to tax America, Mr Lee expostulated on the illegality of this measure, in letters addressed to distinguished characters in England. His brother, Dr Arthur Lee, was at this time Colonial Agent of Massachusetts, residing in London; and from him the earliest intelligence of political movements was conveyed to Richard Henry, in America. On the motion of the latter in the House of Burgesses, and after great deliberation, a special committee was appointed to prepare an address to the King, a memorial to the House of Lords, and a remonstrance to the House of Commons against the policy which dictated the declaratory act. Mr Lee was placed on this committee, and the address to the King and the memorial to the Lords are still extant in his handwriting. On the passage of the Stamp Act the following year, Mr Lee was among the most active in the resistance, which it everywhere met in America. Under his auspices an association was formed to prevent the use of stamped paper; and it was in no small degree by his efforts and influence, that the same tone was given to Virginia, and through her to the South, which in Massachusetts was inspired by Samuel Adams and his associates. At this period commenced his acquaintance with his distinguished countryman, Patrick Henry; and to the strong sympathy and hearty cooperation of these kindred and mighty minds may, no doubt, in fairness, be ascribed a full proportion of the concert and energy with which the noble Virginian phalanx moved forward to the Revolution.

As early as 1768, Mr Lee is said to have conceived the idea of committees of correspondence between the legislatures and private associations of the different Colonies. We do not know with what justice his biographer and grandson claims for him the honor of having first made this suggestion, and having thus laid the foundation of a measure, which afterwards became one of the main engines for bringing on the Revolution. It was not till four or five years after, that the measure was generally adopted, and then it was at the suggestion of the legislature of Massachusetts, moved thereto by Samuel Adams. The records of the Boston Committee of Correspondence, of which the same inflexible patriot was the leading member, are still in existence among those of his papers, which have come down in his family. On the whole, considering that a partial private correspondence is a thing, which was started and carried on at a very early period, by many of the ardent sons of liberty, and was in itself a suggestion too obvious to mark any particular foresight as to its

adaptation for effecting great political measures; and as Samuel Adams was the unquestioned mover of the system of committees of correspondence, as it was actually organized, we are inclined to think that, without detracting from the merit of others, the praise of this suggestion may rightfully be given to him.*

On the destruction of the Gaspee sloop of war at Providence, and the consequent sensation throughout the Colonies, Mr Lee opened a correspondence with Samuel Adams, which was kept up till his death. Among the letters of many of the most

* Mr Wirt says, in his Life of Patrick Henry, p. 87, that this House [the House of Burgesses in Virginia] had the merit of originating that powerful engine of resistance, Corresponding Committees between the legislatures of the different Colonies; the measure was brought forward by Mr Dabney Carr, a new member from the county of Louisa, in a committee of the whole House, on the twelfth of March, 1773! If by originating' is meant the first legislative act, this statement of the case is no doubt correct; but that this system of committees of correspondence had been publicly adopted in Massachusetts some months before the Virginia resolutions, will appear, by the following extract from the Town Records of Boston. A town meeting was held on the second of November, 1772, when, on motion of Samuel Adams, a com mittee of correspondence was appointed, consisting of twentytwo persons. This committee was instructed, "To state the rights of the Colonists, and of this Province in particular, as men, as christians, and as subjects; to communicate and publish the same to the several towns in this Province and to the world, as the sense of this town, with the infringements and violations thereof that have been, and from time to time may be made; also requesting of each town a free communication of its sentiments on this subject.'

This committee of correspondence was thus publicly appointed and instructed on the second of November, but the Virginia resolutions were not brought forward till the twelfth of March following, that is, more than four months afterwards.

Gordon speaks of this event. 'Governor Hutchinson and his ad. herents,' says Gordon (Vol. 1, p. 312), being used to represent the party in opposition, as only an uneasy, factious few in Boston, while the body of the people were quite contented, Mr Samuel Adams was thereby induced to visit Mr James Warren of Plymouth. After conversing upon the subject, the latter proposed to originate and establish committees of correspondence in the several towns of the Colony, in order to learn the strength of the friends to the rights of the continent, and to unite and increase their force. Mr Samuel Adams returned to Boston, pleased with the proposal, and communicated the same to his confidents. Some doubted whether the measure would prosper, and dreaded a disappointment, which might injure the cause of liberty. But it was concluded to proceed.' Gordon then goes on to give an account of the town meeting mentioned above, and of its proceedings.

This subject has been more fully discussed on a former occasion in this Journal. See Vol. vi. p. 310, for March, 1818.

distinguished patriots and statesmen of the revolutionary epoch, which form a considerable part of the work before us, those of Samuel Adams are the most interesting, and increase the desire, which is already so general, that the rich deposit of the papers of this great republican sage may before long be spread before the world. On the arrival of the Boston Port Bill, the Assembly of Virginia ordered a fast to be observed on the day when the port bill was to go into execution. The next day it was the intention of Mr Lee to propose a series of resolutions expressive, in very strong and indignant language, of the feelings, with which Virginia contemplated this outrage on her sister Colony. The Governor having dissolved the Assembly, it was impossible to bring forward these resolutions, and the other measures contemplated by the friends of liberty. It was Mr Lee's wish to summon an inofficial meeting of the House, but a majority preferred the publication of an address to their constituents, in which, after denouncing the Boston Port Bill, a general Congress was proposed, to consult on the state of the Colonies, and the suggestion is made of a prohibition of all exports from America to England. This address was from the pen of Mr Lee.

