gton end. On April
1, 1845, the line was put in operation on a commercial basis,
service being offered to the public at the rate of one cent for four
characters. It was operated as a branch of the Post-office Department.
On the 4th of April a visitor from Virginia came into the Washington
office wishing to see a demonstration. Up to this time not a paid
message had been sent. The visitor, having no permit from the
Postmaster-General, was told that he could only see the telegraph in
operation by sending a message. One cent being all the money he had
other than twenty-dollar bills, he asked for one cent's worth. The
Washington operator asked of Baltimore, "What time is it?" which in
the code required but one character. The reply came, "One o'clock,"
another single character. Thus but two characters had been used, or
one-half cent's worth of telegraphy. The visitor expressed himself as
satisfied, and waived the "change." This penny was the line's first
earnings.

Under the terms of the agreement by which Congress had made the
appropriation for the experimental line, Morse was bound to give the
Government the first right to purchase his invention. He accordingly
offered it to the United States for the sum of $100,000. There
followed a distressing example of official stupidity and lack of
foresight. With the opportunity to own and control the nation's
telegraph lines before it the Government declined the offer. This
action was taken at the recommendation of the Hon. Cave Johnson, then
Postmaster-General, under whose direction the line had been
operated. He had been a member of Congress at the time the original
appropriation was voted, and had ridiculed the project. The nation was
now so unfortunate as to have him as its Postmaster-General, and he
reported "that the operation of the telegraph between Washington and
Baltimore had not satisfied him that, under any rate of postage
that could be adopted, its revenues could be made equal to its
expenditures." And yet the telegraph, here offered to the Government
for $100,000, was developed under private management until it paid a
profit on a capitalization of $100,000,000.

Morse seems to have had a really patriotic motive, as well as a desire
for immediate return and the freedom from further worries, in his
offer to the Government. He was greatly disappointed at its refusal
to purchase, a refusal that was destined to make Morse a wealthy man.
Amos Kendall, who had been Postmas