Ohio History Journal

JAMES N. GIGLIO

 

 

Lawyer as Lobbyist:

Harry M. Daugherty and the

Charles W. Morse Case,

1911-1922

 

 

 

 

Of all President Warren G. Harding's 1920 Cabinet selections, none received more

opposition than the Attorney General appointment of Harry M. Daugherty-a fel-

low Ohioan who had directed the presidential nomination campaign. Both the

press and various public officials considered Daugherty a freewheeling lobbyist with

a rather unsavory past. To buttress their assessment they uncovered the in-

discretions that had sometimes characterized his early career.' The most discussed

incident was Daugherty's 1911-12 involvement in the Charles W. Morse case, which

reemerged to embarrass him further as Attorney General in 1922. No matter how

one might evaluate Daugherty's role in that case, it provides some of the best in-

sights into the nature of Daugherty's character and his utilization of political in-

fluence to enhance his law practice.

By early 1911 Daugherty's political career had already undergone several set-

backs, and in January of that year a Democratic Ohio General Assembly rejected

him in favor of Democrat Atlee Pomerene for United States Senator. That

Daugherty received the most Republican votes in the legislature made the defeat no

easier to accept.² The one consoling factor was his continual friendship with Presi-

dent William Howard Taft whom he had helped to nominate in 1908. It was felt,

however, that Daugherty most likely could still command support of the Taft organ-

ization in Ohio for a future senatorial bid. Until such time, he focused his attention

upon a law practice that represented some of the leading corporations in the United

States, including the American Tobacco Company, Armour and Company, and the

Western Union Company. Indeed, as senior partner in the Columbus, Ohio, law

firm of Daugherty, Todd, and Rarey, the energetic and politically astute Daugherty

became one of the leading lobbyists in the Midwest. A 1911 vanity book, Club Men

of Columbus in Caricature, portrayed him walking down the street protectively lead-

 

 

1. See, for example, the lengthy article on Daugherty in the New York World, February 17, 1921. See

also Robert K. Murray, The Harding Era: Warren G. Harding in His Times (New York, 1968), 106-107.

2. Prior to 1914, the General Assembly elected Ohio Senators. The voting generally went by party

line.

Mr. Giglio is Assistant Professor of History at Southwest Missouri State University.

192

• 1
 

ing a little trolley car and telephone with each hand.3 Five years earlier he had represented the meatpacking interests in Washington, D. C., against certain provisions of the proposed Hepburn Bill.4 Allied with him in the 1906 undertaking was Thomas B. Felder, Jr., a Democrat politician and attorney from Atlanta, Georgia, who like Daugherty, spent his time around legislative halls and committee rooms rather than poring over legal volumes in a law library. Both men had represented similiar interests which had brought them together several years earlier, igniting a friendship that would continue into Daugherty's Attorney Generalship. In 1911 Felder introduced Daugherty to the Charles W. Morse case. The chunky and unattractive Morse became one of the most daring promoters and speculators in the United States at the turn of the century. Born in Bath, Maine, in 1856, he quickly exhibited a talent for capitalizing on opportunities. At age seventeen Morse was employed by his father as a $30 a week bookkeeper, but the young Morse soon hired someone else to do the work for $10 a week. He used the remainder to pay his way through Bowdoin College. By graduation he already had made a small fortune in the shipping business. He then joined with his father and a cousin in an extensive ice shipping and lumber transporting operation. By 1897 Morse gravitated to Wall Street as he began to dominate the New York ice market. Two years later the "Ice King" created the American Ice Company, an overcapitalized merger that quickly doubled the price of ice, causing a tremendous   3. Ohio State Journal (Columbus), August 7, 1912; W. A. Ireland, Club Men of Columbus in Caricature (Columbus, 1911), 421. 4. Harry M. Daugherty to Charles Dick, February 15, 1906, Box 7, Charles Dick Papers, Ohio Histori- cal Society; Daugherty to Joseph Benson Foraker, February 9, May 9, 1906, Box 48/D, Joseph Benson Foraker Papers, Cincinnati Historical Society. Specifically, Daugherty opposed the "ventilation, refrig- eration, or icing" clause which would enable the Interstate Commerce Commission to prevent meat- packers like Armour and Company from using their private refrigeration car lines to extort or discrimi- nate against various other shippers. Congressional Record, 59 Cong., 1 Sess., 6374. 193

• 2
 

194                                                               OHIO HISTORY

 

public outcry. An investigation followed, disclosing that he had received important

docking privileges from Tammany Hall after bribing Mayor Robert Van Wyck and

Tammany Boss Richard Croker with shares of American Ice Company stock. The

inquiry forced Morse's retirement from the business with profits estimated at

$12,000,000.5

Morse's next ventures were in shipping and banking. In six years he had a vir-

tual monopoly of coastal shipping from Bangor to Galveston. He succeeded as

handsomely in financial circles. In a few years of collaboration, Morse, F. August

Heinze, a leading copper speculator, and E. R. Thomas, a young man of inherited

wealth, controlled almost a dozen New York banks, including the Bank of North

America. Such control permitted them to speculate with depositors' funds. They

also organized a profitable copper pool which collapsed in 1907, contributing to that

year's panic. Both Morse and Heinze were forced to retire from banking during the

scare. As a grand jury proceeded into Morse's illegal activities, which the panic

fully exposed, United States District Attorney Henry Stimson gathered enough evi-

dence to send him to prison on fifty-three counts of criminally misapplying the

funds and making false entries in the books of the Bank of North America.

