Details
MORRIS, Gouverneur (1752-1816), Minister to France. Autograph letter signed ("Gouv Morris") to a unidentified female correspondant, Paris, 11 May 1789. 4 pages, 4to, tear along center fold neatly reinforced, page two tipped to a strip of mount.
MORRIS DESCRIBES THE OPENING OF THE ESTATES-GENERAL. A highly interesting letter, giving Morris's reaction to Louis XVI's speech to the Estates-General and the tenor of revolutionary France. Three months after arriving in France on business, Morris longs "to quit this glittering scene" for America "a Society which is composed neither of Subjects, nor of Slaves, but of Men..." He provides a detailed first-hand account of in the opening of Estates-General, which convened on 1 May for the first time since 1614, "a spectacle more solemn to the mind than gaudy to the eyes." He describes the hall, and the dress of the assembly. The King, he writes "read his Speech well, and was interrupted...by a loud shout of Vive le Roi." A proposal for liberal reform was delivered--quite ineffectively according to Morris--by Jacques Necker and his clerk: "it was too long by two Hours, and yet fell short in some Capital Points of great Expectation." He concludes: "There drops the Curtain on the final great Act of this great Drama in which Bourbon gives Freedom." Louis's position, he concludes, is "that of the patriot Prince who rules in the Affection of more than twenty million Souls."
Business interests, personal travel and diplomatic duties kept Morris in Europe for a decade at this turbulent time. The Estates-General, which he describes in detail here, proved highly ineffective in averting revolution. Morris's diary and letters of this period constitute "a mine of information and shrewd comment on the men and measures of the Revolution" (DAB).
MORRIS DESCRIBES THE OPENING OF THE ESTATES-GENERAL. A highly interesting letter, giving Morris's reaction to Louis XVI's speech to the Estates-General and the tenor of revolutionary France. Three months after arriving in France on business, Morris longs "to quit this glittering scene" for America "a Society which is composed neither of Subjects, nor of Slaves, but of Men..." He provides a detailed first-hand account of in the opening of Estates-General, which convened on 1 May for the first time since 1614, "a spectacle more solemn to the mind than gaudy to the eyes." He describes the hall, and the dress of the assembly. The King, he writes "read his Speech well, and was interrupted...by a loud shout of Vive le Roi." A proposal for liberal reform was delivered--quite ineffectively according to Morris--by Jacques Necker and his clerk: "it was too long by two Hours, and yet fell short in some Capital Points of great Expectation." He concludes: "There drops the Curtain on the final great Act of this great Drama in which Bourbon gives Freedom." Louis's position, he concludes, is "that of the patriot Prince who rules in the Affection of more than twenty million Souls."
Business interests, personal travel and diplomatic duties kept Morris in Europe for a decade at this turbulent time. The Estates-General, which he describes in detail here, proved highly ineffective in averting revolution. Morris's diary and letters of this period constitute "a mine of information and shrewd comment on the men and measures of the Revolution" (DAB).