REVOLUTIONARY REVELATIONS
Washington offered Knox a position as a commissioner to St. Croix after he resigned as secretary of war, but Knox declined the assignment.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“AFTER HAVING SERVED MY COUNTRY NEARLY TWENTY YEARS, THE GREATEST PORTION OF WHICH UNDER YOUR IMMEDIATE AUSPICES, IT IS WITH EXTREME RELUCTANCE, THAT I FIND MYSELF CONSTRAINED TO WITHDRAW FROM SO HONORABLE A STATION. BUT THE NATURAL AND POWERFUL CLAIMS OF A NUMEROUS FAMILY WILL NO LONGER PERMIT ME TO NEGLECT THEIR ESSENTIAL INTEREST. IN WHATEVER SITUATION I SHALL BE, I SHALL RECOLLECT YOUR CONFIDENCE AND KINDNESS WITH ALL THE POWER AND PURITY OF AFFECTION, OF WHICH A GRATEFUL HEART IS SUSCEPTIBLE.”
—HENRY KNOX TO PRESIDENT WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 28, 1794
Knox and his family moved to Thomaston, Maine, in 1796, where he returned to his business roots. He dabbled in ventures such as brickmaking, cattle raising, shipbuilding, lumbering, and local politics. He served for a short while in the state’s General Court and Governor’s Council. Tragically, his life was cut short.
While visiting a friend on October 22, 1806, he swallowed a chicken bone, which led to an infection and his subsequent death.
Knox left behind an estate that was in dire financial arrears, a pile of debts, and a bad reputation among the local citizenry, who considered him a tyrant. Local people accused him of exploiting workers to enrich himself and of flaunting his wealth. They even threatened at one point to burn him out of what they felt was an ostentatious mansion.
But that did not detract from the fact that Henry Knox was one of the Revolutionary War era’s unsung heroes.
ARTHUR LEE
Westmoreland County, Virginia
December 20, 1740–December 12, 1792
Provocateur Extraordinaire
Arthur Lee studied law in London and medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland, and practiced law in London for many years. Like his older brothers, Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot, he was no great fan of British taxation policies in America. While he was in England he produced pamphlets and essays decrying his host country’s slavery and anti-American policies, including his popular 1764 tract, An Essay in Vindication of the Continental Colonies of America. He took up the patriot cause when he got back to America, where he was well received at first. He wore out his welcome eventually. Arthur Lee was an example of patriots who supported independence, but all too often got in the way instead of helping.
A Spy in England’s Midst
Arthur Lee, who was born and reared in Virginia, traveled to London (the date is unknown) to study law. While he was living in London, Congress authorized him to gather information on the feelings of European governments regarding the Americans’ cause. Even then, government lived by poll results.
Although Lee had never set foot in Massachusetts, he represented the province in England. Consequently, Samuel Adams kept him apprised of events in Massachusetts.
Lee struck up a friendship with a French playwright named Pierre Augustin Caron, who wrote under the name of Beaumarchais. Caron was a secret agent for the French monarchy and arms supplier to the Americans during their rebellion. On June 12, 1775, Beaumarchais advised Lee in a letter that he was forming a company to “send help to your friend in the shape of powder and ammunition in exchange for tobacco.”
Lee was in no position to do anything about procuring goods on behalf of his “friend,” clearly the colonies, at the time. Besides, he was not a particularly skilled negotiator, as his record in soliciting foreign governments’ aid proved.
Lee no sooner returned to the colonies in 1776 than he was asked to go back that same year to Europe, this time to France, as part of a diplomatic mission with Silas Deane and Ben Franklin.
REVOLUTIONARY REVELATIONS
Lee had met Franklin in London, where Lee vied for top billing as an envoy to the British government. He had no use for the older man. Lee suggested in a letter to Samuel Adams that Franklin was a philanderer who would never be a good negotiator between a free people and a tyrant.
Three Americans in Paris
Deane and Beaumarchais apparently worked out an arrangement regarding Beaumarchais’s supplying materiel to the United States. Lee was under the impression, based on what Beaumarchais had told him in London, that the supplies were a gift. Deane was under the impression that they were part of a business deal that Congress was paying for with produce or money at some unspecified date. After the war, Beaumarchais insisted that the United States government owed him 3.6 million livres. (The franc did not become the official French currency until the French Revolution occurred.) The government held back on payment after reviewing the receipts the American commission had given the French government. Discrepancies revealed the French had already paid Beaumarchais one million livres for the materiel.
After several reviews of the accounts, Lee claimed that Beaumarchais owed the United States 1.8 million livres, since he had already been paid by the French government. The convoluted situation led Lee to claim that Deane and Franklin were cooking the books in France, and at least one of them, Deane, was making a few livres of his own.
Because Lee suspected Deane of skullduggery and he just did not like Franklin, he notified Congress that they were not helping the Americans much. Deane did not have too high an opinion of Lee, either.
Just for good measure, Lee observed in his November 27, 1777, journal that Deane favored an alliance with Britain. Franklin, he noted, thought just the opposite.
