The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-10
GoUvERNEUR MORRIS.

| Mr.. Morris was born in l.a2 at Nor
risania. in the province of New York.
He was carefully educated and grad
uated with honor ut i>nsg'; now Co.
lumbia) college in 176S. Then ne stud
led law and was admitted to the bar
| in III. His political career began almost
Immediately. When but 25 years old he
became a member of the provincial
congress of New York. where his great
abilities, prodigious industry and COM
petence in law and politics soon gave
him an enviable reputation. The extent
of his knowledge of finance, in which
he was already an expert, was a sur
prise to his associates. AS early as
1869 he had published anonymously an
able series of articles on this subject
that had been widely read. Now the
confidence reposed in him by the con-
greSS enabled him TO devise ways and
means for defraying the expenses of
military operations. In May of 1I16 the
continental congress advised the colo
MES to organize new forms of govern
ment. Morris took the lead in the de-
bates that followed in the New York
congress, and in the following August,
when the state constitution was made.
he was a member of the committee
that drafted it.
He was elected to the continental
congress in ITS His reputation for
business capacity led congress to honor
him on the very day he presented his
credentials with an appointment on a
committee to examine with General
Washington into the condition of the
army. The result was the preparation
of a plan for the reorganization of the
army. 1t was while he was member
of this committee that the intimate and
lifelong friendship existing between
him and Washington began. In the
next February he was made chairman
of a committee of five Ito consider and
report upon propositions submitted by
Lord North for a reconciliation. In
these propositions the English govern
ment agreed to abandon the old and
vexed question of taxation and to send
commissioners to treat with the colo
nists The report was written by Nor
ris and was unanimously accepted by
congress. 1t declared that the United
States could not treat with Great Brit
ain until the British military and naval
forces were withdrawn and indepen-
dence recognized. In this way the prin-
ciple ON which peace was to be nego-
tiated was determined and when the
United States finally appointed COM
missioners it was Morris who drafted
their Instructions.
Mr.. Morris was not returned to con-
eress when his term expired. His de-
ton that he had sacrificed the inter
ests of his state for those of the gen.
eral government. He now took up his
residence in Philadelphia and resumed
the practice of law. He did not remain
long at the law, however. for his init
mate knowledge of finance led Robert
Morris, the superintendent of finance.
to appoint him as assistant. Now he
planned the first bank of the country.
which congress Incorporated as the
Bank of North America" with cap
ital of $500, GOO. While in this office,
too. if Thomas jefferson is right, he
suggested the idea of the decimal no.
tation which afterward was made the
basis of the coinage of the United
States When the war was over he re-
tired to private life and again took up
the practice of law.
The federal convention assembled
May %. 1887. Mr.. Morris had now re-
sided in Philadelphia for seven years
and was chosen as one of the delegates
from Pennsylvania He attended the
whole session except a few days in
June. and entered with his usual zeal
into the work of the convention. He
was opposed 70 a democracy. Probably
he went further in his opposition to
this form of government than any
other delegate except Hamilton. with
many of whose views he was strikinSly
in accord. He sought to establish a
vigorous central government. He IA
vored a president and senate for life
and a freehold suffrage. He opposed
slavery and denounced the system as
..nefarious institution. the curse of
heaven on all the states in which 1t pre-
vaiis.".
1t was Mr.. Morris who made the final
draft of the constitution. James Madi-
son has said: THE finish given to the
styIe and ARRANGEMENT of the constitu-
ton fairly, belongs TO the pen of Mr..
Morris. A better choice could not