The public services of Gouverneur Morris to 1787 . hat time \as to curtail the power of theexecutive, much in the manner as they had desired to curtailthe power f the royal executive. The Tew York convention triedto carry out that idea of a weak executive by making the executivea board of men In -nlace of e single man, thus dividing the author-ity and the responsibility. Morris, clear-headed than hisfellows,saw the fallacy in trying to weaken an executive who de-rived his office and his power directly from the peor)le. Onelimitation on the executive pov;er was to vest the aripointi
The public services of Gouverneur Morris to 1787 . hat time \as to curtail the power of theexecutive, much in the manner as they had desired to curtailthe power f the royal executive. The Tew York convention triedto carry out that idea of a weak executive by making the executivea board of men In -nlace of e single man, thus dividing the author-ity and the responsibility. Morris, clear-headed than hisfellows,saw the fallacy in trying to weaken an executive who de-rived his office and his power directly from the peor)le. Onelimitation on the executive pov;er was to vest the aripointivr rov^erin a Council of Appointment composed of the governor aua lOursenators, riorris was at first induced by Jay to assent to theplan(2). ITbrris later the weakening effect that tho (1) Carter and Stone,Reports of the Convention of 1821, 691-692. (2) Jay, Correspondence (Johnston ed.), I, 128. Jay to Living-stone and Morris, ^pril, 1777: I spent the evening of that daywith Mr. Morris at your lodgings,in the course of which I proposed. 13 Council would have on the executive; therefore he roxusea to sup-port the plan, and rroved that the governor be aliowea to appointwithout the consent of the Council fl). This motion v/as defeated, iand the uouncil adopted as Jay had conceived it. Another limita-tion was -olaced on the executive hy the estahlishment of a Councilof Revision, composed of the governor, ohe chancellor, and thejudges of the Supreme Court, which was to he given the veto ;Torris had urged the adoption of a limited veto in the governorhimself, hut was overruled hy the Convention (2). After that, he T^adc no opnositicn to the adoption of the Council of wap not entirely satisfied with t?ie Ilew York Cf^nstitutionwhen it was finally adopted, and one great cause of his dissatis-f&ction was that these councils deprived the executive of thevigor which he should have. He so expressed himself to Hamilton,who agreed with him in that particular
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