Levi Parsons Morton (May 16, 1824 – May 16, 1920) was a Representative from New York and the
twenty-second Vice President of the United States.
Biography
Morton was born in Shoreham, Addison
County, Vermont. His parents were the Rev. Daniel O. Morton (1788-1852), a
Congregationalist minister of old New England stock, and Lucretia Parsons
(1789-1862). He left school early and worked as a clerk in a general store in
Enfield, Massachusetts, taught school in
Boscawen, New Hampshire, engaged in
mercantile pursuits in Hanover, New Hampshire, moved to Boston, entered the dry-goods business in New York
City and engaged in banking there. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1876 to the 45th Congress. He was appointed by President Rutherford B.
Hayes as honorary commissioner to the Paris Exhibition of 1878.
Morton was elected as a Republican to the 46th and 47th Congresses,
serving from March 4, 1879, until his resignation, effective
March 21, 1881. Presidential candidate James Garfield asked him to be his vice
presidential candidate in 1880, but Morton turned down the offer. If he had accepted and history held true, this would
have meant Morton would have become the twenty-first President after Garfield's assassination and not Chester A. Arthur. He asked to be Minister to
Britain or France instead. He was United States
Minister to France from 1881 to 1885 (a deluded
Charles Guiteau reportedly decided to murder Garfield after he was "passed over" as
minister to France).
Morton was very popular in France, helping commercial relations run smoothly between the two countries during his term and he
hammered the first rivet in the construction of the Statue of Liberty in Paris on
October 24, 1881 (it was driven into the big toe of Lady Liberty’s left foot). Morton was elected Vice President of the United
States on the Republican ticket with Benjamin Harrison, serving from March 4, 1889 to March 4, 1893.
Levi Morton was Governor of New York from 1895 to 1896. He was
considered for the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1896
which went to William McKinley. Following his public career, he became a
real estate investor. He died in Rhinebeck, Dutchess County,
New York, on his 96th
birthday, the only U.S. President or Vice President to have
died on their birthday. He is interred in the Rhinebeck Cemetery.
The Village of Morton Grove, Illinois is named after Morton. He provided the
funding necessary to allow Miller's Mill (now Lincoln Avenue) to pass through the upstart neighborhood, and provide goods to
trade and sell. Morton Grove was incorporated in December of 1895.
Morton owned property in Newport, Rhode Island and lived on tony Bellevue
Avenue in "Fairlawn," currently owned by Salve Regina University and housing the
Pell Center of International Relations and Public Policy. He left a parcel of nearby property to
the city of Newport for use as a park. At the corners of Coggeshall and Morton Avenues (formerly Brenton Road) this land today
bears his name, "Morton Park."
Morton was the second-longest lived Vice President, living to be
exactly 96 years old, beaten only by John Nance Garner. Morton also survived five of
his successors in the vice presidency, Adlai E. Stevenson, Garret A. Hobart, Theodore Roosevelt, Charles W. Fairbanks and James S. Sherman.
Marriages
He married his first wife, Lucy Young Kimball (July 22, 1836-July 11, 1871), on October 15, 1856 in Flatlands,
New York. They had one child together. After her death, he later got remarried to
Anna Livingston Reade Street in 1873. They had five daughters
together.
References
- National Contest, Containing Portraits and Biographies of Our National Favorites, Darling Bros. & Co., Detroit,
Michigan, 1888.
External links
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