[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 133 (Tuesday, September 6, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5246-S5248]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REMEMBERING ROBERT MORGAN
Mr. BURR. Mr. President, former U.S. Senator Robert Morgan of North
Carolina passed away on July 16, 2016, after a lifetime of public
service. Senator Morgan served as a State senator, State attorney
general, U.S. Senator, and director of the North Carolina State Bureau
of Investigation. He was a man of integrity who was well respected by
our citizens. Senator Morgan was devoted to doing all he could to make
his community, his State, and his Nation a better place for everyone.
He will certainly be missed by his family and all who knew him.
At the request of Caroll Legget, the former chief of staff to former
U.S. Senator Robert Morgan, I ask unanimous consent that an obituary
from the News & Observer published from July 18 to July 20, 2016, and
the entirety of two editorials from the July 18, 2016, edition of the
New York Times and from the July 20, 2016, edition of the Washington
Post be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the News&Observer, July 18 to July 20, 2016.]
Robert Burren Morgan, former Attorney General of North
Carolina, United States
[[Page S5247]]
Senator and a prominent figure in North Carolina politics for
a half century, died Saturday, July 16, at his home in Buies
Creek, North Carolina. Morgan, 90, was born on October 5,
1925, near Lillington in Harnett County. He was the son of
James Harvey Morgan and Alice Butts Morgan.
Morgan attended Lillington public schools and earned a
degree from East Carolina University. He graduated from the
Wake Forest University School of Law. While still a student
at Wake Forest, he filed as a candidate for the office of
Clerk of Court of Harnett County and was elected, serving
from 1950-1954. This launched Morgan's political career. He
was a Democrat and a populist and throughout his life he
championed the causes of working people and gave voice to
their concerns and aspirations.
Morgan established a successful law practice in Lillington
and became known as a skilled trial attorney specializing in
personal injury, criminal defense, real property law and
anti-trust. In 1955, he was elected to the North Carolina
Senate and rose to its highest office, President Pro,
Tempore. He served until 1968 when he was elected Attorney
General of North Carolina. Four years later he was reelected.
As Attorney General, Morgan established one of the nation's
first consumer protection offices and was a tenacious
advocate for North Carolina residents before the State
Utilities Commission that sets rates paid for electric power.
He was responsible for the passage of the ``Little FTC Act''
that made unfair and deceptive trade practices unlawful in
North Carolina. He reorganized the Attorney General's office
and hired outstanding young law graduates and practicing
attorneys, two of whom later became Chief Justice of the
North Carolina Supreme Court. He also hired the first
African-American lawyer to serve in the Attorney General's
office.
Morgan believed strongly that law enforcement officers
should receive professional training and persuaded the North
Carolina General Assembly to establish a law enforcement
training academy and to adopt standards for officers. He
revamped the State Bureau of Investigation, which was then in
the Justice Department, and after his service in the United
States Senate served as Director of the SBI for several
years. His landmark achievements as Attorney General of North
Carolina and the leadership he provided for the National
Association of Attorneys General was recognized by his peers
who presented him the Wyman Memorial Award, naming him the
Outstanding Attorney General in the United States.
Morgan ran for and was elected to the United States Senate
seat previously held by Senator Sam J. Ervin. Morgan was a
close friend of former Senator and Vice President Hubert
Humphrey who came to North Carolina and keynoted his campaign
kickoff event in Buies Creek.
He was a master of the legislative process, and the
experience he obtained in the North Carolina State Senate
served him well in the United States Senate. He held
prestigious committee assignments that included Banking,
Armed Services, Public Works and Select Intelligence. His
expertise in the area of anti-trust was immediately
recognized by his colleagues, and he was tapped by the
leadership to lead the floor debate along with former
Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy that resulted in the
passage of landmark federal anti-trust legislation that had
languished in the US Senate for years.
While a member of the U.S. Senate, Morgan was appointed by
Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd to the Board of Regents of
the Smithsonian Institution, chaired by the Chief Justice of
the United States Supreme Court. He served faithfully and
with distinction and subsequently was appointed to the
National Portrait Gallery Commission. He remained a Regent
Emeritus of the Smithsonian and continued to be active
therein until his health began to fail.
