Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/509

 MORSE

MORSE

nouncenient of the nomination of Henry Clay for President by the Whig convention at Bal- timore, Md. By May 24 the line was practi- cally completed, and the first public exhibition was given in the chamber of the U.S. supreme court in the capitol at Washington, his associ- ate, Mr. Vail, being at Mount Claire depot, Baltimore, Md. Anna G. Ellsworth, daughter of the U.S. commissioner of patents, selected the words, " What God hath wrought," and the message was transmitted to Mr. Vail and re- turned over the same wire. The news of the nomination of James K. Polk for President was sent to Washington wholly by wire, and the news was discredited in Washington until the nomina- tion of Silas Wright for Vice-President was re- ceived and communicated by Mr. Morse to Sena- tor Wright, who directed Mr. Morse to wire his positive declination of the nomination, the re- ceipt of which so surprised the convention that it adjourned to await a messenger from Washing- ton. A company was formed soon after, and the telegraph grew with great rapidity. In 1846 the patent was extended and was adopted in France, Germany, Denmark, Russia, Sweden and Aus- tralia. The defense of his patent-rights involved Professor Morse in a series of costly suits, and his profits were consumed by prosecuting rival com- panies, but his rights were finally affirmed by the U.S. supreme court. Morse now turned his atten- tion to submarine telegraphy, and in 1842 laid a cable between Castle Garden and Governor's Island, N.Y. harbor. He gave valuable assist- ance to Peter Cooper and Cyrus W. Field in their efforts to lay a cable across the Atlantic ocean, being electrician to the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph company. He was an intimate friend of Jacques Haude Daguerre, the inventor of the daguerreotype, whom he had met in Paris in 1839, and on his return to the United States constructed an apparatus and succeeded, in connection with Dr. John W. Draper, in pro- ducing the first sun pictures ever made in the United States. Morse also patented a marble- cutting machine in 1833, which he claimed would produce perfect copies of any model. He was married, secondly, Aug. 10, 1848, to Sarah Eliza- beth, daughter of Capt. Arthur Gris wold, U.S.A., and by her had children : Samuel Arthur Breese, Cornelia Livingston, William Goodrich and Ed- ward Lind. Mrs. Morse died at the home of her daugliter in Berlin, Germany, Nov. 14, 1901. After this marriage Professor Morse made his home at " Locust Grove," on the Hudson river, below Poughkeepsie, N.Y., retaining his winter residence on Twenty-second street. New York city, and on the street front of this house a marble tablet has been inserted, inscribed : "In this house S. F. B. Morse lived for many years

and died." The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Yale college in 1846, and he received a great silver medal from the Academie Industrie, Paris, in 1839, and decorations from Turkey, France, Denmark, Prussia, Wiirtemberg, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Sweden, Italy and Switzerland. He was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Belgium in 1837 ; corresponding member of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science in 1841 ; a member of the Archaeological Association of Belgium in 1845, the American Philosophical society in 1848, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1849. In 1856 a banquet was given him by the telegraph companies of Great Britain and in 1858 representatives of France, Austria, Sweden, Russia, Sardinia, Turkey, Holland, Italy, Tuscany and the Netherlands met at Paris and voted an appropriation of 400,000 francs to be used for a collective testimonial to Mr. Morse. A banquet was held in his honor in New York city on Dec. 30, 1868, Chief-Justice Salmon P. Chase presiding. A bronze statue of heroic size, representing him holding the first message sent over the wires, was modelled by Byron M. Pickett, and was erected in Central Park, New York city, by voluntary subscriptions June 10,

1871. The evening of the same day a reception was held at the Academy of Music, a telegraph instrument was connected with all the wires in the United States and the following message was sent : " Greeting and thanks of the telegraph fra- ternity throughout the land. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men." To this message Morse transmitted his name with his own hand on the instrument. On Jan. 17,

1872, Professor Morse unveiled the statue of Ben- jamin Franklin in Printing House square. New York city. In the selection of names for places in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, New York university in October, 1900, his was one of the sixteen names submitted in " Class D, In- ventors," and was one of three in the class to secure a place, receiving 80 votes, while 85 votes were given to Robert Fulton, and 67 to Eli Whitney. Mr. Morse published several poems and various scientific and economic articles in the North American Review, edited the " Re- mains of Lucretia Maria Davidson " (1829), and is the author of : Foreign Conspiracy against the Liberties of the United States (1835); Immi- nent Dangers to the Free Institutions of the United States through Foreign Immigration and the Present State of the Naturalization Laws, By an American (1835); Confessions of a French Catholic Priest (1837), and Our Liberties Defended, the Question Discussed: Is the Protestant or Papal System most Favorable to Civil and Religious^ Liberty? (1841). His death was observed by