Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/517

 MORTON

MORTON

On Jan. 11, 18G7, he delivered his message to the Is^rishiture, in which he favored severe measures before granting the readmission of seceding states to the Union; advocated negro suffrage, the pro- tection of men of all races, classes and opinions, and the assurance of the maintenance of loyal republican state governments. On Jan. 22, 1867, he was elected U. S. senator, defeating Daniel W. Voorhees, Democrat, and on Jan. 23 resigned the governorship. He took his seat in the senate, March 4, 1867, and was made a member of the committee on foreign relations, where he soon became an acknowledged leader. He spoke in the senate on reconstruction; opposed an in- crease in the currency; introduced a resumption act that was embodied in the act of 1875; favored the loth amendment, the tenure-of-office law, the acquisition of Santo Domingo and opposed civil service reform and universal amnesty. He was a delegate to the Republican national convention at Philadelphia, June 5, 1872, and during the campaign spoke in Illinois and Missouri for Grant. On Nov. 26, 1872, he was re-elected U. S. senator. As chairman of the committee on privileges and elections he introduced a bill to amend the constitution so as to change the system of electing the President, making it by a direct vote of the people. The bill was reported to the senate in May, 1874, was brought up by him and supported by a speech, Jan. 21, 1875, and sub- sequently passed the senate, but was defeated in the house. The Louisiana elections gave to the committee on privileges and elections much work and responsibility. In the panic of 1873 Morton changed his views on the currency ques- tion and favored an increase of currency, be- ing supported by the senate, but the bill was vetoed by the President. He was mentioned for the chief justiceship on the death of Chief-Justice Chase, May 7, 1873, but declined to consider it on account of his health. On Jan. 27, 1874, he moved that the committee on transportation in- troduce a bill to promote interstate commerce, and supported his proposition by a carefully con- sidered speech, but the bill was not acted on. He favored woman suffrage on May 28, 1874, in discussing the admission of the proposed territory of Pembina. In the Republican national conven- tion that met at Cincinnati, June 14, 1876, he was a candidate for the presidency, and on the first ballot received 124 votes, standing second in the list of candidates, and led only by James G. Blaine; but after a few ballots his support went to Rutherford B. Hayes, who was nominated. As chairman of the committee to investigate Chinese immigration he went to California and began investigation at San Francisco, Oct. 19, returning to Washington, Nov. 29, 1876. The re- port was delayed till Feb. 27, 1877, and his minor-

ity report was left unfinished partly in MS., and was presented to the senate, Jan. 17, 1878. He opposed the electoral commission bill and made the closing argument against its adoption. On the election of Mr. Hayes Senator Morton was consulted as to the composition of his cabinet, and when the senate met, March 4, 1877, he de- clined the chairmanship of the committee on foreign relations. He went to Oregon in June, 1877, as a member of a sub-committee appointed to investigate the election of Senator Grover, and while absent was taken very ill and returned to Indiana, first stopping at Richmond, the resi- dence of Mrs. Burbank, his wife's mother, where President Hayes visited him, Sept. 13. On Oct. 15, he was taken to his own home in Indianapolis. He was married May 15, 1845, to Lucinda M., daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth Burbank, of Springdale, Ohio, and they had five children: John Miller, born April 16, 1846, accompanied his father to France, and died at St. Paul island, Bering Sea, while special agent of the U. S. treasury, July 15, 1900; Mary Elizabeth and Sarah Lilias died in infancy; Walter Scott, born Dec. 2, 1856, attended his father in his illness at Rich- mond, Ind., and Oliver Throck, born May 23, 1860, accompanied his father to Oregon, and died in November, 1898. In August, 1899, the legisla- ture of Indiana caused to be placed in Statuary Hall, National Capitol, a life-size marble statue of Governor Morton, executed by Charles H. Niehaus. See " Life of Oliver P. Morton, Includ- ing His Important Speeches," by William Dudley Foulke (2 vols., 1899). He died at Indianapolis, Ind., Nov. 11, 1877.

MORTON, Samuel George, physician, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 26, 1799; son of George and Jane (Cummings) Morton; grandson of Thomas and Hannah (St. Clair) Morton, of Clonmel, Ireland, and a descendant of Thomas Morton, of county Queens, Ireland. His father died when he was a child, and his mother, a member of the Society of Friends, placed him in one of their academies, where he was trained for a business life, but having no taste for business, entered upon the study of medicine with Dr. Jo- seph Parrish, and was graduated from the med- ical department of the University of Pennsyl- vania in 1820, and at the University of Edinburgh in 1823. He visited Italy and France and studied for a while in Paris. He settled in practice in Philadelphia in 1824, and became an active mem- ber of the Academy of Natural Sciences, of which he was recording secretary in 1825, corresponding secretary in 1831, and president in December, 1849. He was married, Oct. 23, 1827, to Rebecca^ Grellet, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth (Col- lins) Pearsall, of New York city. He pursued the study of geology and craniology, and in 1830