Morgan was a fierce advocate for his alma mater, East
Carolina University, and served as chairman of its board of
trustees. He led the battle for university status for East
Carolina and the effort to establish its medical school. East
Carolina recognized his outstanding leadership and devotion
by conferring upon him an honorary degree; presenting him
with the Jarvis Medal, the University's highest service
award; naming him Outstanding Alumnus; and presenting him
with its Alumni Service Award.
Morgan returned to the practice of law in 1991, opening a
law office in Raleigh and Lillington with his two daughters.
There he lovingly shared with them, not only his knowledge,
but also his commitment to the justice that the law should
provide. Trying cases with his daughters was one of the most
meaningful gifts that he gave them. He continued to practice
law into his 80s.
From 2000 to 2003, Morgan served as founding president of
the North Carolina Center for Voter Education, a Raleigh-
based nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that seeks to
increase civic engagement in North Carolina. He persuaded his
friend Senator John McCain of Arizona and later candidate for
President, to come to Raleigh and make the organization's
kickoff speech. Morgan had a life-long interest in issues
related to persons with disabilities and also was an advocate
for environmental causes.
He had a distinguished military career. He enlisted in the
United States Navy and graduated from Midshipman's School
shortly before the end of WWII, serving from 1944-1946. He
was recalled during the Korean Conflict serving from 1952-
1955. He remained in the Navy Reserve through 1971, advancing
to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He served in the United
States Air Force Reserve from 1971-1973, retiring as
Lieutenant Colonel.
Robert Morgan was a lifelong Baptist and served on the
Board of Deacons of Memorial Baptist Church in Buies Creek
and as Chair of the North Carolina Baptist Retirement Homes
Foundation.
Robert Morgan is survived by his wife, the former Katie
Earle Owen of Roseboro and three children: Margaret Holmes
and husband Edward of Chapel Hill and grandchildren Grace and
Robert; Mary Morgan of Raleigh and granddaughter Elizabeth
Morgan Reeves; and Rupert Tart and wife Valerie of Angier and
granddaughters Emma Jayne Crews, and Heather Tart Schaffer
and her husband Davey. Surviving nieces and nephews are Mary
Lou Matthews and husband Billy Ray, Nancy Morgan Brady, and
Larry Morgan and wife, Nancy. He had two sisters and a
brother who predeceased him: Lucille Morgan Byrd, Esther
Morgan, and Melvin Morgan. He was also predeceased by his
daughter, Alice Jean Morgan.
____
[From the New York Times, July 18, 2016.]
Robert B. Morgan, Senator Undone by His Panama Canal Votes, Dies at 90
Robert B. Morgan, a former United States senator from North
Carolina whose votes for treaties to turn the Panama Canal
over to Panama in 1978 cost him his seat after only one term,
died on Saturday at his home in Buies Creek, N.C. He was 90.
His death was confirmed by Carroll Leggett, his former
chief of staff.
Mr. Morgan was a moderate Democrat whose Senate voting
record was ranked higher by the American Conservative Union
than by the liberal Americans for Democratic Action. But his
votes on the Panama Canal were his undoing. As he sought re-
election in 1980, his Republican challenger, John P. East,
attacked him on the issue throughout the campaign, largely
through television commercials.
Mr. East's campaign was run by allies of Senator Jesse
Helms, the state's senior Republican and an intense foe of
giving up the canal, and the attacks were sometimes personal.
In one ad, Mr. Helms questioned Mr. Morgan's Christian faith.
Mr. East's victory, by only 10,401 votes out of more than
900,000 cast, was one of at least five Senate elections that
turned on the issue of the Panama Canal and helped give
President Ronald Reagan the first Republican majority in the
Senate since 1955 as he entered office, having turned back
Jimmy Carter's bid for re-election. The Republican votes in
the Senate were a critical element in Mr. Reagan's
legislative successes.
While many senators required wooing by President Carter
before they would back the treaties, Mr. Morgan did not. He
had been to the Canal Zone in 1976 and believed a change in
control was essential lest the canal be possibly sabotaged or
attacked. When Mr. Carter called him in August 1977 to ask
him not to oppose the treaties until they could be explained
to the public, Mr. Morgan surprised the president by telling
him that he was already in favor of them.
