drives everything else into a corner. I
have not many fears if they will only get it up. I had to-day the
Russian, Spanish, and Belgian Ministers to see the operation of the
Telegraph; they were astonished and delighted. The Russian Minister
particularly takes the deepest interest in it, and will write to his
Government by next steamer. The French Minister also came day before
yesterday, and will write in its favor to his Government.... Senator
Woodbury gave a discourse before the Institute a few nights ago, in the
Hall of the House of Representatives, in which he lauded the Telegraph in
the highest terms, and thought I had gone a step beyond Franklin! The
popularity of the Telegraph increases rather than declines."

The mention of Texas in this letter refers to the fact that Polk was
elected to the Presidency on a platform which favored the annexation of
that republic to the United States, and this question was, naturally,
paramount in the halls of Congress. Texas was admitted to the Union in
December, 1845.

Writing to his daughter, Mrs. Lind, in Porto Rico on February 8, he
says:--

"The Telegraph operates to the perfect satisfaction of the public, as you
perhaps see by the laudatory notices of the papers in all parts of the
country. I am now in a state of unpleasant suspense waiting the passage
of the bill for the extension of the Telegraph to New York.

"I am in hopes they will take it up and pass it next week; if they should
not, I shall at once enter into arrangements with private companies to
take it and extend it.

"I do long for the time, if it shall be permitted, to have you with your
husband and little Charles around me. I feel my loneliness more and more
keenly every day. Fame and money are in themselves a poor substitute for
domestic happiness; as means to that end I value them. Yesterday was the
sad anniversary (the twentieth) of your dear mother's death, and I spent
the most of it in thinking of her...."

"_Thursday, February 12._ I dined at the Russian Ambassador's Tuesday. It
was the most gorgeous dinner-party I ever attended in any country.
Thirty-six sat down to table; there were eleven Senators, nearly half the
Senate.... The table, some twenty or twenty-five feet long, was decorated
with immense gilt vases of flowers on a splendid plateau of richly chased
gilt ornaments, and candelabra with about a hundred and fifty lights. We
were ushered into the house through eight liveried servants, who