essor Henry had invented the relay which made it possible
to operate the telegraph over long distances. The suits resulted in a
legal victory for Morse, and his patents were maintained.

But still other rival companies built lines, using various forms of
apparatus, and though the courts repeatedly upheld Morse's patent
rights, the pirating was not effectively checked. The telegraph had
come to be a necessity and the original company lacked the capital to
construct lines with sufficient rapidity to meet the need. Within
ten years after the first line had been put into operation the more
thickly settled portions of the United States were served by scores
of telegraph lines owned by a dozen different companies. Hardly any of
these were making any money, though the service was poor and the rates
were high. They were all operating on too small a scale and business
uses of the telegraph had not yet developed sufficiently.

An amalgamation of the scattered, competing lines was needed, both
to secure better service for the public and proper dividends for the
investors. This amalgamation was effected by Mr. Hiram Sibley, who
organized the Western Union in 1856. The plan was ridiculed at
the time, some one stating that "The Western Union seems very like
collecting all the paupers in the State and arranging them into a
union so as to make rich men of them." But these pauper companies did
become rich once they were united under efficient management.

The nation was just then stretching herself across to the Pacific.
The commercial importance of California was growing rapidly. By 1857
stage-coaches were crossing the plains and the pony-express riders
were carrying the mail. The pioneers of the telegraph felt that a line
should span the continent. This was then a tremendous undertaking, and
when Mr. Sibley proposed that the Western Union should undertake the
construction of such a line he was met with the strongest opposition.
The explorations of Fremont were not far in the past, and the vast
extent of country west of the Mississippi was regarded as a wilderness
peopled with savages and almost impossible of development. But Sibley
had faith; he was possessed of Morse's vision and Morse's courage.
The Western Union refusing to undertake the enterprise, he began it
himself. The Government, realizing the military and administrative
value of a telegraph line to California, subsidized the work.
Additional funds were raised and a route s