Thomas Morris, January 3, 1776 (Berks County, Penn.)– December 7, 1844 (Bethel, Ohio)
VP candidate for Liberty Party 1844
Running mate with nominee: James G. Birney (1792-1857)
Popular vote: 62,103 (2.3%)
Electoral vote: 0/275
The campaign: It can be argued the Liberty Party ticket were spoilers in this very close election, resulting in an outcome counter to their interests with the elevation of James K. Polk. They were on the ballot in half the states, all in the North, and probably flipped New York and Michigan in favor of Polk instead of Clay, which in turn decided the election. They did well in New Hampshire (8.46%), Massachusetts (8.2%), Vermont (8.13%), Michigan (6.53%), and Maine (5.69%).
Election history:
1806-1811 Ohio House of Representatives (Democratic-Republican)
1813-1815 Ohio State Senate (Democratic-Republican)
1820-1821 Ohio House of Representatives (Democratic-Republican)
1821-1823 Ohio State Senate (Democratic-Republican)
1825-1829 Ohio State Senate (Jacksonian (1825-1828) Democratic (1828-1829))
1826 US House of Representatives (Ohio) (Jacksonian) - defeated
1831-1833 Ohio State Senate (Democratic)
1832 US House of Representatives (Ohio) (Democratic) - defeated
1833-1839 US Senate for Ohio (Democratic)
Other occupations: brick-maker, attorney, Justice on the Ohio State Supreme Court 1809, soldier.
Buried: Early Settlers Burial Ground, Bethel, Ohio
Notes:
Two of his sons, Isaac Newton Morris and Jonathan David Morris, served in the US Congress.
His sudden and unexpected death a month after the 1844 election would have left the country
without a Vice-President had the Liberty Party emerged victorious.
Considered one of the earliest US Senators to be an activist abolitionist.
No contemporary portrait or photograph of Sen. Morris is known to exist. A drawing was created in
1922 by Richard M. Brand of the Columbus Evening Dispatch based on the memory of Dr. W.E.
Thompson, who lived in Bethel, Ohio and was nine years old at the time the Senator died in 1844.
Morris was essentially drummed out of the Democratic Party in 1838 for his strong abolitionist
views.
