In spite of his occasional fits of pessimism he still strove with all his might, by letters and published pamphlets, to rescue his beloved country from what he believed were the machinations of foreign enemies. At the same time he did not neglect his more immediate concerns, and his letter-books are filled with loving admonitions to his children, instructions to his farmer, answers to inventors seeking his advice, or to those asking for money for various causes, etc.

He and his two brothers had united in causing a monument to be erected to the memory of their father and mother in the cemetery at New Haven, and he insisted on bearing the lion's share of the expense, as we learn from a letter written to his nephew, Sidney E. Morse, Jr., on October 10, 1862:—

"Above you have my check on Broadway Bank, New York, for five hundred dollars towards Mr. Ritter's bill.

"Tell your dear father and Uncle Sidney that this is the portion of the bill for the monument which I choose to assume. Tell them I have still a good memory of past years, when I was poor and received from them the kind attentions of affectionate brothers. I am now, through the loving kindness and bounty of our Heavenly Father, in such circumstances that I can afford this small testimonial to their former fraternal kindness, and I know no better occasion to manifest the long pent-up feelings of my heart towards them than by lightening, under the embarrassments of the times, the pecuniary burden of our united testimonial to the best of fathers and mothers."

This monument, a tall column surmounted by a terrestrial globe, symbolical of the fact that the elder Morse was the first American geographer, is still to be seen in the New Haven cemetery.

Another instance of the inventor's desire to show his gratitude towards those who had befriended him in his days of poverty and struggle is shown in a letter of November 17, 1862, to the widow of Alfred Vail:—

"You are aware that a sum of money was voted me by a special Congress, convened at Paris for the purpose, as a personal, honorary gratuity as the Inventor of the Telegraph.... Notwithstanding, however, that the Congress had put the sum voted me on the ground of a personal, honorary gratuity, I made up my mind in the very outset that I would divide to your good husband just that proportion of what I might receive (after due allowance and deduction of my heavy expenses in carrying through the transaction) as would have been his if the money so voted by the Congress had been the purchase money of patent rights. This design I early intimated to Mr. Vail, and I am happy in having already fulfilled in part my promise to him, when I had received the gratuity only in part. It was only the last spring that the whole sum, promised in four annual instalments (after the various deductions in Europe) has been remitted to me.... I wrote to Mr. Cobb [one of Alfred Vail's executors] some months ago, while he was in Washington, requesting an early interview to pay over the balance for you, but have never received an answer.... Could you not come to town this week, either with or without Mr. Cobb, as is most agreeable to you, prepared to settle this matter in full? If so, please drop me a line stating the day and hour you will come, and I will make it a point to be at home at the time."

In this connection I shall quote from a letter to Mr. George Vail, written much earlier in the year, on May 19:—

"It will give me much pleasure to aid you in your project of disposing of the 'original wire' of the Telegraph, and if my certificate to its genuineness will be of service, you shall cheerfully have it. I am not at this moment aware that there is any quantity of this wire anywhere else, except it may be in the helices of the big magnets which I have at Poughkeepsie. These shall not interfere with your design.

"I make only one modification of your proposal, and that is, if any profits are realized, please substitute for my name the name of your brother Alfred's amiable widow."

Although the malign animosity of F.O.J. Smith followed him to his grave, and even afterwards, he was, in this year of 1862, relieved from one source of annoyance from him, as we learn from a letter of May 19 to Mr. Kendall: "I have had a settlement with Smith in full on the award of the Referees in regard to the 'Honorary Gratuity,' and with less difficulty than I expected."

Morse had now passed the Scriptural age allotted to man; he was seventy-one years old, and, in a letter of August 22, he remarks rather sorrowfully: "I feel that I am no longer young, that my career, whether for good or evil, is near its end, but I wish to give the energy and influence that remain to me to my country, to save it, if possible, to those who come after me."

All through the year 1863 he labored to this end, with alternations of hope and despair. On February 9, 1863, he writes to his cousin, Judge Sidney Breese: "A movement is commenced in the formation of a society here which promises good. It is for the purpose of Diffusing Useful Political Knowledge. It is backed up by millionaires, so far as funds go, who have assured us that funds shall not be wanting for this object. They have made me its president."

Through the agency of this society he worked to bring about "Peace with Honor," but, as one of their cardinal principles was the abandonment of abolitionism, he worked in vain. He bitterly denounced the Emancipation Proclamation, and President Lincoln came in for many hard words from his pen, being considered by him weak and vacillating. Mistaken though I think his attitude was in this, his opinions were shared by many prominent men of the day, and we must admit that for those who believed in a literal interpretation of the Bible there was much excuse. For instance, in a letter of September 21, 1863, to Martin Hauser, Esq., of Newbern, Indiana, he goes rather deeply into the subject:—

"Your letter of the 23d of last month I have just received, and I was gratified to see the evidences of an upright, honest dependence upon the only standard of right to which man can appeal pervading your whole letter. There is no other standard than the Bible, but our translation, though so excellent, is defective sometimes in giving the true meaning of the original languages in which the two Testaments are written; the Old Testament in Hebrew, the New Testament in Greek. Therefore it is that in words in the English translation about which there is a variety of opinion, it is necessary to examine the original Hebrew or Greek to know what was the meaning attached to these words by the writers of the original Bible.... I make these observations to introduce a remark of yours that the Bible does not contain anything like slavery in it because the words 'slave' and 'slavery' are not used in it (except the former twice) but that the word 'servant' is used.

"Now the words translated 'servant' in hundreds of instances are, in the original, 'slave,' and the very passage you quote, Noah's words—'Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren'—in the original Hebrew means exactly this—'Cursed be Canaan, a slave of slaves shall he be.' The Hebrew, word is 'ebed' which means a bond slave, and the words 'ebed ebadim' translated 'slave of slaves,' means strictly the most abject of slaves.

"In the New Testament too the word translated 'servant' from the Greek is 'doulas,' which is the same as 'ebed' in the Hebrew, and always means a bond slave. Our word 'servant' formerly meant the same, but time and custom have changed its meaning with us, but the Bible word 'doulos' remains the same, 'a slave.'"

It seems strange that a man of such a gentle, kindly disposition should have upheld the outworn institution of slavery, but he honestly believed, not only that it was ordained of God, but that it was calculated to benefit the enslaved race. To Professor Christy, of Cincinnati, he gives, on September 12, his reasons for this belief:—

"You have exposed in a masterly manner the fallacies of Abolitionism. There is a complete coincidence of views between us. My 'Argument,' which is nearly ready for the press, supports the same view of the necessity of slavery to the christianization and civilization of a barbarous race. My argument for the benevolence of the relation of master and slave, drawn from the four relations ordained of God for the organization of the social system (the fourth being the servile relation, or the relation of master and slave) leads conclusively to the recognition of some great benevolent design in its establishment.

"But you have demonstrated in an unanswerable manner by your statistics this benevolent design, bringing out clearly, from the workings of his Providence, the absolute necessity of this relation in accomplishing his gracious designs towards even the lowest type of humanity."



CHAPTER XXXVIII

FEBRUARY 26, 1864—NOVEMBER 8, 1867

Sanitary Commission.—Letter to Dr. Bellows.—Letter on "loyalty."—His brother Richard upholds Lincoln.—Letters of brotherly reproof.— Introduces McClellan at preelection parade.—Lincoln reelected.—Anxiety as to future of country.—Unsuccessful effort to take up art again.— Letter to his sons.—Gratification at rapid progress of telegraph.— Letter to George Wood on two great mysteries of life.—Presents portrait of Allston to the National Academy of Design.—Endows lectureship in Union Theological Seminary.—Refuses to attend fifty-fifth reunion of his class.—Statue to him proposed.—Ezra Cornell's benefaction.—American Asiatic Society.—Amalgamation of telegraph companies.—Protest against stock manipulations.—Approves of President Andrew Johnson.—Sails with family for Europe.—Paris Exposition of 1867.—Descriptions of festivities.—Cyrus W. Field.—Incident in early life of Napoleon III— Made Honorary Commissioner to Exposition.—Attempt on life of Czar.—Ball at Hotel de Ville.—Isle of Wight.—England and Scotland.—The "Sounder."—Returns to Paris.

All the differences of those terrible years of fratricidal strife, all the heart-burnings, the bitter animosities, the family divisions, have been smoothed over by the soothing hand of time. I have neither the wish nor the ability to enter into a discussion of the rights and the wrongs of the causes underlying that now historic conflict, nor is it germane to such a work as this. While Morse took a prominent part in the political movements of the time, while he was fearless and outspoken in his views, his name is not now associated historically with those epoch-making events. It has seemed necessary, however, to make some mention of his convictions in order to make the portrait a true one. He continued to oppose the measures of the Administration; he did all in his power to hasten the coming of peace; he worked and voted for the election of McClellan to the Presidency, and when he and the other eminent men who believed as he did were outvoted, he bowed to the will of the majority with many misgivings as to the future. Although he was opposed to the war his heart bled for the wounded on both sides, and he took a prominent part in the National Sanitary Commission. He expresses himself warmly in a letter of February 26, 1864, to its president, Rev. Dr. Bellows:—

"There are some who are sufferers, great sufferers, whom we can reach and relieve without endangering political or military plans, and in the spirit of Him who ignored the petty political distinctions of Jew and Samaritan, and regarded both as entitled to His sympathy and relief, I cannot but think it is within the scope and interest of the great Sanitary Commission to extend a portion of their Christian regard to the unfortunate sufferers from this dreadful war, the prisoners in our fortresses, and to those who dwell upon the borders of the contending sections."

