M-N: Mann through Nye

See below for annotated biographies of Free Soil Party leaders, members and supporters. Source: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography.

MANN, Horace, 1796-1859, Boston, Massachusetts, educator, political leader, social reformer, anti-slavery activist.  U.S. Congressman, Whig Party, from Massachusetts.  He filled former Congressman John Quincy Adams’ seat.  Co-founder of the Young Men’s Colonization Society in Boston.  Co-founded monthly paper, The Colonizationist and Journal of Freedom.  He defended the American Colonization Society and its policies against criticism by William Lloyd Garrison.  Opposed extension of slavery in territories annexed in the Mexican War of 1846.  Said, “I consider no evil as great as slavery...”  Argued against the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.  Reelected to Congress and served from April 1848 until March 1853.  In 1852, he was a Free-Soil candidate (lost) for Governor of Massachusetts.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 190-191; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 240; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 14, p. 424; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe; Mabee, 1970, pp. 64, 157, 160, 168, 170, 171, 261, 294, 409n9; Sewell 1976, pp. 168n, 184, 187, 189, 193, 196, 219, 242, 249; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 204).

In the spring of 1848 Mann was elected to Congress as a Whig, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Quincy Adams. His first speech in that body was in advocacy of its right and duty to exclude slavery from the territories, and in a letter in December of that year he said: "I think the country is to experience serious times. Interference with slavery will excite civil commotion in the south. But it is best to interfere. Now is the time to see whether the Union is a rope of sand or a band of steel." Again he said: "I consider no evil as great as slavery, and I would pass the Wilmot proviso whether the south rebel or not." During the first session he volunteered as counsel for Drayton and Sayres, who were indicted for stealing seventy-six slaves in the District of Columbia, and at the trial was engaged for twenty-one successive days in their defence. In 1850 he was engaged in a controversy with Daniel Webster in regard to the extension of slavery and the fugitive-slave law. Mann was defeated by a single vote at the ensuing nominating convention by Mr. Webster's supporters; but, on appealing to the people as an independent anti-slavery candidate, he was re-elected, serving from April, 1848, till March, 1853. In September, 1852, he was nominated for governor of Massachusetts by the Free-Soil Party, and the same day was chosen president of Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio. Failing in the election for governor, he accepted the presidency of the college, in which he continued until his death. He carried that institution through pecuniary and other difficulties, and satisfied himself of the practicality of co-education. His death was hastened by his untiring labors in his office. He published, besides his annual reports, his lectures on education, and his voluminous controversial writings, " A Few Thoughts for a Young Man" (Boston, 1850); "Slavery: Letters and Speeches" (1851); "Powers and Duties of Woman'' (1853); and "Sermons" (1861). See "Life of Horace Mann," by his wife (1865); "Life and Complete Works of Horace Mann " (2 vols., Cambridge, 1869); and "Thoughts selected from the Writings of Horace Mann " (1869). His lectures on education were translated into French by Eugene de Guer, under the title of "De l'importance de l'education dans une republique," with a preface and biographical sketch by Edouard R. L. Laboulaye (Paris, 1873).

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 240;

MANN, HORACE (May 4, 1796-August 2, 1859), educator, one of five children of Thomas and Rebecca (Stanley) Mann, was born on the ancestral farm in the town of Franklin, Massachusetts, a descendant of William Mann, an early settler of Cambridge, M ass. From his father, who died of tuberculosis in 1809, Horace inherited a frail constitution and a susceptibility to this di s ease. His parents were people of meager education but of sterling character, and imparted to their children habits of industry and high ideals. Mann's childhood was an unhappy one passed in poverty, unremitting toil, repression, and fear. The studies and methods of the district school w ere stultifying, the school masters ignorant, and their discipline stern and terrifying. Still more terrifying were the Sunday sermons preached by the Reverend Nathaniel Emmons [q .v.], in which were pictured the eternal torments of those damned fo r the glory of God. Night after night the little lad, filled with grief and horror over the possible fate awaiting his loved ones, sobbed himself to sleep. Although Franklin possessed a town library, it brought little relief to the mind of the harrowed child, made up a s it was chiefly of old histories and theological works. Undoubtedly, the immediate influence of school, church, and town library upon this highly sensitive boy were repressive, if not injurious; nevertheless, to the spirit of revolt engendered by their defects can be traced directly many of the most important reform efforts of his later life.

