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Business card, Robert Morris & Son, Attorneys and Counsellors at Law

Through his childhood employer, John G. King, Morris met Ellis Gray Loring, a Boston attorney and abolitionist. Loring brought young Morris to Boston, employing him as a copyist and clerk and encouraging him to read the law. Morris became a member of the Massachusetts bar with his admission to the Court of Common Pleas in 1847.

This business card advertises Morris鈥檚 law practice with his son, Robert Jr. They practiced together until the elder Morris鈥檚 death. Sadly, Robert Jr. died two weeks later, also in 1882.

On generous loan from the Boston Athenaeum

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison & John Jay, The Federalist: On the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788. 聽Washington, 1845.

Although the Burns collection does not include law books, we know Morris had them. His will left his law books to his son, Robert Jr. 聽Perhaps some of Morris鈥檚 law books will one day be found. Even without them, Morris鈥檚 interest in the Constitution and American politics is evident from the extant portion of his library. In The Federalist, Hamilton and Madison had been collaborators in defending the new federal Constitution. By 1793, they had become opponents with Hamilton (Pacificus) defending George Washington鈥檚 stance of American neutrality and Madison (Helvidius) criticizing the president鈥檚 executive power.

On generous loan from the John J. Burns Library, Boston College

R. B. Lewis, Light and Truth...Boston, 1844.

In the early 1840s, African-American community leaders began an effort to integrate Boston鈥檚 public schools. Morris represented Sarah Roberts and her father in Roberts v. the City of Boston after young Sarah was denied admission to a Boston school near her home. Although the SJC, led by Lemuel Shaw, decided against Sarah, Morris and others successfully lobbied the legislature to change the law.

Sarah鈥檚 father, Benjamin F. Roberts, was a Boston activist and printer. He focused on works by and about members of the black community, such as this one. Roberts also printed broadsides for the Vigilance Committee and other civil rights groups.

On generous loan from the John J. Burns Library, Boston College

David Walker, Walker's Appeal in Four Articles...
Boston, 1830.

Morris鈥檚 fierce commitment to abolitionism appears in his choice of books. 蝌蚪直播 one-third of those held by Burns Library relate to antislavery and abolitionism.

Walker鈥檚 famous appeal for the abolition of slavery is bound here with 16 other documents. This volume features a table of contents in Morris鈥� hand. As far as we can tell, no other library holds this particular compilation. Perhaps Morris had them bound together. Interestingly, Morris was a mentor to David Walker鈥檚 son, Edwin, who became a lawyer and gave a powerful speech at Morris鈥檚 memorial service.

On generous loan from the John J. Burns Library, Boston College

Petition to strike 鈥渨hite鈥� from the militia law.
Boston, c. 1853-1856.

Morris was the leader of the effort in Massachusetts to integrate the militia. This petition, written by Morris, is one of several similar ones in the Robert Morris papers at the Boston Athenaeum. It is signed by two of his brothers and several other leaders in Boston鈥檚 African-American community, including George Ruffin, the first black graduate of Harvard Law School. 聽

In tandem with his efforts to remove the word 鈥渨hite鈥� from the state鈥檚 militia laws, Morris sought a charter for a company of black soldiers called the 鈥淢assasoit Guards鈥�. One of these petitions is also in the exhibit.

On generous loan from the Boston Athenaeum

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass...Boston, 1845.

Morris鈥檚 library shows his strong interest in Africa, African-American writers, and the history of African Americans in the United States. These interests suggest his self-identity as part of a larger African community, anticipating the pan-African movement of writers such as W.E.B. DuBois.

Douglass鈥檚 first autobiography made him a national figure in the abolitionist movement. He and Morris undoubtedly crossed paths many times; Stephen Kantrowitz notes that Morris sided with Douglass in an argument about racial tokenism at the Liberator.

On generous loan from the John J. Burns Library, Boston College

Poems of Felicia Hemans. Philadelphia, 1845.

In March 1846, Robert Morris married Catharine H. Mason, the daughter of a Boston businessman. One of our favorite discoveries from perusing Morris鈥檚 library involves Robert and Catharine鈥檚 custom of exchanging books on special occasions. It was Catharine鈥檚 will that ultimately sent Morris鈥檚 books to Burns Library, by way of the Church of the Immaculate Conception and B.C. High.

This inscription reveals that Robert gave Catharine this volume of poetry for New Year鈥檚 the year before they married. The book features a beautiful, ornate binding for which Robert would have paid dearly. Catharine鈥檚 reciprocal gift to Robert is also in the exhibit.

On generous loan from the John J. Burns Library, Boston College

J. R. Beard, The Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: The Negro Patriot of Hayti. London, 1853.

Catharine gave this book to Robert on June 8, 1853, his 30th birthday. On the front flyleaf, he copied Wordsworth鈥檚 sonnet about the Haitian revolutionary. He copied it again in Martineau鈥檚 The Hour and the Man, a historical novel that features Toussaint as the hero.

This 1853 London edition is the first, so it was newly published when Catharine purchased the gift. It was printed again in Boston ten years later during the Civil War. Beard, an English Unitarian minister, depicted Toussaint as an unparalleled general--more powerful than George Washington and a better man than Napoleon.

On generous loan from the John J. Burns Library, Boston College

The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope...Philadelphia, 1836.

This book has the earliest publication date in Morris鈥檚 library. Because his signature and date notation are obscured by a later bookplate, it is hard to know if he had this book as a boy or obtained it later. We do know he was involved in a local literary society by 1842. In an 1860 letter to his former co-counsel Charles Sumner, Morris quotes the line 鈥淎n honest man鈥檚 the noblest work of God鈥�, from Pope鈥檚 Essay on Man, Epistle IV.

On generous loan from the John J. Burns Library, Boston College

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp. Boston, 1856.

Dred was Stowe's second anti-slavery novel, appearing four years after Uncle Tom鈥檚 Cabin. The fictional hero, Dred, is depicted as the son of Denmark Vesey, the freed slave who was hanged for planning a slave revolt in Charleston, South Carolina in the 1820s. Abolitionist William Wells Brown reported that Morris called Vesey and Nat Turner 鈥渋ntrepid heroes...whose very names were a terror to oppressors鈥� during a speech at the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Boston.

This is one of four works by Stowe in Morris鈥檚 library. Along with Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Greenleaf Whittier, she is one of the most represented writers in his collection.

On generous loan from the John J. Burns Library, Boston College

Life membership to the Boston College YMCA

Rev. Robert Fulton, S.J. formed the Boston College Young Men鈥檚 Catholic Association in 1875 to provide educational and recreational opportunities for young Catholic men. Fulton, the first dean and an early president of Boston College, rewarded Morris with a life membership.

Presumably Morris met Fulton after he left his lifelong Methodism and converted to Catholicism, joining the Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception in the South End. Morris had unusual connections with Boston鈥檚 Irish community for the time, regularly representing Irish clients and hiring a young Irish immigrant as an office boy (he later became mayor of Boston).

On generous loan from the Boston Athenaeum