In a letter of March 23, to William L. Ransom, Esq., of Litchfield, Connecticut, he, perhaps unconsciously, enunciates one of the fundamental beliefs of that great president whom he so bitterly opposed:—

"I hardly know how to comply with your request to have a 'short, pithy, Democratic sentiment.' In glancing at the thousand mystifications which have befogged so many in our presumed intelligent community, I note one in relation to the new-fangled application of a common foreign word imported from the monarchies of Europe. I mean the word 'loyalty,' upon which the changes are daily and hourly sung ad nauseam.

"I have no objection, however, to the word if it be rightly applied. It signifies 'fidelity to a prince or sovereign.' Now if loyalty is required of us, it should be to the Sovereign. Where is this Sovereign? He is not the President, nor his Cabinet, nor Congress, nor the Judiciary, nor any nor all of the Administration together. Our Sovereign is on a throne above all these. He is the People, or Peoples of the States. He has issued his decree, not to private individuals only, but to President and to all his subordinate servants, and this sovereign decree his servant the is the Constitution. He who adheres faithfully to this written will of the Sovereign is loyal. He who violates the embodiment of the will of the Sovereign, is disloyal, whether he be a Constitution, this President, a Secretary, a member of Congress or of the Judiciary, or a simple citizen."

As a firm believer in the Democratic doctrine of States' Rights Morse, with many others, held that Lincoln had overridden the Constitution in his Emancipation Proclamation.

It was a source of grief to him just at this time that his brother Richard had changed his political faith, and had announced his intention of voting for the reelection of President Lincoln. In a long letter of September 24, 1864, gently chiding him for thus going over to the Abolitionists, the elder brother again states his reasons for remaining firm in his faith:—

"I supposed, dear brother, that on that subject you were on the same platform with Sidney and myself. Have there been any new lights, any new aspects of it, which have rendered it less odious, less the 'child of Satan' than when you and Sidney edited the New York Observer before Lincoln was President? I have seen no reason to change my views respecting abolition. You well know I have ever considered it the logical progeny of Unitarianism and Infidelity. It is characterized by subtlety, hypocrisy and pharisaism, and one of the most melancholy marks of its speciousness is its influence in benumbing the gracious sensibilities of many Christian hearts, and blinding their eyes to their sad defection from the truths of the Bible.

"I know, indeed, the influences by which you are surrounded, but they are neither stronger nor more artful than those which our brave father manfully withstood in combating the monster in the cradle. I hope there is enough of father's firmness and courage in battling with error, however specious, to keep you, through God's grace, from falling into the embrace of the body-and-soul-destroying heresy of Abolitionism."

In another long letter to his brother Richard, of November 5, he firmly but gently upholds his view that the Constitution has been violated by Lincoln's action, and that the manner of amending the Constitution was provided for in that instrument itself, and that: "If that change is made in accordance with its provisions, no one will complain"; and then he adds:—

"But it is too late to give you the reasons of the political faith that I hold. When the excitement of the election is over, let it result as it may, I may be able to show you that my opinions are formed from deep study and observation. Now I can only announce them comparatively unsustained by the reasons for forming them.

"I am interrupted by a call from the committee requesting me to conduct General McClellan to the balcony of the Fifth Avenue Hotel this evening, to review the McClellan Legion and the procession. After my return I will continue my letter.

"12 o'clock, midnight. I have just returned, and never have I witnessed in any gathering of the people, either in Europe or in this country, such a magnificent and enthusiastic display. I conducted the General to the front of the balcony and presented him to the assemblage (a dense mass of heads as far as the eye could reach in every direction), and such a shout, which continued for many minutes, I never heard before, except it may have been at the reception in London of Bluecher and Platoff after the battle of Waterloo. I leave the papers to give you the details. The procession was passing from nine o'clock to a quarter to twelve midnight, and such was the denseness of the crowd within the hotel, every entry and passageway jammed with people, that we were near being crushed. Three policemen before me could scarcely open a way for the General, who held my arm, to pass only a few yards to our room.

"After taking my leave I succeeded with difficulty in pressing my way through the crowd within and without the hotel, and have just got into my quiet library and must now retire, for I am too fatigued to do anything but sleep. Good-night."

A short time after this the election was held, and this enthusiastic advocate of what he considered the right learned the bitter lesson that crowds, and shouting, and surface enthusiasm do not carry an election. The voice of that Sovereign to whom he had sworn loyalty spoke in no uncertain tones, and Lincoln was overwhelmingly chosen by the votes of the People.

Morse was outvoted but not convinced, and I shall make but one quotation from a letter of November 9, to his brother Richard, who had also remained firm in spite of his brother's pleading: "My consolation is in looking up, and I pray you may be so enlightened that you may be delivered from the delusions which have ensnared you, and from the judgments which I cannot but feel are in store for this section of the country. When I can believe that my Bible reads 'cursed' instead of 'blessed' are the 'peacemakers,' I also shall cease to be a peace man. But while they remain, as they do, in the category of those that are blessed, I cannot be frightened at the names of 'copperhead' and 'traitor' so lavishly bestowed, with threats of hanging etc., by those whom you have assisted into power."

In a letter of Mr. George Wood's, of June 26, 1865, I find the following sentences: "I have to acknowledge your very carefully written letter on the divine origin of Slavery.... I hope you have kept a copy of this letter, for the time will come when you will have a biography written, and the defense you have made of your position, taken in your pamphlet, is unquestionably far better than he (your biographer) will make for you."

The letter to which Mr. Wood refers was begun on March 5, 1865, but finished some time afterwards. It is very long, too long to be included here, but in justice to myself, that future biographer, I wish to state that I have already given the main arguments brought forward in that letter, in quotations from previous letters, and that I have attempted no defense further than to emphasize the fact that, right or wrong, Morse was intensely sincere, and that he had the courage of his opinions.

Returning to an earlier date, and turning from matters political to the gentler arts of peace, we find that the one-time artist had always hoped that some day he could resume his brush, which the labors incident to the invention of the telegraph had compelled him to drop. But it seems that his hand, through long disuse, had lost its cunning. He bewails the fact in a letter of January 20, 1864, to N. Jocelyn, Esq.:—

"I have many yearnings towards painting and sculpture, but that rigid faculty called reason, so opposed often to imagination, reads me a lecture to which I am compelled to bow. To explain: I made the attempt to draw a short time ago; everything in the drawing seemed properly proportioned, but, upon putting it in another light, I perceived that every perpendicular line was awry. In other words I found that I could place no confidence in my eyes.

"No, I have made the sacrifice of my profession to establish an invention which is doing mankind a great service. I pursued it long enough to found an institution which, I trust, is to flourish long after I am gone, and be the means of educating a noble class of men in Art, to be an honor and praise to our beloved country when peace shall once more bless us throughout all our borders in one grand brotherhood of States."

The many letters to his children are models of patient exhortation and cheerful optimism, when sometimes the temptation to indulge in pessimism was strong. I shall give, as an example, one written on May 9, 1864, to two of his sons who had returned to school at Newport:—

"Now we hope to have good reports of your progress in your studies. In spring, you know, the farmers sow their seed which is to give them their harvest at the close of the summer. If they were not careful to put the seed in the ground, thinking it would do just as well about August or September, or if they put in very little seed, you can see that they cannot expect to reap a good or abundant crop.

"Now it is just so in regard to your life. You are in the springtime of life. It is seed time. You must sow now or you will reap nothing by-and-by, or, if anything, only weeds. Your teachers are giving you the seed in your various studies. You cannot at present understand the use of them, but you must take them on trust; you must believe that your parents and teachers have had experience, and they know what will be for your good hereafter, what studies will be most useful to you in after life. Therefore buckle down to your studies diligently and very soon you will get to love your studies, and then it will be a pleasure and not a task to learn your lessons.

"We miss your noise, but, although agreeable quiet has come in place of it, we should be willing to have the noise if we could have our dear boys near us. You are, indeed, troublesome pleasures, but, after all, pleasant troubles. When you are settled in life and have a family around you, you will better understand what I mean."

In spite of the disorganization of business caused by the war, the value of telegraphic property was rapidly increasing, and new lines were being constantly built or proposed. Morse refers to this in a letter of June 25, 1864, to his old friend George Wood:—

"To you, as well as to myself, the rapid progress of the Telegraph throughout the world must seem wonderful, and with me you will, doubtless, often recur to our friend Annie's inspired message—'What hath God wrought.' It is, indeed, his marvellous work, and to Him be the glory.

"Early in the history of the invention, in forecasting its future, I was accustomed to predict with confidence, 'It is destined to go round the world,' but I confess I did not expect to live to see the prediction fulfilled. It is quite as wonderful to me also that, with the thousand attempts to improve my system, with the mechanical skill of the world concentrated upon improving the mechanism, the result has been beautiful complications and great ingenuity, but no improvement. I have the gratification of knowing that my system, everywhere known as the 'Morse system,' is universally adopted throughout the world, because of its simplicity and its adaptedness to universality."

This remains true to the present day, and is one of the remarkable features of this great invention. The germ of the "Morse system," as jotted down in the 1832 sketch-book, is the basic principle of the universal telegraph of to-day.

