Like John Hancock of Massachusetts, Robert Morris of Pennsylvania was a wealthy importer of foreign goods to the colonies. And like Hancock, his considerable fortune was put to use in the American Revolution.
Morris was first elected to the Continental Congress in 1775, and he was immediately put to work using his skills and talents to raise capital and purchase basic provisions for the Continental Army.
In early 1776, he was given a special commission by the Congress to personally undertake all of the negotiations necessary to finance the coming war.
Accordingly, in the summer of 1776, having already pledged his life and fortune to the cause, Morris signed the Declaration. For Morris, like many of the other signers, the signature was a mere formality – a formal recognition of what was already happening.
By the late fall and winter of 1776, it seemed that the Revolution was going to die an early death. British troops occupied much of New York and New Jersey, and the initial financial preparations had proved to be grossly inadequate. So Morris did what any of the other signers with his resources would have done: he “loaned” the cause $10,000 of his own money.
This allowed Washington’s desperate troops to receive some basic subsistence payments and to basically stay alive – just in time to cross the Delaware and win the Battle of Trenton.
In the dead of winter, 1776, the American Revolution was saved by Washington, his heroic troops, and Robert Morris’ money.
Throughout the war, Morris continued to keep the various aspects of the Continental military effort alive. He was especially fond of the operations of smugglers and privateers, small ships that slipped through the British blockades at no small risk, continually supplying the besieged colonies with goods and capital.
He supplied many of the ships himself. Not all of them were successful. Morris later estimated that he personally lost about 150 ships during the Revolution.
After independence was achieved, Morris served in the Pennsylvania legislature, signed the Articles of Confederation, and represented Pennsylvania as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Because of his long track record of service to Pennsylvania and America, he was chosen as one of the first two United States Senators from Pennsylvania.
He served out his full term, though he could have left the Senate and gone down in history as the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States of America. His old friend George Washington offered him the job, but Morris respectfully declined, recommending Alexander Hamilton.
There was never really much hope that Morris’ fortune would be returned to him, even though it was called a loan at the time. Senator Morris died in 1806, much poorer financially than he likely ever thought he would be.
But he also died knowing that without his personal intervention, his financial expertise and his direct, personal contributions to the effort, the Revolution would have failed.
Check out Mark’s book:
Lives, Fortunes, Sacred Honor: The Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence
