Philadelphia June 15th 1779.
Dear Sir,
I yesterday received your very agreeable Favor of the 6th instant,1 and am much gratified by your Confidence & Approbation, for, be assured my Dear Sir, there are, in public Life, few greater Consolations than to stand well with those, whose unvarying Conduct, through the whole Course of such a Contest as ours, bespeak and prove them the great and the Good. The Plaudits of such Characters will always be Food to the generous Mind, and the Defence and Support of them the spontaneous Effort of every patriotic Spirit.
We have done no great Things since you left us, however as Determinations have been made respecting some great Characters on the other Side the Water, I will give you the best Account of them from my Memory, as I have it not in my Power at present to apply to the Journals.
On the Questions, "Shall Mr Izard be recalled?" "Shall Mr. William Lee be recalled?" they both passed in the affirmative by a small Majority. Each of these Questions, as soon as determined, was succeeded by this Proposition; Resolved that it is the Sense of Congress, that Mr. Izard, Mr William Lee, be not required to repair to America unless convenient &c. or words to that particular Effect; and the said Proposition respecting them both passed also in the affirmative: so that those Gentlemen are left entirely at their own Option.2
I cannot omit to mention, that we had many curious & learned Debates respecting the Meaning and Definition of the Word "recall," and I at one Time apprehended the Result might have produced the Necessity of a Correction in most of our modern Dictionaries, however in Time it being wisely judged, that, although we might determine, that by recalling a Man we meant that he should continue where he was, and should even proceed so far as to publish our Battalia of Yeas and Nays upon the new Definition, yet our Constituents, who seem to have abated of their implicite Confidence in us, might not fully accord thereto, it was thought best to proceed in the Manner I have before related.
Next came on an excentric Attack upon Mr. Arthur Lee in Manner and Form following; Mr. Burke, seconded by Mr. - - say Smith,3 tho I am not quite certain, laid in the following Proposition, vizt. "Resolved, that Mr. Silas Dean be directed not to depart the united States without special Permission of Congress and that Mr. Arthur Lee be ordered forthwith to repair to America &c:" After much Debate, when the Question was about to be put, a Division was called for, and the previous Question moved on each Part of it. On the first Part the previous Question was lost by a Division, and by a peculiar Turn of Providence the main Question shared the same Fate, and after all his Enemies Maneuvres, when the previous Question came to be put on that Part which respected Mr. Lee it obtained almost unanimously, and to their utter Mortification he remained in Statu quo. Whether they will venture at any future Time to renew the Attack I know not, if they do I hope we shall place this Business on better Ground than a base Division, as I think Rhode Island, New
Jersey and Delaware will pretty generally hereafter stand fair - Mr. Marchant is arrived here, I expect Mr. Houston from Jersey in a Day or two - Mr. McKean is in Congress & Mr. Van Dyck hourly looked for. Contra - Doctr. Witherspoon is gone on a Mission to Vermont and our Friend Mr. Adams sets off for Boston this morning.
I ought to add respecting Burke’s Proposition, that on the main Question for Detention of Mr Dean in America, The Yeas were New York, Virginia, North & South Carolina, The Nays, New hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Pennsylvania - Rhode Island, New Jersey & Maryland divided, Delaware, Mr. Dickinson, not present - the Reason you may conjecture.
All the Difference from the above State, if applied to the previous Question, was that Mr Fell voted for the previous Question, and Mr Henry against it - whereas on the main Question Mr. Fell voted ay, and Mr. Henry Nay, which divided both the States to the utter Confusion of &c. &c. &c. after it had been audibly declared, "all hollow," "all hollow."
Thus are the crafty taken in their own Devices. and I suppose Mr. Henry will undergo a severe Gauntlet for so sacreligiously subverting their political Babel.
We have not as yet appointed any new Ministers, nor have we any foreign News of Importance. I seriously apprehend some new Folgery4 has arisen to thwart our Advices.
We have not yet been able as yet to ascertain the Evidence of Doctr. D - - 5 as to Communication of signing the Treaty to London, he being gone on the western Expedition; and we cannot discover who the Person is in this City to whom he attended; however I hope in a little Time through Mr. Sergeant or Mr. McKean to obtain satisfactory Information, when I do, I shall make the best Use of it here, & immediately communicate it to you.
I congratulate you on your Family’s Escape from the Depredations of the Enemy, tho I lament the Ravages they have committed in your State; I wish Providence had suffered a less severe Jogg to have awakened you.
I also congratulate you on the glorious Successes of our Friends in South Carolina, & I hope Georgia too, tho we are not yet freed from the pains of Suspense by any regular Express from that Quarter - I however am sanguine enough to hope for an entire Burgoyneage alias Prevoage6 of the british Army in that Department.
The Enemy are gone up the North River in Force and have possessed themselves of, & are fortifying King’s Ferry. The Boston & Confederacy yesterday sent up a fine prize Ship of 24 Guns, with Stores & Provisions on Board for a long Cruise.
Want of Time & Paper conspire to prevent my adding any thing further at this Time but that all Friends are well, and that I am with high Esteem & great Sincerity your Friend and most Obedient hum ble Servt.
Nath. Scudder
Lee Family PapersUniversity of Virginia Archives
1 Although Lee’s letter to Scudder has not been found, he wrote two other letters on June 6, to Samuel Adams and to Henry Laurens, which contain a number of comments on matters of recent concern to Congress. See James Curtis Ballagh, The Letters of Richard Henry Lee, Volume 2, 1779 - 1794, pp. 2:59 - 64.
2 See JCC, 14:700 - 705.
3 Actually Henry Laurens. JCC, 14:711 - 12. See also Henry Laurens’ Notes of Debates, 11 June; Samuel Adams to Richard Henry Lee, 13 June; and James Lovell to John Adams and to Arthur Lee, 13 June 1779.
4 For the case of Capt. John Folger, who had been suspected of stealing a packet of dispatches from the American commissioners in Paris in January 1778, see these Letters,8:560 - 65, 567 - 68, 612 - 13, 616.
5 Although the letter is clearly D in the manuscript, Scudder is likely referring to Dr. Joseph Kendall, for whom see Richard Henry Lee to Henry Laurens, 27 May 1779.
6 Scudder was apparently expressing his hope that Maj. Gen. Augustine Prevost, commander of the British forces in the south, would meet a fate similar to that of Gen. John Burgoyne at Saratoga.