Lewis Morris
Signer of the Declaration of Independence
LEWIS
MORRIS was born on April 8, 1726 on the family manor of Morrisania in
Westchester County, New York. When
he graduated from Yale in 1746, he enhanced his already great fortune by
marrying Mary Walton. They had ten
children and had no problem supporting them. Morris
joined his father in running the estate, which upon his father's death in 1762
became his.
It
was quite surprising that this favored child of fortune, who had lived so
pleasantly as a country gentleman, should have identified himself with the
hazardous movement for independence. Tall and handsome in person, he was
courteous in manner and generous in spirit. Although
his grandfather was the first royal governor of New Jersey, Morris showed little
interest in politics until 1769 when, in opposition to Britain's determination
to tax the colonies, he won a seat in the provincial assembly. On
May 15, 1775, he took his elected seat to the Second Congress. He was placed on
a committee, chaired by General Washington, to devise the ways and means to
supply the colonies with ammunition and military stores.
At the close of the session he was sent to the western country to assist in the
difficult operation of detaching the Indians from their British allies, and
inducing them to make common cause with he colonists. He
remained at Pittsburgh until the following winter, and maintained a constant
correspondence with congress on the subject of Indian affairs.
Early
in 1776, he resumed his seat in Congress and was in June, appointed a general in
command of the Westchester County militia. Morris
should have left Congress to ward off an impending British attack on New York
which, by the end of June, had not occurred. Instead,
Morris was on hand to sign the Declaration, even though he knew that a large
British army had landed within a few miles of his estate, that their armed ships
were lying within cannon shot of his homestead, and that his extensive
possessions would probably be pillaged. "Damn
the consequences, give me the pen," Morris is said to have shouted. Soon
after, more than a thousand acres of woodland, all located on navigable water,
were burned, his house was ransacked, his family driven away, his livestock
captured, his domestics and tenants dispersed, and the entire property laid
waste and ruined. For the next six
years, he and his family suffered many privations, until the evacuation of New
York City. Early in 1777, he
relinquished his seat in congress to his half-brother, Gouverneur, on which
occasion that body passed a resolution complimenting him and his colleagues
"for their long and faithful services."
During
the balance of the Revolution, Morris divided his time between military service
and civil duties, although most of his public service was local. He
devoted himself chiefly to restoring his estate after the war was over. He
died at Morrisania on January 22, 1798 when nearly seventy-two years of age.
Click
Here to see a Slave Bill of Sale
Morris of Morrisania in West
Chester CountyNY - Extremely
Rare Slave Bill of Sale Lewis Morris to George Hunter for "… one Negro
Wench Called Sarah…" dated February 4, 1792 , 1page, 4to,
integral,signed "Lewis
Morris" and witnessed by his daughter "Sally Morris".
Morris Photo Click
Here Source: Centennial
Book of Signers
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Lewis Morris Family
MORRIS, Lewis, statesman,
born in New York city in 1671; died in Kingsbury, New Jersey, 21 May, 1746. He
was the son of Richard, an officer of Cromwell's army, who emigrated from
England to the West Indies, and afterward came to New York and purchased from
the Indians about 1650 a tract of 3,000 acres near Harlem. He died in 1673. The
son studied law, was made judge of the New Jersey superior court in 1692, and
became a member of the council. He was subsequently an active member of the
assembly, and an opponent of Governor Cornbury, against whom he drew up the
complaint that was formulated by that body, and presented it in person to Queen
Anne. He was chief justice of New York and New Jersey for several years, state
councillor from 1710 till 1738, acting governor in 1731, and governor of New
Jersey from 1738 till Isis death. He took an active part in the latter year in
bringing about the separation of New York and New Jersey.
His son, Robert Hunter Morris, jurist, born in Morrisania, New
York, about 1700 ; died in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, 27 January, 1764, was chief
justice of New Jersey in 1738-'64, member of the council of New Jersey in 1738,
and governor of Pennsylvania from 3 October, 1754, to 20 August, 1756. In 1757,
through some misunderstanding, a new chief justice for New Jersey was appointed,
but when reference was made to the supreme court of that colony, Mr. Justice
Nevill decided that Morris's commission "conferred a freehold in the
office, and nothing had beers shown to divest him thereof," in
consequence of which he retained the office till his death. As chief justice he "reduced
the pleadings to precision and method, and possessed the great perfection of his
office, knowledge and integrity in more perfection than had often been known
before in the colonies." " He was comely in appearance, graceful in
manners, and of a most imposing presence." Benjamin
Franklin said he was "eloquent, an acute sophister, and therefore
generally successful in argumentative conversation."
