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| Robert Morris portrait by Charles Wilson Peale |
Robert Morris, Jr. (January 20, 1734 – May 8, 1806) was an
English-born merchant and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as
a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, the Second Continental Congress, and
the United States Senate, and he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence,
the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution. From 1781 to
1784, he served as the Superintendent of Finance of the United States, becoming
known as the "Financier of the Revolution." Along with Alexander
Hamilton and Albert Gallatin, he is widely regarded as one of the founders of
the financial system of the United States.
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| Chorley Court where Blackburn Assurance Buildings now stands |
Robert Morris, Jr. was born in 1734 in Chorley Court where Blackburn Assurance Buildings now stands, the son of Robert Morris, Sr. and Elizabeth Murphet Morris. Robert’s mother died when he was two and he was brought up by his maternal grandmother.
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| The plaque commemorating Robert Morris in the lobby of the LCVS building in Dale Street, Liverpool, the site where he was born |
His father, Robert Morris, Sr., was born at Liverpool in 1700
and was an ironworker. He emigrated to America and began building a successful
career in Oxford, Maryland. He came to Maryland about 1738 as agent for Foster,
Cunliffe and Sons of Liverpool, for whom he purchased and shipped baled leaf tobacco
to England.
When he reached 13 years of age Robert Morris emigrated from
Liverpool to Maryland to join his father Robert was tutored by the Reverend
William Gordon but completed only one year of formal education.
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| Mary Morris, Robert Morris's wife portrait by Charles Wilson Peale |
After brief schooling at Philadelphia, Robert Morris Jr,
obtained employment with Thomas and Charles Willing's well-known
shipping-banking firm. In 1754 he became a partner and for almost four decades
was one of the company's directors as well as an influential Philadelphia
citizen. Wedding Mary White at the age of 35, a year later, in 1770, he bought
an eighty acre farm on the eastern bank of the Schuylkill River where he built
a home he named “The Hills” in an area that is now Fairmount Park. This
beautiful estate had a greenhouse where he grew oranges and pineapples, two
farmhouses, barns, and various other buildings. He went on to father five sons
and two daughters.
After the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, he
helped procure arms and ammunition for the revolutionary cause, and in late
1775 he was chosen as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. He worked
closely with General Washington, wheedled money and supplies from the states,
borrowed money in the face of overwhelming difficulties, and on occasion even
obtained personal loans to further the war cause.
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| Morris owned what became known as the President's House in Philadelphia |
As a member of Congress, he served on the Secret Committee
of Trade, which handled the procurement of supplies, the Committee of
Correspondence, which handled foreign affairs, and the Marine Committee, which
oversaw the Continental Navy. Morris was a leading member of Congress until he
resigned in 1778. Out of office, Morris refocused on his merchant career and
won election to the Pennsylvania Assembly, where he became a leader of the
"Republican" faction that sought alterations to the Pennsylvania
Constitution.
Immediately following his congressional service, Morris sat
for two more terms in the Pennsylvania legislature (1778-81). During this time,
Thomas Paine and others attacked him for profiteering in Congress, which
investigated his accounts and vindicated him. Nevertheless, his reputation
suffered. Although Morris was re-elected to the Pennsylvania legislature for
1785-86, his private ventures consumed most of his time.
Robert and Mary Morris were greatly honoured and respected
by the Washingtons. From a source in the Queens of American Society, we learn
that “At Mrs. Washington’s drawing rooms, Mrs. Morris always sat at her right
hand; and at all the dinners, public or private, at which Mr. Morris was a
guest, that man was placed at the right of Mrs. Washington.
Partners of Robert Morris started buying up thousands of acres
in Washington, DC and entangled him in a massive losing venture. They arranged
with a group of investors to take over the properties, but after the deal was
signed the investors reneged. At one point Morris and his partners believed
that they had a new loan from Holland and exercised options for over 6 million
acres. The loan failed to materialize due to the French Revolution and the rise
of Napoleon and Morris was blamed for a recession in the middle states. His
political enemies used this event as the basis for attacking his programs of
free market capitalism, and moved their agrarian agenda forward.
Morris declared
bankruptcy in February 1798 and was taken to Prune Street debtors’ prison where
he remained in custody for three and a half years. By the time he was released in 1801, under a
federal bankruptcy law, however, his property and fortune had vanished, his
health had deteriorated, and his spirit had been broken. He lingered on in
poverty and obscurity, living in a simple Philadelphia home on an annuity
obtained for his wife by fellow-signer Governor Morris.
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| Statue of Robert Morris in Independence National Historical Park |
Robert Morris died in 1806 in his 73d year and was buried in
the yard of Christ Church.
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