Morrisania 361 



and the beautiful, clear, and forceful English of that instru- 

 ment is almost entirely his work. 1 He was a Federalist in 

 politics, and assisted Jay and Hamilton with tongue and pen, 

 until his departure for Europe, in striving for the ratification 

 of the Constitution by the several States. As a statesman, 

 according to Theodore Roosevelt, Morris ranked with these 

 two famous Federalists; as a financier, he ranked after the 

 financier of the Revolution, Robert Morris, whose assistant 

 he had been, and after Alexander Hamilton, our great first 

 Secretary of the Treasury. 



Morris was a man of brilliant parts, with a rough, caustic 

 tongue and pen which made him many enemies. He was an 

 aristocrat born and bred, with a brusque and supercilious 

 way that did not lend itself well to diplomacy. Washington 

 esteemed his patriotism highly and admired his directness 

 and good judgment, but declined to appoint him on some 

 diplomatic mission for fear his manner would defeat the object 

 of the mission by arousing the ire of those whom he would 

 meet and whom it would be his duty to conciliate. He be- 

 lieved in "calling a spade a spade." Even in that time of easy 

 morals, Morris was conspicuous for his disregard of the opinions 

 of the respectable portion of the community, and liked to shock 

 people with his vagaries. 



One of his fads was to drive a pair of spirited horses without 

 reins. Though repeatedly warned by his friends of the danger 

 of doing so, he continued to laugh at their misgivings until 

 one day in May, 1780, when his team ran away with him in 

 the streets of Philadelphia, and one leg was crushed so badly 

 that the surgeons thought it necessary to amputate it; in con- 

 sequence, for the rest of his life, Morris was obliged to hobble 



1 Many people confuse the United States Constitution with the United 

 States Frigate Constitution, and ascribe the latter to Morris. 



