sident and
Vice-President, assembled in Baltimore [May, 1844]. Reports of the
convention proceedings were promptly telegraphed to the capital city,
where the telegraph office was thronged with Members of Congress
interested in the news. These reports created an immense sensation in
Washington and speedily removed all doubts as to the practical success
of the new system of communication. A despatch from the Honorable Silas
Wright, then United States Senator from New York, refusing to accept the
nomination for Vice-President, was read in the National Convention and
produced an extraordinary interest from the fact that very few of the
delegates had ever heard of the telegraph, and it required much
explanation to satisfy them of the genuineness of the alleged
communication.

Having thus established beyond all reasonable question the practical
utility of the telegraph as a superior means of public and private
communication, Professor Morse and his associates offered their patents
to the United States Government for the very moderate price of one
hundred thousand dollars, with a view of having the system adopted for
general use in connection with the postal establishment. This
proposition was referred to the Postmaster-General for consideration and
report. After due deliberation that officer reported that "Although the
invention is an agent vastly superior to any other ever devised by the
genius of man, yet the operation between Washington and Baltimore has
not satisfied me that, under any rate of postage that can be adopted,
its revenues can be made to cover its expenditures." Under the influence
of this report Congress very naturally declined the offer of the
patentees, and the telegraph was thereupon relegated to the domain of
private enterprise. The result was that the patentees finally realized
for their interests many times the amount of their offer to the
Government.

During the autumn of 1844 short exhibition lines were erected in Boston
and New York, for the purpose of familiarizing business men of those
cities with the characteristics of the new invention, but they attracted
little attention and the promoters had much cause of discouragement on
account of public indifference. For the purpose of arousing more
attention to the system, appeals were made to the public press for
favorable notice, which were also generally declined. The proprietor of
one of the most prominent and enterprising of the New York daily paper