History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 195

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I > Part 195

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This representation had a good effect in England, for in 1708 Morris was again appointed to the Council, Cornbury having been superseded by Lovelace ; but on Lovelace's death and Ingoldsby coming into power, Morris, who did not agree with the latter, was again suspended. In 1710, Robert Hunter being made Governor, Morris was again at the head of the Coun- eil.

He at that time took a very active part in the busi- -

1 Papers of Governor Morris-New Jersey Historical Society (William A. Whitehead, editor).

ness of New York. He was a warm supporter of Hunter's administration, and on one occasion, while a member of Assembly, was expelled from the House for his violent language in support of the Governor. He was then a member elect from the borough of Westchester, but was re-elected by his constituents. He was appointed chief justice of New York in 1720 by Burnet, Hunter's successor, and continued as such through Burnet's and Montgomerie's administrations. Moutgomerie died in 1731, and after his death and until the arrival of Cosby, in 1732, Morris acted as Gover- nor of New Jersey, still retaining his position of chief justice in New York. On the accession of Cosby Morris' relations to the government changed and he was suspended from his office as chief justice by Cosby after having served as such for twenty years. The immediate cause of his suspension was his opposition to the views of his associate jndges in relation to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in equity cases. Cosby and Rip Van Dam had a controversy before the Supreme Court involving their respective rights to the remuneration received by the latter as acting Governor during the period which elapsed between the death of Montgomerie and the arrival of Cosby. Morris decided in favor of Van Dam. Cosby was much displeased with the opinion, and on the Gover- nor demanding a copy of it, Morris had it printed and sent to him with a letter which was decidedly dis- courteous to the Governor. Cosby removed him in 1733 and appointed James De Lancey as his successor. This De Lancey was the father of De Lancey of De Lancey's Mills, at West Farms. For note as to De Lancey family see supra.

His removal, however, made him more popular with the people. The county elected him at onee to the Assembly, and the borough of Westchester elected his son Lewis. On his visiting New York salutes were fired in his honor, and deputations of citizens met and conducted him with loud acclamations to a public and splendid entertainment. Cosby's admin- istration was so distasteful to his opponents that, in 1734, they determined to lay their grievances before the crown, and Morris was selected as the messenger to go to England for that purpose. He laid the case before the Privy Council, aud obtained a decision pronouncing the Governor's reasons for his removal as chief justice insufficient, but his mission was other- wise unsuccessful. Cosby died in 1736, and Morris returned to America. He received an ovation on reaching New York. In 1738 he was appointed colonial governor of New Jersey, and continued as such until 1746, when he died. His remains werc buried at Morrisania. By will he gave all that part of the Manor of Morrisania that lay to the eastward of Mill Brook, to his eldest son, Lewis Morris, and that to the west of Mill Brook, which he called Old Morrisania, to his wife during her life, and on her death to his son, Lewis, during his life, with power to dispose of the same by will. His son, Robert

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Hunter Morris, then chief justice of New Jersey, received his father's New Jersey property.

Goveruor Morris's widow died in 1752, and we thus find her son Lewis possessed of all the mauor.

Lewis Morris, the third proprietor, was born in 1698. He resided at Morrisania, and was twice mar- ried, his first wife being a Miss Staats, and his second a Miss Gouverneur. He was several times a member of the Colonial Assembly, was also judge of the Court of Admiralty, and at one time was judge of the Court of Oyer and Terminer. He died in 1762. His issue were numerous; by Miss Staats he had Lewis, after- wards the signer of the Declaration of Independence, who commanded the Westchester militia during the Revolution, and married Miss Mary Walton. He died in 1798. His second son, Staats Long Morris, was born in 1728. He held a commission in the British army as lieutenant-general, and remained in England during the American Revolution. He mar- ried the widow of Lord George Gordon. Richard, the third son, was born in 1730. He was a graduate of Yale College, and a lawyer by profession. He was admitted to the bar in 1752, and in 1762 was appointed judge of the Court of Vice-Admiralty. In 1775, having sided with the colony, he resigned his commission. Tryon, the royal governor, requested him to continue in office, but his answer was that he could not sacri- fice his principles to his interest. Special orders were giveu by Tryon to take possession and then to burn his country seat at Fordham. The estate was devastated and Mr. Morris took refuge within the American lines. On July 31, 1776, the New York provincial Assembly unanimously appointed him Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, but he courteously declined the office. In 1778 he was made a senator and in 1779 Chief Jus- tice of the Supreme Court of the State, succeeding John Jay, who had been made Chief Justice of the United States. He was a member of the State Convention which ratified the Federal Constitution and in 1790 resigned his office as Chief Justice and retired on his farm at Scarsdale, in Westchester County, where, on April 11, 1810, he died. He married Miss Sarah Lud low and by her had two sons and one daughter. They were, Lewis R. Morris, who afterward resided in Ver- mont and during the Revolution was au aide-de- camp to General Sullivan and after the war a mem- ber of the House of Representatives; Robert Mor- ris, who finally settled on the family estate at Ford- ham; and Mary, who married Major William Pop- ham, of Scarsdale, who served as brigade-major dur- ing the Revolution and was for many years clerk of the Court of Exchequer of this State. The fourth son of Lewis Morris the third was Gouverneur, son of Mr. Morris' second wife, Miss Gouverneur.

