John Tyler Morgan
'John Tyler Morgan' (
June 20 1824 –
June 11 1907) was a general in the
Confederate States Army during the
American Civil War, a Grand Dragon of the
Klu Klux Klan,
[1] and a
postbellum six-term
U.S. senator from the
state of
Alabama. He was a strong supporter of
states rights and
racial segregation through the
Reconstruction era. He was an
expansionist, arguing for the
annexation of the
Republic of Hawaii and for U.S. construction of an interoceanic
canal in
South America.
Early life and career
Morgan was born in
Athens, Tennessee, and was initially educated by his mother. In 1833, he moved with his parents to
Calhoun County, Alabama, where he attended frontier schools and then studied law in
Tuskegee with justice
William Parish Chilton, his brother-in-law. After admission to the bar he established a practice in
Talledega. Ten years later, Morgan moved to
Dallas County and resumed the practice of law in
Selma and
Cahaba.
Turning to politics, Morgan became a
presidential elector on the
Democratic ticket in 1860, and supported
John C. Breckinridge. He was delegate from Dallas County to the State Convention of 1861, which passed the ordinance of
secession.
Civil War
With Alabama's vote to leave the
Union, at the age of 37 Morgan enlisted as a private in the Cahaba Rifles, which volunteered its services in the
Confederate Army and was assigned to the 5th Alabama Infantry. He first saw action at the
First Battle of Manassas in the summer of 1861. Morgan rose to
major and then
lieutenant colonel, serving under
Col. Robert E. Rodes, a future Confederate general. Morgan resigned in 1862 and returned to
Alabama, where in August he recruited a new
regiment, the 51st Alabama
Partisan Rangers, becoming its colonel. He led it at the
Battle of Stones River, operating in cooperation with the cavalry of
Nathan Bedford Forrest.
When Rodes was promoted to
major general and given a
division in the
Army of Northern Virginia, Morgan declined an offer to command Rodes's old
brigade and instead remained in the
Western Theater, leading troops at the
Battle of Chickamauga. On
November 16,
1863, he was appointed as a
brigadier general of cavalry and participated in the
Knoxville Campaign. His brigade consisted of the 1st, 3rd, 4th (Russell's), 9th, and 51st Alabama Cavalry regiments.
His men were routed and dispersed by Federal cavalry on
January 27,
1864. He was reassigned to a new command and fought in the
Atlanta Campaign. Subsequently, his men harassed
William T. Sherman's troops during the
March to the Sea. Later, he was assigned to administrative duty in
Demopolis, Alabama. When the Confederacy collapsed and the war ended, Morgan was trying to organize Alabama black troops for home defense.
Postbellum career
Morgan, circa 1875
After the war, Morgan resumed the practicing of law in Selma, Alabama. He was once again presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1876 and was elected as a
Democrat to the United States Senate in that year, being re-elected in 1882, 1888, 1894, 1900, and 1906, and serving from
March 4,
1877, until his death. For much of his tenure, he served as Senator alongside a fellow former Confederate general,
Edmund W. Pettus.
Morgan advocated for separating blacks and whites in the U.S. by encouraging the migration of black people out of the U.S. south. Hoschild wrote, "at various times in his long career Morgan also advocated sending them [negroes] to Hawaii, to Cuba, and to the Philippines - which, perhaps because the islands were so far away, he claimed were a “native home of the negro."
[2]
He introduced and fought for numerous legislative bills in support of legal
lynching. Morgan also staunchly worked for the repeal of the
Fifteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution that was intended to prevent the denial of
voting rights based on
race.
[3]
He was chairman of
Committee on Rules (Forty-sixth Congress), the
Committee on Foreign Relations (Fifty-third Congress), the Committee on Interoceanic Canals (Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh Congresses), and the Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine (Fifty-ninth Congress). In 1894, Morgan chaired an investigation, known as the
Morgan Report into the Hawaiian Revolution which concluded that the U.S. had remained completely neutral in the matter. He authored the introduction to the
Morgan Report based on the findings of the investigative committee.
He was a strong supporter of the annexation of
Hawaii and visited Hawaii in 1897 in support of annexation. He believed that the history of the U.S. clearly indicated it was unnecessary to hold a plebiscite in Hawaii as a condition for annexation.
Death and Legacy
Senator Morgan died in
Washington, D.C. while still in office. He was buried in Live Oak Cemetery in Selma, Alabama. The remainder of his term was served by
John H. Bankhead.
An article by history professor Thomas Adams Upchurch in the April 2004 ''Alabama Review'' says:
:His congressional speeches and published writings demonstrate the central role that Morgan played in the drama of racial politics on Capitol Hill and in the national press from 1889 to 1891. More importantly, they reveal his leadership in forging the ideology of
white supremacy that dominated American race relations from the 1890s to the 1960s. Indeed, Morgan emerged as the most prominent and notorious racist ideologue of his day, a man who, as much as any other individual, set the tone for the coming
Jim Crow era."
[4]
Memorialization
★ In 1953, Morgan was elected to membership in the
Alabama Hall of Fame.
★ The John T. Morgan Academy in Selma is named for Morgan. Founded in 1965, the private school originally met in Morgan's old house.
★ Morgan Hall on the campus of the
University of Alabama was also named in his honor. Senator Morgan had successfully led a fight in 1882 to obtain Federal funds in reparation for the university's destruction in 1865 by Union forces.
★ Morgan's Rock in the country of
Nicaragua was named for Morgan, who as a Senator had strongly advocated Nicaragua as the preferred location for an interoceanic
canal, instead of
Panama.
★ A memorial arch on the grounds of the Federal Building / U.S. Courthouse in Selma honors Senators Morgan and Pettus, who were instrumental in securing Federal appropriations for the State.
★
References and links
1. Albert Pike did not found the Ku Klux Klan, article from the Grand Lodge of Freemasons, British Columbia and Yukon
2. Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Mariner Books; 1st Mariner Books Ed edition (October 1999) p79-80
3. Democrats and Republicans: In Their Own Words A 124 Year History of Major Civil Rights Efforts Based on a Side-by-Side Comparison of the Early Platforms of the Two Major Political Parties "According to prominent Democrat leader A. W. Terrell of Texas, the 15th Amendment was what he called “the political blunder of the century.” Democratic U. S. Rep. Bourke Cockran of New York and Democratic U.S. Senator John Tyler Morgan of Alabama agreed with Terrell and were among the Democrats seeking a repeal of the 15th Amendment."
4. Upchurch, Thomas Adams, Senator John Tyler Morgan and the Genesis of Jim Crow Ideology, 1889-1891, Alabama Review, Apr 2004
★ Warner, Ezra J., ''Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders'', Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959, ISBN 0-8071-0823-5.
★
morganreport.org Online images and transcriptions of the entire Morgan Report
★
Alabama Hall of Fame bio
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