Richard Henry Lee was born in
Stratford, Westmoreland County, Virginia on January 20th, 1732 and died in
Chantilly, Virginia on June 19th, 1794. He was the third son of a Thomas Lee,
the "empire builder," who as the 5th son of Richard Lee "the
emigrant", the largest Virginia landowner at the time of his death in
1640, received a modest inheritance. Thomas Lee, Richard Henry Lee's father,
nonetheless managed to acquire real estate holdings far beyond Lee "the
emigrant" and at the time of his death in 1750 amassed some 30,000 acres in
the Northern Neck of Virginia. The greater part of Thomas Lee's massive
estate, including the family homestead called Stratford, went to the eldest
son, Philip Ludwell Lee. Only the first four of Thomas Lee's six surviving
sons, which included Richard Henry Lee, were left modest landed estates.
At
an early age Richard Henry Lee was sent over to England for schooling at the
academy of Wakefield in Yorkshire. The personal wealth and status of his
family enabled Lee to choose any profession, including philanthropist. In 1752
he returned to Virginia and without any plans for a professional practice
applied himself with great diligence to the study of law. Both English and
Roman law occupied his attention; he was also an earnest student of history.
As a young adult, Richard Henry Lee decided to rent out many of his inherited
slaves as well as his inherited lands hoping to support his family on the
proceeds while devoting his professional efforts to politics.
In
1757 he was appointed justice of the peace for Westmoreland County. In 1761 he
was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, of which he remained a
delegate until 1788. Extreme shyness prevented his taking any part in the
debates for some time. His first speech was on a motion:
"to lay so heavy a duty on the importation of slaves as effectually to put an
end to that iniquitous and disgraceful traffic within the colony of Virginia."
On this occasion his hatred of
slavery overcame his timidity and he made a powerful speech containing the
proofs of the principal arguments used in by the northern Abolitionists
through the 1860's. Lee had no profession beyond his public service. Like
Samuel Adams, he was a professional politician.
In times of need, especially when the real estate market declined after the French and Indian War, he could see
no other way to provide for his family except through seeking lucrative
appointive governmental offices. In 1764, Lee even requested the post of
Virginia Stamp Collector in a particularly embarrassing life episode. It was
actually Lee's repeated failure to win Crown appointments that reinforced his
and Arthur Lee's perception that the British regime only distributed offices
to buy or reward sycophant colonialists. His perceptions quickly evolved into
convictions that the colonial side of "virtue against the forces of
corruption" was just cause early in the Anglo-American conflict.
He
was an energetic opponent of the Stamp-Act,
and in 1765 formed an association of citizens of Westmoreland County for the
purpose of deterring all persons from undertaking to sell stamped paper. A
Tory gentleman in the neighborhood accepted the office of Stamp-Collector and
boasted that he would enforce the use of stamped paper upon the people in
spite of all resistance. Mr. Lee, being then captain of a Volunteer Company
of Light Horse, at once went with his men to this gentleman's house and
made him deliver up his commission as collector and all the stamped paper in
his possession. He also insisted the former collector bind himself by oath
never again to meddle with such matters. The Stamp-Collector Commission and
the incriminating papers were then burned in a bonfire on the lawn.
It was a ceremonial fire overseen by Richard Henry Lee, who desperately sought
the office only two years earlier.
At the news of the Townshend
Acts of 1767, Mr. Lee moved a petition to the king in the House of Burgesses,
setting forth in pointed terms the grievances of the colonies. In July 1768,
he wrote a letter to John Dickinson, suggesting that all the colonies should
appoint select committees "for mutual information and correspondence
between the lovers of liberty in every province." The suggestion was in
harmony with the views of the famous "circular letter" of the
Massachusetts assembly, written by Samuel Adams and lately sent forth to all
the colonies.
There has been some discussion
as to whether Adams or Lee is to be credited with the first suggestion of
those remarkable "committees of correspondence" which organized the
American Revolution. The earliest suggestion of such a step, however, is to be
found in a letter from the great Boston preacher, Jonathan Mayhew, to James
Otis, in June, 1766. The letter mentioned above from Lee to Dickinson seems to
have come next in point of date, and at the same time Christopher Gadsden
appears to have received from Lee a letter of similar purport.
