Background
Morgan Cassius Fitzpatrick was born on October 29, 1868, at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the son of Louisa Cross and Joel M. Fitzpatrick, who had recently moved from Tennessee and in 1874 returned to that state.
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Morgan Cassius Fitzpatrick was born on October 29, 1868, at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the son of Louisa Cross and Joel M. Fitzpatrick, who had recently moved from Tennessee and in 1874 returned to that state.
Young Fitzpatrick, brought up on a farm in Smith County, was educated in the common schools of his community, at Elmwood Institute in Tennessee, at National Normal University, Lebanon, Ohio, and graduated from the law college of Cumberland University, Tennessee, in 1890.
Fitzpatrick received the degree of doctor of sacred theology from Harvaid College.
Making his home in Hartsville, in Trousdale County, Fitzpatrick taught school, practised law, became county superintendent of education (1893 - 1894), edited a local newspaper (1895 - 1896), and was elected in 1894 as representative from Trousdale, Sumner, and Wilson counties to the lower house of the Tennessee legislature. As a legislator, holding the chairmanship of the committee on education arid common schools, he displayed qualities of energy and leadership.
Fitzpatrick was re-elected to the state House of Representatives and in 1897 was chosen to be its speaker.
In the following year he became chairman of the Democratic executive committee of the state, a position that he retained for four years. As a Democratic leader in Tennessee Fitzpatrick was instrumental in securing the election of his friend, Benton McMillin, as governor, and was rewarded by him with appointment in 1899 to the office of state superintendent of public instruction.
During the four years of Governor McMillin’s two administrations Fitzpatrick retained this position and did much to arouse the people of the state, whose more wealthy citizens sent their children to private schools and academies, to a realization of the responsibility of the state for an adequate and well-financed system of public education.
As legislator and as superintendent Fitzpatrick advocated and was instrumental in securing the enactment of a uniform text-book law, a county high-school law that enabled counties to establish public high schools and thus bridge the gap, particularly in evidence in rural counties, between the elementary schools and the colleges and universities, and a law making school districts and civil districts coextensive. To Peabody Normal College (now George Peabody College for Teachers) and to state and county teachers’ institutes he gave support as much needed instruments for improving the qualifications of the state’s teachers.
Fitzpatrick sought in many ways to better the state’s educational system but he constantly insisted, with some eventual success, that Tennessee’s educational defects resulted not primarily from an inadequate system but from "the lack of funds with which to employ better teachers on better salaries and to double the terms of our schools. "
In 1902 he was elected to the Fifty-eighth Congress. He did not seek reelection, however, for his health had become seriously impaired. He moved his residence to Gallatin where he practised law until his death. Morgan C. Fitzpatrick died on June 25, 1908, in Nashville, Tennessee, and was interred at Gallatin Cemetery in Gallatin, Tennessee.
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A member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, Fitzpatrick served from 1895 to 1899. He served as speaker in 1897, having been elected on the first ballot over A. H. Pettibone. He was the state superintendent of public instruction from 1899 to 1903. He was chairman of the state Democratic executive committee.
Fitzpatrick was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-eighth Congress. He served from March 4, 1903 to March 3, 1905, but he was not a candidate for renomination in 1904 and resumed the practice of law.
Morgan C. Fitzpatrick was invited to be a member of the Thursday Evening Club of congenial Bostonians.
In 1862 Fitzpatrick was invited to become a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In appearance Morgan Fitzpatrick was tall and well-poised, with regular features and high forehead. His figure is close to that of Govener Andrew in the bas-relief "Departure for the War" on the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Boston Common.
In 1894, Morgan C. Fitzpatrick married Maggie May DeBow. The couple had a daughter.