CHAPTER IX

THE CIVIL WAR

(1861-1862)

December, 1860, had ended in financial disaster: it was the third time in less than twenty years that Mr. Field had seen his business swept from him, and yet he was of so buoyant a disposition that immediately we find him back at his office and very soon at work for the advancement of his great enterprise. On June 10th he wrote to Mr. Saward:

"I never had more confidence in the ultimate success of the Atlantic Telegraph Company than I have to-day."

And Mr. Saward wrote to him on July 5th:

"Vast improvements in everything relating to the structure of telegraph cables are constantly being made, and inquiry upon the subject is very active. We are becoming much more hopeful of a good time for the Atlantic company.

"Two very favorable events for telegraphy have taken place this week. First, Glass, Elliott & Co. have laid without any check or hitch, in a very perfect condition, a cable for the French government between Toulon and the island of Corsica; and, second, the same firm have completed in precisely the same state of efficiency two-thirds of a line between Malta and Alexandria for the use of the English government; as the remainder is all shallow water, the event is certain."

After the civil war began he was often in Washington, and he was untiring in his devotion to his country, and we find him in correspondence with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and with others in official positions.

June 11, 1861, he wrote to Colonel Thomas A. Scott, then Assistant Secretary of War, at Willard's Hotel, Washington, D. C.:

"Pardon me for repeating in this letter some of the suggestions which I made to the President, yourself, and other members of the Cabinet during my late visit to Washington;

"1. The government to immediately seize all the despatches on file in the telegraph offices which have been sent from Washington, Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, New York, Hartford, Boston, and other cities within the last six months, as I feel confident they will on examination prove many persons not now suspected to have been acting as spies and traitors.

"2. The government to establish as soon as possible telegraphic communication, by means of submarine cables, between some of our principal ports on the sea-board and the nearest telegraph line communicating with Washington, so that the department can almost instantly communicate with the commanding officer at any particular point desired.

"3. In each department of the government to adopt a cipher with its confidential agent at important points of the country, so that they can communicate confidentially by telegraph.

"I consider it very important that the government should have the most reliable telegraph communication with its principal forts on the Atlantic coast.

"If there is any information that I possess that would be of service to you in carrying out the wishes of the government in regard to telegraph matters it will afford me pleasure to give it.

"I presume you are aware that there are very few persons in this country who have had any experience in the manufacture, working, or laying of submarine cables of any great importance.

"Very respectfully "Your obedient servant, "CYRUS W. FIELD."

June 16th, while in Washington, he received a pass "beyond the pickets and to return, good for five days." On July 30th he wrote to Captain G. V. Fox, of the Navy Department:

"In a letter I wrote the Secretary of the Treasury on the 11th of May last I used these words, viz.: 'For the government to send at once a confidential agent to England, with a competent naval officer, to obtain from the British government by purchase, or otherwise, some of the improved steam gun-boats and other vessels to protect our commerce and to assist in blockading Southern ports.'"

It was at this time that his firm in New York wrote to him that a debt of $1800 had been paid and that $1000 was in silver. Such a payment would hardly be appreciated now.

His mother's death, on the evening of Friday, August the 16th, was made known to those living in the village of Stockbridge, according to the custom of that time, by the tolling of the church-bell. After that six strokes were given to show that a woman had died, nine would have been struck for a man, or three for a child. Her age was then slowly rung, and as one year after another was recorded, each brought back to her family the joy or sorrow with which that year had been filled.

Her funeral was on Sunday, the 18th. A number of her friends among the elderly ladies of the town acted as pall-bearers, and another custom then observed was for the officiating clergyman, after the grave had been filled--and every one waited until that was done--to return thanks in the name of the family to all who had shown them kindness and sympathy in their bereavement. Of her funeral the Rev. John Todd, of Pittsfield, Mass., wrote:

"At the gateway of one of our beautiful rural cemeteries a large funeral was just entering.... The bier was resting on the shoulders of four tall, noble-looking men in the prime of life.... Very slowly and carefully they trod, as if the sleeper should not feel the motion. And who was on the bier, so carefully and tenderly borne? It was their own mother. Never did I see a grief more reverent or respect more profound."

