Here’s a Document Signed by Kentucky Statesman
EDWIN PORCH MORROW
(1877 - 1935)
40th
GOVERNOR OF KENTUCKY 1919-1923,
UNITED STATES DISTRICT ATTORNEY FOR
THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY 1910-1913, APPOINTED BY PRESIDENT TAFT,
CHAMPIONED OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY CAUSES
OF HIS DAY, NAMELY EQUAL RIGHTS FOR AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND THE USE OF FORCE TO QUELL RACIAL VIOLENCE
-&-
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 2nd
LIEUTENANT, 4th KY INFANTRY 1898-1899.
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HERE’S AN OFFICIAL “COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY” DOCUMENT SIGNED BY MORROW, 1p., DATED AT FRANKFORT NOV. 24, 1921, APPOINTING
F. M. BISHOP AS A JUSTICE OF THE PEACE FOR NICHOLAS COUNTY.
THE DOCUMNT IS ALSO SIGNED BY R. LEE
STEWART AS KY’S ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE.
The piece measures 10½” x 16” and is in VERY FINE CONDITION.
A FINE RELIC OF KENTUCKY POLITICAL HISTORY.
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BIOGRAPHY OF THE
HONORABLE
EDWIN P. MORROW
Edwin Porch Morrow (November 28,
1877 – June 15, 1935) was an American politician, who served as the 40th Governor of Kentucky
from 1919 to 1923. He was the only Republican
elected to this office between 1907 and 1927. He championed the typical
Republican causes of his day, namely equal rights for African-Americans
and the use of force to quell violence. Morrow had been schooled in his party's
principles by his father, Thomas
Z. Morrow, who was its candidate for governor in 1883, and his
uncle, William O. Bradley,
who was elected governor in 1895. Both men were founding members of the
Republican Party in Kentucky.
After rendering non-combat service in the Spanish–American War,
Morrow graduated from the University of Cincinnati
Law School in 1902 and opened his practice in Lexington,
Kentucky. He made a name for himself almost immediately by securing the
acquittal of a black man charged with murder based on an extorted confession
and perjured testimony. He was appointed U.S. District Attorney
for the Eastern
District of Kentucky by President William Howard Taft
in 1910 and served until he was removed from office in 1913 by President Woodrow
Wilson. In 1915, he ran for governor against his good
friend, Augustus O. Stanley.
Stanley won the election by 471 votes, making the 1915 contest the closest
gubernatorial race in the state's history.
Morrow ran for governor again in 1919. His opponent, James
D. Black, had ascended to the governorship earlier that year
when Stanley resigned to take a seat in the U.S. Senate.
Morrow encouraged voters to "Right the Wrong of 1915" and ran on a progressive
platform that included women's
suffrage and quelling racial violence.
He charged the Democratic administration with corruption, citing specific
examples, and won the general election in a landslide. With a friendly
legislature in 1920, he passed much of his agenda into law, including an anti-lynching
law and reorganizing state government. He won national acclaim for preventing
the lynching of a black prisoner in 1920. He was not hesitant to remove local
officials who did not deter or quell mob violence. By 1922, Democrats regained
control of the General Assembly,
and Morrow could not accomplish much in the second half of his term. Following
his term as governor, he served on the United States Railroad Labor Board and
the Railway Mediation Board but never again held elected office. He died of a
heart attack on June 15, 1935, while living with a cousin in Frankfort.
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