Steve/sewell
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I collect anything from the revolutionary war time period in our country.
Here is one of two men that signed all three of our countrys most important documents.
Mr. Morris sold a lot of real estate to litterally finace the war of independence from Great Britain.
Had Morris not come through with the funding neccassary for Washington the cause would have been lost
and we would be saying things here in the states like Are you going on Holliday,He was bloody lucky
I,ve soiled my knickers ect.ect.
Morris's signature is on the Deed.
Not to many people who collect autographs have this signature.
Lauren and Joe here is some information you may or may not know of.
It is Facsinating and very historical.
The tract purchased in western New York was a 3,250,000 acre (13,150 km²) portion of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase that lay west of the Genesee River. It was purchased in December 1792 and February and July 1793 from Robert Morris who had purchased it from Massachusetts in May 1791, after Phelps and Gorham failed to extinguish Indian title to this tract and had defaulted on payment in 1790. Morris’s purchase was actually for all lands west of the Genesee River except for the 185,000 acre (749 km²) Mill Yard Tract, which Phelps and Gorham retained, along with their other lands east of the Genesee. Morris paid Massachusetts $333,333.34. Morris' purchase from Massachusetts was for some 3,750,000 acres (15,200 km²), but Morris kept back some 500,000 acres (2,000 km²) for himself in a tract 12 miles wide (19 km) and running the breadth of western New York from Lake Ontario to the Pennsylvania. This 500,000 acre (2,000 km²) tract was known as the Morris Reserve.
Map of showing Phelps & Gorham's Purchase (including the Mill Yard Tract) The Holland Purchase, and the Morris Reserve.Before Morris could give the Holland Land Company title to this land, however, it was necessary to extinguish the Indian title. This was achieved at the 1797 Treaty of Big Tree. Big Tree was a place on the Genesee River near modern-day Geneseo, south of Rochester, New York. Representatives of the Holland Land Company, of Robert Morris, of the Indians, and a commissioner for the United States, gathered at Big Tree in August, 1797 and negotiations began. Chiefs and Sachems present included Red Jacket, Cornplanter, Governor Blacksnake, Farmer's Brother and about 50 others. Red Jacket and Cornplanter spoke strongly against selling the land. They held out for "reservations," that is, land which the Indians would keep for their own use. After much discussion, the treaty was signed Sept. 15, 1797. The Native Indians were to receive $100,000 for their rights to about 3.75 million acres (15,000 km²), and they reserved about 200,000 acres (809 km²) for themselves.
The Holland Land Company was largely interested in western lands. It was composed of capitalists in the United Netherlands, who had advanced large sums to Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, and at its close, either from choice or necessity, received payment in lands in western New York and Pennsylvania. In the History of Venango County we are informed that the first lands acquired in Pennsylvania consisted of a number of 1,000 acre tracts east of the Allegheny river in the purchase of 1784.
I have in my possesion a Deed of land 400 acres
In Luzerne County in Pennsylvania
February 18th 1793
Sold to robert Morris for 5 shillings
Deed Sam Bently
to
Robert Morris
no59
Robert Morris, Jr. (January 31, 1734– May 8, 1806) was an American merchant, and a signer to the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution. He was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly and became the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, and a member of the Second Continental Congress where he served as the Chairman of the Secret Committee, and as a member of the Committee of Correspondence. Later Morris was known as the "Financier of the Revolution", because of his role in financing the American side in the Revolutionary War. From 1781 to 1784, he served as Superintendent of Finance, managing the economy of the fledgling United States. At the same time he was Agent of Marine, a position he took without pay, and from which he controlled the Continental Navy. He was one of Pennsylvania's original pair of U.S. senators, serving from 1789 to 1795.
Conflict with Britain
The Stamp Act of 1765-1766 was a tax on all legal documents, yet the lawyers did not act to oppose it. However the merchants banded together to end what they saw as an unconstitutional tax. Morris began his public career in 1765 by serving on a local committee of merchants organized to protest the Stamp Act. He mediated between a mass meeting of protesters and the Stamp Tax collector, whose house they threatened to pull down "brick by brick" unless the collector promised not to execute his job. Morris remained loyal to Britain, but he believed that the new laws constituted taxation without representation and violated the colonists' rights as British citizens. In the end, the stamp tax was lifted.
Morris was elected to the Pennsylvania Council of Safety (1775-1776), the Committee of Correspondence, the Provincial Assembly (1775-1776), and the Pennsylvania legislature (1776-1778).
