ass insulator at their tops, was
an easy and rapid process. And more encouraging still, the
thing worked to a charm. There was no trouble now in
obtaining signals from the wire.

The first public proof of the system was made on May 11,
1844. On that day the Whig National Convention, then in
session at Baltimore, had nominated Henry Clay for the
Presidency. The telegraph was being built from the
Washington end, and was yet miles distant from Baltimore.
The first railroad train from Baltimore carried passengers
who were eager to tell the tidings to their Washington
friends. But it carried also an agent of Professor Morse,
who brought the news to the inventor at the unfinished end
of the telegraph. From that point he sent it over the wire
to Washington. It was successfully received at the
Washington end, and never were human beings more surprised
than were the train passengers on alighting at the capital
city to find that they brought stale news, and that Clay's
nomination was already known throughout Washington. It was
the first public proof in America of the powers of the
telegraph, and certainly a vital and convincing one.

Before the 24th of May the telegraph line to Baltimore was
completed, the tests successfully made, and all was ready
for the public exhibition of its marvellous powers, which
had been fixed for that day. Miss Ellsworth, in compliance
with the inventor's promise, made her more than a year
before, was given the privilege of choosing the first
message to go over the magic wires. She selected the
appropriate message from Scriptures: "What hath God
wrought?" With these significant words began the reign of
that marvellous invention which has wrought so wonderfully
in binding the ends of the earth together and making one
family of mankind.

There were difficulties still in the way of the inventor,
severe ones. His after-life lay in no bed of roses. His
patents were violated, his honor was questioned, even his
integrity was assailed; rival companies stole his business,
and lawsuits made his life a burden. He won at last, but
failed to have the success of his associate, Mr. Cornell,
who grew in time very wealthy from his telegraphic
enterprises.

As regards the Morse system of telegraphy, it may be said in
conclusion that over one hundred devices have been invented
to supersede it, but that it holds its own triumphant over
them all. The inventor wrought with his brain to good
purpose in those days