VOL. XVII

THE GREAT EVENTS BY FAMOUS HISTORIANS

A comprehensive and readable account of the world's history,
emphasizing the more important events, and presenting these as
complete narratives in the master-words of the most eminent
historians.

Non-sectarian, non-partisan and non-sectional.

On the plan evolved from a consensus of opinions gathered from the
most distinguished scholars of America and Europe, including brief
introductions by specialists to connect and explain the celebrated
narratives, arranged chronologically, with thorough indices,
bibliographies, chronologies, and courses of reading.

Editor-in-Chief: Rossiter Johnson, LL.D.

Associate Editors: Charles F. Horne, Ph.D. and John Rudd, LL.D.

With a staff of specialists




CONTENTS of VOLUME XVII


AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF THE GREAT EVENTS, Charles F. Horne

(1844) THE INVENTION OF THE TELEGRAPH, Alonzo B. Cornell

(1846) REPEAL OF THE ENGLISH CORN LAWS, Justin McCarthy

(1846) THE DISCOVERY OF NEPTUNE, Sir Oliver Lodge

(1846) THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA, Henry B. Dawson

(1847) THE FALL OF ABD-EL-KADER, Edgar Sanderson

(1847) THE MEXICAN WAR, John Bonner

(1847) FAMINE IN IRELAND, Sir Charles Gavan Duffy

(1848) MIGRATIONS OF THE MORMONS, Thomas L. Kane

(1848) THE REFORMS OF PIUS IX; HIS FLIGHT FROM ROME, Francis Bowen

(1848) THE REVOLUTION OF FEBRUARY IN FRANCE, François P.G. Guizot and
Mme. Guizot de Witt

(1848) REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN GERMAN, C. Edmund Maurice

(1848) THE REVOLT IN HUNGARY, Arminius Vembery

(1848) THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA, John S. Hittell

(1849) THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC, Jessie White Mario

(1849) LIVINGSTONE'S AFRICAN DISCOVERIES, David Livingstone and Thomas
Hughes

(1851) THE COUP D'ETAT OF LOUIS NAPOLEON, Alexis de Tocqueville

(1851) THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN AUSTRALIA, Edward Jenks

(1854) THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, Abraham Lincoln

(1854) THE OPENING OF JAPAN, Matthew C. Perry

(1855) THE CAPTURE OF SEBASTOPOL, Sir Edward B. Hamley and Sir Evelyn
Wood

(1857) THE INDIAN MUTINY, J. Talboys Wheeler

(1859) THE BATTLES OF MAGENTA and SOLFERINO, Pietro Orsi

(1859) DARWIN PUBLISHES HIS ORIGIN OF SPECIES, Charles Robert Darwin

(1860) THE KINGDOM OF ITALY ESTABLISHED, Giuseppe Garibaldi and John
Webb Probyn

(1861) THE EMANCIPATION OF RUSSIAN SERFS, Andrew D. White and Nikolai
Turgenieff

(1844-1861) UNIVERSAL CHRONOLOGY, Daniel Edwin Wheeler




ILLUSTRATIONS:


The mutinous Sepoys blown from the mouths of cannon by the English at
Cawnpore, Painting by Basil Verestchagin.

Charge of the Six Hundred at Balaklava, Painting by Stanley Berkeley.




AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE (Tracing briefly the causes, connections, and
consequences of the great events.)


THE TRIUMPH OF DEMOCRACY, Charles F. Horne

In the year 1844 electricity, last and mightiest of the servants of man,
was seized and harnessed and made to do practical work. A telegraph line
was erected between Washington and Baltimore. [Footnote: See _Invention
of the Telegraph_.] In 1846 mathematics achieved perhaps the greatest
triumph of abstract science. It pointed out where in the heavens there
should be a planet, never before known by man. Strong telescopes were
directed to the spot and the planet was discovered. [Footnote: See _The
Discovery of Neptune_.] Man had found guides more subtle and more
accurate than his own five ancient senses. The age of figures, the age
of electricity, began.

