MORTON, OLIVER PERRY, 1823-77; b. Ind.; the family name, Throckmorton, was shortened by his father. Ile was educated at the Wayne co. (Ind.) seminary, and Miami university. Oxford, Ohio; studied law, and was admitted to practice at Centre ville, Ind., in 1847. He rose to be a leading member of the Indiana bar, and in 1852 was elected a circuit judge. At an early age he interested himself in politics, at first as a democrat, but became a republican on the formation of that party. He ran for gov ernor of Indiana in 1856 on the republican ticket; was defeated, and returned to the practice of law ; but in 1860 was elected lieut.-governor of the state; the governor having been chosen U. S. senator, Morton became governor, .Jan. 16, 1861. The beginning of the rebellion found the state legislature and the attorney-general of Indiana democratic, and thus a fierce and active opposition ag,ainst furnishing aid for the prosecution of the waT2 Gov. Morton, who gained the sobriquet of "the great war governor," devoted himself, heart and soul, to plans for placing Indiana strongly on the side of the union, and even effected a sufficient loan on his personal responsibility to meet the exigencies of the situation: this obligation was afterwards assumed by the stale. In 1864 he was elected governer.by a large majority; but in the following year experienced a stroke of paralysis, and Was obliged to go to Eni'ope fOr his health. year was absent only a few months, and on his return resumed the duties of his office. In 186711c was elected to the II. S. senate; and on the expiration of his term, in 1573, was re-elected for the term
ending in 1379. In the senate he became the recognized leader of the republican party, while he accomplished a prodigious amount of labor, serving on the committees on for eign relations, agriculture, military affairs, private land claims, and privileges and elec tions. He was one of the principal promoters of the passage of the fifteenth amendment to the constitution, and sustained the administration in the effort to carry through the senate the proposed San Domingo treaty. For this last service he was offered the Eng lish mission, which he declined on the ground that his acceptance would involve the election of a democratic senator in his place by the legislature of Indiana. At the republican national convention in. 1876, senator Morton received 124 votes on the first ballot for president. He was a member of the electoral commission called to decide the question of the disputed presidential election; and afterwards strongly pressed an amendment to the law directing the method of counting the votes. Senator Morton was a man of powerful intellect and dettrmined will, and an orator of great popularity through his vigorous and straightfoward speech. During the latter part of his life his infirmities necessitated his use of Assistance in about, and lie had to be carried from the lobby of the senate chamber to his carriage. In his prime he was over 6 ft. in height, with a powerful physique.