Editing Richard Henry Lee

{{Short description|American statesman and Founding Father (1732–1794)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Richard Henry Lee
| image               = File:Charles Willson Peale - Richard Henry Lee - NPG.74.5 - National Portrait Gallery.jpg
| caption             = 
| office              = [[President pro tempore of the United States Senate]]
| term_start          = April 18, 1792
| term_end            = October 8, 1792
| predecessor         = [[John Langdon (politician)|John Langdon]]
| successor           = John Langdon
| office1             = [[United States Senate|United States Senator]]<br>from [[Virginia]]
| term_start1         = March 4, 1789
| term_end1           = October 8, 1792
| predecessor1        = Inaugural Holder
| successor1          = [[John Taylor of Caroline|John Taylor]]
| order2              = 6th
| office2             = President of the Confederation Congress
| term_start2         = November 30, 1784
| term_end2           = November 4, 1785
| predecessor2        = [[Thomas Mifflin]]
| successor2          = [[John Hancock]]
| office3             = Delegate to the [[Congress of the Confederation]] from Virginia
| term_start3         = November 1, 1784
| term_end3           = October 30, 1787
| office4             = Member of the [[Virginia House of Burgesses]] from [[Westmoreland County, Virginia|Westmoreland County]]
| term_start4         = September 14, 1758
| term_end4           = May 6, 1776
| predecessor4        = [[Augustine Washington Jr.]]
| successor4          = ''Position abolished''
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1732|1|20}}
| birth_place         = [[Stratford Hall (plantation)|Stratford Hall]], Westmoreland County, Colony of Virginia, British America
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1794|6|19|1732|1|20}}
| death_place         = [[Chantilly (Montross, Virginia)|Chantilly Plantation]], Westmoreland County, Virginia, U.S.
| resting_place       = Burnt House Fields, Lee Family Estate, Coles Point, Westmoreland County, Virginia
| nationality         = 
| party               = [[Anti-Administration Party (United States)|Anti-Administration]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|Anne Aylett|1757|1768|reason=died}}<br />{{marriage|Anne (Gaskins) Pinckard|1769}}
| children            = 13, including [[Ludwell Lee|Ludwell]]
| parents             = [[Thomas Lee (Virginia colonist)|Thomas Lee]]<br/>[[Hannah Harrison Ludwell]]
| residence           = 
| alma_mater          = 
| occupation          = 
| profession          = [[Law]]
| signature           = Richard Henry Lee Signature2.svg
| footnotes           = 
}}
'''Richard Henry Lee''' (January 20, 1732{{spaced ndash}}June 19, 1794) was an American statesman and [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Founding Father]] from [[Virginia]],<ref name=Bernstein2009>{{cite book |last=Bernstein |first=Richard B. |author-link=Richard B. Bernstein |title=The Founding Fathers Reconsidered |chapter=Appendix: The Founding Fathers, A Partial List |pages=176–180|publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0199832576 |location=New York |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/foundingfathersr0000bern/page/176/mode/2up}}</ref> best known for the June 1776 [[Lee Resolution]], the motion in the [[Second Continental Congress]] calling for the colonies' independence from [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] leading to the [[United States Declaration of Independence]], which he signed. Lee also served a one-year term as the [[president of the Continental Congress]], proposed and was a signatory to the [[Continental Association]], signed the [[Articles of Confederation]], and was a [[United States Senate|United States Senator]] from Virginia from 1789 to 1792, serving part of that time as the second [[President pro tempore of the United States Senate|president ''pro tempore'']] of the upper house.

He was a member of the [[Lee family]], a historically influential family in Virginia politics.

