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. □

Gouverneur Morris , 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).

Morris, Gouverneur (1752–1816),graduated from King's College (1768) and, after a brief but brilliant law career, entered politics. As a member of the New York landed aristocracy, he was a conservative, but he supported the patriots in the Revolution. In the New York provincial congress he was a moderate and helped frame the state constitution. In the Continental Congress (1778–79) he drafted important documents and wrote Observations on the American Revolution (1779). Failing reelection, he moved to Philadelphia, resumed law practice, and wrote anonymous articles on finance that led to his appointment to assist Robert Morris as superintendent of finance (1781–85). In the Constitutional Convention he favored a strong centralized government controlled by the upper class, for he was frankly cynical about democracy. He was a business agent and later U.S. minister to France (1792–94), but was recalled at French request because he opposed their Revolution. In the Senate (1800–1803) he remained a staunch Federalist. His Diary and Letters (2 vols., 1888) and Diary of the French Revolution (2 vols., 1938) have been issued.

Morris, Gouverneur (1752–1816) US political leader and diplomat. He served in the Continental Congress and, after moving to Philadelphia, represented Pennsylvania in the Constitutional Convention (1787). He was minister to France and England (1789–94) and represented New York in the US Senate (1800–03).