In November 1908 he was sentenced to a stiff fifteen year term in the Atlanta

Penitentiary. An unsuccessful appeal followed during which time Morse spent ten

months in the Tombs of New York City. Finally, in January 1910 he began his At-

lanta imprisonment. Confinement temporarily ended the career of one who had

spent an appreciable part of his life narrowly skirting fraud and crime. Yet, Morse

lamented that "there is no one in Wall Street who is not daily doing as I have done."

To Morse, the indictment occurred because the Theodore Roosevelt administration

had wanted a victim or scapegoat.⁶

Less than one year after Morse's imprisonment, requests for pardon began to

reach President William Howard Taft. The prisoner's family initiated a number of

these appeals. Gilbert Pevey of Boston, representing Morse's wife, even managed

to obtain a hearing with Taft. Public officials were also active in Morse's behalf.

In December 1910 Senator Eugene Hale of Maine, respecting Mrs. Morse's request,

presented a petition to the White House. Four months afterwards, New York attor-

ney, James M. Beck, later President Warren G. Harding's Solicitor General, recom-

mended that Taft pardon Morse. Thousands of other pardon, commutation of sen-

tence, and reinvestigation requests followed, bearing signatures of many prominent

public officials. Undoubtedly, the encouragement and efforts of Mrs. Morse had

much to do with the rather remarkable demonstration.⁷

In May 1911, however, Taft refused to grant a pardon, although he consented to a

review after January 1, 1913. By then Morse would have been in a better position

for at least a commuted sentence, since Henry Stimson, the former prosecuting at-

torney, now advised that the sentence might be shortened to five years. Stimson

 

5. The best published account of Morse's escapades is found in Henry F. Pringle, The Life and Times of

William Howard Taft (New York, 1939), II, 627-637; New York Times, July 25, 1926; Dictionary of Amer-

ican Biography (D.A.B.), XIII, 239-241; Frederick Lewis Allen, The Lords of Creation (Chicago, 1966),

116-117.

6. D.A.B., 239-240; New York Times, July 25, 1926; Henry L. Stimson to George Wickersham, De-

cember 17, 1910, Pardon Case File 204-43-407, Washington National Records Service (NRS), Suitland

Maryland.

7. White House Memorandum, undated, Folder 1189, Presidential Series II, William Howard Taft Pa-

pers, Library of Congress; ibid., James M. Beck to William Howard Taft, March 14, 1911. See also

Pringle, Taft, II, 629. The various requests and petitions are contained in Pardon Case File 204-43-407,

NRS.

• 3
 

Charles Morse Case                                                        195

had succumbed to a feeling shared by many conservative lawyers, politicians, and

businessmen: Morse's sentence had been excessive. Their sentiment was partly in-

fluenced by the 1909 judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals which had con-

cluded that the sentence was "excessive and unusual." Stimson also conceded that

his approval of the original sentence had come at "the close of the most difficult case

that I have ever tried, where the work of prosecution had been done under extreme

pressure, and where the investigation ... had brought into my mind a large number

of collateral facts bearing unfavorably upon Morse's character." He, however, fa-

vored no less than a five year incarceration for Morse because of the seriousness of

his crimes, and the Circuit Court of Appeals generally affirmed his opinion.⁸ As it

turned out, Morse's release would come much sooner than anyone thought possible.

That it did come so quickly was in part due to the efforts of Harry Daugherty.

The Ohio lawyer first became involved with the Morse case in the early summer of

1911 when Felder requested his legal assistance. To this day the circumstances of

this initial involvement are unclear. Daugherty would later claim that their only in-

terest in Morse was to obtain his testimony so as to resolve several civil actions con-

cerning investors of the dissolving Metropolitan Steamship Company which Morse

once headed. Under no circumstances were they initially interested in securing

Morse's freedom. By 1917, however, Felder did admit that Fred Seely, the propri-

etor of the Atlanta Georgian, had asked him to pursue Morse's release because of

Seely's "benevolent and charitable interest in the fate of Mr. Morse." Felder then

related that he had requested his friend Daugherty because Daugherty "stood as

close to the President as any other lawyer or citizen in the United States... ."9

With whatever initial intent, Daugherty and Felder sought to visit Morse. On

July 25, 1911, Warden William H. Moyer of the United States Penitentiary at At-

lanta received notification from the Attorney General's office that they wished to see

Morse "upon a matter related to a civil proceeding" involving the Metropolitan

Steamship Company. Moyer was ready to comply until Daugherty requested an

unprecedented private interview.10  When the warden and the Department of Jus-

tice refused to waive regulations, Daugherty on July 28 telegraphed a political co-

hort, Charles Hilles, who was also Taft's private secretary, that he was unable to "se-

cure facts necessary to handle Morse matters properly and professionally without

such an interview." He asked Hilles to obtain the consent of the Attorney General

for a "reasonable request."   Because this did not materialize, the persistent

Daugherty wrote the secretary again on August 2 that his "blood is somewhat riled

about this matter" and that he would commit "every drop of blood and every pound

of energy . . . to the issue until right prevails." He did not at the time relate to

Hilles that he wished to procure Morse's release. By August 29, 1911, however,

Daugherty told him that it was impossible to transact civil litigation without the full-

time cooperation of Morse. Apparently, his restricted visits with Morse were not at

all adequate. He then indicated that he must also explore the criminal aspect of the

 

 

 

 

8. Henry L. Stimson to Wickersham, December 17, 1910, ibid.; see also James A. Finch to Wicker-

sham, January 15, 1912, ibid.