Morris was also elected to represent Pennsylvania in the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1778.
In 1775 the Continental Congress contracted with Morris's company to import arms and ammunition.
Morris was Chairman of the Secret Committee where he devised a system to smuggle war supplies from France a year before Independence was declared.
He served with John Adams on the committee that wrote the Model Treaty. The Model Treaty incorporated his long held belief in Free Trade. It was an outgrowth of his trading system, and acted as the basis for the Treaty with France.
He served on the Marine and Maritime Committees and sold his best ship, The Black Prince, to the Continental Congress. It became USS Alfred (1774), the first ship in the Continental Navy. John Barry, a captain who sailed for his company, became the Captain of the Alfred.
Morris used his extensive international trading network as a spy network and gathered intelligence on British troop movements. One of his spies sent the information that allowed the Americans to defend Fort Moultrie near Charleston, South Carolina.
On July 1, 1776, Morris voted against the Congressional motion for independence, causing the Pennsylvania delegation, which was split 4-3, to cast its vote in the negative. The following day, Morris and John Dickinson agreed to abstain, allowing Pennsylvania to vote for independence. The final vote was therefore 12 states in favor and no states opposed. (New York's delegates were prohibited by their constituents to cast a vote). On August 2 Morris signed the Declaration of Independence saying "I am not one of those politicians that run testy when my own plans are not adopted. I think it is the duty of a good citizen to follow when he cannot lead."
[edit] During the War
A scene from The Apotheosis of Washington shows Morris receiving a bag of gold from Mercury, commemorating his financial services during the Revolutionary WarDuring the Revolutionary War, in December 1776, Morris stayed in Philadelphia when the rest of Congress left for Baltimore. He loaned $10,000 to pay Washington’s troops. This helped to keep the Army together just before the battles of Trenton and Princeton. He subsequently paid from his own funds the troops via Morris notes to continue Washington's ability to wage war.
In March 1778 Mr. Morris was chosen to sign the Articles of Confederation as a representative of Pennsylvania.
Morris's wealth increased thanks to privateers that seized the cargo of English ships during the war. Morris owned an interest in many privateer ships, and also helped to sell off the English spoils as they came into port. While he was seen as profiting handsomely from this activity he wrote a friend that he lost over 150 ships during the war and so came out "about even." In fact he had lost one of the largest private navies in the world during the revolutionary war, but he never asked for reimbursement. It should be noted that Morris acquired this large private navy in the course of privateering prior to the war. He used money gained from that pursuit to buy shares in a variety of ships that waged an economic war on Britain. During this period he acted as a commercial agent for John Holker, a French national who was one of many military contractors who dealt with the French and American forces.
Immediately after serving in the Congress Morris served two more terms on the state legislature, from 1778 to 1781. While he was in the Pennsylvania Assembly Morris worked to restore checks and balances to the state constitution, and to overturn the religious test laws, thus restoring voting rights to 40% of the citizens including Quakers, Jews and Mennonites. During this time Thomas Paine, Henry Laurens, and others criticized him and his firm for alleged war profiteering. A congressional committee acquitted Morris and his firm on charges of engaging in improper financial transactions in 1779, but his reputation was damaged after this incident.
On October 4, 1779, an angry mob, who supported the "Constitutionalist" faction in opposition to Morris and his allies, attempted to chase James Wilson from his home in Philadelphia. According to some sources Morris was in Wilson's house at the time. The mob was in the process of aiming a cannon at Wilson's home when the First City Troop came to his rescue. Five men were killed in the battle of "Fort Wilson." This event is often associated with complaints about Morris's supposed "war profiteering", but it was part of a long term policy of the Constitionalists in Pennsylvania to run their political opposites from the state, and take their property. James Wilson went on to argue against slavery, defend Haym Solomon from fraud, sign the Constitution and become a Supreme Court justice.
Morris and his allies supplied the majority war materials to the troops when the state failed to act. Pennsylvania went bankrupt in 1780 due to Constitutionalist policies which mandated state controlled markets and self-imposed embargoes. Ultimately the state called on Morris to restore the economy. He did so by opening the ports to trade, and allowing the market to set the value of goods and the currency.
