RE: [asa] Samuel F. B. Morse as model or detractor for evangelical faith??

But in fairness, it has been "rich white men" that have contributed the most
of technology and science to the world of which we are all benefactors.

John

-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of David Opderbeck
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 3:51 PM
To: Clarke Morledge
Cc: AmericanScientificAffiliation
Subject: Re: [asa] Samuel F. B. Morse as model or detractor for evangelical
faith??

Fascinating. You can find his anti-Catholic book on Google books -- it
seems bizarre from our perspective today, though there are still groups out
there that spout the same rhetoric. Below are some of his writings on
slavery. Both his rabid anti-Catholic conspiracy theorizing and his support
for slavery seem consistent with the views held by many American Calvinist
evangelicals at the time. The original "Christian America" probably wasn't
much fun if you weren't a white male Calvinist.

Samuel F. B. Morse (1863).

An Argument on the Ethical Position of Slavery (NY: Society for the

Diffusion of Political Knowledge, no. 12).

1. "Slavery or the servile relation is proved to be one of the indispensable
regulators of the social

system, divinely ordained for the discipline of the human race in this
world, and that it is in perfect

harmony . . . with the great declared object of the Savior's mission to
earth" (10).

2. "If the servile relation is an essential and indispensable divinely
arranged part of the Social System,

is not the attempt to blot it out altogether by force in any community,
under the plea that it is a sin, an

evil, a wrong, or an outrage to humanity, or indeed in any other place,
sacrilegious?" (10).

3. "Are there not in this relation [of master to slave], when faithfully
carried out according to Divine

directions, some of the most beautiful examples of domestic happiness and
contentment that this fallen

world knows? Protection and judicious guidance and careful provision on the
one part; cheerful

obedience, affection and confidence on the other" (13).

4. "Christianity has been most successfully propagated among a barbarous
race, when they have been

enslaved to a Christian race. Slavery to them has been Salvation, and
Freedom, ruin" (16).

5. "When the relation of Master & Slave is left to its natural workings
under the regulations divinely

established, and unobstructed by outside fanatic busybodyism, the result, on
the enslaved and on

society at large, is salutory and benevolent. When resisted, as it is by the
abolitionism of the day, we

have only to look around us to see the horrible fruits, in every frightful,
and disorganizing, and bloody

shape" (17).

B. Samuel F. B. Morse (1914).

Letters and Journals (Boston: Houghton Mifflin).

1. "My creed on the subject of slavery is short. Slavery per se is not sin.
It is a social condition

ordained from the beginning of the world for the wisest purposes, benevolent
and disciplinary, by

Divine Wisdom. The mere holding of slaves, therefore, is a condition having
per se nothing of moral

character in it, any more than the being a parent, or employer, or ruler"
(2: 331).

2. "Conscience in this matter has moved some Christians quite as strongly to
view Abolitionism as a

sin of the deepest dye, as it has other Christian minds to view Slavery as a
sin . . . Who is to decide in a

conflict of consciences? If the Bible is to be the umpire, as I hold it to
be, then it is the Abolitionist that

is denounced as worthy of excommunication; it is the Abolitionist from whom
we are commanded to

withdraw ourselves, while not a syllable of reproof do I find in the sacred
volume administered to those

who maintain, in the spirit of the gospel, the relation of Masters and
Slaves"

On Dec 18, 2007 2:27 PM, Clarke Morledge <chmorl@wm.edu> wrote:

I recently finished reading David Bodanis' _Electric Universe_. Bodanis

gives some biographical information about how Christian faith influenced

some of the early electricity scientists/inventors in the 19th century.

But one of the disturbing accounts he gives is about Samuel F. B. Morse,

the talented painter who patented the telegraph and co-invented the Morse

code. Several strikes are made against Morse:

1. He basically stole Joseph Henry's work on the underlying principles of

the telegraph and patented it for himself.

2. He ran for mayor of New York on a "nativist" platform, the "Know

Nothing" party, protesting against the immigration of non-Protestants to

America. The implication is that not only was he anti-Catholic, he was

also racist and anti-semitic. Furthermore, he had a peculiar conspiracy

theory about how Catholic immigration was a papal/Jesuit plot threatening

to undermine American society, and that he developed the telegraph as a

means to subvert this threat (Morse's book, "Foreign Conspiracy Against

the Liberties of the United States - The Numbers of Brutus").

I also did a little more research on Morse and the Wikipeadia article

suggests that Morse had more Unitarian leanings than his famous,

staunchly-Calvinist preacher father, Jedidiah Morse. Samuel Morse was

also staunchly pro-slavery, but it might be difficult to hold that against

him since there were so many evangelicals during his time who agreed with

him.

In a number of evangelical "providentialist" approaches to American

history, Morse is upheld as an evangelical role model; e.g. Stephen K.

McDowell's _Building Godly Nations_, or on the AIG website:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v13/i1/morse.asp

And even this perhaps surprisingly positive portrait from the Christian

History Glimpses that appear in many church Sunday bulletins:

http://chi.gospelcom.net/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps099.shtml

But the way Bodanis approaches Morse, holding up Morse as a model

Christian is rather ill fitting.

So which description is correct here: Morse the thief and conspiracy

theorist as Bodanis portrays him, or Morse the humble Christian as the

"providentialists" argue --- or perhaps somewhere in between?

Clarke Morledge

College of William and Mary

Information Technology - Network Engineering

Jones Hall (Room 18)

Williamsburg VA 23187

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Received on Tue Dec 18 22:52:51 2007