Lee, Charles, Continental General

Autograph letter signed ("C Lee"), 2 1/4 pages (13 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.; 340 x 215 mm), Camp [?Newport], 3 January 1776, to Robert Morris at Philadelphia; separate envelope; first leaf of letter browned and stained, three-fourths of second leaf excised, envelope washed and pressed with residual browning and staining. Blue cloth folding case, blue morocco spine lettered gilt; spine slightly faded.

"The Kings speech absolutely destroys all hope of reunion ... We must be independent or Slaves—Great Britain is so rank in corruption and stupidity that She is no longer fit to be the presiding power." Lee on the Olive Branch Petition and the Defense of  New York.  The Petition, adopted by Congress on 5 July 1775, affirmed American loyalty to the Crown and entreated the King to cease hostilities until a reconciliation could be effected. When Richard Penn, a descendant of William Penn and a staunch Loyalist reached London with the Petition, the King adamantly refused to see him or receive the document through any channel.

"[T]he circumstances of New York render me uneasy almost to distraction—for Heaven's sake why have you not fortify'd and garrison'd that City with a strong force from Connecticut Jersey and Pensylvania? for if the Enemy once take post there, We cannot paint to our imagination the magnitude of the calamaties which must flow ... from our amazing negligence on this article—No time, not a single instant, is to be lost—for the love of God and Mankind inculcate the necessity of the measures and urge and press the immediate execution." Lee correctly predicted that after the siege of Boston the British strategy would be to drive a wedge between the colonies by capturing the strategic port and waterways of New York City. Two days later, Lee wrote Washington a letter containing the same alarum  (Papers of George Washington, The Revolutionary War Series, ed. W. W. Abbot 3:30–31).

Washington replied to his second-in-command on 8 January with this directive: "And as it is a matter of the utmost Importance to prevent the Enemy from taking possession of the City of new York & the North River, as they will thereby Command the Country, & the communication with Canada, it is of too much consequence (since we find by his Majestys Speech to Parliament that, disregardg the Petition from the United Voice of America, nothing less than the total Subversion of her Rights will satisfie him) ... You will therefore, with such Volunteers as are willing to join you, and can be expeditiously raised, repair to the City of New York, and calling upon the Commanding Officers of the Forces of New Jersey for such assistance as he can afford, & you shall require, you are to put that city in the best posture of Defence ..." (Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, ed. Abbot. 3:53–54)

When he finally reached the city on 4 February, Lee immediately saw that the strategic defense of the New York was virtually untenable. "What to do with the city, I own, puzzles me," he wrote on 19 February. "It is so encircled with deep navigable waters that whoever commands the sea must command the town." In March, Congress ordered Lee to the Southern Department. The British seized New York City in September 1776, which they occupied until November 1783.