Philadelphia Decr. 15. 1778
My dear Bror.1
I do not wonder at your disgust at the wickedness & folly of mankind. I have so much of the same feelings, that I am sure, there can be no condition in Life more unhappy, than to be engaged in the managemt. of public affairs, with honest intentions. But hard as the lot is it must be borne at least till things have got into a tolerable way. We have had nothing from the party since my last; only that Mr. Wm. Lee’s name is in the list of Aldermen, in the Calender for 17782 I expect an attack in this days paper, upon S. Deane, by Common Sense.3 He knows a good deal of the transactions, & if in earnest, can do a great deal of good. Congress has yet done nothing in finance or foreign affairs. I fear there is a design in some that nothing shall be done, that things may get into such disorder, as to make the people wish for the old Governmt. Congress has no power, & every Villain whome they want to call to account, insults them.
The inclosed Letter from Mr. Laurence, will give you an Account of his resignation & his reasons.4 He is really an honest Man, & I hope will do a great deal of Good. Jay is President.
We have Accounts from N. York, that 30,000 ton of Shipping is order’d to be taken up for Governt. service, and an Embargo laid on all Vessels. This looks like a move. Maryland still refuses to confederate, & is going to publish a declaration of their rights & greivancies, in a very high & violent tone, it is said. I am well informed, that the tories have the upper hand in that Assembly. A striking instance of it, is the tories of Kent County, petitioned to be excused from taking the oath of allegiance as there was still danger of being conquer’d by G. B. and it was negatived by a small majority. So barefaced have they grown.
Love to Chantilly & Stratford. Compts. to friends. Yrs. afftly.
F. L. Lee
Lee Family PapersUniversity of Virginia Archives
1 Although Edmund C. Burnett designated Arthur Lee as the recipient of this letter, it was written to Richard Henry. Cf. note 4 below; and Burnett, Letters, 3:536.
2 The fact that William Lee was still listed as an Alderman for Aldgate for 1778 in the Annual Register had been noted in an anti-Lee letter that was printed in the December 12 issue of the Pennsylvania Packet over the pseudonym "Observator." For evidence that this subject continued to stimulate controversy during succeeding weeks, primarily because of the widely held belief, expressed in the sixth article of the Articles of Confederation, that no United States officeholder should accept "any present, emolument, office or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince or foreign state," see Deane Papers (NYHS Colls.), 21 (1888): 101, 128, 140 - 43.
3 The reply of Thomas Paine ("Common Sense") to Deane’s address "To the Free and Virtuous Citizens of America" appeared in the 15 December issue of the Pennsylvania Packet. See Thomas Paine, The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine, ed. Philip S. Foner, 2 vols. (New York: Citadel Press, 1945), 2:97 - 108. For Paine’s plunge into the Deane-Lee controversy, particularly in regard to the potentially adverse impact of his writings on Franco-American relations, see David Freeman Hawke, Paine (New York: Harper 8: Row, 1974), pp. 85 - 93; and Francis Lightfoot Lee to Richard Henry Lee, 5 January 1779, note 1. Paine’s participation in this debate was of special significance because of his position as secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs.
4 Laurens’ letter has not been found, but Richard Henry’s 26 December reply to it, reviewing at length the substance of Silas Deane’s charges against the Lees, is in James Curtis Ballagh, The Letters of Richard Henry Lee, Volume 1, 1762 - 1778, 1:462 - 67. For Richard Henry’s public reply to Deane, which was printed in the 1 January 1779, Virginia Gazette (Purdie) and the 19 January Pennsylvania Packet, see ibid., pp. 457 - 62. See also ibid., 1:373 - 76, 2:1 - 26, for other documents penned by Richard Henry during his leave at Chantilly at this time (one of which is misdated 3 January 1778, instead of 1779) on the subject of "Deane’s execrable libel."