The superiority of Mann's mental gifts was revealed in connection with his preparation for college. Up to the time he was sixteen, he had never attended school more than eight or ten week s in any one year, and he did not begin preparing for college, until 1816. Then, in six months, under the direction of a n eccentric but brilliant itinerant teacher named Barrett, he completed a course of study which enabled him to enter the sophomore class of Brown University. Here he made a brilliant record, graduating with high honors in 1819. He now enter ed a law office in Wrentham, Massachusetts, but after a few months returned to Brown as a tutor in Latin and Greek. In 1821 he left Brown to enter the famous law school at Litchfield, Connecticut, and in 1823 was admitted to the bar of Norfolk County, Massachusetts. For fourteen years, fir st at Dedham, Massachusetts., and after 1833 at Boston, he practised with marked success. Meanwhile, he had begun his public career as a member of the Massachusetts state legislature, first serving in the House (1827-33), and then in the Senate (1833-37). During the last two years, he was president of the Senate, and as such signed the epoch-making education bill which became a law April 20, 1837. This bill provided for a state board of education, to consist of the governor, lieutenant-governor, and eight citizens to be appointed by the governor. It empowered the board of education to appoint and employ a secretary at an annual salary of $1,000 (increased in 1838 to $1,500), and to make annual reports to the state legislature.

It had been expected that the board would choose as its first secretary James G. Carter [q.v.], the framer of the bill, a man whose services to education undoubtedly eclipsed those of any other citizen of the state up to that time. The selection of Mann, largely through the influence of Edmund Dwight [q.v.], was, however, a matter of no greater surprise than Mann's acceptance, involving, as it did, his abandonment of a lucrative legal practice and the prospect of an alluring political career; but his reasons for acceptance are not difficult to discover. Though exceedingly successful, he had never been ardently enthusiastic about his profession; from early childhood he had been possessed with a consuming desire to do something for the benefit of mankind; he saw in the secretaryship, moreover, a means of combating the grief and despair which had held him in clutch ever since the death of his wife, Charlotte Messer, daughter of President Asa Messer [q.v.] of Brown University, whom he had married September 12, 1830, and who had died childless, August 1, 1832.

The educational situation awaiting the new secretary offered ample scope for his many talents. The school-district system legalized in 1789 had brought with it a multitude of evils, including disastrous decentralization, a decline in public interest, and a decrease of financial support. Free schools, the one-time glory of colonial Massachusetts, were now regarded with contempt by the well-to-do classes, who more and more patronized private schools. The effects of this attitude were everywhere evident in short school terms, dilapidated and unsanitary schoolhouses, untrained and underpaid teachers, and irrational methods of teaching. To remedy these conditions as far and as soon as possible was the task awaiting Mann. Clothed with almost no authority except to collect and disseminate information, he brought to his new duties such a degree of courage, vision, and wisdom that during the brief period of twelve years in which he held office, the Massachusetts school system was almost completely transformed. His first task was to arouse and to educate public opinion with reference to the purpose, value, and needs of public education. With this end in view, he organized annual educational conventions in every county for the benefit of teachers, school officials, and the public. He not only addressed these meetings himself, but pressed into service distinguished clergymen, lawyers, and college professors. Realizing that there was little hope of any improvement in the schools apart from the improvement of the teaching profession, he rapidly consummated plans which led to the establishment of teachers' institutes and normal ' schools. During the second year of his office, Edmund Dwight, through Mann, anonymously offered $10,000 to the state of Massachusetts for improving the · preparation of elementary teachers, provided the state would furnish a like amount. Dwight's gift and its conditions were accepted by the legislature, and within two years Massachusetts had established the first three state normal schools in the United States.

In 1838, with the avowed purpose of bringing about a better understanding of the problems of the public school, he started a semi-monthly magazine, the Common School Journal, which he edited for ten years. A far more important channel through which he disseminated a knowledge of existing conditions and needed reforms were the twelve annual reports which he prepared (1837-48) as secretary of the state board of education. Each contains not only the customary statistical data, but a presentation and discussion of school problems of crucial importance. The needs and remedies growing out of these problems are set forth with convincing clearness and with the fervor or a prophet and reformer.

