
Morse, Jedidiah. The American Universal Geography; or, A View of the Present State of all the Kingdoms, States, and Colonies in the known World (Volume I). Charlestown: Published by Lincoln & Edmands, &c., 1819. Seventh Edition. [10883]
Full brown leather with a red leather title label, scuffed and worn yet with good joints, thin vertical crack to spine, 8 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches. 892, [2] relatively clean pages, infrequent foxing. Not illustrated. Good. Hardcover.
This is a greatly expanded edition of a work first published in 1789, with the title The American Geography.
Volume one of two, without the accompanying atlas.
"The First Volume contains a copious Introduction, adapted to the present state of Astronomical Science - a brief Geography of the Earth - a general description of America - an account of North-America, and its various Divisions, particularly of the United States - a general account of the West-Indies, and of the four groups of islands into which they are naturally divided, and a minute account of the several islands - a general description of S. America, and a particular account of its various States and Provinces - and a brief description of the remaining American islands."
Jedidah Morse (1761-1826), b. Woodstock, CT; d. New Haven, CT. Morse graduated Yale College in 1783, was ordained to the Congregational ministry in 1785, and was chosen tutor at Yale in 1786. After preaching in several places he was pastor of the First Congregational church in Charlestown, MA (1789-1820). During this pastorate Morse founded and edited The Panoplist, a periodical to combat growing Unitarianism, and to oppose the influence of French republicanism he founded a Federalist periodical, The Mercury and New England Palladium (1801). His Geography Made Easy (1784) was the first geography published in the U.S., and, along with his later works in this field, won him the title "father of American geography."
His interest in missions to the American Indians resulted in a commission by J. C. Calhoun, US Secretary of War, to undertake a two-year investigation of the various tribes, resulting in his significant Report to the Secretary of War on Indian Affairs (1822). Rev. Morse wrote several different historical and polemical works, notably his Annals of the American Revolution, and, with Elijah Parish, A Compendious History of New England.
A strong Calvinist and defender of Orthodox Congregationalism, and was key in establishing the theological seminary at Andover, an institution that defended these traditional tenets.
"Dr. Morse was universally esteemed for his piety and learning, and is acknowledged to have been one of the most eminent ministers of his day in New England. He was distinguished alike for the versatility of his powers and the wide extent of his influence, and was almost equally known on both sides of the Atlantic." - M'Clintock & Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.