the period had now arrived, when this was to be published to the world, and the convention of Virginia had instructed her delegates to urge the Congress solemnly to declare it.

Mr. Lee was chosen to move the resolution in Congress; he knew that the implacable hatred of tyrants would pursue him for revenge, and that the uncertain issue of war, might place him in their power; but foreign states could form no alliance with rebels, and England was not resting on her own mighty resources necessity urged, and Mr. Lee had ever listened to the voice of his country; he depended, for his safety, on the extent of her territories, her capabilities of defence, and the alliances which the declaration of independence would procure, or he despised the consequences, and was deaf to the suggestions of fear. On the seventh of June, 1776, Mr. Lee moved, "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 connexion between them, and the state of Great Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

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This motion, which was followed by a protracted debate of several days, was introduced by one of the most luminous and eloquent speeches, ever delivered by its illustrious mover. "Why, then, sir, (says Mr. Lee, in couclusion,) why do we longer delay? Why still deliberate? Let this happy day give birth to an American republic. Let her arise, not to devas

VOL. IX.-G

tate and to conquer, but to re-establish the reign of peace and of law. The eyes of Europe are fixed upon us; she demands of us a living example of freedom, that may exhibit a contrast, in the felicity of the citizen, to the ever increasing tyranny which desolates her polluted shores. She invites us to prepare an asylum, where the unhappy may find solace, and the persecuted repose. She entreats us to cultivate a propitious soil, where that generous plant which first sprung and grew in England, but is now withered by the poisonous blasts of Scottish tyranny, may revive and flourish, sheltering under its salubrious and interminable shade, all the unfortunate of the human race. If we are not this day wanting in our duty, the names of the American legislators of 1776 will be placed by posterity, at the side of Theseus, Lycurgus and Romulus, of the three Williams of Nassau, and of all those whose memory has been, and ever will be, dear to virtuous men and good citizens."

On the tenth of June, it was resolved, "that the consideration of the resolution respecting independence, be postponed till the first Monday in July next, and in the mean while, that no time be lost, in case the Congress agree thereto, that a committee be appointed to prepare a declaration to the effect of the said resolution."

1

On the same day, an express from Virginia informed Mr. Lee of the dangerous illness of some members of his family, which made his presence there absolutely necessary: leave was obtained by him to with

draw from his duties in Congress, and it was left to others, to perfect his measures, by issuing that declaration for which he had so ably prepared the public, by his writings, by his speeches, both in and out of Congress, and by all the energies of his powerful mind. According to the rules of parliamentay procedure, the original mover of an approved resolution is usually chairman of the committee, and appointed to draught any consequent report; in the absence of the mover, Mr. Jefferson was elected to that honour, and the document from his pen, is not more worthy of admiration, for the effects which it has produced, than for the purity, dignity, and eloquence of the composition. The original draught was transmitted on the eighth of July, to Mr. Lee, with the amended copy, as approved by Congress; whether improved by the critics, may be judged, from the following extract from the manuscript of Mr. Jefferson, now in the library of the American Philosophical Society. "He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people, who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain; determined to keep open a market, where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain

this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them."

In consequence of his great exertions to procure a declaration of Independence, and his able support of the freedom of his country, Mr. Lee was exposed to the more immediate and implacable hatred of the king of England and his ministers. It is asserted that, had the arms of England prevailed, the surrender of Washington and Lee would have been demanded as a preliminary to any treaty. The rudeness of individuals cannot be charged upon their nation, yet, that men, in the garb and rank of gentlemen, could not refrain from expressing, to the sons of Mr. Lee, then at school in St. Bees, "the hope that their father's head might soon be seen on Tower hill," may serve to show the light in which he was viewed by the royalists of that day. The desire of the enemy to cut off by any means so able a supporter of the rights of America, was only equalled by the solicitude of his fellow citizens to secure his safety and happiness.

During his absence from Congress, a British captain of marines, with a strong party of men from vessels of war then in the Potomac, broke into his house at midnight, and by threats and bribes endeavoured to prevail on his domestics to betray their master, for, it was understood that Mr. Lee was in the vici

nity. Honourably deceitful, the servants assured the party, that he had already set out for Philadelphia, although he was then only a few miles from his farm. The solicitude of his friends for his safety was evinced by their constraining him to forego the melancholy pleasure of a visit to General Charles Lee, then a prisoner in New York. Mr. Lee's reply to the invitation of the general, is marked with the brevity of deep feeling and with the language of manly grief, which swells the bosom, when it cannot serve a friend in the time of necessity.

"My dear friend,

"My feelings are not to be described. I would go to every extremity to serve my friend and the able friend of liberty and mankind. But here my power fails. I have not the smallest idea of personal danger, nor does this affect the present question.

"Farewell, my dear friend, may you be as happy as you deserve, then the cause of humanity will have nothing to fear for you.

RICHARD HENRY LEE."

The absence of Mr. Lee from Congress continued till the beginning of August, 1776; but immediately on his return, he was appointed on the most important committees. He took a distinguished part in preparing a plan of treaties with foreign nations, and in reconciling the people to the almost dictatorial powers of Washington; he furnished instructions for our mi