Robert Hunter's son, Robert Morris, jurist, born in New
Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1745; died there, 2 May, 1815, was the first chief
justice that took his seat on the bench of the supreme court of New Jersey under
the constitution of 1776. Richard Stockton was
the first that was chosen, but he declined the appointment. Morris's commission
was dated 5 February, 1777, and he resigned in 1779. He was subsequently
appointed by General Washington judge of the United States district court of New
Jersey in 1789, and held that office until his death. During the latter part of
his life his health failed, but the business of his court was unimportant, and
his nonattendance occasioned no inconvenience.
Lewis's grandson, Lewis Morris, a signer of the Declaration
of Independence, born in Morrisania, New York, in 1726" died there, 22
January, 1798, was the son of Lewis Morris, chief justice of the vice-admiralty
court, who was born in 1698 and died in 1762. He was graduated at Yale in 1746,
and at first devoted himself to the care of his extensive estate, but soon began
to take an active part in public affairs. When the authorities attempted to
enforce the act that required that additional supplies be given to the king's
troops, he did not hesitate to pronounce it tyrannical and unconstitutional.
This bold defiance was so entirely in keeping with the popular temper that, just
after the battle of Lexington, he was chosen as a delegate to the congress of
1775, and took his seat on 15 May. Subsequently he was placed on a committee, of
which General Washington was chairman, to
devise ways and means to supply the colonies with ammunition and military
stores. At the close of the session he was sent to the western country to assist
in the difficult operation of detaching the Indians from their British allies,
and inducing them to make common cause with the colonists.
He remained at Pittsburgh until the following winter, and
maintained a constant correspondence with congress on the subject of Indian
affairs. He resumed his seat at the beginning of 1776, and was placed on several
important committees. Returning to New York, Morris found that the people of the
province, and especially those of the city, did not sympathize with him in his
desire for independence, and that Governor Tryon, although he had been compelled
to take refuge on board the British fleet in the harbor, still managed, by the
use of letters, proclamations, and conciliatory addresses, to keep the minds of
the citizens in a state of hesitancy.
Morris, with other patriotic gentlemen, exerted himself to
create a better feeling, and induced the committee of safety, on 18 April, 1776,
to prohibit, under severe penalties, any intercourse with the royal fleet. When,
in the following July, Morris signed the Declaration of Independence, he knew
that a large British army had landed within a few miles of his estate, that
their armed ships were lying within cannon-shot of his homestead, and that his
extensive possessions would probably be given to pillage. Nor was he mistaken.
More than a thousand acres of woodland, all located on navigable water, were
burned, his house was spoiled and injured, his family driven away, his stock
captured, his domes-ties and tenants dispersed, and the entire property laid
waste and ruined.
For the next six years, until the evacuation of New York city,
he and his family suffered many privations. Early in 1777 he relinquished his
seat in congress to his half brother, Gouverneur, on which occasion that body
passed a resolution complimenting him and his colleagues "for their long
and faithful services." He afterward served as a member of the New York
legislature, and major-general of the state militia After peace had been
declared he returned to agricultural pursuits.
His eldest son, Lewis Morris, was graduated at Princeton in
1774, entered the army, and served as aide to General John Sullivan, with the
rank of major, throughout the latter's Indian campaign, he afterward accepted General
Nathanael Greene's invitation to enter his military family, and took part in
that officer's brilliant operations in the Carolinas. At their close he received
the thanks of congress and a colonel's commission.
Another son, Richard Valentine Morris, was appointed captain
in the navy in June, 1798, and was in command of the Mediterranean squadron in
1802-'3. He was dismissed from the service, 14 May, 1804, and died in New York
city in May, 1815.
