Jedidiah Morse

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Rev. Jedidiah Morse (July 23, 1761 - June 9, 1826) was a U.S. clergyman and geographer. He was the father of Samuel Morse.

Morse made an important impact on the educational system of the United States. He was the author of the first textbook on American geography, a praise to the progress of the country after the American Revolution.

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.

[edit] 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."