York the 24th of June 1778
Dear Sir
I should long since have answered your favor of the 25th of May had it been worth while for any thing I had to communicate,
1
to interrupt your attention from the important affairs with which you are surrounded. It is indeedmore from motives of complaisance than any thing else that I now write.
But I cannot help congratulating you Sir on the enemies abandoning Philadelphia, because, let their motives be what they may, this step evidently proves their prospect of conquest here is vanished. I fancy Gen Clintons future operations depend much upon the Chapter of Accidents. A French war being avoided, efforts will continue to be exerted for sometime against us, but a foreign war must of necessity carry this Army to secure the now defenceless Islands of G.B. in the W.I. A war with France, in the better days of England, would instantly have followed the Message of Marquis de Noailles,
2 but the mean & wicked determination to enslave America, removes all thoughts of every thing but the accomplishment of their favorite object. The British Kings message to his Parliament, altho it shews mortified pride, and strong sense of insult, yet it clearly marks indicision, and doubt about the propriety of resenting the affront. We see by a publication of the enemy in the Newport paper that there is a great probability of Spain having acknowledged the Independence of these States, & joined in our Alliance. The Ambassadors of Spain & of G.B. were on the point of returning each to his respective Country. Of this event taking place, I had no doubt, so soon as the plate fleet should have reached old Spain. Should G.B. be engaged in war with the Bourbon family it [will] furnish us an opportunity of pushing the former quite off this Northern Continent, which will secure to us peace for a Century, instead of war in 7 years which the British possession of Canada, N. Sco. & the Floridas will inevitably produce. You have no doubt heard Sir that our last Assembly have voted 2000 Infantry to join the Army & a sum of money to foward Gen. Nelsons Cavalry.3 The latter may soon be expected at Head Quarters. I am with sincere esteem dear Sir your most affct. & obedient servant,
R.H. Lee
Lee Papers, American Philosophical Society Printed in James Curtis Ballagh, The Letters of Richard Henry Lee, Volume 1, 1762 - 1778, pp. 419 - 20. Printed also in R. H. Lee, Memoir of the Life of Richard Henry Lee and his Correspondence, 2:21. Endorsed "Copy of a letter to Gen. Washington 1778."
1 For Washington’s 25 May letter to Lee, see Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington, 11:450 - 52.
2 For Noailles’ "Message" to George III, see Henry Laurens to George Clinton, 11 May 1778, note 3.
3 For the acts passed during the May 1778 session of the Virginia Assembly for raising 2,000 infantry volunteers and a regiment of cavalry, see William W. Hening, Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia (Richmond: J. & G. Cochran, 1821), 9:445 - 53. In his 25 May letter to Lee, Washington had been critical of Virginia’s recruiting deficiencies.