Tuesday evening [c.2 March 1779]
Colo. R. H. Lee presents his compliments to the honorable Mr. Laurens and sends him inclosed some extracts from several letters of Mr. William Lee 2which may place in a proper point of view Mr. Deanes charge against Mr. Lee of delaying to accept of the trust reposed in him by the United States least he should injure his affairs in England. The necessity of attending the Marine Committee prevents Colo. Lee from sending at present such extracts from the same gentlemans letters as will further evince the bad foundation of this and some other of Mr. Deanes charges. What is now omitted shall hereafter be sent.3
Henry Laurens PapersSouth Carolina Historical Society
Endorsed "Colo R. H. Lee with documents on public foreign affairs."
1 Lee had returned to Congress on 20 February, where he would almost immediately have learned of the appointment on 20 January of a committee consisting of one member from each state to inquire into "the foreign affairs of the United States." Laurens, the South Carolina representative on the committee, had returned from a brief trip to New Jersey on 24 February. This unsigned message was probably written on a "Tuesday evening" after Laurens returned from New Jersey and before the committee reported to Congress on 24 March (i.e., 2, 9, 16, and 23 March). See JCC, 13:93 - 94, 214, 363 - 68; Foreign Affairs Inquiry Committee Minutes, 21 January 1779, note; and Laurens to George Washington, this date, note 1.
2 The "inclosed" extracts were letters from William Lee to Richard Henry dated 1 July, 12 August, and 7 October 1777, and "November 24, 1779" (i.e., 1777). Complete texts of the last three are in the Lee Family Papers microfilm, University of Virginia Archives.
3 Among the Laurens Papers, South Carolina Historical Society, is another unsigned and undated message from Lee to Laurens enclosing an extract from a letter of Arthur Lee which Richard Henry thought would also shed light on the Deane-Lee affair. "Colo. R. H. Lee presents his compliments to the honorable Mr. Laurens and sends him the above extract as well as the inclosed both of which Colo. Lee thinks touch the business under consideration of the Committee of thirteen." Although the letter from Arthur to Richard Henry has not been found, comparison of information in the undated extract with an exchange of letters in Paris between Arthur and the newly appointed French minister, Conrad Alexandre Gerard, on 1 April 1778, indicates that the original was written the same day. See the Lee Family Papers microfilm, University of Virginia Archives, and Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, 2:530 - 31. The "inclosed" to which Lee refers has not been identified.