On this day in 1816, Founding Father and “Penman of the Constitution” Gouveneur Morris died after attempting surgery on his own penis with a whalebone. Morris, while not the most recognized of the Founders, was certainly one of the strangest and most interesting. At thirty-two, he lost his leg after being struck by a carriage while fleeing the enraged husband of one of his many lovers. Refusing to be dissuaded from forbidden women, he famously increased the risk by consummating his affairs in public, most notably in the Louvre. While in Paris, he fought off a revolutionary mob with his peg leg and purchased Marie Antoinette’s furniture, shipping it home to Boston. Apparently, it went at a reasonable price, considering her head was on a pike at the time.
