Conservative *
majority who had adjourned to Flor
ence , and the attempt to reorganize at
that session was abandoned. His action
was very warmly commended by Gov
ernor Richardson afterwards , who sub
sequently recommended him to his first
political patron and friend , General
Lewis Cass , then Secretary of State in
the cabinet of President James Bu
chanan. The President appointed Mr.
Morton as secretary of the territory in
May , 1858 , and he served in that office
until May , 1861 , when he was relieved
by his old republican friend , Algernon
Sidney Paddock , who had been appoint
ed by President Lincoln to fill the place.
Mr. Morton , as has been previously
stated , became a leader of public opin
ion from the time of his first arrival in
the territory. His field of usefulness
was now to broaden , and he was first
nominated for a delegate to congress ,
at a democratic convention that met at
Omaha in September , 1860. His oppo
nent was Samuel G. Daily of Peru. The
official returns gave Mr. Morton four
teen majority. Mr. Daily contested
and won the seat by virtue of a republi
can majority which controlled the
lower house of congress at the time.
It was in this first real campaign which
Mr. Morton ever made in Nebraska that
his reputation became fixed before the
people for ability and power in debate ,
and for that kind of leadership which
makes him the peer of all public men in
this part of the west. On the admission
of Nebraska as a state in 1867 he was
nominated for governor by the Demo
cratic State Convention. The republi
can candidate was David Butler of
Pawnee county. After an able and
brilliant canvass in which , for the
second time , Morton proved his powers
in public discussion , he was fairly
elected by a majority of 148 votes , but
a board of canvassers at Plattsmouth
threw out the Rock Bluff vote in Oass
county because the judges of election
had not signed the tally list. There
was no charge of fraud. The vote of
the precinct was full and fair , but upon
the technical ground votes enough were
thrown out to give the republicans the
legislature on joint ballot by a major
ity of eight , and to elect David Butler
governor by a hundred and some odd
votes. At that election there were two
hundred United States soldiers sta
tioned at Fort Kearney who voted for
Butler , and who had just previously
voted for Stone for governor of Iowa.
At the same election the half-breeds
and Indians were influenced to vote on
the Omaha reservation for Butler. In
the legislature chosen by this election ,
Mr. Morton and the late A. J. Popple-
ton , his friend at college , were nominat
ed and voted for by the democrats for
the United States senate , John M.
Thayer and Thomas W. Tipton , re
publicans , defeating them by seven
votes on joint ballot. It was at this
time that Mr. Morton yielded to the
persuasion of Mrs. Morton to abjure
politics and devote himself to business
pursuits , which he did for the ensuing
fourteen years with success , when in
1882 he was again nominated for the
governorship in the state convention of
that year. The state was largely re
publican , and while he received about
26,000 votes in the contest , Mr. Dawes ,
the republican candidate , was elected
by a large plurality. He was again
nominated for governor and made the
race against Mr. Dawes in 1884. At
this election he received more than
twice as many votes , that is to say ,
57,000 against 26,000 , as he had received
two years previously. From this time
on he was not a candidate for office ,
but in 1888 a convention at Nebraska
Oity nominated him for congress. It
was a convention that he did not attend ,
and in which he had very little interest ,
because he knew a nomination was
only an opportunity to expend money
in organizing a party and in laying a
foundation for the success of some one
else. Leading friends and democrats
were sent as a committee to persuade
him to accept the nomination , which he
at first declined. But he was induced
at last to accept , and entered upon the
campaign with his usual vigor , bearing
his own expenses in organizing the
district for the contest. His opponent
was W. J. Oonnell , of Omaha , by whom
he was defeated by a decisive majority.
Mr. Morton was nominated by his
party for governor again in 1892 , Lor
enzo Orounse being the republican
nominee , and Charles H. VanWyok
the populist nominee. It was a stirring
campaign , marked by great ability on
the part of the candidates in discussing
questions then before the people. Judge
Orounse was elected governor by a
plurality of from eight thousand to ten
thousand votes. Mr. Morton accepted
this nomination and made the canvass
for the sole and exclusive purpose of
putting down populism in the state to
the extent of his ability ; it was in this
campaign that he boldly advocated the
gold standard for the first time before
the people.
In February , 1898 , Mr. Morton wa
nominated by his friends as a candidate
for the United States senate before the
legislature of that year. He seemed to
hold the balance of power in that body
through the votes of the gold-standard
democrats. As long as they could be
held together , neither the republican
nor the populists could elect. The crisi
came and the republicans concluded to
drop the republican candidate , Mr
Thurston , and vote for Mr. Morton
Forty-five of them signed a paper to
that effect , but the whole scheme wa
broken up because a colored representative
tive from Omaha was induced to be
lieve that Mr. Morton had been a deale
in slaves.
Mr. Morton had now become a public
nan of national proportions. Ho found
among his intimate associates in the
eadership of the democratic party , Car-
isle , Bayard , and others of the strongest
men in democratic councilsand , the same
nouth in which he suffered defeat for
; he senate , Grover Cleveland , elected
'or a second term to the presidency ,
; eudered him the position of Secretary
of Agriculture. In this great office he
distinguished himself for administrative
ability of the first order. He immedi
ately antagonized the political prac-
ices of congress in the distribution of
seeds to the people , which he regarded
as useless and pernicious.
He came in direct collision with the
rlouso of Representatives on that issue ,
and maintained his ground with his
usual ability and firmness. The prob
lem with him was to make his Depart
ment illustrate efficiency in conserving I
and promoting all interests over which
it had jurisdiction , and at the lowest
possible expenditure of public money.
The result was highly gratifying to the
president and to the people when it be
came known that he had actually been
able to cover back into the treasury of
the United States from the amounts of
money appropriated for his Department ,
over $2,000,000 , or to state it more ac
curately , 19 } per cent of all the ap
propriations made for the Department
of Agriculture.
In the reduction of its clerical force ,
and through the merit system , the
president , at Mr. Morton's request , put
all of the employees of the Bureau of
Animal Industry into the classified civil
service. It was then roade a condition
precedent to an examination before the
civil service examinations for an inspector
specter of the bureau to present a
diploma as a veterinary surgeon issued
by some reputable veterinary college.
Under this wise reform it is now the
fact that all inspectors are graduates of
veterinary schools , and inspection of
animals for human consumption , both
before and after slaughter , is thoroughly
scientific , and in the hands of skilled
and capable men. Previous to Presi
dent Cleveland's order , this great work
was in the hands of political mendicants
and beneficiaries , who received appoint
ments as rewards for partisan service.
Secretary Morton's able administration
of the Department of Agriculture was
by no means the measure of his valu
able public service during the four years
of his incumbency. An able , prudent
and wise adviser of the president , he
was scarcely second in influence to any
member of a cabinet which in intellec
tual ability was strong in every part ,
and all will agree that his public service
reflected honor upon his state and
country.
At the end of the Cleveland adminis
tration Mr. Morton retired to his home
and resumed his life work in the up-
builduig of the state , and especially of