On February 21, President Martin Van Buren and his entire Cabinet, at their own special request, visited the room and saw the telegraph in operation.

But no action was taken by Congress; the time was not yet ripe for the general acceptance of such a revolutionary departure from the slow-going methods of that early period.

While individuals here and there grasped the full significance of what the mysterious ticking of that curious instrument foretold, they were vastly in the minority.

The world, through its representatives in the capital city of the United States, remained incredulous.
Among those who at once recognized the possibilities of the invention was Francis O.J.Smith, member of Congress from Portland, Maine, and chairman of the Committee on Commerce.

He was a lawyer of much shrewdness and a man of great energy, and he very soon offered to become pecuniarily interested in the invention.