Gouverneur Morris

Gouverneur Morris (1752 - 1816) was an American statesman, politician and lawyer who was responsible for penning a significant portion of the United States Constitution. Previously, Morris was a member of the New York state Provincial Assembly and author of the 1777 Constitution of New York state.

Morris' mother, a Loyalist, allowed the British to use the family estate during the Revolutionary War and Morris left New York for Philadelphia, where he would work as a lawyer and businessman. Morris would come to represent Pennsylvania at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, also referred to as the Philadelphia Convention. Morris is credited with writing the Preamble to the Constitution as well as a great deal of the rest of the text that would become the ruling document of the American government. Morris was a firm believer that the people could not self-govern and that voting should be limited to land owners.

In addition...