THE LIFE

ELECTS COE

•

NEW \ D. APPLETON

9 549 AND 551 BE'

THE LIFE

OF

SAMUEL F. B. MORSE, LL D.

INYENTOR OF THE

ELECTRO-MAGNETIC RECORDING TELEGRAPH.

BY

SAMUEL IREN^EUS PRIME,

i<

PBESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK ASSOCIATION FOB THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AND AET I

COEBESPONDING MEMBEB OF THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY;

AUTHOR OF "TRAVELS IN EUROPE AND THE EAST,"

"THE ALHAMBEA AND THE KREMLIN," ETC.

NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

549 AND 551 BROADWAY. 1875.

TK -'

A/

Pi

ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874,

BY D. APPLETON & COMPACT, In the Office <tf fee'iibrarii J5f C<Jng|ess, jit Washington.

PEE FACE.

IN his last will and testament Professor MOKSE gave to his executors authority "to place his manuscripts in the hands of some suitable person for the purpose of examining and using the same in preparing a biographical or historical note," relating to himself. The family of the great inventor and the executors of his estate united in an urgent request that the author of this volume would take charge of the papers and "prepare and present to the public a biography of Professor Morse in such a style that it would be generally read."

With great reluctance, and after repeated solicitations, I consented to attempt the service. My studies and pursuits had not qualified me for the task, and it would have been far more in harmony with my wishes and judgment, had the work been confided to other hands. But, having been associated with the brothers of the Professor more than thirty years, and during that time on terms of friendly and pleasing intercourse with him, having heard from his own lips again and again the story of his struggles and triumphs, I had some peculiar facilities to understand and interpret the man. But I would have decisively declined the honorable service assigned me, had I anticipated the difficulties and labors it involved. During his lifetime Professor Morse was often applied to for materials out of which his biography might be prepared. To one of the applications he replied by letter, " My time is so much absorbed in making

M73848

iv PREFACE.

my life, I have none to spare for writing It." And so literally true is this remark, that, in the huge mass of manuscripts left by him, there is not a page that appears to have been written with the expectation that it would be employed in his biography.

If it were possible to compensate my lack of preparation, it would be supplied by the remarkable ability, extent, and value of the assistance which has been generously, and I may add nobly, rendered by others. Professor E. "N. Horsford, at my request, cheerfully prepared the admirably lucid and condensed history of "Electro-Magnetic Science," and the measure of Morse's indebtedness to his predecessors. The Hon. F. O. J. Smith furnished the most important letters and memoranda of the early years of the Telegraph. Colonel T. P. Shaifner put at my service his vast telegraphic collections and illustrations. Hon. Ezra Cornell, with his own hand, wrote for me his recol lections of the construction of the experimental line from "Washington to Baltimore. To the Hon. William Orton and to George B. Prescott, Esq., I am indebted for those important facts which bring the history of telegraphy down to the present time. Robert G. Rankin, Esq., Benson J. Lossing, Esq., Gen eral T. S. Cummings, Daniel Huntington, Esq., General James Grant Wilson, Rev. Dr. Wheeler, and others, have contributed sketches with incidents and observations that enliven and enrich the volume.

The life of Professor Morse is very naturally divided into three parts, to each of which has been assigned about one-third of the volume. The first includes his career as an artist, which was precisely one-half of his life. The second was employed in the construction and establishment of the Telegraph, a period of twelve years. The third and last presents the rewards that he received, and the benefits he conferred upon mankind. These portions of time have distinctive values and interest ; combined, they form an epoch in the history of the human race. Freely and thoroughly as the history of Morse and his work

PREFACE. V

has been sifted and searched by critics and courts, by friends and foes, it was left for his biographer to discover and present facts which explain with simplicity and ease the phenomenon that an artist suddenly grasped the prof oundest secrets of sci ence, and welded them into an invention to revolutionize the in tercourse of the civilized world. We have learned that Samuel F. B. Morse was a born inventor, with a genius for mechanism ; that he invented machinery and secured patents long before he made the Telegraph ; that his education and habits of thought, his antecedents and associations, fitted him for the task ; and, when the hour arrived, the instrument was ready and the work was done ! This was at least the third of his mechanical and scientific contributions. Electrical science was his favorite study in college and afterward ; evidence of this is here given unknown to himself as in existence. He propounded the idea of the Electric Telegraph to familiar friends before he seriously under took to make it practical. He wrought out his invention and made it a mechanical, working instrument, doing all that it now does, before any man, scientist or artisan, gave him a particle of assistance. As the recording Telegraph is the sublimest of all human agencies, so the conception and construction of the in strument by a solitary, unaided man, mark it as one of the most extraordinary facts in human progress.

Embarrassed by the wealth of material that would easily have filled many volumes as large as this, and being compelled by want of space to suppress hundreds of letters and documents that would honor the memory of Professor Morse, I have con scientiously executed a trust most reluctantly accepted. With all its imperfections, with which no one can be made better ac quainted than the author is already, the volume, with unfeigned diffidence, but with confidence in its justice and truth, is com mitted to the public.

S. I. P. YOEK, July 8, 1874.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

MORSE.

Genealogy — Characteristics of Ancestors — His Grandfather Rev. Dr. Samuel Finley — His Father Rev. Dr. Jedediah Morse — His Brothers Sidney Edwards and Richard Gary Morse — Birth of Samuel F. B. Morse — Predictions . . .Pp. 1-12

CHAPTER II.

1791-1811.

Early Education — His School-mistress — Drawing with a Pin — At Grammar-school — Yale College — President Dwight — Professors Day and Silliman — Studies in Electricity — Germs of the Telegraph — Portrait-painting — Recollections by Fel low-students 13-27

CHAPTER m.

1811-1815.

Washington Allston — Morse goes to London under his Tuition — The Voyage — Long ings for a Telegraph — Benjamin West — Morse's Letters to his Parents — To a Friend at Home — Impressions of West — Leslie the Painter — He and Morse be come Room-mates — Samuel Taylor Coleridge — Triumphs of the Young Artist — Meets with William Wilberforce, Henry Thornton, Zachary Macaulay, Lord Glenelg, and Others — Visit at Mr. Thornton's — Intercourse with Coleridge — Travels to Oxford, and Incidents — First Portrait abroad — Leslie and Morse — Letters to his Parents — Zerah Colburn — Dartmoor Prisoners — Attempts to serve them — Dunlap's Account of Morse — Dying Hercules — Judgment of Jupi ter—Gold Medal— Mrs. Allston's Death— Scene at Mr. Wilberforce's— Return Home 28-88

CHAPTER IV.

1815-1823.

Return to America — Opens a Studio in Boston— No Success — Invents Improvement in Pump— Travels in Vermont and New Hampshire as Portrait-painter — Meets his Future Bride — Pursues his Invention — Goes to Charleston, South Carolina — Dr. Finley — Success — Allston'a Encouragement — Returns North — Marriage —

viii CONTENTS.

Charleston again — The Pump — W. Allston — Morse paints the Portrait of Pres ident Monroe— Third Winter in Charleston— New Haven— Painting " House of Representatives "—History of the Picture Pp. 89-126

CHAPTER V.

1823-1828.

Invents a Machine for cutting Marble — Goes to Albany — Little Success — Returns to New York — Portrait of Chancellor Kent — Ichabod Crane — Arrangements to go to Mexico as Attache to the Legation — Letter from Hon. Robert Y. Hayne — The Scheme abandoned — In New Haven — Travels in New England — Settles in New York — Commissioned to paint Portrait of General Lafayette — Goes to Washington — Sudden Death of his Wife — Death of his Father — Founds the National Academy of Design — Sketch-Club — Letter from General T. S. Cum- mings — Lord Lyndhurst's Letter — Studies in Electro-magnetism — Professor Dana's Lectures — His Own Lectures — Escape from Death . . 127-171

. , CHAPTER VI.

1829-1832.

Commissions to paint in Italy — Journey to Rome — Letter to his Cousin — England — Paris — Avignon — Marseilles — Nice — The Cornice Road — Geneva — Pisa — Rome — The Vatican — Galleries of Art — Notes — Thorwaldsen — Portrait — James Fen- imore Cooper — H. Greenough — Letters — Return to Paris — Friendship with La fayette — Sympathy with Poland — Imprisonment of Dr. Howe— Fall of Warsaw — Letters to his Brother — Suggests Lightning-Telegraph — Humboldt — Presides at Fourth-of-July Dinner — Letters of Lafayette — Interior of the Louvre — Hum boldt and Morse — Dunlap's Notices of Morse in Paris and London . 172-250

CHAPTER VII.

1832.

Packet-ship Sully — Electro-magnetism — Dinner-table Conversation — Idea of the Tel egraph — First Marks made — The Invention announced to Passengers — Draw ings exhibited — Prediction to Captain Pell — Prof. E. N. Horsford's History of the Science — Stephen Grey — Leyden Jar — Franklin's Experiments — Charles Mar shall — Le Sage — Lomond — Reusser — Cavallo — Wedgewood — Ronalds — Dyar — Galvanism, or Voltaism — Volta — Schweigger — Coxe — Magnetism — Electro- magnetism — Ampere — Schilling — Cooke and Wheatstone — Oersted — Spiral Coil, 1821 — Arago — Sturgeon — James Freeman Dana — Joseph Henry — Fech- iner — Ohm's Law — Steinheil — Daniel — Soemmering — Samuel Finley Breese Morse — Invention and Discovery — Claims of Discoverers and Inventors — Suc cessive Steps in Telegraphic Invention 251-284

CHAPTER VIII.

1832-1838.

Arrival in New Yor'k — The Brothers' Testimony — Mould and Type the First Things made for the Telegraph — Castings preserved — Struggles of the Inventor— Pov erty and Distress — His Brothers' Sympathy and Aid — Making the Telegraphic

CONTENTS. ix

Instrument — At the Lathe — Faith in God and Himself — Rejected as One of the Painters of a Picture for the Capitol — Artists' Sympathy — Elected Professor in University of New York — Rooms in Building — Apparatus — Cooks his Own Food in his Room — Announcement of his Invention — French Idea of Telegraph — Professor Gale's Statement — Daniel Huntington — Hamilton Fish — Rev. Mr. Seelye — Commodore Starbuck — Robert G. Rankin — Rev. Dr. H. B. Tappan — Alfred Vail becomes a Partner — Letter to Secretary of Treasury — Secretary's Report to Congress — Professor Gale a Partner — The Instrument at Speedwell — Three Miles of Wire — Experiments — Exhibition in New York — Ten Miles of Wire — First Dispatch preserved — Exhibited to the Franklin Institute — Report — The Instrument in Washington — Exhibited to the President and Cabinet — Hon. F. 0. J. Smith — Professor Morse's Letters to Mr. Smith — Report of Com mittee of Commerce — Partnership with Mr. Smith — Letters to Vail — Prepara- /* tions for a Journey to Europe Pp. 285-346

CHAPTER IX.

1838-1839.

Professor Morse goes to England— Application for Patent — Refusal — Reasons — False Statement of an Official — Goes to Paris — Letters to his Daughter — Dr. Kirk's Recollections — Arago — His Great Kindness — Exhibition before Academy of Sciences — Baron Humboldt's Congratulations — Report upon it — Letters to Friends — Hon. H. L. Ellsworth's Letters — Patent in France — Count Montalivet — Professor Morse's Letters to Mr. Smith — Lord Lincoln's and Lord Elgin's Interest in the Telegraph — Professor Morse goes to London — Exhibits the Tel egraph at the House of Lord Lincoln 347-393

CHAPTER X.

1839-1843.

Return to New York — Russian Contract — Disappointment at Inaction of Congress — Mr. Smith's Views of "the State of Things— The Daguerreotype introduced— Experiments — Success — Teaches Others — Sully and Allston — Russia fails- Deep Depression — Letter to his Partners Mr. A. Vail and Hon. F. 0. J. Smith- Consultation with Professor Henry — Letters of Professor Henry— Struggles of Morse under Poverty — Letters to Mr. Vail — An Agent employed at Washing ton — Failure — An Old Sorrow — Hon. W. W. Boardman, M. C. — Letter to Hon. F. 0. J. Smith on Professor Henry's Encouragement — First Submarine Cable laid by Professor Morse — Report of American Institute — Hon. C. G. Ferris- Letter to him — Professor Morse in Washington — Favorable Report in Con gress — Debate — Passage of Bill in the House and the Senate appropriating Thirty Thousand Dollars for an Experimental Line of Telegraph — Death of Allston . . . . . . . . . . . . 394^472

CHAPTER XI.

1843-1844.

Preparations to lay the First Line — Use of Tubes underground — Ezra Cornell- Tubes abandoned — Wires put upon Poles — Experiments with 160 Miles of Wire — Professor Henry's Letter— Progress of the Work — National Whig Con-

x CONTENTS.

vention— Nomination of Henry Clay announced at Washington by Telegraph— The Line complete— The First Message— Triumph of the Inventor— His Letter to Bishop Stevens— National Democratic Convention— James K. Polk nom inated—Conference with Silas Wright — Working of the Telegraph — Pro fessor Morse's Report of the Completion of the Line — Enthusiasm of the Press and the Public — Telegraph offered to the Government — Determining the Longitude Pp. 473-509

CHAPTER XII.

1845.

Congress refuses Further Appropriations — Letter of Professor Morse to his Daughter — Hon. Amos Kendall engaged as Agent — Formation of the Magnetic Telegraph Company — Letters to Mr. Vail — Mr. Vail's Replies — Professor Morse goes abroad — In London — General Commercial Telegraph Company — Hon. Louis McLane — Professor Morse in Hamburg — Returns to London — Exhibitions of the Telegraph in Hamburg, St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Vienna — Mr. Fleisch- mann's Account of its Reception — Professor Morse in Paris — Arago — Exhibition before Chamber of Deputies — Return to America . . . . 510-538

CHAPTER XIII.

1846-1847.

Extension of Patent — The Inventor's Claim — New Lines established — Sidney E. Morse's Predictions — Report to the Postmaster-General — Artists' Petition — Line between Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York — French Chambers Debate — Letter to Arago — First Fruits — Smithsonian Institution — Professor Henry appointed Secretary — Printing-Telegraph — Letter to Daniel Lord — Pi ratical Invasions — Ocean-Telegraph 539-556

CHAPTER XIV.

RIVAL CLAIMS AND LAWSUITS.

Invasion of Patent-right — O'Rielly Contract — Injunction — Lawsuit in District Court of Kentucky — Decision — Morse Patent sustained — Incidents of the Trial — Dis tinguished Men engaged — Judge Pirtle's Epigram — The Case appealed — Su preme Court of the United States sustains the Morse Patent — Opinion — French and Rogers Case — Judge Kane's Opinion — Sustains Morse's Patent — House's and Bain's Instruments — Dr. Jackson's Pretensions — Improvements in the Tel egraphic Instrument — Extent and Value of the Telegraph Business — Morse Instruments compared with Others — Western Union Telegraph Company — William Orton— George B. Prescott— The World's Verdict— Only One System, that of Morse. . . . ... .' . . . . 557-588

CHAPTER XV.

1847-1854. — REST AND REWARDS.

A Home at last — Purchase of a Country-seat and Farm at Poughkeepsie — Mar riage—Social and Domestic Life — Love of Nature — Birds — His Neighbors' Es teem — Letter to his Daughter — Rembrandt Peale visits Morse — Letter of Benson

CONTENTS. xi

J. Lossing — House in the City of New York — Letter to Arago — Adoption of the Morse System by the German Convention — Extension into Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and Australia — Honorary Distinctions and Testimonials — Scientific Bodies — Yale College — Foreign Governments , .Pp. 589-613

CHAPTER XVI.

1854-1855.

Submarine Telegraph — The First Experiment — Newfoundland Electric Telegraph — Cyrus W. Field — Lieutenant Maury's Opinion — Formation of a New Company — Morse to Faraday — Extension of Patent — Letters to Mr. Field and Mr. White — Dr. Steinheil's Letter — Hon. D. D. Barnard — Professor Morse's Predictions — Expedition to Newfoundland — Attempt to lay the Cable — Failure — Renewed Attempt, and Success 614-625

CHAPTER XVII.

1856.

Professor Morse visits his Native Place — Goes to Europe — Consultations in London on the Atlantic Telegraph — Mr. Peabody's Dinner — Landseer and Leslie- Whitebait Dinner — Letter to the Children — Goes to Paris and Hamburg — At tentions shown to him there — Copenhagen — Visit to the King of Denmark — Goes to Russia — Reception — Presentation to the Emperor — Visit to Berlin — Reception by Humboldt — Return to London — Scientific Experiments — Letters to Mr. Field — Banquet to Morse — Legion of .Honor — Tupper's Sonnet — London Times— Robert Owen 626-648

CHAPTER XVIII.

1857.

Submarine Cables — Early Attempts — Construction of the Cables — Congressional Action — Professor Morse, the Electrician — Embarks on the Niagara — Letters to Mrs. Morse — Experiments with Dr. Whitehouse in London — Lord Mayor's Banquet — In Paris — Mr. Mason — Professor Morse's Claim — Return to London — Embarking — Narrow Escapes — Cable Festival — Cove of Cork — An Accident — Valentia — Sailing of the Expedition — Parting of the Cable — Attempt aban doned for the Season — Return to New York — Mr. Field's Efforts — The Second Expedition — Failure — Third Expedition — The Cable laid — The Continents con nected — First Message — Great Rejoicing — Celebration — The Cable silent Eight Years — Fourth Expedition — Great Eastern — Failure — Return — Fifth Expedi tion — Success at last 649-666

CHAPTER XIX.

1858-1859.

Return to America — Winter in New York—Bridal Party and Festivities — Invited to Paris — Preparations for the Journey — Instruction to Farmer and Coachman — Voyage — Remarkable Prediction and Fulfillment — Paris — Banquet — Memorial to Foreign Powers — Hon. Lewis Cass — Hon. John Y. Mason — The French Gov- eminent — Convention called — Governments represented — Count Walewski'a

xii CONTENTS.

Letter to Professor Morse — Proceedings of the Convention — Amount of Award — Proportion of the Several Governments — Summary of Foreign Distinctions — Visit to the West Indies — Erection of a Telegraph — Southern Atlantic Tele graph — Correspondence — Letter from Professor Steinheil — Morse's Reply — Pro posal to raise a Testimonial to Steinheil — Professor Morse's Return — Reception at Poughkeepsie . . Pp. 667-694

CHAPTER XX.

1860-1870.

At Home— Views on Secession and the War — Education of his Children — Letters to them — Applications for Aid — Last Visit to Europe — Dusseldorf and Artists — Paris — Attentions paid him — Reception at Court — The Great Exhibition — Habit of Life in Paris— Labors in the Committee on .Telegraphs — Isle of Wight — Dresden — Presentation at Court — Berlin and the Telegraph Corps — Return to America — Purchase of Allston's " Jeremiah " and Present to Yale College — AUston's Portrait by Leslie he presents to Academy of Design — Donation to Theological Department of Yale College — To New York Union Theological Seminary — Banquet in New York — Chief-Justice Chase's Remarks — Professor Morse's — Mr. Huntington's — Summer at Poughkeepsie — His Leg is broken — Prostrate for Three Months — Statue of Humboldt — Statue of Morse— Erected by Telegraph-operators — Ceremonies in the Central Park — Academy of Music — Address by Professor Morse 695-724

CHAPTER XXI.

LITERARY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE.

A Ready Writer — Studies in his Department — Authorship — Lucretia Maria David son — The Serenade — Roman Catholic Controversy — Foreign Conspiracy — Con fessions of a Priest — General Lafayette's Remark — Our Liberties defended — Imminent Dangers — Defense of his Invention — Religious Life — Analysis of his Christian Character — Sketch by Rev. Dr. Wheeler — Anticipations of Death — Death of his Brother Richard — The Three Brothers — The Tortoise and Hare — In his Library — Asiatic Society — Evangelical Alliance — Literary and Benevolent Labors — Domestic Peace — The Evening of Life .... 725-737

CHAPTER XXII.

1870-1872.

An Old Painting — Letter to the Convention in Rome — Death of Sidney E. Morse — Last Public Service — Unveiling the Statue of Franklin — Sickness — Death — Funeral — Memorial Services in Washington — Boston — Action of Congress — Legislature of Massachusetts — Telegraphic Sympathy — Tributes of Respect — Sketch of Character 738-753

APPENDIX 754-776

ILLUSTRATIONS.

