I have brought him on with me at my expense, and he will be one of the first assistants in the first experimental line, if the bill passes....

My feelings at the prospect of success are of a joyous character, as you may well believe, and one of the principal elements of my joy is that I shall be enabled to contribute to the happiness of all who formerly assisted me, some of whom are, at present, specially depressed." Writing to Alfred Vail on the same day, he says after telling of the passage of the bill:-- "You can have but a faint idea of the sacrifices and trials I have had in getting the Telegraph thus far before the country and the world.

I cannot detail them here; I can only say that, for two years, I have labored all my time and at my own expense, without assistance from the other proprietors (except in obtaining the iron of the magnets for the last instruments obtained of you) to forward our enterprise.

My means to defray my expenses, to meet which every cent I owned in the world was collected, are nearly all gone, and if, by any means, the bill should fail in the Senate, I shall return to New York with the _fraction of a dollar_ in my pocket." And now the final struggle which meant success or failure was on.

Only eight days of the session remained and the calendar was, as usual, crowded.