9. Daugherty to Taft, November 17, 1915, Box 327/7, Series III, Taft Papers; Congressional Record, 67

Cong., 2 Sess., 7378. See also New York Times, January 19, 1912; Harry M. Daugherty and Thomas

Dixon, The Inside Story of the Harding Tragedy (New York, 1932), 114.

10. Robert La Dow to William Moyer, July 25, 1911, Department of Justice File 60-120197, National

Archives; Moyer to La Dow, July 27, 1911, telegram, ibid.

• 4
 

196                                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

Morse case because of the grave change in the prisoner's health. Daugherty

painted an extremely dark picture:

His life is speeding away with increased ... rapidity day by day. His right side, as you know,

is paralyzed and shriveling at a great deal faster rate than when sent here. He has Bright's

disease and his confinement is making him worse so fast that I can see a change in each re-

turning visit here. He has fainting spells and in fact, I do not believe he is likely to live

eighteen months in prison.11

Daugherty supported his contention with a statement from Dr. Alfred L. Fowler

of Atlanta, "one of the most eminent physicians in this part of the country." A for-

mer prison physician, Fowler had concluded after his January 1911 examination of

Morse that he suffered from a form of Bright's disease, an inflamation of the kid-

neys. Certain that the President would pardon Morse if he knew the facts,

Daugherty told Hilles that he and Felder must see Taft as soon as possible. He

concluded with a patronizing postscript: "Please congratulate the President upon his

speech and position and upon the general approval of the public."12

President Taft, about to depart on a western tour, had no time for a conference.

He instead recommended that Daugherty refer the Morse matter to Attorney Gen-

eral George W. Wickersham. Daugherty and Felder not only saw the Attorney

General but also interviewed Stimson, the district attorney in the prosecution of

Morse, the trial judge, and the pardon attorney. Daugherty even arranged a meet-

ing with Theodore Roosevelt who had been President at the time of Morse's trial.

Daugherty's and Felder's letters, meanwhile, continued to flow into the White

House. Daugherty constantly badgered Hilles regarding the urgency of the case.

On at least two occasions he cornered him for lengthy conferences, one of which

Daugherty arranged after learning that Hilles was coming to Ohio to attend his

father-in-law's funeral.13

A few weeks after Taft's return, Daugherty and Felder wired Hilles, requesting an

appointment with the President. Hilles promptly fixed a tentative time.l⁴ The fol-

lowing day, on November 22, the penitentiary physician, Dr. J. Calvin Weaver, noti-

fied Wickersham of Morse's condition after a consultation with Dr. Fowler:

Morse is drowsily apathetic and sleeps continuously: pulse sharp .. .; his lower eyelids are

chronically swollen ..., his urine is markedly hematuric bloody, and the quantity for the last

twenty-four hours amounts to only twelve ounces and which normally should be fifty

ounces; microscopic examinations of his urine discloses red blood cells, granular casts and

blood casts; diagnosis that of Bright's disease; patient is surely and rapidly losing ground and

 

 

 

 

11. Daugherty to Charles D. Hilles, July 28, 1911, telegram, Folder 1189, Series II, Taft Papers; ibid.,

August 2, 1911, Box 48, Charles D. Hilles Papers, Yale University Library; ibid., August 29, 1911, Folder

1189, Series II, Taft Papers.

12. Dr. Alfred L. Fowler to Whom It May Concern, August 28, 1911, Pardon Case File 204-43-407,

NRS; Daugherty to Hilles, August 29, 1911, Folder 1189, Series II, Taft Papers.

13. Rudolph Forster to Hilles, September 23, 1911, memorandum, ibid.; Daugherty to Theodore

Roosevelt, September 16, 1911, Box 175/7, Theodore Roosevelt Papers, Library of Congress; Daugherty

to Roosevelt, September 21, 1911, Box 175/12, ibid.; Daugherty to Hilles, September 11, 1911, Folder

3257, Series II, Taft Papers; Daugherty to Forster, September 19, 1911, Folder 1189, ibid.

14. Daugherty and Felder to Hilles, November 21, 1911, telegram, Folder 1189, ibid. Hilles scrawled

that they could see Taft on Saturday at 11:40 A.M.

• 5
 

Charles Morse Case                                                            197

 

there can be no doubt but that his time is now drawing to a close and that liberation only will

prolong his life and even that not for a long period.15

 

Daugherty's telegram that same day made the diagnosis appear conservative. He

cautioned that Morse might not live another twenty-four hours.16

Morse's condition concerned Taft enough to confer with Wickersham and the

Surgeon General of the Army on November 24 before meeting with Daugherty and

Felder. The President told the latter two that he had decided to transfer Morse to

the Fort McPherson hospital at Atlanta for thirty days of observation. There, the

President explained, Morse would be well treated and could employ his own physi-

cians. Taft's humane action was hardly in Daugherty's and Felder's interests, how-

ever. Morse, as it was later revealed, had handsomely retained them to secure his

release. According to an August 4 agreement, Daugherty was to receive a $5,000

retainer from Morse, and if Morse was set free, Daugherty and Felder were to be

paid $25,000. Morse could terminate the agreement after January 1, 1912, by giv-

ing ten days written notice. A few weeks later, he had promised an additional

$100,000.¹⁷ Consequently, Taft probably stunned the two attorneys when he dis-

closed his decision to have Morse transferred instead of released.