The results of his labors were remarkable. When he became secretary, elementary men teachers were receiving an average-annual wage of $185, and women, $65; one-sixth of the children of the state were being educated in private schools and academies, and approximately one-third were without any educational opportunities whatsoever. In multitudes of districts the school term did not extend beyond two or three months. Under Mann's influence, a minimum school year of six months was established by an act passed in 1839. More than $2,000,000 was spent in providing better schoolhouses and equipment. Appropriations for public education were more than doubled. The proportion of private school expenditure to that of public schools decreased from seventy-five to thirty-six per cent. of total school costs. Salaries of public school masters were increased by sixty-two per cent. and those of women, by fifty-four per cent. The high-school law of 1827, largely a dead letter prior to his time; became effective, with the result that at least fifty new high schools were established during as secretaryship and opportunities for free public secondary education became widely distributed throughout the state. The professional training of teachers was placed on a firm basis, the elementary curriculum was enriched, and improved methods of instruction, including especially the Pestalozzian object methods and the word method of teaching reading, were introduced.

It was inevitable that Mann's aggressive efforts should sooner or later arouse bitter opposition. As a Unitarian, he contended that the Bible should be read in public schools, but without comment. He had scarcely entered upon his progressive educational program when one church after another began to charge him and the board of education with being responsible for creating a godless system of schools. With these charges came the demand that sectarian instruction, which had been excluded from the schools by an act of 1827, should be restored. Mann met these sectarian attacks with vigor, courage, and a final victory of great importance, not only to the schools of Massachusetts, but to the nation at large. Immediately after his marriage to his second wife, Mary Tyler (Peabody) Mann [q.v.], on May 1, 1843, he sailed for Europe with two purposes in mind: to recover his health, and to discover what America might learn from European schools. He spent five months studying educational conditions in England, Ireland, Scotland, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland. His observations and conclusions, embodied in his seventh annual report, drew no comparison between the schools of the United States and those of European countries; nevertheless, his high commendation of German schools was interpreted by a considerable numb er of Boston school masters as implying a drastic criticism of their own professional preparation and practices. An acrimonious controversy ensued from which, however, Mann again came forth victorious.

In 1848 he resigned his secretaryship, having been elected to the United States House of Representatives as an anti-slavery Whig to succeed John Quincy Adams. Although allied with antislavery forces, Mann was not an abolitionist; nevertheless, he was eventually led into open conflict with Daniel Webster, whose friendship arid political support he had enjoyed up to this time. In 1852 he met defeat as the candidate of the Free-Soilers for the governorship of Massachusetts. He then accepted the presidency of the recently established Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio. Besides serving as president, he taught political economy, intellectual philosophy, moral phi1osophy, and natural theology. In 1859, owing to bad management, lack of funds; and internal dissensions, the -college was sold for debt and reorganized. Following his delivery of the baccalaureate address of that year, Mann, exhausted and broken by the anxieties and persecution amid which he had labored, retired to his home, where he died within a few weeks. He was survived by his wife and their three sons.

Mann espoused many other causes beside that of the common schools, notably the establishment of state. hospitals for the insane and the restriction of slavery, lotteries, and the liquor traffic. Essentially a Puritan without a theology, he denounced not only profanity and intemperance, but smoking and ballet dancing. His lasting place in American history rests, however, upon his services to public education. His influence in this field extended far beyond the boundaries of Massachusetts. Copies of his annual reports and other educational writings were widely disseminated throughout the United States with the result that one state after another sought and followed his advice. Owing to his efforts combined with those of other educational pioneers, there ensued a period so marked by educational progress and reform that it has ever since come to be known as the per1od of the common-school revival in the United States.

Among the many influences which played an important part in developi6g the character, philosophy, ideals, and aims of Horace Mann were the writings of Emerson and those of the Scotch philosopher and phrenologist, George Combe. Although Mann acquired from Combe a belief in phrenology, undoubtedly the greatest source of Combe's influence over him was the Scotch philosopher's unswerving faith in the unlimited improvability of the human race through education. The motivating principle of Mann's life was nowhere better or more clearly expressed than in the oft-quoted words with which I he closed his-last Commencement address at Antioch College: "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." In addition to his twelve annual reports which are included in abbreviated form in Mary Mann's Life (post, volume III), and numerous articles in magazines, he published Lectures on Education (1845).

