Читать книгу The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph - Field Henry Martyn - Страница 4

And so the young New York merchant set out to carry a telegraph across the Atlantic Ocean! The design had in it at least the merit of audacity. But whether the end was to be sublime or ridiculous time alone could tell. Certain it is that when his sanguine temper and youthful blood stirred him up to take hold of such an enterprise, he little dreamed of what it would involve. He thought lightly of a few thousands risked in an uncertain venture; but never imagined that he might yet be drawn on to stake upon its success the whole fortune he had accumulated; that he was to sacrifice all the peace and quiet he had hoped to enjoy; and that for twelve years he was to be almost without a home, crossing and re-crossing the sea, urging his enterprise in Europe and America. But so it is, that the Being who designs great things for human welfare, and would accomplish them by human instruments, does not lift at once the curtain from the stern realities they are to meet, nor reveal the rugged ascents they are to climb; so that it is only when at last the heights are attained, and they look backward, that they realize through what they have passed.

But could he find anybody to join him in his bold undertaking? Starving adventurers there always are, ready to embark in any Quixotic attempt, since they have nothing to lose. But would men of sense and of character; men who had fortunes to keep, and the habit which business gives of looking calmly and suspiciously at probabilities; be found to put capital in an enterprise where, if it failed, they would find their money literally at the bottom of the sea? It seemed doubtful, but he would try. His plan was, if possible, to enlist ten capitalists, all gentlemen of wealth, who together could lift a pretty heavy load; who, if need were, could easily raise a million of dollars, to carry out any undertaking.

The first man whom he addressed was his next-door neighbor, Mr. Peter Cooper, in whom he found the indisposition which a man of large fortune – now well advanced in life – would naturally feel to embark in new enterprises. The reluctance in this case was not so much to the risking of capital, as to having his mind occupied with the care which it would impose. These objections slowly yielded to other considerations. As they talked it over, the large heart of Mr. Cooper began to see that, if it were possible to accomplish such a work, it would be a great public benefit. This consideration prevailed, and what would not have been undertaken as a private speculation, was yielded to public interest. The conference ended by a conditional agreement to engage in it, if several others did, and, as we shall see, when the Company was organized, he became its President.

The early accession of this gentleman gave strength to the new enterprise. In all the million inhabitants of the city of New York there was not a name which was better known, or more justly held in honor, than that of Peter Cooper. A native of the city, where he had passed his whole life, he had seen its growth, from the small town it was after the War of the Revolution, and had himself grown with it. Beginning with very small means and limited opportunities, he had become one of its great capitalists. Many who thus rise to wealth, in the process of accumulation, form penurious habits which cling to them, and to the end of their days it is the chief object of life to hoard and to keep. But Mr. Cooper, while acquiring the fortune, had also the heart of a prince; and used his wealth with a noble generosity. In the centre of New York stands to-day a massive building, erected at a cost of nearly a million of dollars, and consecrated "To Science and Art." This was Mr. Cooper's gift to his native city. Remembering his own limited advantages of education, he desired that the young men of New York, the apprentices and mechanics, should have better opportunities than he had enjoyed. For this he endowed courses of lectures on the natural sciences; he opened the largest reading-room in America, which furnishes a pleasant resort to thousands of readers daily; while to help the other sex, he added a School of Design for Women, which trains hundreds to be teachers, and some of them artists; who go forth into the world to earn an honest living, and to bless the memory of their generous benefactor. This noble institution, standing in the heart of the city, is his enduring monument.

Yet while doing so much for the public, those who saw Peter Cooper in his family knew how he retained the simple habits of early life – how, while giving hundreds of thousands to others, he cared to spend little on himself; how he remained the same modest, kindly old man; the pure, the generous, and the good. His was and that was sadly missed when, nearly thirty years after, in 1883, at the age of ninety-two, he was borne to his grave. It is a pleasant remembrance that the beginning of this enterprise was connected with that honored name.

"The good gray head that all men knew,"

Mr. Field next addressed himself to Mr. Moses Taylor, a well-known capitalist of New York, engaged in extensive business reaching to different parts of the world, and whose daily observation of all sorts of enterprises, both sound and visionary, made him perhaps a severer judge of any new scheme. With this gentleman he had then no personal acquaintance, but sent a note of introduction from his brother, David Dudley Field, with a line requesting an interview, to which Mr. Taylor replied by an invitation to his house on an evening when he should be disengaged. As these two gentlemen afterwards became very intimately associated, they often recurred to their first interview. Said Mr. Field: "I shall never forget how Mr. Taylor received me. He fixed on me his keen eye, as if he would look through me: and then, sitting down, he listened to me for nearly an hour without saying a word." This was rather an ominous beginning. However, his quick mind soon saw the possibilities of the enterprise, and the evening ended by an agreement – conditional, like Mr. Cooper's – to enter into it.