Daugherty's first impulse was to telephone Hilles after the meeting with Taft.

Failing to make connections in Washington, he wrote to Hilles upon returning home

that he had been very conservative in presenting Morse's condition due "to his high

regard for the President ...."  One week later Daugherty came more to the point,

arguing that "Morse was excessively sentenced and his life is hanging in the bal-

ance." Morse "willnever be well," Daugherty pleaded; "he is liable to die any day

and yet he may live a short time if he were to be released and allowed to take treat-

ment peculiar to his desease." Daugherty explained that he did not want to in-

fluence Taft but asked Hilles to inform the President that he was seeking a pardon

on the basis of Morse's condition.l⁸

The medical reports on Morse's progress in mid-December did not completely

collaborate Daugherty's assertions, but they did promote Morse's eventual release

from prison. On December 21, J. A. Fowler, the Acting Attorney General, in-

formed Taft that civilian physicians at Fort McPherson agreed with the post sur-

geon's diagnosis the previous week-that further imprisonment would shorten

Morse's life. Taft, who had requested the examinations, hardly felt that these re-

ports justified his immediate release. He wrote Wickersham on December 24 that

"what is certified is that he is suffering from an incurable disease which may not ter-

minate his life for years, but that imprisonment is likely to shorten his life." Taft

 

 

 

15. Wickersham to Taft, November 22, 1911, ibid. Two civilian physicians also independently exam-

ined Morse in this period. One detected no organic abnormalities whatsoever; the other concluded that

a previous rheumatic condition had "crippled his heart" and his urine indicated a probable Bright's dis-

ease. The latter physician argued, however, that if Morse were allowed to remain "perfectly quiet and at

ease, he could live as well in prison as on the outside...." See Dr. William Simpson Elkin to Walter H.

Johnson, November 1, 1911 and Dr. E. C. Davis to Johnson, November 1, 1911, Pardon Case File

204-43-407, NRS.

16. Daugherty to Hilles, November 22, 1911, telegram, Folder 3527, Series II, Taft Papers.

17. White House Memorandum, November 24, 1911, Folder 1189, ibid., Congressional Record, 67

Cong., 2 Sess., 7317, 7378; New York Times, May 21, 1922.

18. Daugherty to Hilles, November 25, 1911, Folder 3527, Series II, Taft Papers; ibid., December 8,

1911, Folder 1189.

• 6
 

198                                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

judiciously concluded that he would commute Morse's sentence if the doctors veri-

fied that he would die in two weeks.¹⁹ He recommended the detention of Morse at

the post hospital along with a monthly summation of his medical condition.

Daugherty and Felder were very active in the final weeks of December 1911 in

pursuading the administration to come to a more favorable decision. The Ohio

lawyer pressured Wickersham, Hilles, and the prison officials to expedite reports

and recommendations involving Morse.²⁰ Both attorneys were instrumental in the

selection of Dr. Fowler to act with the post surgeon in the examinations and treat-

ment of the ailing prisoner. Although Taft refused to see Felder, the attorney asked

Hilles on December 26 to deliver a letter to him, outlining what he had proposed to

say in an interview. Three days later Daugherty telephoned from the New Willard

Hotel in Washington to indicate that he would be "very glad to see the President on

the Morse matter ...."²¹ Their leverage was the declining health of Morse.

On December 30 a board of medical officers at Fort McPherson revealed its find-

ings after a careful examination of the convict. The report stated that Morse suf-

fered not only from Bright's disease but also from a chronic valvular disease of the

heart and a slight arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). The board was of the

opinion, however, that Morse was not under any danger of death but that because

of this despondent condition, continued confinement would hamper any improve-

ment. George Torney, Surgeon General of the Army, who wrote the cover letter to

the report, nevertheless concluded that Morse would die unless he were removed

from the depressing influence of imprisonment. Ten days later Daugherty and Fel-

der relayed Dr. Fowler's diagnosis which confirmed Torney's conclusion. Accord-

ing to Major David Baker, the post surgeon, in still another report on January 12,

Morse's health was so grave that he could not be transferred to Hot Springs for fur-

ther treatment. Finally on January 17 Torney reported that Morse had deterio-

rated to the point that he would probably live less than one month if he remained

confined and no longer than six months even if his sentence were commuted. Par-

ticularly alarming to Torney was the heart blockage that Morse had suffered two

days earlier.²²

The concerned Wickersham submitted Torney's report to the President with the

recommendation that he terminate Morse's sentence. On the following day, Janu-

ary 18, Taft reiterated Torney's conclusions in announcing Morse's commutation of

sentence even though the Surgeon General had not placed the prisoner's life expect-

ancy within the two-week period. What Taft did not reveal was that he had re-

ceived a telephone call from a mutually close friend of Daugherty's. Daugherty

had asked John McLean, the publisher of the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Washing-

ton Post to urge Taft to go ahead with commutation of the sentence. McLean, who

briefly looked into the Morse matter, did exactly that.²³

 

19. J. A. Fowler to Taft, December 21, 1911, ibid.; Taft to Wickersham, December 24, 1911, ibid.

20. Daugherty to Hilles, December 17, 1911, ibid; Daugherty to Wickersham, December 17, 1911, Par-

don Case File 204-43-407, NRS; Daugherty to J. A. Fowler, December 21, 1911, ibid.

