Lot M. Morrill

Lot Myrick Morrill was an American statesman and politician who served as the 28th Governor of Maine, as a United States Senator, and as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President Ulysses S. Grant. An advocate for hard currency rather than paper money, Morrill was popularly received as Treasury Secretary by the American press and Wall Street. He was known for financial and political integrity, and was said to be focused on serving the public good rather than party interests. Morrill was President Grant's fourth and last Secretary of the Treasury.

A native of Maine, Morrill received a public school education, briefly attended Waterville College, and became principal of a private school in New York. Morrill then studied law and passed the bar in 1839, afterwards setting up law practices in Readfield and Augusta, Maine. Known for his eloquent speaking, he was popular among Democratic friends advocating for temperance. Morrill was elected to Maine's House of Representatives in 1854 as a Democrat and served as Chairman of the Maine Democratic Party. However, as the national divide over slavery grew during the 1850s, Morrill shifted his political allegiance to the Republican Party for the sole reason that Republicans opposed the expansion of slavery. He was elected as a Republican to Maine's State Senate in 1856, followed by his election as Governor of Maine in 1858. As the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Morrill was elected to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Maine's Hannibal Hamlin, who assumed the vice presidency under President Abraham Lincoln. Morrill's Senate tenure lasted nearly 15 years, spanning from the start of the Civil War to the waning days of Reconstruction. While in the Senate, Morrill sponsored legislation that outlawed slavery in Washington, D.C., and advocated for education and suffrage for African American freedmen.

In 1876, President Grant appointed Morrill to serve as U.S. Treasury Secretary after Sec. Benjamin Bristow resigned from the position. When Morrill left the Senate to lead the Treasury Department, his political rival James G. Blaine was appointed by Maine's governor to fill the then-vacant Senate seat. Morrill advocated strongly in support of the gold standard during his eight-month tenure as Secretary. Upon his retirement from the Treasury Department in 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Morrill as Collector of Customs in Portland, Maine, a position he held until his death in 1883.

Secretary of the Treasury :

Morrill was appointed Treasury Secretary by President Ulysses S. Grant; having served from 1876 to 1877 and for five days under President Rutherford B. Hayes. His appointment was in part due to the resignation of previous reformer Sec. Benjamin Bristow who successfully prosecuted and shut down the notorious Whiskey Ring scandal. Bristow resigned due to friction between himself and President Grant over Bristow's zealous reforming in the Treasury Department and potential Presidential run in 1876. Sec. Morrill, upon his assumption to office, was in charge of all the top secret and confidential files left over during Bristow's Whiskey Ring prosecutions. Although Sec. Morrill did not have the reputation of a financial authority, he was believed to have political integrity and it was thought he would run the department as well as George S. Boutwell, Grant's first Treasury Secretary. Morrill upon his appointment submission by President Grant was immediately approved by the Senate without question. Morrill's appointment was popularly received by the press and Wall Street. Morrill's resignation from the Senate caused a vacancy which Gov. Seldon Connor filled by appointing Morrill's rival James G. Blaine as Maine's Senator.