JULY 16. 1842--MARCH 26, 1843
Continued discouragements.--Working on improvements.--First submarine
cable from Battery to Governor's Island.--The Vails refuse to give
financial assistance.--Goes to Washington.--Experiments conducted at the
Capitol.--First to discover duplex and wireless telegraphy.--Dr. Fisher.
--Friends in Congress.--Finds his statuette of Dying Hercules in basement
of Capitol.--Alternately hopes and despairs of bill passing Congress.--
Bill favorably reported from committee.--Clouds breaking.--Ridicule in
Congress.--Bill passes House by narrow majority.--Long delay in Senate.--
Last day of session.--Despair.--Bill passes.--Victory at last.
Slowly the mills of the gods had been grinding, so slowly that one
marvels at their leaden pace, and wonders why the dream of the man so
eager to benefit his fellowmen could not have been realized sooner. We
are forced to echo the words of the inventor himself in a previously
quoted letter: "I am perfectly satisfied that, mysterious as it may seem
to me, it has all been ordered in its minutest particulars in infinite
wisdom." He enlarges on this point in the letter to Smith of July 16,
1842. Referring to the difficulties he has encountered through lack of
means, he says:--
"I have oftentimes risen in the morning not knowing where the means were
to come from for the common expenses of the day. Reflect one moment on my
situation in regard to the invention. Compelled from the first, from my
want of the means to carry out the invention to a practical result, to
ask assistance from those who had means, I associated with me the Messrs.
Vail and Dr. Gale, by making over to them, on certain conditions, a
portion of the patent right. These means enabled me to carry it
successfully forward to a certain point. At this point you were also
admitted into a share of the patent on certain conditions, which carried
the enterprise forward successfully still further. Since then
disappointments have occurred and disasters to the property of every one
concerned in the enterprise, but of a character not touching the
intrinsic merits of the invention in the least, yet bearing on its
progress so fatally as for several years to paralyze all attempts to
proceed.
"The depressed situation of all my associates in the invention has thrown
the whole burden of again attempting a movement entirely on me. With the
trifling sum of five hundred dollars I could have had my instruments
perfected and before Congress six months ago, but I was unable to run the
risk, and I therefore chose to go forward more slowly, but at a great
waste of time.
"In all these remarks understand me as not throwing the least blame on
any individual. I believe that the situation in which you all are thrown
is altogether providential--that human foresight could not avert it, and
I firmly believe, too, that the delays, tantalizing and trying as they
have been, will, in the end, turn out to be beneficial."
I have hazarded the opinion that it was a kindly fate which frustrated
the consummation of the Russian contract, and here again I venture to say
that the Fates were kind, that Morse was right in saying that the
"delays" would "turn out to be beneficial." And why? Because it needed
all these years of careful thought and experiment on the part of the
inventor to bring his instruments to the perfection necessary to complete
success, and because the period of financial depression, through which
the country was then passing, was unfavorable to an enterprise of this
character. The history of all inventions proves that, no matter how clear
a vision of the future some enthusiasts may have had, the dream was never
actually realized until all the conditions were favorable and the
psychological moment had arrived. Professor Henry showed, in his letter
of February 24, that he realized that some day electricity would be used
as a motive power, but that much remained yet to be discovered and
invented before this could be actually and practically accomplished. So,
too, the conquest of the air remained a dream for centuries until, to use
Professor Henry's words, "science" was "ripe for its application."
Therefore I think we can conclude that, however confident Morse may have
been that his invention could have stood the test of actual commercial
use during those years of discouragement, it heeded the perfection which
he himself gave it during those same years to enable it to prove its
superiority over other methods.
Among the other improvements made by Morse at this time, the following is
mentioned in the letter to Smith of July 16, 1842, just quoted from: "I
have invented a battery which will delight you; it is the most powerful
of its size ever invented, and this part of my telegraphic apparatus the
results of experiments have enabled me to simplify and truly to perfect."
