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Ellen Neumann on Notorious John Morrissey: How a Bare-Knuckle James C. Nicholson. Notorious John Morrissey: How a Bare-Knuckle Brawler Became a Congressman and Founded Saratoga Race Course. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2016. 208 pp. $29.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8131-6750-3. Reviewed by Ellen Neumann Published on H-FedHist (March, 2018) Commissioned by Caryn E. Neumann (Miami University of Ohio Regionals) One of the most colorful men to serve in Con‐ however, Morrissey used his new fame to pro‐ gress, John Morrissey is better known as an early mote his saloon, card games, and cockfights. He nineteenth-century prizefighting champion and a also crossed nativist gang leader Bill “The Butch‐ founder of modern horse racing. This slim biogra‐ er” Poole, portrayed in Gangs of New York by phy by James C. Nicholson sketches Morrissey’s Daniel Day Lewis. rags to riches story, with an emphasis on boxing Morrissey and his friends in the Dead Rabbits and his creation of the Saratoga Race Course in gang provided muscle to help the Tammany Hall upstate New York. It also feshes out the New York Democratic machine win elections. He played a City portrayed in Martin Scorsese’s 2002 flm pivotal role in propelling Fernando Wood to the Gangs of New York, with Morrissey bearing some mayoralty of New York City as Poole and his na‐ resemblance to Leonardo DiCaprio’s character. tivist Bowery Boys were prevented from taking Morrissey, a pre-Famine Irish immigrant, over polling places. Following an altercation be‐ spent a good chunk of his childhood working to tween a drunken Morrissey and Poole, Morris‐ support his poor family in Troy, New York. A sey’s friends shot and killed The Butcher. The street brawler and gang member, he served time crowd for Poole’s funeral was allegedly the largest in jail for fghting as a teenager. He took up prize‐ that had ever been seen in New York City. fighting, an illegal line of work in the early nine‐ With money earned from prizefighting, Mor‐ teenth century, because the money promised to be rissey began to build casinos in New York City. His good. Although not a skilled boxer, Morrissey had gambling dens did well because he had a reputa‐ an uncanny ability to take a punch. His fghting tion for fairness and prompt payment. In 1863, he success made him the target of nativist ire and a began racing horses in Saratoga Springs, New hero to Irish Americans. In 1853, he beat Yankee York, spreading the commercialization of sports. Sullivan (born James Ambrose and also known as Although Morrissey was not respectable, he Frank Murray) to become the American champi‐ helped make gambling respectable by stressing on. Now forever linked with a barbaric sport, honesty, keeping out his old criminal acquain‐ Morrissey would spend the rest of his life trying tances, and allowing women to attend the horse to escape its social stigma. Among the working races. class in the Five Points section of New York City, H-Net Reviews Morrissey entered national politics in 1866 as a Democratic candidate for the US House of Rep‐ resentatives from the Fifth District in New York City. A Tammany Hall man, although he later turned against the machine, he apparently sought the position because he wanted respectability for himself and his family. Wall Street backed him be‐ cause of his reputation for fairness. Although a gambler, gangland operator, and boxer, Morrissey was less of a rogue than the other candidates. He entered Congress in March 1867, and his notoriety brought celebrity, with the press reporting on his wife’s jewels and wardrobe. The public asked him for autographs. Morrissey seems to have had few political goals as his main committee assignment was the Revolutionary Pensions Committee, which was tasked with giving money to men who had fought in a war that had ended nearly one hundred years ago and therefore did nothing. He generally remained silent during debates. Mostly, he simply did not attend and did not run for re‐ election in 1870. Morrissey devoted the last years of his life to his family, his businesses, and supporting Young Democracy against Tammany Hall. Boxers of Mor‐ rissey’s era rarely lived to ffty years and he was no exception, dying at forty-six. It is impressive that Nicholson managed to find a book’s worth of material about Morrissey. The New Yorker, who only learned to read as a teenager, probably preferred to have a bar glass in his hand rather than a pen. Nicholson relies largely on the many columns of newspaper print that Morrissey flled. More attention to anti-Irish sentiment and Tammany Hall workings would have made for a stronger book. Morrissey’s pio‐ neering role in horse racing prompted the Univer‐ sity Press of Kentucky to publish this work, but it should not be missed by scholars of New York po‐ litical history. It is an excellent biography of a very entertaining, working-class politician who deserves better than to be lost to the ages. 2 H-Net Reviews If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-fedhist Citation: Ellen Neumann. Review of Nicholson, James C. Notorious John Morrissey: How a Bare-Knuckle Brawler Became a Congressman and Founded Saratoga Race Course. H-FedHist, H-Net Reviews. March, 2018. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=51439 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 3.
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