the
feasibility of Mr. Morse's invention, it seems to me that it is our
duty to concede to him the privilege he asks, and to lend him all the
aid in our power, especially as the resolution carefully protects the
company against all present or future injury to its works, and secures
us the right of requiring its removal at any time."

[In view of the fact that no railroad can now be run safely without
the aid of the telegraph, the cautious care with which the right to
remove it if it should become a nuisance was reserved, strikes one at
this day as nearly ludicrous.]

A short pause ensued, and the assent of the company was about to be
assumed, when one of the older directors, famed for the vigilance with
which he watched even the most trivial measure, begged to be heard.

He admitted that the rights and interests of the work were all
carefully guarded by the terms of the resolution, and that the company
was not called upon to lay out any of its means for the promotion of
the scheme. But notwithstanding all this, he did not feel, as a
conscientious man, that he could, without further examination, give
his vote for the resolution. He knew that this idea of Mr. Morse,
however plausible it might appear to theorists and dreamers, and
so-called men of science, was regarded by all practical people as
destined, like many other similar projects, to certain failure, and
must consequently result in loss and possibly ruin to Mr. Morse. For
one, he felt conscientiously scrupulous in giving a vote which would
aid or tempt a visionary enthusiast to ruin himself.

Fortunately, the views of this cautious, practical man did not
prevail. A few words from the mover of the resolution, Mr. Nicholas,
who still lives to behold the wonders he helped to create, and from
Mr. Kennedy, without whose aid the appropriation would not have passed
the House of Representatives, relieved the other directors from all
fear of contributing to Mr. Morse's ruin, and the resolution was
adopted. Of the President and thirty directors who took part in this
transaction, only three, Samuel W. Smith, John Spear Nicholas, and the
writer, survive. Under it Morse at once entered upon that test of his
invention whose fruits are now enjoyed by the people of all the
continents.

It was not, however, until the spring of 1844 that he had his line and
its appointments in such a condition as to allow the transmission of
messages between the two cities, and it was in May o