MORSE, uET. 75 Frontispiece

REV. DR. MORSE AND FAMILY ... To face page 26

THORWALDSEN « 205

MORSE, JET. 45 " 251

MORSE'S WORKSHOP " 289

ARAGO, HUMBOLDT, AND MORSE « 365

MORSE, PEALE, AND LOSSING " 596

TURKISH DIPLOMA « 608

HUMBOLDT " 641

MORSE IN HIS STUDY.. " 726

Drawings illustrative of the invention will be found in their appro priate places in the text and the appendix.

LIFE OP SAMUEL F, B, MOKSE,

CHAPTEE I.

MORSE.

GENEALOGY — CHARACTERISTICS OP ANCESTORS — HIS GRANDFATHER REV. DR. SAMUEL FINLEY — HIS FATHER REV. DR. JEDEDIAH MORSE — HIS BROTHERS SIDNEY EDWARDS AND RICHARD OARY MORSE — BIRTH OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE — PREDICTIONS.

THE name of Morse is readily traced to the time of Edward III. of England. It is variously written Mors, Moss, Morss, and Morse. During the last five hundred years the family coat- of-arms has borne the motto, "In Deo, non' armis, fido : " Ix

GOD, NOT ARMS, I TRUST.

Anthony Morse, who was born at Marlborough, in Wilt shire, England, May 9, 1606, came to New England in 1635.

He settled in Newbury, Massachusetts, about half a mile south of the most ancient cemetery in the old town. The house in which he dwelt was on a slight eminence in a field that is known as the Morse field to this day. He was a man of cour age, energy, enterprise, and great integrity of character, traits which have been transmitted through the successive generations of his family. His son Anthony succeeded to the paternal acres, 'lived upon them, and died February 25, 16TT-'T8.

Peter Morse, grandson of the first Anthony, and son of the second, removed about the year 1698 to New Eoxbury, Massa chusetts, and died there November 2, 1721.

John, the oldest son of Peter, resided in the same place, and

2 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

was married to Sarah Peak, who lived within a month of a hun dred years. She died March 15, 1801, having had ten children, seventy-two grandchildren, two hundred and nineteen great grandchildren, and fourteen great-great-grandchildren. Their tenth and last child was Jonathan, who (it is not strange to say) died at the age of three years and four months, having read the Bible through twice, committed many passages to memory, and conducted family worship, for which he must have been emi nently qualified !

Dolly Morse died in West "Woodstock, Connecticut, on the 29th of November, 1870, in the eighty-seventh year of her age, leaving" ()4^4s^r> m ner eighty-fifth, and two brothers, one in his eighty-first and the other in his ninetieth year — all cousins \f£\ frcifessor1, 'Horse. The grandfather of these seven cousins died in the ninety-fourth, their grandfather's brother in the ninety-third, one of his sisters in the eighty-eighth, another in her seventy-eighth, his oldest son in the eighty-fifth, and his mother in the ninety-ninth year of their respective ages. The descendants of the great-grandmother, at the time of her death, numbered three hundred and nineteen, of whom thirty-one were of the fifth generation ; and one or more of each of the last four generations resided under the same roof with the old lady when she died. If the great-grandmother, who was born in 1701, had at the time of her birth any living ancestor over eighty-one years old, three lives, viz., the lives of this ancestor, of the great- grandmother, and one of her surviving great-grandchildren, would cover the whole period of American history from the landing on Plymouth Rock to the death of Professor Morse in 1872. Professor Morse compiled a table of longevity in his family, leaving a blank in it for his own age at the time. of his death, which was eighty-one. In this table he records the age of his great-great-grandmother seventy-nine, great-great-grand father eighty-one, great-great-grandmother ninety, great-grand mother ninety-nine years and eleven months, grandfather nine ty-four, grandmother eighty-one, great uncle ninety-three, great aunt eighty-eight, cousins ninety-one, eighty-seven, eighty-seven, eighty-two.

Jedediah was the oldest son of John and Sarah Morse. He was born July 8, 1726, in New Roxbury, In the year 1749 the

JEDEDIAH MORSE. 3

town passed from the jurisdiction of Massachusetts to that of Connecticut, and was called Woodstock. Here Jedediah Morse, with seventy-three others, took the oath of allegiance to Connect icut at the first freemen's meeting. He was a strong man, in body and mind, an upright and able magistrate, for eighteen years one of the selectmen of the town, twenty-seven years town clerk and treasurer, fifteen years a member of the Colonial and State Legislature, and a prominent, honored, and useful member and officer of the Church. He died December 29, 1819, at the age of ninety-four.

Jedediah Morse, D. D., father of SAMUEL FINLEY BKEESE MOESE, was the eighth child of Jedediah Morse, and was born in Woodstock, August 23, 1761. Dr. John Todd said of him, " Dr. Morse lived before his time, and was in advance of his genera tion." He was a projector, author, founder, inventor. His works were in the line of intellectual and moral progress, but to him the world owes large and lasting gratitude, as well as to his illustrious son. In early years he exhibited a fondness for books ; and a delicacy of constitution unfitting him for the severe labors of the farm, his ardent desire for education was gratified by his judicious and intelligent father. In the spring of 1779, in the midst of the War of American Independence, he was admitted into Yale College. Before the term began he was drafted as a soldier in the Connecticut Line of the army. His health was so frail, there was no probability of his being able to endure the hardships of the camp and field, and at the request of his fa ther, the Governor of the State, Jonathan Trumbull, issued an order, as captain-general, to Colonel Samuel McClellan (grand father of Major-General George B. McClellan), directing his discharge, if in the judgment of the colonel it was proper. He was accordingly excused from the service, prosecuted his studies, and graduated in the class of 1783. He studied theology under Eev. Dr. Jonathan Edwards, son of President Edwards, and Professor Samuel Wales. Before he was licensed to preach, and while teaching school in New Haven, he projected and began his " American Geography," which afterward was inseparably identified with his name. He was licensed to preach and began his ministry at Norwich, whence he was called back to be tutor in Yale. His health was inadequate to the work, and he went to

4 - LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

Georgia, and spent the winter preaching at Medway. On his journey he became acquainted with Benjamin Franklin in Phila delphia, George Washington at Mount Yernon, and Dr. Ham- say, the historian, in Charleston, South Carolina, all of whom, and many others, including Drs. Rodgers, Green, Witherspoon, and Keith, made valuable contributions to the material with which he enriched his geography, and afterward his " Gazetteer of the United States."

After returning from the South with improved health he spent a few months in the city of 'New York, and then was set tled as pastor of the First Congregational Church in Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 30, 1Y89, the same day and hour when Washington was inaugurated, in ISTew York, President of the United States. Here he became the champion of that system of religious doctrine which he professed, preaching with bold ness and power, publishing pamphlets and essays, establishing a religious magazine, the Panoplist, and subsequently a reli gious newspaper, the Boston Recorder ; with others laying the foundations of the Theological Seminary at Andover, the Ameri can Board of Foreign Missions, the American Bible Society, the American Tract Society, and other benevolent institutions which have marked the first half of the nineteenth century with moral grandeur unequaled since the morning of the Christian era. Dr. Eliot, speaking of Dr. Morse, said, " What an astonishing IMPETUS that man has ! " Judge Jonas Platt pronounced him " one of the most industrious men our country has produced." Presi dent Dwight said, " He is as full of resources as an egg is of meat." Daniel Webster spoke of him as " always thinking, al ways writing, always talking, always acting."

Having preached a sermon in 1799 on the " Duties of Citi zens," he sent a copy of it when published to General Washing ton, which was acknowledged in the following letter, the origi nal of which is preserved.

" MOUNT VERNON, May 26, 1799.

" REV. SIR : I thank you for your sermon ' exhibiting the pres ent dangers and consequent duties of the citizens of the United States of America,' which came to hand by the last post, and which I am persuaded I shall read with approbating pleasure, as

DR. MORSE'S PREDICTIONS. 5

soon as some matters in which I am engaged at present, are dis patched.

" With esteem and regard, " I am, Rev. sir,

" Your obedient and obliged

" Humble servant, " The Rev. Mr. MORSE. G. WASHINGTON."

He was a man of genius : not content with what had been and was ; but originating, and with vast executive ability com bining, the elements to produce great results. To him more than to any other one man may be attributed the impulses given in his day to religion and learning in the United States. A pol ished gentleman in his manners ; the companion, correspondent, and friend of the most eminent men in Church and State ; hon ored at the early age of thirty-four with the degree of Doctor of Divinity by the University of Edinburgh, Scotland ; sought by scholars and statesmen from abroad as one of the foremost men of his country and time, such a man was the father of the inventor of the Telegraph.

On the 10th of May, 1821, in the City Hotel of New York, at the anniversary of the American Bible Society, Dr. Morse delivered an address, in which he said, in substance :

" This is one of the signs of the times ; one of the grand prodigies of external Providence. But all we now see is less the end than the beginning. It will be prodigy on prodigy, wonder following wonder, greater as they go, till wonders become the order of the day ; wonders on wonders, the steady and estab lished method of Providence. Besides, they will anticipate us, not we them. New resources will be opened. New truth will be learned — new only to us, though old itself as its Eternal Au thor ! For God is our ' king of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.' Like himself always, ever original, as well as supreme, He will do his own pleasure, and illustrate his own word, as equally i wonderful in counsel, and excellent in work ing.' "

Such were the visions of future progress before the mind of Dr. Morse, and which he was wont to impress upon the minds of his children.

The mothers of great men are deservedly held in honor.

6 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

On the comer of Wall and Hanover Streets, in the city of New York, where is now standing the banking-house of Brown, Brothers & Co., the mother of Morse was born, September 29, 1766. Elizabeth Ann Breese was her maiden name. ' She was the daughter of Samuel Breese, Esq., of Shrewsbury, New Jer sey, and his wife Rebecca, daughter of Samuel Finley, D. D., President of Princeton College. Dr. Finley was of Scotch par entage. He was born in Ireland, came to America when he was nineteen years old, became a distinguished preacher and divine, and, before he was called to the presidency of Nassau Hall, he had been the teacher of pupils whose names are familiar in American history. Among them were Benjamin Rush, Eb- enezer Hazard, James Waddell, D. D., John Bayard, and many others. In 1743 he was invited to preach to the Second Society in New Haven, Connecticut, but, as that society was not recog nized by the civil authority or the New Haven Association, it was an indictable offence to preach to it ! As he was on his way to church, he was seized by a constable and imprisoned. A few days afterward he was indicted by the grand -jury, and judgment was given that he should be carried out of the colony as a VAGRANT. The sentence was executed. He petitioned the Colonial Assembly in the following month to review the case, but his prayer was denied ! Twenty years from the time he was carried out of New Haven as a vagrant he was President of Nassau Hall, and the University of Glasgow conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, being, it is believed, the first time the degree was conferred by a foreign university upon any Presbyterian clergyman in America.

Dr. Finley was a man of great ability and extensive learn ing, every branch of study that was taught in the college being familiar to him. He died in Philadelphia, and the trustees of the college caused a cenotaph to be placed to his memory, among the monuments of the illustrious presidents whose dust is in the Princeton graveyard.

The wife of Dr. Finley was Sarah Hall, a lady of rare ex cellence ; and their daughter, Rebecca Finley, became the wife of Samuel Breese, whose daughter Elizabeth Ann Breese was married, May 14, 1789, to the Rev. Jedediah Morse, of Charles- town, Massachusetts.

WEDDING-PRESENTS. 7

They began house-keeping shortly afterward in a hired house on Main Street, just at the foot of Breed's Hill. Of the sim plicity of the times and the circumstances that surrounded the childhood of our subject, something may be inferred from the gifts which the newly-married couple received from their ad miring people. Mr. Morse writes to his father :

" The people have been very kind in assisting us to furnish the house. We have had the following presents, viz. :

" An iron bake-pan and tea-kettle ; a japanned box for sugar ; three iron pots, two iron skillets, a spider, loaf of sugar, mahogany tea-table, price nine dollars ; five handsome glass decanters, twelve wine-glasses, two pint-tumblers, a soup-tureen, an elegant tea-set of china, price about ten dollars ; two coffee-pots, four bowls, a beautiful lantern, japanned waiter, price five dollars.

" These are quite a help to us at this time, and are manifesta tions of the affection of the people."

Two persons more unlike in temperament, it is said, could not have been united in love and marriage than the parents of Morse. The husband was sanguine, impulsive, resolute, regard less of difficulties and danger. She was calm, judicious, cau tious, and reflecting. And she, too, had a will of her own. One day she was expressing to one of the parish her intense displeas ure with the treatment her husband had received, when Dr. Morse gently laid his hand upon her shoulder and said, " My dear, you know we must throw the mantle of charity over the imperfections of others." And she replied, with becoming spirit, " Mr. Morse, charity is not a fool."

Miss Lucy Osgood, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Osgood, of Medford, Massachusetts, knew them well, and in one of her let ters gives us this life-like portrait of both :

" His tall, slender form, the head always slightly inclining for ward, his extremely neat dress, mild manners, and persuasive tones, aided by the charm of that perfect good-breeding which inspires even the rudest with a sense of respect for the true gentleman, made him in all places a most acceptable guest ; while his own house was always celebrated as the very home of hospitality.

" Foreigners very extensively brought letters of introduction to Dr. Morse ; and, though his kindness of heart sometimes exposed

g LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

him to imposition, he often had the opportunity of yielding efficient service to estimable and meritorious characters. In his duties as a host, his admirable wife zealously cooperated, making her home attractive to visitors of every description by her cordial, dignified, and graceful manners, and her animated conversation. She was, indeed, distinguished for possessing, in an eminent degree, both the fascination and the virtues which most adorn a woman."

One of her sons wrote of her :

" Her pleasing manners and remarkable social powers amused and enlivened her husband's guests, while engaged in grave debate. When the Middlesex Canal, the earliest enterprise of the kind in our country, and projected by the Hon. James (afterward Governor) Sullivan, was in process of construction, it met with strong opposi tion. Dr. Morse, who believed it of great public utility, espoused the enterprise with his accustomed ardor, and at his house the able engineer, Colonel Loammi Baldwin, under whose superintendence the canal was built, repeatedly met the other directors sociably to talk over their difficulties.

" Mrs. Morse was present, not merely as a listener, but occa sionally spoke, and her words elicited from Baldwin, that ' madam's conversation and cup of tea removed mountains in the way of making the canal.' She was a good reader, and delighted to gather around her listeners, to whom she would read aloud from Leighton or other favorite authors. The best portrait of her is an oil paint ing by her son, in my possession, which represents her reading by candle-light. She was unassuming in her manners, and her remark that she liked the Charlestown people, because ladies could wear calico dresses when making visits, increased her popularity among the good people of the parish. Of her influence in making her home happy, Dr. Todd says : ' An orphan myself, and never hav ing a home, I have gone away from Dr. Morse's house in tears, feel ing that such a home must be more like heaven than any thing of which I could conceive.' "

To these parents eleven children were born, of whom only three survived their infancy. These three were sons, who at tained old age, and were distinguished for purity, integrity, and great usefulness. The youngest of these brothers died first, then the second, and finally the oldest.

RICHARD C. MORSE. 9

»

Richard Gary Morse was born on the 18th of June, 1795. He entered Yale College in 1808, when he was in his four teenth year, and graduated in 1812, the youngest member of his class. The year immediately following his graduation he spent in New Haven, being employed as the amanuensis of President D wight, and living in his family. In 1814 he entered the Theological Seminary at Andover, and, having passed through the regular three years' course, was licensed to preach in 1817. The winter immediately succeeding his licensure he spent in South Carolina as supply of the Presbyterian Church on John's Island.

On his return to "New England, he was associated with his father for some time in a very successful geographical enter prise ; and, in the spring of 1823, enlisted with his brother in another enterprise still more important — establishing the New York Observer, of which he was associate editor and proprietor for thirty-five years ; and during this long period he contributed largely to its columns, especially by translations from the French and German. He became early impressed with the idea that he had not the requisite natural qualifications for the ministry, and therefore silently retired from it — though his whole life was a continued act of devotion to the objects which the min istry contemplates.

He had great aptness for acquiring languages. Not only was he familiar with the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, but was also well versed in the French and German, and had become, in some degree, a proficient in several other modern languages. His mind was of a highly-inquisitive cast ; and, though he moved about so quietly and noiselessly, he was always adding to the stores of his information. Rev. Dr. Sprague said of him : " If I were to designate any particular feature of his mind as more prominent than another, perhaps it would be his literary taste. The productions of his pen, though I believe they rarely if ever appeared before the world in connection with his name, were singularly faultless, and might well challenge the closest criticism." He died in Kissingen, Bavaria, September 23, 1868. His remains were brought home, and buried in Green wood.

Sidney E. Morse was born February 7, 1794 ; entered the

10 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

Freshman class at Yale in 1805, when but eleven years old, and was graduated in 1811.

When Mr. Morse was only seventeen years old, he wrote a series of articles in the Boston Oentinel, on the dangers from the undue multiplication of new States, thus early in life con necting himself with the newspaper press. He then studied theology at Andover, and law at Litchfield, Connecticut, in the famous law-school there- His father and Mr. Evarts (father of Hon. "William M. Evarts, of this city), and other clergymen and laymen in and near Boston, wishing to establish a religious newspaper, Mr. Sidney E. Morse, at their invitation, undertook it, wrote the prospectus, employed a printer, and, as sole editor and proprietor, issued the Boston Recorder, the prototype of that numerous class of journals now known as " religious news papers." In 1823, in connection with his younger brother, Richard C. Morse, he established the New York Observer.

Mr. Morse was the author of a school geography which has had a vast circulation, and his father before him was the pioneer in the same field.

His genius was inventive. In 1817 he and his elder brother patented the flexible piston-pump. In 1839 he produced the new art of cerography, for printing maps on the common print ing-press, illustrating his new geography with it, one hundred thousand copies being sold the first year. This art has not been patented, and the process has never been made public. In his later years he engaged with his son, Mr. G. Livingston Morse, in the invention of the bathometer, for rapid explorations of the depths of the sea.

With a thorough theological and legal education, his mind trained to patient thought and cautious investigation, slow in his intellectual operations, and accurate in his statements, he had the highest possible qualifications for the great work of his life. When his mind was " made up," and his position taken, it was next to impossible to dislodge him. The tenacity with which he held his ground was justified by the caution with which it had been chosen ; and it was held with conscientious sincerity and herculean ability.

His cast of mind was eminently mathematical and statistical, finding for itself enjoyment in the most abstruse, perplexing,

SIDNEY E. MORSE. H

and extended calculations and computations, tracing the peculi arities of numbers and the results of combinations. His memory of figures was extraordinary, and for hours he would descant in general converse upon the results obtained, with the same accu racy as if the figures were before him. To discourse upon the discoveries in art and science, and still more upon the moral progress of the age, and the great agencies in the past that had brought on the present, was the recreation and enjoyment of his life. His physical health was remarkable, as he never was laid aside a day in his life by illness, until the final blow fell on him. Of large frame and of very sedentary habits, he yet retained so great muscular power that he could, and sometimes did perform, from choice, the severest manual labor for an entire day, with out exhaustion. 'No one ever saw him unduly excited, or heard from his lips a severe and unkind expression ; while kindness, gentleness, and grace, pervaded his spirit and life. With great intellectual force, and energy that suffered no weariness or re laxation, there was also this evenness of temperament and perfect self-control, that never suffered him to be betrayed into a rash, hasty, or ill-advised word or deed. He died in the city of New York, December 23, 1871, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and was buried in Greenwood.

SAMUEL FINLEY BKEESE MORSE, the oldest of these brothers, and the inventor of the Telegraph, was born at the foot of Breed's Hill, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 27, 1791.

Dr. Belknap, of Boston, writing to Postmaster-General Haz ard, in New York, says : " Congratulate the Monmouth Judge " (Mr. Breese, the grandfather) " on the birth of a grandson. Next Sunday he is to be loaded with names, not quite so many as the Spanish ambassador who signed the treaty of peace of 1783, but only four! As to the child,! saw him asleep, so can say nothing of his eye, or his genius peeping through it. He may have the sagacity of a Jewish rabbi, or the profundity of a Calvin, or the sublimity of a. Homer, for aught I know. But time will bring forth all things."

This was a very curious prognostication on the birth of a child who became as widely known to the world as Calvin or Homer.

Dr. Witherspoon, the successor of Dr. Finley in the presi-

12 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

dency of Princeton College, visited Mr. Morse a few days after the birth of his son, and, many years afterward, the father, writ ing of Dr. "Witherspoon, said : " With that great and good man I was well acquainted. When my eldest son was an infant of a few days old, the doctor paid us his last visit. It will never be forgotten ; for, deeply affected with this interview with the granddaughter of his revered predecessor in office, he took her infant son into his arms, and, after the manner of the ancient patriarchs, with great solemnity gave him his blessing."

