Levi Morton

• Vice President to:       Benjamin Harrison - Republican, from Indiana.
  
  
  • Benjamin Harrison served 1889 - 1893. He died in 1901, at the age of 68.
    
    
• Dates Served: Morton served as Vice President from 1889 - 1893.
  
• Political Party: Morton was a Republican, from New York.
  
• Born: 1824.
  
• Died: 1920, at the age of 96.
  
• The presidential opponent during the 1888 campaign was:
  
  
  • Grover Cleveland - Democrat - Incumbant President
    
    
• Campaign issues in 1888:
  
  
  • The campaign this year was a civil one, compared to 4 years earlier, since there wasn't any obvious issue to campaign on, and voters were tired of tabloid campaigns, for now. The main defining issue between the 2 candidates was, again, tariffs. As usual, the Republicans backed a high tariff to protect domestic industry and the Democrats backed a lower one to encourage foreign trade, without advocating an outright Free Market, which at the time was not a kosher idea. Cleveland was still very popular and he won the Popular Vote, but he lost the Electoral vote. As Governor of New York he had fought the political machinery in the city that was ripe with corruption. During his first term as President these smoke-filled rooms had resurrected and had sabatoged his campaign in New York, costing him his own state's Electoral votes. (This was accomplished by arranging for the Republicans to write a letter to the ambassador from England, asking which candidate England backed. His reply, saying that England favored Cleveland, was published in the major newspapers, and this didn't go over very well with the large Irish population of New York, who couldn't stomach any candidate who was backed by their mortal enemy, the English. So they voted the other way). Had Cleveland received their traditionally Democratic votes, he would have won the election. But he would be back.
    
    
  
  
• Notable Facts about Levi Morton:
  
  
  • Religious affiliation: Levi was a Congregationalist, a denomination of which his father had been a preacher.
    
    
  • Levi Morton originally ran dry-goods stores in Hanover, New Hampshire, then in Boston before moving to New York City in 1854. He attended school only sporadically.
    
    
  • In 1863 he decided to become a banker and founded the firms "L.P. Morton Co" and later "Morton, Bliss, and Co" in 1869. As a result he established himself as a powerful East Coast banker.
    
    
  • Morton began his political career by being elected to the US House of Representatives, representing New York from 1879 - 1881.
    
    
  • President Garfield appointed him Minister to France, serving there from 1881 - 1885.
    
    
  • He was appointed to run for Vice President on Benjamin Harrison's campaign due to his long party-loyalty, his generous contributions to the party's coffers, and his strong Protectionist views.
    
    
  • Levi Morton's was dumped by President Harrison in his re-election campaign because of Morton's refusal to support him in pressing for the passage of the Federal Elections Bill which would have mandated stricter punishments for anyone intimidating blacks from voting in the Southern states. When it came to the Senate floor, Morton was lukewarm and the bill died. So did Harrison's respect for Morton.
    
    
  • After his term as Vice President he was elected Governor of New York, serving from 1895 - 1897.
    
    
  • He later ran for the Republican ticket in the 1896 election, but lost out to William McKinley.
    
    
  • He died on his 96th birthday.
    

Notable Events during his Vice Presidency:

• Sherman Anti-Trust Act, in 1890, which was the first federal attempt to fight monopolies in industry. It was pretty lame though, making a monopoly a misdemeanor subject to a $5,000 fine. The US Supreme Court decided in 1895 that the Act only applied to "purely commercial interests" and not to manufacturers. So it whimpered along until Teddy Roosevelt's stronger anti-trust policies.
  
  
• McKinley Tariff Act, in 1890. Named for its sponsor, future-president William McKinley, this legislation set the average tariff rate at the nose-bleed level of 48 percent, the highest ever. The result was increases in prices throughout the country, and voters reacted by turning against the Republicans in the next election and re-electing Grover Cleveland to power.
  
  
• The paper clip is invented by Johan Vaaler in Germany, in 1890. The original paper clip was shaped like a triangle. The modern oval-shaped paper clip was not patented for another 19 years, by William Middlebrook in Connecticut, on April 27, 1899.
  
  
• North Dakota and South Dakota were both admitted to the Union in 1889, but no one knows which state came first since both documents were signed at the same ceremony and it's not certain which document was signed first.
  
  
• Washington admitted into the Union, in 1889.
  
  
• Idaho admitted into the Union, in 1890.
  
  
• Wyoming admitted into the Union, in 1890.