Lee, Richard Henry, Signer of the Declaration of Independence from Virginia

Circular letter signed ("Richard Henry Lee P."), 2 pages bifolium (9 1/8 x 7 3/4 in.; 233 x195 mm), New York,  21 January 1785, to New York Governor George Clinton, appealing for financial support from the state to the national government and for New York representatives and legislature to refrain from exposing the inability of the Congress to pay its debts, docketed on verso of second leaf; 2 long repaired tears in left margin of first leaf affecting text and signature, inexpert repairs to fold separations on verso of second leaf, remanants of a mount in an album. Green linen folding case, black morocco spine lettered gilt.

"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 ... Your enlightened Legislature, Sir, will see the close connection that subsist between national safety and national faith—that the loss of the latter will ever have the most malignant effects upon the former."

This circular letter written by Lee as President of Congress was issued when Congress was meeting for its first session at the former New York City Hall—today the location of the Federal Hall National Memorial. It was then apparent that the national government was suffering several alarming weaknesses. Chief among them were the lack of direct authority to raise revenue and the inability to control the foreign affairs of the various states—both encapsulated in Lee's letter.