In another letter to Mr. Wood, of September 11, 1864, referring to the sad death of the son of a mutual friend, he touches on two of the great enigmas of life which have puzzled many other minds:—

"It is one of those mysteries of Providence, one of those deep things of God to be unfolded in eternity, with the perfect vindication of God's wisdom and justice, that children of pious parents, children of daily anxiety and prayer, dedicated to God from their birth and trained to all human appearance 'in the way they should go,' should yet seem to falsify the promise that 'they should not depart from it.' It is a subject too deep to fathom.

"... It is my daily, I may say hourly, thought, certainly my constant wakeful thought at night, how to resolve the question: 'Why has God seen fit so abundantly to shower his earthly blessings upon me in my latter days, to bless me with every desirable comfort, while so many so much more deserving (in human eyes at least) are deprived of all comfort and have heaped upon them sufferings and troubles in every shape?'"

The memory of his student days in London was always dear to him, and on January 4, 1865, he writes to William Cullen Bryant:—

"I have this moment received a printed circular respecting the proposed purchase of the portrait of Allston by Leslie to be presented to the National Academy of Design.

"There are associations in my mind with those two eminent and beloved names which appeal too strongly to me to be resisted. Now I have a favor to ask which I hope will not be denied. It is that I may be allowed to present to the Academy that portrait in my own name. You can appreciate the arguments which have influenced my wishes in this respect. Allston was more than any other person my master in art. Leslie was my life-long cherished friend and fellow pupil, whom I loved as a brother. We all lived together for years in the closest intimacy and in the same house. Is there not then a fitness that the portrait of the master by one distinguished pupil should be presented by the surviving pupil to the Academy over which he presided in its infancy, as well as assisted in its birth, and, although divorced from Art, cannot so easily be divorced from the memories of an intercourse with these distinguished friends, an intercourse which never for one moment suffered interruption, even from a shadow of estrangement?"

It is needless to say that this generous offer was accepted, and Morse at the same time presented to the Academy the brush which Allston was using when stricken with his fatal illness.

As his means permitted he made generous donations to charities and to educational institutions, and on May 20, 1865, he endowed by the gift of $10,000 a lectureship in the Union Theological Seminary, making the following request in the letter which accompanied it:—

"If it be thought advisable that the name of the lectureship, as was suggested, should be the Morse Lectureship, I wish it to be distinctly understood that it is so named in honor of my venerated and distinguished father, whose zealous labors in the cause of theological education, and in various benevolent enterprises, as well as of geographical science, entitle his memory to preservation in connection with the efforts to diffuse the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and his gospel throughout the world."

Curiously enough I find no reference in the letters of the year 1865 to the assassination of President Lincoln, but I well remember being taken, a boy of eight, to our stable on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-first Street, from the second-floor windows of which we watched the imposing funeral cortege pass up the avenue.

The fifty-fifth reunion of his class of 1810 took place in this year, and Morse reluctantly decided to absent himself. The reasons why he felt that he could not go are given in a long letter of August 11 to his cousin, Professor E.S. Salisbury, and it is such a clear statement of his convictions that I am tempted to give it almost in its entirety:—

"I should have been most happy on many personal accounts to have been at the periodical meeting of my surviving classmates of 1810, and also to have renewed my social intercourse with many esteemed friends and relations in New Haven. But as I could not conscientiously take part in the proposed martial sectional glorification of those of the family who fell in the late lamentable family strife, and could not in any brief way or time explain the discriminations that were necessary between that which I approve and that which I most unqualifiedly condemn, without the risk of misapprehension, I preferred the only alternative left me, to absent myself altogether.

"You well know I never approved of the late war. I have ever believed, and still believe, if the warnings of far-seeing statesmen (Washington, Clay, and Webster among them) had been heeded, if, during the last thirty years of persistent stirring up of strife by angry words, the calm and Christian counsels of intelligent patriots had been followed at the North, and a strict observance of the letter and spirit of the Constitution had been sustained as the supreme law, instead of the insidious violations of its provisions, especially by New England, we should have had no war.

"As I contributed nothing to the war, so now I see no reason specially to exult in the display of brave qualities in an isolated portion of the family, qualities which no true American ever doubted were possessed by both sections of our country in an equal degree. Why then discriminate between alumni from the North and alumni from the South at a gathering in which alumni from both sections are expected to meet?... No, my dear cousin, the whole era of the war is one I wish not to remember. I would have no other memorial than a black cross, like those over the graves of murdered travellers, to cause a shudder whenever it is seen. It would be well if History could blot from its pages all record of the past four years. There is no glory in them for victors or vanquished. The only event in which I rejoice is the restoration of Peace, which never should have been interrupted....

"I have no doubt that they who originated the recent demonstration honestly believed it to be patriotic, for every movement nowadays must take that shape to satisfy the morbid appetite of the popular mind. I cannot think it either in good taste or in conformity with sound policy for our collegiate institutions to foster this depraved appetite. Surely there is enough of this in the political harangues of the day for those who require such aids to patriotism without its being administered to by our colleges. That patriotism is of rather a suspicious character which needs such props. I love to see my children well clad and taking a proper pride in their attire, but I should not think them well instructed if I found them everywhere boasting of their fine clothes. A true nobleman is not forever boasting of his nobility for fear that his rank may not be recognized. The loudest boasts of patriotism do not come from the true possessors of the genuine spirit. Patriotism is not sectional nor local, it comprehends in its grasp the whole country....

"I have said the demonstration at Commencement was in bad taste. Why? you will say. Because Commencement day brings together the alumni of the college from all parts of the Union, from the South as well as the North. They are to meet on some common ground, and that common ground is the love that all are supposed to bear to the old Alma Mater, cherished by memories of past friendships in their college associations. The late Commencement was one of peculiar note. It was the first after the return of peace. The country had been sundered; the ties of friendship and of kindred had been broken; the bonds of college affection were weakened if not destroyed. What an opportunity for inaugurating the healing process! What an occasion for the display of magnanimity, of mollifying the pain of humiliation, of throwing a veil of oblivion over the past, of watering the perishing roots of fraternal affection and fostering the spirit of genuine union! But no. The Southern alumnus may come, but he comes to be humiliated still further. Can he join in the plaudits of those by whom he has been humbled? You may applaud, but do not ask him to join in your acclamations. He may be mourning the death of father, brother, yes, of mother and sister, by the very hands of those you are glorifying. Do not aggravate his sorrow by requiring him to join you in such a demonstration.

"No, my dear cousin, it was in bad taste to say the least of it, and it was equally impolitic to intercalate such a demonstration into the usual and appropriate exercises of the week. You expect, I presume, to have pupils from the South as heretofore; will such a sectional display be likely to attract them or to repel them? If they can go elsewhere they will not come to you. They will not be attracted by a perpetual memento before their eyes of your triumph over them. It was not politic. It is no improvement for Christian America to show less humanity than heathen Rome. The Romans never made demonstrations of triumph over the defeat of their countrymen in a civil war. It is no proof of superior civilization that we refuse to follow Roman example in such cases.

"My dear cousin, I have written you very frankly, but I trust you will not misunderstand me as having any personal reproaches to make for the part you have taken in the matter. We undoubtedly view the field from different standpoints. I concede to you conscientious motives in what you do. You are sustained by those around you, men of intellect, men of character. I respect them while I differ from them. I appeal, however, to a higher law, and that, I think, sustains me."

His strong and outspoken stand for what he believed to be the right made him many enemies, and he was called hard names by the majority of those by whom he was surrounded at the North; and yet the very fearlessness with which he advocated an unpopular point of view undoubtedly compelled increased respect for him. A proof of this is given in a letter to his daughter, Mrs. Lind, of December 28, 1865:—

"I also send you some clippings from the papers giving you an account of some of the doings respecting a statue proposed to me by the Common Council. The Mayor, who is a personal friend of mine, you see has vetoed the resolutions, not from a disapproval of their character, but because he did not like the locality proposed. He proposes the Central Park, and in this opinion all my friends concur.

"I doubt if they will carry the project through while I am alive, and it would really seem most proper to wait until I was gone before they put up my monument. I have nothing, however, to say on the subject. I am gratified, of course, to see the manifestation of kindly feeling, but, as the tinder of vainglory is in every human heart, I rather shrink from such a proposed demonstration lest a spark of flattery should kindle that tinder to an unseemly and destructive flame. I am not blind to the popularity, world-wide, of the Telegraph, and a sober forecast of the future foreshadows such a statue in some place. If ever erected I hope the prominent mottoes upon the pedestal will be: 'Not unto us, not unto us, but to God be the glory,' and the first message or telegram: 'What hath GOD wrought.'"

He says very much the same thing in a letter to his friend George Wood, of January 15, 1866, and he also says in this letter, referring to some instance of benevolent generosity by Mr. Kendall:—

"Is it not a noticeable fact that the wealth acquired by the Telegraph has in so many conspicuous instances been devoted to benevolent purposes? Mr. Kendall is prominent in his expenditures for great Christian enterprises, and think of Cornell, always esteemed by me as an ingenious and shrewd man, when employed by me to set the posts and put up the wire for the first line of Telegraphs between Washington and Baltimore, yet thought to be rather close and narrow-minded by those around him. But see, when his wealth had increased by his acquisition of Telegraph stock to millions (it is said), what enlarged and noble plans of public benefit were conceived and brought forth by him. I have viewed his course with great gratification as the evidence of God's blessing on what He hath wrought."

