The papers from Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816) span the years 1771-1834 with the bulk of the material dating from 1789 to 1816. The collection includes his diary , letterbooks , notebooks, registers, ledgers, journals, and cash and account books.

The majority of the papers covers the period from 1789, when Morris left for France, to 1816, the year of his death. Earlier papers include a notebook, 1771-1772; register, 1772-1775; waste book, 1778; and a journal and ledger, 1778, all relating to his legal practice. A bank account book, 1782-1788, and a daybook and ledger relate to his estate Morrisania, in New York.

The diary begins on March 1, 1789, shortly after Morris’s arrival in Paris and continues to October 19, 1816, the only break occurring between January 5, 1793, and October 12, 1794. It includes Morris’s mission to London, 1790-1791, and his service as Minister to France, 1792-1794, and in the United States Senate, 1800-1803. Morris was the only foreign minister to remain at his post in Paris during the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, and his diary entries chronicle these years.

Two letterbooks in the collection include Morris’s official correspondence as minister to France and another his consular correspondence for this period. One volume of his private letterbooks relates to the same period, as do three of his commercial letterbooks. Although the correspondence is divided into various categories, all of the volumes contain material related to political and diplomatic topics. His correspondents included William Carmichael; William Wyndham Grenville, Baron Grenville; Alexander Hamilton; David Humphreys; Thomas Jefferson; Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette; Marie Adrienne de Noailles, marquise de Lafayette; Robert Morris; Francis Godolphin Osborne, the Duke of Leeds; Thomas Pinckney; William Short; George Washington; various French ministers; and others.

Morris went to Europe originally as a business agent for Robert Morris, the Philadelphia financier who was not a member of the same Morris family. The business letters, accounts, and ledgers, along with material relating to the Morrisania estate which Morris purchased before he left for Europe, contain material related to economic and social history.

Upon his return from France, Morris settled at Morrisania. He was elected to the United States Senate to fill an unexpired term in 1800 but failed to be reelected in 1802 as a Federalist since the Aaron Burr Democratic-Republicans had gained control of the New York legislature. As time passed he became increasingly critical of the Democratic-Republican regimes of Jefferson and Madison. He opposed the embargo, disapproved of the War of 1812, and spoke in favor of the Hartford Convention. He was interested in the development of the Erie Canal and served as chairman of the canal commission. All of his activities and his reflections on, and reactions to, public affairs are covered in his papers.

A considerable portion of this collection has been published in Jared Sparks’s The Life of Gouverneur Morris, with Selections from his Correspondence (3 vols., 1832); Anne Cary Morris’s The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris (2 vols., 1888); and A Diary of the French Revolution, 1752-1816 , edited by Beatrix Cary Davenport (2 vols., 1939). There is only one letter received in this collection (in the unfilmed addition).