21. Felder to Hilles, December 26, 1911, Folder 1189, Series II, Taft Papers; Felder to Taft, December

26, 1911, Pardon Case File 204-43-407, NRS; White House memorandum, December 29, 1911, Folder

1189, Series II, Taft Papers.

22. George Torney to the Adjutant General of the Army, December 30, 1911, ibid.; Daugherty and Fel-

der to Taft, January 9, 1912, ibid.; Wickersham to Taft, January 12, 17, 1912, ibid.

23. Congressional Record, 67 Cong., 2 Sess., 7378. See also Mark Sullivan, Our Times, 1900-1925, VI,

The Twenties (New York, 1935), 21n. Pringle is in error in stating that no parole system then existed.

According to the Criminal Parole Act, effective in 1910, Morse would have had to serve five years, how-

ever, to be eligible for parole. Pringle, Taft, II, 637; Henry Wise to Wickersham, December 23, 1910,

Pardon Case File 204-43-407, NRS.

• 7
 

Charles Morse Case                                                          199

 

Taft's action is perplexing because it seemed out of character. Historians have

often alluded to his uncompromising attitude, especially toward corporations sus-

pected of violating antitrust policies. To Taft the law was the law; antitrust action

was initiated regardless of the firm and individuals involved.²⁴  That approach

brought him into an October 1911 confrontation with Theodore Roosevelt over the

U. S. Steel Corporation which Roosevelt as President had excluded from antitrust

action. Taft clearly wished to apply that same legalistic policy toward pardons. In

March 1910 he said that one need not "be afraid that pardons will be granted too

readily in this administration." This statement was in line with one he would make

in October that he "sought in every way to avoid interfering with the administration

of justice by yielding to maudlin sentimentality." 25 The implication was that he

would continue to be strict and opposed to favoritism of any sort.

Unlike many seriously ill convicts, Morse did not die in prison. As has been

stated, his affluence induced Daugherty and Felder to strive for a release, and his

notoriety led to a number of appeals for pardon by prominent and conservative

people who generally supported administration policy. Others challenged Morse's

fifteen year sentence. The pardon attorney, James A. Finch, and the former prose-

cuting attorney, Henry Stimson, had suggested a reduction to five years. On Janu-

ary 15, 1912, Finch would finally recommend an immediate commutation because

Morse was allegedly near death.²⁶ The trial judge, Charles Hough, also advised a

commutation of sentence conditional upon Morse's ill health because "he is no

longer that danger to the [commercial] community which in health I believe him to

be...."27

Apparently, these expressions and the medical reports overwhelmed Taft into ac-

quiesence. A most significant factor, nevertheless, was still Harry Daugherty who-

with Felder-had alerted the President of Morse's deteriorating health. With the te-

nacity of a bulldog, Daugherty had then encouraged Taft, Wickersham, and Hilles

to suspect the very worst about Morse's condition, which underwent considerable

medical scrutiny. In fact, no one was more persistent about Morse's release than

Daugherty-who was expected to play an important part in the President's 1912

nomination. It is not too much to believe that Taft's desire to please a political

friend caused him to devote more attention to the possibilities of commuting Morse

than he otherwise would have done. The President's military aide, Archie Butt,

best explained Taft's sometimes contradictory actions: "He is easily influenced to do

what he wants to do, but he is stubborn as an ox when he gets set in the other

direction." 28

If Morse had died as predicted, his commutation would have been relegated to

the realm of trivia. Later events, however, made this case one of the most bizarre

episodes in the history of Executive clemencies. After making several trips to Ger-

many to undergo "water cures," the now robust Morse returned to New York in

early 1913 eager again to engage in business pursuits. He organized the Hudson

 

 

24. See, for example, James C. German, Jr., "The Taft Administration and the Sherman Antitrust

Act," Mid-America, LIV (July 1972), 172-186. German points out that Taft did not hesitate to take ac-

tion against corporations directed by his personal friends.

25. Pringle, Taft, II, 626.

26. Finch to Wickersham, January 15, 1912, Pardon Case File 204-43-407, NRS; see also New York

Times, August 5, 1917.

27. Charles Hough to Finch, January 17, 1912, Pardon Case File 204-43-407, NRS.

28. Archie Butt, Taft and Roosevelt, the Intimate Letters of Archie Butt, Military Aide (New York,

1930), II, 591.

• 8
 

200                                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

Navigation Company which he hoped would become the springboard of a modern

United States mercantile marine that would touch all European and South Ameri-

can ports. That fall ex-President Taft commented in a lecture that Morse's newly

found energy "shakes one's faith in expert examinations." 29

Despite the embarrassing questions raised about Morse's recovery, Daugherty

again boldly requested the retiring Taft administration to drop a bribery indictment

against another client, Peter G. Thompson, a Cincinnati businessman. The reason

was Thompson's alleged poor health and innocence.  On February 11, 1913,

Daugherty explained to Attorney General Wickersham that Thompson was

As pure minded a man as lives in the state of Ohio. He is also sick and I doubt if he will

ever be better unless he is relieved of the worry of this indictment. Unfortunately Mr.

