that  framed  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  He  was  a
United  States  Senator  of  the  First  Congress.  When  Washington
chose  his  cabinet,  he  so  valued  the  services  of  Mr.  Morris  that  he
offered  to  him  the  office  of  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  but  he  re-
spectfully declined  it ;  but  Washington  still  wishing  to  honor  him,
desired  him  to  name  a  candidate,  when  he  named  Alexander
Hamilton.
Mr.  Morris  served  a  full  term  as  United  States  Senator,  when,
in  1795,  he  retired  from  public  life.
Now  we  come  to  a  dark  epoch  in  the  life  of  this  great  man.
His  evil  star  seemed  to  gain  the  ascendency,  and  his  great  business
tact  seemed  overwhelmed  by  a  series  of  misfortunes,  which  totally
paralyzed  his  mind.     It  is  not  strange  that  a  man  like  Morris,
who  had  brought  his  country  through  the  greatest  tribulation  in
money  matters,  should  have  an  unbounded  confidence  in  his  own
merits,  and  an  unlimited  belief  in  the  forbearance  of  those  whom
he  had  been  instrumental  in  dragging  out  of  slavery  into  liberty.
But  Morris  forgot  what  men  of  less  talents  know,  that  there  are
vultures  in  society ;  Shylocks,  who  value  man  no  more  than  the
amount  of  money  they  can  pilfer  out  of  him  by  exactions.     So  it
was  with  him.     In  1794  he  was  President  of  "  The  Asylum  Com-
pany."   He  began  with  John  Nicholson  to  speculate  largely  in  wild
lands  in  1795.     On  the  2()th  of  February,  1795,  the  North  Ame-
rican Land  Company  was  formed  by  Robert  Morris,  John  Nichol-
son, of  this  city,  and  James  Greenleaf,  of  the  city  of  New  York.