==Early life and education==
Lee was born in [[Westmoreland County, Virginia]], to Colonel [[Thomas Lee (Virginia colonist)|Thomas Lee]] and [[Hannah Harrison Ludwell Lee]] on January 20, 1732. He came from a line of military officers, diplomats, and legislators. His father served on the Governor's council and briefly as an interim governor of Virginia before his death in 1750. Lee spent most of his early life in Stratford, Virginia, at [[Stratford Hall (plantation)|Stratford Hall]]. Here he was tutored and taught a variety of skills. To develop his political career, his father sent him around to neighboring planters with the intention for Lee to become associated with neighboring men of like prominence. In 1748, at 16, Lee left Virginia for Yorkshire, England, to complete his formal education at [[Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield]].  Both of his parents died in 1750. In 1753, after touring Europe, he returned to Virginia to help his brothers settle the estate his parents had left behind.<ref>McGaughy, J. K. Richard Henry Lee (1732–1794). (March 18, 2014). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/lee-richard-henry-1732-1794/  Lee Richard Henry 1732–1794
</ref>

==Career==
In 1757, Lee was appointed [[justice of the peace]] of Westmoreland County. In 1758, he was elected to the Virginia [[House of Burgesses]], where he met [[Patrick Henry]]. Lee remained a "valuable ally of ... Henry and [[Samuel Adams]]" throughout the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Davis |first=Kenneth C. |title=Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-06-008381-6 |edition=1st |location=New York |page=82 |author-link=Kenneth C. Davis}}</ref> An early advocate of independence, Lee became one of the first to create a [[Committees of correspondence|Committees of Correspondence]] among the many independence-minded Americans in the various colonies. In 1766, almost ten years before the American Revolutionary War, Lee is credited with having authored the [[Leedstown Resolutions|Westmoreland Resolution]]<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/westmorelandcou00wriggoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/westmorelandcou00wriggoog/page/n54 42]|quote=Westmoreland Resolution.|title=Westmoreland County, Virginia: Parts I and II : a Short Chapter and Bright Day in Its History|first1=Lawrence|last1=Washington|first2=Randolph Harrison|last2=McKim|first3=George William|last3=Beale|date=January 1, 1912|publisher=Whittet & Shepperson, printers|access-date=September 22, 2016|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> against enforcement of the British [[Stamp Act 1765]], which was publicly signed by prominent landowners who met at [[Leedstown, Virginia]], on February 27, 1766. Among the signers were three brothers and one close cousin of [[George Washington]].

===American Revolution===
In August 1774, Lee was chosen as a delegate to the [[First Continental Congress]] in [[Philadelphia]]. In Lee's Resolution on June 7, 1776, during the Second Continental Congress, Lee put forth the motion to the Continental Congress to declare Independence from Great Britain, which read (in part):

<blockquote>Resolved: 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 connection between them and the state of great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.</blockquote><!-- Do not add capital letters where they do not appear in the original text. -->

Lee had returned to Virginia by the time Congress voted on and adopted the Declaration of Independence, but he signed the document when he returned to Congress.

[[File:Coat of Arms of the Lee Family.svg|right|thumb|210px|Lee Family [[Coat of Arms]]]]

===President of Congress===
Lee was elected the sixth president of Congress under the [[Articles of Confederation]] on November 30, 1784, in the [[French Arms Tavern]], [[Trenton, New Jersey]]. Congress convened on January 11, 1785, in the old [[New York City Hall]], with Lee presiding until November 23, 1785. Although he was not paid a salary, his household expenses were covered in the amount of $12,203.13.<ref>[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YhGJOCnB8bE/Uw4Iv1RksdI/AAAAAAAAJNg/VtgHb6N1bZk/s1600/President's+Expenses.png Estimate of the Annual Expenditure of the Civil Departments of the United States, on the present Establishment] [http://www.richardhenrylee.org/ President Richard Henry Lee]</ref>

Lee abhorred the notion of imposing federal taxes and believed that continuing to borrow foreign money was imprudent. Throughout his term, he maintained that the states should relinquish their claims in the [[Northwest Territory]], enabling the federal government to fund its obligations through land sales. He wrote to friend and colleague Samuel Adams:

<blockquote>I hope we shall shortly finish our plan for disposing of the western Lands to discharge the oppressive public debt created by the war & I think that if this source of revenue be rightly managed, that these republics may soon be discharged from that state of oppression and distress that an indebted people must invariably feel.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://leearchive.wlu.edu/papers/letters/transcripts-ballagh/b311.html|title=President Richard Henry Lee to Samuel Adams, New York May 20. 1785|access-date=22 September 2016|archive-date=October 28, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028074445/http://leearchive.wlu.edu/papers/letters/transcripts-ballagh/b311.html|url-status=dead}}</ref></blockquote>

Debate began on the expansion of the [[Land Ordinance of 1784]] and [[Thomas Jefferson]]'s survey method; namely, "hundreds of ten geographical miles square, each mile containing 6086 and 4-10ths of a foot" and "sub-divided into lots of one mile square each, or 850 and 4-10ths of an acre" on April 14.<ref>[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HeY1dA9YuvQ/Um07Ec68twI/AAAAAAAAHgY/vVmemvCmfTg/s1600/Ohio+Territory+Section.jpg Plat of Township 2, Range 7 in the Ohio Seven Ranges ca. 1786] [http://www.richardhenrylee.org/ Richard Henry Lee, President of the United States in Congress Assembled]</ref> On May 3, 1785, [[William Grayson]] of Virginia made a motion, seconded by [[James Monroe]], to change "seven miles square" to "six miles square."

The [[Land Ordinance of 1785]] passed on May 20, 1785,<ref>Olsen, J.S., & Mendoza, A.O. (2015). Land Ordinance of 1785. In ''American economic history: A dictionary and chronology'', (p. 367). Greenwood.</ref> yet the federal government lacked the resources to manage the newly surveyed lands. Not only did [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] refuse to relinquish their hold on the [[plat]]ted territory, but much of the remaining land was occupied by [[squatter]]s. With Congress unable to muster magistrates or troops to enforce the dollar-per-acre title fee, Lee's plan ultimately failed, although the [[U.S. Geological Survey|survey system]] developed under the Land Ordinance of 1785 has endured.<ref>{{cite web|author=Staff|date=May 29, 2012|title=The Public Land Survey System (PLSS)|url=http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/boundaries/a_plss.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120607063232/http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/boundaries/a_plss.html|archive-date=June 7, 2012|access-date=June 20, 2012|work=National Atlas of the United States|publisher=[[U.S. Department of the Interior]]}}</ref>

===US Senate===
{{stub-section|date=March 2024}}
Lee served in the United States Senate in the First and Second Congresses from 1789 to 1792. In 1792 he became the second president ''pro tempore'', but later that year he was obliged to resign due to his failing health, and he retired from public life.<ref>[https://www.richardhenrylee.org/?m=0 richardhenrylee.org] (retrieved March 9, 2024)</ref>

===Political offices===
* Justice of the Peace for Westmoreland County, Virginia (1757)
* Virginia [[House of Burgesses]] (1758–1775)
* Member of the Continental Congress (1774–1779, 1784–1785, 1787)
* [[Virginia House of Delegates]] (1777, 1780, 1785)
* [[President of the Confederation Congress]] (November 30, 1784&nbsp;– November 4, 1785)
* [[United States Senate|United States Senator]] from [[Virginia]] (March 4, 1789&nbsp;– October 8, 1792)
* [[President pro tempore of the United States Senate|President pro tempore]] during the [[2nd United States Congress|Second Congress]] (April 18&nbsp;– October 8, 1792)

==Personal life and family==
Lee's mother Hannah Harrison Ludwell died in 1750. On December 5, 1757, he married Anne Aylett, daughter of [[Aylett family of Virginia|William Aylett]]. Anne died on December 12, 1768. The couple had six children, four of whom survived infancy, including [[Ludwell Lee]]. Lee remarried in June or July 1769 to Anne (Gaskins) Pinckard. The couple had seven children, five of whom survived infancy.

Lee honored his brother, [[Francis Lightfoot Lee]] (another signer of the Articles of Confederation and the Declaration of Independence), by naming one of his sons after him.