Another most important development of the invention was made in the year
1842. The problem of crossing wide bodies of water had, naturally,
presented itself to the mind of the inventor at an early date, and during
the most of this year he had devoted himself seriously to its solution.
He laboriously insulated about two miles of copper wire with pitch, tar,
and rubber, and, on the evening of October 18, 1842, he carried it, wound
on a reel, to the Battery in New York and hired a row-boat with a man to
row him while he paid out his "cable." Tradition says that it was a
beautiful moonlight night and that the strollers on the Battery were
mystified, and wondered what kind of fish were being trolled for. The
next day the following editorial notice appeared in the New York
"Herald":--
MORSE'S ELECTRO-MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH
This important invention is to be exhibited in operation at Castle Garden
between the hours of twelve and one o'clock to-day. One telegraph will be
erected on Governor's Island, and one at the Castle, and messages will be
interchanged and orders transmitted during the day.
Many have been incredulous as to the powers of this wonderful triumph of
science and art. All such may now have an opportunity of fairly testing
it. _It is destined to work a complete revolution in the mode of
transmitting intelligence throughout the civilized world._
Before the appointed hour on the morning of the 19th, Morse hastened to
the Battery, and found a curious crowd already assembled to witness this
new marvel. With confidence he seated himself at the instrument and had
succeeded in exchanging a few signals between himself and Professor Gale
at the other end on Governor's Island, when suddenly the receiving
instrument was dumb. Looking out across the waters of the bay, he soon
saw the cause of the interruption. Six or seven vessels were anchored
along the line of his cable, and one of them, in raising her anchor, had
fouled the cable and pulled it up. Not knowing what it was, the sailors
hauled in about two hundred feet of it; then, finding no end, they cut
the cable and sailed away, ignorant of the blow they had inflicted on the
mortified inventor. The crowd, thinking they had been hoaxed, turned away
with jeers, and Morse was left alone to bear his disappointment as
philosophically as he could.
Later, in December, the experiment was repeated across the canal at
Washington, and this time with perfect success.
Still cramped for means, chafing under the delay which this necessitated,
he turned to his good friends the Vails, hoping that they might be able
to help him. While he shrank from borrowing money he considered that, as
they were financially interested in the success of the invention, he
could with propriety ask for an advance to enable him to go to
Washington.
To his request he received the following answer from the Honorable George
Vail:--
SPEEDWELL IRON WORKS,
December 31, 1842.
S.F.B. MORSE, Esq.,
DEAR SIR,--Your favor is at hand. I had expected that my father would
visit you, but he could not go out in the snow-storm of Wednesday, and,
if he had, I do not think anything could induce him to raise the needful
for the prosecution of our object. He says: "Tell Mr. Morse that there is
no one I would sooner assist than him if I could, but, in the present
posture of my affairs, I am not warranted in undertaking anything more
than to make my payments as they become due, of which there are not a
few."
He thinks that Mr. S---- might soon learn how to manage it, and, as he is
there, it would save a great expense. I do not myself know that he could
learn; but, as my means are nothing at the present time, I can only wish
you success, if you go on.
Of course Mr. Vail meant "if you go on to Washington," but to the
sensitive mind of the inventor the words must have seemed to imply a
doubt of the advisability of going on with the enterprise. However, he
was not daunted, but in some way he procured the means to defray his
expenses, perhaps from his good brother Sidney, for the next letter to
Mr. Vail is from Washington, on December 18, 1842:--
"I have not written you since my arrival as I had nothing special to say,
nor have I now anything very decided to communicate in relation to my
enterprise, except that it is in a very favorable train. The Telegraph,
as you will see by Thursday or Friday's 'Intelligencer,' is established
between two of the committee rooms in the Capitol, and excites universal
admiration. I am told from all quarters that there is but one sentiment
in Congress respecting it, and that the appropriation will unquestionably
pass.
