The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph Part 6

This jealousy and hostility spoke loudest from the mouths of Southerners. It is noteworthy that men who, in less than five years after, were figuring abroad, courting foreign influence against their own country, were then fiercest in denunciation of England. Mason and Slidell voted together against the bill. Butler, of South Carolina, was very bitter in his opposition--saying, with a sneer, that "this was simply a mail service under the surveillance of Great Britain"--and so was Hunter, of Virginia; while Jones, of Tennessee, bursting with patriotism, found a sufficient reason for his opposition, in that "he did not want anything to do with England or Englishmen!"

But it should be said in justice, that to this general hostility of the South there were some exceptions. Benjamin, of Louisiana, gave the bill an earnest support; so did Mallory, of Florida, Chairman of the Naval Committee; and especially that n.o.ble Southerner, Rusk, of Texas, "with whose aid," as Mr. Seward said, "it seemed that there was no good thing which he could not do in Congress." Mr. Rusk declared that he regarded it as "the great enterprise of the age," and expressed his surprise at the very moderate subsidy asked for, only seventy thousand dollars a year, saying that, "with a reasonable prospect of success in an enterprise, calculated to produce such beneficial results, he should be willing to vote two hundred thousand dollars."

But with the majority of Southern Senators, there was a repugnance to acting in concert with England, which could not be overcome. They argued that this was not truly a line between England and the United States, but between England and her own colonies--a line of which she alone was to reap the benefit. _Both its termini were in the British possessions._ In the event of war this would give a tremendous advantage to the power holding both ends of the line. All the speakers harped on this string; and it may be worth a page or two to see how this was met and answered.

When Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, asked, "What security are we to have that in time of war we shall have the use of the telegraph as well as the British Government?" Mr. Seward answered:

"It appears not to have been contemplated by the British Government that there would ever be any interruption of the amicable relations between the two countries. Therefore nothing was proposed in their contract for the contingency of war.

"That the two termini are both in the British dominions is true; but it is equally true that there is no other terminus on this continent where it is practicable to make that communication except in the British dominions. We have no dominions on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. There is no other route known on which the telegraphic wire could be drawn through the ocean so as to find a proper resting-place or anchorage except this. The distance on this route is seventeen hundred miles. It is not even known that the telegraphic wire will carry the fluid with sufficient strength to communicate across those seventeen hundred miles. That is yet a scientific experiment, and the Company are prepared to make it.

"In regard to war, all the danger is this: There is a hazard of war at some future time, and whatever arrangements we might make, war would break them up. No treaty would save us. My own hope is, that after the telegraphic wire is once laid, there will be no more war between the United States and Great Britain. I believe that whenever such a connection as this shall be made, we diminish the chances of war, and diminish them in such a degree, that it is not necessary to take them into consideration at the present moment.

"Let us see where we are. What shall we gain by refusing to enter into this agreement? If we do not make it, the British Government has only to add ten thousand pounds sterling more annually, and they have the whole monopoly of this wire, without any stipulation whatever--not only in war but in peace.

If we make this contract with the Company, we at least secure the benefit of it in time of peace, and we postpone and delay the dangers of war. If there shall ever be war, it would abrogate all treaties that can be made in regard to this subject, unless it be true, as the honorable Senator from Virginia thinks, that treaties can be made which will be regarded as obligatory by nations in time of war. If so, we have all the advantages in time of peace, for the purpose of making such treaties hereafter, without the least reason to infer that there would be any reluctance on the part of the British Government to enter into that negotiation with us, if we should desire to do so. The British Government, if it had such a disposition as the honorable Senator supposes, would certainly have proposed to monopolize all this telegraphic line, instead of proposing to divide it."[A]

Mr. Hale spoke in the same strain:

"It seems to me that the war spirit and the contingencies of war are brought in a little too often upon matters of legislation which have no necessary connection with them. If we are to be governed by considerations of that sort, they would paralyze all improvements; they would stop the great appropriations for commerce; they would at once neutralize that policy which sets our ocean steamers afloat. n.o.body pretends that the intercourse which is kept up between Great Britain and this country by our ocean steamers would be continued in time of war; nor the communication with France or other nations.

"If we are deterred for that reason, we shall be pursuing a policy that will paralyze improvements on those parts of the coast which lie contiguous to the lakes. The city of Detroit will have to be abandoned, beautiful and progressive as it is, because in time of war the mansions of her citizens there lie within the range of British guns.

