Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/39

MORRISON. 27 MORSE. and from 1855 to 1859 was a Democratic mem- ber of the Lower House of the Illinois Legisla- ture, serviug as Spealier in the last year. At the outbreak of the Civil War lie organized and became colonel of tile Forty-ninth Illinois In- fantry, serving in that capacity until December, 18G3, when he resigned to talve Ids seat as a Democrat in the Thirty-eighth Congress, to which he had been elected while at the front in the preceding year. He practiccil law from 1805 un- til 1873, and from that year until 1887 was again a member of the National House of Rep- resentatives. During liis Congressional career lie attained wide distinction as an advocate of a radical reduction in the tarifT, l)ut was never able to secure the support of enough members of liis own party to assure the passage of bills which as chairman of the Ways and ileans Committee he introduced in 1876. 1884, and 1880. The bill of 1884, embodying the famous 'horizontal' tariff scheme, which proposed a straiglit (or hori- zontal) reduction of 20 per cent, from the tariff of 1883. was defeated by a slender majority ob- tained through the opposition of the protection- ist Democrats under the lead of Samticl J. Kan- dall. In 1885 Morrison was defeated for election to the United States Senate by John A. Logan by one vote, and in the following year failed of reelection to the House. He was appointed lv President Cleveland a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887, and served until 1897, for the last six years as chairman. MOR'RISTOWW. A town and the county- seat of ilorris Cotmty, X. J., 18 miles west of Newark; on the Lackawanna, the Eockaway Val- ley, and the Whippany River railroads (Jlap: New Jersey, C 2 ) . Among the features of the town are Memorial and All Souls' hospitals, the Young Men's Christian Association and Young Men's Catholic Association buildings, a public park with a Soldiers' Monument, and a large pub- lic library and lyceum, occupying a handsome edi- fice. Here is the site of Fort Nonsense, erected by Wasliington and marked by a memorial monu- ment. Four miles from the town, at Morris Plains, is the State Hospital for the Insane, which cost nearly .$3,000,000. has accommodations for 1500 patients, and at the time of its completion was the largest institution of its character in the United States. Morristown is in the rose and peach belt of the country, on a tableland sur- rounded by hills, rising nearly 700 feet aliove sea level, and is in a great measure a wealthy resi- dential iilace with large villas. No cffoi-t has been made to foster manufacturing, but the trade of the town with the surrounding country is ac- tive. Its comparatively dry and hraciiig winter climate attracts invalids. The government, as jn-ovided tinder the original charter of incorpora- tion, is vested in a mayor and a municipal coun- cil, of which the executive is a member. The school commissioners are chosen bv popular vote. Population, in 1890, 8150: in 1900. 11,207. Settled about 1710, Morristown was known as Vest Hanover until in 1740 it received its present name in honor of Lewis Jlorris. then fiov- ernor of New .Jersey. During the Revolution Washington made his headquarters hero from .Tanunry to Jlay, 1777, and again from Decem- ber, 1779, to .Tune. 1780, occupying during the latter period the old Ford mansion, which now belongs to the Washington Association, and in Vol XIV.— 3. which numerous Revolutionary relics are ex- hibited. At the old Speedwell Iron Works here the shaft o.f the Hacannah, the first steamboat to cross the Atlantic, was cast, and here, from 1837 to 1843, Professor Morse and Alfred Vail per- fected the electric telegraph. jNIorristown was incorporated in 1805. Consult: Colles, Authora a)id ^Yrit()■s Associated with Morristown, etc. (Morristown, 1893) ; Tnttle, History of Morris- town. MORRISTO'WN'. A city and the county-seat of Hamblen County, Tenn., 42 miles northeasl of Kno.wille; on the Morristown and Cumberland Gap and the Southern railroads (Jlap: Tennes- see, H 4). It is the seat of the ilorristown Nor- mal College, a Methodist Episcopal institution for negroes. Morristown is the commercial cen- tre of a rich agricultural section, and is an im- portant stock market. The manufactures in- clude flour, tobacco, stoves, wagons, leather, brooms, agricultural implements, and sash and blinds, and there are quarries of variegated mar- ble and zinc, lead, and iron mines in the vicinity. Population, in 1890, 1999; in 1900, 2973. MORS. The largest island in the Limfjord, in the northwestern part of Jutland, Denmark (Map: Denmark, B 2). Its area is 139 square miles. It is in marked contrast with the sur- rounding mainland, being much more fertile, and having a somewhat elevated (250 feet) interior, with steep coasts. Population, in 1901, 22,237. The chief town is Nj'kjobing. MORSE (probably from Icel. mar, sea + ros, horse, cf. Norweg. rosinar, walrus; less plausibly from Russ. rnvryii, niorzhii, morse, from more, sea ) . An old name for the Atlantic walrus ( q.v. ) . MORSE, Edwaed Sylvester (1838 — ). An American naturalist and archaeologist, born at Portland, Maine. He was educated at Bethel Academy. Maine, and at the Lawrence Scientific School, Cambridge. He was professor of com- parative anatomy and zoology at Bowdoin Col- lege from 1871 to 1874, and at the Imperial Uni- versity. Tokio. Japan, from 1877 to 1880. In 1881 he was appointed director of the Peabody Academy of Sciences, of which he was a founder. He also became known as a popular lecturer on natural history aiul Oriental travel. Morse es- tablished a reputation early as a zoologist by the following studies of brachiopods, which proved them not to be mollusks: Early Stages: nf Tere- Tiratulina (1870) ; Emhryology of TercbratuJina (18721; Systematic Position of Brachiopods (1873). He also wrote Ascending Process of the Astragalus in Birds (1880). 'Cvhile in Japan Morse interested himself greatly in the art. an- tiquities, social customs, and folk-lore of the people, and he made extensive collections of pot- tery and investigated its prehistoric archopology. Some of the results were published in the books: Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings (1880); On the Older Forms of Terra-Cotta Roofing Tiles (1892); and other pamphlets and papers, which are regarded as highly iin- liortant by specialists. His unique collec- tion of .Tapanese pottery and objects of art was bought by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where it is installed separately as the 'Morse Collection.' of which Professor Morse was made curator. An illustrated Catnlogiir of it, prepared by Morse, was published by the