"The discovery I made with Dr. Fisher, just before leaving New York, of
the fact that two or more currents will pass, without interference, at
the same time, on the same wire, excites the wonder of all the scientific
in and out of Congress here, and when I show them the certainty of it, in
the practical application of it to simplify my Telegraph, their
admiration is loudly expressed, and it has created a feeling highly
advantageous to me.
"I believe I drew for you a method by which I thought I could pass
rivers, _without any wires_, through the water. I tried the experiment
across the canal here on Friday afternoon _with perfect success_. This
also has added a fresh interest in my favor, and I begin to hope that I
am on the eve of realizing something in the shape of compensation for my
time and means expended in bringing my invention to its present state. I
dare not be sanguine, however, for I have had too much experience of
delusive hopes to indulge in any premature exultation. Now there is no
opposition, but it may spring up unexpectedly and defeat all....
"I find Dr. Fisher a great help. He is acquainted with a great many of
the members, and he is round among them and creating an interest for the
Telegraph. Mr. Smith has not yet made his appearance, and, if he does not
come soon, everything will be accomplished without him. My associate
proprietors, indeed, are at present broken reeds, yet I am aware they are
disabled in various ways from helping me, and I ought to remember that
their help in the commencement of the enterprise was essential in putting
the Telegraph into the position it now is [in]; therefore, although they
give me now no aid, it is not from unwillingness but from inability, and
I shall not grudge them their proportion of its profits, nor do I believe
they will be unwilling to reimburse me my expenses, should the Telegraph
eventually be purchased by the Government.
"Mr. Ferris, our representative, is very much interested in understanding
the scientific principles on which my Telegraph is based, and has exerted
himself very strongly in my behalf; so has Mr. Boardman, and, in a
special manner, Dr. Aycrigg, of New Jersey, the latter of whom is
determined the bill shall pass by acclamation. Mr. Huntington, of the
Senate, Mr. Woodbury and Mr. Wright are also very strongly friendly to
the Telegraph."
This letter, to the best of my knowledge, has never before been
published, and yet it contains statements of the utmost interest. The
discovery of duplex telegraphy, or the possibility of sending two or more
messages over the same wire at the same time has been credited by various
authorities to different persons; by some to Moses G. Farmer in 1852, by
others to Gintl, of Vienna, in 1853, or to Frischen or Siemens and Halske
in 1854. Yet we see from this letter that Morse and his assistant Dr.
Fisher not only made the discovery ten years earlier, in 1842, but
demonstrated its practicability to the scientists and others in
Washington at that date. Why this fact should have been lost sight of I
cannot tell, but I am glad to be able to bring forward the proof of the
paternity of this brilliant discovery even at this late day.
Still another scientific principle was established by Morse at this early
period, as we learn from this letter, and that is the possibility of
wireless telegraphy; but, as he has been generally credited with the
first suggestion of what has now become one of the greatest boons to
humanity, it will not be necessary to enlarge on it.
A brighter day seemed at last to be dawning, and a most curious
happening, just at this time, came to the inventor as an auspicious omen.
In stringing his wires between the two committee rooms he had to descend
into a vault beneath them which had been long unused. A workman, who was
helping him, went ahead and carried a lamp, and, as he glanced around the
chamber, Morse noticed something white on a shelf at one side. Curious to
see what this could be, he went up to it, when what was his amazement to
find that it was a plaster cast of that little statuette of the Dying
Hercules which had won for him the Adelphi Gold Medal so many years
before in London. There was the token of his first artistic success
appearing to him out of the gloom as the harbinger of another success
which he hoped would also soon emerge from behind the lowering clouds.
