Buckner Stith Morris (August 19, 1800 – December 16, 1879) served as

mayor of Chicago The mayor of Chicago is the Chief executive officer, chief executive of city Government of Chicago, government in Chicago, Illinois, the List of United States cities by population, third-largest city in the United States. The mayor is responsib ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

(1838–1839) for the Whig Party. Morris married Evelina Barker in

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

in 1832 and the couple moved to Chicago in 1834 where Morris established a law practice with J. Young Scammon. He helped to create the Chicago Lyceum, the city's first literary society. By 1835, however, Morris had left his partnership with Scammon, and was practicing law with Edward Casey. He was elected mayor of Chicago in

1838 Events January–March * January 10 – A fire destroys Lloyd's Coffee House and the Royal Exchange in London. * January 11 – At Morristown, New Jersey, Samuel Morse, Alfred Vail and Leonard Gale give the first public demonstration ...

and went would subsequently serve as Alderman from the 6th ward from 1839 to 1840 and again in 1844, resigning during his second tenure as alderman. He unsuccessfully ran for the office of

Illinois Secretary of State The secretary of state of Illinois is one of the six elected executive state offices of the government of Illinois, and one of the 47 Secretary of State (U.S. state government), secretaries of state in the United States. The Illinois secretary of ...

in 1852 under the Whig ticket and served as a Lake County Circuit Court Judge from 1853 to 1855. Following Evelina's death in 1847, he married Eliza Stephenson in 1850. Eliza died in 1855. In 1856, he was the

Know Nothing The American Party, known as the Native American Party before 1855 and colloquially referred to as the Know Nothings, or the Know Nothing Party, was an Old Stock Americans, Old Stock Nativism in United States politics, nativist political movem ...

nominee for governor. Morris was outspoken in his opposition to the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, and appeared to sympathize with the

Copperheads Copperhead may refer to: Snakes * ''Agkistrodon contortrix'', or eastern copperhead, a venomous pit viper species found in parts of North America * '' Agkistrodon laticinctus'', or broad-banded copperhead, a pit viper species found in the southe ...

. In 1864, he was arrested for aiding in a

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

attempt to free prisoners of war from Camp Douglas in Chicago. He was held for 9 months, but was then exonerated by a military court. Being unable, while so detained, to attend to his business affairs, he lost most of his assets through

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has Default (finance), stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the Collateral (finance), coll ...

s. Incensed over the treatment of their ancestor, his heirs refused to donate his papers to the

Chicago Historical Society Chicago History Museum is the museum of the Chicago Historical Society (CHS). The CHS was founded in 1856 to study and interpret Chicago's history. The museum has been located in Lincoln Park since the 1930s at 1601 North Clark Street at the ...

when they were requested. The first use recorded in the

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

of the phrase to hell in a hand basket, is in ''The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling Details'', by I. Windslow Ayer, in alleging that, at a meeting of the Order of the Sons of Liberty, Judge Morris of the Circuit Court of Illinois said: "Thousands of our best men were prisoners in Camp Douglas, and if once at liberty would 'send abolitionists to hell in a hand basket.'"Ayer, I. Windslow,
The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling Details
'' Chicago: Rounds and James, 1865. p. 47. Retrieved October 30, 2010 Note that he was portrayed as Judge Morris in that anecdote dated 1865, although his time on the bench was of the previous decade. Morris was a member of Chicago's oldest meeting Freemason Lodge
Oriental Lodge # 33
Morris died in Chicago in 1879.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Buckner 1800 births 1879 deaths 19th-century mayors of places in Illinois American prisoners and detainees Burials at Rosehill Cemetery Illinois state court judges Chicago City Council members Mayors of Chicago Illinois Whigs Illinois Know Nothings People from Augusta, Kentucky 19th-century Illinois state court judges Copperheads (politics) Prisoners and detainees of the United States military

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External links