One member proposed an amendment to set aside half the amount for experiments in mesmerism, another suggested that the Millerites should have a part of the money, and so on; however, they passed the bill.

And that night Morse wrote: "The long agony is over." But the agony was not over.

The bill had yet to pass the Senate.

The last day of the expiring session of Congress arrived, March 3, 1843, and the Senate had not reached the bill.

Says Morse's biographer: In the gallery of the Senate Professor Morse had sat all the last day and evening of the session.