Apr 17, 2012 - Sale 2276

Sale 2276 - Lot 275

Price Realized: $ 26,400
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
"THE SENATE HAVE JUST PASSED MY BILL" MORSE, SAMUEL F.B. Autograph Letter Signed, "Saml. F.B. Morse," to Representative Francis Ormand Jonathan Smith, announcing that the Senate had passed his bill [the Act to test the practicability of establishing a system of electromagnetic telegraphs by the United States] and requesting that he write him in New York where he expects to be late next week. 1/2 page, 4to, pale blue ruled paper, with integral blank. (AKF) Washington, 3 March 1843
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". . . [T]he matter is decided. The Senate have just passed my bill without division and without opposition, and it will probably be signed by the President in a few hours. This I think is news enough for you at present . . . ."
In the last minutes of the final session of the 27th Congress on March 3, 1843, a vote was cast appropriating $30,000 for the building of Morse's experimental telegraph line between Washington and Baltmore. It was over this line that Morse sent the words, "What hath God wrought?" on May 24, 1844. Francis O.J. Smith was one of Morse's principal partners.