bitter rending of sweet household ties, what sundering of strong manhood's friendships."

In the light of what has been disclosed, may we not believe that with his days prolonged, he would during the perilous years have been the safe counsellor - the rock - of the great President, in preserving the nation's life, and later in "binding up the nation's wounds."

Worthy of honored and enduring place in history, Stephen A. Douglas statesman and patriot -lies buried within the great city whose stupendous development is so largely the result of his own wise forecast and endeavor, - by the majestic lake whose waves break near the base of his stately monument and chant his eternal requiem.

VIII

THE FIRST POLITICAL TELEGRAM

SENATOR SILAS WRIGHT NOMINATED FOR VICE-PRESIDENT WORD OF HIS NOMINATION SENT HIM BY THE MORSE TELEGRAPH - MORSE'S FIRST CONCEPTION OF AN ELECTRO-MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH OBSTACLES TO THE CARRYING OUT OF

-

HIS INVENTION A BILL APPROPRIATING $30,000 TO TEST

THE VALUE OF HIS TELEGRAPH · EARLIER FORMS OF TELEGRAPHIC INTERCOURSE A EULOGY ON THE INVENTOR BY MR. GARFIELD ANOTHER, BY MR. COX- THE FIRST MESSAGE THAT EVER PASSED OVER THE WIRE DR. PRIME'S PRAISE OF MORSE AFTER HIS DEATH.

B

Y all odds, the most venerable in appearance of the Representatives in the Forty-sixth Congress, was Hendrick B. Wright of Pennsylvania. After a retirement of a third of a century, he had been returned to the seat he had honored while many of his present associates were in the cradle. Of massive build, stately bearing, lofty courtesy; neatly apparelled in blue broadcloth, with brass buttons appropriately in evidence, he appeared indeed to belong to a past generation of statesmen.

"And thus he bore without abuse

The grand old name of gentleman."

In one of the many conversations I held with him, he told me that he was the president of the Democratic National Convention which met in Baltimore in 1844. As will be remembered, a majority of the delegates to that convention were favorable to the renomination of Mr. Van Buren, but his recently published letter opposing the annexation of Texas had rendered him extremely obnoxious to a powerful minority of his party. After a protracted struggle, Mr. Van Buren, under the operation of the "two-thirds rule," was defeated, and Mr. Polk nominated. The convention, anxious to placate the friends of the defeated candidate, then tendered

the nomination for Vice-President to Senator Silas Wright, the close friend of Mr. Van Buren.

At the time the convention was in session, Samuel F. B. Morse was conducting in a room in the Capitol the electrical experiments which have since "given his name to the ages." Under an appropriation by Congress, a telegraph line had been recently constructed from Washington to Baltimore.

Immediately upon the nomination of Senator Wright, as mentioned, the president of the convention sent him by the Morse telegraph a brief message, the first of a political character that ever passed over the wire, advising him of his nomination, and requesting his acceptance. Two hours later he read to the convention a message from Senator Wright, then in Washington, peremptorily declining the nomination.

Upon the reading of this message to the convention, it was openly declared to be a hoax, not one member in twenty believing that a message could possibly have been received. The convention adjourned till the next day, first instructing its president to communicate with Senator Wright by letter. A special messenger, by hard riding and frequent change of horse, bore the letter of the convention to Wright in Washington, and returned with his reply by the time the convention had reassembled. As will be remembered, Wright persisting in his declination, George M. Dallas was nominated and duly elected.

Later, in conversation with the Hon. Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, he told me that he was in the room of the Capitol set apart for the experiments which Mr. Morse wished to make, and distinctly remembered the fact of the transmission of the message to and from Senator Wright, as stated.

The incident mentioned recalls something of the obstacles encountered by Morse in the marvellous work with which his name is inseparably associated. He first conceived the idea of an electro-magnetic telegraph on shipboard on a homeward-bound voyage from Europe in 1832. Before landing from his long voyage, his plans for a series of experi