Sterling Morton
3rdUnited States Secretary of Agriculture
In office March 7, 1893 – March 5, 1897
President	Grover Cleveland William McKinley
Preceded by	Jeremiah Rusk
Succeeded by	James Wilson
Governor of Nebraska Territory
Acting
In office February 24, 1861 – March 6, 1861
Preceded by	Samuel W. Black
Succeeded by	Algernon Paddock
In office December 5, 1858 – May 2, 1859
Preceded by	William Alexander Richardson
Succeeded by	Samuel W. Black
Personal details
Born	Julius Sterling Morton (1832-04-22)April 22, 1832 Adams, New York, U.S.
Died	April 27, 1902(1902-04-27) (aged 70) Lake Forest, Illinois, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Caroline French ​ ​ (m. 1854; died 1881)​
Children	Joy,Paul,Mark,Carl
Education	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (BA)
Signature

Julius Sterling Morton (April 22, 1832 – April 27, 1902) was a Nebraska newspaper editor and politician who served as PresidentGrover Cleveland'ssecretary of agriculture. He was a prominentBourbon Democrat, taking aconservative position on political, economic, and social issues, and opposingagrarianism. Among his most notable achievements was the founding ofArbor Day in 1872.^[1] In 1897 he started a weekly magazine entitledThe Conservative.^[2]

Morton was born on April 22, 1832, in the town ofAdams inJefferson County, New York; his parents, Julius Dewey Morton and Emeline Sterling Morton, ran a general store.^[3] In 1834, his parents and his grandfather, Abner Morton, moved toMonroe, Michigan, south ofDetroit onLake Erie; there, Morton's grandfather and his paternal uncle Edward Morton operated a newspaper.^[4] When he was fourteen, Morton's parents sent him to Wesleyan Seminary inAlbion, Michigan, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest.^[5]

In 1850, Morton enrolled in theUniversity of Michigan. In his junior year he attempted to launch a new periodical, thePeninsular Quarterly and University Magazine, which proved short-lived. He was an active member of theChi Psi fraternity, and opposed an attempt by the faculty to discourage such secret societies.^[6]

In May 1854, six weeks before Morton was due to graduate, the university's Board of Regents dismissed the head of the medical department, Dr. J. Adams Allen, a popular faculty member. That evening, Morton, a friend and admirer of Allen's, addressed a mass meeting protesting Allen's dismissal and other seemingly autocratic actions taken by university officials. The following day, Morton was expelled from the university, ostensibly for excessive absences and for general inattention to his duties as a student. His expulsion prompted protests from the student body and across the state. He was readmitted after signing a very conditional document, stating that if the charges against him had been true, then his expulsion would have been justified. The readmission did not last. The university president, Henry Philip Tappan, released a version of his statement from which the conditionals had been removed, making it a straightforward admission of fault. Morton wrote a letter to theDetroit Free Press in which he retracted his original statement, declaring that he had not "...meanly petitioned, implored and besought the Faculty for mercy, for... the Latin-scratched integument of a dead sheep." He was re-expelled and not allowed to graduate with his class. In 1856, under unclear circumstances, he was awarded an honorary Bachelor of Arts degree byUnion College ofSchenectady, New York; in 1858, the University of Michigan faculty reversed his expulsion and awarded him a diploma.^[7]

At the age of 22, in fall 1854, he moved with his bride, Caroline Joy French, to theNebraska Territory, and in 1855 purchased 160 acres inNebraska City. Soon after arriving there, Morton became the editor of the local newspaper, theNebraska City News.^[8] Morton served briefly in the Nebraska Territorial House of Representatives (1855–1856). He was appointed Secretary ofNebraska Territory byPresidentJames Buchanan on July 12, 1858, a position he held until 1861. The 26 year old Morton also served as Acting Governor of Nebraska from December 5, 1858, to May 2, 1859.

Morton moved to Nebraska City shortly after passage of theKansas-Nebraska Act to become a Democratic newspaper editor during the turbulent era of "Bleeding Kansas," when southeast Nebraska was an important location for abolitionist mobilization and a stop on theUnderground Railroad. Morton used his positions as newspaperman and Secretary of the territory to oppose the so-called "Black Republicans" in the legislature, often using racist arguments.^[9] During the Civil War he was a harsh critic of President Lincoln and was considered a racist, Southern-sympathizing,copperhead Democrat with questionable loyalty to the Union, although he supposedly opposed secession as well as abolition. After the war he helped make opposition to Black civil rights a leading issue for Democrats.^[10]

In 1860, Morton ran for the office of Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from Nebraska. He was originally named the winner by 14 votes and issued a certificate of election by the Governor. But 7 months later and two months after his term began, amid considerable evidence of irregularities in frontier balloting on all sides,^[11] the Governor issued a superseding certificate of election to his opponent, the Republican abolitionistSamuel Gordon Daily. When the session of Congress began, it was decided that Daily should be sworn in. Morton contested the outcome, noting that the Governor issued the second certificate in secret, without the concurrence of the Board of Canvassers and without the proper seal. Some said that Daily's certificate was a forgery. The House reviewed the election returns and rejected many votes, mostly for Morton. In the end they found that Daily had won by 150 votes.^[12]

In 1897, Morton planned and began to edit the multi-volumeIllustrated History of Nebraska. He also began publishing a weekly periodical,The Conservative^[8].

