Jedidiah Morse

Jedidiah Morse (July 23 1761 – June 9 1826) was a U.S. clergyman and geographer. He was the father of Samuel F. B. Morse.

Morse made an important impact on the educational system of the United States. While teaching at a school for young women, he saw the need for a geography textbook oriented to the forming nation. The result was skimpy and derivative, "Geography Made Easy" (1784). He followed that with "American Geography" (1789) which was widely cited and copied. New editions of his schoolchildren textbooks and the more weighty works, often came out yearly, earning him the informal title "father of American geography." His postponed gazetteer for his work of 1784 was bested by Joseph Scott's "Gazetteer of the United States" in 1795. However, with the aid of Noah Webster and Rev. Samuel Austin, Morse published his gazetteer in 1797, with his "Universal Geography of the United States".

He studied divinity at Yale (M.A. 1786). He was a pastor in Charlestown, Massachusetts (across Boston) for about thirty years. Among his friends and numerous correspondents were Noah Webster, Benjamin Silliman and Jeremy Belknap.

Morse also made significant contributions to Dobson's Encyclopædia, the first encyclopedia published in America after the Revolution. In addition to writing authoritatively on geography, he rebutted certain racist views published in the "Encyclopædia Britannica" concerning the Native American peoples, e.g., that their women were "slavish" and that their skins and skulls were thicker than those of other human beings.

Morse is also known for his part in the Illuminati conspiracy theory in New England 1798-99. Morse delivered three sermons beginning May 9, 1798 supporting John Robison's book "Proofs of Conspiracy." Morse was a strong Federalist and there were some fears that the anti-Federalists i.e. Republicans were influenced by the French Illuminati believed to be responsible for the French Revolution. His and Robison's claims were later discredited.

Quotes

*"To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. . . . Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all blessings which flow from them, must fall with them."

Further reading

*William Buell Sprague, "The Life of Jedidiah Morse" (New York, 1874)