230 I Assembly 



head winds, straight for her port, cuttiag hurricanes asunder 

 and leaving them behiud, 



•* Asking no aid of rail or oar, 

 Fearing no spilo of wind or tida." 



Who tliat regards the railroads which now cover our country 

 with their reticulated web, recognizes their origin in tho tram 

 road of the miner, emerging from the dark levels of a coal mine? 

 Now that they have become, through the skill of the engineer, 

 the paths for those iron steam horses, which were the laughing- 

 stock ot the whips of London a few years ago, as they attempted 

 to run over the pavements, and split their sides with jolting over 

 the stones, and came to a dead halt amid the jeers of the tri- 

 umphant coachmen. On these iron rails, the locomotive engines 

 were at home and whizzed away whistling as they went, while 

 the ominous warning — "Look out for the engine when the bell 

 rings" — tells us of the speed and power of this new means of 

 locomotion. 



Chemistry and physics gave to the world the electric and elec- 

 tro-magnetic telegraphs — those marvelous means of communica- 

 tion which enable us to use the lightning for our Mercury, in 

 transmitting intelligence quick as thought! 



This product of science was the work of many heads and hands, 

 and belongs to no one man, but to the scientific world. To 

 Oersted, of Copenhagen, in Denmark, who first suggested it, to 

 Joseph Henry, who improved the electro-magnet, and still more 

 to Daniel and Grove, of London, who invented the sustaining 

 Galvanic battery, the chief credit is due; while to several others 

 is to be credited the different modes of recording the signs by 

 which numbers and letters are denoted.* 



Astronomy has given us the means of determining the position 

 of any spot upon the surface of the globe, and has placed in the 

 hands of the navigator, the simplest methods of tracing his devi- 

 ous way across the deep, to places he has never seen. The me- 



* S6€ depositions of Dr. W. F. Chacning, Profe«Bor Joacph Ilenry, B. A. Uoald, l>r. C. T. 

 JMYaoo, and others, in tho trial of F. 0. J. Smith and others, vs- Downing and others; abo, 

 'F^enoh and others, vs. Baiji and others, 6o»too and PbiladelpU^ 



