“You seem to have forgotten your friend in Stapleton prison.  Did you not succeed in obtaining his release?”

This refers to a certain Mr. Benjamin Burritt, an American prisoner of war.  Morse used every effort, through his friend Henry Thornton, to secure the release of Mr. Burritt.  On December 30, 1813, he wrote to Mr. Thornton from Bristol:—­

RESPECTED SIR,—­I take the liberty of addressing you in behalf of an American prisoner of war now in the Stapleton depot, and I address you, sir, under the conviction that a petition in the cause of humanity will not be considered by you as obtrusive.

The prisoner I allude to is a gentleman of the name of Burritt, a native of New Haven, in the State of Connecticut; his connections are of the highest respectability in that city, which is notorious for its adherence to Federal principles.  His friends and relatives are among my father’s friends, and, although I was not, until now, personally acquainted with him, yet his face is familiar to me, and many of his relatives were my particular friends while I was receiving my education at Yale College in New Haven.  From that college he was graduated in the year ——.  A classmate of his was the Reverend Mr. Stuart, who is one of the professors of the Andover Theological Institution, and of whom, I think, my father has spoken in some of his letters to Mr. Wilberforce.

Mr. Burritt, after he left college, applied himself to study, so much so as to injure his health, and, by the advice of his physicians, he took to the sea as the only remedy left for him.  This had the desired effect, and he was restored to health in a considerable degree.

Upon the breaking out of the war with this country, all the American coasting trade being destroyed, he took a situation as second mate in the schooner Revenge, bound to France, and was captured on the 10th of May, 1813.

Since that time he has been a prisoner, and, from the enclosed certificates, you will ascertain what has been his conduct.  He is a man of excellent religious principles, and, I firmly believe, of the strictest integrity.  So well assured am I of this that, in case it should be required, I will hold myself bound to answer for him in my own person.

His health is suffering by his confinement, and the unprincipled society, which he is obliged to endure, is peculiarly disagreeable to a man of his education.

My object in stating these particulars to you, sir, is (if possible and consistent with the laws of the country), to obtain for him, through your influence, his liberty on his parole of honor.  By so doing you will probably be the means of preserving the life of a good man, and will lay his friends, my father, and myself under the greatest obligations.

Trusting to your goodness to pardon this intrusion upon your time, I am, sir, with the highest consideration,

Your most humble, obedient servant,
SAMUEL F.B.  MORSE.