[Biographies and biographical sketches of Mann have been published in English, French, and Spanish. Of these the most important in English are: Life and Works of Horace Mann, ed. by Mary Tyler Peabody Mann (3 volumes, 1865-68), enlarged and ed. by G. C. Mann (5 volumes, 1891); B. A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the U. S. (1898); G. Compayre, Horace Mann and the Public School in the U.S. (tr. 1907); A. E. Winship, Horace Mann the Educator (1896). See also R. B. Culver, Horace Mann and Religion in the Massachusetts Public Schools (1929). For a genealogy of the Mann family, consult G. S. Mann, Mann Memorial; A Record of the Mann Family in America (1884). For bibliographies consult B. P. Mann, in Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1895-96 (1897), volume I, and B. A. Hinsdale, supra, pp; 311-19; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe]

F. H. S.


MCLEAN, John, 1785-1861, Morris County, New Jersey, jurist, attorney.  U.S. Supreme Court Justice, January 1830-.  Dissented against the majority of Justices on the Dred Scott case, stating that slavery was sanctioned only by local laws.  Free Soil and later Republican Party candidate for President of the U.S. 

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 144; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 127; Longacre, James B. & James Herring, National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans.  Philadelphia: American Academy of Fine Arts, 1834-1839)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

McLEAN, John, jurist, born in Morris County, New Jersey, 11 March, 1785; died in Cincinnati, Ohio, 4 April, 1861. In 1789 his father, a poor man with a large family, moved to the west and settled, first at Morgantown, Virginia, subsequently at Nicholasville, Kentucky, and finally, in 1799, on a farm in Warren County, Ohio. Young McLean worked on the farm that his father had cleared till he was sixteen years old, then received private instruction in the classics for two years, and at the age of eighteen went to Cincinnati to study law, and, while acquiring his profession, supported himself by writing in the office of the clerk of the county. In the autumn of 1807 he was admitted to the bar, and began practice at Lebanon. In October, 1812. he was elected to Congress from his district, which then included Cincinnati, by the Democratic Party, defeating two competitors in an exciting contest, and was re-elected by the unanimous vote of the district in 1814. He supported the Madison administration, originated the law to indemnify individuals for the loss of property in the public service, and introduced an inquiry as to pensioning the widows of fallen officers and soldiers. He declined a nomination to the U. S. Senate in 1815. and in 1816 was elected judge of the supreme court of the state, which office he held till 1822, when President Monroe appointed him commissioner of the general land-office. In July, 1823, he was appointed Postmaster-General, and by his energetic administration introduced order, efficiency, and economy into that department. The salary of the office was raised from $4,000 to $6,000 by an almost unanimous vote of both houses of Congress during his administration. He was continued in the office by President John Q. Adams, and was asked to remain by General Jackson in 1829, but declined, because he differed with the president on the question of official appointments and removals. President Jackson then tendered him in succession the War and the Navy Departments, and, on his declining both, appointed him an associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. He entered upon his duties in January, 1830. His charges to grand juries while on circuit were distinguished for ability and eloquence. In December, 1838, he delivered a charge in regard to aiding or favoring "unlawful military combinations by our citizens against any foreign government with whom we are at peace," with special reference to the Canadian insurrection and its American abettors. The most celebrated of his opinions was that in the Dred Scott Case, dissenting from the decision of the court as given by Chief-Justice Taney, and enunciating the doctrine that slavery was contrary to right and had its origin in power, and that in this country it was sustained only by local law. He was long identified with the party that opposed the extension of slavery, and his name was before the Free-soil Convention at Buffalo in 1848 as a candidate for nomination as president. In the Republican National Convention at Philadelphia in 1856 he received 196 votes for the same office to 359 for John C. Fremont. In the Republican Convention at Chicago in 1860 he also received several votes. He published " Reports of the United States Circuit Court" (6 vols., 1829-'55); a " Eulogy on James Monroe" (1831); and several addresses. John's son. Nathaniel Collins, soldier, born in Warren County, Ohio, 2 February, 1815. was graduated at Augusta College. Kentucky, in 1832, studied for a year or two longer at Harvard, and took his degree at the law-school there in 1838. He married a daughter of Judge Jacob Burnet the same year, and began practice in Cincinnati, where he attained success at the bar. He entered the National Army on 11 January, 1862, as colonel of the 75th Ohio Volunteers, being commissioned brigadier-general on 29 November, 1862, and resigned on 20 April, 1865.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 144.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 127;

