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 THE BEACON BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 M. A. DEWOLFE HOWE 
 
 SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN TROWBRIDGE

 
 SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE 
 
 JOHN TROWBRIDGE 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY 
 MDCCCCI
 
 Copyright, 
 By Small) Maynard fcf Company 
 
 (Incorporated") 
 
 Entered at Stationers 9 Hall 
 
 Press of 
 George H. Ellis, Boston
 
 The photogravure used as a frontispiece 
 to this volume is from an engraving, "by 
 W. 6r. Jaclcman, of a photograph ~by Brady, 
 taken when Morse was forty-five years old. 
 It is reproduced by permission of D. Ap- 
 pleton & Co. The present engraving is by 
 John Andrew & Son, of Boston.
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 I invite the attention of the reader to the 
 record of a man who spent the first half of 
 his life as an artist and the last half as an 
 electrician. The vast storehouse of Nature 
 was opened to him, and he was given honours 
 and gold. He changed the world more than 
 Ccesar or Napoleon. He took away the 
 occupation of great merchants who went 
 down to the sea in great ships. He bound 
 together the states of this great continent 
 with bands of iron. While an artist, no 
 canvas seemed to him large enough upon 
 which to express his ideas ; and, as an elec- 
 trician, he was given the whole surface of 
 the globe whereon to inscribe his name. Is 
 there not food for thought in the study of 
 this life f The historian will find therein a 
 stronger impulse to study the effect of science 
 upon human affairs, and will be led to 
 regard its influence more important and 
 lasting, perchance, than that exerted by the 
 greatest military hero. The electrician will
 
 viii PEEFACE 
 
 wonder why a man who had not fully im- 
 Mbed even the electrical knowledge of his 
 time, and who had no knowledge of mathe- 
 matics, should have been chosen to do this 
 thing. The psychologist will find problems 
 in this life in regard to the assimilation of 
 ideas, the importance of suggestion, the 
 value of initiative, and, in considering these, 
 may perhaps decide whether he can be 
 called a genius. The student of economics 
 can find in the story of telegraph litigation 
 a picture of the grasping men who adopt the 
 principles of socialism in order to prey on 
 the labors of an inventor under the pretence 
 of public utility. 
 
 J. T. 
 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, October, 1901.
 
 CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 1791 
 
 April 27. Samuel Finley Breese Morse 
 was born at Charlestown, Massachusetts. 
 
 1801 
 >er. Entered Andover Academy. 
 
 1807 
 September. Entered Yale College. 
 
 1811 
 
 July 13. Sailed for Europe to study 
 painting. 
 
 1813 
 
 May. Contributed a picture of the 
 Dying Hercules to the Eoyal Academy 
 Exhibition, London. 
 
 1815 
 August 21. Returned to America. 
 
 1817 
 
 January. Engaged to Miss Lucretia P. 
 "Walker of Concord, New Hampshire. 
 June. Went to Washington to take out
 
 x CHEONOLOGY 
 
 patents on a flexible piston pump, the 
 invention of his brothers and himself. 
 
 1818 
 
 October 1. Married Miss Lucretia P. 
 Walker. 
 
 1823 
 
 August 1. Took out a caveat for a ma- 
 chine for cutting marble. 
 
 1825 
 February 8. Death of his wife. 
 
 1826 
 
 January 15. Organised, in company with 
 others, the National Academy of Design. 
 
 1827 
 
 May 3. Delivered president's address on 
 the first anniversary of the Academy of 
 Design. 
 
 Winter. Eenewed his early interest in 
 experiments in electricity. 
 
 1829 
 
 November 8. Sailed for Europe to per- 
 fect himself in his profession as an 
 artist.
 
 CHBONOLOGY xi 
 
 1832 
 
 October 1. Eeturned to America in the 
 packet ship Sully, on which he first 
 thought of the telegraph. 
 
 1835 
 
 Autumn. Was appointed Professor of the 
 Literature of the Arts of Design in New 
 York City University. 
 
 1836 
 
 January. Exhibited to Professor L. D. 
 Gale models of his electric telegraph, 
 including a relay. 
 
 1837 
 
 September 2. Showed his apparatus in 
 successful operation to Alfred Vail. 
 October 3. Applied for a caveat on the 
 American Electro-magnetic Telegraph. 
 
 1838 
 
 January 6. First experiment with three 
 miles of coiled copper wire stretched 
 around a room of the factory in Speed- 
 well, New Jersey. 
 April 7. Applied for patent.
 
 xii CHEONOLOGY 
 
 1838 (continued) 
 
 May 16. Went to Europe to obtain 
 foreign patents. 
 
 1839 
 
 April 15. Eeturned to America, having 
 failed to obtain patents in England. 
 
 1840 
 
 May 24. First message sent over the 
 trial line between Baltimore and Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 June 20. Issue of the first patent on the 
 American Electro- magnetic Telegraph 
 to Samuel F. B. Morse. 
 
 1843 
 
 March 3. Congress appropriated $30,000 
 to test the value of the Morse telegraph. 
 
 1845 
 
 August 6. Sailed for Europe to introduce 
 his telegraph. 
 
 1846 
 
 April 11. Eeissue of Morse's patent. 
 June. Yale College conferred the degree 
 of LL.D.
 
 CHKONOLOGY xiii 
 
 1847 
 
 Married Miss Sarah E. Griswold of 
 Poughkeepsie, New York. 
 
 1848 
 
 March 1. The Sultan of Turkey recog- 
 nised by a decoration in diamonds the 
 inventor. This was the first recognition 
 by a foreign government. 
 August 24. Claim of Morse as the orig- 
 inal inventor of the telegraph brought 
 into the courts. 
 
 Decision of the Supreme bench in his 
 favor. 
 
 1855 
 
 Great gold medal of Science and Art 
 sent by Emperor of Austria. 
 
 1856 
 
 Order of the Chevalier of the Legion of 
 Honour conferred by the Emperor of 
 France. 
 
 June 5. Sailed for Europe. 
 October 2. Engaged on experiments with 
 submarine cable between Newfoundland 
 and Ireland.
 
 xiv CHRONOLOGY 
 
 1856 (continued) 
 
 October 9. Banquet to Mr. Morse in 
 London. 
 
 1858 
 
 July 24. Sailed for Europe. 
 September 1. Eeceived testimonial of four 
 hundred thousand francs from France, 
 Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Pied- 
 mont, Russia, Holy See, Sweden, Tus- 
 cany, and Turkey. 
 
 1866 
 June. Last visit to Europe. 
 
 1868 
 
 December 30. Banquet in his honour in 
 New York. 
 
 1871 
 
 June 10. Ceremonies at the erection of a 
 statue to Morse in Central Park. 
 
 1872 
 
 April 2. Samuel Finley Breese Morse 
 died at Poughkeepsie, New York.
 
 SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE.
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE. 
 I. 
 
 IT is said that Keats, the poet, con- 
 fessed that he had never felt the exhila- 
 ration of a great success. The lives of 
 most men are like the scoring in a musi- 
 cal composition, which fills in the pe- 
 riods between the entrances of the maes- 
 tro : well done it may be, but often 
 uninteresting. Samuel Finley Breese 
 Morse was selected by the Euler of the 
 universe to give to the world a method 
 of communication of thoughts and ideas 
 which was destined to create a greater 
 revolution than any military hero has 
 caused among nations. Why was this 
 man selected? Why was he given this 
 great success a success which must 
 have filled his soul with an exaltation 
 for which poets have longed in vain ? 
 
 It surely will be of interest even to 
 the non-scientific reader to study briefly 
 the career of one who realised Puck's
 
 2 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 boast who could indeed put a girdle 
 around the earth in forty minutes, and 
 who seemed to be an incarnation of the 
 Greek god whose disciples handed on 
 swiftly the torch of progress as they ran. 
 Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born 
 in Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 27, 
 1791. His ancestor on the father's side 
 came from Wiltshire, England, in 1635, 
 and settled in STewbury, Massachusetts. 
 His descendants were of the typical 
 stock which characterised the early peo- 
 ple of New England, sturdy most of 
 them lived beyond their eightieth year 
 and religious. The father of the in- 
 ventor was a clergyman of high stand- 
 ing, a graduate of Tale College, and 
 once a tutor there. He studied theology 
 under Dr. Jonathan Edwards, the son of 
 the great Edwards, and was settled over 
 the First Congregational Church in 
 Charlestown, April 30, 1789, the date 
 of Washington's inauguration in New 
 York as President of the United States.
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE 3 
 
 He was prominent all his life in affairs 
 connected with the Congregational be- 
 lief, and occupies a distinguished place 
 in the annals of this sect as estab- 
 lisher of the religious paper, the Pano- 
 plistj and as one of the founders of the 
 Congregational strongholds the Theo- 
 logical Seminary at Andover, the Amer- 
 ican Board of Foreign Missions, the 
 American Bible Society, and the Ameri- 
 can Tract Society. 
 
 He is sometimes called the Father 
 of American Geography, having pub- 
 lished many school-books on this sub- 
 ject. This progenitor also had, it is 
 said, a leaning toward invention. He 
 was a man of great energy and persist- 
 ence, two of the essential qualities in 
 a successful inventor ; and, in marking 
 these qualities, we get an inkling of one 
 of the causes of success of the son. It is 
 said that Daniel Webster once spoke of 
 him as " always thinking, always writ- 
 ing, always talking, always acting."
 
 4 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 Out of the loins of this sturdy Puritan 
 caine a new light into the world, which 
 was destined by the quick interchange 
 of ideas to modify profoundly New Eng- 
 land theology. In the Eev. Jedediah 
 Morse we see sturdy qualities which 
 might lead to success in any of the pro- 
 fessions ; but he never, apparently, be- 
 came strongly possessed with an idea. 
 He was not an imaginative man. From 
 whom, then, did the son obtain his ar- 
 tistic side and that combination of the 
 faculty of conceiving forms impalpable 
 to others, with the qualities which made 
 Dr. Eliot say of the Eev. Jedediah, 
 "What an astonishing impetus that 
 man has ' J I Let us see what manner of 
 woman the mother was. 
 
 She was of Scotch descent, her 
 grandfather, Dr. Finley, being of Scotch 
 parentage, but born in Ireland. He be- 
 came president of Princeton College, and 
 was also a distinguished Presbyterian 
 clergyman. It was said that she pos-
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 5 
 
 sessed a judicial mind, which was in 
 marked contrast to the sanguine and im- 
 pulsive spirit of her husband. She was 
 evidently a feminine balance wheel, 
 one of those women of Scotch descent 
 whom we have all known, a woman 
 with business qualities judiciously con- 
 cealed by attractive feminine traits. 
 One of her sons, in speaking of the grave 
 debates at the house of his father over 
 the much-mooted plan of the Middle- 
 sex Canal a project which strongly ap- 
 pealed to the sanguine spirit of the Eev. 
 Jedediah relates this commendation 
 of the distinguished engineer, Loammi 
 Baldwin : "Mrs. Morse was present, not 
 merely as a listener, but occasionally 
 spoke ; and her words elicited from 
 Baldwin the remark that Madam's con- 
 versation and cup of tea removed moun- 
 tains in the way of making the canal. ? ? 
 The pictures we get of this good mother 
 of eleven children is that of a wise 
 provide? and economiser of a preacher's
 
 6 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 sparse living in those days. She stands 
 out from the records, a Copley portrait, 
 with a shrewd, motherly face, undoubt- 
 edly of Scotch lineament, set off by a 
 sober snood and ample sleeves. A por- 
 trait of her by her distinguished son 
 represents her reading by candle-light. 
 She was said to be fond of literature, 
 and this portrait emphasises this love ; 
 but where was the artistic tempera- 
 ment? 
 
 Of the eleven children of this woman, 
 only three survived infancy. These 
 were sons who were good citizens, noted 
 as men of good parts. Sidney Morse 
 was an inventor, and the author of a 
 school geography which had a great 
 circulation, and which many of us re- 
 member to have thumbed in our youth. 
 Through these brothers of Samuel Finley 
 Breese Morse we see a strain of the same 
 qualities which distinguished him, and 
 which they received as a direct inheri- 
 tance from the father. The imaginative
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 7 
 
 and the artistic element was not de- 
 veloped in any of them with the excep- 
 tion of the subject of this sketch. The 
 fates seemed to be propitious and to be 
 preparing a career for this chosen of 
 men ; for, in the very year of Morse's 
 birth, Galvani, like a high priest ob- 
 serving the entrails and prognosticating 
 the future, investigated the twitching 
 of a frog's leg when it was touched with 
 a scalpel, and led Volta in 1800 to in- 
 vent the battery which was to be Morse's 
 servant. What legend in classical times 
 is more laden with omens in regard to 
 the birth of a hero ? Here is what lends 
 an uncommon interest to our study of 
 this man. Why was he selected to hand 
 on the torch of progress a man in 
 a new world, untrained in science, far 
 from the great intellectual centres, Lon- 
 don, Berlin and Paris, new in a subject 
 in which there were such giants as Fara- 
 day and Gauss? We are reminded of 
 singular growths in the plant world.
 
 8 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 A seed escaping from overpowering 
 shade and falling on a suitable soil can 
 convert a desert reef into an island of 
 delight. The American environment 
 seems to have been especially fitted for 
 the reception of electrical ideas. There 
 is something in electricity especially 
 congenial to the spirit of the race. 
 
 Dr. Belknap of Boston, writing to 
 Postmaster-general Hazard, said : " Con- 
 gratulate the Monmouth Judge [Mr. 
 Breese, the grandfather] on the birth 
 of a grandson. Next Sunday he is to be 
 loaded with names, not quite so many as 
 the Spanish ambassador who signed the 
 treaty of peace of 1783, but only four ! 
 As to the child, I saw him asleep, so 
 can say nothing of his eye or his 
 genius peeping through it. He may 
 have the sagacity of a Jewish rabbi or 
 the profundity of a Calvin or the sub- 
 limity of a Homer for aught I know. 
 But time will bring forth all things." 
 
 At seven years of age Morse attended
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 9 
 
 a school at Andover, Massachusetts, 
 preparatory for Phillips Academy. In 
 this latter school he was fitted for Yale 
 College, which he entered in his fifteenth 
 year. When a student, his letters to his 
 parents indicate an interest in science, 
 and especially in electricity. The in- 
 struction in physical science in those 
 days was very meagre. Jeremiah Day 
 was then professor of natural philosophy 
 in Yale College. The learned professor 
 has given (with evident satisfaction) this 
 record of his lectures : 
 
 "In my lectures on Natural Philoso- 
 phy the subject of electricity was spe- 
 cially illustrated and experimented upon. 
 Enfield's work was the text-book. 
 
 "The terms of the twenty-first propo- 
 sition of Book Y. of 'Enfield's Philoso- 
 phy 7 are these : * If the circuit be in- 
 terrupted, the fluid will become visible, 
 and when it passes, it will leave an im- 
 pression upon any intermediate body.' 
 
 "I lectured upon and illustrated the
 
 10 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 first two experiments propounded by the 
 twenty-first proposition, and I recollect 
 the fact with certainty by memoranda 
 now in my possession. The experiments 
 referred to are in terms as follows : 
 
 " 'Experiment 1. Let the fluid pass 
 through a chain or through any metallic 
 bodies placed at small distances from 
 each other, the fluid in a dark room will 
 be visible between the links of the chain 
 or between the metallic bodies. 7 
 
 " i Experiment 2. If the circuit be in- 
 terrupted by several folds of paper, a 
 perforation will be made through it, and 
 each of the leaves will be protruded 
 by the stroke from the middle to the 
 outward leaves. 7 77 
 
 Writing in 1867, Morse said: "The 
 fact that the presence of electricity can 
 be made visible in any desired part of 
 the circuit was the crude seed which took 
 root in my mind, and grew into form, 
 and ripened into the invention of the 
 telegraph. 77
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 11 
 
 In a letter home February 27, 1809, 
 he writes : 
 
 "Mr. Day's lectures are very interest- 
 ing. They are upon electricity. He 
 has given us some very fine experiments. 
 The whole class, taking hold of hands, 
 form the circuit of communication, and 
 we all received the shock apparently at 
 the same moment. I never took an elec- 
 tric shock before. It felt as if some 
 person had struck me a slight blow across 
 the arms." 
 
 It is probable that there was greater 
 scientific activity at that time in Yale 
 College than in any other American col- 
 lege. Benjamin Silliman was then pro- 
 fessor of chemistry ; and the brilliant 
 researches of Sir Humphry Davy with 
 the electric battery which led to the dis- 
 covery of the metal potassium, .naturally 
 attracted the attention of a brother 
 chemist to electricity. 
 