Gouverneur Morris was born in 1752, graduated at Columbia College, in May, 1768, and commenced the study of the law, under the direction of William Smith, one of the most eminent lawyers and after- ·wards chief justice of the colony of New York. He

was admitted to the bar in 1771, and joined with the liberal or anti-governmental party almost on the occa- sion of his becoming a member of the profession. We find from Sparks' life and letters of Gouverneur Morris, that, though only a lad of twenty-three years of age, he was elected from Westchester County a member of the Provincial Congress of the colony of New York in 1775. At that early age he possessed the ability to advocate the issuing of a Continental currency, and the eloquence and knowledge of his subject to convince his hearers to such a point that it was recommended to the Coutinental Congress for adoption. He did uot at that time give up the hope of harmonizing the differences between the mother country and the colonies, for he had a mother who deeply sympathized with the royalists and relatives who were in the employ of the government, but he never forgot the rights of the people of the colony. He was one of the committee who, on behalf of the colony, received General Washington when he passed on his way through New York to assume the com- mand of the Continental troops at Boston, already standing in an hostile attitude before Gage and Howe at that city, but at the same time he counselled that all due respect should be paid to Tryon, the Colonial Governor, at New York until the reconciliatory over- tures of the New York Congress had beeu acted on by the home government. But, in the same year, and only a few mouths later, the course of events drove him forever to the American side. The Declaration of Independence had been adopted by the Continen- tal Congress and Morris's half-brother Lewis was a Representative of New York in that body. All the other States had signed; New York held back for the reason that her delegates had not, under their ap- pointment by the Provincial Legislature, any author- ity to sign. Gouverneur Morris, on the floor of the State Legislature, then showed by a masterly argu- ment why for their security the States must declare their independence of foreign rule and our Colonial Legislature after the passage of the Declaration ordered Lewis Morris and the other representatives of that colony to append their signatures to it.

But he had still valuable duties to perform for his native colony, not yet a State. His aged mother had two daughters married to Royalists, and a third had just died. Gouverneur, while serving in the State Congress at Fishkill, received uews of his sister's death. His letter to his mother, given at length by Mr. Sparks, is one of the most touching expositions of a struggle between patriotism and filial and fra- ternal love. He could not leave his post of duty, though he acknowledges it to be his mother's wish that he should. His affection for his mother and sis- ter were unbounded, but his duty was paramount be- cause he found himself in a position where it was the obligation of every good citizen to remain, where, by a superior order he was placed. He adds : "What may be the event of the present war is not in man to

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determine. Great revolutions of Empire arc seldom achieved without much human calamity; but the worst which ean happen is to fall on the last bleak mountain of America; and he who dies there in de- fenec of the injured riglits of mankind is happier than his conqueror, more beloved of mankind."

To him, as chairman of a committee of finance was referred the question as to how the sinews of war should be provided by the colony for the support of the troops in their Continental struggle. Later on we find him as one of the Committee of Safety in the north woods, advising with Schuyler as to the means of cheeking the advanee of Burgoyne from Canada. In 1777, with Jay and the others of our State's fore- fathers, he joined in formulating the first Constitu- tion of the State at Kingston.

To him belongs the honor of having at that early day suggested a constitutional provision for the abol- ishment of "domestie slavery," but he was voted down. To him and Mr. Jay, both Westchester County men, also is due the honor of that clause in the State Constitution which guarantees to all de- nominations the full exercise of their religion. Though Mr. Jay added the clause: " provided the liberty of conseienee hereby granted shall not be construed to encourage lieentiousness," Gouverneur Morris added the clause which was adopted : "or justify · practices inconsistent with the peace and safety of the State." He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1777, but did not take his seat till January, 1778.

