Morse, Joshua. See Morse, Asahel.
Morse, Richard Gary, an American Presbyte- rian minister, noted as a religious journalist, and son of Jedediah Jlorse, was born June 18, 1795, at Charlestown, Mass. At the age of nine he was sent to Phillips's Academy, Andover, to prepare for admission to college, and entered Yale College in 1808. He graduated in 1812, the youngest member of his class. The year im- mediately following his graduation he spent in New Haven, being employed as the amanuensis of president Dwight, and living in his family, and thus enjoyed an association invaluable to any man, and by which, no doubt, Mr. Morse was greatly profited. In 1814 he en- tered the theological seminary at Andover, and, having passed through the regular three-years' course, was li- censed to preach in 1817. The winter immediately succeeding his licensure he spent in South Carolina as a supply of the Presbyterian church on John's Island. He became, however, 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 ministry contemplates. On his re- turn to New England he became associated with his fa- ther for some time in a very successful geographical enterprise; and in the spring of 1823 enlisted with his brother in another enterprise still more important — the establishing of the Ne7v York Observer, of which he Avas associate editor and proprietor for the remainder of his life, and during this long period contributed largely to its columns, especially by translations from the French and German. He die<l, while abroad on a visit to re- cuperate his health, at Kissingen, Germany, Sept. 22, 1868. Under the ordering of a wise and gracious Prov- idence, his circurnstances from the very beginning of life acted upon him as a benign influence. What his
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early training was may be inferred from his distin- guished parentage, and his intimate association with Dr. Dwight. And, indeed, during his whole life his as- sociations, whether viewed in respect to near relation- ship or general acquaintance, were fitted to develop and mature both the intellectual and moral man. His Cliris- tian character shone conspicuously in all his life. He not only had a strong conviction of the truth of the Gospel, but a high appreciation of the system of evan- gelical doctrine. He became at an early period a com- municant in the Cliurch, and his whole subsequent life was worthy of his Christian profession. See New York Observer, Nov. 5, 18G8; and the Jubilee Year-book of that paper for 1H7:3. (J. H.W.)
Morse, Sidney Edwards, an American relig- ious journalist, bmihor of the jireceding, was born at Charlestown, Mass., Feb. 7, 1794, and was educated at Yale College, which he entered at eleven years of age, and was graduated at fourteen, with a class many of whom lived to a great age and became famous in various departments of professional life. He studied theology at Andover and law at Litchfield, but at sixteen began his apparently predestinated life-work by writing for a Bos- ton ne\vspa|)er. Afterwards, when a number of clergy- men about Hoston, among them his own father, deter- mined to try the experiment of a religious newspaper, and the Boston Recorder was projected, young Jlorse was chosen to conduct it. A few years later (in 1823) he established, in connection with his brother Richard, the New York Observer, which perhaps during the whole of Sidney E. Morse's administration as its senior editor, that is, till 1858, was the ablest religious paper in the country, as it was the pioneer of its class of periodicals. He died Dec. 23, 1871, at his residence in New York. Mr. Morse had a clear and logical mind, wide culture, and a tireless spirit of investigation. He was acknowl- edged to be a man of broad and catholic views, though eminently conservative in his temperament, and of strong convictions, to which he rendered the most com- plete loyalty. He was uniformly calm and kind, and not without charity for those with whom he differed on many of the great moral movements of tlie age, and lived and died having faith in humanity and in God. Few men have had so long a career — for he was en- gaged in public life sixty years — and fewer yet have ever enjoyed in so rich a measure the reverence of as- sociates and the respect of the great public. He will be especially remembered in coming time as the founder of the New York Observer, in the conduct of which he was for nearly forty years actively engaged. From his mind and spirit, jirobably more than from any other, the religious press of the present day has received its best characteristics, and if ne\\' papers now surpass their ven- erable predecessor — which but few do — they owe their success in no small degree to the inspiration of his ge- nius. Like his distinguished brother. Prof. S. F. B. Morse, he always took an active interest in science, and especially in tliose branches which relate to geography and exploration, and was engaged until interrupted by his last illness in |)crfecting an invention for exploring the depths of llie ocean. He had been writing on this favorite subject until a late hour a week before his death. His best-known works are A New System of Mothrn Geography (1K23), A North American Atlas, and a series of general maps. For several years the sales of the two first-mentioned works averaged 70,000 copies annually, and more than ,500,000 copies of the lirst-named have been [jrinted. See Applvtou's Annual C'l/clopwilia, 1871, p. .532 ; New York Observer, Dec. 1871 ; North A mer. Rev. .Ian. 1823, p. 176-181 ; Observer Jubi- lee Year-book, 1873. (J. H.W.)