This was the first great triumph of the telegraph.  Morse and Vail and Cornell had worked day and night to get the line in readiness as far as the Junction so that the proceedings of the Whig Convention could be reported from that point.  Many difficulties were encountered—­crossing of wires, breaks, injury from thunder storms, and the natural errors incidental to writing and reading what was virtually a new language.  But all obstacles were overcome in time, 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 thronged.”