Robert Morris

Autograph Document Signed ("Robt Morris").2 pages (6 1/2 x 4 in; 165 x 102 mm), Philadelphia, 17 July 1795. Together with Peter Lohra, Document Signed. 1 page (8 x 13 in; 203 x 330 mm), Philadelphia, 20 July 1798, endorsed on verso by Joseph Hopkinson and Thomas Cumpston, Philadelphia, 19 September 1801. 

Two documents related to the business failures of Robert Morris and John Nicholson. The first is a partly printed promissory note signed and engrossed by Nicholson to Morris, and endorsed by Morris, later used as evidence in Morris’s bankruptcy trial. The note states, “Three years after date Promise to pay Robert Morris Esq^r or order Eight Thousand – Dollars for Value Received.” The second document is Peter Lohra’s protest of Nicholson’s bad promissory note. The document has an embossed seal in the lower left corner and is tipped to a larger sheet. On the document’s verso is a note reading “Exhibited to us under the commission against Robert Morris, Philadelphia, 19th September 1801,” and signed by Joseph Hopkinson and Thomas Cumpston, commissioners appointed to oversee the proceedings after Morris had languished in prison for three years.

Robert Morris (1734–1806) was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution. He is best known for his role as financier of the Continental Congress. With the national government virtually bankrupt, Morris risked his own personal fortune by purchasing supplies for the army, pressuring the states for cash contributions and securing a major French loan to finance the Bank of North America. He spent his remaining years in various public positions, including U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. He was imprisoned for debt in 1798 after his involvement in several failed speculative schemes. His wife was able to use an annuity to eventually get him out of prison, but he never rebuilt his fortune.

John Nicholson (1758–1800), a Welsh-born émigré was appointed clerk to the Board of Treasury of the Continental Congress. In 1782 he was appointed Pennsylvania's Comptroller General in 1872. In 1793, he was impeached for personally speculating in federal securities with state funds. Acquitted but forced to resign, in 1795, he joined Robert Morris and James Greenleaf in creating the North American Land Company, which acquired six million acres in six states, but collapsed after the worldwide panic of 1797 and the Napoleonic Wars (which drove down the European market for American lands). Nicholson died in prison in 1800, more than four million dollars in debt.