Morris, Robert

MORRIS, ROBERT

Robert Morris (1734–1806), possibly America's wealthiest man in the earliest years of the Republic, died penniless and in disgrace. Known as the "financier of the American Revolution," Morris played a role in the highest circles of the new American government, but he spent three years near the end of his life in debtor's prison.

Born in Liverpool, England, on January 31, 1734, Morris emigrated to the American colonies at age twelve. His father, a British tobacco merchant and a part-time resident of Maryland, died from a cannon misfire in a shipboard accident, leaving his son, a teenager, with a small estate.

Morris came under the care of a Philadelphia merchant, Charles Willing. When he also died, Morris and Willing's son, Thomas, formed Willing, Morris and Company, a trading company with three ships and contacts in Spain, Portugal and the West Indies. In the years immediately preceding the American Revolution (1775–1783), the firm traded wheat, flour, tobacco, and other products in a triangular route between Europe, the West Indies, and America.

Through Willing, Morris, and Company, Morris became one of the wealthiest men—if not the wealthiest man—in the American colonies. He did not immediately support the revolutionary cause against the British, though he had opposed Britain's levying of additional taxes under the Stamp Act of 1765 and had signed the Non-Importation Agreement opposing it. In June 1774 he became a member of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety and a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he was named a member of the Select Committee on Trade. Hoping that a way would be found to avoid war with Britain, he did not sign the Declaration of Independence immediately but waited until several weeks after the historic document had been adopted.

In his capacity as chairman or member of several trade-related congressional committees, Morris was in charge of provisioning the Revolutionary Army. He blatantly used the office to his own advantage, selling to the new government material from companies he formed himself. Morris stayed on in Philadelphia when the war forced the Congress to vacate the city in December of 1776 and, during that time, acted with some courage in his role as the army's provisioner. He became banker for the Committee of Commerce in 1777, signed the Articles of Confederation as a Pennsylvania delegate the next year, and became chairman of the Congressional Committee on Finance. Morris left the Continental Congress in November of 1778 to attend to his private business affairs but remained in the Pennsylvania Assembly.

As a member of the Continental Congress, Morris became even wealthier. He used inside information and his network of international connections to profit himself. As a key part of his income, he maintained a very lucrative privateering operation: a state-sanctioned commercial venture wherein pirates seized the ships of enemies. Between 1775 and 1777, the Secret Committees on Trade and Commerce, headed by Morris, spent $3.3 million. Of this amount Morris and his associates pocketed $846,000.

Yet, historians differ about whether Morris was a scoundrel or a hero. In 1781 George Washington (1732–1799) urged Morris to reenter the national government as superintendent of finance. The war was still underway and the new nation's money was virtually worthless, but Morris had the nation operating on a hard-money basis before the end of the war, a formidable accomplishment. Funds that Morris was able to borrow from France, supplemented with money from his own pocket, made it possible for Washington to move his armies from New York to Yorktown, where the British general, Cornwallis, surrendered.

Morris resigned his position as superintendent of finance when the states refused to agree to his taxation policy and blocked the national financial system he advocated. He turned his attention to land speculation and such ventures as turnpikes, iron works, and trade with China. Acting on credit, he bought huge sections of western New York and Virginia. He spent $1 million on the first stage of building an ostentatious mansion in Philadelphia. Suddenly, the bottom fell out of the land speculation business. Many individual investors and land companies failed. Morris, whose fortune was vastly overextended, was never able to recover. He was confined in debtors prison for three years until his release in 1801 and died, five years later, still destitute.

See also: American Revolution, Stamp Act, Triangular Trade

FURTHER READING

Chernow, Barbara Ann. Robert Morris, Land Speculator, 1790–1801. New York: Arno, 1978.

Ferguson, James E., ed. The Papers of Robert Morris, 1781–1784. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1973.

Ingham, John. Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders H-M. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1983, s.v. "Morris, Robert."

Van Steeg, Clarence Lester. Robert Morris, Revolutionary Financier. New York: Octagon, 1972.

Wagner, Frederick. Robert Morris, Audacious Patriot. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1976.

Willoughby, Jack. "What Your Country Can Do for You." Forbes, October 23, 1989.

known as the "financier of the american revolution," morris played a role in the highest circles of the new american government, but he spent three years near the end of his life in debtor's prison.