A few days later Mr. Field wrote to a friend, on the death of a child:

"Having myself experienced such a calamity, I can judge of your feelings, and most sincerely sympathize with you and your good wife on this melancholy occasion. I hope you will both bear it with Christian fortitude, _for it is God's will_, and no doubt for some wise purpose."

Referring to his life-work, on October 23d he writes:

"Who first conceived the idea of a telegraph across the Atlantic I know not. It may have been before I was born.

"I have made twenty-four sea voyages solely for the purpose of connecting Europe and America by telegraph, and although the cable laid is not now in operation, the experience gained will, I doubt not, be the means of causing another cable to be submerged that will successfully connect Newfoundland and Ireland."

At 10 P.M. on October 26th this message from San Francisco was received:

"CYRUS W. FIELD, New York:

"The Pacific telegraph calls the Atlantic cable.

"A. W. BEE."

He replied:

"Your message received. The Atlantic cable is not dead, but sleepeth. In due time it will answer the call of the Pacific telegraph."

On October 29th, in a letter to a friend in Newfoundland:

"There is now a very much increased interest being felt here in the importance of an early laying of another Atlantic cable from Ireland to Newfoundland, thus connecting Europe, Asia, Africa, and America.

"I hope in a few days to have arrangements made so that we may on some given evening connect the lines between St. John's and San Francisco together, and by means of relays speak directly through, between these two points, a distance by the telegraph of over 5000 miles."

Neither did he neglect his private business. On December 3d, within a year of his failure, he was able to write:

"All of our extension notes due on the 30th of September last were duly paid, and we have already taken up all that will be due on the 30th of this month with the exception of $14,992 78, and all that are due on the 30th of March next except $326 40. You will see that we have reduced our liabilities to a very small amount, and we shall meet them all promptly at or before maturity."

He was so very exact in all his work that he could not understand the lack of like exactitude in others. To one who failed to answer a letter he sent this note:

"_My dear Sir_,--If it takes four weeks _not_ to get an answer to a letter, how long will it take to get one?

"I have not received a reply to my letter of November 4th.

"I remain, very truly your friend,

"CYRUS W. FIELD.

"_December 2d._"

The news of the seizure of Mason and Slidell by Captain Wilkes, from the steamer _Trent_, was received in Boston on November 24th, and at once he saw another reason for urging the immediate laying of a cable across the Atlantic, and in a letter to Mr. Saward he says:

"The low rate of interest now ruling in Great Britain, and the great desire of the British government to have telegraphic communication with her North American colonies, both indicate that _now_ is the time to move energetically in the matter of connecting Newfoundland and Ireland by a submarine cable."

And on the 17th of December:

"It does appear to me that now is the time for the directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company to act with energy and decision, and get whatever guarantee is necessary from the English government to raise the capital to manufacture and lay down without unnecessary delay between Newfoundland and Ireland a good cable."

General T. W. Sherman had written to him from Port Royal on December 21st:

"It was but the other day I was discussing the very subject you mention. We want very much a telegraphic communication between Beaufort, Hilton Head, and the Tybee. How can we get it promptly?"

This was in reply to a letter of Mr. Field's in which he had enclosed a copy of the following letter and its indorsement:

"WILLARD'S HOTEL, "WASHINGTON, _December 4, 1861_.

"_Sir_,--Pardon me for making the following suggestions:

"1. That government establish at once telegraphic communication between Washington and Fortress Monroe by means of a submarine cable from Northampton County to Fortress Monroe.

"2. That Forts Walker and Beauregard be connected by a submarine cable.

"3. That a submarine cable be laid between Hilton Head and Tybee Island.

"4. That the Forts at Key West and Tortugas be brought into instant communication by means of a telegraph cable.

"5. That a cable be laid connecting the Fort at Tortugas with Fort Pickens.

"If I can be of any service to you or the government in this matter it will give me pleasure.

"I shall remain at this hotel until to-morrow afternoon or Friday morning, and have with me samples of different kinds of cable.