 Professor Silliman, in speaking of 
 Morse's early interest in that subject,
 
 12 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 said : " S. F. B. Morse was an attendant 
 on my lectures in the years 1808, 1809, 
 and 1810. I delivered lectures on chem- 
 istry and galvanic electricity. The bat- 
 teries then in use were the pile of Volta, 
 the battery of Cruikshank, and the 
 Couronne des tosses, well known to the 
 cultivators of that science. I always ex- 
 hibited these batteries to my classes. 
 They were dissected before them ; and 
 their members and the arrangement of 
 the parts, and the mode of exciting them, 
 were always shown. 77 
 
 At the same time lectures were given 
 at Harvard College on electricity by 
 Professor Frisbie. These lectures were 
 always referred to with great enthusiasm 
 by those who heard them, and Professor 
 Frisbie exists still as a great traditionary 
 teacher. He also, doubtless, had modifi- 
 cations of the Voltaic pile, Dr. Hare's 
 deflagrator, which was simply a battery 
 with large metallic plates, the invention 
 of which seems a small matter to us now,
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 13 
 
 but which excited great interest in the 
 infancy of the subject. All the appara- 
 tus on the subject of electricity in those 
 days in Harvard College could be con- 
 tained in a small cupboard, if we except 
 a massive electrical machine, ordered for 
 the college by Benjamin Franklin. I 
 cannot help thinking that Morse was 
 fortunate in attending Yale College, for 
 there was no one in Harvard College at 
 that time in physical science of the 
 weight of Benjamin Silliman. Morse 
 evidently got all there was to be had at 
 that time on the subject of electricity. 
 He acquired a smattering of chemistry, 
 and speaks of studying optics, dialing, 
 and Homer. It is interesting to speculate 
 upon the future of young Morse if he had 
 not been thrown at a formative period 
 into an academic life where the latest 
 discoveries in electricity were commented 
 upon and the fundamental experiments 
 in science repeated. 
 In studying Morse's career in college
 
 14 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 the most prominent feature, after all, is 
 not his love for electricity or invention. 
 If he had never invented the telegraph, 
 I doubt whether his letters home on the 
 subject of electricity would have been 
 thought significant. The heat of litiga- 
 tion over his patents in after years 
 brought them to light, and invested 
 them with interest. Many a boy has 
 written from his school fuller accounts 
 of his experiments in chemistry, and 
 has ended by becoming a dry-goods 
 merchant. No, Morse's love for elec- 
 tricity was entirely subordinate to his 
 love for painting. Perhaps, like Goethe, 
 he mistook his vocation, and longed to 
 excel in directions which were really 
 paths of greatest resistance for him. 
 This striving for excellence in the great 
 art of painting has been a characteristic 
 of inventors and mechanicians. I re- 
 member that Alvan Clark, the maker 
 of great telescopes, cut short his ex- 
 planation of the processes by which he
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 15 
 
 ground and tested his lenses, in order to 
 show me the portraits he painted and 
 to dwell lovingly upon the values and 
 the chiaro-oscuro. A little encourage- 
 rn^nt, an imprimatur from the consti- 
 tuted critics of art, would have changed 
 his career from a discoverer of new 
 worlds to a painter of the fleeting ghosts 
 of men. Our thoughts, too, go back to 
 the great Tuscan, Leonardo da Yinci, 
 who was a renowned painter, and who 
 also invented the wheelbarrow, together 
 with many other devices. He too was 
 fortunate in his environment. 
 
 The letters from Morse's classmates 
 dwell upon his taste for drawing and 
 painting. He speaks in 1809 of em- 
 ploying all his leisure time upon paint- 
 ing. He took orders for profiles at one 
 dollar a head and for miniatures on 
 ivory at five dollars. In 1810 he writes 
 to his parents on the eve of graduation : 
 
 "I am now released from college, and 
 am attending to painting. As to my
 
 16 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 choice of a profession, I still think I 
 was made for a painter, and would be 
 obliged to you to make such arrange- 
 ments with Mr. Allston for my studying 
 with him as you shall think expedient. 
 I should desire to study with him during 
 the winter ; and, as he expects to return 
 to England in the spring, I should ad- 
 mire to be able to go with him. But 
 of this we will talk when we meet at 
 home." 
 
 One is struck by the fact that his 
 parents did not object to their son adopt- 
 ing what was then considered a vis- 
 ionary profession. The Bev. Jedediah 
 Morse was a practical divine a man 
 of affairs in so far as a clergyman can 
 be ; and he had given his son, at con- 
 siderable cost, a liberal education, to 
 fit him for the learned professions. We 
 hear, however, of no remonstrance from 
 the father or mother. His mother gives 
 directions in regard to his costume at 
 the coming Commencement, and his
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 17 
 father permits him to be one of the 
 managers at the Commencement ball. 
 The winter after Morse's graduation was 
 spent in Boston, where he attended a 
 course of anatomical and surgical lect- 
 ures under Dr. Warren, evidently with 
 the intention of fitting himself for the 
 profession of an artist. He also made 
 the acquaintance of Washington Allston, 
 who was destined to influence greatly 
 the artistic epoch of his life. One at 
 the present day, with the multiplication 
 of illustrated journals and periodicals, 
 the great increase of art collections, and 
 the opportunities for foreign travel, can- 
 not realise the surroundings of an artis- 
 tic young man in Boston in 1810. Even 
 in 1850 I remember that I was taken, 
 while a small boy, into a room in the 
 Boston Athenseum to see a great un- 
 finished picture by Washington Allston, 
 Belshazzar' s Feast. This, with a few 
 other pictures by Allston and Copley, 
 were all that a boy fond of art could
 
 18 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 see ; and it was considered an event to 
 be taken to Boston, up Beacon Street, 
 into the modest building dignified by 
 the name of " Athenaeum. " Steam and 
 the telegraph have been potent ele- 
 ments in the change that has come to 
 us. Washington Allston was a great 
 name to conjure by in those days ; and 
 the young Morse, aspirant for fame, 
 evidently was stirred to the depths by 
 his intercourse with the great man. 
 There is little of this hero-worship 
 to-day, and Morse's invention has much 
 to do with the absence of it. His in- 
 vention, however, probably has had less 
 effect on the career that he began life 
 with than on any other field of human 
 effort. 
 
 July 13, 1811, Morse sailed for Eu- 
 rope on the vessel Lydia, in company 
 with Washington Allston and his wife. 
 The voyage occupied twenty-six days. 
 There were premonitions of the War of 
 1812 ; but Americans were apparently
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 19 
 
 well received in England and subjected 
 to no annoyances. Benjamin West was 
 then at the height of his reputation 5 and 
 Morse, the young aspirant for artistic 
 fame, was introduced to him by Wash- 
 ington Allston. Truly, a distinguished 
 audience and a distinguished introducer ! 
 West was then in his seventy-fourth year. 
 He had become, perhaps, the foremost 
 painter of his time in England. A man 
 of indefatigable industry, his paintings 
 numbered more than six hundred ; and 
 Morse's letters are full of admiration of 
 his countryman and of desires of emula- 
 tion. In after years he said to a friend : 
 "I called upon Mr. West at his house in 
 Newman Street one morning ; and, in 
 conformity with the order given to his 
 servant Eobert, always to admit Mr. 
 Leslie and myself even if he was engaged 
 in his private studies, I was shown into 
 his studio. As I entered, a half-length 
 portrait of George III. stood before me 
 upon an easel, and Mr. West was sitting
 
 20 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 with his back toward me, copying from 
 it upon canvas. My name having been 
 mentioned to him, he did not turn, but, 
 pointing with the pencil he had in his 
 hand to the portrait from which he was 
 copying, he said, 
 
 "'Do you see that picture, Mr. 
 Morse f 7 
 
 " 'Yes, sir, 7 I said. 'I perceive it is 
 the portrait of the king. 7 
 
 " ' Well, 7 said Mr. West, ' the king was 
 sitting to me for that portrait when the 
 box containing the American Declara- 
 tion of Independence was handed to 
 him. 7 
 
 "'Indeed, 7 I answered; 'and what 
 appeared to be the emotions of the king ? 
 What did he say ! ' 
 
 "'Well, sir, 7 said Mr. West, 'he 
 made a reply characteristic of the good- 
 ness of his heart, 7 or words to that effect. 
 'Well, if they can be happier under 
 the government they have chosen than 
 under mine, I shall be happy. 7 77
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 21 
 
 The art life of Morse in London seems 
 to have filled all his desires. An intimate 
 friend was Leslie, the artist. He met 
 Wilberforce, Coleridge, and Bogers, and 
 was in constant intercourse with Allston 
 and West. He says in a letter to his 
 parents, September 20, 1812 : "My pas- 
 sion for my art is so firmly rooted that I 
 am confident no human power could de- 
 stroy it. The more I study, the greater 
 I think is its claim to the appellation of 
 divine j and I never shall be able suf- 
 ficiently to show my gratitude to my 
 parents for enabling me to pursue that 
 profession, without which, I am sure, I 
 should be miserable. 7 ' A model in clay 
 of a Dying Hercules was highly com- 
 mended at this time both by Allston 
 and West, and their praise excited this 
 artistic exuberance of feeling. 
 
 Electricity in later life was destined 
 to supplant art and to pervade his whole 
 being, while the colours dried on his 
 palette and lost their bloom. Surely
 
 22 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 this man seemed bound irrevocably to 
 art ; and there was something extremely 
 mysterious in the influences which were 
 destined in middle life to give him an- 
 other career, totally different from that 
 which he entered upon in enthusiastic 
 youth. During the four or five years of 
 his artist apprenticeship in London there 
 is not an inkling of a turn for science. 
 We do not hear of any visits to the Koyal 
 Institution, where Sir Humphry Davy 
 had made his brilliant discoveries by the 
 aid of the electrical current. There was 
 no effort to become acquainted with the 
 men prominent in electrical science. 
 Art engrossed all his tastes and faculties. 
 She was his mistress, whom he one day 
 was destined to leave. This complete 
 absence of interest in science during those 
 years in London, the centre of science in 
 those days, is remarkable. 
 
 He was in London during the War of 
 1812 and during the War of the Allies, 
 which culminated in the battle of Water-
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 23 
 loo. His letters home give an interesting 
 picture of those stirring times. He re- 
 marks in 1813 that the expenses of his first 
 year were two hundred pounds, and he 
 hopes that the same sum will carry him 
 through a second. He was obliged to deny 
 himself every luxury. His breakfast was 
 bread and butter and two cups of coffee ; 
 his dinner, one kind of meat with po- 
 tatoes warm twice a week, the rest of 
 the week cold ; his tea, bread and but- 
 ter, with two cups of tea. A pound at 
 that time went no farther than a dollar 
 in America. His painting materials 
 were very expensive. England was at 
 war with America, and there were no 
 quick steamship lines to bring beef and 
 breadstuffs from the western continent. 
 London was almost archaic in its methods 
 of transportation. A curious picture of 
 this is presented in a note of invitation 
 to young Morse from a Mr. 2/achary 
 Macaulay: "Mr. M.'s house is five 
 doors beyond the Plough, at the entrance
 
 24 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE 
 to Clapham Common. A coach goes 
 daily to Clapham from the Ship at Char- 
 ing Cross, at a quarter-past three ; and 
 several leave Grace Church Street in the 
 City every day at four. The distance 
 from London Bridge to Mr. Macaulay's 
 house is about four miles." 
 
 The method of transportation in the 
 city was by means of miserable hackney 
 coaches with straw in the bottom and 
 by cabs painted yellow, with drivers 
 on little boxes at the side. These, how- 
 ever, were soon superseded by four- 
 wheelers and the hansom. Still, London 
 was then, as it is now, the centre of the 
 civilised world ; and Morse's residence 
 there must have been a course of liberal 
 education and a great stimulant of the 
 faculties of observation. He saw the 
 entre*e of Louis XVIII. into London in 
 1814, with his splendid band of music 
 of fifty pieces, his carriage drawn by 
 eight Arabian cream-coloured horses, 
 the king a corpulent little man, with
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOKSE 25 
 
 round face, dark eyes, prominent feat- 
 ures, " hands extended sometimes as if 
 in adoration to heaven, at others as if 
 blessing the people." He saw the great 
 Emperor Alexander and Marshal Blii- 
 cher, "a veteran-looking soldier, a 
 very fine head, monstrous moustaches." 
 Meanwhile he was making progress in 
 his art. He painted a picture of the 
 Dying Hercules of great size, which was 
 exhibited in the Eoyal Academy at 
 Somerset House. The London Globe, 
 May 14, 1813, has this notice: "The 
 great feature in this exhibition is that 
 it presents several works of very high 
 merit by artists with whose perform- 
 ances, and even with whose names, we 
 were hitherto unacquainted. At the 
 head of this class are Messrs. Monro and 
 Morse." A plaster model of this figure 
 was sent to the Society of Arts, and 
 received a gold medal. The picture re- 
 ceived much praise ; and a critic in the 
 British press, May 4, 1813, placed it
 
 26 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 among the nine best paintings in a gal- 
 lery which contained pictures by Turner, 
 Northcote, Lawrence, and Wilkie. 
 
 The first years of enthusiasm in the 
 pursuit of his art were delightful. He 
 had made influential friends, he was at 
 the centre of the universe, and the times 
 were stirring. As the term of his resi- 
 dence and apprenticeship drew to a 
 close, he was naturally desirous of earn- 
 ing something ; and he set out for Bristol, 
 where he had been led to think he might 
 obtain commissions. His experience 
 there is significant; for he received, in the 
 old slave port and thoroughly commer- 
 cial town of the west of England, the 
 first dampening of his artistic enthusi- 
 asm. This discouragement, followed by 
 others when he returned to America, had 
 much to do with the turning of his 
 attention to invention. He had received 
 some pressing letters from a Mr. Visscher 
 to visit Bristol to reap a promised har- 
 vest of sitters. This quondam friend was
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 27 
 reputed to be worth a hundred thousand 
 pounds, and liked to play the role of a 
 Maecenas without the necessary gesture 
 of putting his hand in his pocket. 
 Morse had with him some picture frames 
 which pleased Visscher's fancy, and the 
 latter desired the artist to paint some 
 pictures to fill them. Accordingly 
 Morse spent three months time in execut- 
 ing what he believed was a commission. 
 When the pictures were finished, Yisscher 
 was pleased with them, but declined to 
 take them, saying that he already had 
 more pictures than he knew what to do 
 with. Not a single commission was re- 
 ceived in Bristol. Washington Allston 
 was with Morse on this unsuccessful trip. 
 He too received no encouragement ; and 
 the two artists, impoverished in purse 
 and spirit, returned to London. A germ 
 of discontent at the world's treatment of 
 artists must have been implanted at that 
 time in Morse's breast. It was destined 
 to grow on his return to America, and
 
 28 SAMUEL P. B. MOESE 
 nothing short of the possession of great 
 genius in art could have stifled it. The 
 faculty of invention was stronger than 
 that of art, and it was lying dormant. 
 If Washington Allston was unsuccessful, 
 what hope could there be for Morse? 
 The Fates were spinning iron cobwebs 
 for him, bands which were destined in 
 time to encircle the world, and to hold 
 treasures such as he did not dream of in 
 his wildest flight of imagination. He 
 writes thus to his parents in the spring, 
 before his return to America : 
 
 " I live on as plain food, and as little, 
 as is for my health. Less and plainer 
 would make me ill, for I have given it 
 a fair experiment. As for clothes, I 
 have been decent, and that is all. If 
 I visited a great deal, this would be a 
 heavy expense ; but the less I go out, the 
 less need I care for clothes, except for 
 cleanliness. My only heavy expenses 
 are colours, canvas, frames, etc. ; and 
 these are heavy. "
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 29 
 I have sometimes thought that history 
 could be written on a new plan. In- 
 stead of dwelling upon the doings of the 
 puppets of the time during which young 
 Morse spent his apprenticeship in Lon- 
 don Bliicher, the Czar, Napoleon it 
 might be well to pick out the men who 
 were destined to affect permanently the 
 face of the globe. When Napoleon was 
 the principal figure on the world's stage, 
 about to end a strenuous life, which 
 resulted in consolidating Germany and 
 leading to the subsequent disaster at 
 Sedan, the inventor of the telegraph, 
 which was destined to bind together the 
 remote States of California and Massa- 
 chusetts in one great confederacy of 
 civilisation, was unknown in London. 
 There too was young Faraday, whose 
 researches on electricity were destined to 
 light the cities of the world and revolu- 
 tionise methods of travel ; and greater 
 factors in changing the face of the world 
 were there also, James "Watt and Bob- 

 
 30 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 ert Stevenson. These men, in this new 
 plan of writing history, were the real 
 actors behind the scenes. The others 
 strutted a little day, and caused some 
 stains of blood. The development of 
 the world is due to science ; and this 
 development, properly speaking, traced 
 throughout its economic and even its 
 spiritual aspect, should be the true func- 
 tion of history rather than the relation 
 of acts of prowess and schemes of futile 
 diplomacy. But I fear such histories 
 would find few readers ; for Pope's epi- 
 gram, "The proper study of mankind 
 is man, 77 seems to be still considered an 
 expression of wisdom. 
 
