Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/42

 FATHERS OF THE REVOLUTION

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on Cumberland Island, Georgia, March 25, 1818. Recently his remains were removed to Lexington, Virginia, and interred by the side of his illustrious son. General Robert E. Lee.

Lee, Richard Henry, fifth son of Thomas Lee. president of the Colonial council, and Hannah Ludwell, his wite. was born in Westmoreland county, January 26, 1732. He was schooled at Wakefield Academy, Yorkshire, England, and returning to America in his nineteenth year studied in- dependently until 1755. when he headed a company of volunteers for service against the French and Indians, but was rebuffed by Braddock. In 1757 he was appointed a justice of the peace for Westmoreland county, and in 1738 was chosen to the house of burgesses, of which he continued a mem- ber till its expiration in 1775. I" ^^^ house of burgesses he proposed "to lay so heavy a tax upon slave importation as to end that iniquitous and disgraceful traffic within the colony.** In November. 1764, he served on a committee to draft an address to the King, a memorial to the house of lords and a re- monstrance to the commons, and prepared the first and second of these papers. In Fel)- ruar\', 1766, he organized the Westmoreland Association, and wrote its resolutions in op- position to the Stamp Act. In 1768 he sug- gested in a private letter the establishment of intercolonial committees, and was one of the caucus, in 1773, that caused the adoption of the plan by the general assembly. He was elected to the first Continental Con- gress, 1774, and prepared its memorial to the people of British America, and wrote the address of the next Congress to the people 0I Great Britain. As chairman of the com-

mittee, he drew up the instructions to Wash- ington on his assuming command of the Continental army. He was a member of the Virginia conventions of 1774, 1775 ^^^ 1776. and on June 7, 1776, in accordance with the instructions from the last conven- tion he introduced in Congress the famous resolution : 'That these United Colonies are. and of right ought to be, free and independ- ent States, that they are absolved from aU 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." He received word of the serious illness of his wife, and left Philadel- phia to visit her. He did not return until the Declaration had been passed and signed, and he then added his signature to that immortal instrument. He served in the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1780, and from 1784 to 1787, and wr.s a signer of the articles of confederation in 1778. He is said to have served on nearly one hundred committees during the session of 177^1777. When not serving in Congress, he served in the state hou.*;e of delegates. He opposed the adoption of the constitution of 1787, deem- ing the powers granted to the Federal gov- ernment as too extensive. After its ratifi- cation he served as senator, mainly for the purpose of urging certain amendments, and many of which he. was instrumental in se- curing. After serving as senator. 1789-92, he resigned in the latter year. He was pres- ident l^ro tern, of the senate. April to No- vember, 1782. He married (first) Anne Ay- lett, and (second) Mrs. Anne (Gaskins) Pinckard. As an orator he was only ex- celled by Patrick Henry, and as a leader in the revolutionary movement he stands

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