Question

You know how Gouverneur Morris signed the US Constitution? Is his real name Gouverneur? Thanks!

Answer 1

Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816) was an American politician, public official and diplomat. Born into a prominent New York family, he earned election to the state’s provincial congress, and signed the Articles of Confederation as a New York delegate to the Continental Congress. Among the most vocal participants of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Morris argued for granting Congress veto powers over state laws, direct election of the president and proportional representation in Congress based on taxation. Morris served as American minister to France from 1792-94, and as a New York senator from 1800-03. He later helped form the New-York Historical Society and was the founding chairman of the Erie Canal Commission.

Born into a New York family distinguished for its wealth, lineage, and political influence, Morris lost his leg in a carriage accident as a young man. He graduated from King’s College (now Columbia University) and in 1771 was admitted to the bar. In 1775, he was elected to New York’s provincial congress and in 1776 served on committees that drafted the state’s new constitution and that instructed New York’s delegates to the Second Continental Congress to support the Declaration of Independence. In 1778, as a New York delegate to the Continental Congress, he signed the Articles of Confederation. Two years later Morris became the Confederation’s assistant superintendent of finance under his political mentor, Robert Morris of Pennsylvania. In that post, he sought to expand the powers of the federal government and drafted a report to Congress recommending the first national currency-a decimal coinage based on the Spanish dollar.