CYRUS FIELD CARRIES ON 89 
the submarine telegraph proposed by Mr. Field, and earnest- 
ly urge that his plans may be adopted and he authorized to 
have the plans carried into execution. More careful consider- 
ation may show that a safer route for the cable from Fernan- 
dina to Key West would be by the eastern shore of Florida. 
This will depend on the strength of our occupation of the 
railroad from Fernandina to Cedar Keys.” 
Several days later, Colonel ‘Thomas W. Sherman wrote to 
Field as follows: “It was but the other day I was discussing 
the very subject you mention. We want very much a tele- 
graphic communication between Beaufort, Hilton Head, and 
the Tybee. How can we get it promptly?’ Obviously Field’s 
suggestions were taken seriously, and his practical knowledge 
of telegraphy was useful to the military authorities. 
Because of his friendship with William H. Seward, the 
Secretary of State, Field was in a position to write to him 
freely, as indicated in the following extracts from a letter of 
January 1, 1862: “The importance of the early completion of 
the Atlantic telegraph can hardly be estimated. What would 
have been its value to the English and United States govern- 
ments if it had been in operation on the goth of November 
last, on which day Earl Russell was writing to Lord Lyons, 
and you at the same time to Mr. Adams, our minister in Lon- 
don? A few short messages between the two governments and 
all would have been satisfactorily explained. I have no doubt 
that the English government has expended more money dur- 
ing the last thirty days in preparation for war with this coun- 
try than the whole cost of manufacturing and laying a good 
cable between Newfoundland and Ireland. . . . Will you 
pardon me for suggesting to you the propriety of opening a 
correspondence with the English government upon the sub- 
ject, and proposing that the Atlantic Telegraph Company 
should be aided or encouraged to complete their line, and 
that the two governments should enter into a treaty that in 
case of any war between them the cable should not be molest- 
