s number of letters and newspaper articles on other
subjects, especially on those relating to religion and politics. Although
more tolerant as he grew older, he was still bitterly opposed to the
methods of the Roman Catholic Church, and to the Jesuits in particular.
He, in common with many other prominent men of his day, was fearful lest
the Church of Rome, through her emissaries the Jesuits, should gain
political ascendancy in this country and overthrow the liberty of the
people. He took part in a long and heated newspaper controversy with
Bishop Spaulding of Kentucky concerning the authenticity of a saying
attributed to Lafayette--"If ever the liberty of the United States is
destroyed it will be by Romish priests."

It was claimed by the Roman Catholics that this statement of Lafayette's
was ingeniously extracted from a sentence in a letter of his to a friend
in which he assures this friend that such a fear is groundless. Morse
followed the matter up with the patience and keenness of a detective, and
proved that no such letter had ever been written by Lafayette, that it
was a clumsy forgery, but that he really had made use of the sentiment
quoted above, not only to Morse himself, but to others of the greatest
credibility who were still living.

In the field of politics he came near playing a more active part than
that of a mere looker-on and humble voter, for in the fall of 1854 he was
nominated for Congress on the Democratic ticket. It would be difficult
and, perhaps, invidious to attempt to state exactly his political faith
in those heated years which preceded the Civil War. In the light of
future events he and his brothers and many other prominent men of the day
were on the wrong side. He deprecated the war and did his best to prevent
it.

"Sectional division" was abhorrent to him, but on the question of slavery
his sympathies were rather with the South, for I find among his papers
the following:--

"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, but is moral or unmoral as the duties of the relation
of master, parent, employer or ruler are rightly used or abused. The
subject in a national vi