Lee, Richard Henry

Autograph letter signed, 2 1/4 pages (9 1/4 x 7 1/2 in.; 233 x 189 mm) on a bifolium on laid paper (watermarked posthorn | D & D Blauw), Chantilly, 4 September 1779, to William Whipple, autograph address panel on verso of second leaf ("Honorable General Whipple | Member of Congress | at | Philadelphia"), large seal remnant; seal tear.

For background and context see James Lovell to Richard Henry Lee, 17 August 1779, and William Whipple to Richard Henry Lee, 23 August 1779,in Letters of Delegates, ed. Smith, 13:380–82, 403–04.

Autograph letter signed, 2 1/4 pages (9 1/4 x 7 1/2 in.; 233 x 189 mm) on a bifolium on laid paper (watermarked posthorn | D & D Blauw), Chantilly, 4 September 1779, to William Whipple, autograph address panel on verso of second leaf ("Honorable General Whipple | Member of Congress | at | Philadelphia"), large seal remnant; seal tear.
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Richard Henry Lee on the controversy between his brother and Silas Deane: "how ... will the honor of Congress stand if they allow that wicked insulter and injurer of America—Silas Deane, to go on uncensured."

Prompted by the recent recall of American Minister to France Silas Deane, Lee excoriates Deane in this letter to New Hampshire Delegate William Whipple. Deane had become entangled with Arthur Lee, his fellow Minister, in a contentious dispute that threatened to topple America's fledgling diplomatic corps. As summarized by E. S. Corwin, Lee and Deane disagreed "over the question whether the Colonies were under any obligation to pay for the supplies that had been furnished them through Hortalez and Company. Deane, who had made a contract with Beaumarchais guaranteeing payment, contended that Congress was bound to live up to this agreement, while Lee asserted that these supplies had been intended by the French government as gratuities and that Hortalez and Company had been a mere device to conceal French assistance under the guise of commerce, and further insinuated that Deane and Beaumarchais were in conspiracy to defraud Congress" (French Policy and the American Alliance of 1778, p. 207). Both Deane and Lee had supporters in Congress and the delegates were sharply split on how to resolve the controversy, but there was no doubt which side would win Richard Henry Lee's support. 

Before moving to its main theme, Lee's letter begins with rather cryptic allusions to the departing French Minister to the United States, Conrad Alexandre Gérard (the freight on the ship Confederacy) and his replacement, Anne-César de La Luzerne (Adams's companion). "I am infinitely obliged to you for your very friendly letter of the 23d. last, and I assure you that whilst I live I shall never fail to retain the most affectionate remembrance of you. My health I thank you is well restored, and my spirits not a little enlivened by the discomfiture of those wicked ones whose detestable arts have prevailed much too long for the interest of that cause which we have labored so much to promote and secure. I believe the Confederacies freight will be a very guilty one, and the Sooner we are quit of it the better—I think the Companion of Mr Adams to be the very worthy man he describes him, and such an one, as will honor his Country & benefit, not distract this. I can feel with proper force the satisfaction that good men must have received and the chagrin that bad ones felt when Dr. [Arthur] Lees papers were read. But how my dear friend will the honor of Congress stand if they allow that wicked insulter and injurer of America—Silas Deane, to go on uncensured. Already you find by his memorial that your silence is construed into approbation of his conduct, and this idea will be pushed thro the world to his plaudit and the indelible dishonor and disgrace of Congress. Yet it is most certain upon the estimation with which Mankind regard Congress does the future interest and success of the United States most essentially depend."

Catching his stride, Lee likens the task of reforming Congress to one of the labors of Hercules.  "You have certainly been exonerated of abundance of filth lately from Congress—does not an Augean Stable yet remain. I hope however that it will be cleansed at last. If you do not get a wise and very firm friend to negotiate the fishery, it is my clear opinion that it will be lost, and upon this principle, that it is the interest of every European power to weaken us and strengthen themselves."

Lee also reports on the latest movements of Hezekiah Ford, Arthur Lee's former secretary who had been accused of being a Tory spy: "Mr. Ford is gone to Williamsburg to demand a public hearing before the Governor & Council that he may, as he says he can clearly do, refute to the charges brought against him in his absence—Long ere now I suppose you have received the dispatches he brought, which I forwarded by Express—I believe they contained more proofs of the wickedness of faction."

Lee concludes this lengthy and revealing letter with references to his brother's return from Paris; the Treaty of Aranjuez, by which Spain allied with France in the American Revolution; and naval actions in the West Indies. "Dr. Lee informs us that he will return to America as soon as the Treaty with Spain is accomplished. I submit my opinion concerning his resignation to the wise judgement of his Americas friends. It gives me pleasure to hear that you do not mean to quit Congress soon—It is very agreeable to me to hear that our little fleet has fallen in successfully with the Jamaica fleet, I am always rejoiced to hear that our Navy is fortunate."