his
daughter, Mrs. Lind, of December 28, 1865:--

"I also send you some clippings from the papers giving you an account of
some of the doings respecting a statue proposed to me by the Common
Council. The Mayor, who is a personal friend of mine, you see has vetoed
the resolutions, not from a disapproval of their character, but because
he did not like the locality proposed. He proposes the Central Park, and
in this opinion all my friends concur.

"I doubt if they will carry the project through while I am alive, and it
would really seem most proper to wait until I was gone before they put up
my monument. I have nothing, however, to say on the subject. I am
gratified, of course, to see the manifestation of kindly feeling, but, as
the tinder of vainglory is in every human heart, I rather shrink from
such a proposed demonstration lest a spark of flattery should kindle that
tinder to an unseemly and destructive flame. I am not blind to the
popularity, world-wide, of the Telegraph, and a sober forecast of the
future foreshadows such a statue in some place. If ever erected I hope
the prominent mottoes upon the pedestal will be: '_Not unto us, not unto
us, but to God be the glory_,' and the first message or telegram: '_What
hath GOD wrought._'"

He says very much the same thing in a letter to his friend George Wood,
of January 15, 1866, and he also says in this letter, referring to some
instance of benevolent generosity by Mr. Kendall:--

"Is it not a noticeable fact that the wealth acquired by the Telegraph
has in so many conspicuous instances been devoted to benevolent purposes?
Mr. Kendall is prominent in his expenditures for great Christian
enterprises, and think of Cornell, always esteemed by me as an ingenious
and shrewd man, when employed by me to set the posts and put up the wire
for the first line of Telegraphs between Washington and Baltimore, yet
thought to be rather close and narrow-minded by those around him. But
see, when his wealth had increased by his acquisition of Telegraph stock
to millions (it is said), what enlarged and noble plans of public benefit
were conceived and brought forth by him. I have viewed his course with
great gratification as the evidence of God's blessing on _what He hath
wrought_."

It has been made plain, I think, that Morse was essentially a leader in
every movement in which he took an interest, whether it was artistic,
scientific, religious, or political. This is emphasized by the n