SAMUEL F. B. MORSE
(1791 - 1872) American inventor credited with the invention of the telegraph, as well as a signaling alphabet known as the Morse Code. Good content A.L.S. "Saml. F. B. Morse", 2pp. 8vo., Poughkeepsie, Aug. 4, 1860 to powerful newspaperman Moses S. Beach, editor of "The Sun" of New (1791 - 1872) American inventor credited with the invention of the telegraph, as well as a signaling alphabet known as the Morse Code. Good content A.L.S. "Saml. F. B. Morse", 2pp. 8vo., Poughkeepsie, Aug. 4, 1860 to powerful newspaperman Moses S. Beach, editor of "The Sun" of New York. Beach was about to lease the paper to a religious group, expecting to retire. A fete was planned, and here Morse regrets being unable to attend, but praises Beach as a journalist. In part: "...There is no class in the community who so stand in the van of the great conflicts of life who so bravely meet them as the editorial corps, none who are so subject to annoyance from individual selfishness, none so liable to be misjudged and misrepresented...one like yourself who has encountered manfully and victoriously the hardships of his position, and is able to unbuckle his armour and sheath his sword in honor...". Fine. Morse was no stranger to the press. He was a leader in the anti-Catholic and anti-immigration movement of the mid-19th century. In 1836, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of New York under the anti-immigrant Nativist Party's banner. He wrote numerous letters to the New York Observer (his brother Sidney was the editor at the time) urging people to fight the perceived Catholic menace, and they were widely reprinted in other newspapers, including the Sun.