The changes were symbolic, perhaps, of the more rapid rate at which the
forces of society were soon to move. Over all Europe and America great
events were shaping themselves with lightning speed. Tremendous changes
political and economic, social and scientific, were hurrying to an
issue.


THE MEXICAN WAR

In America the Mexican War, vast in its territorial results, still more
so in its effect upon society, broke out in 1846 over the admission of
Texas to the United States. The superior fighting strength of the more
northern race was at once made evident. Small bodies of United States
troops repeatedly defeated far larger numbers of the Mexican militia.
The entire northern half of Mexico was soon occupied by the enemy.
Expeditions, half of conquest, half of exploration, seized New Mexico,
California, and all the vast region which now composes the southwestern
quarter of the United States. [Footnote: See _The Acquisition of
California_.]

Farther south, however, the more populous region wherein lay the chief
Mexican cities remained resolute in its defiance; and the Washington
Government despatched against it that truly marvellous expedition under
General Scott. The heroisms and the triumphs of Scott's spectacular
campaign deserve to be sung in epic form. The dubious justice of the war
was forgotten in its overwhelming success. From the captured Mexican
capital the conquerors dictated such peace terms as added to the United
States almost half the territory of her helpless neighbor. Europe at
last awoke to the fact that there was but one Power on the American
continent, a power with which even the mightiest monarch could ill
afford to quarrel. [Footnote: See _The Mexican War_.] The very year in
which the final treaty of peace was signed (1848) the Mormons, a
religious sect, finding themselves unwelcome and out of place in
Illinois, moved westward in a body. Enduring every hardship, every
privation, perishing by hundreds in the trackless deserts, captured and
put to torture by the Indians, they still persevered in their migration,
and, halting at last in the valleys of Utah, began the settlement of the
Central West. [Footnote: See _Migrations of the Mormons_.]

Also in that same year, gold was discovered in California. Thousands of
eager adventurers flocked thither, and thus the vast wilderness that
Mexico had lightly surrendered had hardly become United States territory
ere it was filled with people, not listless semi-savages, but eager,
energetic men, resolute and resourceful. The West joined the march of
progress; it doubled the wealth and prowess of the East. [Footnote: See
_Discovery of Gold in California_.]


THE UPRISING OF THE PEOPLES

Important indeed was that year of 1848, noteworthy above most in the
story of mankind. In Europe it witnessed the greatest of all the
outbursts of democracy. The common people, easily suppressed by the
armies of the Holy Alliance in 1820, had been subdued with difficulty in
1830. Now in 1848 they rose again. Their gradual accumulation of power
and passion would soon be irresistible. Even the petted armies of
autocracy became possessed with the new belief in mankind's brotherhood.

This time the outburst began in Italy. Mazzini, the celebrated founder
of the political society "Young Italy," inspired his countrymen with
something of his own ardent devotion to the cause of liberty and Italian
union. Then in 1846 Pius IX, last of the heads of the Roman Church to
possess a temporal authority as well, ascended the throne of the Papal
dominions. The new Pope was in sympathy with the democratic spirit of
the times, and he established in his own States a constitutional
government, granting to his people more and more of power as he judged
them fitted for it. Soon, however, the most radical elements asserted
themselves in the new Government. All that the Pope could find it in his
heart to grant, seemed to them not half enough. The mighty spirit which
he had let loose broke from his control. Before the close of 1848 there
were riots, fighting in the streets; the Pope's chief counsellor was
murdered, and he himself had to flee by night in secrecy, a fugitive
from Rome. [Footnote: See _The Reforms of Pius IX: His Flight from
Rome_.]