==Death and legacy==
Lee died on June 19, 1794, at the age of 62. Schools in [[Rossmoor, California]], and Glen Burnie, Maryland, are named after him, and Richard Henry Lee School in Chicago is named in his honor. The [[World War II]] [[Liberty Ship]] {{SS|Richard Henry Lee}} was named in his honor. The [[Chantilly (Montross, Virginia)|Chantilly Archaeological Site]] was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1971.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a|dateform=mdy}}</ref> He is portrayed in [[Sherman Edwards]]' 1969 musical ''[[1776 (musical)|1776]]''.

==See also==
* [[Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence]]
* [[Federal Farmer]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* McGaughy, Kent J. ''Richard Henry Lee of Virginia: A Portrait of an American Revolutionary'' (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003).
* Selby, John E. "Richard Henry Lee, John Adams, and the Virginia Constitution of 1776." ''Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'' 84.4 (1976): 387–400. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4248066 online]
* Unger, Harlow Giles.  ''First Founding Father: Richard Henry Lee and the Call for Independence'' (2017) [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54369 online review]

===Primary sources===
* Lee, Richard Henry. ''The Letters of Richard Henry Lee: 1762–1778'' (2 vol 1911–1914) [https://books.google.com/books?id=hQsOAAAAIAAJ&dq=Richard+Henry+Lee+&pg=PA1 online]. also [https://books.google.com/books?id=8wsOAAAAIAAJ&dq=Richard+Henry+Lee+&pg=PA11 vol 2 online]

==External links==
{{Commons category|Richard Henry Lee}}
{{Wikiquote|Richard Henry Lee}}
* {{congbio|L000201}}
* [http://www.richardhenrylee.org/ President Richard Henry Lee]
* [http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/rhlee.htm Richard Henry Lee]
* [http://www.colonialhall.com/leerh/leerh.php Biography by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, 1856] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190913185347/http://colonialhall.com/leerh/leerh.php |date=September 13, 2019 }}
* [http://archives.nypl.org/mss/4522#detailed/ Richard Henry Lee papers] in the Manuscripts and Archives Division at The New York Public Library.
* [http://www.leftjustified.com/richard-henry-lee Richard Henry Lee Bio]
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Lee, Richard Henry}}

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{{s-bef|before=[[Thomas Mifflin]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[President of the Confederation Congress]]|years=November 30, 1784 – November 6, 1785}}
{{s-aft|after=[[John Hancock]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[John Langdon (politician)|John Langdon]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[President pro tempore of the United States Senate]]|years=April 18, 1792 – October 8, 1792}}
{{s-aft|after=[[John Langdon (politician)|John Langdon]]}}
{{s-par|us-sen}}
{{U.S. Senator box
|state=Virginia
|class=2
|before = ''None''
|after =[[John Taylor of Caroline|John Taylor]]
|years =March 4, 1789 – October 8, 1792
|alongside=[[William Grayson]], [[John Walker (Virginia politician)|John Walker]], [[James Monroe]] }}
{{s-end}}

{{Richard Henry Lee}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Richard Henry}}
[[Category:1732 births]]
[[Category:1794 deaths]]
[[Category:Richard Henry Lee]]
[[Category:American people of English descent]]
[[Category:Anti-Federalists]]
[[Category:Continental Congressmen from Virginia]]
[[Category:House of Burgesses members]]
[[Category:People educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield]]
[[Category:Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate]]
[[Category:Signers of the Articles of Confederation]]
[[Category:Signers of the Continental Association]]
[[Category:Signers of the United States Declaration of Independence]]
[[Category:United States senators from Virginia]]
[[Category:Lee family (Virginia)|Richard]]
[[Category:People from Westmoreland County, Virginia]]
[[Category:People from colonial Virginia]]
[[Category:Founding Fathers of the United States]]
[[Category:United States senators who owned slaves]]
[[Category:18th-century United States senators]]