 It is probable that the unsettled state 
 of the continent and the state of his 
 finances prevented Morse from studying 
 out of England. He apparently did 
 not visit Eome or Venice j and there is 
 no reference to any pictures save those 
 of Benjamin West, Washington Allston, 
 and others of the English school of por-
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 31 
 
 trait and historical painters. Travel at 
 that time was a serious matter, and there 
 was an excuse for the provincialism of 
 English art. Steam has had its influ- 
 ence on painting. It may not have been 
 a beneficent one, but it has been potent. 
 
 During the last year of Morse's resi- 
 dence in England, 1815, Napoleon had 
 returned from Elba. Louis XVIII. had 
 again fled from the capital doubtless 
 with chubby hands extended to heaven 
 and Bliicher was retwisting that heavy 
 moustache. On June 18, 1815, the battle 
 of Waterloo was fought ; and the news 
 did not reach London for two days. 
 Morse's telegraph would have sent it in 
 a few seconds. The young painter's ac- 
 count of the reception of the news of 
 the entrance of the allied armies into 
 Paris is interesting. 
 
 " As I passed through Hyde Park on 
 my way to Kensington Grove, I observed 
 great crowds had gathered, and rumours 
 were rife that the allied armies had en- 

 
 32 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 tered Paris, that Napoleon was a pris- 
 oner, and that the war was virtually at 
 an end. . . . On entering the drawing- 
 room at Mr. Wilberforce's, I found the 
 company, consisting of Mr. Thornton, 
 Mr. Macaulay, Mr. Grant, the father 
 and his two sons Eobert and Charles, and 
 Eobert Owen of Lanark, in quite ex- 
 cited conversation respecting the ru- 
 mours that prevailed. Mr. Wilberforce 
 expatiated largely on the prospects of a 
 universal peace in consequence of the 
 probable overthrow of Napoleon. ... I 
 sat near a window which looked out in 
 the direction of the distant park. Pres- 
 ently a flash and a distant dull report of 
 a gun attracted my attention, but was 
 unnoticed by the rest of the company. 
 Presently another flash and report as- 
 sured me that the park guns were firing, 
 and at once I called Mr. "Wilberforce 7 s 
 attention to the fact. Eunning to the 
 window, he threw it up in time to see 
 the next flash and hear the next report.
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 33 
 Clasping his hands in silence, with the 
 tears rolling down his cheeks, he stood 
 for a few moments perfectly absorbed in 
 thought, and, before uttering a word, 
 embraced his wife and daughter, and 
 shook hands with every one in the 
 room." 
 
 Beside "Wilberforce the reformer, stood 
 at that moment a man whose invention 
 was destined to have a greater influence 
 on the abolition of slavery than the voice 
 of even the great English champion. It 
 was destined to revolutionise the conduct 
 of wars, to make impossible another 
 secret passage of the Alps by a Napoleon, 
 and to render nugatory forced marches 
 over wide extent of country. How 
 much it was destined to nip in the bud 
 future military heroes we can best judge 
 by considering what it might have pre- 
 vented in the career of Napoleon.
 
 II. 
 
 AUGUST 21, 1815, Morse returned to 
 America to practise his profession. He 
 set up a studio in Boston. His picture, 
 The Judgment of Jupiter, was on ex- 
 hibition, and, being the production of 
 the pupil of Allston and West, attracted 
 much attention. But the young artist 
 found little to do. His picture was not 
 bought, and he had no orders for new 
 ones. The Bristol experience seemed 
 to be repeated, and the inventive spirit 
 within him asserted itself. If success 
 was denied in one direction, it might be 
 obtained in another. The art in him 
 was destined to receive severe blows; 
 but what a future was to be given to the 
 vanquished ! He invented, together 
 with his brother, Sidney E. Morse, dur- 
 ing the winter of 1816, an improvement 
 in a pump for a fire-engine. A patent 
 was secured, and the inventors had great 
 hopes for a while. In a notice of it we
 
 SAMUEL P. B. MOESE 35 
 
 find that four men could work it with 
 ease and deliver three hundred and sixty 
 gallons in one minute. Eli Whitney, 
 the inventor of the cotton-gin, said of it : 
 " Having examined the model of a fire- 
 engine invented by Mr. Morse, with 
 pistons of a new construction, I am of 
 opinion that an engine may be made 
 on that principle (being more simple 
 and much less expensive) which would 
 have a preference to those in common 
 use." 
 
 For several years Morse endeavoured 
 to bring his invention into use, and had 
 his first experience in this arduous and 
 vexatious work. It was destined to be a 
 failure. 
 
 During the autumn of 1816 and the 
 winter of 1816-17 he became an itiner- 
 ant artist, and painted portraits at fif- 
 teen dollars a head in several towns in 
 New Hampshire and Vermont. At Con- 
 cord, New Hampshire, he met with con- 
 siderable success, and wrote to his par-
 
 36 SAMUEL P. B. MOESE 
 ents that he believed that he could make 
 an independent fortune in a few years if 
 he devoted himself exclusively to por- 
 trait painting, so great was the desire 
 of his countrymen to have their portraits 
 painted. In Concord that winter he 
 met Miss Lucretia P. Walker, whom he 
 afterward married. Their engagement, 
 in 1817, made it all the more obligatory 
 upon him to make a success in his art ; 
 but the field of invention seemed the 
 quicker way to a competence, and much 
 of his time was taken up in endeavour- 
 ing to interest people in his pump. Men 
 ran to fires in those days with antiquated 
 engines, which were worked by hand 
 racks ; and the streams of water which 
 they threw were ridiculously inadequate. 
 Morse's pump could deliver a large 
 stream, and he had great hopes that 
 many cities and towns would buy his 
 invention. The town of Concord, New 
 Hampshire, bought one; and the New 
 hire Patriot of April 14, 1818,
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESB 37 
 
 spoke well of it. But other towns did 
 not follow the example of Concord ; and 
 in 1818 he writes to his parents: "The 
 machine business (between ourselves) I 
 am heartily sick of. It yields much 
 vexation, labour, and expense, and no 
 profit. Yet I will not abandon it. I 
 will do as well as I can with it ; but I 
 will make it subservient to my painting, 
 as I am sure of a support, and even in- 
 dependence, if I pursue it diligently, 
 and I am sure I am disposed to do it." 
 If he had been seized with the idea of a 
 telegraph at that time, the idea would 
 have been vanquished also by the genius 
 of painting j for the time was not ripe. 
 Henry had not begun his researches, and 
 even the exaltation of spirits of the en- 
 gagement to an attractive woman could 
 not hasten the appointed time. The 
 man's spirit must be chastened by years 
 of trial. Others must work for this ap- 
 pointed high priest of electricity. 
 
 While the affair of the pump was
 
 38 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE 
 pushed by his brother, Morse set out 
 for Charleston, South Carolina, on a 
 painting tour. His uncle, Dr. Finley, 
 introduced him in the southern city, 
 sat for his portrait, and thus opened 
 the way to a greater success than had 
 been previously obtained. Many por- 
 traits were painted at sixty dollars a 
 head. He could not fill his orders, and 
 visions of a happy future filled his let- 
 ters to the young woman who was wait- 
 ing for him at the North. In May, 
 1818, he returned to Boston, having 
 painted fifty-three portraits and taken 
 orders for nine others which were to be 
 completed. In the autumn of that year 
 he was married, and set out on a bridal 
 tour with horse and gig. His account 
 of this tour is an interesting picture of 
 the times when methods of communica- 
 tion were primitive. The roads were 
 bad, and so were the taverns at the end 
 of the day 7 s j ourney . The happy couple 
 reached Amherst after a jolting trip,
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 39 
 
 continued their journey through Wilton 
 to New Ipswich, and, having found that 
 there were many cross-roads on the way 
 to Northampton, which they intended 
 to reach, and no taverns, they re- 
 turned with a worn-out horse to Con- 
 cord. Early in November the young 
 married couple embarked on a sailing 
 vessel for Charleston, to work out the 
 lode previously opened. Morse found 
 that several other artists, attracted by 
 his success, had set up their easels in 
 that city. And even a waiter in one of 
 the hotels had discovered that he too 
 was an artist. The field, however, was 
 not entirely worked out ; and Morse 
 was soon fully occupied. In a letter to 
 Washington Allston, full of high spirits, 
 he says that he is painting from morn- 
 ing to night, and feels that in a few 
 years, at the rate he is progressing, he 
 will be independent of public patronage. 
 He states that he feels as much enthusi- 
 asm as ever for his art, and loves it more
 
 40 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 and more. He asks the great painter's 
 
 opinion on the following point : 
 
 "I have been using a compound, or 
 rather mixture, in flesh, on which I 
 wish your opinion. Yellow ochre has 
 heretofore been the best yellow I could 
 use, but it always appeared to me to 
 want brilliancy. Chrome yellow, on 
 the contrary, is too bright, or eggy ; 
 but these two I have mixed half and 
 half, and find it excellent flesh yellow. 
 I find this mixture also excellent in the 
 shadows of white drapery and in re- 
 flected lights, when properly tempered 
 with blue and red. A very strong tint 
 of this yellow, laid on boldly in a 
 shadow, gives a clearness and liquidness 
 to it which no other yellow that I 
 have used can give, and gives a warmth 
 and glow to the picture, without being 
 hot. I should like to know the result 
 of your experiment with it." Here 
 was invention in the art of colour. 
 This extract, too, shows that he was
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 41 
 working hard at what he considered 
 his life's work, bending all his thoughts 
 toward painting, and striving for excel- 
 lence in it. His interest in art was also 
 shown by his activity in establishing, 
 with others, the South Carolina Acad- 
 emy of Fine Arts, which, however, soon 
 died a natural death. 
 
 In the winter of 1821, on his return to 
 the North, reaching out evidently for 
 greater things, he made studies for an 
 immense picture of the House of Bepre- 
 sentatives at Washington, with por- 
 traits of each of the members. He ob- 
 tained the use of one of the rooms in the 
 Capitol, and often spent sixteen hours 
 a day on his work. The canvas was 
 eleven feet by seven and a half, and 
 there were eighty portraits. He real- 
 ised nothing from this arduous under- 
 taking. When the picture was placed 
 on exhibition, the public did not go 
 to see it ; and it was finally sold to 
 an Englishman, who took it to London.
 
 42 SAMUEL F. B. MOE8E 
 It afterward was sent to New York, 
 where it was found in 1847 by a friend 
 of the artist, nailed against a board 
 partition in the third story of a down- 
 town store, covered with dirt and dust. 
 It became finally the property of Daniel 
 Huntington. Washington Allston once 
 said of it to Morse, "It is a magnificent 
 picture. " The elder painter evidently 
 had a love for his pupil, and was in- 
 clined to regard him more highly than 
 the world did. We often find men of 
 genius holding their critical faculty in 
 abeyance and praising without stint 
 men whose personality pleases them. 
 Having failed in his ambitious venture 
 and receiving no orders for great his- 
 torical or allegorical pictures, Morse 
 again became an itinerant artist, this 
 time in upper New Tork State. Again, 
 with failure to achieve his highest ideals 
 in art, his mind turned to invention, 
 which is said to be the resort of all 
 unsuccessful Americans at some period
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 43 
 of their lives. He devised a machine 
 this time for cutting marble and pro- 
 ducing copies of works of sculpture. 
 Again his hopes ran high, and he wrote 
 affectionate letters to his wife, expressing 
 the earnest desire that fortune would 
 enable him to give up his peripatetic 
 life in search of sitters, and allow him 
 to settle down in peace and comfort 
 with his family about him. This in- 
 vention came to nothing. It was said 
 to be mechanically successful, but the 
 world did not want it. While Morse 
 was endeavouring to find occupation in 
 Albany, Joseph Henry, a teacher in 
 an academy there, was occupied in re- 
 searches which were destined to make 
 his name famous, and, while contribut- 
 ing nothing to his own purse, gave 
 Morse both a name and a fortune. 
 
 The days in Albany were full of dis- 
 couragement 5 and, after a summer spent 
 there, he returned to IsTew Haven for a 
 brief visit to his family. He had come
 
 44 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 to the conclusion to settle in New York, 
 and make the struggle of his life in 
 a metropolis. There were to be no 
 more back districts, no more itinerancy, 
 for him. Like hundreds of others, he 
 sought a great city, and, like hundreds 
 of others, came near being merged in 
 the mass and finally thrown out of the 
 maelstrom, worn and stranded. The 
 pictures presented by his letters to his 
 faithful wife, waiting for the ship to 
 come in alas ! she was destined never 
 to see it are pathetic. He obtained a 
 room at two dollars and twenty-five cents 
 a week, and hired a studio on Broadway, 
 opposite Trinity churchyard. He wrote 
 that there were many artists, all poor and 
 complaining. New York seemed given 
 wholly to commerce. Money-making 
 then was the chief end of man. He was 
 reduced to great straits. At a reception 
 a sneak thief stole his hat ; and he was 
 obliged to pay four dollars for a new 
 one, which broke his last five dollar bill.
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 45 
 He had been five weeks in New York, 
 his board bill amounted to thirty-three 
 dollars, and he had nothing in his pocket. 
 He had advertised and visited and hinted 
 and pleaded, but without success. The 
 marble- cutting machine, too, contributed 
 nothing. Life seemed as hard as the 
 stone which he sought to fashion. In 
 despair the artist clutched at a prospect 
 of going to Mexico as an attache" of a 
 legation which was in contemplation. 
 He was to have the bitter experience of 
 "waiting on princes, " or sitting at the 
 politician's door, which in America 
 amount to the same thing. He actually 
 set out for "Washington to join the com- 
 mission, only to find that it had been 
 abandoned j and he returned to his fam- 
 ily in New Haven. There was nothing 
 to do but paint portraits j and he spent 
 the summer of 1824 in Concord, Ports- 
 mouth, and Portland, returning in the 
 autumn to New York. The clouds began 
 to lighten that winter. He had made
 
 46 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE 
 many friends, who were exerting them- 
 selves in his behalf. The corporation 
 of the city gave him a commission to 
 paint General Lafayette, who was then 
 on a visit to America. The price would 
 probably be seven hundred dollars, per- 
 haps a thousand. Among the competi- 
 tors for this prize were Vanderlyn, Sully, 
 Peale, Jarvis, Waldo, Inman, Ingham, 
 and others. In his letter to his wife he 
 says: 
 
 " Events are not under our own con- 
 trol. "When I consider how wonderfully 
 things are working for the promotion of 
 the great and long-desired event that 
 of being constantly with my dear family 
 all unpleasant feelings are absorbed 
 in this joyful anticipation ; and I look 
 forward to the spring of the year with 
 delightful prospects of seeing my dear 
 family permanently settled with me in 
 our own hired house here. There are 
 more encouraging prospects than I can 
 trust to paper at present, which must be
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESB 47 
 left for your private ear, and which in 
 magnitude are far more valuable than 
 any encouragement yet made known to 
 you. Let us look with thankful hearts 
 to the Giver of all these blessings. 77 
 
 The day of success, however, was still 
 far distant ; and his wife was destined 
 never to see it. His letters describe the 
 sittings of Lafayette : 
 
 "The general is very agreeable. He 
 introduced me to his son, saying : ' This 
 is Mr. Morse, the painter. He has come 
 to Washington to take the topography 
 of my face. 7 " The reflections of the ar- 
 tist while he painted Lafayette were pro- 
 found. He was before the man who 
 stood for freedom, who suffered in the 
 dungeon of Olmutz, who gave his time 
 and fortune to the cause of America 
 the friend of Washington ! 
 
