People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1896 — The First Telegraph. [ARTICLE]

The First Telegraph.

The first telegraph line ever constructed in this country was owned and operated by the government (from 1844 to 1847) and when it was turned over to a private corporation the great Whig statesman, Henry Clay, and the democratic postmaster general, entered a vigorous protest against it. A majority of the nations of the world own their telegraph lines and the cost of sending a message is usually less than half what it is in the United States. Government ownership of the telegraph lines is one of the demands of the Omaha platform which “we can recall with a great deal of nleasure.”