Foreign Conspiracy Against the Liberties of the United States: The Numbers of Brutus, Originally Published in the New-York Observer, Revised and Corrected, With Notes (Classic Reprint)
Foreign conspiracy against the liberties of the United States. The numbers under the signature of Brutus, pseud., originally published in the New York Observer
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was an American painter and inventor, who designed and developed the first successful electromagnetic telegraph system.
Background
Samuel F. B. Morse was born on on April 27, 1791, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the first child of the pastor Jedidiah Morse (1761–1826), who was also a geographer, and his wife Elizabeth Ann Finley Breese (1766–1828). His father was a great preacher of the Calvinist faith and supporter of the American Federalist party. He thought it helped preserve Puritan traditions (strict observance of Sabbath, among other things), and believed in the Federalist support of an alliance with Britain and a strong central government. Morse strongly believed in education within a Federalist framework, alongside the instillation of Calvinist virtues, morals, and prayers for his first son. In 1826 his father died. The death of his mother in 1828 dealt another severe blow.
Education
After attending Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, Samuel Morse went on to Yale College to receive instruction in the subjects of religious philosophy, mathematics, and science of horses. While at Yale, he attended lectures on electricity from Benjamin Silliman and Jeremiah Day. He supported himself by painting. In 1810, he graduated from Yale with Phi Beta Kappa honors. His father reversed his decision and in 1811 allowed Morse to travel to England with Allston. He studied with Allston for 4 years in London.
Samuel took a job as a clerk in a Charlestown bookstore. During this time he continued to paint, and his work soon came to the attention of two of America's most respected artists, Gilbert Stuart and Washington Allston, both of whom spoke highly of his abilities. Morse also worked at the Royal Academy with the venerable American artist Benjamin West.
In 1815 Morse returned to America and set up a studio in Boston. He soon discovered that his large canvases attracted favorable comment but few customers. In those days Americans looked to painters primarily for portraits, and Morse found that even these commissions were difficult to secure. He traveled extensively in search of work, finally settling in New York City in 1823. Perhaps his two best-known canvases are his portraits of the Marquis de Lafayette, which he painted in Washington, D.C., in 1825.
In 1826 Morse helped found, and became the first president of, the National Academy of Design, an organization which was intended to help secure commissions for artists and to raise the taste of the public. In 1829 Morse left for Europe to recover.
In October 1832 Morse returned to the United States aboard the packet Sully. On the voyage he met Charles Thomas Jackson, an eccentric doctor and inventor, with whom he discussed electromagnetism. Jackson assured Morse that an electric inpulse could be carried along even a very long wire. Morse later recalled that he reacted to this news with the thought that "if this be so, and the presence of electricity can be made visible in any desired part of the circuit, I see no reason why intelligence might not be instantaneously transmitted by electricity to any distance." He immediately made some sketches of a device to accomplish this purpose.
Morse again returned to his artistic career, becoming a professor of painting and sculpture at the University of the City of New York.
The telegraph was never far from Morse's mind during these years. He had long been interested in gadgetry and had even taken out a patent. He had also attended public lectures on electricity. His knowledge of the subject was rudimentary, however, and outdated by the rapid developments in the field during this period. His shipboard sketches of 1832 had clearly laid out the three major parts of the telegraph: a sender which opened and closed an electric circuit, a receiver which used an electromagnet to record the signal, and a code which translated the signal into letters and numbers. By January 1836 he had a working model of the device which he showed to Leonard Gale, a colleague at the university. Gale advised him of recent developments in the field of electromagnetism and especially of the work of the American physicist Joseph Henry. As a result, Morse was able to greatly improve the efficiency of his device.
In September 1837 Morse formed a partnership with Alfred Vail, who contributed both money and mechanical skill. They applied for a patent, and Morse went to Europe seeking patents there as well. He was rejected in England, where a similar device had already been developed. The American patent remained in doubt until 1843, when Congress voted $30,000 to finance the building of an experimental telegraph line between the national capital and Baltimore, Md. It was over this line, on May 24, 1844, that Morse tapped out his famous message, "What hath God wrought!"
Morse was willing to sell all his rights to the invention to the Federal government for $100,000, but a combination of congressional indifference and private greed frustrated the plan. Instead he turned his business affairs over to Amos Kendall. Morse then settled down to a life of acclaim and wealth. He was generous in his philanthropies and was one of the founders of Vassar College in 1861. His last years were marred, however, by controversies over the priority of his invention and questions as to how much he had been helped by others, especially Joseph Henry. Morse died in New York City on April 2, 1872.
Samuel was a believer in God. He believed In Calvinist way of god. He always opposed the church and hated that the church is the authority. He believed in the government rule. Once when he was in Rome in the presence of Pope, he refused to take his hat down. He worked in to bring the anti-Catholic people together. He wanted to close all the institutions that were run by the church. He wanted to forbid the catholic from the public offices.
Politics
At the same time he entered politics. Like many Americans and he became a candidate for mayor of New York on a "nativist" platform. In later life his prejudices softened, and he was better able to tolerate the ethnic diversity of the growing country.
Views
Quotations:
“The mere holding of slaves, therefore, is a condition having per se nothing of moral character in it, any more than the being a parent, or employer, or ruler.”
“Science and art are not opposed.”
“If the presence of electricity can be made visible in any part of the circuit, I see no reason why intelligence may not be transmitted instantaneously by electricity.”
“What God Hath Wrought.”
“It would not be long ere the whole surface of this country would be channelled for those nerves which are to diffuse, with the speed of thought, a knowledge of all that is occurring throughout the land, making, in fact, one neighborhood of the whole country.”
“Education without religion is in danger of substituting wild theories for the simple commonsense rules of Christianity.”
“Painting has been a smiling mistress to many, but she has been a cruel jilt to me; I did not abandon her, she abandoned me.”
“I have no wish to be remembered as a painter, for I never was a painter; my idea of that profession was perhaps too exalted; I may say, is too exalted. I leave it to others more worthy to fill the niches of art.”
“Every child has a dream, to pursue the dream is in every child's hand to make it a reality. One's invention is another's tool...”
Membership
He was a member of the Society of Brothers in Unity.
Morse was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1815.
American Antiquarian Society
1815
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
One of the most respected painters of his day, Morse in his work “combined technical competence and a bold rendering of his subjects' character with a touch of the Romanticism he had imbibed in England" (Carleton Mabee, The American Leonardo).
Connections
Morse married twice. His first marriage was with Lucretia Pickering Walker on September 29, 1818. The marriage bore him three children: Susan, Charles and James. Lucretia died on February 7, 1825.
Morse married Sarah Elizabeth Griswold on August 10, 1848. The couple had four children: Samuel, Cornelia, William and Edward.