Robert Morris Jr. (January 20, 1734May 8, 1806) was a British-born American merchant, investor, and politician, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Morris served in the Pennsylvania legislature, the Second Continental Congress, and the United States Senate. He was one of only two individuals (along with Roger Sherman) to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution. From 1781 to 1784, he held the post of Superintendent of Finance of the United States, a role that earned him the title "Financier of the Revolution". Alongside Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin, Morris is often regarded as a founder of the financial system of the United States.

Born in Liverpool, Morris was brought to North America by his father when he was 13 years old, quickly becoming a partner in a successful shipping firm based in Philadelphia. In the aftermath of the French and Indian War, Morris joined with other merchants in opposing British tax policies such as the 1765 Stamp Act. By 1775 he was the richest man in America. 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. 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.

Facing a difficult financial situation in the ongoing Revolutionary War, in 1781 Congress established the position of Superintendent of Finance to oversee financial matters. Morris accepted appointment as Superintendent of Finance and also served as Agent of Marine, from which he controlled the Continental Navy. He helped provide supplies to the Continental Army under General George Washington, enabling, with the help of frequent collaborator Haym Salomon, the decisive victory in the Battle of Yorktown. Morris also reformed government contracting and established the Bank of North America, the first congressionally chartered national bank to operate in the United States. Morris believed that the national government would be unable to achieve financial stability without the power to levy taxes and tariffs, but he was unable to convince all thirteen states to agree to an amendment to the Articles of Confederation. Frustrated by the weakness of the national government, Morris resigned as Superintendent of Finance in 1784.Cazorla, Frank (2019), Governor Luis de Unzaga (1717–1793) Precursor in the birth of the United States and in liberalism. Malaga Foundation/City Council. pp. 82, 90, 105, 112, Morris was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1786.

In 1787, Morris was selected as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, which wrote and proposed a new constitution for the United States. Morris rarely spoke during the convention, but the constitution produced by the convention reflected many of his ideas. Morris and his allies helped ensure that Pennsylvania ratified the new constitution, and the document was ratified by the requisite number of states by the end of 1788. The Pennsylvania legislature subsequently elected Morris as one of its two inaugural representatives in the United States Senate. Morris declined Washington's offer to serve as the nation's first Treasury Secretary, instead suggesting Alexander Hamilton for the position. In the Senate, Morris supported Hamilton's economic program and aligned with the Federalist Party. During and after his service in the Senate, Morris went deeply into debt through speculating on land, leading into the Panic of 1796–1797. Unable to pay his creditors, he was confined in the Prune Street debtors' apartment adjacent to Walnut Street Prison from 1798 to 1801. After being released from prison, he lived a quiet, private life in a modest home in Philadelphia until his death in 1806.Ryan K. Smith. Robert Morris's Folly: The Architectural and Financial Failures of an American Founder. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.

Early life Youth

Morris was born in Liverpool, England, on January 20, 1734. His parents were Robert Morris Sr., an agent for a shipping firm, and Elizabeth Murphet; biographer Charles Rappleye concludes that Morris was probably born out of wedlock. Until he reached the age of thirteen, Morris was raised by his maternal grandmother in England. In 1747, Morris immigrated to Oxford, Maryland, where his father had prospered in the tobacco trade. Two years later, Morris's father sent him to Philadelphia, then the most populous city in British North America, where Morris lived under the care of his father's friend, Charles Greenway.

Merchant career

Greenway arranged for Morris to become an apprentice at the shipping and banking firm of Philadelphia merchant Charles Willing. In 1750, Robert Morris Sr. died from an infected wound, leaving much of his substantial estate to his son. Morris impressed Willing and rose from a teenage trainee to become a key agent in Willing's firm. Morris traveled to Caribbean ports to expand the firm's business, and he gained a knowledge of trading and the various currencies used to exchange goods. He also befriended Thomas Willing, the oldest son of Charles Willing who was two years older than Morris and who, like Morris, had split his life between England and British North America. Charles Willing died in 1754, and in 1757 Thomas made Morris a full partner in the newly renamed firm of Willing Morris & Company.

Morris's shipping firm was just one of many such firms operating in Philadelphia, but Willing, Morris & Co. pursued several innovative strategies. The firm pooled with other shipping firms to insure vessels, aggressively expanded trade with India, and underwrote government projects through bonds and promissory notes. Ships of the firm traded with India, the Levant, the West Indies, Spanish Cuba, Spain, and Italy. The firm's business of import, export, and general agency made it one of the most prosperous in Pennsylvania. In 1784, Morris, with other investors, underwrote the voyage of the ship Empress of China, the first American vessel to visit the Chinese mainland.

