American statesman (1752-1816) and signer of the Constitution from Pennsylvania who authored several sections of that document, including the well-known preamble. Important handwritten letter with the signature neatly removed, three pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.25 x 9.25, April 16, 1806. Letter to "Colo. Lewis Morris," his half-brother and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In part: "Should it be desired to know my opinion…as may regard the ensuing election I have no hesitation in giving it. If there be a great probability of success it would be well to endeavor to carry…men of good sense and integrity who love the people well enough to obey the dictates of their own undertakings without regard to popularity. If however the chance of success be not great I think it most advisable to leave those who now rule us in the undisturbed possession of authority. The time rapidly approaches when the mischiefs resulting from the misconduct of our national government will open the eyes of the most obstinately blind and force apart from the most devoted adherents of faction. I would to God that it were otherwise. But there has been a succession of blunderers, the most egregious imaginable, so that our chief magistrate told one of our friends…we had our choice of enemies. But when asked if we had not also our choice of friends he answered negatively. Indeed every leading measure of his administration both foreign and domestic has been totally and entirely wrong. Of his foreign policy he has in the manner just mentioned himself pronounced the condemnation. Of his domestic arrangements it is sufficient to lay our finger on a single object which can be brought within the scope of simple arithmetic. He has taken off from wealth, penury and vice a tax of a million annually while industrious poverty has been subjected to additional burthens. He has affected to pay off the national debt and yet…has by purchase of Louisiana and by the contemplated purchase of the Floridas added more than a million annually to the interest of that national debt…Whether two millions lately granted for facilitating treaties will answer the purpose contemplated is very questionable but there is no question in my mind but that the first fifteen millions would, if properly spent among ourselves (instead of being poured into foreign coffers), have been amply sufficient not only to have conquered more than we have as yet bought but also to fortify our ports and harbors so as to bid our enemies a proud defiance." In fine condition, with some old repairs to fold splits.
Morris's disgust with the administrations of Jefferson and Madison drove him to extremes in his opposition to the policies of the national government—he denounced embargoes, condemned the War of 1812, approved the Hartford Convention, and advocated repudiating the national debt incurred by the war. In this letter, he takes aim at the Louisiana Purchase—like many Federalists, he felt the United States had thrown away $12,000,000 on a wasteland. Instead, he would have preferred to take the territory by force.
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