Mr. Lee may or may not nave
heard of Mayhew's suggestion. The idea was one that might naturally have
occurred to several of these eminent men independently. The machinery of
committees of correspondence was, however, first set in motion by Samuel Adams
between the towns of Massachusetts in 1772. The project of inter-colonial
committees was first put into practical shape by the Virginia house of
burgesses in the spring of 1773, on motion of the youthful Dabney Cart,
brother-in-law of Thomas Jefferson.
In 1769 as a member of the House
of Burgess Richard Henry Lee introduced a tax on imported slaves seeking to
begin the necessary impediments to end the inhumane trade. His critics,
however, were quick to point out that his bill was self serving as if the
importation of slaves ended the value of those he already owned and leased
would be driven up in the more restricted labor market. Despite this Lee
continued to condemn slavery itself. The institution he claimed harmed
innocent Africans who he described as "fellow creatures created as
ourselves and equally entitled to liberty and freedom by the great Law of
Nature."
Mr. Lee was a member of the
Virginia committee and about this time he wrote to Samuel Adams a letter,
which was the beginning of the lifelong friendship between the two great
leaders. In August 1774, Mr. Lee was chosen as a delegate to the First
Continental Congress just about to assemble at Philadelphia. He was a 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
Scotia, Georgia, and the then Floridas - that had not sent delegates to the
congress.
In the second Congress Lee 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-lieutenancy of a county in
England, gave him command of the militia; hence he is often addressed or
described, in writings of the time, as "Colonel Lee."
For more than a year
he openly and warmly advocated a declaration of independence. After the May
17, 1776 Virginia Convention instructed its delegates in congress to propose
such a measure, it was Lee who took the foremost part. On June 7th, 1776 he
moved
``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 Henry Lee's Resolution
Courtesy of the National Archives
John Adams seconded the motion.
Congress deferred action for three weeks, in order that more definite
instructions might be received from the middle colonies. In an uncanny twist
of fate Mr. Lee was called home by the illness of his wife. It was at this
time that Thomas Jefferson was appointed in his place as chairman of the
committee for preparing a draft of the proposed
Declaration of Independence. For the same reason, the task of
defending the motion, when taken up for discussion, fell mainly upon John
Adams, who had seconded it.
John Adams was successful in
defending Mr. Lee's motion, and on July 2, 1776, the United Colonies of
America officially became the United States of America. It was July 2, 1776
that John Adams thought would be celebrated by future generations of
Americans.
The Second Day of July 1776 will
be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. . . . It ought to be
solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games,Sports, Guns, Bells,
Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from
this Time forward forever more." -- John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776
Thomas Jefferson went on to
author the formal Declaration of Independence, which was passed by Congress on
July 4, 1776, immortalizing the young delegate forever. During the next four
years Mr. Lee served on more than a hundred committees. Richard Henry Lee only
had one drive, full speed ahead and his pace as Congressional Delegate
resulted in failing health on several occasions forcing Lee to return to
Virginia to recuperate. From 1780 until 1782 he did not take his seat in
Congress because the affairs of Virginia required his leadership and good work
in the state assembly. During this period of the Revolutionary War the British
Army controlled the ports and key cities in Georgia and the Carolinas. In 1781
Cornwallis overwhelmed Southern Virginia while Benedict Arnold burned
Richmond. Additionally in the Virginia two questions of great importance were
being debated in the legislature. The first related to the propriety of making
a depreciated paper currency, the U.S. Continental, legal tender for debts.
The second was a resolution to disclaim all debts to British merchants
contracted by citizens of Virginia before the beginning of the war. In these
debates Richard Henry Lee took a strong position 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 dishonest
freemen."
