Oliver P. Morton

“ On my honour and soul, it does seem to me a strange thing, that here poor Morton, who would have done service to everybody on earth, who was as good as he was brave, and as clever as he was good, should fall at the very first shot, and I go through the whole business with nothing but this scratch of the hand. I did my best to get myself killed, too; for I will swear that I was the last man upon our part that left the bank of the Boyne. ”

“ The reference here is to Wood’s New England’s Prospect (p. 70) . In regard to the time when this work was written and published, see Mr. Deane’s preface to the edition in the publications of the Prince Society. Morton makes numerous references to it in the New Canaan (infra, *38, 53, 64, 84, 99) . The present reference is one of the few unintelligible passages in the book. Wood’s language, to which Morton apparently takes exception, is as follows: “As it is natural to all mortals to worship something, so do these people ”

“ John Billington was hanged at Plymouth in September, 1630, being apparently the second person so executed in what is now Massachusetts, the first having been executed at Weymouth during the winter of 1622-3. (Infra, *108-10.) The man shot by Billington, and for whose murder he was hung, was John New-comin (Bradford, p. 277) , whence Morton’s play upon the name. Billington had two sons, but he was by no means “beloved.” As Bradford, writing about him as early as 1625, said, “he is a knave,” adding prophetically “and so will live and die.” (Savage’s Winthrop, vol. i. p. *36) . ”

“ I don’t know if it’s admiration, young lady, but I have learned that Mr. Morton knows what’s right. There isn’t a man anywheres that can teach him much! You can build on him and never get left. If he says a thing—it’s so; and if he stands up for you you’re all right. And then, he ain’t putting the load on the other fellow, either! When it comes to hard knocks, he takes his share—and takes it without a [148] murmur. He is square, is Mr, John—and white all through! ”

“ You know the old gentleman purposes to succeed himself. And, doubtless, since such is mugwump thickness, he'll be renominated.”
“Tammany,” said I, “will fight him. We'll have a candidate on a straight ticket of our own. His honor, your father, will be beaten.”
“On my soul! I hope so,” exclaimed Morton. “Don't you know, I expect every day to find him doing something to Mulberry Traction—trying to invalidate its franchise, or indulging in some similar piece of humor. I shall breathe easier with my parent returned to private life—really!” ”

“ Was Wandel fair? Was it, indeed, the original George Morton people had always liked? Here, apart from the turmoil, he didn't believe it, didn't dare believe it. Those people wouldn't have cared for him except for his assumption of qualities which he had chosen as from a counter display. Yet was it the real George Morton that made him in superlative moments break the traces of his acquired judgments, as he had done at New Haven, in the Argonne, to dash selflessly into the service of others? Rotten inside, indeed! Even in the hospital he set out to crush that impulsive, dangerous part of him. ”

“ Since the text was written the Life of O. P. Morton has appeared, and in it his part in the change from Buell to Rosecrans is given. He urged the change upon Lincoln on the ground that aggressive vigor was imperatively demanded. "Another three months like the last six, and we are lost," said he. "Reject the wicked incapables whom you have patiently tried and found utterly wanting." On October 24th he telegraphed, "The removal of General Buell and the appointment of Rosecrans came not a moment too soon." Life, vol. ”

“ See also Strachey’s Historie, p. 125; Young’s Chron. of Mass., p. 253.
[324] In regard to this expression Mr. Trumbull writes: “Metawna is mittànnug (R. Williams) , muttannunk (Eliot) ,—Englished by ‘a thousand;’ but to the Indians less definite, ‘a great many,’ more than he could count. Neent is possibly a misprint for necut (nequt, Eliot) , ‘one,’—but, more likely, stands for ‘I have,’ or its equivalent, ‘there is to me.’ Roger Williams (p. 164) puts the numeral first, nneesnneánna, ‘I have killed two,’—shwinneánna, [‘I have killed] three,’” &c. ”

