Polk, but they must know first whether Wright would consent to
run as Vice-President. So they posted a messenger off to
Washington but were persuaded at the same time to allow the new
telegraph to try what it could do. The telegraph carried the
offer to Wright and carried back to the Convention Wright's
refusal of the honor. The delegates, however, would not believe
the telegraph, until their own messenger, returning the next day,
confirmed its message.
For a time the telegraph attracted little attention. But Cornell
stretched the lines across the country, connecting city with
city, and Morse and Vail improved the details of the mechanism
and perfected the code. Others came after them and added further
improvements. And it is gratifying to know that both Morse and
Vail, as well as Cornell, lived to reap some return for their
labor. Morse lived to see his telegraph span the continent, and
link the New World with the Old, and died in 1872 full of honors.
Prompt communication of the written or spoken message is a demand
even more insistent than prompt transportation of men and goods.
By 1859 both the railroad and the telegraph had reached the old
town of St. Joseph on the Missouri. Two thousand miles beyond, on
the other side of plains and mountains and great rivers, lay
prosperous California.
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