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In America, the first telegraph line, from Washington to Baltimore, was completed in 1844. On the 24th of March in that year, the first short sentence of four words was telegraphed along it. This sentence, in consequence of an invitation from Morse, was dictated by the daughter of his friend, the chief at the Patent Office, Mr. Ellsworth. I found this first American original telegram preserved in the Museum of the Historical Society at Hartford, in Connecticut, and have not failed to take an exact copy of it.

I do not intend at present to say more about the spreading of the telegraph in both hemispheres. My object here has been to give a true and accurate account of the first beginingbeginning [sic] of the art of telegraphing by means of galvanism and electro-magnetism.