Ere matters had reached this pass, the sudden impulse given by Rome to
democratic government had spread like wildfire over the whole of Europe.
Thrones everywhere seemed crumbling to the dust. In January, 1848, the
people of Sicily revolted against their tyrant king and formed a
republic. Southern Italy, which had been part of the same kingdom,
compelled the sovereign to grant a constitution. Other Italian States
followed the example of rebellion. All Europe apparently had been but
waiting for the spark. In France, dissatisfaction with the
"tradesman-King," Louis Philippe, had long been bitter. In February,
1848, there was an open rebellion, Louis abdicated, and a provisional
government was formed, which proclaimed the land a republic. [Footnote:
See _The Revolution of February in France_.]

There was no fear now lest the other Powers interfere. Each Continental
monarch was over-busy at home. Rebellion was everywhere. Every one of
the lesser German States secured a constitution; and the inhabitants
summoned those of Prussia and Austria to join them in establishing a
single central government, either republic or empire, a "United
Germany." On March 18th the Prussian capital, Berlin, was the seat of a
savage street battle between citizens and the royal troops. Not until it
had raged all day and upward of two hundred persons had been slain did
the Prussian monarch, Frederick William IV, weaken and proclaim a
constitution. [Footnote: See _Revolutionary Movements in Germany_.]

Austria, the stronghold of autocracy, the land of Prince Metternich,
high-priest of repression, had proven as little ready as her neighbors
to withstand the sudden storm. On March 13th the people of Vienna rose
in most unexpected revolt, and Metternich, escaping from the city in a
washerwoman's cart, fled to England. "We were prepared for everything,"
he lamented, "but a democratic pope."

The whole heterogeneous empire of Austria seemed to fall apart at once.
The Hungarians rose in arms to fight for independence. The Bohemians
expelled the Austrian troops from Prague. In Italy the Northern
Provinces followed the example set them in the South. The people of
Milan attacked the Austrian garrison and expelled it after four days of
fighting. Venice reasserted her ancient independence. The King of
Piedmont and Sardinia, declaring himself the champion of Italian unity,
ordered the Austrian armies to leave the country, and marched his forces
against them. The other little States hastened to accept his leadership
and add their troops to his.

Yet against all these difficulties the military power of the Austrian
Government began to make determined headway. The Bohemians were crushed
by force of arms. In Italy the Austrian general-in-chief withdrew slowly
before his many foes, until his Government could reënforce him. Then he
turned on them, completely defeated the Sardinian King at Custozza and
the next year at Novara, and therby restored Austrian supremacy in
Northern Italy.

Meanwhile Rome, from which Pius IX had fled in horror, proclaimed itself
a republic. Mazzini, the earliest hero of Italian unity, and Garibaldi,
its greatest champion, were both members of the Government. The
Austrians marched against them; but French troops had also been
despatched to defend the Pope, and it was the French who, first reaching
Rome, stormed and captured it. The republic was overthrown by a
republic. [Footnote: See _Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic_.] Venice
was the last Italian city to hold out, and surrendered to the Austrians
only after a siege of many months had reduced it to starvation.

The Austrian revolution had also collapsed at home. In October, 1848,
Government troops stormed the city of Vienna as if it had been a foreign
capital, and defeated the students and citizens, who fought the soldiers
from street to street.

Only in Hungary were the royal armies baffled. There a regular
republican government was established under Louis Kossuth. Hungarian
armies were raised, and, defeating the Austrians in pitched battles,
drove them from the land. The Austrian Emperor in despair appealed to
Russia for aid; and the Czar having just trampled out an incipient
Polish rebellion of his own, came willingly to the aid of his brother
autocrat. Just as Austrian troops had so often done in Italy, so now a
huge Russian horde poured over Hungary, beat down all resistance, and
having reduced the land to helplessness returned it to the angry grip of
its insulted sovereign. [Footnote: See _The Revolt of Hungary_.]

Yet Hungary did not wholly fail of her revenge. She had brought about
the downfall of Austria as a great political Power. The once haughty
empire had been compelled to cry for help, to be protected, even as were
Italy and Spain, against her own people. Her weakness was made manifest
to the world. Never again could she pose as the leader of European
councils.

