Michael Morrison

Michael Morrison is a younger Democratic congressman whose loyalty to Saul Burnstein survives the collapse of Saul’s political standing, but not their disagreement over Franco. As a host and friend, Morrison offers Saul a place to rest; as a political interlocutor, he voices the strategic pragmatism that Saul can no longer accept.

Political Ally and Host

Morrison comes from one of New England’s oldest families and has no Anglo-Saxon ancestry beyond his own, yet he stands by Saul when other allies fall away. By the time Saul accepts his invitation in August, he has already been struggling with the Democratic Party’s leadership and has lost the support of Sammy Cohen. Morrison’s friendship, sustained through the last stages of that struggle, is therefore more than a casual political association: it offers Saul the companionship of someone who has remained loyal when others have withdrawn.

Morrison invites Saul to Martha’s Vineyard, to the family’s longstanding summer home, hoping the visit will give him a chance to rest. It does not. The stay instead becomes the setting for an argument that exposes how far Saul and his remaining allies have diverged over the meaning of political responsibility.

The Argument over Franco

Saul’s break with his father-in-law, Senator William Mattioli, has already made the conflict personal. Mattioli had repeatedly urged him to abandon his opposition to Franco, arguing that a campaign to overthrow the Spanish dictator would serve Soviet interests in Europe. Morrison acknowledges Saul’s indignation and agrees that Franco is a tyrant who helps Nazi war criminals escape, and that Spanish democrats deserve support. But he introduces the qualification Saul cannot accept: the difficulty of acting without considering the international consequences.

Saul answers that the issue is not reducible to the interests of the Soviet Union or even to Spain. The Franco regime’s protection of men responsible for mass murder, he insists, makes the question one of conscience. Morrison suggests that Saul may be treating conscience as something impossible to negotiate—that limits might be accepted in pursuit of a greater good without necessarily corrupting it. The exchange brings into focus their incompatible standards: Morrison approaches opposition to Franco through the calculations of international politics, while Saul regards compromise with a dictatorship sheltering Nazi criminals as a moral surrender.

The End of the Visit

After Morrison raises the possibility of negotiating with conscience, Saul decides to leave Martha’s Vineyard the next day. Unable to sleep, he rises before dawn, writes a note thanking his host, and leaves it on the breakfast table. He slips out quietly, rents a car from a business he chooses at random, and sets off without knowing where he is going. Morrison’s hospitality has not ended in a dramatic rupture, but the departure makes plain that Saul can no longer remain under the roof of a friend whose political reasoning resembles the one he has rejected.

Morrison’s role in Saul’s story is defined by that tension. His loyalty is real: he offers refuge when Saul’s political world has narrowed. Yet his willingness to qualify opposition to Franco, even in the name of a greater good, cannot reconcile with Saul’s insistence that the issue admits no such qualification. The friendship remains a meaningful counterpoint to Saul’s broader abandonment, while their disagreement leaves him alone with the consequences of his convictions.