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ALMOST PRESIDENT: LEVI P. MORTON

© John S. Cooper

Like Charles Fairbanks (see the earlier article “Almost President: Charles Fairbanks” published on December 8), Levi Morton made a fateful decision that cost him the White House. As a result, he watched someone else sworn in as President. Like Charles Fairbanks, he later ended up Vice President.

Levi Parsons Morton was born in Shoreham, Vermont, on May 16, 1824. The son of a New England minister, he had little in the way of formal education. At the age of 14, he began working full-time as a store clerk earning a dollar a week. By the time he was 21, he owned his own dry-goods store, and was earning more than $100,000 a year. Before he was 40 years old, he started an international banking firm with Junius Morgan, the father of J.P. Morgan. He was soon one of the richest men in the world.

His first dry-goods store was opened in Hanover, New Hampshire. He then opened a store in Boston. In 1854, he settled in New York City. In 1863, he founded the banking business of L.P. Morton and Company, which became the Morton, Bliss and Company in 1869. Through these businesses, he became one of the most influential of the eastern bankers.

Within the Republican Party, he aligned himself with Roscoe Conkling and the conservative Stalwart faction of the party. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1878, and was re-elected in 1880. In 1880, Morton served as the chief fund-raiser for the Republican Party. It was also in 1880 that Morton turned down an offer to become Vice President.

In an effort to unite the party, which had nominated “half-breed” James Garfield for President, it was decided to offer the second place on the ticket to a “stalwart” from the key state of New York. Morton was offered the spot, but turned it down. He had hopes of becoming the Secretary of the Treasury in the Garfield administration. With seven hundred million dollars in government bonds coming due, it was a great opportunity for a banker such as Morton.

President Garfield had no intention of naming part of the corrupt Conkling machine to the position of Secretary of the Treasury. In spite of heavy pressure from Roscoe Conkling to name Morton to the post, Garfield offered the position to William Allison of Iowa, feeling it was important to name someone far removed from the nation’s money center. Allison at first accepted the position, but then changed his mind and declined it. William Windom, a long-time friend of Garfield, was then named to the position.

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