To Secure the Blessings of Liberty

Selected Writings of Gouverneur Morris

By Gouverneur Morris

$8.70


Publication Date: October 2012

About this book

The thoughts of a revolutionary

Liberty Fund is pleased to present this single-volume collection of Gouverneur Morris’s writings. This edition will be a welcome addition to scholars of American and French history as the volume contains many writings that have never before been published.

Morris served as Deputy Superintendent of Finance during the American Revolution, in which capacity he devised the system of decimal coinage. He was a prominent member of the Constitutional Convention, where he spoke more frequently than any other member and, as a member of the Committee on Style and Arrangement, put the Constitution in its present form and authored its Preamble. As a private citizen in Paris, and later Minister to France (1789–94), Morris was a firsthand witness of the French Revolution. On his return to the U.S., he served as a U.S. Senator, was a prime mover in the creation of the Erie Canal, and took a leading role as a critic of the Jefferson and Madison administrations. Providing his unique perspective, this is a wonderful and accessible single source that illuminates the political and economic thought of Gouverneur Morris.


Paperback | 702 pages | 6×9 | Published October 2012 | ISBN 978-0-86597-835-5

If you are interested in a bulk order, we offer a 50% discount and $10 shipping for orders of 10+ books OR orders containing 5+ copies of a single book. We also offer a 60% discount and free shipping for orders with a gross retail value over $500. To place a bulk order, please contact [email protected].


Davenant and Liberty Fund Partnership

In 2024, the Davenant Institute partnered with Liberty Fund to highlight some of history’s greatest works of political theology. Forgotten today, these works by the likes of Samuel Pufendorf and Emer De Vattel have been hugely significant throughout the centuries. With Protestant political retrieval on the rise, it is the perfect time to rediscover these foundational texts, all sold at a generous discount of up to 40% via the Davenant bookstore.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Acknoweldegements

A Note on the Text

Selected Bibliography

1

To the Inhabitants of the Colony of New-York 

2

Political Enquiries

3

Oration on the Necessity for Declaring Independence from Britain

4

Public Letters to the Carlisle Commissioners

5

Proposal to Congress Concerning the Management of the Government

6

Report of the Committee on the Treasury

7

Some Thoughts on the Finances of America

8

To the Quakers, Bethlemites, Moderate Men, Refugees, and Other the Tories Whatsoever, and Wheresoever, Dispersed

9

To Governor Johnstone

10

“An American” Letters on Public Finance for the Pennsylvania Packet

11

Righteousness Establisheth a Nation

12

Observations on Finances: Foreign Trade and Loans

13

Ideas of an American on the Commerce Between the United States and French Islands As It May Respect Both France and America 

14

Address to the Assembly of Pennsylvania on the Abolition of the Bank of North America

15

The Constitution of the United States

16

American Finances

17

Observations on Government, Applicable to the Political State of France

18

Memoir Written for the King of France, Respecting the New Constitution 

19

Observations on the New Constitution of France

20

Notes on the Form of a Constitution for France 

21

Remarks upon the Principles and Views of the London Corresponding Society

22

Oration on the Death of George Washington

23

Speeches in the Senate on the Repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801

24

Letters to the New York Evening Post on the Louisiana Purchase

25

Funeral Oration for Alexander Hamilton 

26

Oration on the Love of Wealth

27

Oration on Patriotism

28

On Prejudice

29

An Answer to War in Disguise

30

Notes on the United States of America

31

The British Treaty

32

On the Beaumarchais Claim

33

To the People of the United States

34

Election Address

35

Letters to the Evening Post on Albert Gallatin’s Plan for Enforcing the Non-Importation Act

36

Erie Canal Commission Report

37

An Address to the People of the State of New York on the Present State of Affairs 

38

Discourse Before the New-York Historical Society

39

Oration Before the Washington Benevolent Society

40

Essays for the Examiner

41

Oration on Europe’s Deliverance from Despotism

42

To the Legislators of New York

43

An Inaugural Discourse

44

To the Bank Directors of New-York

45

Address on “National Greatness”

Index

About the Author and Editor

Gouverneur Morris (1752–1816) was a prominent member of the Constitutional Convention, a signer of the U.S. Constitution and author of its Preamble, and U.S. Minister to France during the French Revolution.

J. Jackson Barlow is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Politics and the Director, Program in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Juniata College, in Huntington, Pennsylvania.

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