biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1752–1816)
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| biography:
| US statesman and diplomat, born in Morrisania (now part of New York City), New York, USA. Fundamentally conservative, he nevertheless served as a New York delegate to the Continental Congress (1777–9) and supported the move for independence. Failing to be re-elected, he moved to Philadelphia where he became assistant superintendent of finances under Robert Morris (no relation) and helped plan the decimal coinage system (1781–5). He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention (1787), but he advocated almost absolute powers for the president. Returning to his family home in New York (1788), he went to Europe and served as US ambassador to France during the period of the French Revolutionary terror (1792–4). Back in America, he served as senator from New York (1800–3). As a Federalist, he constantly found himself opposed to the direction taken by the fledgling democracy. |
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