Morton built a 30-room mansion. His son, Joy, expanded it to a 52-room mansion that is a look-alike of the White House in what is nowArbor Lodge State Historical Park,Nebraska City, Nebraska. On the surrounding estate, Morton indulged his fascination with trees, planting many rare varieties and heirloom apple trees. Respected as an agriculturalist, Morton sought to instruct people in the modern techniques of farming and forestry.

Among his most significant achievements was the founding ofArbor Day.^[13] He is also remembered for his fierce opposition to cutting down healthy trees as Christmas decorations.^[14] He became well known in Nebraska for his political, agricultural, and literary activities and from there was appointed asUnited States Secretary of Agriculture byPresident Cleveland (1893–1897). He is credited with helping change that department into a coordinated service to farmers, and he supported Cleveland in setting up national forest reservations.

In 1854, Morton was married to Caroline Joy French (1833–1881), the daughter of Hiram Joy and Caroline (née Hayden) Joy, who died when she was an infant. Her foster parents were Cynthia and David French. Together, they were the parents of:

• Joy Sterling Morton (1855–1934), who was the founder of theMorton Salt Company; he married Carrie Jane Lake in 1880. After her death in 1915, he married Margaret Gray in 1917.^[15]
• Paul Morton (1857–1911), who was Vice President of theSanta Fe Railroad, President of theEquitable Life Insurance Company, and served asSecretary of the Navy underTeddy Roosevelt;^[16] he married Charlotte Goodrich in 1880.^[17]
• Mark Morton (1858–1951), who co-founded theMorton Salt Company with his elder brother Joy; he married Martha Parkhurst Weare.^[18]
• Carl Morton (1865–1901),^[19] the founder of theArgo Starch Company and President of the Glucose Sugar Company; he married Boatie Payne, a daughter of Robert Payne, in 1888.^[20]

Morton died on April 27, 1902, inLake Forest,Illinois, where he was seeking medical treatment;^[21] his wife, Caroline, had died two decades earlier, in June 1881. The Morton home and estate in Nebraska City are now a state park, theArbor Lodge State Historical Park and Arboretum.

In 1937, the state ofNebraska donateda bronze statue of Morton to theNational Statuary Hall Collection at theUnited States Capitol. However, because of his long history of virulent, unapologetic racism and political corruption, his statue was replaced by a statue ofWilla Cather in 2023. Morton is a member of theNebraska Hall of Fame, inducted in 1975. The J. Sterling Morton Beltway, a highway near Nebraska City, Nebraska, which is made up ofU.S. Route 75 andNebraska Highway 2, is named for him. J. Sterling Morton Magnet Middle School inOmaha, Nebraska, also bears his name, as doMorton College (a community college) andJ. Sterling Morton High School District 201 inBerwyn andCicero, Illinois.^[22]

His son,Joy Morton, the founder of theMorton Salt Company, also created TheMorton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, in 1922. Today, Joy Morton's original 400-acre (1.6 km²) Thornhill Estate, which he acquired in 1910, has been transformed into a 1,700-acre (6.9 km²) living history museum of over 4,000 different types of trees, shrubs, and other woody plants.

• Beaty, Sandy (1998).Champion of Arbor Day: J. Sterling Morton. Kansas City, Missouri: Acorn Books.
• Olson, James C. (1942).J. Sterling Morton. Lincoln, Nebraska: Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toJulius Sterling Morton.

• The Arbor Day Foundation at www.arborday.org
• Julius Sterling Morton papers at theNebraska State Historical Society

• 1832 births
• 1902 deaths
• American conservationists
• Members of the Nebraska Territorial Legislature
• Governors of Nebraska Territory
• Politicians from Detroit
• People from Monroe, Michigan
• University of Michigan alumni
• People from Nebraska City, Nebraska
• People from Adams, New York
• Politicians from Jefferson County, New York
• Secretaries of agriculture of the United States
• People of Nebraska in the American Civil War
• 19th-century American Episcopalians
• 20th-century American Episcopalians
• Cleveland administration cabinet members
• History of forestry in the United States
• Nebraska Democrats
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• Bourbon Democrats

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