Levi P. Morton papers

Home

Search Browse About

Items Collections Divisions

Digital Collections Using Images Using Data

Navigation About Filters

This collection is also available in Archives & Manuscripts
View In Archives »

Collection Data

Description: Levi Parsons Morton (1824-1920) was an American businessman, banker, diplomat, and statesman. He founded the banking firm of L.P. Morton & Co. in New York City. After an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 1876, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from New York in 1878. He was Minister to France from 1881 to 1885, was elected Vice-President of the U.S. under Benjamin Harison in 1888, and served as Governor of New York in 1895 and 1896. In 1899 he founded the Morton Trust Co. and retired after the company merged with Guaranty Trust. The Levi P. Morton papers consist of correspondence, family papers, speeches, biographical materials, political memorabilia, photographs, and scrapbooks documenting the political and professional career, personal life and family background of the businessman and politician. Correspondence, 1842-1920, relates to civil reform, Morton's political campaigns, his service as Minister to France, and his activities as businessman, banker, congressman, vice-president, and governor. Also, correspondence, 1871-1915, of his wives, Lucy K. Morton and Anna Livingston Morton; papers of the Morton, Parsons, Street, and Kearney families; memorabilia from Morton's political campaigns; and biographical sketches, speeches, photographs, and scrapbooks of clippings, 1859-1913.
Names: Morton, Levi P. (Levi Parsons), 1824-1920 (Creator); Conkling, Roscoe, 1829-1888 (Correspondent); Harrison, Benjamin, 1833-1901 (Correspondent); McElroy, Robert McNutt, 1872-1959 (Former owner); Morton, Anna Livingston (Correspondent); Morton, Levi P. (Levi Parsons), 1824-1920 (Correspondent); Morton, Lucy Kimball (Correspondent); Carney family (Contributor); Morton family (Contributor); Parsons family (Contributor); Street family (Contributor); United States. Congress (Contributor)
Dates / Origin: Date Created: 1818 - 1920
Library locations: Manuscripts and Archives Division; Shelf locator: MssCol 2070
Topics: Bankers; Diplomats; Governors -- New York (State); Politicians; Vice presidents; Business; Diplomacy; Elections -- United States; France -- Relations -- United States; New York (State) -- Politics and government -- 1865-1950; United States -- History -- 1865-1921; United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1933; United States -- Relations -- France; Morton, Levi P. (Levi Parsons), 1824-1920
Genres: Correspondence; Documents; Biographies; Photographs; Ephemera; Scrapbooks
Notes: Biographical/historical: Levi Parsons Morton (1824-1920) was an American businessman, banker, diplomat, and statesman. A descendent of the Morton family that arrived at the English colonies on the ship Anne in 1623, Morton was born in Shoreham, Vermont, 1824 to the Congregational minister, Daniel O. Morton and his wife Lucretia Parsons. Levi was named after an uncle of his mother, Levi Parsons, an early missionary and possibly the first American to reach Jerusalem. Early business experience in a dry goods outlet in Hanover, NH led to a position in the trading house of James M. Beebe & Co. of Boston, Massachusetts in 1849. As Beebe & Co. slowly dissolved, Morton used what he had learned to begin his own dry goods commission house. Morton & Grinnell was established in New York in 1854 by Morton and his partner, George Grinnell, a Massachusetts congressman. The two dealt in fabrics and assorted home manufactures produced by New England's mills. They stayed together until the outbreak of the Civil War which ended shipments of southern cotton to Boston's ports. In 1861, Morton, in partnership with Walter H. Burns, H. C. Oakley, and Charles W. McCune, started the banking firm, L. P. Morton & Co. The Morton name would come to represent honesty and accountability important for gaining the trust of investors in an industry often lacking standards. L. P. Morton & Co. had offices at 35 Wall St., and maintained a thorough economic involvement with the booming American railway interests. Within a few years the firm established a branch in London led by Canadian politician, Sir John Rose. In 1869, Morton and financier George Bliss formed Morton, Bliss & Co. which operated in London and New York. The London office of Morton, Rose, and Co. served as a separate entity with its own capital account and cooperated strategically with the American firm. Positioned in both England and America, Morton and his firms were able to participate in the swelling public interests on both sides of the Atlantic. The London branch acted as fiscal agent to the Alabama joint commission that sought compensation to the United States for damages inflicted by the Alabama and other British-built Confederate warships during the Civil War. With the help of John Rose, the houses of Morton, Bliss & Co. and James Cooke & Co. secured for the United States government a sum of $15,500,000 as reparative settlement. The money directly funded American post-Civil War national debt at a lower rate of interest, negotiated through the sale of bonds in both America and England by Morton himself. Morton, Bliss & Co. served as fiscal agent to the United States government from 1873 until 1884. Morton's first wife, Lucy Kimball of Flatlands, L. I. died in 1871. A second marriage, to Anna Livingston Reade Street in 1873, further solidified Morton's status within New York's political scene. Morton rose to power within the Republican Party at a time when New York City was controlled by Democratic interests. His first attempt to gain elected office in 1876 failed. In 1878 he was appointed honorary commissioner to the Paris Exposition, and was nominated and successfully elected to Congress by the Republicans of New York's Eleventh District. In 1880, Morton declined the vice-presidential position on the Republican ticket which would have put him and not Chester A. Arthur in the presidency after the assassination of James Garfield. Garfield offered Morton a choice of a cabinet appointment as Secretary to the Navy, or a diplomatic post as Minister to France. Morton chose Europe over Washington D. C. and succeeded General Noyes as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America in Paris where he would serve until 1885. Morton spent much his own money to convert a hotel into a spacious private residence with room for diplomatic concern