The telegraph was down because the constitution of Nevada was being transmitted by telegraph so that Lincoln would get the state's three electoral votes. It was, according to a history of Nevada, the longest and costliest transmission over the telegraph wires.
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Rob
Abraham Lincoln is the only man, dead or alive, with whom I could have spent five years without one hour of boredom.
--Ida M. Tarbell
I want the respect of intelligent men, but I will choose for myself the intelligent.