The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-11-07
THE MORRIS CLAN
 OF MORISSANIA

One hundred years ago today there passed from American public life one of the most distinguished of the pi- oneer diplomats of the republic, Gouv- erneur MoEris. He was one of the most brilliant members of a family which has numbered many men or prominence on its rolls. The Gouv- erneur Morris of today. who holds a fornost rank among short story writ CTS, is a great-grandson of the states man and diplomat of the same name who died in Morrisania, New York, on Nov. 6, 1916.
 The Morris clan in America was founded by Richard Morris, who had been a soldier and officer in Crom- wells army before coming to America. In 1850 he purchased the tract of land on which Morrisania, long noted as the family seat, was built. Richards son, Lewis, was 8 judge in New York and New Jersey, and governor Of the latter state, and Lewis's son, Robert Hunter Morris, was chief justice of New Jersey for 20 years. A later Lewis Morris, of the same family, was a signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and three sons were soldiers in the Continental army, while his brother, Staats Long Morris, was a British army officer and for a time governor of Quebec
 Gouverneur Morris was born at Morrisiana in 1752, and was educated at Kings College, the colonial prede- cessor of Columbia University, and admitted to the bar. Although still very young at the outbreak of the revolution, he had already made r11 0y,d Hrvf1 oy,f lawyer. He was member of the committee that drafted the constitu- ton of the state of New York, and entered Congress in 1777. Tn 17s1 he was the assistant of Robert Morris. the superintendent Of the finances of the struggling nation. In 17S6, after living in Philadelphia for several years, he purchased the Morrisania estate from his brother, and after wards made 1t his home. Morris was prominent in the convention that framed the constitution of the United States, and he put it into the literary shape in which it was adopted.
 Morris was sent abroad in 1791, first as a private agent of the government in London, and from 1792 to 1794 he was minister to France. He was in Paris during the great revolution. He saw that great movement degenerate into a reign of terror. From the first Morris was accused of a lack of sym pathy with French revolutionary ideals and his cool attitude of neutrality an- gered the French rebels. In 1794 the committee of public safety demanded his recall, and, for reasons of policy, Washington compiled with the re- quest but sent Morris a private letter expressing his satisfaction with Nor ris's conduct in a difficult diplomatic situation. There had been much criti- cism of Morris in America because of his failure to effect the release from prison of Thomas Paine, the revolu- tionary author, who had been thrown into a cell during the reign of terror because of advocacy of a moderate policy. While in the French prison Paine wrote "The Age of Reason,'' and his attacks on Christianity in that work alienated most of his American friends Monroe succeeded Morris at Paris, and immediately procured Paine's freedom. Morris was after wards a United States senator, and prominent in many public movements. A biography of Morris was written by Theodore Roosevelt about thirty years a