--Lewis the signer's brother, Staats Long Morris, soldier,
born in Morrisania, New York, 27 August, 1728 ; died in 1800, entered the
British army and became captain of the 36th foot, 31 May, 1756. He was soon
afterward promoted lieutenant-colonel of the 89th Highlanders, served at the
siege of the French colony of Pondicherry, India, in 1761, was made
brigadier-general, 7 July, 1763, major-general in 1777, and general in 1796 He
married the Duchess of Gordon, and sat in parliament. In 1797 he was appointed
governor of Quebec.
--Lewis the signer's half-brother, Gouverneur Morris, senator,
born in Morrisania, New York, 31 January, 1752; died there, 6 November, 1816,
was graduated at King's (now Columbia) college in 1768, studied law, and was
admitted to the bar in 1771. At the age of eighteen he published a series of
anonymous newspaper articles against a project, then before the New York
assembly, for raising money by issuing bills of credit. He was a delegate to the
1st Provincial congress in 1775, and early attracted attention by a report and
speech on the mode of issuing a paper currency by the Continental congress, the
chief suggestions of which that body subsequently adopted. He served on the
committee that drafted the state constitution in 1776, and the following year
took the seat of his half-brother, Lewis, in the Continental congress, which he
held until 1780. When the army was in winter-quarters at Valley Forge, Mr.
Morris spent some time there as one of a committee that had been appointed to
examine, with General Washington, into the condition of the troops. He was also
chairman of a committee of five in 1779 whose duty was to consider despatches
from the American commissioners in Europe, and whose report formed the basis of
the treaty of peace.
In the early part of 1780 he published a series of essays
signed "An American," in the " Pennsylvania Packet,"
on the state of the national finances, which were then at their lowest ebb. In
May of the same year he was thrown from his carriage in Philadelphia, where he
was then residing, and his leg was so severely injured that it had to be
amputated. To a friend who called the next day to offer consolation, and who
pointed out the good effects that such a trial might produce on his character by
preventing him from indulging in the pleasures and dissipations of life, he
replied: " My good sir, you argue the matter so handsomely, and point
out so clearly the advantages of being without legs, that I am almost tempted to
part with the other."
During the remainder of his life he wore a wooden leg, which
once proved valuable to him. Being assailed by the Paris mob with cries of
" Aristocrat " during the French revolution, while he was driving
through the streets of that city, he turned the taunts into cheers by thrusting
his wooden leg out of the carriage-window and shouting:" An aristocrat!
Yes, one who lost his limb in the cause of American liberty." In 1781
Robert Morris (q. v.) was placed at the head of the finances of the nation,
which hitherto had been managed by a committee of congress. His first act was to
appoint Gouverneur Morris his assistant. The latter accepted the office, and
fulfilled its duties three years and a half. In 1786, on the death of his
mother, he purchased from his brother, Staats Long, the Morrisania estate, which
he henceforth made his home. In 1787 he took his seat as a delegate in the
convention that framed the United States constitution, the draft of that
instrument being placed in his hands for final revision. On 18 December, 1788,
Morris sailed for France, and reached Paris on 3 February following, where he
was engaged in the transaction of private business for the next two years.
In January, 1791, he went to England, having been appointed by
President Washington a confidential agent to negotiate with the British
government regarding certain unfulfilled articles of the treaty of peace.
Conferences were prolonged till September without result. During his stay in
London he was made United States minister to France. Being succeeded in that
office by James Monroe in August, 1794, he made an
extensive tour throughout Europe, and while at Vienna used strenuous efforts to
obtain the release of Lafayette from confinement in the fortress of Olmutz, He
returned to this country toward the close of 1798, and the following spring was
elected to the United States senate from New York, to fill a vacancy, and served
from 3 May, 1800, till 3 March, 1803. During this period he actively opposed the
abolition of the judiciary system and the discontinuance of direct taxation, but
favored the purchase of Louisiana. He was an active advocate of New York's great
canal project, and acted as chairman of the canal commissioners from their first
appointment in 1810 until his death.
Morris, like many energetic men, was in the habit of
expressing his opinions with a freedom that often involved him in difficulties,
which his gift of sarcasm tended to increase. His openness and sincerity of
character, however, were held by his friends to atone for these defects. Of his
abilities as a public speaker James Renwick says in his "Life of
Clinton" : " Morris was endowed by nature" with all the
attributes necessary to the accomplished orator, a fine and commanding person, a
most graceful demeanor, which was rather heightened than impaired by the loss of
one of his legs, and a voice of much compass, strength, and richness."
