44 Facts About Marcus Morton

Marcus Morton was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician from Taunton, Massachusetts.

Marcus Morton served two terms as Governor of Massachusetts and several months as Acting Governor following the death in 1825 of William Eustis.

Marcus Morton served for 15 years as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, all the while running unsuccessfully as a Democrat for governor.

Marcus Morton finally won the 1839 election, acquiring exactly the number of votes required for a majority win over Edward Everett.

Marcus Morton was considered by Martin Van Buren as a potential vice presidential running mate in 1848.

Marcus Morton was born in East Freetown, Massachusetts in 1784, the only son of Nathaniel and Mary Marcus Morton.

Marcus Morton's father was a farmer who was politically active, serving for a time on the Governor's Council.

Marcus Morton received his early education at home, and was placed at age fourteen in the academy of Reverend Calvin Chaddock at Rochester, Massachusetts.

In 1801 Marcus Morton was admitted to Brown University with the sophomore class, and graduated in 1804.

Marcus Morton then read law at Taunton for a year in the office of Judge Seth Padelford, after which he entered Tapping Reeve's law school in Litchfield, Connecticut.

Marcus Morton later received honorary law degrees from Brown, and Harvard.

Marcus Morton honed his partisan skills in Taunton, frequently speaking out against Federalism, which dominated Massachusetts politics.

Marcus Morton did accept the post when it was offered to him in 1811 by Elbridge Gerry.

Marcus Morton was nominated by the Democratic-Republicans to run for Congress in 1814, but lost by a wide margin to Laban Wheaton in what was then seen as a strongly Federalist district.

Marcus Morton was reelected in 1818, but narrowly lost to Francis Baylies in 1820.

Marcus Morton was personally opposed to slavery, but did not often let it inform his political decisions until later in life; he preferred instead to focus his efforts on other priorities.

In 1823 Marcus Morton was elected to the Massachusetts Governor's Council, and the following year was elected Lieutenant Governor, serving under Republican Governor William Eustis.

When Eustis died in office in February 1825, Marcus Morton served as acting governor until the election a few months later.

Marcus Morton disagreed with this trend, preferring Jacksonian-style Democracy instead, and refused to stand for election as governor in 1825.

Marcus Morton was prevailed to run again for lieutenant governor, and he won the post, serving under Levi Lincoln Jr.

Marcus Morton was unhappy with what he termed Whig elitism, and resigned the lieutenant governorship.

Marcus Morton was the only Democrat on the SJC, all the other justices having been appointed by Federalists.

Marcus Morton wrote the court's decision in Charles River Bridge v Warren Bridge, a case that eventually went to the United States Supreme Court.

Marcus Morton wrote the decision favoring the defendants, pointing out that if the state was going to grant an exclusive right, it had to do so explicitly, and it had not done so in this case.

In 1838 Morton was the lone dissenter in Commonwealth v Kneeland, the last time in the nation that someone was convicted of blasphemy.

Henshaw was the principal party organizing force, while Marcus Morton became a perennial gubernatorial candidate, running for the office each year from 1828 to 1843.

Marcus Morton generally did no overt campaigning, sensitive to maintaining the appearance of neutrality as a judge.

Marcus Morton was never able to make significant electoral inroads on Lincoln's majorities in the years the latter held the governor's seat.

Marcus Morton was mildly anti-Mason, but Henshaw was a Freemason, and Marcus Morton apparently did not recognize the potential power of the Anti-Masons despite their significant electoral showing.

Marcus Morton was sufficiently disheartened by his repeated failures that he considered abandoning his quest for the governorship in 1832; Henshaw convinced him to soldier on.

In 1831 Marcus Morton broke ranks with his friend John Calhoun over the latter's support for nullification, which Marcus Morton believed was based on his support for slavery.

The closest Marcus Morton came to victory before 1839 was in the 1833 election, when Lincoln stepped down.

Marcus Morton was known to be personally opposed to slavery, and this gained him votes in the 1837 and 1838 elections despite the vacillating answers he gave to such requests.

Marcus Morton was one of several potential recipients, but eventually dropped out, suggesting it go instead to George Bancroft.

One ballot counted for Marcus Morton contained the scrawl "Maccus Mattoon"; despite efforts by Whig partisans to deny that the writer intended to vote for Marcus Morton, no person with that name was found anywhere in the state.

Everett graciously refused to persist in contesting the balloting, and Marcus Morton was certified the winner with 51,034 votes to 50,725 for Everett with another 307 votes being scattered.

Marcus Morton called for a series of reforms, repeating those from 1840, and including a proposal to transfer the tax burden from real to personal property.

Marcus Morton was criticized by the Whigs for omitting any mention of slavery in his inaugural address.

In 1848 Marcus Morton was invited by Martin Van Buren to run as the vice presidential nominee on the Free Soil ticket.

Marcus Morton refused, arguing that Van Buren needed geographic diversity.

Marcus Morton campaigned for Van Buren, who ended up polling third.

Marcus Morton was a delegate to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1853, and was elected on the Free Soil ticket to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1858, serving one term.

Marcus Morton died at his home in Taunton in 1864, nearly 80 years old, and was buried in its Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

Marcus Morton's son, named Marcus, followed him onto the state's supreme court, eventually serving as its chief justice.