Philadelphia. He was member of the committees
for stating the rights of the colonies, for enforcing
commercial non-intercourse with Great Britain, and
for preparing suitable addresses to the king and to
the colonies— Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Sco-
tia, Georgia, and the Floridas — that had not sent
delegates to the congress. In the 2d congress
he drew up the address to the people of Great
Britain, which, along with a last petition to the
king, was carried over to London by Richard
Penn in August, 1775. About this time Mr. Lee
was chosen lieutenant of Westmoreland county,
an office which, after the analogy of the lord-lieu-
tenancy of a county in England, gave him com-
mand of the militia ; hence he is often addressed
or described, in writings of the time, as " Colonel
Lee." For more than a year he had openly and
warmly advocated a declaration of independence ;
and after the Virginia convention, 17 May, 1776,
had instructed its delegates in congress to propose
such a measure, it was Lee who took the foremost
part. On 7 June he moved " that these united
colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and
independent states ; and that all political connec-
tion between them and the state of Great Britain
is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." The
motion was seconded by John Adams. Congress
deferred action for three weeks, in order that more
definite instructions might be received from the
middle colonies. During the interval Mr. Lee was
called home by the illness of his wife, so that Mr.
Jefferson was appointed in his place as chairman
of the committee for preparing a draft of the pro-
posed declaration. For the same reason, the task
of defending the motion, when taken up for dis-
cussion, fell mainly upon John Adams, who had
seconded it. During the next four years Mr. Lee
served on more than a hundred committees, and
his labors in congress were so arduous as to injure
his health, so that he was several times obliged to
go home and devote himself to recruiting his
strength. In 1780-'2 he did not take his seat in
congress, inasmuch as the affairs of Virginia
seemed to require his presence in the assembly of
that state. Besides the business of defence against
the British army then operating in the southern
states, two questions of great importance were
then debated in Virginia. The one related to the
propriety of making a depreciated paper currency
a legal tender for debts, the other was brought up
by a proposal to repudiate all debts to British
merchants contracted by citizens of Virginia be-
fore the beginning of the war. In these debates
Mr Lee took strong ground against paper money,
and he vehemently condemned the repudiation of
debts, declaring that it were better to be " the
honest slaves of Great Britain than to become dis-
honest freemen." After the peace he devoted
much time to considering the best method of
funding the public debt of the state, and providing
for the revival of public credit. On 30 Nov., 1784,
he was chosen president of the Continental con-
gress. At the end of the presidential term of one
year he returned to Virginia, but in 1787 was sent
again to the congress. He was not a member of the
convention at Philadelphia which in the summer
of that year framed our Federal constitution ; and
when the new constitution was reported to con-
gress, he earnestly opposed its adoption. He
thought it provided for a consolidated national
power that would ultimately destroy the state
governments and end in a centralized despotism.
His correspondence at this time with Samuel
Adams, who was inclined to entertain the same
fears, is very instructive. These misgivings were
shared by Patrick Henry and many other patriotic
Virginians, and the first senators elected by their
state were Lee and Grayson, in opposition to two
Federalists, one. of whom was James Madison, who
had been foremost in the constructive work of the
great convention. As senator, Mr. Lee proposed
the tenth amendment to the constitution in these
words: " The powers not delegated bv the consti-
tution to the United States, nor prohibited by it to
the states, are reserved to the states respectively."
The amendment, as adopted, substituted the word
" granted " for " delegated," and added at the end
the words " or to the people." Though at first an
Anti-Federalist, Mr. Lee came to be a warm sup-
porter of Washington's administration, and es-
pecially approved of his course in the affair of
"citizen" Genet. In 1792 he was obliged by fail-
ing health to resign his seat in the senate and
retire to his estate at Chantilly, where he spent the
last two years of his life.
Mr. Lee was tall and graceful in person and striking in feature. His voice was clear and rich, and his oratory impressive. He did not waste time in rhetoric, but spoke briefly and to the point. His ideas were so lucid and his expression so forcible that when he sat down after a few weighty words it used to seem as if there were no more to be said on the subject. His capacity for work was great, though sometimes limited by poor health ; as Dr. Rush said, "His mind was like a sword toe large for its scabbard." He was twice married, and left, by his first wife, a Miss Aylett, two sons and two daughters ; by his second, a Miss Pinkard. two daughters. His life has been written by his grandson, Richard Henry Lee, of Leesburg, Va., "Memoir of the Life of Richard Henry Lee, and his Correspondence" (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1825). See also Bishop Meade's "Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia," vol. ii., pp. 135-143. — Francis Lightfoot, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. in Stratford. Westmoreland co., Va., 14 Oct., 1734 ; d. in Richmond, Va., 3 April, 1797, was fourth son of Thomas Lee. He was ed- ucated at home, having for tutor a Scotch clergy- man named Craig. In 1705 he was elected to the house of bur- gesses for Lou- don county. In 1772 he married Rebecca, daugh- ter of Col. John Tayloe, of Rich- mondcounty,and established his residence in that
county, which he
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was forthwith chosen to represent in the house of burgesses. He was elected delegate to the Continental congress, 15 Aug., 1775, on the resignation of Col. Bland, and was re-elected in the three following years. He signed the Declaration of Independence, and was a member of the committee that drew up the articles of confederation. He rendered good service in the debates on the Newfoundland fisheries and the navigation of the Mississippi, insisting that no peace should be made with Great Britain unless she conceded the American demands upon both these points. In the spring of 1779 he retired from congress, and,