Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1825-11-03
9loarapbp.
From ne .NaBsali Gaseiie.
RICHARD HENRY LEE.


ard Henry Lee, which his very respec-
table grandson, now OF Leesburg, Nir-
ginia, has just given to The world.
This large and valuable contribution
to American history has afforded US a
pleasure like that we found in Mr.
Quincy's precious volume. Ithas been
made, pot only with filial piety, but
love OF country; witl,judgment and mo-
desty; and, we think, with adequate sue
cess Tor all bis excellent purposes He
has fully established the truth that his
illustfisus ancestor was thorough man
of busiIieA as well as a brilliant orator
and principal guide, in the revelutiona-
ny councils, both Of Virginia and the
United Colonies. He has traced the
career and developed the character Of
profound aud efficient statesman, and
q truly viItuous citizen, learned, acute,
resolnte, energetic, aud most patriotic
and eloquent; whose exertions and QUA
lities inspire a strong and salutary adj
miration, and whose employments, con-
nections, and correspondence, inier-
weave his history with that Of the ma
ton. ~ % &aE2 sg3ff ffi
Dir Lee has placed in the Memoir
itself several important and curious
letters of his grandfather and other en-
inent worthies; but he has properly Sc
parated as an Appendix, the body of the
important and interesting documents
of various kinds which decended to him
or which he procured from survivors of
the revolution. The appendix occu
piesa share Of his first, and the whole
of his second volume, and embraces a
striking and instructive part Of the cor
respondente of such personages as
Washington, Lafayette, Arthur Lee,
Patrick Henry, DR. Rush, J, Dickinson,
Samuel Adams, Wilkes, Colonel Barre,
SC. This collection has brought again
aud powerfully, to our minds, the re-
Election how desirable tits that the re-
latiyes and friends Of the leading revo-
lptionary patriots should preserve and
embody that portion at least Other pa
pers, which might serve to enlarge and
fectily the annals of the Republic, be-
SIDES gratifying a laudable curiosity
which, in all likelihood, will be more
comm,.,n and eager with Americans of
the next and iutare generations, than it
is with or contemporaries.
We scarcely need mention w no and
what Richard iteury Lee was in gem
eral; his name is conspicuous and glo-
rious in every account ofrhe revolution
1T is that of an inde. 'atigabe, lnflexi-
bic, downright, operative rebel from
the uutset; who twin-coadjutor OF Pa
trick Henry, swayed and prompted
Virginia, with the deepest scnsibliity
and the Hottest eloquence; who served
with the utmost usefulness and distinc-
ton in all the revolutionary congre sses;
who composed their memorable address
ses to the British government and peo-
Pile; who mOvsd and unreIhittingly sus-
tanned the declaration Of independence;
who prepared the articles OF ccniedera-
tion; who became president of congress,
in 1884; who enjoyed, throughout a
period of thirty years, the confidence
and honors OF his native state, sc. His
descendant does not, perhaps. speak too
strongly, when he observes of his Off
cial letters as member of the commit
tee of correspondence for the congress
of 1875, that they contain more COM
plete at count of the state of American
affairs at that era, than can elsewhere
be found. We cannot undertake to fur
III 49,, ~, 1,,tI.nn 1f his r.>l;t;ool To-
bors, or to sketch his talents as a spea-
kerr OF The latter, much is told, though
in too magnificent strain for any hui
man orator, by Dir. Writ, in hiss Life of
Patrick Henry. On this head, his grand
son has quoted some observations OF
DIR. Rush, which involve an enviabe
pane gyric-"i never knew so great an
orator. remarked that accomplished
Judge, "whose speeches were SO short.
Indeed, might almost say that he could
not sreak long. He conceived his sub
ject so clearly, and presented it SO inn
mediately TO his hearers, that there APP
peared nothing more to be said about
il. He did not use figures to ornament
discourse, but made them the vehicles
of argument" Whould that such
praise we're applicable to the Sirginian
or TO the American oratory OF our times
and that the trainers OF DISCOURSE and
books could initiate the example, which
Bayle cites in the following passage
''Vrgil spent three years on his Ecloguesi
seven on his Georges: and eleven or twelve on
his Eneis. In composing the second of these
three works. he dictated several of the verses
in the morning. and spent the rest OF the day
in correcting them that is to say. in reducing
them 10 a small number. He compared HIM