Though then but twenty-seven years of age his reputation had preceded him, and he was immediately appointed on a committee to confer with Washing- ton as to the practical method of putting the army on a better footing. Three tedious months were spent by Morris in the camp at Valley Forge, draft- ing, with Washington and other members of the com- mittee, plans for the proper regulation of the army, its quartermaster, commissary and medieal depart- ments. To him is largely due the formulation of the organization of those important branches. No sooner was that work completed than the British Commis- sioners, sent out by Lord North, began their negoti- ations with Congress with a view to harmonizing the differenees. Morris was on the committee which con- ferred with them. About this time he was again em- barrassed by the ties of home influence. He had not seen his paternal home nor any of his relatives since the British had taken possession of New York. His mother resided within the British lines. His enemies used these facts against him. His letters to his mother passed through the enemy's hands, and that fact was also urged against his loyalty to the Amer- iean eause. But, while he wrote dutiful letters to his mother, he received none in reply. In one letter to his mother he is very outspoken, both in his af- fection for her and the cause which he eliampioned, but which his mother did not approve of. He says : "I know that for such sentiments I am called a

rebel," and that "they are not fashionable among the folks you see." He expresses love for some of his relatives, who are sympathizers with the British.

In this connection it may be well to note that be- fore the close of the war, his mother was dangerously ill. He obtained permission to visit her through the British commander at New York ; but the newspapers took the matter up. They eensured the project un- less he went inside the enemy's lines clothed with some governmental mission. He was forced by tlie advice of his friends to forego the visit. About this time he printed his "Observations on the American Revolution," which were published in London.

Dominic Tetard, of New Rochelle, having instructed the boy Morris in the French language, the latter was selected by Congress as the proper person to confer with M. Geraud, the French minister, with a view to drafting the instructions for Benjamin Franklin, the first American minister to France. In 1779 he took a prominent part in the debates in Congress with ref- erence to the terms of peace with Great Britain, which were then under discussion, and was also ehair- man of the committee which had that matter in charge. But his labors in national affairs were so extensive that he was charged with neglecting his duties to his State, and in 1779-80 he was not re- turned as a member from New York. During the time of his service as a Congressman, though serving as chairman of three committees and performing the duties above referred to, he was forced to practice his profession, as his pay as a Congressman was not suffi- cient for his living expenses. Not being returned to Congress, he practiced law in Pennsylvania, but still manifested a great interest in public affairs. In Feb- ruary and March, 1780, he wrote a series of essays on finance. In May of the latter year, he was thrown from his carriage and sustained a fracture of his left leg and a dislocation of his ankle joint. Amputation was ordered by the surgeons and Mr. Morris is said to have borne the pain manfully. The amputation is now cited by medieal authorities as being a mistake in surgery and as having been unnecessarily made.

As an illustration of his good nature and the phil- osophy with which he bore the inflietion, it is related that a pious friend who called upon him to offer his condolence, also informed him that the accident was a blessing in disguise, as it would diminish the inducements for seeking the pleasures and dissipations of life, and give him ample time for pious meditation. Morris replied : " My good sir, you argue the matter so handsomely, and point out so elearly the advan- tages of being without legs, that I am almost tempted to part with the other." In the honse at Morrisania, built by Mr. Morris in later years, are still to be seen the imprints of his wooden stump made by him in going up and down stairs. To another friend he said: "Oh, sir, the loss is much less than you imagine ; I shall doubtless be a steadier man with one leg than with two." In 1781 Robert

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Morris, superintendent of the finances, appointed Gouverneur assistant superintendent, at the enor- mous salary of eighteen hundred and fifty dollars per annum. He served in that capacity for nearly three years. He also acted as one of the commission- ers for the exchange of prisoners of war in 1782. In 1783-84 he returned to New York, the treaty of peace having been signed, and visited his mother at Mor- risania after an absence of nearly seven years. The estate had suffered much by the depredations of the troops on both sides. Timber had been cut off of four hundred and seventy-four acres of woodland and used for ship building, artillery and fire-wood. De Lancey's corps had been quartered on the property, and had erected seventy huts and cultivated the land, burning the wood for fuel. By the terms of the treaty of peace the English were bound to pay these claims, and they were duly presented to the govern- ment in England by General Staats Long Morris. Gouverneur, in the meantime, resumed the practice of the law, having resigned his position in the United States Treasury. Having made many connections in Philadelphia, he was practically a resident of that city for the next five years. In connection with Robert Morris he was engaged in many business operations, such as East India voyages on a large scale, shipments of tobacco from Virginia to France, and the smelting of iron on tlie Delaware River. He suggested a plan for the coinage of money, but Mr. Jefferson's plan was adopted by Congress.

