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The Cable

About This Item

  • Title: The Cable
  • Date: 27 October 1858
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01125
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 27 October 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 Samantha Gilmore Brandi Faulkner Stefan Schöberlein Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "The Cable." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 17 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01125.xml (TEI)
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THE CABLE.—

Every few days we meet with a letter in the New York or London newspapers, asserting, and endeavoring to show by a comparison of dates, that no message ever passed through the Atlantic Cable1—the inference being that the bogus messages were used only to run up the stock, and enable the directors and those in the secret to sell out at a gain. We would not readily believe that Peter Cooper,2 "De Santy,"3 C.W. Field4 and the engineers and electricians, would lend themselves to such a rascally scheme, but unless the question be definitely settled by a pronunciamento from some of the parties implicated, it will remain for ever, like "Who was Junius?"5 and "Who was the man with the Iron Mask?"6 in the list of vexed questions which will perplex the erudite and puzzle the curious for ages to come. If the alleged messages were bogus, there never was such a "sell" as the Cable would be. The Trojan horse itself would be genuine in comparison.

Notes:

1. The Transatlantic Telegraph was the first cable connection between the United States and Europe, built by Cyrus West Field and the Atlantic Telegraph Company. It sent its initial message—a note from the British Queen—in 1858 and, although the cable spanning from Canada's Trinity Bay to Ireland was only in operation for three weeks, had a major impact on transatlantic relations of the antebellum period. [back]

2. Peter Cooper (1791–1883) was an American industrialist. [back]

3. Charles Victor De Sauty (1830–1893) was the Superintendent of the transatlantic telegraph cable in Newfoundland. [back]

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

5. Referring to the sixty-nine letters from Junius to a British newspaper (1769–1772) that criticized the English government. The name Junius was a pseudonym for the actual author of the letters. [back]

6. Referring to the sixty-nine letters from Junius to a British newspaper (1769–1772) that criticized the English government. The name Junius was a pseudonym for the actual author of the letters. [back]

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