McLEAN, JOHN (March 11, 1785-April 4, 1861), congressman, postmaster-general, jurist, was born in Morris County, New Jersey, the son of Fergus and Sophia (Blackford) McLean. His parents came to America from Ireland, the father being descended from the Scottish clan of McLean. A weaver by trade, he became a farmer, but having a large family and being limited in means, he soon decided to go West. In 1789 the family moved to Morgantown, Virginia, then to Jessamine, near Nicholasville, Kentucky, thence to Maysville, Kentucky, and finally, in 1799, settled on a farm near Lebanon, in what is now Warren County, Ohio. During these wanderings young McLean's education suffered. He attended school as opportunity offered and as the pressing needs of the family permitted. Determined to get further instruction, he worked for wages and at sixteen was able to hire private tutors. Two years later he went to Cincinnati, where he was formally indentured for two years to the clerk of the Hamilton County court. By working part of the day in the office he was able to support himself. Meanwhile, he read law with Arthur St. Clair, one of the best counselors in the West, and the son of General St. Clair. He also joined a debating club, in which he acquired facility of expression.

In 1807 he was admitted to the bar. The same year he married Rebecca Edwards and moved to Lebanon, where he founded the Western Star, a weekly newspaper. Commencing to practise in Lebanon, he soon won recognition by his industry and scrupulous care. In October 1812 he was elected as a War Democrat to Congress from the Cincinnati district, which then included Warren County. He was reelected in 1814 "by the unanimous vote of all the electors who took part in the election. Not only did no one vote against him, but also no one who voted for any office at the election, refrained from voting for him" (Force, post, 271-72). He vigorously sponsored the war with England and advocated bills to indemnify persons for property lost in the public service, to grant pensions to officers and soldiers, and to pay congressmen a salary of $1500 per annum instead of the per diem allowance. In 1815 he declined to be a candidate for the United States Senate. The following year he resigned his seat in Congress to become judge of the supreme court of Ohio, to which office he had been elected by the state legislature. He remained upon the bench until 1822, when President Monroe appointed him commissioner of the land office. The next year he was made postmaster-general, and in the direction of this office he acquired a national reputation as an able administrator. Heretofore, this branch of the public service had been inefficient and disorganized. Under his management contractors were held to their agreements and incompetent and unfaithful officials were removed. He was reappointed by President John Q. Adams and, it is claimed, used his official position to work against the reelection of his superior (Bassett, post, II, 412, 413). McLean was not in sympathy with President Jackson's policy as to removals, and, after declining the portfolios of secretary of war and secretary of the navy, he was nominated by Jackson to be associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. His appointment was confirmed by the Senate on March 7, 1829. "It is a good and satisfactory appointment," wrote Joseph Story, "but was, in fact, produced by other causes than his fitness or our advantage. The truth is ... he told the new President, that he would not form a part of the new Cabinet, or remain in office, if he was compelled to make removals upon political grounds" (W. W. Story, post, I, 564). He was assigned to the seventh circuit, which then included the districts of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio; later, the districts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. He took his seat in January 1830 and served until his death. On the bench he was dignified, courteous, painstaking, fearless, and able. Not until his health began to fail, two years before his death, was he absent a single day from his duties. He was not a great judge but his decisions on the circuit were seldom reversed and he was not often in the minority in the Supreme Court. In the celebrated Dred Scott case he dissented from the majority of the court and rendered an opinion of his own, which defined his position upon the slavery question (19 Howard, 558, 559). He held that slavery had its origin merely in force and was contrary to right, being sustained only by local law.

During his term on the bench he was frequently mentioned as a possible candidate for the presidency. He maintained that a judge was under no obligation to refrain from the discussion of political affairs and steadfastly defended the propriety of his candidacy. He declined the nomination in the Anti-Masonic Convention of 1831, and was proposed as a candidate by the Ohio legislature in 1836. His name was considered by the convention of "Free Democracy" in 1848 and was before the whig Convention in 1852. In the Republican Convention of 1856 he received 196 votes, and, although seventy-five years of age, he still hoped for the nomination in the Republican Convention of 1860.

His first wife, by whom he had four daughters and three sons, died in December 1840, and three years later he married Sarah Bella Garrard, widow of Colonel Jephtha D. Garrard and the youngest daughter of Israel Ludlow.

[M. F. Force, in Memorial Biographies of the New-England Historical Genealogical Society, volume IV (1885); Charles Warren, The Supreme Court in U.S. History (1922); W.W. Story, Life and Letters of Joseph Story (1851); J. S. Bassett, Andrew Jackson (1911); B. P. Poor, Perley's Reminiscences (1886); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); 66 U. S. Reports (1 Black), 8-13; F. H. Hodder, "Some Phases of the Dred Scott Case," in Miss. Valley History Review, June 1929; Cincinnati Commercial, April 5, 1861; Cincinnati Gazette, April 5, 1861.]

