On this day in New York · January 31, 1752
The Man Who Wrote 'We the People' Was Born in the Bronx
Gouverneur Morris grew up on a family estate on the Harlem River, then went to Philadelphia and rewrote a young country's opening line.
The facts
- Born
- January 31, 1752, at Morrisania, on the Harlem River
- Then part of
- Westchester County, New York; now the Bronx
- Convention role
- Committee of Style and Arrangement, 1787
- Nickname
- "Penman of the Constitution"
Gouverneur Morris was born on January 31, 1752, on Morrisania, his family's estate on the north side of the Harlem River, in what was then Westchester County and is now the Bronx. He went on to serve at the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, where he sat on the five-member Committee of Style and Arrangement tasked with polishing the document's final language. Historians credit Morris with writing the finished Preamble himself, including swapping out the original opening line for something with more weight behind it. He is the reason the Constitution begins by naming a nation instead of a list of states.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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Morris has been credited by most historians with authorship of the final version of the preamble, including changing the opening line 'We, the People of the States' to 'We, the People of the United States.'
Wikipedia, on Morris's work on the Committee of Style and Arrangement
Source: Wikipedia -
He wrote the Preamble to the United States Constitution and has been called the 'Penman of the Constitution'.
Wikipedia, summarizing Morris's role at the Constitutional Convention
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
That one line change, from a union of states to a union of people, is why every American reads the Constitution as a promise made directly to them. The Bronx neighborhood of Morrisania still carries the family name of the man who wrote it.
Sources
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