"Very respectfully, "Your obedient servant, "CYRUS W. FIELD.

"Major-General G. B. MCCLELLAN, Washington, D. C."

On the 12th of December General McClellan indorsed the plans with these words:

"I most fully concur in the importance of the submarine telegraph proposed by Mr. Field, and earnestly urge that his plans may be adopted and be authorized to have the plans carried into execution. More careful consideration may show that a safer route for the cable from Fernandina to Key West would be by the eastern shore of Florida. This will depend on the strength of our occupation of the railroad from Fernandina to Cedar Keys.

"Very respectfully, etc., "GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN."

This expression is copied from a letter dated London, December 28, 1861: "The rebels are waiting with great anxiety for the arrival of the steamer _Africa_ and her news about the _Trent_ affair."

On January 1, 1862, he wrote to Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State:

"The importance of the early completion of the Atlantic telegraph can hardly be estimated. What would have been its value to the English and United States governments if it had been in operation on the 30th of November last, on which day Earl Russell was writing to Lord Lyons, and you at the same time to Mr. Adams, our minister in London?

"A few short messages between the two governments and all would have been satisfactorily explained. I have no doubt that the English government has expanded more money during the last thirty days in preparation for war with this country than the whole cost of manufacturing and laying a good cable between Newfoundland and Ireland.

"At this moment you can telegraph from St. John's, Newfoundland, to every town of importance in British North America and to all the principal cities in the loyal States, even to San Francisco, on the Pacific, a distance by the route of the telegraph of over fifty-four hundred miles. From Valentia, in Ireland, there is also now telegraph communication with all the capitals of Europe, and to Algiers, in Africa, about twenty-one hundred miles; to Odessa, on the Black Sea, twenty-nine hundred and forty miles; to Constantinople, thirty-one hundred and fifty miles, and to Omsk, in Siberia, about five thousand miles.

"All that is now required to connect Omsk, in Siberia, with San Francisco, California, on the Pacific, and all intermediate points, is a telegraph cable from Valentia Island to Newfoundland, a distance of sixteen hundred and forty nautical miles.

"What could the governments of Great Britain and the United States do so effectually to bind the two countries in bonds of amity and interest as to complete at the earliest possible moment this connecting link between the two countries?...

"Will you pardon me for suggesting to you the propriety of opening a correspondence with the English government upon the subject, and proposing that the Atlantic Telegraph Company should be aided or encouraged to complete their line, and that the two governments should enter into a treaty that in case of any war between them the cable should not be molested?"

Mr. Seward answered on January 9th:

"Your letter of the 1st instant relative to the Atlantic telegraph was duly received; it will afford me pleasure to confer with you on that subject at any time you may present yourself for that purpose."

In a letter written by Mr. Seward on the 14th of January to Mr. Adams in London he said:

"In view of the recent disturbances of feeling in Great Britain growing out of the _Trent_ affair, we have some apprehensions that our motives in opening a correspondence upon the subject of the telegraph just now might be misinterpreted....

"If you think wisely of it you are authorized to call the attention of Earl Russell to the matter.... You may say to him that the President entertains the most favorable views of the great enterprise in question, and would be happy to co-operate with the British government in securing its successful execution and such arrangements as would guarantee to both nations reciprocal benefits from the use of the telegraphs, not only in times of peace, but even in times of war, if, contrary to our desire and expectation, and to the great detriment of both nations, war should ever arise between them."

Mr. Field sailed for England in the steamer _Arabia_ on January 29th, and on February 27th, at the request of Mr. Adams, sent a long letter to Earl Russell. To this letter Earl Russell replied, and appointed Tuesday, March 4th, at half-past three, as the time at which he would receive him at the Foreign Office.

On March 6th he again wrote to Earl Russell, entering into details, and at the end of his letter he referred to the two messages that were in 1858 sent for the English government, and said:

"I enclose for your information a certificate from the War Office that this business was properly and promptly executed. The experimental cable which effected for them this communication has cost the original shareholders £162,000, which sum has been unremunerative during six years. They ask no advantage in respect of that from either government, being quite content to risk the sacrifice of the whole amount if the means be now granted them for raising, by new subscriptions, the means of carrying out to a successful issue the great work intrusted to them."

