gouverneur morris (1752–1816) - bill of rights …...the patriots.morris became a leading advocate...

Slavery is the curse of heaven on the States where it prevails.

—Gouverneur Morris, 1787

Gouverneur Morris politely excused himself from the company of thebeautiful young lady. The woman was a wealthy widow who had welcomedMorris to dinner in her Philadelphia home after he had completedanother long day of work at the Constitutional Convention. Morrishad important work to do on this September evening of 1787. To himhad fallen the task of writing the final version of the Constitution. Heand his fellow delegates had labored throughout the hot summer onthe document, and now he had a mere few days to put their thoughtsinto final form.

Morris gripped his cane and bid farewell to his hostess. He walkeddown the streets of Philadelphia, using the cane to keep his wooden legfrom slipping out beneath him on the cobblestone streets. As Morriswalked, he pondered the phraseology of the Preamble to the Constitution.Should the opening words of the document list all the states individually as the creators of this new government? This was the suggestion of the convention’sCommittee of Style. No, Morris thought. He decided that he would begin theConstitution with the phrase, “We the People of the United States.” Morris smiled tohimself as he reached the boarding house where he was rooming. These words, he knew,would change everything.

BackgroundGouverneur Morris was born on January 31, 1752, at his family’s estate of Morrisiana inNew York. He was given his mother’s maiden name as his first name. (How Americanspronounced this French name is unclear, though it was likely “Gov-er-neer.”) Morrisentered King’s College (now Columbia University) of New York at age twelve. During avisit home, Morris’s right arm was badly burned when a pot of scalding water overturnedon him. The arm was badly crippled for the rest of his life.

In 1771, at the age of nineteen, Morris was admitted to the New York bar. He tookan interest in politics but hesitated to join the Patriot cause. An aristocrat, he worriedthat a revolution would lead to the breaking down of the social order. “The mob beginto think and to reason,” Morris said of his fellow Americans in 1774. “Poor reptiles!” Buthe eventually decided to align himself with the Revolutionary movement, hoping that hecould steer it away from radical paths.

Revolution and LossIn 1775, Morris was elected to New York’s Provincial Congress, an assembly organized bythe Patriots. Morris became a leading advocate of American independence, and he helpedwrite New York’s new constitution of 1777. The next year, Morris was sent to theContinental Congress. He served on a military committee and visited Valley Forge duringthe famous winter of 1777–1778. The sight of the suffering soldiers shocked Morris: “Theskeleton of an army presents itself to our eyes in a naked, starving condition, out ofhealth, out of spirits.” Morris soon became the soldiers’ champion in Congress.

Gouverneur Morris

GOUVERNEUR MORRIS (1752–1816)

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Morris signed the Articles of Confederation in 1778. The following year he movedto Philadelphia and resumed his law practice. Shortly thereafter, Morris lost his left legafter a carriage accident in the city. His left ankle was caught in the turning spokes of amoving carriage’s wheel. Doctors amputated the leg just below the knee. The rumor wasthat Morris was fleeing a jealous husband at the time. Morris never denied that this wasthe case. In fact, he seemed to enjoy the story—true or not—since it added to hisreputation as a great lover.

Morris had to use a wooden leg for the rest of his life. Neither this handicap nor hismangled right arm seemed to lessen his attractiveness to women, both married andunmarried.“Gouverneur Morris kept us in a continual smile,” recalled one young woman.

In 1781, Morris became the Assistant United States Superintendent of Finance.Lacking funds, he struggled to supply George Washington’s army during the Yorktowncampaign of 1781. Aggravated by Congress’ failure to support the troops, Morris beganto hint to some that the Continental Army itself might employ force if Congress did notact. In March 1783, the officers assembled at a barn in Newburgh, New York. Talk oftreason was in the air, as many officers whispered about marching on Philadelphia.Fortunately for the republic, Washington himself quelled the conspiracy by appearing atthe gathering.

