The cultivation of trees is the cultivation of the good, the beautiful, and the ennobling in man, and for one, I wish to see it become universal.

Morton served briefly in the Nebraska Territorial House of Representatives (1855–1856). After receiving his diploma in 1854 he moved with his bride Caroline Joy French to Nebraska which was not yet organized as a territory and staked a claim in Nebraska City. He was a prominent Bourbon Democrat taking the conservative position on political economic and social issues and opposing agrarianism.

The J. Sterling Morton built a 52-room mansion that is a look-alike of the White House in what is now Arbor Lodge State Historical Park Nebraska City Nebraska.