Krugman & Moyers: How the United States is becoming the Very System Our Founders Revolted Again

[JDPriestly]

30. As an oligarch, would you be thinking of Robert Morris?

Robert Morris, Sr. (/ˈmɒrɨs/ (January 20, 1734 – May 8, 1806) was a Liverpool-born American merchant who financed the American Revolution and was signatory to the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution. He was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly, became the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, and was chosen as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, where he served as chairman of the "Secret Committee of Trade" and as a member of the Committee of Correspondence.

From 1781 to 1784, he served as the powerful Superintendent of Finance, managing the economy of the fledgling United States. As the central civilian in the government, Morris was, next to General George Washington, "the most powerful man in America."[1] His successful administration led to the sobriquet, "Financier of the Revolution." At the same time he was Agent of Marine, a position he took without pay, and from which he controlled the Continental Navy.

He was one of Pennsylvania's original pair of US senators, serving from 1789 to 1795. He invested a considerable portion of his fortune in land shortly before the Panic of 1796–1797, which led to his bankruptcy in 1798, and he spent several months in debtors' prison, until Congress passed a bankruptcy act to release him. After he left prison in 1801 he lived a quiet, private life in a modest home in Philadelphia, until 1806 when he died.

Again, he was middle class -- a businessman. In a letter to John Adams dated July 9, 1786, Jefferson said that Morris had cornered the tobacco market. Certainly a rich man for a time, but again his wealth was not great enough or entrenched enough to save him from bankruptcy in the end. He is probably as close to an oligarch as you get, but does not make it.

The age of the great moguls and the making of the great American fortunes took place during but mostly after the American Revolution.

The other person who might be considered an oligarch is John Jay.

But there was far more balance among middle-class working people like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and wealthy businessmen than there is today. And the wealthy businessmen of the early US post-revolutionary period would not be considered that secure in their wealth by today's standards. There were no Rockefellers. Vanderbilt wasn't born yet. We just did not have the wealthy families with a century of political pull who could join with relative newcomers to run things, not like we have today.