CYRUS WEST FIELD, WHO LAID THE ATLANTIC CABLE BETWEEN AMERICA AND EUROPE
Cyrus W. Field, 1819
In business for himself
136. The Atlantic Cable. Cyrus W. Field was born in Massachusetts in 1819. His grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier. Cyrus went to school in his native town of Stockbridge, and at fifteen was given a place in a New York store at fifty dollars a year. Before he was twenty-one he went into business for himself. At the end of a dozen years he was the head of a prosperous firm. In 1853 he retired from active business.
Why not span the Atlantic?
Field became interested in a man who was joining Newfoundland with the mainland by means of a telegraph line. "Why not make a telegraph line to span the Atlantic?" thought Field. He went to work, and put his schemes before Peter Cooper and other generous men. They believed in them.
Englishmen also approve the plan
Field next went abroad and laid his plan before a number of Englishmen. He pleaded so eloquently that they, too, were convinced. He returned to America to lay the matter before Congress and ask that body to vote him a sum of money.
President Pierce signs the bill
Congress was very slow about it, and the bill did not pass until the last days of that session. President Pierce signed it the last day of his term as president.