Gouverneur Morris

Gouverneur Morris was, in many ways, John Randolph's opposite. He was a towering, muscular man known for his relationships, and he was a major proponent of a strong federal government in the early days to the point where he drafted the preamble to the US constitution and oversaw the wording of the rest of the text.

However, he was significantly opposed to the constitution he worked so hard to draft by 1812 and thought his home state of New York should secede. The only similarity he had to his conservative junior Randolph was that he had lost a leg and had once almost burned his arm with hot water.

When I say that he was well-known for his relationships, I'm talking about things like his liaisons with writers like Adelaide de Flahaut at the Louvre and in her governess' convent. Also, he had a rather peculiar propensity of scaling church steeples. You'd think a man with his stature and accomplishments wouldn't feel the need to overcompensate in such a blatant manner.

Born: January 31, 1752Province of New York, British America
Died: November 6, 1816 (aged 64)New York, U.S.