Writing the ConstitutionIn 1787, Morris was chosen as part of Pennsylvania’s delegation to the ConstitutionalConvention. He was eager to replace the Articles of Confederation with a system thatconcentrated more power in the national government. Under the Articles, he said, “thefate of America was suspended by a hair.”

At the convention, Morris became a leader of the nationalist bloc. He advocated alifetime term for the president, a Senate appointed by the president, and a federalproperty qualification for voting. Though he lost on these and other issues, Morris spoke173 times during the convention, more than any other delegate. He was also the onlydelegate to make a lengthy speech against the institution of slavery.

Morris was appointed to the Committee of Style as the debates ended. The otherfour members of the committee gave Morris the task of editing the final language of theConstitution. Morris worked on the document for four days to fashion a concise andclear finished product. He also glossed the Constitution’s wording to enhance the powerof the new federal government. Most significantly, Morris began the Preamble with thephrase, “We the people,” to signal that the new government was not the creature of thestates but the work of the entire nation.

Paris, Retirement, and DeathMorris took no part in the ratification debates. He turned down an offer from AlexanderHamilton to co-author a defense of the Constitution, a series of essays that became TheFederalist Papers. After the adoption of the Constitution, Morris succeeded ThomasJefferson as ambassador to France. Morris showed personal courage by remaining at hispost during the bloody Reign of Terror. He was the only foreign diplomat to do so.

Morris returned to the United States in 1799. In 1809, he married a member of theprominent Randolph family of Virginia. In 1812, distressed by the United States’ waragainst Great Britain, Morris called for the secession of New York and New England

Founders and the Constitution: In Their Own Words—Volume 2

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from the Union. He wrote an Address to the People of the State of New York in which heargued for the legality of secession under the Constitution.

Morris lived long enough to see his plans for secession discredited. Four years afterthe failed secessionist proposal, Morris died at Morrisiana at the age of sixty-four.

Gouverneur Morris

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Reading Comprehension Questions

1. What two physical disabilities afflicted Morris?

2. What role did Morris play in the Newburgh Conspiracy of 1783?

3. What role did Morris play at the Constitutional Convention?

Critical Thinking Questions

4. What were Morris’s shortcomings as a human being? What were his strengths?

5. Did Morris’s justification of secession at the end of his life contradict hissupport of a strong central government at the Constitutional Convention?


Directions: For each clause of the Preamble, rewrite a version in your own words.

1. We the People of the United States,

2. in Order to form a more perfect Union,

3. establish Justice,

4. insure domestic Tranquility,

5. provide for the common defense,

6. promote the general Welfare,

7. and secure the Blessings of Liberty

8. to ourselves and our Posterity,

9. do ordain and establish this Constitutionfor the United States of America.


IN HIS OWN WORDS: GOUVERNEUR MORRISAND THE PREAMBLE TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

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Gouverneur Morris

PREAMBLE CARDS

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1. We the People of the

United States

2. in Order to form a more

perfect Union

3. establish Justice 4. insure domestic Tranquility

5. provide for the

common defense

6. promote the

general Welfare

7. and secure the Blessings

of Liberty

8. to ourselves and

our Posterity

9. do Ordain and establish

this Constitution for the

United States of America


Thomas Jefferson accurately represented theconvictions of his fellow colonists when heobserved in the Declaration of Independence thata government, to be considered legitimate, must bebased on the consent of the people and respect theirnatural rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit ofhappiness.”Along with other leading members of thefounding generation, Jeffersonunderstood that these principlesdictated that the government begiven only limited powers that,ideally, are carefully described inwritten charters or constitutions.

