Robert Hunter Morris was an attorney

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 and Mayor of New York.

Early political career

Morris attended Washington Seminary. He initially practiced law in Columbia County, New York

Columbia County, New York

Columbia County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 63,096. The county seat is Hudson. The name comes from the Latin feminine form of the name of Christopher Columbus, which was at the time of the formation of the county a popular proposal...

 before moving to New York to pursue a career in politics. He served as an assistant to U.S. Attorney

United States Attorney

United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...

 James A. Hamilton and as a member of the New York State Assembly

New York State Assembly

The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature. The Assembly is composed of 150 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 128,652...

 in 1833 and 1834. In 1838, New York Governor William L. Marcy

William L. Marcy

William Learned Marcy was an American statesman, who served as U.S. Senator and the 11th Governor of New York, and as the U.S. Secretary of War and U.S. Secretary of State.-Early life:...

 appointed Morris to the position of recorder

Recorder of deeds

Recorder of deeds is a government office tasked with maintaining public records and documents, especially records relating to real estate ownership that provide persons other than the owner of a property with real rights over that property.-Background:...

 of New York. He served in that capacity until 1841, when Governor William H. Seward

William H. Seward

William Henry Seward, Sr. was the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson...

 removed him from the office in connection with the Glentworth scandal.

Glentworth incident

The Glentworth conspiracy involved a plot by tobacco inspector James B. Glentworth to send workers from Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 to New York under the guise of laying pipes for the city, but in reality to cast votes for Whig

Whig Party (United States)

The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...

 Presidential candidate William Henry Harrison

William Henry Harrison

William Henry Harrison was the ninth President of the United States , an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office. He was 68 years, 23 days old when elected, the oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980, and last President to be born before the...

. Morris, the district attorney

District attorney

In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...

, and then-Mayor Isaac Varian

Isaac Varian

Isaac Leggett Varian was a New York state legislator and a Mayor of New York.-Political career:Varian was a prominent Democrat and led Tammany Hall from 1835 until 1842...

 feared that documents essential to the ensuing grand jury

Grand jury

A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...

 would be destroyed, and so went personally to seize the documents. Governor Seward removed Morris from office for his actions.

Election as New York mayor

Morris, a Democrat

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

, became involved in the Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...

 political machine in the early 1840s. He was elected mayor in 1841 by a slim margin, and again in 1842 and 1843 by more substantial margins. While serving as mayor in 1841, Morris took part in the investigation and arrest of John C. Colt

John C. Colt

John Caldwell Colt , the brother of Samuel Colt, was a fur-trader, book keeper, law clerk, and teacher. He became an authority on double-entry bookkeeping system and published a textbook on the subject. He was convicted of the murder of a printer named Samuel Adams, to whom Colt owed money over...

for the murder of Samuel Adams.