Thompson's wife died about ten days ago and I have no doubt but that her life was

shortened on account of the worry and distress incident to the prosecution. About the only

hope Mr. Thompson has of regaining his health so that he can attend to business again

would be for him to go abroad, where he could be free from care and would receive proper

attention.

Most assuredly, he contended, "every banking and business interest in Cincinnati

would approve this course and I do not believe there would be a single criticism

from anybody in the world if you were to take this action," and concluded by con-

gratulating Wickersham on his splendid record as Attorney General. Daugherty

also visited Wickersham on at least one occasion, but the administration refused his

request.³⁰ Perhaps, one Morse case was embarrassment enough.

In time the Morse episode became quite discomforting to Daugherty, too, partic-

ularly after he decided in late 1915 to seek the 1916 Republican senatorial nomi-

nation in Ohio. The press and political opponents criticized his involvement in the

Morse case and his apparent deception of Taft. Since he felt their sting, he wrote

Taft on November 17 explaining that one "who has lived in more or less of a storm

all of his life and been in the thickest of the hardest fights naturally has enemies."

He complained that "disgruntled, disappointed, ambitious persons and certain yel-

low newspapers" were soiling his character in claiming that he had duped the ad-

ministration. He then requested Taft to write him a letter to the effect that "I did

not discuss the Morse case with you; that anything I did in that matter was done

through Attorney General Wickersham; that I never deceived you about the matter

or anything else, and that I have your confidence and respect." 31

In other words, Daugherty asked Taft to be untruthful so as to further his political

career. The former President was more than willing to help, for Daugherty had

been one of the most staunch Taft men in the 1912 campaign. On November 22,

1915, Taft repaid a political debt: "I write to say that in no way did you influence

me in respect to the application for pardon of Charles Morse. My recollection is

that you told me you were counsel for Morse, but that you declined to present the

 

 

29. New York Times, January 11, March 17, November 16, 1913; January 11, 1916. In early 1916 Taft

also delivered a similar speech at Bangor, Maine, causing Morse to threaten the ex-President with legal

action. Taft replied: "For you to say that you will hold me responsible for true statements I have made

or shall make, is an exhibition of the most unlimited audacity in history. The sooner you begin the suit

the better." Charles W. Morse to Taft, February 14, 1916, copy; Taft to Morse, February 15, 1916, copy,

Box 47, Henry Stimson Papers, Yale University Library.

30. Daugherty to Wickersham, February 11, 1913, Wickersham to Daugherty, February 13, 1913, tele-

gram, Department of Justice File 60-151887.

31. Daugherty to Taft, November 17, 1915, Box 327/7, Series II, Taft Papers.

• 9
 

Charles Morse Case                                                         201

 

matter to me." The latter of Taft's two statements was clearly untrue. Daugherty

managed to receive a less affirmative but favorable response from Wickersham.32

Regardless of Daugherty's eventual primary defeat, the presentation of these letters

momentarily silenced the critics.

In late 1920 and early 1921 the Morse case again hung on Daugherty wherever

critics discussed his credentials for the Attorney Generalship. The issue received

considerably more attention in February 1922 when the Department of Justice

brought charges against the elusive Morse, his three sons, and twenty other persons

for using the mails to defraud investors in the U. S. Steamship Company. This ac-

tion followed an earlier grand jury indictment in 1920 when Morse, his three sons,

and eight others were charged with having conspired to defraud the United States

Shipping Board of large quantities of federal money and property. Apparently, af-

ter war was declared against Germany in 1917, governmental demand for ships pro-

vided shipping magnates like Morse with opportunities for lucrative contracts.

Morse contracted to furnish the Government twenty-four steel and twelve wooden

vessels. He managed to deliver only two wooden ships prior to the armistice.

Eventually nineteen ships were handed over. What compounded Morse's failure

was the fact that the money he had borrowed from the U. S. Emergency Fleet Cor-

poration was used to construct shipyards instead of ships. He also appropriated

governmental equipment for his own purposes.³³ Yet, in 1922 Morse charged that

Daugherty was prosecuting him because of a disagreement over a retainer arising

out of his 1912 commutation. Morse's statement spurred Daugherty's critics to

delve more deeply into the case.

On May 2, 1922, Senator Thaddeus H. Caraway of Arkansas questioned

Daugherty's integrity to prosecute war fraud cases since, as an attorney, Daugherty

had specialized in getting criminals out of prison and was still associated with Fel-

der in unethical cases. Specifically, the zealous and vitriolic Democrat accused the

Attorney General of having had Morse freed for a sizeable payment. In a later

Senate speech on May 20 Caraway included into the Congressional Record a pho-

tostatic copy of a contract for "civil and criminal matters" that Daugherty and Fel-

der had consummated with Morse on August 4, 1911. The compact had provided

Daugherty with a $5,000 retainer, expenses not to exceed $1,000, plus $25,000 which

he and Felder would divide after Morse's release. In addition, they were to receive

twenty-five percent of whatever sum they were able to recover from the Metropol-

itan Steamship Company matter. Caraway also managed to secure, probably from

Morse, a copy of a letter from Daugherty to Morse dated April 13, 1913, which re-

minded Morse of his financial obligations as stated in the August 1911 contract.³⁴

The most interesting revelation in the Morse case, however, came two days later

when Caraway presented a copy of an October 12, 1917 letter from Felder to Leon

0. Bailey of New York. Felder had requested that the New York attorney help in

recovering the $25,000 which Morse had neglected to pay. He explained that

Morse had also promised to pay an additional $100,000 after his release.