It has been made plain, I think, that Morse was essentially a leader in every movement in which he took an interest, whether it was artistic, scientific, religious, or political. This is emphasized by the number of requests made to him to assume the presidency of all sorts of organizations, and these requests multiplied as he advanced in years. Most of them he felt compelled to decline, for, as he says in a letter of March 13, 1866, declining the presidency of the Geographical and Statistical Society: "I am at an age when I find it necessary rather to be relieved from the cares and responsibilities already resting upon me, than to take upon me additional ones."

In many other cases he allowed his name to be used as vice-president or member, when he considered the object of the organization a worthy one, and his benefactions were only limited by his means.

He did, however, accept the presidency of one association just at this time, the American Asiatic Society, in which were interested such men as Gorham Abbott, Dr. Forsyth, E.H. Champlin, Thomas Harrison, and Morse's brother-in-law, William M. Goodrich. The aims of this society were rather vast, including an International Congress to be called by the Emperor Napoleon III, for the purpose of opening up and controlling the great highways from the East to the West through the Isthmus of Suez and that of Panama; also the colonization of Palestine by the Jews, and other commercial and philanthropic schemes. I cannot find that anything of lasting importance was accomplished by this society, so I shall make no further mention of it, although there is much correspondence about it.

The following, from a letter to Mr. Kendall of March 19, 1866, explains itself: "If I understand the position of our Telegraph interests, they are now very much as you and I wished them to be in the outset, not cut up in O'Reilly fashion into irresponsible parts, but making one grand whole like the Post-Office system. It is becoming, doubtless, a monopoly, but no more so than the Post-Office system, and its unity is in reality a public advantage if properly and uprightly managed, and this, of course, will depend on the character of the managers. Confidence must be reposed somewhere, and why not in upright and responsible men who are impelled as well by their own interest to have their matters conducted with fairness and with liberality."

As a curious commentary on his misplaced faith in the integrity of others, I shall quote from a letter of January 4, 1867, to E.S. Sanford, Esq., which also shows his abhorrence of anything like crooked dealing in financial matters:—

"I wish when you again write me you would give me, in confidence, the names of those in the Board of the Western Union who are acting in so dishonorable and tricky a manner. I think I ought to know them in order to avoid them, and resist them in the public interest. It is a shame that an enterprise which, honestly conducted, is more than usually profitable, should be conducted on the principles of sharpers and tricksters.



"So far as the Russian Extension is concerned, I should judge from your representation that, as a stockholder in that enterprise to the amount of $30,000, the plan would conduce to my immediate pecuniary benefit. But so would the robbery of the safe of a bank. If wealth can be obtained only by such swindles, I prefer poverty. You have my proxy and I have the utmost confidence in your management. Do by me as you would do for yourself, and I shall be satisfied.... In regard to any honorable propositions made in the Board be conciliatory and compromising, but any scheme to oppress the smaller stockholders for the benefit of the larger resist to the death. I prefer to sacrifice all my stock rather than have such a stigma on my character as such mean, and I will add villainous, conduct would be sure to bring upon all who engaged in it."

In this connection I shall also quote from another letter to Mr. Sanford, of February 15, 1867: "If Government thinks seriously of purchasing the Telegraph, and at this late day adopting my early suggestion that it ought to belong to the Post-Office Department, be it so if they will now pay for it. They must now pay millions for that which I offered to them for one hundred thousand dollars, and gave them a year for consideration ere they adopted it."

There are but few references to politics in the letters of this period, but I find the following in a letter of March 20, 1866, to a cousin: "You ask my opinion of our President. I did not vote for him, but I am agreeably surprised at his masterly statesmanship, and hope, by his firmness in resisting the extreme radicals, he will preserve the Union against now the greatest enemies we have to contend against. I mean those who call themselves Abolitionists.... President Johnson deserves the support of all true patriots, and he will have it against all the 'traitors' in the country, by whatever soft names of loyalty they endeavor to shield themselves."

Appeals of all kinds kept pouring in on him, and, in courteously refusing one, on April 17, he uses the following language: "I am unable to aid you. I cannot, indeed, answer a fiftieth part of the hundreds of applications made to me from every section of the country daily—I might say hourly—for yours is the third this morning and it is not yet 12 o'clock."

After settling his affairs at home in his usual methodical manner, Morse sailed with his wife and his four young children, and Colonel John R. Leslie their tutor, for Europe on the 23d of June, 1866, prepared for an extended stay. He wished to give his children the advantages of travel and study in Europe, and he was very desirous of being in Paris during the Universal Exposition of 1867.

There is a gap in the letter-books until October, 1866, but from the few letters to members of the family which have been preserved, and from my own recollections, we know that the summer of 1866 was most delightfully spent in journeying through France, Germany, and Switzerland. The children were now old enough not to be the nuisances they seem to have been in 1858, for we find no note of complaint on that account.

In September he returned with his wife, his daughter, and his youngest son to Paris, leaving his two older sons with their tutor in Geneva. As he wished to make Paris his headquarters for nearly a year, he sought and found a furnished apartment at No. 10 Avenue du Roi de Rome (now the Avenue du Trocadero), and he writes to his mother-in-law on September 22: "We are fortunate in having apartments in a new building, or rather one newly and completely repaired throughout. All the apartments are newly furnished with elegant furniture, we having the first use of it. We have ample rooms, not large, but promising more comfort for winter residence than if they were larger. The situation is on a wide avenue and central for many purposes; close to the Champs Elysees, near also to the Bois de Boulogne, and within a few minutes walk of the Champ de Mars, so that we shall be most eligibly situated to visit the great Exposition when it opens in April."

His wife's sister, Mrs. Goodrich, with her husband and daughters, occupied an apartment in the same building; his grandson Charles Lind was also in Paris studying painting, and before the summer of the next year other members of his family came to Paris, so that at one time eighteen of those related to him by blood or marriage were around him. To a man of Morse's affectionate nature and loyalty to family this was a source of peculiar joy, and those Parisian days were some of the happiest of his life. The rest of the autumn and early winter were spent in sight-seeing and in settling his children in their various studies.

The brilliance of the court of Napoleon III just before the debacle of 1870 is a matter of history, and it reached its high-water mark during the Exposition year of 1867, when emperors, kings, and princes journeyed to Paris to do homage to the man of the hour. Court balls, receptions, gala performances at opera and theatre, and military reviews followed each other in bewildering but well-ordered confusion, and Morse, as a man of worldwide celebrity, took part in all of them. He and his wife and his young daughter, a girl of sixteen, were presented at court, and were feted everywhere. In a letter to his mother-in-law he gives a description of his court costume on the occasion of his first presentation, when he was accompanied only by his brother-in-law, Mr. Goodrich:—

"We received our cards inviting us to the soiree and to pass the evening with their majesties on the 16th of January (Wednesday evening). 'En uniforme' was stamped upon the card, so we had to procure court dresses. Mr. Goodrich, as is the custom in most cases, hired his; I had a full suit made for me. A chapeau bras, with gold lace loop, a blue coat, with standing collar, single breasted, richly embroidered with gold lace, the American eagle button, white silk lining, vest light cashmere with gilt buttons, pantaloons with a broad stripe of gold lace on the outside seams, a small sword, and patent-leather shoes or boots completed the dress of ordinary mortals like Brother Goodrich, but for extraordinary mortals, like my humble republican self, I was bedizened with all my orders, seven decorations, covering my left breast. If thus accoutred I should be seen on Broadway, I should undoubtedly have a numerous escort of a character not the most agreeable, but, as it was, I found myself in very good and numerous company, none of whom could consistently laugh at his neighbors."

After describing the ceremony of presentation he continues:—

"Occasionally both the emperor and empress said a few words to particular individuals. When my name was mentioned the emperor said to me, 'Your name, sir, is well known here,' for which I thanked him; and the empress afterwards said to me, when my name was mentioned, 'We are greatly indebted to you, sir, for the Telegraph,' or to that effect. Afterwards Mr. Bennett, the winner of the yacht race, engaged for a moment their particular regards.... [I wonder if the modest inventor appreciated the irony of this juxtaposition.] After the dancers were fully engaged, the refreshment-room, the Salon of Diana, was opened, and, as in our less aristocratic country, the tables attracted a great crowd, so that the doors were guarded so as to admit the company by instalments. I had in vain for some time endeavored to gain admittance, and was waiting patiently quite at a distance from the door, which was thronged with ladies and high dignitaries, when a gentleman who guarded the door, and who had his breast covered with orders, addressed me by name, asking me if I was not Professor Morse. Upon replying in the affirmative, quite to my surprise, he made way for me to the door and, opening it, admitted me before all the rest. I cannot yet divine why this special favor was shown to me.

"The tables were richly furnished. I looked for bonbons to carry home to the children, but when I saw some tempting looking almonds and candies and mottoes, to my surprise I found they were all composed of fish put up in this form, and the mottoes were of salad."

It is good to know that Morse, ever willing to forgive and forget, was again on terms of friendly intercourse with Cyrus W. Field, who was then in London, as the following letter to him, dated March 1, 1867, will show:—

"Singular as it may seem, I was in the midst of your speech before the Chamber of Commerce reception to you in New York, perusing it with deep interest, when my valet handed me your letter of the 27th ulto.

