him, that I find the temper of my mind is to constant praise: 'Bless the Lord, Oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits!' is ever recurring to me. It is doubtless this continued referring all to Him that prevents this universal demonstration of kindly feeling from puffing me up with the false notion that I am anything but the feeblest of instruments. I cannot give you any idea of the peculiar feelings which gratify and yet oppress me."