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Rating: 
Summary: A Good Biography, but Not One of Brookhiser's Best
Review: Does Richard Brookhiser plan to write a biography for every single Founding Father? Based on the three books of his I've read so far (on George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and now Gouverneur Morris), one can only hope so. Brookhiser's latest biography is of a somewhat neglected Founding Father, whose greatest accomplishment was his authorship/editorial work of much of the U.S. Constitution. Late in his life, Morris also played an invaluable, but often overlooked role in pushing the U.S. to create a system of canals linking New York State's Atlantic coast with the northern interior of North America. (These canals were, once created, as important for the young country's economic growth in the early nineteenth century as railroads would be for it in the late nineteenth century.) For a major public figure, Morris led a balanced life. His serious pursuits did not keep him from enjoying women, travel and outings, or a well-told joke. He was a good friend, especially towards those who he felt were unfairly treated by others. As Morris would drift in and out of public service throughout his life, much of the biography focuses on this personal side of the man. Brookhiser's skill as a biographer is to reveal aspects of his subject's character with just a well-written phrase or two. He does this in a straightforward way without the need for any conceptual baggage (such as Freudianism). Few biographers nowadays are willing to be so concise or risk interpreting their subjects in such a direct manner. But unlike with two of his previous and better-known subjects (Washington and Hamilton), Brookhiser is perhaps too brief in dealing with Morris's life. Whereas the basic outlines of both Washington and Hamilton's lives are fairly well-known to most readers, and therefore more amenable to Brookhiser's kind of abbreviation, Morris's life is not. As a result, the transitions in Morris's life covered in the book seem to rush by and background information is uneven. This is still a fine work, one I can easily recommend, but it is not as impressive as Brookhiser's earlier biographies.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Biography, but Not One of Brookhiser's Best
Review: Does Richard Brookhiser plan to write a biography for every single Founding Father? Based on the three books of his I've read so far (on George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and now Gouverneur Morris), one can only hope so. Brookhiser's latest biography is of a somewhat neglected Founding Father, whose greatest accomplishment was his authorship/editorial work of much of the U.S. Constitution. Late in his life, Morris also played an invaluable, but often overlooked role in pushing the U.S. to create a system of canals linking New York State's Atlantic coast with the northern interior of North America. (These canals were, once created, as important for the young country's economic growth in the early nineteenth century as railroads would be for it in the late nineteenth century.) For a major public figure, Morris led a balanced life. His serious pursuits did not keep him from enjoying women, travel and outings, or a well-told joke. He was a good friend, especially towards those who he felt were unfairly treated by others. As Morris would drift in and out of public service throughout his life, much of the biography focuses on this personal side of the man. Brookhiser's skill as a biographer is to reveal aspects of his subject's character with just a well-written phrase or two. He does this in a straightforward way without the need for any conceptual baggage (such as Freudianism). Few biographers nowadays are willing to be so concise or risk interpreting their subjects in such a direct manner. But unlike with two of his previous and better-known subjects (Washington and Hamilton), Brookhiser is perhaps too brief in dealing with Morris's life. Whereas the basic outlines of both Washington and Hamilton's lives are fairly well-known to most readers, and therefore more amenable to Brookhiser's kind of abbreviation, Morris's life is not. As a result, the transitions in Morris's life covered in the book seem to rush by and background information is uneven. This is still a fine work, one I can easily recommend, but it is not as impressive as Brookhiser's earlier biographies.
Rating: 
Summary: When you read the Constitution you read his words
Review: I enjoyed reading Richard Brookhiser's concise character studies of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. Those two monumental founders have had huge numbers of biographies and studies of all kinds written about them. This attention is well deserved, but in many ways they have become frozen monuments to the founding. Not so Gouverneur Morris. He is almost completely unknown outside those quite steeped in the history of the Revolution.
However, once you learn that it is his prose we read in our Constitution, that he played a vital role in financing the Revolution, and that he and his partner Robert Morris (no relation, but also a signer of the Declaration and the Constitution) actually and personally bailed out our country you will be shocked that he is so unknown to you (at least he was to me). He was at Alexander Hamilton's bedside when he passed, he was present at the French Revolution and helped draft their constitution. I could go on, but I will let you read the book and discover all he did and his influence in the early founding through the War of 1812.