R.C.M.


MILLS, John, Anti-slavery political leader and co-founding member of the Free Soil Party.

(Sewell, 1976, p. 166; Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872)


MEDILL, Joseph, journalist, born in New Brunswick, Canada. 6 April, 1823. His father moved in 1832 to Stark County, Ohio, where the son worked on a farm, subsequently studied law, and practised at Massillon. He founded a Free-Soil paper at Coshocton in 1849, established "The Leader," a Whig journal, at Cleveland in 1852, and in 1854 was one of the organizers of the Republican Party in Ohio. Soon afterward he went to Chicago, and with two partners bought, in May, 1855, the "Tribune," with which he has since been identified. He was a member of the Illinois Constitutional Convention in 1870, and the author of a minority representation clause. In 1871 he was a member of the U. S. Civil Service Commission, and  was elected mayor of Chicago. He spent a year in Europe in 1873-'4, and on his return purchased a controlling interest in the "Tribune," of which he became and continues editor-in-chief.   (Sewell, 1976, p. 353)

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 285.


MORRILL, Anson Peaslee, 1803-1887, anti-slavery governor of Maine, U.S. Congressman, 1861-1863.  Brother of abolitionist Lot Myrick Morrill.  Early founding member of the Republican Party in 1856. 

(American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 15, p. 884; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 408; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 196; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

MORRILL, Anson Peaslee, statesman, born in Belgrade, Kennebec county , Maine, 10 June, 1803; died  in Augusta, Maine, 4 July, 1887. He received a common-school education and devoted himself to mercantile pursuits in his native town. He soon bought an interest in a woollen-mill, and subsequently became connected with several extensive manufactories. In 1833 he was elected as a Democrat to the legislature, in 1839 he was made sheriff of Somerset county, and in 1850 he became land-agent. In 1853, when the Democratic convention decided to oppose prohibition, he cut loose from that party, and was a candidate for governor on the Free-soil and Prohibition tickets, but was defeated. The following year he was again a candidate, and, although there was no choice by the people, he was elected by the legislature, being the first Republican governor of Maine. He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election, being defeated in the legislature through a coalition between the Whigs and Democrats. The party that Gov. Morrill had formed served as the nucleus for the movement in 1856 when the National Republican party first took the field, and he was a delegate to the convention that nominated John C. Frémont for president. He was elected to congress in 1860, and served from 4 July, 1861, till 3 March, 1863. Declining a re-election, he became largely interested in railroads in his native state, and remained out of politics until 1881, when he was sent to the legislature. He removed to Augusta in 1876.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 196)

MORRILL, ANSON PEASLEE (June 10, 1803-July 4, 1887), governor of Maine and congressman, the son of Peaslee and Nancy (Macomber) Morrill and the descendant of John Morrill who was living at Kittery, Maine, as early as 1668, was born in Belgrade, Kennebec County, Maine. He had the advantages only of a common- school education, working during his spare time in a mill where corn was ground, wood sawed, and wool carded. At one time he taught school at Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada. In early manhood he became the postmaster at Dearborn in Kennebec County, keeping at the same time a general store. Still a store-keeper, he was later postmaster at North Belgrade, and he lived for some time at Madison. In 1827 he was married to Rowena M. Richardson, who died in 1882. His great business opportunity came in 1844 when he was asked to take charge of a woolen-mill in Readfield, then on the verge of bankruptcy. Here his exceptional talents became evident. Putting the mill on a paying basis, he eventually became the owner of the factory and laid the foundations of a comfortable fortune. His political career began in 1834, when he served a term in the state legislature. He was sheriff of Somerset County in 1839 but lost this office in 1840, when Maine elected the Whig state and national ticket. In 1841 he refused reappointment from the newly elected Democratic governor. From 1850 to 1853 he was land agent of the state.

