A prominent statesman, writer, and diplomat in Revolutionary New York, Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816) was perhaps the greatest member of the Morris dynasty. The grandson of the first governor of New Jersey and the half-brother of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Gouverneur Morris authored substantial portions of the U.S. Constitution, giving the document both coherency and elegance.
Born in Morrisania, then the estate of the Morris family, Gouverneur Morris graduated from King’s College (now Columbia University). He was admitted to the Bar and served on New York’s Provincial Congress from 1775 to 1777 obtaining a provision for religious tolerance in the first state constitution.