Events from the year 1838 in the United States. Incumbents Federal Government President: Martin Van Buren (D-New York) Vice President: Richard M. Johnson (D-Kentucky) Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (Maryland) Speaker of the House of Representatives: James K. Polk (D-Tennessee) Congress: 25th Events January–March January 6 – Samuel Morse first publicly demonstrates the telegraph. January 8 – Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code). January 12 – History of the Latter Day Saint movement: Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon flee Ohio for Missouri January 27 – Abraham Lincoln speaks at the Springfield Young Men's Lyceum. March 8 – The New Orleans Mint strikes its first coinage, 30 dimes. April–June May 2 – Trail of Tears: The Cherokee removal begins with the forced relocation of the Cherokee Native American tribe, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 4,000 Cherokee Indians. June 12 – Iowa Territory is created. At the time of its founding, Iowa Territory encompassed parts of modern-day Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, as well as all of Iowa. The river city of Burlington functions as the territorial capital until 1841. July–September July 3 – Iowa Territory is effective. September 3 – Dressed in a sailor's uniform and carrying identification papers provided by a free Black seaman, future abolitionist Frederick Douglass boards a train in Maryland on his way to freedom from slavery. September 4 – Potawatomi Trail of Death, the forced relocation of 859 members of the Potawatomi nation from Indiana to Kansas, begins. More than 40 Potawatomi die from disease and the stress of the march. October–December October 5 – Killough massacre, believed to have been both the largest and last Native American attack on white settlers in East Texas; 18 casualties are either killed or carried away. October 16 – Grave Creek Stone, a probable hoax, allegedly discovered in Moundsville, West Virginia. October 27 – Governor of Missouri Lilburn Boggs issues Missouri Executive Order 44 (the "Extermination Order"), ordering the expulsion of all Mormons from the state. This winter, Mormons fleeing this persecution are welcomed in Quincy, Illinois. November 4 – Survivors of the Potawatomi Trail of Death arrive at the modern-day site of Osawatomie, Kansas. Undated Duke University is established in North Carolina as the Brown School. Second Seminole War (1835–1842) Births January 4 – General Tom Thumb, circus performer and entertainer (died 1883) January 27