Jedidiah Morse to Thomas Jefferson, 24 February 1818
From Jedidiah Morse
Charlestown (Massts) Feb. 24th 1818
Respected sir,
In behalf of the Compiler of the enclosed Work, I transmit to you a copy of it for your acceptance, with a request, that you would do him & me the favor, to give your opinion of its merits as a school book. He is a young man of taste, without property, has completed a course of Law studies, & is now a student in Theology. Your patronage of the work, if, on examining it, you shall see fit to afford it, would be highly valued by him. The object of the book is a benevolent one; Every thing sectarian, has been avoided. It was intended that the whole effect of it should be, to stimulate to deeds of beneficence, to enlighten, purify, & harmonize the World. I am not certain, sir, that you will exactly accord in opinion with the eloquent men whose speeches are recorded in this work, as to the means best fitted1 to accomplish this great & good object—but I have confidence in your candor & liberality—& desire to have it effected by any means, whh wise & good men of different opinions, may devise. You will see what the means whh have been put into operation have2 already effected, & judge of their wisdom.—
I was led, sir, to address you on this subject from the perusal of your letter of the 14th ult. on the system of primary schools proposed to be established in your State—addressed to a Member of your Assembly. Without descending to particulars, I can only say, that Your plan, for such I presume it is,3 if it shall be carried into operation, as I hope it will be, cannot fail, I think, to produce the happiest effects on the state of Society, especially if it shall embrace, as I have no doubt it will, what will be essential to its Success,4 a proper (liberal)5 course of instruction in religion & morality—
I will trespass no longer on your time, whh I know is occupied to the full—
Jedh Morse
RC (CSmH: JF-BA); endorsed by TJ as received 5 Mar. 1818 and so recorded in SJL. RC (MHi); address cover only; with PoC of TJ to Patrick Gibson, 13 May 1818, on verso; addressed: “Hon. Thomas Jefferson Esq Monticello Va.” FC (CtY: Morse Family Papers); in Morse’s hand; at head of text: “To Mr Jefferson” and “copy”; endorsed by Morse: “Copy of my Letter to Mr Jefferson Feb. 24. 1818 with Chn. Orator.” Enclosure: [Samuel Etheridge], The Christian Orator; or, a collection of speeches, delivered on Public Occasions before religious Benevolent Societies. to which is prefixed An Abridgement of Walker’s Elements of Elocution (Charlestown, Mass., 1818; , 13 [no. 820]).
Jedidiah Morse (1761–1826), clergyman and geographer, was born in Woodstock, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale College (later Yale University) in 1783. Having held his first pastoral appointment in 1785 in nearby Norwich, he returned to Yale as a tutor, 1786–87. Morse thereafter served as minister of a Congregational church in Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1789–1819. An ardent Federalist, advocate of orthodox Calvinist views, and opponent of Unitarianism, in 1805 he established and edited the Panoplist, a religious journal. Morse was also a founder of Andover Theological Seminary in 1808, the New England Tract Society in 1814, and the American Bible Society in 1816. After leaving the pulpit he composed a study of the Indians living in western New York and the Great Lakes region for the federal government. Morse is perhaps best known as the “Father of American Geography.” Although essentially a compiler of the work of others, his writings in the field were both influential and popular. Geography Made Easy (New Haven, [1784]), The American Geography (Elizabethtown, N.J., 1789; revised as The American Universal Geography, Boston, 1793, no. 3963), and The American Gazetteer (Boston, 1797; no. 3964) all went through many editions. Morse died in New Haven ( ; ; , 26:369; Richard J. Moss, The Life of Jedidiah Morse: A Station of Peculiar Exposure [1995]; , 22, 74; , 4:295–304; , 2:247–56; Hartford Connecticut Courant, 12 June 1826).
TJ’s letter of the 14th ult. was addressed to Joseph C. Cabell.
1. Preceding two words not in FC.
2. Reworked from “these means have.”
3. Preceding six words interlined.
4. Preceding seven words interlined.
5. Word and parentheses interlined.
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