d-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