CHAPTEK II. 1791-1811.

EARLY EDUCATION — HIS SCHOOL-MISTEESS — DRAWING WITH A PIN — AT GRAM MAR-SCHOOL — YALE COLLEGE — PRESIDENT DWIGHT — PROFESSORS DAY AND SILLIMAN — STUDIES IN ELECTRICITY — GERMS OF THE TELEGRAPH — POR TRAIT-PAINTING — RECOLLECTIONS BY FELLOW-STUDENTS.

ON the father's and the mother's side, from an early period in the history of the Morse family, we have discovered traits of character which were developed in a remarkable man ner in the inventor of the Telegraph. His brothers and his an cestors were distinguished for intelligence, energy, original thinking, perseverance, and unbending integrity.

The boy was trained in the school of the Puritans, by a father who was in advance of the age in which he lived. Pa rental discipline was not severe, but religious principles were inculcated as the source of the highest enjoyment, as well as the basis of right action. Although the son never broke away from the restraints of early instruction, he manifested in early child hood and in youth a beautiful playfulness, and fondness for amusements, that were never checked by his parents, however unlike the school in which he was trained they may now appear.

The boy was sent, when he was four years of age, to an old lady's school within a few hundred yards of the parsonage. She was an invalid, and unable to leave her chair. She was known as " Old Ma'am Band." Her school was in a small building opposite the public-school house. She governed her unruly little flock with a long rattan, which reached across the small room in which they were gathered. One of her punishments was pin-

14 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

t

ning the young culprit to her own dress. The first essays at painting or rather drawing of the young artist were quite dis:,, couraging; for he, unfortunately, had selected the old lady's face as his model, a chest of drawers for his canvas, and a pin for his pencil. "We do not know now successful he was in this his first attempt, but his reward was an attachment by a large pin to the old lady's dress. In his struggles to get free the dress parted, and was dragged to a distant part of the room, but not out of reach of the terrible rattan, which descended vigorously on his devoted head.

At seven years of age he was sent to the preparatory school of Mr. Foster, at Andover, where he was fitted for entering Phillips Academy, in the same place, then under the direction of Mark Newman, the predecessor of John Adams. Here for several years he pursued the studies preparatory to entering Yale College.

Among the letters addressed to him at this early period in his life by his father, is one that incidentally shows the style of boy, who was capable of appreciating such instructions before he was ten years old.

From Rev. Dr. Morse to his Son Finley.

" CHARLESTOWN, February 21, 1801.

" MY DEAR SON : You do not write me as often as you ought. In your next, you must assign some reason for this neglect. Pos sibly I have not received all your letters. Nothing will improve you so much in epistolary writing as practice. Take great pains with your letters. Avoid vulgar phrases. Study to have your ideas pertinent and correct, and clothe them in an easy and gram matical dress. Pay attention to your spelling, pointing, the use of capitals, to your handwriting. After a little practice, these things will become natural, and you will thus acquire a habit of writing correctly and well. General Washington was a remarkable in stance of what I have now recommended to you. His letters are a perfect model for epistolary writers. They are written with great uniformity in respect to the handwriting and disposition of the several parts of the letter. I will show you some of his letters when I have the pleasure of seeing you next vacation, and when I shall expect to find you much improved.

" Your natural disposition, my dear son, renders it proper for me

DR. MORSE'S LETTER. 15

earnestly to recommend to you to attend to one thing at a time / it is impossible that you can do two things well at the same time, and I would therefore never have you attempt it. Never undertake to do what ought not to be done, and then, whatever you undertake, endeavor to do it in the best manner. It is said of De Witt, a cel ebrated statesman in Holland, who was torn to pieces, in the year 1672, that he did the whole business of the republic, and yet had time left to go to assemblies in the evening, and sup in company. Being asked how he could possibly find time to go through so much business, and yet amuse himself in the evenings as he did, he answered : ' There was nothing so easy, for that it was only doing one thing at a time, and never putting off any thing till to-morrow, that could be done to-day.' This steady and undissipated attention to one object, is a sure mark of a superior genius ; as hurry, bustle, and agitation, are the never-failing symptoms of a weak and frivo lous mind. I expect you will read this letter over several times, that you may retain its contents in your memory. Give me your opinion on the advice I have given you. If you improve this well, I shall be encouraged to give you more, as you may need it. Your mamma is very well, as are your brothers Edward, Richard Gary, and James Russell ; the last named you have never seen ; your brothers are very fond of him, as we all are, for he is a fine little boy. x

" We all unite in love to you and Mr. Brown. Tell Mr. Brown j that I have a little pain in my breast, which renders writing hurt- / ful to me, else I would write to him.

" Your affectionate parent,

"J. MORSE."

The reply to this letter lias not been preserved, but the judicious counse1~o~f the father, repeated often, was not lost on his son. He studied, read, and wrote, at this early age, as if he were conscious that man's work was expected of him. Even at this period of life, before habits could have been formed, or character developed, lie showed a tendency to turn away from the routine studies of the school, to thTnF~aS3~"act foFniiiiself. ~ He rove^ among "books, but books TEat Were~Tiot in the course. He pored over Plutarch's " Lives of Illustrious Men," and his ambition was fired by the records of their deeds and fame. When he was only thirteen years of age, and at this preparatory school in Andover, lie wrote a sketch of the " Life of Demosthenes," and sent it to his father, among whose papers

IQ LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

it is preserved, as a mark of the genius, learning, and taste of the child !

He dreamed while he was awake. He grew rapidly in stat ure. His attainments in general scholarship were remarkable, and in the regular studies of the school his proficiency was such that, at the age of fourteen, he was thoroughly qualified to enter college, and was admitted to the Freshman class in Yale.

Domestic reasons induced his father to detain him from col lege another year, and he joined the class in 1807.

Timothy Dwight, D. D., was then the President of Yale Col lege, and at his feet, and under the forming power of this great man, Finley Morse sat four years. Dr. Dwight was the warm personal friend, correspondent, and counselor of Dr. Morse, Finley's father, and at his expressed desire, as well as from the promptings of his own feelings of friendship, Dr. Dwight took the deepest personal interest in the young student confided to his special care. The president was a man of vast and varied learning, and of strong original powers of mind. He was a master of inductive philosophy. Few men have ever lived pos sessing such command of facts, having them arranged in such order, in his wonderful memory, as to be able to bring them always and instantly to his use. Professor Olmstead says :

" He combined, in a remarkable degree, the dignity that com mands respect, the accuracy that inspires confidence, the ardor that kindles animation, and the kindness that wins affection. He urged upon his students the importance of observing and retain ing facts ; he explained the principles of association, and the vari ous acts which would contribute to fix them in the mind, and also displayed, in the reasonings and illustrations, both the efficacy of his rules and the utility of the practice which he earnestly recom mended.

"In theology and ethics, in natural philosophy and geogra phy, in history and statistics, in poetry and philosophy, in hus bandry and domestic economy, his treasures seemed alike inex haustible. Interesting narration, vivid description, and sallies of humor ; anecdotes of the just, the good, the generous, the brave, the eccentric — these all were blended in fine proportions to form the bright and varied tissues of his discourse. Alive to all the sympathies of friendship, faithful to its claims, and sedulous in per-

A METEORIC STOXE. 17

forming its duties, he was beloved by many from early life with whom he entered on the stage, and whom, as Shakespeare says, he 4 grappled to his soul with hooks of steel.'

" I think it may safely be said that those who gained the most intimate access to him, whether associates, or pupils, or amanuenses, admired, revered, and loved him most."

Before Finley Morse finished his collegiate course his two brothers entered Yale, and, Dr. Dwight's eyesight having been impaired, these young men became his amanuenses. Thus, their relations to the president being intimate and confidential, they were in a situation to feel the full influence of his almost magi cal power. When Finley Morse was a sophomore in college he wrote in one of his letters to his parents, dated December 23, 1807:

" A remarkable phenomenon appeared here a few days ago. A meteor passed some distance from the town and burst in Fairfield County ; large pieces of stone were contained in it, and lay scat tered round a number of miles. Mr. Silliman went with Mr. Kings- ley to see a piece of this stone ; he applied a magnet to it, and by its attraction found it to contain iron. The explosion was very loud ; it was heard here in New Haven while the students were in at prayers ; I heard it at the same time. I will try and obtain a piece of the stone of Mr. Silliman, and keep it to bring home for a curi osity."

And in his next he gives a report of a scene which shows that boys in college were, two generations ago, about the same as now. He was boarding in commons, and thus he writes :

" December 28, 1807.

" We had a new affair here a few days ago. The college cooks were arraigned before the tribunal of the students, consisting of a committee of four from each class in college ; I was chosen as one of the committee from the Sophomore class. We sent for two of the worst cooks, and were all Saturday afternoon in trying them ; found them guilty of several charges, such as being insolent to the stu dents, not exerting themselves to cook clean for us, in concealing pies which belonged to the students, having suppers at midnight, and inviting all their neighbors and friends to sup with them at the expense of the students • and this not once in a while, but almost 2

18 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

every night. We extorted this from one of them, that the reason they were so neglectful toward us was, because there had been no disturbance in college for seven years ; that the students, and the authority, not taking much notice of their conduct, they meant to do as they please. The committee, after arranging the charges in their proper order, presented them to the president; he has had the authorities together, and they are now considering the subject. This afternoon, Tuesday, December 29th, they have been together, and I, with many others, have been with them all the afternoon ; there was no recitation at four o'clock, they were so busily engaged. I know not how this affair will end, but I expect in the expulsion of some, if not all, of the cooks. It is now three weeks since the stu dents convened to appoint their committee, and since that we have lived extremely well ; indeed, for my part, I think we have lived very well this term. The fault is not so much in the food as in the cooking, for our bill of fare has generally been in the following way : Chocolate, coffee, and hashed meat, every morning ; at noon, various ; roast-beef twice a week, pudding three times, and turkeys and geese upon an average once a fortnight ; baked beans occasion ally ; Christmas, and other merry days, turkeys, pies, and puddings> many as we wish for ; at night for supper we have, chocolate and tea in general, pies once a week ; I ought to have added that in fu ture we are to have beefsteaks and toast twice a week ; before this the cooks were too lazy to cook them. I will inform you of the result of this affair as soon as it is completed.

" I have just now as much as I can do ; my leisure moments are employed in composing, reviewing geometry, and reading history ; I am now reading Winterbottom's " China." I have read Cave's " Stranger in Ireland," and intend soon to read his " Northern Sum mer," I am very much pleased with him as an author. I began to read Robertson's " Charles V.," but, finding several leaves in the book missing, I have deferred it till another time."

" January 25, 1808.

"The result of the cooks' trial is: one has been dismissed, two remain on trial for good behavior, the rest are in their former standing."

Jeremiah Day was at this time the Professor of Natural Philosophy in Yale College. Under his instructions Mr. Morse began the study of electricity, and received those impressions which were destined to produce so great an influence upon him

PROFESSOR DAY'S EXPERIMENTS. 19

personally, and upon the business, the intercourse, and the happiness of the human race. Dr. Dwight was the man who prepared his naturally susceptible mind to receive, retain, and utilize those impressions. Professor Day was then young and ardent in his pursuit of science, kindling readily the enthusiasm of his students by the fire of his own. Afterward he became the president of the college, and his name is identified with its subsequent renown. Forty years after Morse had left the insti tution, Dr. Day, ex-president of the college, bore this testi mony :

"In my lectures on Natural Philosophy, the subject of elec tricity was specially illustrated and experimented upon. Enfield's work was the text-book.

"The terms of the 21st Proposition of Book V. of 'Enfield's Philosophy,' are these : c If the circuit be interrupted, the fluid will become visible, and when it passes it will leave an impression upon any intermediate body.'

" I lectured upon and illustrated the first two experiments pro pounded by the 21st Proposition, and I recollect the fact with certainty, by memoranda now in my possession. The experiments referred to are in terms as follows :

" Experiment 1st. Let the fluid pass through a chain, or through any metallic bodies, placed at small distances from each other, the fluid in a dark room will be visible between the links of the chain, or between the metallic bodies.

" Experiment 2d. If the circuit be interrupted by several folds of paper, a perforation will be made through it, and each of the leaves will be protruded by the stroke from the middle to the out ward leaves."

This was the germ of the great invention that now daily and hourly astonishes the world, and has given immortality of fame to the student who, twenty-two years afterward, conceived the idea of making this experiment of practical value to mankind. Writing on the subject in 1867, Mr. Morse said: "The fact that the presence of electricity can be made visible in any de sired part of the circuit was the crude seed which took root in my mind, and grew up into form, and ripened into the invention of the Telegraph."

But there was at the same time, in the faculty of Yale Col-

20 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

lege, another illustrious man, to whom, more than to Dr. D wight or Dr. Day, Mr. Morse was indebted for those impressions which resulted finally in his great invention. Benjamin Silli- man long held front rank among men of science. His contribu tions made rich the journal that was known by his name, and his lectures, letters, and travels, rendered his name familiar throughout the bounds of civilization and learning. Silliman was Professor of Chemistry while Morse was a student in Yale, and was at once his teacher and friend. When his testimony was required, to show when and how the mind of Morse was first turned to the study of electricity, and in what stage of advancement the science was at the time of Morse's attention to it in college, Professor Silliman said : " S. F. B. Morse was an attendant on my lectures in the years 1808, 1809, and 1810. I delivered lectures on chemistry and galvanic electricity. The batteries then in use were the pile of Volta, the battery, of Cruikshanks, and the Couronne des tasses, well known to the cultivators of that branch of science. I always exhibited these batteries to my classes j they were dissected before them, and their members and the arrangement of the parts, and the mode of exciting them, were always shown"

And the professor went on to show that, when Mr. Morse came to reside in New Haven, ten years after his graduation, he resumed his inquiries in the same direction, with lively in terest in the pursuit of electrical science. He says : "Mr. Morse resided near me for several years, from 1821-' 22 onward. The families were on terms of intimacy, and Mr. Morse was in the habit of frequent communication with me. About this time Dr. Hare's splendid galvanic calorimeter, and his galvanic defla- grator, were invented, and were in my possession, and many interesting and beautiful results were exhibited by them, as, for example, the fusion of charcoal, and the combustion of metals. Mr. Morse was often present in my laboratory during my pre paratory arrangements and experiments, and was thus made acquainted with them."

In the year 1809, while Mr. Morse was yet a student in Yale, a work was published, entitled an " Epitome of Electricity and Galvanism," by two gentlemen of Philadelphia. The work excited interest beyond the city where it was published, and

STUDIES IN ELECTRICITY. 21

arrested the attention of the Bev. Dr. Morse, the father of Finley Morse, still residing in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Dr. Morse wrote to Dr. John McLean, Professor of Natural Philosophy in Princeton College, asking him to write a review of the work for the Panoplist, a magazine then published in Boston. The subject was at that time commanding marked attention, and the Morses, father and sons, were the men to be intelligently inter ested in the developments of the science. We shall find the son, Finley Morse, renewing his studies in the same direction with Professor Dana, of the University of New York, five years be fore the invention, and, at a still later date, with Professor Ren- wick, of Columbia College, becoming charged with all the principles and phenomena of the science, as if, even then, in his own mind, as in the recesses of providential design, the grand result was maturing.

The testimony of Professors Day and Silliman was given in court, when it was important, in the defence of his claim to pri ority in the invention of the Telegraph, for Mr. Morse to be able to show that his mind was early interested in the study of chemistry and electricity. While he was collecting testimony from his instructors, at whose feet he sat while a boy in college, he was not aware that, among the letters and papers of his venerable father, long since deceased, there were quietly repos ing some of the letters that ijhe young student wrote to his parents while he was in college, and in which he refers to the studies that specially interested him, and made a lasting impres sion upon his mind. These letters were found among the old papers of his father, Dr. Morse, after the death of the son, and it is quite probable they have never been read from the year of their date to the present time, a term of sixty-five years. Cer tainly if Mr. Morse had known of their existence, he would have brought them from their hiding-place, and by their evi dence proved what he was in the habit of asserting, that while in college these subjects engaged his special attention. Writing to his parents, and dating, Yale College, New Haven, January 1, 1809, he says :

" I am very much pleased with chemistry. It is very amusing, as well as instructive. There are many very beautiful and surpris ing experiments performed, which are likewise very useful. I in-

22

LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

tend, with your leave, getting me ' a chemical trough » and small apparatus when I come home, Ward " (a classmate) " and I to bear the expense together. You will find our experiments very entertain ing. There will be a number of articles which we shall want, which we shall be obliged to get here, on account of their being obtained here cheaper, such as gun-barrels, retorts, etc., the use of which I will explain to you hereafter."

January 9, 1809, he writes again as to the manner in which he would pass an approaching vacation, when lie was not going home on account of the expense of travel ; he says : " Please to write often, as it will serve to heighten our spirits ; they are a little depressed at the approach of a vacation, which we are not destined to enjoy. I find it a difficult task to do nothing. I shall be employed in the vacation in the 6 Philosophical Cham ber ' with Mr. Dwight, who is going to prepare a number of ex periments in electricity."

February 27, 1809, he writes : " My studies are, at present, optics in philosophy, dialing, Homer, besides attending lect ures, etc., all of which I find very interesting, and especially Mr. Day's lectures, who is now lecturing on electricity." Still more explicit and emphatic are his words, in a letter of March 8, 1809 :

"My studies are quite easy to what they were last term. Homer is quite easy; optics in philosophy are in some degree hard, but interesting ; and spherics, in the second volume of Web ber, is very hard. Our disputes and compositions require a great deal of hard thinking and close application, which I hope they do not want from me. Our chemical lectures at present are not very interesting. Mr. Silliman is now lecturing on the earths, and this part has always been considered very dry. Mr. Day's lectures are very interesting, they are upon electricity ; he has given us some very fine experiments, the whole class taking hold of hands, form the circuit of communication, and we all received the shock apparently at the same moment. I never took an electric shock before ; it felt as if some person had struck me a slight blow across the arms. Mr. Day has given us two lectures on this subject, and I believe there are two more remaining ; I will give you some account of them as soon as they are delivered, which will probably be in the course of this week."

ENTHUSIASM IN CHEMISTRY. 23

These passages are taken from the very few of his college letters which have been found. Scores have been lost, and it is extraordinary that so many have survived the half of a century.

The Eev. Dr. Barstow, of Keene, K H., a great student and a distinguished divine, was in college with Finley Morse, and his two brothers, who entered before Finley completed his course. Dr. Barstow writes of the three brothers :

" All three were exceedingly reputable, studious, and conformed to the laws of the college, holding an honorable rank in the curric ulum of branches pursued in their several classes. But, beyond all this, they accomplished much in pursuit of branches agreeable to their respective tastes, talents, and inclinations; exhibiting as wonderful a variety as we ever see in the members of the same household. Richard, with all the sedateness and gravity of a young theologue, studied and pondered the deep mysteries of theology, and the deeds and doctrines of the Reformers. Sidney E. pursued with avidity those branches of learning that prepared him so ad mirably to perform the important duties of a religious journalist, to the great satisfaction and benefit of the Christian public ; and the Professor, Samuel Finley Breese, inquired with enthusiasm into those physical sciences that prepared him for his distinguished career as an electrician, together with the aesthetics of a self-taught artist and painter.

" The lectures of Professor Silliman, upon chemistry and miner alogy, were then exciting great interest upon those subjects among the students ; and in them Finley Morse exhibited ESPECIAL ENTHUSI ASM. Finley was the most companionable and genial of the three ; he was ever ready to welcome to his rooms those college friends that loved to associate with him ; always gentlemanly ; always having a kind word for others, and always ready to do kind offices to all.

" On a certain occasion, the writer of this note was admiring his pictures, and the inquiry was made, ' Why can you not paint my likeness ? ' The answer immediately was, ' I will do it ; ' and the result was a most perfect likeness^ though the coloring was not so perfect as Mr. Morse accomplished after attending upon the instruc tion of others. But he would receive no compensation for the portrait, delighting to do a favor to those he esteemed."

