JUSTIN MORGAN 103 



The finding of this advertisement supplies the one thing that 

 has hitherto been most desired, a statement by Justin Morgan him- 

 self as to the sire of his horse. The evidence was so strong before 

 that no reasonable man could doubt, and still this positive assertion 

 by Mr. Morgan, that he was got by the Col. DeLancey horse, is 

 very satisfactory. 



It will be noted that Mr. Morgan has not stated the color of 

 Figure. We think the following statement given to us in relation to 

 Brutus, by Dr. Warren B. Sargent of Pawlet, Vermont, who v:as born 

 in 1803, tends strongly to show that Figure was bay. The state- 

 ment was taken down from the lips of Dr. Sargent, and is given here 

 precisely as he gave it. 



Dr. Sargent said that old Captain Nathaniel Stoddard of Paw- 

 let, several years owner of Brutus, told him that Brutus was got by 

 a bay horse that stood at Lebanon, New Hampshire, and which was 

 brought from Connecticut, and got by a horse that was kept at Hart- 

 ford, Connecticut, that was stolen in the Revolutionary war from a 

 general in the English army. The circumstances of the capture 

 are like those already given of True Briton see pedigree of Brutus, 

 within. 



It is perfectly apparent that this bay horse, the sire of Brutus, 

 was the Morgan horse, Figure, that was advertised his first public 

 season by Justin Morgan to stand at Lebanon. And this account of 

 his sire was the one originally given by Justin Morgan himself, on 

 taking his handsome bay four-year-old into the new region, and the 

 story has come down to us without material alteration, carefully pre- 

 served as part of the pedigree of probably the first son of the Mor- 

 gan horse that was kept entire ; a horse that hitherto has not got into 

 history. 



This is the last known advertisement by Justin Morgan of any 

 stallion. And to show that when he ceased to advertise Figure he 

 ceased to possess the Morgan horse, we will anticipate a little more 

 of that horse's history. Mr. Linsley gives a letter from Solomon 

 Steele of Derby Line, Vermont, a gentleman who, as Mr. Linsley 

 states, had "devoted a great deal of time and money to the improve- 

 ment of horses in his vicinity". Mr. Steele, as we have already seen, 

 adopted the year 1795, given by the younger Justin Morgan, as the 

 year when the horse was brought in; but curiously enough, he as- 

 sumes that the Morgan was then a developed horse, as in fact he 

 was. We have already followed the horse to the stud season of i/95> 

 and will here given an extract from Mr. Steele's letter, more of which 

 will be given later. It was dated March 12, 1856. 



