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Sidney Edwards Morse (7 February 1794
Charlestown, Massachusetts Charlestown is the oldest neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Originally called Mishawum by the Massachusett tribe, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from downtown Boston, and also adjoins t ...
– 24 December 1871
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
) was an American inventor, geographer and journalist. He was the brother of telegraphy pioneer and painter
Samuel F. B. Morse Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph ...
.


Biography

Morse was the son of geographer and clergyman
Jedidiah Morse Jedidiah Morse (August 23, 1761June 9, 1826) was a geographer whose textbooks became a staple for students in the United States. He was the father of the telegraphy pioneer and painter Samuel Morse, and his textbooks earned him the sobriquet of "f ...
. He graduated from
Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...
in 1811, studied theology at
Andover Seminary Andover Newton Theological School (ANTS) was a graduate school and seminary in Newton, Massachusetts. Affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA and the United Church of Christ. It was the product of a merger between Andover Theological ...
, and law at the
Litchfield, Connecticut Litchfield is a town in and former county seat of Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,192 at the 2020 census. The boroughs of Bantam and Litchfield are located within the town. There are also three unincorp ...
, school. Meanwhile, he became a contributor to the '' Columbian Centinel'' of
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...
, writing a series of articles that illustrated the danger to the American Union from an undue multiplication of new states in the south, and showing that it would give to a sectional minority the control of the government. These led to his being invited by
Jeremiah Evarts Jeremiah F. Evarts (February 3, 1781 – May 10, 1831), also known by the pen name William Penn, was a Christian missionary, reformer, and activist for the rights of American Indians in the United States, and a leading opponent of the Indian rem ...
and others to found a weekly religious newspaper, to which he gave the name ''
Boston Recorder The ''Boston Recorder'' was a Congregationalist newspaper established by Nathaniel Willis (Nathaniel Parker Willis's father) and Sidney E. Morse in 1816 in Boston, Massachusetts. It published weekly newspapers from 1817 to 1824. The paper prima ...
''. He continued as sole editor and proprietor of this journal for more than a year, and in this time raised its circulation until it was exceeded by that of only two Boston papers. Morse was then associated with his elder brother,
Samuel Morse Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph ...
, in patenting the flexible piston pump and extending its sale. In 1823 he moved to New York, and with his brother, Richard Cary Morse, founded the ''
New York Observer New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
'', which eventually became the oldest weekly in New York City, and the oldest religious newspaper in the state. He continued as senior editor and proprietor until 1858, when he retired to private life. In 1839 Morse was associated with Henry A. Munson in the development of cerography, a method of printing maps in color on the common printing press. He used this process to illustrate his geographical textbooks (in early life he had assisted his father in the preparation of geography books). The last years of his life were devoted to experimenting with an invention for the exploration of the depths of the sea. This instrument, called a bathometer, was exhibited at the
World's fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...
in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
in 1869, and during 1870 in New York City.


Pro-slavery

The ''New York Observer'' was pro-slavery. It was the one newspaper that Mary Brown, wife of abolitionist John Brown, could not stand: Morse is the author of ''Premium questions on slavery, each admitting of a yes or no answer; addressed to the editors of the "New York Independent'" and "New York Evangelist,"'' in which there are questions such as: *Have the American people ever been abandoned by God to the folly and wickedness of ''practically asserting'' the right of every negro slave to liberty, without regard to the probable effect of the liberty of the negro upon the welfare of the community? *Does the Bible any where assert that all men have a right to liberty; or that slavery is always wrong; or that slaveholders are sinners merely because they are slaveholders; or that the governments instituted among men have no just powers except those derived from the consent of the governed ?


Literary works

* ''A New System of Modern Geography'' (Boston, 1823), sold over half a million copies * ''Premium Questions on Slavery'' (New York, 1860) * ''North American Atlas'' * ''Cerographic Maps, comprising the Whole Field of Ancient and Modern, including Sacred, Geography, Chronology, and History''


References

*


External links


1844 map of Texas
an
1856 map of Texas
by Sidney E. Morse, hosted by th
Portal to Texas History
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Morse, Sidney Edwards 1794 births 1871 deaths 19th-century American inventors American people of English descent American geographers American male journalists Yale University alumni 19th-century American newspaper founders