University of Virginia Library

Henry Lee, Governor,

Dec. 1, 1791-Nov. 30, 1794.

He was the son of Henry Lee, and Lucy Grymes, his
wife, of "Leesylvania," Prince William County, Virginia, and
was born January 29, 1756. He graduated at the College of
New Jersey, A.B. 1773, and A.M. 1776. He served as lieutenant
colonel with great distinction in the Revolution. He served in
Congress from Virginia 1785-1788, and was a member of the
Convention of 1788 called to consider the Constitution, and
both spoke and voted for its ratification. In 1789-91 he was
a representative in the General Assembly, and was Governor
1791-1794. President Washington commissioned him Major
General in command of troops sent to Western Pennsylvania
to suppress the whiskey rebellion, which he soon effected. In
1798-99 he was in the Legislature and defended the alien and
sedition acts, and in 1799-1801 he was a representative in the
Sixth Congress, and at the close retired to private life. While
a member of Congress in 1799, when the death of Washington
was announced, he drew up a series of resolutions, formally
announcing the event, which were presented in his absence
by his colleague John Marshall. In these resolutions occur
those ever memorable words, "First in war, first in peace,
and first in the hearts of his fellow citizens." On the invitation

of Congress he was the author of "Funeral Oration" upon
President Washington, delivered December 26, 1799.

After his retirement to private life he wrote his excellent
work, "War in the Southern States" (2 vols., 1812). He died
while on a visit to General Greene's residence on Cumberland
Island, Georgia, March 25, 1818. He was buried there, but
recently his remains were removed to Lexington, Virginia,
and interred by the side of his illustrious son, General
Robert E. Lee. The County of Lee in southwest Virginia was
named for him.

One important matter of his administration was the relief
of the French emigrants who came under Du Tubeuf to Russell
County. Lee recommended that money be loaned them and
their bonds taken in payment. He pronounced their coming as
"the first effort at European emigration since the war." The
legislature acted on his advice and lent them 600 pounds.
Another matter of interest was the war with the Indians, who
had defeated the United States army under General St. Clair.
To protect the frontiers Virginia had to raise troops and
pay them, a duty which belonged to the United States. The
expense was so great that Lee states that "it had left the
treasury bare."

Another subject of interest was the new code, which Lee
announced to the Assembly, in a message dated October 1,
1792, as completed.

Probably the most important affair of his administration
was the suit brought in a Federal Court by the Indiana Company
in 1793 against the Commonwealth. His letters to the
speaker of the House of Delegates, October 21, 1793, and
November 13, 1793, take strong ground against the constitutionality
of the proceedings. He argues that the Union was
in "the nature of a Confederacy" and that "a sovereign
State was not sueable except with its consent." He advised
that an amendment be added to the Constitution expressly
forbidding such suits in the future. The Legislature backed
him by a resolution agreed to December 20, 1792, that the

claims of the Indiana Company had already been passed upon
and decided and that "the State cannot be made a defendant
in the said court, at the suit of any individual, or individuals."[98] Out of this grew the Eleventh Amendment, which
went into effect January 8, 1798.