Richard Henry Lee (January 20, 1732 – June 19, 1794) was an American statesman and Founding Father from Virginia, best known for the June 1776 Lee Resolution, the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from Great Britain leading to the United States Declaration of Independence, which he signed. Lee also served a one-year term as the president of the Continental Congress, proposed and was a signatory to the Continental Association, signed the Articles of Confederation, and was a United States Senator from Virginia from 1789 to 1792, serving part of that time as the second president pro tempore of the upper house. He was a member of the Lee family, a historically influential family in Virginia politics.
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👉 Richard Henry Lee in the context of Lee family
The Lee family of the United States is a historically significant Virginia and Maryland political family, whose many prominent members are known for their accomplishments in politics and the military. The family became prominent when Richard Lee I ("The Immigrant") immigrated to the English colony of Virginia in 1639 and made his fortune managing a tobacco plantation worked by enslaved Africans.
Members of the family include Thomas Lee (1690–1750), a founder of the Ohio Company and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses; Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734–1797) and Richard Henry Lee (1732–1794), signers of the American Declaration of Independence, with Richard Lee also serving as one of Virginia's inaugural U.S. Senators; Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee (1756–1818), lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army and Governor of Virginia; Thomas Sim Lee (1745–1819), Governor of Maryland and lastly, and most famous, General Robert E. Lee (1807–1870), commander of the Army of Northern Virginia of the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War (1861–1865). Twelfth President Zachary Taylor (1784–1850, served 1849–1850), and ninth Chief Justice Edward Douglass White (1845–1921, served 1894–1921) were also descendants of Richard Lee I. Confederate President Jefferson Davis married Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of Zachary Taylor.
Richard Henry Lee in the context of Lee Resolution
The Lee Resolution, also known as "The Resolution for Independence", was the formal assertion passed by the Second Continental Congress on July 2, 1776, resolving that the Thirteen Colonies (then referred to as the United Colonies) were "free and independent States" and separate from the British Empire. This created what became the United States, and news of the act was published that evening in The Pennsylvania Evening Post and the following day in The Pennsylvania Gazette. The Declaration of Independence, which officially announced and explained the case for independence, was approved two days later, on July 4, 1776.
The resolution is named for Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, who proposed it to Congress after receiving instructions and wording from the Fifth Virginia Convention and its president, Edmund Pendleton. Lee's full resolution had three parts which were considered by Congress on June 7, 1776. Along with the independence issue, it also proposed to establish a plan for ensuing American foreign relations, and to prepare a plan of a confederation for the states to consider. Congress decided to address each of these three parts separately.
Richard Henry Lee in the context of Continental Association
The Continental Association, also known as the Articles of Association or simply the Association, was an agreement among the American colonies, adopted by the First Continental Congress, which met inside Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia on October 20, 1774. It was a result of the escalating American Revolution, and called for a trade boycott against British merchants by the colonies. Congress hoped that placing economic sanctions on British imports and exports would pressure Parliament into addressing the colonies' grievances, especially repealing the Intolerable Acts, which were strongly opposed by the colonies.
The Congress adopted a "non-importation, non-consumption, non-exportation" agreement as a peaceful means of settling the colonies' disputes with Great Britain. The agreement, which had been suggested by Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee based on the 1769 Virginia Association initiated by George Washington and written by George Mason, opened with a pledge of loyalty to King George III of Britain, and went on to outline a series of actions opening with a ban on British imports that would begin December 1, 1774. Trade between the colonies and Britain subsequently fell sharply. The British soon responded with the New England Restraining Act which escalated their own economic sanctions. The outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in April 1775 superseded the need to boycott British goods.
Richard Henry Lee in the context of Stratford Hall (plantation)
Stratford Hall is a historic house museum in Westmoreland County, Virginia, United States. It was the plantation house of four generations of the Lee family of Virginia (with descendants later to expand to Maryland and other states). Stratford Hall is the boyhood home of two Founding Fathers of the United States and signers of the United States Declaration of Independence, Richard Henry Lee (1732–1794), and Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734–1797). Stratford Hall is also the birthplace of Robert E. Lee (1807–1870), who was General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The Stratford Hall estate was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960, under the care of the National Park Service in the U.S. Department of the Interior.