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ARTHUR See also: American diplomatist, See also: brother of See also: Richard See also: Henry
See also: Lee, was
See also: born at Stratford, Westmoreland county, Virginia, on the loth of See also: December 1740
.
He was educated at See also: Eton, studied See also: medicine at See also: Edinburgh, practised as a physician in See also: Williamsburg, Virginia, read See also: law at the See also: Temple, See also: London, in 1766–1770, and practised law in London in 1770–1776
.
He was an intimate of See also: John Wilkes, whom he aided in one of his London
See also: campaigns
.
In 1770–1775 he served as London See also: agent for Massachusetts, second to Benjamin See also: Franklin, whom he succeeded in 1775
.
At that See also: time he had shown See also: great ability as a pamphleteer, having published in London The Monitor (1768), seven essays previously printed in Virginia; The See also: Political Detection: or the Treachery and Tyranny of Administration, both at Home and Abroad (1770), signed " Junius Americanus "; and An See also: Appeal to the See also: Justice and Interests of the See also: People of Great Britain in the See also: Present Disputes with See also: America (1774), signed " An Old Member of Parliament." In December 1775 the Committee of Secret See also: Correspondence of Congress See also: chose him its See also: European agent principally for the purpose of ascertaining the views of See also: France, See also: Spain, and other European countries regarding the war between the colonies and Great Britain
.
In See also: October 1776 he was appointed, upon the refusal of Jefferson, on the commission with Franklin and See also: Silas Deane to negotiate a treaty of See also: alliance, amity and commerce with France, and also to negotiate with other European governments
.
His letters to Congress, in which he expressed his suspicion of Deane's business integrity and criticized his accounts, resulted in Deane's recall; and other letters impaired the confidence of Congress in Franklin, of whom he was especially jealous
.
Early in 1777 he went to Spain as American See also: commissioner, but received no official recognition, was not permitted to proceed farther than See also: Burgos, and accomplished nothing; until the See also: appointment of Jay, however, he continued to See also: act as commissioner to Spain, held various conferences with the See also: Spanish See also: minister in See also: Paris, and in See also: January 1778 secured a promise of a loan of 3,000,000 livres, only a small See also: part of which (some 170,000 livres) was paid
.
In See also: June 1777 he went to Berlin, where, as in Spain, he was not officially recognized
.
Although he had little to do with the negotiations, he signed with Franklin and Deane in See also: February 1778 the See also: treaties between the See also: United States and France
.
Having become unpopular at the courts of France and Spain, Lee was recalled in 1774, and returned to the United States in See also: September 1780
.
He was a member of the Virginia See also: House of Delegates in 1781 and a delegate to the See also: Continental Congress in 1782–1785
.
With OliverSee also: Wolcott and Richard See also: Butler he negotiated a treaty with the Six Nations, signed at Fort Stanwix on the 22nd of October 1784,- and with
See also: George See also: Clark and Richard Butler a treaty with the See also: Wyandot, See also: Delaware, Chippewa and See also: Ottawa See also: Indians, signed at Ft
.
McIntosh on the 21st of January 1785
.
He was a member of the See also: treasury See also: board in 1784–1789
.
He strongly opposed the constitution, and after its adoption retired to his estate at See also: Urbana, Virginia, where he died on the 12th of
December 1792•
See R
.
H
.
Lee, See also: Life of Arthur Lee (2 vols., See also: Boston, 1829), and C
.
H
.
Lee, A Vindication of Arthur Lee (See also: Richmond, Virginia, 1894), both See also: partisan
.
Much of Lee's correspondence is to be found in Wharton's Revolutionary See also: Diplomatic Correspondence (See also: Washington, 1889)
.
Eight volumes of Lee's See also: MSS, in the Harvard University Library are described and listed in Library of Harvard University, See also: Bibliographical Contributions, No
.
8 (Cambridge, 1882)
.
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