Background
Morton, Marcus, 1784---1864, , Massachusetts 1784 1864 Male Governor Massachusetts Jurist jurist and governor of Massachusetts, was born in Freetown, Massachussets, the son of Nathaniel and Mary (Cary) Morton, and a descendant of George Morton [q. v. ] who emigrated to America in 1623.
Admitted to the Norfolk bar in 1807, he began to practise in Taunton, and on Dec. 23 of the same year married Charlotte Hodges, daughter of James and Joanna (Tillinghast) Hodges, by whom he had twelve children, among them Marcus Morton [q. v. ].
Education
His early education was received at home, and when he was fourteen years of age he was placed under the Rev. Calvin Chaddock, at Rochester, Massachussets, for further instruction.
In 1801 he entered Brown University with the sophomore class.
After graduation in 1804, he studied law for a year in the office of Judge Seth Padelford, at Taunton, and then entered Tapping Reeve's law school at Litchfield, Connecticut, where he was a schoolmate of John C. Calhoun.
Career
Here he began to show much interest in the doctrines of Jefferson with their appeal to reason against custom and precedent and their emphasis on the rights of man.
He was lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, 1824-25, and in the latter year became acting governor on the death of Gov. William Eustis [q. v. ].
Only twice during that period was he successful.
In 1839 he defeated Edward Everett [q. v. ] by the majority of a single vote, and in 1842 he was chosen over John Davis by the Senate, neither candidate having received a majority.
He was a man of unquestioned probity, whose poise, serenity, and character made him generally admired.
In his championship of the lower classes, his distrust of overlarge corporations, and his advocacy of shorter hours for the working man he was ahead of his time, and perhaps partly for this reason a large measure of political success was denied him.
[J. K. Allen, George Morton of Plymouth Colony and Some of His Descendants (1908); A Hist.
of Freetown, Massachussets (1902); Biog.
Dir.
Am.
Cong.
(1928); U. S. Mag.
and Democratic Rev. , Oct. 1841; Colls.
of the Old Colony Hist.
Soc. , no. 7 (1909); Law Reporter, Feb. 1840; A. B. Darling, Political Changes in Massachussets, 1824-1848 (1925); "Necrology of Brown Univ. , for the Year 1863-4, " Providence Daily Jour. , Sept. 6, 1864; Boston Daily Courier, Feb. 8, 1864; Morton's letter books in possession of the Massachussets Hist.
Soc; date of birth from Brown Hist.
Cat. : some sources give Dec. 19. ]
Religion
The two major parties were the conservative element, consisting of the wealthy aristocrats, the shipowners, bankers, and manufacturers, largely concentrated in Boston; and the more liberal and progressive element comprising the farmers, workingmen, and recent immigrants.
