For more information on Gouverneur Morris, visit Britannica.com.
Gouverneur Morris
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
Gouverneur Morris |
Gouverneur Morris
Related Videos:
Gouverneur Morris |
Biography:
Gouverneur Morris |
Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816), American statesman and diplomat, was one of the important authors of the U.S. Constitution.
Gouverneur Morris was born on Jan. 31, 1752, in his family's manor house at Morrisania, N.Y. After graduating from King's College, New York City, in 1768, he studied law under the chief justice of New York and in October 1771 was licensed as an attorney.
Although some members of his family remained loyal to the British crown, Morris supported the rebel cause during the American Revolution. In 1775 he served as a member of New York's provincial congress and in the following year sat in its constitutional convention. With John Jay and Robert R. Livingston, he drafted New York's first constitution. In 1778 he was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he served as chairman of some of the Congress's most important standing committees. His authorship of a number of essays on public finance brought him to the attention of Robert Morris, the Congress's superintendent of finance, who appointed Gouverneur Morris his assistant, a post he held until 1785. As a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, he played a leading role, speaking more often than any other delegate and contributing substantially to the writing of the U.S. Constitution.
In 1788 Gouverneur Morris sailed for Europe to attend to Robert Morris's extensive business affairs. In Paris he branched out into speculative enterprises of his own and over the next decade amassed a considerable fortune. His wit, charm, and fluent command of French soon made him the most popular American in Paris. Among his acquaintances were leading members of the Parisian nobility and influential crown officials. His diary gives a lively account of his social life and is one of the best sources on the early stages of the French Revolution.
Early in 1792 Morris was appointed U.S. minister to France. He served until 1794, when the French government demanded his recall, but he traveled in Europe instead and returned to the United States in 1799. The following year he accepted an interim appointment of 3 years as U.S. senator from New York. An extreme Federalist partisan, he was one of President Thomas Jefferson's most severe critics.
Morris was not elected to a new term, and during his retirement, after 1803, he supervised his numerous business activities and carried on an active correspondence with acquaintances abroad and at home. In his correspondence he was sharply critical of the foreign policy pursued by Jefferson and James Madison, particularly their alleged hostility to Great Britain. Believing the War of 1812 to be "unjust, unwise, mismanaged," he supported the disastrous Hartford Convention of 1814. He died at Morrisania on Nov. 6, 1816.
Further Reading
Morris's diary was edited by Beatrix Cary Davenport, A Diary of the French Revolution (2 vols., 1939). The standard life is still Jared Sparks, The Life of Gouverneur Morris with Selections from His Correspondence (3 vols., 1832). Theodore Roosevelt, Gouverneur Morris (1888; repr. 1917, 1980), remains useful. The best popular biography is Howard Swiggett, The Extraordinary Mr. Morris (1952).
Additional Sources
Kline, Mary-Jo, Gouverneur Morris and the new nation, 1775-1788, New York: Arno Press, 1978, 1971.
US History Companion:
Morris, Gouverneur |
(1752-1816), politician, public official, and diplomat. Born into a New York family distinguished for its wealth, lineage, and political influence, Morris lost his leg in a carriage accident as a young man. He graduated from King's College (now Columbia University) and in 1771 was admitted to the bar. In 1775, he was elected to New York's provincial congress and in 1776 served on committees that drafted the state's new constitution and that instructed New York's delegates to the Second Continental Congress to support the Declaration of Independence. In 1778, as a New York delegate to the Continental Congress, he signed the Articles of Confederation. Two years later Morris became the Confederation's assistant superintendent of finance under his political mentor, Robert Morris of Pennsylvania. In that post, he sought to expand the powers of the federal government and drafted a report to Congress recommending the first national currency--a decimal coinage based on the Spanish dollar.