Thus it was only in France and Germany that the results of the upheaval
of 1848-1849 remained evident upon the surface. Prussia and the lesser
German States became and continued constitutional kingdoms. Germany was
united in a closer though still vague union, in which Austria and
Prussia struggled for a dominant influence. But democracy had in many
places committed such excesses that the huge body of the middle classes
feared it and turned against it. Such citizens as had property to
preserve concluded that, after all, their ancient kings had been less
tyrannic than King Mob.

In France, too, this reaction was strongly felt. The revolution of 1848
had not been accomplished without an outburst from socialism or
communism, which raised its red flag in the streets of Paris and was put
down only after days of bloody battle with the more moderate elements.
So the French middle classes wanted peace, and they elected as president
of the republic Louis Napoleon, nephew of their once famous Emperor. In
1851 the President by a sudden _coup d'etat_ overturned his own
Government. He declared the land an empire under himself as Napoleon
III. Enthusiastic patriots protested in burning words, but most of
France appeared content. Property-owners welcomed the return of any
government that was strong enough to govern. [Footnote: See _The Coup
d'Etat_.]

Despite temporary setbacks, however, the advance of the power of the
people in 1848 had been enormous. The dullest tyrant could hardly
believe longer in the permanence of personal despotism. Even England,
the stronghold of conservatism as well as of personal independence, was
shifting her aristocratic institutions slowly toward democracy.

The Reform Bill of 1832 had been only a small step in the direction of
popular government; but it opened the way for further reform. Almost
immediately upon its granting, began what was known as the Chartist
movement, an agitation kept up among the lower classes for a "charter"
or more liberal constitution. This soon became associated with a demand
for freer trade. The importation into England of bread-stuffs,
especially corn, was heavily taxed, and thus the poorer classes were
driven almost to the point of famine. The failure of the potato crop did
at last produce actual and awful famine in Ireland. Her peasants still
speak of 1847 as "the black year" of death. [Footnote: See _Famine in
Ireland_.]

Hundreds of thousands of the poorer classes starved. Then began a stream
of emigration to America. Under pressure of such facts as these, the
English "Corn Laws" were repealed, and gradually Great Britain assumed
more and more positively the attitude of "free trade." [Footnote: See
_Repeal of the English Corn Laws_.]


EXPANSION OF EUROPEAN INFLUENCE

Yet despite all the internal difficulties that thus convulsed Europe in
the middle of the nineteenth century, the period is also notable for the
rapid expansion of European influence over the other continents of the
Eastern Hemisphere. "Earth-hunger," the same passion that had swayed the
United States in its Mexican contest, plunged the Powers of Europe also
into repeated war. France extended her authority over the nearer African
States of the Mediterranean. Indeed, one of the main causes for the
rebellion of 1848 against Louis Philippe was the enormous cost in men
and money of these African campaigns, undertaken against the truly
remarkable Mahometan leader and patriot Abd-el-Kader. [Footnote: See
_The Fall of Abd-el-Kader_.]

England tightened her grip on India, and extended her authority over the
broader lands around it. The hopelessness of Asiatic resistance to
European aggressiveness and military force was once more made evident in
the widespread rebellion of the Indian natives in 1857. In quick
succession, over vast and populous regions, both the people and the
rajas rose against British rule. In the triumph of their first momentary
victories they committed savage excesses which made pardon hopeless. Yet
neither their numbers nor the desperation to which they were driven
enabled them to hold their own against the mere handfuls of resolute
Englishmen, who soon subdued them. [Footnote: See _The Indian Mutiny_.]

England's influence was also extended over Afghanistan and Southern
Africa. Livingstone, most famous of missionaries and explorers, crossed
the "dark continent" from coast to coast in 1851. [Footnote: See
_Livingstone's African Discoveries_.] In that same year gold was
discovered in Australia, and English adventurers flocked thither. The
world grew small to European eyes. [Footnote: See _Discovery of Gold in
Australia_.]