Mr. Taylor, being thus enlisted, brought in his friend, Mr. Marshall O. Roberts – a man whose career has been too remarkable to be passed without notice. A native of the City of New York, (though his father was a physician from Wales, who came to this country early in this century,) he found himself, when a boy of eight years, an orphan, without a friend in the world. From that time he made his way purely by his own industry and indomitable will. At the age of twenty he was embarked in business for himself, and his history soon became a succession of great enterprises. If we were to relate some of the incidents connected with his rise of fortune, they would sound more like romance than reality. He was the first to project those floating palaces which now ply the waters of the Hudson and the great lakes. He was one of the early promoters of the Erie Railroad. When the discovery of gold in California turned the tide of emigration to that coast, he started the line of steamers to the Isthmus of Panama, and controlled largely the commerce with the Pacific. Thus his hand was felt, giving impulse to many different enterprises on land and sea. His whole course was marked by a spirit of commercial daring, which men called rashness, until they saw its success, and then applauded as marvellous sagacity.

Mr. Field next wrote to Mr. Chandler White, a personal friend of many years' standing, who had retired from business, and was living a few miles below the city, near Fort Hamilton, at one of those beautiful points of view which command the whole harbor of New York. He too was very slow to yield to argument or persuasion. Why should he – when he had cast anchor in this peaceful spot – again embark in the cares of business, and, worst of all, in an enterprise the scene of which was far distant, and the results very uncertain? But enthusiasm is always magnetic, and the glowing descriptions of his persuader at length prevailed.5

There were now five gentlemen enlisted; and Mr. Field was about to apply to others, to make up his proposed number, when Mr. Cooper came to ask why five would not do as well as ten? The question was no sooner asked than answered. To this all agreed, and at once fixed an evening when they should meet at Mr. Field's house to hear his statements and to examine the charter of the old company, find out what it had done, and what it proposed to do, what property it had and what debts it owed; and decide whether the enterprise offered sufficient inducements to embark in it. Accordingly they met, and for four nights in succession discussed the subject. It was in the dining-room of Mr. Field's house, and the large table was spread with maps of the route to be traversed by the line of telegraph, and with plans and estimates of the work to be done, the cost of doing it, and the return which they might hope in the end to realize for their labor and their capital. The result was an agreement on the part of all to enter on the undertaking, if the Government of Newfoundland would grant a new charter conceding more favorable terms. To secure this it was important to send at once a commission to Newfoundland. Neither Mr. Cooper, Mr. Taylor, nor Mr. Roberts could go; and it devolved on Mr. Field to make the first voyage on this business, as it did to make many voyages afterwards to Newfoundland, and still more across the Atlantic. But not wishing to take the whole responsibility, he was accompanied at his earnest request by Mr. White, and by Mr. D. D. Field, whose counsel, as he was to be the legal adviser of the Company, was all-important in the framing of the new charter that was to secure its rights. The latter thus describes this first expedition:

"The agreement with the Electric Telegraph Company, and the formal surrender of its charter, were signed on the tenth of March, [1854,] and on the fourteenth we left New York, accompanied by Mr. Gisborne. The next morning we took the steamer at Boston for Halifax, and thence, on the night of the eighteenth, departed in the little steamer Merlin for St. John's, Newfoundland. Three more disagreeable days, voyagers scarcely ever passed, than we spent in that smallest of steamers. It seemed as if all the storms of winter had been reserved for the first month of spring. A frost-bound coast, an icy sea, rain, hail, snow and tempest, were the greetings of the telegraph adventurers in their first movement toward Europe. In the darkest night, through which no man could see the ship's length, with snow filling the air and flying into the eyes of the sailors, with ice in the water, and a heavy sea rolling and moaning about us, the captain felt his way around Cape Race with his lead, as the blind man feels his way with his staff, but as confidently and as safely as if the sky had been clear and the sea calm; and the light of morning dawned upon deck and mast and spar, coated with glittering ice, but floating securely between the mountains which form the gates of the harbor of St. John's. In that busy and hospitable town, the first person to whom we were introduced was Mr. Edward M. Archibald, then Attorney-General of the Colony, and now British Consul in New York. He entered warmly into our views, and from that day to this, has been an efficient and consistent supporter of the undertaking. By him we were introduced to the Governor, (Kerr Bailey Hamilton,) who also took an earnest interest in our plans. He convoked the Council to receive us, and hear an explanation of our views and wishes. In a few hours after the conference, the answer of the Governor and Council was received, consenting to recommend to the Assembly a guarantee of the interest of £50,000 of bonds, an immediate grant of fifty square miles of land, a further grant to the same extent on the completion of the telegraph across the ocean, and a payment of £5,000 toward the construction of a bridle-path across the island, along the line of the land telegraph."

