True Life Tuesday: Governeur Morris

Gouveneur Morris was an American statesman, founding father and a signer of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. He is one of the lesser known founding fathers but he was the author of the Preamble to the Constitution.

Gouverneur Morris was born on January 31, 1752 to Lewis Morris, Jr and his second wife Sarah Gouverneur. He came from a well connected and wealthy New York family. He was extremely intelligent and enrolled in King's College (now Columbia University) at the age of 12. He graduated in 1768 and then received a Masters degree in 1775. 

He was appointed to the Continental Congress and took his seat on January 28, 1778. He was on a committee to work on reforms of the Continental Army with George Washington. He was the youngest signer of the Articles of Confederation. He lost reelection in 1779 and moved to Philadelphia to work as a lawyer and merchant. 

In 1787 he was selected as the Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention. While there he and George Washington were strong allies. He wanted to limit voting rights to land owners. He was afraid that if the poor were allowed to vote they would sell their votes to the rich. He also did not want to admit western states on an equal basis. Many feel that he did this to limit the power of slave owning states because he was a staunch abolitionist. He was also a strong defender of people being able to practice their chosen religion. He gave the most speeches - 173 - at the convention.

He served as the minister plenipotentiary of France from 1792-1794. He was staunchly against the French Revolution. His diaries provided a first hand account of the revolution. In 1780 he lost his left leg in a carriage accident. There is a story that when he was surrounded by an angry mob who wanted to hand him he took his prosthetic leg off and brandished it over his head stating that he was an American who lost his leg fighting for freedom. This cause the crowd to change from hostile to friendly and they began to cheer.

In 1800 he was elected to the US Senate. However, he lost his reelection campaign in 1803. He then served as Chairman of the Erie Canal Commission from 1810-1817. He was also one of the 3 men who drew up the Commissioners Plan on 1811 which laid out the street grid in Manhattan. 

In 1809 at the age of 57 he married 35 year old Ann Cary Randolph. The couple had a son, Gouveneur Morris Jr, who was a successful railroad executive. His great-grandson, also name Gouverneur Morris, was a writer of pulp novels and short stories. One of his stories was turned into the movie The Penalty starring Lon Chaney in 1920. He died on November 6, 1816 due to intestinal injuries and infection due to using a whalebone to try and clear a urinary blockage. He was an important land owner in northern New York and the town of Governeur, village of Governeur and the village of Morristown are all named after him.