Richard Bland Lee I (January 20, 1761March 12, 1827) was an American planter, jurist, and politician from Fairfax County, Virginia. He was the son of Henry Lee II (1730–1787) of "Leesylvania" and Lucy Grymes (1734–1792) and the younger brother of both Maj. Gen. Henry ("Light Horse Harry") Lee (1756–1818) and of Charles Lee (1758–1815), Attorney General of the United States from 1795 to 1801, who served in both the Washington and Adams administrations.
Early life and education Richard Bland Lee, the third son of Henry Lee II, of the Lee Family of Virginia, and Lucy Grymes, was born on January 20, 1761, at Leesylvania, the estate built by his father on land overlooking the Potomac River in Prince William County in the Colony of Virginia. He was named after two distinguished relatives, his great-grandfather Richard Bland of "Jordan's Point", and his great-uncle, jurist and statesman Richard Bland, whom Thomas Jefferson called "the wisest man south of the James".Gamble, Robert S. Sully: Biography of a House (Sully Foundation Ltd: Chantilly, VA, 1973), p. 17
Possibly educated by tutors as a youth at "Chantilly", the home of his venerated cousin Richard Henry Lee in Westmoreland County, Virginia, Richard enrolled at the College of William and Mary in 1779. Though not directly involved in the Revolutionary war as his brother Henry Lee III was, Richard nevertheless took an active interest in the American cause. In June 1779 for example, Richard's uncle "Squire" Richard Lee of Lee Hall introduced a resolution in the House of Delegates that would authorize the building of a new statehouse. Though only eighteen years of age, Richard Bland Lee, in a letter written later that month, rebuked his famous uncle, characterizing the effort as "abominable ... [at a] ... time of public danger when our expenses are already unsupportable." On June 17 of the next year Richard was admitted to Phi Beta Kappa society, at that time the William and Mary debating society, through which he was able to refine his speaking skills.Original Records of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, William and Mary College Quarterly Magazine, Richmond, Vol. IV, April 1896 In December of that year, a British invasion fleet transporting newly minted British General Benedict Arnold and his troops appeared off Jamestown, prepared it seemed, to launch an advance upon Richmond. Phi Beta Kappa undertook to secure its papers against capture, and many of its members joined a hastily formed local militia company to offer at least some resistance to the expected invasion.
Richard Bland Lee may have been a part of this militia, or may have earlier returned to "Leesylvania" to "converse with his father about the future." Part of that future had apparently already been decided for him, as his father Henry Lee II had destined a part of his holdings on Cub Run to Richard, who it appears agreed to act on his father's behalf in managing this property sometime in 1780 or 1781. In 1787, he inherited of this holding from his father, land that would comprise the estate he would later name "Sully".
Public life Virginia House of Delegates Loudoun County voters several times elected Richard Bland Lee as one of their two representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1784 to 1788, 1796.Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly, 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 154, 157, 161, 169 During his second term in the state legislature, he was involved in debates surrounding the ratification of the United States Constitution. which he wholeheartedly supported. After ratification, he opposed efforts by Patrick Henry and others to call a second constitutional convention to add a bill of rights and believed the new system should be given a chance to operate before wholesale alterations were made. He also believed that the new congress could be trusted to add the necessary amendments.
It was also during his term that the election of Virginia's first two United States Senators took place. Lee was a strong supporter of James Madison's candidacy. Ultimately, however, Madison was rejected by the Henry-led House of Delegates on the assumption that he would not push for addition of a bill of rights, a contention that Lee worked hard to counteract. After that rejection. Lee continued to work on Madison's behalf in his congressional race by proposing publication of letters between Madison and others "as would counteract the report industriously circulated in the assembly and consequently in the state that you were opposed to every amendment to the new government, and in every mode...."Richard Bland Lee to James Madison, November 17, 1788(Library of Congress, Richard Bland lee Collection) Unwilling to risk publication of letters critical of others, Madison rejected the idea but would nevertheless defeat future President James Monroe in a hard-fought contest.
In both of the debates Lee recognized the power of Henry's oratory and lamented the weakness of opposition to him. A letter from Lee to Madison complained:
Our Assembly is weak. Mr. [Patrick] Henry is the only orator we have against us and the friends to the new government being all young and inexperienced, form a feeble bond against him.Richard Bland Lee to James Madison, 29 Oct. 1788 (Library of Congress, Richard Bland lee Collection)
While Henry was ultimately able to get the Virginia legislature to pass the measure urging Congress to call a new constitutional convention, Congress refused to do so but instead passed the first ten amendments to the constitution that make up the Bill of Rights.
