USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the olden time; being a collection of the memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the earliest settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, Vol. III > Part 27
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Robert, the son, at an early age came to Philadelphia, and en- tered the counting-house of Mr. Charles Willing, one of the first merchants of his day, and subsequently in 1754, at the age of twenty, formed a copartnership with his son, Thomas Willing, which lasted until 1793, a period of thirty-nine years, and the firm of Willing & Morris became the best known and largest importing house in the colonies. In October, 1765, upon the arrival of the "Royal Charlotte," carrying the obnoxious stamped paper for the colonies, a town meeting was held at the State House to prevent the landing of the stamps, and a com- mittee was appointed to wait upon John Hughes, the stamp dis- tributor, and demand his resignation of the office. On this com- mittee Mr. Morris was appointed, and from Hughes's letters* it would appear that he and James Tilghman were the spokesmen on the occasion. Later in the same year Mr. Morris signed the Non-Importation Resolutions and Agreement of the Merchants of Philadelphia, and in January, 1766, was appointed one of the first wardens of the port of Philadelphia by the Assembly of Pennsylvania. Upon the formation of a Committee of Safety for the Province, in June, 1775, Mr. Morris was made vice- president, Franklin being the head, and continued in the office until the dissolution of the Committee, in July, 1776.
* Hazard's Register, 247.
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The appointment of Mr. Morris by the Assembly of Penn- sylvania on the 3d of November, 1775, as one of the delegates to the second Congress, then in session at Philadelphia since May 10th, was his first entrance into important public life. Soon af- ter he had taken his seat he was added to and made chairman of the Secret Committee, which had been selected in September to contract for the importation of arms and ammunition. On the 11th of December he was designated as one of the committee to devise ways and means for furnishing the colonies with a naval armament, and subsequently, on the formation of a naval com- mittee, he was made a member. In April, 1776, Mr. Morris was specially commissioned to negotiate bills of exchange, and to take other measures to procure money for the Congress. When Richard Henry Lee's resolution of June 7th came up for final action on July 2d, the day we celebrate, he, with John Dickin- son, Thomas Willing, and Charles Humphreys, voted against independence; and afterward, on the FOURTH, when the Decla- ration was submitted for approval, he and Dickinson absented themselves from their seats in Congress. His action was of course much commented upon, and John Adams, the most ardent and at the same time the most severe and censorious of his contemporaries, wrote to General Gates: "You ask me what you are to think of Robert Morris? I will tell you what I think of him. I think he has a masterly understanding, an open temper, and an honest heart; and if he does not always vote for what you and I think proper, it is because he thinks that a large body of people remains who are not yet of his mind." This query was doubtless occasioned by the apparent inconsistency of Mr. Morris's action with his views expressed to General Gates in a letter written from Philadelphia on April 6th, 1776, in which he says:
" Where the plague are these Commissioners? If they are to come, what is it that detains them? It is time we should be on a certainty, and know positively whether the liberties of America can be established and secured by reconciliation, or whether we must totally renounce connection with Great Britain, and fight our way to a total independence. Whilst we continue thus firmly united amongst ourselves, there is no doubt but either of these points may be carried ; but it seems to me we shall quarrel about which of these roads is best to pursue, unless the Commis- sioners appear soon and lead us into the first path, therefore I wish them to come, dreading nothing so much as even an appear- ance of division amongst ourselves." Mr. Morris's reason for this course was that he considered the act premature and un- necessary, that the colonies were not yet ready for independence ; and that his motives were respected and sanctioned by his con- stituents, and his patriotism never questioned, are shown by the fact that on the 20th of the same month he, alone of the mem-
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bers who had voted with him, was re-elected a delegate. On this same day he wrote "From the Hills on Schuylkill" to Joseph Reed : "I have uniformly voted against and opposed the Declaration of Independence, because, in my poor opinion, it was an improper time, and will neither promote the interest nor re- dound to the honor of America; for it has caused division when we wanted union, and will be ascribed to very different principles than those which ought to give rise to such an important measure. I did expect my conduct on this great question would have pro- cured my dismission from the great Council, but find myself disappointed, for the Convention has thought proper to return me in the new delegation ; and although my interest and in- clination prompt me to decline the service, yet I cannot depart from one point which first induced me to enter the public line. I mean an opinion that it is the duty of every individual to act his part in whatever station his country may call him to, in hours of difficulty, danger, and distress. Whilst I think this a duty, I must submit, although the councils of America have taken a dif- ferent course from my judgment and wishes. I think that the individual who declines the service of his country because its councils are not conformable to his ideas, makes but a bad sub- ject ; a good one will follow if he cannot lead." Subsequently, on the 2d of August, when the engrossed Declaration was laid on the table to be signed, he subscribed, with firm hand and un- faltering heart, his signature to our Magna Charta. This act was not inconsistent with his earlier course, for in that brief month great changes had taken place.
