Jedidiah Morse

Jedidiah Morse
Portrait by sonSamuel Morse,c.1810–11.Yale University Art Gallery
Born	(1761-08-23)August 23, 1761 Woodstock,Connecticut Colony,British America
Died	June 9, 1826(1826-06-09)(aged 64) New Haven,Connecticut,U.S.
Spouse	Elizabeth Ann Finley Breese
Children	3, includingSamuelandSidney
Signature

Jedidiah Morse(August 23, 1761 – June 9, 1826) was a geographer whose textbooks became a staple for students in the United States. He was the father of thetelegraphypioneer and painterSamuel Morse,and his textbooks earned him the sobriquet of "father of American geography."

Early life and education

Born to a New England family inWoodstock, Connecticut:Jedidiah Morse and Sarah Child, Morse did his undergraduate work and earned a divinity degree atYale University(M.A. 1786). While pursuing his theological studies underJonathan Edwardsand Samuel Watts, he established a school for young women in 1783 inNew Haven.

Career

In the summer of 1785, he was licensed to preach, but continued to occupy himself with teaching. He became a tutor at Yale in June 1786, but, resigning this office, was ordained on November 9, 1786, and settled inMidway, Georgia,where he remained until August of the following year. He spent the winter of 1787 and 1788 in New Haven in geographical work, preaching on Sundays to vacant parishes in the vicinity.

Religious activities

Morse became a pastor inCharlestown, Boston(across Boston harbor) on April 30, 1789, where he served until 1820.Among his friends and numerous correspondents wereNoah Webster,Benjamin SillimanandJeremy Belknap. In 1795, he received the degree ofD.D.from theUniversity of Edinburgh.He was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciencesin 1796.

Throughout his life, Morse was much occupied with religious controversy, and in upholding the faith of the New England church against the assaults ofUnitarianism.Ultimately his persevering opposition to liberal views of religion brought on him a persecution that affected deeply his naturally delicate health. He was very active in 1804 in the movement that resulted in enlarging the Massachusetts general assembly ofCongregationalministers, and in 1805 unsuccessfully opposed, as a member of the board of overseers, the election ofHenry Wareto theHollis Chair of DivinityatHarvard.

Morse did much toward securing the foundation ofAndover Theological Seminary,especially by his successful efforts in preventing the establishment of a rival institution inWest Newburywhich had been projected by theHopkinsians(chieflySamuel SpringandLeonard Woods,with the financial backing of William Bartlett).He participated in the organization of thePark Street Churchin Boston in 1808, when all the Congregational churches of that city, except theOld South Church,had abandoned the orthodox faith. In 1805, he establishedThe Panoplistfor the purpose of illustrating and defending the commonly received orthodoxy of New England, and continued its sole editor for five years. This journal later becameThe Missionary Herald.

Geography

Map of the U. States, c. 1824. Geography by Morse; engraving byAnnin & Smith

Morse strongly influenced the educational system of the United States. While teaching at a school for young women, he saw the need for ageographytextbookoriented to the forming nation. The result was skimpy and derivative,Geography Made Easy(1784).He followed that withAmerican Geography(1789), which was widely cited and copied. New editions of his school textbooks and the more weighty works often came out annually, earning him the informal title, "father of American geography." His postponedgazetteerfor his work of 1784 was bested by Joseph Scott'sGazetteer of the United Statesin 1795. With the aid ofNoah Websterand Rev. Samuel Austin, Morse published his gazetteer asUniversal Geography of the United States(1797).

Native American peoples

Morse rebutted certainracistviews published in theEncyclopædia Britannicaconcerning theNative American peoples,e.g., that theirwomenwere "slavish" and that their skins and skulls were thicker than those of otherhumans.

He took great interest in requiring Native Americans to become Christian, and in 1820 was appointed by the US secretary of war to visit and observe various tribes on the border in order to devise the most effective ways of assimilating them to European-American culture. This work occupied his attention during two winters, and he wrote up the results of his investigations inReport to the Secretary of War on Indian Affairs(New Haven, 1822).

Illuminati conspiracy theory

Morse is also known for his part in spreading theIlluminaticonspiracy theory in New England 1798–99. Beginning May 9, 1798, Morse delivered three sermons supportingJohn Robison's bookProofs of a Conspiracy,which first publicized the view that the Illuminati had masterminded theFrench Revolution.Morse was a strongFederalistand feared that the anti-Federalists would repeat the French Revolution's excesses. When presented with the claim, PresidentGeorge Washingtonwrote to Washington D.C commissioners on October 27, 1798:

It is not my intention to doubt that the doctrine of the Illuminati and the principles of Jacobinism had not spread in the United States. On the contrary, no one is more satisfied of this fact than I am. The idea that I meant to convey, was, that I did not believe that the Lodges of Free Masons in this Country had, as Societies, endeavoured to propagate the diabolical tenets of the first, or pernicious principles of the latter (if they are susceptible of separation). That Individuals of them may have done it, or that the founder, or instrument employed to found, theDemocratic Societiesin the United States, may have had these objects; and actually had a separation of the People from their Government in view, is too evident to be questioned.

Other endeavors

Morse was an active member of theMassachusetts Historical Society,was elected a member of theAmerican Antiquarian Societyin 1813,and was also a member of various other literary and scientific bodies.He made significant contributions toDobson's Encyclopædia,the first encyclopedia published in the United States after the Revolution. Morse published 25 sermons and addresses on special occasions; alsoA Compendious History of New England,with Elijah Harris (Charlestown, 1804); andAnnals of the American Revolution(Hartford, 1824).

Marriage and family

Morse's gravestone at the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven.

Morse married Elizabeth Ann Finley Breese after starting as pastor in Charlestown. He and his wife had a family of several children, including their first childSamuel F. B. Morse,the future painter and telegraphy pioneer. Other sons wereSidney Edwards Morse,who also published a geography text, and Richard Cary Morse (1795–1868), who assisted his father in his geographical work and founded with brother Sidney theNew York Observer.

The senior Morse died in 1826 and was buried at theGrove Street Cemetery.

Selected works

• Morse, Jedidiah (1793).The American universal geography, or, A view of the present state of all the empires, kingdoms, states, and republics in the known world, and of the United States of America in particular. In two parts.
• Morse, Jedidiah (1797).The American Gazetteer.Boston: S. Hall, and Thomas & Andrews.OL23272543M.
• Jedidiah Morse; Richard C. Morse (1821)."A New Universal Gazetteer"(3rd ed.). New Haven: S. Converse.
• Jedidiah Morse; Richard C. Morse (1823).A New Universal Gazetteer(4th ed.). New Haven: S. Converse.OL7216242M.

Further reading

• Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society 123 (1798). (Related toMorse v. Reid)
• Sprague, William Buell,"The Life of Jedidiah Morse" (New York, 1874)
• Gordan, John D.,Morse v. Reid: The First Reported Federal Copyright Case, 11 L. & Hist. Rev. 21(1993).
• "The" Father of American Geography "Registers Early Copyright Claim, Sues Under New Federal Law"(PDF),Copyright Lore,U.S. Copyright Office,2015
• Slonimsky, Nora (February 26, 2019)."The Public Figure Exception(s): Finding Fair Use in the Vastness of Early American IP".Uncommon Sense.US:Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture..(Discussion ofMorse v. Reidcopyright lawsuit against bookseller John Reid, decided in April 1798 by theUS Circuit Courtfor the District of New York)

External links

• Works by Jedidiah MorseatOpen Library
• Works by or about Jedidiah Morseat theInternet Archive