[edit] Superintendent of Finance of the United States
In 1781 the US was in a crisis. The British controlled the coast line from the sea, two major cities, and the western frontier. The treasury was in debt by $25 million and public credit had collapsed, he would make good on the US's debt from his own personal monies. With the failure of their own policies staring them in the face Congress changed from the committee systems they had used for years and created the first executive offices in American history. Morris held two of them, Finance and Marine. While his detractors worried he was gaining "dictatorial powers" he was granted what we would call today "executive authority". In a unanimous vote, Congress appointed Morris to be Superintendent of Finance of the United States from 1781 to 1784. To defend himself from the calumnies of his critics Mr. Morris insisted that Congress allow him to continue his profitable private endeavors while serving in a related public office. In practice he was not active in private business during his term and acted as a silent partner in various companies.
Three days after becoming Superintendent of Finance Morris proposed the establishment of a national bank. This led to the creation of the first financial institution chartered by the United States, the Bank of North America, in 1782. The bank was funded in part by a significant loan Morris had obtained from France in 1781. The initial role of the bank was to finance the war against Britain.
As Superintendent of Finance Morris instituted several reforms, including reducing the civil list, significantly cutting government spending by using competitive bidding for contracts, tightening accounting procedures, and demanding the federal government's full share of support (money and supplies) from the States.
Morris obtained supplies for the army of Nathanael Greene in 1779, and from 1781-1783.
He took an active role in getting Washington from New York State to Yorktown Virginia. He was in Washington's camp the day the action was initiated. He acted as quartermaster for the trip and supplied over $1,400,000 in his own credit to move the Army. He was also Agent of Marine and coordinated with the French Navy to get Washington's Army to the Battle of Yorktown (1781). After Yorktown Morris noted the war had changed from a war of bullets to a war of finances.
At times he took out loans from friends and risked his personal credit by issuing notes on his own signature to purchase items such as military supplies; for example, in 1783 Morris issued $14,900,000 in his own notes to pay the soldiers. He did this during the same year that New Hampshire contributed only $3000 worth of beef toward the war effort, and all the states combined contributed less than $800,000. This extensive use of his personal credit strained his own fortune. Morris later claimed that although he lost over 1500 ships during the war he came out of it "about even."
During his tenure as Superintendent, Morris was assisted by his friend and assistant Gouverneur Morris (no relation). He proposed a national economic system in a document called "On Public Credit". This acted as the basis for Hamilton's plan of the same name submitted much later. The Morris's also proposed to make the American currency a decimal currency, an idea that was unique at the time.
On January 15, 1782 Morris drafted a proposal that he later presented to the Continental Congress to recommend the establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage. However, the United States Mint was not established until 1792, after further proposals by Hamilton.
[edit] Later political career
Morris was elected to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. He managed to get Gouverneur Morris onto the Pennsylvania delegation. Although Robert Morris said little at the Convention, his former assistant, Gouverneur, and his lawyer, James Wilson, were two of the three most talkative men there. Both opposed slavery during the Convention. Gouverneur Morris actually wrote the polished draft of the Constitution. While it was widely known at the time that Morris was active behind the scenes, his only significant role of record during the Convention was to nominate his friend George Washington as its president.
Washington wanted to appoint Morris Secretary of the Treasury in 1789, but Morris declined (suggesting instead Alexander Hamilton who was a supporter of his policies). He served as a United States Senator from 1789 to 1795. Morris was on 41 Senatorial committees and reported for many of them. He focused on using his position in the Legislature to support the Federalist economic program, which included internal improvements like canals and lighthouses to aid commerce. As Senator he generally supported the Federalist party and backed Hamilton's economic proposals. Hamilton's proposals were, in actuality, a rework of Morris's report "On Public Credit", submitted some 10 years earlier.
As a Senator from Pennsylvania, Morris is credited with helping to bring the Federal Government to Philadelphia for 10 years as the Federal District was under construction. During this period he moved from his home, and allowed it to be used by Washington as his residence. Later that house was used by Adams while he was President.
[edit] Later life
Morris's folly on Walnut St. between 7th and 8th Sts
Map of Phelps and Gorham Purchase 1802-1806
Map of showing Phelps & Gorham's Purchase, The Holland Purchase, and the Morris Reserve.Morris founded several canal companies, a steam engine company, and launched a hot air balloon from his garden on Market Street. He had the first iron rolling mill in America. His ice house was the model for the one Washington put in at Mount Vernon. He backed the new Chestnut Street Theater, started the Horticultural Society and had a green house with lemon trees in it.
On March 12, 1791 he contracted with Massachusetts to purchase what is now essentially all of Western New York west (sic, east) of the Genesee River for $333,333.33[9]. The land, which had been a substantial portion of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, was conveyed to Morris in five deeds on May 11, 1791.