and social gatherings. The legation occupied the western side of the Place de la Biche, which was renamed Place des Etats Unis to reflect the new American presence in France. Morton was able issue a decree revoking the prohibition of the sale of American pork and removed restrictions on American corporations from collecting debt within the French Republic. Morton and his wife Anna Livingston turned the American legation into a popular center of society and culture in Paris. He accepted Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World on behalf of the United States, and was said to have driven the first rivet in the statue. Morton returned from France to a Republican party increasingly controlled by Thomas Collier Platt. After unsuccessful bids for the Senate in 1885 and 1887, Morton was selected as Platt's choice for vice-president on the 1888 ticket with Benjamin Harrison. Harrison and Morton lost the popular vote, but won the race in the Electoral College. As vice-president, Morton presided over the Senate filled with men who had made millions off of railroads, mining, and gilded age excess. In 1892, political forces led to Morton being cut from the presidential ticket. Platt suggested Morton run for governor of New York, and Morton won the race by a large margin. As governor, from 1895 to 1897, Morton signed the bill that effectively consolidated greater New York. He left Albany firmly in the hands of the Republican Party where it would remain for the next 15 years. At the age of seventy -two Morton received a presidential nomination in the 1896 contest but was ultimately no match against those backing William McKinley. Whereas American men of means had once retained control over the direction of their business with their own sense, the final stage of Morton's career began during transition of big business to the age of the financial strategist. In 1899, his seventy-fifth year, the Morton Trust Company was formed to continue the business of Morton, Bliss & Co. Within a year, the Morton Trust absorbed the State Trust Company with the approval of then governor, Theodore Roosevelt. The Morton Trust Company was itself absorbed into J. P. Morgan's Guaranty Trust Company, 1909. Morton was a member of the Episcopal Church in New York, and in 1883 gave two buildings on Fourth Avenue for what would become the Grace Memorial House. In December of 1906, he anonymously donated $600,000 for the creation of the choir of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He maintained homes in New York City and Rhinecliff, New York and was survived by four daughters after his death in 1920.; Content: The collection consists of correspondence, family papers, speeches, biographical materials, political memorabilia, photographs, and scrapbooks. Correspondence, 1842-1920, relates to civil reform, Morton's political campaigns, his service as Minister to France, and his activities as businessman, banker, congressman, vice-president, and governor. Also, correspondence, 1871-1915, of his wives, Lucy K. Morton and Anna Livingston Morton; papers of the Morton, Parsons, Street, and Kearney families; memorabilia from Morton's political campaigns; and biographical sketches, speeches, photographs, and scrapbooks of clippings, 1859-1913. The Levi Parsons Morton papers document the political and professional career, personal life, and family background of the businessman and politician. The date span of the papers is 1818-1920, with the bulk of the materials dating from the period 1878-1898. The papers include personal and professional correspondence, political and legal memoranda, biographical sketches, scrapbooks, family and genealogical papers, clippings, photographs, ephemera, and artifacts. They form an important resource for the study of American political history, the rise of American Imperialism, the financial history of the United States government, diplomacy, New York history, and the culture of the Gilded Age. Morton's correspondence includes incoming letters from businessmen and politicians who depended on Morton's interests for their political existence. The correspondence is concentrated around Morton's political victories; first to Congress in 1878, then vice-president in 1888, as governor of New York in 1895 and finally his unsuccessful bid for Republican presidential nominee in 1896. Morton's success in finance and trusted moral character was converted into political gain for the Republican Party. His correspondents during the last two decades of the nineteenth century include James G. Blaine, George Boutwell, Roscoe Conkling, Hamilton Fish, Theodore Freylinghuysen, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, Theodore A. Havemeyer, Thomas Collier Platt, Sir John Rose, Benjamin H. Tracy, Frederick W. Wurster. The political papers include a selection of documents relevant to Morton's political career. The biographical materials contain manuscript, printed and typed biographies of Morton, as well as personal reminiscences by Morton himself, his colleagues and daughter. The family and genealogical papers consist of printed family histories as well as original documents from the nineteenth century. There are photographs of Morton and his family and a collection of political memorabilia. The 1888 presidential campaign is well documented in buttons, ribbons, and programs of the inaugural celebration. Pamphlets are also included from ceremonies in both France and New York celebrating the gift and construction of Bartholdi's Statue of Liberal Enlightening the World. The scrapbooks include clippings from newspapers in New York and around the country which mention Morton's name, financial dealings or political decisions. They are a useful research tool for the period, covering such topics as finance, national politics and international affairs.; Acquisition: Gift of his daughter Edith Livingston Morton Eustis. Additional gifts and purchases from Ashley T. Cole, Robert McElroy, Howard C. Robbins, and L. Biffin, 1929-1967.; Content: Processing information: Thomas Lannon. June 2008. This version produced September 2008
Physical Description: Extent: 19 linear feet (16 boxes, 22 volumes)
Type of Resource: Text
Identifiers: NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b11959755; MSS Unit ID: 2070; Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): afe195f0-cc93-0139-4037-0242ac110004

3 results found

The New York Public Library

Digital Collections

Levi P. Morton papers

Collection Data

collection

place

genre

division

type

Date Range