Scope and Content Note
The papers of John Tyler Morgan (1824-1907) span the years 1840-1907, although the major portion of the collection is dated after 1882. The papers principally reflect the political controversies of the period and Morgan's involvement in them as an expansionist and defender of states' rights, but contain little of substance concerning his Civil War experience or his personal life. The collection consists of five series: Correspondence ; Subject File ; Speech, Article, and Book File ; Scrapbooks ; and Miscellany . The Correspondence series is the largest and includes such attached and related material as legislative and diplomatic position papers and reports, printed matter, and speeches.
Morgan was elected to the United States Senate from Alabama in 1876, and served there until his death in 1907. As chairman of the interoceanic canals and foreign relations committees, he was a vigorous promoter of the building of an isthmian canal, advocating a route through Nicaragua rather than Panama. Morgan's support of a Nicaraguan canal, as reflected in the collection, is the single most documented activity of his senatorial career. The Correspondence series contains letters exchanged with C. Colne, Lyman Edgar Cooley, Lewis M. Haupt, Hiram Hitchcock, Aniceto G. Menocal, William Lawrence Merry, and S. W. Plume, among others, as well as material relating to the Senate investigation of William Nelson Cromwell. These records provide extensive documentation of the technical, geological, and political considerations surrounding the canal debate. Other documents pertaining to this issue can be found throughout the collection, particularly in the Subject File and Scrapbooks series.
Although he was a dedicated Southerner, Morgan developed a world vision and supported an aggressive national foreign policy, urging intervention in Cuba, to be followed by annexation. He also advocated statehood for Cuba and Hawaii and was appointed to the commission to draft legislation for Hawaii. Morgan's participation on the Bering Sea Arbitration Commission is documented in the Correspondence series and Subject File . Other areas of interest that are represented in the collection include the Congo Free State, the Isle of Pines, the West Indies, and the Philippines.
The Correspondence series also contains material regarding Morgan's national legislative agenda, including his interest in Native American affairs and the question of statehood for the Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Washington territories. Advancing a states'-rights argument, Morgan fought against the Blair education bill, 1886-1888, while his interest in interstate commerce led him to promote the passage of legislation giving the Interstate Commerce Commission the power to fix railroad rates on interstate business. His positions on these issues are reflected in the Correspondence series, as are his interests in tariff and tax legislation, bimetallism, and the reclamation of land grants from railroad companies.
Morgan received numerous letters from constituents and friends requesting his influence in effecting appointments to public office, as well as from citizens with land or property claims against the United States government. There are also items relating to his plans for improving Alabama's internal navigation system and his reelection campaign in the Democratic Party primary of 1900 against Alabama Governor Joseph Forney Johnston. Other correspondents of note in the collection include Alvey A. Adee, Joaquin Bernardo Calvo Mora, Grover Cleveland, Luis Felipe Corea, John T. Doyle, John Watson Foster, Walter Quintin Gresham, John Marshall Harlan, Charles Thompson Harvey, John Hay, James O. Jones, John Francis LeBaron, J. W. Miller, Edward P. North, Richard Olney, Edward John Phelps, Thomas Collier Platt, Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, John Grimes Walker, F. F. Whittekin, and John A. Wyeth.