Dr. John W. Sterling, of Port Richmond, Staten Island, in a letter dated January 10, 1872, about three months before the

24 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

death of Professor Morse, incidentally gives some pleasant recol lections of the college-life of the young Morses :

" It so happened that, in the year 1809, when I was of the Fresh man class of Yale College, Mr. S. F. B. Morse was a member of the Senior, Sidney E. Morse of the Junior, and Richard Morse of the Sophomore classes. Among the reminiscences of those early days, I recall to mind the portraits painted on the walls of his room by the celebrated S. F. B. Morse, and also an amusing sketch, by this gentleman, of ' Freshmen climbing the Hill of Science,' repre senting these poor fellows scrambling upon their hands and knees in order to reach the pinnacle of eminence. But what remains most vividly in my memory is, the balloon which they constructed of letter-paper, purchased, I think, at the paper-mill at Humphreysville, styled Rock of Rimmon by its poetic proprietor, Colonel Hum phreys.

" This balloon was eighteen feet in length, was suspended from the tower of the Lyceum of Yale College, inflated with rarefied air, and sent aloft with its blazing tail, rising most gloriously until it vanished in the distance. This balloon was recovered, and another effort was made to raise it. In rising, however, it lurched, driven by the wind against the middle college-building, took fire, ascended in a blaze, but was soon reduced to black ashes."

When four years old, the boy began to scratch the portrait of his teacher with a pin upon a chest of drawers, and this early tendency manifested itself as he grew. In college it contributed to his support. Dr. Barstow recollects that he would not take pay for the picture made of him, but Morse was glad to get what he could in this way, to aid him in the payment of ex penses, which were exceedingly heavy upon a clergyman having three sons in college at the same time.

He tried his hand upon some of his classmates. The im perfect likenesses, and worse paintings, appeared marvelous, when produced by an untaught boy. The young men were willing to pay moderate prices for rude pictures of themselves, which were a surprise and delight to their friends at home. But he made no great attainments in the art while in college. As yet no master had given him a lesson. He was feeling his own way along, with dreams of future distinction, even at this early period.

CHOICE OF A PROFESSION. 25

August 9, 1809, he writes to his parents. :

" I employ my leisure time in painting. I have a large number of persons engaged already to be drawn on ivory, no less than seven. They obtain the ivories for themselves. I have taken Pro fessor Kingsley's profile for him. It is a good likeness, and he is pleased with it. I think I shall take his likeness on ivory, and pre sent it to him at the end of the term."

"June 25, 1810.

" Mr. Nettleton is better, and is willing I shall take his likeness as part pay (for board). I shall take it on ivory. My price is five dollars for a miniature on ivory, and I have engaged three or four at that price. My price for profiles is one dollar, and everybody is ready to engage me at that price."

His college course was drawing near its close. He had no profession in view, but to be an artist, a painter, was his ambi tion. Had not his father been a man of large views and generous feelings, he could not have yielded to his son's desires to turn away from the learned professions, for which he had given him a liberal education. But the bent of his genius was already clearly indicated. July 22, 1810, he writes to his par ents as to his future :

" I am now released from college, and am attending to painting. As to my choice of a profession, I still think that I was made for a painter, and I would be obliged to you to make such arrangements with Mr. Allston, for my studying with him, as you shall think ex pedient. I should desire to study with him during the winter, and, as he expects to return to England in the spring, I should admire to be able to go with him, but of this we will talk when we meet at home."

This was written in the Senior recess, before commencement, when he was to be graduated.

His mother writes to him and gives directions as to the making of his coat in which to appear at commencement when he graduates, and his father gives his consent that he should be one of the managers of the commencement ball.

The first group that he ever painted was executed while he was a student in college. It is a family scene, and is still preserved, having an interest far beyond that which attaches to the first

26 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

effort of one who afterward reached the heights of fame. The painting represents Rev. Dr. Morse, the father, standing by the side of a globe, on which he is discoursing to his three sons, while the mother sits by. A copy of this picture is here given. "When Dr. Morse was in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1810, he was intrusted with the care of the son of a friend, and brought him to the North to enter Yale College. Having been admitted, he was confided to the special attention of Finley Morse, then in his senior year. The recollections of this Southern student, now the venerable Joseph M. Dulles, Esq., of Philadelphia, are fresh and vivid, and are given in his own words, from a letter written October 16, 1872 :

" I first became acquainted with him at New Haven, when about to graduate with the class of 1810, and had such association as a boy preparing for college might have with a senior who was just finishing his course. Having come to New Haven under the care of Rev. Jedediah Morse, the venerable father of the three Morses, all distinguished men, I was commended to the protection of Fin- ley, as he was then commonly designated, and therefore saw him frequently during the brief period we were together. The father I regarded as the gravest man I ever knew. He was a fine exem plar of the gentler type of the Puritan, courteous in manner, but stern in conduct and in aspect. He was a man of conflict, and a leader in the theological contests in New England in the early part of this century. Finley, on the contrary, bore the expression of gentleness entirely. In person rather above the ordinary height, well formed, graceful in demeanor, with a complexion, if I remem ber right, slightly ruddy, features duly proportioned, and often lightened with a genial and expressive smile. He was, altogether, a handsome young man, with manners unusually bland. It is need less to add that with intelligence, high culture, and general infor mation, and with a strong bent to the fine arts, Mr. Morse was in 1810 an attractive young man. During the last year of his college- life he occupied his leisure hours, with a view also to his self-sup port, in taking the likenesses of his fellow-students on ivory, and no doubt with success, as he obtained afterward a very respectable rank as a portrait-painter. Many pieces of his skill were afterward exe cuted in Charleston, South Carolina. I met him there, and in his genial manner he said to me : c I am so glad to see you. You re member that miniature ; it was unfinished when I left New Haven.

SYMPATHETIC INK. 27

I have carried it with me ever since, and over Europe, and thought a hundred times that I would wash it out and put the ivory to some other use. Come to my studio and I will be glad to give it to you.' This memorial of our former intimacy is still in my possession."

His college course being terminated at commencement in the year 1810, he returned to his father's house in Charlestown, Massachusetts, with a settled purpose to pursue the art of paint ing. His mind was busy with something besides books. Writ ing to his brothers who were still in college, he uses " sympa thetic " ink, invisible until exposed to heat, and in their reply they tell him they cannot read it ; he answers, and announces his devotion to his chosen art :

" BOSTON, December 8, 1810.

" MY DEAR BROTHERS : You wanted to know how you should read what I had written with the sympathetic ink. It was written on the paper which covered the newspaper. It appears to me, if you hold it to the fire so as to warm it till it is quite hot, the writ ing will appear. I can hardly believe that it should lose its effect in going between this and New Haven ; what was written was not of much consequence, and now can be but entirely useless as it was new then, but now must be quite stale. There is nothing new here now ; I have almost completed my landscape ; it is ' proper hand some ' so they say, and they want to make me believe it is so, too, but I sha'n't yet a while.

" I am going to begin, as soon as I have finished this, a piece, the subject of which will be ' Marius on the Ruins of Carthage.' Mr. Allston is very kind and attentive to me, and tries every way to be serviceable to me.

" I am attending a course of anatomical and surgical lectures in Boston, under Dr. Warren. He is an excellent lecturer, and knows anatomy as well as any man, if not better, in the United States. The lectures, contrary to my expectations, are extremely interesting. One would suppose at first they would be rather dis agreeable and disgusting on account of the dissections, but it is not at all so. They have just begun. They are delivered every day at one o'clock, and are in length about an hour."

CHAPTEE III. 1811-1815.

WASHINGTON ALLSTON — MOESE GOES TO LONDON UNDEB HIS TUITION — THE VOYAGE — LONGINGS FOB A TELEGRAPH — BENJAMIN WEST — MOESE's LET- TEES TO HIS PAEENTS — TO A FEIEND AT HOME — IMPEESSIONS OF WEST — LESLIE THE PAINTEB — HE AND MOESE BECOME EOOM-MATES — SAMUEL TATLOE COLEEIDGE — TEIUMPHS OF THE YOUNG AETIST — MEETS WITH WILLIAM WILBEEFOECE, HENEY THOENTON, ZACHAEY MAOAULAY, LOED GLENELG, AND OTHEES — VISIT AT ME. THOENTON's — INTEECOUESE WITH OOLEEIDGE — TEAVELS TO OXFOED, AND INCIDENTS — FIRST POETEAIT ABEOAD— LESLIE AND MOESE — LETTEES TO HIS PAEENTS — ZEEAH COL- BUEN — DAETMOOE PEISONEES — ATTEMPTS TO SEEVE THEM — DUNLAP's ACCOUNT OF MOESE — DYING HEECULES — JUDGMENT OF JUPITEE — GOLD MEDAL — MES. ALLSTON's DEATH — SCENE AT ME. WILBEEFOECE's — EETUEN HOME.

ALLSTON returned from Europe in VV 1809, and spent two years in Boston, where lie was married to the sister of the Rev. Dr. Channing. Just from col lege, and burning with ambition to be a painter, young Morse sought the acquaintance of Allston, who was then the greatest artist in this country. Morse saw him and loved him. The affection grew into reverence, continued- through life, and when the great master, Allston, died, more than thirty years after this first meeting, his favorite pupil, Morse, begged the brush, still fresh with paint, as it dropped from the dying artist's hand, and kept it as a sacred memorial of his teacher and friend. He de posited it in the New York Academy of Design, which he founded, and it is there preserved as a sacred memorial of A}1- ston, and of the veneration of Morse for his first master in art.

WASHINGTON ALLSTON. 39

If the youth would be a painter, his father was disposed to give him such advantages as were necessary to his success. Allston was .about returning to Europe, and to his care Mr. Morse was committed. More than to any, or all other teachers, Morse was indebted to Allston for his rapid triumphs in art.

Washington Allston was born in Charleston, South Carolina, November 5, 1779, and was graduated at Harvard College in the year 1800, having already developed a love for music, poetry, and painting. With tastes the most delicate and pure, ardent in his feelings, delighting in the heroic, romantic, and ideal, he was one of the most noble and beautiful characters of the age which he adorned. He went to London in 1801, and studied under Benjamin West, with whom he formed an intimate friendship. Then he studied in Paris. In Italy he spent four years. Here he found Samuel Taylor Coleridge, of whom he said, in one of his letters, " To no other man do I owe so much intellectually as to Mr. Coleridge, who has honored me with his friendship for more than five-and-twenty years." In England Mr. Allston was also the friend of "Wordsworth, Southey, Lamb, Reynolds, and other brilliant and distinguished men. After a brief visit of two years in his own country, he returned to Lon don, and divided his time between poetry and painting. He was a deeply religious man. A Christian by conviction, his whole nature was filled with adoration of Him whom not having seen he loved, an ever-present Being in whom he lived and moved. Having passed seven years abroad in this second visit, he came home to America, where his name was already illustrious as the greatest artist the country had produced. His works commanded the highest prices that had ever been paid in America for paint ings. A rare impersonation of the virtues that adorn human ity, with fine intellectual powers, and a spirit attuned to the love of his fellow-men, such was the man to whom Finley Morse was confided at the outset of his career in the art of painting.

Mr. Morse began to write a journal on the voyage from New York to Liverpool. He wrote daily till the voyage was ended, then ceased ; resumed it again on the return-voyage, four years afterward ; and, with the exception of a few notes during one of his journeys in Europe, no diary remains. We

30 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

are therefore left to recollections of others, letters to and from him, and records of the public press, for the material of his biography. Happily these materials are so abundant as to en able us to follow him through every step of his life.

Extracts from his Journal.

" After being wind-bound in New York harbor for several days, I embarked on board the ship Lydia, Captain Waite, for Liverpool, on Saturday, July 13, 1811 ; went only as far as the quarantine ground on Staten Island, where we lay over Sunday. We have fourteen very agreeable passengers, collected from all quarters of the globe : Mr. Amberger, a Russian ; Mr. Neupaner, a Prussian ; Mr. Minsliall, the famous dramatist, an Englishman; Mr. Gray and Mr. Farmer, Scotchmen ; Captain Visscher and lady, Mr. Allston and lady, Mrs. Waite, the wife of the captain, and a woman-servant of Captain and Mrs. Visscher, Mr. Searl, and Mr. Lord, Americans."

He beguiled the hours of the voyage by making notes upon the passengers, the crew, the ship, and the sea, with pencil- sketches, for he was young and buoyant, and every thing was fresh and new. The famous dramatist was the occasion of infinite amusement, for everybody laughed at him, while he im agined that his wit and humor were entertaining others. The journal says :

" Mr. Minshall is the author of several plays, as he calls them, though no one can make head or tail of them ; he will receive flattery of the grossest kind, and is so puffed up by it as to make himself a laughing-stock to the whole ship's company. He has been repeating to us this evening an epilogue to one of his plays, with such out-of-the-way gestures as to make us almost burst our sides with laughing, he supposing all this time that we were laugh ing at the wit of the composition, and joining with us in our mirth with his whole soul."

Nothing unusual occurred to make the passage memorable, and in twenty days from port the land beyond was in sight. In six days more they made the harbor of Liverpool, where, says the journal :

" We prepared to go ashore among hundreds of people who had assembled on the wharf. Some had come to hear the news ; some

THREAT OF PRISON. 31

to receive letters from friends in America ; some from mere curi osity. But by far the greater part of the crowd had hastened to see us dashed against the head of the wharf by the fury of the tide. About a quarter-past eleven o'clock I placed my foot upon terra firma, not a little rejoiced on the occasion, although in a land of strangers. My fellow-passengers with me walked up into town to find lodgings. We established ourselves at the Liverpool Arms Hotel, the same at which Professor Silliman staid when in this place a number of years since.

" Friday ) August 9th. I went to the mayor to get leave to go to London. He gave me ten days to get there, and told me if he found me in Liverpool after that time he should put me in prison, at which I could not help smiling. His name is Drinkwater, but, from the appearance of his face, I should judge it might be Drink- brandy."

Thus hurried out of town by the mayor, with a degree of severity only to be accounted for by the excitements of the day, which then indicated hostilities between the United States and England, Mr. Morse set off in a post-chaise for London with Mr. and Mrs. Allston. The journey of two hundred miles was ex tended through a week, as the health of Mrs. Allston required slow stages and frequent rest.

He found lodgings in London at ~No. 67 Great Titchfield Street, and immediately wrote to his parents announcing his ar rival. In this first letter he expresses a longing that seems prophetic of his great invention. He says, after mentioning his safety :

" I only wish you had this letter now to relieve your minds from anxiety, for while I am writing I can imagine mother wishing that she could hear of my arrival, and thinking of thousands of acci dents which may have befallen me. I wish that in an instant 1 could communicate the information : but three thousand miles are not passed over in an instant, and we must wait four long weeks before we can hear from each other?

On the outside of this letter, yellow with age, is written in his own hand with pencil, but at what date is not known, prob ably toward the end of his life, these words : " LONGING FOR A

32 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

The letter continues :

" I long to begin to paint. Mr. Allston has just returned from Mr. West, who will be very glad to see me to-morrow. His great picture " (Christ Healing the Sick) " is much talked of, and is pro nounced by connoisseurs the best ever painted in England. Mr. West told Mr. Allston that its exhibition had produced" to the Brit ish Institution, for whose benefit it was exhibited, upward of nine thousand pounds, although it was open only a few weeks.

" Not being well to-day, I sent my letter of introduction to Dr. Lettsom, with a request that he would call on me, which he did, and prescribed a medicine which cured me in an hour or two. Dr. Lettsom is a very singular man. He looks considerably like the print you have of him : he is a moderate Quaker, but not precise and stiff like the Quakers of Philadelphia. He is very pleasant and sociable, and withal very blunt in his address ; he is a man of excellent information, and is considered among the greatest literary characters here. There is one peculiarity, however, which he has in conversation, that of using the verb in the third person singular with the pronoun in the first person, as, instead of I show, he says I shows, etc., upon which peculiarity the famous Mr. Sheridan made the following lines in ridicule of him :

' If patients call, both one and all, I bleeds 'em, and I sweats 'em ; And if they die, why, what cares I ? I Letts'om.' »

On the following day Mr. Allston introduced the young student to the great master Mr. West.

That was a memorable moment in the history of Finley Morse. The fame of Benjamin West was at that time as wide as the world of art; and his history was familiar to every American who aspired to eminence in that world. Mr. West was an American, and now at the head of the Royal Academy of England — his time and genius in the employ of the king. Morse, a young pilgrim from the United States, slender, fair- haired, modest, and gentle, with his foot not yet on the first round of the ladder of fame, stood before his illustrious country man, and the distance between them appeared all but infinite. Yet the career of West was the guide and stimulus to the youth ful student.

Benjamin West was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania,

BENJAMIN WEST. 33

where his father kept a country store. The boy was only seven years old wrhen he made with a pen and ink the likeness of his little sister in a cradle, and so life-like that the mother, who caught him at it, exclaimed, " I declare, he has made a likeness of our Sally ! " A party of wild Indians taught him the use of their colors, and he made hair-brushes from the back and tail of a cat. A friend sent him a box of paints and brushes when he was eight years old. The reputation of the artist-boy reached Philadelphia. He was encouraged to study. His portrait of a beautiful woman in Lancaster made him famous in that region, and sitters thronged him. The provost of the University of the State invited him to Philadelphia, with a promise of patron age. The family wrere Quakers, and to the Society of Friends the question of the boy's future was referred. They very wisely decided that " a man-child has been born, to whom God has given some remarkable gifts, and we shall do God's will by giving him our sanction to use them." Yery wise these good Quakers were in their decision. They said : " Genius is given of God for some high purpose. What that purpose is, let us not inquire ; it will be manifested in his own good time and way. He hath in this remote wilderness endowed with rich gifts this youth, who has now our consent to cultivate his talents for art." Then all the women came forward and kissed the handsome young artist, and the men laid their hands upon his head. Thus, with the kisses of women and the benedictions of men, the young Benjamin was consecrated to the work of his life. He painted in Philadelphia and then in New York, and, when his portraits and other pictures had brought him money enough to warrant the expense, he went to Italy in 1Y60. He was then only twenty-two years old. His career was upward, steadily and rapidly. He visited all the chief cities of Italy, copied the greatest w^orks of the old masters, then went to Paris, and, arriving in London in 1763, was welcomed by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who encouraged him to exhibit his pictures there. They commanded recognition, and established his reputation at once. He determined to remain in London. Two years after his arrival the king sent for him, and gave him a commission, took him into his favor, afterward gave him a salary, and re quired his whole time to be devoted to his service. During the 3

34 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

"War of American Independence, West remaining true to his native country, enjoyed the continued confidence of the king, and was actually engaged upon his portrait when the Declara tion of Independence was handed to him. Mr. Morse received the facts from the lips of Mr. West himself, and communicated them to me in these words :

" I called upon Mr. West, at his house in Newman Street, one morning, and in conformity with the order given to his servant Robert, always to admit Mr. Leslie and myself, even if he was engaged in his private studies, I was shown into his studio. As I entered, a half-length portrait of George III. stood before me upon an easel, and Mr. West was sitting with his back toward me, copy ing from it upon canvas. My name having been mentioned to him, he did not turn, but, pointing with the pencil he had in his hand to the portrait from which he was copying, he said :

" ' Do you see that picture, Mr. Morse ? '

" ' Yes, sir,' I said ; c I perceive it is the portrait of the king.'

" ' Well,' said Mr. West, ' the king was sitting to me for that portrait when the box containing the American Declaration of Independence was handed to him.'

" c Indeed,' I answered ; ' and what appeared to be the emotions of the king ? what did he say ? '

" ' Well, sir,' said Mr. West, * he made a reply characteristic of the goodness of his heart,' or words to that effect. ' Well, if they can be happier under the government they have chosen, than under mine, I shall be happy.' "

As the king became superannuated, the work on which West was engaged for the royal chapel was suspended, and his salary discontinued. But his position as the great master of the age was secure. And as President of the Royal Academy, the painter of " Christ Healing the Sick," and of " Christ Rejected by the Jews," the presence of the venerable man, now seventy- three years old, excited, in the mind of the student standing be fore him, emotions of admiration rising into reverential awe.

West received young Morse as a father and a friend. The introduction by Allston would have been sufficient, and he had letters to Mr. West, which secured his attention and awakened his interest at once.

In a very few days Mr. Morse was hard at work, and the

INTRODUCTION TO WEST. 35

impressions made upon him by the great master, at whose feet he had come to sit, and the inspiration which had already taken possession of his soul, will appear in a letter written within a fortnight :

To his Parents.

"LONDON, August 24, 1811.

