Journalist and publisher. Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1866 to 1869

Family links:

Children:

 Morton McMichael (1837 - 1904)*

 William Mcmichael (1841 - 1893)*

 Clayton McMichael (1844 - 1906)*

Spouse:

 Mary Estell McMichael (1812 - 1877)*

=-----------------------------= From Appleton's Encyclopedia (http://www.famousamericans.net/mortonmcmichael/)

Morton McMichael

McMICHAEL, Morton, journalist, born in Burlington, New Jersey, 2 October, 1807; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 6 January, 1879. He was educated in the schools of his native town and at the University of Pennsylvania, read law, and in 1827 was admitted to the Philadelphia bar. He became editor of the " Saturday Evening Post" in 1826, from 1831 to 1836 was editor-in-chief of the " Saturday Courier," and during the latter year, with others, began the publication of the "Saturday News." In 1844 he associated himself with Joseph C. Neal in the editorship of the "Saturday Gazette," and in 1847 he acquired an interest in the "North American," which journal was, during that year, consolidated with the " United States Gazette," and under this union the publication was thereafter known as the "North American and United States Gazette." He was sole proprietor of this journal from 1854 till his death, and under his management and editorship it grew to be one of the best-known journals in the country. While a young man he served several years as an alderman of Philadelphia, from 1843 till 1846 he was sheriff of the county, from 1866 till 1869 mayor of the city, in 186% on the organization of the park commission, was chosen president of that body, which post he held till his death, and in 1878 he was appointed a delegate at large to the fourth Constitutional convention of Pennsylvania. He was frequently invited to address public audiences on great occasions, and achieved note as an orator. Of his speeches a critic has written" Prepared or unprepared, they were always finished models." A bronze statue of him in Fairmount park, bears the inscription, " An honored and beloved citizen of Philadelphia." -His third son, William, lawyer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 4 March, 1841, was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1859, and had begun law studies when, in April, 1861, he enlisted as a private under President Lincoln's first call for troops. He was afterward promoted to captain and aide-de-camp, then major, and later brevetted colonel, acting under General Grant, General Rosecrans, and General Thomas. After serving through the war he resumed his law studies, and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1865. He was appointed solicitor of internal revenue of the treasury department soon after General Grant's first election to the presidency, and resigned the office in 1871 to become United States assistant attorney-general. That office he held until 1877, when he was appointed United States district attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, but he resigned in 1875 to enter into private practice. He was appointed by President Garfield a member of the United States board of Indian commissioners. In 1882 he was a candidate for congress-man-at-large on the Independent Republican ticket. He has always been an active participant in public affairs, he is now (1888) a member of the bar of New York city. He inherited in a large degree the oratorical gifts of his father. Among his addresses is a eulogy on General George H. Thomas at a memorial meeting at the Academy of Music, and an oration at the unveiling of the Lincoln monument in Fairmount park.--Morton's fourth son, Clayton, journalist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 30 June, 1844, was educated in private schools, enlisted in the army in April, 1861, and was commissioned 2d lieutenant in the United States army on 5 August He resigned, 27 September, 1865, with the brevet rank of major in the regular army. After leaving the army he began journalistic work in connection with his father's newspaper, and a few years before the latter's death succeeded him in its editorship, in which post he has since continued. In 1872 he was appointed commissioner to the International exposition at Vienna, and in December, 1882, became United States marshal for the District of Columbia. He resigned, 4 March, 1885, but his resignation was not accepted by President Cleveland until 3 December.

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From http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.mcmichael/191.5/mb.ashx:

Morton McMichael Born in 1807, son of Northern Irish parents, was a founder of the Union League and the its fourth president (1870 - 1874). Throughout his life, he divided his activities between politics and journalism; at 19 he ws already an editor of the Saturday Evening Post and the following year was admitted to the bar. In the early 1840's he was an editor of Godey's Lady's Book, and in 1854 became the sole owner of the North American which he succeeded in making the leading Whig journal of the country by his vigorous and progressive editoral policy. He was an intimate friend of many literary men in the city; his poetry and prose were frequently published in local magazines and newspapers. His political career began around 1831 as a police magistrate. From 1843 - 1846 he served as sheriff of Philadelphia, displaying great vigor and courage in ending the "Native American" riots of 1844; in 1866 he became mayor of Philadelphia holding the office from 1866 to 1869. The Farimount Park Commission, created in 1867, elected him its frist president and repeatedly reelected him until his death. The Univeersity of Pennsylvania awarded him the degree of L. L. D. in 1877. The Union League had a room that was called the reading room and in 1963 was changed to the McMichael Room. He died at the age of 72, and was buried in the North Laurel Hill Cemetery. In his final year of presidency of the League they had a portrait by the Dublin-born artist Trevor Thomas Fowler, is sighned and dated 1874.

