Edward Joy Morris

Edward Joy Morris (July 16, 1815 – December 31, 1881) was an American politician, diplomat, lawyer, and author who represented Pennsylvania in the United States House of Representatives and later served in prominent diplomatic posts in Europe and the Near East. Over the course of a public career spanning three decades, he held seats in both the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and the U.S. Congress, and represented the United States as chargé d’affaires to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and as minister resident to the Ottoman Empire.

Morris was born on July 16, 1815, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was educated in the common schools of Philadelphia and subsequently attended the University of Pennsylvania. He left the University of Pennsylvania during his freshman year and transferred to Harvard University, from which he graduated in 1836. After completing his collegiate studies, he read law, was admitted to the bar in 1842, and commenced the practice of law in Philadelphia.

Morris entered public life at an early age. He was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and served from 1841 to 1842, and, according to other accounts, through 1843, participating in state legislative affairs during a period of economic and political adjustment in Pennsylvania. In 1843 he advanced to national office when he was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-eighth Congress, representing Pennsylvania’s 1st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1843 to 1845. During this first term in Congress he took part in debates on national policy, including delivering a notable address in defense of the American Navy, later published as “Speech of Hon. Edward Joy Morris, of Philadelphia, in Defence of the American Navy, Delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, December 28, 1843” (Washington: Jno. T. Towers, 1844). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1844 and returned to private pursuits in Philadelphia.

Morris’s career soon turned toward diplomacy. On January 20, 1850, he was appointed United States chargé d’affaires to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. He served in that post from April 4, 1850, to August 26, 1853, representing American commercial and political interests at Naples during a period of significant European political unrest. After his return to Pennsylvania, he remained active in civic affairs and served as a member of the board of directors of Girard College in Philadelphia. He reentered state politics and served a second term in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1856, reflecting his continued prominence in Pennsylvania public life.

Resuming his national legislative career, Morris was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-fifth, Thirty-sixth, and Thirty-seventh Congresses, representing Pennsylvania’s 2nd congressional district from 1857 to 1861. In this capacity he served four terms in Congress overall—one as a Whig and three as a Republican—during a critical period leading up to and including the opening phase of the American Civil War. As a member of the Republican Party representing Pennsylvania, he contributed to the legislative process during these terms, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents in debates over slavery, sectional conflict, and national policy. Among his published congressional addresses from this later period was “Speech of Hon. E. Joy Morris, of Pennsylvania, on the Election of Speaker and in Defense of the North; Delivered in the House of Representatives, December 8, 1859” (Washington: Congressional Globe Office, 1859). He served in the House until his resignation in 1861.

In 1861 President Abraham Lincoln appointed Morris as United States minister resident to the Ottoman Empire, a post he held from June 8, 1861, to October 25, 1870. Stationed in Constantinople (now Istanbul), he represented the United States throughout the Civil War and the early Reconstruction era, managing relations with the Sublime Porte and overseeing American interests in a strategically important region bridging Europe, Asia, and the eastern Mediterranean. His long tenure made him one of the more enduring American diplomatic representatives in the Ottoman capital during the nineteenth century and capped a diplomatic career that had begun with his earlier service in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

In addition to his political and diplomatic work, Morris was an accomplished writer, traveler, and linguist. He was fluent in French, German, and Italian, and he authored and translated a number of works that reflected his extensive travels and his interest in European and Near Eastern societies. His own travel narrative, “Notes of a Tour Through Turkey, Greece, Egypt, and Arabia Petraea, to the Holy Land: Including a Visit to Athens, Sparta, Delphi, Cairo, Thebes, Mount Sinai, Petra, &c.” (Aberdeen: George Clark & Son, 1847), grew out of journeys he undertook in the early 1840s and was preceded by an earlier edition published in 1842. He translated from the German Alfred De Besse’s “The Turkish Empire, Social and Political,” which appeared in English as “The Turkish Empire, Embracing the Religion, Manners, and Customs of the People. With a Memoir of the Reigning Sultan and Omer Pacha” (Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1855); Theodor Mügge’s novel “Afraja; or Life and Love in Norway” (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1860); and Ferdinand Gregorovius’s “Corsica: Picturesque, Historical and Social: with a Sketch of the Early Life of Napoleon, and an Account of the Bonaparte, Paoli, Pozzo Di Borgo, and Other Principal Families. Suggested by a Tour in the Island in 1852” (Philadelphia: Parry and McMillan, 1855). These works, together with his speeches and travel writings, underscored his reputation as a cultivated observer of international affairs and culture.

Edward Joy Morris died on December 31, 1881, in his native Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was interred in Laurel Hill Cemetery, a prominent burial ground in the city that is the resting place of many notable nineteenth-century Americans.