The Minneapolis journal., 1903-04-18
STORY OF MORRIS
How the Federal Judge Was Ostra-
cized and Driven From His
Native State.
Twas for Conscience Sake and the
Whirligig Of Fortune Has
Compensated Him.
From The Journal Bureau, Room IS, Post Build.
ehf

From The Journal Bureau, Room Is, Post Build.
ink, Washington. S.5.#
Washing on, April s.-H. ellison Gard
ner, Washington correspondent of the
Chicago Journal, tells the story of Judge
Page Morris political life in his CORE |
spondence in this way:
When a. man is prosecuted, fdowntrod-
den, cast out, deserted by his best friends, !
ostracized by society and driven from his
home and the country Of his birth-ani |
all for conscience ssake-he is wont to |
seek consolation in the thought that some
where at some time, in the vague and
distant future,s; there is 5vindication and
redress in word, that time will tell.
Unfortunately 1t happens in many cases
that time is poor debtor, and d-that about
the juncture at which the obligation is |
recalled, the poor creditor is dead or be- |
,yond the reach of redress. That is what
lends interest to the career of Page Nor
ris lately congressman from the sixth
Minnesota district and now judge of the
newly created district Of the Minnesota
federal court. His case Is a happy excep-
ton to- the general rule. &
In his you'll. Page Morris lived in the
south. He was born and reared in Lynch
burg, Va. He was and Is a southerner,
[typically and In the best meaning Of that
term Clean cut. - fine looking, gracious,
kindly and courteous to- a degree he
stands for all that is traditional to The
high minded gentleman. Back in the early
seventies no man in Lynchburg had a
better position socially Or finer, better
business prospects than this rising young
lawyer. He was a graduate of the old
William and Mary college and of the Vir
ginia Military Institute. He was married
to a beautiful southern girl. And he was
a democrats we're all gentlemen.
| But Page Morris had a conscience. It
was one of those troublesome, obstinate
lconsciences, with which it is impossible
TO compromise. His conscience and his
politics came into conflict, and his politics
had to change. >sg.s .ses. .,.c-.. 5s
1 There is where the trouble began. To
change politics in Jlynchburg at the time
Morris lived there was no light matter, 1t
meant association with "carpetbaggers,
scalawags. demagogig negroes and all that
is opposed to the southern tradition. But
Morris changed. He could not bring him
self to approve things which his -asso-
ciates. the democrats, were doing. This
I was the era of shotgun methods at the
poles. The newly enfranchised negro vas
being deposed from his temporary polit
ical ascenda ncy by drastic methods. The
minority Of whites were asserting their
ascendancy by the "Ku-Klux'' and the
whipping post
I 8 Young Morris took counsel with his wife,
and she warned him. He was unwilling to
Ebelieve her prognost ications. He believed
and argued that hts political beliefs would
result only in political opposition; but that
The would get credit for sincerity of pur-
lpose, and that his old friends and neigh1
|bors would never think the less Of him
for acting honestly as his conscience bade
him. -. y. s8:L.s .Ly L s&..@
I That was where he was wrong. His
Il wife knew best - The republicans well
coined him to their ranks: his old friends
cast him out. The republicans made him
} their nominee for congress: his old friends
put up John W.sDaniel, now United States
senator, to run against him: Morris. was
defeated. only way Walsf he sei defeated he
; was ruined. His career lawyer was
Inipped in the bud. What business he had
secured, dropped away from him. Friends
! with whom he had been intimate, We're
cold to him., The women ceased calling on
Mis- wife, Even relatives cut him off their
visiting list and he soon fonnd himself as
T. thOrOly OstraclZed as II ne nad DeeH SUI :
[ lfering from a, plague. ,y-. = sst1 $3.50.
II He bore it for two years, always hoping
and believing that his old friends would
: Ediscover their error and accord him their
esteem as Of old. He could not conceive
it possible that he could thus be made
the victim of a narrow prejudice to the
point. of ., persecution. But the empty
2 cupboard was an argument he could not
:. gainsay. There was no practice for him;
Y no money in the bank, nor prospect OF
$ any. He was confronted with actual
! want-starvation. ..+, fs-. -z,zzA .s-....s =:
1 He lett. That was in 1886. He bor-
rowed money and emigrated froms among
friends and the land of his boyhood to
a land iof Strangers He determined to
go north, to a community where his con
victions would not be charged up against
him At random he chose Duluth.
His new neighbors loved his gentle
ways. They respected his clean manner
of life, his apparent honesty and his
liabilities. Practice came almost from the
day of his arrival. In time-three years
political preferment for in 1889 he was
elected municipal judge Of the city Of
city attorney and the next year was ap
pointed by the governor district judge o.
the eleventh Judicial district of Mime
sofa. -aE !. H.. ~
Then came the smooth spoken Charlie,
lTow1le, with his, free silver doctrine, wht
had served in congress as republican
F and had gone over to silver, and the peo
lple Of Duluth sought their strongest mai
to go out and defeat him. This man wa
fPage Morris, who resigned from the bencl
to make the race. He won and came t
: Washington. Twice was he reelected
But his service in congress was a sacri
& Efice. He had given up a better place OF
n the bench. The small salary of q con
# gressman-the. small income Of a con
T. -Igressman with q conscience--taken II
Q connection with the increased cost Of liv
ing at the national capital, and md q grow
S ling family Of girls, made it an increasing
: sacrifice But the fates were not througl
It with their compensa tions. Esteeming
E but right. his collea CUES in congress raj
h lied to his support, and, when the ney
e position was added to the federal bench