Lee decided that removing Deane from the commission was in America’s best interest.
Lee Completes His Service
Congress recalled Deane based on allegations of misconduct that Lee filed with them. John Adams arrived to replace Deane. He discovered quickly that nothing would get done unless he did it.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“MY TWO COLLEAGUES WOULD AGREE ON NOTHING.”
—JOHN ADAMS
Franklin could not be found most of the time, and Lee seldom arrived at the commission’s office before 11 A.M. Somehow, they wrapped up the treaties with the French and Lee moved on.
Congress dissolved the commission in France late in 1778 and sent Lee to Madrid, where he negotiated unsuccessfully for help from the Spanish.
FEDERAL FACTS
Lee was never one to support something he did not believe in. In his last term in Congress, he found himself on the wrong side of a national argument. He opposed the federal Constitution because he thought it would create an oligarchy (a small group of people, usually wealthy ones) and because it lacked a bill of rights.
Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, the furor over the Deane affair and gossip about the hatred between Franklin and Lee tarnished Lee’s reputation at home and abroad.
Eventually, Lee returned to the United States and a hostile reception from Congress, which had separated into quarreling factions as a result of the Deane debacle. Lee returned to Virginia in 1780, where he served in the Virginia General Assembly, in 1781–83, 1785, and 1786, and as a member of the Continental Congress in 1782–84. (The House of Burgesses was renamed the Virginia General Assembly in 1776.) He completed his government service from 1784–89, when he served as a Treasury board official.
Being on the wrong side of an issue did not bother Lee. He simply wanted to serve his government, opposing views notwithstanding.
Finally, Lee, disillusioned and embittered, went home to Virginia to live out his final years. He outlived Deane and Franklin, but he could not outlive the damage to his reputation that he incurred due to his personal differences with them. His heart had been in the right place, but it overruled his head. Arthur Lee was proof that good intentions did not always lead to good results, but he supported his country nonetheless.
RICHARD HENRY LEE
Westmoreland County, Virginia
January 20, 1732–June 19, 1794
An Underappreciated Radical
Richard H. Lee was one of the first to say out loud what most of
the delegates to the Second Continental Congress were thinking: Let us seek independence from Britain and form our own country. Years later, he wrote the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to protect states’ rights under a federal government. He did not always say a lot in the legislative bodies in which he served, but when he did speak or write, the results were meaningful—and are still being felt today. Yet history books seldom assign significant importance to his contributions to the patriots’ cause.
Silent Lee
As a young man, Richard Henry Lee attended a private school in England, and then stayed in Europe for a couple years after he finished his studies. He did not show much interest in a profession when he returned to Virginia in 1751, being content to stay around the family plantation and dabble in whatever interested him. But he could not lead a life of leisure forever.
A few years after Lee returned to Virginia, the French and Indian War broke out. He organized a group of young men living in his neighborhood into a militia troop and they elected him the leader of the pack. The militia marched off to Alexandria, Virginia, to offer their service to General Edward Braddock, who was preparing for a campaign on the Ohio River. Braddock said “No, thanks” and sent them home. That ended Lee’s military career.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“TO PRESERVE LIBERTY IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT THE WHOLE BODY OF PEOPLE ALWAYS POSSESS ARMS AND BE TAUGHT ALIKE, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOUNG, HOW TO USE THEM.”
—RICHARD HENRY LEE
However, his political career was just beginning. The people of Westmoreland County were not willing to let a good Lee go to waste. He was appointed to a position as justice of the peace in 1757. Lee was also elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses that year. He did not leave the House until 1775.
Listen, Learn—and Then Act
Lee did not impress anybody at the House of Burgesses right away. He was standoffish and quiet. Lee occasionally displayed strong oratorical skills, but it was a few years before he got involved fully in the Burgesses’ businesses. Once he did, there was no holding him back.
When Patrick Henry introduced his resolves against the Stamp Act in 1765, Lee supported them vigorously. As opposition to Britain’s increasing tax levies on the colonies grew in the mid-1700s, Lee became more outspoken. By 1774, he felt the time for talking had ended. He wanted independence.
In 1774 Virginia’s Royal Governor Lord Dunmore dissolved the House of Burgesses that met in Williamsburg. That displeased a group of radical members of the House. They moved to the nearby Raleigh Tavern and began planning their next step. The sometimes diffident Richard Lee was among them.
Lee was elected to the First Continental Congress in 1774. He had an advantage over other congressional members, since his brother
William—an American spy who was living in England, serving as the sheriff of London, and campaigning for a seat in Parliament—told him what Britain planned to do.
At the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Lee introduced motions for independence, foreign alliances, and a union of American states on June 7, 1776. Very few people know that it was he, not Thomas Jefferson, who authored the resolution.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“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 …”
—RICHARD LEE’S RESOLUTION FOR INDEPENDENCE AT THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
Shortly thereafter, the Congress began discussions about his resolution, which included two other parts: a call to form foreign alliances and a call to submit a plan of confederation for ratification by the colonies. The members followed his advice, which led to the signing of the Declaration of Independence two months later. Lee’s work was almost done.
