EYES ON THE PACIFIC 2217 
valedictory, he expressed. credit to Alfred Vail, Professor 
Leonardo D. Gale of New York University, Ezra Cornell, 
Volta, Oersted, Arago, Henry, Cyrus Field, and others. 
Morse and Field were sincere friends. Both sons of New 
England clergymen of the old school, they had received simi- 
lar upbringings in the puritanical tradition. Both had 
achieved early small successes and had then experienced tre- 
mendous difficulties and discouragement. After long strug- 
gles, both had become famous—almost household words 
throughout the world. Both had traveled so much that they 
had developed international views. They agreed on many 
important questions, such as the use of the telegraph to pro- 
mote peace. Field named one of his sons Edward Morse Field. 
When Field was disposed to mix with the prominent New 
Yorkers of the period succeeding the Civil War, he strolled 
the few blocks from his house to Madison Square, where the 
Fifth Avenue Hotel had become a noted meeting place for 
leading citizens. During the war this white-marble edifice 
was the headquarters for Northern patriots intent on pre- 
serving the Union. Among the well-known persons who gath- 
ered there were William Cullen Bryant, Horace Greeley, and 
Thurlow Weed (influential journalists); Commodore Van- 
derbilt, Jay Gould, Daniel Drew, James Fisk Jr., and Ham- 
ilton Fish (powerful capitalists); Boss ‘Tweed, Samuel J. Til- 
den, Ulysses S. Grant, Chester A. Arthur, Roscoe Conkling, 
and James G. Blaine (politicians and statesmen). Other ce- 
lebrities who dropped in were Henry Ward Beecher, the elo- 
quent preacher; General John A. Dix, famous for his tele- 
gram, “If anyone attempts to haul down the American flag, 
shoot him on the spot”; and Mark Twain, living then at 
Hartford. Not all these men, of course, were friends; in fact, 
there were some bitter enmities among them. 
For a quarter of a century this hotel was a rendezvous for 
prominent Republicans; important political conferences 
were held there. The plan to make Grant president in 1868 
