"A friend of mine, Cyrus Field, of New York, is the Columbus of our time, for after no less than forty voyages across the Atlantic, in pursuit of the great aim of his life, he has at length, by his cable, moored the New World close alongside the Old."
Nor was this mere rhetoric, a burst of extravagance, to which an orator might give way in the excitement of a public occasion; it was a comparison which he repeated on many occasions, though slightly varied in expression. Mr. G. W. Smalley, the well-known correspondent of the New York Tribune, in writing from London, on the very day that Mr. Field was carried to his grave, recalls how he heard it from Mr. Bright's own lips. He says:
"The great orator spoke of the great American in terms which he did not bestow lavishly, and never bestowed carelessly. His respect for Mr. Field's public work was sufficiently shown in the splendid eulogy which he passed upon him. To be called by such a man as Mr. Bright the Columbus of the Nineteenth Century is renown enough for any man. The epithet is imperishable. It is, as Thackeray said of a similar tribute to Fielding in Gibbon, like having your name written on the dome of St. Peter's. The world knows it and the world remembers. I heard Mr. Bright use the phrase, and he adorned and emphasized it in his noblest tones."
America has no official honors to bestow, no knighthoods or baronetcies to confer. But one honor it has, the thanks of Congress, which, like the thanks of Parliament, is the more highly prized in that it is so rarely bestowed, being reserved generally for distinguished officers in the army or navy, like Generals Grant, Sherman or Sheridan, or Admiral Farragut, who have won great victories. Yet such was the feeling on this occasion, that when Senator Morgan, of New York, moved a vote of thanks in the name of the country, it met with an immediate response. It was at once referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, which reported unanimously in its favor; and when, some weeks after, giving time for due deliberation, it was brought up for action, it passed with entire unanimity. In the House of Representatives it was preceded by many bills, so that there was danger that it might not be reached before the end of the session, yet on the very last day Speaker Colfax requested unanimous consent of the House to take it up out of its order, which was granted, and the resolution was then read three times, and passed unanimously. It is as follows:
"Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the thanks of Congress be, and they hereby are, presented to Cyrus W. Field of New York, for his foresight, courage, and determination in establishing telegraphic communication by means of the Atlantic cable, traversing mid-ocean and connecting the Old World with the New; and that the President of the United States be requested to cause a gold medal to be struck, with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be presented to Mr. Field.
"And be it further resolved, That when the medal shall have been struck, the President shall cause a copy of this joint resolution to be engrossed on parchment, and shall transmit the same, together with the medal, to Mr. Field, to be presented to him in the name of the people of the United States of America.
"Approved March 2, 1867.
"Andrew Johnson."
This action of Congress reached Mr. Field in England. As he was about returning to America, Lord Derby, still at the head of the government, addressed to him a letter in which he repeated what he had said before "in the Queen's name," "how much of the success of the great undertaking of laying the Atlantic Cable was due to the energy and perseverance with which, from the very first, in spite of all discouragements, you adhered to and supported the project;" and adding, "Your signal services in carrying out this great undertaking have been already fully recognized by Congress; and it would have been very satisfactory to the Queen to have included your name among those on whom, in commemoration of this great event, her Majesty was pleased to bestow British honors, if it had not been felt that, as a citizen of the United States, it would hardly have been competent to you to accept them. As long, however, as the telegraphic communication between the two Continents lasts, your name cannot fail to be honorably associated with it."
This surely was all that could be expected from the government, but some there were in England who felt that there was still a debt of honor to be paid, which required some public testimonial. Accordingly, on Mr. Field's return to London, in 1868, they prepared for him an imposing demonstration in the form of a banquet, given at Willis's Rooms, on the first of July, at which was assembled one of the most distinguished companies that ever met to do honor to a private citizen of any country. It embraced over four hundred gentlemen of all ranks: ministers of state, members of parliament, both Lords and Commons; officers of the army and navy; great capitalists—merchants and bankers; men of science and of letters; inventors, electricians, and engineers—men eminent in every walk of life. The Duke of Argyll presided, and speeches were made by three members of the government—Sir John Pakington, Secretary of State for War; Sir Stafford Northcote, Secretary of State for India; and Sir Alexander Milne, First Sea Lord of the Admiralty; by John Bright; by the venerable Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, so long the British Minister at Constantinople; and by M. de Lesseps, the projector of the Suez Canal, who had come from Egypt expressly to be present. It was a tribute such as is rarely paid to any man while living—such tributes being reserved for the dead—and is still more honorable in this case, alike to the givers and the receiver, in that it was paid by the people of one country to a citizen of another, who was regarded in both as their common benefactor.
But enough of praise that can fall only on the dull, cold ear of death. A few words on the after years of this busy life, and I have done. These years brought a rich reward for all the sacrifices of the past. The first feeling was one of infinite relief that at last the victory was won. The terrible strain was taken off, and to him who had borne it so long, the change to the quiet of his own happy home was inexpressibly grateful after his many and long separations. He was now in his own country and under his own roof, but with a name that was known on both sides of the sea. The complete success of the Atlantic Telegraph had given him an immense reputation at home and abroad. It seemed as if the struggles of life were all over, leaving only its honors to be enjoyed. What more could he ask to make life worth living than the respect of his countrymen for his courage, energy and perseverance, and a name honored all over the civilized world as one of the world's benefactors?
The practical results of the cable were even greater than he had dared to anticipate. In the space of a few months it wrought a commercial revolution in America. It was a new sensation to have the Old World brought so near, that it entered into one's daily life. Every morning, as Mr. Field went to his office, he found laid on his desk at nine o'clock the quotations on the Royal Exchange at twelve! Lombard Street and Wall Street talked with each other as two neighbors across the way. This soon made an end of the tribe of speculators who calculated on the fact that nobody knew at a particular moment the state of the market on the other side of the sea, an universal ignorance by which they profited by getting the earliest advices. But now everybody got them as soon as they, for the news came with the rising of each day's sun, and the occupation of a class that did much to demoralize trade on both sides of the ocean was gone.