" I have begun my studies, the first part of which is drawing ; I am drawing from the head of Demosthenes at present, to get ac customed to handling black and white chalk ; I shall then commence a drawing, for the purpose of trying to enter the Royal Academy. It is a much harder task to enter now than when Mr. Allston was here before, as they now require a pretty accurate knowledge of anatomy before they suffer one to enter, and I shall find the advan tage of my anatomical lectures. I feel rather encouraged from this circumstance, since the harder it is to gain admittance the greater the honor it will be should I enter. I have likewise begun a large landscape, which at a bold push I intend for the exhibition, though I run the risk of being refused. I am admitted a student in the British Institution, an establishment having the same views with the Royal Academy, the improvement of artists ; but it only requir ing the introduction of some one of the' directors, Mr. West was so good as to introduce me there.

" I was introduced to Mr. West by Mr. Allston, and likewise gave him your letter. He was very glad to see me, and said he would render me every assistance in his power. At the British Institution I saw his famous piece of c Christ Healing the Sick.' He said to me, ' This is the piece I intended for America, but the British would have it themselves ; but I shall give America the better one.' He has begun a copy, which I likewise saw ; and there are several alterations for the better, if it is possible to be better. A sight of that piece is worth a voyage to England of itself. The encomiums which Mr. West has received on account of that piece has given him new life, and some say he is at least ten years younger. He is now likewise about another piece, which will probably be superior to the other ; he favored me with a sight of the sketch, which he said he granted to me because I was an American. He had not shown it to anybody else. Mr. Allston was with me, and told me afterward that, however superior his last piece was, this would far exceed it. The subject is, ' Christ before Pilate.' It will contain about fifty or sixty figures the size of life.

36 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

" Mr. West is in his seventy-fourth year (I think), but to see him you would suppose him only about five-and-forty. He is very active ; a flight of steps at the British Gallery he ran up as nimbly as I could. He was particular in his inquiry respecting the arts in the United States, and appeared very zealous that they should flourish there. He expressed great attachment to his native coun try, and he told me, as a proof of it, he presented them with this large picture. I walked through his gallery of paintings of his own productions. There were upward of two hundred, consisting princi pally of the original sketches of his large pieces. He has painted in all upward of six hundred pictures, which is more than any artist ever did, with the exception of Rubens. Mr. West is so industrious now that it is hard to get access to him, and then only between the hours of nine and ten in the morning. He is working on eight or nine different pieces at present, and seems to be more enthusiastic than he ever was before.

" I was surprised, on entering the Gallery of Paintings in the British Institution, at seeing eight or ten ladies, as well as gentle men, with their easels and pallets, and oil-colors, employed in copy ing some of the pictures. You can see, from this circumstance, in what estimation the art is held here, since ladies of distinction, without hesitation or reserve, are willing to draw in public.

"I have seen but little of London as yet, being more desirous of commencing my studies at present, than to gratify my curiosity. I, however, in going to and from dinner, generally make a little circuit to see what is to be seen. If you have a plan of London I will direct you where to find me. I am on the west side of Great or Upper Titchfield Street, near the corner of that street and Mary- le-bone Street. The place where I dine is in Wardour Street, at the corner of that street and Knaves Acre. I pass down Titchfield Street, by Oxford Market into Oxford Street, and go a short dis tance eastward, and Wardour Street is on the south side. I have not felt any of those disagreeable feelings which I expected to ex perience on my first arrival here ; on the contrary, I have been in very good spirits, and felt more enthusiastic and determined than ever in the pursuit of my profession. I rise at seven, and breakfast, and by half-past seven get to work ; these two or three days past I have sat over my drawing from half-past seven until five o'clock in the afternoon, which is my dining-hour. After dinner I generally walk a little, and visit Mr. and Mrs. Allston, who live but about three minutes' walk from me, at 49 London Street. He is very

ESTIMATE OF WEST. 37

sociable and pleasant with me, and visits me every day to talk and smoke his cigar with me. ... I am very anxious at present to get into the Royal Academy ; I have begun a drawing for the pur pose from the Gladiator statue, and will tell you the issue in my next."

After lie had studied a year with Mr. West, and was better able to judge of the man and the artist, Mr. Morse writes to an intimate personal friend in his own country :

" Mr. West has been so long at the head of his profession, and is so well known to the world, that I could relate little of his history that would be new to you. As a painter he has as few faults as any artist of ancient or modern times. In his studies he has been in defatigable, and the result is a perfect knowledge of the philosophy of his art. There is not a line or a touch in his pictures which he cannot account for on philosophical principles ; they are not the productions of accident, but of study. His forte is in composition, design, and elegant grouping ; his faults are said to be a harsh and hard outline, and bad coloring. These faults he has in a great degree amended ; his outline is softer, and his coloring, in some pict ures in which he has attempted truth of color, is not surpassed by any artist now living, and some have even said that Titian himself did not surpass it. He has just completed an historical landscape which, for clearness of coloring, combined with grandeur of com position, has never been excelled. In his private character he is unimpeachable ; a man of tender feelings ; with a mind so noble that it soars above the slanders of his enemies, and he expresses pity rather than revenge toward those who through wantonness or malice plan to undermine him. No man, perhaps, ever passed through so much abuse, and I am confident no one ever bore up against its insolence with more nobleness of spirit. With a steady perseverance in the pursuit of the sublimest profession, he has traveled on, heedless of his enemies, till he is sure of immortality.

" Excuse my fervor in the praise of this extraordinary man. He is not such a one as can be met with in every age. And I think there can be no stronger proof that human nature is the same always, than that men of genius in all ages have been compelled to undergo the same disappointments, and to pass through the same storms of calumny and abuse, doomed in their lifetime to endure the ridicule or neglect of the world, and to wait for justice till they were dead."

38 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

The artist-life of Mr. Morse in London was brightened by the companionship of one who rose to great eminence in his profession, and whose memory is cherished with pride in our country as well as in England.

Charles K. Leslie was born in London, in 1794, three years after the birth of his friend, room-mate, and fellow-student, Morse. His parents were Americans, residing temporarily in London at the time of his birth. When tne boy was six years old his parents returned to the United States with him, and, giving him an ordinary school education, apprenticed him to a bookseller in Philadelphia. But the genius of painting was in him, and asserted itself early. He was sent to London to be a pupil of Benjamin West, and, thus being brought into imme diate acquaintance with Mr. Morse, the two young men became warm personal friends, had their studios together, and were soon bound by an affection that continued unabated till they were separated by death. Leslie was the soul of humor. It brims over in his letters, and pictures, and conversation. He selected subjects for its display in the pages of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Moliere, and others. His success was great, and he was soon elected an associate and member of the Royal Academy. In the year 1833 he came to the United States to enter upon the professorship of Drawing in the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was not contented there, and in the course of a few months returned to England. In 184:7 he became Professor of Painting in the Royal Academy, and his lectures in that chair have been published as a hand-book for young painters.

His associations with men of genius were intimate and beautiful, making his Autobiography one of the most delight ful volumes, bringing us into living converse with Coleridge and Charles Lamb, Rogers, Washington Irving, and scores of men whose names are part of the ideal life of every lover of art and letters. He speaks of his introduction to London and Morse :

*

" For a few days I was at the London Coffee-House, on Ludgate Hill, with Mr. Inskip and other Americans. I delivered my letters to Mr. West, and was kindly received by him. I visited the gal-

LESLIE AND MORSE. 39

leries of artists, the theatres, and the other principal objects of attraction to strangers, and

' Such sober certainty of waking bliss

I never knew till now.' x

But these enjoyments were soon interrupted by a severe illness, which confined me to my room in the hotel. I was solitary, and began to find that even in London it was possible to be unhappy. I did not, however, feel this in its full force until I was settled in lodgings, consisting of two desolate-looking rooms up two pair of stairs in Warren Street, Fitzroy Square. My new acquaintances, Allston, King, and Morse, were ver3' kind, but still they were new acquaintances. I thought of the happy circle round my mother's fireside, and there were moments in which, but for my obligations to Mr. Bradford and my other kind patrons, I could have been con tent to forfeit all the advantages I expected from my visit to Eng land, and return immediately to America. The two years I was to remain in London seemed, in prospect, an age.

" Mr. Morse, who was but a year or two older than myself, and who had been in London but six months when I arrived, felt very much as I did, and we agreed to take apartments together. For some time we painted in the same room, he at one window and I at the other. We drew at the Royal Academy in the evening, and worked at home in the day. Our mentors were Allston and King ; nor could we have been better provided : Allston, a most amiable and polished gentleman, and a painter of the purest taste ; and King, warm-hearted, sincere, sensible, prudent, and the strictest of econo mists.

" When Allston was suffering extreme depression of spirits, im mediately after the loss of his wi^e, he was haunted during sleep less nights by horrid thoughts ; and he told me that diabolical im precations forced themselves into his mind. The distress of this to a man so sincerely religious as Allston, may be imagined. He wished to consult Coleridge, but could not summon resolution. He desired, therefore, that I should do it ; and I went to Highgate, where Coleridge was at that time living with Mr. Gillman. I found him walking in the garden, his hat in his hand (as it generally was in the oper\ air), for he told me that, having been one of the Blue- coat Boys, among whom it is the fashion to go bareheaded, he had acquired a dislike to any covering of the head. I explained the cause of my visit, and he said : ' Allston should say to himself, '! Nothing is me but my will. These thoughts, therefore, that force

40 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

themselves on my mind are no part of me, and there can be no guilt in them." If he will make a strong effort to become indiffer ent to their recurrence, they will either cease, or cease to trouble him.' He said much more, but this was the substance, and after it was repeated to Allston I did not hear him again complain of the same kind of disturbance."

Morse had made decided progress in his studies before Les lie joined him, but the companionship of such a man was a con stant refreshment and stimulus. Before the first month, of his residence in London was spent, lie writes to his parents :

"LONDON, September 3, 1811.

"I have finished a drawing which I intended to offer at the Academy for admission. Mr. Allston told me it would undoubtedly admit me, as it was better than two-thirds of those generally of fered, -but advised me to draw another, and remedy some defects in handling the chalks (to which I am not at all accustomed), and he says I shall enter with some eclat, I showed it to Mr. West ; he told me it was an extraordinary production, that I had talents, and only wanted knowledge of the art to make a great painter. Since giving him your last letter and Dr,. Waterhouse's, he has been very friendly and liberal to me, and says, if in any way he can benefit me, he will do it with pleasure. For the first, to economize, he told me a way of preparing common paper to paint on, instead of can vas, which will be a great saving of expense to me."

The scene that occurred on the presentation of this drawing Mr. Morse was fond of describing in after-years, and it furnishes an invaluable lesson.

Anxious to appear in the most favorable light before West, lie had occupied himself for two weeks in making a finished drawing from a small cast of the Farnese Hercules. Mr. West, after strict scrutiny for some minutes, and giving the young ar tist many commendations, handed it again to him, saying, " Very well, sir, very well ; go on and finish it."

" It is finished," replied Morse.

" Oh, no," said Mr. West ; " look here, and here, and here," pointing to many unfinished places which had escaped the un tutored eye of the young student. No sooner were they pointed out, however, than they were felt, and a week longer wras de voted to a more careful finishing of the drawing, until, full of

WEST'S GREAT LESSON. 41

confidence, he again presented it to the critical eyes of West. Still more encouraging and flattering expressions were lavished upon the drawing, but on returning it the advice was again given, " Yery well, indeed, sir ; go on and finish it."

" Is it not finished ? " asked Morse, almost discouraged.

" Not yet," replied "West ; " see, you have not marked that muscle, nor the articulations of the finger-joints."

Determined not to be answered by the constant " Go and fin ish it " of Mr. West, Morse again diligently spent three or four days retouching and renewing his drawing, resolved, if possible, to elicit from his severe critic an acknowledgment that it was at length finished. He was not, however, more successful than be fore ; the drawing was acknowledged to be exceedingly good, " very clever, indeed ; " but all its praises were closed by the repetition of the advice —

" Well, sir, go and finish it."

" I cannot finish it," said Morse, almost in despair.

" Well," answered West, " I have tried you long enough. Now, sir, you have learned more by this drawing than you would have accomplished in double the time by a dozen half- finished beginnings. It is not numerous drawings, but the char acter of one, which makes a thorough draughtsman. Finish one picture, sir, and you are a painter."

When Mr. West was painting his " Christ Rejected," Morse calling on him, the old gentleman began a critical examination of his hands, and at length said, " Let me tie you with this cord, and take that place while I paint in the hands of our Saviour." Morse of course complied ; West finished his work, and releas ing him said, " You may say now, if you please, you had a hand in this picture."

Allston was as severe a teacher and critic as West. In one of his early letters to his parents, Morse writes :

" My room-mate is Leslie, the young man who is so much talked of in Philadelphia; we have lived together since December, and have not as yet had a falling out. I find his thoughts of the art agree perfectly with my own ; he is enthusiastic, and so am I, and we have not time to think scarcely of any thing else. Every thing we do has a reference to the art, and all our plans are for our mutual ad vancement in it. We enjoy much of the company of Mr. Allston,

42 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

and a few other gentlemen, consisting of three or four painters and poets. We meet by turns at each other's rooms. Mr. Allston is our most intimate friend and companion. I can't feel too grateful to him for his attentions to me ; he calls every day, and superintends all we are doing. When I am at a stand and perplexed in some parts of the picture, he puts me right, and encourages me to pro ceed, by praising those parts which he thinks good ; but he is faithful, and always tells me when any thing is bad. It is mortify ing, sometimes, when I have been painting all day very hard, and begin to be pleased with what I have done, on showing it to Mr. Allston, with the expectation of praise, and not only of praise, but a score of ' excellents, well-dones, and admirables ' — I say, it is morti fying to hear him after a long silence say : * Very bad, sir / that is not flesh, it is mud, sir • it is painted with brick-dust and clay? I have felt, sometimes, ready to dash my palette-knife through it, and to feel at the moment quite angry with him ; but a little reflection restores me. I see that Mr. Allston is not a flatterer, but a friend, and that, really to improve, I must see my faults. What he says after this always puts me in good-humor again. He tells me to put a few flesh-tints here, a few gray ones there, and to dear up such and such apart, by such and such colors ; and not only that, but takes the palette and brushes, and shows me how. In this way he assists me ; I think it one of the greatest blessings that I am under his eyes. I don't know how many errors I might have fallen into if it had not been for his attentions."

Speedily admitted to the Koyal Academy, and pursuing his art with enthusiasm, Morse begins to be a critic in the first years of his pupilage. He writes to his parents :

"LONDON, January 30, 1812.

" I called, a day or two since, on Sir William Beechy, an artist of great eminence, to see his paintings. They are beautiful beyond any thing I ever imagined ; his principal excellence is in coloring, which to the many is the most attractive part of the art. Sir Wil liam is considered the best colorist now living. You may be apt to ask * If Sir William is so great, and even the best, what is Mr. West's great excellence ? ' Mr. West is a bad colorist in general, but he ex cels in the grandeur of his thought ; Mr. West is to painting what Milton is to poetry, and Sir William Beechy to Mr. West, as Pope to Milton ; so that by comparing with, or rather illustrating, the one art by the other, I can give you a better idea of the art of

PERCEVAL'S ASSASSINATION. 43

painting, than in any other way ; for, as some poets excel in the different species of poetry, and stand at the head of their different kinds, in the same manner do painters have their particular branch of their art : and as epic poetry excels all other kind of poetry, because it addresses itself to the sublimer feelings of our nature, so does historical painting stand preeminent in our art, because it calls forth the same feelings. For poets' and painters' minds are the same, and I infer that painting is superior to poetry, from this : that the painter possesses, with the poet, a vigorous imagi nation, where the poet stops ; while the painter exceeds him in the mechanical and very difficult part of the art, that of handling the pencil"

The years 1811-1815, which were passed by Mr. Morse in London, were eventful in the political world, including, as they did, the pefcod of the war between Great Britain and the United States (1812-1814), and the war between France and the allied European powers, terminating in the battle of Water loo and the Treaty of Paris in 1815. Mr. Morse was in constant correspondence with his friends at home, and intensely interested in the great events of the age. In the spring of 1812, within the first year of his life in London, lie writes to his parents of—

The Assassination of the Prime- Minister.

"LONDON, May 17, 1812.

" I write in great haste, just to inform you of a dreadful event which happened here last evening,1 and rumors of which will prob ably reach you before this ; it is no less than the assassination of Mr. Perceval, the Prime-Minister of Great Britain. As he was en tering the House of Commons last evening, a little past five o'clock, he was shot directly through the heart, by a man from behind the door ; he staggered forward and fell, and expired in about ten min utes. The mention of this shocking affair is but to remove any doubts you might have of the fact ; I heard of it last evening, about three hours after it was perpetrated, but could not believe it, until the particulars related in the morning papers and my own eyes con firmed it. I have just returned from the Souse of Commons' there was an immense crowd assembled, and very riotous : in the hall was written in large letters, 'Peace, or the Head of the Regent ! ' This country is in a very alarming state, and there is no doubt but great quantities of blood will be spilled before it is restored to order ; even

44 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

while I am writing, a party of Life Guards are patrolling the streets. London must soon be the scene of dreadful events. Last night I had an opportunity of studying the public mind ; it was at the theatre / the play was ' Venice preserved, or the Plot discovered? If you will take the trouble just to read the first act, you will see what relation it has to the present state of affairs. When Pierre says to Jaffier, ' Canst thou kill a senator ? ' there were three cheers, and so through the whole ; whenever any thing was said concerning conspiracy, and in favor of it, the audience applauded ; and when any thing was said against it they hissed. When Pierre asked the conspirators if Bru tus was not a good man, the audience were in a great uproar, ap plauding so as to prevent for some minutes the progress of the per formance. This, I think, shows the public mind to be in great agita tion. You must not feel anxious respecting me ; I can take care of myself, for, although London will probably be the scene of much bloodshed, I hope I shall have prudence enough to keep clear from danger. If I follow my pursuits without meddling with the affairs of others, I shall remain unmolested j so don't feel anxious. This is written in haste. The papers will give you more particulars. . . .

" May llth. — The assassin, Bellingham, was immediately taken into custody. He was tried on Friday, and condemned to be execut ed to-morrow morning (Monday, 18th). I shall go to the place to see the concourse of people. I should not be surprised if an attempt were made to rescue him.

" Monday Morning, 18th. — I went this morning to the execu tion ; a very violent rain prevented so great a crowd as was expect ed. A few minutes before eight o'clock Bellingham ascended the scaffold. He was very genteelly dressed. He bowed to the crowd, who cried out, * God bless you ! ' repeatedly. I saw him draw the cap over his face and shake hands with the clergyman. I staid no lon ger ; but immediately turned my back and was returning home. I had taken but a few steps before the clock struck eight, and on turning back I saw the crowd beginning to disperse. I have felt the effects of this sight all day, and shall probably not get over it for weeks. There were no accidents."

In a postscript to one of his letters of the same date, he says :

" Mr. West is very kind to me ; I visit him occasionally of a morning to hear him converse on the art. He appears quite at tached to me, as he is, indeed, to all young American artists ; it seems to give him the greatest pleasure to think that one day the

AMUSEMENTS IN LONDON. 45

arts will flourish in America. He says that Philadelphia will be the Athens of the world."

In a playful letter to one of his brothers, Morse describes — as he perhaps would not to his parents —

Sis Amusements.

"LONDON, June 16, 1812.

" I have only a few moments to write you, as to-day the gal lery of the Marquis of Stafford is open to artists ; and, as it is but one day in the week for two months in the year, I cannot well miss it.

" The queen held a drawing-room a short time since, and I went to St. James's Palace to see those who attended. It was a singular sight to see the ladies and gentlemen in their court dresses ; the gentlemen were dressed in buckram-skirted coats without capes, long waistcoats, cocked-hats, bag-wigs, swords, and large buckles in their shoes ; the ladies in monstrous hoops, so that in getting into their carriages they were obliged to go edgewise. Their dresses were very rich. Some ladies, I suppose, had about them, to adorn them, twenty or thirty thousand pounds' worth of diamonds. I had a sight of the prince regent as he passed in his splendid state car riage, drawn by six horses ; he is very corpulent ; his pictures are good, but he is very red and considerably bloated. I likewise saw the Princess Charlotte of Wales — she is handsome — the Dukes of Kent, Cambridge, Clarence, and Cumberland, Admiral Duckworth, and many others. The prince held a levee a few days since, at which Mr. Van Rensselaer was presented.

" I went out to Epsom races with Mr. Van Rensselaer in his carriage a short time ago, rather for the ride than to see the run ning. Epsom is about nine or ten miles from London. I saw a great many splendid equipages and a great deal of company ; most of the neighboring nobility were there ; there was very good rac ing. I was on a hill in the centre of the course, so that I could see nearly the whole course, which was a mile and a half in length.

