by Jack Lee
by Jack Lee
Before the Continental Congress, on July 2nd, 1776, a gentleman farmer and Representative from Virginia submitted a resolution explaining the justifications for separating from British control over the colonies. The author was a patriot by the name of Richard Henry Lee and although today history rarely mentions his name, he was well known in his own time for his eloquent writing and political leadership. It was only natural then that Richard Henry Lee was asked to draft an expanded declaration which could be ratified by Congress. Instead, Lee encouraged his colleagues to offer this important task to his young friend, Thomas Jefferson. Of course Jefferson accepted and two days later the 2nd Continental Congress signed into being the Declaration of Independence. At the time it was called, “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.”
In 1776 the American colonies were only uniting in defense of a cause to separate from Great Britain and become a free nation. The actual formation of the United States of America as a country was still a few years off, but the Declaration of Independence is still considered to be our founding document. Although, few realize it all really began with a resolution by Richard Henry Lee that would be expanded and articulated in the Declaration of Independence and now you know the rest of the story.
President Abraham Lincoln would later explain the grand importance of the Declaration of Independence to a small crowd gathered at a civil war battlefield in his Gettysburg Address of 1863 when he said:
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
America’s First Family, The Lees of Virginia
As a side note of historical interest, Frank Grizzard wrote of the Richard Lee Family, “More than 5 dozen members of the Lee Family of Virginia appear in Washingtons Papers. (See Appendix.) That is about half the number of Washingtons who appear, but by far greater than any other group of people with whom Washington ever associated. The list of Lees that came into Washingtons sphere include, of course, the more famous Revolutionary War LeesHenry Light-Horse Harry Lee, Jr., brothers Francis Lightfoot Lee, Arthur, William and Richard Henry Leeas well as their siblings, children, parents, uncles, aunts, and cousins.”
Arthur Lee’s contribution to America was also quite unnoticed even though he was chiefly responsible for France’s financial support to the colonies during the war of independence and without that funding the war would have likely ended in a dismal failure. History has credited Benjamin Franklin for Lee’s work because it was Franklin who closed the deal that Lee had worked so extensively to complete while serving as the colonial Ambassador to France.
Another decendant of the Lee family would later be the reason that President Lincoln gave his speech at Gettysburg and why we have the Arlington National Cemetary.
This story is dedicated to young Miles …be proud of your country, be proud of your heritage. “Non-incautious futuri.”