The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-05-24
uel Adams. good friend and twin pstr,o,

uel Adams's good friend and twin patrio
at the South.
The letters Of ITS are largely con.
cerned with the holly waged Deant
controversy, in which Richard Henry
welded the cudgels for his brother:
Arthur and William; a auarre. too an.
Client, too personal In its premises and
too unattractlve In the persons OF the
belligerents to set a modern nose &c
smiling for Eunpowder.
Deane's financial entanglements
which seem to have been q result OF
Incompetence ~ negligence In book
keeping rather than of culpability In
administration, were long since t1S42)
discussed and dismissed by an impair
'!al Congress which found him 50 far
vindicable Of charges brought In the
clash Of rival aspirations and Justified
In his assertion OF pecuniary self-sac-
riflce that a considerable sum of money
out OF the national treasury was voted
to his heirs In recompense and repara-
ton for losses and injuries alleged to
have been sustained In the subortiina-
ton OF private fortune to the public
welfare; perhaps peace was thought
cheap AT any price In dispute that
bade fair to be mischlevously immor-
| toi. Ch tic OlItT Sluc OI tnt dTRu-
ment. Arthur Lee was certainly an ex-
tremely ambitious man, and possibly
not overscrupulous In his pursuit of
fame and fortune. Each side In the
debate, as debaters have been known
to do before and since, exaggerated
both the holiness of ITS own principal
and the wickedness of his antagonist.
Both Lee and Deane rendered useful
service. Both made mistakes. Neither
was all hero or all rascal. John Jay
and John Adams were stout friends Of
Deane's, and Arthur Lee had the most
aggressive support OF his influential
| clan. In all the energetic, not to say
bitter, writing OF Richard Henry Lee
In this bearing reproduced in this book.
letters to the public press and to pri-
vate friends. the sole phase OF interest
Is the projection of the peppery side
or the Lee personality, especially in the
one letter addressed direct to the Con-
necticut envoy:
You will md before I bay. don. WITH van
that my materials are good and that have
taken pains to be well informed .
These things strongly denote that species of
intoNication which sudden elevation often
produces. and By the manner in which you
| have behaved since you returned to America
resumed Its seat. I will now pro-
coed TO consider your Misrepresentation and
calumnious innuendor against the character
or the gentlemen you have traduced. You
say II was honored with one colleague and
sadded with another" For shame Mir
Deanc! Reflect on what you was, and then
determine tho propriety OF that vain ex-
preston. 'saddled" with whom with a
man who had acquired reputation in two OF
the learned professions, and OF an antient
| and honorable family In Virginia, and who
had industriously employed his literary abil-
tiles In defending the American cause 20
as to have acquired the EXTREMIST hatred
and detestation OF our enemiesi who LETT
a situation In which he might have made
rapid fortune by practising tho law to
serve his country in tho station Congress
had called him to. You mean to insInuats
that inordinGto ambition and undue innu-
enee has produced the appointments held
by Messrs. william ana Arthur Lee. You
know tho contrary, and therefore you are
less excusabls
A direct and rugged style had the
Virginia aristocrat in the guerrilla
warfare OF the quill pen. To Arthur
Lee he wrote: Surely where such a
fiutterer upon the surface as Gouver-
neur Morris can live at all, you may
greatly profit by the pursuit Of law"
that old man and the wicked enmity
he has practised and encourag ed
against you must conspire TO make him
fear your tArthur Lee'sI arrival here
and instigate the fullest exertion Of
his art and malicious cunning, sup
ported by his present power, to pro-
cure your detention In Europe" There
was fine, fun flavor in the objurga-
tory penmanship practlsed by gentle
men In that day, and Richard Henry
Lee was no novice In the (rather trans
parenD mysteries OF it's style. Pro-
Tossing knowledge OF the Identity OF an
anonymous newspaper correspondent
he says: THE peculiar effrontery OF the
man, his real shallowness his dog
matte determinations and his pedantlc
display or reading, or rather affecta-
ton or having read much more than he
ever did, are some of the circumstances
that point him out who dictated at
least this repeated specimen OF his
corruption and impudence."
Regulations handed down from the
days OF the Fathers" are estimab!e in
terms of the proprietors' attitude
toward the Constitution. In view of
the series OF compromises effected by
that famous document II is clearly not
fair to crown with laurels those who
were for and to withhold the BAYS
from those who were intelligently but
unsucccssfully against Its promulga-
tion. In his doubts OF It's wisdom Mr.
Lee had the consoling company of
Samuel Adams for one. Misgiyings
est the consolidation OF power in the
Federal Government lead to centralized
despotism were shared by many not
able Virginians. Patrick Henry among
them II is significant of sentiment in
the Old Dominion that Federalist can
didates, one of whom was James Madi-
son, himself a "framer," were defeated
In the first State election OF Senators
by Richard Henry Lee and William
Grayson, who had represented the
State In the constitutional convention
and was one OF the robust minority In
II opposed to adoption of the instru-
ment. In letter to Edmund Ran
dolph. then March, l7S7) Governor of
Virginia, declining appointment to
membership In the convention, Mr.. Lee
attributes his dec.enson OF the prof
Tered honor to the circumstances of
my health" which will not permit me
to think of going northward sooner
than the middle of June" and then IL
he goes at all II will be 10 take his seat
In Congress. There are" he adds. $50
-