"What will the suspension bridge at Niagara be good for in a time of war? If the British cut off their end of it, our end will not be worth much. I believe that among the things which will bind us together in peace, this telegraphic wire will be one of the most potent. It will bind the two countries together literally with cords of iron that will hold us in the bonds of peace. I repudiate entirely the policy which refuses to adopt it, because in time of war it may be interrupted. Such a policy as that would drive us back to a state of barbarism. It would destroy the spirit of progress; it would r.e.t.a.r.d improvement; it would paralyze all the advances which are making us a more civilized, and a more informed and a better people than the one which preceded us."

Mr. Douglas cut the matter short by saying:

"I am willing to vote for this bill as a peace measure, as a commercial measure--but not as a war measure; and when war comes, let us rely on our power and ability to take this end of the wire, and keep it."

Mr. Benjamin said:

"The sum of money that this Government proposes to give for the use of this telegraph will amount, in the twenty-five years, to something between 300,000 and 400,000. Now, if this be a matter of such immense importance to Great Britain--if this be the golden opportunity--and if, indeed, her control of this line be such a powerful engine, whether in war or in peace, is it not most extraordinary that she proposes to us a full share in its benefits and in its control, and allows to our Government equal rights with herself in the transmission of communications for the sum of about 300,000, to be paid in annual instalments through twenty-five years? If this be, indeed, a very important instrumentality in behalf of Great Britain for the conduct of her commerce, the government of her possessions, or the efficient action of her troops in time of war, the 300,000 expended upon it are but as a drop in the bucket when compared with the immense resources of that empire.

I think, therefore, we may as well discard from our consideration of this subject all these visions about the immense importance of the governmental aid in this matter, to be rendered under the provisions of this bill.

"Mr. President, let us not always be thinking of war; let us be using means to preserve peace. The amount that would be expended by this Government in six months' war with Great Britain, would far exceed every thing that we shall have to pay for the use of this telegraphic line for the entire twenty-five years of the contract; and do you not believe that this instrumentality will be sufficiently efficient to bind together the peace, the commerce, and the interests of the two countries, so as even to defer a war for six months or twelve months, if one should ever become inevitable, beyond the period at which it would otherwise occur? If it does that, it will in six or eight or nine months repay the expenditures of twenty-five years.

"Again, Sir, I say, if Great Britain wants it for war, she will put it there at her own expense. It is not three hundred thousand pounds, or four hundred thousand pounds, that will arrest her. If, on the contrary, this be useful to commerce--useful in an eminent degree--useful for the preservation of peace, then I confess I feel some pride that my country should aid in establishing it. I confess I feel a glow of something like pride that I belong to the great human family when I see these triumphs of science, by which mind is brought into instant communication with mind across the intervening oceans, which, to our unenlightened forefathers, seemed placed there by Providence as an eternal barrier to communication between man and man. Now, Sir, we speak from minute to minute.

Scarcely can a gun be fired in war on the European sh.o.r.e ere its echoes will reverberate among our own mountains, and be heard by every citizen in the land. All this is a triumph of science--of American genius, and I for one feel proud of it, and feel desirous of sustaining and promoting it."

Mr. Douglas said:

"Our policy is essentially a policy of peace. We want peace with the whole world, above all other considerations. There never has been a time in the history of this Republic, when peace was more essential to our prosperity, to our advancement, and to our progress, than it is now. We have made great progress in time of peace--an almost inconceivable progress since the last war with Great Britain. Twenty-five years more of peace will put us far in advance of any other nation on earth."

It was fit that Mr. Seward, who introduced the bill, and opened the debate, should close in words that now seem prophetic, and show the large wisdom, looking before and after, of this eminent statesman:

"There was an American citizen who, in the year 1770, or thereabout, indicated to this country, to Great Britain, and to the world, the use of the lightning for the purposes of communication of intelligence, and that was Dr. Franklin. I am sure that there is not only no member of the Senate, but no American citizen, however humble, who would be willing to have struck out from the achievements of American invention this great discovery of the lightning as an agent for the uses of human society.

"The suggestion made by that distinguished and ill.u.s.trious American was followed up some fifty years afterward by another suggestion and another indication from another American, and that was Mr. Samuel F. B. Morse, who indicated to the American Government the means by which the lightning could be made to write, and by which the telegraphic wires could be made to supply the place of wind and steam for carrying intelligence.

