Notes
Patrick Henry wrote this letter to Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee III (1756–1818) on January 30, 1794, from his Long Island plantation. At this time, Lee was serving as governor of Virginia.
Henry Lee III was born at Leesylvania plantation in Prince William County, Virginia, graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1773, and began a legal career. When the Revolutionary War began at Lexington and Concord in 1775, Lee became a captain of dragoons. He was promoted to major in 1778 and commanded a combined corps of cavalry and infantry known as "Lee's Legion," famous for its rapid movements and disruption of enemy forces and supplies. He earned the nickname "Light-Horse Harry" for his horsemanship.
In 1780, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assigned to the southern theater, where he and his command participated in many of the battles there, including the surrender of Lord Charles Cornwallis's troops at Yorktown, Virginia. From 1786 to 1788, Lee represented Virginia in the Congress of the Confederation and supported the adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1788. From 1789 to 1791, Lee served in the Virginia General Assembly before serving as governor from 1791 to 1794. Lee commanded the militia forces that suppressed the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, and four years later, he was appointed as a major general in the U.S. Army in anticipation of war with France.
At Washington's funeral in December 1799, Lee famously referred to Washington as "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." He represented Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1799 to 1801 as a Federalist. The Panic of 1796–1797 diminished his fortune and he unsuccessfully tried to manage his plantation after leaving Congress. He became bankrupt in 1809 and spent one year in a debtors' prison in Montross, Virginia. After he was released, he moved his family to Alexandria, Virginia. President James Madison declined his request for a commission at the beginning of the War of 1812, and Lee was severely beaten while trying to defend his friend, Alexander Contee Hanson (1786–1819), the editor of a Baltimore newspaper opposed to the war. He sailed to the West Indies to recuperate but died in Georgia on his return voyage. Lee's son by his second marriage, Robert Edward Lee (1807–1870), commanded the Confederate Armies during the Civil War.
The letter concerns a reluctant but favorable letter of recommendation for the appointment of Alexander Stewart as a tax collector. As Henry said, Stewart was a young attorney, "well thought of & a man of probity," and Henry had no trouble recommending him, though he had already written to Governor Lee on behalf of others who wanted to be collectors. The tax collectors may have been appointed to collect the excise tax on whiskey passed by Congress in 1791.
Violent resistance in the western counties of Pennsylvania against tax collectors there led to the Whiskey Rebellion. Former Governor Lee led a force of 12,950 militiamen from Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland to western Pennsylvania in the fall of 1794. Although most of the rioters had dispersed, the army arrested approximately 150 men for treason, but most cases were unsuccessful due to a lack of evidence and witnesses. In July 1795, President George Washington pardoned the only two men found guilty of treason.
The subject of this letter may have been Judge Alexander Stuart (1770–1832), the son of Major Alexander Stuart (1734–1822) of Staunton, Virginia. Trained as a lawyer, this Alexander Stuart was appointed to the Virginia Privy Council, or Council of State, in 1799 and served until 1809, when he resigned to become a federal judge in the Illinois Territory. He held the job for a short time, then moved to the Missouri Territory in 1810 to practice law. President Madison appointed him as the federal judge of that territory. When Missouri became a state, Stuart presided as judge of the northern circuit, a position he held until his death. He was the grandfather of Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart (1833–1864).
Interestingly, Patrick Henry wrote this letter from the very plantation he purchased from Henry Lee in 1792, Long Island. Located along the Staunton River in Campbell County, the home overlooked a stretch of land in the middle of the river used for farming. At one time, the island was said to have produced enough corn to "feed all Pittsylvania County." By the time of Henry's death in 1799, Long Island comprised 3,522 acres. Henry was still arranging payments to Lee when this letter was written, and he would continue to do so until April 1799.
Patrick Henry Jolly, Mark Couvillon, Susan Tarpey, James Marshall Henry III, Randolph Sejen, and Grace Jordan donated funds for PHMF to purchase this letter from the auction house University Archives on June 26, 2024.