" I occasionally attend the theatres. At Covent Garden there is the best acting in the world. Mr. Kemble is the first tragic actor now in England ; Cook was a rival, and excelled him in some char acters. Mrs. Siddons is the best tragic actress perhaps that ever lived. She is now advanced in life, and is about to retire from the stage. On the 29th of this month she makes her last appear ance. I must say I admire her acting very much. She is rather

46 LI^E OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

corpulent, but has a remarkably fine face ; the Grecian character is portrayed in it. She excels in deep tragedy. In Mrs. Beverly, in the play of t The Gamesters,' a few nights ago, she so arrested the attention of the house, that you might hear your watch tick in your fob, and at the close of the play, when she utters an hysteric laugh for joy that her husband was not a murderer, there were three dif ferent ladies in the boxes who actually went into hysterics, and were obliged to be carried out of the theatre. Mrs. Siddons is a woman of irreproachable character, and moves in the first circles. The stage will never again see her equal. You mustn't think, because I praise the acting, that I am partial to theatres ; I think in a certain degree they are harmless, but too much attended they dissipate the mind. There is no danger of my loving them too much.

" Last night, as 1 was passing through Tottenham Court Road, I saw a large collection of people of the lower class making a most ter rible noise by beating on something of the sounding genus. Upon going nearer and inquiring the cause, I found that a butcher had just been married, and that it is always the custom on such occasions for his brethren by trade to serenade the couple with ' marrow-bones and cleavers.' Perhaps you have heard of the phrase * musical as mar row-bones and cleavers.' This is the origin of it. If you wish to experience the sound, let each one in the family take a pair of tongs and a shovel, and then standing all together let each one try to outdo the other in noise, and this will give you some idea of it. How this custom originated I don't know ; I hope it is not symboli cal of the harmony which is to exist between the parties married."

In another letter to his parents, in the beginning of his sec ond year, he

Dreams of G-reatness.

" LONDON, September 20, 1812.

" I have removed from 82 Titchfield Street to No. 8 Bucking ham Place, Fitzroy Square. . . .

" I have just finished a model in clay of a figure (' The 'Dying Hercules '), my first attempt at sculpture. Mr. Allston is extreme ly pleased with it ; he says it is better than all the things I have done since I have been in England, put together, and says I must send a cast of it home to you, and that it will convince you that I shall make a painter. He says also he shall write to his friends in Boston, to call on you and see it when I send it.

" Mr. West, also, was extremely delighted with it. He said it

LOVE OF ART 47

was not merely an academical figure, but displayed thought. He could not have paid me a higher compliment. Mr. West would write you, but he has been disabled from painting or writing, for a long time, with the gout in his right hand. This is a great trial to him. I am anxious to send you something to show you that I have not been idle since I have been here. My passion for my art is so firmly rooted that I am confident no human power could destroy it. The more I study, the greater I think is its claim to the appellation of divine / and I never shall be able sufficiently to show my grati tude to my parents for enabling me to pursue that profession, with out which I am sure I should be miserable. And if it is my destiny to become GREAT, and worthy of a biographical memoir, my biog rapher will never be able to charge upon my parents that bigoted attachment to any individual profession the exercise of which spirit by parents toward their children has been the ruin of some of the greatest geniuses ; and the biography of men of genius has too often contained that reflection on their parents. If ever the contrary spirit was evident, it has certainly been shown by my par ents toward me. Indeed, they have been almost too indulgent. They have watched every change of my capricious inclinations, and seem to have made it an object to study them with the greatest fondness ; but I think they will say that, when my desire for change did cease, it always settled on painting. I hope that one day my success in my profession will reward you in some, measure for the trouble and inconvenience I have so long put you to.

" I am now going to begin a picture of the death" of Hercules, this figure to be as large as life. I shall send it to you as soon as practicable, and also one of the same to the Philadelphia Exhibi tion, if pos'sible, in season for the next in May."

Mr. Morse had brought with him from his distinguished father and his father's eminent friends, letters of introduction to some of the best men in England. Among them were Wil liam "Wilberf orce and Henry Thornton, both of them illustrious philanthropists, and at that time members of Parliament ; Zach- ary Macaulay, editor of the Christian Observer, and father of the historian ; the two Grants, one of whom was afterward Lord Glenelg ; and many others. The. young artist was warmly re ceived by these distinguished and excellent men. He was, how ever, so absorbed in his studies, and so firmly resolved to permit nothing to interfere with his progress, that he declined to de-

48 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

liver these letters for several months. His father reproves him for his neglect, and he justifies himself by showing that social duties would occupy more time than he could spare from his work, and that mingling in society was inconsistent with devo tion to study. But in the course of the year he ventured upon making himself known ; and his letters frequently mention the delightful intercourse with public men which these letters se cured.

To his Parents.

"LONDON, December 22, 1812.

" Last Thursday week I received a very polite invitation from Henry Thornton, Esq, to dine with him, which I accepted. Hear ing that your son was in the country, he found me out, and has shown me every attention ; he is a very pleasant, sensible man ; but his character is too well known to you to need any eulogium from me. At his table was a son of Mr. Stephen, who was the author of the odious Orders in Council. Mr. Thornton asked me at table, if I thought that c if the Orders in Council had been repealed a month or two sooner, it would have 'prevented the war.' I told him I thought it would, at which he was much pleased, and, turning to Mr. Stephen, he said : ' Do you hear that, Mr. Stephen ? I always told you so.' Last Wednesday I dined at Mr. Wilberforce's ; I was extremely pleased with him ; at his house I met Mr. Thornton and Mr. Grant, members of Parliament. In the course of conversation, they introduced America. Mr. Wilberforce regretted the war ex tremely ; he said it was like two of the same family quarreling ; that he thought it a judgment on this country for their wickedness, and that they had been justly punished for their arrogance and inso lence at sea, as well as the Americans for their vaunting on land. As Mr. Thornton was going, he invited me to spend a day or two at his seat at Clapham, a few miles out of town. I accordingly went, and was very civilly treated ; the reserve which I mentioned in a former letter was evident, however, here, and I felt a degree of embarrassment arising from it which I never felt in America. The second day I was a little more at my ease. At dinner were two sons of the Mr. Grant I mentioned above; they are, perhaps, the most promising young men in the country, and you may possibly one day hear of them as at the head of this nation. After dinner I got into conversation with them and Mr. Thornton. When Amer ica again became the topic of conversation, they asked me a great

ORDERS IN COUNCIL. 49

many questions, which I answered to the best of my ability. They at length asked me if I did not think that the ruling party in America were very much under French influence. I replied no ; that I believed, on the contrary, that nine-tenths of the American people were prepossessed strongly in favor of this country ; as a proof, I urged the universal prevalence of English fashions in preference to French ; English manners and customs ; the universal rejoicings on the success of the English over the French; the marked attention shown to English travelers and visitors ; the neglect with which they treated their own literary productions, on account of the strong pre judice in favor of English works ; that every thing, in short, was en hanced in its value by having attached to it the name English. They were very much pleased with what I told them, and acknowl edged that America, and American visitors generally, had been treat ed with too much contempt and neglect. In the course of the day I asked Mr. Thornton what were the objects that the English Gov ernment had in view when they laid the Orders in Council. He told me, in direct terms ' The universal monopoly of commerce / ' that they had long desired an excuse for such measures as the Orders in Council, and that the French decrees were exactly what they wished, and the opportunity was seized with avidity the moment it was offered ; they knew that the Orders in Council bore hard upon the Americans, but they considered that as merely incidental. To this I replied, if such was the case as he represented it, what blame could be attached to the American Government for declaring war ? He said that it was urged that America ought to have considered the circumstances of the case, and that Great Britain was fighting for the liberties of the world ; that America was in a great degree inter ested in the decision of the contest, and that she ought to be con tent to suffer a little. I told him that England had no right what soever to infringe on the neutrality of America, or to expect, because she (England) supposed herself to have justice on her side in the contest with France, that of course the Americans should think the same. The moment America declared this opinion, her neutrality ceased. £ Besides,' said I, ' how can they have the face to make such a declaration, when you just now said that their object was uni versal monopoly, and they longed for an excuse to adopt measures for that end ? ' I told him that ' it showed that all the noise about England's fighting for the liberties of mankind proved to be but a thirst, a selfish desire for universal monopoly? This, he said, seemed to be the case ; he could not deny it. He was going on to

4

50 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

observe something respecting the French decrees, when we were interrupted, and I have not been able again to resume the conver sation, as I returned to town with him shortly after in his carriage, where, as there were strangers, I could not introduce it again. I shall take the opportunity some time to pursue the subject with him. The prince's declaration, vindicating the English Govern ment from blame in the war with America, has been published some time. It is a flimsy thing, and by the friends of the adminis tration thought to be but a weak defence."

Among the autographs which Mr. Morse preserved to' the end of his life is the following note from Mr. Wilberforce, to whom he had neglected to deliver his letters of introduction, notwithstanding his father's urgency that lie should make the acquaintance of that remarkable man :

"KENSINGTON GORE, January 4, 1813.

" SIR : I cannot help entertaining some apprehension of my not having received some letter or some card, which you may have" done me the favor of leaving at my house. Be this, however, as it may, I gladly avail myself of the sanction of a letter from your father, for introducing myself to you ; and as many calls are mere matters of form, instead of knocking at your door, I take the liberty of beg ging the favor of your company at dinner on Wednesday next, at a quarter before five o'clock, at Kensington Gore (one mile from Hyde Park corner), and of thereby securing the pleasure of an ac quaintance with you. The high respect which I have long enter tained for your father, in addition to the many obliging marks of attention which I have received from him, render me desirous of becoming personally known to you, and enable me with truth to assure you I am, with good- will, sir,

" Your faithful servant,

"W. WlLBERFOKCE. " MORSE, Esq."

This was the beginning of an acquaintance which proved to be of great value to the young artist ; the recollections of it and of the men with whom it brought him into contact being among the pleasantest of his life.

Professor Morse was very fond of repeating to his friends his pleasant recollections of intercourse with Benjamin "West, Allston, Coleridge, Eogers, and other celebrated men of the

WEST'S PATRIOTISM.

day. Some of these reminiscences were preserved by Mr. James Wynne :

West averred that the Revolutionary war was carried on and troops sent in direct opposition to the judgment and wishes of the king, who only yielded to the strong representations of his minis try, that he had no right to dismember so large and important a part of the British Empire. As an evidence of this, he cited the case of Lord Mansfield, who, on the occasion of a question as to the propriety of sending more troops to America, in the House of Peers, remarked that " it was now time for the government to throw off the mask." The king, who could be aroused on certain occa sions, became exceedingly angry with Lord Mansfield for the man ner in which he had procured his sanction to send troops, and di rected him never to see his face again — an order which was never relaxed.

It may be that West's partiality for the king induced him to overlook his own part in the American war, and disposed him to place on the shoulders of others the blame which should in part, at least, have been borne by him. Be this as it may, the friendship subsisting between them continued unabated, although occasions were not wanting in which those who were jealous of the influence of an American over the mind of their king strove to alienate their friendship. West was fully aware of this, and, while he seldom paid attention to these attempts, could not fail occasionally to be annoy ed at them. As an illustration of this feeling he narrated to Morse the following:

" ' While,' remarked West, ' the king was on a visit to me, news was brought of an important victory of his troops over the rebels. Not finding him at the palace, the messenger immediately traced him to my studio, and communicated the intelligence. After this was accomplished, turning to me, the messenger said :

" ' And are you not gratified at the success of his majesty's troops ? '

" ' No,' I replied ; ' I can never rejoice in the misfortunes of my countrymen.'

" 4 Right,' replied the king, rising and placing his hand approv ingly on my shoulder. ' If you did, you would not long be a fit sub ject for any government.' "

Among the members of the Royal Academy with whom Morse was in the habit of frequent association, was Fuseli, whose erratic

52 LIFE OF SAMUEL B. F. MORSE.

genius is perpetuated in the remarkable productions of his pencil, which at that time had great currency. Fuseli, who was a pro found thinker and an agreeable companion, was on one occasion de bating the question of the immortality of the soul with a disbe liever.

" I do not know that your soul is immortal," said Fuseli to his companion — " perhaps it is not ; but I know that mine is."

"Why so?" demanded his companion, greatly astonished at the comparison.

"Because," said Fuseli, "I can conceive more in one minute than I can execute in a lifetime."

No stronger illustration than this can be given of the soul's im mortality.

Another of these was Northcote, who did not affect to conceal his jealousy of other artists. On one occasion Coleridge attempted to take him to task for this unfortunate trait in his character. " Nonsense ! " replied Northcote. " You possess, all men of genius possess, the same quality. As a test, are you willing to admit that Southey is as great a poet as yourself? "

" To be sure I am," replied Coleridge.

"Will you confess," continued Northcote, "that if you saw Southey standing under that beam" — pointing to the one above his head — " yOU would not secretly wish it to fall on and crush him ? "

It must be admitted that Northcote' s envy was inveterate and incurable.

Coleridge, who was a visitor at the rooms of Leslie and Morse, frequently made his appearance under the influence of those fits of despondency to which he was subject. On these occasions, by a preconcerted plan, they often drew him from this state of despon dency to one of brilliant imagination. " I was just wishing to see you," said Morse, on one of these occasions, when he entered with a hesitating step, and replied to their frank salutations with a gloomy aspect and deep-drawn sighs. " Leslie and myself have had a dispute about certain lines of beauty ; which is right ? " And then each argued with the other for a few moments, until Cole ridge became interested, and, rousing from his fit of despondency, spoke with an eloquence and depth of metaphysical reasoning on the subject far beyond the comprehension of his auditors. Their point, however, was gained, and Coleridge was again the eloquent, the profound, the gifted being which his remarkable productions show him to be.

COLERIDGE AND ALLSTON. 53

" On one occasion," says Morse, " I heard him improvise, for half an hour, in blank verse, what he stated to be a strange dream, which was full of those wonderful creations that glitter like dia monds in his poetical productions."

" All of which," remarked I, " is undoubtedly lost to the world." " Not all," replied Mr. Morse, " for I recognize in the ' Ancient Mariner ' some of the thoughts of that evening ; but doubtless the greater part, which would have made the reputation of any other man, perished with the moment of inspiration, never again to be recalled."

When his tragedy of " Remorse," which had a run of twenty-one nights, was first brought out, Washington Allston, Charles King, Leslie, Lamb, Morse, and Coleridge, went together to witness its performance. They occupied a box near the stage, and each of the party was as much interested in its success as Coleridge himself.

The effect of the frequent applauses upon Coleridge was very manifest ; but when, at the end of the piece, he was called for by the audience, the intensity of his emotions was such as none but one gifted with the fine sensibilities of a poet could experience. Fortunately, the audience was satisfied with a mere presentation of himself. His emotions would have precluded the idea of his speak ing on such an occasion.

Allston, soon after this, became so much out of health that he thought a change of air, and a short residence in the country, might relieve him. He accordingly set out on this journey, accom panied by Leslie and Morse. When he reached Salt Hill, near Ox ford, he became so ill as to be unable to proceed, and requested Morse to return to town for his medical attendant, Dr. Tuthill, and Coleridge, to whom he was ardently attached. Morse accordingly returned, and, procuring a post-chaise, immediately set out for Salt Hill, a distance of twenty-two miles, accompanied by Coleridge and Dr. Tuthill. They arrived late in the evening, and were busied with Allston until midnight, when/he became easier, and Morse and Coleridge left him for the night. Upon repairing to the sitting- room of the hotel, Morse opened Knickerbocker's " History of New York," which he had thrown into the carriage before leaving town. Coleridge asked him what work he had.

" Oh," replied he, " it is only an American book ! "

" Let me see it," said Coleridge. He accordingly handed it to him, and he was soon buried in its pages. Mr. Morse, overcome by the fatigues of the day, soon after retired to his chamber and fell

54

LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

asleep. On awakening the next morning, he repaired to the sit ting-room, when what his astonishment to find it still closed, with the lights burning, and Coleridge busy with the book he had lent him the previous night !

" Why, Coleridge," said he, approaching him, " have you been reading the whole night ? "

" Why," remarked Coleridge, abstractedly, " it is not late."

He replied by throwing open the blinds and permitting the broad daylight, for it was now ten o'clock, to stream in upon them.

" Indeed," said Coleridge, " I had no conception of this ; but the work has pleased me exceedingly. It is admirably written ; pray, who is its author ? "

He was informed that it was the production of Washington Ir ving. It is needless to say that, during the long residence of Irving in London, they became warm friends.

Among the literary acquaintances formed by Morse in London at this period was Rogers, the poet, whose breakfasts attained so wide a celebrity. At one of these, at which Leslie and Morse were the only guests, Rogers waggishly remarked to Morse that his friend Leslie was a very clever artist, but that it was. a great pity that he did not throw more grace and beauty into his female figures.

Now, if Leslie prided himself upon any thing, it was precisely upon the grace and symmetry of his female figures, in which he particularly excelled, and so Morse informed him.

"Yoii think so," said Rogers, quietly indulging in a pleasant laugh at his own waggery, and changed the conversation, without explanation, to another subject.

It is well known that Rogers's house was literally made up of choice gems, and among these was a sketch of the " Miracle of the Slain " by Tintoretto, which Rogers informed Morse was executed by that great artist preparatory to the execution of the painting it self.

Morse asked Rogers where the original now was, as he had an order to paint a copy of it, and supposed, as it had been captured by Napoleon I., it was in Paris. Rogers informed him that it had been returned to Venice, where Morse afterward found it in the Academy of Fine Arts, immediately opposite Titian's "Assump tion of the Virgin." The copy he then made, and which upon the death of its owner fell again into his hands, was among his own pictures as long as he lived. Fuseli, who at the time of Mr.

DR. ABERNETHY. 55

Morse's residence in London was at the zenith of his fame, consid ered the original the finest picture in the world.

At this period Abernethy was in the full tide of his popularity as a surgeon, and Allston, who had for some little time had a grum bling pain in his thigh, proposed to Morse to accompany him to the house of the distinguished surgeon to consult him on the cause of the ailment. As Allston had his hand on the bell-pull, the door was opened and a visitor passed out, immediately followed by a coarse- looking person with a large, shaggy head of hair, whom Allston at once took for a domestic. He accordingly inquired if Mr. Aber nethy was in.

" What do you want of Mr. Abernethy ? " demanded this un couth-looking person, with the harshest possible Scotch accent.

"I wished to see him," gently replied Allston, somewhat shocked by the coarseness of his reception ; " Is he at home ? "

" Come in, come in, mon," said the same uncouth personage.

" But he may be engaged," responded Allston ; " perhaps I had better call another time."

" Come in, mon, I say," replied the person addressed, and partly by persuasion and partly by force, Allston, followed by Morse, was induced to enter the hall, which they had no sooner done than the person who admitted them closed the street-door, and, placing his back against it, said, " Now tell me what is your business with Mr. Abernethy. I am Mr. Abernethy."

" I have come to consult you," replied Allston, " about an affec tion—"

" What the de'il hae I to do with your affections ? " bluntly in terposed Abernethy.

" Perhaps, Mr. Abernethy," said Allston, by this time so com pletely overcome by the apparent rudeness of the eminent surgeon as to regret calling on him at all, " you are engaged at present, and I had better call again."

" De'il the bit, de'il the bit, mon," said Abernethy. " Come in, come in," and he preceded them to his office, and examined his case, which proved to be a slight one, with such gentleness as al* most to lead them to doubt whether Abernethy within his consult ing-room, and Abernethy whom they had encountered in the pas sage, was really the same personage.

The first portrait Mr. Moi'se painted in London was that of his friend Leslie, and Leslie at the same time made a portrait of

56 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

Morse. His mother received a letter in the spring of 1812, from a lady in Philadelphia, in which these portraits are alluded to:

" I have this moment received a letter from Miss Vaughan in London, dated February 20th, and knowing the passage below would be interesting to you, I transcribe it with pleasure, and add my very sincere wish that all your hopes may be realized :

" ' Dr. Morse's son is considered a young man of very promising talents by Mr. Allston and Mr. West, and by those who have seen his paintings. ^ We have seen him, and think his modesty and ap parent amiableness promise as much happiness to his friends as his talents may procure distinction for himself. He is peculiarly fortu nate, not only in having Mr. Allston for his adviser and friend, but in his companion in painting, Mr. Leslie, a young man from Phila delphia, highly recommended, and whose extreme diffidence adds to the most promising talents, the patient industry, and desire of improvement, which are necessary to bring them to perfection. They have been drawing each other's pictures. Mr. Leslie is in the Spanish costume, and Mr. Morse in a Highland dress. They are in a very unfinished state, but striking likenesses.' This Highland lad, I hope, my dear friend, you will see, and in due time be again blessed with the original."