The measure of sending deputies to the Continental Congress, already determined on by Massachusetts (and this by a vote passed the seventeenth of June, 1774, as if in prophetic anticipation of a still more eventful futurity), was adopted by Virginia in the month of August. Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton were designated as deputies. Mr Lee was one of the ablest and most energetic members of this body. The most important individual measure adopted at this Congress was perhaps the preparation of the Petition to the King, the Address to the People of England, and the Memorial to the People of British America. These were those 'papers from Philadelphia,' which Lord Chatham compared to Demosthenes and Thucydides. They were drafted by a committee, consisting of Mr Lee, Mr Livingston, and Mr Jay. It is rendered highly probable that the Petition to the King and the Memorial to the People of British America were written by Mr Lee, and the Address to the People of England is admitted to have been the composition of Mr Jay. This last document may perhaps be regarded as the very ablest of the kind, which the Revolution produced. An unfavorable representation having been given of the part taken by Mr Lee

in the composition of these papers, in Mr Wirt's Life of Henry, the author of the work before us was induced to apply to Mr Jay, the surviving member of this committee, for accurate information on the subject. Mr Jay's interesting letter is given in the Appendix to the work; the inferences which it authorizes on this subject have already been stated.

On his return from Philadelphia, Mr Lee took his seat in the House of Burgesses, as the member for Westmoreland, and seconded the proposal of his friend Henry for arming the militia of the State, a measure, which he had also recommended at the general Congress. He was again designated as a member of that which was to assemble in May, 1775. Before that time arrived, the blow had been struck at Lexington, and the contest had assumed a decisive aspect. Among the first questions which presented themselves was one which arose on the application of Massachusetts for the advice of the Congress, as to the taking up and exercising the powers of civil government.' Some light perhaps might be thrown on the new doctrines of State sovereignty, by a careful comparison of the acts and measures, by which the separate Colonies proceeded, in uniting their State governments. New we call them, for we are quite persuaded, that the patriots and statesmen of the Revolution never conceived of the States as independent sovereigns, in the same sense that England and France are independent of each other, which is now the cant, for it deserves no better name. We have seen,

on this subject, some letters written by General Joseph Warren, in the last month of his glorious existence, and addressed to Samuel Adams, then in Philadelphia. We need scarcely say that Adams and Warren were not the men to abdicate the rights of their native State. But the controversy here, as in so many other cases, is one of words. If the parties would first decide what they mutually understand by sovereign, there might be no difference of opinion, how far that name was applicable either to the State or National Governments. It would appear that each of those governments possesses, and that each wants several of the attributes of simple, final sovereignty. All arguments, therefore, tending to enlarge the powers of the national government, because it is a sovereign, are fallacious; because, though the Constitution confers many sovereign powers on the national government, it does not confer all. On the other hand, all arguments tending to enlarge the independence of the States, as being sovereigns, are equally fallacious; because the people of

the States have ceded some of the attributes of sovereignty to the Union. The use of the term, therefore, in either case proves nothing, and will infallibly be found, in the argument, to cover a sophism.

But we have wandered into the school of metaphysical politics; let us return to the days (happier in this), when such politics were unknown. In the councils and labors of the Congress at this eventful period, Mr Lee was conspicuous. When General Washington had been unanimously chosen commander in chief of the armies raised or to be raised for the defence of American liberty, a committee was appointed to draft his commission and instructions, of which Mr Lee was the chairman. The original draft of the commission, by which General Washington was constituted general and commander in chief of the American armies of the Revolution, with an indorsement of his name on the back of it, was long in the possession of Mr Lee's family.

It would be impossible to follow our author in all his interesting details, as to the agency of Mr Lee in the affairs of the Congress. But we ought not to omit the interesting chapter of the Declaration of Independence. On the seventeenth of May, 1776, the Virginia Convention unanimously resolved, that the delegates appointed to represent this Colony in the general Congress, be instructed to propose to that respectable body to declare the United Colonies free and independent states, absolved from all allegiance to or dependence upon the crown of Great Britain,' &c. In pursuance of this instruction, it is understood that the Virginia delegation requested Mr Lee to make a formal motion in Čongress. This was done by him, in the following words, "That these United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states; and that all political connexion between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved.' This motion was made on Friday, June the seventh. The delicacy of the subject, and the responsibility supposed to be incurred by the movers of such a resolution are, no doubt, the cause of its being entered in the Journal, without the name of the mover or seconder. The entry is in the following words; "Certain resolutions respecting independence being moved and seconded, resolved, that the consideration of them be deferred till tomorrow morning; and that the members be enjoined to attend punctually at ten o'clock, in order to take the same into consideration.' The resolution was seconded by John Adams. On the eighth, the Congress resolved itself into a committee