The apparently mysterious presence of the little demigod in such an
out-of-the-way place was easily explained. Six casts of the clay model
had been made before the original was broken up. One of these Morse had
kept for himself, four had been given to various institutions, and one to
his friend Charles Bulfinch, who succeeded Latrobe as the architect of
the Capitol. A sinister fate seemed to pursue these little effigies, for
his own, and the four he had presented to different institutions, were
all destroyed in one way and another. After tracing each one of these
five to its untimely end, he came to the conclusion that this evidence of
his youthful genius had perished from the earth; but here, at last, the
only remaining copy was providentially revealed to the eyes of its
creator, having undoubtedly been placed in the vault for safe-keeping and
overlooked. It was cheerfully returned to him. By him it was given to his
friend, the Reverend E. Goodrich Smith, and by the latter presented to
Yale University, where it now rests in the Fine Arts Building.
So ended the year 1842, a decade since the first conception of the
telegraph on board the Sully, and it found the inventor making his last
stand for recognition from that Government to which he had been so loyal,
and upon which he wished to bestow a priceless gift. With the dawn of the
new year, a year destined to mark an epoch in the history of
civilization, his flagging spirits were revived, and he entered with zest
on what proved to be his final and successful struggle.
It passes belief that with so many ocular demonstrations of the
practicability of the Morse telegraph, and with the reports of the
success of other telegraphs abroad, the popular mind, as reflected in its
representatives in Congress, should have remained so incredulous. Morse
had been led to hope that his bill was going to pass by acclamation, but
in this he was rudely disappointed. Still he had many warm friends who
believed in him and his invention. First and foremost should be mentioned
his classmate, Henry L. Ellsworth, the Commissioner of Patents, at whose
hospitable home the inventor stayed during some of these anxious days,
and who, with his family, cheered him with encouraging words and help.
Among the members of Congress who were energetic in support of the bill
especially worthy of mention are--Kennedy, of Maryland; Mason, of Ohio;
Wallace, of Indiana; Ferris and Boardman, of New York; Holmes, of South
Carolina; and Aycrigg, of New Jersey.
The alternating moods of hope and despair, through which the inventor
passed during the next few weeks, are best pictured forth by himself in
brief extracts from letters to his brother Sidney:--
"_January 6, 1843._ I sent you a copy of the Report on the Telegraph a
day or two since. I was in hopes of having it called up to-day, but the
House refused to go into Committee of the Whole on the State of the
Union, so it is deferred. The first time they go into Committee of the
Whole on the State of the Union it will probably be called up and be
decided upon.
"Everything looks favorable, but I do not suffer myself to be sanguine,
for I do not know what may be doing secretly against it. I shall believe
it passed when the signature of the President is affixed to it, and not
before."
"_January 16._ I snatch the moments of waiting for company in the
Committee Room of Commerce to write a few lines. Patience is a virtue
much needed and much tried here. So far as opinion goes everything is
favorable to my bill. I hear of no opposition, but should not be
surprised if it met with some. The great difficulty is to get it up
before the House; there are so many who must '_define their position_,'
as the term is, so many who must say something to 'Bunkum,' that a great
deal of the people's time is wasted in mere idle, unprofitable
speechifying. I hope something may be done this week that shall be
decisive, so that I may know what to do.... This waiting at so much risk
makes me question myself: am I in the path of duty? When I think that the
little money I brought with me is nearly gone, that, if nothing should be
done by Congress, I shall be in a destitute state; that perhaps I shall
have again to be a burden to friends until I know to what to turn my
hands, I feel low-spirited. I am only relieved by naked trust in God, and
it is right that this should be so."
"_January 20._ My patience is still tried in waiting for the action of
Congress on my bill. With so much at stake you may easily conceive how
tantalizing is this state of suspense. I wish to feel right on this
subject; not to be impatient, nor distrustful, nor fretful, and yet to be
prepared for the worst. I find my funds exhausting, my clothing wearing
out, my time, especially, rapidly waning, and my affairs at home
requiring some little looking after; and then, if I should after all be
disappointed, the alternative looks dark, and to human eyes disastrous in
the extreme.
