Tall, thin and aristocratic in appearance, Richard
Henry Lee was a born orator. He used his hand,
always wrapped in black silk due to a hunting
accident, to emphasize the cadences in his remarkably
musical voice. His oratory was legend ―
"That fine polish of language which that gentleman
united with that harmonious voice so as to make
me sometimes fancy that I was listening to some
being inspired with more than mortal powers of
embellishment" was how one observer described
him.
Confrontational by nature, Richard Henry possessed
a fiery, rebellious spirit. These same qualities
brought him fame as a leading patriot of the day
and incited the wrath of his enemies. At one point,
he was "outlawed" by a proclamation of English
Governor Dunmore.
As a member of Virginia's House of Burgesses,
Richard Henry's first bill boldly proposed "to
lay so heavy a duty on the importation of slaves
as to put an end to that iniquitous and disgraceful
traffic within the colony of Virginia." Africans,
he wrote, were "equally entitled to liberty and
freedom by the great law of nature." Such words,
coming as they did in 1759, have been called "the
most extreme anti-slavery statements made before
the nineteenth century."
In 1765, enforcement of the Stamp Act began.
In response, the Lee brothers, led by Richard
Henry, rallied 115 men of Westmoreland County
at Leedstown on the Rappahannock River, a few
miles south of Stratford. All signed the Westmoreland
Resolves, co-authored by Richard Henry. The
document threatened "danger and disgrace" to anyone
who paid the tax. Among the signers were Richard
Henry, Thomas, Francis Lightfoot, and William
Lee and the four brothers of George Washington.
The signing of the Westmoreland Resolves
was one of the first deliberate acts of sedition
against the Crown and one that placed both Richard
Henry and the state of Virginia at the vanguard
of the coming revolution.
In 1768, Richard Henry proposed the systematic
interchange of information between the colonies.
As a result, the Committees of Correspondence
were formed and became a major force uniting the
Americans in their desire for independence. Receiving
first-hand information on the decisions of the
King and Parliament from his brothers, Arthur
and William, now in London, he served as a communications
commander for the colonies.
By 1774, the flames of the Revolution, so faithfully
fanned by the Lees, ignited the reluctant southern
colonies. The call for an inter-colonial congress
was made, and Richard Henry was chosen as one
of the seven-man Virginia delegation to the first
Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Once there,
he was able to bridge the gap between the vastly
different worlds of New England and the South.
At the house of his sister, Alice Lee Shippen,
he strengthened the bond with John and Samuel
Adams and created a long-lasting friendship that
transcended divisive regionalism and helped to
unite the colonies as one nation.
In the spring of 1776, Richard Henry, now joined
by his brother Francis Lightfoot, took his seat
in the second Continental Congress. Sensing what
lay ahead, he wrote confidently to his brother
William, "There never appeared more perfect unanimity
among any set of men, than among the delegates."
In three months as delegate, Richard Henry served
on 18 different committees ― none as important
as his appointment to frame the Declaration
of Rights of the Colonies, which led directly
to the writing of the Declaration of Independence.
On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry was accorded the
well-deserved honor of introducing the bill before
Congress: "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 Britain is,
and ought to be, totally dissolved."
He followed this motion by one of the most luminous
and eloquent speeches ever delivered, either by
himself or any other gentleman, on the floor of
congress. "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 reestablish 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 entreats us to cultivate a propitious
soil, where the generous plant which first sprung
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, on which day
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 be lost, in case the congress
agree thereto, that a committee be appointed to
prepare a declaration to the effect of the said
resolution."
On the day on which this resolution was taken,
Lee was unexpectedly summoned to attend upon his
family in Virginia, some of the members of which
were at that time dangerously ill. As the mover
of the original resolution for independence, it
would, according to parliamentary usage, have
devolved upon Lee to have been appointed chairman
of the committee selected to prepare a declaration,
and as chairman, to have furnished that important
document. In the absence of Mr. Lee, however,
Thomas Jefferson was elected to that honor, by
whom it was drawn up with singular energy of style
and argument.
In the following month, Mr. Lee resumed his seat
in congress, in which body he continued till June,
1777, during which period he continued the same
round of active exertions for the welfare of his
country. It was his fortune, however, as well
as the fortune of others, to have enemies, who
charged him with disaffection to his country,
and attachment to Great Britain. The ground upon
which this charge was made was that contrary to
his former practice previous to the war, he received
the rents of his tenants in the produce of their
farms, instead of colonial money, which had now
become greatly depreciated. This accusation, though
altogether unjust and unwarrantable, at length
gained so much credit that the name of Lee was
omitted by the assembly in their list of delegates
to congress. This gave him an opportunity, and
furnished him with a motive, to demand of the
assembly an inquiry into the nature of the allegations
against him. The inquiry resulted in an entire
acquittal.
Subsequently, Lee was again elected a delegate
to congress; but during the session of 1778 and
1779, due to ill health, he was obliged frequently
to absent himself from his arduous duties and
which he could no longer sustain. From this time,
until 1784, Lee declined accepting a seat in congress,
believing that he might be more useful to his
native state by holding a seat in the Virginia
assembly.
He was strongly opposed to the adoption of the
federal constitution without amendment. The tendency
of the constitution, he apprehended, was to consolidation.
To guard against this, it was his wish that the
respective states should impart to the federal
head only so much power as, was necessary for
mutual safety and happiness. Under the new constitution,
Mr. Lee was appointed the first senator from Virginia;
in the exercise of which office, be offered several
amendments to the constitution, from the adoption
of which he hoped to lessen the danger to the
country, which he had apprehended.
About the year 1792, Mr. Lee, enfeebled by his
long attention to public duties, and by the infirmities
of age, he retired until June 19, 1794, when he
died at age 63.
(Stratford Hall Plantation)
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