12. Robert Morris, the Financier of the American Revolution, went to debtor’s prison
One of the forgotten Founding Fathers, Robert Morris, sacrificed his considerable fortune to the American Revolution. He served in the Continental Congress, signed the Declaration of Independence, and created the office of Superintendent of Finance. After the war, he signed both the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. When offered the role of President Washington’s first Secretary of the Treasury, he turned it down and suggested Alexander Hamilton in his stead. In 1790, he offered Washington the use of his home as the Presidential Mansion in Philadelphia. His family moved to a smaller house nearby.
Despite, or maybe because of, his long service to the country and its fledgling financial system, Morris found his personal finances crippled in the early 1790s. In an attempt to rebuild the fortune he had made as a merchant before the Revolution, Morris participated in land speculation, purchasing tracts in the west with borrowed money. The Panic of 1795-96 wiped him out. His creditors, with their own fortunes threatened by the downturn, pressured him for payment. In February 1798, while the President of the United States lived in his Philadelphia home, Morris entered debtor’s prison following his arrest. He remained there for three and a half years. After his release, he lived quietly in Philadelphia until his death in 1806.