Levi P. Morton
|
|
Levi Parsons Morton (May 16, 1824–May 16, 1920) was a Representative from New York and the twenty-second Vice President of the United States.
Morton was born in Shoreham, Addison County, Vermont. He was a clerk in a general store in Enfield, Massachusetts, taught school in Boscawen, New Hampshire, engaged in mercantile pursuits in Hanover, New Hampshire, moved to Boston, entered the dry-goods business in New York City and engaged in banking in New York City. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1876 to the Forty-fifth Congress. He was appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes as honorary commissioner to the Paris Exhibition of 1878.
Morton was elected as a Republican to the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses, serving from March 4, 1879, until his resignation, effective March 21, 1881. Presidential candidate James Garfield offered him to be his vice presidential candidate in 1880, but Morton rejected the offer. He asked to be Minister to Britain or France instead. He was United States Minister to France from 1881 to 1885, and elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket with Benjamin Harrison, serving from March 4, 1889 to March 3, 1893. He was Governor of New York from 1895 to 1897. Following his public career, he became a real estate investor. He died in Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, New York on his 96th birthday. He is interred in the Rhinebeck Cemetery.
| Preceded by: John A. Logan | Republican Party Vice Presidential candidate 1888 (won) | Succeeded by: Whitelaw Reid | ||||
| Preceded by: Thomas A. Hendricks | Vice President of the United States March 4, 1889 – March 3, 1893 | Succeeded by: Adlai E. Stevenson | ||||
| Preceded by: Roswell P. Flower | Governor of New York 1895–1897 | Succeeded by: Frank S. Black
|
||||
