A Biography of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, and of Washington and Patrick Henry / With an appendix, containing the Constitution of the United States, and other documents

by L. Carroll Judson

Nothing occurred to mar their prosperity until the revolutionary storm burst upon the colonies. Had self interest been consulted so far as pecuniary matters were concerned, Mr. Morris would have adhered to the crown. His interests, in point of property, were entirely commercial: and, in case of an opposition by him to the mother country, his wealth was very much exposed. But he had inhaled the atmosphere of freedom; his soul was fired with patriotism; he resolved to pledge his ALL in the cause of liberty. His influence was extensive; he was a cool, reflecting and high minded man, and arrived at conclusions only from mature deliberation. This being his character, his examples had great weight.

He was elected a member of the congress of 1774, and took a decided stand against British oppression. Being an able financier, he was looked up to as the most efficient manager of monetary matters, and, so far as providing ways and means were concerned, he was authorized to act. Most nobly did he acquit himself in the performance of this important trust. As no office of finance was then created, unfortunately for his country, he could not control the disbursements, but continued to provide money, often from his own resources. When Congress adjourned from Philadelphia to Baltimore on the approach of the conquering British army in 1776, after the declaration of independence, then called by many the death warrant of the signers, Robert Morris, who had affixed his name to that bold instrument, remained at the former city some time after his colleagues left, periling his personal safety in order to make arrangements to raise funds for the prosecution of the glorious cause he had espoused. During his stay, it became necessary that congress should raise a specific sum in specie for the use of the American army. Information was immediately communicated to Mr. Morris of the imperious wants of the commander-in-chief. Not a solitary dollar was in the government treasury. In a few hours after he received the intelligence, he met a member of the society of Friends whose confidence he possessed, who enquired of him “what news?” “The news is,” replied Mr. Morris, “that I am in immediate want of —— dollars of hard money, and that you are the man to obtain it for me. Your security is to be my note of hand and my honour.” The reply was as laconic as the appeal: “Robert thou shalt have it.” The money was promptly forwarded to the commander-in-chief and placed at his disposal, and enabled Washington to meet the enemy at Trenton with signal success.

Mr. Morris made no parade or vain show in the performance of his duties, and often furnished funds through agents under the injunction of secrecy, who, at the time, had the credit of affording relief on their own account. One instance will suffice for an example.

When General Green took the command of the troops in South Carolina, their destitute situation was deplorable. They were only partially covered with tattered garments; their food was of the coarsest kind, and but a scanty supply of that; their quantity of ammunition was small, and nothing but certain destruction seemed to hover around them. At that alarming crisis, Mr. Hall, of that state, advanced the necessary funds to supply the immediate wants of the army, and enable General Green to commence vigorous operations.

After the war had closed, and an account of the disbursements was exhibited, it was found that Mr. Hall had acted under the direction of Robert Morris, who had furnished the needful at the very time it was necessary to save the southern army from dissolution. General Green, on being made acquainted with the fact on his final settlement at the office of finance, was at first displeased with the measure, but upon reflection, greatly applauded and admired the wisdom of this secrecy, “because,” said he, “if I had known that I might have drawn upon Robert Morris, I should have demanded larger sums, and effected no more than was accomplished with the means placed in my hands.” The advances of Mr. Morris to the southern army were near accomplishing his pecuniary ruin.

As a financier his genius was of the most prolific kind. When he found one resource after another exhausted; the American troops writhing under the keenest privations; the credit of the infant Republic paralyzed, and her treasury drained of the last dollar, had his mind been cast in an ordinary mould, he must have fainted by the way. But amidst the embarrassments that surrounded him, he stood calm and undismayed upon the firm basis of his own resources. When he found that they were becoming crippled, he submitted to congress the plan of chartering the Bank of North America, which, after much discussion, was approved and adopted on the 7th of January, 1782.

The year preceding, the office of finance had been established, and Mr. Morris appointed financier. Previous to that, it appears he had not, at any time, been the disbursing agent of the public monies; and that no system had been adopted by Congress that gave any one individual the control, under them, of this important department. The consequence was, that the monies raised for the supplies of the army often fell into the hands of irresponsible agents and never reached their pristine destination.

After Mr. Morris was placed in authority over this vital branch of government, he reduced the expenditures for military operations from eighteen millions of dollars a year, to about five millions; and thus enabled the continental congress to prosecute the war successfully, when, without this retrenchment, its means would have been inadequate to meet the increasing demands, and the cause of liberty, to all human appearance, must have been abandoned. Like a Roman Curtius, he pledged his own fortune to save his country, and disenthral her from the chains of tyranny. To demonstrate this, I will mention one of the many instances of supplies being obtained upon his private credit.

When the expedition was planned by Washington against Cornwallis at Yorktown, the government treasury was empty, and her credit shivering in the wind. The army was in a destitute situation: the means of prosecuting a siege were to be provided, and Mr. Morris informed the commander-in-chief that unless he arrived at the conclusion that the necessary supplies could be raised on his (Mr. Morris,) credit, the expedition must fail. Washington expressed his entire confidence in the ability of the financier, and immediately took up the line of march.

In the short space of four weeks, Mr. Morris, aided by the patriotic Richard Peters, furnished near eighty pieces of battering cannon and one hundred pieces of field artillery, and all other necessary supplies not furnished from other sources, and became personally responsible to the amount of ONE MILLION FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS, upon his own notes, which were promptly paid at maturity. This, united with aid from Virginia and some of the other states, enabled the American army to give the finishing stroke to the revolution, and triumph, in victory complete, over a proud and merciless foe.