Marcus Morton (1784-6 February 1864) was a member of the US House of Representatives (DR-MA 10) from 4 March 1817 to 4 March 1821 (succeeding Laban Wheaton and preceding Francis Baylies) and Governor of Massachusetts from 6 February to 26 May 1825 (succeeding William Eustis and preceding Levi Lincoln Jr.), from 18 January 1840 to 7 January 1841 (succeeding Edward Everett and preceding John Davis), and from 17 January 1843 to 9 January 1844 (succeeding Davis and preceding George N. Briggs).
Biography[]
Marcus Morton was born in East Freetown, Massachusetts in 1784, and he adopted Jeffersonian views during his time at Brown University and gave an outspoken anti-Federalist speech at his 1804 commencement. He went on to practice law in Taunton and became a reputed republican speaker, serving in the US House of Representatives from 1817 to 1821, as acting Governor in 1825, as an Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1825 to 1840, and as Governor from 1840 to 1841 and from 1843 to 1844. Morton was friends with John C. Calhoun and followed him into the Democratic Party, and, as Governor, he attempted to pass liberal reforms, only for factionalism within the Democratic Party, and for periodic Whig reassumptions of political and legal power, to prevent him from achieving anything substantive. An opponent of slavery, Morton later broke with Calhoun and joined the Free Soil Party before serving in the State House from 1858 to 1859. He died in 1864.