Veeps: Levi Morton
One of the statistical anomalies about Levi Parsons Morton, the 20th Vice President of the United States, is that May 16th was his birthday (in 1824) and also the day he died on (in 1920 on his 96th birthday.) He is also yet another Governor of New York who held the office of Vice President.
Morton was born in Shoreham, Addison County, Vermont. His father was the Rev. Daniel Oliver Morton, a Congregationalist minister, and his mother was the former Lucretia Parsons. His older brother David Oliver Morton had the distinction of becoming Mayor of Toledo, Ohio from 1849 to 1850. Young Levi had a very busy life. He worked in a general store in Enfield, Massachusetts, taught school in Boscawen, New Hampshire, was a merchant in Hanover, New Hampshire, moved to Boston where he entered the dry-goods business in New York City, and was also a banker there. Morton married his first wife, Lucy Young Kimball on October 15, 1856 in Flatlands, Brooklyn. The couple had one child together. Lucy died in 1871, just shy of her 35th birthday. After her death, he married Anna Livingston Reade Street in 1873. Together they had five daughters.
Morton ran for election in 1876 to the 45th Congress and lost, but he was appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes to be an honorary commissioner to the Paris Exhibition of 1878. He kept trying at the political game and was elected, as a Republican, to the 46th and 47th Congresses, representing New York's 11th District. He served from March 4, 1879, until March 21, 1881, when he resigned. President James Garfield had asked Morton to be his vice presidential running mate, but Morton declined. If he had accepted and history continued on the same course, Morton would have become the 21st President after Garfield's assassination. Instead Morton asked to be appointed Minister to Britain or France instead and he became United States Minister to France from 1881 to 1885. (Ironically, Garfield's assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, decided to murder Garfield because he believed he was "passed over" as Minister to France.) Morton was considered to be a good ambassador. In Paris on October 24, 1881, he placed the first rivet in the construction of the Statue of Liberty.
Morton was elected Vice President of the United States, on the Republican ticket with President Benjamin Harrison. He served from March 4, 1889 to March 4, 1893. The two running mates had their political differences. For example, during his term, Harrison tried to pass the Lodge Bill, an election law enforcing the voting rights of African-Americans in the South, but Morton did little to support the bill against a Democratic filibuster in the Senate. Harrison blamed Morton for the bill's failure, and, at the Republican convention prior to the 1892 election, Morton was replaced by Whitelaw Reid as the vice-presidential candidate. Harrison and Reid went on to lose the 1892 election, to Grover Cleveland and Adlai E. Stevenson, the Democratic candidates.
Levi Morton was elected Governor of New York in 1895 and 1896. He was considered for the Republican presidential nomination in 1896, but the Republican Party chose William McKinley instead. After his public career was over, he became a real-estate investor. He lived to the day of his 96th birthday and died at Rhinebeck, in Dutchess County, New York. He is interred in the Rhinebeck Cemetery. Morton was the second longest-lived Vice President. Only John Nance Garner lived longer. Morton survived five of his successors in the vice presidency: Adlai E. Stevenson, Garret A. Hobart, Theodore Roosevelt, Charles W. Fairbanks and James S. Sherman.
Morton was born in Shoreham, Addison County, Vermont. His father was the Rev. Daniel Oliver Morton, a Congregationalist minister, and his mother was the former Lucretia Parsons. His older brother David Oliver Morton had the distinction of becoming Mayor of Toledo, Ohio from 1849 to 1850. Young Levi had a very busy life. He worked in a general store in Enfield, Massachusetts, taught school in Boscawen, New Hampshire, was a merchant in Hanover, New Hampshire, moved to Boston where he entered the dry-goods business in New York City, and was also a banker there. Morton married his first wife, Lucy Young Kimball on October 15, 1856 in Flatlands, Brooklyn. The couple had one child together. Lucy died in 1871, just shy of her 35th birthday. After her death, he married Anna Livingston Reade Street in 1873. Together they had five daughters.
Morton ran for election in 1876 to the 45th Congress and lost, but he was appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes to be an honorary commissioner to the Paris Exhibition of 1878. He kept trying at the political game and was elected, as a Republican, to the 46th and 47th Congresses, representing New York's 11th District. He served from March 4, 1879, until March 21, 1881, when he resigned. President James Garfield had asked Morton to be his vice presidential running mate, but Morton declined. If he had accepted and history continued on the same course, Morton would have become the 21st President after Garfield's assassination. Instead Morton asked to be appointed Minister to Britain or France instead and he became United States Minister to France from 1881 to 1885. (Ironically, Garfield's assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, decided to murder Garfield because he believed he was "passed over" as Minister to France.) Morton was considered to be a good ambassador. In Paris on October 24, 1881, he placed the first rivet in the construction of the Statue of Liberty.
Morton was elected Vice President of the United States, on the Republican ticket with President Benjamin Harrison. He served from March 4, 1889 to March 4, 1893. The two running mates had their political differences. For example, during his term, Harrison tried to pass the Lodge Bill, an election law enforcing the voting rights of African-Americans in the South, but Morton did little to support the bill against a Democratic filibuster in the Senate. Harrison blamed Morton for the bill's failure, and, at the Republican convention prior to the 1892 election, Morton was replaced by Whitelaw Reid as the vice-presidential candidate. Harrison and Reid went on to lose the 1892 election, to Grover Cleveland and Adlai E. Stevenson, the Democratic candidates.
Levi Morton was elected Governor of New York in 1895 and 1896. He was considered for the Republican presidential nomination in 1896, but the Republican Party chose William McKinley instead. After his public career was over, he became a real-estate investor. He lived to the day of his 96th birthday and died at Rhinebeck, in Dutchess County, New York. He is interred in the Rhinebeck Cemetery. Morton was the second longest-lived Vice President. Only John Nance Garner lived longer. Morton survived five of his successors in the vice presidency: Adlai E. Stevenson, Garret A. Hobart, Theodore Roosevelt, Charles W. Fairbanks and James S. Sherman.