 The final sitting was interrupted by 
 the news of the death of Mrs. Morse, at 
 the age of twenty-five. This was the 
 great calamity of those years of strug-
 
 48 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 gle, and for a time the artist gave him- 
 self up to despondency. She had been 
 a very help in time of trouble, and all 
 his visions of success had her in them 
 as the partaker. The letter of the father 
 of Morse, full of condolence and sympa- 
 thy, illustrates the character of the old 
 divine. It was as tender as that of a 
 woman and, withal, full of hope. This 
 father had sacrificed himself for his 
 son, giving him the best education that 
 America then afforded, supporting him 
 in Europe out of the scanty income of a 
 preacher of the gospel, entering into all 
 his hopes and aspirations, and sympa- 
 thising with him in adversity. 
 
 The Rev. Jedediah Morse is an exem- 
 plar, and must not be forgotten when we 
 think of the qualities of patient indus- 
 try, indomitable will, alertness of per- 
 ception, and Christian character. In 
 the cemetery at New Haven there is a 
 long epitaph to Lucretia Pickering, wife 
 of Samuel F. B. Morse, written by Pro-
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 49 
 fessor Benjamin Silliman. She, like her 
 husband, evidently had many qualities 
 which made friends. 
 
 After the death of his wife, Morse re- 
 sumed his artistic career in New York. 
 He was active in the formation of the 
 National Academy of Design, and be- 
 came its president. 
 
 The history of the academy is told by 
 Thomas S. Cummings, late professor of 
 the arts of design in New York Uni- 
 versity, in his Historic Annals of the 
 National Academy of Design; and we 
 find therein an interesting recital of the 
 struggles of artists to obtain a proper 
 recognition of their noble guild and 
 adequate instruction in art. In this 
 treatise, too, can be found specimens of 
 Morse's facility with the pen. It con- 
 tains his address to the students at the 
 end of the first academic season, in 1826, 
 and his discourse on " Academies of 
 Art," delivered in the chapel of Colum- 
 bia College in 1827. These addresses
 
 50 SAMUEL F. B. MOKSE 
 are fall of the spirit of devotion to art, 
 and are the product of a man of liberal 
 training. There is no evidence of that 
 narrowness which sometimes is notice- 
 able in the utterances of inventors. 
 During four years after his wife's death, 
 from 1825 to 1829, he continued his life 
 in New York, meeting with considera- 
 ble success. It was said that his studio 
 was crowded with works in progress, 
 and that he was compelled to turn away 
 would-be sitters. In 1829 he deter- 
 mined to visit the continent of Europe, 
 where he had never been. This deter- 
 mination shows the late beginning of 
 art education in America. It had be- 
 come essential that the president of the 
 National Academy of Design should 
 study in Italy. Accordingly, eighteen 
 years after his first visit to England 
 he set sail again for Liverpool, taking 
 several thousand dollars' worth of com- 
 missions for copies of the great masters. 
 None of these commissions exceeded
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 51 
 
 five hundred dollars, and most of them 
 were not over one hundred dollars. 
 Morse was then thirty-eight years of 
 age, and his first letters were full of the 
 enthusiasm of youth. They show powers 
 of observation and a remarkable tolera- 
 tion in one brought up in the rigid 
 school of New England theology. He 
 went by stage from Liverpool to Lon- 
 don, and it is interesting to notice how 
 little the salient characteristics of the 
 people and the landscape have changed 
 since the November of 1829. He notes : 
 "The spires and towers of some ancient 
 village church rose out of the leafless 
 trees, beautifully simple in their forms, 
 and sometimes clothed to the very tops 
 with the evergreen ivy. . . . The whole 
 appearance of the villages was neat and 
 venerable, like some aged matron, who, 
 with all her wrinkles, her stooping form, 
 and gray locks, preserves the dignity of 
 cleanliness in her ancient but becoming 
 costume."
 
 52 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 In London he met his old friend, 
 Leslie the artist ; and he was introduced 
 to the literary and artistic circles of the 
 metropolis. He breakfasted with Sam- 
 uel Bogers, the author of Pleasures of 
 Memory, and visited Turner, the cele- 
 brated painter. Washington Irving was 
 then secretary of legation, and at the 
 beginning of his fame. Morse, however, 
 did not linger long in London, which at 
 that time of the year was enveloped in 
 fog and smoke. On November 22 he 
 pursued his way to Paris. The Louvre 
 was the first place he visited, and the 
 sensation was evidently too much for 
 words. He speaks of the grand gallery 
 of pictures, the long hall, "the end of 
 which, from the opposite end, is scarcely 
 visible, but is lost in the mist of dis- 
 tance." In Paris he saw Lafayette, 
 who greeted him with great cordiality, 
 and invited him to his soiree, where he 
 met Benjamin Constant, "one of the 
 most distinguished of the liberal party
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 53 
 in France." The stay in Paris was 
 short ; for Borne was his ultimate des- 
 tination, and the Louvre was to be 
 studied on his return. The route to 
 Borne was through Lyons, Avignon, 
 Marseilles, and along the Cornice road 
 to Genoa, then to Pisa, to Florence, and 
 to the Celestial City. He began to work 
 immediately upon a copy of Baphael's 
 School of Athens in the Vatican, and 
 his letters are full of the great cere- 
 monies in St. Peter's. He saw the de- 
 livery of the cardinals' hats. "The 
 pope's dress was a plain mitre of gold 
 tissue, a rich garment of gold and crim- 
 son, embroidered, a splendid clasp of 
 gold, about six inches long by four 
 wide, set with precious stones, upon his 
 breast. He is very decrepit, limping or 
 tottering along, has a defect in one eye, 
 and his countenance has an expression 
 of pain, especially as the new cardinals 
 approached his toe. The cardinals fol- 
 lowed the pope, two and two, with their
 
 54 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 train-bearers." He describes the pro- 
 cession of cardinals and the ceremony 
 of kissing the toe of the bronze statue 
 of Saint Peter's, the ceremonies of Palm 
 Sunday, Holy Thursday, and the other 
 great observances of the Church during 
 Holy Week. The letters are those of 
 a man who could have excelled with his 
 pen ; and, as I have said, they breathe 
 a singular toleration for the observances 
 of a church which was especially re- 
 pugnant to his Puritan ancestors. Our 
 future electrician was not a narrow 
 specialist : he could take broad views ; 
 and he was therefore a companionable 
 man whose society was sought. He 
 met Horace Yernet the great painter. 
 He became acquainted with Gibson and 
 Wyett the sculptors. He painted the 
 portrait of Thorwaldsen, and was inti- 
 mate with Greenough, the American 
 sculptor. Fenimore Cooper, too, seemed 
 to have cherished an affection for him ; 
 and they visited many places of interest
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 55 
 
 together, and exchanged philosophical 
 views on the strange phases of life they 
 saw and the habits of the people they 
 encountered. The life of an artist com- 
 pletely absorbed Morse. His diaries are 
 full of notes on pictures and methods 
 of painting. Of a portrait of one of 
 the Colonna family by Paul Veronese, 
 called the Green Picture, he remarks : 
 this portrait " proves that harmony 
 may be produced in one colour : cur- 
 tain in the background, hot green, mid- 
 dle tint ; sleeves of the arms, cool ; 
 vest, which is in the mass of light, as 
 well as the lights of the curtain, warm ; 
 white collar, which is the highest light, 
 cool ! !" The faculty of invention was 
 at that time fully occupied with chiaro- 
 oscuro and colour schemes. He observes 
 in another picture of Paul Veronese that 
 the highest light was cold ; the mass of 
 light, warm ; the middle tint, cool ; the 
 shadow, negative; and the reflections, 
 hot. He tested this theory by placing
 
 56 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 a white ball in a box lined with white. 
 Balls of orange or of blue, so placed, 
 give the same relative results. The 
 high light of the ball is uniformly cold 
 in comparison with the local colour of 
 the ball. He observed in a picture by 
 Eubens that it had a foxy tone, and 
 found that the shadow, instead of 
 being, according to his theory, negative, 
 was hot. 
 
 Allston once said to him, "I have 
 painted that piece of drapery of every 
 colour, and it will not harmonise with 
 the rest of the picture. " 
 
 Morse replied: " According to my 
 theory, it must be warm. Paint it flesh 
 colour. " 
 
 6 ' What do you mean by your theory 1 7 7 
 
 On hearing Morse's explanation, Alls- 
 ton said : 
 
 "It is so, it is in nature/ 7 and after- 
 ward acknowledged to Morse, "Your 
 theory has saved me many an hour's 
 labour."
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOBSE 57 
 Other men have invented schemes of 
 colour. They have not, however, been 
 great artists ; or, at least, it can be said 
 that great painters have not given their 
 schemes of colour to the world. Shall 
 we, then, conclude that Morse had not the 
 making of a great artist in him ? We 
 certainly should be rash to reach this 
 conclusion from the fact of his theoris- 
 ing on chromatics. But we believe that 
 there are other indications which point 
 to the conclusion that he had not yet 
 found his true vocation. Nevertheless, 
 Allston and West thought highly of his 
 efforts ; and Horatio Greenough, the 
 sculptor, writing to him from Florence 
 in 1832, said : < ' Let me beg of you to 
 hang on to the conception of the depart- 
 ure and return of Columbus. You are 
 perfectly qualified to do honour to the 
 country in such works, and should never 
 give up the plan. Hang on like Colum- 
 bus himself. You could make the first 
 a grand picture in character and effect
 
 58 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 of composition. You would embody in 
 the second all your scheme of colour and 
 chiaro-oscuro. These subjects are yours, 
 you are theirs. Have faith, and fear 
 not." A critical notice of Morse's artis- 
 tic career, prepared by Daniel Hunting- 
 ton, president of the National Academy 
 of Design, is contained in Prime's Life 
 of Morse. The artist's theories of colour 
 are dwelt upon, and the critic concludes : 
 " He had a true painter's eye ; but he was 
 hindered from reaching the fame his 
 genius promised as a painter by various 
 distractions, such as the early battles of 
 the Academy of Design in its struggle 
 for life, domestic afflictions, and, more 
 than all, the engrossing cares of his in- 
 vention. ... If his paintings, in the 
 various fields of history, portrait, and 
 landscape, could be brought together, it 
 would be found that he deserved an hon- 
 oured place among the foremost Ameri- 
 can artists." 
 In the autumn of 1831 Morse left
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 59 
 
 Eome and went to Paris, where he 
 occupied himself in making copies of 
 pictures in the Louvre. He also under- 
 took a large picture of the interior of 
 the Louvre, including copies of the 
 great pictures there. This attempt is 
 curiously like the undertaking of the 
 picture of the House of Eepresentatives. 
 Both attempts indicate great energy and 
 industry, but hardly an artistic soul. 
 His life in Paris was brightened by the 
 friendship of remarkable men. He saw 
 much of Lafayette, he received affection- 
 ate letters from Fenimore Cooper, who 
 was then travelling in Germany, and he 
 became intimate with many noted people 
 who sympathised with the Poles, then 
 struggling for freedom. He joined a 
 committee which was organised to aid 
 the Polish cause, and was instrumental, 
 with others, in causing the liberation of 
 Dr. S. G. Howe, who had been intrusted 
 with twenty thousand francs for the 
 Poles, and had been thrown into prison
 
 60 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 in Berlin. Morse also became ac- 
 quainted with Humboldt, and it is said 
 that the two had long and congenial talks 
 together in their strolls through the gal- 
 leries. 
 
 After three years of residence abroad 
 Morse left England for his native land 
 with his mind enriched by foreign travel 
 and intercourse with great men. He 
 folly intended to pursue his career as an 
 artist, coming now to it with greater 
 maturity of power and with a better 
 acquaintance of the old masters. He 
 was forty years of age, and seemed fixed 
 in the career which he had chosen. 
 There are few examples of men who, 
 having reached this age, have achieved 
 renown in an entirely new field of effort. 
 While he, however, was working in his 
 art, completely absorbed apparently by 
 it, other men were getting ready his 
 implements for his new craft. Joseph 
 Henry, at Albany, was making experi- 
 ments with magnets and discovering
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 61 
 the conditions which were essential to 
 Morse's subsequent invention.
 
 in. 
 
 THE idea of an electro- magnetic tele- 
 graph, came to Morse in mid-ocean. He 
 was a passenger on the packet ship Sully, 
 Captain Pell, which left Havre October 
 1, 1832, for New York. Among the 
 passengers was Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of 
 Boston, who afterward disputed Morse's 
 claim to the great invention. One day 
 at the dinner-table, conversation turned 
 upon recent investigations in electricity ; 
 and Dr. Jackson seems to have been the 
 principal speaker. He laid down the 
 laws of electro-magnetism so far as they 
 were known at the time, and explained 
 the method of increasing the force of a 
 magnet by passing the electric current 
 many times around a bar of soft iron. 
 Questions arose in regard to the velocity 
 of electricity and in regard to the dis- 
 tance the strange influence could be 
 transmitted. The speaker said that elec- 
 tricity was transmitted instantaneously,
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 63 
 
 no appreciable time having been observed 
 by Franklin between the instant of clos- 
 ing the circuit and the appearance of 
 the electric spark at a distance. 
 
 It is reported that Morse then said, 
 "If the presence of electricity can be 
 made visible in any part of the circuit, I 
 see no reason why intelligence may not 
 be transmitted instantaneously by elec- 
 tricity. ' ? Dr. Jackson afterward claimed 
 that he then and there developed a plan 
 for accomplishing this great end which 
 was substantially that which Morse after- 
 ward used. Morse persistently refused 
 to give Dr. Jackson any credit whatever 
 for the suggestion. Dr. Jackson was a 
 man of varied information, and his 
 friends firmly believed that his fertile 
 mind was capable of conceiving of the 
 idea of an electro-magnetic telegraph. 
 It does not appear that he had a mechan- 
 ical turn or that he was endowed with 
 great persistence in carrying his brilliant 
 ideas to a practical conclusion. He also
 
 G4 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 claimed the discovery of the use of ether. 
 Here, too, he met a man of a practical 
 turn, Morton, who tried the effect of 
 ether on himself. In a recent conversa- 
 tion with a distinguished physician, a 
 contemporary of Jackson, I asked about 
 the merit of Jackson's claim to the dis- 
 covery of ether ; and the reply was : 
 "Many of us students of medicine at 
 that time were accustomed to sniff 
 ether and experiment on its benumbing 
 and soothing qualities. The wonder is 
 that none of us thought of the simple ex- 
 periment of pricking ourselves with a 
 pin while under the temporary influence 
 of ether. > ' The successful inventor seems 
 to be a man who, having conceived or 
 received an idea, becomes thoroughly 
 possessed by it and proceeds immediately 
 to make models and try experiments. 
 We shall never know how much Dr. 
 Jackson suggested to Morse. All that is 
 certainly known is this : he was a man 
 capable of suggesting new ideas. In the
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 65 
 litigation which arose in subsequent years 
 the conversations on the packet ship 
 Sully were repeated by various hearers, 
 and all the circumstances connected with 
 the birth of the invention were sifted. 
 Morse submitted notes from his diary, 
 showing arrangement of dots, lines, and 
 spaces, which could be used as an alpha- 
 bet. It was said, also, that he made a 
 drawing of a printing instrument, prob- 
 ably an arrangement by means of which 
 a tape could be drawn automatically 
 along to receive dots and lines from a rod 
 of iron which was moved by an electro- 
 magnet. All that Morse had at that 
 time was evidently the strong belief that 
 the transmission of intelligence by elec- 
 tricity could be accomplished by suitable 
 mechanical contrivances this, together 
 with a scheme for an alphabet. Other 
 men had had a similar idea, and codes 
 of signals had already been devised. 
 Morse's ideas at that time, however, 
 would not have advanced the subject,
 
 66 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 for he did not know then of the re- 
 searches of Joseph Henry ; and without 
 the use of the latter' s intensifying magnet 
 and quantity magnet, and the idea of 
 the relay, the alphabet was only a code 
 such as a man of ordinary powers could 
 have conceived. The voyage of the 
 Sully, it seems to me, simply marks the 
 epoch when the idea possessed Morse's 
 soul, and when the Yankee's practical 
 turn for the adaptation of means to ends 
 was aroused. He had the faculty of 
 seeing the value of corner lots when 
 other men were lost in contemplation of 
 the surrounding scenery. 
 
