LEE, ARTHUR (17401792)

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LEE, ARTHUR (17401792) , American diplomatist, brother of Richard Henry Lee, was born at Stratford, Westmoreland county, Virginia, on the loth of December 1740. He was educated at Eton, studied medicine at Edinburgh, practised as a physician in Williamsburg, Virginia, read law at the Temple, London, in 17661770, and practised law in London in 17701776. He was an intimate of John Wilkes, whom he aided in one of his London campaigns. In 17701775 he served as London agent for Massachusetts, second to Benjamin Franklin, whom he succeeded in 1775. At that time he had shown

great

GREAT

ability as a pamphleteer, having published in London The Monitor (1768), seven essays previously printed in Virginia; The Political Detection: or the Treachery and Tyranny of Administration, both at Home and Abroad (1770), signed " Junius Americanus "; and An Appeal to the Justice and Interests of the People of

Great

GREAT

Britain in the Present Disputes with America (1774), signed " An Old Member of Parliament." In December 1775 the Committee of

Secret

SECRET (Lat. secretum, hidden, concealed)

Correspondence of Congress chose him its European agent principally for the purpose of ascertaining the views of France, Spain, and other European countries regarding the war between the colonies and Great Britain. In October 1776 he was appointed, upon the refusal of Jefferson, on the commission with Franklin and Silas Deane to negotiate a treaty of alliance, amity and commerce with France, and also to negotiate with other European governments. His letters to Congress, in which he expressed his suspicion of Deane's business integrity and criticized his accounts, resulted in Deane's recall; and other letters impaired the confidence of Congress in Franklin, of whom he was especially jealous. Early in 1777 he went to Spain as American

commissioner

COMMISSIONER

, but received no official recognition, was not permitted to proceed farther than Burgos, and accomplished nothing; until the appointment of Jay, however, he continued to act as

commissioner

COMMISSIONER

to Spain, held various conferences with the Spanish minister in Paris, and in January 1778 secured a promise of a

loan

LOAN (adapted from the Scandinavian form of a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Swed. Mn, Icel. lan, Dut. leen; the O.E. laen appears in " lend," the ultimate source is seen in the root of Gr. Xeiaecv and Lat. linquere, to leave)

of 3,000,000 livres, only a small part of which (some 170,000 livres) was paid. In June 1777 he went to Berlin, where, as in Spain, he was not officially recognized. Although he had little to do with the negotiations, he signed with Franklin and Deane in February 1778 the treaties between the United States and France. Having become unpopular at the courts of France and Spain, Lee was recalled in 1774, and returned to the United States in September 1780. He was a member of the Virginia

House

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

of Delegates in 1781 and a delegate to the Continental Congress in 17821785. With Oliver Wolcott and Richard Butler he negotiated a treaty with the Six Nations, signed at Fort Stanwix on the 22nd of October 1784,- and with George

Clark

and Richard Butler a treaty with the Wyandot,

Delaware

DELAWARE

, Chippewa and Ottawa Indians, signed at Ft. McIntosh on the 21st of January 1785. He was a member of the treasury board in 17841789. He strongly opposed the constitution, and after its adoption retired to his estate at

Urbana

URBANA

, Virginia, where he died on the 12th of
December 1792
See R. H. Lee, Life of Arthur Lee (2 vols., Boston, 1829), and C. H. Lee, A Vindication of Arthur Lee (Richmond, Virginia, 1894), both partisan. Much of Lee's correspondence is to be found in Wharton's Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence (Washington, 1889). Eight volumes of Lee's MSS, in the Harvard University Library are described and listed in Library of Harvard University, Bibliographical Contributions, No. 8 (

Cambridge

, 1882).

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