Annual Address. 



23 



been constantly baffled by bis inability to transmit tbe 

 power to a sufficient distance. On Henry's discoveries 

 being communicated to him, tbe difficulty was removed 

 and be was enabled to perfect bis great invention. All 

 bonor to tbe inventor of wbat is probably tbe best mecha- 

 nical instrument tbat has yet been devised. His claims to 

 tbe gratitude of bis countrymen are by no means to be 

 underrated, but let us not forget tbe still bigber claims of 

 him, wbo made and pointed out tbe application of tbe sci- 

 entific discoveries upon wbicb tbe practicability and success 

 of that invention depended. To him we owe it, that tbe 

 fiction of the poet bas become the reality of our own day, 

 and tbat Shakespeare's fairy task of putting a girdle about 

 tbe earth in forty minutes, may be accomplished in a* 

 higher sense than he dreamt of, for the girdle thus given 

 to us is one instinct with a mysterious life, and thrilling 

 with an unceasing current of human interests and affec- 

 tions. I have dwelt somewhat at length on this subject, 

 because the claims of the discoverer in science are less 

 obvious and less likely to attract popular notice, than 

 those of tbe inventor through whose instrumentality that 

 science is applied, and because it seemed to me to be emi- 

 nently fitting, that on such an occasion as this, in the very 

 city and place where the principle and the practicability of 

 the magnetic telegraph were first demonstrated, the right- 

 ful claims of one born among us, and still one of our most 

 honored associates, should be asserted and maintained. 

 Of his other great labors and services during the last forty 

 years, I have now no time to speak ; but they have been 

 such as have added constantly to his early reputation, and 

 have called forth the approving judgment of the best 

 minds of the civilized world. Fortunate has it been for 

 the interests of science, for the honor of the country, and 

 for the permanent usefulness of that great national insti- 

 tution for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among 



