Gouverneur Morris

The Founders and the Constitution: Gouverneur Morris

by Rob Natelson | Sep 21, 2023 | Constitution, Founding Fathers, Gouverneur Morris

Gouverneur Morris was a “chick magnet.” He was tall, handsome, witty, and rich. Even scalding damage to his right arm, loss of his lower leg in a traffic accident, and reliance on a wooden prosthesis for walking didn’t impair his success with women. Part of his...

Understanding the Constitution: How the Document was Composed

by Rob Natelson | Sep 7, 2021 | Constitution, Founding Principles, Gouverneur Morris

The Constitution’s framers were familiar with a long line of Anglo-American documentary landmarks, of which the most famous was Magna Carta and the most recent were state constitutions and the Articles of Confederation. But in drafting the U.S. Constitution, the...

Understanding the Constitution: the style of the preamble

by Rob Natelson | Aug 16, 2021 | Gouverneur Morris, Preamble

The Constitution begins with an introduction called the “preamble,” a word from the Latin praeambulus, meaning “walking before.” The preamble to a legal instrument identifies the parties, states crucial facts, and/or explains the purpose of the document. The “Whereas”...

The Poetry in the Constitution’s Preamble

by Rob Natelson | Feb 18, 2018 | Constitution, Gouverneur Morris, Preamble

The person most responsible for the Constitution’s final form was Gouverneur Morris. The Preamble, which begins with “We the People,” is one of the world’s most recognizable bits of prose — prose that, at least in some ways, approaches poetry. Morris had been well...

The 10th Amendment

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

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