Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1909-07-30
History in Tabloid.
BY ELBERT HUBBARD.


During the Revolutionary War
Roger Morris, Of Putnam County,
New York, made the mistake OF sid.
ing with the Tories.
A mob collected. and Morris and
bis family escaped, taking ship to
England.
Before leaving Morris declared his
Intention Of coming back as soon as
"the insurrection was quelled."
The British troops. we are reliably
Informed. failed to queil the insur-
rection; and Roger Morris never
came back.
Roger Morris is known to history
as the man who married Mary Phil
Ipse. And this lady lives in history
because she had the felicity OF hav-
ing been proposed to by George
Washington. 1t is George himself
who tells of this in his journal. and
George. you remember, could not tell
a lie.
George was twenty-five. He was
on his way to Boston, and was en-
tertained at the Philipse house, the
Plaza not having then been built
Mary was twenty, pink and lis
some. She played the harpischord.
Immediately after supper. George,
finding himself alone in the parlor
with the girl, proposed.
He was an opportunist
The lady pleaded for time, which
the Father of his Country declined to
give. He was a soldier, and demand
ed immediate surrender. A small
quarrel followed, and George saddled
his horse and rode on his way to
fame and fortune.
Mary thought he would come back,
but George never proposed to the
same lady twice Yet he thought
kindly of Mary. and excused her
conduct by recording: Il think ye
ladye was not in We moode."
It was Washington who formally
conhscated the property and turned
It over to the State of New York as
contraband of war.
The Morris estate of about fifty
thousand acres was pareelled out and
sold by the State OF New York to
settlers.
1t seems, however, that Roger
/ Morris had only a life interest in the
estate, and this was a legal point so
fine that 1t was entirely overlooked
in the joy of confscation.
Washington was a great soldier. but
an Indifferent lawyer.
John Jacob Astor accidentally es-
ceTtained the facts. He was con-
vinced that the heirs could not be
robbed of their rights through the
acts of a leaseholder. which. legally.
was the status of Roger Morris.
Astor was a good real estate lawyer
himself. but he referred the point to
the best counsel he could find. They
agreed with him. He next hunted up
the heirs, and bought their quit
claims for 100000
He then notified the parties who
had purchased the land, and they. in
turn, made claim upon the State for
protection.
After much legal parleying, the
case was tried according to stipula-
tion, with the State of New York di-
rectly as defendant and Astor and the
occupants as plaintiffs. Daniel Web
ster and Martin Van Buren, appeared
for the State, and an array of lesser
legal lights for Astor.
The case was narrowed down to
the plain and simple point that Roger
Morris was not the legal owner Of the
estate, and that the rightful heirs
could not be made to suffer from the
treason, contumacy and contraven-
tion" of another.
Astor won, and as a compromise
the State issued him twenty-year
bonds, bearing sir per cent. interest.
for the neat sum of $500. .O00-not
that Astor needed the money, but
finance was to him q game.-New
York American.