March 10th Earl Russell wrote that Her Majesty's government "have come to the conclusion that it would be more prudent for the present to defer entering into any fresh agreement on so difficult a subject."

It was at this time that Mr. George Saward published the article in _The Electrician_ already referred to, and in it he said:

"Mr. Field has crossed the Atlantic twenty-five times on behalf of the great enterprise to which he has vowed himself. He has labored more than any other individual in this important cause, and he has never asked the Atlantic Telegraph Company for one shilling remuneration for his valuable services, which he was in no way bound to render them; nay more, whenever an offer of compensation was made to him he refused it."

Professor Thomson, now Lord Kelvin, wrote in March of this year these words of encouragement:

"If any degree of perseverance can be sufficient to deserve success, and any amount of value in any object can make it worth striving for, success ought to attend the efforts you and the directors are making for a result of world-wide beneficence."

The account that follows has been given to show some of the petty annoyances to which from time to time Mr. Field was subjected. He arrived in New York on Friday, April 11, 1862, having come in the steamship _Asia_. Early in the day the ship was reported, but it was evening before he came to his home, and then he remained but a short time with his family. In a letter written to a friend in England on April 15th he says:

"I found my family all in good health and spirits, and after spending about two hours with them and other friends at my house, left for Washington, which place I reached soon after nine o'clock on Saturday morning.... During my absence in Europe some parties here, acting, as I believe, in concert with enemies in England, have been doing all in their power to injure me on both sides of the Atlantic, but without success."

And in another letter he says:

"I have obtained a large amount of information about this wicked conspiracy to injure me in Europe and in this country. Mr. Seward and other members of the government have acted in the most honorable manner, and defeated the plans of wicked men."

To Mr. Chase he wrote:

"I lose no time in acquainting you with the circumstances and of laying the correspondence before you. Pray tell me if they are satisfactory to you. I do not know by whom, or where, the goods were arrested."

As far as it is possible to ascertain at this late day he had included in the correspondence forwarded to Washington an article which had been written in New York on January 18th, and said to have been shown to the New York press, but never published. It appeared in the London _Herald_ of February 4th, and was signed "Manhattan." There were also letters in the London _Standard_ and _Herald_ of March 29th dated New York, March 11th, stating that the Grand Jury had met and presented a bill of indictment against Cyrus W. Field for "treasonable proceedings with the public enemy."

In a letter written on April 17th are these few words:

"The editor of the London _Herald_ has made an apology in his paper, as I am informed by telegrams from Halifax."

And again:

"I have not yet been able to ascertain who made the complaint but no bill was found, and the Grand Jury have adjourned."

One of the Grand Jury writes:

"I was a member of the United States Grand Jury in 1862. I remember that a complaint was brought to the attention of the jury.... I remember that some testimony was submitted to the jury, but upon the recommendation of the district attorney the matter was dropped."

Mr. Bates wrote to him:

"ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S OFFICE, "WASHINGTON, D. C., _April 15, 1862_.

"CYRUS W. FIELD, Esq., New York:

"_Dear Sir_,--Your note of yesterday is just received, and upon reading the enclosures the affair (as far as it concerns you personally) looks rather like a stupid, practical joke.

"Could the scheme have been meant as a blow at your business in Europe?

"Very respectfully yours, "EDWARD BATES."

When on April 23d he received two more letters in the same handwriting, one postmarked Springfield, Ill., April 18th, and the other Nashville, Tenn., April 19th, and evidently designed "to entrap him," he wrote at once to Mr. Chase:

"I propose to take no further notice of them than to place copies in your possession and in the hands of the Attorney-General, that such action may be taken in regard to them as may be deemed necessary."

After this there was no further suggestion of trouble.

This very characteristic business note was found among his papers of this year:

"As we are all liable to be called away by death at any time, I should esteem it a favor if you would indorse the amount paid you by C. W. Field & Co. on the 5th instant, on my bond, and send the same to my office, as you proposed."

