that this was not the case, and in December, 1837, he went to Washington to solicit from the Government an appropriation for the construction of an experimental line from Washington City to Baltimore—­a distance of forty miles.  This line he declared would thoroughly test the practicability and utility of the telegraph.  His petition was laid before Congress, and a committee appointed to consider it.  He stated his plan to this body, and proved its practicability by actual experiments with his instruments.  Considerable interest in the subject was thus aroused in Congress and throughout the country, but he derived no benefit from it.  If men spoke of his telegraph, it was only to ridicule it, or to express their doubts of its success.  This was especially the case in Congress, and it was very uncertain whether that body would sustain the report from the committee in favor of the invention.  The session wore away in this manner, and at length ended without any action being taken in the matter.

Having failed to secure the assistance of Congress, Professor Morse went to Europe in the spring of 1838, for the purpose of enlisting the aid of the governments there in bringing his invention into use.  He was unsuccessful.  In England a patent was refused him, and in France he merely obtained a worthless brevet d’invention. He tried several other countries, but was equally unsuccessful in all, and he returned home almost disheartened, but not entirely cast down.  For four years he had to struggle hard for a living.  He was very poor, and, as one of his friends has since declared, had literally “to coin his mind for bread.”  His sturdy independence of character would not allow him to accept assistance from any one, although there were friends ready and even anxious to help him in his troubles.  Alone and manfully he fought his way through these dark days, still hopeful of success for his invention, and patiently seeking to improve it wherever opportunity presented itself.  At length, in 1840, he received his long-delayed patent from the General Government, and, encouraged by this, determined to make another effort to bring his telegraph into use.

He was not able to do so until the session of Congress of 1842-43, when he presented a second petition to that body, asking its aid in the construction of an experimental line between Baltimore and Washington.  He had to encounter a great degree of skepticism and ridicule, with many other obstacles, not the least of which was the difficulty of meeting the expense of remaining in Washington and urging his invention upon the Government.  Still he persevered, although it seemed to be hoping against hope, as the session drew near its close, and his scanty stock of money grew daily smaller.  On the evening of the 3d of March, 1843, he returned from the Capitol to his lodgings utterly disheartened.  It was the last night of the session, and nothing had been done in the matter of his petition.  He sat up late into the night arranging his affairs so as to take his departure for home on the following day.  It was useless to remain in Washington any longer.  Congress would adjourn the next day, and his last hope of success had been shattered.