"I hardly dare contemplate this side of the matter, and yet I ought so
far to consider it as to provide, if possible, against being struck down
by such a blow. At times, after waiting all day and day after day, in the
hope that my bill may be called up, and in vain, I feel heart-sick, and
finding nothing accomplished, that no progress is made, that _precious
time_ flies, I am depressed and begin to question whether I am in the way
of duty. But when I feel that I have done all in my power, and that this
delay may be designed by the wise disposer of all events for a trial of
patience, I find relief and a disposition quietly to wait such issue as
he shall direct, knowing that, if I sincerely have put my trust in him,
he will not lead me astray, and my way will, in any event, be made
plain."
"_January 25._ I am still _waiting, waiting_. I know not what the issue
will be and wish to be prepared, and have you all prepared, for the worst
in regard to the bill. Although I learn of no opposition yet I have seen
enough of the modes of business in the House to know that everything
there is more than in ordinary matters uncertain. It will be the end of
the session, probably, before I return. I will not have to reproach
myself, or be reproached by others, for any neglect, but under all
circumstances I am exceedingly tried. I am too foreboding probably, and
ought not so to look ahead as to be distrustful. I fear that I have no
right feelings in this state of suspense. It is easier to say 'Thy will
be done' than at all tunes to feel it, yet I can pray that God's will may
be done whatever becomes of me and mine."
"_January 30._ I am still kept in suspense which is becoming more and
more tantalizing and painful. But I endeavor to exercise patience."
"_February 21._ I think the clouds begin to break away and a little
sunlight begins to cheer me. The House in Committee of the Whole on the
State of the Union have just passed my bill through committee to report
to the House. There was an attempt made to cast ridicule upon it by a
very few headed by Mr. Cave Johnson, who proposed an amendment that half
the sum should be appropriated to mesmeric experiments. Only 26 supported
him and it was laid aside to be reported to the House without amendment
and without division.
"I was immediately surrounded by my friends in the House, congratulating
me and telling me that the crisis is passed, and that the bill will pass
the House by a large majority. Mr. Kennedy, chairman of the Committee on
Commerce, has put the bill on the Speaker's calendar for Thursday
morning, when the final vote in the House will be taken. It then has to
go to the Senate, where I have reason to believe it will meet with a
favorable reception. Then to the President, and, if signed by him, I
shall return with renovated spirits, for I assure you I have for some
time been at the lowest ebb, and can now scarcely realize that a turn has
occurred in my favor. I don't know when I have been so much tried as in
the tedious delays of the last two months, but I see a reason for it in
the Providence of God. He has been pleased to try my patience, and not
until my impatience had yielded unreservedly to submission has He
relieved me by granting light upon my path. Praised be His name, for to
Him alone belongs all the glory.
"I write with a dreadful headache caused by over excitement in the House,
but hope to be better after a night's rest, I have written in haste just
to inform you of the first symptoms of success."
On the same date as that of the preceding letter, February 21, the
following appeared in the "Congressional Globe," and its very curtness
and flippancy is indicative of the indifference of the public in general
to this great invention, and the proceedings which are summarized cast
discredit on the intelligence of our national lawmakers:--
ELECTRO AND ANIMAL MAGNETISM
On motion of Mr. Kennedy of Maryland, the committee took up the bill to
authorize a series of experiments to be made in order to test the merits
of Morse's electro-magnetic telegraph. The bill appropriates $30,000, to
be expended under the direction of the Postmaster-General.
On motion of Mr. Kennedy, the words "Postmaster-General" were stricken
out and "Secretary of the Treasury" inserted.
Mr. Cave Johnson wished to have a word to say upon the bill. As the
present Congress had done much to encourage science, he did not wish to
see the science of mesmerism neglected and overlooked. He therefore
proposed that one half of the appropriation be given to Mr. Fisk, to
enable him to carry on experiments, as well as Professor Morse.
Mr. Houston thought that Millerism should also be included in the
benefits of the appropriation.
