USA > Indiana > Early Indiana trials: and sketches. Reminiscences > Part 39
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PACIFIC RAILROAD.
more railroads than all the world beside, and that the Erie Railroad alone cost nearly the one-third of that sum, and then take into con- sideration the magnitude and importance of this work, and that it will enlist in its construction the capital of Europe as well as America, the question would seem to be no longer debatable, whether or not it can be constructed, by the right kind of men using proper energy at the proper time. The work will have two important advantages over ordinary roads. It will not have to meet the hypocritical cry from persons interested in completed works, that we are building too many railroads, and the heavy cost of its construction will protect it from any rival work for years, giving it the direct business overland between the oceans.
I would like, Mr. President, to say something upon the question of route, noticed by Col. Benton, but I see the Committee on Resolu- tions are coming, and I will not longer occupy the stand. I am greatly obliged to the convention for the courtesy of a hearing.
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EARLY INDIANA TRIALS.
CALEB B. SMITH.
FEW men in the West have filled a larger space in the publie eye than the subject of this sketch. One day I was sitting in my office at Connersville, when there entered a small youth, about five feet eight inches high, large head, thin brown hair, light blue eyes, high, capacious forehead, and good features, and introduced himself as Caleb B. Smith, from Cincinnati. He stated his business in a lisp- ing tone. He had come to read law with me, if I could receive him. I assented to his wishes, and he remainedl with me until he was admit- ted to practice, and commenced his professional, as well as politieal career, at Connersville. He rose rapidly at the bar, was remarkably fluent, rapid, and eloquent before the jury, never at a loss for ideas or words to express them ; if he had a fault as an advocate, it was that he suffered his nature to press forward his ideas for utterance, faster than the minds of the jurors were prepared to receive them ; still he was very successful before the Court and jury. He represented his county in the Legislature of the State ; was Speaker of the House; twice elected to Congress from his district; stood high in that body as a member, and an eloquent speaker. He was one of the most elo- quent and powerful stump-speakers in the United States, a warm and devoted Whig; was on the commission, after he left Congress, with Corwin and Payne, under the Mexican treaty ; since which he has retired to the practice of his profession in Cincinnati. I saw him a few days ago, in fine health, but how changed; age had marked him visibly ; his head was bald, his cheeks furrowed, his eyes sunken, covered with glasses. I give to the reader an extract from his speech upon the Constitutionality of the act of Congress, requiring Congress- men to be elected by districts. Some of the States had elected by general tickets, disregarding the act of Congress as unconstitutional.
" This is the first time, since the organization of the Federal Gov- ernment, that the House of Representatives has been called upon in this manner to decide upon the Constitutionality of an act of Con- gress. From the decision of the House there is no appeal ; its action is final, and ean not be reversed. The Constitution having made each branch of Congress, respectively, the exclusive judge of the validity of the election of its own members, the question can not be presented to the judicial tribunals of the country, for their decision. It becomes us, then, to be the more cautious and eireumspect in our deliberations, and the more careful of the precedent we may establish. Before we assume the responsibility of declaring an act of Congress unconstitu- tional and void, it should be made clear and palpable that the Consti-
CALEB B. SMITH. 1 409
tution has been violated. Should the question be one of doubt, it is our duty to regard the law as binding, and to conform our action to its provisions. Without further preliminary remarks, I will proceed to the examination of the question now before the House. The last Congress incorporated in the act to apportion Representatives among the several States, a provision that the Representatives from each State should be elected by districts, but one member being elected from any one district. All the States have complied with the requisi- tions of the act of Congress, and elected their Representatives in conformity with its provisions, except the States of New Hampshire, Georgia, Mississippi, and Missouri. These States have elected their Representatives hy general ticket, in direct violation of the law. The House is now called upon to determine whether the Representatives thus elected in violation of the law are entitled to seats upon this floor. If the act of Congress requiring the Representatives to be elected by districts is Constitutional, it is clear they have no right to be admitted as members, and they can only retain their seats upon the supposition that the law is in violation of the Constitution. A decision of the Constitutional question is then unavoidable, as upon its determination rests their right. Much has been said during the discussion, of the relative advantages of the district and general ticket systems of elect- ing Representatives, and also of the propriety of Congress attempting to control the action of the States upon this subject. This argument has certainly no relevancy to the subject now under discussion. When the bill containing this provision was before Congress, the expe- diency of the measure was a legitimate subject of argument. But having become a law, the question of its expediency is at an end. It is now recorded upon our statute-book as a law of the land, and as a law-abiding people, we are bound to yield implicit obedience to its behests, unless it is clearly in violation of the Constitution. The second section of the apportionment act of the last Congress, the Con- stitutionality of which is denied, is as follows :
"' And be it further enacted, That in each case where a State is entitled to more than one Representative, the number to which each State shall he entitled under the appointment shall be elected by dis- tricts, composed of contiguous territory, equal in number to the num- ber of Representatives to which said State shall be entitled ; no one district electing more than one Representative.'
