Fanny J. Crosby: An Autobiography by Fanny J. Crosby

But I have passed over two or three important events. During the autumn of 1843, as I have said, I was ill; and when a party from the school was going to Washington to appear before Congress, in the following January, I had not yet fully recovered. Dr. Clements said that I would fret myself into a serious sickness if they left me at home; besides the trip South might do me some good. It was finally decided by the Board of Managers that he should go and take charge of me, to which arrangement I joyfully assented; yet, when I learned that I was expected to deliver a poem before a joint session of both houses of Congress, my heart sank within me. Indeed I think I would not have agreed to the arrangement, were it not for the fact that our party were trying to impress upon the legislators in Washington the absolute need of schools for the blind in every state of the Union.

Any chance of doing a little for them I, of course, would not let pass; and so there I was a timid mortal not in the best of health, to deliver an address before the most distinguished body I have ever seen. Some of the skeptical managers said that I would fail in the midst of my recitation, and that thought, I must confess, was in my own mind. But theinspiration of the hour was sufficient to fortify me against the dreaded failure. At any rate I tried to do my level best; and when I finished my poem there was a dreadful silence which I interpreted to mean that the audience was not pleased. With mingled emotions, alternating between hope and fear, I waited, it seemed to me, as long as five minutes; in reality I suppose, not more than thirty seconds passed before there was such a tremendous applause that I was actually frightened. At length they began to call for me, and then there was a hasty consultation in the anteroom between Dr. Clements and the managers.