It was time for Morse to make his first major demonstration of his invention. All he needed was an inaugural message. Based on a suggestion from the daughter of the patent commissioner who had supported Morse’s innovation, he tapped a well-known phrase from the end of the book of Numbers: WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT? As Winchester notes, these words, when considered in isolation, formed a simple declarative exclamation, a statement of Samuel Morse’s faith. But in the context of the transformation this invention and its successors would spark, it was better understood as a suitably portentous epigraph for an era of change that now commenced with unimagined speed and unimaginable consequences.