Morris, Lewis Richard, , New York 1760 1825 Male Congressman Statesman congressman and Vermont statesman, was born at Scarsdale, N. Y. , the son of Richard [q. v. ] and Sarah (Ludlow) Morris.
His father was a landed proprietor of Westchester County and for a decade, chief justice of New York.
He received a common-school education, and during the Revolution saw military service in New York as aide to General Schuyler and General Clinton.
Gen. Lewis Morris, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Gouverneur Morris [qq. v. ]
were his uncles.
From 1781 to 1783 he was first secretary under Robert R. Livingston, 1746-1813 [q. v. ], secretary of the department of foreign affairs.
In 1786 he moved to Springfield, Windsor County, Vt.
Elected to the House of Representatives by a close margin in 1796, he sat in the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh congresses.
When the House was choosing between Jefferson and Burr in the contested election of 1800, Jefferson, until the thirty-sixth ballot, received the votes of only eight of the sixteen states.
This act, combined with a similar procedure in the Maryland delegation and a blank ballot from Delaware, gave Jefferson more than the necessary majority.
Some years before his death he retired from politics and business.
He died at Springfield, Vt. , and was buried at Charlestown, N. H. [W. H. Crockett, Vt. , the Green Mt. State (5 vols. , 1921), passim; Biog.
Dir.
Am.
Cong.
(1928); W. W. Spooner, Hist.
Families of America (1907); E. M. W. Lefferts, Descendants of Lewis Morris of Morrisania (1907); Benj.
Dwight, The Hist.
III (in 2 vols. , 1928 - 29); A. P. Lee, "Pioneering with Forty Slaves, " in Daughters of the Am.
Revolution Mag. , July 1926; Brattleboro' Messenger, Jan. 7, 1826. ]
Morris then absented himself, allowing his Republican colleague to cast the vote of Vermont for Jefferson.
of the Descendants of John Dwight (1874), I, 224; H. S. Olcott, The Descendants of Thomas Olcott (1874); E. P. Walton, ed. , Records of the Governor and Council of the State of Vt. , IV-VI (1876 - 78); W. H. Crockett, ed. , State Papers of Vt. , vol.
He left her soon after their marriage.
He was married, first, in 1786, to Mary, daughter of Timothy and sister of President Timothy Dwight, 1752-1817 q.v., of Yale.
He was married, first, in 1786, to Mary, daughter of Timothy and sister of President Timothy Dwight, 1752-1817 q.v., of Yale.
His second wife was Theodotia, daughter of the Rev. Buckley Olcott of Charlestown, N. H., and his third, Ellen, daughter of Arad Hunt of Vernon, Vt.
His second wife was Theodotia, daughter of the Rev. Buckley Olcott of Charlestown, N. H., and his third, Ellen, daughter of Arad Hunt of Vernon, Vt.
He was married, first, in 1786, to Mary, daughter of Timothy and sister of President Timothy Dwight, 1752-1817 q.v., of Yale.
That Morris was a stanch Federalist was shown in his willingness to have Matthew Lyon q.v., his Republican colleague, expelled from the House in February 1798, for using objectionable language (Annals of Congress, 5 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1008).
