In his classic study of the Constitutional Convention, The Grand Convention, Clinton Rossiter identified four delegates whom he judged to be indispensable: James Madison, James Wilson, George Washington, and Gouverneur Morris. Morris, Rossiter admitted, would be a surprising choice to those who find his sense of humor too close to frivolity. But, he argued, Morris’s speeches, his com-mittee work, and his final draft made a contribution that was “magnificent.”1 Anyone who reads Madison’s notes of the convention, or compares the wordiness of the draft of the Committee of Detail with the clarity and concision of the draft Morris produced for the Committee of Style, is bound to agree. 

Keep Reading Gouverneur Morris and Contemporary America: The Scrivener’s Ageless Views

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