"We have followed out the suggestions of these eminent Americans. .h.i.therto, and I am sure at a very small cost. The Government of the United States appropriated $40,000 to test the practicability of Morse's suggestion; the $40,000 thus expended established its practicability and its use. Now, there is no person on the face of the globe who can measure the price at which, if a reasonable man, he would be willing to strike from the world the use of the magnetic telegraph as a means of communication between different portions of the same country.

This great invention is now to be brought into its further, wider, and broader use--the use by the general society of nations, international use, the use of the society of mankind.

Its benefits are large--just in proportion to the extent and scope of its operation. They are not merely benefits to the Government, but they are benefits to the citizens and subjects of all nations and of all States.

"I might enlarge further on this subject, but I forbear to do so, because I know that at some future time I shall come across the record of what I have said to-day. I know that then what I have said to-day, by way of antic.i.p.ation, will fall so far short of the reality of benefits which individuals, States, and nations will have derived from this great enterprise, that I shall not reflect upon it without disappointment and mortification."

After such arguments, it should seem that there could be but one opinion, and yet the bill pa.s.sed the Senate by only _one_ majority! It also had to run the gauntlet of the House of Representatives, where it encountered the same hostility. But at length it got through, and was signed by President Pierce on the third of March, the day before he went out of office. Thus it became a law.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] It is worthy of notice, that when the Bill granting a charter to the Atlantic Telegraph Company was offered in the British Parliament, at least one n.o.bleman found fault with it on this very ground, that it gave away important advantages which properly belonged to England, and which she ought to reserve to herself:

"In the House of Lords, on the twentieth of July, 1857, on the motion for the third reading of the Telegraph Company's bill,

"Lord Redesdale called attention to the fact that, although the termini of the proposed telegraph were both in her Majesty's dominions, namely, in Ireland and Newfoundland, the American Government were to enjoy the same priority as the British Government with regard to the transmission of messages. It was said that this equal right was owing to the fact that a joint guarantee had been given by the two Governments. _He thought, however, it would have been far better policy on the part of her Majesty's Government if they had either undertaken the whole guarantee themselves, and thus had obtained free and sole control over the connecting line of telegraph, or had invited our own colonies to partic.i.p.ate in that guarantee, rather than have allowed a foreign government to join in making it._ At the same time, if the clause in question had the sanction of her Majesty's ministry, it was not his intention to object to it.

"Earl Granville said this telegraph was intended to connect two great countries, and, as the two Governments had gone hand in hand with regard to the guarantee, it seemed only reasonable that both should have the same rights as to transmitting messages.

"The bill was then read a third time and pa.s.sed."

CHAPTER VIII.

THE EXPEDITION OF 1857.

Scarcely was the business with the American Government completed, before Mr. Field was recalled to England. Once more upon the waves, he forgot the long delay and the vexatious opposition which he left behind--the fogs of Newfoundland, and the denser fogs of Washington. He was bound for England, and there at least the work did not stand still. All winter long the wheels of the machinery had kept in motion. The cable was uncoiling its mighty folds to a length sufficient to span the Atlantic, and at last there was hope of victory.

Although the United States Government had seemed a little ungracious in its delay, it yet rendered, this year and the next, most important service. Already it had prepared the way, by the deep-sea soundings, which it was the first to take across the Atlantic. It now rendered additional and substantial aid in lending to this enterprise the two finest ships in the American navy--the Niagara and the Susquehanna. The former was built some dozen years before by George Steers--a name celebrated among our marine architects as the constructor of the famous yacht America, that "racehorse of the sea," which had crossed the Atlantic, and carried off the prize in the British Channel from the yachts of England--and was designed to be a model of naval architecture.

She was the largest steam-frigate in the world, exceeding in tonnage the heaviest line-of-battle ship in the English navy, and yet so finely modelled that, propelled only by a screw, she could make ten or twelve miles an hour. Notwithstanding her bulk, she was intended to carry but twelve guns--being one of the first ships in our navy to subst.i.tute a few heavy Dahlgrens for half a dozen times as many fifty-six-pounders.

This was the beginning of that revolution in naval warfare, which was carried to such extent in the Monitors and other ironclads introduced in our civil war. Each gun weighed fourteen tons--requiring a crew of twenty-five men to wield it--and threw a sh.e.l.l of one hundred and thirty pounds a distance of three miles. One or two broadsides from such a deck would sink an old-fashioned seventy-four, or even a ninety or hundred-gun ship.

