July 15, 1839, the Silver Medal of the Academy of Industry was voted to him for the invention of the telegraph.
The National Institute for the promotion of science, established at Washington, made him a corresponding member in 1841, and in 1842 the Gold Medal of the American Institute was awarded him for successful experiments in subaqueous telegraphy.
In 1845 he was made a corresponding member of the Archeological Society in Belgium, and in 1848 he became a member of the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. The following year he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston.
Many other tokens of honor was accorded him from time to time.
While in Paris in 1867, the year of the International Exposition, Professor Morse served on the Committee of Telegraphic Appliances, and wrote an exhaustive report on the merits of telegraphic contrivances.
He also prepared with great minuteness a complete narrative of his own inventions.
Covered with honors, and having long overstepped the three score years and ten, Professor Morse returned to America and arrived at his rural home in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where he was affectionately welcomed by friends and neighbors.
Shortly after his return a number of influential and representative gentlemen of New York felt that something should be done by his fellow countrymen to honor the distinguished inventor and welcome him home.
He was tendered a banquet, which was held at Delmonico’s on Dec. 30, 1868.
The banqueting room was beautifully decorated the chair being occupied by the Hon. Salmon P. Chase. After the dinner the toasts to the Queen of Great Britain and the Army and Navy had been responded to by Mr. Thornton, the British Minister, and General McDowell, the Chairman, said: