Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals Volume II Part 37

He had planned to cross the ocean once more, partly as a delegate to Russia from the Evangelical Alliance, and partly to see whether it would not be possible to induce Prussia and Switzerland and other European nations, from whom he had as yet received no pecuniary remuneration, to do him simple justice. But, for various reasons, this trip was abandoned, and from those nations he never received anything but medals and praise.

So the last summer of the aged inventor's life was spent at his beloved Locust Grove, not free from care and anxiety, as he so well deserved, but nevertheless, thanks to his Christian philosophy, in comparative serenity and happiness. His pastor in Poughkeepsie, the Reverend F.B. Wheeler, says of him in a letter to Mr. Prune: "In his whole character and in all his relations he was one of the most remarkable men of his age. He was one who drew all who came in contact with him to his heart, disarming all prejudices, silencing all cavil. In his family he was light, life, and love; with those in his employ he was ever considerate and kind, never exacting and harsh, but honorable and just, seeking the good of every dependent; in the community he was a pillar of strength and beauty, commanding the homage of universal respect; in the Church he walked with G.o.d and men."

That he was a man of great versatility has been shown, in the recital of his activities as artist, inventor, and writer; that he had no mean ability as a poet is also on record. On January 6, 1872, he says in a letter to his cousin, Mrs. Thomas R. Walker: "Some years ago, when both of us were younger, I remember addressing to you a trifle ent.i.tled 'The Serenade,' which, on being shown to Mr. Verplanck, was requested for publication in the 'Talisman,' edited and conducted by him and Mr. Sands.

I have not seen a copy of that work for many years, and have preserved no copy of 'The Serenade.' If you have a copy I should be pleased to have it."

He was delicately discreet in saying "some years ago," for this poem was written in 1827 as the result of a wager between Morse and his young cousin, he having a.s.serted that he could write poetry as well as paint pictures, and requesting her to give him a theme. It seems that the young lady had been paid the compliment of a serenade a few nights previously, but she had, most unromantically, slept through it all, so she gave as her theme "The Serenade," and the next day Morse produced the following poem:--

THE SERENADE

Haste! 't is the stillest hour of night, The Moon sheds down her palest light, And sleep has chained the lake and hill, The wood, the plain, the babbling rill; And where yon ivied lattice shows My fair one slumbers in repose.

Come, ye that know the lovely maid, And help prepare the serenade.

Hither, before the night is flown, Bring instruments of every tone.

But lest with noise ye wake, not lull, Her dreaming fancy, ye must cull Such only as shall soothe the mind And leave the harshest all behind.

Bring not the thundering drum, nor yet The harshly-shrieking clarionet, Nor screaming hautboy, trumpet shrill, Nor clanging cymbals; but, with skill, Exclude each one that would disturb The fairy architects, or curb The wild creations of their mirth, All that would wake the soul to earth.

Choose ye the softly-breathing-flute, The mellow horn, the loving lute; The viol you must not forget, And take the sprightly flageolet And grave ba.s.soon; choose too the fife, Whose warblings in the tuneful strife, Mingling in mystery with the words, May seem like notes of blithest birds.

Are ye prepared? Now lightly tread As if by elfin minstrels led, And fling no sound upon the air Shall rudely wake my slumbering fair.

Softly! Now breathe the symphony, So gently breathe the tones may vie In softness with the magic notes In visions heard; music that floats So buoyant that it well may seem, With strains ethereal in her dream, One song of such mysterious birth She doubts it comes from heaven or earth.

Play on! My loved one slumbers still.

Play on! She wakes not with the thrill Of joy produced by strains so mild, But fancy moulds them gay and wild.

Now, as the music low declines, 'T is sighing of the forest pines; Or 't is the fitful, varied war Of distant falls or troubled sh.o.r.e.

Now, as the tone grows full or sharp, 'T is whispering of the aeolian harp.

The viol swells, now low, now loud, 'T is spirits chanting on a cloud That pa.s.ses by. It dies away; So gently dies she scarce can say 'T is gone; listens; 't is lost she fears; Listens, and thinks again she hears.