He cannot, however, be said to have been, like Sam. Adams, " BURNING FOR INDEPENDENCE," for while he was ever earnest in his exertions to withstand the encroachments of the British crown, he afterward, on several occasions, expressed his great regret for the act. In October, 1777, after the surrender of Burgoyne, he wrote to Gates :
" Mr. Johnson, and, indeed, all the other Maryland delegates, are at home forming a Constitution. This seems to be the pres- ent business of all America, except the army. It is the fruit of a certain premature declaration which, you know, I always opposed. My opposition was founded on the evil consequences I foresaw, or thought I foresaw, and the present state of several of the colonies justifies my apprehension. We are disputing about liberties, privileges, posts, and places, at the very time we ought to have nothing in view but the securing of those objects, and placing them on such a footing as to make them worth con- tending for amongst ourselves hereafter. But instead of that, the vigor of this and several other States is lost in intestine divisions ; and unless this spirit of contention is checked by some other means, I fear it will have a baneful influence on the meas- ures of America. Nothing do I wish for more than a peace on
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terms honorable and beneficial to both countries ; and I am con- vinced it is more consistent with the interest of Great Britain to acknowledge our independence and enter into commercial treaties with us than to persist in attempting to reduce us to uncondi- tional submission. I hope we shall never be reduced to such a vile situation whilst a true friend of America and freedom ex- ists. Life would not be worth having, and it is better to perish by the sword than to drag out our remaining days in misery and scorn ; but I hope Heaven has better things in store for the vo- taries of such a cause."
In December, 1776, when Congress retired to Baltimore on the approach of Cornwallis, a committee, consisting of Mr. Morris, George Clymer, and George Walton, was appointed to remain in Philadelphia, with extensive power to execute all necessary public business. It was just at this period that Washington wrote to Morris from above Trenton that unless he had a certain amount of specie at once he would be unable to keep the army together, and could not foretell the result. Morris on his per- sonal credit borrowed a sufficient sum, forwarded it to Washing- ton, and enabled him to finish the victory over the Hessians at Trenton by his success at Princeton.
On the 10th of March, 1777, Mr. Morris was a third time sent as a delegate to Congress, and soon after was placed on the Committee of Commerce, which succeeded the Secret Committee. When Hancock, in the fall of this year, on account of his ill- health, decided to resign his place in Congress, Mr. Morris was urged to accept the Presidentship, but he declined to serve, as it would interfere entirely with his private business and disarrange his public engagements. Henry Laurens was therefore chosen as Hancock's successor. In November Mr. Morris was selected with Elbridge Gerry to repair to the army, and confer confidentially with the Commander-in-chief as to the best means of providing for the Army. On the 13th of December, he was again re-elected to Congress, and on the 9th day of July, 1778, led the Pennsyl- vania delegation in signing the " Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States," under which the govern- ment was carried on until supplanted, ten years later, by the Constitution of the United States. In August, he was appoint- ed a member of the Committee of Finance, and in the spring of 1780 organized the Bank of Pennsylvania, " to supply the army with provisions for two months," and to it subscribed £10,000. Early in the year 1781, Congress found it necessary to organize the Executive departments of the government, and, " whatever may have been thought, in regard to the candidates suitable for the other departments, there was but one opinion in Congress and in the nation as to the proper person for taking charge of the finances, then in a dilapidated and most deplorable condition. The public sentiment every where pointed to Robert Morris, whose great
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experience and success as a merchant, his ardor in the cause of American liberty, his firmness of character, fertility of mental resources, and profound knowledge of pecuniary operations qual- ified him in a degree far beyond any other person for this arduous and responsible station." * Accordingly, on the 20th of Febru- ary, at a time when Mr. Morris was a member of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, he was unanimously chosen to the office of Superintendent of Finance. This action was communicated to him by the President of Congress in the following letter :
" PHILADELPHIA, February 21, 1781.