 Let us consider, however, what was his 
 scientific training. While in Yale Col- 
 lege, we have seen that he attended the 
 lectures of Professors Day and Silliman. 
 I have said that little was known of 
 electricity at that time, and the knowl- 
 edge he gained contributed nothing more 
 than an idea of the transmission of the 
 mysterious influence along wires a com-
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 67 
 paratively short distance. While he 
 was pursuing his art in New York, in 
 1827, he attended the lectures of Pro- 
 fessor James Freeman Dana before the 
 New York Athenaeum, and saw the 
 experiment of making a piece of soft 
 iron magnetic by inserting it in a coil, or 
 helix, of wire, the ends of which were 
 connected to a battery. He also saw a 
 horse-shoe electro-magnet, and probably 
 witnessed the attraction of a piece of soft 
 iron by this magnet. The manuscript 
 copies of these lectures are in the library 
 of Harvard University, and it is aston- 
 ishing how much the fact of increasing 
 the magnetic effect by increasing the 
 windings of wire on the spools of the 
 horse-shoe magnet is dwelt upon. This 
 fact is the material, indeed, for the en- 
 tire course of lectures. Here we have 
 the entire training of Morse in the subject 
 which was destined to turn him from 
 the art he had so assiduously cultivated. 
 In the subject of electricity we have often
 
 68 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 seen men spring suddenly into notice 
 and grasp the prizes which the philoso- 
 phers have overlooked. Edison once 
 said to me, as if reflecting upon this psy- 
 chological problem, ' c You are too much 
 loaded up with mathematics." Morse 
 certainly did not carry a mathematical 
 load, and electricity then was not the 
 mathematical science it is to-day. 
 
 During the litigation over Morse's 
 patents every incident which occurred 
 during the voyage of the Sully was care- 
 fully considered. 
 
 Captain Pell said, " Before the vessel 
 was in port, Mr. Morse addressed me 
 in these words : l Well, Captain, should 
 you hear of the telegraph one of these 
 days as the wonder of the world, remem- 
 ber the discovery was made on board 
 the good ship Sully. ' ' ' A passenger, Mr. 
 Fisher, counsellor-at-law in Philadel- 
 phia, testified to hearing Morse describe 
 his alphabet j and he had no remem- 
 brance of Dr. Charles T. Jackson's sug-
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 69 
 gestions. The history of all inventions 
 has a certain sameness. The times are 
 ripe, the steps have been taken, the in- 
 vention is sure to come. Some one man 
 of quick practical perception takes ad- 
 vantage of the researches of others : his 
 mind is not absorbed by trains of thought 
 suggested by scientific investigation. 
 The history of the invention of the 
 telegraph and the telephone could be 
 presented in parallel columns. The his- 
 torian should not rely overmuch on the 
 testimony of bystanders where electricity 
 is concerned. There are always men 
 who, after the invention is made, be- 
 lieve they were capable of making it. 
 These men remember some suggestion 
 which they have given the inventor. 
 Their friends and possibly their wives 
 state their conviction that the invention 
 was due to the suggestion ; and this con- 
 viction grows with time, and soon a 
 claimant comes forward a product of 
 the native egotism of man and the adula-
 
 70 SAMUEL F. B. MOESB 
 
 tion of friends. The truth, seems to be 
 that Morse was more fully possessed with 
 the idea of the practicability of an elec- 
 tro-magnetic telegraph than any other 
 man at that time in America, and as 
 soon as he landed in New York he set 
 about making some moulds for an ar- 
 rangement which would serve to inter- 
 rupt an electric current and thus trans- 
 mit his alphabet consisting of dots and 
 lines. 
 
 He took a room at his brother Eich- 
 ard's house, and began a long struggle 
 with poverty. His residence abroad had 
 left him poor, notwithstanding the com- 
 missions he had executed. He had three 
 children, and it was necessary for him to 
 work hard at his profession. There was 
 little time to perfect the idea which had 
 seized him. He worked at intervals, 
 however, on the invention in a small 
 room in his brother's house, which was 
 provided with a lathe. Here he made 
 some of his models. His artist life was
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 71 
 
 unsuccessful ; and this want of success 
 led him probably, as it had done several 
 times before during his life, to incline to 
 invention. At one time he had strong 
 hopes of being selected by Congress to 
 paint a great historical picture for the 
 rotunda of the Capitol at Washington. 
 There might be placed the departure or 
 the return of Columbus subjects which 
 had long filled his mind. John Quincy 
 Adams, then a member of a committee 
 of the House of Eepresentatives to which 
 the subject of the picture was referred, 
 recommended that the competition be 
 opened to foreign artists ; for, in his 
 opinion, there were no American artists 
 competent to undertake the decoration 
 of the rotunda. James Fenimore Coo- 
 per wrote in the New York Evening 
 Post a severe reply to the remarks of ex- 
 President Adams. This article was at- 
 tributed to Morse, and perhaps con- 
 tributed to the rejection of his name by 
 the committee. This was a severe blow
 
 72 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 to Morse. It may, however, have been 
 a blessing in disguise ; for it led him to 
 turn again to his invention. Washing- 
 ton Allston in a letter to him at this time 
 said : " I know what your disappointment 
 must have been at this result, and most 
 sincerely do I sympathise with you. . . . 
 You have it still in your power to let 
 the world know what you can do. Dis- 
 miss it, then, from your mind, and deter- 
 mine to paint all the better for it. God 
 bless you I" 
 
 This and similar letters, which he re- 
 ceived at this time, show the affection 
 which he had inspired in his friends. 
 A meeting of artists was called to pro- 
 test at the action of the government, and 
 an association was formed entitled "A 
 Joint Stock Association of Artists for 
 procuring Morse to paint an Historical 
 Picture. " In a short time three thou- 
 sand dollars was raised ; and, in addi- 
 tion to this, a gentleman of Brooklyn 
 offered to contribute canvas and all the
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOKSE 73 
 materials for the picture. Morse was 
 greatly inspirited by this most gratifying 
 effort of his friends. He exclaimed that 
 never had he read or known of such an 
 act of professional generosity, and he re- 
 solved to paint a picture to be entitled 
 The Signing of the First Compact on 
 Board the Mayflower. The association 
 had suggested a small picture ; but 
 Morse who all his artistic life found 
 no canvas large enough declared that 
 he would paint one the size of the panels 
 in the rotunda. The picture, however, 
 was never painted ; for the invention of 
 the telegraph and the business entangle- 
 ments were destined to occupy all his 
 time. He finally returned to the mem- 
 bers of the association the amount they 
 had contributed, with interest. 
 
 In 1835 he was appointed Professor of 
 the Literature of the Arts of Design in 
 the New York City University. He 
 moved to a building on Washington 
 Square (the University), and immedi-
 
 74 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 ately set up portions of his telegraphic 
 apparatus. It was generally remarked 
 at the time, with doubtful shakes of the 
 head, that the professor was occupied 
 more with invention than with art. It 
 was fortunate for the university that he 
 was not dismissed a peril which might 
 even now meet a professor with a voca- 
 tion and an avocation. The work on his 
 invention was certainly much retarded 
 by his professional work ; and he prob- 
 ably enjoyed to the full, as the phrase 
 is, the experience of a professor who is 
 filled with thoughts of a great investiga- 
 tion and must devote his time to the 
 cultivation of mediocre minds. At first, 
 apparently, he made a complicated ap- 
 paratus, with a keyboard similar to that 
 of a piano, and with a mechanical ar- 
 rangement for moving along sets of types, 
 for making and breaking the electric 
 circuit. The complicated devices gave 
 way to simpler ones, and finally he 
 adopted the single key which is now in
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 75 
 common use. Instead of a pencil or pen 
 to record the message, he began to use a 
 single hard point, which rested upon a 
 ribbon of paper which was moved along 
 by clock-work over a groove in a cylin- 
 der. Many gentlemen testified in the 
 subsequent litigation to seeing Morse's 
 apparatus at that time. Among these 
 observers was the Rev. Henry B. Tappan, 
 subsequently president of the University 
 of Michigan. He testified to seeing the 
 first transmission and recording of words 
 by lightning in Morse's room in 1835. 
 He stated that a short telegraphic line 
 had been strung around a long room in 
 the university ; and he says, " I recollect 
 well my delight at hearing the words 
 which I silently gave in at one end ac- 
 curately read off from the strip of paper 
 at the other." Daniel Huntington, sub- 
 sequently president of the National 
 Academy of Design, was at that time a 
 pupil of Morse ; and he testified to seeing 
 Morse's instrument in operation in the
 
 76 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 year 1835. The Hon. Hamilton Fish said 
 that he witnessed the telegraph in op- 
 eration in 1836, " recording messages 
 transmitted through some mile or more 
 of wire suspended in successive turns 
 around the walls ; there was a small bat- 
 tery in one corner of the room and a sort 
 of clock-work machinery in the other, 
 and the mysterious little click, click, 
 click of the former produced a simulta- 
 neous record on the other. ' ' Commodore 
 Shubrick of the United States l^avy also 
 testified to seeing the telegraphic instru- 
 ments in actual operation in the winter 
 of 1835. 
 
 A very important point in regard to 
 this early work of Morse on an electro- 
 magnetic telegraph now arises. Did he 
 invent the relay which made the tele- 
 graph a success? He undoubtedly had 
 perfected an alphabet, and had set up an 
 experimental line representing a short 
 distance. Henry, in 1835 or early in 
 1836, had extended wires across the yard
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 77 
 
 of the college grounds at Princeton, from 
 the upper story of the library building 
 to the Philosophical Hall on the opposite 
 side, through which he sent signals 
 which were distinguished by the number 
 of taps on an electro-magnetic bell. He 
 had shown that, in order to transmit the 
 current to a great distance, it was neces- 
 sary to use a large number of galvanised 
 cells, and to wind the transmitting wire 
 many times around the receiving magnet, 
 which he therefore called an intensity 
 magnet. He proved that an operator 
 could thus produce the most energetic 
 actions at any required distance by pro- 
 viding this intensity magnet with an 
 oscillating armature with a suitable pro- 
 longation to open and close an adjoining 
 circuit with a smaller number of cells 
 and what he called a quantity magnet ; 
 in other words, a magnet with a small 
 number of turns of wire so arranged that 
 the electrical resistance of the relay 
 battery should approximately equal the
 
 78 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 resistance of the wire around the mag- 
 net. This closing of a relay circuit, he 
 showed, could be accomplished by the 
 swing of the most delicate galvanometer 
 needle ; and he exhibited a large electro- 
 magnet, which, being set in action by 
 such a relay device, could lift more than 
 three thousand pounds. Here was evi- 
 dently the principle of the relay. It is 
 said that on a visit to London with Pro- 
 fessor Bache in 1837, Henry met Wheat- 
 stone, then professor of experimental 
 philosophy in King's College ; and he 
 freely explained his arrangement of a 
 local circuit which was set in action by 
 a main circuit. Henry had the pleasure 
 of describing his own device, which was 
 substantially the same and which had 
 been used the year previous. Wheat- 
 stone, in conjunction with W. F. Cooke, 
 secured a patent on June 12, 1837, which 
 included the device of the relay. Morse, 
 in a pamphlet published in Paris, 1867, 
 relating the history of his invention,
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 79 
 
 states that between 1835 and 1837 there 
 was a very important addition to his 
 telegraphic system which he did not 
 dwell upon at that epoch ; for it was not 
 necessary in the exhibitions which he 
 made at that time, but which was essen- 
 tial when the telegraph line was ex- 
 tended beyond the limits of a hall. He 
 states that he knew that the electro- 
 magnet at great distances would become 
 so enfeebled that it would be inoperative 
 for printing. He says that he had al- 
 ready conceived of a plan for extending 
 the operation of the telegraph, which 
 was so simple that it hardly needed a 
 drawing to exhibit it ; and he goes on to 
 describe the relay, and calls his colleague 
 Professor Gale to witness that in Janu- 
 ary, 1836, he had imparted to him the 
 plan of the relay. 
 
 We therefore turn our attention to 
 Professor L. D. Gale, who was a colleague 
 professor in the University of the City 
 of New York, and who afterward was
 
 80 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 admitted to a fourth interest in the in- 
 vention by Professor Morse. Gale, in 
 the litigation which arose over Morse's 
 patents, gives a very circumstantial ac- 
 count of the state of the telegraph in 
 1836. The fact that he was subsequently 
 interested pecuniarily in the invention 
 destroys, to my mind, much of the value 
 of his testimony. He says that they had 
 frequent consultations on methods of 
 extending the distance to which signals 
 could be transmitted. Morse often ex- 
 plained his plans by which this could be 
 accomplished. 
 
 " Suppose," said Professor Morse, 
 "that in experimenting on twenty miles 
 of wire we should find that the power of 
 magnetism is so feeble that it will not 
 move a lever with certainty a hair's 
 breadth : that would be insufficient, it 
 may be, to write or print ; yet it would 
 be sufficient to close and break another 
 or a second circuit twenty miles farther, 
 and this second circuit could be made,
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE 81 
 
 in the same manner, to break and close 
 a third circuit twenty miles farther, and 
 so on around the globe." Gale then 
 goes on to describe circumstantially the 
 relay, giving drawings of a magnet on 
 the main circuit drawing down an arma- 
 ture or rod of iron and closing a local or 
 relay circuit in which there is a supple- 
 mentary battery. Professor Gale is very 
 circumstantial with his dates, for they 
 were all-important for the purposes of 
 the patent lawyers who conducted the 
 subsequent litigation. He mentions an 
 exhibition in the cabinet of the univer- 
 sity on September 2, 1837, when Profes- 
 sor Danberry of Oxford University, Eng- 
 land, together with Mr. Alfred Yail, 
 were present, and witnessed the action 
 of the telegraph over a circuit of 1, 700 
 feet of copper wire. The presence of 
 Mr. Vail was an important fact, for he had 
 hesitated to put money into the invention 
 until it could be shown that the action 
 of the telegraph could be extended to
 
 82 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 great distances. Immediately after this 
 interview, Alfred Vail and his brother 
 George Vail furnished Morse with the 
 means for an experiment on a larger 
 scale. This was in 1837, and Morse could 
 have been informed of Henry's experi- 
 ments. Indeed, it is stated in an address 
 on Joseph Henry delivered at Princeton 
 College June 16, 1885, by Edward W. 
 Dickerson, LL.D., the distinguished pat- 
 ent lawyer, that Professor Gale went to 
 Henry to discover how the electric cur- 
 rent could be strengthened to operate 
 stations at a distance. In this address, 
 Dickerson dwells upon Henry's devotion 
 to pure science, and says: "It must 
 have occurred to him at times, when he 
 needed money for his experiments, and 
 when he saw the fruits of his labour en- 
 riching the world, that he might have 
 taken some share of the wealth ; but he 
 would not taint with selfishness his gen- 
 erous gift. How valuable in money it 
 was he knew full well. Even for that
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 83 
 fragment of it, then for six years by him 
 given to the public, which was carried 
 to Morse in 1837 to enable him to con- 
 struct his special plan of a recording 
 telegraph in that year, now practically 
 obsolete, Dr. Gale, who carried it, se- 
 cured a share in the patent which was 
 founded upon it, and without which it 
 could not have existed. For that share 
 fifteen thousand in cash was subsequently 
 paid to him." 
 
 While I was working in the rooms de- 
 voted to physical experiments in Har- 
 vard University in the winter of 1873, a 
 dignified elderly gentleman was ushered 
 into the rooms. He had a remarkable 
 philosophic countenance, which recalled 
 in its massiveness that of Humboldt and 
 Helmholtz. The visitor was Joseph 
 Henry, and I showed him the electrical 
 apparatus which was in use at the time. 
 He listened with great gravity to my 
 account of the experiments which were 
 in progress, and on his departure, turn-
 
 84 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE 
 ing toward a table covered with magnets 
 and telegraphic relays, remarked, "If I 
 had patented those devices, I should have 
 reaped a large fortune. " 
 
 Let us follow the career of the man 
 who was destined to receive great re- 
 wards, and whose name has been in- 
 scribed among those who shall shine for- 
 ever like the stars in the firmament. 
 During those strenuous years of professor- 
 ship in the University of the City of New 
 York, Morse was very poor. He lodged 
 and ate his food in his studio, generally 
 preparing it with his own hands. In 
 order to conceal his manner of life from 
 his friends, he brought his food to his 
 rooms at night. It was difficult at that 
 time to obtain electrical supplies. In- 
 sulated wire was costly. The batteries 
 were poor and inconstant, and therefore 
 failed when they were needed most. 
 Morse was compelled to go to a black- 
 smith to have his wire shaped into cores 
 for his electrical magnets, and he wound
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 85 
 these cores himself. Henry also laboured 
 under even greater difficulties in regard 
 to the construction of his electrical ap- 
 paratus. These difficulties must be 
 weighed when we wonder why men 
 halted so long over the steps which now 
 seem so simple. Morse was often asked 
 why he did not speedily construct a du- 
 plicate instrument for returning an 
 answer from a distant station. He ex- 
 hibited in 1835 only a sending instru- 
 ment. He answered that he had not the 
 means to construct it. The cost of such 
 a duplicate instrument to-day would not 
 exceed five dollars. It was suggested that 
 he might have borrowed the requisite 
 sum. He says : ( i My reply must be that 
 I preferred the delay, and the hazards 
 of a delay, to the hazard of being unable 
 to repay the loan. I must be pardoned 
 if I state that, even from my earliest 
 youth, I ever had the deepest repugnance 
 to incur debt by borrowing, even from 
 my own relatives."
 