As dew drops mingling in a stream To her 't is all one blissful dream, A song of angels throned in light.

Softly! Away! Fair one, good-night.

In the autumn of 1871 Morse returned with his family to New York, and it is recorded that, with an apparent premonition that he should never see his beloved Locust Grove again, he ordered the carriage to stop as he drove out of the gate, and, standing up, looked long and lovingly at the familiar scene before telling the coachman to drive on. And as he pa.s.sed the rural cemetery on the way to the station he exclaimed: "Beautiful!

beautiful! but I shall not lie there. I have prepared a place elsewhere."

Not long after his return to the city death once more laid its heavy hand upon him in the loss of his sole surviving brother, Sidney. While this was a crus.h.i.+ng blow, for these two brothers had been peculiarly attached to each other, he bore it with Christian resignation, confident that the separation would be for a short time only--"We must soon follow, I also am over eighty years, and am waiting till my change comes."

But his mind was active to the very end, and he never ceased to do all in his power for the welfare of mankind. One of the last letters written by him on a subject of public importance was sent on December 4, 1871, to Cyrus Field, who was then attending an important telegraphic convention in Rome:--

"Excuse my delay in writing you. The excitement occasioned by the visit of the Grand Duke Alexis has but just ceased, and I have been wholly engrossed by the various duties connected with his presence. I have wished for a few calm moments to put on paper some thoughts respecting the doings of the great Telegraphic Convention to which you are a delegate.

"The Telegraph has now a.s.sumed such a marvellous position in human affairs throughout the world, its influences are so great and important in all the varied concerns of nations, that its efficient protection from injury has become a necessity. It is a powerful advocate for universal peace. Not that of itself it can command a 'Peace, be still!' to the angry waves of human pa.s.sions, but that, by its rapid interchange of thought and opinion, it gives the opportunity of explanations to acts and to laws which, in their ordinary wording, often create doubt and suspicion. Were there no means of quick explanation it is readily seen that doubt and suspicion, working on the susceptibilities of the public mind, would engender misconception, hatred and strife. How important then that, in the intercourse of nations, there should be the ready means at hand for prompt correction and explanation.

"Could there not be pa.s.sed in the great International Convention some resolution to the effect that, in whatever condition, whether of Peace or War between the nations, the Telegraph should be deemed a sacred thing, to be by common consent effectually protected both on the land and beneath the waters?

"In the interest of human happiness, of that 'Peace on Earth' which, in announcing the advent of the Saviour, the angels proclaimed with 'good will to men,' I hope that the convention will not adjourn without adopting a resolution asking of the nations their united, effective protection to this great agent of civilization."

Richly as he deserved that his sun should set in an unclouded sky, this was not to be. Sorrows of a most intimate nature crowded upon him. He was also made the victim of a conscienceless swindler who fleeced him of many thousand dollars, and, to crown all, his old and indefatigable enemy, F.O.J. Smith, administered a cowardly thrust in the back when his weakening powers prevented him from defending himself with his oldtime vigor. From a very long letter written by Smith on December 11, 1871, to Henry J. Rogers in Was.h.i.+ngton, I shall quote only the first sentences:--

Dear Sir,--In my absence your letter of the 11th ult. was received here, with the printed circular of the National Monumental Society, in reply to which I feel constrained to say if that highly laudable a.s.sociation resolves "to erect at the national capital of the United States a memorial monument" to symbolize in statuary of colossal proportions the "history of the electromagnetic telegraph," before that history has been authentically written, it is my conviction: that the statue most worthy to stand upon the pedestal of such monument would be that of the man of true science, who explored the laws of nature ahead of all other men, and was "the first to wrest electron-magnetism from Nature's embrace and make it a missionary to, the cause of human progress," and that man is Professor Joseph Henry, of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution.

Professor Morse and his early coadjutors would more appropriately occupy, in groups of high relief, the sides of that pedestal, symbolizing, by their established merits and cooperative works, the grandeur of the researches and resulting discoveries of their leader and chief, who was the first to announce and to demonstrate to a despairing world, by actual mechanical agencies, the practicability of; an electro-magnetic telegraph through any distances.

