The Constitution’s Penman: Gouverneur Morris and the Creation of America’s Basic Charter by Dennis C. Rasmussen (review)

Reviewed by: The Constitution's Penman: Gouverneur Morris and the Creation of America's Basic Charter by Dennis C. Rasmussen Stuart Leibiger (bio) Keywords Gouverneur Morris, U. S. Constitution, Constitutional Convention, Ratification The Constitution's Penman: Gouverneur Morris and the Creation of America's Basic Charter. By Dennis C. Rasmussen. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2023. Pp. 266. Cloth, 44. 95. ) Almost every fifth grader knows who wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. Most college students, in contrast, cannot name the author of the final draft of the U. S. Constitution. Of the few Americans who recognize Gouverneur Morris as one of the Founders, End Page 120 most do not know the correct pronunciation of name (it was pronounced "Governor"), are unable to separate fact from fiction about his colorful life, and do not understand his critical role at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. The Constitution's Penman: Gouverneur Morris and the Creation of America's Basic Charter, by Dennis C. Rasmussen, professor of political science at Syracuse University, is the first book-length study of Morris's immense role in framing the Constitution. Rasmussen persuasively argues that Morris, who gave as many speeches as anyone at the Convention (despite missing a month), contributed much more than the final draft. He shaped the document in significant ways, especially its provision for a strong executive. Morris, an outspoken nationalist and opponent of slavery, also prepared a cover letter to the Confederation Congress explaining that the preservation of the Union required the states to surrender some of their power to the Federal government. Although the book is not a biography, Rasmussen sketches Morris's amorous life, which if made into a film "would likely require an R rating" (10). A principal draftsman of New York's 1777 Constitution (featuring an independent executive) and a member of Continental Congress from 1778 to 1779, Morris signed the Articles of Confederation. Becoming a resident of Philadelphia to pursue law and business, he suffered a carriage accident in 1780 that cost him his leg below the knee. He assisted Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris (no relation) during the Revolutionary War, became U. S. Minister to France from 1792 to 1794, and served in the U. S. Senate from 1800 to 1803. Morris died at his home Morrisania in the Bronx in 1816. Morris's immense role at the Convention is surprising, notes Rasmussen, considering that he was the last member added to the Pennsylvania delegation. During the opening week of the Convention, Morris joined with other nationalists in backing the Virginia Plan, which replaced the Confederation with a national government operating directly on the American people without the states as intermediaries. After attending the first week of the Convention in late May 1787, Morris left Philadelphia for New York on personal business and did not return until July 2. Rasmussen shows that from then on, he was perhaps the most vocal and active member of the gathering. Rasmussen uses topical chapters to analyze Morris's impact on the Constitution's provisions on federalism, the congress, the presidency, the judiciary, and slavery. Morris favored an aristocratic senate of propertied End Page 121 men appointed by the president serving for life without pay that could check the unwise democratic impulses of the lower house. Rasmussen explains that Morris's objective, however, was not to empower the rich, but to isolate them in a single legislative chamber rather than to have them dominate the entire federal government. Morris similarly backed property requirements for federal voting to ensure that the rich would not buy the votes of the landless poor. Of the federal government's three branches, maintains Rasmussen, Morris had the greatest impact on the design of the presidency. Morris advocated direct popular election of the executive instead of election by congress to ensure presidential independence from the legislature. Unable to secure direct popular election of the president, Morris engineered the next best thing, indirect popular selection of the executive through an electoral college, and he staved off adoption of a presidential term limit. Rasmussen contends that Morris, the most outspoken critic of slavery at the Convention, at times seemingly prioritized abolition over Union, unlike other delegates. . .