New in MLR Online: David S. Schwartz’s Framing the Framer: A Commentary on Treanor’s Gouverneur Morris as “Dishonest Scrivener,” a response to William Treanor’s article, "The Case of the Dishonest Scrivener: Gouverneur Morris and the Creation of the Federalist Constitution," in the Michigan Law Review 120 (2021): 1:
The “framing” of Morris as the “dishonest scrivener”—“framing” both as an organizing device and as an unfair accusation—detracts from Treanor’s superbly presented research. There is an understandable writerly appeal to building a historical narrative around the brilliant and roguish character of Gouverneur Morris (who Treanor brings to life in a vivid biographical sketch). But ultimately, as I will try to show, the evidence of dishonest intent on the part of Morris is too thin and speculative to sustain the “dishonest scrivener” narrative.
Gouverneur Morris (LC)
--Dan Ernst
