Book Fifty-Six

Library/Virginia

41 of 56 · Virginia

R. H. LEE

A Resolution

40 lessons. 5 chapters. In his own words.

He stood on June 7 and resolved that these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free. The rest is drafting.

Richard Henry Lee · 1732–1794 · Moved independence · Antifederalist

01

Move the Question

1 of 5

Stand up and make them vote.

“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.”

Resolution of Richard Henry Lee in Congress · 1776

June 7. Not a draft. A question. Jefferson would write the explanation. Lee forced the roll. Documents are downstream of motions. Move.

Carry Virginia's instruction like a writ.

“The Delegates appointed to represent this Colony in General Congress be instructed to propose to that respectable body to declare the United Colonies free and independent States.”

Resolution of the Virginia Convention · 1776

May 15 in Williamsburg. June 7 in Philadelphia. He was not freelancing. He was serving a commission. When the home convention loads the gun, do not become a diplomat in the hall.

Independence, alliance, confederation — in that order.

“That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances. That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies.”

Lee Resolution, remaining clauses · 1776

Three resolutions, not one. Break, then friends, then a government. People remember the thunder. He had already listed the logistics. Always attach the next two steps to the dare.

Let Adams second it. Then let the month work.

“The resolution was postponed to the first of July, to give the middle colonies time.”

Journals of the Continental Congress · 1776

He moved on June 7 and did not sulk at the delay. A question on the table is already doing work in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Plant the flag. Let the late men walk toward it.

The rest is drafting.

“The committee for drawing the declaration of Independence desired me to do it.”

Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography · 1821

Lee went home to a sick wife; Jefferson wrote. Fine. The country needed a motion more than it needed a style that week. Do not compete with the drafter. You already won the order of operations.

June 7 is the birthday. July 4 is the press release.

“Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”

Resolution of Richard Henry Lee in Congress · 1776

He moved. Jefferson explained. Posterity framed the explanation and forgot the motion. Do not. Nations are born when someone forces a yes or no. Be the force. Let the stylist have the souvenir.

Break, then friends, then a league. Move the program.

“That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances. That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies.”

Lee Resolution, remaining clauses · 1776

Not a poem. A program. Break, then friends, then a league. Men who want only the feeling of independence skip clauses two and three and call it purity. Move the whole. Otherwise you have seceded into a vacuum.

File the resolve. Then work the delegations.

“The resolution was postponed, and in the meantime the colonies were to be sounded, until the first of July.”

Journals of the Continental Congress · 1776

He did not need to win on June 7. He needed the question on the floor. Time is a whip if the motion exists. If it does not, time is only weather. File the resolve. Then work the delegations.

02

The Ciceronian

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Train the voice as a public weapon.

“Richard Henry Lee, with a diction that put the House in mind of Rome, moved as if oratory were a form of law.”

Contemporary descriptions of Lee in Congress · 1776

The Ciceronian. Black silk on a maimed hand, used as a gesture. Accident became emphasis. If you are going to speak for a living, make the body part of the brief.

Eloquence is a duty of the first chair in a family.

“The Lees of Stratford were expected to stand and say the thing in a sentence the counties could repeat.”

Virginia political culture, Lee family · 1770

Patrick Henry had heat. Lee had period structure. Both are tools. A revolution that cannot be spoken clearly will be administered by the men who can. Be one.

Wrap the wound and point with it.

“A hunting accident had taken fingers of the left hand; he dressed it in black silk and let the dressing keep time with the argument.”

Descriptions of Richard Henry Lee in debate · 1775

Do not hide every damage. Some damages, managed, become a metronome. The room remembers the silk. Make sure it also remembers the resolve.

Speak so the motion can travel.

“These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”

Lee Resolution · 1776

Of right ought to be — law and moral in five words. That is why it moved. Purple oratory dies at the state line. Portable Latin lives. Write for repetition.

Do not become only a voice.

“He served as President of Congress when the war was a bookkeeping problem as much as a battlefield.”

Journals of Congress, presidency of R. H. Lee · 1784

1784–1785. The Ciceronian took the ugly chair. Oratory that will not administer is theater. Sit, sign the orders, endure the emptiness of the treasury.

Eloquence is a tool you keep oiled, not a gift you wait for.

“He was the Ciceronian of the Virginia row, and the periods were a public weapon.”

Descriptions of Richard Henry Lee in debate · 1776

Eloquence is not a gift you wait for. It is a tool you keep oiled. A family that sends you to the first chair owes the counties a voice that can travel. Practice. Then spend it on a motion, not on a reputation.

A hunting accident, a bandage, a style. Point anyway.

“The lost fingers were bound in black silk; he gestured with the hurt as if it were a gavel.”

Virginia political culture, Lee family · 1775

A hunting accident, a bandage, a style. He did not hide the wound and he did not become it. Defects that can be seen become authority if you keep talking sense. Point. Do not apologize for the silk.

Orators who will not take the ugly chair become performers.

“Richard Henry Lee, President of Congress, 1784.”

Journals of Congress, presidency of R. H. Lee · 1784

Orators who will not take the ugly chair become performers. He took it. The Confederation needed a gavel more than another period. Speak until they make you preside. Then preside.

03

A Family of Lees

3 of 5

Staff a revolution with brothers.

“Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot Lee — the only brothers to sign the Declaration.”

