Oliver Morton Biography

Dromo's Den

MORTON, Oliver Perry (1823-77). An American political leader, best known as the War Governor of Indiana. He was born in Salisbury, Wayne Co., Ind., Aug. 4, 1823, attended the Wayne County Seminary, spent two years at Miami University, studied law, and in 1847 was admitted to practice. He soon became a prominent member of the Indiana bar, and in 1852 was elected circuit judge. He entered politics as a Democrat, but opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill led him on May 2, 1854, to withdraw from the Democratic State Convention; and ultimately he assisted in the formation of the Republican party, to whose first national convention he was a delegate. In 1856 the People's party, as the Republican party in Indiana was at first called, nominated him for Governor, but after a close contest he was defeated. Four years later he was elected Lieutenant Governor, and, upon the Governor's election as United States Senator, Morton became Governor, Jan. 16, 1861. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War he threw himself with extraordinary energy and success into the work of raising troops. The election of 1862, however, resulted in the choice of a Democratic Legislature and Democratic State officers, who bitterly opposed the war and threw obstacles in his way. His task was still further complicated by the presence in the State of a large secret society called the Knights of the Golden Circle (q.v.), which resisted the draft, encouraged desertion, and even plotted the assassination of the Governor and the carrying of Indiana out of the Union. But Morton triumphed over all difficulties. He borrowed sufficient money on his own personal responsibility to meet the exigencies of the situation; put down the treasonable associations and brought the leaders to trial; and he secured the triumph of his party and his own reëlection as Governor in 1864. In the opinion of such men as Chase and Stanton his services during this period were greater than those rendered by any other of the great war governors. Shortly after the close of the war Morton was stricken with paralysis and was obliged to go to Europe. On his return to the United States he resumed his duties as Governor. In 1867 he was elected United States Senator and was reëlected in 1873. In the Senate he became a recognized leader of the Republicans and, despite his poor health, accomplished a prodigious amount of work, serving on the committees on foreign relations, agriculture, military affairs, private land claims, and privileges and elections. At first an opponent of suffrage for the freedmen, he ultimately did much to promote the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. He was one of President Grant's chief advisers, and sustained the administration in the unsuccessful attempt to carry through the Senate the proposed treaty for the annexation of Santo Domingo. In return for this last service the English mission was offered to him, but he refused it. In 1873, on the death of Chief Justice Chase, he declined also to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. At the Republican National Convention in 1876 he was a strong candidate for the presidential nomination and received 124 votes on the first ballot. He subsequently served on the Electoral Commission (q.v.). At this time his infirmities were such that he required assistance-in moving about, and had to be carried from the lobby of the Senate chamber to his carriage. He died at Indianapolis, Nov. 1, 1877, as the result of an attack of paralysis. Morton possessed a powerful intellect, a determined will, and high executive ability, and was an orator of great popularity and force. An admirable biography has been written by W. D. Foulke (2 vols., Indianapolis, 1899).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XVI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 288.