One treaty gave the canal to Panama through a series of
steps concluding in 1999. The other asserted that the canal
would remain neutral in perpetuity and authorized the United
States to intervene if that neutrality was threatened--a
provision to calm fears of a takeover by China or some other
hostile power.
By the time they came to votes in March and April 1978, Mr.
Morgan had no doubt that the treaties would be unpopular in
his state. He said he had received 60,000 pieces of mail
about the canal, only 3,000 backing the treaties. But he did
not expect the issue to defeat him.
The treaties passed, 68 to 32, only one vote more than the
two-thirds required for the Senate to approve treaties.
In an interview for this obituary in 2010, Mr. Morgan said
he was sure his decision to back the treaties was the correct
one. ``I think if I had not done it, there wouldn't be a
Panama Canal,'' he said.
Robert Burren Morgan was born on Oct. 5, 1925, in
Lillington, N.C., where he lived all his life. He was drafted
into the wartime Navy in 1944 during his sophomore year at
East Carolina Teachers College in Greenville, N.C., now East
Carolina University. He was recalled to duty in the Korean
War and saw combat as an officer on the aircraft carrier
Valley Forge.
On leaving the Navy, he practiced law and served in the
State Senate for 14 years before being elected state attorney
general, a post he held from 1969 to 1974.
As attorney general, he took a strong role in furthering
consumer protections, creating a law enforcement training
academy and expanding the State Bureau of Investigations.
After he left the United States Senate, he headed the
investigations bureau from 1985 to 1992.
He also led the North Carolina Center for Voter Education,
which campaigned for public financing in the election of
appellate judges. When the proposal became law in 2002, Mr.
Morgan said that ``judges will no longer be forced to raise
money like politicians'' and praised the legislature for
acting ``to make sure that money and politics have no place
in a court of law.''
Before the Panama Canal issue, the most controversial
aspect of Mr. Morgan's career was his role as campaign
manager for I. Beverly Lake, who ran for governor of North
[[Page S5248]]
Carolina in 1960 as the most segregationist candidate in a
field of candidates who all opposed school integration--as
anyone who wanted to be elected did then, when very few
blacks voted.
``At that time,'' Mr. Morgan said in 2010, ``nobody was
integrating.''
He said he had taken the position of campaign manager
because Mr. Lake, a professor, had been a beloved mentor in
law school.
Mr. Morgan is survived by his wife, the former Katie Earle
Owen, whom he married in 1960; two daughters, Margaret Morgan
Holmes and Mary Morgan; a foster son, Rupert C. Tart Jr.; and
five grandchildren.
Some of the personal attacks of the 1980 campaign rankled
him, especially the role of Mr. Helms, whom Mr. Morgan had
not campaigned against in 1978 during Mr. Helms's own
reelection run. Mr. Helms said in a television commercial
that the election of Mr. East, a Methodist, was necessary so
that the state would be represented by ``a real Christian.''
In the spring of 1978, Mr. Morgan, an active Baptist, had
urged his coreligionists to remain true to their commitment
to separation of church and state and not to invoke religion
``on matters on which reasonable men may differ.''
____
[From the Washington Post, July 20, 2016.]
Robert Morgan, Senator Who Cast Crucial Votes for Panama Canal
Treaties, Dies at 90
Robert B. Morgan, a North Carolina Democrat who was a
freshman U.S. senator when he cast crucial votes in favor of
treaties that transferred control of the Panama Canal to the
Panamanian government, a decision that brought a swift end to
his Senate career but which he stood by all his life, died
July 16 at his home in Buies Creek, N.C. He was 90.
The cause was complications from Alzheimer's disease, said
his former Senate chief of staff, Carroll Leggett.
Mr. Morgan practiced law and ascended the ranks of North
Carolina politics before his election to the U.S. Senate in
1974. He served in the North Carolina state Senate, including
a stint as president pro tempore, from 1955 to 1969 and later
was state attorney general, developing a reputation as a
hard-charging activist for consumer rights.