His son Thomas settled the peace with the Six Nations, who had sided with the British during the Revolution. Then Morris sold most of the vast tract to the Holland Land Company in 1792-1793.
In 1794 he began construction of a mansion on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia designed by Pierre Charles L'Enfant.
Morris was later heavily involved in unsuccessful land speculations, investing in the District of Columbia, and purchasing over 6,000,000 acres (24,000 km²) in the rural south. An expected loan from Holland never materialized because England and the Dutch declared war on Revolutionary France. The subsequent Napoleonic Wars ruined the market for American Lands and Morris's highly leveraged company collapsed. The financial markets of England, the United States, and the Caribbean were also suffering from the deflation associated with the Panic of 1797. Thus Morris was land-poor (he owned much land but didn't have enough hard money to pay off his creditors).
Although he attempted to avoid his creditors by remaining at "The Hills", his country estate on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, his creditors literally pursued him to his gate. After he was sued by a former partner, a fraud who at that time was serving time in debtor's prison himself, he was arrested and imprisoned for debt in Prune Street prison in Philadelphia from February 1798 to August 1801. His unfinished mansion became known as "Morris's folly",[10] and the land eventually became Sansom Street. Marbles from this house were purchased by Latrobe and adorn buildings and monuments from Rhode Island to Charlestown, SC.
Morris's economic failure reduced the fortunes of many other prominent Federalists who had invested in his ventures (e.g., Henry Lee). Morris's political adversaries used his bankruptcy to gain political power in Pennsylvania. Governor Thomas McKean was elected and refined the art of political patronage in America. McKean’s party then picked the Pennsylvania members of the electoral college for the election of 1800, and this helped Thomas Jefferson become president.
Congress passed the Bankruptcy Laws, in part, to get Morris out of prison.[citation needed]
After his release, and suffering from poor health, Morris spent the rest of his life in retirement. He was assisted by his wife, who had supported him throughout his misfortune. Morris died on May 9, 1806, in Philadelphia, and is buried in the family vault of Bishop William White, his brother-in-law, at Christ Church.[11]
Morris' portrait appeared on US $1000 notes from 1862 to 1863 and on the $10 silver certificates from 1878 to 1880. Along with Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin, Morris is considered one of the key founders of the financial system in the United States. Morris and Roger Sherman were the only two people to sign the three significant founding documents of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution.
The Dollar Sign ("$") was in common use among private merchants during the middle of the 18th century. It referred to the Spanish Milled Dollar, which predated the U.S. Dollar. Morris was the first to use that symbol in official documents and in official communications with Oliver Pollock. Much later it was used as the symbol for the U.S. Dollar, even though that currency was only loosely based on the Spanish coin.
Institutions named in honor of Morris include:
Robert Morris University (Illinois)
Robert Morris University
Robert Morris Elementary School, Batavia, New York.
Robert Morris Elementary School #27, Scranton, Pennsylvania
Robert Morris Elementary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Mount Morris, New York, location of a large flood control dam on the Genesee River, was named in honor of Robert Morris.
A number of ships in the United States Navy and the United States Coast Guard have been named USS Morris or USRC Morris for him.
A small town, Morrisville, Pennsylvania, was named in honor of Robert Morris. A statue of him is in the town square.
The Robert Morris Inn in Oxford, Maryland was also named after him.
Robert Morris's home in Philadelphia, where he lived during much of his career as Superintendent, where he lived while he (as Agent of Marine) ran the Continental Navy (1781-1784), and where he lived while he served a member of the Constitutional Convention (1789), was subsequently used as the Executive Mansion by Presidents George Washington and John Adams. Morris rented the house to the city of Philadelphia to be used as the presidential home, while Philadelphia was the temporary U.S. capital 1790-1800 during the construction of Washington, D.C. The President's House no longer exists, but the site is in the process of becoming a memorial to the first two Presidents, their families, and the nine enslaved Africans who worked in Washington's presidential household. This makes Robert Morris unique, in that he is the only person who signed the Declaration of Independence, or the Articles of Confederation, or the U.S. Constitution (and he signed all three), whose house is in a National Park, and the National Park Service has chosen not to interpret his life or career at the site of his own house.
This totally baffles me as how ignorant and politically correct we have become to not recognize this man and all of his acheivements were for the good of this nation.Without Robert Morris jr. this web site might be antique-bottles.uk
Here is one of two men that signed all three of our countrys most important documents.