Much more of the same flatulent bombast follows which it will not be necessary to introduce here. While Morse himself naturally felt some delicacy in noticing such an attack as this, he found a willing, and efficient champion in his old friend (and the friend of Henry as well) Professor Leonard D. Gale, who writes to him on January 22, 1872:--

"I have lately seen a mean, unfair, and villainous letter of F.O.J.

Smith, addressed to H.J. Rogers (officer of the Morse Monumental a.s.sociation), alleging that the place on the monument designed to be occupied by the statue of Morse, should be awarded to Henry; that Morse was not a scientific man, etc., etc. It was written in his own peculiar style. The allegations were so outrageous that I felt it my duty to reply to it without delay. As Smith's letter was to Rogers, as an officer of the a.s.sociation, I sent my reply to the same person. I enclose a copy herewith.

"Mrs. Gale suggests an additional figure to the group on the monument--a serpent with the face of F.O.J.S., biting the heel of Morse, but with the fangs extracted."

Professor Gale's letter to Henry J. Rogers is worthy of being quoted in full:--

"I have just read a letter from F.O.J. Smith, dated December 11, 1871, addressed to you, and designed to throw discredit on Morse's invention of the Telegraph, the burden of which seems to be rebuke to the designer of the monument, for elevating Morse to the apex of the monument and claiming for Professor J. Henry, of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, that high distinction.

"The first question of an impartial inquirer is: 'To which of these gentlemen is the honor due?' To ascertain this we will ask a second question: 'Was the subject of the invention a _machine_, or was it _a new fact in science_?' The answer is: 'It was a _machine_.' The first was Morse's, the latter was Henry's. Henry stated that electric currents might be sent through long distances applicable to telegraphic purposes.

Morse took the facts as they then existed, invented a machine, harnessed the steed therein, and set the creature to work. There is honor due to Henry for his great discovery of the scientific principle; there is honor also due to Morse for his invention of the ingenious machine which accomplishes the work.

"Men of science regard the discovery of a new fact in science as a higher attainment than the application of it to useful purposes, while the world at large regards the _application_ of the principle or fact in science to the useful arts as of paramount importance. All honor to the discoverer of a new fact in science; equal honor to him who utilizes that fact for the benefit of mankind.

"Has the world forgotten what Robert Fulton did for the navigation of the waters by steamboats? It was he who first applied steam to propel a vessel and navigated the Hudson for the first time with steam and paddle-wheels and vessel in 1807. Do not we honor him as the Father of steamboats? Yet Fulton did not invent steam, nor the steam-engine, nor paddle-wheels, nor the vessel. He merely adapted a steam-engine to a vessel armed with paddle-wheels. The combination was his invention.

"There is another example on record. Cyrus H. McCormick, the Father of the Reaping and Mowing Machine, took out the first successful patent in 1837, and is justly acknowledged the world over as the inventor of this great machine. Although one hundred and forty-six patents were granted in England previous to McCormick's time, they are but so many unsuccessful efforts to perfect a practical machine. The cutting apparatus, the device to raise and lower the cutters, the levers, the platform, the wheels, the framework, had all been used before McCormick's time. But McCormick was the first genius able to put these separate devices together in a practical, harmonious operation. The combination was his invention.

"Morse did more. He invented the form of the various parts of his machine as well as their combination; he was the first to put such a machine into practical operation; and for such a purpose who can question his t.i.tle as the Inventor of the Electric Telegraph?"

To the letter of Professor Gale, Morse replied on January 25:--

"Thank you sincerely for your effective interference in my favor in the recent, but not unexpected, attack of F.O.J.S. I will, so soon as I can free myself from some very pressing matters, write you more fully on the subject. Yet I can add nothing to your perfectly clear exposition of the difference between a discovery of a principle in science and its application to a useful purpose. As for Smith's suggestion of putting Henry on the top of the proposed monument, I can hardly suppose Professor H. would feel much gratification on learning the character of his zealous advocate. It is simply a matter of spite; carrying out his intense and smothered antipathy to me, and not for any particular regard for Professor H.