It was on May 1st that he addressed the American Geographical and Statistical Society, and it is possible to make but a short extract from his speech:

"The London _Times_ said truly: 'We nearly went to war with America because we had not a telegraph across the Atlantic.' It is at such a moment that England feels the need of communicating with her colonies on this side of the ocean. And here I may mention a fact not generally known--that, during the excitement of the _Trent_ affair a person connected with the English government applied to Messrs. Glass, Elliott & Co., of London, to know for what sum they would manufacture a cable and lay it across the Atlantic; to which they replied that they would both manufacture and lay it down for £675,000, and that it should be in full operation by the 12th day of July of this year. Well might England afford to pay the whole cost of such a work; for in sixty days' time she expended more money in preparation for war with this country than the whole cost of manufacturing and laying several good cables between Newfoundland and Ireland."

On his return he had found that the feeling against England was very intense, and on April 29th he wrote to Mr. Thurlow Weed, who was in London:

"I regret exceedingly to find a most bitter feeling in this country against England. Mr. Seward is almost the only American that I have heard speak kindly of England or Englishmen since I arrived."

And to Mr. Seward his next letter is addressed:

"NEW YORK, _May 5, 1862_.

"_My dear Sir_,--Yesterday I received a letter from our mutual friend C. M. Lampson, Esq., from London, April 17th, in which he says: 'Our letter has been before Lord Palmerston for more than a fortnight, and as yet have had no answer; he is now out of town for the Easter holidays, and we cannot have a reply for another fortnight. If we are to make sufficient progress to enable us to do the work in 1863, it will be only in consequence of the pressure you bring to bear on your side. This is our only hope for the present. If the Washington government would direct Mr. Adams to press the matter here, I think we should succeed.' It has occurred to me that, considering the great importance to the whole commercial interest of the country of a telegraph across the Atlantic, you would be willing to act on the suggestion of Mr. Lampson and direct Mr. Adams to press the matter upon the English government.

"With much respect, I remain "Very truly your friend, "CYRUS W. FIELD.

"Hon. WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, "Washington, D. C."

Mr. Lampson, in his letter of April 17th, had referred to a deputation of the directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company that on the 20th of March had waited upon Lord Palmerston, who was then Prime-Minister.

Mr. Field replied:

"NEW YORK, _May 9, 1862_.

"_My dear Mr. Lampson_,--.... Four weeks ago this evening I arrived from England, and almost every moment of my time since I landed has been occupied in working for the Atlantic Telegraph, either in seeing the President of the United States, or one of his Cabinet, or some member of the Senate or House of Representatives, or an editor of one of our papers, or writing to the British provinces, or doing something which I thought would hasten on the time when we should have a good submarine telegraph cable working successfully between Ireland and Newfoundland, and if _we do not get it laid in 1863 it will be our own fault_.

"_Now, now_ is the golden moment, and I do beg of you and all the other friends of the Atlantic telegraph to act without a moment's unnecessary delay.

"I have written you and Mr. Saward so often since my arrival that I am afraid you will get tired of reading my letters; but from the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak, and I hardly think of anything but a telegraph across the Atlantic.

Very truly your friend, "CYRUS W. FIELD."

Again on May 29th to Mr. Lampson:

"I am disappointed at the answer received from Lord Palmerston, but not discouraged the least by it, for we can succeed without further assistance from either government, as I believe that an appeal to the public will _now_ get us all the money that we want, provided the business is pressed forward in a proper manner."

It was on the 7th of this month that he wrote to his brother Jonathan:

"You will be glad to know that we have gotten all of our old matters settled."

From the first days of the war he had urged the necessity for accurate despatches being sent out by each steamer; and one very hot July morning of this summer he went up from Long Branch solely for the purpose of seeing that the steamer, sailing the next morning, carried favorable news of the movements of our armies.

With our purses full of change it is hard to realize that in October, 1862, it was almost impossible to secure even postal currency, and that one of Mr. Field's clerks, after waiting four hours at the Sub-Treasury, was able to obtain but $15.