Even the extremest East was brought in contact with the West. As a
result of the Opium War of 1840, China was compelled to open her doors
to foreign trade. She was also compelled to surrender territory to
England. Japan, which for more than two centuries had jealously excluded
Europeans from her shores, received her memorable awakening from the
friendly American expedition of Commodore Perry. [Footnote: See _The
Opening of Japan_.]


THE CRIMEAN WAR

Russia sought to have her share also in the appropriation of territory
and "spheres of influence." She and England were the only two European
Powers which had not been seriously shaken by the upheavals of 1848. It
seemed that they might almost divide between them the helpless Eastern
world. England having already begun operations, Russia assumed a sort of
protectorate over the Christians in Turkish lands, and proposed to
England that the entire Turkish Empire should be divided between the two
despoilers. The British Government refused the plan, mainly because it
would give Russia a broad highway to the sea and make her a dangerous
commercial rival. So Russia attempted to carry out her scheme
single-handed, and began seizing Turkish provinces. She destroyed the
Turkish fleet. Once before in 1828 the threat of a general European
alliance had checked the Russian bear at this same game; but Europe was
weaker now, the Czar stronger, and England far off and undecided.

Thus perhaps the Czar might have had his way but for Napoleon III. This
new Emperor had been permitted by Frenchmen to usurp his power largely
because of the military repute of his great namesake; and he felt that
to hold his place he must justify his reputation. Frenchmen resented
exceedingly the Czar's haughty assumption that only England was able to
oppose Russia; and Napoleon III promptly asserted himself in the _role_
of the former Napoleon as "dictator of Europe." The title so pleased the
insulted pride of his people that they followed him eagerly, and
remained blind to many failings through more wars than one. The
self-constituted dictator insisted that his whole desire was for peace
and the artistic beautifying of his country; yet if Russia persisted in
extending her power and ignoring France--. In 1854 he joined England in
the war of the Crimea against Russia.

It cannot be said that the allies achieved any great success against
their huge antagonist. Their fleets bombarded the Baltic fortresses with
small result. Their armies, hastening to protect Turkey, attacked the
Russians in the Crimea, gained the Battle of the Alma, and then for an
entire year besieged the fortifications of Sebastopol. [Footnote: See
_The Capture of Sebastopol_.] But distance and changeful climate proved
Russia's aids as they had in 1812. The allies' commissary and sanitary
departments could hardly be managed at all; their troops died by
thousands, and, though they finally stormed and captured Sebastopol, it
was a barren victory. Russia, not so much overcome as convinced of the
practical lack of profit in persistency, made terms of peace by which
she once more drew back from her feeble prey. English statesmen were
satisfied with the check administered to their great rival; and the
French were delighted at the successful interference of their "dictator
of Europe." He had rehabilitated the nation in its own eyes.


UNION OF ITALY

Ambition grows by what it feeds on. Napoleon determined to assert
himself again. The bitterness of Italy against its Austrian masters
offered an excellent opportunity, and in 1859 he encouraged the King of
Sardinia to try once more the contest which had proved so disastrous
eleven years before. The King, Victor Emmanuel II, prepared for war
against Austria. The French joined him, so did the little North Italian
States, and their combined forces were victorious at Magenta and
Solferino. [Footnote: See _Battles of Magenta and Solferino_.]

Napoleon had declared that the combat should not cease until the
Austrians were driven entirely out of Italy. As the price of his
alliance he secured Nice and Savoy from Sardinia; and then, immediately
after the bloody Battle of Solferino he suddenly changed front and
declared that the war must cease. Austria yielded Lombardy, but kept
Venice, the last of the possessions for which during more than three
hundred years she had been battling in Italy. The Kingdom of Sardinia
became the Kingdom of Northern Italy.