But as the Niagara was now to go on an errand of peace, this formidable armament was not taken on board. She was built with what is known as a flush deck, clear from stem to stern, and being without her guns, was left free for the more peaceful burden that she was to bear. When the orders were received from Washington, she was lying at the Brooklyn Navy-Yard, but began immediately to prepare for her expedition.

Bulkheads were knocked down, above and below, to make room for the huge monster of the deep that was to be coiled within her sides. These preparations occupied four or five weeks. On the twenty-second of April, she made a trial trip down the bay, and two days after sailed for England, in command of Captain William L. Hudson, one of the oldest and best officers in our navy, who, to his past services to his country, was now to add another in the expeditions of this and the following year. He had with him as Chief Engineer Mr. William E. Everett, whose mechanical genius proved so important in constructing the paying-out machinery.

Besides the regular ship's crew, no one was received on board except Mr.

Field and Professor Morse, who went as the electrician of the Newfoundland Company; and two officers of the Russian navy--Captain Schwartz and Lieutenant Kolobnin--who were permitted by our Government, as an act of national courtesy, to go out to witness the great experiment. The regulations of the navy did not admit correspondents of the press; but Professor Morse was permitted to take a secretary, and chose Mr. Mullaly, who reported for the New York Herald, and who had thus an opportunity to witness all the preparations on land and sea, and to furnish those minute and detailed accounts of the several expeditions, which contribute some important chapters in the history of this enterprise.

The Niagara arrived out on the fourteenth of May, and cast anchor off Gravesend, about twenty-five miles below London. As it was the first time--at least for many years--that an American ship of war had appeared in the Thames, this fact, with her fine proportions and the object for which she came, attracted a crowd of visitors. Every day, from morning to night, a fleet of boats was around her, and men and women thronged over her sides. Everybody was welcome. All were received with the utmost courtesy, and allowed access to all parts of the ship. Among these were many visitors of distinction. Here came Lady Franklin to thank the generous nation that had sent two expeditions to recover her husband lost amid Polar seas. She was, of course, the object of general attention and respectful sympathy.

While lying in the Thames, the Agamemnon, that was to take the other half of the cable, pa.s.sed up the river. This was a historical ship, having borne the flag of the British admiral at the bombardment of Sebastopol, and distinguished herself by steaming up within a few hundred yards of the guns of the fortress. After pa.s.sing through the fires of that terrible day, she was justly an object of pride to Britons, whose hearts swelled as they saw this oak-ribbed leviathan, that had come "out of the gates of death, out of the jaws of h.e.l.l," now preparing to take part in achievements of peace, not less glorious than those of war. She was under command of Captain Noddal, of the Royal Navy.

As the Agamemnon came up the river in grand style, she recognized the Niagara lying off Gravesend, and manning her yards, gave her a succession of those English hurras so stirring to the blood, when heard on land or sea, to which our tars replied with l.u.s.ty American cheers. It was pleasant to observe, from this time, the hearty good-will that existed between the officers and crews of the two ships, who in their exertions for the common object, were animated only by a generous rivalry.

A few days after, the Niagara was joined by the Susquehanna, Captain Sands, which had been ordered from the Mediterranean to take part also in the expedition. She was a fit companion ship, being the largest side-wheel steamer in our navy, as the other was the largest propeller.

Both together, they were worthy representatives of the American navy.

When the Niagara arrived in the Thames, it was supposed she would take on board her half of the cable from the manufactory of Gla.s.s, Elliot & Co., at Greenwich; but on account of her great length, it was difficult to bring her up alongside the wharf in front of the works. This was therefore left to the Agamemnon, while the Niagara was ordered around to Liverpool, to take the other half from the works of Newall & Co., at Birkenhead, opposite that city. Accordingly she left Gravesend on the fifth of June, and reached Portsmouth the next day, where she remained a fortnight, to have some further alterations to fit her to receive the cable. Although she had been already pretty well "scooped out," fore and aft, the cry was still for room. Officers had to shift for themselves, as their quarters were swept away to make a wider berth for their iron guest. But all submitted with excellent grace. Like true sailors, they took it gayly as if they were only clearing the decks for battle. Among other alterations for safety, was a framework or cage of iron, which was put over the stern of the ship, to keep the cable from getting entangled in the screw. As soon as these were completed, the Niagara left for Liverpool, and on the twenty-second of June cast anchor in the Mersey.

Here she attracted as much attention as in the Thames, being crowded with visitors during the week; and on Sundays, when none were received on board, the river-boats sought to gratify public curiosity by sailing round her. The officers of the ship were objects of constant hospitality, both from private citizens and from the public authorities.