Robert Morris (financier) - Later Life

Later Life

Morris founded several canal companies, a steam engine company, and launched a hot air balloon from his garden on Market Street. He had the first iron rolling mill in America. His icehouse was the model for one Washington installed at Mount Vernon. He backed the new Chestnut Street Theater, started the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, and had a green house where his staff cultivated lemon trees.

On March 12, 1791 he contracted with Massachusetts to purchase what is now essentially all of Western New York west (sic, east) of the Genesee River for $333,333.33. The land, which had been a substantial portion of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, was conveyed to Morris in five deeds on May 11, 1791.

His son Thomas settled the peace with the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, four of whom had sided with the British during the Revolution. Then Morris sold most of the vast tract of property to the Holland Land Company in 1792–1793 for redevelopment in parcels.

In 1794 he began construction of a mansion on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia designed by Pierre Charles L'Enfant. The unfinished mansion became known as "Morris's folly", and the land eventually became Sansom Street. Marble from this house was purchased by Latrobe; he used it to adorn buildings and monuments from Rhode Island to Charlestown, SC.

Morris was later deeply involved in unsuccessful land speculations, investing in the District of Columbia, and purchasing over 6,000,000 acres (24,000 km²) in the rural south. An expected loan from Holland never materialized because England and the Dutch declared war on Revolutionary France. The subsequent Napoleonic Wars ruined the market for American lands, and Morris's highly leveraged company collapsed. The financial markets of England, the United States, and the Caribbean suffered from the deflation associated with the Panic of 1797. Thus Morris was "land rich and cash poor" (he owned more land than any other American at the time, but didn't have enough hard money to pay his creditors).

Although he attempted to avoid creditors by staying outside the city at "The Hills", his country estate on the Schuylkill River, his creditors literally pursued him to his gate. After he was sued by a former partner, a fraud who at that time was serving time in debtor's prison, Morris was arrested. He was imprisoned for debt in Prune Street prison in Philadelphia from February 1798 to August 1801.

Morris's economic failure reduced the fortunes of many other prominent Federalists who had invested in his ventures (e.g., Henry Lee). Morris's political adversaries used his bankruptcy to gain political power in Pennsylvania. Governor Thomas McKean was elected and refined the art of political patronage in America. McKean’s party picked the Pennsylvania members of the electoral college for the election of 1800, which contributed to votes for Thomas Jefferson as president.

The US Congress passed its first bankruptcy legislation, the temporary Bankruptcy Act of 1800, in part, to get Morris out of prison.

After his release, and suffering from poor health, Morris spent the rest of his life in retirement. He was assisted by his wife, who had supported him throughout his misfortune. Morris died on May 9, 1806, in Philadelphia. He is buried in the family vault of Bishop William White, his brother-in-law, at Christ Church. A plaque installed later reads: "ROBERT MORRIS signer of the Constitution of the United States of America. Deputy from Pennsylvania to Federal Constitutional Convention May 25, 1787- September 17, 1787 Erected by the Pennsylvania Constitution Commemorative Committee"