HONOR TO THE INVENTOR OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
Letter to Professor Morse, in excusing himself from a Dinner at Paris, August 17, 1858.
Hôtel and Rue de la Paix, Paris,
Tuesday, August 17, 1858.
MY DEAR SIR,—I have fresh occasion to be unhappy that I am still an invalid, because it prevents me from joining in the well-deserved honors which our countrymen here are about to offer you.
As I would not be thought indifferent to the occasion, I seize the moment to express in this informal manner my humble gratitude for the great discovery with which your name will be forever associated. Through you Civilization has made one of her surest and grandest triumphs, beyond any ever won on a field of battle; nor do I go beyond the line of most cautious truth, when I add, that, if mankind had yet arrived at a just appreciation of its benefactors, it would welcome such a conqueror with more than a marshal’s baton.
I write to you frankly, and with a still cordial memory of that distant day, when, in the company of a friend who is no longer on earth, I first had the happiness of taking you by the hand.
Believe me, my dear Sir, with much regard,
Ever sincerely yours,