Slavery

Morris's partnership with Willing was established just after the outbreak of the French and Indian War, which hindered the usual supply of indentured servants from the British Isles to Pennsylvania.Raymond A. Mohl (1997), The Making of Urban America, The most direct effect on the supply was action by Parliament to forbid immigration to the Americas, and simultaneously promote the slave trade. Many potential servants had been conscripted by the British Army to fight in Continental Europe, and a significant portion of the servants already in Pennsylvania were nearing the ends of their contracts. As such, there was a rapidly increasing demand in Pennsylvania for a supply of new slaves to compensate for the ongoing labor shortage. While Morris was a junior partner in the firm and Willing was pursuing a political career, Willing, Morris & Co. co-signed a petition calling for the repeal of Pennsylvania's tariff on imported slaves. In 1762, approximately 200 slaves were imported into Philadelphia, at the height of Pennsylvania's involvement in the Atlantic slave trade; most were brought in by Rhode Island merchants Mark Anthony DeWolf, Aaron Lopez, and Jacob Rivera.Joe William Trotter Jr. and Eric Ledell Smith, African Americans in Pennsylvania, (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997). p. 47

As part of their commercial operations, Willing, Morris & Co. engaged in the slave trade.Pennsylvania Gazette items # 25284, 26076, 26206, 26565, 28558, 28712, 36325, in 1765 The firm advertised slave sales and directed company ships to purchase slaves from Africa to sell in British North America. One of the first ships the firm purchased, Nancy, was used to make two voyages to Africa to purchase slaves; the first voyage occurred in 1762, and resulted in the sale of approximately 170 slaves purchased from the Gold Coast in Wilmington, Delaware. Though it was profitable, this voyage did not make a large profit, and a second slave-trading voyage by Nancy resulted in her capture by French privateers. Willing, Morris & Co. also handled two slave auctions for other importers of slaves, offering 23 slaves for sale.Pennsylvania Gazette, May 6, 1762. Note: This arrangement made it easy for Pennsylvania slave-buyers to avoid paying the tariff. Three years later, the firm advertised 17 slaves for sale who were brought from Africa on board the slave ship Marquis de Granby.Pennsylvania Gazette, July 25, 1765 The slaves were not sold in Philadelphia, as the owner took the ship and all the slaves to Jamaica.The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade CD-ROM, published by the Oxford University Press This was the last time Willing, Morris & Co. was involved in slave trade. During the Revolution Morris employed a French chief, and afterwards engaged a former slave under terms of indenture.

Personal and family life

In early 1769, at age 35, Morris married 20-year-old Mary White, the daughter of a wealthy and prestigious lawyer and landholder. Mary gave birth to the couple's first of seven children in December 1769. (One son was Congressman Thomas Morris, whose wife was related to the Livingston and Van Rensselaer New York political families). Morris and his family lived on Front Street in Philadelphia and maintained a second home, known as "The Hills," on the Schuylkill River to the northwest of the city. He later purchased another rural manor, which he named Morrisville, that was located across the Delaware River from Trenton, New Jersey. The Morrises worshiped at the Anglican Christ Church, which was also attended by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Willing, and other leading citizens of Philadelphia. The Morris household employed several domestic workers and retained several slaves.

In addition to the children he had with Mary White, Morris fathered a daughter, Polly, out of wedlock around 1763. Morris supported Polly financially and remained in contact with her throughout her adult life. Morris also supported a younger half-brother, Thomas, whom Morris's father had sired out of wedlock shortly before his own death. Thomas eventually became a partner in Morris's shipping firm.

Mary's brother, William White, was ordained as an Episcopal priest and served as the Senate chaplain.

In 1781, Morris purchased a home on Market Street that was two blocks north of Independence Hall, the seat of the Second Continental Congress. He gained clear title to the estate in 1785 and made it his primary residence. In 1790, President George Washington accepted Morris's offer to make the house his primary residence; Morris and his family subsequently moved to a smaller, neighboring property. By the 1790s, Morris had become close friends with Washington, and he and his wife were regular fixtures at state events thrown by the president. The President's House, as it became known, served as the residence of the president until 1800, when President John Adams moved to the White House in Washington, D.C.

American Revolution

Rising tensions with Britain