In 1786 his mother died at Morrisania. The prop- erty cast of Mill Brook fell to the share of General Staats Long Morris, who resided in England. Gouv- erncur, as the younger son, was to receive two thou- sand pounds from Staats, who had to pay seven thou- sand pounds in all to the younger children. Lewis had already received his share of the property by possessing that portion of Morrisania which lies west of the Mill Brook. As Staats had no intention of residing in America Gouverneur purchased his share and became seized, in fee of Morrisania east of the Mill Brook, but still continued to reside in Philadel- phia. In 1787 he was elected a delegate from Penn- sylvania to the convention which formed the consti- tution of the United States and on the dissolution of the convention he repaired to Morrisania and busied himself in putting the estate in order. To arrange some matters relating to his extensive business trans- actions he sailed for France in December, 1787, and from that time down to 1792 was for several years a resident of Paris, attending, most of the time, to private affairs, traveling occasionally in England and on the continent, and in the interim acting for a short time as agent for the American government in conducting a pour parler with England with a view to an interchange of ambassadors, but without success. His journal contains much interesting information as to the politics and society of France at the time of the outbreak of the French Revolution.

In January, 1792, he was appointed minister plen- ipotentiary from the United States to the Court of France. On August 10, 1792, the King and Queen were taken prisoners by the mob, and on the 31st of August, Morris was advised by Talleyrand to ask for his passport and leave France, as the minister of foreign affairs had written him an insulting letter; but an apology having been sent, he stayed in France awaiting instructions from America as to what course he should pursue with reference to the acknowledge- ment of the new revolutionary government. He was known to be personally opposed to the principles of the revolutionists and the King intrusted to his care a large sum of money, for which he afterwards scrupulously accounted. When the Marquis of Lafay- ette was made a prisoner by the Austrian and Prus- sian governments, Morris furnished him and also his wife with funds, which were afterwards allowed as governmental disbursements by the United States. He also drafted a petition which was signed by Madame de Lafayette, asking the King of Prussia for her husband's release. He continued to reside in France during the Reign of Terror, although the diplomats from other governments had left. At one time it was reported that he had been killed by revo- lutionists. His friend, Robert Morris, wrote him from America, advising him to resign and go home, but he replied, that " it is not permitted to abandon a post in the hour of difficulty." He took up his resi- dence however, at Sainport, about thirty miles from Paris, on about twenty acres of land which he pur- chased, only coming to Paris on matters of business. Many applications were made to him to grant the privilege of American registers to French vessels. He had also to file with the French government pro- tests against the decrees of the convention, imposing restrictions on American commerce in violation of treatics already existing, and remonstrated against outrages by French privateers on American vessels. Americans were frequently imprisoned and he ob- tained their release.

In 1793-94 the American government demanded the recall of Minister Genet. This demand was of course presented by Mr. Morris to the French govern- ment and was at once acceded to. In return, France solicited Mr. Morris' recall and in reciprocity the de- mand could not be refused. In recalling him our Secretary of State assured him that he had given per- fect satisfaction, and the President gave him like as- surances. Mr. Monroe arrived in Paris in 1794 as Mr. Morris' successor. The latter then traveled ex- tensively through the principal countries of Europe. In his journal appears the celebrated saying so often quoted, which he wrote concerning the character of the Swiss : "The first lesson of trade is, My son get money. The second is My son get money honestly if you can, but get money ; the third is, My son get money, but honestly, if you would get much money." He also visited many parts of Ger-