" IIad Congress the right to make this regulation in regard to the manner of electing Representatives ? That clause in the Constitution under which the power is claimed, is found in the fourth section of the first article, and reads in these words: 'The time, place, and
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manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof, but the Con- gress may at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the place of choosing Senators.' The power is here expressly conferred upon Congress, either to make regulations in regard to 'the time, place, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Repre- sentatives,' or to ' alter such regulations as may be made by the State Legislatures.'
" The position advanced by a majority of the Committee on Elee- tions, that the act of Congress, requiring the Representatives to be elected by districts, is a nullity, because it does not define the distriet and prescribe all the regulations necessary to complete the election, could only have been conceived in the desperate effort to nullify an act of Congress, in the absence of any reasonable or plausible pretext to do so. That Congress has the power under the Constitution to district the States, and regulate, in every other respect, the 'manner' of the elections, is not denied. It was never supposed, however, by those who framed the Constitution, that Congress would enter into the details in prescribing the manner of election. These it was undoubt- edly supposed, would be left to the legislation of the States. Mr. Madison, in speaking of the action of the convention, as I have before quoted, said : ' It was thought the particular regulations should be submitted to the States, and the general regulations to Congress.' The action of Congress in this respect, is strictly in conformity with the opinion of that distinguished statesman. It aspires only to pre- scribe the general regulation, that the election shall be by districts, while the particular regulations of defining the districts, and the mode of conducting the elections and making the returns, is left to the States. If the States choose to elect their Representatives in conform- ity with the general regulations thus prescribed, and the act of Con- gress, 'in pursuance thereof,' their Representatives may claim to be admitted on this floor. But if they refuse to elect in conformity to these regulations, those claiming to be their Representatives have no more right to be admitted as members of this body, than would the same number of persons elected in Canada or Texas. Should there be a continued refusal on the part of the States to conform to the regulations prescribed, Congress might be driven to the necessity of exercising more fully the power which it possesses of regulating 'the time, place, and manner' of the elections, in order to secure a repre- sentation from the States, and insure the continuance of the Govern- ment.
" It is, Mr. Speaker, unfortunate for the country that party-spirit
411
CALEB B. SMITH.