As Colonel of the Westmoreland
Militia his troops secured key ports, one a Stratford Springs, along the Potomac
River aiding the Continental Army in their mission to keep the trade routes open
to Virginia. He was successful and soon Washington won a sweeping Victory at
Yorktown. During the negotiations of the subsequent Treaty of Paris Lee
remained very active in the Virginia assembly. He successfully led the effort to
establishing sound methods of funding Virginia's public debt and providing for
the revival of public credit. These Herculean accomplishments did not go
unnoticed by his colleagues in the Unites States in Congress Assembled as the
Definitive Treaty of Peace with Great Britain exacted a heavy monetary measure
from the United States restoring Tory land holdings and repaying British
merchants for goods used and seized during the Revolutionary War. The citizens
and government of the United States were dire financial circumstances as the
debt was staggering and the Continental Currency had collapsed. In the hopes
that Mr. Lee could duplicate his financial success managing Virginia's debt at a
national level, the Delegates elected him President of the United States in
Congress Assembled on November 30, 1784 with the following resolution:
The committee, to whom were
referred the credentials produced by the delegates from the states of
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina and Georgia, report, "That they have carefully examined the
credentials to them referred, and are of opinion, that the honorable Samuel
Holten and George Partridge, of the State of Massachusetts; the honorable David
Howell, of the State of Rhode Island; the honorable William Churchill Houston
and John Beatty, of the State of New Jersey; the honorable Joseph Gardner and
William Henry, of Lancaster, of the State of Pennsylvania; the honorable Samuel
Hardy, James Monroe and Richard Henry Lee, of the State of Virginia; the
honorable Hugh Williamson and Richard Dobbs Spaight, of the State of North
Carolina; the honorable Jacob Read, John Bull and Charles Pinckney, of the State
of South Carolina; and the honorable William Houstoun and William Gibbons, of
the State of Georgia, appear to be clearly and indisputably entitled to their
seats, are authorized to sit and vote in the present Congress of the United
States. Eight states being assembled, the United States in Congress assembled,
proceeded to the election of a President, and, the ballots being taken, the
honorable Richard Henry Lee was elected.
The Liberal Adams-Lee faction had
finally come into power and even the most staunch conservatives prayed that
Richard Henry Lee would lead the country onto a path of prosperity.
Richard Henry Lee's Presidency was
a busy one, attending to the needs of the new nation. Lee's candor and
straightforwardness bore few secrets. In a November 18, 1784 letter to Samuel
Adams he wrote, "I shall be extremely happy to be aided by your counsels
during my residence in Congress." Richard Henry Lee's letters are abundant
and well published. From these letters we know the new President favored low
taxes by funding the debt with foreign loans. Lee reviled taxes and Congress'
willingness to tax the citizens at a Federal level. Lee wrote to Samuel Adams on
March 14, 1785
But I can never agree that this
Body shall dictate the mode of Taxation, or the collection shall in any manner
be subject to Congressional control.
Richard Henry Lee's presidency
began not in Philadelphia but in Trenton, New Jersey which was the temporary
capital of the United States. Since the mutiny of 1783 in Philadelphia, where U.
S. soldiers held the Federal Government hostage in Independence Hall, the
capital wandered first to Princeton under President Boudinot, then to Annapolis
under President Mifflin and now, in 1784, to site in the heart of George
Washington's Hessian Victory at Trenton.
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Forgotten Founders vs. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson
President Richard Henry Lee was a
strong believer in Federal supported Christianity and utilized his office to
purport his belief that God should be an intricate part of U.S. legislation.,
Lee writes, as President, in this letter to James Madison that "refiners may
weave as fine a web of reason as they please, but the experience of all times
shows religion to be the guardian of morals." Although Lee understood the
importance of instructing the men in history and the classics, he believed the
Federal Government should also educate the citizenry in Christian Theology. Lee
continues in his letter to Madison:
And he must be a very inattentive
observer in our Country, who does not see that avarice is accomplishing the
destruction of religion, for want of a legal obligation to contribute something
to its support. The declaration of Rights, it seems to me, rather contends
against forcing modes of faith and forms of worship, than against compelling
contribution for the support of religion in general. I fully agree with the
presbyterians, that true freedom embraces the Mahomitan and the Gentoo as well
as the Xn religion. And upon this liberal ground I hope our Assembly will
conduct themselves.