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See Sheriff Morton McMichael's testimony regarding the Philadelphia Riots of 1844: http://www.hsp.org/sites/www.hsp.org/files/migrated/officialtestimo...

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See an article on "Morton McMichael's North American" in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Art, Vol. 77, No. 2, Apr., 1953. Available on JSTOR at http://www.jstor.org/pss/20088456

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The following is excerpted from John Thomas Scarf, History of Philadelphia 1609-1884, Vol. 3:, pp.

(p. 1971) Morton McMichael, who did so much to elevate the press of this city, was born in Burlington County, N. J., on the 2d of October, 1807, and his earlier education was acquired in the school of his native village. His family moved to Philadelphia when he was quite young, and he completed his course of studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Subsequently he read law with David Paul Brown, and was admitted to the bar in the year 1827. Prior to the latter date, however, his inclinations led him into literary pursuits, and at a very early age he began that journalistic career which lasted until his death, in January, 1879, and which, in its scope and achievement, has never been excelled by any Philadelphian.

In 1826 he succeeded T. Cottrell Clarke as editor of the Saturday Evening Post, a journal established in 1821 as an outgrowth of Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette, which was originally published in 1728. In 1831, Mr. McMichael became editor-in-chief of the Saturday Courier, a new enterprise, and in 1836, together with Louis A. Godey and Joseph C. Neal, began the publication of the Saturday News. In 1844 the Saturday Gazette, long known as Neal's Saturday Gazette, was published, Morton McMichael and Joseph C. Neal being associated as editors. All these papers, as their titles imply, were weekly journals, and all, except the Saturday Evening Post, have long ceased to exist.

For over fifty years actively employed in journalism, there was no movement set on foot for the public good or for the honor and welfare of the city which had not the powerful aid of Mr. McMichael's advocacy and support. No one contributed more than he to carrying forward the great measures of instituting the public school system, consolidating the city, creating the park, and a score of other municipal measures of great, though less vital, importance.

In the larger area of national affairs, he had long a potential voice. Of a clear vision, broad, though conservative views, and high courage to urge right before expediency, his counsel was ever sought by the statesmen of the Whig and Republican parties. Webster, Clay, Clayton, Seward, Chase, Blaine were his friends and correspondents, justly valuing his advice and the intimate knowledge he possessed of the views and needs of the great protectional party of the country, of which he was one of the most eminent leaders and apostles.

In a memorial address delivered before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania on the 17th of April, 1879, Col. John W. Forney (himself now deceased) thus speaks of Mr. McMichael's journalistic career: "His newspaper was characteristically clean, pure, elevated, and impersonal. Be never wrote or talked about himself; never spoke of an adversary by name, unless be had cause to praise him; and never stained his pages by printing scandal.

"I know there are those who sneer at what they call the ultradecorum of such an example: men who think that our fast age requires fierce, fast writing, and that modern progress means modern pruriency. So much do I differ from them that I feel I may refer them to themselves to disprove their own argument, in a word, to the extraordinary improvement of the newspapers of all countries within the last twenty-five years. Take the Philadelphia papers of to-day, and place them side by side with the Philadelphia papers forty years ago, even with the journals when Morton McMichael first began to write for Atkinson A Alexander's daily Chronicle, and the difference is even more marked than it is between the old Conestoga wagon and the modern steam-engine. For this unspeakable change in journalism, so productive of sweeter manners and purer laws, we are more indebted to Morton McMichael than any other contemporary character. But because he was a gentleman, proud of his great profession, be was not therefore a carpet knight. No one could strike deeper, quicker, or surer, and if he did not use the battle-axe or the broadsword, he wielded lighter weapons with fatal effect. A conservative by blood and breeding, he kindled instantly at wrong or injustice. All his impulses were chivalric"'

It was not only as a journalist that Mr. McMichael impressed himself upon the community. Never a seeker after place, he was several times elected to offices of public trust. While a young man he served for some years as an alderman of the city; from 1843 to 1846 was high sheriff of the county, displaying eminent courage in combating and finally suppressing the terrible anti-Catholic riots of 1844; from 1866 to 1869 was mayor of the city; and in 1867, upon the organization of the Park Commission, was chosen president of that body, a position he held up to the time of his death. In 1873 he was appointed a delegate-at-large to the Fourth Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William M. Meredith.

