Lewis Lovering Morgan (March 2, 1876 – June 10, 1950) was an
American lawyer
''The American Lawyer'' is a monthly legal magazine and website published by ALM Media. The periodical and its parent company, ALM (then American Lawyer Media), were founded in 1979 by Steven Brill.[politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...]
from
Covington,
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
.
He served in the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
from November 5, 1912, to March 4, 1917, from
Louisiana's 6th congressional district
Louisiana's 6th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located in south-central Louisiana, the district contains most of the state capital of Baton Rouge, the bulk of Baton Rouge's suburbs, and conti ...
, which then included part of the
area. He is best remembered as the candidate of the
Earl Kemp Long
Earl Kemp Long (August 26, 1895 – September 5, 1960) was an American politician and the 45th governor of Louisiana, serving three nonconsecutive terms. Long, known as "Uncle Earl", connected with voters through his folksy demeanor and c ...
faction
Faction or factionalism may refer to:
Politics
* Political faction, a group of people with a common political purpose
* Free and Independent Faction, a Romanian political party
* Faction (''Planescape''), a political faction in the game ''Planes ...
, which lost the pivotal
Democratic nomination for
governor of Louisiana to
Jimmie Davis in the
1944 Louisiana gubernatorial election.
Early life and education
Morgan was born in
Mandeville in
St. Tammany Parish. He was a descendant of David Bannister Morgan (1773–1848), a pioneer in the settlement of Louisiana and a
brigadier general
Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...
in the
Battle of New Orleans
The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815 between the British Army under Major General Sir Edward Pakenham and the United States Army under Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson, roughly 5 miles (8 km) southeast of the Frenc ...
in the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...
. Morgan attended public schools and St. Eugene's College in St. Tammany Parish. In 1899, he graduated from the
Tulane University Law School
Tulane University Law School is the law school of Tulane University. It is located on Tulane's Uptown campus in New Orleans, Louisiana. Established in 1847, it is the 12th oldest law school in the United States.
In addition to the usual common ...
in New Orleans.
Career
Morgan was
admitted to the bar
An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...
in 1902 and began his law practice in Covington, the
seat of St. Tammany Parish. He married the former Lenora Cefalu, and the couple had two children.
From 1900 to 1908, Morgan was the president of the St. Tammany Parish Board of Election Supervisors; from 1904 to 1908, he was the president of the parish
school board
A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution.
The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...
. He served briefly in the
Louisiana House of Representatives in 1908 but resigned to become the St. Tammany Parish
district attorney. He served in that position from 1908 to 1912, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in a
special election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Representative
Robert C. Wickliffe. He did not seek a third congressional term in 1916 but instead resumed his law practice in 1917 in both Covington and New Orleans.
Morgan was a delegate to the
1912 and
1936 Democratic National Conventions, which nominated
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
and
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
. He was also a delegate to the
Democratic State Conventions of 1912, 1916, 1920, and 1924.
Gubernatorial campaign
Morgan was an unsuccessful candidate for governor in the election of 1944, having been backed by
New Orleans Mayor Robert Maestri
Robert Sidney Maestri (December 11, 1899 – May 6, 1974) was mayor of New Orleans from 1936 to 1946 and a key ally of Huey P. Long Jr. and Earl Kemp Long.
Early life
Robert Maestri was born in New Orleans on December 11, 1899, the son of, ...
as the choice of the Long faction. Former Governor Earl Long was running for
lieutenant governor that year, and Long had a
plurality in the first primary election. Morgan was pressured to withdraw from the runoff against Davis. Had he done so, Earl Long would have become lieutenant governor without the need of a party runoff primary. By contesting the second balloting with Davis, Morgan set the stage inadvertently for
J. Emile Verret of
New Iberia
New Iberia (french: La Nouvelle-Ibérie; es, Nueva Iberia) is the largest city in and parish seat of Iberia Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The city of New Iberia is located approximately southeast of Lafayette, and forms part of the Laf ...
, the seat of
Iberia Parish
Iberia Parish (french: Paroisse de l'Ibérie, es, Parroquia de Iberia) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 69,929; the parish seat is New Iberia.
The parish was formed in 1868 during ...
, to defeat Earl Long for the nomination to the state's second highest office.
Davis received 251,228 votes (53.6 percent) to Morgan's 217,915 ballots (46.5 percent). At sixty-eight, Morgan was one of the oldest major candidates to have sought the Louisiana governorship. In 1964, the
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
nominee, Charlton Lyons of
Shreveport, sought the office at the age of sixty-nine, and his successful Democratic opponent,
John J. McKeithen, made age an issue in that race.
Death
Morgan died in New Orleans. He is interred at Covington Cemetery in Covington. He was
Episcopalian.
References
*Lewis Lovering Morgan," ''A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography'' (1988), p. 582.
*http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=M000955
*''Who's Who in Louisiana and Mississippi'' (1918)
*Morgan obituary, ''New Orleans Times-Picayune'', June 11, 1950
*''Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections'', Gubernatorial primaries, 1944
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Lewis L.
1876 births
1950 deaths
American Episcopalians
Politicians from New Orleans
People from Mandeville, Louisiana
Democratic Party members of the Louisiana House of Representatives
Tulane University alumni
Tulane University Law School alumni
School board members in Louisiana
Lawyers from New Orleans
Burials in Louisiana
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana