No, it’s not that Hamilton and Ruth both had scandalous love affairs, though this description by biographer Ron Chernow of the Founding Father could as easily apply to her: “Hamilton seemed to need two distinct types of love: love of the faithful, domestic kind and love of the more forbidden, exotic variety.”
Rather it is that Alexander Hamilton’s good friend Gouverneur Morris was the great grandfather and namesake of Ruth’s husband.
Thus Alexander Hamilton, Chernow’s terrific biography and the inspiration for the smash Broadway musical Hamilton, makes for an interesting book to read either before or after Wild Bird: The True Jazz Age Tale of Ruth Wightman Morris.
Gouverneur Morris, the elder, only occasionally appears in this huge, strapping account of Hamilton’s extraordinary life, but Morris stands out in two important ways.
Most notably Gouverneur Morris worked with Hamilton, James Madison and two others to craft the United States Constitution, and it was Morris who not only condensed and shaped the final draft but penned maybe its most memorable words:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Beyond that, Gouverneur Morris proved to be one of Hamilton’s most enduring friends. While the likes of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were often at political war with Hamilton, Morris typically sided with Hamilton on the more contentious issues, and it would be Morris who would give the eulogy at Hamilton’s funeral.
Gouverneur Morris would later have a town named after him in New York state as well as a school in the Bronx, Morris High School, which would produce among others a future Secretary of State: Colin Powell.
The rich legacy of his great grandfather insured that Gouverneur Morris, the younger, would be afforded all the advantages in terms of upbringing and education, and by the time Ruth Wightman walked into his office at Goldwyn Pictures, Morris had carved out a success story all his own as a writer.
Unfortunately there is a sad footnote to this story. Late in the younger Morris’ life, carelessness while smoking in bed led to a fire that destroyed many of his most prized possessions, among them original documents handed down to him from his great grandfather.