US House of Representatives
In 1788, having served three years in the Virginia House of Delegates, Lee decided to stand for election to the new federal congress established under the recently ratified constitution. Though political parties had yet to form, ideological schisms were already developing by time of the first federal election. In general, those who were the strongest supporters of the constitution in the form adopted by the Constitutional Convention, including its provision for a strong executive with power tilted toward the federal government were identified as Federalists, and those who were less supportive of a strong federal government, and believed that a bill of rights should have been included with the document prior to ratification were called Anti-Federalists. Lee was identified with the former camp. He had strongly supported ratification of the constitution,Bickford, Charlene B. et al. The Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, March 4, 1789-March 3, 1791 (Johns Hopkins University Press) opposed efforts to force a second constitutional convention for the purpose of adding a bill of rights, and was a strong supporter of George Washington. His district which included his estate, Sully, then part of Loudoun County (now Fairfax County), and included Fairfax County, was the home of both Washington as well as the Anti-Federalist leader George Mason.
Lee eventually became the consensus candidate of the Federalists by overcoming competition from likeminded men including his relative Ludwell Lee, William Fitzhugh, Martin Pickett, as well as two friends; Leven Powell and Dr. David Stuart. Opposing him for the Anti-Federalists was State Senator John Pope. Though there is little primary material describing the tenor of this first election, what exists hints at a hard-fought and sometimes dirty campaign. Pope was called "contemptible" in a letter from John Murray to Horatio Gates,Letter from John Murray to Horatio Gates, January 9, 1789. Horatio Gates Papers and William Allason wrote to John Woodcock and described the contest: "I understand one makes very free with the other's Reputation &c by wch. I would not be surprised to hear of their having Exchanged a few dry blows."Letter from William Allason to John Woodcock. Published in "Important Letters from the Papers of William Allason, Merchant, of Falmouth, VA".,Richmond College Historical Papers, II (1917-1918), 174. Lee eventually outpolled Pope by defeating him nearly four-to-one in Fairfax County alone, which included the vote of Washington.
On March 3, 1789, Richard Bland Lee began service as the first representative of Northern Virginia in the United States House of Representatives. He served three terms as a Pro-Administration (Federalist) member of congress from 1789 to 1795. He was a party to the Compromise of 1790 by which in exchange for support of southern delegates for federal assumption of state Revolutionary War debt, northern delegates voted to move the Federal City to a location in the south. His participation in that compromise, as well as his adherence to Federalist principles, proved to be his downfall. He narrowly fended off a challenge from his more famous relative Arthur Lee in 1792 and finally lost his seat to Richard Brent in the election of 1794.
Following that defeat, Richard was returned to the Virginia House of Delegates, first by Loudoun County voters in 1796 and finally by Fairfax County voters in 1799.Leonard pp. 204, 215
Other government service
Following his removal from "Sully" to Washington, DC in 1815, Richard, along with John Peter Van Ness and Tench Ringgold, was appointed by longtime friend President James Madison as one of three Commissioners to superintend the reconstruction of the Federal buildings damaged by British troops in the attack on Washington, DC, on August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812.Allen, William C. History of the United States Capitol: A chronicle of design, construction, and politics (Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 2001), p. 101 After the expiration of that commission in 1816, President Madison intended to nominate Lee to the new position of "Commissioner of Public Buildings." However, after learning that the Senate would not confirm any of the three members of the previous commission because of their perceived ill treatment of Benjamin Latrobe, who had been appointed Architect of the Capitol to aid in its reconstruction, Richard was instead appointed by Madison as a commissioner to adjudicate claims arising out of the loss or destruction of property during the War of 1812. Lee occupied that position for two contentious years during which his decisions came in for harsh criticism by Congress. John Randolph of Virginia accused Lee of "malfeasance," and Congress finally appointed a "Committee of Claims" to look into the operation of Lee's office. Lee himself was exonerated of any corruption, but the committee noted that many "claimants had perpetrated an extensive 'system of fraud, forgery, and perhaps perjury."Michele Landis Dauber, The War of 1812, September 11, and the Politics of Compensation, 53 DePaul L. Rev. 289, 289-90 (2003) With his power severely curtailed, Lee, despondent over his treatment, left his position and for a short time seriously considered moving his family to Kentucky. Realizing that his prospects would be limited there and that his wife opposed the move, he decided to stay in Washington, DC. In 1819 he was appointed by President Monroe as a judge of the Orphans' Court of the District of Columbia, a position that he held until his death on March 12, 1827.
Societies During the 1820s, Lee was a member of the prestigious society, Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences, who counted among their members former presidents Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams and many prominent men of the day, including well-known representatives of the military, government service, medical, and other professions.
Planter