When the two questions, temperance and slavery, broke the unity of the Democrats in Maine, with considerable courage he led a bolting faction of the Democrats in 1853 on the temperance issue. His supporters were known as "Morrill Democrats," and as an independent candidate for t e governorship he ran third. The following year, 1854, the Whigs and the Free soilers joined the temperance forces to give him a vote of about 44,000 against 28,000 for his opponent, Albion K. Parris. Since, however, there were four candidates he did not have a majority of the votes cast and the legislature chose him when it met the next January. The fusion party that elected him governor to ok the name Republican for the fir st time in Maine on August 7, 1854 (see W. F. P. Fogg, The Republican Party . .. with the History of its Formation in Maine, 1884). In the election of 1855 he again had a popular plurality, but the same Senate that elected his brother, Lot Myrick Morrill [q.v.], its president, appointed his Democratic opponent, Samuel Wells, governor. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1856. Elected to Congress in 1860, he served from 1861 to 1863 but declined reelection, preferring to make way for the election of James G. Blaine. With the exception of one more term in the state legislature, 1881-82, this ended his political service. His independence and impetuosity frequently offended many friends. His own acts and words often impeded his political progress. Others, however, were attracted by his ruggedness, honesty, and integrity. His superior business ability was re cognized when the railroad interests that had bought largely of the. stock of the Maine Central elect ed him president of the road. During the year he occupied this position he took a special interest in improving the efficiency of operation. From Readfield he moved to Augusta in 1879, where he died after a short illness, leaving two children.

[L. C. Hatch, Maine (1919) volume II; Reminiscences of Neal Dow (1898), pp. 482-95, 503-21; A. M. Smith, Morrill Kindred in America, volume II (1931); Harper's Weekly, July 16, 1887; Daily Eastern Argus (Portland), July 6, 1887.]

R. E. M.


MORTON, Marcus, 1784-1864, Taunton, Massachusetts, lawyer, jurist, governor of Massachusetts, U.S. Congressman, anti-slavery political leader, member of the Free Soil Party.  Was asked to run as Martin Van Buren’s Vice President in 1848 on the Free Soil ticket.  He turned it down.  Elected Massachusetts State House of Representatives on Free Soil ticket in 1858.  He served one term. 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe; Rayback, 1970, p. 248 “Coalition in Massachusetts. Election of Mr. Sumner,” by Henry Wilson, in History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 1872; Sewell, 1976, p. 222)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

MORTON, Marcus, jurist, born in Freetown, Massachusetts, 19 February, 1784; died in Taunton, Massachusetts, 6 February, 1864. He was graduated at Brown in 1804, studied at Litchfield, Connecticut, law-school, and was admitted to the bar in Taunton, Massachusetts He was clerk of the state senate in 1811—'13, elected to Congress as a Democrat in 1816, serving in 1817—'21, was a member of the executive council in 1823, and became lieutenant-governor the next year. He was on the state supreme bench in 1825-'39, was elected governor of Massachusetts by one vote over Edward Everett in 1840, and from 1845 until his resignation in 1848 was collector of the port in Boston, he left the Democratic Party about 1848 to become a Free-Soiler, and was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1853, and of the legislature in 1858. Harvard gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1840. He advocated the restriction of slavery, and throughout the Civil War was an ardent supporter of the National cause.—His son, Marcus, jurist, born in Taunton, 8 April, 1819, was graduated at Brown in 1838, studied two years at Harvard law-school, and was admitted to the bar in 1841. He practised in Boston, but since 1850 has resided in Andover. He was a member of the State Constitutional Convention in 1853, and in 1858 was in the legislature, and was appointed a justice of the Superior Court of Suffolk County. He was elevated to the superior bench in 1859, and became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts in 1869, and chief justice in 1872. He received the degree of LL. D. from Princeton in 1870. and from Harvard in 1882.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 431.


MORTON, Nathan, Worcester, Massachusetts.  Member of the Free Soul Party, anti-slavery activist.  (Rayback, 1970, pp. 212, 248)


NEWHALL, Benjamin F., 1802-1863, abolitionist.  Member, Massachusetts House of Representatives, 1842-1843.  Member, Liberty and Free-Soil Parties.  Active in Underground Railroad.


NILES, John Milton, 1787-1856.  Member of the Free-Soil party. (Rayback, 1970)


NYE, James Warren, June 10, 1814- December 25, 1876, governor of Nevada Territory, supporter of the Free-Soil movement.