"I regret exceedingly that I shall not have the great pleasure I had anticipated, with other friends here, who were prepared to receive you in Paris with the welcome you so richly deserve. You invite me to London. I have the matter under consideration. March winds and that boisterous channel have some weight in my decision, but I so long to take you by the hand and to get posted upon Telegraph matters at home, that I feel disposed to make the attempt. But without positively saying 'yes,' I will see if in a few days I can so arrange my affairs as to have a few hours with you before you sail on the 20th.



"I send you by book post the proceedings of the banquet given to our late Minister, Bigelow, in which you will see my remarks on the great enterprise with which your name will forever be so honorably associated and justly immortalized."

It will be remembered, that the Atlantic cable was finally successfully laid on July 27, 1866, and that to Cyrus Field, more than to any other man, was this wonderful achievement due.

In a letter of March 4, 1867, to John S.C. Abbott, Esq., Morse gives the following interesting incident in the life of Napoleon III:—

"In 1837, I was one of a club of gentlemen in New York who were associated for social and informal intellectual converse, which held weekly meetings at each other's houses in rotation. Most of these distinguished men are now deceased. The club consisted of such men as Chancellor Kent, Albert Gallatin, Peter Augustus Jay, Reporter Johnson, Dr. (afterwards Bishop) Wainwright, the President and Professors of Columbia College, the Chancellor and Professors of the New York City University, Dr. Augustus Smith, Messrs. Goodhue and De Rham of the mercantile class, and John C. Hamilton, Esq. and ex-Governor W.B. Lawrence from the literary ranks.

"Among the rules of the club was one permitting any member to introduce to the meetings distinguished strangers visiting the city. At one of the reunions of the club the place of meeting was at Chancellor Kent's. On assembling the chancellor introduced to us Louis Napoleon, a son of the ex-King of Holland, a young man pale and contemplative, somewhat reserved. This reserve we generally attributed to a supposed imperfect acquaintance with our language. At supper he sat on the right of the Chancellor at the head of the table. Mr. Gallatin was opposite the Chancellor at the foot of the table, and I was on his right.

"In the course of the evening, while the conversation was general, I drew the attention of Mr. Gallatin to the stranger, observing that I did not trace any resemblance in his features to his world-renowned uncle, yet that his forehead indicated great intellect. 'Yes,' replied Mr. Gallatin, 'there is a great deal in that head of his, but he has a strange fancy. Can you believe it, he has the impression that he will one day be the Emperor of the French; can you conceive of anything more ridiculous?'

"Certainly at that period, even to the sagacious eye of Mr. Gallatin, such an idea would naturally seem too improbable to be entertained for a moment, but, in the light of later events, and the actual state of things at present, does not the fact show that, even in his darkest hours, there was in this extraordinary man that unabated faith in his future which was a harbinger of success; a faith which pierced the dark clouds which surrounded him, and realized to him in marvellous prophetic vision that which we see at this day and hour fully accomplished?"

Morse must have penned these words with peculiar satisfaction, for they epitomized his own sublime faith in his future. In 1837 he also was passing through some of his darkest hours, but he too had had faith, and now, thirty years afterwards, his dreams of glory had been triumphantly realized, he was an honored guest of that other man of destiny, and his name was forever immortalized.

The spring and early summer of 1867 were enjoyed to the full by the now venerable inventor and his family. The Exposition was a source of never-ending joy to him, and he says of it in a letter to his son-in-law, Edward Lind:—

"You will hear all sorts of stories about the Exposition. The English papers (some of them), in John Bull style, call it a humbug. Let me tell you that, imperfect as it is in its present condition, going on rapidly to completion, it may without exaggeration be pronounced the eighth wonder of the world. It is the world in epitome. I came over with my children to give them the advantage of thus studying the world in anticipation of what I now see, and I can say that the two days only in which I have been able to glance through parts of its vast extent, have amply repaid me for my voyage here. I believe my children will learn more of the condition of the arts, agriculture, customs, manufactures and mineral and vegetable products of the world in five weeks than they could by books at home in five years, and as many years' travel."

He was made an Honorary Commissioner of the United States to the Exposition, and he prepared an elaborate and careful report on the electrical department, for which he received a bronze medal from the French Government. Writing of this report to his brother Sidney, he says: "This keeps me so busy that I have no time to write, and I have so many irons in the fire that I fear some must burn. But father's motto was—'Better wear out than rust out,'—so I keep at work."

In a letter to his friend, the Honorable John Thompson, of Poughkeepsie, he describes one of his dissipations:—

"Paris now is the great centre of the World. Such an assemblage of sovereigns was never before gathered, and I and mine are in the midst of the great scenes and fetes. We were honored, a few evenings ago, with cards to a very select fete given by the emperor and empress at the Tuilleries to the King and Queen of the Belgians, the Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred, to the Queen of Portugal, the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, sister of the late Emperor Nicholas, a noble looking woman, the Princess Metternich of Austria, and many others.

"The display was gorgeous, and as the number of guests was limited (only one thousand!) there was more space for locomotion than at the former gatherings at the Palace, where we were wedged in with some four thousand. There was dancing and my daughter was solicited by one of the gentlemen for a set in which Prince Alfred and the Turkish Ambassador danced, the latter with an American belle, one of the Miss Beckwiths. I allowed her to dance in this set once. The Empress is truly a beautiful woman and of unaffected manners."

In a long letter to his brother Sidney, of June 8, he describes some of their doings. At the Grand Review of sixty thousand troops he and his wife and eldest son were given seats in the Imperial Tribune, a little way behind the emperor and the King of Prussia, who were so soon to wage a deadly war with each other. On the way back from the review the following incident occurred:—

"After the review was over we took our carriage to return home. The carriages and cortege of the imperial personages took the right of the Cascade (which you know is in full view from the hippodrome of Longchamps). We took the left side and were attracted by the report of firearms on our left, which proceeded from persons shooting at pigeons from a trap. Soon after we heard a loud report on our right from a pistol, which attracted no further attention from us than the remark which I made that I did not know that persons were allowed to use firearms in the Bois. We passed on to our home, and in the evening were informed of the atrocious attempt upon the Emperor of Russia's life. The pistol report which I heard was that of the pistol of the assassin."

Farther on in this letter he describes the grand fete given by the City of Paris to the visiting sovereigns at the Hotel de Ville. There were thirty-five thousand applications for tickets, but only eight thousand could be granted. Of these Morse was gratified to receive three:—

"Well, the great fete of Saturday the 8th is over. I despair of any attempt properly to describe its magnificence. I send you the papers.... Such a blaze of splendor cannot be conceived or described but in the descriptions of the Arabian Nights. We did not see half the display, for the immense series of gorgeous halls, lighted by seventy thousand candles, with fountains and flowers at every turn, made one giddy to see even for a moment. We had a good opportunity to scan the features of the emperors, the King of Prussia and the renowned Bismarck, with those of the beautiful empress and the princesses and princes and other distinguished persons of their suite.

"I must tell you (for family use only) that the Emperor Napoleon made to me a marked recognition as he passed along. Sarah and I were standing upon two chairs overlooking the front rank of those ranged on each side. The emperor gave his usual bow on each side, but, as he came near us, he gave an unusual and special bow to me, which I returned, and he then, with a smile, gave me a second bow so marked as to draw the attention of those around, who at once turned to see to whom this courtesy was shown. I should not mention this but that Sarah and others observed it as an unusual mark of courtesy."

Feeling the need of rest after all the gayety and excitement of Paris, Morse and part of his family retired to Shanklin, on the Isle of Wight, where in a neat little furnished cottage—Florence Villa—they spent part of two happy months. Then with his wife and daughter and youngest son he journeyed in leisurely fashion through England and Scotland, returning to Paris in October. Here he spent some time in working on his report to the. United States Government as Commissioner to the Exposition.

Among his notes I find the following, which seems to me worthy of record:—

"The Sounder. Mr. Prescott, I perceive, is quoted as an authority. He is not reliable on many points and his work should be used with caution. His work was originally written in the interest of those opposing my patents, and his statements are, many of them, grossly unjust and strongly colored with prejudice. Were he now to reprint his work I am convinced he would find it necessary, for the sake of his reputation, to expunge a great deal, and to correct much that he has misstated and misapprehended.

"He manifests the most unpardonable ignorance or wilful prejudice in regard to the Sounder, now so-called. The possibility of reading by sound was among the earliest modes noticed in the first instrument of 1835, and it was in consequence of observing this fact that, in my first patent specifications drawn up in 1837-1838, I distinctly specify these sounds of the signs, and they were secured in my letters patent. Yet Mr. Prescott makes it an accidental discovery, and in 1860 (the date of his publication) he wholly ignores my agency in this mode. The sounder is but the pen-lever deprived of the pen. In everything else it is the same. The sound of the letter is given with and without the pen."

On November 8, 1867, he writes from Paris to his friend, the Honorable John Thompson:—

"I am still held in Paris for the completion of my labors, but hope in a few days to be relieved so that we may leave for Dresden, where my boys are pursuing their studies in the German language.... I am yet doubtful how long a sojourn we may make in Dresden, and whether I shall winter there or in Paris, but I am inclined to the latter. We wish to visit Italy, but I am not satisfied that it will be pleasant or even safe to be there just now. The Garibaldian inroad upon the Pontifical States is, indeed, for the moment suppressed, but the end is not yet.