This book is a full, if concise, biography of this man who deserves to be better known. There is a real advantage to reading about a founder who has as yet escaped becoming a marbleized image in the Pantheon of our collective imagination. He kept a detailed journal and through it we learn much about his life, his thinking, his strengths, and very human weaknesses. Of course, all of the founders were real flesh and blood men and women, but most have been assumed into history as much more than human. It is good to read thoughts and words that are still quite mortal and enjoyably fallible.
I think Brookhiser has done a fine job with this book. I do find the subtitle is a bit much, however. Calling Gouverneur Morris a rake is more about selling books about an unknown man than telling us something essential about the man. Yes, he did have affairs with married women who had indifferent or unfaithful husbands and did not marry until late in life. But we really would not know about these activities without his very honest journal. And judged by the way people live today (unfortunately), well, he was quite circumspect.
You will enjoy this book. It does have a good index and a helpful bibliography.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-written, but as typical for Brookhiser, very brief
Review: It is nice to see a new biography on a relatively neglected Founding Father, who has been portrayed (when mentioned at all) in other histories I have read as more or less a light-weight Good-Time Charlie. Clearly a lightweight wouldn't have been entrusted to draft the Constitution, yet Morris has been left in the corner to gather dust for the last two centuries. So a new biography is certainly welcome. It is a well-written, brisk narrative, and is enjoyable enough to read, but I cannot bring myself to give it 4 stars, and it certainly doesn't merit 5 stars. Simply put, it is just too damned short! Not being well-acquainted with Morris, I would have hoped for a more thorough treatment, but in many ways, Morris' portrait remains half-completed in Brookhiser's hands. I realize that Brookhiser is attempting to make his series on the Founding Fathers (incidentally, why only Federalists so far?) accessible to the general public, but as another reviewer observed, if you don't already have a good background in this period of history, you may be more confused than enlightened by the sparse detail in Brookhiser's treatment. In this book's case, one needs to be well-versed in the history of both Revolutionary America AND Revolutionary France. Morris' six years in France (1789-1795; Morris didn't return to the US until late 1798) gave him a unique perspective among the Founding Fathers (Monroe didn't arrive until 1794, nor Marshall until 1797) of watching the French Revolution devolve into the Reign of Terror. In fact, Brookhiser devotes more space in his book to these six years, and if you don't know the difference between a Jacobin, a Girondist or a Montagnard you may be out of luck. This is not to say that there isn't some good information in this book, especially where Morris' personal life is concerned. The man certainly is not boring. However, from Morris' return to the US in 1798 until his death 1816, it feels as though Brookhiser is rushing towards the finish, trying to wrap up a few loose ends as he goes along. The period from 1798-1816 deals mostly with Morris' family life; even though Morris led the last charges of Federalism in the Senate from 1800-1803, it receives only passing notice from Brookhiser. A little over 200 pages is just too condensed to be of any real use to anyone. One doesn't need a weighty, 900-page tome to do Morris justice, but would it have killed Brookhiser to have expanded this biography to maybe 350 pages or so?
