Morton, Oliver Perry

Morton, Oliver (Hazard) Perry (Throck)

(1823–77) public official; born in Salisbury, Ind. He left the Democratic Party to help found the new Republican Party. As the Republican wartime governor of Indiana (1861–66) he triumphed over an unruly legislature bent on frustrating his support of the Federal war effort. Partially paralyzed (1865), he went to France for treatment; while there, he helped to persuade the French to withdraw their troops from Mexico. He served in the U.S. Senate (Rep., Ind.; 1867–77) and was one of President Grant's trusted advisers.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.