Here a few facts that I found fascinating.
The man Morris respected most in the world was George Washington. He had worked with Washington before Valley Forge, and though twenty-years his junior, had struck up a friendship with Washington. As a member of Congress, Morris visited Washington in Valley Forge and greatly helped with the logistics of their poor soldiers plight (many of whom did not even have adequate footwear for the harsh winter). Morris helped in two ways – he was mathematically gifted and helped organized the movement of supplies. More importantly, as a member of Congress he had the influence to help get the hungry Army some much needed supplies. It was at Valley Forge that he met the marquis de Lafayette. The triad of Washington, Lafayette, and Morris formed a tight friendship. Washington was both a friend and a father figure to them both. Lafayette was a young idealistic French officer who came over to help us fight his country's traditional enemy. Morris was a dandy, a ladies man, but willing and able to use his diplomatic skills in the service of his future nation. The three of them really made an unlikely combination of friends, but their mutual goals and willingness to work hard made solid relationships.
Even though Morris did not share all of Washington's mores, he had the utmost respect for our first president. We are indeed fortunate that Washington had no desire to be king and that he willingly relinquished power by refusing to run for more than two terms as president. We take that for granted today, but Brookhiser's book reminded me how revolutionary it was for someone to voluntarily relinquish power in the eighteenth century.
During Washington's Presidency, Morris served as minister to France during the French Revolution. He was reacquainted with Lafayette who had returned home. Lafayette was dismayed at how bloody the French Revolution was; many people were killed simply because they displeased the leader of the day. He attempted to flee to Holland, but was captured an thrown in jail. Acting on behalf of the US, Morris advanced 10,000 livres from the US credit to cover Lafayette's personal expenses in prison and told the jailers that America would hear with "great concern" if their hero "should be in want." Later, Morris loaned the Lafayette family 100,000 livres of his own money.
In addition to glimpses into the lives of our founding fathers, Brookhiser reminded me of something I had long forgotten. The founding fathers considered political parties to be bad things (page 167 if anyone wants his references). In 1800, Morris first proposed the role of opposition. This seems like common sense to us, I even wrote a summary of the loyal opposition concept last year. However, this concept was one that the founding fathers did not consider until the creation of political parties forced them to do so. To their credit, statesmen such as Morris not only created the idea, but supported it as a democratic alternative to civil war. (There were times when many politicians, including Morris, advocated breaking up the new Union – by force if necessary. Obviously none of these impulses ever resulted in action).
Morris also anticipated the end of slavery – not because he saw the good in men, but because he believed slavery was uneconomical. In his words, "Time... seems about to disclose the awful secret that commerce and domestic slavery are mortal foes; and, bound together, one must destroy the other. I cannot blame Southern gentlemen for striving to put down commerce, because commerce, if it survives, will, I think, put them down...." (page 195).
All in all, a very interesting book and well worth the read.