Mr. Morris sold a lot of real estate to litterally finace the war of independence from Great Britain.
Had Morris not come through with the funding neccassary for Washington the cause would have been lost
and we would be saying things here in the states like Are you going on Holliday,He was bloody lucky
I,ve soiled my knickers ect.ect.
Morris's signature is on the Deed.
Not to many people who collect autographs have this signature.
Lauren and Joe here is some information you may or may not know of.
It is Facsinating and very historical.
The tract purchased in western New York was a 3,250,000 acre (13,150 km²) portion of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase that lay west of the Genesee River. It was purchased in December 1792 and February and July 1793 from Robert Morris who had purchased it from Massachusetts in May 1791, after Phelps and Gorham failed to extinguish Indian title to this tract and had defaulted on payment in 1790. Morris’s purchase was actually for all lands west of the Genesee River except for the 185,000 acre (749 km²) Mill Yard Tract, which Phelps and Gorham retained, along with their other lands east of the Genesee. Morris paid Massachusetts $333,333.34. Morris' purchase from Massachusetts was for some 3,750,000 acres (15,200 km²), but Morris kept back some 500,000 acres (2,000 km²) for himself in a tract 12 miles wide (19 km) and running the breadth of western New York from Lake Ontario to the Pennsylvania. This 500,000 acre (2,000 km²) tract was known as the Morris Reserve.
Map of showing Phelps & Gorham's Purchase (including the Mill Yard Tract) The Holland Purchase, and the Morris Reserve.Before Morris could give the Holland Land Company title to this land, however, it was necessary to extinguish the Indian title. This was achieved at the 1797 Treaty of Big Tree. Big Tree was a place on the Genesee River near modern-day Geneseo, south of Rochester, New York. Representatives of the Holland Land Company, of Robert Morris, of the Indians, and a commissioner for the United States, gathered at Big Tree in August, 1797 and negotiations began. Chiefs and Sachems present included Red Jacket, Cornplanter, Governor Blacksnake, Farmer's Brother and about 50 others. Red Jacket and Cornplanter spoke strongly against selling the land. They held out for "reservations," that is, land which the Indians would keep for their own use. After much discussion, the treaty was signed Sept. 15, 1797. The Native Indians were to receive $100,000 for their rights to about 3.75 million acres (15,000 km²), and they reserved about 200,000 acres (809 km²) for themselves.
The Holland Land Company was largely interested in western lands. It was composed of capitalists in the United Netherlands, who had advanced large sums to Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, and at its close, either from choice or necessity, received payment in lands in western New York and Pennsylvania. In the History of Venango County we are informed that the first lands acquired in Pennsylvania consisted of a number of 1,000 acre tracts east of the Allegheny river in the purchase of 1784.
I have in my possesion a Deed of land 400 acres
In Luzerne County in Pennsylvania
February 18th 1793
Sold to robert Morris for 5 shillings
Deed Sam Bently
to
Robert Morris
no59
Robert Morris, Jr. (January 31, 1734– May 8, 1806) was an American merchant, and a signer to the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution. He was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly and became the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, and a member of the Second Continental Congress where he served as the Chairman of the Secret Committee, and as a member of the Committee of Correspondence. Later Morris was known as the "Financier of the Revolution", because of his role in financing the American side in the Revolutionary War. From 1781 to 1784, he served as Superintendent of Finance, managing the economy of the fledgling United States. At the same time he was Agent of Marine, a position he took without pay, and from which he controlled the Continental Navy. He was one of Pennsylvania's original pair of U.S. senators, serving from 1789 to 1795.
Conflict with Britain
The Stamp Act of 1765-1766 was a tax on all legal documents, yet the lawyers did not act to oppose it. However the merchants banded together to end what they saw as an unconstitutional tax. Morris began his public career in 1765 by serving on a local committee of merchants organized to protest the Stamp Act. He mediated between a mass meeting of protesters and the Stamp Tax collector, whose house they threatened to pull down "brick by brick" unless the collector promised not to execute his job. Morris remained loyal to Britain, but he believed that the new laws constituted taxation without representation and violated the colonists' rights as British citizens. In the end, the stamp tax was lifted.
Morris was elected to the Pennsylvania Council of Safety (1775-1776), the Committee of Correspondence, the Provincial Assembly (1775-1776), and the Pennsylvania legislature (1776-1778).
