Phila. Decr. 25th. 1778
My dear Bror.
The day on which my last Letter was wrote, Mr. Deane produced to Congress his written narrative of his transactions & accusations.1 The first the most pompous bloated thing that ever was on paper. The only charges against Doctr. Lee are that he is suspicious, jealous, affrontive to every body he has any business with, & very disgusting to the whole french Nation, by his hatred for them, which he discovers by all his words & actions. Mr. W. Lee is mean, & goes shares with the Agents he appointed. The whole is most grossly abusive of both of them. The Party sucked it in, as nectar & Ambrosia; & say he has acquitted himself most honorably. They whisper about that as they are very moderate, & wou’d not injure any body unheard, they think the best way is to recall them that they justify themselves. This in fact, under the appearance of moderation, is the thing they are working for. They have of their Party ready immediately to fill all the places; & then every thing being in their own hands, we shall have fine work, with the trade which the Continent must carry on for our large advances in Europe. Altho Deane had two Colleages, the word We, is never used in his Narrative, I did everything. I procured all the supplies, bro’t about the Alliance, procured D’Estaings fleet, conducted them to America, discover’d the designs of the Enemy & baffled them, in short, I have establish’d the Liberty & independance of America; whose safety & happiness now depends upon my vigilance. You are sufficiently acquainted with human nature, to know that such magnificent Ideas, inculcated in the most positive style, repeated a thousand times by many Trumpeters; & supported by a Courtly Letter from Count Vergennes; & the great Dr. Franklin will have great weight with many. The old Whigs are something benumbed, at the apparent greatness of the Party. I Shall not be surprised at their success, for meanness & wickedness increase daily. If our brothers are not disgraced now, I am sure they will be e’er long, for they will allways stand in the way of bad men; & no villainy will be left unpracticed to ruin them. I believe they mean to push for a speedy decision in favor of Deane. Finance has not been mentioned since my last. No News.
Yrs Afftly,
F. L. Lee
Lee PapersUniversity of Virginia Archives
1 Deane’s "written narrative," which he read to Congress during sessions held on 22, 23, and 31 December, is available in Deane Papers (NYHS Colls.), 21 (1888): 144 - 205; and Papers in Relation to the Case of Silas Deane, ed. Edward D. Ingraham (Philadelphia: Printed for the Seventy-Six Society, 1855), pp. 17 - 75. The Deane Papers text is taken from the latter (which was printed from Deane’s original manuscript then in the possession of a descendant of Henry Laurens), but the former includes an "imperfect continuation attached to the copy preserved in the Sparks MSS, in the Library of Harvard University" that is not included in the earlier publication. Little is known about the document, but for clues to its provenance see the "Introduction" to Papers in Relation to the Case of Silas Deane, and especially, p. 71n. For Deaneâs attendance before Congress at this time, see JCC, 12:1239 - 40, 1246 - 49, 1258, 1264 - 66.
2 Lee may have been referring to Benjamin Harrison, a longtime ally of friends of Deane such as Robert Morris in Philadelphia and a political opponent of the Lees in Virginia.
3 This last sentence appears to have been added by Leeâs wife, Rebecca Tayloe Lee.