[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.''

                          ____________________