Harrison Genealogy Repository

Notes

He was chosen as a member of the First Continental congress in 1774 and a member of the committee to frame the Declaration of Independance. Along with his brother, Franfis Lightfoot Lee, he signed the declaration of Independence.

After the course of private tuition at home, Richard was sent to the Wakefield Academy, in Yorkshire, England; on leaving that school, he made a brief tour of northern Europe, and returned to Virginia, being then only 19 years old. For some years, prior to his marriage, he resided with his eldest brother at Stratford Hall, and passed the time in diligent reading of the ancient classics and modern histories. His taste for the classics was constantly displayed in after life by the frequent and appropriate quotations he made from them to enrich his diction or to fortify his argument. The greater part of the estate left to Richard by his father, was in Prince William Co., but he continued to live in Westmoreland County even after he married. It is said that his eldest brother was so devoted to him, that he insisted that he should build near Stratford, and leased for him, the estate called Chantilly. It appears that this name was given by Richard Henry and that the estate was formerly known as Hollis' Marsh; it was situated about 3 miles below Stratford, and was also on the Potomac River. Later in life, Richard paid a rental for it to General Henry Lee, and mentions in his own will that he only held the estate on a lease. When Richard was 23, he raised a company to join General Braddock in his ill-fated expedition against the French and Indians; their aid was declined by the haughty Englishman, who had no use for provincials. When Richard was 25, he was appointed as Justice for Westmoreland, a position of influence and much sought after in those days. It was about this time that he made his first appearance in the political arena [1757], by being chosen member of the House of Burgesses; he continued a member of that body, when not in Congress, until 1792, when he retired from active public life. His first effort in that body was a speech against the importation of slaves to the Colony; the proposition was "to lay so heavy a tax upon the importation of slaves as effectually to put an end to that iniquitous and disgraceful traffic within the Colony." When the proposed Stamp tax was under discussion and before its full purport was understood, Mr. Lee applied for the position of collector under it. For this he was afterwards censured; he defended himself in a letter published in the Virginia Gazette on 25 Jul 1766, stating in one portion it: "….I considered that to err is certainly the portion of humanity, but that it was the business of an honest man to recede from error as soon as he discovered it, and that the strongest principle of duty called upon every citizen to prevent the ruin of his country, without being restrained by any consideration which could interrupt the primary obligation…." As stated in his long letter Mr. Lee was the one to bring before the Assembly the Act of Parliament, claiming their right to tax America, and he served on the special committee appointed to draft an address to the King, a memorial to the House of Lords, and a remonstrance to the Commons. He was selected to prepare the first and last of these three papers. Shortly afterwards, he organized the "Westmoreland Association" of patriots and wrote their resolutions. The articles were chiefly a direct protest against the Stamp Act, and expressed their determination to "exert every faculty to prevent the execution of the said Stamp Act in any instance whatsoever within this Colony." In 1773, the Virginia Assembly appointed a "Committee of Correspondence," of which Richard was a member. The first voice raised was that of Patrick Henry; who in a speech it is said, of impassioned eloquence, unfolded to his anxious listeners the perils and duties of the hour. The second speaker was Richard Henry Lee, who supplementing and enlarging on Henry's words, impressed the members with his wisdom and sagacity. Such evidently was the result of his eloquence, for he immediately took a leading place in that body. Mr. Lee was an active and energetic member of many of the leading committees of this Congress; from his pen emanated the memorial of Congress to the people of British America, which has been generally considered a masterly document. His most important and distinguished service was rendered on the 7th of Jun 1776, when, in accordance with the instructions of the Virginia Convention , and at the request of his colleagues, he proposed the resolution for the independence of the colonies. The motion was seconded by John Adams, of Massachusetts; the discussion upon its adoption continued until the 10th of June, when a committee was appointed to prepare a declaration, in accordance with this motion. It is a uniform rule of all deliberative bodies to appoint the member who has offered a resolution the chairman of the committee selected to report on that motion. In this case, therefore, Mr. Lee would have been chosen chairman of the committee for the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, had he been present. On the evening of the 10th of June, he received word of the serious illness of his wife; he left Philadelphia to visit her on the very day this committee was appointed. Thus an accidental sickness in his family probably deprived him of the signal honor of being the author as well as the mover of the Declaration of American Independence. It is said that the English papers, which gave the first intelligence of the adoption of the DOI, headed their columns with this line: "Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry have at last accomplished their object: The colonies have declared themselves independent of the mother country." Mr. Lee continued to serve in Congress for many years, being a member in 