If Morse discovered no new principle, he is nevertheless the man of all the workers in electricity between his own day and Franklin's whom the world most delights to honor; and rightly so, for it is to such as Morse that the world is most indebted.

Others knew; Morse saw and acted.

Others had found out the facts, but Morse was the first to perceive the practical significance of those facts; the first to take steps to make them of service to his fellows; the first man of them all with the pluck and persistence to remain steadfast to his great design, through twelve long years of toil and privation, until his countrymen accepted his work and found it well done.
Morse was happy in his birth and early training.

He was born in 1791, at Charlestown, Massachusetts.

His father was a Congregational minister and a scholar of high standing, who, by careful management, was able to send his three sons to Yale College.