The next year (1860) Garibaldi, the lion-like fighter, the enthusiastic
lover of Italy, gathering round him a thousand followers, made an
unexpected attack on Sicily, which was held by the tyrant King of
Naples. With his celebrated "Thousand" he won two remarkable victories.
The Sicilians joined him; the Neapolitans were driven from the island.
Not giving them time to recover, Garibaldi followed to the mainland,
defeated them again, and was master of all Southern Italy. Meanwhile
Victor Emmanuel, marching his troops southward, seized what was left of
the States of the Church. The two conquerors met midway in Italy, and
Garibaldi, grasping his sovereign by the hand, saluted him as King at
last of a united Italy. Only Rome and Venice remained outside the pale,
Rome protected by being in actual possession of the Pope, and, since
France was still Catholic, guarded by French troops from the eager
Italians. The year 1860 had been second only to 1848 in its importance
in changing the outlines of modern Europe. [Footnote: See _The Kingdom
of Italy Established_.]

Another change, immeasurably vast and still unmeasured in its
consequences, may be dated from 1859, when Charles Darwin gave to the
world his book, the _Origin of Species_. In this he proclaimed the
doctrine of the evolution of all the more complicated forms of life from
simpler forms. The idea, at first resolutely combated on religious
grounds, has gradually received more or less acceptance into the entire
religious fabric, even as were the discoveries of Galileo. [Footnote:
See _Darwin Publishes His Origin of Species_.]


DISUNION IN AMERICA

Yet each and all of these events, important as they were, grew little in
men's minds as the year 1860 drew to its close and revealed in America
the coming of a mightier quarrel. The slavery question, once supposed to
have been settled by the Missouri Compromise, had proved itself
incapable of such settlement. The forward march of democracy had in fact
made slavery an anachronism, outgrown and impossible. Even the Emperor
of Russia saw that, and in 1861 liberated all the serfs within his
territories. [Footnote: See _Emancipation of Russian Serfs_.] In the
United States alone among the great Powers of the world, did slavery
persist.

In 1854 a new political party, calling itself the Republican, was
formed, having for its main principle opposition to the extension of
slavery into the Territories. [Footnote: See _The Rise of the Republican
Party_.] Other issues might and did complicate the central question, but
it was the slavery issue that inflamed men's minds, made Kansas a
"battle-ground" between settlers from North and South, and sent John
Brown upon his reckless raid. Watching the increasing success of the
Republicans, Southern leaders began to reassert the doctrine of the
right of secession. They said openly that if a Republican president were
elected they would leave the Union.

And in 1860 a Republican president was elected. Was the long-predicted,
and to most of Europe eagerly desired, disruption of the United States
at hand? Was the break to be accomplished peacefully or in flame and
wrath? The fading year of 1860 left the advancing world of democracy in
panic over the danger to what had been its most successful stronghold.


[For the next section of this general survey, see volume XVIII.]




(1844) INVENTION OF THE TELEGRAPH, Alonzo B. Cornell


After the experiments of Franklin that did so much to advance the study
of electrical phenomena, and to suggest practical applications of
electricity, physicists in all countries occupied themselves with
investigations along lines marked out by the American philosopher. In
1749 Franklin devised the lightning-rod. But notwithstanding the labors
of many investigators, it was more than fifty years before any other
practical discovery or invention in electricity was brought into general
use. The first great achievement of the kind was Morse's improvement of
the electric telegraph. That Morse's fellow-countryman, Joseph Henry,
chiefly prepared the way for that triumph, the following account, with
just emphasis, demonstrates.

