March 25th. 1780.
Dear Sir, Philadelphia,
Your esteemed favor of the 15th last month, with the extracts from your much injured brother’s letter to the President of Congress, and the copy of Doctor Berkenhout’s letter to yourself, inclosed, came safe to hand.1 Next to the approbation of my own conscience, it has always been my wish to obtain that of the wise & good, and I confess I am happy in having yours. I flatter myself the time will shortly come, when the honest laborers in the cause of freedom & their country will at least meet with the reward of being known, and when also the double-dealing artful pretenders will be discovered.
There has been a virtuous band in Congress from the beginning of the present contest, but they were never so few, or so much opposed as just after you and your good brother left us. In the Winter & Spring of 1779 there was a cabal, whose views I could not fathom; there were some possessed of restless spirits, and who endeavored to set member against member, and the Congress against the States, particularly Pennsylvania and those of New-England, and the States agt. Congress. Every artifice was used to instill prejudices against all our foreign Ministers and Commissioners, particularly your brothers; and I really believe, if I had not in April last gone off the Bench into Congress, in the face of a vote of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, that they would have been recalled without exception. My fears were, that at that critical period, when it had been propagated in Europe; and some uneasiness discovered on that score by the court of France that we were listening to overtures from Great Britain, a change of men might have implied a change of measures, and given some countenance to the reports; and for this reason I thought it wrong to recal any Gentleman in such a conjuncture. The vote was taken with respect to Doctor Franklin, and being determined in the negative, it was postponed as to the rest until I was absent on the circuit.2 Places were sought after by some, and vacancies were necessary for the purpose of obtaining them, but I could not think this was the only thing in contemplation; tho’ I may have been mistaken, as harmony seemed to be restored in some measure upon the appointments of Messrs. Jay and Carmichael. The death of Mr. Drayton, and the considerable change about that time of the members, several of them not having been re-elected, left us pretty quiet ever since, tho’ prejudices still too much prevail.
When I reflect on the assiduity, the zeal, the fidelity, the abilities and patriotism of Doctor A. Lee, I cannot help deploring his fate, and reprobating the ingratitude of Congress; but, Sir, it is with pleasure I can assure you that he has many unshaken friends still remaining in that Body, who have never seen him, and who esteem him only for his public virtues. I profess myself one of these, and he has at least my warmest thanks for his substantial services rendered to my country.
I cannot think it any reflection on a Gentleman’s heart, that he has been mistaken in entertaining too good an opinion of another, nor am I at all surprized that even you should have been led into an error with respect to Doctor Berkenhout after perusing his letter and knowing his insinuating address: but I shall say no more on this head, as I am really appologizing for myself.
The deranged state of our finances has given us infinite trouble and concern; A new plan has been adopted, which is published in the News-Papers, to which I shall refer you - if it can be carried into execution it will be a great relief to us; and I see nothing else left but for every Whig to exert himself in its support.
There is no great prospect of peace, tho’ the late intelligence from Europe is otherwise favorable. I suspect, that Mr. Temple (who came over in 1778 with Doctor Berkenhout) will shortly venture here again with propositions (perhaps secret) to acknowledge the Independence of the States, except South Carolina & Georgia, and that part of Massachusetts, formerly called the Province of Main, on condition of our neutrality between Britain & Spain - he is to have power to draw on two merchants in London of his own nomination ad libitum.3 This is not mere conjecture or report; but it may not be attempted to be carried into execution, as I think, upon the least reflection he must despair of success. Can they suppose that these States will be so perfidious to one another, or to the auxiliary of the Ally - that they are so corrupt - so base? Can they be taught to believe, that a virtuous people can grow so extremely wicked by a war of five years continuance? Nemo repente fuit turpissimus.4
I am, my dear Sir, with the most perfect esteem, Your most obedient humble servant.
Tho. Mc:Kean
Receiver’s copy, Lee Papers, American Philosophical Society.
1 Lee’s February 15 letter to McKean is not in the Lee Family Papers, ViU microfilm but the enclosed "extracts" were undoubtedly Arthur Lee’s Extracts From a Letter Written to the President of Congress [February 10, 1779], 500 copies of which Richard Henry had had printed in Williamsburg and had been distributing. See Evans, Am. Bibliography, no. 16,319; and Richard Henry’s letters of January 18 to Samuel Adams, of January 22 to Jonathan Trumbull and to Roger Sherman, and of April 24, 1780, to Arthur Lee, in Lee, Letters (Ballagh), 2:168, 172 - 73, 176.
2 For McKean’s role in the April 22, 1779, vote against the recall of Benjamin Franklin, see these Letters,12: 368 - 69. See also McKean to John Adams, November 8, 1779.
3 For rumors concerning John Temple’s new peace mission, see James Lovell to Samuel Adams, March 17, 1780, note 3.
4 That is, "Corruption comes by degrees." Juvenal Satires 2.83.