ROBERT MORRIS

Liverpool, England
January 20, 1734–May 8, 1806
America’s Financial Guru

Robert Morris was the Founding Fathers’ go-to person when they needed financial advice. He served at various times—and often simultaneously—during the Revolutionary era as the chairman of the Secret Committee of Trade and the Pennsylvania Committee on Safety, a member of the Committee on Correspondence, the superintendent of finance, and agent of marine. Morris was also a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania; signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution; a delegate to the Second Continental Congress … and that was just a start. Despite his accomplishments, he ended his business career in debtors’ prison, which was not the fate either he or the Founding Fathers anticipated. He was the only Founding Father to suffer that fate.

Financing a Revolution

When the Revolutionary War began, Morris was a business partner with Thomas Willing in Philadelphia. At the time, their mercantile venture, which included shipping and real estate operations, among others, was the largest business of its kind in the city. Morris had something that the revolution’s leaders needed: financial acumen. He also had the ability to produce the supplies and products the government needed to support the war effort. His politics were unpredictable at best.

FEDERAL FACTS

From 1775 to 1777, the federal government awarded nearly $500,000 in contracts to Willing and Morris, and another $290,000 to other partnerships in which Morris was involved. The government’s total purchases were $2 million.

Willing to Follow

The delegates to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia were not sure which way Morris would vote on independence as they debated the issue. He voted against the resolution of independence on July 1, 1776. The next day he did not vote at all. After Congress adopted the resolution on July 4, he signed it. From that point on he threw himself into the American cause, primarily as a financier.

Quotations to Live (and Die) By!

“I AM NOT ONE OF THOSE POLITICIANS THAT RUN TESTY WHEN MY OWN PLANS ARE NOT ADOPTED. I THINK IT IS THE DUTY OF A GOOD CITIZEN TO FOLLOW WHEN HE CANNOT LEAD.”

—ROBERT MORRIS, REGARDING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Washington Turns to Morris

By the end of 1776, the federal government was in dire financial straits. That was particularly stressful for George Washington, who needed the money to supply troops to fight the British. Congress thoughtfully ordered that $5 million worth of paper money be issued to help him. But few people outside the government were willing to use the currency.

Washington, who was not above putting Morris on the spot occasionally, appealed to him to raise enough hard money to back the government-issued currency. Even the normally confident Morris was not sure he could oblige.

Morris had a reputation for honesty and integrity among the people who knew him best. While he was trying to figure out a way to raise the hard currency Washington requested, he met a wealthy Quaker who was aware of the quandary. The gentleman asked Morris what security he provided for a loan. “My note and my honor,” Morris said. That was enough for the potential lender. The next day Morris forwarded $50,000 to General Washington.

Even though he doubted his own abilities at times, Morris continued tirelessly throughout the war to raise funds from various sources. He used his personal credit frequently. Morris and several Philadelphians established a bank in the city that sustained the army’s operations for most of 1780.

In 1781, when Washington was having trouble raising funds to conduct his campaign to chase the British out of Virginia, Morris borrowed $20,000 from French navy commander Count François-Joseph de Grasse. He promised to repay it in October, although he had no idea where he would get the money. De Grasse provided the loan, which helped Washington drive General Charles Cornwallis and his British forces out of Virginia.

Luckily for Morris, Colonel Henry Laurens arrived in Boston on August 25 that year with $1 million that he had secured from the French government to support the American cause. Morris used part of that subsidy to repay de Grasse.

Morris continued to apply his financial wizardry through the rest of the war—but with a title. Congress named him the superintendent of finance in 1781. Having a title did not make his job any easier. Nevertheless, he continued to find ways to finance the war and get the government on sound footing afterwards, using his own and other people’s money, until he stepped down from his post in 1784.

FEDERAL FACTS

Morris took his responsibilities as superintendent of finance seriously: He cut government spending significantly by using competitive bidding for contracts, tightened accounting procedures, demanded that the states forward to the federal government their full shares of money and supplies, proposed a national bank, and conceived a plan to eliminate the federal government’s debt—which the states defeated.

Personal Profit

Morris was not entirely selfless in his efforts; he did profit personally from the war. He had his own fleet of privateers that seized British merchant vessels. Then he helped sell their cargoes when they arrived in port and pocketed part of the revenue. While he was superintendent of finance, he maintained silent partnerships in many of the companies that were doing business with the federal government.

His efforts to enrich himself notwithstanding, Morris worked diligently to earn the label “Financier of the Revolution.” Sadly, he was not as successful at financing his own dealings after the war ended.

Off to Prison

A series of financial setbacks after the war led to financial ruin for Morris. The Panic of 1797 affected his extensive land holdings adversely. He was imprisoned for debt in February 1798 and remained incarcerated until August 1801.

The man who almost single-handedly kept the country afloat financially in its fledgling years died five years after he left prison. He was in poor health and practically penniless. But he still had his pride, a supportive wife of thirty-seven years, and a legacy as a founder of a country that had relied on him for its existence.