Modern theorists like JohnLocke and the Baron deMontesquieu had been makingthe case for limited governmentand separation of powers duringthe century prior to the AmericanRevolution. Colonial Americanswere quite familiar with Locke’sargument from his Two Treatisesof Government that “AbsoluteArbitrary Power, or Governing without settledstanding Laws, can neither of them consist with theends of Society and Government. . . .” Locke addedthat the reason people “quit the freedom of thestate of Nature [is] to preserve their Lives, Libertiesand Fortunes.” Civil society has no higher end thanto provide for the safety and happiness of thepeople, and this is best done under a system ofknown rules or laws that apply equally to “the Rich and Poor, . . . the Favorite at Court, and theCountry Man at plough.” For his part, Montesquieuargued that only where governmental power islimited in scope, and then parceled out amongdifferent departments, will people be free fromoppression. Constitutional government, formodern natural rights theorists, should be limitedgovernment dedicated to the comfortablepreservation of the people—that is, to theirsecurity, freedom, and prosperity.

John Adams echoed the beliefs of manyAmericans when he argued that only by creating abalance of forces within the government could thepeople hope to escape despotism and misery. Anunchecked legislature, he observed, would becapable not only of making tyrannical laws, but of

executing them in a tyrannical manner as well. In hisfamous draft of a constitution for the commonwealthof Massachusetts, Adams declared that the“legislative, executive and judicial power shall beplaced in separate departments, to the end that itmight be a government of laws, and not of men.”This document, along with his Defence of the

Constitutions of Government ofthe United States of America,containing a strong case for checksand balances in government,were well known to the delegateswho attended the ConstitutionalConvention of 1787.

James Wilson, one of theforemost legal scholars of thefounding period and a delegatefrom Pennsylvania at theConstitutional Convention, agreedwith Adams’ insistence that thepower of government should bedivided to the end of advancingthe peace and happiness of the

people. In the words of Wilson, “In government,the perfection of the whole depends on the balanceof the parts, and the balance of the parts consists inthe independent exercise of their separate powers,and, when their powers are separately exercised,then in their mutual influence and operation onone another. Each part acts and is acted upon,supports and is supported, regulates and isregulated by the rest.”

Both the Articles of Confederation and theConstitution of the United States provided forgovernments with limited powers. As John Jay haddiscovered as America’s secretary of foreign affairs,the power of the central government was severelylimited under the Articles and, hence, could betrusted to a unitary legislative department. Fear ofgovernmental tyranny and a desire to preserve thepower enjoyed by the new states resulted in thecreation of a central government that could noteffectively oversee interstate commerce or do otherthings that were critical to ensuring the safety andhappiness of the people. In a letter to EdmundRandolph at the end of 1786, George Washingtonbemoaned the “awful situation of our affairs”which he attributed to “the want of sufficient power

LIMITED GOVERNMENT� �


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in the foederal head.”Washington quickly joined themovement to create a new governmental systemthat was equal to “the exigencies of Union,” toquote from the instructions given the delegates tothe Constitutional Convention of 1787.

The Constitution of 1787 grew out of a plandrafted largely by James Madison during the winterand spring before the Convention. The “VirginiaPlan” proposed a central government that wassupreme over the states. Evidence that the nationalgovernment was to be entrusted with considerablepower could be found in the provisions for abicameral legislature andindependent executive andjudicial departments.

The delegates whoattended the ConstitutionalConvention were sufficientlyversed in modern politicaltheory to understand thatthey would have to dividethe power of the national government if theyintended to entrust it with real authority over thelives of the people and the states. They understoodthe dangers of imparting considerable politicalpower to a unitary sovereign. In this connection,there was never any doubt in their minds that theyshould create a government of “delegated andenumerated” powers, that is, that the governmentshould only be entrusted with specified(enumerated) powers that derived directly fromthe people. While they worried about the“turbulence and follies” of democracy, theyrecognized that government had to be based on theconsent of the people to be legitimate.

The Virginia Plan anticipated the bicamerallegislature and independent executive and judicialdepartments found in the United States Constitutiontoday. Building on Madison’s model, the delegatesassigned responsibilities to the departments basedon their peculiar characteristics. The six-year termof senators, for example, seemed to make this aproper institution to involve in foreign policy (e.g.,ratification of treaties) since senators would havemore time than members of the House ofRepresentatives to acquaint themselves withinternational affairs and their longer terms andlarger constituencies (entire states) also would givethem more freedom to attend to matters otherthan the immediate interests of constituents backhome. The House of Representatives was entrustedwith the important power to initiate revenue(taxation) bills precisely because the members of

this chamber are tied so closely to the people byshort terms and small districts.

