Abraham Lincoln came to understand that to achieve a lasting peace, slavery must end. He had always opposed slavery, but had never sided with abolitionists who called for its immediate end. Lincoln had sought solutions that would make slavery gradually fade from white society—limit its location

Printed in Morse code and transcribed by Samuel Morse himself, this message was transmitted from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., over the nation's first long-distance telegraph line.

In this post, students will read a short biography of Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph. Even in his day, he was a controversial figure, but today he is remembered for his creativity—an artist who became interested in a novel technology and helped lay the foundation for a revolution in co