“ Nothing can be more crude as a novel, nothing more disappointing, than “Morton's Hope.” But in no other of Motley's writings do we get such an inside view of his character with its varied impulses, its capricious appetites, its unregulated forces, its impatient grasp for all kinds of knowledge. With all his university experiences at home and abroad, it might be said with a large measure of truth that he was a self-educated man, as he had been a self-taught boy. His instincts were too powerful to let him work quietly in the common round of school and college training. ”

“ To have made his story a consistent series of contradictions, Morton should have sailed from that Bohemian seashore which may be found in “A Winter's Tale,” but not in the map of Europe.
And yet in the midst of all these marks of haste and negligence, here and there the philosophical student of history betrays himself, the ideal of noble achievement glows in an eloquent paragraph, or is embodied in a loving portrait like that of the professor and historian Harlem. The novel, taken in connection with the subsequent developments of the writer's mind, is a study of singular interest. ”

“ You see, he realized, dimly at first, clearly at last, that through Bewsher and his kind lay the hope of Morton and his kind. Nice little boys think the same thing, only they are trained not to admit [Pg 57] it. That was the first big moment of Morton's life, and with the determination characteristic of him he set out to accomplish what he had decided. In England we make our future through our friends, in this country you make it through your enemies. But it wasn't easy for Morton; such tasks never are. ”

“ He is now teacher of History and English at the Morristown High School, Morristown, N.J. In 1919 Mr. Morton took the first prize, of $150, for the best poem read at the Poetry Society of America during the current year, and in 1920 he was awarded a $500 prize for one of three book manuscripts considered the best submitted to the contest of "The Lyric Society". The volume, "Ships in Harbor, and Other Poems", will be published in the autumn of 1920. Mr. Morton is one of the finest sonneteers of this period and a poet of rare and authentic gifts. ”

“ They are self-condemned to any one who opens it; and therefore have they sealed it, lest men should read and know them for what they are."
"And yet," said Constance, "who was so eager as you to save the good bishop of Ely--who rejoiced so much at his escape?"
"I say not that there are no good men amongst them, dear Constance," replied her cousin; "for I believe that there are many; but all human beings have their weaknesses. I believe doctor Morton to be a good man ”

“ When his son was born, he was called after his grandfather, John Morton. As the boy grew up he became his father’s pride and hope. Dan Morton looked on him as the reincarnation of himself, the child who would grow up to be a man to carry on the work he had begun. When the young man was ready to enter college, he developed a rather unexpected taste for study and research—most un-Morton like, as his mother would say. His father decided not to discourage the youth, but hoped that in time he would turn from these strange gods and worship the gods of his fathers. ”

“ Some lectures on philosophy which he read in his own rooms were attended by several students from the college, and one or two discontented scholars desired to become inmates of his house, but these proceedings gave offence to the governing body. The letter of request to him to refrain from receiving these persons is printed in the ‘Mather Papers’ (Massachusetts Hist. Soc. Collections, 4th ser. viii. 111–12) . Morton was solemnly inducted as minister of the first church in Charlestown, New England, on 5 Nov. 1686, and was the first clergyman of the town who solemnised marriages. ”

“ Properly speaking, however, there [Pg 101] seems to have been but one edition of the book. With the exception of the Force titlepage, which has been shown to be erroneous, there is no evidence of any copy being in existence bearing an earlier date than the usual one of Amsterdam, 1637.
Copies of the New Canaan are extremely rare. Savage, in his notes to Winthrop (vol. i. p. *34) , said that he had then, before 1825, never heard of but one copy, “which was owned by his Excellency John Q. Adams.” It is from that copy that the present edition is printed. Mr. ”

“ His name was Merton, and the two, Chick and Patsy,{151} were on good terms with him. Attracting his attention, they called him to their table, asking him to dine with them.
When he was seated, they asked him if he was on any special business.
“A very easy lay,” replied Morton. “A young fellow, from an Eastern city, who has got more money than brains, is down here on a high-pressure spree. His folks, who can’t switch him, have appealed to the department to put him under watch so that nothing bad will happen to him. That’s my lay. The chief says it’s a kind of a vacation for me.” ”

