Richard Henry Lee Research Paper

Richard Henry Lee Richard Henry Lee was born into an eminent Virginia family on January 20, 1732, at Stratford Hall in Westmoreland, Virginia. His father, grandfather and his four brothers all served as military officers, diplomats, and legislators. Richard was tutored at home and then sent to Wakefield Academy in England for his formal education. After graduation, he traveled in Europe, and then returned to Virginia in 1752. After school in England, he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses and later was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, where he proposed the colonies should be independent from Great Britain. Though he originally opposed the Constitution, he helped push through the Bill of Rights. In 1757, Lee married

“Leaders in several colonies objected, declaring this was taxation without representation. Lee is credited with authoring the Westmoreland Resolutions, publicly objecting to the Stamp Act. Though Parliament repealed the act except for the tax on tea, the Stamp Act sent a warning that the British government was supreme in all cases. For the next several years, things remained peaceful between the American colonies and the British Parliament.” ("Richard Henry Lee."). In August, Lee was appointed to the Continental Congress, and with his great oratorical skill he and others began to move American thinking from subservience to independence. “In 1776, Lee offered the Resolution for Independence to the Committee of the Whole at the Second Continental Congress. The resolution declared "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." By July, the Congress had voted for independence.” ("Richard Henry