The Old Supreme Court Chamber
Samuel Morse Tests the Telegraph
On May 24, 1844, the inventor Samuel F.B. Morse first tested the telegraph over a long distance. Morsehad previously sent telegraph messages between the Senate and House wings of the Capitol. Congress then appropriated $30,000 to run wires the thirty miles from Washington to Baltimore. Morse installed a telegraph key in the Supreme Court chamber and invited members of Congress to witness the event.
A young woman provided the first message he sent: "What hath God wrought." When Morse's agent in Baltimore sent the same message back, it proved the capability of the telegraph and the Morse code for sending information over the wires. Baltimore then asked: "What is the news from Washington?" Morse telegraphed political news from the capital, and Baltimore newspapers became the first to publish telegraphic dispatches.
Since the Democrats were then meeting in convention in Baltimore, Morse's telegraph informed members of Congress of the "darkhorse" presidential nomination of former House Speaker James K. Polk. The Democrats then nominated New York Senator Silas Wright for vice president. From Washington, Wright had Morse telegraph back that he declined to run. This exchange further demonstrated the telegraph's validity as a means of long-distance communication.
For further reading:
Ritchie, Donald A. Press Gallery: Congress and the Washington Correspondents (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991)