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By Root 1586 0

agreement with Kendall, O’Reilly committed himself to raise money for the construction of two mammoth trunk lines extending thousands of miles. One would connect at or near Philadelphia with the in-progress Washington–New York line, running to Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and on through Cincinnati to St. Louis, with branches into Kentucky and Tennessee. The other line would carry the in-progress New York-Buffalo line to Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and principal intermediate cities. Stretching westward from the Atlantic seaboard to the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes, O’Reilly’s system would open to the telegraph the sprawling continental interior, rapidly being settled. O’Reilly also undertook separately to build the Baltimore to Philadelphia segment of the Magnetic company’s Washington–New York line. “There is some field for ambition here!” he whooped; “some hope for position & profit!”

The high-risk, high-gain O’Reilly approached what he called the “Great Enterprise” with swashbuckling ebullience. He enlisted as a “soldier for life,” he said; his partners were “a band of brothers.” He so much admired Morse that he wanted the terms “telegraph” and “telegraphy” changed to “Morsograph” and “Morsography.” Full of pep and can-do, he hustled back and forth from Rochester to New York City to Harrisburg, shipping wire, setting timber, selling stock, printing circulars, talking up railroad officials, cultivating newspaper editors, getting his exertions boosted and avidly reported in the press.

Kendall worried that O’Reilly might be overreaching himself: “Doubts are entertained whether he will accomplish anything.” The doubt grew when O’Reilly proposed constructing a line north from New York through Quebec and then to Halifax. From Halifax it would communicate with the Magnetic company’s seaboard line by semaphores, to give intelligence of the progress of coastal shipping along hundreds of miles. O’Reilly assured Kendall that this northern line would not retard the building of his western system but quicken interest in it, forming “a magnificent outline of Telegraphic communication over a large section of North America.” Kendall restrained him: “my dear Sir, are you not suffering your mind to take too wide a range? Is not the field opened to you by your contract broad enough?” He advised O’Reilly to concentrate on realizing his already colossal plans.

Although Kendall spoke in a high-pitched voice and wrote in a trembly, spidery hand, his energy equaled O’Reilly’s—its mode, however, being not effervescent but focused and intense. He quietly took on a mountain of legal, political, and commercial problems that would have overwhelmed Morse. He negotiated rights-of-way with railroads and farmers, arranged for issuance of stock, saw to the sale of short-distance side lines off the main routes—a separate, further world of bargaining and aggravation—even looked into difficulties about purchasing augers and delivering chestnut posts. The work entailed writing hundreds of letters to the now-many members of the companies he had formed. Yet the ailing Kendall also took on the emotional burden of dealing with grumbling from Vail and shows of independence from Cornell. Polite but firm he took no nonsense. “To cut the matter short,” he said regarding Cornell, “he will have to follow my directions or seek employment elsewhere.”

Kendall patiently explained to Morse all his complex business arrangements and kept him closely informed on their progress. But for all his managerial skill and stamina, the multiplication of companies and lengthening of lines across the country meant an exponential increase in the number of persons involved in developing Morse’s system. Among many lesser promoters, for instance, Samuel Colt organized a New York and Offing Magnetic Telegraph Association, running a line from New York City to Coney Island that provided notification in Manhattan of ship arrivals off Sandy Hook. Each major or minor player had his own agreements, angles, and demands, complicating the overall situation well beyond the ability of Kendall