November 26th, 1785 Letter from
Richard Henry Lee to James Madison - Courtesy of the
Library of Congress
Lee Continues in his letter to
Madison this time turning to the need for revenue laws and note that require the
payment of interest but "slowly sink the principal:"
I believe there is no doubt but
that the population of our country depends eminently upon our Revenue laws, they
therefore, demand intense consideration. It is natural for men to fly from
oppression to ease, and whilst our taxes are extremely heavy, and North Carolina
& Georgia pay little or no tax, it is not to be wonderd that so many of our
people flock to these States & unfortunately they are carrying to Georgia &
South Carolina the Cultivation of Tobacco.
I do not mean by this, that we
should suffer ill example to prevent us from honorably and punctually paying our
debts. But I think that we may fairly practise here, as other Nations the most
honest do---;I mean, exactly to pay the interest, and slowly to sink the
principal. An attempt to do the latter too suddenly, will ruin, by depopulating,
the country. The only mode appears to be, a funding of the whole debt, so as
certainly to pay the interest, and slowly the principal. Cannot a sinking fund
be brought to bear upon the latter, by throwing all overflowings of taxes into a
Reservoir for gathering interest upon interest? I suppose that at all events,
the facilities offerd by Congress in their Act of the 28th of April last will be
among the amendments to the Revenue law this Session.
November 26th, 1785 Letter from
Richard Henry Lee to James Madison - Courtesy of the
Library of Congress
The people have certainly sufferd
much hitherto by not knowing in season what taxes are lawfully demandable from
them. For want of this information, numbers are compelled to submit to the
extortion and abuses of Collectors. The Treasurer used formerly to publish
annually in the papers what were to be the Taxes of the year, and this practise
was then very useful. But at present, the dispersion of newspapers is so
uncertain, that information thro that channel would reach but few. A Statement
from the Treasury printed in the way of Handbills, to be put up at the Court
Houses & churches, might perhaps furnish the requisite information, & save the
people from extensive abuse. I am very happy to know, for the honor of our
country, that there is a probability of the impeding laws being again taken
under deliberation. What I wrote to you in my last upon this subject, is a most
serious consideration, and the inclosed paragraphs, taken from a late paper,
will shew you how quickly the fame of our proceedings travels, and the effect
likely to be produced upon our Commerce!
By the 5th article of the
Confederation, the annual meeting of Congress is to be on the first Monday in
November, and by our Act establishing one yearly meeting of the Assembly on the
third Monday in October; you will see Sir, that there is very little probability
of Virginia being represented in Congress for some time after its federal day of
meeting. So that it becomes necessary to consider this matter. I suppose that
either the Assemblies time of meeting must be altered, or the Delegates for the
ensuing federal year be chosen this present Session.(2) We have not yet made a
Congress but we have some reason to expect eight States on Monday next. I
understand that Spain means to insist upon the exclusive navigation of the
Mississippi, which will render the exploring our western waters of the greater
importance.
I am dear Sir, with great esteem and regard Your most obedient and very humble
servant, Richard Henry Lee
November 26th, 1785 Letter from Richard Henry Lee to James Madison
- Courtesy of the Library of Congress
P.S. If the election of Counsellors is not over, may I be permitted to suggest
what I realy believe will improve and fortify the counsels of that Board. It is,
that Major Gen. Gates be appointed a Member of it. He has a pretty good estate
in Berkeley, is a single Man & therefore not withheld from due attendance by
domestic considerations. But above all, he is a Man of great worth, solid
judgement, and sound attachments to America. A propos---;It is by many here
suggested as a very necessary Step for Congress to take---;The calling upon the
States to form a Convention for the Sole purpose of revising the Confederation
so far as to enable Congress to execute with more energy, effect, & vigor the
powers assigned it, than it appears by experience that they can do under the
present state of things. It has been observed, why do not Congress recommend the
necessary alterations to the States as is proposed in the Confederation? The
friends to Convention answer---;It has been already done in some instances, but
in vain. It is proposed to let Congress go on in the mean time as usual. I shall
be glad of your opinion on this point, it being a very important one.