Daugherty and he, Felder continued, had attempted to collect from Morse on nu-

 

 

32. Taft to Daugherty, November 22, 1915, copy, Letterbook 38, P370A, Series III, ibid.; New York

Times, May 24, 1922.

33. Ibid., July 25, 1926, January 13, 1933; New York Herald, February 28, 1922; D. A. B., 241.

34. Congressional Record, 67 Cong., 2 Sess., 6175, 7317. See also New York Times, August 5, 1917. An

example of the continuing association of Daugherty and Felder was the case involving the Bosch Mag-

neto Company. Congressional Record, 67 Cong., 2 Sess., 7318.

• 10
 

202                                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

merous occasions. Pleading lack of cash, Morse had tried to reimburse them with

worthless stock. The disappointed Daugherty, according to Felder, had "com-

plained very bitterly of our treatment by Morse. .. ." On one occasion he had con-

fronted Morse in a hotel room in New York where he had denounced him in "un-

measured terms, declining emphatically to accept the stocks tendered either as

collateral or payment." 35

Morse's quick recovery after the commutation of sentence had deterred the two

attorneys from filing suit against him. Felder explained that they had feared that

the Wilson adminstration would have remanded Morse if they had agitated the

matter in any way. "I have not been unmindful of the damaging evidence secured

by the Department of Justice," Felder wrote, ". . . to ascertain whether or not a

fraud had been perpetuated upon the Government by Morse in his efforts to obtain

his freedom  .. ."  Daugherty and Felder somehow discovered that the department

had evidence revealing that, after the physicians had been appointed to examine

Morse and before they had arrived, "soap suds or chemicals . . . would be taken by

him to produce a hemorrhage of the kidneys, and that as soon as the examination

was over. . . the patient would recuperate rapidly." Felder assured Bailey that nei-

ther he nor Daugherty had any knowledge that Morse had deceived the doctors.

Caraway was quick to remind the Senate, however, that Morse had given

Daugherty and Felder full control of the case. Consequently, he demanded

Daugherty's resignation as Attorney General.³⁶

Daugherty attempted to respond to Caraway's initial accusations. He informed

his friend, Senator James E. Watson of Indiana, that he had had no part in the crim-

inal aspect of the Morse case.³⁷ Watson communicated that information to the Sen-

ate on May 2 where Caraway challenged it two weeks later by producing the August

1911 contract and the other relevant correspondence, which Daugherty did not con-

test. In defense Daugherty released the 1915 Taft and Wickersham letters which

stated that he had never approached the President directly about the case.

He also denied that he had received any compensation from Morse, although he ad-

mitted that he had accepted $4,000 from Felder, which he claimed was about half of

the expenses he incurred in the case.³⁸ Only Daugherty's assertion that he had ob-

tained $4,000 from Felder seems correct. However, there is no known documented

evidence that substantiates Caraway's claim that Daugherty and Felder had en-

gaged in any fraud in respect to Morse's health. Morse had a history of heart and

probable kidney disorders which incarceration might well have aggravated.³⁹

His later recovery is not necessarily an indication that deceit had been committed.

 

 

35. Ibid., 7378-7379.

36. Ibid, 7318, 7374, 7379. While Taft was aware of the possible deception surrounding Morse's re-

lease, he refused to believe that Daugherty had been involved. He wrote Daugherty a sympathetic letter

when Caraway attacked him. Taft to Daugherty, May 21, 1922, Copy, Box 516/6, Series III, Taft Papers.

The author failed to locate in the National Archives or elsewhere the "damaging evidence" Felder al-

luded to. There is, however, a 1917 letter from Henry Stimson's former assistant attorney who now as-

serted that Morse was guilty of gross fraud in obtaining his release. See Henry Wise to Francis Caffey,

November 12, 1917, Pardon Case File 204-43-407, NRS.

37. Ibid., 7317; New York Times, May 21, 1922.

38. "The Case of Attorney General Daugherty," Outlook, LXXXI (June 7, 1922), 247; Congressional

Record, 67 Cong., 2 Sess., 6175.

39. Report of the Board of Medical Officers, December 1911, Pardon Case File 204-43-407; Major

General Leonard Wood to Wickersham, December 18, 1911, ibid; Felder to Taft, December 26, 1911,

ibid. The possibility exists, however, that all sources which had information on Morse's medical history

received it from Morse.

• 11
 

Charles Morse Case                                                              203

 

Some forms of Bright's disease (for example, acute nephritis) eventually heal with-

out medication and without damage to the kidneys. The medical profession in

1911 lacked the expertise to distinguish accurately the acute from the more serious

chronic nephritis, which meant certain death.40  Morse in fact later stated that the

Italian physician who examined him in 1913 claimed that he did not have Bright's

disease but a much less serious "irritation of the duct caused by sharp uric acid crys-

tals. . .."41  The probability exists that the American doctors innocently diagnosed

Morse's kidney condition wrongly.

