"It was also agreed," says Morris in his private diary, "that this
allowance should not be known to any other persons except General
Washington, Mr. Livingston, Gouverneur Morris, and myself, lest the
publications might lose their force if it were known that the author is
paid for them by government."
The expedient did not suffice. The States were backward in voting
contributions, and, in 1784, Robert Morris resigned his office after
discharging all his personal obligations incurred on account of the
Government. He then resumed his private business. He was the first
American citizen who ever sent to Canton an American vessel. This was in
1784, and he continued for many years to carry on an extensive commerce
with India and China.
Unhappily, in his old age, for some cause or causes that have never been
recorded, he lost his judgment as a business man. About 1791, he formed
a land company, which bought from the Six Nations in the State of New
York a tract of land equal in extent to several of the German
Principalities of that time, and they owned some millions of acres in
five other States. These lands, bought for a trifling sum, would have
enriched every member of the company if they had not omitted from their
calculations the important element of _time_.
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