I take pleasure in introducing him to your acquaintance and in bespeaking for him, during his stay in your neighborhood, such attentions and good offices in aid of his object as you may find it convenient to extend to him.
I am, sir, with great respect,
Your obedient servant,
JAMES BUCHANAN,
Secretary of State.
[Illustration: S.F.B. Morse
From a portrait by Daniel Huntington]
With the assurance that he had left his business affairs in capable hands, Morse sailed from New York on August 6, 1845, and arrived in Liverpool on the 25th. For the fourth time he was crossing from America to Europe, but under what totally different circumstances. On previous occasions, practically unknown, he had voyaged forth to win his spurs in the field of art, or to achieve higher honors in this same field, or as a humble petitioner at the courts of Europe. Forced by circumstances to practise the most rigid economy, he had yet looked confidently to the future for his reward in material as well as spiritual gifts. Now, having abandoned his art, he had won such fame in a totally different realm that his name was becoming well-known in all the centres of civilization, and he was assured of a respectful hearing wherever he might present himself. Freed already from pecuniary embarrassment, he need no longer take heed for the morrow, but could with a light heart give himself up to the enjoyment of new scenes, and the business of proving to other nations the superiority of his system, secure in the knowledge that, whatever might betide him in Europe, he was assured of a competence at home.
His brother Sidney, with his family, had preceded him to Europe, and writing to Vail from London on September 1, Morse says:—
"I have just taken lodgings with my brother and his family preparatory to looking about for a week, when I shall continue my journey to Stockholm and St. Petersburg, by the way of Hamburg, direct from London.
"On my way from Liverpool I saw at Rugby the telegraph wires of Wheatstone, which extend, I understood, as far as Northampton. I went into the office as the train stopped a moment, and had a glimpse of the instrument as we have seen it in the 'Illustrated Times.' The place was the ticket-office and the man very uncommunicative, but he told me it was not in operation and that they did not use it much. This is easily accounted for from the fact that the two termini are inconsiderable places, and Wheatstone's system clumsy and complicated. The advantage of recording is incalculable, and in this I have the undisputed superiority. As soon as I can visit the telegraph-office here I will give you the result of my observation. I shall probably do nothing until my return from the north."
Nothing definite was accomplished during his short stay in London, and on the 17th of September he left for the Continent with Mr. Henry Ellsworth and his wife. Mr. Ellsworth, the son of his old friend, had been appointed attaché to the American Legation at Stockholm. Morse's letters to his daughter give a detailed account of his journey, but I shall give only a few extracts from them:—
"Hamburg, September 27, 1845. Everything being ready on the morning of the 17th instant, we left Brompton Square in very rainy and stormy weather, and drove down to the Custom-house wharf and went on board our destined steamer, the William Joliffe, a dirty, black-looking, tub-like thing, about as large but not half so neat as a North River wood-sloop. The wind was full from the Southwest, blowing a gale with rain, and I confess I did not much fancy leaving land in so unpromising a craft and in such weather; yet our vessel proved an excellent seaboat, and, although all were sick on board but Mr. Ellsworth and myself, we had a safe but rough passage across the boisterous North Sea."
Stopping but a short time in Rotterdam, the party proceeded through the Hague and Haarlem to Amsterdam, and from the latter place they visited the village of Broek:—