Gouverneur Morris was an American statesman and diplomat, and one of the most important authors of the U.S. Constitution. He was born January 31, 1752, at Morrisiana estate, in Westchester County, NY, in 1752. He lived in a wealthy family of Loyalists. He had a half brother, named Lewis, who signed the Declaration of Independence.
Morris was educated by private tutors and at a Huegonot school in New Rochelle. He also studied and graduated from King's College in New York City, 1768, at the age of 16. He lost a leg in a carriage accident around this time. One of the wheels fell off of the carriage and the horses got scared and the carriage flipped on its side. He fell out and was injured and the injury was so severe, they had to amputate his leg. .
Gouverneur Morris" wife, Elizabeth Morris, was also in the carriage at the time of the accident, and by unfortunate tragedy, she lost her life, along with her sister, Annabelle Hunter. Elizabeth Morris passed away before she could even bear any children to Gouverneur Morris. They had only been married for 3 years at that time. Gouverneur Morris never took another wife after that.
He then studied law under the chief justice of New York and was licensed as an attorney in October 1771.
Morris supported the rebel cause during the American Revolution. He served as a member of New York's provincial congress in 1775. He was one of the youngest and most brilliant members of this congress. He sat in the constitutional convention in 1776. Along with John Jay, and Robert R. Livingston, he drafted New York's first Constitution. .
In 1778, he was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress, and served as chairman of some of the Congress's most important standing committees. He held the position as assistant of Superintendent of Finance for Robert Morris,(no relation) until 1785. Gouverneur Morris signed the Articles of Confederation, and contributed greatly to the writing of the Constitution.
