e 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
instrum