Samuel F. JB. Morse to his Parents.

" LONDON, March 24, 1813.

" With regard to my expenses, I got through the first year with two hundred pounds, and hope the same sum will carry me through the second. If you knew the manner in which we live, you would wonder how it was possible I could have made so great a change in my habits. I am obliged to screwT and pinch myself in a thousand things in which I used to indulge myself at home. I am treated with no dainties, no fruit, no nice dinners (except once in an age, when invited to a party at an American table), no fine tea-parties, as at home. All is changed ; I breakfast on simple bread-and-butter and two cups of coffee ; I dine on either beef, mutton, or pork (veal being out of the question, as it is one shilling and sixpence per pound), baked with potatoes, warm perhaps twice a week, all the rest of the week cold. My drink is water, porter being too expen sive. At tea, bread-and-butter, with two cups of tea. This is my daily round. I have had no new clothes for nearly a year ; my best are threadbare, and my shoes out at the toes, my stockings all

THE USE OF, MONEY. 57

want to see my mother, and my hat is growing hoary with age. This is my picture in London, do you think you would know it ? 4 But,' you will say, c what do you do with the money if .you live thus sparingly ? ' Why, I will tell you the whole. When I first came to London, I was told, if I meant to support the character of a gentle man, I must take especial care of my personal appearance ; so I thought it a matter of course that I must spare no expense in order to appear well. So, this being first in my mind, I (supposing very wisely that London folks had nothing else to do but to see how I was dressed) laid out a considerable part of my money on myself; meanwhile, picture-galleries and collections, with many other places which I ought constantly to have visited, and which cost some money, were neglected ; and why ? because I could not afford it ! Well, in process of time, I found no very particular advantage to be gained by supporting the character of a gentleman, for these reasons: in the first place, nobody saw me ; in the second place, if they had seen me, they would not have known me ; and, thirdly, if they had known me, they would not have cared a farthing about me. So I thought within myself what I came to England for, and I found that it was not to please English folks, but to study painting ; and, as I found I must sacrifice painting to dress and visiting, or dress and visiting to painting, I determined on the latter, and ever since have lived accordingly, and now the tables are turned : I visit galleries and collections, purchase prints, etc., and, when I am asked why I don't pay more attention to my dress, I reply that I cannot afford it. Provision of every kind is excessively high here, and is increasingly so. A pair of fowls, such as we could get in America for about three shillings per pair, are eighteen shillings sterling ; a turkey, from ten shillings sixpence to a guinea ; beef is thirteen pence per pound ; pork, fourteen pence ; mutton, one shil ling ; and veal, as I said before, one shilling and sixpence ; bread is one shilling and eightpence the quartern loaf, half of one of* which we eat in a day. Every thing seems to be in proportion : shoes are from fifteen shillings to a guinea per pair, boots three pounds, and so on. By this you can form a slight estimate how much it costs to live in this country. It is known by the experience of two or three Americans, whom I know, that a pound goes no farther in England than a dollar in America. My greatest expense, next to living, is for canvas, frames, colors, etc., and visiting galleries. The frame of my large picture which I have just finished cost nearly twenty pounds, besides the canvas and colors, which cost nearly eight

58 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

pounds more, and the frame was the cheapest I could possibly get. Mr. Allston's frame cost him sixty guineas. Frames are very expen sive things, and on that account I shall not attempt another large picture foV some time, although Mr. West advises me to paint large as much as possible. The picture which I have finished is ' The Death of Hercules ; ' the size is eight feet by six feet and six inches. This picture I showed to Mr. West a few weeks ago, and he was extremely pleased with it, and paid me many very high compliments ; but, as praise comes better from another than from one's self, I shall send you a complimentary note which Mr. West has promised to send me on the occasion. I sent the picture to the Exhibition at Somerset House, which opens on the 3d of May, and have the sat isfaction, not only of having it received, but of having the praises of the council who decide on the admission of pictures. Six hun dred pictures were refused admission this year, so you may suppose that a picture (of the size, too, of which mine was) must possess some merit to be received in preference to six hundred ! A small picture may be received, even if it is not very good, because it will serve to fill up some little space which would otherwise be empty, but a large picture, from its excluding many small ones, must pos sess a great deal in its favor in order to be received.

" If you recollect, I told you I had completed a model of a single figure of the same subject ; this I sent to the Society of Arts at the Adelphi, to stand for the prize (which is offered every year for the best performance in painting, sculpture, and architecture), and is a gold medal ; yesterday I received the note accompanying this, by which you will see that it is adjudged to me in sculpture this year ; it will be delivered to me in public on the 13th of May or June, I don't know which, but I shall give you a particular account of the whole process as soon as I have received it. By knowing these facts, you will perceive that I have not been idle since my residence here. I wish I could send you some specimen of my painting, but captains and passengers absolutely refuse carrying any thing larger than a small package of letters ; and indeed, if there were opportunities, I could at present send nothing very in teresting to you, my works consisting merely of drawings of heads, hands, and feet, and now and then a portrait for improve ment. I shall soon commence some of papa's friends ; Dr. Lettsom I shall ask first, Mr. Wilberforce I shall also ask, but do not know whether he will have time to sit to me. Sir Joshua Banks is now very ill indeed, and I doubt whether he will recover, and, even if he

EULOGY OFALLSTON. 59

does, there is so much ceremony necessary, and it is considered so great a favor for a man of his rank to sit to an obscure artist, that I doubt very much whether I should be able to obtain his consent ; he might consent, however, if I mentioned that it was my father's request ; and, if he recovers, I shall at least ask him.

" I cannot close this letter without telling you how much I am indebted to that excellent man Mr. Allston ; he is extremely partial to me, and has often told me that he is proud of calling me his pupil ; he visits me every evening, and our conversation is gener ally upon the inexhaustible topic of our divine art, and upon home, which is next in our thoughts. I know not in what terms to speak of Mr Allston. I can truly say I do not know the slightest imper fection in him ; he is amiable, affectionate, learned, possessed of the greatest powers of mind and genius, modest, unassuming, and, above all, a religious man. You may perhaps suppose that my par tiality for him blinds me to his faults, but no man could conceal, on so long an acquaintance, every little foible from one constantly in his company ; and, during the whole of my acquaintance with Mr. Allston, I never heard him speak a peevish word, or utter a single inconsiderate sentence ; he is a man in praise of whom I can not speak sufficiently, and my love for him I can only compare to that love which ought to subsist between brothers. He is a man for whose genius I have the highest veneration, for whose princi ples I have the greatest respect, and for whose amiable qualities I have an increasing love. I could write a quire of paper in his praise, but all I could say of him would give you but a very imper fect idea of him. To learn all his excellences, you must be ac quainted with him. Do not think this mere fulsome compliment ; what I write I write sincerely ; you know I am not in the habit of writing what I don't think. You must recollect, when you tell friends fhat I am studying in England, that I am a pupil of Mr. Allston, and not Mr. West ; they will not long ask who Mr. All ston is ; he will very soon astonish the world. He claims me as his pupil, and told me a day or two since, in a jocose manner, that he should have a battle with Mr. West unless he gave up all preten sion to me. It is said, by the greatest connoisseurs in England, who have seen some of Mr. Allston's works, that he is destined to revive the art of painting in all its splendor, and that no age ever boasted of so great a genius. It might be deemed invidious (and therefore I should not wish it mentioned as coming from me), were I to make public another opinion of the first men in this country :

60 LIFE OF SAMUEL B. F. MORSE.

it is, that Mr. Allston will almost as far surpass Mr. West as Mr. West has other artists, and this is saying a great deal, considering the very high standing which Mr. West holds at present."

Samuel F. B. Morse to his Parents.

"LONDON, May 2, 1814.

" You will probably, before this reaches you, hear of the splen did entree of Louis XVIII. into London. I was a spectator of this scene. On the morning of the day, about ten o'clock, I went into Piccadilly, through which the procession was to pass ; I did not find any great concourse of people at that hour, except before the Poult- ney Hotel, where the sister of the Emperor Alexander resides, on a visit to this country, the Grand-duchess of Oldenburg. I thought it probable that, as the procession would pass this place, there would be some uncommon occurrence taking place before it, so I took my situation directly opposite, determined at any rate to se cure a good view of what happened. I waited four or five hours, during which time the people began to collect from all quarters ; the carriages began to thicken, the windows and fronts of the houses began to be decorated with the white flag, white ribbons, and laurel. Temporary seats were fitted up on all sides, which began to be filled, and all seemed to be in preparation. About this time the king's splendid band of music made its appearance, consisting, I suppose, of more than fifty musicians, and to my great gratification placed themselves directly before the hotel ; they began to play, and soon after the grand-duchess, attended by several Russian noble men, made her appearance on the balcony, followed by the Queen of England, the Princess Charlotte of Wales, the Princess Mary, Princess Elizabeth, and all the female part of the royal family. From this fortunate circumstance, you will see that I had an excel lent opportunity of observing their persons and countenances. The Duchess of Oldenburg is a common-sized woman, of about four or five-and-twenty ; she has rather a pleasant countenance, blue eyes, pale complexion, regular features, her cheek-bones high but not dis agreeably so. She resembles very much her brother the emperor, judging from his portrait. She has with her her little nephew, Prince Alexander, a boy of about three or four years old. He was a lively little fellow, playing about, and was the principal object of the at tention of the royal family. The queen, if I was truly directed to her, is an old woman of very sallow complexion, and nothing agreeable either in her countenance or deportment; and, if she was

THE KING OF FRANCE. 61

not called a queen, she might as well be any ugly old woman. The Princess Charlotte of Wales I thought pretty ; she has small features, regular, pale complexion, great amiability of expression, and con descension of manners ; the Princess Elizabeth is extremely corpulent, and from what I could see of her face was agreeable, though nothing remarkable. One of the others, I think it was the Princess Mary, appeared to have considerable vivacity in her manners ; she was without any covering to her head ; her hair was sandy, which she wore cropped ; her complexion was probably fair originally, but was rather red now ; her features were agreeable.

" It now began to grow late, the people were beginning to be tired, wanting their dinners, and the crowd to thicken, when a uni versal commotion, and murmur through the crowd and from the house-tops, indicated that the procession was at hand. This was fol lowed by the thunder of artillery, and the huzzas of the people tow ard the head of the street, where the houses seemed to be alive with the twirling of hats and shaking of handkerchiefs. This seemed to mark the progress of the king ; for, as he came opposite each house, these actions became most violent, with cries of c Vivent les ^Bour bons ! ' ' Vive le roi ! J 4 Vive Louis ! ' etc. I now grew several inches taller ; I stretched my neck, and opened my eyes. One car riage appeared, drawn by six horses, decorated with ribbons, and containing some of the French noblesse ; another, of the same de scription, with some of the French royal family. At length came a carriage drawn by eight beautiful Arabian cream-colored horses; in this were seated Louis XVIII., King of France, the Prince Regent of England, the Duchess d'Angouleme, daughter of Louis XVI., . and the Prince of Conde". They passed rather quickly, so that I had but a glance at them, though a distinct one. The prince regent I had often seen before ; the King of France I had a better sight of afterward, as I will presently relate. The Duchess d'Angouleme had a fine expression of countenance, owing probably to the occa sion, but a melancholy cast was also visible through it ; she was pale. The Prince of Conde" I have no recollection of. After this part of the procession had passed, the crowd became exceedingly oppressive, rushing down the street to keep pace with the king's carriage. As the king passed the royal family, he bowed, which they returned by kissing their hands to him and shaking their handkerchiefs with great enthusiasm. After they had gone by, the royal family left the balcony, where they had been between two and three hours. My only object now was to get clear of the

63 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

crowd. I waited nearly three-quarters of an hour, and at length, by main strength, worked myself edgewise across the street, where I pushed down through stables and houses, and by-lanes, to get thoroughly clear, not caring where I went, as I knew I could easily find my way when I got into a street. This I at last gained, and, to my no small astonishment, found myself by mere chance directly opposite the hotel where Louis and his suite were. The prince regent had just left the place ; and with his carriage went a great part of the mob, which left the space before the house comparatively clear. It soon filled again. I took advantage, however, and got directly before the windows of the hotel, as I expected the king would show himself, for the people were calling for him very clamorously. I was not disappointed ; for, in less than half a min ute, he came to the window, which was open, before which I was. I was so near him I could have touched him ; he staid nearly ten minutes, during which time I observed him carefully. He is very corpulent — a round face, dark eyes, prominent features ; the char acter of countenance much like portraits of the other Louises ; a pleasant face, but, above all, such an expression of the moment as I shall never forget, and in vain attempt to describe. His eyes were suffused with tears, his mouth slightly open, with an unaffected smile full of gratitude, and seemed to say to every one, ' Bless you ! ' His hands were a little extended sometimes, as if in adoration to heaven, at others as if blessing the people. I entered into his feelings. I saw a monarch, who for five-and-twenty years had been an exile from his country, deprived of his throne ; and, until within a few months, not the shadow of a hope remaining of ever returning to it again. I saw him raised as if by magic from a private station in an instant to his throne, to reign over a nation which has made itself the most conspicuous of any nation on the globe. I tried to think as he did, and, in the heat of my enthusiasm, I joined with heart and soul in the cries of l Vive le roi! ' c Vive Louis I* which rent the air from the mouths of thousands. As soon as he left the window, I returned home much fatigued, but well satisfied that my labor had not been for naught.

" Mr. Wilberforce is an excellent man ; his whole soul is bent on doing; good to his fellow-men. Not a moment of his time is lost. He is always planning some benevolent scheme or other ; and not only planning but executing. He is made up altogether of affection ate feeling. What I saw of him in private gave me the most ex alted opinion of him as a Christian. Oh, that such men as Mr. Wil-

THE WAR SPIRIT. 53

berforce were more common in this world. So much human blood would not then be shed to gratify the malice and revenge of a few wicked, interested men.

" I hope Cousin Samuel Breese will distinguish himself under so gallant a commander as Captain Perry. I shall look with anxiety for the sailing of the Guerriere ; there will be plenty of opportu nities for him, for peace with us is deprecated by the people here, and it only remains for us to fight it out gallantly, as we are able to do, or submit slavishly to any terms which they please to offer us ; a number of humane schemes are under contemplation, such as burn ing New London, for the sake of the frigates there, arming the blacks in the Southern States, burning all of our principal cities, and such like plans; which, from the supineness of the New-Eng land people, may be easily carried into effect. But no, the humane, generous English cannot do such base things — I hope not ; let the event show it. It is, perhaps, well I am here, for, with my present opinions, if I were at home, I should most certainly be in the army or navy : my mite is small, but when my country's honor demands it, it might help to sustain it. There can now be no French party. I wish to know very much what effect this series of good news will have at home. I congratulate you as well as all other good people on the providential events which have lately happened ; they must produce great changes with us ; I hope it will be for the best.

" I am in excellent health, and am painting away ; I am making studies for the large picture I contemplate for next year. It will be as large, I think, as Mr. Allston's famous one, which was ten feet by fourteen."

Samuel F. B. Morse to a Friend.

"LONDON, May 30, 1813.

" You ask in your letter what books I read, and what I am painting. The little time that I can spare from painting, I employ in reading and studying the old poets — Spenser, Chaucer, Dante, Tasso, etc., etc. ; these are necessary to a painter. As to painting, I have just finished a large picture, eight feet by six and a half, the c Death of Hercules,' which is now in the Royal Academy exhibi tion at Somerset House. I have been nattered by the newspapers, which seldom praise young artists, and they do me the honor to say that my picture, with the pictures of another young man by the name of Monroe, form a distinguished trait in this year's exhibition ; and, in enumerating about fifty of the preeminent works of the ex-

64 LIFE OF SAMUEL P. B. MORSE.

hibition, they have placed mine in the list. There were exhibited this year nearly one thousand pictures ; and about two thousand were offered, but the rest were rejected. This praise I consider much exaggerated. Mr. West, however, who saw it as soon as I had finished it, paid me many compliments, and told me that, were I to live to his age, I should never make a better composition — this I consider but a compliment, and as meant only to encourage me ; as such I receive it. A few days since I had the honor of receiving the prize gold medal offered for the best piece of sculpture at the Adelphi Society of Arts this year, which was presented me by the Duke of Norfolk. I mention these circumstances merely to show that I am getting along as well as can be expected, and, if any credit attaches to me, I willingly resign it to my country, and feel happy that I can contribute a mite to her honor."

Samuel F. B. Morse to his Parents.

"LONDON, June 13, 1813.

" I send by this opportunity (Mr. Elisha Goddard) the little cast of the ' Hercules ' which obtained the prize this year at the Adel phi, and also the gold medal which was the premium presented to me before a large assembly of the nobility and gentry of the coun try, by the Duke of Norfolk, who also paid me a handsome compli ment at the same time. There were present Lord Percy, the Mar gravine of Anspach, the Turkish, Sardinian, and Russian ambassa dors, who were pointed out to me, and many noblemen whom I do not now recollect. My large picture also has not only been received at the Royal Academy, but has one of the finest places in the rooms. It has been spoken of in the papers. They not only praise me, but place my picture among the most attractive in the exhi bition. This I know will give you pleasure, and I write it with great pleasure. I also send a catalogue of the exhibition, with one of the papers which criticises my picture, that you may see for your selves."

The early triumphs of men are more highly valued than suc cesses in after-life. Among the papers that Mr. Morse preserved to the day of his death is a copy of the British Press, May 4, 1813, in which his picture " The Dying Hercules " is placed among the nine best paintings in a gallery of nearly one thou sand, and among them the works of Turner, ISTorthcote, Law rence, and "Wilkie.

TWENTY PRINCES IN LONDON. 65

Samuel F. B. Morse to his Parents.

" LONDON, June 15, 1814.

" I expected at this time to have been in Bristol, with Mr. and Mrs. Allston, who are now there, but the great fetes in honor of the peace, and the visit of the allied sovereigns, have kept me in Lon don till all is over. There are now in London upward of twenty foreign princes, also the great Emperor Alexander, and the King of Prussia. A week ago yesterday they arrived in town, and, contrary to expectation, came in a very private manner. I went to see their entree, but was disappointed, with the rest of the people, for the Em peror Alexander, disliking all show and parade, came in a private carriage, and took an indirect route here. The next and following day I spent in endeavoring to get a sight of them. I have been very fortunate, having seen the Emperor Alexander no less than fourteen times, so that I am quite familiar with his face ; the King of Prussia I have seen once ; Marshal Blucher five or six times ; Count Platoff three or four times ; besides Generals de Yorck, Bulow, etc. — all whose names must be perfectly familiar to you, and the distinguished parts they have all acted in the great scenes just past. The" Emperor Alexander I am quite in love with ; he has every mark of a great mind. His countenance is an uncommonly fine one; he has a fair complexion, hair rather light, and a stout, well-made figure ; he has a very cheerful, benevolent expression, and his conduct has everywhere evinced that his face is the index of his mind. When I first saw him he was dressed in a green uni form, with two epaulets and stars of different orders ; he was con versing at the window of his hotel with his sister, the Duchess of Oldenburg ; I saw him again soon after, in the superb coach of the prince regent, with the duchess his sister, going to the court of the queen. In a few hours after I saw him again, on the balcony of the Poultney Hotel ; he came forward and bowed to the people. He was then dressed in a red uniform, with a broad blue sash over the right shoulder ; he appeared to great advantage. He staid about five minutes. I saw him again five or six times through the day, but got. only indifferent views of him. The following day, however, I was determined to get a better and nearer view of him than be fore. I went down to his hotel about ten o'clock, the time when I supposed he would leave it; I saw one of the prince's carriages drawn up, which opened at the top, and was thrown back before and behind. In a few minutes the emperor with his sister made their appearance and got into it. As the carriage started, I pressed 5

66 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MOKSE.

forward and got hold of the ring of the coach-door and kept pace with it for about a quarter of a mile. I was so near that I could have touched him ; he was in a plain dress, a brown coat, and alto gether like any other gentleman. His sister, the duchess, also was dressed in a very plain, unattractive manner, and, if it had not been for the crowd which followed, they would have been taken for any lady and gentleman taking an airing. In this unostentatious man ner does he conduct himself, despising all pomp, and seems rather more intent upon inspecting the charitable, useful, and ornamental establishments of the country, with a view, probably, of benefiting his own dominions by his observations, than of displaying his rank by the splendor of dress and equipage. His condescension also is no less remarkable ; an instance or two will exemplify it : On the morning after his arrival, he was up at six o'clock, and while the lazy inhabitants of this great city were fast asleep in their beds, he was walking with his sister the duchess in Kensington Gardens ; as he came across Hyde Park, he observed a corporal drilling some recruits, upon which he went up to him and entered into familiar conversation with him, asking him a variety of questions, and, when he had seen the end of the exercise, shook him heartily by the hand and left him. As he was riding on horseback, he shook hands with all who came round him.