Among the European scientists and inventors to whom both Henry and Morse
were indebted was the French electrician, André Marie Ampère
(1775-1836), whose name (ampère) has been given to the practical unit of
electric-current strength. Ampère was the first and is the most famous
investigator in electrodynamics. He also invented a telegraphic
arrangement in which he used the magnetic needle and coil and the
galvanic battery. Others, in the latter part of the eighteenth century
and the earlier years of the nineteenth, devised similar arrangements.
But no strictly electromagnetic apparatus for telegraphic signalling was
put to successful use until 1836, when, in England, Charles Wheatstone,
who is commonly regarded as the first inventor of practical electric
telegraphy, constructed an apparatus whereby thirty signals were
transmitted through nearly four miles of wire. From 1837 to 1843 he had
as an associate William Fothergill Cooke, and the two worked together to
develop the electric telegraph. They afterward quarrelled over their
respective claims to credit, but in 1838-1841 telegraph lines secured by
their patents were set up on the Great Western and two other English
railways.

Meanwhile other inventors were still working for the same results, in
many parts of the world, and it has been significantly said that "the
electric telegraph had, properly speaking, no inventor; it grew up
little by little." Nevertheless with respect to the distinctive
character of Morse's improvements, and his title to a peculiar place
among those through whose labors the electric telegraph "grew," there
can be no question.

Alonzo B. Cornell, son of the founder of Cornell University, at one time
Governor of New York, was intimately connected with electrical and
telegraphic affairs for many years; therefore on the subject here
presented he speaks with professional authority. His father was the
first builder of the Morse telegraphs.

*       *       *       *       *

During the early years of the nineteenth century but slight advance was
made in the development of electrical science, although there were many
persons both here and abroad engaged in experimental work, and there was
considerable increase of literature bearing upon the subject. It was
reserved for another illustrious American to accomplish the next
important and decisive step in the pathway of progress. In 1828 Joseph
Henry, then professor of physics at the Albany Academy, afterward a
professor at Princeton, and subsequently for many years secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution at Washington, made the highly important
discovery that by winding a plain iron core with many layers of
insulated wire, through which the electric current was passed, he could
at pleasure charge and discharge the iron core with magnetic power. Thus
Henry produced the electromagnet which was the beginning of the mastery
by man of the subtle fluid. He also discovered that the intensity and
power of the electric current were materially augmented by increasing
the number of the series of battery plates without increasing the
quantity of metal used in their construction.

These discoveries of Henry were, beyond all question, the most important
in real and intrinsic value ever made in the progress of electric
science, as they form the solid basis upon which all subsequent
inventors have been enabled to accomplish successful results in their
various fields of endeavor. It is conceded by all familiar with the
history of electrical progress that the name of Professor Joseph Henry
is to be honored and cherished as one of the very foremost of scientific
discoverers of any age or country, and it must remain a cause of sincere
and permanent regret that of all the fabulous wealth that has resulted
from the advancement of electrical science, this modest and unselfish
inventor should have passed hence without ever having realized any
substantial reward for his great work. Not only so, but he was never
awarded the appropriate acknowledgment to which he was so eminently
entitled for the inestimable benefits his discoveries conferred upon his
countrymen and upon the world at large.

The possibility of utilizing Professor Henry's electromagnet for the
purpose of transmitting intelligence to a distant point was conceived by
still another American, Professor Samuel Finley Breese Morse, of New
York, [Footnote: He was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 27,
1791.--ED.] during his passage on board the packet-ship Sully, from
Havre to New York, in the winter of 1832. Incidental discussions between
himself and Doctor Jackson, a fellow-passenger, in reference to recent
electrical improvements on both sides of the Atlantic, led Morse to the
conclusion that intelligence might be instantaneously transmitted over a
metallic circuit to a distant point, and he thereupon determined to
devote himself to the solution of the problem involved. The following
day he exhibited a rough sketch of a plan for recording electric
impulses necessary to convey and express intelligence. He pursued the
subject with great devotion during the remainder of the voyage, and
after arrival in New York began the construction of the necessary
apparatus to accomplish his purpose.

