"You have chosen to impersonate in my humble effigy an invention which,
cradled upon the ocean, had its birth in an American ship. It was nursed
and cherished not so much from personal as from patriotic motives.
Forecasting its future, even at its birth, my most powerful stimulus to
perseverance through all the perils and trials of its early days--and
they were neither few nor insignificant--was the thought that it must
inevitably be world-wide in its application, and, moreover, that it would
everywhere be hailed as a grateful American gift to the nations. It is in
this aspect of the present occasion that I look upon your proceedings as
intended, not so much as homage to an individual, as to the invention,
'whose lines [from America] have gone out through all the earth, and
their words to the end of the world.'

"In the carrying-out of any plan of improvement, however grand or
feasible, no single individual could possibly accomplish it without the
aid of others. We are none of us so powerful that we can dispense with
the assistance, in various departments of the work, of those whose
experience and knowledge must supply the needed aid of their expertness.
It is not sufficient that a brilliant project be proposed, that its modes
of accomplishment are foreseen and properly devised; there are, in every
part of the enterprise, other minds and other agencies to be consulted
for information and counsel to perfect the whole plan. The Chief Justice,
in delivering the decision of the Supreme Court, says: 'It can make no
difference whether he [the inventor] derives his information from books
or from conversation with men skilled in the science.' And: 'The fact
that Morse sought and obtained the necessary information and counsel from
the best sources, and acted upon it, neither impairs his rights as an
inventor nor detracts from his merits.'

"The inventor must seek and employ the skilled mechanician in his
workshop to put the invention into practical form, and for this purpose
some pecuniary means are required as well as mechanical skill. Both these
were at hand. Alfred Vail, of Morristown, New Jersey, with his father and
brother, came to the help of the unclothed infant, and with their funds
and mechanical skill put it into a condition to appear before the
Congress of the nation. To these New Jersey friends is due the first
important aid in the progress of the invention. Aided also by the talent
and scientific skill of Profess