Philip H. Morgan was born on November 9, 1825, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the son of Judge Thomas Gibbes Morgan and Eliza McKennan. On his father's side, he was a descendant in the fourth generation of Evan Morgan who emigrated from Wales to Pennsylvania; on his mother's side he was a nephew of Thomas M. T. McKennan and related to Thomas McKean, signer of the Declaration of Independence, later chief justice and then governor of Pennsylvania.
Philip was educated in the public schools of that city and at Paris, France, where he laid the foundation for his great knowledge of the civil law. As a very young man he spent some time in Havana, Cuba, and there learned to speak Spanish - one of several modern languages he later commanded with ease and fluency.
He returned from his Parisian law studies just in time to enter the Mexican War as first lieutenant of a Louisiana volunteer company.
Upon completing this service, he was admitted to the Louisiana bar, and is said to have spent the months immediately following in helping his father annotate the civil code of the state.
Soon he went to practise law in New Orleans, and had not lived there long before he was elected judge of the second district court of Louisiana, which office he held for four years. Four of his half-brothers, one of whom was James Morris Morgan, served the Confederacy, but Morgan was loyal to the Union and devoted his best efforts to its preservation. At a mass meeting on Canal Street, New Orleans, on the eve of the war, he told those assembled that if they would fight the abolitionists within the Union he would fight with them, but warned them that if they fired a shot at the Stars and Stripes their slaves would be their political masters within five years. Just then a large straw man bearing a placard with the words "P. H. Morgan - Traitor" was hoisted on a nearby telegraph pole and set on fire. He is supposed to have spent the Civil War period in England, but, if he did, he returned immediately after the conclusion of hostilities.
President Johnson appointed him United States district attorney for Louisiana in December 1866, but the Senate rejected the appointment, March 2, 1867.
The following year he was again appointed and this time the appointment was confirmed (January 7, 1869).
From 1873 to 1876 he was one of the judges of the state supreme court--the so-called "carpet-bag court. " In 1877 he became one of the judges of the recently organized international court in Egypt, for which he was admirably fitted by reason of his linguistic ability and knowledge of foreign codes, and served for one term. While still in Egypt he was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Mexico by President Hayes, which post he occupied from January 1880 until his successor, appointed by President Cleveland, took office early in March 1885. After he returned from Mexico he practised law in New York City until his death there on August 12, 1900. He was buried in Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Philip Morgan was a man of large and powerful physique. He had the moral courage to declare his convictions and remain true to them, for which he paid the price in unpopularity.
On May 22, 1852, Philip H. Morgan married Beatrice Leslie Ford, daughter of Judge James Ford of Baton Rouge. The couple had nine children, but only five survived past childhood.
James Morris Morgan was an American naval officer, soldier, and author.
