William Ralls Morrison
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William Ralls Morrison | |
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Member of the U.S House of Representatives from Illinois | |
In office March 4, 1863 – March 3, 1865 | |
Preceded by | District created |
Succeeded by | Jehu Baker |
Constituency | 12th district |
In office March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1887 | |
Preceded by | District created |
Succeeded by | Jehu Baker |
Constituency |
|
Member of the Illinois House of Representatives | |
In office 1854-1860 1870-1871 | |
Personal details | |
Born | September 14, 1824 Prairie du Long, Illinois |
Died | September 29, 1909 | (aged 85)
Nationality | American |
Political party | Democratic |
Residence | Waterloo, Illinois |
Alma mater | McKendree College |
Occupation | Military officer |
Profession | Politician, lawyer |
William Ralls Morrison (September 14, 1824 – September 29, 1909) was a U.S. Representative from Illinois.
Early life and career
Born on a farm at Prairie du Long, near the present town of Waterloo, Illinois, Morrison attended the common schools and McKendree College in Lebanon, Illinois. He served in the war with Mexico. He went to California with the gold seekers in 1849, but returned to Illinois in 1851. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1855, and commenced practice in Waterloo, Illinois. Morrison served as clerk of the circuit court of Monroe County, Illinois, from 1852 to 1854 and as member of the State house of representatives 1854–1860, 1870, and 1871; he served as speaker in 1859 and 1860.
Personal life
Morrison married Eleanor Horan, whom he knew from childhood, when she was 17 and he was 27. Morrison was wounded at the Battle of Fort Donelson while serving with the Union Army during the American Civil War, and his wife nursed him back to health. During congressional sessions, the Morrisons resided at the Willard Hotel.[1]
Civil War service
In 1861, Morrison helped organize and was appointed colonel of the
Congressional career
While in command of his regiment in the field, Morrison was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-eighth Congress (March 4, 1863 – March 3, 1865). He was an unsuccessful candidate in 1864 for reelection to the Thirty-ninth Congress and in 1866 for election to the Fortieth Congress. He continued the practice of law in Waterloo, Illinois.
Morrison was elected to the Forty-third and to the six succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1887). He served as chairman of the
As head of Ways and Means, Morrison worked hard for tariff reform, without conspicuous success. His bill met with so much Democratic obstruction that it never reached a final vote in 1884, and the same was true in 1886. The opposition was led by Congressman Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania on the Democratic side, and there had been bad blood between the two men for almost a decade. In 1875, Morrison had favored Michael Kerr of Indiana for Speaker over Randall, and Randall, coming to the Speakership a year later, saw to it that Morrison was shut out of the Ways and Means Committee chairmanship henceforth. In 1883, when Randall sought re-election to the Speakership, Morrison organized the forces that elected John G. Carlisle of Kentucky instead. But their personal dislike was rooted in sharply different views of how protective the tariff ought to be, and Randall's ability, as Appropriations Committee chairman, to wield the influence among members against any reduction in rates was still considerable through 1886. One high-tariff Democrat described Morrison as "afflicted with economic flatulence and fiscal hydrophobia," firing off "putrid tariff phosphorescence from one end and finance and currency froth from the other."[2] The tariff bill that Morrison wanted never even made it unscathed through the Ways and Means Committee. "Apparently there are many doctors attending the coming Tariff bill at the leader's bedside," the Secretary of the Treasury Daniel Manning wrote an old associate. "I am afraid of many deformities, and feel almost certain that it will not live long enough to grow out of the arms of its nurses."[3] Nor did it. In June 1886, the House voted by 157 to 140 not to discuss the bill. Thirty-five Democrats voted with the protectionist majority, among them congressmen from the wool-growing and sugar-raising districts of Ohio and Louisiana; Alabama's members voted on behalf of the coal and iron interests of Birmingham.[4]
Personality
Morrison was an unpretentious figure on the House floor. Weak-voiced (the shot through the lungs he sustained in the war never wholly lost its effect and his inveterate cigar smoking did not help much, either) and wholly lacking in personal magnetism, he was no orator and only a tolerable parliamentarian. A Washington correspondent likened him to "a village lawyer. He has all the airs of one, and his ten years in Congress and as long a time in the Illinois Legislature, have failed to make anything else out of him as far as personal appearance goes. He is a brawny, country-looking man, and you can almost fancy that you see the hayseed in his hair. He is slouchy in his dress, his black broadcloth coat being, as a rule, anything but new in appearance, and anything but a compliment to the tailor who was its author and finisher. He delights in a soft black hat, a 'slouch,' not in the newest fashion either, though to a friend who was chaffing him on it the other day he remarked that he had a good silk one at home."[5] One onlooker complained that wherever he stood, even when he addressed the House, he kept his hands in his trouser pockets. "He seems to be eternally suffering from cold," he remarked. "Or maybe he is looking for thoughts in his pockets instead of his head. He is the most restless man on the floor of the House. He never occupies his own seat. He is constantly moving about, dropping into this seat, then another, suggesting an incarnation of the principle of perpetual motion."[6] But members early came to find him careful, thoughtful, and a hard worker. They also declared him wholly trustworthy, and, wrote a former Illinois governor, "oine of the most truthful and trustworthy men." The radical Republican, Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, marked him as one of the best men on the opposition side, and, indeed, one of the best men of any party in a talented House."That man's word can be relied upon," he is alleged to have said.[7] A Republican, who had no sympathy with Morrison's tariff views, pronounced him an able, honest man. "There is no trace of the demagogue about him," he told a reporter. "What he believes in he avows without hesitation. He is held in high esteem by the Republican side of the House."[8]
End of congressional career
He was an
Late years
He was appointed in 1887 by President Cleveland to the Interstate Commerce Commission, reappointed by President Harrison on January 5, 1892, and served from March 22, 1887, to December 31, 1897. He was chairman of the commission from March 19, 1892, to the end of his term. He resumed the practice of law in Waterloo, Illinois, and died there September 29, 1909. He was interred in Waterloo Cemetery.
References
- ^ Hinman, Ida (1895). The Washington Sketch Book: A Society Souvenir. Washington D. C.: Hartman & Cadick, Printers. p. 83. Retrieved October 31, 2021. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ George C. Tichenor to Samuel J. Randall, July 19, 1886, Samuel J. Randall Papers, University of Pennsylvania Library.
- ^ Daniel Manning to Manton Marble, February 10, 1886, Manton Marble Papers, Library of Congress.
- ^ "Philadelphia Record," June 15, 17, 18, 1886.
- ^ "St. Louis Post-Dispatch," March 29, 1884, January 1, 1884.
- ^ "New York Tribune," April 4, 1886.
- ^ Robbins, "William Ralls Morrison," p. 4.
- ^ "Cincinnati Commercial Gazette," November 4, 1886.
- United States Congress. "William Ralls Morrison (id: M001000)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress