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Gouverneur Morris: An Independent Life

Online ISBN:
9780300127041
Print ISBN:
9780300099805
Publisher:
Yale University Press
Book

Gouverneur Morris: An Independent Life

William Howard Adams
William Howard Adams
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Published online:
31 October 2013
Published in print:
11 October 2003
Online ISBN:
9780300127041
Print ISBN:
9780300099805
Publisher:
Yale University Press

Abstract

This book is a biography of one of the most colorful and least well-known of the founding fathers. A plain-spoken, racy patrician who distrusted democracy but opposed slavery and championed freedom for all minorities, an important player in the American Revolution, later an astute critic of the French Revolution. Gouverneur Morris remains an enigma among the founding generation. This biography tells his robust story, including his celebrated love affairs during his long stay in Europe. Morris's public record is astonishing. One of the leading figures of the Constitutional Convention, he put the Constitution in its final version, including its opening Preamble. As Washington's first minister to Paris, he became America's most effective representative in France. A successful, international entrepreneur, he understood the dynamics of commerce in the modern world. Frankly cosmopolitan, he embraced city life as a creative center of civilization and had a central role in the building of the Erie Canal and in laying out the urban grid plan of Manhattan. The book describes Morris's many contributions, talents, sophistication, and wit, as well as his romantic liaisons, free habits, and free speech. It brings to life a fascinating man of great stature, a founding father who receives his due at last.

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