In addition to matching powers andgovernmental responsibilities, the delegates werecareful to position each department to “check andbalance” the other departments. Examples are the executive’s veto power, the congressionalimpeachment power, and the judicial review powerentrusted to the Supreme Court, the only nationalcourt formally established by the Constitution.Although in good Lockean fashion the legislativedepartment was designed to be the preeminent

department, it was stillsubjected to checks by theother branches of thegovernment. Separation ofpowers as well as the systemof checks and balances weredevices for reducing the threatof governmental tyranny, notexcluding legislative tyranny.

However, the constitutional arrangement, putinto its final wording by Gouverneur Morris, wasnot driven entirely by a desire to eliminate thethreat of tyrannical government. The system ofseparated and divided powers also was intended topromote competence in government. Thepresident can employ his veto not only to checklegislative action that he considers irresponsible,but to provoke Congress to improve a legislativeenactment. The Senate can use its authority toratify presidential nominations of cabinet officersor judges to ensure that qualified candidates arenamed to fill these positions.

Writing in Federalist No. 9, Alexander Hamiltonidentified the principle of separated and dividedpowers, along with checks and balances, as amongthe inventions of the new science of politics thathad made republican government defensible.Madison described in Federalist No. 51 the benefitsof the governmental arrangement represented inthe new Constitution: “In the compound republicof America, the power surrendered by the people isfirst divided between two distinct governments,and then the portion allotted to each subdividedamong distinct and separate departments. Hence adouble security arises to the rights of the people.The different governments will control each other,at the same time that each will be controlled byitself.” Significantly, Anti-Federalists as well asFederalists agreed that governmental powersshould be limited and that these powers should besubject to internal as well as external checks.

Limited Government

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There was never any doubt in theirminds that they should create agovernment of “delegated and

enumerated” powers . . .


It is important to emphasize that the Framerssettled on an arrangement that divided yet blendedthe legislative, executive, and judicial powers. Thisfacilitates interdepartmental checking whilepromoting mature deliberation. Their aim was tocreate a decent and competent democracy, somethingbeyond mere non-tyrannical government. Theyplaced the whole of the government, and even thepeople, under constitutional limitations. TheConstitution is the supreme law of the land, notthe enactments of Congress or the order of thepresident or the momentary will of the people. AsChief Justice Marshall declared in Marbury v.Madison (1803), “The distinction between agovernment with limited and unlimited powers isabolished, if those limits do not confine the personson whom they are imposed, and if acts prohibitedand acts allowed, are of equal obligation.” Even the

desires of the people are held in check by theConstitution. The political system still meets thecriteria of democratic government, however, sincethe people hold the power, through theirrepresentatives, to amend the Constitution.

The paradigm of constitutional governmentembraced by the American people in 1787, that is,limited government based on the consent of thepeople and committed to the protection offundamental rights, has become the dominant modelthroughout the world. The rhetoric of rights, whethercouched in the language of natural rights or humanrights, is universally appealing. Also universallyaccepted is the argument that rights are most securewhen governmental powers are limited in scopeand subject to internal and external checks.

David E. Marion, Ph.D.Hampden-Sydney College


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Suggestions for Further ReadingFrohnen, Bruce (ed.). The American Republic: Primary Sources. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2002.Kurland, Philip B. and Ralph Lerner (eds.) The Founders’ Constitution. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1987.Mansfield, Harvey C., Jr. Taming the Prince. New York: The Free Press, 1989.McDonald, Forrest. A Constitutional History of the United States. New York: Franklin Watts, 1982.Storing, Herbert J. What the Anti-Federalists Were For. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.Wood, Gordon. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787. New York: W.W. Norton, 1969.


gouverneur morris (1752–1816) - bill of rights …...the patriots.morris became a leading advocate...

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