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586     PROFESSOR MORSE AND THE TELEGRAM. 

[[morse code: h a t h]]

Mr. S. Mason of Ohio protested against such frivolity as injurious to the character of the House, and asked the chair to rule the amendment out of order. The chair (John White of Kentucky) ruled the amendment in order, because, as he said, "it would require a scientific analysis to determine how far the magnetism of Mesmerism was analogous to that to be employed in telegraphs." His wit was applauded by peals of laughter, when the amendment was voted down and the bill laid aside to be reported. It passes the House on the 23d of February, by the close voted of 89 to 83, and then went to the Senate. The efficient friends of Professor Morse in procuring this result were J. P. Kennedy of Maryland, S. Mason of Ohio, David Wallace of Indiana, C. G. Ferris of New York, and Colonel J. B. Aycrigg of New Jersey.
    The bill met with neither sneers nor opposition in the Senate, but the business of that House went on with discouraging slowness. At twilight on the last evening of the session (March 3, 1843) there were 119 bills before it.  As it seemed impossible for it to be reached in regular course before the hour of adjournment should arrive, the Professor, who had anxiously watched the tardy movements of business all day from the gallery of the Senate chamber, went with a sad heart to his hotel and prepared to leave for New York at an early hour the next morning. While at breakfast, a servant informed him that a young lady desired to see him in the parlor.  
   There he met Miss Annie Ellsworth, then a young school girl - the daughter of his intimate friend, Hon. Henry L. Ellsworth, the first commissioner of Patents - who said, as she extended her hand to him: "I have come to congratulate you." 
 "Upon what?" inquired the Professor. 
 "Upon the passage of your bill," she replied. 
"Impossible! Its fate was sealed at dusk last evening. You must be mistaken." 
  "Not at all," she responded. "Father sent me to tell you that your bill was passed. He remained until the session closed, and yours was the last bill but one acted upon, and it was passed just five minutes before the adjournment; and I am so glad to be the first one to tell you. Mother says, too, that you must come home with me to breakfast."
   The invitation was readily accepted, and the joy in the household was unbounded. Both Mr. and Mrs. Ellsworth had fully believed in the project, and the former, in his confidence in it and in his warm friendship for Prof. Morse, had spent all the closing hours of the session in the Senate chamber, doing what he could to help the bill along, and giving it all the influence of his personal and official position. 
   Grasping the hand of his young friend, the Professor thanked her again and again for bearing him such pleasant tidings, and assured her that she should send over the wires the first message, as her reward. The matter was talked over in the family, and Mrs. Ellsworth suggested a message which Prof. Morse referred to the daughter, for her approval; and this was the one which was subsequently sent.
   A little more than a year after that time, the line between Washington and Baltimore was completed. Prof. Morse was in the former city, and Mr, Alfred Vail, his assistant, in the latter; the first in the chamber of the Supreme Court, the last in the Mount Clare dépôt, when the circuit being perfect, Prof. Morse sent to Miss Ellsworth for her message, and it came. 
   "WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT!" 
  It was sent in triplicate in the dot-and-line language of the instrument to Baltimore, and was the first message ever transmitted by a recording telegraph. A fac-simile of that first message, with Professor Morse's indorsement, is here given.
   The story of this first message has been often told with many exaggerations. It has roamed about Europe with various romantic material attached to it, originating mainly in the French imagination, and has started up anew from time to time in our own country under fresh forms. but the above story is simply and literally true. An inventor in despair receives the news of his unexpected success from his friend's daughter, and he makes her a promise which he keeps, and