"SIR: By the enclosed copy you will be informed that Con- gress have been pleased unanimously to elect you, Sir, to the im- portant office of Superintendent of Finance.
"It is hoped that this important call of your Country will be received by you, Sir, as irresistible.
"I have the honor to be, with sentiments of esteem and re- gard,
" Your most obedient and very humble servant, "SAM. HUNTINGTON, Presdt. " ROBERT MORRIS, Esquire."
On the 13th of March, Mr. Morris sent his reply to Congress, in which he made certain stipulations as a condition precedent upon his accepting the office. This led to a conference with a committee of the Congress specially appointed for the purpose, which resulted in the passage of certain resolutions on the 20th of March and 21st and 27th of April, in effect assenting to Mr. Morris's conditions ; and, upon receiving from the President of Congress copies of these resolutions, Mr. Morris, on May 14th, accepted the office of Superintendent of Finance. In his letter of acceptance, which is a noble eulogium upon the man who wrote it, he says : " In accepting the office bestowed on me, I sacrifice much of my interest, my ease, my domestic enjoyments, and in- ternal tranquillity. If I know my own heart, I make these sac- rifices with a disinterested view to the service of my country. I am ready to go further; and THE UNITED STATES MAY COM- MAND EVERYTHING I HAVE EXCEPT MY INTEGRITY, AND THE LOSS OF THAT WOULD EFFECTUALLY DISABLE ME FROM SERV- ING THEM MORE." From this period until November 1st, 1784, when he resigned, he continued to fill this arduous and responsible post.
In so brief a notice it is impossible to recount the duties which this appointment imposed; but it was an herculean task, which he managed so as to bring order out of chaos and success out of doubt. When the exhausted credit of the government threatened
* Jared Sparks's Life of Gouverneur Morris, vol. i. p. 231.
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the most alarming consequences ; when the army was utterly des- titute of the necessary supplies of food, clothing, arms, and am- munition ; when Washington almost began to fear for the result, Robert Morris, upon his own credit and from his private re- sources, furnished those pecuniary means without which all the physical force of the country would have been in vain; without Robert Morris the sword of Washington would have rusted in its sheath. A dispassionate foreigner, Carlo Botta, in his History of the American Revolution, says : "Certainly the Americans owed and still owe as much acknowledgment to the financial operations of Robert Morris as to the negotiations of Benjamin Franklin or even the arms of George Washington."
One of the earliest official acts of Mr. Morris was to submit to Congress, in the same month as he accepted his appointment, " A Plan for Establishing a National Bank for the United States," and, on the 31st of the following December, "The President, Directors, and Corporation of the Bank of North America " were incorporated. This was the first incorporated bank in the United States. The Assembly of Pennsylvania having in 1785 annulled the charter of the bank, Mr. Morris, at the earnest solicitation of many citizens, consented to become a candidate for the Legislature, in conjunction with his friends Thomas Fitzsimmons and George Clymer, in order to obtain, if practicable, its renewal. He was consequently elected the follow- ing year, and, although failing in the first effort, his exertions were subsequently crowned with success.