Mr. Stanly said he should have no objection to the appropriation for
mesmeric experiments, provided the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Cave
Johnson] was the subject. [A laugh.]
Mr. Cave Johnson said he should have no objection provided the gentleman
from North Carolina [Mr. Stanly] was the operator. [Great laughter.]
Several gentlemen called for the reading of the amendment, and it was
read by the Clerk, as follows:--
"_Provided_, That one half of the said sum shall be appropriated for
trying mesmeric experiments under the direction of the Secretary of the
Treasury."
Mr. S. Mason rose to a question of order. He maintained that the
amendment was not _bona fide_, and that such amendments were calculated
to injure the character of the House. He appealed to the chair to rule
the amendment out of order.
The Chairman said it was not for him to judge of the motives of members
in offering amendments, and he could not, therefore, undertake to
pronounce the amendment not _bona fide_. Objections might be raised to it
on the ground that it was not sufficiently analogous in character to the
bill under consideration, but, in the opinion of the Chair, it would
require a scientific analysis to determine how far the magnetism of
mesmerism was analogous to that to be employed in telegraphs. [Laughter.]
He therefore ruled the amendment in order.
On taking the vote, the amendment was rejected--ayes 22, noes not
counted.
The bill was then laid aside to be reported.
On February 23, the once more hopeful inventor sent off the following
hurriedly written letter to his brother:--
"You will perceive by the proceedings of the House to-day that _my bill
has passed the House by a vote of 89 to 80_. A close vote after the
expectations raised by some of my friends in the early part of the
session, but enough is as good as a feast, and it is safe so far as the
House is concerned. I will advise you of the progress of it through the
Senate. All my anxieties are now centred there. I write in great haste."
A revised record of the voting showed that the margin of victory was even
slighter, for in a letter to Smith, Morse says:--
"The long agony (truly agony to me) is over, for you will perceive by the
papers of to-morrow that, so far as the House is concerned, the matter is
decided. _My bill has passed by a vote of eighty-nine to eighty-three._ A
close vote, you will say, but explained upon several grounds not
affecting the disposition of many individual members, who voted against
it, to the invention. In this matter six votes are as good as a thousand,
so far as the appropriation is concerned.
"The yeas and nays will tell you who were friendly and who adverse to the
bill. I shall now bend all my attention to the Senate. There is a good
disposition there and I am now strongly encouraged to think that my
invention will be placed before the country in such a position as to be
properly appreciated, and to yield to all its proprietors a proper
compensation.
"I have no desire to vaunt my exertions, but I can truly say that I have
never passed so trying a period as the last two months. Professor Fisher
(who has been of the greatest service to me) and I have been busy from
morning till night every day since we have been here. I have brought him
on with me at my expense, and he will be one of the first assistants in
the first experimental line, if the bill passes.... My feelings at the
prospect of success are of a joyous character, as you may well believe,
and one of the principal elements of my joy is that I shall be enabled to
contribute to the happiness of all who formerly assisted me, some of whom
are, at present, specially depressed."
Writing to Alfred Vail on the same day, he says after telling of the
passage of the bill:--
"You can have but a faint idea of the sacrifices and trials I have had in
getting the Telegraph thus far before the country and the world. I cannot
detail them here; I can only say that, for two years, I have labored all
my time and at my own expense, without assistance from the other
proprietors (except in obtaining the iron of the magnets for the last
instruments obtained of you) to forward our enterprise. My means to
defray my expenses, to meet which every cent I owned in the world was
collected, are nearly all gone, and if, by any means, the bill should
fail in the Senate, I shall return to New York with the _fraction of a
dollar_ in my pocket."