In 1787, Robert Morris engineered an appointment for his protégé as a Pennsylvania delegate to the Federal Convention. Brilliant and irreverent, Gouverneur Morris spoke more often and at greater length than any other delegate. He supported the creation of a strong national government, favoring James Madison's proposals to grant Congress a veto over state laws and to create a council of revision comprising members of the national executive, legislature, and judiciary. Morris urged that senators be chosen for life and that they meet sizable property qualifications--but he advocated this measure as much to control the wealthy elite as to protect their interests, on the theory that the isolation of the elite in the Senate would make it easier to guard against their efforts to advance their own interests at the expense of the general good. He championed the direct election of the president and proportional representation for the states in Congress based on taxation. He opposed constitutional protection for slavery or the slave trade and disliked the Constitution's provision permitting new states to be admitted to the Union on an equal footing with the original thirteen. As a member of the convention's Committee on Style and Arrangement, he prepared the final draft of the Constitution.
Morris declined his friend Alexander Hamilton's invitation to contribute to The Federalist and played no role in the ratification of the Constitution. After travel in Europe on private business and a brief mission to Great Britain in 1790, Morris was named American minister to France (1792-1794). In that post he was critical of the French Revolution; his Diary, published in the 1880s, is a notable eyewitness account of the Terror. In 1794, after the United States demanded the recall of the French ambassador, Edmond Genet, the French in retaliation demanded Morris's recall. Genet had shown his contempt for the Washington administration by trying to foment American support for France in its wars with the rest of Europe, despite Washington's announced policy of neutrality. For his part, Morris had attempted a daring but impractical scheme to rescue Louis XVI and his family from the revolutionary authorities.
In 1800, Morris was elected a senator from New York, serving until 1803. In 1804, he helped found the New-York Historical Society and delivered the eulogy for Hamilton at Trinity Church. He was also the founding chairman of the Erie Canal Commission (1810-1816). In opposing the War of 1812, he went so far as to urge that New York and the New England states secede from the Union. When he died, his passing was regretted even by his political adversaries.
Bibliography:
Max M. Mintz, Gouverneur Morris and the American Revolution (1970); Theodore Roosevelt, Gouverneur Morris (1888; reprint, 1981).
Author:
Richard B. Bernstein
See also Articles of Confederation; Continental Congresses; Philadelphia Convention; War of 1812.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
Gouverneur Morris |
Morris, Gouverneur (gəvərnēr',-nʊr'), 1752-1816, American political leader and diplomat, b. Morrisania, N.Y. (now part of the Bronx); a grandson of Lewis Morris (1671-1746), he was born to wealth and influence. He studied law and was admitted (1771) to the bar. At the outbreak of the American Revolution he adopted the colonial cause (although several members of his family were Loyalists). A superb orator, eloquent writer, and fine literary stylist, he was a member (1775-77) of the provincial congress of New York, helped to draft the first state constitution, and served on the Council of Safety. Morris sat (1778-79) in the Continental Congress, where he was prominent in financial, military, and diplomatic affairs. In 1779 his book Observations on the American Revolution was published.
After failing to win reelection to the Congress Morris moved to Philadelphia and resumed his law practice. A series of newspaper articles on finance secured him the post of assistant to Robert Morris (no relative) in handling the finances of the new government (1781-85). In this position he planned the U.S. decimal coinage system. As a member of the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787 Morris played an active role, defending a strong centralized government and a powerful executive, opposing concessions on slavery, and putting the Constitution into its final literary form. He remained, however, a champion of aristocracy who distrusted democratic rule.
In 1789 Moris went to France as a private business agent, remained in Europe, and was appointed (1792) U.S. minister to France. During the French Revolution his sympathies lay with the royalists; he even helped plan a scheme to rescue Louis XVI. His recall was requested in 1794, but he traveled for several years before returning to America in 1798. From 1800 to 1803, Morris, a Federalist, was a U.S. senator from New York. He then retired to his estate. He condemned the War of 1812, going so far as to recommend the severance of the federal union. Morris was a strong advocate of the Erie Canal and served as chairman (1810-13) of the canal commission.
