Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/457

Rh MORRIS, Thomas Armstrong, soldier, b. in l^ieholas county, Ky., 26 Dec, 1811. He was grad- uated at the U. S. military academy in 1834, resigned in 1836 to follow the profession of civil engineering, and was appointed in that year resident engineer of canals and railroads in the state of Indiana. He was chief engineer of two railroads in 1847-53, engineer in 1852-'4. and president in 1854-'7 of the Indianapolis and Cincinnati railroad, and presi- dent of the Indianapolis, Pittsburg and Cleveland railroad in 1859-61. In April, 1861, he was ap- pointed brigadier-general by the governor of Indi- a,na, and served in the West Virginia campaign of that year, but, declining the commissions of briga- dier-general and major-general of volunteers, he was mustered out of service in July. 1861. He then resumed the office of chief engineer of the Indianapolis and Cincinnati railroad, was presi- dent of the Indianapolis and St. Louis railroad in 1867-70, and in 1870-'3 was receiver of the Indian- ajjolis, Cincinnati, and Lafavette railroad.

MORRIS, Thomas Asbury, M. E. bishop, b. near Charlestown, Va., 28 April, 1794 ; d. in Spring- field, Ohio, 2 Sept., 1874. His parents, John and Margaret Morris, settled on Kanawha river about 1785. His early education was obtained in the common schools, and later he pursued special studies in a school that was taught by William Paine, an Englishman. Before reaching manhood he served three years as an assistant in the office of his brother Edmund, who was clerk of the county. At the age of eighteen he was drafted to serve six months in the war of 1812, but, owing to his youth, his family procured a substitute, by whom he was overtaken and released before the company reached the scene of conflict. For some years he was a skeptic, but in 1813 was converted, and. though his parents were Baptists, he united with the Methodist Episcopal church, and in 1814 entered its ministry, connecting himself with the Ohio conference, in two years he travelled 5,500 miles on horseback, preaching 500 times, and dur- ing the first twelve years of his ministry he re- ceived but $2,000. In 1826 he suffered an attack of paralysis, but, in spite of impaired health, he was always a hard student and wide reader. As a preacher he was concise, clear, instructive, and sometimes eloquent. In 1834 he was made editor of the " Western Christian Advocate " in Cincinnati. In 1836 he was elected bishop. As early as 1835 he was known as an advocate of total absti- nence. In 1844, when the church was divided, he remained in connection with the Methodist Epis- copal church, though he was a native of Virginia and regretted the separation deeply. For sixteen years of his thirty-six years' service in the epis- copate he was the senior bishop of his church. He was practical, witty, and blunt, but kind. His spirit was indomitable, and he possessed charming simplicity, both of taste and manner. McKendree college gave him the degree of D. D. in 1841. Bishop Morris published a work on " Church Polity"; a volume of sermons ; one entitled " Essays, Biographical Sketches, and Notes of Travel" (1851); and "Sketches of Western Methodism" (Cincinnati, 1852).

MORRIS, William, Canadian statesman, b. in Paisley, Scotland. 31 Oct., 1786; d. in Montreal, 29 June, 1858. In 1801 he came to Canada with his parents, and in 1804 he assisted his father in busi- ness in Montreal. He was commissioned an ensign in the militia at the beginning of the war of 1812, was present at the first attack on Ogdensburg, and commanded a gun-boat there. In 1816 he went to the military settlemeiit near the Rideau, and en- gaged in business in what is now the town of Perth. In 1820 he was elected to the Upper Canada parlia- ment for the county of Lanark, and he represented that constituency continuously till 1836, when he was called to the legislative council. At a meeting of Scottish delegates from all parts of Canada at Cobourg, Ml'. Morris was selected as the bearer of a petition to the king and parliament, in which the petitioners asserted their claims to equal rights with their fellow-subjects of English origin to the clergy reserves, an appropriation of public lands to religious purposes. He went on this mission in 1837, and on his return was presented with a piece of plate by the Scottish inhabitants of Canada in recognition of his services. During the Mackenzie rebellion in 1837-'8 he was engaged in drilling and organizing militia, was a senior colonel in that force, and on one occasion commanded a detach- ment that was sent to the frontier. In 1841 he was appointed warden of the district of Johnstown, and in 1844 he became a member of the executive coun- cil in Sir Charles T. Metcalfe's administration, and was appointed receiver-general. While he held this portfolio he introduced a new system of management into the department, and on his resignation in 1846 he was appointed president of the executive council, which post he held till his retirement from public life in 1848. He was a clear and powerful speaker, and did much to establish the character of legislation in the body of which he was so long a member. — His brother, James, Canadian statesman, b. in Paisley, Scotland, in 1798; d. in Brockville. Upper Canada, 29 Sept., 1865, came to Canada with his parents when he was three years old, and on leaving school engaged in business in Brockville with his brothers Alexander and William. In July, 1837, he was elected to the legislature of Upper Canada for Leeds county. In 1838 he was appointed a commissioner for the improvement of the navigation of the river St. Lawrence, and he served in this capacity until the completion of the St. Lawrence canals. He was elected to the parliament of united Canada for his former constituency in 1841, and in 1844 called to the legislative council under the administration of Sir Charles Metcalfe. In 1851 Mr. Morris became a member of the executive council, and was appointed postmaster-general, being the first to hold that office after the removal of the department from imperial control. Immediately after his appointment he went to Washington, negotiated a postal treaty with the U. S. government, and introduced into Canada a uniform postal rate of five cents for letters, instead of sixteen. In 1853 he resigned the postmaster-generalship, and was speaker of the legislative council until the autumn of 1854. In 1858 he became a member of the executive council and speaker of the legislative council in the Brown-Dorion administration. In 1862 he was appointed receiver-general, and was leader of the Sandfield Macdonald-Sicotte government- He resigned in 1863, owing to illness. He was a reformer in politics, of unblemished reputation, and possessed of great administrative ability. — William's son, Alexander, Canadian statesman, b. in Perth, Upper Canada, 17 March, 1826. was educated at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and at McGill university, Montreal, studied law, and was admitted to the bars of Upper and Lower Canada in 1851. He began practice in Montreal, and in 1861 was elected to the Canada assembly for South Lanark, which he continued to represent till the union of 1867, when he was elected by acclamation for that constituency to the Dominion parliament. In 1864 he was active in the negotiations that resulted in the for-