Morse was by profession a portrait painter of more than ordinary merit,
and was obliged to continue his artistic labors for a livelihood. He was
a graduate of Yale College, where his attention had first been attracted
to electrical experiments. He was thus, in a measure, prepared for
carrying forward the important work he had undertaken, and pursued his
labors with great assiduity. Devoting every spare moment to the pursuit
of his object, which was attained but slowly by reason of his lack of
mechanical skill and ingenuity, not until 1837 had he so far succeeded
in his efforts as to be prepared to make application for letters-patent
to enable him to secure and protect his rights of invention in the
electromagnetic telegraph.

In explanation of the slow progress of his experimental work, Professor
Morse, in writing to a friend, said: "Up to the autumn of 1837 my
telegraphic apparatus existed in so rude a form that I felt reluctance
to have it seen. My means were very limited, so limited as to preclude
the possibility of constructing an apparatus of such mechanical finish
as to warrant my success in venturing upon its public exhibition. I had
no wish to expose to ridicule the representative of so many hours of
laborious thought. Prior to the summer of 1837 I depended upon my pencil
for subsistence. Indeed, so straitened were my circumstances that in
order to save time to carry out my invention and to economize my scanty
means I had for months lodged and eaten in my studio, procuring food in
small quantities from some grocery, and preparing it myself. To conceal
from my friends the stinted manner in which I lived, I was in the habit
of bringing food to my room in the evenings; and this was my mode of
life for many years."

After the continuance of this heroic struggle for more than five years,
Morse found himself compelled to seek the aid of more accomplished
mechanical skill than he possessed, to perfect his apparatus, and was
obliged to surrender a quarter interest in his invention in order to
obtain pecuniary aid for this purpose.

Having thus succeeded in obtaining, at such serious sacrifice, the
requisite financial assistance to enable him to perfect the mechanism
necessary to demonstrate his invention, Professor Morse lost no time in
completing his apparatus and presenting it for public inspection. On
January 6, 1838, he first operated his system successfully, over a wire
three miles long, in the presence of a number of personal friends, at
Morristown, New Jersey. In the following month he made a similar
exhibition before the faculty of the New York University, which was an
occasion of much interest among the scientists of the metropolis.

Shortly thereafter the apparatus was taken to Philadelphia and exhibited
at the Franklin Institute, where he received the highest commendation
from the committee of science and arts, with a strong expression in
favor of government aid for the purpose of demonstrating the practical
usefulness of the system.

From Philadelphia, Morse removed his apparatus to Washington, where he
was permitted to demonstrate its operation before President Van Buren
and his Cabinet. Foreign ministers and members of both Houses of
Congress, as well, also, as prominent citizens, were invited to attend
the exhibition, and manifested much interest in the novelty of the
invention. A bill was introduced in Congress making an appropriation of
thirty thousand dollars for the purpose of providing for the erection of
an experimental line of telegraph between Washington and Baltimore, to
illustrate, by practical use, its general utility. The bill was in good
time favorably reported from the committee on commerce, but made no
further progress in that Congress. Similar bills were subsequently
introduced and diligently supported in each succeeding Congress, but it
was not until the very closing hour of the expiring session of 1843 that
the necessary enactment was effected and the appropriation secured.

The plan of construction devised by Professor Morse for the experimental
line of telegraph to be erected between Washington and Baltimore, under
the Congressional appropriation, provided for placing insulated wires in
a lead pipe underground. This was to be accomplished by the use of a
specially devised plough of peculiar construction, to be drawn by a
powerful team, by which means the pipe containing the electric
conductors was to be automatically deposited in the earth. This
apparatus was entirely successful in operation, and the pipe was thus
buried to the complete satisfaction of all concerned, at a cost very
much lower than the work could have been accomplished in any other
manner. Two wires were to be used to form a complete metallic circuit,
for at that time it was not known, as was shortly afterward discovered,
that the earth could be used to form one-half of the circuit. For
purposes of insulation the wires were neatly covered with cotton-yarn