" A few days ago, as he was coming out of the gate of the London Docks, on foot, after having inspected them, a great crowd was waiting to see him, among whom was an old woman of about seventy years of age, who seemed very anxious to get near him, but, the crowd pressing very much, she exclaimed * Oh, if I could but touch his clothes ! ' The emperor overheard her, and, turn ing round, advanced to her, and, pulling off his glove, gave her his hand, and, at the same time dropping a guinea into it, said to her, ' Perhaps this will do as well.' The old woman was quite overcome, and cried ' God bless your majesty ! ' till he was out of sight.

" An old woman in her ninetieth year sent a couple of pair of warm woolen stockings to the emperor, and with them a letter stat ing that she had knit them with her own hands expressly for him, and, as she could not afford to send him silk, she thought that wool en would be much more acceptable, and would also be more useful in his climate. The emperor was very much pleased, and determined on giving her his miniature set in gold and diamonds, but, upon learning that her situation in life was / such that money would be

THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 67

more acceptable, he wrote her an answer, and, thanking her heartily for her present, inclosed her one hundred pounds.

" These anecdotes speak more than volumes in praise of the Emperor Alexander. He is truly a great man. He is a great con queror, for he has subdued the greatest country in the world, and overthrown the most alarming despotism that ever threatened man kind. He is great also because he is good ; his whole time seems spent in distributing good to all around him; and wherever he goes he makes every heart rejoice. He is very active, and is all his time on the alert in viewing every thing that is worth seeing. The emperor is also extremely partial to the United States ; every thing American pleases him, and he seems uncommonly interested in the welfare of our country. I was introduced to-day to Mr. Harris, our charge cVaffaires to the court of Russia. He is a very intelligent, fine man, and is a great favorite with Alexander. From a conver sation with him, I have a scheme in view which, when I have ma tured, I will submit to you for your approbation.

" The King of Prussia I have seen but once, and then had but an imperfect view of him. He came to the window with the prince regent, and bowed to the people (at St. James's Palace). He is tall and thin, has an agreeable countenance, but rather dejected in consequence of the late loss of his queen, to whom he was very much attached.

" General Blucher, now Prince Blucher, I have seen five or six times. I saw him on his entrance into London, all covered with dust, and in a very ordinary kind of vehicle. On the day after, I saw him several times in his carriage, drawn about wherever he wished by the mob. He is J'ohn^s greatest favorite, and they have almost pulled the brave general and his companion, Count Platoff, to pieces, out of pure affection. Platoff had his coat act ually torn off him, and divided into a thousand pieces as relics, lay the good people — their kindness knows no bounds ; and I think, in all the battles which they have fought, they never have run so much risk of losing their limbs as in encountering their friends in England. Blucher is a veteran-looking soldier ; a very fine head, monstrous mustaches. His head is bald, like papa's ; his hair gray, and he wears powder. Understanding that he was to be at Co vent Garden Theatre, I went, as the best place to see him ; and I .was not disappointed. He was in the prince's box, and I had a good view of him during the whole entertainment, being directly before him for three or four hours. A few nights since I also went to the

68 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

theatre to see Platoff^ the hetman (chief) of the Cossacks. He has also a very fine countenance, a high and broad forehead, dark complexion, and dark hair. He is tall and well made, as I think the Cossacks are generally ; he was very much applauded by a very crowded house, the most part collected to see him."

A very noted youth fell into the hands of Morse while in London, and is thus mentioned in a letter from a friend of his :

" Morse and I intend going to Hampton Court as soon as we have sent our pictures to the exhibition, and, Allston having prom ised to accompany us, we shall have a very pleasant little jaunt.

" Zerah Colburn, the little calculator, has called on us two or three times, as Morse is painting his portrait. He is a fine, lively little fellow, and the most inquisitive child I ever saw. He has ex cited much astonishment here, and, as they are very unwilling just at this time to allow any cleverness to the Americans, it was said in some of the papers that he was a Russian. There was some great arithmetical question, I do not exactly know what, which he solved almost as soon as it was put to him, though it for several years baffled the skill of some of the first professors. His father expects soon to return to America, and says he has collected money suffi cient to educate his son. there, and that he now has power to prove to the world how much he has been injured by the accusations of avarice and selfishness that have appeared against him in the pub lic prints."

The war between England and the United States (1S12-'14) naturally imposed delicate and oftentimes responsible duties up on American residents in London. Their kind offices were con stantly sought by parties whose misfortunes had brought them into trouble, or by those who did not wish to run the risk of being detained in a hostile country. Of such applications as are answered in this letter, Mr. Morse had many :

"LONDON, March 35, 1814.

" MY DEAR FRIEND : Your letter with Dr. Hay ward's came to hand, some time ago, at Bristol. The moment I came to London I presented your letter to Mr. Cooper, and he very politely gave me a note to the Alien Office, which I presented. I have called since about a dozen times to inquire the result of Mr. Cooper's applica tion, and to-day received for answer that * England would not 'be come the medium of communication between France and the

APPEAL TO MR. THORNTON. 69

United States? Please inform Dr. Gushing that, by the request of Mr. Thornton, I made application to Mr. Cooper for him at the same time, and Mr. Cooper's application was for both of you." " Believe me sincerely yours,

"S. F. B. MOKSE."

Samuel F. B. Morse to Henry Thornton.

"BRISTOL, December 30, 1813.

"RESPECTED SIR: I take the liberty of addressing you in behalf of an American prisoner of war now in the Stapleton depot, and I address you, sir, under the conviction that a petition in the cause of humanity will not be considered by you as obtrusive. The prisoner I allude to is a gentleman of the name of Burritt, a native of New Haven, in the State of Connecticut ; his connec tions are of the highest respectability in that city, which is noto rious for its adherence to Federal principles. His friends and rela tions are among my father's friends, and although I was not, until now, personally acquainted with him, yet his face is familiar to me, and many of his relatives were my particular friends while I was receiving my education at Yale College, in New Haven. From

that college he graduated in the year . A classmate of his was

the Rev. Mr. Stuart, who is one of the professors of the Andover Theological Institution, and of whom I think my father has spoken in some of his letters to Mr. Wilberforce. Mr. Burritt, after he left college, applied himself to study, so much so as to injure his health, and, by the advice of his physicians, he took to the sea as the only remedy left for him. This had the desired effect, and he was re stored to health in a considerable degree. Upon the breaking out of the war with this country, all the American coasting-trade being destroyed, he took a situation as second-mate in the schooner Re venge, bound to France, and was captured on the 10th of May, 1813. Since that time he has been a prisoner, and from the in closed certificates you will ascertain what has been his conduct since. He is a man of excellent religious principles, and (I firmly be lieve) of the strictest integrity. So well assured am I of this, that, in case it should be required, Iicill hold my self bound to answer for him 'in my own person. His health is suffering by his confinement, and the unprincipled society which he is obliged to endure is pecul iarly disagreeable to a man of his education. My object in stating these particulars to you, sir, is (if possible and consistent with the laws of the country), to obtain for him, through your influence, his

70 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

liberty on his parole of honor. By so doing you will probably be the means of preserving the life of a good man, and will lay his friends, my father and myself, under the greatest obligations.

" Trusting to your goodness to pardon this intrusion upon, your time, I am, sir, with the highest consideration, your most obedient, humble servant,

"SAMUEL F. B. MOUSE."

Henry Thornton, Esq., to Samuel F. J3. Morse.

" DEAE SIE : You will perceive by the inclosed that there is, unhappily, no prospect of our effecting our wishes in respect to your poor friend at Bristol. I shall be glad to know whether you have had any success in obtaining a passport for Dr. Gushing.

" I am, dear sir, yours, etc.,

" H. THORNTON. "BATAKIN, February 17, 1814."

Lord Melville to Mr. Thornton.

"ADMIRALTY, February 7, 1814.

" SIE : Mr. Hay having communicated to me a letter which he received from you on the subject of Benjamin Burritt, an American prisoner of war in the depot at Stapleton, I regret much that, after consulting on this case with Sir Rupert George, and ascertaining the usual course of proceeding in similar instances, I cannot dis cover any circumstances that would justify a departure from the rules observed toward other prisoners of the same description. There can be no question that his case is a hard one ; but I am afraid that it is inseparable from a state of war. It is not only not a solitary instance among the French and American prisoners, but, unless we were prepared to adopt the system of releasing all others of the same description, we should find that the number who might justly complain of undue partiality to this man would be very con siderable.

" I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient and very hum ble servant,

" MELVILLE."

S. E. Tyler to Samuel F. B. Morse.

" STAPLETON DEPOT, February 24, 1814. " ME. SAMUEL F. B. MOESE —

"DEAE SIE: Having some knowledge of your family and friends in Boston and Charlestown, I have taken the liberty to

DARTMOOR PRISON. 71

address this communication to you, hoping that my unhappy situation will be a sufficient apology for the liberty I have taken. I was captured in April, 1813, bound from Charleston, South Carolina, to Bordeaux, and have been confined as a prisoner of war ever since. During my confinement I have written several times to my friends in Boston (of which place I am a native), but as yet have been without advices from them, which I can attribute to nothing but the obstacles in the communication between the two nations. I was entirely ignorant of your having been at the prison until to-day, when I received the information from Mr. Burritt, and I regret exceedingly that it was not in my power to have had an interview with you. I am a son of Mr. William Tyler, who, before his decease, carried on the rope-making business in West Boston, near the almshouse. I also have a brother-in-law, Mr. John Andrews, who carries on the sail-making business at the head of India Wharf, who is my guardian, and agent for me, as it respects my father's estate.

" For reasons above stated I have been induced to make an ap plication to you for pecuniary assistance, 'which, if you should be disposed to grant, I will give you an order on my brother for the amount, or will request him to repay it immediately to your corre spondent either in Boston or Charlestown. Let me assure you, sir, that I would not make this application to you unless strongly prompted by most poignant suffering. Should you comply with my request, you will have the satisfaction of relieving an unfortu nate fellow-creature, and you will confer lasting obligations on me.

" If you would be good enough to inform me if there is any prospect of peace, or the probability of the exchange of prisoners being resumed, you will greatly oblige me. In the hope of shortly hearing from you,

" I remain respectfully your obedient servant,

"SAMUEL E. TYLEK."

Mr. Morse had some warm friends and fellow-countrymen residing at Bristol, and they encouraged him to believe that he would find several willing to sit to him for their portraits if he would visit that city. He did so, and found friends with whom his time was pleasantly spent, but very little in the line of his profession to reward him for leaving his studies and seeking employment. A letter from Washington Allston, in London, gives us insight into the life of artists :

72 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

Allston to Morse.

" LONDON, January 2, 1814.

" MY DEAR SIR : In the first place, I wish you and all of Mr. Visscher's family a happy New- Year. Last week I wrote you a let ter that must have been vastly entertaining — as how f because it was altogether about my own affairs. Now, for the sake of sym metry, I send you another of the same kind.

" Since my return I have had the courage to examine the state of my finances at my banker's, and found the balance in my favor to have been reduced to so small a sum as makes me think 'tis time to look about me ; and to endeavor, as soon as possible, after the proper ways and means for increasing it. On considering the subject, I was naturally led to the landscape in Bristol, when it occurred to me that perhaps the price I had fixed for it (viz., six hundred guineas) might be too high for that market ; and that I should stand a better chance of selling it by reducing it to five hundred. I would thank you to consult with Mr. Visscher on this point ; for I depend so much on his judgment, that I should not hesitate a moment to put it at five hundred guineas, provided he should think that a more salable price. Will you write me im mediately and let me know his opinion ?

" I gave the finishing touch to my picture yesterday, and shall send it to the gallery to-morrow. Leslie's picture will do him great honor ; he has improved it very much since his return. As to my ' own beautiful self? Mrs. A. says I am a picture of health. At any rate I find my health every day improving, and promise myself the pleasure of sending Mr. King a very favorable bulletin. Pray be particular in letting us know how his two patients in Mr. Vis scher's family bear this cold fog. We have had it so thick and brown here, that it might well have passed for Shakespeare's ' blanket of the dark ' that Macbeth speaks of. Mrs. A. unites with me in best regards to our friends in Portland Square, and yourself.

" Sincerely yours,

" W. ALLSTON."

In the autumn of the same year, while Allston was at Bris tol with Morse, Leslie wrote :

Leslie to Morse.

" LONDON, November 29, 1814.

11 MOST POTENT, GRAVE, AND REVEREND DOCTOR : I take up my pencil to make ten thousand apologies to you for addressing

LETTER FROM LESLIE. 73

you in humble black-lead. Deeply impressed as I am with the full conviction that you deserve the very best Japan ink, the only ex cuse I can make to you is the following : it is perhaps needless to remind you that the tools to which ink is applied to paper, in order to produce writing, are made from goose-quills, which quills I am goose enough not to keep a supply of; and, not having so much money at present in my breeches-pocket as will purchase one, I am forced to betake to my pencil, an instrument which, without paying myself any compliment, I am sure I can wield better than a pen. I am glad to hear that you are so industrious, and that Mr. A. is succeeding so well with portraits. I hope he will bring all he has painted to London. I am looking out for you every day. I think we form a kind of family here, and I feel, in an absence from Mr. and Mrs. A. and yourself, as I used to do when away from my mother and sisters. By-the-by, I have not had any letters from home for more than a month. It seems the Americans are all united, and we shall now have war in earnest. I am glad of it for many reasons. I think it wTill not only get us a more speedy and permanent peace, but may tend to crush the demon of party- spirit and strengthen our government.

" I am done painting the gallery, and have finished my drawings for the prize : thank you for your good wishes.

" I thought Mr. Allston knew how proud I am of being consid ered his student. Tell him, if he thinks it worth while to mention me at all in his letter to Delaplaine, I shall consider it a great honor to be called so.

" Yours most truly,

" 0. B. L."

Leslie to Morse.

" Mr. Allston and I have sent our pictures to the gallery. He has made good interest to get his large one placed at the end of one of the rooms. As to mine, it is of small consequence where they put it. Mr. Allston, after finishing his < Diana,' showed it to Mr. West, who was (to speak even moderately) in raptures with it. He immediately called his son Raphael, { There,' says the old gen tleman, * there, why there is nobody who does any thing like this.' Raphael exclaimed, ' It looks like a bit of Titian.' c Oh yes,' an swered his father, ' that's Titian's flesh, that's Titian's flesh.' After this shower of compliments, Mr. Allston said, £ I am very highly gratified, sir, to find it meets your approbation.11 4 Sir,' said Mr.

74 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

"West, c I cannot find words to express what I think of it.' He then proceeded to point out the beauties of the parts, and praised the composition, drawing, etc., as he had done the color. He seemed particularly pleased with the landscape. He told Mr. Allston to follow this up, adding, ' Sir, you will find thousands of people who will give you two hundred guineas for a picture of this size, who have not room in their houses for larger ones.' He said he could have sold all the small sketches in his gallery many times over, but he chose to keep them himself. Several he has sold, and painted duplicates of them. Mr. Allston mentioned his subject of 4 Venus and Adonis,' and Mr. West advised him by all means to paint it, but not to have the figures the size of life. Mr. Allston is going to begin the old gentleman's portrait very soon. He promises himself much pleasure in the execution of it."

" Mr. Morse has related to me," says Dunlap, " some particulars of a ramble he took in company with Earle, when they both were students of the Royal Academy in 1813. With their sketch-books and drawing apparatus, they visited the sea-shore and the towns adjacent, making pedestrian excursions into the country in search of scenery, and sometimes meeting an adventure. On one occasion, their aim after a day's ramble was to reach Deal, and there put up for the night ; but they found, when about five miles from the town, that they had to cross a dreary moor, apd the sun was about to withdraw his light from them. As they mounted a stile they were met by a farmer, who accosted them with :

" ' Gentlemen, are you going to cross the moor so late ? '

" * Yes. We can't lose our way, can we ? '

" c No ; but you may lose your lives.'

"'How so?'

" ' Why there be always a power of shipping at Deal, and the sailors be sad chaps ; they come ashore and rob and murder on the moor, without your leave or by your leave.'

" ' Has any thing of the kind taken place lately ? '

1 Why, yes, a young woman was murdered not long ago by two sailors. You will see the spot on your way, if you will go : there is a pile of stones where she was killed. The fellows were taken, and I saw them hanged.'

" ' So there is no danger from them, then.'

" * About a mile farther on you will see bushes on your left hand — there a man was murdered not long ago ; but the worst

MEETING A GHOST. 75

place is farther on. You will come to a narrow lane with a hedge on each side ; it will be dark before you get there, and in that lane you will come to a stile, and just beyond you will see a white stone set up, and on it is written all the circumstances of the murder of a young woman, a neighbor of mine, who was coming home from town all dressed in white, with a bundle in her hand, tied in a dark-red handkerchief. But, gentlemen, you had better turn back and stop the night at my house, and you shall be heartily wel come.'

" They thanked him, but saying they were two, and a match for two, they full of confidence pursued their route. It soon became twilight, l^hey found the heap of stones, and a slight shudder oc curred when looking on the dreary scene, and the mark by which murder was designated. They passed on rather tired, and striving to keep up each other's courage until they came to the bushes. Here was another spot where foul murder had been committed. They quickened their pace as they found darkness increase ; and now they came to the lane with the high hedge-row on each side, which rendered their way almost a path of utter darkness. They became silent, and with no pleasant feelings expected to see the stile, and, if not too dark, the stone erected to commemorate the murder of the young girl in white with the dark-red handkerchief.

" ' What's that ? ' said Earle, stopping.

" ' I see nothing,' said Morse — ' yes — now, that I stoop down, I see the stile.'

" ' Don't you see something white beyond the stile ? '

" ' That, I suppose, is the white stone.'

" ' Stones do not move,' said Earle.

" Morse stooped again, so as to bring the stile against the sky as a background, and whispered : c I see some one on the stile — hush ! '

" A figure now approached, and, as they stood aside to give am ple room for it to pass, they perceived a tall female dressed in white, with a dark-red bundle in her hand. On came the figure, and the lads gazed with a full recollection of the farmer's story of murder, and some feelings allied to awe. On she came, and without no ticing them passed to go over the moor.

" ' It will not do to let it go without speaking to it,' thought Morse, and he called out, ' Young woman ! are you not afraid to pass over the moor so late ? '

" < Oh no, sir,' said the ghost, « I live hard by, and when I've

76 LIFE OF SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

done work I am used to crossing the moor in the eve — good-night,' and on she tripped.

" The young painters laughed at each other, and pursued their way without further thought of ghosts or murderers. They saw, indeed, the murder-marking monument, but it was too dark to read the tale, and they soon found themselves in comfortable quarters, after their long day's ramble, and forgot their fears and their fatigues together.

" Eighteen years or more after, Mr. Morse inquired of Leslie for their old companion, Earle, and learned that he had been rambling far beyond Deal. £ He had visited every part of the Mediterranean,' said Leslie, 'roamed in Africa, rambled in the United States, sketched in South America, attempted to go to the Cape of Good Hope in a worn-out Margate hoy, and was shipwrecked on Tristan d'Acunha, where he passed six months with some old tars, who hutted there. At length a vessel touched the desolate place and released him. He then visited Van Diemen's Land, New South Wales, and New Zealand, where he drew from the naked figure, and saw the finest forms in the world addicted to cannibalism.

" Returning to Sydney, he, by way of variety, proceeded to the Caroline Islands, stopped at the Ladrones, looked in upon Manila, and finally settled himself at Madras, and made money as a portrait- painter. Not content, he went to Pondicherry, and there embarked for France, but stopped at the Mauritius, and, after some few more calls at various places, found his way home. Here his sister had married a Mr. Murray, a relative of the Duke of Athol, and, being left a widow, he found a home as charge tf affaires for his grace, who, you know, is a harmless madman, thinks himself overwhelmed with business, and shuts himself up with books and papers, which he cannot understand, and then calls for his coach, and, riding out on some important errand, which forgotten, he returns again.

" Earle wrote and published his travels, and attracted some at tention. One day he came to me with delight painted on his face.

" ' I am anchored for life ; I have an offer of two hundred pounds a year, and every thing found me, only to reside under the roof of the Duke of Athol, and ride out with him when he takes it in his