In the U.S. Senate, he assumed the seat vacated by retiring
Sen. Sam J. Ervin Jr. (D), who was rocketed to national
attention as chairman of the Senate committee that
investigated the Watergate scandal during the Nixon
administration.
Mr. Morgan accumulated a voting record that ``defies
ideological labels,'' according to the Almanac of American
Politics. He was liberal on some issues but conservative on
others, and he gained his greatest prominence on the matter
of the Panama Canal.
The canal and surrounding area, a critical waterway that
connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, had been controlled
by the United States since 1903, an arrangement that by the
1970s had caused increasing friction with the Panamanians
President Jimmy Carter, elected in 1976, became persuaded
that authority over the canal should reside with the
Panamanian government. Opponents of his position regarded any
treaty to that effect as a ``giveaway.''
Mr. Morgan was initially among those opponents. He changed
his position after visiting Panama as a member of the Senate
Intelligence Committee and meeting with the CIA contingent
there and with Panamanian leaders.
``Our relationship with Panama on the future of the canal
is a festering sore and affects our relations not only with
Latin America but with the rest of the world,'' the News and
Observer of Raleigh, N.C., quoted Mr. Morgan as saying in a
1977 speech. ``Our global position as world leader and a
moral standard bearer is seriously weakened by maintaining
this vestige of colonialism.''
Two treaties were hammered out, one establishing the right
of the U.S. military to defend the canal's neutrality and the
other giving control of the canal to Panama by 1999.
Together, Mr. Morgan argued in comments reported by the
Charlotte Observer, the treaties would ``allow us to maintain
our vital interests in that country while allowing the
Panamanians the dignity and benefit of living on their own
land a fact which we would surely insist upon in our part of
the United States. It is just plain right to do so.''
The treaties were signed in 1977 but faced withering
opposition led in part by North Carolina's senior senator,
Jesse Helms (R). In 1978, the Senate ratified the treaties by
a margin of 68 to 32--just one vote more than the minimum
required.
In 1980, Mr. Morgan was challenged by a relatively unknown
law professor, Republican John P. East, who attracted the
support of Helms's political machine. In his campaign, East
told voters that Mr. Morgan had ``voted to give your Panama
Canal away.''
In one of many television ads targeting the Democrat, Helms
asserted that ``what we need is a real American in the
Senate. A real Christian in the U.S. Senate.''
``Nothing was said about me not being a real American or a
real Christian,'' Mr. Morgan told People magazine after his
defeat, ``but it was certainly obvious what Helms meant.''
Mr. Morgan lost the race by roughly 10,000 votes.
Robert Burren Morgan, a son of farmers, was born Oct. 5,
1925, in Lillington, N.C.
He served in the Navy before receiving a bachelor's degree
from what is now East Carolina University in Greenville,
N.C., in 1947 and a law degree from Wake Forest University in
North Carolina in 1950.
He returned to the Navy to serve in the Korean War and
remained in the Navy Reserve until 1971, attaining the rank
of lieutenant commander. He later served in the Air Force
Reserve, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.
In 1960, Mr. Morgan managed the unsuccessful gubernatorial
campaign of I. Beverly Lake, a staunch segregationist, who
lost his bid for the Democratic nomination to Terry Sanford,
a more progressive politician who was elected governor that
year. Lake had been Mr. Morgan's professor at Wake Forest.
After his Senate tenure, Mr. Morgan ran the North Carolina
State Bureau of Investigation and the North Carolina Center
for Voter Education, an organization that worked on campaign
finance issues.
Mr. Morgan's daughter Alice Jean Morgan died in 1967.
Survivors include his wife of 55 years, the former Katie
Earle Owen of Buies Creek; two daughters, Mary Morgan of
Raleigh, N.C., and Margaret Morgan Holmes of Chapel Hill,
N.C.; a foster son, Rupert Tart of Angier, N.C.; and five
grandchildren.
``I made a lot of decisions, and some cost me politically,
cost me dearly,'' Mr. Morgan told the Fayetteville (N.C.)
Observer in 2012, looking back in particular on his votes on
the Panama Canal treaties. ``But they were decisions I made
with a clear conscience.''
____________________