President James Buchanan captured the feeling best when marking the laying of the first transatlantic cable between the United States and Britain, in 1858. He expressed the belief that the telegraph would “prove to be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship between the kindred nations, and an instrument designed . . . to diffuse religion, liberty, and law throughout the world.” Within days, that transatlantic cable of perpetual peace was instead being used to send military orders.