Again he writes to Mr. Saward:

"I sail per _Scotia_ on Wednesday, the 8th of October, and expect to arrive at Liverpool Saturday, the 18th, and get to London the same evening.

"If agreeable to you, I will call at your house Sunday morning, go with you to hear the Rev. Mr. Spurgeon preach, and dine with you at two o'clock.

"Monday morning, October 20th, I hope that we will be ready to go to work in earnest, and have _all_ of the stock for a new cable subscribed within one month, and our other arrangements so perfected that I can at an early day return to my family and country."

He never lost sight of an opportunity for helping his country. On November 1st Lord Shaftesbury thanks him for the "documents" he had sent to him. On November 25th his friend the Hon. Stewart Wortley writes:

"Mr. Gladstone has fixed twelve o'clock to-morrow, in Carlton House Terrace. I have promised him that we would not ask him for anything, but that I believed you had some confidential communication to give him on the views of your government. Till I told him this he was very unwilling to listen to anything that was not contained in a written proposal."

It was on this day or the next that Mr. Field gave to Mr. Gladstone to read _Thirteen Months in a Rebel Prison_. Mr. McCarthy, in his _History of Our Own Times_, says: "It was Mr. Gladstone who said that the President of the Southern Confederation, Mr. Jefferson Davis, had made an army, had made a navy, and, more than that, had made a nation."

It was this sentiment that its author developed in the deeply interesting correspondence which follows. This correspondence is of the utmost value as elucidating the state of mind of the liberal Englishmen from whom this country expected the sympathy it in so many cases failed to receive, and very notably failed to receive from the statesman who for more than a generation has been their intellectual and Parliamentary leader.

"11 CARLTON HOUSE TERRACE, "_November 27, 1862_.

"My dear Sir,--I thank you very much for giving me the _Thirteen Months_. Will you think that I belie the expression I have used if I tell you candidly the effect this book has produced upon my mind? I think you will not; I do not believe that you or your countrymen are among those who desire that any one should purchase your favor by speaking what is false, or by forbearing to speak what is true. The book, then, impresses me even more deeply than I was before impressed with the heavy responsibility you incur in persevering with this destructive and hopeless war at the cost of such dangers and evils to yourselves, to say nothing of your adversaries, or of an amount of misery inflicted upon Europe such as no other civil war in the history of man has ever brought upon those beyond its immediate range. Your frightful conflict may be regarded from many points of view. The competency of the Southern States to secede, the rightfulness of their conduct in seceding (two matters wholly distinct and a great deal too much confounded), the natural reluctance of Northern Americans to acquiesce in the severance of the Union, and the apparent loss of strength and glory to their country; the bearing of the separation on the real interests and on the moral character of the North; again, for an Englishman, its bearing with respect to British interests--all these are texts of which any one affords ample matter for reflection. But I will only state, as regards the last of them, that I, for one, have never hesitated to maintain that, in my opinion, the separate and special interests of England were all on the side of the maintenance of the old Union; and if I were to look at those interests alone, and had the power of choosing in what way the war should end, I would choose for its ending by the restoration of the old Union this very day. Another view of the matter not to be overlooked is its bearing on the interests of the black and colored race. I believe the separation to be one of the few happy events that have marked their mournful history; and although English opinion may be wrong upon this subject, yet it is headed by three men perhaps the best entitled to represent on this side of the water the old champions of the anti-slavery cause--Lord Brougham, the Bishop of Oxford, and Mr. Buxton.

"But there is an aspect of the war which transcends every other: the possibility of success. The prospect of success will not justify a war in itself unjust, but the impossibility of success in a war of conquest of itself suffices to make it unjust; when that impossibility is reasonably proved, all the horror, all the bloodshed, all the evil passions, all the dangers to liberty and order with which such a war abounds, come to lie at the door of the party which refuses to hold its hand and let its neighbor be.