This was a hopeful beginning; and, though the charter was not yet obtained, feeling assured by this official encouragement, and the public interest in the project, that it would be granted by the colony, Mr. Field remained in St. John's but three days, when he took the Merlin back to Halifax on his way to New York, there to purchase and send down a steamer for the service of the Company, leaving his associates to secure the charter and to carry out the arrangements with the former company. To settle all these details was necessarily a work of time. First, the charter of the old Electric Telegraph Company had to be repealed, to clear the way for a new charter to the Company, which was to bear the more comprehensive title of "New York, Newfoundland, and London." This charter – which had been drawn with the greatest care by the counsel of the Company, while on the voyage to Newfoundland – bore on its very front the declaration that the plans of the new Company were much broader than those of the old. In the former charter, the design was thus set forth:

"The telegraph line of this company is designed to be strictly an 'Inter-Continental Telegraph.' Its termini will be New York, in the United States, and London, in the kingdom of Great Britain; these points are to be connected by a line of electric telegraph from New York to St. John's, Newfoundland, partly on poles, partly laid in the ground, and partly through the water, and a line of the swiftest steamships ever built from that point to Ireland. The trips of these steamships, it is expected, will not exceed five days, and as very little time will be occupied in transmitting messages between St. John's and New York, the communication between the latter city and London or Liverpool, will be effected in six days, or less. The company will have likewise stationed at St. John's a steam yacht, for the purpose of intercepting the European and American steamships, so that no opportunity may be lost in forwarding intelligence in advance of the ordinary channels of communication."

But the charter of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, which was now to be obtained, began by declaring, in its very first sentence: "Whereas it is deemed advisable to establish a line of telegraphic communication between America and Europe by way of Newfoundland." Not a word is said of fast ships, of communications in less than six days, but every thing points to a line across the ocean. Thus one section gives authority to establish a submarine telegraph across the ocean, from Newfoundland to Ireland; another section prohibits any other company or person from touching the coast of Newfoundland or its dependencies [which includes Labrador] with a telegraphic cable or wire, from any point whatever, for fifty years; and a third section grants the Company fifty square miles of land upon the completion of the submarine line across the Atlantic.

In other respects the charter was equally liberal. It incorporated the associates for fifty years, established perfect equality, in respect to corporators and officers, between citizens of the United States and British subjects, and allowed the meetings of the stockholders and directors to be held in New York, in Newfoundland, or in London.

To obtain such concessions was a work of some difficulty and delay. The Legislature of the province were naturally anxious to scan carefully conditions that were to bind them and their children for half a century. I have now before me the papers of St. John's of that day, containing the discussions in the Legislature; and while all testify to the deep public interest in the project, they show a due care for the interests of their own colony, which they were bound to protect. At length all difficulties were removed, and the charter was passed unanimously by the Assembly, and confirmed by the Council.

This happy result was duly celebrated, in the manner which all Englishmen approve, by a grand dinner given by the commissioners of the new Company, to the members of the Assembly and other dignitaries of the colony, at which there were eloquent prophecies of the good time coming, showing how heartily the enterprise was welcomed by all classes; and how fond were the anticipations of the increased intercourse it would bring, and the manifold benefits it would confer on their long-neglected island.

No sooner were the papers signed, than the wheels, so long blocked, were unloosed, and the machinery began to move. Mr. White at once drew on New York for fifty thousand dollars, and paid off all the debts of the old company. A St. John's newspaper of April 8th, 1854, amid a great deal on the subject, contains this paragraph, which is very significant of the dead state of the old company, and of the life of the new:

"The office of the new Electric Telegraph Company has been surrounded the last two or three days by the men who had been engaged the last year on the line, and who are being paid all debts, dues, and demands against the old association. We look upon the readiness with which these claims are liquidated as a substantial indication on the part of the new Company that they will complete to the letter all that they have declared to accomplish in this important undertaking."

In the early part of May, the two gentlemen who had remained behind in Newfoundland rejoined their associates in New York, and there the charter was formally accepted and the Company organized. As all the associates had not arrived till Saturday evening, the 6th of May, and as one of them was to leave town on Monday morning, it was agreed that they should meet for organization at six o'clock of that day. At that hour they came to the house of Mr. Field's brother Dudley, and as the first rays of the morning sun streamed into the windows, the formal organization took place. The charter was accepted, the stock subscribed, and the officers chosen. Mr. Cooper, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Field, Mr. Roberts, and Mr. White were the first directors. Mr. Cooper was chosen President, Mr. White, Vice-President, and Mr. Taylor, Treasurer.

This is a short story, and soon told. It seemed a light affair, for half a dozen men to meet in the early morning and toss off such a business before breakfast. But what a work was that to which they thus put their hands! A capital of a million and a half of dollars was subscribed in those few minutes, and a company put in operation that was to carry a line of telegraph to St. John's, more than a thousand miles from New York, and then to span the wild sea. Well was it that they who undertook the work did not then fully realize its magnitude, or they would have shrunk from the attempt. Well was it for them that the veil was not lifted, which shut from their eyes the long delay, the immense toil, and the heavy burdens of many wearisome years. Such a prospect might have chilled the most sanguine spirit. But a kind Providence gives men strength for their day, imposes burdens as they are able to bear them, and thus leads them on to greater achievements than they knew.