Lightning Man_ The Accursed Life of Samuel F. B. Morse - Kenneth Silverman [85]
Looking further ahead, Morse addressed the sensitive question of ownership. Given its immense power, the telegraph would become a tool for good or for evil, as properly or improperly used. If some speculators monopolized it, for instance, the device might enrich them but bankrupt thousands. He therefore suggested that the government retain sole right to use of the telegraph, granting individuals or companies the right to build lines between two points. By making the telegraph a joint public-private venture the government could both reap a vast revenue for itself and nourish the “enterprising character of our countrymen.”
The Committee on Commerce gave Morse more than he asked. They recommended that Congress appropriate $30,000 for a fifty-mile test—the extra $4000 to be used for meeting unforeseen expenses. The committee chairman, Francis O. J. Smith, submitted an ecstatically zealous report to the House. Morse’s telegraph, it said, could transform the nation’s commercial, political, and social condition, bringing about “a revolution unsurpassed in moral grandeur by any discovery that has been made in the arts and sciences.” Among its other benefits, the telegraph could enable people all over the widely extended country to communicate with each other instantaneously. In a manner that inspired religious reverence it could endow the American citizen with a power approaching the “HIGH ATTRIBUTE OF UBIQUITY.”
F. O. J. Smith (1806–1876) was himself so keen on the telegraph’s possibilities that he asked Morse to take him in as a partner. He suggested that they go to Europe together and apply for foreign patents while waiting for the appropriation bill to pass Congress. Morse hesitated: such an alliance with a public official might be misunderstood, giving rise to charges of improper influence. At the same time he recognized how valuable Smith could be to the suddenly flowering enterprise, not only by his connections in Washington but also as a lawyer. He explained his misgivings to Smith, who replied that, as the session of Congress was ending, he would take a leave of absence. A thrice-elected congressman from Maine, he would also send a letter to his constituents declining to stand for reelection. On these terms Morse agreed to a partnership.
Francis O. J. Smith (Maine Historical Society)
Commissioner Ellsworth reportedly discouraged Morse from making the trip abroad. The time had passed for obtaining foreign patents, he said; telegraphs were already well known in Europe. He had reason to think so, for stories about European devices continued to appear in the American press. But by now Morse dismissed them as kowtowing, signs of “a slavish dependence on foreign opinion, not yet eradicated from American hearts, the old colonial feeling of inferiority.” Ellsworth advised him instead, while in Washington, to approach the foreign ministers of various countries and try to interest their governments in purchasing his device. Morse did speak with the minister of Turkey, and with Gail Hunt of the then-independent Republic of Texas. But he decided to head for Europe anyway, together with Smith.
In March, Morse drew up new articles of agreement embracing himself, Smith, Alfred Vail, and Leonard Gale. Smith would seek patents for the telegraph in Great Britain, France, and other countries; negotiate with foreign governments and private persons the right to use the invention, and act as legal counselor and attorney for the other partners. Morse agreed to accompany him abroad for three months, to aid in demonstrating the telegraph, his expenses to be paid by Smith and refunded from the proceeds of sales. Smith would acquire a one-quarter interest in the American patent and a five-sixteenth interest in any foreign patent.