Phila. Decr. 22d. 1778
My dear Bror.
Publications still continue in abundance to blacken the Lees & make Deane the greatest Man in the World. The cry is in their favor, no one has dared to enter the lists with them but Common Sense, who tho he has said a great deal of truth, & much to the purpose, was as far as I can understand very little regarded, it having been artfully put about that he was hired, & the poor fellow got a beating from An Officer, it is said for having wrote the peice. He unfortunately made some mistakes, which are taken notice of by his Answeror Plain Truth, & throws a discredit upon the rest.1 It is really a shame, that when so many things can be alledged against this man, that the public shou’d be so abused, because Congress will not go thro’ the business. They have done nothing yet, in the mean time he continues to insult them. After having long pester’d the Congress by Letters to hear him, in justification of himself, never hinting that he has any discovery to make, urging the necessity he was under of going immediately to
France. And after complaining to the public that he was obliged to communicate his discoveries to them, because Congress woud not hear him, as if he cou’d not have given his information to Congress in a Letter, as well as to the people. After all this Congress on the 8 inst. directed him to put in writing the whole of his transactions & discoveries while in Europe & told him that if in the mean time, he had any thing of immediate consequence to communicate, they woud hear him the next evening. He answered that as he cou’d in two or three days put everything in writing he did not desire to be heard, since which we have not heard one word from him in Congress.2 And yet no notice is taken of him: in short the Party are determined to support him in everything, & to contradict the old opinion, that it is impossible to wash the blackamore white. Finance is yet very backward. God knows what will become of us. Letters from Rhode Island say Byron’s seamen are very sickly, which prevents his fleet from moving. This is all our news.
When you come up I wou’d advise you to cross at Kent Island, the road by Baltimore is very bad.
Love to your fireside & all friends,
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Lee PapersUniversity of Virginia Archives
1 Plain Truth’s "Strictures on the Address of Common Sense to Mr. Deane" was published in the 21 December issue of the Pennsylvania Packet. The entry of "Plain Truth" into the Deane-Lee controversy itself touched off a minor tempest that entertained the readers of John Dunlap’s Packet the next three weeks. For the letters that were exchanged during that period between "Plain Truth" and his opponents, and his 30 December admission of his identity as Maj. Matthew Clarkson, see Deane Papers (NYHS Colls.), 21 (1888): 100 - 101, 103 - 23, 127 - 28, 133 - 40, 214 - 35, 245 - 46.
2 Actually Congress received a note from Deane this day advising that he was now prepared to present a written account of his mission to France, and the delegates responded immediately by resolving to hear him "this evening at six o’clock." JCC, 12:1239 - 40, 1246. For Congress’ resolve ordering Deane to report "in writing, as soon as may be," which was adopted on 7 December, rather than the eighth as Lee stated, see JCC, 12:1200 - 1201.