Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/447

Rh financial questions. He opposed the bill for inflat- ing the currency, which was vetoed by President Grant, and was in favor of the resumption act of 1875. lie was noted as being a hard worker in coininittee-rooms, and was especially familiar with naval and Indian affairs. On Sec. William W. Belknap's resignation. President Grant asked Senator Moi-rill to take a seat in the cabinet, but he declined. In June, 1876, he was made secretary of the treasury. In November, 1876, he made an address to the moneyed men of New York from the steps of the sub-treasury department, and in his annual report in December he urged immediate and yet gradual contraction of the currency, and declared that specie payments could be resumed in 1879. When Mr. Hayes became president in 1877 he offered Mr. Morrill a foreign mission, but it was declined. He was appointed in March col- lector of customs for Portland district, Me., which post he held at the time of his death.

MORRILL, Justin Smith, senator, b. in Straf- ford, Vt., 14 April, 1810; d. in Washington, 28 Dec, 1898. He received a common-school educa- tion, and engaged in mercantile pursuits until 1848, when he turned his attention to agriculture. He was elected to congress as a Republican, and five times re-elected, serving from 3 Dec, 1855, until 3 March, 1867. He was the author of the '• Morrill"' tariff of 1861, and acted as chairman of the committee of ways and means in 1864-"5. He was elected U. S. senator from Vermont in 1866, and re-elected five times, being the oldest member of the senate. He was the author of " Self-Consciousness of Noted Persons " (Boston, 1887).

MORRIN, Joseph, Canadian benefactor, b. in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, about 1792; d. in Quebec, 29 Aug., 1861. He came to Canada with his par- ents at an early age, was educated in Quebec, studied medicine, and completed his course in Edinburgh and London. He began practice at Quebec, and rose to eminence in his profession. Dr. Morrin was one of the three founders of Beau- port asylum, served as a magistrate, and twice as mayor of Quebec, and was employed by the city corporation to urge before the British government the claims of Quebec to be the capital of Lower Canada. A short time before his death he gave a large sum of money for the erection of a Presbyte- rian college in Quebec, known as Morrin college. As a physician he was regarded as without a su- perior in Lower Canada, and he was the first presi- dent of the medical board of that province.

MORRIS, Anthony, Quaker preacher, b. in Stepney, London, England. 23 Aug., 1654; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 24 Oct., 1721. He was the son of Anthony Morris, of London, and on emigrating to this country first settled in New Jersey, but in 1683 removed to Philadelphia. In the charter of that city, bearing date 20 March, 1691, he is men- tioned as an alderman. In 1692 he was appointed a judge of the courts of common pleas and quar- ter sessions, and of the orphans' court, of which, in the following year, he became the president judge. In 1694 he was made a judge of the su- preme court, and he retained his several judicial offices until 1698. He was one of the judges that in 1693 sat in the noted trial of George Keith, John Budd, and others. Of his judicial career William Penn wrote to the Lords of Trade in London : " Morris is one of the most sufficient as well as diligent magistrates there." In 1695-'7 he was a member of the provincial council, and he served for several years as a member of the assembly. In 1704 he served as mayor of the city. He began to preach in 1701, and thereafter devoted nearly all his time to ministerial labor among the Society of Friends, travelling through most of the North American provinces, and visiting Great Britain in 1715. — His son, Anthony, merchant, b. in London, England, in March, 1682 : d. in Philadelphia, 23 Sept., 1763, was for nearly forty years one of the most influential members of the Society of Friends in Philadelphia, taking an active part in all the movements that were originated at their monthly meetings. In 1737, and for several years afterward, he was an associate justice of the city court. He sat for several sessions as a member of the assem- bly, and in 1738 was chosen mayor of Philadelphia. On being re-elected, he refused to serve. — His daughter, Sarah, Quaker preacher, b. in Phila- delphia in 1704; d. there, 24 Oct., 1775, became a minister of her denomination. She labored among the Friends in New Jersey, Maryland, and Long Island, visited Rhode Island in 1764, and travelled through Great Britain in 1772-'3. — The second Anthony's son, Samuel, merchant, b. in Philadelphia, 21 Nov., 1711 ; d. there in April, 1782, took an active part in the affairs of the province. In 1756 he was commissioned by Gov. Robert Hunter Morris an auditor to settle the accounts of the ill-fated Braddock expedition. He was a zealous advocate of independence, and during the Revolution was a member of the committee of safety and the board of war. In 1777 he was appointed register of wills of Philadelphia, which office he held until 1782. From 1779 till his death he was a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. — The second An- thony's grandson, Samuel, son of a third of that name, b. in Philadelphia, 24 June, 1734; d. there, 7 July, 1812, often served in the legislature. He was elected "governor" in 1776 of the club known as " The State in Schuylkill," and re-elected annu- ally until his death. He was also president for many years of the "Gloucester fox-hunting club." When the first troop of Philadelphia city cavalry was organized, not less than twenty-two members of the last-named association were enrolled in its ranks. Samuel Morris was elected its captain. The troop served through the campaign of 1776-'7 as Washington's body-guard, and took an active part in the battles of Trenton and Princeton, in which latter engagement Samuel's brother, An- thony, ensign of the troop, was killed. On tempo- rarily relieving the command from duty in Janu- ary, 1777, Washington returned his " most sincere thanks to the captain," and added that, although the troop was " composed of gentlemen of for- tune," its members had "shown a noble example of discipline and subordination." For thus taking part in the Revolution, Capt. Morris was disowned by the Society of Friends, but he continued until his death to wear the dress and use the language of that sect, worshipping with them regularly. — The first Samuel's son, Cadwalader, merchant, b. in Philadelphia, 19 April. 1741; d. there, 25 Jan., 1795, was a member of the city troop of horse that was commanded by his cousin, Capt. Samuel Morris. In 1783-'4 he was a delegate from Pennsylvania to the Continental congress. He served at one time as an inspector of the Bank of Pennsylvania, whose establishment in 1780 he assisted by subscribing £2,500 to its capital, his father, Samuel, having given £3,000. The object of this institution was declared to be " the supplying of the Army of the United States for two months." In 1781 he was a founder and also a member of the first board of directors of the Bank of America. After the war he had an iron-furnace for several years at Birdsborough, Berks co.. Pa., after which he returned to mercantile pursuits in Philadelphia. —