Founding principal.

• Author: Dallek, Matthew

SCHOLARS OF AMERICA'S FOUNding, the historian Joseph Ellis has argued, tend to view it through one of two prisms. Some historians see the Revolution mainly as an effort to overthrow tyranny and secure individual liberties. For others, it was a period of nationalist fervor; not only did the colonists want to vanquish the British and assert their own rights, but they also desired a highly unified nation under a strong federal government that would create a future defined by peace and prosperity.

This basic tension--rights versus unity; individualism against nationalism--has been manifest through many periods of American history, but it suffused the politics of the founding generation. In Gentleman Revolutionary, Richard Brookhiser, who has written the biographies of several other founding fathers, has produced a life of Gouverneur Morris, a little-regarded founder of whom most Americans have probably never heard, yet who, in a sense, personified both strains of thought.

Morris believed in the cause of country. He supported the Revolution and helped author the Constitution, served as minister to France and championed the Erie Canal. Yet he was also a fierce individualist who retreated to private life whenever possible, and it is this person on whom Brookhiser focuses. Born into wealth in New York, Morris enjoyed a most advantaged upbringing. His grandfather had served as governor of New Jersey, his father was a prominent jurist and New York assemblyman, and Morris quickly became a leading lawyer and socialite.

But profound suffering also marked Morris's life. At age 14, he spilled boiling water on his right arm, and it was mangled forever. When he turned 29, he was run over by a carriage; his left leg had to be amputated. Morris took it all in stride. He spent time working on Morrisania, his New York estate. He struck up friendships. Ultimately, he took a wife and fathered a son. In spite of hardships, Morris lived life to the fullest. He earned money, traveled the globe, took lovers on two continents, drank the best wines, and ate the finest foods--and Brook-hiser isn't shy about voicing his approval. Morris "was no artist," he writes, "unless living is an art."

But Brookhiser also makes it clear that Morris impacted the life of the country. During the Revolution, he represented New York in the Continental Congress, becoming friends with George Washington and many more of the new nation's leaders. He secured payment for Army officers...