14. Gouverneur Morris unintentionally killed himself after inserting a whalebone into his penis in an attempt to relieve a urinary tract blockage.
Gouverneur Morris, the author of the Preamble to the United States Constitution and the United States Senator for New York, remains among the best known of the Founding Fathers. A wealthy landowner from New York City, Morris served in the Continental Congress before representing Pennsylvania at the Philadelphia Convention in 1787 wherein he advocated for a strong centralized federal government. Sporting a peg leg, necessitated by the loss of his left in 1780 after a carriage accident, Morris was among the few vocal opponents of slavery during the crafting of America’s body politic calling the practice “a nefarious institution” and a “curse” on the new nation.
In a bizarre turn of events, in late-1816 Morris grew tired of suffering from a blocked urinary tract that was causing him significant discomfort. Rather than seeking professional medical attention, Morris decided to tend to his intimate problem himself. During an attempt to use a piece of whalebone as a makeshift catheter, the insertion of the object into his penis inadvertently caused critical internal injuries. Developing a lethal infection, Morris would die on November 6, 1816, as the first, and indeed perhaps the only victim of penile-related self-inflicted whalebone injuries in the United States.