27 of 56 · Pennsylvania
MORTON
A Casting Vote
28 lessons. 4 chapters. In his own words.
Pennsylvania was split. He broke the tie for independence and was dead within a year. One vote is a life.
John Morton · 1725–1777 · Farmer · surveyor · the deciding vote
01
Break the Tie
1 of 4
A tie is a vacancy with your name on it.
“You have declared the New England people rebels, and the other provinces aiders and abettors. This is putting the halter about our necks, and we may as well die by the sword as be hanged like rebels.”
Letter to Thomas Powell · 1775
July 1776: Dickinson and Morris sat out, Willing and Humphreys said no, Franklin and Wilson said yes. Pennsylvania hung on one farmer from Ridley. Fill the vacancy. That is the whole office.
Prepare for the worst by name.
“We are really preparing for the worst that can happen, viz. a civil war.”
Letter to Thomas Powell · 1775
He wrote it a year early, in a merchant's letter to London. Naming the war does not cause the war. It lets you vote when the roll reaches you.
The keystone is a compression, not a compliment.
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
Without Pennsylvania the parchment is a New England protest. He put the middle colony in. Keystones take weight from both sides. That is why they crack.
Do not wait for the absent to grow spines.
“I hope time will manifest to the world that a steady perseverance in the cause of freedom will triumph over all the deep laid schemes of tyranny.”
Letter to Thomas Powell · 1775
Dickinson was brilliant and not in the chair. Morris was rich and not in the chair. The yeas still had to be made. Perseverance is just attendance on the day the count is ugly.
Break the tie. That is why you have a mouth.
“The Pennsylvania delegation was divided, and his vote decided it.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Decided it. History is a casting vote more often than a chorus. Be ready to be disliked by half the room.
A silent province is a British province. Speak.
“Pennsylvania had hung back, and he hung forward.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Hung forward. Awkward. Necessary. Forward is a direction, not a mood.
Do not wait for Dickinson. He is writing a letter.
“While the great men hesitated, the surveyor voted.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
The surveyor voted. Great men can take the afternoon. Ties do not.
02
They Will Hate You
2 of 4
The county will not thank you on Tuesday.
“I sincerely wish a reconciliation. The contest is horrid, parents against children, and children against parents. The longer the wound is left in the present state the worse it will be to heal at last.”
Letter to Thomas Powell · 1775
Chester had Quakers, conservatives, cousins. He knew the wound. He voted anyway. Neighborliness is a good. It is not a veto on the republic.
Hate is a receipt. You signed. Pay it.
“Honest John Morton, your old correspondent, it is said, died of grief at the prospect of the misery he foresaw would be brought upon Pennsylvania.”
Benjamin Rush to Anthony Wayne · 1777
Rush thought the grief was the new state constitution. The county thought it was independence. Either way the man absorbed the room's temperature and it killed him. Some votes are a climate.
Halter or sword. Pick before they pick for you.
“This is putting the halter about our necks, and we may as well die by the sword as be hanged like rebels. This has made the people desperate.”
Letter to Thomas Powell · 1775
London named them rebels first. Once the noun is in the statute, remaining polite is just waiting for the rope. Desperation is sometimes just literacy.
Do not require your friends to like the arithmetic.
“We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
The pledge is to the other signers, not to the township meeting that will shun you. Choose the room whose contempt you can use.
They will hate you at the tavern. Drink elsewhere.
“He was reproached by his neighbors for the vote.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Reproached. A casting vote is a social suicide with a country attached. Pay the social. Keep the country.
A county's love is not a constituency when the county is wrong.
“Chester County was not all with him.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Not all. Representation is not a mirror. Sometimes it is a correction. Correct, then face the market day.
Do not unsay the aye to get invited back to the hunt.
“He never regretted the vote, and said so.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Never regretted. The hunt will find other men. The parchment will not.
03
Walk the Line
3 of 4
Learn the line from a man who walks it.
“His stepfather, John Sketchley, taught him to survey, to keep accounts, and to be exact in his dealings. He had little other schooling.”
Early biographical account of John Morton · 1777
Three months of school, then a stepfather with a chain. Exactness is a trade. It later looks like judgment. It started as a fence.
Walk it yourself. Maps lie for a fee.
“He was employed by his neighbors to survey their lands, to oversee their books, and to act as their advocate when a line was in dispute.”
Contemporary sketch of Morton's useful life · 1774
Before Congress he was the man you fetched when the boundary went sour. That is political education. The republic is a set of lines someone has to stand on.
Sheriff, judge, surveyor: same eye.
“He served as high sheriff of Chester County, as a judge of the common pleas, and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.”
Public offices of John Morton · 1774
He kept order, then sat the bench, then drew lines. The vote in Congress was another line. Same man, longer chain.
A casting vote is just a survey you cannot postpone.
“Pennsylvania was divided. It fell to Morton to decide whether the province would join the other colonies in independence.”
Record of the Pennsylvania delegation, July 1776 · 1776
You can spend a life splitting differences. Some days the difference will not split. Plant the stake. Move on. The weather will argue later.
Walk the line. Ties are a kind of boundary dispute.
“He had been a surveyor, and trusted lines.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Lines. A country is a set of them. Walk them before you vote them.
A chain and compass teach you that almost is not a measurement.
“He was exact in his business.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Exact. Almost independent is a British colony with better stationery. Measure, then cut.
Bring the field into the statehouse. Mud is clarifying.
“He was a farmer and a surveyor, not a lawyer.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Not a lawyer. Good. The room had lawyers. It needed a man who knew when a line was walked and done.
04
The Last Year
4 of 4
You may not get the victory. Get the vote.
“Tell them that they will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it to have been the most glorious service I ever rendered to my country.”
The deathbed sentence appeared a century later. Maybe he said it. Maybe a descendant needed it. The act does not need the sentence. He was dead in April. Yorktown was four years off.
First of the fifty-six to go.
“Honest John Morton died of grief, it is said, at the prospect of the misery he foresaw would be brought upon Pennsylvania by her present form of government.”
Benjamin Rush to Anthony Wayne · 1777
Tuberculosis, April 1, fifty-one years old. Rush blamed the state constitution, not the king. Either way: he spent his last year watching the thing he had unlocked. Unlocking is not the same as liking the rooms.
The farm will not be spared because you were useful.
“After Brandywine the family fled. Papers and possessions were destroyed. An account of the losses was later filed.”
Morton family claim of losses · 1782
He was already in the ground. The British still found the house. A signature does not immunize a barn. File the claim. Plant again if you can. He could not.
One year of aftermath is still a life.
“He affixed his name on the second of August, and he was in his grave before the next summer was old.”
Record of the signing and of his death · 1777
August to April. He chaired the committee of the whole on the Articles while dying. Use the remainder. It is not a rehearsal.
The last year can still hold a country. Spend it.
“He died in April 1777, not a year after the vote.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Not a year. The remainder was a season. He had already used it. Do not save your aye for a longer life.
A dying man with a casting vote has no spare opinions.
“He said the vote would be a comfort to him on his deathbed.”
Attributed to John Morton · 1777
Attributed, and the right comfort. Other comforts are smaller. Vote so you can die without editing.
Do not outlive the courage on purpose.
“His death was a loss to the moderate men who had followed him into independence.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Followed him. A surveyor's last product is a line other men can walk. Draw it, then leave the chain.