 86 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 In 1837 Mr. Alfred Vail, son of Judge 
 Stephen Vail, entered into partnership 
 with Morse, and provided him with the 
 means for pushing his invention. The 
 Vails were owners of iron and brass 
 works at Speedwell, Morris County, 
 New Jersey ; and Alfred Vail was in- 
 terested in mechanical engineering, es- 
 pecially in connection with the working 
 of iron and brass. He was allotted one- 
 fourth interest in Morse's patents, and 
 Morse was given the superior facilities 
 of the Vails 7 manufactory. Just about 
 the time of the formation of this part- 
 nership, the Hon. Levi Woodbury, Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury of the United 
 States, in consequence of the reports in 
 regard to methods of telegraphing in 
 Europe, issued a circular to " certain 
 collectors of the customs, commanders 
 of revenue cutters, and other persons," 
 asking for information in regard to the 
 various systems proposed. He particu- 
 larly wished to know how far communi-
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 87 
 cation could be established, with what 
 rapidity it could be worked, and what 
 would be the probable expense. He 
 says: "It would add to the interest 
 of the subject if you would offer views 
 as to the practicability of writing, with a 
 system of telegraphs for communication 
 in clear weather and in the daytime, 
 another for communication in fogs, by 
 cannon or otherwise, and in the night 
 by the same mode, or by rockets, fires, 
 etc." 
 
 Morse immediately replied to this cir- 
 cular, stating that he had made arrange- 
 ments to demonstrate at Washington by 
 January 1, 1838, his superior plan for 
 accomplishing telegraphic communica- 
 tion. He enters into many particulars 
 in regard to the probable expense of the 
 system and in respect to the disposition 
 of the wires. He evidently thought at 
 that time that it would be better to bury 
 them underground. He says that, if the 
 wires are stretched above ground, on
 
 88 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 poles, they might be a temptation to 
 mischievous persons ; but he points out 
 that the same objection had been made 
 to water pipes, gas pipes, and railroads. 
 He remarks that, if his system of tele- 
 graphing should be established, it would 
 have little rest day or night. "The 
 advantage of communicating intelligence 
 instantaneously, in hundreds of instances 
 of daily occurrence, would warrant such 
 a rate of postage (if it may be so called) 
 as would amply defray all expenses of 
 the first cost of establishing the system 
 and of guarding it and keeping it in 
 repair. " Immediately on sending this 
 letter, Morse filed a caveat in Washing- 
 ton, September 28, 1837, in which is to 
 be found a careful description of his 
 method, embraced under the following 
 heads : 
 
 1. A system of signs, by which num- 
 bers, and consequently words and sen- 
 tences, are signified. 
 
 2. A set of type, adapted to regulate
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 89 
 and communicate the signs, with cases 
 for convenient keeping of the type, and 
 rules in which to set up the type. 
 
 3. An apparatus called the portrule, 
 for regulating the movement of the type 
 rules, which rules, by means of the type, 
 in their turn regulate the times and inter- 
 vals of the passage of electricity. 
 
 4. A register which records the signs 
 permanently. 
 
 5. A dictionary or vocabulary of words 
 numbered and adapted to this system of 
 telegraph. 
 
 6. Modes of laying conductors to pre- 
 serve them from injury. 
 
 In reading the specifications of the 
 patent, we are struck with the fact that 
 it contained only the germ of the alpha- 
 bet subsequently adopted. The types, 
 the portrule, the register, the dictionary, 
 and the mode of laying conductors to 
 preserve them from injury were destined 
 to pass out of use. No reference is made 
 to a relay. With the exception of the
 
 90 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 alphabet, Henry could have obtained a 
 more comprehensive patent. 
 
 In a letter to Alfred Vail at the time 
 of obtaining this caveat, Morse says : 
 " Professor Gale's services will be in- 
 Valuable to us, and I am glad he is dis- 
 posed to enter into the matter with 2eal. 
 The more I think of the whole matter, 
 the more I am convinced that, if it is 
 perseveringly pushed at the moment 
 (so favourable on many accounts to its 
 adoption by government), the result will 
 be all that we ought to wish for. We 
 want the wire. We are ready for some 
 important experiments necessary to es- 
 tablish with certainty some points not 
 yet established by experiments. The 
 law of the magnetic influence at a distance 
 is not yet discovered ; and your twenty 
 miles of wire may enable us to make this 
 discovery, and to keep ahead of our 
 European rivals, as well as to proceed 
 with certainty in our other arrange- 
 ments." This letter shows that he did
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 91 
 not yet appreciate the law of the relay. 
 In November, 1837, Professor Gale, by 
 increasing the battery power and also in- 
 creasing the tnrns of wire on the electro- 
 magnet that is, by using Henry's in- 
 tensity magnet succeeded in sending 
 signals ten miles. Morse immediately 
 communicated this result to the Secretary 
 of the Treasury. On January 24, 1838, 
 he gave an exhibition of his telegraph 
 to some friends in New York ; and the 
 Journal of Commerce of January 29 said 
 of it : " Intelligence was instantaneously 
 transmitted through a circuit of ten 
 miles, and legibly written on a cylinder 
 at the extremity of the circuit. . . . Pro- 
 fessor Morse has recently improved on 
 his mode of marking, by which he can 
 dispense altogether with the telegraphic 
 dictionary, using letters instead of num- 
 ber ; and he can transmit ten words per 
 minute, which is more than double the 
 number which can be transmitted by 
 means of the dictionary." Thus it is
 
 92 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 seen that the great labour which was be- 
 stowed on the compilation of a dictionary 
 had been thrown away. Soon the type 
 arrangement was destined to go, and in 
 time the Morse register. Morse con- 
 sidered that his method of recording or 
 printing the messages was one of the 
 principal features of his invention which 
 distinguished it from the European meth- 
 ods. It is a curious fact that it is not 
 used at all in America. The operator 
 reads by Henry's method, that of sound. 
 The recording or printing methods are 
 still in vogue in Europe. Once, in visit- 
 ing the offices of the London telegraphic 
 system, I was shown a room where the 
 future operator was learning to read 
 messages by sound. In America it was 
 found that the operator had learned the 
 method almost instinctively, and disre- 
 garded the printed records of the regis- 
 ter upon the clock-work and other me- 
 chanical arrangements on which Morse 
 had spent so much invention. Nothing
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 93 
 
 to-day is left of Morse's invention but the 
 alphabet and a few mechanical points. 
 The tendency of the time seems to be 
 toward sound rather than to printing, 
 and even the Morse alphabet seems to be 
 doomed. 
 
 Let us, however, study more closely 
 the action of Morse's mind at the time 
 he pressed his invention upon the at- 
 tention of the government. It is evi- 
 dent that he was fully possessed with 
 the value of his invention and the ulti- 
 mate practicability of it. He had the 
 sanguine nature of an inventor. He was 
 alert, moreover, quick to seize ideas 
 which might aid him in his main ob- 
 ject quick, possibly, to assimilate such 
 ideas so thoroughly that they often ap- 
 peared to have emanated from his own 
 mind. This cerebration of thoughts, 
 which contribute to the making of a 
 great design, is a striking peculiarity of 
 some minds. Most professors have had 
 students who honestly believe that the
 
 94 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 investigation which has been suggested 
 to them, and which has been aided by 
 the ideas and long experience of the 
 teacher, is entirely their own. Such 
 students have a peculiar hospitality of 
 mind. Morse was so strongly possessed 
 with the idea of an electro- magnetic tele- 
 graph that all the work of Henry and 
 Wheatstone seemed necessarily tributary. 
 He was alert, I have said, and business- 
 like. Writing to his partners on re- 
 ceiving news that his papers had been 
 favourably received at the Patent Office, 
 he says, "If you intend to do anything 
 in England or France, no time is to be 
 lost." He was approached by certain 
 men who desired to erect private lines 
 for the furtherance of business purposes. 
 He writes of this to his partners, enjoin- 
 ing secrecy : "But be close on the sub- 
 ject, for it is essential to its success that 
 it be secret. Verbum sat. I am not 
 idle, I assure you. 77 He writes again : 
 "We have just heard that Professor 

 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 95 
 Wheatstone has tried an experiment 
 with his method twenty miles with 
 success. We have therefore nothing to 
 fear. We also learn that he has sent to 
 take out a patent, to this country. My 
 caveat will be in his way. Professor 
 Locke, of Cincinnati, who has just re- 
 turned, tells us all this ; and he knows 
 Wheatstone and his whole plan, and 
 says that there are no less than six dis- 
 putants for the priority of the invention 
 in England. He also says that no one 
 of the European plans pretends to record 
 permanently ; that mine is decidedly su- 
 perior in that respect, and peculiar." 
 
 Here we see evidences of alertness 
 and business ability. This man was a 
 type of the modern business electrician 
 rather than of the philosopher of which 
 Henry and Faraday were such exem- 
 plars. We are reminded of the remark 
 made of Morse's father : "He had such 
 an impetus ! ' > He apparently recog- 
 nised the value of cautious publicity
 
 96 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 in leading people to connect his name 
 with the electro-magnetic telegraph; 
 for, in response to an invitation from the 
 Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, he 
 exhibited his apparatus when on his way 
 to Washington. Among his audience 
 was Joseph Saxton, subsequently at the 
 head of the department of weights and 
 measures under the superintendent of 
 the Coast Survey. There were also 
 present other prominent mechanicians. 
 Arriving in Washington, Morse setup his 
 apparatus in a room occupied by the 
 Committee on Commerce in the Capitol. 
 At first his visitors went away with little 
 belief in the practical nature of the in- 
 vention. On February 21, 1838, Presi- 
 dent Yan Bur en and his entire cabinet 
 visited the room, and Morse exhibited 
 his telegraph in operation through ten 
 miles of wire contained on a reel. The 
 Hon. F. O. J. Smith, chairman of the 
 Committee on Commerce, had been pre- 
 viously interested by Morse in his inven-
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE 97 
 tion ; and Morse had written a long 
 letter to Smith, showing how desirable 
 it would be for the government to own 
 the invention, and to have the sole right 
 to grant its use under important restric- 
 tions to the public. The invention was 
 of such importance to the government 
 that it could well afford to aid the in- 
 ventor by providing means for an ex- 
 tended trial of one hundred miles ; and, 
 in return for suitable aid, he promised 
 "to enter into no arrangement to dis- 
 pose of his patent rights to any individual 
 or company previous to offering it to the 
 government for a just and reasonable 
 compensation." Again, after the ex- 
 hibition of February 21, he writes to 
 Mr. Smith, giving an estimate of the 
 probable cost of such a trial. He con- 
 cludes that a trial of fifty miles would 
 be sufficiently satisfactory, and that such 
 a trial would cost twenty-six thousand 
 dollars. A table of items of expense 
 was given. The most interesting item
 
 98 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 was one of twelve hundred dollars for 
 preparation of the wire by the use of 
 such things as " caoutchouc, wax, resin, 
 tar, with reels for winding, soldering, 
 etc., say six dollars per mile." 
 
 The experiment was to be tried on a 
 metallic circuit, with wires above ground. 
 But it was evidently contemplated ulti- 
 mately to bury the wires, for it is ex- 
 pressly stated that the estimate of twenty- 
 six thousand dollars did not include the 
 expense necessary to lay the wires under 
 ground. Having sent this letter, Morse 
 then drew up a respectful memorial to 
 Congress, asking it set terms for an ap- 
 propriation. One sees the directing 
 hand of the Hon. F. O. J. Smith in all 
 this, and the business ability of Morse in 
 using Mr. Smith. On April 6, 1838, 
 Mr. Smith, as chairman of the Commit- 
 tee of Commerce, made a long report, 
 arguing that the government, in view 
 of the importance of Professor Morse's 
 invention, should make an appropriation
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 99 
 of thirty thousand dollars for a trial of 
 fifty miles. Mr. Smith dilates upon the 
 importance of the invention. It was 
 evident that Morse had made a complete 
 convert of him. He says in the report : 
 " With the means of almost instantaneous 
 communication of intelligence between 
 the most distant points of the country, 
 and simultaneously between any given 
 number of intermediate points which 
 this invention contemplates, space will 
 be to all practical purposes of informa- 
 tion completely annihilated between the 
 states of the Union, as also between the 
 individual citizens thereof. The citizens 
 will be invested with, and reduce to 
 daily and familiar use, an approach to 
 the High Attribute of Ubiquity, in a 
 degree that the human mind until 
 recently has hardly dared to contem- 
 plate seriously as belonging to human 
 agency, from an instinctive feeling of re- 
 ligious reverence and reserve on a power 
 of such awful grandeur. ' ?
 
 100 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 After this burst of religious feeling, 
 Mr. Smith intimated to Mr. Morse his 
 willingness to take an interest in the in- 
 vention. He accordingly resigned his 
 seat in Congress, and became a partner 
 in the enterprise, which was divided 
 into sixteen shares. Morse held nine ; 
 Mr. Smith, four ; Mr. Alfred Vail, two ; 
 and Professor Gale, one. Again one sees 
 in this distribution no diminution of 
 business ability. One had to do with an 
 alert inventor.
 
 IV. 
 
 ON May 16, 1838, Morse sailed for 
 Europe to secure foreign patents. His 
 third European trip was destined to be 
 a melancholy failure from a pecuniary 
 point of view. The English authorities 
 were apparently persuaded of the prior- 
 ity and superior value of Wheatstone's 
 invention, for the American inventor 
 was denied even a hearing. It was 
 claimed that his invention had been 
 published in the London Mechanic's 
 Magazine of February 10, 1838. The 
 article had been copied from Silliman's 
 Journal of Science of October, 1837. This 
 article merely stated that the distinguish- 
 ing features of Morse's invention were a 
 register which permanently recorded the 
 message in characters easily legible, and 
 a single wire. It spoke, too, of points or 
 marks to be read and of a pencil that 
 marks. The English authorities con- 
 sidered this a prior publication, and
 
 102 SAMUEL F. B. MOUSE 
 therefore refused to issue a patent. 
 Morse bitterly condemned this attitude, 
 and in able letters requested a fuller 
 hearing. This, however, was refused ; 
 and the only alternative was to appeal 
 to Parliament for a special act. This 
 was a long and doubtful proceeding, and 
 Morse was not inclined to it, and accord- 
 ingly proceeded to try his fortunes on 
 the Continent. While in England, he 
 satisfied himself that Wheatstone's tele- 
 graph was manifestly inferior to his own. 
 Wheatstone required "six conductors 
 between the points of intercommunica- 
 tion for a single instrument at each of the 
 two termini. 77 The receiver consisted 
 of five magnetic needles which served to 
 point to letters upon a dial plate. It was 
 not, therefore, a recording telegraph. 
 