has attained the alarming ascendency we have witnessed for some years past. If we have reason to fear for the permanency of our Government, and the prosperity of our institutions from any cause, it is from this. The danger of party degenerating into faction is immi- nent and alarming. The history of the past appeals to us, in solemn and warning tones, to avoid this evil. It is the fatal rock, upon which most of the republics which have heretofore existed, have split. And can we expect to pursue the same course, and yet avoid the results which have heretofore uniformly sprung from it? Can we expect to nourish the viper in our bosom, and not feel his fangs ? Let ns not lull ourselves into a false security by any such anticipa- tions. Human nature is in all ages of the world the same; and the same causes which brought destruction upon the republics of the old world, must work out the same bitter fruits with us, if not counter- acted, notwithstanding all our boasted intelligence and patriotism. The hideous spirit of faction has indeed already, to a most alarming extent, heen developed in this country. The rigid discipline of party has already, to an extraordinary degree, destroyed every thing like independence of opinion. Like the iron bed of Procrustes, it admits of no latitude and no variation from the party standard. The expan- sive or contracting power is applied, until the opinions of its votaries are brought to range with the party lines. Opinions of the most dan- gerous character and the most anti-republican tendency are advanced . by party leaders, and being incorporated into the party creed, receive the cordial support of all the party adherents. I fear, sir, that the history of this country will furnish additional evidence of the truth of the remark, that the 'spirit of party is stronger than the spirit of liberty.' It sweeps over the country with the resistless power of the tornado, prostrating its institutions and sacrificing its best interest. The voice of patriotism, as compared with its powerful tones, is but as the gentle whispers of the evening breeze to the hoarse thunders of the resistless whirlwind. The laws and Constitution become as powerless to arrest its course, as the mere parchment upon which they are written. Have we not reason to believe that this spirit has given birth to the violent opposition which has been made to the apportion- ment act of the last Congress? For the first time in many years, the Whigs had a majority in both branches of the last Congress. The party which has been driven from power by the voice of the people in 1840, smarting under the irrecent defeat, assailed the Whig Con- gress with every species of abuse and vituperation. No sooner had it exercised the clear and unequivocal power delegated to it by the Con- stitution, to require the election of Representatives to Congress to be
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EARLY INDIANA TRIALS.
made by districts, than a regular and systematic party organization was adopted to resist and nullify its action. Notwithstanding the almost universal sentiment throughout the country, of the great advantages of the district over the general ticket system of election, several of those States in which the Whig party was in the minority, while they conformed their action to the law, and laid off the Con- gressional districts in pursuance of its requisitions, protested against the right of Congress to make this regulation, and hurled defiance to the Federal Government.
" The decision of this question will be looked for with deep and anxious solicitude. Should this House treat this law as unconstitu- tional, although its decision may meet with the approbation of a strong political party, yet, sir, when the spirit of party shall subside (if in the wisdom of Providence we shall ever be permitted to see that period), and the American people shall see, and think, and act, uninfluenced by party shackles, its decision will meet with universal condemnation. Had the construction now attempted to be placed on the fonrth section of the first article of the Constitution been sug- gested in the days of Madison, of Jefferson, and of Hamilton, it would have excited a smile and provoked ridicule ; and in after times, when no interested or party feelings shall obscure the judgment or becloud the understanding, men will wonder at the delusion which could sustain such a construction."
413
THE TELEGRAPH.
THE TELEGRAPH.