When peace had once again fallen upon the land of his adop- tion, and a fundamental law was necessary to be formed for its governance, Mr. Morris was chosen a delegate to the memorable convention which met in Philadelphia May 25th, 1787, and framed the Constitution of the United States. It was he who proposed Washington for president of that convention, and dur- ing its entire session Washington was his guest. During the deliberations of the convention he strenuously advocated the choice of Senators for life, and that they should be "men of great and established property-an aristocracy." In the course of one of his speeches he used these weighty words, which deserve to be studied carefully at the present day, with a healthy recollection of our present condition : "History proves, I admit, that men of large property will uniformly endeavor to establish tyranny. How shall we ward off these evils? Give them the second branch, the Senate, and you secure their weight for the public good. They are responsible for their conduct, and this lust of power will ever be checked by the democratic branch, and thus form the stability of your government. But if we continue changing our measures by the breath of democracy, who will confide in our engagements ? Who will trust us? Ask any person whether he has any confidence in the government of Con
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gress under the Confederation or that of the State of Pennsylva- nia, he will readily answer you 'No.' Ask him the reason, and he will tell you it is because he has no confidence in their stabil- ity." In October, 1788, he received a renewed mark of the high confidence his fellow-citizens entertained for him by being chosen the first Senator from Pennsylvania to the first Congress of the United States under the Constitution, and which assembled in New York on the 4th of March, 1789. It was mainly through his instrumentality that the seat of government was removed, the next year, to Philadelphia, where it remained temporarily for ten years, until the buildings were completed in the District of Columbia. He served a full term in the Senate, retiring in 1795. Washington desired Mr. Morris to become his Secretary of the Treasury, and upon his declining requested him to name the person most competent, in his opinion, to fill the office, which he did by naming Alexander Hamilton.
On Mr. Morris's retirement from public life, he began to spec- ulate largely in unimproved lands in all sections of the country, and in February, 1795, organized, with John Nicholson and James Greenleaf, the North American Land Company, which, through the dishonesty and rascality of Greenleaf, finally caused his ruin, and burdened the closing years of his life with utter poverty. The government, that he had carried on his own shoulders through adversity to prosperity, allowed him to remain from the 16th of February, 1798, until the 26th of August, 1801, a period of three years, six months, and ten days, an in- mate of a debtors' prison, without raising a hand to help him, thus adding another link to the chain which proves that "Re- publics are ungrateful."
Mr. Morris survived his imprisonment not quite five years, dying on the 7th of May, 1806, in his seventy-third year, and his remains repose in the family vault, Christ Church, Second street above Market street, Philadelphia. Mr. Morris was mar- ried March 2d, 1769, to Mary, daughter of Thomas and Es- ther [Huelings] White, and sister of Bishop White. They had seven children : Robert, who married Ann Shoemaker; Thom- as, who married Sarah Kane; William White; Hetty, who married James Marshall of Virginia; Charles; Maria, who married Henry Nixon; and Henry, who married Eliza Jane Smith.
Mr. Morris was a very large man, quite six feet in stature, with a full, well-formed, vigorous frame, and clear, smooth, florid complexion. His hair, sandy in youth, was worn, when gray, loose and unpowdered. His eyes were bright blue, of me- dium size, but uncommonly brilliant. There are four portraits of him. The earliest by Charles Wilson Peale, now in Inde- pendence Hall, was never like the original, and Mrs. Morris could not bear it in her sight or to hear it mentioned as a like-
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ness of Mr. Morris. The second, a miniature by Trumbull, is now in Virginia, in possession of his granddaughter, Mrs. Am- bler. The third was painted by Robert Edge Pine, the English artist, for whom Mr. Morris built a house in Eighth street below Market, and is the most familiar one, as from it all the engraved portraits have been taken. It is believed to have been a very fair likeness, and is now in possession of the family of his son, Henry Morris. The latest portrait was painted by the great genius Gilbert Stuart, and is a masterpiece of this great artist's work. As you look upon the canvas you forget it is inanimate, and feel as if you were in the very presence of the man, while that intuitive something tells you it is like as life. The original is in New York, in possession of the family of his son, Thomas Morris, and a duplicate is in possession of his granddaughter, Miss Nixon of Philadelphia.