(G. H. Nye and F. E. Best, A Genealogy of the Nye Family (1907); Frank Leslie's Illus. Newspaper, March 20, 1858, September 14, 1872; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936 Vol. 7 pt. 1 p. 600)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

NYE, James Warren, senator, born in De Ruyter, Madison County, New York, 10 June, 1814: died in White Plains, New York, 25 December, 1876. He was educated at Cortland Academy, Homer, New York, leaving it in 1832 to study law in Troy, New York. After being admitted to the bar, he practised in his native county, gained a reputation as an effective speaker before a jury, was chosen district attorney, and in 1840 was elected county judge, serving eight years, he was a Democrat in politics up to the time of the Barn-burner Campaign. In 1848 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress as a Free-Soil Democrat. Moving to Syracuse, New York, he practised there till 1857, when he went to New York City, having been appointed the first president of the Metropolitan Board of Police, which office he held till about 1860. He was a member of the Republican Party from its formation, and was identified with its Radical wing. He was a witty and eloquent platform orator, and during the canvass of 1860 did effective service for his party in a tour through the west in company with William H. Seward. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed him governor of Nevada Territory, where he counteracted the influence of the Pro-slavery Party and, with Thomas Starr King, of San Francisco, did much to keep the Pacific States and Territories in the Union during the early period of the Civil War. On the admission of Nevada as a state, in 1865, he was elected U. S. Senator, and drew the short term, and in 1867 was re-elected. He was noted for his humor and conversational powers. After he retired from public life his mind became impaired.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 547.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936 vol. 7 pt. 1 p. 600;

NYE, JAMES WARREN (June 10, 1814- December 25, 1876), governor of Nevada Territory, United States senator, was the son of James and Thankful (Crocker) Nye and a descendant of Benjamin Nye who emigrated from England to settle in 1635 at Lynn, Massachusetts. Born at De Ruyter, Madison County, New York, James grew up amidst the severe limitations of poverty. He secured secondary schooling at Homer Academy, however, and then studied law in Hamilton, New York, where he practised for some years. He was surrogate of Madison County, 1844-47, and judge of the county court, 1847-51. In 1848, running for Congress as a Free-Soil or "Barnburner" Democrat, he was defeated by the Whig candidate, William Duer. In 1851 he removed to Syracuse, continuing to enjoy a successful practice. Six years later, in 1857, he became one of the police commissioners of the metropolis under an act of that year amending the city charter.

When Fort Sumter was fired upon, Nye became an enthusiastic supporter of Lincoln, using his remarkable gift as a stump orator in behalf of the administration, and he was soon appointed governor of the newly created territory of Nevada. Upon arrival in Carson City, Nevada, July 8, 1861, he was confronted with the difficult task of organizing the territory. The bulk of the population was included in what had been Carson County, Utah Territory. Without friction, Nye absorbed the government of the old county into that of the new territory, and guided the latter swiftly into the position of an effective governmental organization, a task the more difficult because the $30,700 a year in greenbacks, voted by Congress for support of the territory, was worth hardly more than half its face value.

When in 1864 Nevada was advanced to statehood, and Nye County, newly created, was named for him, Nye logically became a candidate to represent the new state in the United States Senate and was elected in company with William M. Stewart [q.v.]. The two cast lots in the state Senate for the long term, Nye drawing the short term. Reelected to the Senate in 1867 after a hot contest with Charles E. DeLong, he served with honor on important committees, always stanchly loyal to the Republican party which had sent him to Washington. He concluded his term on March 3, 1873, having been defeated for reelection by John Percival Jones [q.v.]. This was his last political office. About two years later he sailed from San Francisco for New York, apparently in good health, but during the voyage he lost his mind, and after living many months under this cloud he died on December 25, 1876, at White Plains, New York.

Nye was of medium height, weighed nearly two hundred pounds, but was well built, with small hands and feet. His dancing black eyes, expressive features, and shoulder-length snow white hair gave him in his later years a striking appearance, while his genial humor, quick repartee, and natural gift for oratory gave him power in social as well as in political life. The name "Gray Eagle" was bestowed upon him in recognition of his abundant life and vitality. The friend of Captain Jim of the Washoe Indian tribe as well as of President Lincoln, he swapped stories with both. He was a prolific user of Bible quotations, though not always in anecdote of the choicest character. In Fabius, New York, he had married Elsie Benson, and they had two children.

[G. H. Nye and F. E. Best, A Genealogy of the Nye Family (1907); Frank Leslie's Illus. Newspaper, March 20, 1858, September 14, 1872; History of Nev. (1881), ed. by Myron Angel; H. H. Bancroft, History of Nev., Colo., and Wyo. (1890); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); Daily Territorial Enterprise (Virginia City, Nev.), December 29, 1876; New York Times, December 28, 1876; Daily Alta California, May 24, 27, 1875, December 29, 1876, January 19, 1877.)

J.E.W.



Source: Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.