478 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



essay from his pen, and, still more, every word from his mouth, pro- 

 duce its effect. The Military Academy has lost by his death, not only 

 one of its ablest workers, but also one of its strongest and most fearless 

 champions. 



Soon after the last annual examination of cadets, the rumor became 

 prevalent that, by the recommendation of the Board of Visitors, this 

 aged professor, now in his seventieth year, was to be removed from ac- 

 tive duty at the Academy, and placed upon the retired list. Though on 

 the score of years, and under the usage of the military service, he might 

 have claimed this as his right, this unlooked-for action of the Board 

 came to him, not as a measure of relief from arduous duty, but as a vital 

 assault upou his life-long work and reputation. The shock was too 

 great for him to bear ; and when he returned to his post in September, 

 after the usual summer season of relaxation, it was but too evident that 

 his sensitive brain had received a fatal blow. On the lGth of September 

 he left West Point, with an attendant, by the steamer Mary Powell, for 

 the purpose of consulting his physician in New York. When the boat 

 was near Stony Point, he passed rapidly out of the saloon where he had 

 been sitting, and rushing to the side of the boat, just in front of the 

 wheel, he disappeared beneath the waters of the Hudson. Thus ended 

 the life of this most distinguished son of our Military Academy, one of 

 the ablest expounders of engineering science, one of the most zealous, 

 judicious, and successful workers in the cause of education. 



Samuel Finlet Breeze Morse died at his residence in the city 

 of New York on the 4th of April, 1872. 



He was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 27, 1791. He 

 was the eldest son of Jedediah Morse, D. D., an American clergyman 

 and geographer, who was for thirty-one years pastor of the First Con- 

 gregational Church in Charlestown. 



Mr. Morse was a graduate of Yale College, in the class of 1810. 

 He went to Europe during the next year, making the voyage with 

 Washington Allston, and became a pupil, in painting, of Benjamin 

 West. 



In addition to his studies in painting, he gave attention to sculpture, 

 and in 1813 received the gold medal of the Adelphi Society of 

 Arts, for an original model of a " Dying Hercules." 



He returned to the United States in 1815. In 1824-25, with some 

 other artists of New York, he originated a drawing association, which 



