Liverpool born Robert Morris is best known as the “Financier of the American
Revolution.” Along with his financial contributions to the emerging
nation, he attended the Second Continental Congress and signed three of
the four great state papers of the United States: the Declaration of
Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the US Constitution.
 |
| Chorley Court off Dale Street (now the site of the LCVS building) |
Robert Morris was born on the 20th January 1734 in Chorley Court, off Dale Street, Liverpool, later the site of Stanley House, later renamed the Blackburn Assurance Company Building. His father Robert Morris Sr left his grandmother to look after him in their impoverished surrounding while he left for America to make his fortune. After finding work as a tobacco exporter, Robert Jr emigrated to be with him in Oxford, Maryland when aged 13. Two years later he was sent to Philadelphia to study and stayed with his father's friend Charles Greenway who arranged for him to be apprenticed to a shipping and banking firm that was owned by the influential merchant (and mayor!) Charles Willing. Travelling to Caribbean ports to expand the firm's business enabled him to gain a knowledge of trading and the various currencies used to exchange goods. When Charles Willing died, his son made Robert his business partner at the relatively young age of 24 and in 1757 they established the remarkably successful shipping and banking firm of Willing, Morris & Co.
Robert was heavily involved in protests against the Stamp Act of 1765 (a British tax imposed on all legal documents), but remained loyal to Britain even though he considered that the new laws that were being imposed on the colonies violated people’s rights as British citizens.
In early 1769, aged 35, he married 20-year-old Mary White, the
daughter of a wealthy and prestigious lawyer and landholder, who gave
birth to the first of their seven children in December 1769.
Due to his success at smuggling gunpowder for Pennsylvania, Robert also became the chief supplier of gunpowder to the Continental
Army. He became increasingly focused on political affairs rather than business, often taking the opposite views of the British Government’s ideas for the colonies, and was elected to represent Philadelphia on the Continental Congress in 1775. He arranged a large-scale smuggling operation to avoid British laws
designed to prevent arms and ammunition from being imported into the
colonies.
On the 2nd of July, 1776, he withdrew his vote against the Congressional motion for independence. This act of abstention is now considered pivotal in the move to independence for America as he was most definitely needed for the revolution to take place.
Robert Morris effectively financed the American Revolution by giving £50,000 (approximately £150m in current value) to pay the Continental troops who were under the command of George Washington. This helped to keep the army together before the crucial Battle of Princeton. Afterwards, he worked closely with Washington and continued to pay the troops wages via ‘Morris Notes’ as the US currency at the time had no value.
During the war, Morris had a fleet of privateers and was engaged in profiteering from the captured spoils. He wrote to a friend and stated that his firm had lost over 2250 ships during the war and so came out 'about even'. Even though he had lost one of the largest private navies in the world, he never asked for reimbursement from the new government. He had also personally supplied the funding for ninety percent of all bullets fired and over ninety percent of all other expenses for the fledgling government. Again, he never asked for reimbursement.
In 1781 he devised a plan for a National Bank and submitted it to Congress. It was approved and became The Bank of North America, an institution that brought stability to the colonial economy, facilitated continued finance of the War effort, and would ultimately establish the credit of the United States with the nations of Europe. Robert was immediately appointed Financial Agent (Secretary of Treasury) of the United States, in order to direct the operation of the new bank.
By the 1790s, he had become close friends with George Washington, and he
and his wife were regular fixtures at state events thrown by the
president. Washington lived in a house previously owned by the Morris family and it became known as 'The President's House', serving as the residence of the president until 1800 when President John Adams moved to the White House.
Unfortunately, in his later life, what was left of his fortune was soon lost to land speculation in the western part of New York state. He was declared bankrupt and sent to debtors' prison before being bailed out by friends. He died, in relative obscurity and in poverty, on the 8th of May, 1806 in Philadelphia at the age of 73 and was buried in the yard of Christ Church.
 |
| His signature on the US Declaration of Independence |
Robert Morris is a cosignatory on the US Declaration of Independence and his signature is next to that of John Hancock’s and well before Benjamin Franklin’s and Thomas Jefferson’s.
People often make reference to the size of John Hancock's signature on the Declaration of Independence, but it was the signature of Rob Morris that the King referred to as the "most damning name of all."
with thanks to :- 
No comments:
Post a Comment