A politician of the highest type, of a rare purity as well as strength of character, Mr. McMichael's influence throughout the length and breadth of the State was felt and acknowledged, and, as time softened the asperities of earlier conflicts, perhaps no man commanded so universally the regard of his fellow-citizens of all parties. Holding positive opinions himself on matters of public policy, he enforced them with eloquent voice and powerful pen, but with a courtesy which never interfered with his personal relations with political opponents.

Prominent as a journalist and distinguished as a public servant, as an orator he was certainly unsurpassed. Mr. McMichael's speeches on all subjects were characteristically chaste and fresh. Prepared 'or unprepared, they were always finished models. I Whether spoken from the hustings, or the public | hall, or the private saloon, or in a religious temple, they were fascinating and delightful productions, and not infrequently as impassioned and contagious as they were scholarlike and correct. He was always original, classic, and magnetic. His speech at the Chinese Museum during the Irish famine was a marvel of electric eloquence. The great audience were literally carried away by the fervor, the force, and the beauty of his appeal. Not less memorable was his splendid defiance of the mob, in 1838, when they attempted to set fire to the Shelter for Colored Orphans, in charge of the Society of Friends, on Thirteenth Street, above Callowhill, the day after the | destruction of Pennsylvania Hall, on Sixth Street. His display of courage brought to his assistance the strong men whose efforts prevented the second sacrifice. In an agricultural address at Boston, Mass., on the 26th of October, 1855, his oratory was so irresistible that Robert Winthrop and Edward Everett, and other statesmen of the period, who were present, spoke of him in terms of spontaneous amazement and delight.

During the trying times preceding and pending the I civil war his voice was ever heard in inspiring appeal for the Union and the law. In the darkest hours of defeat and depression his orations breathed an impassioned courage and faith, as in the final triumph they urged clemency to the defeated.

Mr. McMichael's speech on July 4,1873, as president of the Park Commission, making a formal transfer of ground to the United States Centennial Commission, and his polished oration on the presentation of the John Welsh endowment to his Alma Mater, the University of Pennsylvania, are literary produc[ tions of the highest order,—thoughtful, classic, original, and brilliant,—worthy of Edmund Burke or Daniel Webster.

Of firm though courteous temper, capable of controlling any assemblage, and prompt to give each man opportunity to show his talents, Mr. McMichael was constantly called upon to preside at public gatherings, which he did with unerring tact. His trenchant wit was ever tempered by charity for human frailties, and it was the rule of his life to speak only of the better attributes of men, and always to defend the absent.

A recognized leader in the social life of the city, his charm of manner, voice, and conversation remain a vivid remembrance with his contemporaries. Morton McMichael's pride in and affection for Philadelphia were proverbial, and in part account for the universal expression of sorrow at his death, which was voiced by the press of the State and the action of a score of public organizations.

The estimate in which he was held is epitomized in the inscription upon his monument, erected by his I fellow-citizens in Fairmount Park, "An honored and beloved citizen of Philadelphia." At a meeting, presided over by the mayor of the city, held to express the sense of the public loss (on Jan. 8, 1879), one of the many eminent speakers thus described Mr. McMichael's last hours:

"Not only the great citizen is dead, Mr. President, but the happy philosopher. When I saw him last it was the first day of the new year. Death was on his face, but life was in his heart. He suffered, but he smiled. He even told me a story, and welcomed others, and shook me by the hand. I could almost hear him say, with the illustrious French orator,' To-day I shall die. Envelop me in perfumes; crown me with flowers; surround me with music, so that I may deliver myself peaceably to sleep.' He lived less than a week after this, and he passed to his final compt in the midst of the sighs of a people that he loved wisely and not too well. I dwell upon his fate, sir, with a certain satisfaction. He is the only human being I ever envied. I envied him his genial nature, his contagious wit, his electric eloquence, the fervor of his poetry, and the charm of his conversation, the delicious sympathy of his society, the admiration he excited in others, and his superb composure under disaster.'1

...

The North American and United States Gazette, "the oldest daily in America," is the outgrowth of a number of other journals of various degrees of importance. The North American was first issued under that name March 26, 1839, at No. 63 (now No. 233) Dock Street. Originally published by S. C. Brace and T. R. Newbold, it was established by a number of wealthy gentlemen who, observing that the press of the city then paid little or no attention to religious matters or to the proceedings of charitable associations, determined to establish a daily commercial newspaper that should be high-toned, independent, and semi-religious in character. A fund was subscribed for the purpose, which, however, was soon exhausted, and William Welsh, one of the originators, became sole proprietor. Before the expiration of the first year it absorbed Zachariah Poulson's Daily Advertiser, and it is on its lineal descent from this paper that the North American very properly bases its claim to be the oldest daily in America. In 1840 the Commercial Herald, which had been pub-. lished by Col. Cephas G. Childs, was merged into the new paper, and Mr. Welsh also purchased the Philadelphia Gazette, which had been published as an afternoon paper in connection with the North American, but under another editor and manager.

