Representative Daniel Morris

Daniel Morris (January 4, 1812 – April 22, 1889) was a United States Representative from New York who served two terms in Congress from 1863 to 1867, during the American Civil War. A member of the Republican Party in his congressional years, he represented his district in the House of Representatives at a critical moment in American history and contributed to the legislative process on behalf of his constituents.

Morris was born in Fayette, Seneca County, New York, on January 4, 1812. He was educated in the public schools and later attended Canandaigua Academy in Ontario County, New York, an institution that prepared many young men of the region for professional careers. Before entering the legal profession, he worked as a farmer and also taught school, occupations that were common stepping stones for educated men in upstate New York in the early nineteenth century.

After deciding to pursue a legal career, Morris studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1845. He commenced practice in Penn Yan, the county seat of Yates County, New York, where he would remain professionally and personally rooted for the rest of his life. His legal practice established him as a figure of local prominence and provided the foundation for his subsequent involvement in public affairs.

Morris became active in politics as a Free Soil, anti-slavery Democrat, aligning himself with the movement that opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories. He served as district attorney of Yates County from 1847 to 1850, gaining experience in public prosecution and county administration. Continuing his political ascent, he was elected to the New York State Assembly as a representative of Yates County, serving in 1859. During the 1850s, as the national debate over slavery intensified, he joined the newly formed Republican Party and became chairman of the Republican organization in Yates County.

At the outset of the American Civil War, Morris worked with pro-Union Democrats and Republicans to organize unity rallies and recruiting drives in support of the Union cause. His prominence in local politics and his firm Unionist stance helped propel him to national office. He was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Congresses, serving from March 4, 1863, to March 3, 1867. During these two terms in the United States House of Representatives, he participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his New York constituents while the nation was engaged in civil war and the initial phases of Reconstruction. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1866.

After leaving Congress, Morris returned to Penn Yan and resumed the practice of law. He remained a respected figure in his community, his career reflecting the trajectory of a nineteenth-century lawyer-politician who moved from local to state to national office and then back to private life. He continued to reside in Penn Yan until his death.

Daniel Morris died in Penn Yan, New York, on April 22, 1889. He was interred in Lake View Cemetery in Penn Yan, where his burial marked the close of a life that spanned from the early republic through the Civil War era and into the late nineteenth century.