This is not to say that collusion was impossible. Morse could have taken a chem-

ical to severely irritate his weakened kidneys, as Felder had written in 1917. That

action would not be completely out of character, particularly since there was no im-

mediate hope for his release. Despite Felder's disavowals, Daugherty and he could

also have been involved. Their actions in the early 1920's especially reveal an

unethical, if not a criminal, disregard for justice.⁴² Moreover, their contract with

Morse, as Caraway pointed out, gave them absolute control. It also stipulated that

Morse's release was to be the only basis for substantial renumeration. Such a pro-

vision can tempt even the most scrupulous attorney.

Collusion might also have necessitated the cooperation of a physician. Dr. Alfred L.

Fowler, the former prison physician, is a possible suspect. He had resigned un-

der an alleged Department of Justice investigation in early 1911.⁴³ Prior to that res-

ignation, it was Fowler who had first diagnosed Morse's ailment as Bright's disease.

Daugherty and Felder consulted him in July 1911, quoted his diagnosis to the ad-

ministration, and then employed him to stay with the hospitalized Morse during the

critical weeks of December 1911. At that time the more specialized Fowler exer-

cised an influence over the diagnoses of other physicians examining Morse.⁴⁴

Interestingly, eleven years later Fowler again became prison physician at Atlanta

immediately after Daugherty became Attorney General.45 While one can make a

circumstantial case for collusion, the fact remains that neither Caraway nor anyone

else has provided the direct evidence to prove it.

Undoubtedly, Caraway's desire to expose Republican maladministration and

fraud was responsible for his undocumented charge. But the expose of Felder in

the Senate as a notorious corruptionist who had become persona non grata in Geor-

gian legal and political circles would undoubtedly have encouraged suspicion. In

1924 Felder was convicted along with Gaston B. Means for conspiracy to bribe gov-

ernment officials in the Glass Casket fraud case. He was fined $10,000 and auto-

 

 

40. Benjamin F. Miller, M. D., The Complete Medical Guide (New York, 1967), 411-412; conversations

with urologists Ross Dees Blades, October 10, 1972, and Herbert Warres, November 6, 1972, Springfield,

Missouri. Dr. Arthur Knabb, a retired physician who began his practice in the second decade of the

twentieth century, contended that physicians had treated acute nephritis by prescribing a proper diet,

plenty of rest, and nursing care which Morse managed to receive while in Europe. Interview, October

21, 1972, Springfield, Missouri.

41. Morse to Taft, February 14, 1916, copy, Box 47, Stimson Papers.

42. See James N. Giglio, "The Political Career of Harry M. Daugherty" (unpublished Ph.D. dis-

sertation, The Ohio State University, 1968), 281-288, 353-365.

43. Anonymous physician, United States Penitentiary to Bert M. Fernald, copy, January 21, 1922, Par-

don Case File 204-32-115, NRS.

44. Dr. Fowler to Daugherty and Felder, December 23, 1911, copy, Pardon Case File 204-43-407,

NRS; Daugherty and Felder to Taft, January 16, 1912, ibid.

45. Congressional Record, 67 Cong., 2 Sess., 7378; R. K. Heston to the author, October 25, 1972. Hes-

ton is chief of the Civilian Management and Technical Staff of the National Personnel Records Center,

St. Louis, Missouri, where Dr. Fowler's sketchy personnel folder as prison physician is now housed.

• 12
 

204                                                               OHIO HISTORY

 

matically disbarred.⁴⁶ On March 11, 1926, Felder died in a Savannah, Georgia, ho-

tel of acute dilation of the heart and of acute alcoholism.

As for Charles Morse, he was acquitted in a long and costly trial involving gov-

ernment ship building contracts. A subsequent civil suit in 1925 against Morse's

business, the Virginia Shipbuilding Company, resulted in a settlement for the Fed-

eral Government of over eleven and a half million dollars. The second indictment

against Morse and his sons, which involved mail fraud, never resulted in a trial

against Morse because he was adjudged too ill to stand trial as a result of a recent

paralytic stroke. The charges against his sons were dismissed after a jury disagreed.

In January 1933 Morse died of pneumonia, almost three years after the death of the

President who had commuted his sentence twenty years earlier.⁴⁷

Daugherty also was to suffer reverses after the Morse case exposure. The culmi-

nation of charges that he was ethically unfit to serve as Attorney General led to his

forced resignation in March 1924. The Morse episode itself had little to do with his

dismissal, but it did reveal Daugherty as an ambitious and resourceful lobbyist who

displayed poor taste in pursuing Morse's commutation. He surely knew that Felder

sought him because of his political association with the administration. What com-

pounded this questionable conduct was his misrepresentation of Morse. He did not

inform the Taft administration that he had earlier contracted with Morse for his re-

lease. The August 4 contract in fact was consummated more than three weeks be-

fore Daugherty expressed grave concern about Morse's health.⁴⁸  Later,

Daugherty's request that Taft and Wickersham lie in his behalf further damned his

conduct. Overall, the Morse involvement reflected unfavorably upon all major par-

ticipants, but it also provided a revealing penetration of why Daugherty became

such an often criticized public figure.

 

46. Congressional Record, 67 Cong., 2 Sess., 7318-7320; New York Times, March 13, 1926.

47. D. A. B., 241; New York Times, July 16, 1926, January 13, 1933.

48. Daugherty's first expression of concern to the administration about Morse's health came on August

29, 1911. See Daugherty to Hilles, August 29, 1911, Folder 1189, Series II, Taft Papers.

• 13