1778-80-84-87, and was one of the signers of the articles of confederation in 1778. During the session of 1784, he occupied the chair as President, being, it is said, the unanimous choice of all the delegates present. He served some 100 committees during the sessions of 1776-77. Mr. Lee opposed the adoption of the Constitution of 1787; in this opposition, he was in agreement with George Mason, Patrick Henry, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Jefferson and others, in Virginia, and many of the ablest patriots of the time in other States. But, after the ratification of the Constitution, he consented to serve as one of the Senators from Virginia, mainly for the purpose of urging some amendments which he believed to be needed; many of these he was instrumental in securing. After many years of active service in Congress, and all the while a member of the Virginia Assembly, he finally, in 1792, retired from public life. Of Richard Henry Lee's personal appearance and the style of his oratory, William Wirt wrote: "His face was on the Roman model; his nose Caesarean; the port and carriage of his head, leaning persuasively and gracefully forward; and the whole contour, noble and fine. He had studied in the classics in the true spirit of criticism. His taste had that delicate touch which seized with intuitive certainty every beauty of an author, and his genius that native affinity which combined them without effort. Into every walk of literature and science he had carried this mind of exquisite selection, and brought it back to the business of life, crowned with every light of learning and decked with every wreath that all the muses and all the graces could entwine. Nor did these light decorations constitute the whole value of its freight. He possessed a rich store of historical and political knowledge, with an activity of observation and a certainty of judgment which turned that knowledge to the very best account. He was not a lawyer by profession, but he understood thoroughly the Constitution, both of the mother country and of her colonies; and the elements also of civil and municipal law. Thus, while his eloquence was free from those stiff and technical restraints which habits of forensic speaking are apt to generate, he had all the legal learning necessary to a statesman. He reasoned well, and declaimed freely and splendidly. The note of his voice was deep and melodious. It was not the cancerous voice of Cicero. He had lost the use of one of his hands, which he kept constantly covered with a black silk bandage, neatly fitted in the palm of his hand, but leaving his thumb free; yet, notwithstand- ing this disadvantage, his gesture was so graceful and highly finished that it is said that he acquired it by practising before a mirror. Such was his promptitude that he required no preparation for debate. He was ready for any subject as soon as it was announced; and his speech was so copious, so rich, so mellifluous, set off with such bewitching cadence of voice and such captivating grace of action that, while you listened to him, you desired to hear nothing superior, and indeed thought him perfect. He had a quick sensibility and a fervid imagination." Dr. Rush said of him, "I never knew so great an orator whose speeches were so short. Indeed, I might say that he could not speak long. He had conceived his subject so clearly, and presented it so immediately to his hearers, that there appeared nothing more to be said about it. He did not use figures to ornament discourse, but made them the vehicles of argument." Mr. Lee died two years after retirement. He was troubled much with gout, "which attacked his abdominal viscera, and caused him great suffering, but, though his body became feeble, his mind retained its vigor." His will was dated 18 June 1793, and probated in Westmoreland Co., VA the 24th of June, 1794. He died at Chantilly on the 19th of June, 1794, and was buried in the old family burial-place, at the Burnt House Fields, Mt. Pleasant, as he desired in his will. Of the home of Richard Henry Lee, little is known. Thomas Lee Shippen, when describing his visit to Westmoreland, wrote his father that Chantilly "commands a much finer view than Stratford by reason of a large bay into which the Potomac forms itself opposite Chantilly…..The house is rather commodious than elegant. The sitting-room, which is very well ornamented, is 18x30 feet, and the dining-room, 20x24." From the inventory and appraisement of the furniture, etc., it is learned that there were a dining room, library, parlor, and chamber on the first floor. The hall being, as was usual, furnished as a sitting-room, contained: a mahogany desk, twelve arm chairs, a round and a square table, a covered walnut table, two boxes of tools, and a trumpet. On the second floor there were four large chambers, and a smaller one at the head of the stairs; two rooms in the third floor; store rooms, and closets. The outbuildings mentioned were: kitchen, dairy, blacksmith shop, stable, and barn. The enumeration of books in the library showed about 500 which were appraised at L229 10s.7d. Of money in the house at the time of his death, there were $54 silver, valued at L16 4s.; in bank at Alexandria, L181 19s.7d.; "Tobacco notes" for 13,907 pounds, nett. In 1783, Thomas Gaskins, Sr., of Westmoreland, executed a gift deed to his "daughter Anne Lee, now intermarried with Richard Henry Lee." [Anne was the widow of Thomas Pinkard, by whom she had at least one child].

His famous resolution in Congress on June 7, 176 "That these United Colonis are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, tht they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown and that all political connecion between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved" is said to have brought about our struggle for independence in 1776 and gained for its author the title of "The Father of the Revolution". ^{[S581] [S932]}