In 1854, the Supreme Court of the United States decided unanimously in favor of Professor Morse on all points involving his right to the claim of having been the original inventor of the electro-magnetic telegraph. In 1846, Yale College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.). He was made a member of various learned societies in France, Belgium, and the United States. He received a diamond decoration from the Sultan of Turkey, a gold snuff box containing the Prussian gold medal for scientific merit, the great gold medal of Arts and Science from Würtemberg, and the great gold medal of Science and Art from the Emperor of Austria. Other honors were conferred upon him by Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Great Britain. At the instance of Napoleon III., Emperor of the French, representatives from various countries met in Paris in 1858 and decided upon a collective testimonial to Professor Morse, and the result of their deliberations was a vote of 400,000 francs.
No invention in ancient or modern times has wrought such a revolution—a revolution in all business, in commerce, trade, manufacturing and the mechanic arts, in politics, government, and in religious affairs. It is not given to mortal man to comprehend the greatness, to duly appreciate the grandeur, or to measure the utility of this remarkable invention. Over the mountains, through the valleys, under the seas flies the electric current, conveying all-important items of news from place to place, from country to country, from continent to continent.
"This electric chain from East to West
More than mere metal, more than mammon can,
Binds us together—kinsmen, in the best;
Brethren as one; and looking far beyond
The world in an electric union blest."