Gouverneur Morris

Governor Morris ( * January 31, 1752 in New York; † November 6, 1816 in the Bronx ) was an American politician, one of the founding fathers of the United States and a member of the U.S. Senate. In addition, he represented the state of Pennsylvania in 1787 at the Philadelphia Convention.

He was responsible for major portions of the Constitution of the United States. Morris was one of the signatories. Morris is supposed to be the author of the Preamble to the Constitution. It reads: " We, the people of the United States, guided by the intention to perfect our union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, to provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and happiness of the liberty to ourselves and our posterity to preserve set, ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. " Morris was called Penman of the Constitution. So he was quasi Secretary of the Constituent Assembly. While the consciousness of Americans was strong for a confederation with sovereign states at this time, thought Morris in the category of a single Union, ie to a state.

Life and career

Morris was since 1764 a student at King's College (now Columbia University). In 1768 he left school and graduated 1771st

On May 8, 1775, Morris was elected to the Westchester County (today's Bronx County) in the New York Provincial Congress. This meeting was not legally legitimized. The deputies worked like most point to the independence of the colony. However, these efforts did not call only the resistance of his own family to the plan, even his mentor, William Smith. The 25 -year-old Morris played a significant role in the constitution of New York from the year 1777.

After the Battle of Long Iceland in August 1776, the British plundered New York City. Even the family on the other side of the Harlem River, seen from Manhattan, was thereby affected. His mother, a follower of the Loyalists gave the estate to the British. As his property was now in the hands of the enemies, he also lost his eligibility for election to Congress from New York. Instead, he was appointed as delegates to the Continental Congress.

He took his seat on January 28, 1778 and was immediately elected as a member of the Committee for the Coordination of military reform. After he became an eyewitness to the army camp at Valley Forge, he was elected speaker of the Continental Army in Congress. He signed the original Constitution nor in 1778.

A year later, in 1779, he lost his re-election to Congress. The reason probably was his vehement commitment to a strong central government, while the population of New York favored rather strong states. Due to his defeat, he moved to Philadelphia to work as a businessman and lawyer.

1780 Morris allegedly lost in an accident with a coach his left leg, which was replaced by a wooden prosthesis. In fact, to have been the jump from a great height on the run from a jealous husband. Morris had numerous affairs according to his own diary.

In Philadelphia he assumed the duties of assistant to the treasurer from 1781 to 1785. In 1787 he was a representative in the Philadelphia Convention before it a year later returned to New York.

During his time in Philadelphia, he was with Robert Morris, who was not related despite having the same last name with him known. Robert Morris made ​​together with George Washington that he could participate in the Constituent Assembly.

During the Philadelphia Convention, he supported George Washington as he favored a strong central government. His committee, William Samuel Johnson presided, he served as one who probably had the largest share of the draft constitution.

As an aristocrat Morris believed in the necessity of an oligarchic form of government ( " there never was, nor ever will be a civilized Society without at Aristocracy "). A democratic form of government, he was skeptical because he thought it would come to a vote in favor of the wealthy sale. In that regard, should have only the landowners or wealthy voting in his opinion. Morris refused to offer even the accession of the Western states, because the ferocity of these countries bring forth no reasonable statesmen.

173 speeches Morris had held in the Constituent Assembly. Morris was considered a " devout rationalist " because he believed not only to a directing God, but also to religious mediated morality. However, he did not do himself as a religious person. He insisted on the observance of principles. He was an advocate of religious freedom. Gouverneur Morris fought well against slavery.

Still in 1789 he came to France as a merchant and provided there service as ambassador from 1792 to 1794. His diary documented events of the French Revolution. When he returned to the United States in 1798, he was in April 1800 for the Federalist Party member of the U.S. Senate and appeared in the interim vacancy of the seat that had been created by the resignation of James Watson. On May 3, 1800 to March 4, 1803, he held the seat, but lost that in the re-election in the elections of February 3, 1803.

After his defeat, he became head of the Erie Canal Commission from 1810 to 1813. The Erie Canal accelerated the growth of New York substantially and eventually also caused the rise as a financial hub. Morris finally realized: "the Proudest empire in Europe is but a bubble Compared To What America wants to be, must be, in the course of two centuries, perhaps of one ."

Family

At the age of 57, he married Anne Cary ( "Nancy" ) Randolph, sister of Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., husband of the daughter of Thomas Jefferson, Martha Jefferson Randolph.

Morris died on the family Morrisania. He is buried in the cemetery of St. Ann's Episcopal Church in the Bronx. The son of Mr and Mrs Morris, Jr. Governor was finally board of a railway company.

Morris to acquire considerable estates in the north of New York succeeded. In addition to the Town of Gouverneur in St. Lawrence County is located in the same municipality and the Village of Gouverneur.

His half-brother, Lewis Morris (1726-1798), had signed the Declaration of Independence. Another half-brother, Staats Long Morris, was a member of the loyalists and was a captain in the British Army during the Revolutionary War. His nephew, Lewis R. Morris, was a deputy in Vermont and in the Congress of the United States. His great- nephew, William M. Meredith, United States Treasury Secretary under President Zachary Taylor. Morris ' great-grandson, also named Governor (1876-1953) and was a writer. Among other things, a work in the film The Penalty was adapted.

1943 Liberty freighter was named as SS Gouverneur Morris. The ship was scrapped in 1974.