The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

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 illustrious 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 hitherto, 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.