Morris was also elected to represent Pennsylvania in the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1778.
In 1775 the Continental Congress contracted with Morris's company to import arms and ammunition.
Morris was Chairman of the Secret Committee where he devised a system to smuggle war supplies from France a year before Independence was declared.
He served with John Adams on the committee that wrote the Model Treaty. The Model Treaty incorporated his long held belief in Free Trade. It was an outgrowth of his trading system, and acted as the basis for the Treaty with France.
He served on the Marine and Maritime Committees and sold his best ship, The Black Prince, to the Continental Congress. It became USS Alfred (1774), the first ship in the Continental Navy. John Barry, a captain who sailed for his company, became the Captain of the Alfred.
Morris used his extensive international trading network as a spy network and gathered intelligence on British troop movements. One of his spies sent the information that allowed the Americans to defend Fort Moultrie near Charleston, South Carolina.
On July 1, 1776, Morris voted against the Congressional motion for independence, causing the Pennsylvania delegation, which was split 4-3, to cast its vote in the negative. The following day, Morris and John Dickinson agreed to abstain, allowing Pennsylvania to vote for independence. The final vote was therefore 12 states in favor and no states opposed. (New York's delegates were prohibited by their constituents to cast a vote). On August 2 Morris signed the Declaration of Independence saying "I am not one of those politicians that run testy when my own plans are not adopted. I think it is the duty of a good citizen to follow when he cannot lead."
[edit] During the War
A scene from The Apotheosis of Washington shows Morris receiving a bag of gold from Mercury, commemorating his financial services during the Revolutionary WarDuring the Revolutionary War, in December 1776, Morris stayed in Philadelphia when the rest of Congress left for Baltimore. He loaned $10,000 to pay Washington’s troops. This helped to keep the Army together just before the battles of Trenton and Princeton. He subsequently paid from his own funds the troops via Morris notes to continue Washington's ability to wage war.
In March 1778 Mr. Morris was chosen to sign the Articles of Confederation as a representative of Pennsylvania.
Morris's wealth increased thanks to privateers that seized the cargo of English ships during the war. Morris owned an interest in many privateer ships, and also helped to sell off the English spoils as they came into port. While he was seen as profiting handsomely from this activity he wrote a friend that he lost over 150 ships during the war and so came out "about even." In fact he had lost one of the largest private navies in the world during the revolutionary war, but he never asked for reimbursement. It should be noted that Morris acquired this large private navy in the course of privateering prior to the war. He used money gained from that pursuit to buy shares in a variety of ships that waged an economic war on Britain. During this period he acted as a commercial agent for John Holker, a French national who was one of many military contractors who dealt with the French and American forces.
Immediately after serving in the Congress Morris served two more terms on the state legislature, from 1778 to 1781. While he was in the Pennsylvania Assembly Morris worked to restore checks and balances to the state constitution, and to overturn the religious test laws, thus restoring voting rights to 40% of the citizens including Quakers, Jews and Mennonites. During this time Thomas Paine, Henry Laurens, and others criticized him and his firm for alleged war profiteering. A congressional committee acquitted Morris and his firm on charges of engaging in improper financial transactions in 1779, but his reputation was damaged after this incident.
On October 4, 1779, an angry mob, who supported the "Constitutionalist" faction in opposition to Morris and his allies, attempted to chase James Wilson from his home in Philadelphia. According to some sources Morris was in Wilson's house at the time. The mob was in the process of aiming a cannon at Wilson's home when the First City Troop came to his rescue. Five men were killed in the battle of "Fort Wilson." This event is often associated with complaints about Morris's supposed "war profiteering", but it was part of a long term policy of the Constitionalists in Pennsylvania to run their political opposites from the state, and take their property. James Wilson went on to argue against slavery, defend Haym Solomon from fraud, sign the Constitution and become a Supreme Court justice.
Morris and his allies supplied the majority war materials to the troops when the state failed to act. Pennsylvania went bankrupt in 1780 due to Constitutionalist policies which mandated state controlled markets and self-imposed embargoes. Ultimately the state called on Morris to restore the economy. He did so by opening the ports to trade, and allowing the market to set the value of goods and the currency.