Rating:
Summary: A good biography of a neglected American figure
Review: Most accounts of the American Founding are filled with tales of prim and proper Puritans or unremarkable commercial men. Not so with Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816), a New York aristocrat whose ancestral roots in this country went back to Dutch-controlled New Amsterdam. His family owned much of the Bronx in the 17th and 18th centuries. Morris had an astonishingly varied career. A friend of George Washington, Marquis de Lafayette, and Thomas Paine, Morris was the primary architect of the U.S. Constitution. He was a successful ladies' man, enjoying a succession of lovers before finally marrying in his late 50s. An expatriate in France during the French Revolution, he advised Louis XVI and wrote a constitution for that troubled nation. A senator from New York, he opposed the War of 1812 and advocated the secession of Northern states. Back in New York, while practicing law and tending to business interests, he found time to establish Manhattan's street grids and begin work on the Erie Canal. He started a family in his early 60s. Above all, he enjoyed life. Observers make much of the fact that as a teenager Morris sustained severe burns to his right arm and later lost part of a leg in a carriage accident, but these are arguably the least interesting things about the man. The one black mark on an otherwise admirable record was his anti-Catholicism. Brookhiser says little about it apart from arguing that Morris, a deist, wasn't as anti-Catholic as some of his Protestant colleagues. In other words, "Morris could have been worse," the author seems to say. This is a quick and easy read. Brookhiser writes well. Still, it's not altogether clear why the author, a senior editor at the neoconservative National Review, would want to write about someone like Morris. It's not even clear that in the end the author finds him particularly appealing. Brookhiser's critical remarks about Edmund Burke and John Randolph of Roanoke, both of whom admittedly are more interesting figures, detract from the story and may turn off more conservative-minded readers. Why is Morris important to us? America, especially New York, has changed considerably since Morris's time; some might say it has become decidedly less civilized. We live in an age of mass democracy, globalism, and consumerism where monetary values are held to be supreme, the sole measure of one's worth. The state of once-grand places like the Bronx, as Brookhiser shows in the concluding chapter, is a living symbol of this decline. If Morris was a rare enough individual in his own time, he would be inconceivable in ours. Yet, his rich life represents to modern Americans a model for a better way of living. Take heart from his cheerful fortitude, his aristocratic acceptance of life's vicissitudes, the sheer pleasure he got out of living according to God's plan. As Morris said: "To enjoy is to obey". Life is good.
Rating:
Summary: Superficial Look at Gouverneur Morris
Review: Most people know a little something about George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. But how many can tell you about the public life of Gouverneur Morris?
Whenever you quote golden words from the U.S. Constitution, chances are that you are quoting parts written by Gouverneur Morris. After many votes, the Constitutional Convention gave the task of turning the various resolutions into a cohesive, easy-to-read document. Gouverneur Morris bore the burden of doing this writing. Mr. Brookhiser did a nice job of showing the changes that Gouverneur Morris made . . . and I'm sure you will agree that they are improvements. The preamble, for example, was his: "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility . . . ."
The American Revolution succeeded in large part because of the support provided by France's Louis XVI. As the French Revolution loomed, Gouverneur Morris found himself in the delicate position of being Ambassador to France. To whom was he supposed to pay attention? To whom was the United States to repay its bonds? What role could he play in trying to help friends of the American Revolution? In the process, Morris played a double role of trying to make friends with the ever-changing regimes during the French Revolution and helping America's friends avoid the guillotine. In his spare time, he courted his mistress who also played that role with the pivotal French political figure, Talleyrand.
Upon his return to the United States, he found useful roles in important public projects like the Erie Canal and laying out the grid structure for New York City's streets and avenues.
Morris suffered from two major physical disabilities, a withered arm as the result of being scalded as a youth and an amputated foot from a carriage accident. Despite these physical infirmities, he was able to play a continuing role in politics when he chose and to attract the wives of other men.
In addition, he suffered a major mental disability, a love to hear his own voice . . . whether his ideas made sense or not. He was the most frequent orator at the Constitutional Convention, but his ideas sometimes made no sense. However, all admired his ability to turn a phrase.
Although he played a role in putting the Constitution together to replace the Articles of Confederation, he also flirted with the New England secession movement during the French crisis.
I would have preferred a book about Morris that went into more detail than this one did about his public life. For example, where did the language he wrote in the Constitution turn out to be important in later Supreme Court cases? What views that he expressed in all of those speeches seemed to have influenced others in close votes that occurred later? The material on his influence on the Erie Canal also seemed sketchy rather than comprehensive.
There was also too much about his various private affairs compared to the public material.
Having just read Ron Chernow's brilliant biography of Alexander Hamilton, it was hard not to compare the two books to the detriment of this one.
But if you know next to nothing about Gouverneur Morris, I'm not aware of a better book on the subject, so you should start your learning with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Potentially a fascinating topic, poorly conceived
Review: My biggest problem with the book is that I felt it was poorly written and conceived. Morris definitely is an interesting character, and I give credit to Brookheiser for reviving his legacy, but the book has a tendency to simply relate the facts without going into background material or much analysis or synthesis.
