78 The First Words sent hy Telegraph. [February, 



an appropriate acknowledgement for her sjmpatliy and kindness, a 

 sympathy which only a woman can feel and express, I promised that the 

 first despatch, by the first line of telegraph from Washington to Balti- 

 more, should be indited by her. To which she replied, * I will hold 

 you to your word.' In about a year from that time the line was com- 

 pleted, and every thing being prepared, I apprised my young friend of 

 the fact. A note from her enclosed this despatch : ' What hath God 

 wrought!' These ivere the first ivords that passed upon the electric 

 wii^es, on the first completed line in America! None could have been 

 chosen, more in accordance with my own feelings. It haptized the Ameri- 

 can Telegraph with the name of its Author ! It placed the crown of 

 success and of honor W'here it belonged. I lately somewhere read, in an 

 article on the telegraph, written apparently by one not friendly to me, 

 this sentiment, ' that the telegraph is too magnificent an invention to 

 have its glory concentrated in a single man.' 'Ab hosfe fas est docert.' 

 I assent to the justness of this sentiment, giving it, however, a wider 

 application than the writer probably intended. Is there an invention 

 or discovery, great or small, or operation in arts or arms, that has been 

 achieved by one mind, independent of aid derived from the co-operation 

 of others ? Wellington, Napoleon, Scott, may plan the most brilliant 

 campaigns ; but of what avail are brilliant plans, unless carried out to 

 success ; and how can they thus be carried out but by the co-operation 

 of thousands of others ? 



" Was Watt unaided by the co-operation of other minds in elaborating 

 his magnificent invention, that indefatigable drudge, the steam engine ? 

 Was Fulton alone in achieving steam navigation ? Did Whitney find 

 nothing of other men's labors to incorporate into his invaluable cotton 

 gin ; or Arkwright find prepared no mechanical appliances already in 

 use, for his spinning-jenny ? Does the poet, or the rhetorician, weave 

 his beautiful web of imagery from no tissue prepared for him by the 

 traveler, and historian, and the naturalist? No: the co-operation of 

 other minds is as necessary to the success of every design, as the design 

 itself. W"e can not be independent of others. Place me, then. Gentle- 

 men, where you will in the chain of riistrumeutalities. I look behind and 

 before me, and see in the vista of the past and of the future, a long pro- 

 cession of co-operators, without whom my thought, however brilliant, 

 could never have been realized. To them all, whether present or absent, 

 I would render here, at least the homage of my thanks. The enterprise 

 we have undertaken, has thus far had, and will still require, the co-ope- 

 ration of all ; and happy am I in perceiving and acknowledging the 

 co-operation of the Governor and Council, of Secretary and Attorney 



