Justin Smith MORRILL, Congress, VT (1810-1898)

MORRILL, Justin Smith, a Representative and a Senator from Vermont; born in Strafford, Orange County, Vt., April 14, 1810; attended the common schools and Thetford and Randolph Academies; a merchant’s clerk in Strafford 1825-1828 and in Portland, Maine, 1828-1831; merchant in Strafford 1831-1848; engaged in agriculture and horticulture 1848-1855; elected as a Whig to the Thirty-fourth Congress and as a Republican to the five succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1855-March 3, 1867), when he became Senator; author of the Tariff Act of 1861 and of the land-grant bill, which bears his name; chairman, Committee on Ways and Means (Thirty-ninth Congress); elected as a Union Republican to the United States Senate in 1866; reelected as a Republican in 1872, 1878, 1884, 1890 and 1896 and served from March 4, 1867, until his death; chairman, Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds (Forty-first through Forty-fourth Congresses), Committee on Finance (Forty-fifth, Forty-seventh through Fifty-second, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses); regent of the Smithsonian Institution 1883-1898; trustee of the University of Vermont 1865-1898; died in Washington, D.C., December 28, 1898; interment in the City Cemetery, Strafford, Vt.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Hoyer, Randal L. “The Gentleman from Vermont: The Career of Justin S. Morrill in the United States House of Representatives.” Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1974; Parker, William. The Life and Public Services of Justin Smith Morrill. 1924. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present