And now the final struggle which meant success or failure was on. Only
eight days of the session remained and the calendar was, as usual,
crowded. The inventor, his nerves stretched to the breaking point, hoped
and yet feared. He had every reason to believe that the Senate would show
more broad-minded enlightenment than the House, and yet he had been told
that his bill would pass the House by acclamation, while the event proved
that it had barely squeezed through by a beggarly majority of six. He
heard disquieting rumors of a determination on the part of some of the
House members to procure the defeat of the bill in the Senate. Would they
succeed, would the victory, almost won, be snatched from him at the last
moment, or would his faith in an overruling Providence, and in his own
mission as an instrument of that Providence, be justified at last?
Every day of that fateful week saw him in his place in the gallery of the
Senate chamber, and all day long he sat there, listening, as we can well
imagine, with growing impatience to the senatorial oratory on the merits
or demerits of bills which to him were of such minor importance, however
heavily freighted with the destinies of the nation they may have been.
And every night he returned to his room with the sad reflection that one
more of the precious days had passed and his bill had not been reached.
And then came the last day, March 3, that day when the session of the
Senate is prolonged till midnight, when the President, leaving the White
House, sits in the room provided for him at the Capitol, ready to sign
the bills which are passed in these last few hurried hours, if they meet
with his approval, or to consign them to oblivion if they do not.
The now despairing inventor clung to his post in the gallery almost to
the end, but, being assured by his senatorial friends that there was no
possibility of the bill being reached, and unable to bear the final blow
of hearing the gavel fall which should signalize his defeat, shrinking
from the well-meant condolences of his friends, he returned almost
broken-hearted to his room.
The future must have looked black indeed. He had staked his all and lost,
and he was resolved to abandon all further efforts to press his invention
on an unfeeling and a thankless world. He must pick up his brush again;
he must again woo the fickle goddess of art, who had deserted him before,
and who would, in all probability, be chary of her favors now. In that
dark hour it would not have been strange if his trust in God had wavered,
if he had doubted the goodness of that Providence to whose mysterious
workings he had always submissively bowed. But his faith seems to have
risen triumphant even under this crushing stroke, for he thus describes
the events of that fateful night, and of the next morning, in a letter to
Bishop Stevens, of Pennsylvania, written many years later:--
"The last days of the last session of that Congress were about to close.
A bill appropriating thirty thousand dollars for my purpose had passed
the House, and was before the Senate for concurrence. On the last day of
the session [3d of March, 1843] I had spent the whole day and part of the
evening in the Senate chamber, anxiously watching, the progress of the
passing of the various bills, of which there were, in the morning of that
day, over one hundred and forty to be acted upon before the one in which
I was interested would be reached; and a resolution had a few days before
been passed to proceed with the bills on the calendar in their regular
order, forbidding any bill to be taken up out of its regular place.
"As evening approached there seemed to be but little chance that the
Telegraph Bill would be reached before the adjournment, and consequently
I had the prospect of the delay of another year, with the loss of time,
and all my means already expended. In my anxiety I consulted with two of
my senatorial friends--Senator Huntington, of Connecticut, and Senator
Wright, of New York--asking their opinion of the probability of reaching
the bill before the close of the session. Their answers were
discouraging, and their advice was to prepare myself for disappointment.
In this state of mind I retired to my chamber and made all my
arrangements for leaving Washington the next day. Painful as was this
prospect of renewed disappointment, you, my dear sir, will understand me
when I say that, knowing from experience whence my help must come in any
difficulty, I soon disposed of my cares, and slept as quietly as a child.
"In the morning, as I had just gone into the breakfast-room, the servant
called me out, announcing that a young lady was in the parlor wishing to
speak with me. I was at once greeted with the smiling face of my young
friend, the daughter of my old and valued friend and classmate, the
Honorable H.L. Ellsworth, the Commissioner of Patents. On my expressing
surprise at so early a call, she said:--
"'I have come to congratulate you.'
"'Indeed, for what?'
"'On the passage of your bill.'
"'Oh! no, my young friend, you are mistaken; I was in the Senate chamber
till after the lamps were lighted, and my senatorial friends assured me
there was no chance for me.'