"Alas for poor Italy! How hard to rid herself of evils that have become chronic. Why cannot statesmen of the Old World learn the great truth that most of their perplexities in settling the questions of international peace arise from the unnatural union of Church and State? He who said 'My kingdom is not of this world' uttered a truth pregnant with consequences. The attempt to rule the State by the Church or the Church by the State is equally at war with his teachings, and until these are made the rule of conduct, whether for political bodies or religious bodies, there will be the sword and not peace.

"I see by the papers that the reaction I have long expected and hoped for has commenced in our country. It is hailed here by intelligent and cool-headed citizens as a good omen for the future. The Radicals have had their way, and the people, disgusted, have at length given their command —'Thus far and no farther.'"



CHAPTER XXXIX

NOVEMBER 28, 1867—JUNE 10, 1871

Goes to Dresden.—Trials financial and personal.—Humorous letter to E.S. Sanford.—Berlin.—The telegraph in the war of 1866.—Paris.—Returns to America.—Death of his brother Richard.—Banquet in New York.—Addresses of Chief Justice Chase, Morse, and Daniel Huntington,—Report as Commissioner finished.—Professor W.P. Blake's letter urging recognition of Professor Henry.—Morse complies.—Henry refuses to be reconciled.— Reading by sound.—Morse breaks his leg.—Deaths of Amos Kendall and George Wood.—Statue in Central Park.—Addresses Of Governor Hoffman and William Cullen Bryant.—Ceremonies at Academy of Music.—Morse bids farewell to his children of the telegraph.

It will not be necessary to record in detail the happenings of the remainder of this last visit to Europe. Three months were spent in Dresden, with his children and his sister-in-law's family around him. The same honors were paid to him here as elsewhere on the continent. He was received in special audience by the King and Queen of Saxony, and men of note in the scientific world eagerly sought his counsel and advice. But, apart from so much that was gratifying to him, he was just then called upon to bear many trials and afflictions of various kinds and degrees, and it is marvellous, in reading his letters, to note with what great serenity and Christian fortitude, yet withal, with what solicitude, he endeavored to bear his cross and solve his problems. As he advanced in years an increasing number of those near and dear to him were taken from him by death, and his letters of Christian sympathy fill many pages of the letter books. There were trials of a domestic nature, too intimate to be revealed, which caused him deep sorrow, but which he bravely and optimistically strove to meet. Clouds, too, obscured his financial horizon; investments in certain mining ventures, entered into with high hopes, turned out a dead loss; the repayment of loans, cheerfully made to friends and relatives, was either delayed or entirely defaulted; and, to cap the climax, the Western Union Telegraph Company, in which most of his fortune was invested, passed one dividend and threatened to pass another. He had provided for this contingency by a deposit of surplus funds before his departure for Europe, but he was fearful of the future.

In spite of all this he could not refrain from treating the matter lightly and humorously in a letter to Mr. E.S. Sanford of November 28, 1867, written from Dresden: "Your letter gave me both pleasure and pain. I was glad to hear some particulars of the condition of my 'basket,' but was pained to learn that the hens' eggs instead of swelling to goose eggs, and even to ostrich eggs (as some that laid them so enthusiastically anticipated when they were so closely packed), have shrunk to pigeons' eggs, if not to the diminutive sparrows'. To keep up the figure, I am thankful there are any left not addled."

He was all the time absorbed in the preparation of his report as Commissioner to the Paris Exposition, and it was, of course, a source of great gratification to him to learn from the answers to his questions sent to the telegraph officers of the whole world, that the Morse system was practically the only one in general use. As one of his correspondents put it—"The cry is, 'Give us the Morse.'"

The necessity for the completion of this work, and his desire to give his children every advantage of study, kept him longer in Europe than he had expected, and he writes to his brother Sidney on December 1, 1867: "I long to return, for age creeps on apace, and I wish to put my house in order for a longer and better journey to a better home."

In the early part of February, 1868, he and his wife and daughter and youngest son left Dresden for Paris, stopping, however, a few days in Berlin. Mr. George Bancroft was our minister at the Prussian court, and he did all that courtesy could suggest to make the stay of his distinguished countryman a pleasant one. He urged him to stay longer, so that he might have the pleasure of presenting him at court, but this honor Morse felt obliged to decline. The inventor did, however, find time to visit the government telegraph office, of which Colonel (afterwards General) von Chauvin was the head, and here he received an ovation from all the operators, several hundred in number, who were seated at their instruments in what was then the largest operating-room in the world.

Another incident of his visit to Berlin I shall give in the words of Mr. Prime:—

"Not to recount the many tributes of esteem and respect paid him by Dr. Siemens, and other gentlemen eminent in the specialty of telegraphy, one other unexpected compliment may be mentioned. The Professor was presented to the accomplished General Director of the Posts of the North German Bund, Privy Councillor von Phillipsborn, in whose department the telegraph had been comprised before Prussia became so great and the centre of a powerful confederation.

"At the time of their visit the Director was so engaged, and that, too, in another part of the Post-Amt, that the porter said it was useless to trouble him with the cards. The names had not been long sent up, however, before the Director himself came hurriedly down the corridor into the antechamber, and, scarcely waiting for the hastiest of introductions, enthusiastically grasped both the Professor's hands in his own, asking whether he had 'the honor of speaking to Dr. Morse,' or, as he pronounced it 'Morzey.'

"When, after a brief conversation, Mr. Morse rose to go, the Director said that he had just left a conference over a new post and telegraph treaty in negotiation between Belgium and the Bund, and that it would afford him great pleasure to be permitted to present his guest to the assembled gentlemen, including the Belgian Envoy and the Belgian Postmaster-General. There followed, accordingly, a formal presentation with an introductory address by the Director, who, in excellent English, thanked Mr. Morse in the name of Prussia and of all Germany for his great services, and speeches by the principal persons present—the Belgian envoy, Baron de Nothomb, very felicitously complimenting the Professor in French.

"Succeeding the hand-shaking the Director spoke again, and, in reply, Mr. Morse gratefully acknowledged the courtesy shown to him, adding: 'It is very gratifying to me to hear you say that the Telegraph has been and is a means of promoting peace among men. Believe me, gentlemen, my remaining days shall be devoted to this great object.'...

"The Director then led his visitors into a small, cosily furnished room, saying as they entered: 'Here I have so often thought of you, Mr. Morse, but I never thought I should have the honor of receiving you in my own private room.'

"After they were seated the host, tapping upon a small table, continued: 'Over this passed the important telegrams of the war of 1866.' Then, approaching a large telegraph map on the wall, he added: 'Upon this you can see how invaluable was the telegraph in the war. Here,'—pointing with the forefinger of his right hand,—'here the Crown Prince came down through Silesia. This,' indicating with the other forefinger a passage through Bohemia, 'was the line of march of Prince Friedrich Carl. From this station the Crown Prince telegraphed Prince Friedrich Carl, always over Berlin, "Where are you?" The answer from this station reached him, also over Berlin. The Austrians were here,' placing the thumb on the map below and between the two fingers. 'The next day Prince Friedrich Carl comes here,'—the left forefinger joined the thumb,—' and telegraphs the fact, always over Berlin, to the Crown Prince, who hurries forward here.' The forefinger of the right hand slipped quickly under the thumb as if to pinch something, and the narrator looked up significantly.

"Perhaps the patriotic Director thought of the July afternoon when, eagerly listening at the little mahogany-topped table, over which passed so many momentous messages, he learned that the royal cousins had effected a junction at Koeniggraetz, a junction that decided the fate of Germany and secured Prussia its present proud position, a junction which but for his modest visitor's invention, the telegraph, 'always over Berlin,' would have been impossible."

Returning to Paris with his family, he spent some months at the Hotel de la Place du Palais Royal, principally in collecting all the data necessary to the completion of his report, which had been much delayed owing to the dilatoriness of those to whom he had applied for facts and statistics. On April 14, 1868, he says in a letter to the Honorable John Thompson: "Pleasant as has been our European visit, with its advantages in certain branches of education, our hearts yearn for our American home. We can appreciate, I hope, the good in European countries, be grateful for European hospitality, and yet be thorough Americans, as we all profess to be notwithstanding the display of so many defects which tend to disgrace us in the eyes of the world."

On May 18 he writes to Senator Michel Chevalier: "And now, my dear sir, farewell. I leave beautiful Paris the day after to-morrow for my home on the other side of the Atlantic, more deeply impressed than ever with the grandeur of France, and the liberality and hospitality of her courteous people, so kindly manifested to me and mine. I leave Paris with many regrets, for my age admonishes me that, in all probability, I shall never again visit Europe."

Sailing from Havre on the St. Laurent, on May 22, he and his family reached, without untoward incident, the home on the Hudson, and on June 21 he writes to his son Arthur, who had remained abroad with his tutor:—

"You see by the date where we all are. Once more I am seated at my table in the half octagon study under the south verandah. Never did the Grove look more charming. Its general features the same, but the growth of the trees and shrubbery greatly increased. Faithful Thomas Devoy has proved himself to be a truly honest and efficient overseer. The whole farm is in fine condition....

"On Thursday last I was much gratified with Mr. Leslie's letter from Copenhagen, with his account of your reception by the King of Denmark. How gratifying to me that the portrait of Thorwaldsen has given such pleasure to the king, and that he regards it as the best likeness of the great sculptor."

The story of Morse's presentation to the King of Denmark of the portrait, painted in Rome in 1831, has already been told in the first volume of this work. The King, as we learn from the above quotation, was greatly pleased with it, and in token of his gratification raised Morse to the rank of Knight Commander of the Dannebrog, the rank of Knight having been already conferred on the inventor by the King's predecessor on the throne.

