Gouverneur Morris

Morris, Gouverneur (1752–1816), U.S. politician responsible for planning the U.S. decimal coinage system. He was a member of the New York provincial congress (1775–77). At the Constitutional Convention of 1787 he argued for a strong, property-based federal government and was responsible for much of the wording of the U.S. Constitution. He was minister to France (1792–94) and later played a leading part in promoting the Erie Canal.