Editing Samuel Morse (section)

===Pro-slavery===
In the 1850s, Morse became well known as a defender of [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]], considering it to be sanctioned by God. In his treatise "An Argument on the Ethical Position of Slavery," he wrote:

{{blockquote|My creed on the subject of slavery is short. Slavery ''per se'' is not sin. It is a social condition ordained from the beginning of the world for the wisest purposes, benevolent and disciplinary, by Divine Wisdom. The mere holding of slaves, therefore, is a condition having ''per se'' nothing of moral character in it, any more than the being a parent, or employer, or ruler.<ref>{{citation |last=Morse |first=Samuel |year=1863|title=An Argument on the Ethical Position of Slavery in the Social System, and its Relation to the Politics of the Day |journal=New York, Papers from the Society for the Diffusion of Political Knowledge|number=12}} in {{Citation|title=Slavery Pamphlets # 60 |publisher=Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript library, Yale University}} Quoted in {{citation |title=Yale, Slavery, & Abolition |url=http://www.yaleslavery.org/WhoYaleHonors/morse.html |access-date=October 17, 2009 |archive-date=September 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190921193022/http://www.yaleslavery.org/WhoYaleHonors/morse.html |url-status=live }} — an online report about Yale honorees and their relation to slavery</ref>}}