R . H. Lee
November 26th, 1785 Letter from
Richard Henry Lee to James Madison - Courtesy of the
Library of Congress
On December 8th newly elected
President Lee and the Congress began the judicial work of appointing judges for
yet another border dispute, this time between New York and Massachusetts. On
December 11th Richard Henry Lee took the time as President to officially write
fellow revolutionary Marquis de Lafayette, who played a central
role in saving Virginia from the British in 1781, the following letter:
I have the honor to enclose you
a letter for the Minister plenipotentiary of the United States, at the court of
his most Christian Majesty, which covers a letter to our great and good Ally, a
copy of which I have also the pleasure to enclose for your satisfaction. I
assure you my dear friend that I feel myself singularly happy in observing the
unanimous disposition that prevails in Congress to promote your glory, for I do
most sincerely wish you every felicity that this world can afford...
In August 1784, the Marquis had
arrived in America to renew acquaintances and rekindle wartime memories. His
grand tour took him to New York, Philadelphia, Mount Vernon, Albany, Boston,
Richmond, Annapolis, and Trenton. By December Lafayette had returned to New York
to sail for France and upon receiving this announcement Congress appointed a
special committee of one member from each state to receive him. Lafayette was a
true friend, ally and hero to the citizens of the United States. He was
especially revered by Richard Henry Lee and his fellow Virginians. Lafayette
would return one last time in the 1820's to make another, much more robust tour
of the United States and accept two copies of the
Wet Ink Transfer of the Declaration of Independence by fellow
Revolutionary War Veteran and President of the United States
James Monroe.
Richard Henry Lee, like the other
Presidents was beleaguered by the new Nation's lack of capital. Congress and
Lee, however, were determined to expertly manage the demands of an ever
shrinking federal pool of assets. Providing for a standing Army at key forts and
ports while at peace became especially burdensome to the treasury. On December
13th Richard Henry Lee received a letter from William Duer who had explained
that his contract for provisioning the troops at West Point would expire at the
end of December, and "As it is probable (from the present State of the
Finance Department) that congress may not be able to take timely Measures for
Continuing the Supply."
Duer stated he was prepared to
continue under the contract through January and requested instructions.
Congress, under President Lee, was already aware of this situation as Major John
Doughty the Commander of West Point, had already written about his plight. In a
lengthy letter he explained that there were no treasury commissioners or war
office officials available to address the needs of the troops at West Point. The
United States in Congress Assembled had quickly authorized the extension of
Duer's contract through February, by terms of the December 11th resolves Lee
enclosed with this letter.
Your letter of the 10th Inst.
was this day received and laid before Congress; no immediate Order was taken
upon it. If I may be permitted a conjecture, I would suppose that the enclosed
resolve upon the subject of your letter was considered as the sense of Congress
on that point; should this not correspond with your idea, you will please to
signify your opinion upon that point in a subsequent letter.
On December the 15th Congress
received a grave letter concerning Spain closing of the free navigation of the
Mississippi River to the United States:
I have the honour to
communicate to your Excellency an extract of a letter which I have lately
received from Don Joseph de Galvez, Minister of his Catholick Majesty for the
department of the Indies. I beg you will be pleased to lay it before Congress,
and communicate the contents to the governours and presidents of the several
states. His Majesty is persuaded that Congress will admit the justice of a claim
which is founded on all the rights which an entire conquest and an uninterrupted
possession can give to any power; and that they will agree that the cession of
the navigation of the Mississippi, made by the King of Great Britain to the
United States in the treaty of 1783, can have no real force unless the Catholick
King, my master, to whom the navigation of that river belongs, shall think
proper to ratify it. I see with pleasure by the contents of the extract
enclosed, that there is a probability that Spain and the United States will very
soon confirm, by a solid and durable treaty, that friendship which has already
for several years subsisted between the two nations. I hope that all objects,
about which there is any doubt, will then be settled and terminated to the
mutual satisfaction of his Majesty and Congress. (Signed) Francisco Rendon.
