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EXPLAINING THE REASON FOR CHOICE OF
“WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT?”
276
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MORSE, SAMUEL F.B. Autograph Letter Signed, “Saml. F.B. Morse,” to an
unnamed recipient (“Dear Madam”), sending a copy of the message that was sent over the
wires of the first completed telegraph in America and describing the circumstances sur-
rounding the choice of message. 1 page, 4to; loss to lower left corner just touching text,
scattered faint staining and soiling, backed, silked.
SOLD AS IS
. (AKF)
New York, 10 March 1864
[1,500/2,500]
“
I most cheerfully comply with the request . . . to give you a copy of the ‘first message’ sent over
the wires of the first completed Telegraph line in the Country.
“
It was sent in accordance with a promise made a year before to my young friend the daughter
of my college classmate the Hon. Mr. Ellsworth . . . , and this promise was given in consequence
of her being the first to announce to me the passage in Congress of the Bill appropriating the
means for making the experimental essay. I then promised her that she should indite the first
message . . . . [S]he sent me these words from the Bible, ‘What hath God wrought?’ and these
words twice repeated were the first that ever sped over the first Telegraph line ever constructed in
the United States.”
277
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MORSE, SAMUEL F.B. Photograph Signed, “Sam’l F.B. Morse,” and dated, carte-
de-visite bust portrait by Rockwood, showing him in left profile. Signed in the image
along lower edge and dated on the mount below the image. 3
1
/
2
x2 inches (image), 4x2
1
/
2
inches overall; minor scattered abrasions. (AKF)
Np, 1864
[600/900]
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