Not a Washington Fan
Lee served in Congress during the Revolutionary War. At one point he locked horns with George Washington over his military leadership, especially after the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown in Pennsylvania, in which the American troops performed poorly. Lee was also critical of Silas Deane and Benjamin Franklin for their alleged mishandling of foreign affairs.
FEDERAL FACTS
Richard Lee’s brother, Francis Lightfoot, also signed the Declaration of Independence.
Washington was not pleased with the criticism, especially from a fellow Virginian. The affair blew over, and Washington and Lee moved on.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“TO SUM UP THE WHOLE, I HAVE BEEN A SLAVE TO THE SERVICE: I HAVE UNDERGONE MORE THAN MOST MEN ARE AWARE OF, TO HARMONIZE SO MANY DISCORDANT PARTS; BUT IT WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO BE OF ANY FURTHER SERVICE, IF SUCH INSUPERABLE DIFFICULTIES ARE THROWN IN MY WAY.”
—GEORGE WASHINGTON IN AN OCTOBER 17, 1777, LETTER TO RICHARD HENRY LEE
Preserving States’ Rights
Lee continued to serve in the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress after the war ended. If there was one thing Richard Henry Lee was adamant about, it was states’ rights over a strong federal government. Consequently, he was concerned that the new U.S. Constitution being written in the late 1780s would favor a strong federal government.
As a U.S. senator (elected in 1789), he wanted to ensure that the individual states reserved at least some rights. Therefore, he wrote an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, one of ten that became collectively known as the Bill of Rights. The Tenth Amendment was his final big moment on the political stage. The Bill of Rights was adopted by the House of Representatives on August 21, 1789. Lee retired from the Senate three years later because of ill health.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“THE POWERS NOT DELEGATED TO THE UNITED STATES BY THE CONSTITUTION, NOR PROHIBITED BY IT TO THE STATES, ARE RESERVED TO THE STATES RESPECTIVELY, OR TO THE PEOPLE.”
—TENTH AMENDMENT TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION
REVOLUTIONARY REVELATIONS
Richard Henry Lee was Confederate Civil War General Robert E. Lee’s grandfather.
Richard Henry Lee completed his journey from diffidence to resolution in 1794; two of his resolutions, years apart, had a significant impact on the history of the United States.
PHILIP LIVINGSTON
Albany, New York
January 15, 1716–June 12, 1778
Supreme Sacrifice Too Soon
Most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence lived to see what they had wrought. Philip Livingston, a successful New York merchant and politician, was one of the few who did not. Livingston experienced a lot of welcome and unwelcome political changes in his lifetime, but he never got to see the independent United States he had envisioned. He epitomized the family relationships that were so prominent in the Revolutionary era. Philip was one of three Livingstons who were members of the Continental Congress, although he was the only one who signed the Declaration. The others were his brother William and his first cousin once removed Robert L. Livingston.
From Albany to Philadelphia via New York City
Philip Livingston graduated from Yale in 1737, before some of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were born. He owned a house in Manhattan, a forty-acre farm in Brooklyn Heights, and a home in Albany. He also maintained a residence in Kingston, New York, where his family moved to escape the British army when it occupied New York City. Livingston’s first political position was assistant alderman in Albany. He held the position in 1743, 1744, and 1745. After completing his political apprenticeship in Albany, he moved to New York City to enter the import business. He became an alderman there in 1754, and held the post for nine years. His next step was the New York Provincial Assembly, where he served from 1759–68. He was highly critical of British tax policies, which directly affected his life as a merchant. Livingston, like so many of his contemporaries, was not against taxes or British governance per se. He just did n
ot like taxation without representation, and acted to stop the practice.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“DEPRESSED WITH THIS PROSPECT OF INEVITABLE RUIN … WHICH, IF CARRIED INTO EXECUTION, WILL OBLIGE US TO THINK THAT NOTHING BUT EXTREME POVERTY CAN PRESERVE US FROM THE MOST INSUPPORTABLE BONDAGE. WE HOPE YOUR HONOR [THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK] WILL JOIN WITH US IN AN ENDEAVOR TO SECURE THAT GREAT BADGE OF ENGLISH LIBERTY, OF BEING TAXED ONLY WITH OUR OWN CONSENT …”
—PHILIP LIVINGSTON
Livingston moonlighted as a political activist in New York City while he served in the colony’s Provincial Assembly by participating as a member of several local resistance committees.
When the Continental Army was mulling a withdrawal from New York City to New Jersey in 1776, officers met at Livingston’s house on August 29 to discuss their strategy.
The patriots of New York recognized his dedication to their cause. In 1774, Livingston was elected to the First Continental Congress. As a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1776, he signed the Declaration of Independence. Livingston was one of the oldest signers.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“MR. LIVINGSTON IS A DOWNRIGHT, STRAIGHTFORWARD MAN.”
—JOHN ADAMS
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