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many, spending the winter and spring of 1795 at Altona, a suburb of Hamburgh. Later on he visited the cities of the Baltic, and in June went to London. He travelled through Great Britain, and in the follow- ing year visited Berlin, Dresden aud Vienna. There he plead for the release of Lafayette, but was unsuc- cessful. He then re-visited Berlin, and afterwards made quite a long stay at Brunswick. Iu the mean- time he was instrumental in furnishing funds for the Duke of Orleans, afterwards Louis Philippe, to visit America. In 1798 he returned to America, and at once set about improving his estate, and built the house now standing at Morrisania, and occupied by his granddaughter, Mrs. Alfred Davenport. The leg- islature of New York elected him to the United States Senate. May, 1800, he took his seat. He labored on the side of the Federalists and served but three years. As senator he advocated an internal revenue tax as preferable to a revenue raised by duties on imported articles. His party was opposed to the acquisition of Louisiana, but Mr. Morris voted for it and his argu- ment on the value of the navigation of the Mississippi river is considered one of the finest of his efforts. His term expired on March 4, 1803. A change in parties prevented his re-election, and with the expiration of his term his political life ended. He passed the re- mainder of his life at Morrisania. " An ample for- " tune, numerous friends, a charming retreat, and a " tranquil home were the elements of his happiness " and filled up the measure of his hopes."

But his mind was still amply employed. In 1803 he travelled through the New England States and the Canadas, and two or three months of each succeeding year of his life he devoted to travelling for pleasure or visiting lands in new countries in which he had largely iuvested. The cultivation of his farm, re- cciving the visits of friends and acquaintances, study and an extensive correspondence on politics and business occupied his time.

He wrote much on divers subjects. The larger part of his effusions may be found in the New York Evening Post, the Examiner and the United States Ga- zette. He became, according to Mr. Sparks, an ultra Federalist. His nom de plume was " An American." Soon after his return to America he pronounced an oration on the death of Washington, at the request of the corporation of New York. His eulogy on Hamilton is famous. He also delivered an oration in honor of the memory of George Clinton, and another on the Restoration of the Bourbons. This last was translated into French and published in Paris. He was president of the New York Historical Society. Among his guests was General Moreau, and Madame de Staël was an intimate friend and life-long corres- pondent. He married Miss Aun Carey Randolph on Christmas Day, 1809. Many give Mr. Morris the credit of originating the project of the Erie Canal.

It will be remembered that he was sent as one of the Committee of Safety to Schnyler's army, then at

Fort Edward. Though but a youth, he was filled with the project, and while arranging with Schuyler and the other persons about the details of the campaign in their leisure moments he descanted on the facilities afforded for the development of the country by the numerous water ways which intersected it. He predicted that among the "rising glories of the western world at no distant day the waters of the great inland seas would, by the aid of man, break through their barriers and mingle with those of the Hudson." While travelling in Scotland in 1795 he notes in his diary his impressions of the Caledonian Canal and says : " When I see this, my mind opens to a view of wealth for the interior of America which hitherto I had rather conjectured than seen." In 1801, after his visit to Canada and Niagara Falls, he described to a friend in London a visit to Lake Erie : "At this point commences a navi- gation of more than one thousand miles. Shall I lead your astonishment to the verge of incredulity ? I will: know then that one-tenth of the expense borne by Britain in the last campaign would enable ships to sail from London through Hudson River into Lake Erie." At a dinner party, in Washington, not many years after this letter Robert Morris asked Gouvern- eur what he would think if they were then in con- vention and it should be proposed to establish the seat of government at Newburgh, on the Hudson. He replied : " Yes, that would have been the place " for the seat of Government. And the members of "Congress could have come from all parts by water." The company were astonished and asked how. Mor- ris answered: "Why, by tapping Lake Erie and "bringing its waters to the Hudson, by an inclined plane or a water table which can be found." Simeon De Witt, Surveyor General of New York, gives Mr. Morris the credit of starting the idea of direct com- munication between Lake Erie and the Hudson, and Stephen Van Rensselaer, one of the first canal com- missioners, considered Mr. Morris " the father of our "great canal." Mr. Morris was chairman of the canal commissioners from March, 1810, until within a few months of his death. He and De Witt Clinton went on a special mission to Congress for the purpose of obtaining Federal aid for the construction of the canal, but though they drafted a bill for the purpose, it never came up, as there were too mauy divided in- terests in that body. In the midst of his labors, Mr. Morris died at Morrisania, November 6, 1816, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. His remains were buried where now St. Anne's Church stands, the east aisle covering their original resting-place. They were afterwards transferred to the family vault, which is the first one east of the church. His wife caused a marble slab to be placed over the temporary tomb, and that still remains.1

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 195

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354