IT was in the year 1842, about 12 o'clock of the day, when I was notified in the Senate Chamber by the Sergeant-at-Arms, that Profes- sor Morse wished to see the Senators in a committee room for the pur- pose of showing the operation of his magnetic telegraph. I repaired to the room at once, and found the Professor there alone. In a few minutes Senators Linn, Huntington, Merrick, Berrian, Woodbury, and Davis came in. He then proceeded to show us his invention and to point out the mode of operation. I watched his countenance closely, to see if he was not deranged, as that very morning I had been met in the rotunda by a middle-aged man with long hair hanging over his face, and as we met he remarked : " Are you a member of Congress ?" " I am." " Are you as big a fool as the rest ?" " Perhaps so, and perhaps not." " Do you believe any thing that you don't see ?" " Yes, I have a good deal of faith," "I am the inventor of the flying fish, do you believe in that?" "I never supposed that there was any difficulty in flying ; I thought the trouble was in lighting ; can you light easy ?" " I understand you. The question you ask is, whether I can over- come gravitation. I see you are just as big a fool as the rest of them," and he passed on. He was evidently deranged, and I looked upon Prof. Morse, and his wild talk about electricity, and the cer- tainty of the success of his plan, in the same light, and I was assured by the other Senators after we left the room, that they had no confi- dence in it. There was not at that time a mile of stretched wire for telegraphic purposes in the United States. Soon after there was an operation very satisfactory between Capitol Hill and Bladensburgh, some five miles, which was followed by an extension of the wire to Baltimore, with entire success. Such was the beginning of the system of telegraphs in the United States, that has extended over the length and breadth of the land, and will ultimately, by the submerged wires, connect Europe with America, Asia, Africa, and Oceanica, anni- hilating time and space, overcoming all natural obstruction upon land and under the ocean, and our mighty rivers. It is not my purpose to describe the instrument, nor to trace the embryo stages of the idea that led to the perfected telegraphic wire with the battery, by which our words are carried with the speed of lightning, and the certainty of truth. The object of this sketch is to show the reader the skepti- cism of good minds, after full explanations on this great invention. Professor Morse was above the medium hight, well made, dark hair and eyes, large square forehead, prominent nose, wide mouth, project- ing chin, hair thrown up on one side of his head, dressed plain, wore
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EARLY INDIANA TRIALS.
no hair on his face. His countenance indicated deep thought and long study. His mind during the time I was with him seemed to be entirely absorbed with the telegraph. I find in the Western Demo- eratie Review, a notice of Professor Morse and the telegraph, from which I take some extracts that will be read with interest :
" Mr. Morse acquired a vast fund of knowledge in his European tour, having familiarized himself with the best models in the world; and he quit England, in 1832, with every prospect of winning, in a few years, a splendid fame.
" Up to this period, according to the most reliable information in our possession, Mr. Morse seems not to have indulged even a remote idea of such an invention as that which has since enrolled him on the list of the first scientific men of all ages. His whole mind appears to have been oceupied upon matters bearing no relation even to the sub- ject of electricity, in any of its various modes. It is doubtless true that his reading had been so extensive, and his habits of thought so rigid and methodical, he could easily have transformed himself from a painter to a sage, but it is not in evidence that any such disposition as he afterward made of lightning was a part of his daily meditation. Indeed, if he be constituted like the generality of the votaries of the ' fine arts,' a prophetie development of his future course would proba- bly have subjected the scientific Elijah to silent imputations on the part of Morse not very creditable to the inspiration of the former. The privilege is not allowed even to genius in this world to inspect its own elements, and read its own destiny, and it is perhaps well for mankind that it is so. Could we lift the curtain which hides our future lives, and glance hastily at the misfortunes, the vexations, and the disappointments which await us, we should be discouraged from attempting the performance even of such deeds as are destined even- tually to crown us with honor. Could Prof. Morse have foreseen the trials through which he has passed, and believed that he would be ealled to prove to the scientific world so obvious a fact as his exclusive right of property in the magnetic telegraph, this great invention would probably not have ranked among the improvements of the nineteenth ecntury. But we have not space to digress from our sub- jeet.
" The word telegraph is from two Greek words, Fris and rpoq@- the former signifying . distant,' and the latter 'write,' referring to a contrivance by which intelligence may be communicated to a distance, and generally to a method of communicating by preconcerted sig- nals. Different names have been applied in different countries. In France, the denomination Simaphore is often used. Telegraphing is
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THE TELEGRAPH.
