Strikingly few Americans know who wrote the Constitution. Even fewer know that he was a peg-legged ladies’ man with a wicked sense of humor, a staunch opponent of slavery, and an unabashed elitist.
Gouverneur Morris, who has been described as “the most colorful man in North America” at the time of the founding, was a dominant figure at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 (also known as the Constitutional Convention).
In fact, he spoke more often, proposed more motions, and had more motions adopted than any other delegate. He also put the Constitution into its final form, choosing the arrangement and much of the wording of its provisions, not to mention composing the famous preamble (“We the People of the United States…”) nearly from scratch.
The Bronx County Historical Society will the kick-off of its year-long America 250 programming, commemorating our area’s role in the founding of the United States in 1776, with a lecture “The Constitution’s Penman, Gouverneur Morris,” the 2025 Gouverneur Morris Endowed Lecture.
The lecture will be delivered by William M. Treanor, Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Constitutional Law and Constitutional History and Dean Emeritus of Georgetown Law.
This event on Wednesday, January 28, 2025 at 6:30 pm at the Fordham Law School’s Costantino Room, Second Floor, 150 West 62nd Street, New York, NY is co-sponsored by Fordham School of Law and will be followed by a light reception.
Register for free for this in-person event.
Illustration: ‘Foundation of the American Government’ by Henry Hintermeister, 1925, showing Gouverneur Morris signing the Constitution.
Source link