“ He had found a philosopher's stone; and through the rest of his life, this comfortless reading room of the Matherton Hotel, this sanctuary of dry and weary Yankeedom, was linked in his memory with dreams of golden brightness.
A firm, quick step crossed the threshold, and paced the sanded floor. Till this moment, Morton had remained absorbed, shut in from the outer world; but now an influence, which believers may call magnetism, made him look up and bend forward from the recess to see who the sudden stranger might be. The stranger turned also, and showed the pale, fixed face of Horace Vinal. ”

“ Cousin Sarah does not suspect the state of things, the gentleman himself is, I trust, quite ignorant, and the doctor will waste upon me all the wealth of curative agencies at his command without effecting the least change in my condition.
Richard Morton is an orphan; so am I. He is young, strong, good-looking, clever, and poor. I am the first, second, and fifth; as to one’s own beauty and cleverness it is difficult to speak impartially. ”

“ Morton as faultless of garb as ever, and with eyeglass as much employed, the Reverend Bronson as anxious as in the old time for the betterment of humanity. The spirit of unselfishness never flags in that good man's breast, although Morton is in constant bicker with him concerning the futility of his work.
“The fault isn't in you, old chap,” said Morton, when last they were with me; “it isn't, really. But humanity in the mass is such a beastly dullard, don't y' know, that to do anything in its favor is casting pearls before swine.” ”

“ I know her! Have the courage to break your engagement—don't be a fool, and let her make you believe you're tied. You've got to do the square thing—not the soft thing, mind you, but the square thing—by yourself, first, and before all. Good-bye, good-bye!"
Once more Morton found himself in the elevator, being dropped down-stairs at a sickening pace, and presently he was out in the street again.
"If you don't mind, Mrs. Durham," he heard himself saying, "I'll put you into a cab. I need exercise and I want to think, so I'd better walk up." ”

“ She minds me, Morton. I wouldn't—couldn't—wake her. Morton, Morton, she's yours as much as mine. That's God's law, no matter how much man's law may have let you shirk your responsibility. Don't hurt your own flesh and blood by coming back to us—now. I remember once when you cut your hand it made you ill. Blood! Blood is warm. Red. Sacred stuff. She's your blood, Morton. You let us alone when we needed you. Leave us alone, now that we don't!"
"But you do, Hattie girl. That's just it. You're running things a woman's way. ”

“ There's luck in that old hammer that lies on the anvil where father left it. The first blow I ever struck on iron I struck with that, and the first work I ever did was to make a pair of bow-pins for your father."
As soon as Morton could leave the scholars he was instructing in private, he set forward in the stage to see Rich, and well aware, by letters received, of what had occurred, made inquiries, on arriving, for the shop. Peering into the door around the corner of another building, he saw a tall, strong-built man, past middle age, fitting a horse-shoe at the anvil. ”

“ Morton now approached the stranger.
"Mr. Morton," said the pale gentleman; "you are very little altered. You do not recollect me?"
"Bless me, Mr. Spencer! is it really you? Well, what a time since we met! I am very glad to see you. And what brings you to N——? Business?"
"Yes, business. Let us go within?"
Mr. Morton led the way to the parlour, where Master Tom, reperched on the stool, was rapidly digesting the plundered muffin. Mr. Morton dismissed him to play, and the pale gentleman took a chair. ”

“ I was in Boston myself at the time, and heard all about it. Her father was ill; so the marriage was private. Vinal is a sort of fellow that somehow I never cottoned to much. I don't think he's very disinterested. I like a fellow that will swear when he is angry, and not keep close shut up, like an oyster."
The tattle of his rustic companion was become intolerable to Morton. He had received his stab, and wished to hear no more. In a few minutes, he rose from the table. "Charley, I am sorry to leave you so suddenly, but I am not well. The fresh air and a hard walk are all that will set me up. ”