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[Cyrus W. Field]

About This Item

  • Title: [Cyrus W. Field]
  • Date: 26 August 1858
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01040
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 26 August 1858: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: Kaylen Michaelis Thara Michaelis Brandi Faulkner Stefan Schöberlein Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "[Cyrus W. Field]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 17 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01040.xml (TEI)
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☞Cyrus W. Field,1 who awoke one recent morning to find himself famous, is already named by certain journals as a candidate for Governor of New York, and by others as a candidate for the next Presidency. This is simply ridiculous. Because a man succeeds in establishing an ocean telegraph, we cannot legitimately infer that he is a statesman. Let him fill that niche of fame for which Providence designed him.

Notes:

1. Cyrus West Field (1819–1892) was a financier and entrepreneur, whose company laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858.. [back]

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