Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/185

FIELD 177 years at Smyrna and at Athens, engaged in the study of modern languages, particularly Greek. He returned in the winter of 1832-'3, and in the following autumn entered Williams college, from which he graduated in 1837. He studied law in New York with his brother, and on ad- mission to the bar became his partner, and thus continued until the spring of 1848, when he went abroad, and passed a year in Europe. On his return in the autumn of 1849 he went to California, where he has ever since resided. He was among the first settlers of what is now the city of Marysville, was elected its first al- calde, and held that office until the organiza- tion of the judiciary under the constitution of the state. Although the jurisdiction of the alcalde courts under the Mexican law was lim- ited and inferior, yet in the then existing state of things in California unlimited jurisdiction, civil and criminal, was asserted and exercised by them. In October, 1850, he was elected to the legislature, and during the session of 1851 was an active member of that body. He intro- duced and succeeded in getting passed the sev- eral laws concerning the judiciary, and regula- ting the procedure, civil and criminal, in all the courts of the state. He was also the author of that provision of law which gave controlling form to the regulations and customs of miners in the determination of their respective claims, and in the settlement of controversies among them; a provision which solved a very per- plexing problem, and has ever since remained undisturbed. In 1857 he was elected a judge of the supreme court of California for six years, from Jan. 1, 1858. A vacancy occurring pre- vious to the commencement of his term, he was appointed to fill it, and took his seat on the bench Oct. 13, 1857. In September, 1859, he became chief justice of the state. The law of real property in California was placed on a solid basis while he was on the bench, and principally by decisions in which he delivered the opinions of the court. In March, 1863, he was appointed by President Lincoln an asso- ciate justice of the supreme court of the United States. As such he delivered the opinion of the court in the well known test oath cases. His dissenting opinions in the legal-tender cases, in the confiscation cases, and in the New Orleans slaughter house case, have also attracted atten- tion. In 1873 he was appointed by the governor of California one of a commission to examine the code of laws of that state, and to prepare amendments to the same for legislative action. IV. Cyrus West, an American merchant, brother of the preceding, born at Stockbridge, Mass., Nov. 30, 1819. He was educated in his native town, at the age of 15 became a clerk in New York, and in a few years was at the head of a large and prosperous mercantile house. In 1*5:* he partially retired from business, and spent six months in travelling in South Amer- ica. On his return he became deeply interest- ed in the project of a telegraph across the ocean. He was first applied to for aid to com- plete a land line, which had been begun in Newfoundland, to cross the island, 400 miles, from Cape Ray to St. John's, from which it was intended to run a line of fast steamers to the west coast of Ireland, and thus bring America within a week of Europe. While studying the subject, and turning over the globe in his library, the idea flashed upon his mind, " Why not carry the line across the ocean?" In this idea was the germ of one of the great- est enterprises of modern times, that of tele- graphic communication between the old world and the new. His first step was to obtain le- gal authority. For this purpose he went in March, 1854, to St. John's, Newfoundland, and obtained from the legislature of that colony a charter, granting an exclusive right for 50 years to establish a telegraph from the conti- nent of America to Newfoundland, and thence to Europe ; and he thereupon associated with himself Peter Cooper, Moses Taylor, Marshall O. Roberts, Chandler White, and Wilson G. Hunt, of New York, under the title of the " New York, Newfoundland, and London Tele- graph Company," for the purpose of carrying this design into eifect. Mr. Field thenceforth devoted himself almost exclusively to the exe- cution of this project. To build the land line of telegraph across Newfoundland and Cape Breton island took more than two years. While this was in progress he went to England, and ordered a submarine cable, to connect Cape Ray and Cape Breton. This was sent out in 1855, but was lost in a gale in the attempt to lay it across the gulf of St. Lawrence. The attempt was renewed the following year with success. In that year (1856) he went to Lon- don, and there organized the " Atlantic Tele- graph Company," to carry the line across the ocean, and himself subscribed for one fourth of the whole capital of the company. By his per- sonal application he procured from the Brit- ish and American governments aid in ships, and accompanied the expeditions which sailed from England in 1857 and 1858 for the purpose of laying the cable across the Atlantic ocean. Twice the attempt failed in 1857, and the first time in 1858. The third attempt proved suc- cessful, and in August, 1858, telegraphic com- munication was established across the ocean. The cable, however, worked only a few weeks, and then became silent. To resuscitate the project now became more difficult than ever, as the public had lost faith. From that time it was kept alive only by the ardent faith and indomitable will of its projector. He was con- tinually passing to and fro between America and Europe, inspiring fresh courage and gath- ering new resources. But obstacles multiplied, civil war broke out in the United States, and the nation, absorbed in its own affairs, had no time for foreign enterprises. Thus seven years passed away before the attempt was renewed. But at last, in 1865, another expedition was prepared. Submarine telegraphy had been greatly improved ; a better cable was construct-