Home › Richard Henry Lee › Richard Henry Lee

Richard Henry Lee

RICHARD HENRY LEE, a brother of the foregoing, was born at Stratford, Westmoreland county, Virginia, on the 20th of January, 1732. He received his education in England, where his acquisitions were considerable in scientific and classical knowledge. He returned to his native country when in his nineteenth year, and devoted himself to the general study of history, politics, law, and polite literature, without engaging in any particular profession.

About the year 1757, he was chosen a delegate to the House of Burgesses, where a natural diffidence for some time prevented him from displaying the full extent of his powers and resources. This impediment, however, was gradually removed, and he rapidly rose into notice as a persuasive and eloquent speaker. In 1764, he was appointed to draught an address to the king, and a memorial to the House of Lords, which are among the best state papers of the period. Some years afterwards, he brought forward his celebrated plan for the formation of a committee of correspondence, whose object was "to watch the conduct of the British Parliament; to spread more widely correct information on topics connected with the interests of the colonies, and to form a chosen union of the men of influence in each." This plan was originated about the same time in Massachusetts, by Samuel Adams. The efforts of Mr. Lee in resisting the various encroachments of the British government were indefatigable, and in 1774 he attended the first General Congress at Philadelphia, as a delegate from Virginia. He was a member of most of the important committees of this body, and labored with unceasing vigilance and energy. The memorial of Congress to the people of British America, and the second address of Congress to the people of Great Britain, were both from his pen. The following year, he was again deputed to represent Virginia in the same assembly, and his exertions were equally zealous and successful. Among other responsible duties, he was appointed, as chairman of a committee, to furnish General Washington, who had been summoned to the command of the American armies, with his commission and instructions.

On the 7th of June, 1776, Mr. Lee introduced the measure, which declared, "That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown; and that all political connexion between them and the State of Great Britian is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." This important motion he supported by a speech of the most brilliant eloquence. "Why then, Sir," said he, in conclusion, "why do we longer delay? Why still deliberate? Let this happy day give birth to an American republic. Let her arise, not to devastate and to conquer, but to re-establish the reign of peace and of law. The eyes of Europe are fixed upon us; she demands of us a living example of freedom, that may exhibit a contrast in the felicity of the citizen to the ever increasing tyranny which desolates her polluted shores. She invites us to prepare an asylum, where the unhappy may find solace, and the persecuted repose. She invites us to cultivate a propitious soil, where that generous plant which first sprang up and grew in England, but is now withered by the poisonous blasts of Scottish tyranny, may revive and flourish, sheltering under its salubrious and interminable shade, all the unfortunate of the human race. If we are not this day wanting in our duty, the names of the American legislators of 1776 will be placed by posterity at the side of Theseus, Lycurgus, and Romulus, of the three Williams of Nassau, and of all those whose memory has been, and ever will be, dear to virtuous men and good citizens." The debate on the above motion of Mr. Lee, was protracted until the tenth of June, when Congress resolved: "That the consideration of the resolution respecting independence, be postponed till the first Monday in July next; and in the meanwhile, that no time may be lost, in case the Congress agree thereto, that a committee be appointed to prepare a declaration to the effect of the said resolution."

As the mover of the original resolution for independence, it would, according to parliamentary usage, have devolved upon Mr. Lee to have been appointed chairman of the committee selected to prepare a declaration, and, as chairman, to have furnished that important document. But on the day on which the resolution was taken, Mr. Lee was unexpectedly summoned to attend upon his family in Virginia, some of the members of which were dangerously ill; and Mr. Jefferson was appointed chairman in his place.