ter-General under Jackson, was
now acting as Morse's agent, and they decided to depend upon private
capital. Plans were made for a line between New York and Philadelphia,
and to arouse interest and secure capital the apparatus was exhibited
in New York City at a charge of twenty-five cents a head. The public
refused to patronize in sufficient numbers to even pay expenses,
and the entire exhibition was so shabby, and the exhibitors so
poverty-stricken, that the sleek capitalists who came departed without
investing. Some of the exhibitors slept on chairs or on the floor in
the bare room, and it is related that the man who was later to
give his name and a share of his fortune to Cornell University was
overjoyed at finding a quarter on the sidewalk, as it enabled him to
buy a hearty breakfast. Though men of larger means refused to take
shares, some in humbler circumstances could recognize the great
idea and the wonderful vision which Morse had struggled so long to
establish--a vision of a nation linked together by telegraphy. The
Magnetic Telegraph Company was formed and work started on the line.

In August of 1845 Morse sailed for Europe in an endeavor to enlist
foreign capital. The investors of Europe proved no keener than those
of America, and the inventor returned without funds, but imbued with
increased patriotism. He had become convinced that the telegraph could
and would succeed on American capital alone. In the next year a line
was constructed from Philadelphia to Washington, thus extending
the New York-Philadelphia line to the capital. Henry O'Reilly, of
Rochester, New York, took an active part in this construction work
and now took the contract to construct a line from Philadelphia to St.
Louis. This line was finished by December of 1847.

The path having been blazed, others sought to establish lines of their
own without regard to Morse's patents. One of these was O Reilly, who,
on the completion of the line to St. Louis, began one to Now Orleans,
without authority from Morse or his company. O'Reilly called his
telegraph "The People's Line," and when called to account in the
courts insisted not only that his instruments were different from
Morse's, and so no infringement of his patents, but also that the
Morse system was a harmful monopoly and that "The People's Line"
should be encouraged. It was further urged that Wheatstone in England
and Steinheil in Germany had invented telegraphs before Morse, and
that Prof