almost as old as the world, having been considered a very important adjunet, in every age, of the machinery of war. Perhaps a thousand kinds of signals have prevailed among the various nations of the earth, and a history of their gradual improvement, though void of value, would not be destitute of interest. One of the most complete and simple methods which we remember was practiced by John Smith, the 'father of Virginia,' while a prisoner of war in Turkey. Most of the telegraphs of olden times consisted of boards or wooden arms, which signified the letters of the alphabet, according to the positions in which they were placed. A singular telegraph was used in France toward the close of the last century, by which intelligence was com- municated, letter by letter-only sixteen letters constituting the entire alphabet. A piece of machinery of this description was in operation between the Louvre, in Paris, and Lisle, enabling the Committee of Public Safety and the combined armies in the Low Countries to eom- munieate with each other. So great were the advantages derived even from the use of this bungling apparatus, all Europe, and particularly the British Empire, set about effecting some radical improvement. A great number of plans was proposed, which may be reduced to two classes : first, shutters, which open or close certain apertures made to receive them ; secondly, arms movable on pivots. A shutter-appara- tus was adopted by the Admiralty in the first Government line of tele- graphs established in England, in the year 1796, between London and Dover. This machinery continued in use until 1816. In this year, it was determined to adopt the semaphores of France, which had been in use on the French coast from 1803; and, as materially improved by Sir Home Popham, they were found of very great service. Pop- ham's telegraph consisted of two arms on one post ; but, as they were mounted upon separate pivots, each eould assume six different posi- tions, and was capable of affording twenty-four signals, This appa- ratus, with some modifications, lasted until the introduction of the electric telegraph. The greatest facility ever attained in signal com- munication was by the method invented by Col. Paisley, of France, in 1822: 'It consisted of upright posts of moderate hight, having two arms moving upon a common pivot, each of which could be put in seven positions, and each position indicated a word or sentence. The posts were placed from three to five miles apart; but each was visible to the nearest on either side. When the arm of the first was put in a given position, the man at the second put his in the same position, and the third, fourth, etc., did the same, and a word was thus run through the line at the rate of about a mile in a second ; then another word was conveyed in the same way, and then another, and
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EARLY INDIANA TRIALS.
so on, till the whole message was communicated. It could be used, of course, only by day-light. There were twenty-seven of these signal posts between Calais and Paris, 152 miles; a word was conveyed through the line in three minutes, and a sentence of ten word in half an hour. There were eighty signal posts between Paris and Brest, 325 miles, through which distance a word was conveyed in ten min- utes, and a sentence of ten words in one hour and forty minutes. It will be seen at once, that this mode of conveying intelligence was very expensive ; it required more than eighty men to convey ten words 325 miles, and kept them occupied one hour and two-thirds. And yet it was decmed so important to be able to convey it in this speedy man- ner, the government of France supported them at the cost of $210,000 annually. England paid $15,000 a year to sustain 72 miles of tele- graph, between Portsmouth and London.'
" Methods of telegraphic communication without machinery, have, at varions periods, been devised and used in conducting military ope- rations; and these have been found particularly valuable in time of war. One is by 'disks of wood, held by men in certain positions ; another, by a white handkerchief, varied in position ; another, by two small flags ; and another, by stationing men in pre-arranged positions,' etc. Naval signals have been found absolutely necessary, at all times. They have consisted nsnally of flags, of various forms and colors, some- times numbered in signal books. The best system of flag telegraph- ing is perhaps that invented a few years ago by Mr. Watson. But we must proceed at once to the consideration of the ELECTRO-MAG- NETIC TELEGRAPH.
" While on his way to the United States, in 1832, upon the packet- ship Sully, a gentleman referring to the experiments which had just been made in Paris with the electro-magnet, a discussion arose in regard to the time occupied by the electric fluid in passing through a wire of a hundred feet in length. Upon the intimation that the passage is instantancous-recollecting the experiments of Franklin- Mr. Morse suggested that the electricity could be carried to any dis- tance, and be made a means of conveying and recording intelligence. The idea took deep hold of his mind, and before the end of the voy- age he had draughted and written a plan of the greatest invention of the age. " The electric telegraph, invented by Prof. Morse, of Amer- ica, in 1837, was essentially a registering instrument, the various signals being traced on a strip of paper. An electro-magnet was so placed as to be within attracting distance of any armature fixed to the shorter arm of a lever, of which the longer end carried a pencil, pro- jecting sidewise from it, and pressed lightly against a sheet of paper.
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