I felt the book was rushed and not adequately researched. Many areas need to be fleshed out better. Morris definitely belonged to the Founding Fathers clique and had an interesting personal life. If Brookheiser had simply delved into several periods or aspects of Morris' life, as Ellis did with American Sphinx, the book would have been better reading.
Having said that, the only people who are likely to read this book are those who have already done some reading on the birth of the USA and are motivated and able to deal the way the book was written to learn about this interesting character who pops up in biographies on Hamilton, Washington, and Jefferson, etc.
Rating:
Summary: Why Can't More Biographies Be Like This?
Review: This concise, highly readable biography resurrects Gouverneur Morris, a forgotten Founding Father, who drafted the final version of the Constitution, writing its immortal preamble, and was instrumental in the development of New York into the world's greatest city, planning both the Erie Canal and the street grid of modern Manhattan. Morris was also a notable eccentric, a one-legged Lothario who shared a mistress with Talleyrand, and ultimately married a Southern lady with an unspeakable scandal in her past. Morris was an elitist and a man of property, like his friend Alexander Hamilton. Less egalitarian than Jefferson, he was more clearsighted than the Virginian in condemning the rankness and hypocrisy of slavery. Another reviewer calls him anti-Catholic, which is untrue. He was quite critical of Catholicism, but defeated a provision in the New York state constitution banning Catholic worship. A champion of liberty of conscience, he was a Deist, like many of the Founders, and sceptical of organized religion in general. Richard Brookhiser is a conservative commentator and editor at the National Review. However, his historical writings are as fair-minded, sensible, and free from dogma, as his journalism is not. This brief biography reflects its subject: charming, witty, and learned.
Rating:
Summary: Good biography
Review: To most people who read of the era of the founding fathers, Gouverneur Morris is at best a peripheral character, mentioned in passing while the spotlight featured the bigger names of Washington, Adams, Hamilton, et al. Brookhiser gives us the opportunity to learn about this man and his role in early U.S. history. Morris was generally a peripheral character in the Revolutionary Era, but he did play a significant role in the drafting of the Constitution. His writing skills put the Constitution into its essentially final form, and the Preamble is almost entirely his creation. Beyond this, however, he was a more minor political player. A lot of this was by Morris's own choice, since he wasn't all that interested in higher office. He was an interesting enough person, in many ways more human than the semi-immortals with whom he worked with. Relatively easy-going and with a good sense of humor, Morris was also - despite a maimed hand and a missing leg - quite the ladies' man, even having an affair with one French woman who was not only married, but already the mistress to another. When he finally married late in life, he successfully avoided social pressure by choosing a wife with a bit of a reputation. Brookhiser - a rather politically conservative writer - has a lot of sympathy for the Federalists such as Hamilton and Morris. He, nonetheless, has written a good, objective book, the best of the three of his I read (the other two were on Hamilton and the Adams family). While Morris is rightly accorded a lesser light in history, he does deserve some illumination and Brookhiser's book does the job well.
Rating:
Summary: A Compelling Biography
Review: With his well-written and highly entertaining biography, "Gentleman Revolutionary," author Richard Brookhiser has resurrected the memory of founding father Gouvernor Morris for the modern reader. Among his many accomplishments, as the book's subtitle points out, it was Morris who wrote the final version of the American Constitution, the single greatest document of governance in world history. For that accomplishment alone, his memory should not be allowed to fade in comparison to his contemporaries. Morris's career encompassed, among much else, two terms in the Continental Congress during the height of the American Revolution. His financial expertise was vital to keeping the war effort afloat until the victory at Yorktown secured American independence. He also served as America's Ambassador to France during the French Revolution, keeping a meticulous account of events as they unfolded. Much of the rest of his life was spent as a successful lawyer and financier, who occasionally enagaged in such acts of public service as championing the Erie Canal and laying out the streets of Manhattan. All of this Brookhiser captures with his lively narrative prose. The book is a relatively quick read at just over 200 pages of narrative, and Brookhiser concentrates his efforts on those periods of Morris's life that were devoted to public service. A generous helping of illustrations are also provided. Brookhiser also avoids being too overly fawning of his subject, pointing out those ideas of Morris's that were either dangerously flawed or just plain wrong. Overall, a fascinating biography that can be enjoyed by history buffs as well as general readers.
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