"You know that in the opinion of Europe this impossibility has been proved. It is proved by every page of this book, and every copy of this book which circulates will carry the proof wider and stamp it more clearly. Depend upon it, to place the matter upon a single issue, you cannot conquer and keep down a country where the women behave like the women of New Orleans, where, as this author says, they would be ready to form regiments, if such regiments could be of use. And how idle it is to talk, as some of your people do, and some of ours, of the slackness with which the war has been carried on, and of its accounting for the want of success! You have no cause to be ashamed of your military character and efforts. You have proved what wanted no proof--your spirit, hardihood, immense powers, and rapidity and variety of resources. You have spent as much money, and have armed and perhaps have destroyed as many men, taking the two sides together, as all Europe spent in the first years of the Revolutionary war. Is not this enough? Why have you not more faith in the future of a nation which should lead for ages to come the American continent, which in five or ten years will make up its apparent loss or first loss of strength and numbers, and which, with a career unencumbered by the terrible calamity and curse of slavery, will even from the first be liberated from a position morally and incurably false, and will from the first enjoy a permanent gain in credit and character such as will much more than compensate for its temporary material losses? I am, in short, a follower of General Scott. With him I say, 'Wayward sisters, go in peace.' Immortal fame be to him for his wise and courageous advice, amounting to a prophecy.

"Finally, you have done what men could do; you have failed because you resolved to do what men could not do.

"Laws stronger than human will are on the side of earnest self-defence; and the aim at the impossible, which in other things may be folly only, when the path of search is dark with misery and red with blood, is not folly only, but guilt to boot. I should not have used so largely in this letter the privileges of free utterance had I not been conscious that I vie with yourselves in my admiration of the founders of your republic, and that I have no lurking sentiment either of hostility or of indifference to America; nor, I may add, even then had I not believed that you are lovers of sincerity, and that you can bear even the rudeness of its tongue.

"I remain, dear sir, very faithfully yours, "W. E. GLADSTONE.

"CYRUS FIELD, Esq."

"PALACE HOTEL, BUCKINGHAM GATE, "LONDON, _December 2, 1862_.

"_My dear Sir_,--Your letter of the 27th ultimo was duly received, and for it please accept my thanks.

"I should have answered your letter at once, but I have been trying to find in London some documents to send you, for I am sure that if you have facts you will draw correct conclusions from them.

"As I have not been able to obtain the papers that I want, I will send them to you on my return to New York.

"I hope that you will get time to read the small book called _Among the Pines_, which I left at your house last Friday.

"May I send a copy of your letter to Mr. Seward at Washington and my brother in New York?

"With much respect I remain "Very truly your friend, "CYRUS W. FIELD.

"Right Hon. W. E. GLADSTONE."

"11 DOWNING STREET, WHITEHALL, "_December 2, 1862_.

"_My dear Sir_,--I thank you for the kind reception you have given to my officious letter.

"You are quite at liberty to make any use of it which you think proper except publication, which you would not think of, and I should deprecate simply on account of the tone of assumption with which I might appear to be chargeable.

"I thank you very much for _Among the Pines_, which I am reading with great interest.

"I am glad to find you are going to Cliveden, and I am sure you will enjoy your visit.

"Believe me, my dear sir, "Most faithfully yours, "W. E. GLADSTONE.

"CYRUS W. FIELD, Esq."

And again he wrote:

"11 CARLTON HOUSE TERRACE, "_December 9, 1862_.

"_My dear Sir_,--I have again to thank you for _Among the Pines_, a most interesting and, as far as I can judge, a most truthful work. It seems to open to view more aspects of society and character in the slave States than _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, and to be written without any undue and bewildering predominance of imagination.

"I need not here stop even for a moment on the ground of controversy. We all vie with one another in fervently desiring that the Almighty may so direct the issue of the present crisis as to make it effective for the mitigation and even for the removal of a system which ever tends to depress the blacks into the condition of the mere animal, and which among the whites at once gives fearful scope to the passions of bad men and checks and mars the development of character in good ones.

"I remain, dear sir, "Most faithfully yours, "W. E. GLADSTONE.

"CYRUS W. FIELD, Esq."

A very decided trait of Mr. Field was that when any business enterprise was proposed he planned every detail, drew up statements, and asked for statistics, and tried to determine the amount of work that it would be possible to accomplish, and for that reason it does not surprise us that before the money for the new cable was subscribed or the contracts signed he wrote to Mr. Reuter, and received this reply:

"REUTER'S TELEGRAPH OFFICE, "LONDON, _November 19, 1862_.

