Apr 17, 2012 - Sale 2276

Sale 2276 - Lot 60

Price Realized: $ 9,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
LEE, RICHARD HENRY. Autograph Letter Signed, as member of Continental Congress, to Brigadier General George Weedon, agreeing that Weedon had been wronged by Congress, but urging him not to resign in this time of crisis. With brief postscript Signed "R. H. Lee." 2 page, folio, with integral address leaf; unevenly toned, lacking 3-inch square section of address leaf, minor wear at folds. "Belleview" [Stafford County, VA], 12 April 1778
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Weedon had just offered his resignation from the army after being passed over for a promotion in favor of General Woodford, and had apparently asked Lee to deliver the resignation letter to Congress. Lee here concedes that "I regard Gen. Woodford as a good officer, but without flattery, I do not think his talents superior to yours," and then continues with a patriotic pep talk:
"When I find that country mistaken and acting upon wrong principles with respect to me, altho my feelings might be greatly hurt . . . I would continue to exert every faculty in the service of my country. I should certainly not resign, and, by continuing to act, convince mankind of my superiority." He concludes with a hope that "you would not insist on my doing the disagreeable business of bearing your resignation." Weedon went ahead with the resignation. Published in Letters of Delegates to Continental Congress, 9:360-1 (footnote).