Description:

Patrick Henry
Campbell County, VA, January 30, 1794
Patrick Henry Writes to Light-Horse Harry Lee, Collecting Taxes During the Whiskey Rebellion, Which Lee Put Down
ALS
PATRICK HENRY, Autograph Letter Signed, to Henry Lee, January 30, 1794, Long Island, Campbell County, Virginia. 2 pp., 7.25" x 9". Includes two prints of Henry. General toning; some loss of paper on original opening of wax seal, not affecting text; soiling on outer fold.

Patrick Henry wrote this letter to Governor Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, rather reluctantly offering his assessment of "Mr. Alexander Stewart." The aspirant for a position as collector of taxes 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 Washington pardoned the only two men found guilty of treason.

The subject of this letter may have been 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 James 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).

Complete Transcript
Dear Sir. L. Island Jany 30th 1794
Was it not that I place the greatest Reliance on your good Nature I should not presume to address you on the Subject of Collectors again. But as it happens that so many applications are made to me for Letters to you, & at my own retired abode, when the Rights of Hospitality make it painfull to refuse anything, especially when the Request is only to conform to the Dictates of Truth. I hope you will pardon me for this. Mr Alexr Stewart feels a Desire to offer his Services as a Collector of Arrears due to the Country, & desires me to inform you of what I know relative to his Fitness. I can truly say of him that I believe him to be a worthy young Gent.—that he is in great Esteem as such. He is a Lawyer well thought of & a man of probity. With these qualifications & also from an acquaintance with him, I have no Doubt of his making a good Collector of the Taxes.
I address this to you my dear Sir as a private Letter to be mentioned in such manner as your Goodness may suggest as most proper—being sensible that in the Official Addresses from me on this Subject I have already taken upon myself as much consideration from the Executive, or perhaps more than I ought to have done
With great Truth, I am dear Sir
Your most obedient Servant
P. Henry

[Address on Outside:]
Private
His Excellency / Henry Lee / Govr of Virginia

[File Note:]
P. Henry / 30 January / 94

Patrick Henry (1736-1799) was born in Hanover County, Virginia, and was educated at home. After a brief career as a merchant, he became an attorney through self-study. He began his law practice in 1760 and won an important victory in the Parson's Cause against the Anglican clergy. Henry was a slaveholder throughout his adult life, eventually owning 67 enslaved African Americans at his death. Although he would not defend slavery and believed it was wrong, he saw no way to end it. He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1765 to 1776 and quickly became prominent for his inflammatory rhetoric against the Stamp Act of 1765. He represented Virginia at the First Continental Congress in 1774 and supported independence. At the Second Virginia Convention (1775), Henry famously declared, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" When the Fifth Virginia Convention advocated independence in 1776, Henry served on the committee to draft the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Virginia Constitution. He was promptly elected governor under the new government and served from 1776 to 1779, when Thomas Jefferson succeeded him. Henry represented Henry County in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1779 to 1784, when he was again elected governor and served until 1786. He returned to the House of Delegates in 1787, representing Prince Edward County until 1790. He declined appointment to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, and fearing a powerful central government, opposed the ratification of the United States Constitution. He returned to his law practice during his final years. Although his relationship with George Washington cooled during Henry's opposition to the ratification of the Constitution, by 1794, they reconciled, as Henry agreed more with Washington than with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison on the direction of the government.

Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee III (1757-1818) 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 United States 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, 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.

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  • Dimensions: 7.25" x 9"
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