Here is an excerpt from Arthur Paul Kaufman, The Constitutional Views of Gouverneur Morris (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Dissertation Services, 1994):
Several times in his
early writings, Morris referred to a future American nation as "an asylum
to mankind." At the conclusion of Morris's Observations
on the American Revolution, written for the Continental Congress in 1779, he elaborated on that
concept in terms suggestive of the inscription, partially taken from Emma
Lazarus's historical poem, now affixed to the Statue of Liberty:
The
portals of the temple we have raised to freedom shall then be thrown wide, as an
asylum to mankind. America shall receive
to her bosom and comfort and cheer the oppressed, the miserable and the poor of
every nation and of every clime. The enterprise
of extending commerce shall wave her friendly flag over the billows of the remotest
regions. Industry shall collect and bear
to her shores all the various productions of the earth, and all by which human life
and human manners are polished and adorned. In becoming acquainted with the religions,
the customs and the laws, the wisdom, virtues and follies and prejudices of different
countries, we shall be taught to cherish the principles of general benevolence.
