ncing 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 goo