"'But,' she replied, 'it is you that are mistaken. Father was there at
the adjournment at midnight, and saw the President put his name to your
bill, and I asked father if I might come and tell you, and he gave me
leave. Am I the first to tell you?'
"The news was so unexpected that for some moments I could not speak. At
length I replied:--
"'Yes, Annie, you are the first to inform me, and now I am going to make
you a promise; the first dispatch on the completed line from Washington
to Baltimore shall be yours.'
"'Well,' said she, 'I shall hold you to your promise.'"
This was the second great moment in the history of the Morse Telegraph.
The first was when the inspiration came to him on board the Sully, more
than a decade before, and now, after years of heart-breaking struggles
with poverty and discouragements of all kinds, the faith in God and in
himself, which had upheld him through all, was justified, and he saw the
dawning of a brighter day.
On what slight threads do hang our destinies! The change of a few votes
in the House, the delay of a few minutes in the Senate, would have doomed
Morse to failure, for it is doubtful whether he would have had the heart,
the means, or the encouragement to prosecute the enterprise further.
He lost no time in informing his associates of the happy turn in their
affairs, and, in the excitement of the moment, he not only dated his
letter to Smith March 3, instead of March 4, but he seems not to have
understood that the bill had already been signed by the President, and
had become a law:--
"Well, my dear Sir, the matter is decided. _The Senate has just passed my
bill without division and without opposition_, and it will probably be
signed by the President in a few hours. This, I think, is news enough for
you at present, and, as I have other letters that I must write before the
mail closes, I must say good-bye until I see you or hear from you. Write
to me in New York, where I hope to be by the latter part of next week."
And to Vail he wrote on the same day:--
"You will be glad to learn, doubtless, that my bill has passed the Senate
without a division and without opposition, so that now the telegraphic
enterprise begins to look bright. I shall want to see you in New York
after my return, which will probably be the latter part of next week. I
have other letters to write, so excuse the shortness of this, which, IF
SHORT, IS SWEET, at least. My kind regards to your father, mother,
brothers, sisters, and wife. The whole delegation of your State, without
exception, deserve the highest gratitude of us all."
The Representatives from the State of New Jersey in the House voted
unanimously for the bill, those of every other State were divided between
the yeas and the nays and those not voting.
Congratulations now poured in on him from all sides; and the one he,
perhaps, prized the most was from his friend and master, Washington
Allston, then living in Boston:--
"_March 24, 1843._ All your friends here join me in rejoicing at the
passing of the act of Congress appropriating thirty thousand dollars
toward carrying out your Electro-Magnetic Telegraph. I congratulate you
with all my heart. Shakespeare says: 'There is a tide in the affairs of
men that, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.' You are now fairly
launched on what I hope will prove to you another Pactolus. _I pede
fausto!_
"This has been but a melancholy year to me. I have been ill with one
complaint or another nearly the whole time; the last disorder the
erysipelas, but this has now nearly disappeared. I hope this letter will
meet you as well in health as I take it you are now in spirits."
Morse lost no time in replying:--
"I thank you, my dear sir, for your congratulations in regard to my
telegraphic enterprise. I hope I shall not disappoint the expectations of
my friends. I shall exert all my energies to show a complete and
satisfactory result. When I last wrote you from Washington, I wrote under
the apprehension that my bill would not be acted upon, and consequently I
wrote in very low spirits.
"'What has become of painting?' I think I hear you ask. Ah, my dear sir,
when I have diligently and perseveringly wooed the coquettish jade for
twenty years, and she then jilts me, what can I do? But I do her
injustice, she is not to blame, but her guardian for the time being. I
shall not give her up yet in despair, but pursue her even with lightning,
and so overtake her at last.
"I am now absorbed in my arrangements for fulfilling my designs with the
Telegraph in accordance with the act of Congress. I know not that I shall
be able to complete my experiment before Congress meets again, but I
shall endeavor to show it to them at their next session."