"As I have had nothing to do with the proposed monument, I have no feeling on the subject. If they who have the direction of that monument think the putting of Professor H. on the apex will meet the applause of the public, including the expressed opinion of the entire world, by all means put him there. I certainly shall make no complaint."

The monument was never erected, and this effort of Smith's to humiliate Morse proved abortive. But his spite did not end there, as we learn from the following letter written by Morse on February 26, 1872, to the Reverend Aspinwall Hodge, of Hartford, Connecticut, the husband of one of his nieces:--

"Some unknown person has sent me the advance sheets of a work (the pages between 1233 and 1249) publis.h.i.+ng in Hartford, the t.i.tle of which is not given, but I think is something like 'The Great Industries of the United States.' The pages sent me are ent.i.tled 'The American Magnetic Telegraph.' They contain the most atrocious and vile attack upon me which has ever appeared in print. I shall be glad to learn who are the publishers of this work, what are the characters of the publishers, and whether they will give me the name or names of the author or authors of this diatribe, and whether they vouch for the character of those who furnished the article for their work.

"I know well enough, indeed, who the libellers are and their motives, which arise from pure spite and revenge for having been legally defeated parties in cases relating to the Telegraph before the courts. To you I can say the concocters of this tirade are F.O.J. Smith, of bad notoriety, and Henry O'Reilly.

"Are the publishers responsible men, and are they aware of the character of those who have given them that article, particularly the moral character of Smith, notorious for his debaucheries and condemned in court for subornation of perjury, and one of the most revengeful men, who has artfully got up this tirade because my agent, the late Honorable Amos Kendall, was compelled to resist his unrighteous claim upon me for some $25,000 which, after repeated trials lasting some twelve years, was at length, by a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, decided against him, and he was adjudged to owe me some $14,000?

"Mr. Kendall, previous to his decease, managed the case which has thus resulted. The necessity of seizing some property of his in the city of Williamsburg, through the course of the legal proceedings, has aroused his revengeful feelings, and he has openly threatened that he would be revenged upon me for it, and he has for two or three years past with O'Reilly been concocting this mode of revenge.

"If the publishers are respectable men, I think they will regret that they have been the dupes of these arch conspirators. If not too late to suppress that article I should be glad of an interview with them, in which I will satisfy them that they have been most egregiously imposed upon."

This was the last flash of that old fire which, when he was sufficiently aroused by righteous indignation at unjust attacks, had enabled him to strike out vigorously in self-defense, and had won him many a victory. He was now nearing the end of his physical resources. He had fought the good fight and he had no misgivings as to the verdict of posterity on his achievements. He could fight no more, willing and mentally able though he was to confound his enemies again. He must leave it to others to defend his fame and good name in the future. The last letter which was copied into his letter-press book was written on March 14, not three weeks before the last summons came to him, and it refers to his old enemy who thus pursued him even to the brink of the grave. It is addressed to F.J.

Mead, Esq.:--

"Although forbidden to read or write by my physician, who finds me prostrate with a severe attack of neuralgia in the head, I yet must thank you for your kind letter of the 12th inst.

"I should be much gratified to know what part Professor Henry has taken, if any, in this atrocious and absurd attack of F.O.J.S. I have no fears of the result, but no desire either to suspect any agency on the part of Professor Henry. It is difficult for me to conceive that a man in his position should not see the true position of the matter."

This vicious attack had no effect upon his fame. Dying as soon as it was born, choked by its own venom, it was overwhelmed by the wave of sorrow and sympathy which swept over the earth at the announcement of the death of the great inventor.

His last public appearance was on January 17, 1872, when he, in company with Horace Greeley, unveiled the statue of Benjamin Franklin in Printing House Square, New York. It was a very cold day, but, against the advice of his physician and his family, he insisted on being present. As he drove up in his carriage and, escorted by the committee, ascended to the platform, he was loudly cheered by the mult.i.tude which had a.s.sembled.