Mr. Morris possessed naturally great intellectual qualities. His mind was acute, penetrating, and logical. His conversation was cheerful, affable, and engaging. His public speaking was fluent, forcible, and impressive, and he was listened to always with the profound attention and respect his great experience and practical good sense so justly merited. In debate his argument- ative eloquence is described as being of a high order, expressing himself in a terse and correct manner. His extensive public and private correspondence was conducted in a graceful, clear style. His manners were gracious and simple, and free from the formal- ity which generally prevailed, while at heart he was an aristocrat, and looked upon as the leader of the aristocratic party in the re- public. He was noted for his great cheerfulness and urbanity of disposition, which even under the most distressing circumstances never forsook him, and from the prison-house in adversity, as from the counting-house in prosperity, he sent familiar notes filled with amusing and sprightly expressions; but his sarcasm and invective were as sharp and severe as his benevolence and kindness were unbounded. In all his misfortunes he seldom ut- tered a complaint, placing them where they justly belonged-to his ambition for accumulating wealth. None of the many wor- thies of the Revolution stood higher in the esteem or approached nearer to the heart of Washington than Robert Morris. The pater patric's adopted son, George Washington Parke Custis, says, "If I am asked, 'And did not Washington unbend and admit to familiarity and social friendship some one person to whom age and long and interesting associations gave peculiar privilege, the privilege of the heart?' I answer, That favored in- dividual was Robert Morris." In the fall of 1798, when Wash- ington repaired to Philadelphia to superintend the organization of his last army, called together on the apprehension of war with France, "he paid his first visit to the prison-house of Robert Morris. The old man wrung the hand of the Chief
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in silence, while his tearful eye gave the welcome to such a home." Well may we repeat Whittier's words :
" What has the gray-haired prisoner done ? Has murder stained his hands with gore? Not so; his crime's a fouler one: God made the old man poor."
When General Howe, in the winter of 1776-77, advanced his army so far across Jersey as to render Philadelphia too exposed a place for Congress to hold its sessions, that body retired to Bal- timore, and a number of families, the heads of which were active leaders in the Revolution, left the city for points of greater safety. The surprise and defeat of the British at Trenton and Princeton removed all immediate danger of the capture of Philadelphia, and Congress and the citizens returned to it. The relief thus fur- nished, it was evident to many, would be but a temporary one, as Philadelphia was, without doubt, the objective point of the British commander, the capture of which he looked forward to as the final stroke to be given to the American cause; and they at once set about securing places of refuge where, in event of an- other offensive movement on the part of Sir William against the city, they could remove their families. Robert Morris was one of this number, and the letter of his wife to her mother, Mrs. White, informing her of the purchase of the residence of Baron Stiegel at Manheim by Mr. Morris, in which his family resided when the British took possession of Philadelphia in the fall of 1777, is very interesting :
" April 14, 1777. We are preparing for another flight in pack- ing up our furniture and removing them to a new purchase Mr. Morris has made ten miles from Lancaster; no other than the famous mansion that belonged to Stedman and Stiegel at the Iron Works, where you know I spent six weeks, so am perfectly well acquainted with the goodness of the house and situation. The reason Mr. Morris made this purchase, he looks upon the other not secure if they come by water. I think myself very lucky in having this asylum, it being but eight miles, fine road, from Lan- caster, where I expect Mr. Morris will be if he quits this, be- sides many of my friends and acquaintances. So I now solicit the pleasure of your company at this once famous place instead of Mennet, where perhaps we may yet trace some vestiges of the late owner's folly, and may prove a useful lesson to us his suc- cessors."
The magnificent mansion which Baron Stiegel built at Man- heim was of bricks imported from England. There was a chapel in the house, where he was accustomed to conduct divine worship for those in his employment. The internal arrangements, the wainscoting, the cornices, the landscape painting covering the walls of the parlor (a fine, piece of tapestry, a part of which has
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been presented to the Historical Society by Henry Arndt, the present proprietor of the mansion) representing scenes in falconry, and the beautiful porcelain tiles adorning the fireplaces, are all in good taste, and would be admired by good judges in our day. Everything would tend to show that the baron was a gentleman of cultivation and refinement.
Baron Stiegel, a native of Manheim, Germany, came to Amer- ica in 1757 with "good recommendations and a great deal of money." He purchased seven hundred and fourteen acres in Lancaster county, laid out the town of Manheim, built the Eliz- abeth iron-furnace and extensive glassworks. He also built a furnace and summer residence at Schæfferstown, Lebanon county. He lived in extravagant style, drove his coach-and-four, had a band of music, and when he came or went to or from his furnaces he was heralded by the firing of cannon. He said in one of his letters his glassworks alone brought him in five thousand pounds yearly. Hasting to make rich fast, he bought his partner out, but the troubles with England stopped all enterprises ; he could not meet his obligations. He struggled manfully for years, but in 1774 met with irretrievable ruin. The strange part of the story is that his end is unknown, though within the memory of those living. He certainly died in great indigence.
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