The Declaration of Independence, enrolled names · 1776

Two Lees in the Virginia column. Arthur in Europe. William in London. A family as a foreign service. Nepotism is a charge. Capacity is a defense. Know which you are running.

Stratford is a machine, not a museum.

“The house on the Potomac trained orators the way other houses trained crop.”

Lee family of Stratford Hall · 1770

A dynasty can be a republic's tool or a republic's enemy. In 1776 it was a tool. The test is whether the house serves the motion or the motion serves the house. Keep the order straight.

Let the quiet brother vote. Let the loud brother move.

“Francis Lightfoot never made the speech. Richard Henry never needed him to.”

Congressional contrast of the Lee brothers · 1776

Division of labor inside a name. If everyone in the family needs the podium, the family is a troupe. Assign the podium and the aye, and do not envy either.

Cousins will ride. Do not confuse the branches.

“Light-Horse Harry Lee was of the same river and a later war; do not steal his laurels or lend him yours.”

Lee family lines, Westmoreland County · 1781

The Revolution had enough Lees to confuse a clerk. Be precise. Dynasty without precision becomes myth, and myth becomes an argument against you.

A family of Lees still owes the counties.

“He went home to Chantilly and to the Virginia House, as if Philadelphia were a tour of duty, not a migration.”

Virginia record of Richard Henry Lee · 1779

Westmoreland sent him. Westmoreland could recall him. Families that forget the sending counties become a court. Stay countable at home.

Use the house. Then assign the quiet one his own column.

“Arthur in Europe, William in London, Richard Henry in the hall, Francis in the vote.”

Lee family of Stratford Hall · 1776

A machine, not a museum. Dynasties are embarrassing in a republic unless they ship. This one shipped brothers. Use the house. Then assign the quiet one his own column so the loud one does not eat him.

Signing is not riding. Do not audition for someone else's war.

“The cousin who rode is not the brother who resolved. Keep the ledgers apart.”

Lee family lines, Westmoreland County · 1781

Cavalry is not oratory. Oratory is not a vote. A famous surname will try to become a blur. Resist the blur. Your job is June 7, not a charge. Do not audition for someone else's war.

Write home. Sit the local seat. The motion was for counties.

“He returned to the Virginia house and the Westmoreland business as if Congress were a tour, not a home.”

Virginia record of Richard Henry Lee · 1779

Stratford does not excuse you from the parish. Men who go national and forget the landing become a class. Write home. Sit the local seat. The motion you moved was for counties, not for a name.

04

Demand the Amendments

4 of 5

The first maxim of a man who loves liberty.

“The first maxim of a man who loves liberty should be, never to grant to rulers an atom of power that is not most clearly and indispensably necessary for the safety and well being of society.”

Letters of a Federal Farmer (attributed to Lee) · 1788

Authorship is argued. The sentence is Lee's mind even if another hand held the pen. Grant atoms, not bars. The Constitution as written was a bar. He said so in public.

Refuse the unamended charter.

“I have kept my mind open to conviction, and I am sorry to say that the more I have considered the new Constitution, the more clearly I have seen the danger of a consolidated government.”

Richard Henry Lee, letter · 1787

He had moved independence. He would not rubber-stamp the next paper. Founders who cannot oppose their own sequel become priests. Stay a legislator.

Put a bill of rights on the table before the states vote.

“He proposed amendments in Congress in September of 1787, including express reservations of rights, before the Constitution went to the states.”

Journals of Congress, motion of R. H. Lee · 1787

Too early for the Federalists. Exactly on time for the country. If you wait until after ratification, you are a supplicant. Demand while the bargain is still a bargain.

Fear consolidation more than disorder.

“To say that a bad government must be established for fear of anarchy is really saying that we should kill ourselves for fear of dying.”

Attributed to the Lee opposition to the Constitution · 1788

The Federalist scare-line was anarchy. His scare-line was a new London on the Potomac. Both scares can be real. He insisted the cure not be a second disease. Hold that insistence.

Take the amendments when they come, even if late.

“The first ten amendments were proposed in 1789. Lee had already named the defect.”

United States Bill of Rights · 1791

He did not get to draft them. He got them. Credit is a vanity. Clauses are a result. If the thing you demanded arrives with another man's name on it, pocket it.

Never grant an atom that is not indispensable.

“The first maxim of a man who loves liberty should be never to grant to rulers an atom of power that is not most clearly and indispensably necessary for the safety and well being of society.”

Richard Henry Lee, letter / Letters of a Federal Farmer (attributed to Lee) · 1787

Atom. Not ounce. He wanted the grant tiny and the necessity loud. Love of liberty that enjoys a large engine is a crush, not a principle. Keep the first maxim first, including when your friends hold the engine.

Bottom the new charter on a better bill of rights.

“It needed bottoming the new constitution on a better bill of rights.”

Richard Henry Lee on the Constitution · 1787

He would serve as senator under the thing he had feared, once the amendments were in train. Opposition that can take a win is adult. Demand the paper. Then sit inside it and keep demanding.

Thirteen republics, not one consolidated mouth.

“Instead of being thirteen republics, under a federal head, it is clearly designed to make us one consolidated government.”

Letters of a Federal Farmer (attributed to Lee) · 1787

Consolidation was the nightmare. He named it while the cheering was loudest. You may judge him wrong on the danger. Do not judge him wrong on the duty to name it. Fear of the center is a founding tradition. Keep a seat for it.