To Secure the Blessings of Liberty: Selected Writings of Gouverneur Morris

by Gouverneur Morris, J. Jackson Barlow (Editor)

Overview

Liberty Fund is pleased to present this single-volume collection of Gouverneur Morris’s writings. This edition will be a welcome addition to scholars of American and French history as the volume contains many writings that have never before been published.

Morris served as Deputy Superintendent of Finance during the American Revolution, in which capacity he devised the system of decimal coinage. He was a prominent member of the Constitutional Convention, where he spoke more frequently than any other member and, as a member of the Committee on Style and Arrangement, put the Constitution in its present form and authored its Preamble. As a private citizen in Paris, and later Minister to France (1789–94), Morris was a firsthand witness of the French Revolution. On his return to the U.S., he served as a U.S. Senator, was a prime mover in the creation of the Erie Canal, and took a leading role as a critic of the Jefferson and Madison administrations. Providing his unique perspective, this is a wonderful and accessible single source that illuminates the political and economic thought of Gouverneur Morris.

Gouverneur Morris (1752–1816) was a prominent member of the Constitutional Convention, a signer of the U.S. Constitution and author of its Preamble, and U.S. Minister to France during the French Revolution.

J. Jackson Barlow is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Politics and the Director, Program in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Juniata College, in Huntington, Pennsylvania.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614872573
Publisher:	Liberty Fund, Incorporated
Publication date:	10/22/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	702
File size:	941 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction ............ ix

Acknowledgments ............ xvii

Note on the Texts ............ xix

Selected Bibliography ............ xxi

1. To the Inhabitants of the Colony of New- York (1769) ............ 1

2. Political Enquiries (1776) ............ 5

3. Oration on the Necessity for Declaring Independence from Britain (1776) ............ 13

4. Public Letters to the Carlisle Commissioners (1778) ............ 25

To the Carlisle Commissioners, June 20, 1778 ............ 26

To the Earl of Carlisle, July 21, 1778 ............ 34

To the Earl of Carlisle, September 19, 1778 ............ 37

To Sir Henry Clinton, October 20, 1778 ............ 45

5. Proposal to Congress Concerning the Management of the Government (1778) ............ 53

6. Report of the Committee on the Treasury (1778) ............ 67

7. Some Thoughts on the Finances of America (1778) ............ 73

8. To the Quakers, Bethlemites, Moderate Men, Refugees, and Other the

Tories Whatsoever, and Wheresoever, Dispersed (1779) ............ 87

9. To Governor Johnstone (1779) ............ 95

10. “An American” Letters on Public Finance for the Pennsylvania Packet (1780) ............ 103

February 17, 1780 ............ 104

February 24, 1780 ............ 110

February 29, 1780 ............ 118

March 4, 1780 ............ 124

March 11, 1780 ............ 131

March 23, 1780 ............ 139

April 11, 1780 ............ 146

April 15, 1780 ............ 154

11. Righteousness Establisheth a Nation (1780) ............ 165

12. Observations on Finances: Foreign Trade and Loans (1781?) ............ 171

13. Ideas of an American on the Commerce Between the United States and French Islands As It May Respect Both France and America (1783) ............ 177

14. Address to the Assembly of Pennsylvania on the Abolition of the Bank of North America (1785) ............ 183

15. The Constitution of the United States (1787) ............ 207

Letter to Congress ............ 221

16. American Finances (1789) ............ 223

17. Observations on Government, Applicable to the Political State of France (1789) ............ 231

18. Memoir Written for the King of France, Respecting the New Constitution (1791) ............ 239

19. Observations on the New Constitution of France (1791) ............ 251

Speech for the King of France ............ 251

Observations on the Constitution ............ 252

20. Notes on the Form of a Constitution for France (1791?) ............ 269

21. Remarks upon the Principles and Views of the London Corresponding Society (1795) ............ 285

22. Oration on the Death of George Washington (1799) ............ 293

23. Speeches in the Senate on the Repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801 ............ 303

First Speech on the Judiciary Establishment (1802) ............ 304

24. Letters to the New York Evening Post on the Louisiana

Purchase (1803) ............ 333

August 30, 1803 ............ 334

December 24, 1803 ............ 339

25. Funeral Oration for Alexander Hamilton (1804) ............ 353

26. Oration on the Love of Wealth (1805) ............ 357

27. Oration on Patriotism (1805) ............ 361

28. On Prejudice (ca. 1805) ............ 365

29. An Answer to War in Disguise (1806) ............ 369

30. Notes on the United States of America (1806) ............ 405

31. The British Treaty (1807/1808) ............ 423

32. On the Beaumarchais Claim (1807–1808) ............ 473

February 24, 1807 ............ 474

January 11[, 1808] ............ 476

33. To the People of the United States (1810) ............ 485

34. Election Address (1810) ............ 495

35. Letters to the Evening Post on Albert Gallatin’s Plan for Enforcing

the Non- Importation Act (1811) ............ 505

December 19, 1811 ............ 506

December 21, 1811 ............ 508

December 23, 1811 ............ 510

December 24, 1811 ............ 512

December 26, 1811 ............ 514

December 27, 1811 ............ 516

36. Erie Canal Commission Report (1812) ............ 519

37. An Address to the People of the State of New York on the Present State of Affairs (1812) ............ 537

38. Discourse Before the New-York Historical Society (1812) ............ 551

39. Oration Before the Washington Benevolent Society (1813) ............ 573

40. Essays for the Examiner (1814) ............ 587

April 9, 1814 ............ 587

May 14, 1814 ............ 605

June 25, 1814 ............ 608

July 23, 1814 ............ 616

41. Oration on Europe’s Deliverance from Despotism (1814) ............ 623

42. To the Legislators of New York (1815) ............ 635

43. An Inaugural Discourse (1816) ............ 641

44. To the Bank Directors of New–York (1816) ............ 655

45. Address on “National Greatness” (no date) ............ 661

Index ............ 665