When William Henry Seward reflected in 1854 on the vast geographic and material growth of his country, he echoed most Americans’ views of technological innovation. “He wanted machines for working up his forests, and he invented the saw-gang, and the grooving and planning machines,” Seward declared of his fellow American. He sought machines “for cleaning his cotton, and he invented the gin; for harvesting wheat, and he invented the reaper. He needed mechanical force to navigate his long rivers and broad lakes, and he converted the steam engine into a marine power. He needed dispatch in communicating intelligence, and he placed his lightning-rod horizontally, and beating it into a wire, converted it into a writing telegraph.”1 As secretary of state, Seward would be among the Americans to push technological innovation into the service of foreign policy.