Bibliography
See his Diary of the French Revolution (1939), edited by his great-granddaughter, Beatrix Cary Davenport; biographies by T. Roosevelt (1888, repr. 1972), D. Walther (tr. 1934), and R. Brookhiser (2003); M. M. Mintz, Gouverneur Morris and the American Revolution (1970).
Works:
Works by Gouverneur Morris |
(1752-1816)
| 1779 | Observations on the American Revolution. Published by Congress, this work by the eloquent New York statesman praises the new nation, claiming that America will be an example and a haven of freedom for the entire world. |
Wikipedia:
Gouverneur Morris |
Gouverneur Morris (January 31, 1752 – November 6, 1816) was an American statesman and a native of New York who represented Pennsylvania in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He was also an author of large sections of the Constitution of the United States and one of its "signers". He is widely credited as the author of the document's preamble: "We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union ... " and has been called the 'Penman of the Constitution.'[1] In an era when most Americans thought of themselves as citizens of their respective states, Morris advanced the idea of being a citizen of a single union of states.[2]
A gifted scholar, Morris enrolled at King's College (now Columbia University) at age twelve, in 1764. He graduated in 1768 and received a master's degree in 1771.
|
Contents
|
Political career
On 8 May 1775[3], Morris was elected to represent his family estate, in southern Westchester County (now Bronx County), in the New York Provincial Congress, an extralegal assembly. As a member of the congress, he, along with most of his fellow delegates, concentrated on turning the colony into an independent state. However, his advocacy of independence brought him into conflict with his family, as well as with his mentor, William Smith, who had abandoned the patriot cause when it pressed toward independence. Twenty-five-year-old Morris was largely responsible for the 1777 constitution of the newborn state of New York.
After the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, the British seized New York City and his family's estate across the Harlem River from Manhattan. His mother, a loyalist, gave the estate to the British for military use. Because his home was now in the possession of the enemy, he was no longer eligible for election to the New York state legislature; instead, he was appointed to be a delegate to the Continental Congress.
He took his seat in Congress on 28 January 1778, and he was immediately selected to a committee in charge of coordinating with General Washington reforms of the military. After witnessing the army encamped at Valley Forge, he was so appalled by the conditions of the troops that he became the spokesman for the Continental Army in Congress, and he saved the army by pushing for substantial reforms in its training, methods, and financing. He also signed the Articles of Confederation in 1778.
In 1779, he was defeated for re-election to Congress, largely because his advocacy of a strong central government was at odds with the decentralist views prevalent in New York. Defeated in his home state, he moved to Philadelphia to work as a lawyer and merchant.
In 1780, at age twenty-eight, Morris's left leg was shattered and replaced with a wooden pegleg. Reportedly, he liked to dance, and he managed to dance well on his wooden leg. Morris's public account for the loss of his leg was that it happened in a carriage accident, but there is evidence that this was a false story concocted to cover for a dalliance with a woman, during which he jumped from a window to escape a jealous husband.[4] Morris was well-known throughout much of his life for having many affairs, with both married and unmarried women, and he recorded many of these adventures and misadventures in his diary. Despite an automatic exemption from military duty because of his handicap and his service in the legislature, he joined a special "briefs" club for the protection of New York City, a forerunner of the modern New York Guard.
In Philadelphia, he was appointed assistant superintendent of finance (1781-1785), and he was a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. He resumed his residence in New York in 1788.
Before the Constitutional Convention, Morris lived in Philadelphia where he worked as a merchant for some time. After that, he began to become interested in financial affairs, so he started to work with Robert Morris (no relation). Robert Morris and George Washington then recommended him for the convention because of what he did.
