Signed Letter Autograph by Morton, Levi; 1898, Politician and helped refinance US National Debt!

This brief note on Morton and Bliss Stationary and signed by Levi P. Morton with references to William M. Clark, the Secretary State for the State of Colorado, and Mr. Lafe Pence as well as Perry Belmont and J. W. Hinckeley were all probably involved in the Walker Company, a private company floated by Belmont and Hinckeley and others. A very rare document naming several prominent politicians obviously involved in business together. Levi Morton was successful as a financier, establishing the large Wall Street banking firm of L. P. Morton and Company. In the 1870s the firm, by then known as Morton, Bliss and Co., helped refinance the national debt Morton moved into politics and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1878. Three years later, President James Garfield appointed him U.S. minister to France.

Morton was nominated for Vice President on the Republican ticket in 1888 to provide geographic balance and access to the administration for Wall Street. As Benjamin Harrison's Vice President, Morton was an advocate of civil service reforms and good-government practices designed to reduce fraud and corruption. These measures were supported by much of the business community.

After the Democrats took back the White House in 1893 Morton served one term as governor of New York. He then returned to Wall Street and founded another financial company, retiring from business in 1909.

Levi Parsons Morton (May 16, 1824 – May 16, 1920) was a Representative from New York and the 22nd Vice President of the United States (1889–1893). He also later served as the 31st Governor of New York.

Biography Morton was born in Shoreham, Addison County, Vermont. His parents were the Rev. Daniel Oliver Morton (1788–1852), a Congregationalist minister of old New England stock, and LucretiaParsons (1789–1862). His older brother, David Oliver Morton (1815–1859), was Mayor of Toledo, Ohio from 1849 to 1850.

He left school early and worked as 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 there. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1876 to the 45th Congress, but he was appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes to be an honorary commissioner to the Paris Exhibition of 1878.

Morton was elected, as a Republican, to the 46th and 47th Congresses. He served from March 4, 1879, until his resignation, effective March 21, 1881. The 1880 Republican presidential nominee, James A. Garfield, asked Morton to be his vice presidential running mate, but Morton declined the offer. If he had accepted and history continued on the same course, Morton would have become the 21st President, instead of Chester A. Arthur, after Garfield's assassination.

He asked to be appointed Minister to Britain or France instead. He was United States Minister to France from 1881 to 1885. (A deluded Charles J. Guiteau, reportedly decided to murder Garfield after he was "passed over" as minister to France.)

Morton was very popular in France. He helped commercial relations between the two countries run smoothly during his term, and, in Paris on October 24, 1881, he placed the first rivet in the construction of the Statue of Liberty. (It was driven into the big toe of Lady Liberty's left foot.) From 1889 until 1895, Morton lived at this residence in Washington, D.C.

Morton was elected Vice President of the United States, on the Republican ticket with President Benjamin Harrison, in which capacity he served from March 4, 1889 to March 4, 1893. During his term, Harrison tried to pass the Lodge Bill, an election law enforcing the voting rights of blacks in the South, but Morton did little to support the bill against a Democratic filibuster in the Senate. Harrison blamed Morton for the bill's eventual failure, and, at the Republican convention prior to the 1892 election, Morton was replaced by Whitelaw Reid as the vice-presidential candidate.[2] Harrison and Reid went on to lose the 1892 election, to Grover Cleveland and Adlai E. Stevenson, the Democratic candidates.

Levi Morton was Governor of New York in 1895 and 1896. He was considered for the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1896, but the Republican Party chose William McKinley instead. After Parsons (1789–1862). His older brother, David Oliver Morton (1815–1859), was Mayor of Toledo, Ohio from 1849 to 1850.

He left school early and worked as 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 there. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1876 to the 45th Congress, but he was appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes to be an honorary commissioner to the Paris Exhibition of 1878.

Morton was elected, as a Republican, to the 46th and 47th Congresses. He served from March 4, 1879, until his resignation, effective March 21, 1881. The 1880 Republican presidential nominee, James A. Garfield, asked Morton to be his vice presidential running mate, but Morton declined the offer. If he had accepted and history continued on the same course, Morton would have become the 21st President, instead of Chester A. Arthur, after Garfield's assassination.

He asked to be appointed Minister to Britain or France instead. He was United States Minister to France from 1881 to 1885. (A deluded Charles J. Guiteau, reportedly decided to murder Garfield after he was "passed over" as minister to France.)

Morton was very popular in France. He helped commercial relations between the two countries run smoothly during his term, and, in Paris on October 24, 1881, he placed the first rivet in the construction of the Statue of Liberty. (It was driven into the big toe of Lady Liberty's left foot.) From 1889 until 1895, Morton lived at this residence in Washington, D.C.

Morton was elected Vice President of the United States, on the Republican ticket with President Benjamin Harrison, in which capacity he served from March 4, 1889 to March 4, 1893. During his term, Harrison tried to pass the Lodge Bill, an election law enforcing the voting rights of blacks in the South, but Morton did little to support the bill against a Democratic filibuster in the Senate. Harrison blamed Morton for the bill's eventual failure, and, at the Republican convention prior to the 1892 election, Morton was replaced by Whitelaw Reid as the vice-presidential candidate.[2] Harrison and Reid went on to lose the 1892 election, to Grover Cleveland and Adlai E. Stevenson, the Democratic candidates.

Levi Morton was Governor of New York in 1895 and 1896. He was considered for the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1896, but the Republican Party chose William McKinley instead. After his public career was over, he became a real-estate investor.

He died at Rhinebeck, in Dutchess County, New York, on his 96th birthday, the only Vice President to have died on his birthday. He is interred in the Rhinebeck Cemetery.

The Village of Morton Grove, Illinois is named after Morton. He provided the funding necessary to allow Miller's Mill (now Lincoln Avenue) to pass through the upstart neighborhood, and provide goods to trade and sell. Morton Grove was incorporated in December 1895.

Morton owned property in Newport, Rhode Island and lived on tony Bellevue Avenue, in the mansion called "Fairlawn," a building currently owned by Salve Regina University, housing the Pell Center of International Relations and Public Policy. He left a nearby property to the city of Newport for use as a park. At the corner of Coggeshall and Morton avenues (the latter formerly Brenton Road), this land became Morton Park. Morton sold or donated property he owned in Hanover, New Hampshire to Dartmouth College, and the college built Webster Hall on the land. Morton was considered an honorary alumnus at alumni gatherings in New York. He also owned a summer retreat in the Adirondack Park, on Eagle Island.The architecture is of the Great Camps style, designed by the notable architect William L. Coulter. Over the years, the island found its way into the ownership of the Girl Scouts of the USA, where it remains today as Camp Eagle Island.

Morton was the second longest-lived Vice President, dying on his 96th birthday. Only John Nance Garner lived longer. Morton survived five of his successors in the vice presidency: Adlai E. Stevenson, Garret A. Hobart, Theodore Roosevelt, Charles W. Fairbanks and James S. Sherman.