Gouverneur Morris

Remembered primarily as the author of the American Constitution’s preamble, Gouverneur Morris (b. 1752–d. 1816) was also the author of a few essays, a thousand-page long private diary, and many other documents on the state of politics in the United States and in France. Morris graduated from King’s College at the age of 19 and was, at 25, one of the most influential public figures of the state of New York. He was a member of the first, third, and fourth New York Provincial Congress and was then sent to the Continental Congress as the Revolution progressed. In 1787, Morris was greatly involved in the reformation of the Articles of Confederation: sent as one of the delegates for the state of Pennsylvania, Morris advocated a highly centralized government and was extremely vocal during the debates, arguing against slavery and proposing to elect the American president according to popular vote. Despite the compromises at the heart of the newly drafted Constitution, Morris proudly endorsed it and spread the American republican ethos across the Atlantic, in the wake of the revolutionary years that had transformed the American nation. In 1789, Morris left the United States and embarked upon a ten-year journey throughout Europe, residing mainly in Paris for the first five years. It was then that he started writing his compelling personal narrative of his Parisian life, living through the French Revolution’s daily developments and sudden upheavals. In France, not only did Morris write for himself, but he also became involved with Louis XVI’s ministers and ended up in 1791 drafting constitutions, speeches, and notes for the French king. While he had tried to help the progressive heralds of the republican doctrine in 1789, such as La Fayette who had returned from the American war of independence convinced that France needed to overhaul its monarchy, Morris eventually became an agent of the counterrevolution. Indeed, he truly believed that France was the most faithful ally of the United States, and thus it needed to remain a stable kingdom, under the authority of its king, before eventually slowly transitioning to a free, republicanized government. In spite of his rather low-profile career, compared to fellow founders and Federalist Alexander Hamilton or James Madison, Morris was an omnipresent commentator of American political and financial life. The works listed in this article aim at providing varied primary and secondary resources on the New Yorker’s career and life in order to highlight the diversity of his writings, regardless of the relatively scant attention his life and career have received since his death.