SOLD During the Revolution, Robert Morris Directs Privateering Against the British
Helped Raise the Funds to Finance Washington’s Yorktown Victory.
It is one of the great ironies of the Revolution that Robert Morris, dubbed the financier of American independence, got the British to provide the funds for their own defeat. A good portion of Morris’ substantial wealth resulted from having an ownership interest in many privateers preying on British shipping, and acting...
It is one of the great ironies of the Revolution that Robert Morris, dubbed the financier of American independence, got the British to provide the funds for their own defeat. A good portion of Morris’ substantial wealth resulted from having an ownership interest in many privateers preying on British shipping, and acting as broker for others carrying English spoils as they came into port. He managed his business even as he served as a member of the Continental Congress on its committee of ways and means. One of Morris’ privateer business partners was Thomas Mumford who had an interest in between 10 and 20 ships, manned with over 700 seamen and carrying over 120 guns. He was a member of the Groton, Conn. Committee of Correspondence and was on the governor’s Committee of Safety. Patriot diplomat Silas Deane was Mumford’s brother-in-law and sometime business associate.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 pages, Philadelphia, December 26, 1780, to Mumford, about the difficulties presented by the war: “I am glad to hear that Deane is ready for another cruise and hope it will be more successful than the last, which however I am told leaves something handsome after paying the present outfits. You will therefore when perfectly convenient send me the accounts, and I hope my share will discharge the old balance. I shall be glad to serve your House in St. Eustacia when opportunities offer although I am well connected there already. I think your vessel, armed ten six pounders, well manned has not much to fear in going to Virginia now although there are some small British cruisers there.”
To keep the war going, Morris gave to the government funds and the full benefit of his substantial credit. During the latter part of 1780 and into early 1781, he raised the huge sum of $1,400,000 to finance Washington’s military activities for the 1781 cam paign. That campaign resulted in the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Thus the privateer activities discussed in this letter, and the proceeds from captured British ships, helped fund a victorious end to the Revolution.
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