During the Philadelphia Convention, he was a friend and ally of George Washington and others who favored a strong central government. Morris was elected to serve on a committee of five (chaired by William Samuel Johnson) who drafted the final language of the proposed constitution. Catherine Drinker Bowen, in Miracle at Philadelphia, called Morris the committee's "amanuensis," meaning that it was his pen that was responsible for most of the draft, as well as its final polished form.[5]
"An aristocrat to the core," Morris believed that "there never was, nor ever will be a civilized Society without an Aristocracy".[6] He also thought that common people were incapable of self-government because he feared that the poor would sell their votes to the rich. Consequently, he thought that voting should be restricted to property owners. Morris also opposed admitting new western states on an equal basis with the existing eastern states, fearing that the interior wilderness could not furnish "enlightened" statesmen to the country.[7]
At the convention he gave more speeches than any other delegate, a total of 173. Morris has been categorized as a "theistic rationalist"[8] because he believed strongly in a guiding god and in morality as taught through religion. Nonetheless, he did not have much patience for any established religion. As a matter of principle, he often vigorously defended the right of anyone to practice his chosen religion without interference, and he argued to include such language in the Constitution.
Gouverneur Morris was one of the only delegates at the Philadelphia Convention who spoke openly against domestic slavery. According to James Madison who took notes at the Convention, Morris spoke openly against slavery on August 8th:
- He [Gouverneur Morris] never would concur in upholding domestic slavery. It was a nefarious institution. It was the curse of heaven on the states where it prevailed. ...with the misery and poverty which overspread the barren wastes of Virginia, Maryland, and the other states having slaves.... Proceed southwardly, and every step you take, through the great regions of slaves, presents a desert increasing with the increasing proportion of these wretched beings. Upon what principle is it that the slaves shall be computed in the representation? Are they men? Then make them citizens, and let them vote. Are they property? Why, then, is no other property included?[9]
He went to Mexico on business in 1789 and served as Minister Plenipotentiary to France from 1792 to 1794. His diaries during that time have become an invaluable chronicle of the French Revolution, capturing much of the turbulence and violence of that era, as well as documenting his affairs with women there.
He returned to the United States in 1798, and he was elected in April 1800, as a Federalist, to the United States Senate, filling the vacancy caused by the resignation of James Watson. He served from May 3, 1800, to March 3, 1803, but was defeated for re-election in February 1803.
After leaving the U.S. Senate, he served as Chairman of the Erie Canal Commission from 1810 to 1813. The Erie Canal helped to transform New York City into a financial capital, the possibilities of which were apparent to Morris when he said "the proudest empire in Europe is but a bubble compared to what America will be, must be, in the course of two centuries, perhaps of one."[10]
Family and legacy
At the age of 57, he married Anne Cary ("Nancy") Randolph, who was the sister of Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., husband of Thomas Jefferson's daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph.
He died at the family estate, Morrisania, and he is buried at St. Ann's Episcopal Church in the Bronx, a borough of New York City. Morris and his wife had a son, Gouverneur Jr., who eventually became a railroad executive.
Morris also established himself as an important landowner in northern New York, where the Town of Gouverneur and Village of Gouverneur in St. Lawrence County are named for him.
Morris's half-brother, Lewis Morris (1726-1798), was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Another half-brother, Staats Long Morris, was a loyalist and major-general in the British army during the American Revolution. His nephew, Lewis Richard Morris, served in the Vermont legislature and in the United States Congress. His grandnephew was William M. Meredith, United States Secretary of the Treasury under Zachary Taylor. Morris's great-grandson, also named Gouverneur (1876-1953), was an author of pulp novels and short stories during the early-twentieth century. (Several of his works were adapted into films, including the famous Lon Chaney, Sr. film, The Penalty.)[11][12]
In 1943, a United States liberty ship named the SS Gouverneur Morris was launched. She was scrapped in 1974.
References
- ^ [1] Documents from the Constitutional Convention and the Continental Congress at the Library of Congress
- ^ "Gouverneur Morris". http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/RevWar/ss/morrisg.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
- ^ ANB "Gouverneur Morris"
- ^ Gouverneur Morris, Theistic Rationalist, by Gregg Frazer. Page 26.
