This is one of two similar paintings on velvet that depict Virginian Charles Stephen Morgan (1799-1859) standing at a podium with a pitcher and a glass, probably in the act of addressing a crowd. Morgan achieved fame at a young age as a talented politician and gifted orator. He was born near Morgantown, Virginia (then West Virginia), and represented Monongalia County in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1820, before he was twenty-one. He served as state senator from 1824 until 1832 and distinguished himself at the Virginia Convention of 1829–1830. In 1832, however, Morgan abandoned politics to pursue a cause in which he deeply believed: prison reform. He became superintendent of the Virginia State Penitentiary and devoted himself to improving conditions for prisoners over the next twenty-seven years. He was also an early preservationist and was instrumental in maintaining historic sites such as Jamestown Island, the location of the first permanent English settlement.

This unusual work is a combination of freehand painting and theorem painting with stencils. The unconventional composition shows Morgan standing beside a woman, probably Alcinda Gibson Moss, whom he married in 1833. They wave to an unseen audience, and Morgan holds a book over the side of the podium that bears the date 1830, the year that ended his delegation to the Virginia Convention. The tall, steepled building on the right has not been identified but resembles a church more than the state penitentiary where Morgan devoted so many years. The two urns with flowers at the bottom flank a branching tree and, combined with other images of abundance and fertility, may represent the union of Morgan and Moss, which resulted in the births of seven children.

Stacy C. Hollander, "Charles Stephen Morgan and Alcinda Gibson Morgan," in American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 509.