Franklin in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates

Arthur Lee, [Extracts from the Journal, 1777]

[78] [Extracts from the Journal, 1777] Arthur Lee Arthur Lee (1740–1792) came from a distinguished Virginia family, several members of which became active in the American Revolution. He took his MD from the University of Edinburgh in 1764 and returned to Virginia to practice medicine. He went back to Great Britain in 1768 to read law. In 1770, he became the London agent for Massachusetts. With the establishment of the Continental Congress, Lee acted as confidential correspondent in London for the Committee of Secret Correspondence of the Continental Congress . Besides these private communiqués, Lee also wrote political articles and pamphlets for a wider audience, the most important being An Appeal to the Justice and Interests of the People of Great Britain (1774) and a followup work, Second Appeal (1775). In 1776, Lee left London for Paris to serve as joint commissioner to negotiate a treaty and solicit aid with Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane. Though dedicated to the American cause, Lee’s contentious nature got him into trouble. He accused Deane of embezzling congressional funds, which resulted in Deane’s recall to the United States. Lee also critiqued the way Franklin carried out their commission. Convinced that the American cause was just and right, Lee became frustrated with anyone else who did not think so. He could not understand why the nations of Europe did not instantly side with the United States. Lee grew frustrated with Franklin because his diplomatic approach was more prudent and more patient. Franklin shrewdly understood what Lee had a hard time understanding , that diplomacy takes time, that the nations of Europe had to be courted, persuaded, convinced of the American cause before they would recognize or aid the United States in its war against Great Britain. Congress ultimately resolved to maintain only one minister in France. In 1779, it chose Franklin and recalled Lee. While in Paris serving as a commissioner, Lee kept a detailed journal, expressing his concerns and complaints about both Deane and Franklin. What follows are two extracts from his journal. The first entry is atypical. It forms a lengthy account of a long conversation he and Franklin had one night. Lee recorded Franklin’s conversation using indirect dialogue. It forms a power- [79] [october] 25th. [1777] having some conversation with Dr. F. upon the present state of things, he seemed to agree with me in thinking that France and Spain mistook their interest and opportunity in not making an alliance with us now, when they might have better terms than they could expect hereafter. That it was well for us they left us to work out our own salvation; which the efforts we had hitherto made, and the resources we had opened, gave us the fairest reason to hope we should be able to do. He told me the manner in which the whole of this business had been conducted, was such a miracle in human affairs, that if he had not been in the midst of it, and seen all the movements, he could not have comprehended how it was effected . To comprehend it we must view a whole people for some months without any laws or government at all. In this state their civil governments were to be formed, an army and navy were to be provided by those who had neither a ship of war, a company of soldiers, nor magazines, arms, artillery or ammunition. Alliances were to be formed, for they had none. All this was to be done, not at leisure nor in a time of tranquillity and communication with other nations, but in the face of a most formidable invasion , by the most powerful nation, fully provided with armies, fleets, and all the instruments of destruction, powerfully allied and aided, the commerce with other nations in a great measure stopped up, and every power from whom they could expect to procure arms, artillery, and ammunition, ful perspective on Franklin’s attitude toward the American Revolution, which Franklin recognized as an unprecedented event in the history of man. The second entry, which expresses Lee’s dissatisfaction with Franklin, is more typical and serves to represent Lee’s journal as a whole. Carping, contentious, hot tempered, jealous: Lee, it seems, refused to accept what anyone else said without question. In The Life of Thomas Jefferson (1837), George Tucker recorded an anecdote illustrating Arthur Lee’s disputatious nature: “Dr. Lee, being once caught in a shower of rain in London, sought shelter under a shed...