Career
He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1841 to 1843.[3] He was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-eighth Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1844.[2]
He was appointed Chargé d'affaires to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies on January 20, 1850, and served from April 4, 1850 to August 26, 1853.[4] He was a member of the board of directors of Girard College in Philadelphia, and served a second time as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1856.[3]
Morris was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-fifth, Thirty-sixth, and Thirty-seventh Congresses and served until his resignation. He was appointed Minister Resident to the Ottoman Empire by Abraham Lincoln[5] and served from June 8, 1861, to October 25, 1870.[4]
He wrote several books on his travels including Notes of a Tour through Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Arabia Petræa, to the Holy Land in 1842. He was fluent in French, German and Italian,[1] and translated several books from German including Alfred De Besse's The Turkish Empire, Social and Political (1854); Theodor Mügge's Afraja, or Life and Love in Norway (1854); and Ferdinand Gregorovius' Corsica, Picturesque, Historical, and Social (1856).[6]
He died on December 31, 1881, in Philadelphia[2] and was interred in Laurel Hill Cemetery.[7]
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