Extract of the from De Galvez's
letter -- Aranjues, June 26, 1784: Until the limits of Louisiana and the two
Floridas shall be settled and determined with the United States of America, his
Majesty commands that you should give the states and Congress to understand that
they are not to expose to process and confiscation the vessels which they
destine to carry on commerce on the River Mississippi, inasmuch as a treaty
concluded between the United States and England, on which the former ground
their pretensions to the navigation of that river, could not fix limits in a
territory which that power did not possess, the two borders of the river being
already conquered and possessed by our arms the day the treaty was made, namely,
the 30th November, 1782. This order I communicate to you that you may conform
yourself thereto.
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Forgotten Founders vs. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson
The free navigation of the
Mississippi River remained a pressing issue for both the 1st and 2nd U.S.
Federal Governments. The tariffs and fees placed on American vessels by Spain
placed under the Confederation period especially heightened the monetary strain
on a U.S. burdened by war debt and a collapsing economy. The United States would
be forced to contend with Spain's tariffs until 1795 when Secretary of State,
Thomas Pinckney mission resulted in a Treaty of Friendship, Limits, and
Navigation Between Spain and the United States on October 27th.
On December 20th Richard Henry Lee
turned the business of Congress to more pressing matters. The body, after some
heated debate, voted to locate the federal capitol in New York City and not
finance ancillary federal offices in Philadelphia, which remained since the
hostage crisis of 1783, with the following resolutions::
Resolved, That it is expedient the
Congress proceed to take measures for procuring suitable buildings to be erected
for their accommodation. And that a sum not
exceeding dollars be and they are hereby appropriated for the payment of the
expense of erecting such buildings.
esolved that said buildings shall be erected at NY Resolved, (by nine states,)
That a sum not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars be appropriated for the
payment of the expense of erecting such buildings; provided always, that hotels
or dwelling-houses for the members of Congress representing the different
states, shall not be understood as included in the above appropriation.
Resolved, That it is inexpedient
for Congress at this time to erect more than one federal town public buildings
for their accommodation at more than one place.
Four days later, on Christmas Eve
in Trenton, just before adjourning to the new capitol in New York City, Richard
Henry Lee signed the resolution appointing judges for hearing Massachusetts-New
York land claim dispute. This was to be the last official act to be conducted at
the federal level in New Jersey:
TO THE UNITED STATES IN CONGRESS
ASSEMBLED. We the underwritten agents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and
the State of New York, do humbly certify, that in pursuance of the pleasure of
Congress to us signified on the seventeenth day of December instant, we have
agreed on the following gentlemen as commissioners to constitute a court for
hearing and determining a dispute or controversy now subsisting between the said
states, as set forth in the petition of the said Commonwealth, now on the files
of Congress; that is to say, The Honorable Robert Hanson Harrison, Esquire, of
the State of Maryland; The Honorable Thomas Johnson, Esquire, of the said State;
The Honorable John Rutledge, Esquire, of the State of South Carolina; The
Honorable George Wythe, Esquire, of the State of Virginia; The Honorable William
Grayson, Esquire, of the said State; The Honorable James Monroe, Esquire, of the
said State; The Honorable George Read, Esquire, of the State of Delaware; The
Honorable Isaac Smith, Esquire, of the State of New Jersey; and The Honorable
William Patterson, Esquire, of the said State. And we the said agents do further
certify, that it is mutually agreed between the parties, that if any one or more
of the said gentlemen so named as commissioners, shall decline the said office,
the vacancy shall be supplied by Congress, according to an agreement in writing
of this date, signed and interchanged by us the said agents. And further, that
any five of the said commissioners who shall finally accept the said office,
shall be a quorum, according to the Confederation of the United States. And we
do further humbly certify, that it is also mutually agreed between us, that the
court for determining the said controversy, shall be holden at such place, as
Congress by a vote of the majority of the states to be assembled, when the place
for holding the said court is considered, shall appoint. Dated at Trenton, this
24 December, 1784.
Agents for Massachusetts.
Agents for New York.