[edit] Superintendent of Finance of the United States
In 1781 the US was in a crisis. The British controlled the coast line from the sea, two major cities, and the western frontier. The treasury was in debt by $25 million and public credit had collapsed, he would make good on the US's debt from his own personal monies. With the failure of their own policies staring them in the face Congress changed from the committee systems they had used for years and created the first executive offices in American history. Morris held two of them, Finance and Marine. While his detractors worried he was gaining "dictatorial powers" he was granted what we would call today "executive authority". In a unanimous vote, Congress appointed Morris to be Superintendent of Finance of the United States from 1781 to 1784. To defend himself from the calumnies of his critics Mr. Morris insisted that Congress allow him to continue his profitable private endeavors while serving in a related public office. In practice he was not active in private business during his term and acted as a silent partner in various companies.
Three days after becoming Superintendent of Finance Morris proposed the establishment of a national bank. This led to the creation of the first financial institution chartered by the United States, the Bank of North America, in 1782. The bank was funded in part by a significant loan Morris had obtained from France in 1781. The initial role of the bank was to finance the war against Britain.
As Superintendent of Finance Morris instituted several reforms, including reducing the civil list, significantly cutting government spending by using competitive bidding for contracts, tightening accounting procedures, and demanding the federal government's full share of support (money and supplies) from the States.
Morris obtained supplies for the army of Nathanael Greene in 1779, and from 1781-1783.
He took an active role in getting Washington from New York State to Yorktown Virginia. He was in Washington's camp the day the action was initiated. He acted as quartermaster for the trip and supplied over $1,400,000 in his own credit to move the Army. He was also Agent of Marine and coordinated with the French Navy to get Washington's Army to the Battle of Yorktown (1781). After Yorktown Morris noted the war had changed from a war of bullets to a war of finances.
At times he took out loans from friends and risked his personal credit by issuing notes on his own signature to purchase items such as military supplies; for example, in 1783 Morris issued $14,900,000 in his own notes to pay the soldiers. He did this during the same year that New Hampshire contributed only $3000 worth of beef toward the war effort, and all the states combined contributed less than $800,000. This extensive use of his personal credit strained his own fortune. Morris later claimed that although he lost over 1500 ships during the war he came out of it "about even."
During his tenure as Superintendent, Morris was assisted by his friend and assistant Gouverneur Morris (no relation). He proposed a national economic system in a document called "On Public Credit". This acted as the basis for Hamilton's plan of the same name submitted much later. The Morris's also proposed to make the American currency a decimal currency, an idea that was unique at the time.
On January 15, 1782 Morris drafted a proposal that he later presented to the Continental Congress to recommend the establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage. However, the United States Mint was not established until 1792, after further proposals by Hamilton.
[edit] Later political career
Morris was elected to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. He managed to get Gouverneur Morris onto the Pennsylvania delegation. Although Robert Morris said little at the Convention, his former assistant, Gouverneur, and his lawyer, James Wilson, were two of the three most talkative men there. Both opposed slavery during the Convention. Gouverneur Morris actually wrote the polished draft of the Constitution. While it was widely known at the time that Morris was active behind the scenes, his only significant role of record during the Convention was to nominate his friend George Washington as its president.
Washington wanted to appoint Morris Secretary of the Treasury in 1789, but Morris declined (suggesting instead Alexander Hamilton who was a supporter of his policies). He served as a United States Senator from 1789 to 1795. Morris was on 41 Senatorial committees and reported for many of them. He focused on using his position in the Legislature to support the Federalist economic program, which included internal improvements like canals and lighthouses to aid commerce. As Senator he generally supported the Federalist party and backed Hamilton's economic proposals. Hamilton's proposals were, in actuality, a rework of Morris's report "On Public Credit", submitted some 10 years earlier.
As a Senator from Pennsylvania, Morris is credited with helping to bring the Federal Government to Philadelphia for 10 years as the Federal District was under construction. During this period he moved from his home, and allowed it to be used by Washington as his residence. Later that house was used by Adams while he was President.
[edit] Later life
Morris's folly on Walnut St. between 7th and 8th Sts
Map of Phelps and Gorham Purchase 1802-1806
Map of showing Phelps & Gorham's Purchase, The Holland Purchase, and the Morris Reserve.Morris founded several canal companies, a steam engine company, and launched a hot air balloon from his garden on Market Street. He had the first iron rolling mill in America. His ice house was the model for the one Washington put in at Mount Vernon. He backed the new Chestnut Street Theater, started the Horticultural Society and had a green house with lemon trees in it.
On March 12, 1791 he contracted with Massachusetts to purchase what is now essentially all of Western New York west (sic, east) of the Genesee River for $333,333.33[9]. The land, which had been a substantial portion of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, was conveyed to Morris in five deeds on May 11, 1791.