In another letter to Colonel Leslie, of November 2, 1868, brief reference is made to matters political:—

"To-morrow is the important day for deciding our next four years' rulers. I am glad our Continental brethren cannot read our newspapers of the present day, otherwise they must infer that our choice of rulers is made from a class more fitted for the state's prison than the state thrones, and elevation to a scaffold were more suited to the characters of the individual candidates than elevation to office. But in a few days matters will calm down, and the business of the nation will assume its wonted aspect.

"I have not engaged in this warfare. As a citizen I have my own views, and give my vote on general principles, but am prepared to learn that my vote is on the defeated side. I presume that Grant will be the president, and I shall defer to the decision like a peaceable citizen. The day after to-morrow you will know as well as we shall the probable result. The Telegraph is telling upon the world, and its effect upon human affairs is yet but faintly appreciated."

In this letter he also speaks of the death of his youngest brother, Richard C. Morse, who died at Kissingen on September 22, 1868, and in a letter to his son Arthur, of October 11, he again refers to it, and adds: "It is a sad blow to all of us but particularly to the large circle of his children. Your two uncles and your father were a three-fold cord, strongly united in affection. It is now sundered. The youngest is taken first, and we that remain must soon follow him in the natural course of things."

Farther on in this letter he says: "I attended the funeral of Mr. L—— a few weeks ago. I am told that he died of a broken heart from the conduct of his graceless son Frank, and I can easily understand that the course he has pursued, and his drunken habits, may have killed his father with as much certainty as if he had shot him. Children have little conception of the effect of their conduct upon their parents. They never know fully these anxieties until they are parents themselves."

But his skies were not all grey, for in addition to his satisfaction in being once more at home in his own beloved country, and in his quiet retreat on the Hudson, he was soon to be the recipient of a signal mark of respect and esteem by his own countrymen, which proved that this prophet was not without honor even in his own country.

NEW YORK, November 30th, 1868. PROFESSOR S.F.B. MORSE, LL.D.

Sir,—Many of your countrymen and numerous personal friends desire to give definite expression to the fact that this country is in full accord with European nations in acknowledging your title to the position of father of Modern Telegraphy, and at the same time in a fitting manner to welcome you to your home.

They, therefore, request that you will name a day on which you will favor them with your company at a public banquet.

With great respect we remain, Very truly your friends.

Here follow the names of practically every man of prominence in New York at that time.

Morse replied on December 4:—

To the Hon. Hamilton Fish, Hon. John T. Hoffman, Hon. Wm. Dennison, Hon. A.G. Curtin, Hon. Wm. E. Dodge, Peter Cooper, Esq., Daniel Huntington, Esq., Wm. Orton, Esq., A.A. Low, Esq., James Brown, Esq., Cyrus W. Field, Esq., John J. Cisco, Esq., and others.

Gentlemen,—I have received your flattering request of the 30th November, proposing the compliment of a public banquet to me, and asking me to appoint a day on which it would be convenient for me to meet you.

Did your proposal intend simply a personal compliment I should feel no hesitation in thanking you cordially for this evidence of your personal regard, while I declined your proffered honor; but I cannot fail to perceive that there is a paramount patriotic duty connected with your proposal which forbids me to decline your invitation.

In accepting it, therefore, I would name (in view of some personal arrangements) Wednesday the 30th inst. as the day which would be most agreeable to me.

Accept, Gentlemen, the assurance of the respect of Your obedient servant, Samuel F.B. Morse.

The banquet was given at Delmonico's, which was then on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fourteenth Street, and was presided over by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, who had been the leading counsel against Morse in his first great lawsuit, but who now cheerfully acknowledged that to Morse and America the great invention of the telegraph was due. About two hundred men sat down at the tables, among them some of the most eminent in the country. Morse sat at the right of Chief Justice Chase, and Sir Edward Thornton, British Ambassador, on his left. When the time for speechmaking came, Cyrus Field read letters from President Andrew Johnson; from General Grant, President-elect; from Speaker Colfax, Admiral Farragut, and many others. He also read a telegram from Governor Alexander H. Bullock of Massachusetts: "Massachusetts honors her two sons—Franklin and Morse. The one conducted the lightning safely from the sky; the other conducts it beneath the ocean from continent to continent. The one tamed the lightning; the other makes it minister to human wants and human progress."

From London came another message:—

"CYRUS W. FIELD, New York. The members of the joint committee of the Anglo-American and Atlantic Telegraph Companies hear with pleasure of the banquet to be given this evening to Professor Morse, and desire to greet that distinguished telegraphist, and wish him all the compliments of the season."

Mr. Field added: "This telegram was sent from London at four o'clock this afternoon, and was delivered into the hands of your committee at 12.50." This, naturally, elicited much applause and laughter.

Speeches then followed by other men prominent in various walks of life. Sir Edward Thornton said that he "had great satisfaction in being able to contribute his mite of that admiration and esteem for Professor Morse which must be felt by all for so great a benefactor of his fellow creatures and of posterity."

Chief Justice Chase introduced the guest of the evening in the following graceful words:—

"Many shining names will at once occur to any one at all familiar with the history of the Telegraph. Among them I can pause to mention only those of Volta, the Italian, to whose discoveries the battery is due; Oersted, the Dane, who first discovered the magnetic properties of the electric current; Ampere and Arago, the Frenchmen, who prosecuted still further and most successfully similar researches; then Sturgeon, the Englishman, who may be said to have made the first electro-magnet; next, and not least illustrious among these illustrious men, our countryman Henry, who first showed the practicability of producing electro-magnetic effects by means of the galvanic current at distances infinitely great; and finally Steinheil, the German, who, after the invention of the Telegraph in all its material parts was complete, taught, in 1837, the use of the ground as part of the circuit. These are some of those searchers for truth whose names will be long held in grateful memory, and not among the least of their titles to gratitude and remembrance will be the discoveries which contributed to the possibility of the modern Telegraph.

"But these discoveries only made the Telegraph possible. They offered the brilliant opportunity. There was needed a man to bring into being the new art and the new interest to which they pointed, and it is the providential distinction and splendid honor of the eminent American, who is our guest to-night, that, happily prepared by previous acquirements and pursuits, he was quick to seize the opportunity and give to the world the first recording Telegraph.

"Fortunate man! thus to link his name forever with the greatest wonder and the greatest benefit of the age! [great applause]... I give you 'Our guest, Professor S.F.B. Morse, the man of science who explored the laws of nature, wrested electricity from her embrace, and made it a missionary in the cause of human progress.'"

As the venerable inventor rose from his chair, overcome with profound emotion which was almost too great to be controlled, the whole assembly rose with him, and cheer after cheer resounded through the hall for many minutes. When at last quiet was restored, he addressed the company at length, giving a resume of his struggles and paying tribute to those who had befriended and assisted him in his time of need—to Amos Kendall, who sat at the board with him and whose name called forth more cheers, to Alfred Vail, to Leonard Gale, and, in the largeness of his heart, to F.O.J. Smith. It will not be necessary to give his remarks in full, as the history of the invention has already been given in detail in the course of this work, but his concluding remarks are worthy of record:—

"In casting my eyes around I am most agreeably greeted by faces that carry me back in memory to the days of my art struggles in this city, the early days of the National Academy of Design.

"Brothers (for you are yet brothers), if I left your ranks you well know it cost me a pang. I did not leave you until I saw you well established and entering on that career of prosperity due to your own just appreciation of the important duties belonging to your profession. You have an institution which now holds and, if true to yourselves, will continue to hold a high position in the estimation of this appreciative community. If I have stepped aside from Art to tread what seems another path, there is a good precedent for it in the lives of artists. Science and Art are not opposed. Leonardo da Vinci could find congenial relaxation in scientific researches and invention, and our own Fulton was a painter whose scientific studies resulted in steam navigation. It may not be generally known that the important invention of the percussion cap is due to the scientific recreations of the English painter Shaw.

"But I must not detain you from more instructive speech. One word only in closing. I have claimed for America the origination of the modern Telegraph System of the world. Impartial history, I think, will support that claim. Do not misunderstand me as disparaging or disregarding the labors and ingenious modifications of others in various countries employed in the same field of invention. Gladly, did time permit, would I descant upon their great and varied merits. Yet in tracing the birth and pedigree of the modern Telegraph, 'American' is not the highest term of the series that connects the past with the present; there is at least one higher term, the highest of all, which cannot and must not be ignored. If not a sparrow falls to the ground without a definite purpose in the plans of infinite wisdom, can the creation of an instrumentality so vitally affecting the interests of the whole human race have an origin less humble than the Father of every good and perfect gift?

"I am sure I have the sympathy of such an assembly as is here gathered if, in all humility and in the sincerity of a grateful heart, I use the words of inspiration in ascribing honor and praise to Him to whom first of all and most of all it is preeminently due. 'Not unto us, not unto us, but to God be all the glory.' Not what hath man, but 'What hath God wrought?'"

More applause followed as Morse took his seat, and other speeches were made by such men as Professor Goldwin Smith, the Honorable William M. Evarts, A.A. Low, William Cullen Bryant, William Orton, David Dudley Field, the Honorable William E. Dodge, Sir Hugh Allan, Daniel Huntington, and Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania.