 Morse was more successful in Paris, and 
 obtained a patent ; and he was gratified 
 at the interest in his invention displayed 
 by the many distinguished Frenchmen. 
 He exhibited the telegraph at the French
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOKSE 103 
 
 Institute. Baron Humboldt expressed 
 the opinion that it was the best of all 
 the plans that had been devised. The 
 administrator in chief of the French 
 bureau of telegraphs, M. Alphonse Foy, 
 also expressed the same opinion. The 
 telegraph was exhibited to M. Arago, 
 the great physicist, who was delighted 
 with it, and proposed that it should be 
 exhibited to the Academy of Sciences. 
 Among those present at the stance were 
 Arago, Humboldt, Gay-Lussac. Morse 
 says in a letter to Mr. Vail : " Arago de- 
 scribed it to them, and I showed its ac- 
 tion. A buzz of admiration and appro- 
 bation filled the whole hall ; and the 
 exclamations, 'Extraordinaire ! J 'Tres 
 bien ! ' 'Tres admirable ! J I heard on all 
 sides. The sentiment was universal. " 
 Truly, this reception was most gratify- 
 ing, and augured well for the future. 
 Morse was at first full of hope, but he 
 was destined to a fresh disappointment. 
 He was received everywhere with great
 
 104 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE 
 politeness. His invention was lauded, 
 but he seemed no nearer to any practical 
 results. By the French law an inventor 
 is obliged to put his invention in prac- 
 tical operation within two years from 
 the issue of his patent. Morse tried to 
 effect this along the St. Germain Bail- 
 road Company's lines, a distance of 
 seven miles from Paris to St. Germain, 
 but was unsuccessful. He was told that, 
 if the telegraph was to be a government 
 matter, he could not enter into relations 
 with private individuals ; and the gov- 
 ernment did not act. Altogether, he was 
 having an experience of French polite- 
 ness, which was no more productive of 
 practical results than his experience with 
 English brusqueness. He wrote to the 
 Hon. F. O. J. Smith, lamenting his own 
 lack of business ability in pushing mat- 
 ters to a conclusion. He thought of pro- 
 posing that, in case the government 
 would do nothing to form a company, 
 he should take the right at one thousand
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 105 
 
 francs per mile, paying the proprietors 
 fifty per cent, in stock and fifty per 
 cent, in cash, raising about fifty thousand 
 francs for a preliminary trial. He re- 
 marks again that he is a child in business 
 matters. " I can invent and perfect the 
 invention, but further the deponent saith 
 not.' 7 The critic of his life labours, 
 however, feels that he underrated him- 
 self in this respect. He had pushed his 
 invention in an energetic manner and 
 had already enlisted capital. His visit 
 to Europe gave great publicity to his 
 invention. It was a lecture on an ex- 
 tended scale and on an elevated plat- 
 form, and was not without ultimate re- 
 sults, notwithstanding that he failed in 
 England and never received anything 
 from his French patent. While in Paris, 
 Morse also enlisted the interest of Baron 
 Meyendorf, the agent of the Emperor of 
 Eussia for reporting useful discoveries to 
 the Russian government. In this case he 
 was filled with alternate hope and de-
 
 106 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 spair, and finally concluded to return to 
 America to push the matter before Con- 
 gress. 
 
 During his absence, Dr. Charles T. 
 Jackson, his fellow-passenger on board 
 the Sully, had laid public claim to the 
 invention. In a letter to Mr. Smith, 
 Paris, July 13, 1839, Morse indignantly 
 refutes the claims of Jackson, and says 
 that he has sent a letter to him, " calling 
 on him to save his character by a total 
 disclaimer of his presumptuous claim 
 within one week from the receipt of the 
 letter, and giving him the plea of a mis- 
 take ? and misconception of my invention 
 by which he may retreat." He scores 
 Jackson, speaks of his consummate self- 
 conceit, and says that he knows that he 
 has not the claim to a point of any kind. 
 The letter is that of an indignant honest 
 man. This controversy with Dr. Jack- 
 son was most unfortunate, and how much 
 Jackson had to do with firmly planting 
 the idea in suitable ground will never be
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 107 
 
 known until Morse and Jackson stand 
 together where all things will be brought 
 to light. Time certainly will never re- 
 veal any evidence which will decide who 
 originated the fertile idea. If Jackson, 
 like Alexander Graham Bell, the in- 
 ventor of the telephone, had immediately 
 availed himself of the services of a skil- 
 ful mechanic, there might have been a 
 closer race between him and Morse. 
 The latter had the mechanical skill 
 which Dr. Jackson apparently lacked. 
 The painter had all his life used imple- 
 ments and made models. He could con- 
 ceive and also execute. Jackson's mind 
 was capable of conceiving the idea, and he 
 knew the literature of the subject. Both 
 men were doubtless honest in their public 
 professions of the ownership of the great 
 idea. The historian who says the last 
 word on this controversy must also be a 
 psychologist who has studied the subject 
 of cerebration, the unconscious assimila- 
 tion of ideas which makes them forever
 
 108 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 a part of the assimilator. Joseph Henry 
 knew that an electro -magnetic telegraph 
 was possible ; but scientific researches 
 seemed to him more important than in- 
 vention of electrical devices. It is inter- 
 esting to notice that he did not put in a 
 claim, as he well might, for an electro- 
 magnetic telegraph. When Morse con- 
 sulted him in regard to the practicability 
 of the extension of the telegraph to great 
 distances, Henry wrote, February 24, 
 1842 : 
 
 "The idea of transmitting intelli- 
 gence to a distance by means of electrical 
 action has been suggested by various 
 persons, from the time of Franklin to the 
 present ; but until within the last few 
 years, or since the principal discoveries 
 in electro-magnetism, all attempts to re- 
 duce it to practice were necessarily un- 
 successful. The mere suggestion, how- 
 ever, of a scheme of this kind is a matter 
 for which little credit can be claimed,
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 109 
 
 since it is one which would naturally 
 arise in the mind of almost any person 
 familiar with the phenomena of electric- 
 ity 5 but the bringing it forward at the 
 proper moment, when the developments 
 of science are able to furnish the means 
 of certain success, and the devising a 
 plan for carrying it into practical opera- 
 tion, are the grounds of a just claim to 
 scientific reputation, as well as to public 
 patronage. 
 
 " About the same time with yourself 
 Professor Wheatstone, of London, and Dr. 
 Steinheil, of Germany, proposed plans of 
 the electro-magnetic telegraph; but these 
 differ as much from yours as the nature 
 of the common principle would well per- 
 mit, and, unless some essential improve- 
 ments have lately been made in these 
 European plans, I should prefer the one 
 invented by yourself. 
 
 "With my best wishes for your suc- 
 cess, I remain, with much esteem, yours 
 truly, JOSEPH HENRY."
 
 110 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 This letter shows a generous apprecia- 
 tion of Morse's practical invention and 
 a lofty indifference to the money value of 
 his own contributions to the theory of 
 the telegraph. Morse sent a copy of this 
 letter to the Hon. W. W. Boardman, 
 member of Congress, urging action of 
 Congress, in which he says, speaking of 
 Henry : ' l He is not of an enthusiastic 
 temperament, but exceedingly cautious 
 in giving an opinion on scientific inven- 
 tions ; yet in this case he expressed him- 
 self in the warmest terms, and told my 
 friend Dr. Chilton (who informed me of 
 it) that he had just been witnessing the 
 operation of the most beautiful and in- 
 genious instrument he had ever seen." 
 
 Morse found on his return from his un- 
 successful European trip that nothing had 
 been done by Congress. He was very 
 poor, and at times thought of throwing 
 up the invention and returning to his 
 profession of an artist. General Strother, 
 of Virginia, u Porte Crayon," testifies to
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 111 
 the inventor's poverty. He took paint- 
 ing lessons of Morse ; and, on one occa- 
 sion, Morse asked for a portion of his 
 fee, and the two dined together. Morse 
 said : ' ' This is my first meal for twenty- 
 four hours. Strother, don't be an artist. 
 It means beggary. Your life depends 
 upon people who know nothing of your 
 art and care nothing for you. A house 
 dog lives better, and the very sensitive- 
 ness that stimulates an artist to work 
 keeps him alive to suffering." 
 
 The Patent Office issued Morse's patent 
 in 1840, the delay having been caused 
 by Morse's request that the issue might 
 be postponed until the foreign patents 
 had been secured. Morse had before 
 him the usual fate of inventors the ne- 
 cessity of fighting for his patent. The 
 unscrupulous, too, are great assimilators 
 of other men's ideas. He had yet, how- 
 ever, to show that there was money in 
 the invention ; and he had no money to do 
 this. Apparently, he received very little
 
 112 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 help from his partners. The resources of 
 the Hon. F. O. J. Smith were exhausted by 
 the European trip. Mr. Vail seemed re- 
 luctant to give further aid, and Professor 
 Gale was a professor. The partners were 
 widely separated. Morse says in a letter, 
 1841, to Vail : "All the burden now 
 rests on my shoulders, after years of time 
 and attention to the enterprise ; and I 
 am willing, so far as I am able, to bear 
 my share if the other proprietors will 
 lend a helping hand and give me facili- 
 ties to act, and a reasonable recompense 
 for my services in case of success. " In 
 another letter he says, "I have to do all 
 the labour of the whole enterprise at 
 present, and have not a cent of money 
 in the world. " In a letter to Mr. Smith 
 in 1842 he repeats the same sentiment : 
 "The depressed situation of all my asso- 
 ciates in the invention has thrown the 
 whole burden of again attempting a 
 movement entirely on me. . . . You 
 must perceive at what disadvantage I do
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 113 
 business when, before I can make any 
 answer to queries from persons who feel 
 disposed to take hold of the enterprise, I 
 must write two or three letters of particu- 
 lars to different parts of the country, and 
 wait days for an answer. The necessity 
 of our telegraph is made evident in this 
 very case. If you had in your parlour 
 one of my registers, there would be no 
 .need of a long journey, or of waiting 
 three or four days for an answer." It is 
 difficult to realise to-day Morse's in- 
 ability to enlist capital in his enterprise. 
 Electricity now is used by all sorts of pro- 
 moters ; and there are numberless cases 
 of organisation of business men who 
 "chip in," as the expression runs, or 
 "take flyers" in more or less chimerical 
 plans. Morse can claim to have been 
 the first man to show the money value of 
 electricity 5 and he endured the priva- 
 tions similar to that of a prospector who 
 toils through the wilderness and over the 
 mountains to a rich placer, where, hav-
 
 114 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 ing shown the way, he must defend him- 
 self from thieves and the unscrupulous. 
 
 Even the men whom he was destined 
 to enrich failed him at the pinch. He 
 applied to the Yails for a small sum to go 
 to Washington to make one last attempt 
 to obtain the assistance of the government. 
 He met with a polite refusal to advance 
 further sums. All now depended on 
 Morse, and he exerted that " impetus 77 
 which was a family characteristic. 
 He wrote a very able letter to the 
 Hon. C. G. Ferris of New York, one of 
 the House Committee on Commerce, de- 
 tailing at great length the advantages of 
 his telegraph, and submitting very busi- 
 ness-like estimates of cost of construction 
 and of revenues that might be reasonably 
 expected. This letter shows that Morse 
 could use the pen as well as the pencil, 
 and it resulted in Mr. Ferris' s submitting 
 a report to Congress which at last re- 
 sulted in favourable action. The debate 
 on the resolution to give aid to Morse
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE 115 
 has not been preserved 5 but, if we can 
 judge from a brief abstract of the discus- 
 sion in the Congressional Globe jpf Feb- 
 ruary 21, 1843, certain memberjs wrote 
 themselves out, to use Shakespearian lan- 
 guage, i i as asses. ' ' 
 
 The Hon. Cave Johnson came out of 
 his adumbration with an amendment 
 proposing that one-half of the appropri- 
 ation be given to a Mr. Fisk to enable 
 him to carry on mesmeric experiments. 
 The same sapient gentleman became 
 Postmaster-general under Polk, and ex- 
 pressed an official opinion "that the 
 operation of the telegraph between 
 Washington and Baltimore had not satis- 
 fied him that, under any rate of postage 
 that could be adopted, its revenues could 
 be made equal to its expenditures. " 
 The Hon. Sam Houston thought that 
 Millerism should receive an appropria- 
 tion. The amendment was rejected ; 
 and on February 23, 1843, the bill pro- 
 viding for the appropriation was passed
 
 116 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE 
 by a majority of six. An analysis of the 
 votes of the members shows that the 
 states which voted for the appropriation 
 were those in which the average of edu- 
 cation was highest. Only two slave- 
 holding states voted for it. Morse sat in 
 the gallery of the Senate at the Capitol 
 during the entire day and evening of the 
 session, and, being assured that there was 
 no possibility of a vote being reached, 
 retired, worn out and dispirited. In 
 the morning a young lady told him that 
 her father was present at the close of the 
 session, and that the bill had been passed. 
 Morse, overjoyed, said that she should 
 send the first message over the first line 
 of telegraph that should be opened. 
 Morse immediately set to work on the 
 experimental line. His assistants were 
 Professor L. D. Gale, Professor J. C. 
 Fisher, and Mr. Yail. At the same time 
 Mr. Ezra Cornell, the subsequent founder 
 of Cornell University, became associated 
 with the enterprise. He had invented
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 117 
 a machine for laying an underground 
 pipe which contained insulated wires ; 
 for it was then considered essential that 
 the wires should be placed in the earth, 
 and not overhead. Almost immediately 
 it was found that there were practical as 
 well as electrical difficulties in thus en- 
 closing the wires, and it was decided to 
 adopt the overhead method. ~No sooner 
 was this done than the principal difficul- 
 ties seemed to vanish. Mr. Yail had a 
 plan of fixing the wires to the poles 
 which Morse was about to adopt in pref- 
 erence to one proposed by Cornell. On 
 consultation with Professor Henry he 
 concluded to adopt the plan of Cornell. 
 Many months during 1843 and the early 
 part of 1844 were spent in experimental 
 trials on the necessary battery strength 
 to operate the line between Baltimore 
 and Washington. 
 
 On May 24, 1844, everything was in 
 readiness for the final trial. Morse's 
 friends were assembled in the Supreme
 
 118 SAMUEL F. B. MOBSE 
 Court room at Washington, which was 
 one of the termini of the line. Miss Ells- 
 worth, the young lady who had an- 
 nounced the welcome news to Morse of 
 the passing of his appropriation by Con- 
 gress, and who had been promised the 
 sending of the first telegraphic message, 
 was present. Her mother suggested a 
 line from Numbers xxiii. 23 "What 
 hath God wrought.' 7 Morse sent the 
 message. It was instantaneously received 
 by Yail, who did not know of its choice, 
 and was telegraphed back to Washing- 
 ton. A conversation over the line then 
 followed. Morse said, " Stop a few min- 
 utes. > J Yail replied, ' ' Yes. ' > Then the 
 conversation went on: "Have you any 
 news ? " " No. ' > " Mr. Seaton' s respects 
 to you." "My respects to him. 7 ' 
 ' ' What is your time f ' J " Nine o' clock, 
 twenty - eight minutes. ' ' " What weather 
 have you?" "Cloudy." "Separate 
 your words more." "Oil your clock- 
 work." "Buchanan stock said to be
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 119 
 rising. 77 "I have a great crowd at 
 my window. 77 "Van Buren cannon 
 in front, with a fox tail on it. 77 
 The carping politicians and statesmen, 
 however, soon received further evidence 
 of the success of the experiments with 
 the telegraph. The National Democratic 
 Convention for the nomination of presi- 
 dential candidates assembled in Balti- 
 more, May 29. There was a long and 
 exciting struggle over the nominees. 
 Van Buren was finally dropped, and 
 James K. Polk received the nomination. 
 A struggle then arose over the candidates 
 for Vice-President. Silas Wright, of New 
 York, was nominated. Mr. Wright was 
 then in Washington ; and Vail tele- 
 graphed the news of the nomination to 
 Morse, who communicated it to Wright. 
 The convention was astonished at re- 
 ceiving a telegraphic message from Mr. 
 Wright declining the nomination, and 
 refused to believe it. The convention 
 adjourned until a committee could go to
 
 120 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 "Washington and get reliable information 
 on the subject. 
 
 The experimental line was a success, 
 and the question now arose in regard to 
 selling the telegraph to the government. 
 The sum named was only one hundred 
 thousand dollars. The Hon. Cave John- 
 son, as we have already said, reported 
 against it. At the present time the capi- 
 talisation of the Western Union Tele- 
 graph Company is one hundred million 
 dollars. On May 15, 1845, a private 
 company was formed, which included the 
 names of Hon. Amos Kendall, formerly 
 Postmaster-general under Jackson, Ezra 
 Cornell, Hon. F. O. J. Smith, Alfred 
 Yail, and twenty-two other stockholders. 
 
