Fernando Wood, went to Morse, who watched in the
gallery, and said,'There is no use in your staying here. The Senate is
not in sympathy with your project. I advise you to give it up, return
home, and think no more about it.'
Morse retired to his rooms, and after paying his bill for board,
including his breakfast the next morning, he found himself with only
thirty-seven cents and a half in the world. Kneeling by his bed-side he
opened his heart to God, leaving the issue in His hands, and then,
comforted in spirit, fell asleep. While eating his breakfast next
morning, Miss Annie G. Ellsworth, daughter of his friend the Hon. Henry
L. Ellsworth, Commissioner of Patents, came up with a beaming
countenance, and holding out her hand, said--
'Professor, I have come to congratulate you.'
'Congratulate me!' replied Morse; 'on what ?'
'Why,' she exclaimed,' on the passage of your Bill by the Senate!'
It had been voted without debate at the very close of the session.
Years afterwards Morse declared that this was the turning-point in the
history of the telegraph. 'My personal funds,' he wrote,' were reduced
to the fraction of a dollar; and had the passage of the Bill failed from
any cause, there would have been little prospect of another attempt on
my part to introduce to the world my new invention.
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