“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.