In person he so closely resembled Washington that he stood as
a model of his figure co Houdon, the sculptor. When on his death-bed he said: "Sixty-five
years ago it pleased the Almighty to call me into existence here, on this spot,
in this very room; and how shall I complain that He is pleased to call me
hence?" On the day of his death he asked about the weather. Being told
it was title, he replied (his mind, like Daniel Webster's, recurring to Gray's
"Elegy"): "A beautiful day; yes, but Who, to dumb
forgetfulness a prey, This pleasing, anxious being ere resigned, Left the warm
precincts of the cheerful day, Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind
?'"
He was the author of "Observations on the American
Revolution" (1779); "An Address to the Assembly of Pennsylvania
on the Abolition of the Bank of North America" (1785) ; "An
Address in Celebration of the Deliverance of Europe from the Yoke of Military
Despotism " (1814); an "Inaugural Discourse" before
the New York historical society on his appointment as its president, and funeral
orations on Washington, Hamilton, and Governor George Clinton. He also
contributed, toward the close of his life, political satires in prose and verse
to the newspaper press. See "Memoirs of Gouverneur Morris, with Selections
from his Papers and Correspondence," by Jared Sparks (3 vols., Boston,
1832), and "Gouverneur Morris," by Theodore Roosevelt, in the
"American Statesman Series" (1888). His granddaughter, ANNIE CARY, is
now (1888) preparing for publication the "Journals and Letters" of her
grandfather.
--Lewis the signer's son, Jacob Morris, soldier, born in
Morrisania, 28 December, 1755; died in Butternuts. Otsego County, New York, 10
June, 1844, was educated for a merchant's career, but, yielding to patriotic
impulses, offered his services to congress, and was appointed aide-de-camp to
General Charles Lee, with whom he went to the south and served with credit at
Fort Moultrie and in many other engagements. He also was attached to the staff
of General Nathanael Greene. On the declaration of peace he returned to New York
city, and was subsequently elected to both the lower and upper branches of the
legislature. In 1787 he removed to Butternuts, Otsego County, New York
--Jacob's nephew, Lewis Nelson Morris, born in Albany, New
York, in 1800: died at Monterey, Mexico, 21 September, 1846, was the son of
Staats Lewis, who served on the staff of General Anthony Wayne. He was graduated
at the United States military academy, and made 2d lieutenant in the artillery
corps, 1 July, 1820. He was promoted 1st lieutenant, 3d infantry, on 31
December, 1825, and captain, 31 October, 1833. After being engaged for more than
twenty years on frontier duty, he served in Texas in 1845-'6 during its
occupation by United States troops, and in the campaign in Mexico in 1846,
taking part in the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palnm, and Monterey, in
which latter engagement he was killed while gallantly leading his regiment in an
assault on the enemy's works. He was brevetted major for meritorious conduct at
Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma.
--Lewis N. Morris' son, Lewis Owen Morris, soldier, born in
Albany, New York, 14 August, 1824; died in Cold Harbor, Virginia, 3 June, 1864,
received a commission as 2d lieutenant in the United States army, 8 March, 1847,
and took part in the siege of Vera Cruz, and the subsequent advance on the city
of Mexico. At the beginning of the civil war he had attained the rank of captain
in the 1st artillery. During the winter of 1860-'1 he was stationed in Texas,
and his battery was the only one that did not surrender to the Confederates. In
the winter of 1861-'2 he was designated to direct the operations against Fort
Macon, North Carolina, which he captured and afterward commanded. The following
summer he was appointed colonel of the 113th New York volunteers, which,
reaching Washington when the city was menaced by General Robert
E. Lee, was converted into a heavy artillery regiment. It was stationed at
Fort Reno, one of the works defending the National capital, but the inactive
life did not suit Colonel Morris, and he pleaded repeatedly to be sent to the
field. At the beginning of the campaign of 1864 his wish was gratified, and
during all the engagements from Spottsylvania till his death he commanded a
brigade. He fell in the battle of Cold Harbor when, like his father, he was
cheering his men in an assault. He was greatly beloved and admired as an office
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