me, and the day before the convention
met, Morse wrote to Vail:--

"Get everything ready in the morning for the day, and do not be out of
hearing of your bell. When you learn the name of the candidate nominated,
see if you cannot give it to me and receive an acknowledgment of its
receipt before the cars leave you. If you can it will do more to excite
the wonder of those in the cars than the mere announcement that the news
is gone to Washington."

The next day's report was most encouraging:--

"Things went well to-day. Your last writing was good. You did not correct
your error of running your letters together until some time. Better be
deliberate; we have time to spare, since we do not spend upon our stock.
Get ready to-morrow (Thursday) as to-day. There is great excitement about
the Telegraph and my room is thronged, therefore it is important to have
it in action during the hours named. I may have some of the Cabinet
to-morrow.... Get from the passengers in the cars from Baltimore, or
elsewhere, all the news you can and transmit. A good way of exciting
wonder will be to tell the passengers to give you some short sentence to
send me; let them note time and call at the Capitol to verify the time I
received it. Before transmitting notify me with (48). Your message to-day
that 'the passengers in the cars gave three cheers for Henry Clay,'
excited the highest wonder in the passenger who gave it to you to send
when he found it verified at the Capitol."

In a letter to his friend, Dr. Aycrigg of New Jersey, written on May 8,
and telling of these successful demonstrations, this interesting sentence
occurs: "I find that the ground, in conformity with the results of
experiments of Dr. Franklin, can be made a part of the circuit, and I
have used one wire and the ground with better effect for one circuit than
two wires."

On the 11th of May he again cautions Vail about his writing: "Everything
worked well yesterday, but there is one defect in your writing. Make a
_longer_ space between each letter and a still longer space between each
word. I shall have a great crowd to-day and wish all things to go off
well. Many M.C.s will be present, perhaps Mr. Clay. Give me news by the
cars. When the cars come along, try and get a newspaper from Philadelphia
or New York and give items of intelligence. The arrival of the cars at
the Junction begins to excite here the greatest interest, and both
morning and evening I have had my room throng