steries of life.--Presents portrait
of Allston to the National Academy of Design.--Endows lectureship in
Union Theological Seminary.--Refuses to attend fifty-fifth reunion of his
class.--Statue to him proposed.--Ezra Cornell's benefaction.--American
Asiatic Society.--Amalgamation of telegraph companies.--Protest against
stock manipulations.--Approves of President Andrew Johnson.--Sails with
family for Europe.--Paris Exposition of 1867.--Descriptions of
festivities.--Cyrus W. Field.--Incident in early life of Napoleon III--
Made Honorary Commissioner to Exposition.--Attempt on life of Czar.--Ball
at Hotel de Ville.--Isle of Wight.--England and Scotland.--The
"Sounder."--Returns to Paris.

All the differences of those terrible years of fratricidal strife, all
the heart-burnings, the bitter animosities, the family divisions, have
been smoothed over by the soothing hand of time. I have neither the wish
nor the ability to enter into a discussion of the rights and the wrongs
of the causes underlying that now historic conflict, nor is it germane to
such a work as this. While Morse took a prominent part in the political
movements of the time, while he was fearless and outspoken in his views,
his name is not now associated historically with those epoch-making
events. It has seemed necessary, however, to make some mention of his
convictions in order to make the portrait a true one. He continued to
oppose the measures of the Administration; he did all in his power to
hasten the coming of peace; he worked and voted for the election of
McClellan to the Presidency, and when he and the other eminent men who
believed as he did were outvoted, he bowed to the will of the majority
with many misgivings as to the future. Although he was opposed to the war
his heart bled for the wounded on both sides, and he took a prominent
part in the National Sanitary Commission. He expresses himself warmly in
a letter of February 26, 1864, to its president, Rev. Dr. Bellows:--

"There are some who are sufferers, great sufferers, whom we can reach and
relieve without endangering political or military plans, and in the
spirit of Him who ignored the petty political distinctions of Jew and
Samaritan, and regarded both as entitled to His sympathy and relief, I
cannot but think it is within the scope and interest of the great
Sanitary Commission to extend a portion of their Christian regard to the
unfortunate sufferers from this dreadful war, the prisoners in