LEE. 



421 



Baltimore, in ISJ4, when the printing-office of an 

 obnoxious paper was threatened by the populace. 

 He was induced, by personal friendship, to take part 

 in the defence of the house. In the dreadful attack 

 which was made on the Baltimore jail, to which the 

 party of defenders were carried for safety, he was 

 severely wounded. His health decayed in conse- 

 quence, and he repaired to the West Indies, hoping 

 to stop the ravages of disease. In 1818, he returned, 

 to the United States, and died March twenty-fifth 

 of that year, on Cumberland island, near St Mary's, 

 Georgia. 



LEE, NATHANIEL, a dramatic poet, was educated 

 at Cambridge, whither he went in 1668, and after- 

 wards went to London, misled, it is said, by the pro- 

 mises of Villiers, duke of Buckingham. Neglected 

 by his patron, he turned his attention to the drama, 

 and, in 1675, produced his tragedy of Nero, and, from 

 that time to 168 1, produced a tragedy yearly. He 

 also tried his abilities as an actor, but failed in the 

 attempt. In 1684, insanity rendered his confinement 

 necessary, and he was taken into Bethlehem hospital, 

 where he remained until 1688, when he was dis- 

 charged, and wrote two more tragedies, the Princess 

 of Cleves, and the Massacre of Paris, which appeared 

 in 1089 and 1690. He died in 1691 or 1692, in con- 

 sequence of some injury received in a drunken night 

 frolic. He is the author of eleven plays, all of which 

 were acted with applause : but his natural fire and 

 pathos were buried in a torrent of words, and 

 clouded by a tendency to turgid and bombastic 

 eloquence. 



LEE, RICHARD HENRY, a signer of the American 

 Declaration of Independence, was born January 20, 

 1732, at Stratford, Westmoreland county, Virginia, 

 and, after a course of private tuition in his father's 

 house, was sent to the academy of Wakefield, in 

 Yorkshire, England, where he became distinguished 

 for his proficiency in the classics. He returned to 

 his native country when about in his nineteenth year, 

 and his fortune rendering it unnecessary for him to 

 devote himself to any profession, his time was most 

 usefully spent in the improvement of his mind. The 

 first endeavour which he made to serve his country, 

 was in the capacity of captain of the volunteer com- 

 panies which were raised in 1755, for the purpose of 

 aiding the expedition under General Braddock. He 

 was disappointed, however, in his patriotic desires, 

 Braddock having refused to accept any more assist- 

 ance from the provincials than he was obliged to. 

 In his twenty-fifth year, Lee was appointed a justice 

 of the peace for his native county an office then 

 given only to persons of the highest character, and 

 generally but to persons of considerable experience. 

 Not long afterwards, he was chosen a delegate to 

 the house of burgesses, from Westmoreland county, 

 and thus commenced the career of politics, for which 

 he was peculiarly fitted, both by his natural disposi- 

 tion and talents, and the studies in which he was 

 versed. Works of civil and political morality, his- 

 tory the principles of the civil law, and the laws o! 

 his own country, had occupied the principal share ol 

 his time, whilst he had not neglected the more ele- 

 gant departments of polite literature ; and he soon 

 obtained distinction in debate. His voice was 

 always raised in support of those principles which 

 were advocated by the republican or anti-aristocratic 

 portion of the legislature ; and, when, in 1764, the 

 declaratory act was passed in the British parliament, 

 in pursuance of the right claimed by that body o 

 taxing America, he was the first to bring forwarc 

 the subject to the notice of the assembly of which he 

 was a member. A special committee having, in con 

 sequence, been appointed to draught an address to the 

 king, a memorial to the house oflords, and a remon- 



itrance to the house of commons, Mr Lee was placed 

 >n it, and selected to prepare the two first papers. 

 These, accordingly, proceeded from his pen, and, in 

 he words of his biographer and grandson, " contain 

 he genuine principles of the revolution, and abound 

 n the firm and eloquent sentiments of freemen." In 

 765, Patrick Henry introduced in the Virginia 

 egislature his resolutions against the stamp act, 

 vhich had just been passed by the British parlia- 

 nent. Mr Lee lent Mr Henry's motion his power-- 

 ill and most zealous assistance. Not long after it 

 lad been carried, in spite of the efforts of the influ- 

 utial party, who advocated the measures of the 

 mother country, Mr Lee, amongst other methods 

 which he took to prevent the operations of the stamp 

 act, planned and effected an association " for the 

 jurpose of deterring all persons from accepting the 

 office of vender of stamp paper, and for awing into 

 silence and inactivity those who might still be 

 attached to the supremacy of the mother country, 

 and disposed to advocate the right of colony taxa- 

 tion." The association bound themselves to exert 

 every faculty to accomplish the end for which they 

 lad united together, " at every hazard, and paying 

 no regard to danger or to death.'' In consequence 

 of the opposition the stamp act encountered in the 

 colonies, the British ministry were forced to repeal 

 t ; but they did so with a reservation of the right of 

 the mother country " to bind the colonies in all cases 

 whatever." In 1767, parliament having passed two 

 acts, one laying a tax on tea, and the other requiring 

 the legislature of the colony " to make provision for 

 quartering a part of the regular army." Mr Lee 

 exerted himself in every way to excite a spirit of 

 hostility to them, perceiving, as he did, their despotic 

 tendency, and feeling, even then, that a struggle for 

 freedom must eventually take place. It would be 

 impossible for us, consistently with our limits, to 

 enter into a minute detail of the unceasing efforts of 

 Mr Lee's patriotism between this period and the 

 assembling of the first congress in Philadelphia; 

 we can only mention that the celebrated plan which 

 was adopted in 1773, by the house of burgesses, for 

 the formation of corresponding committees to be 

 organized by the legislatures of the several colonies, 

 and also that of corresponding clubs or societies, 

 among the " lovers of liberty" throughout the pro- 

 vinces, for the purpose of diffusing among the people 

 a correct knowledge of their rights, of keeping them 

 informed of every attempt to infringe them, and of 

 rousing a spirit of resistance to arbitrary measures, 

 both originated with him. The same idea had, 

 about the same time, been conceived and proposed 

 by Samuel Adams in Massachusetts a circumstance 

 which has occasioned a dispute concerning the merit 

 of having given birth to measures which were the 

 forerunners of the general congress. It cannot 

 be doubted, however, that Mr Lee followed only the 

 suggestions of his own mind with regard to the pro- 

 posal, as, several years before, in 1768, he had 

 requested Mr Dickinson of Pennsylvania, in a letter, 

 to bestow his consideration upon the advantages of 

 plans which he communicated to him of the same 

 purport. In 1774, the first general congress assembled 

 at Philadelphia, and Mr Lee attended it as one of the 

 Virginia delegation. His labours during this session, 

 as throughout his whole congressional career, until 

 his zeal and activity were partially arrested by bodily 

 infirmities, were unremitting. Of all the leading 

 committees those to prepare an address to the king 

 of Britain, to the people of Britain, and to the 

 colonies, and those to state the rights and grievances 

 of the colonies, and to carry into effect the resolu- 

 tion of non-intercourse with Great Britain he was 

 a member ; and from his pen proceeded the memorial 



