“...  My health was never better with all my intense application, sitting in my chair from seven in the morning until twelve or one o’clock the next morning, with only about an hour’s intermission.  I have felt no permanent inconvenience.  On Saturday night, generally, I have felt exceedingly nervous, so that my whole body and limbs would shake, but resting on the Sabbath seemed to give me strength for the next week.  Since my mind is relieved from my lectures I have felt new life and spirits, and feel strong to accomplish anything.”

“May 10, 18S6. I have just heard from mother and feel anxious about father.  Nothing but the most imperious necessity prevents my coming immediately to New Haven; indeed, as it is, I will try and break away sometime next week, if possible, and pass one day with you, but how to do it without detriment to my business I don’t know....

“I have longed for some time for a little respite, but, like our good father, all his sons seem destined for most busy stations in society, and constant exertions, not for themselves alone, but for the public benefit.”

Whether this promised visit to New Haven was paid or not is not recorded, but it is to be hoped that it was made possible, for the good husband and father, the faithful worker for the betterment of mankind, was called to his well-earned rest on the 9th of June, 1826.

Of him Dr. John Todd said, “Dr. Morse lived before his time and was in advance of his generation.”  President Dwight of Yale found him “as full of resources as an egg is of meat”; and Daniel Webster spoke of him as “always thinking, always writing, always talking, always acting.”  Mr. Prime thus sums up his character:  “He was a man of genius, not content with what had been and was, but originating and with vast executive ability combining the elements to produce great results.  To him more than to any other one man may be attributed the impulses given in his day to religion and learning in the United States.  A polished gentleman in his manners; the companion, correspondent, and friend of the most eminent men in Church and State; honored at the early age of thirty-four with the degree of Doctor of Divinity by the University of Edinburgh, Scotland; sought by scholars and statesmen from abroad as one of the foremost men of his country and time.”

The son must have felt keenly the loss of his father so soon after the death of his wife.  The whole family was a singularly united one, each member depending on the others for counsel and advice, and the father, who was but sixty-five when he died, was still vigorous in mind, although of delicate constitution.

Later in this year Morse managed to spend some time in New Haven, and he persuaded his mother to seek rest and recuperation in travel, accompanying her as far as Boston and writing to her there on his return to New Haven.

“September 20, 1826. I arrived safely home after leaving you yesterday and found that neither the house nor the folks had run away....  Persevere in your travels, mother, as long as you think it does you good, and tell Dick to brush up his best bows and bring home some lady to grace the now desolate mansion.”