On the 1st of October, 1845, Mr. Welsh sold the North American to George R. Graham and Alexander Cummings. Robert T. Conrad, alike distinguished as jurist, poet, dramatist, and orator, was engaged as editor, the columns were thrown open to amusement and other advertisements, which had before been excluded, and the pecuniary prosperity of the paper was increased. It joined with the New York Tribune in efforts to obtain early news, and at their expense the pilot-boat " Romer," in 1846, was run as an express across the Atlantic, beating the regular packet several days,—a feat which has not been surpassed even in the later enterprises of journalism.

Differences soon arose between the partners. Mr. Cummings objected to the political views of the editor, while Mr. Graham indorsed his course. As a result the firm dissolved, and Mr. Graham remained sole proprietor until Jan. 1,1847, when Morton McMichael became associated with him, under the firm of Graham & McMichael. The paper was then an eight-column folio, with a head similar to that now used, and had for a motto, "Devoted to Truth." It was published at the northeast corner of Chestnut and Fourth Streets, from whence it was removed, in July, 1848, to No. 132 South Third Street. In 1878 it was removed to its present location, northwest corner of Seventh and Chestnut Streets.

At the beginning of 1847 the North American and the United States Gazette were separate papers of like character and standing. Both were devoted to the interests of the Whig party; both advocated the policy of protection; both gave great attention to the commercial and manufacturing interests of the city and State; and they were much alike in the tone of their articles. Both were successful,—the Gazette being probably the most prosperous,—but neither could hope for any material increase in its prosperity while the other existed. Under these circumstances Mr. McMichael conceived the idea of consolidating the two friendly rivals, and overtures were made to Joseph R. Chandler for the purchase of the Gazette, of which he was proprietor. The proposition was accepted, and on the 1st of July, 1847, the two papers became one of nearly the present size. Dr. Robert M. Bird, who some time before had retired from the literary field, and was residing at New Castle, Del., furnished the requisite extra capital, and became a partner, though the firm remained unchanged until Mr. Graham withdrew, in August, 1848, when it became McMichael & Bird.

This instance in which two journals so nearly equal in business, and both prosperous, were consolidated is almost without parallel in American journalism. In announcing the union, the publishers (apparently fearing that some old subscriber of the Gazette might take offense at seeing his favorite title occupy the second place) thought proper to give this curious reason for placing North American before United State* Gazette. "No preference was designed to be given to one (title) over the other; the collocation was determined by the geographical feature which connected the one with the continent and the other with the country, the first with the greater, the second with the less."

When the union was effected the editorial corps of the North American and United State* Gazette was as follows: Robert T. Conrad, political editor; Dr. Robert M. Bird, miscellaneous; James S. Wallace, associate editor; and G. G. Foster, city editor. Mr. Graham and Mr. McMichael also contributed to enrich its columns. The subscribers of the old Gazette were nearly all retained, and the paper entered on a new tide of prosperity.

As before stated, Mr. Graham withdrew in 1848. Dr. Bird died on the 23d of January, 1854, but his interest remained until July following, when Mr. McMichael became sole proprietor.

Robert T. Conrad, for many years the efficient editor of the North American, was a polished writer, an eminent citizen, and a cultured gentleman. That he was held in high esteem by his fellow-citizens is evidenced by the fact that he was in 1854 chosen the first mayor of Philadelphia after the consolidation. Some years prior to Mr. McMichael's death he withdrew from active editorial duty, being succeeded by his son, Clayton McMichael, while another son, Walter McMichael, became general business manager. Clayton McMichael speedily proved himself a journalist of recognized ability, and remained personally in editorial charge until his appointment, by President Arthur, in 1882, as United States marshal for the District of Columbia. John M. Perry is the present managing editor, representing Mr. McMichael during his absence in Washington.

The character of the North American and United State* Gazette has been maintained during the several decades of its varied history with remarkable uniformity. As a commercial journal, it is highly valued by business men, among whom the daily edition is chiefly circulated. It is Republican in politics, but it ; has not hesitated upon occasion to dissent from certain so-called "party measures" when these were deemed prejudicial to the interests of the community. It is considered the especial exponent of the views of the manufacturers of Pennsylvania on the protection of American industries. The general conduct of the North American, particularly in the expression of its editorial views, is eminently remarkable for its dignity and solidity.

There is a tri-weekly as well as a weekly edition of the North, American, the circulation of which mainly extends to the country.