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 th