- ^ Bowen, Catherine Drinker. Miracle at Philadelphia. 1986 edition. p. 236.
- ^ Toward An American Revolution
- ^ Bowen. p. 178.
- ^ Gouverneur Morris, Theistic Rationalist, by Gregg Frazer.
- ^ James Madison (1787). "James Madison, The Debates in the Several State Conventions of the Adoption of the Federal Constitution vol. 5 [1827"]. http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1909&layout=html#chapter_112488. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
- ^ The Fun-Loving Founding Father. Gouverneur Morris, the first modern American. Will Wilkinson, Reason Magazine, July 2004.
- ^ Browse By Author: M - Project Gutenberg
- ^ Gouverneur Morris
Sources
- Brookhiser, Richard (2003). Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-2379-9.
- Crawford, Alan Pell (2000). Unwise Passions: A True Story of a Remarkable Woman—and the First Great Scandal of Eighteenth-century America. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-83474-X. (A biography of Morris's wife.)
- Fresia, Jerry (1988). Toward an American Revolution: Exposing the Constitution & Other Illusions. Cambridge: South End Press.
- Miller, Melanie Randolph, Envoy to the Terror: Gouverneur Morris and the French Revolution (Potomac Books, 2005)
- The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, Minister of the United States to France; Member of the Constitutional Convention, ed. Anne Cary Morris (1888). 2 vols. online version
- Swiggert, Howard (1952). The Extraordinary Mr. Morris. New York: Doubleday & Co..
External links
- U.S. Army Biography
- Gouverneur Morris at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Mintz, Max, Gouverneur Morris, George Washington's War Hawk, Virginia Quarterly Review, Autumn 2003.
- Gouverneur Morris Letters
- Gouverneur Morris,Jr. Papers,1853-1879New-York Historical Society
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by William Short |
U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary to France 1792 – 1794 |
Succeeded by James Monroe |
| United States Senate | ||
| Preceded by James Watson |
United States Senator (Class 1) from New York 1800 – 1803 Served alongside: John Armstrong, Jr., De Witt Clinton |
Succeeded by Theodorus Bailey |
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
|||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Learn More
 | Port Folio (literature) |
| Lewis Morris (1726–98, American political leader) |
| Ezra Ames (American painter) |
 | What did Gouverneur Morris do? Read answer... |
| What were Gouverneur Morris's views on slavery? Read answer... |
| In what ways were James wilson Gouverneur Morris and Roger Sherman? Read answer... |
Help us answer these
 | Gouverneur Morris in 1787? |
| How was Gouverneur Morris important to the Constitution? |
| How much was gouverneur Morris paid? |
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
 |
 | Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2009 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| US History Companion. The Reader's Companion to American History, Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
 |
| Works. The Chronology of American Literature, edited by Daniel S. Burt. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Gouverneur Morris". Read more |
Related answers
- Who was Gouverneur Morris?
- Was Gouverneur Morris a federalist?
- What were some of Gouverneur Morris accomplishments?
ADVERTISEMENT
Answer these
- How old was Gouverneur Morris in 1787?
- Was Gouverneur Morris an aristocrat?
- What does gouverneur Morris think about slavery?
Mentioned in
- Port Folio (literature)
- Lewis Morris (1726–98, American political leader)
- Ezra Ames (American painter)
- Gulian Crommelin Verplanck (literature)
- Richard Brandon Morris (American historian)
- heresthetic(s)
- The Ace of Hearts (1921 Drama Film)
- Morals for Men (1925 Drama Film)
- Trumpet Island (1920 Film)
- When My Ship Comes In (1919 Drama Film)
- Yellow Men and Gold (1922 Film)
- Fighting for France (1915 Film)
- Behind the Door (1920 Film)
- The Goddess (1915 Film)