"_Dear Sir_,--I have received your letter of the 18th inst., wherein you ask whether I consider that a single wire from Ireland to Newfoundland would be sufficient, and what amount of business I think I should send through an Atlantic cable the first year.

"In reply to the first inquiry I should say from my own experience that a single telegraph wire between Ireland and Newfoundland would by no means be sufficient to meet the requirements of the public.

"With respect to the amount of business I might send through the new line I cannot, of course, speak positively, but believe I can say that for the first year it would certainly not be less than £5000.

"I remain, dear sir, "Faithfully yours, "JULIUS REUTER.

"CYRUS W. FIELD, Esq."

At this time no one at all realized the amount of work that the small wire would be called upon to do. Sixteen months after it was laid, on the 2d of December, 1867, Mr. Field telegraphed to London that Mr. Bennett was willing to sign a contract with the cable company for one year, and that he would pay for political and general news $3750 a month--that is, £9000 a year--and the agreement was to begin at once or on the 1st of January, 1868.

The invitation to Cliveden to which Mr. Gladstone referred was given by the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland, and this visit, early in December, was followed by many others, and the friendship then formed lasted as long as she lived.

He sailed for home on December 20th, and before he left England he sent this letter:

"PALACE HOTEL, "LONDON, _November 22, 1862_.

"_My dear Daughters_,--Many, many thanks to you for all the letters that you have written to me since we parted at our happy home.

"I think I hear you say, Why does not papa answer all of our letters? The reason is that I am so much occupied that I have hardly one single moment of leisure. I am busy all day at the Atlantic Telegraph Company's office; or at Messrs. Glass, Elliott & Co.'s; or at the Gutta-percha Company's works; or with some persons connected with the English government; and almost every evening I am engaged until a very late hour.

"I will give you a list of my engagements for the next few evenings:

1. Saturday, November 22d.--At Mr. Russell Sturgis's, to dinner and to spend the night.

2. Sunday, November 23d.--At Mr. Russell Sturgis's, spend the day and night.

3. Monday, November 24th.--Canning's, to dinner and spend the night.

4. Tuesday, November 25th.--Meet Mr. Maitland and others on business, and then to Mr. Lampson to dinner, seven P.M.

5. Wednesday, November 26th.--I give a dinner-party at this hotel.

6. Thursday, November 27th.--At Mr. Gooch's, to dinner.

7. Friday, November 28th.--Sir Culling Eardley's, to dinner and spend the night.

8. Saturday, November 29th.--Lady Franklin's, to dinner.

9. Sunday, November 30th.--Mr. Ashburner's, to dinner and spend the night.

10. Monday, December 1st.--At Mr. Statham's, to dinner and spend the night.

11. Tuesday, December 2d.--At Mr. Reuter's, to dinner and to spend the night.

"Professor Wheatstone, Dr. Wallish, Captains Becher, Galton, and Bythesea, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Wortley are among the number that are to dine with me. There will be twelve in all.

"How much I wish that I could have this dinner-party in our own home!

"Several times since I arrived I have had three invitations for the same evening, and I _decline_ all that I can without injury to the object of my visit to England.

"I have been very anxious to get through and leave here so as to be with you on Christmas, or certainly New-year's, but I do not see any prospect of being able to do so.

"I have very often regretted that your mother or some of you were not with me.

"Mr. Holbrooke returns in the _Scotia_ on the 6th of December, and will be able to tell you how I am. How much I wish that I could go with him!

"Do, my dear children, be very kind to your blessed mother, and do everything in your power to make her happy.

"I have purchased _all_ the things that you gave me a memorandum of, or have written me about.

"Good-bye, my dear children, and may God bless you all.

"With much love to your mother, Eddie, and Willie, and kind regards to all the servants,

"I remain, as ever, "Your affectionate father, "CYRUS W. FIELD.

"Misses GRACE, ALICE, ISABELLA, and FANNY FIELD."