 Morse again started for Europe, Au- 
 gust 6, 1845, to enlist foreign capital. 
 He was again unsuccessful in England, 
 and also on the Continent ; and he re- 
 turned to America with a stronger feeling 
 of patriotism than ever. There his affairs 
 at last were in able business hands, and
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 121 
 lines were being rapidly constructed. 
 Then, the way having been pointed out, 
 the modern highwayman and the nine- 
 teenth-century type of the robbers of 
 the Ehine began their attacks on the 
 validity of Morse's patents. The first 
 lawsuit is especially interesting, since it 
 shows the evidence of a socialistic move- 
 ment which strives to fatten on other 
 people's brains, and which is not absent 
 as we enter upon a new century. A 
 contract had been made June 13, 1845, 
 with Henry O'Eielly, who had been 
 prominent in the construction of the 
 lines between Philadelphia and Wash- 
 ington, to construct a line from Philadel- 
 phia to St. Louis, and to certain other 
 points which were carefully specified. 
 The line to St. Louis was finished in 
 December, 1847. O'Eielly then, with- 
 out authority, began a line to New Or- 
 leans, which was entitled the People's 
 Line, and on which he claimed to use 
 instruments which differed essentially
 
 122 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 
 from the Morse instruments. The Morse 
 company immediately applied for an 
 injunction. The would-be robbers rep- 
 resented to the great American public 
 that the Morse company was a dangerous 
 monopoly; perhaps the word " trust" 
 was used by the newspapers and the 
 politicians of that day. The title "The 
 People's Line" was captivating, and 
 many of the good people found reasons 
 for believing that Morse was not the 
 real inventor of the telegraph. It was 
 maintained that Wheatstone in England 
 and Steinheil of Bavaria had preceded 
 Morse. It was urged that Joseph Henry 
 had invented the relay. The O'Bielly 
 case was tried in Louisville, Kentucky, 
 August 24, 1848, and was decided in 
 favour of Morse. An appeal was taken 
 to the Supreme Court at Washington. 
 Salmon P. Chase, afterwards Chief Jus- 
 tice of the United States, was one of the 
 lawyers retained by O' Eielly. The Su- 
 preme Bench gave a decision in favour
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOBSE 123 
 of Morse, and Chief Justice Taney de- 
 livered a very full opinion. 
 
 There are many scientific men even 
 to-day who think that Joseph Henry 
 was the real inventor of the telegraph, 
 since his researches clearly embody the 
 principles which underlie its action. It 
 is sometimes difficult for a professor to 
 understand the principles which guide 
 the legal profession in their conduct of 
 patent cases. A method of procedure 
 has grown up which is probably justified 
 by experience and public exigency. 
 The question of dates and records is ex- 
 tremely important, since men are prone 
 "to think more highly of themselves 
 than they ought to do, ' ' and their words 
 and opinions undergo strange changes in 
 the presence of a glittering prize. A 
 clear light upon the standpoint of the 
 legal profession in such matters is shown 
 by the following extract from an opinion 
 of Judge Kane, delivered in Philadel- 
 phia September, 1851, in the case of
 
 124 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 Morse's company, the Magnetic Tele- 
 graph, Company versus the "Bain 
 Line" : 
 
 " It is only to make the first approach 
 to a controversy on this point, to prove 
 to us that Professor Henry had, as early 
 as 1828, made the intensity magnet, with 
 which the scientific world is now familiar, 
 or that he afterwards, and before Mr. 
 Morse's first application for a patent, had 
 illustrated before his classes at Prince- 
 ton the manner in which one circuit 
 could operate to hold another closed or 
 to break it at pleasure, or that he had 
 foreseen the applicability of his discov- 
 eries to the purposes of a telegraph. The 
 question is not one of scientific prece- 
 dence ; and, if it were, this is not the 
 forum that could add to or detract from 
 the eminent fame of Mr. Henry. It is 
 purely a question of invention applied 
 in a practical form to a specific use ; and 
 so regarded, it admits but a single 
 answer." In other words, Morse had
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 125 
 invented a new and useful art. It is 
 interesting to note that no scientific ex- 
 perts were employed by the litigants. 
 The subject was young, and all the liter- 
 ature on the subject of electricity could 
 be understood by even those not trained 
 in science. There was, therefore, less 
 tergiversation in the records of this liti- 
 gation than in the case of subsequent 
 electrical cases. The library of the New 
 York Historical Society contains more 
 than one hundred volumes devoted to 
 the history of telegraphic litigation in 
 the United States. 
 
 Morse was at last successful. The 
 great invention had been made, and a 
 fortune was his. He took for a second 
 wife Miss Sarah E. Griswold of Pough- 
 keepsie, New York, the daughter of his 
 cousin. She was twenty-five years of 
 age, and he was now fifty-six. He pur- 
 chased two hundred acres of land near 
 Poughkeepsie, and entered upon the 
 final period of prosperity and distinc-
 
 126 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 tion. The Sturm und Drang of life was 
 over. His serenity was only disturbed 
 by occasional incursions into his tele- 
 graphic fields of the robber barons whom 
 we have mentioned. It is probable that 
 the repelling of these attacks and the 
 increasing business due to his telegraphic 
 interests prevented his resuming the 
 brush. I am inclined to think that he 
 had found his true vocation, that of an 
 inventor. His great impetus was in this 
 direction rather than in art. Honours 
 now became his. He received the de- 
 gree of LL.D. from Yale College. Vari- 
 ous gold medals were bestowed upon 
 him by foreign governments. The King 
 of Denmark bestowed upon him the 
 cross of the order of Dannebrog. He 
 was elected a member of the Eoyal 
 Academy of Sciences of Sweden. Isa- 
 bella II., Queen of Spain, conferred the 
 order of knighthood and Commander of 
 the first class of the Eoyal Order of Isa- 
 bella the Catholic. Victor Emmanuel
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 127 
 II., King of Italy, gave him the brevet 
 and insignia of Chevalier of the Royal 
 Order of SS. Maurizio et Lazare. The 
 Societe de Physique et d'Histoire Natu- 
 relle of Geneva, Switzerland, elected him 
 an honorary member. 
 
 In 1857 Morse had issued a memorial 
 to several of the diplomatic representa- 
 tives of the United States government in 
 Europe, setting forth his claims to the 
 great invention and his claims for indem- 
 nity for the use of his telegraph. The 
 American minister in Paris, the Hon. 
 John Y. Mason, was influential in bring- 
 ing this memorial to the attention of the 
 French government and to other repre- 
 sentatives of the powers ; and a conven- 
 tion formed of members from France, 
 Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Pied- 
 mont, Russia, the Holy See, Sweden, 
 Tuscany, and Turkey, recommended a 
 testimonial of four hundred thousand 
 francs, which was remitted in four annu- 
 ities. It is noticeable that Great Britain
 
 128 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 did not join in this testimonial. His 
 native country honoured him with ban- 
 quets ; and, when he was eighty years of 
 age, a bronze statue of him was placed, 
 with imposing ceremonies, in Central 
 Park, New York. He died at Pough- 
 keepsie, New York, April 2, 1872. 
 
 Morse was fortunate in entering the 
 field of electrical invention when re- 
 searches had been made which rendered 
 the success of a telegraph possible. He 
 had few competitors. Where to-day 
 there are a thousand electricians, then 
 there was only one. The invention of 
 the telegraph was sure to come, and he 
 was the chosen torch-bearer. He was 
 fortunate in having received a liberal 
 education, which, together with his 
 natural urbanity, gave him influential 
 friends. 
 
 During his severe struggle, Morse ex- 
 hibited the strong moral qualities of 
 courage and persistence. When great 
 success came to him, he forgot his in-
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 129 
 debtedness to Joseph Henry. Morse in 
 1855 published a pamphlet in which he 
 announced : 
 
 " First: I certainly shall show that 
 I have not only manifested every dis- 
 position to give due credit to Professor 
 Henry, but, under the hasty impression 
 that he deserved credit for discoveries 
 in science bearing upon the telegraph, 
 I did actually give him a degree of 
 credit not only beyond what he had 
 received at that time from the scientific 
 world, but a degree of credit to which 
 subsequent research has proved him not 
 to be entitled. Second : I shall show 
 that I am not indebted to him for any 
 discoveries in science bearing on the 
 telegraph, and that all discoveries of 
 principles having this bearing were 
 made not by Professor Henry, but by 
 others, and prior to any experiments of 
 Professor Henry in the science of electro- 
 magnetism. Third : I shall further 
 show that the claim set up for Professor
 
 130 SAMUEL F. B. MOESE 
 Henry to the invention of an important 
 part of my telegraph system has no 
 validity in fact.' 7 
 
 Joseph Henry, in a dignified com- 
 munication to the Eegents of the Smith- 
 sonian, says in reference to his state- 
 ments in court: "It was my wish, in 
 every statement, to render Mr. Morse 
 full and scrupulous justice. While I 
 was constrained, therefore, to state that 
 he had made no discoveries in science, I 
 distinctly declared that he was entitled 
 to the merit of combining and applying 
 the discoveries of others in the invention 
 of the best practical form of the mag- 
 netic telegraph. My testimony tended 
 to establish the fact that, though not en- 
 titled to the exclusive use of the electro- 
 magnet for telegraphic purposes, he was 
 entitled to his particular machine, reg- 
 ister, alphabet, etc." 
 
 A select committee of the Board of 
 Eegents took up this assault of Morse 
 upon their distinguished secretary.
 
 SAMUEL P. B. MOESE 131 
 The chairman of this committee was 
 President Felton of Harvard University, 
 and it characteiised the attack of Morse 
 as a " disingenuous piece of sophistical 
 argument, " and stated their conviction 
 that Morse had failed to substantiate 
 any one of the charges he had made 
 against Professor Henry. 
 
 Nevertheless, to Morse must be given 
 the credit of the adaptation of Henry 7 s 
 investigations to the needs of mankind. 
 He was a pioneer in the subject of the 
 practical applications of electricity ; 
 and, since his time, other men have at- 
 tained great popular reputation as in- 
 ventors in electricity, who like him had 
 not distinguished themselves by scientific 
 investigations, and, indeed, had in gen- 
 eral very little knowledge of science. 
 The world, however, recognises its debt 
 to them for their perception of the prac- 
 tical value of scientific work and their 
 courage, persistence, and energy in 
 achieving practical results.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The general reader will find many 
 short essays in various periodicals and 
 cyclopaedias which give the main in- 
 cidents in the life of Morse. There is 
 also one extended biography that of 
 Prime. The short bibliography given 
 below includes the articles written by 
 Morse, which throw light upon his 
 artistic career and the subsequent de- 
 velopment of his powers as an inventor. 
 In the prolonged litigation which fol- 
 lowed his great invention there were 
 many points raised in regard to his 
 merits as an original discoverer ; and the 
 principal authorities which discuss these 
 points have been included in this short 
 list. 
 
 I. THE AMERICAN ELECTRO-MAGNETIC 
 TELEGRAPH : With the Eeports of Con- 
 gress and a Description of all Telegraphs 
 known employing Electricity or Galvan- 
 ism. By Alfred Yail. (Philadelphia, 
 1845 : Lee & Blanchard.)
 
 BIBLIOGEAPHY 133 
 
 The treatise was written by the part- 
 ner of Morse in the latter 7 s early strug- 
 gles to bring his invention to the atten- 
 tion of the public, and contains a good 
 description of Morse's apparatus. 
 
 II. MORSE'S PATENT : FULL EXPOSURE 
 OF CHAS. T. JACKSON'S PRETENSIONS TO 
 THE INVENTION OF THE AMERICAN 
 ELECTRO-MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH. By 
 Amos Kendall. (New York, 1849.) 
 
 This is an exposition of the view 
 taken by the partisans of Morse in re- 
 gard to the claim of Dr. Jackson, and 
 those who are curious in regard to the 
 origin of the idea of the telegraph in 
 Morse's mind will find a full criticism 
 of Dr. Jackson's claims. 
 
 III. HISTORIC ANNALS OF THE NA- 
 TION AX ACADEMY OF DESIGN. By 
 Thomas S. Cummings, N.A. (Phila- 
 delphia, 1865 : George W. Childs.) This 
 interesting treatise by a professor of the 
 arts of design in the New York Univer-
 
 134 BIBLIOGBAPHY 
 
 sity contains a full account of Morse's 
 connection with the National Academy 
 of Design, and is therefore illustrative 
 of his artist's career. 
 
 IY. MEMORIAL OF S. P. B. MORSE. 
 Order of City Council. (Boston, 1872.) 
 A collection of addresses in honour of 
 Morse. 
 
 V. LIFE OF SAMUEL FINLAY BREESE 
 MORSE. By Samuel Irenseus Prime. 
 (New York, 1875 : D. Appleton & Co.) 
 The most complete biography of Morse 
 which has been printed. 
 
 VI. A MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 
 Published by order of Congress. (Wash- 
 ington, 1880 : Government Printing 
 Office.) This includes Henry's letters 
 to Morse, and the history of Morse's 
 attack upon Henry, in which Morse dis- 
 claims having received any assistance 
 from the original investigations of 
 Henry in electricity and magnetism.
 
 THE BEACON BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 M. A. DE WOLFE HOWE, Editor. 
 
 The aim of this series is to furnish brief, read- 
 able, and authentic accounts of the lives of those 
 Americans whose personalities have impressed 
 themselves most deeply on the character and 
 history of their country. On account of the 
 length of the more formal lives, often running 
 into large volumes, the average busy man and 
 woman have not the time or hardly the inclina- 
 tion to acquaint themselves with American bi- 
 ography. In the present series everything that 
 such a reader would ordinarily care to know is 
 given by writers of special competence, who 
 possess in full measure the best contemporary 
 point of view. Each volume is equipped with 
 a frontispiece portrait, a calendar of important 
 dates, and a brief bibliography for further read- 
 ing. Finally, the volumes are printed in a form 
 convenient for reading and for carrying handily 
 in the pocket. 
 
 SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY, Publishers. 
 PIERCE BUILDING, Copley Square, BOSTON. 
 
 [OVER]
 
 THE BEACON BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 The following volumes are issued: 
 Louis Agassiz, by ALICE BACHE GOULD. 
 Edwin Booth, by CHARLES TOWNSEND COPELAND. 
 Phillips Brooks, by M. A. DE\VOLFE HOWE. 
 John Brown, by JOSEPH EDGAR CHAMBERLIN. 
 Aaron Burr, by HENRY CHILDS MERWIN. 
 James Fenimore Cooper, by W. B. SHUBRICK CLYMER. 
 Stephen Decatur, by CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY. 
 Frederick Douglass, by CHARLES W. CHESNUTT. 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson, by FRANK B. SANBORN 
 David G. Farragut, by JAMES BARNES. 
 Ulysses S. Grant, by OWEN WISTER. 
 Alexander Hamilton, by JAMES SCHOULER. 
 Nathaniel Hawthorne, by Mrs. JAMES T. FIELDS. 
 Father Hecker, by HENRY D. SEDGWICK, Jr. 
 Sam Houston, by SARAH BARNWELL ELLIOTT. 
 " Stonewall" Jackson, by CARL HOVEY. 
 Thomas Jefferson, by THOMAS E. WATSON. 
 Robert E. Lee, by WILLIAM P. TRENT. 
 Henry W. Longfellow, by GEORGE RICE CARPENTER. 
 James Russell Lowell, by EDWARD EVERETT HALE, Jr. 
 Samuel F. B. Morse, by JOHN TROWBRIDGE. 
 Thomas Paine, by ELLERY SEDGWICK. 
 Daniel Webster, by NORMAN HAPGOOD. 
 John Greenleaf Whittier, by RICHARD BURTON. 
 
 The following are among those in preparation: 
 John Jacob Astor, by ARTHUR ASTOR CAREY. 
 John James Audubon, by JOHN BURROUGHS. 
 Benjamin Franklin, by LINDSAY SWIFT.
 
 THE WESTMINSTER BIOG- 
 RAPHIES. 
 
 The WESTMINSTER BIOGRAPHIES are uniform in plan 
 size, and general make-up with the BEACON BIOGRAPHIES, 
 the point of important difference lying in the fact that 
 they deal with the lives of eminent Englishmen instead 
 of eminent Americans. They are bound in limp red cloth, 
 are gilt-topped, and have a cover design and a vignette title- 
 page by BERTRAM GROSVENOR GOODHUE. Like the Beacon 
 Biographies, each volume has a frontispiece portrait, a 
 photogravure, a calendar of dates, and a bibliography for 
 further reading. 
 
 The following volumes are issued: 
 
 Robert Browning, by ARTHUR WAUGH. 
 
 Daniel Defoe, by WILFRED WHITTEN. 
 
 Adam Duncan (Lord Camperdown), by H. W. WILSON. 
 
 George Eliot, by CLARA THOMSON. 
 
 Cardinal Newman, by A. R. WALLER. 
 
 John Wesley, by FRANK BANFIELD. 
 
 Many others are in preparation. 
 
 SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY, Publishers, 
 PIERCE BUILDING, Copley Square, BOSTON.
 
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