Richard Henry Lee (January 20, 1732 – June 19, 1794) was an American statesman from Virginia best known for the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from Great Britain. He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and his famous resolution of June 1776 led to the United States Declaration of Independence, which Lee signed. He also served a one-year term as the President of the Continental Congress, and was a U.S. Senator from Virginia from 1789 to 1792, serving during part of that time as one of the first Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate. He was also related to Confederate general Robert E. Lee.
Read more about Richard Henry Lee: Early Life, Early Career, American Revolution, Quotes, Political Offices, Marriages and Children, Ancestry, Legacy, Representations in Fiction
Famous quotes containing the words richard and/or lee:
“For every man that Bolingbroke hath pressed
To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,
God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay
A glorious angel. Then if angels fight,
Weak men must fall; for heaven still guards the right.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Woodlands, meadows,streams and rivers—
Blind to all of it all my life long.
Triolets, villanelles, rondels, rondeaus,
Seeds in a dry pod, tick, tick, tick,”
—Edgar Lee Masters (1869–1950)