While many of these speeches were most eloquent and appropriate, I shall quote from only one, giving as an excuse the words of James D. Reid in his excellent work "The Telegraph in America": "As Mr. Huntington's address contains some special thoughts showing the relationship of the painter to invention, and is, besides, a most affectionate and interesting tribute to his beloved master, Mr. Morse, it is deemed no discourtesy to the other distinguished speakers to give it nearly entire."

I shall, however, omit some portions which Mr. Reid included.

"In fact, however, every studio is more or less a laboratory. The painter is a chemist delving into the secrets of pigments, varnishes, mixtures of tints and mysterious preparations of grounds and overlaying of colors; occult arts by which the inward light is made to gleam from the canvas, and the warm flesh to glow and palpitate.

"The studio of my beloved master, in whose honor we have met to-night, was indeed a laboratory. Vigorous, life-like portraits, poetic and historic groups, occasionally grew upon his easel; but there were many hours—yes, days—when absorbed in study among galvanic batteries and mysterious lines of wires, he seemed to us like an alchemist of the middle ages in search of the philosopher's stone.

"I can never forget the occasion when he called his pupils together to witness one of the first, if not the first, successful experiment with the electric telegraph. It was in the winter of 1835-36. I can see now that rude instrument, constructed with an old stretching-frame, a wooden clock, a home-made battery and the wire stretched many times around the walls of the studio. With eager interest we gathered about it as our master explained its operation while, with a click, click, the pencil, by a succession of dots and lines, recorded the message in cypher. The idea was born. The words circled that upper chamber as they do now the globe.

"But we had little faith. To us it seemed the dream of enthusiasm. We grieved to see the sketch upon the canvas untouched. We longed to see him again calling into life events in our country's history. But it was not to be; God's purposes were being accomplished, and now the world is witness to his triumph. Yet the love of art still lives in some inner corner of his heart, and I know he can never enter the studio of a painter and see the artist silently bringing from the canvas forms of life and beauty, but he feels a tender twinge, as one who catches a glimpse of the beautiful girl he loved in his youth whom another has snatched away.

"Finally, my dear master and father in art, allow me in this moment of your triumph in the field of discovery, to greet you in the name of your brother artists with 'All hail.' As an artist you might have spent life worthily in turning God's blessed daylight into sweet hues of rainbow colors, and into breathing forms for the delight and consolation of men, but it has been His will that you should train the lightnings, the sharp arrows of his anger, into the swift yet gentle messengers of Peace and Love."

Morse's wife and his daughter and other ladies had been present during the speeches, but they began to take their leave after Mr. Huntington's address, although the toastmaster arose to announce the last toast, which was "The Ladies." So he said: "This is the most inspiring theme of all, but the theme itself seems to be vanishing from us. Indeed [after a pause], has already vanished. [After another pause and a glance around the room.] And the gentleman who was to have responded seems also to have vanished with his theme. I may assume, therefore, that the duties of the evening are performed, and its enjoyments are at an end."

The unsought honor of this public banquet, in his own country, organized by the most eminent men of the day, calling forth eulogies of him in the public press of the whole world, was justly esteemed by Morse as one of the crowning events of his long career; but an even greater honor was still in store for him, which will be described in due season.

The early months of 1869 were almost entirely devoted to his report as Commissioner, which was finally completed and sent to the Department of State in the latter part of March. In this work he received great assistance from Professor W.P. Blake, who was "In charge of publication," and who writes to him on March 29: "I have had only a short time to glance at it as it was delivered towards the close of the day, but I am most impressed by the amount of labor and care you have so evidently bestowed upon it."

Professor Blake wrote another letter on August 21, which I am tempted to give almost in its entirety:—

"I feel it to be my duty to write to you upon another point regarding your report, upon which I know that you are sensitive, but, as I think you will see that my motives are good, and that I sincerely express them, I believe you will not be offended with me although my views and opinions may not coincide exactly with yours. I allude to the mention which you make of some of the eminent physicists who have contributed by their discoveries and experiments to our knowledge of the phenomena of electro-magnetism.

"On page 9 of the manuscript you observe: 'The application of the electro-magnet, the invention of Arago and Sturgeon (first combined and employed by Morse in the construction of the generic telegraph) to the purposes also of the semaphore, etc.'

"Frankly, I am pained not to see the name of Henry there associated with those of Arago and Sturgeon, for it is known and generally conceded among men of science that his researches and experiments and the results which he reached were of radical importance and value, and that they deservedly rank with those of Ampere, Arago and Sturgeon.

"I am aware that, by some unfortunate combination of circumstances, the personal relations of yourself and Professor Henry are not pleasant. I deplore this, and it would be an intense satisfaction to me if I could be the humble means of bringing about a harmonious and honorable adjustment of the differences which separate you. I write this without conference with Professor Henry or his friends. I do it impartially, first, in the line of my duty as editor (but not now officially); second, as a lover of science; third, with a patriotic desire to secure as much as justly can be for the scientific reputation of the country; and fourth, with a desire to promote harmony between all who are concerned in increasing and disseminating knowledge, and particularly between such sincere lovers of truth and justice as I believe both yourself and Professor Henry to be.

"I do not find that Professor Henry anywhere makes a claim which trenches upon your claim of first using the electro-magnet for writing or printing at a distance—the telegraph as distinguished from the semaphore. This he cannot claim, for he acknowledges it to be yours. You, on the other hand, do not claim the semaphoric use of electricity. I therefore do not see any obstacle to an honorable adjustment of the differences which separate you, and which, perhaps, make you disinclined to freely associate Professor Henry's name with those of other promoters of electrical science.

"Your report presents a fitting opportunity to effect this result. A magnanimous recognition by you of Professor Henry's important contributions to the science of electro-magnetism appears to me to be all that is necessary. They can be most appropriately and gracefully acknowledged in your report, and you will gain rather than lose by so doing. Such action on your part would do more than anything else could to secure for you the good will of all men of science, and to hasten a universal and generous accord of all the credit for your great gift to civilization that you can properly desire.

"Now, my dear sir, with this frank statement of my views on this point, I accept your invitation, and will go to see you at your house to talk with you upon this point and others, perhaps more agreeable, but if, after this expression of my inclinations, you will not deem me a welcome guest, telegraph me not to come—I will not take it unkindly."

To this Morse replied on August 23: "Your most acceptable letter, with the tone and spirit of which I am most gratified, is just received, for which accept my thanks. I shall be most happy to see you and freely to communicate with you on the subject mentioned, and with the sincere desire of a satisfactory result."

The visit was paid, but the details of the conversation have not been preserved. However, we find in Morse's report, on page 10, the following: "In 1825, Mr. Sturgeon, of England, made the first electro-magnet in the horseshoe form by loosely winding a piece of iron wire with a spiral of copper wire. In the United States, as early as 1831, the experimental researches of Professor Joseph Henry were of great importance in advancing the science of electro-magnetism. He may be said to have carried the electro-magnet, in its lifting powers, to its greatest perfection. Reflecting upon the principle of Professor Schweigger's galvanometer, he constructed magnets in which great power could be developed by a very small galvanic element. His published paper in 1831 shows that he experimented with wires of different lengths, and he noted the amount of magnetism which could be induced through them at various lengths by means of batteries composed of a single element, and also of many elements. He states that the magnetic action of 'a current from a trough composed of many pairs is at least not sensibly diminished by passing through a long wire,' and he incidentally noted the bearing of this fact upon the project of an electro-magnetic telegraph [semaphore?].

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

Whether Professor Blake was satisfied with this change from the original manuscript is not recorded. Morse evidently thought that he had made the amende honorable, but Henry, coldly proud man that he was, still held aloof from a reconciliation, for I have been informed that he even refused to be present at the memorial services held in Washington after the death of Morse.

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

"The fact that the lever action of the earliest instrument of 1835 by its click gave the sound of the numerals, as embodied in the original type, is well known, nor is there anything so remarkable in that result.... When you first saw the instrument in 1836 this was so obvious that it scarcely excited more than a passing remark, but, after the adaptation of the dot and space, with the addition of the line or dash, in forming the alphabetic signs (which, as well as I can remember, was about the same date, late in 1835 or early in 1836) then I noticed that the different letters had each their own individual sounds, and could also be distinguished from each other by the sound. The fact did not then appear to me to be of any great importance, seeming to be more curious than useful, yet, in reflecting upon it, it seemed desirable to secure this result by specifying it in my letters patent, lest it might be used as an evasion in indicating my novel alphabet without recording it. Hence the sounds as well as the imprinted signs were specified in my letters patent.

"As to the time when these sounds were practically used, I am unable to give a precise date. I have a distinct recollection of one case, and proximately the date of it. The time of the incident was soon after the line was extended from Philadelphia to Washington, having a way station at Wilmington, Delaware. The Washington office was in the old post-office, in the room above it. I was in the operating room. The instruments were for a moment silent. I was standing at some distance near the fireplace conversing with Mr. Washington, the operator, who was by my side. Presently one of the instruments commenced writing and Mr. Washington listened and smiled. I asked him why he smiled. 'Oh!' said he, 'that is Zantzinger of the Philadelphia office, but he is operating from Wilmington.' 'How do you know that?' 'Oh! I know his touch, but I must ask him why he is in Wilmington.' He then went to the instrument and telegraphed to Zantzinger at Wilmington, and the reply was that he had been sent from Philadelphia to regulate the relay magnet for the Wilmington operator, who was inexperienced in operating....

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

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