The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered
Mar 23, 2021 14:45:27 GMT
lordroel and stevep like this
Post by oscssw on Mar 23, 2021 14:45:27 GMT
Ah Robert Morris, one of my favorite founding fathers of the USA. Interesting fellow but I didn't know about his connection with the Alliance. You could say he was my nation's founding capitalist. Morris made his fortune as a global capitalist in 1776, well before capitalism had been described and accepted as an economic system. He was a free market, laissez-faire capitalist who often said "Trade should be as free as the air."
Morris was a self-made merchant and entrepreneur from Philadelphia. Morris didn't believe the colonists would prevail against England. When the Declaration of Independence was signed, Morris set his personal opposition aside and went with the majority opinion.
During the Revolution, Morris used his reputation and business connections to effectively bankroll American forces. He was active in supplying Washington's army with gunpowder, which he smuggled in under the noses of British authorities in Europe and the Caribbean. It was George Washington's opinion the Revolution couldn't have been won without Morris. He came through at critical times for George Washington, who, with his army in the field, needed money the congress could not provide. One of these times was to get the Continental army to Yorktown. While Washington orchestrated the plan and the attack, Morris took care of all the logistics.
Before Yorktown, the United States' fledgling new currency had all but failed, and the only medium of exchange with which to finance the revolution was Morris' own personal credit. So four years after opposing the Revolution, Morris had effectively become America's treasury and banker. The "Morris notes," had become the sole currency of the government.
Despite Morris' indispensable role in the Revolution, he has gone down in history as something of a crook. This was because of the backroom dealings he resorted to in order to fund the war. Morris was the subject of perhaps the first congressional inquiry into self-dealings. He was exonerated by Congress when he was able to show that he had not profited inordinately from the arms contracts.
After the war and the creation of the American government, Morris gladly ran from public life and went back into business.
Morris was convinced that the masses of Europe would soon be flocking into the American hinterland (he was about a century too early). He invested heavily in America's first great land boom, a real estate bubble. He was banking on the price going up. It didn't, and he went bankrupt. In the late 18th century, when you went bankrupt you went all the way down. He spent three years toward the end of his life in debtor's prison in Philadelphia.
Because of his success he had far too many enemies.
America was a very tough place in the late 18th century." A man rose and fell on his own, and if you fell, nobody was there to catch your fall.
America was a very tough place in the late 18th century." A man rose and fell on his own, and if you fell, nobody was there to catch your fall.
oscssw ,
I had read that Washington had to scramble around for gold to pay his troops after a strike/mutiny at Philadelphia IIRC shortly before Yorktown as they hadn't been paid for some time. However assumed it had come from France or did Morris get French gold through from Europe?
How did Morris back those notes? That tended to be the problem with paper money at this time period as normally people were unwilling to trust them unless they were backed, generally by the ability to convert to gold when desired. Unless he had a lot of resources to back such currency?
Steve
About the mutinies Steve. Yes plural. In January 1781 1,500 men of the Pennsylvania line and 200 men of the New Jersey Line, stating their enlistments were up, among other complaints including pay, "mutinied" in two separate incidents and left their separate camps.
In the case of the PA Line French and Spanish gold, release of time expired troops and Robert Morris' Notes played a part in restoring discipline.
You can read the details in "Mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line" from History.com Editors
There were also Executions of some New Jersey soldiers, some of whom had murdered a few of their officers.
You can read the entire pretty fascinating story of the NJ troops mutiny in an article in
Critical ThinkingMarch 19, 2014
Mutiny of the New Jersey Line
by Michael Schellhammer
Critical ThinkingMarch 19, 2014
Mutiny of the New Jersey Line
by Michael Schellhammer
He backed those notes with his personal fortune.
Much of the money paid for the war passed through the hands of Robert Morris and Pierre Beaumarchais, so in one sense they paid for at least the munitions part of the war. At the time, Beaumarchais was penniless from a lawsuit, so he was a judgment proof manager of a dummy corporation, Rodriguez Hortales et Cie. The real payors were the French Government of 1 million livres, the Spanish Government of 1 million, and 1 million from several adventurous individuals. On the American side, Robert Morris was often personally responsible for defaults, as a result of the Continental currency made worthless from printing-press inflation. In a dramatic moment, Morris stepped forward and announced he and a few friends would stand behind the debts. Not only was Morris a wealthy man, but he was largely running the United States government. Among other considerations, he had a fairly good chance of inducing the government to raise taxes to pay its own debts before he would have to assume them. Many people doubted that ability, however. Even Morris' wealth would have been insufficient to carry the whole burden, so the guarantee he made must be seen as a form of default insurance or credit default swap, containing a high degree of risk. Regardless of details, if Great Britain won the war, both Morris and Beaumarchais would have been impoverished, and probably imprisoned. The main difference was that Beaumarchais was already broke.
According to the 2nd link the New Jersey men didn't kill any of their officers, although at least a few were threatened and it was Washington that decided that the rebels, despite returning to camp - albeit they still harboured unrest as it turned out - be crushed with the killing of some men - although only two of them at the end.
