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Show The Financial Genius Of The Revolution George Washington would probably prob-ably rebuke the country if it celebrated cele-brated the 200th anniversary ot his birth without at least some mention of the man who financed the Revolution and upon whom Washington at times, leaned hardest of all. This man was Robert Morris, who was born on January 31, 1734. At, the age of fourteen, we are informed by the United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission, Morris emigrated from Liverpool, his birthplace, to join his father who had Fettled at Oxford, Maryland, where the elder Morris acted as American agent for a large firm of Liverpool to-' to-' bacco merchants. The father was killed in an accident when young Morris was seventeen, but before the elder's death, Robert had found a job in the counting room of a mercantile house in Philadelphia. Phila-delphia. There his business ability abil-ity soon showed itself to such advantage ad-vantage that he became a member of the firm. From then on he steadily added to his fortune until un-til he became one of the richest men of his time in America. But money was not the soul interest in-terest of Morris. He early joined the movement against England, and was among the first to resist the Stamp Act. Also, he was a signer of the first non-importation agreement and was later made warden of the Port of Philadelphia. Philadel-phia. When the revolution opened, Morris was forty-one years old, in the prime of his mental and physical phys-ical vigor, and he threw himself into every important enterprise except the military. In 1775 and 1776 he was vice-president of the Pennsylvania Committee " of Safety. From 1775 to 1778 he was a member cf the Continental Congress, and so was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In 1778 he retired from Congress, nly to devote his tireless energies to the Pennsylvania State legislature, legisla-ture, of which he was a member. But his greatest, his outstanding and most gratefully received public pub-lic service -was his financing of the War of Independence. The embattled em-battled States turned to this financial fin-ancial genius to manage their fiscal fis-cal affairs, but even more they relied re-lied on his bursting and open purse for the sinr-ws of war. General Washington's agonies of mir.c' ever the problems "of financing fin-ancing his army lasted throughout through-out the Revolutionary War. At best they were always a worry, ar.d at times the worry became acme ':stress Ore of these financial fin-ancial crises cam': when he found it absolutely imperative to strike for the victory at Trenton, to revive re-vive public spirit which then was at a very low ebb. In order to keep his unpaid men with him for the attack, the General Gen-eral was forced to take the extreme ex-treme risk of promising them a bounty of ten dollars per man. He then addressed to his friend, Robert Rob-ert Morris, a plea for $50,000 with which to make his promise good. The next day he received the money. Morris had stripped himself him-self cf his own ready funds and had borrowed the remainder from wealthy Quaker friends in Philadelphia. Phila-delphia. Receipt of shis money in the nick of time furnished one of the occasions when the supposedly supposed-ly frigid Washington was shaken with emotion. It was of such stuff that the winners of the Revolution were formed, and Robert Morris was among the best of them. Not to think of him in this bicentennial year would be an affront to Washington Wash-ington himself. When the Federal Government, came into being in 1789, Morris most likely coulo. have had the Secretaryship of the Treasury. Instead, In-stead, he urged ihe appointment of Alexander Hamilton. Throughout the Revolution, and before, he had served in various key capacities in the Continental Congress. In 17-81 17-81 the Congress chose him to be its Superintendent of Finance, a pest that might be regarded as the precursor of that as Secretary of the Treasury. Robert Morris became one cf the first United States Senators from Pennsylvania. Pennsylvan-ia. As the country settled down to peace and progress, Morris went in fcr iand speculation, and at one time or another owned wholly, cr ri part, the entire western half of New Ycrk State, 2,000,000 acres in Georgia, and nearly 1,000- 1 000 acres in Pennsylvania, Virgin- ia, and South Carolina. He helped in the development of the new national na-tional capital m the District of Columbia. But his speculations brought on disaster, and for three years the financial savior of America was confined in a debtors' prison. On his release he was obliged to live on the bounty of his family and his friends, and five years afterward, after-ward, in 1806, he died, a broken man. He was buried in Christ, Church Yard in Philadelphia, without honors, and has never since been accorded the honor due him. |