Philadelphia 1st May 1776
Dear Sir,
I thank you for your favor of the 23d of April which I should have answered before now if I had not been prevented by much business. If zeal in a good cause may not cover small irregularities or deviations from the strict line of Office, and regard for the public safety be chained to the letter of business, I fear such pedantic politics will ruin America, as they must fatally injure every country where they prevail. The public of America is a generous public, and when appealed to will readily distinguish things dictated by the General good tho irregularly executed, from such as are evil in their nature and merely the suggestions [of] folly [and] wickedness.1 I am sure a generous Community will not su[ffer any] person to be persecuted for the former, nor would I scruple in such a case to say as of old Provoco ad Populum, and then look the proudest connections in the face, trusting to the wisdom of the Object & the integrity of design, notwithstanding the manner might be something unusual.
I find Capt. Nicholsons merit is well understood here, and therefore I hope he will succeed in his desires.2
You have my congratulations Sir on your marriage,
for I am truly your friend and obliged humble servant,
Richard Henry Lee
Receiver’s copy, Maryland Historical Society. Addressed: "Samuel Purveyance Junr. Esqr. of Baltimore in Maryland. Favored by Doctor Bankhead."
Printed in James Curtis Ballagh, The Letters of Richard Henry Lee, Volume 1, 1762 - 1778, pp. 186 - 87.
1 The Maryland Council of Safety had condemned Purviance for his conduct in the proposed seizure of Governor Eden and had ordered him to appear before the Maryland Convention to answer for usurping the authority of the council and the convention. Md. Archives, 11:372 - 82, 388. For information on Purviance’s role in the Eden affair, see John Hancock to the Baltimore Committee, April 16, note; and Thomas Johnson to the Maryland Council of Safety, April 17, 1776. See also Lee to Purviance, May 6, 1776.
In the midst of this incident, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, the president of the Maryland Council of Safety, made a mysterious trip to Philadelphia, and in a letter of April 30 to Charles Carroll, Barrister, vice president of the council, he offered a partial explanation of his activities. "I have been present at two meetings of our Delegates, (the last I am but this moment returned from,) to consult upon the principal points to be discussed in Convention, and the Delegates to attend. There will be another meeting this evening or to-morrow, when they will be finished and agreed upon. I believe Mr. Goldsborough and Mr. Johnson will be the Delegates. The points as to the Governour’s staying, and representation, will be determined, I think, as you and my brethren would wish, with the latitude of being varied by the Convention, as circumstances may cast up . I have, I think, almost brought R.H.L. to shame. He has the impudence and assurance of the devil. He at first justified Purviance, and denied that General Lee had directed the Governour to be seized; and brought his brother Frank to pledge his honour that the fact was not so. I concealed from them that I had a copy of the Generalâs letter in my pocket, nor do they yet know I have it. I shall this day show it to some gentlemen that were present when they roundly asserted and assured me that I had been misinformed.
"Colonel Harrison has written to his friends in the Committee of Safety of Virginia, that they must apologize to our Council for the insult. We are highly applauded, in this city, for our spirited conduct in the late conspiracy, for such I must term it." Am. Archives, 4th ser. 5:1146 - 47. For a discussion of Jeniferâs visit to Philadelphia and efforts to obtain information for use in the case against Purviance, see Ronald Hoffman, A Spirit of Dissension: Economics, Politics, and the Revolution in Maryland (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973), pp. 160 - 63.
2 Probably a reference to James Nicholson (1736 - 1804), who on June 6 was appointed captain of the Continental frigate Virginia, which was being built in Maryland. JCC, 5:422 - 23.