His son Thomas settled the peace with the Six Nations, who had sided with the British during the Revolution. Then Morris sold most of the vast tract to the Holland Land Company in 1792-1793.
In 1794 he began construction of a mansion on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia designed by Pierre Charles L'Enfant.
Morris was later heavily involved in unsuccessful land speculations, investing in the District of Columbia, and purchasing over 6,000,000 acres (24,000 km²) in the rural south. An expected loan from Holland never materialized because England and the Dutch declared war on Revolutionary France. The subsequent Napoleonic Wars ruined the market for American Lands and Morris's highly leveraged company collapsed. The financial markets of England, the United States, and the Caribbean were also suffering from the deflation associated with the Panic of 1797. Thus Morris was land-poor (he owned much land but didn't have enough hard money to pay off his creditors).
Although he attempted to avoid his creditors by remaining at "The Hills", his country estate on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, his creditors literally pursued him to his gate. After he was sued by a former partner, a fraud who at that time was serving time in debtor's prison himself, he was arrested and imprisoned for debt in Prune Street prison in Philadelphia from February 1798 to August 1801. His unfinished mansion became known as "Morris's folly",[10] and the land eventually became Sansom Street. Marbles from this house were purchased by Latrobe and adorn buildings and monuments from Rhode Island to Charlestown, SC.
Morris's economic failure reduced the fortunes of many other prominent Federalists who had invested in his ventures (e.g., Henry Lee). Morris's political adversaries used his bankruptcy to gain political power in Pennsylvania. Governor Thomas McKean was elected and refined the art of political patronage in America. McKean’s party then picked the Pennsylvania members of the electoral college for the election of 1800, and this helped Thomas Jefferson become president.
Congress passed the Bankruptcy Laws, in part, to get Morris out of prison.[citation needed]
After his release, and suffering from poor health, Morris spent the rest of his life in retirement. He was assisted by his wife, who had supported him throughout his misfortune. Morris died on May 9, 1806, in Philadelphia, and is buried in the family vault of Bishop William White, his brother-in-law, at Christ Church.[11]
Morris' portrait appeared on US $1000 notes from 1862 to 1863 and on the $10 silver certificates from 1878 to 1880. Along with Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin, Morris is considered one of the key founders of the financial system in the United States. Morris and Roger Sherman were the only two people to sign the three significant founding documents of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution.
The Dollar Sign ("$") was in common use among private merchants during the middle of the 18th century. It referred to the Spanish Milled Dollar, which predated the U.S. Dollar. Morris was the first to use that symbol in official documents and in official communications with Oliver Pollock. Much later it was used as the symbol for the U.S. Dollar, even though that currency was only loosely based on the Spanish coin.
Institutions named in honor of Morris include:
Robert Morris University (Illinois)
Robert Morris University
Robert Morris Elementary School, Batavia, New York.
Robert Morris Elementary School #27, Scranton, Pennsylvania
Robert Morris Elementary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Mount Morris, New York, location of a large flood control dam on the Genesee River, was named in honor of Robert Morris.
A number of ships in the United States Navy and the United States Coast Guard have been named USS Morris or USRC Morris for him.
A small town, Morrisville, Pennsylvania, was named in honor of Robert Morris. A statue of him is in the town square.
The Robert Morris Inn in Oxford, Maryland was also named after him.
Robert Morris's home in Philadelphia, where he lived during much of his career as Superintendent, where he lived while he (as Agent of Marine) ran the Continental Navy (1781-1784), and where he lived while he served a member of the Constitutional Convention (1789), was subsequently used as the Executive Mansion by Presidents George Washington and John Adams. Morris rented the house to the city of Philadelphia to be used as the presidential home, while Philadelphia was the temporary U.S. capital 1790-1800 during the construction of Washington, D.C. The President's House no longer exists, but the site is in the process of becoming a memorial to the first two Presidents, their families, and the nine enslaved Africans who worked in Washington's presidential household. This makes Robert Morris unique, in that he is the only person who signed the Declaration of Independence, or the Articles of Confederation, or the U.S. Constitution (and he signed all three), whose house is in a National Park, and the National Park Service has chosen not to interpret his life or career at the site of his own house.
This totally baffles me as how ignorant and politically correct we have become to not recognize this man and all of his acheivements were for the good of this nation.Without Robert Morris jr. this web site might be antique-bottles.uk