John Lowell,
Jas. Duane,
James Sullivan,
R. R. Livingston,
E. Gerry,
Walter Livingston,
S. Holten,
Egbt. Benson,
Geo. Partridge,
Ruf. King,
Adjourned to meet at the City of
New York, on the 11 day of January next.
It is important to note, once
again here, as in other chapters that land was the chief revenue source for the
States. In a Nation that abhorred taxation exacting capital from its citizens to
maintain newly created state and federal governments was a daunting task. The
nation's population, however, still continued to grow and settlers, businesses
and investors all sought land. It was through the sale of land that the States
raised money for their coffers so border disputes were serious matters of
finance. The sale of land was the primary source of revenue to repay the war
debt.
In New York the war debt plagued
the Federal government so deeply that Richard Henry Lee, every mindful of
cutting costs, accepted the offer to convene in City Hall to minimize
expenditures. It was the New Year and only the 2nd full months into his
presidency when a serious financial crisis gripped the United States. Foreign
secretaries' letters began to flow into the new N.Y. Federal reporting that the
borrowing power of the United States has reached its limits, credit was
collapsing abroad. On January 21st President Richard Henry Lee wrote this letter
to the States::
I have the honor to enclose to
your Excellency some late communications from the Ministers plenipotentiary of
these United States at Paris, together with an Act of Congress on that subject.
Much inconvenience to the American Ministers abroad, being apprehended from
improper publications of their letters, hath induced Congress to desire that
these informations may be kept from the public eye. The precarious state of our
public credit abroad is so powerfully expressed in these letters, as to render a
comment unnecessary. They prove incontestably, the necessity of immediate,
vigorous measures for supplying the Treasury of the United States, that justice
may be punctually done to those excellent friends who assisted us in the day of
our distress. Your enlightened Legislature Sir will see the close connection
that subsists between National safety and National faith; that the loss of the
latter will ever have the most malignant effects upon the former. The Congress
request that your Excellency will lay these communications before the General
Assembly of your State, with the Act of Congress respecting them..
The January 20th "Act"
ordered the delivery to the states two foreign dispatches concerning the payment
of interest on U. S. foreign debt. These "late communications" included a
November 3rd letter from John Adams reporting the extent of the United States'
interest obligations and the instability of the nation's public credit in
Europe. The second letter included with the Act to the States was dated November
11th from Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson reporting the
"uneasiness" of U. S. default on Dutch loans by the French court who
guaranteed the debt for the United States.
President Lee was undeterred and
on the 24th Congress ordered the preparation for an emergency 1785 capital
requisition from the States. On February 1st they managed to secure and
subsequently ratified a two-million-guilder Dutch loan to most importantly
maintain interest payments on other foreign debt. On the 25th of January
treasury commissioners were elected to insure the solvency of the government. On
the 27th Congress, turned to preparation of war which usually dogged financial
collapses, and adopted an ordinance for ascertaining the powers and duties of
the Secretary at War.
February was the month that the
Confederation Capitol became solidly entrenched in New York City with orders for
the removal of War Office, Post Office and Treasury offices from Philadelphia.
The City that birthed Independence would never again host the U.S. Federal
Government's nucleus of power. The delegates, to prepare for the NY expansion,
elected Philip Schuyler commissioner for planning the new federal capital. Also
in February Congress conceded to John Jay's demands adopting regulations for
his office as Secretary of Foreign Affairs which was quickly becoming the most
influential executive office in the Confederation government. On February 24th
John Adams was appointed the first U.S. Minister to Great Britain, a Herculean
assignment considering the mindset of King George III and the English
parliament.
Richard Henry Lee had never been
more overwhelmed with work or such daunting financial challenges. The office
required him to marshal all his expertise in diplomacy (National and
International) and debt management as he sought capital from the states and the
European Royalty. On February 4th Richard Henry Lee wrote his friend Samuel
Adams about the British situation:
The United Colonies 1st
government began in a Philadelphia Tavern
and the United States 1st federal government ended in a
NYC Tavern!
The Founders convened the government in 11 different capitol buildings and
experienced 15 years of challenges that
included war,
hyper-inflation, a failed
constitution, judicial corruption, armed citizen and U.S. Army rebellions.
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