Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/402

 LEE

LEE

orders to Lee and made them peremptory. When Lee overtook the British near Monmouth Court House, June 28, 1778, his conduct aroused the suspicion of Lafayette, who despatched an aide to Washington, who was bringing up the other divi- sion, asking him to hasten to the front, and wlien he reached Freehold church he saw Lee's division in retreat, closely pursued by the British. The commander-in-chief charged Lee with disobeying his orders, and, assuming command, he rallied the Americans and defeated the British, after which he ordered Lee to the rear. The next day he rein- instated Lee in his old command, in spite of which Lee addressed an exasperating letter to General Washington, to which Washington made a severe reply, closing in these words: "You are guilty of a breach of orders and of misbehavior before the enemy in not attacking them as directed and in making an unnecessary, disorderly and shame- ful retreat." This brought from Lee the demand for a court-mai"tial to determine as to his conduct in the following words: " You cannot afford me greater jjieasure, sir, than in giving me an oppor- tunity of showing to America the efficiency of her respective servants. I trust that the tem- porary power of office and the tinsel dignity at- tending it will not be able, by all the mists they can raise, to effusate the bright ra}-sof truth. In the meantime your excellency can have no ob- jection to my retiring from the ami}-." On the receipt of this letter Washington ordered Lee placed under arrest, and in August, 1778, lie was tried under three charges: first, for disobeying orders, in not attacking the enemy; second, for making an unnecessary and disoi'derly retreat; and, third, for disrespect to the commander-in- chief in two letters. He was found guilty on all three charges, Aug. 12, 1778, and he was sus- pended from the army for twelve months. Heat once re-opened his charges against Washington and was challenged by Col. John Laurens, Wash- ington's aide-de-camp, which resulted in Lee'a being severely wounded in the arm. He subse- quently addressed a letter to congress which caused him to be dismissed from the army and he retired to his Virginia home until the close of the war. While on a visit to Philadelphia he was stricken with fever and died alone and friendless at the tavern at which he was stopping. He was buried in the cemetery of Christ church, and John Hansen, president of the Continental congress, and other eminent citizens of Philadel- phia attended his funeral. He was the author of " Strictures on a friendly address to all Reason- able Americans, in reply to Dr. Myles Cooper " (1774); " Mr. Lee's Plan " (1777). He claimed to know the secret of the authorship of the " Junius *' letters and afterward acknowledged himself as the author, which statement called out a number

of articles and books in refutation of his claim, and his protracted absence from England at the time when "Junius" was issuing his letters seems effectually to dispose of the matter. His- essays and miscellaneous papers were edited by Edward Langworthy and published as: Memoirs of the late Charles Lee, Esq. (London, 1792). See Tlie Treason of Charles Lee, by Dr. G. H. Moore (1858) . He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Oct. 2. 1782.

LEE, Charles, cabinet officer, was born at Leesylvania, Va., in 1758; son of Henry and Lucy (Grymes) Lee and brother of Henry Lee. He was graduated at the College of New Jersey, A.B., 1775, A. M., 1778, and studied law in Phila- delphia in the office of Jared Ingersoll. He prac- tised law in Westmoreland county and was a I'ep- resentative in the general assembly of Virginia. After the death of Attorney-General William Bradford, Aug. 23, 1795, President Washington, on Dec. 10. 1795. appointed him attorney-general in his cabinet and he continued in office up to the last month of President Adams's administration, when he resigned and was succeeded by The- ophilus Parsons. In 1801 President Jefiferson offered him the chief justiceship of the U.S. circuit court for the fourth circuit, which he declined. He died in Fauquier county, Va., June 24, 1815.

LEE, Chauncey, mathematician, was born in Coventry, Conn., July 10,1718; son of the Rev. Jonathan Lee, first minister of Salisbury, Conn. He was graduated at Yale, A.B., 1784, A.M., 1787; practised law, studied theology and was pastor of Congregational churches at Sunderland and Rutland, Vt., Colebrook, N.Y., and Marlborough, Conn., 1790-1885. He published in Lansingburg, N. Y.: A Compendium of Federal Arithmetic, designed for the Use of Schools, and Especially Calculated for the Meridian of the United States (1797). In this book he set forth a system of " characteristics " by which one vertical stroke designated the mill; two the cent; these two parallel lines crossed by one S-shaped the dime, and two parallel lines crossed by two S's the dollar. He soon after substituted the decimal point to designate mills, cents and dimes, but throughout his book the dollar mark was main- tained. This was eight j'ears before Adams's arithmetic was published, and according to care- ful research made by Dr. Marcus Baker, Wash- ington, D.C., in 1899, there appears to be no book or MS. antedating this arithmetic, in which the dollar sign is used or its evolution explained. He received the honorary degree of D.D. from Columbia college in 182.3. He is also the author of: Poetical Versioii of the Book of Job (1807); Sermons for Revivals (1824); Letters from Aris- tarchns to Philemon (1833). He died at Hart- wick, N.Y., Nov. 5, 1842.