From John Jay to Richard Bland Lee, 7 September 1812
To Richard Bland Lee
Bedford W.Chester County. 7 Sepr 1812
Sir
In your obliging answr.1 to my Letter of the Feby. last,2 mention is made of a work of your Brother, then in the press— vizt. memoirs of the War in the southern Departmt.3 The Subject and the author, naturally excited my attention and my Desire to procure a Copy—
I have not learned that it has yet been published, nor seen any thing relative to it, in our public papers. I presume therefore that the work is still in the press— If it is printing by Subscription, I wish that my name may be on the List of Subscribers, and that I may use my Endeavours to increase the number of them— be pleased therefore to inform me on this Head—4
The Outrages committed at Baltimore,5 have excited the greater Indignation, on acct. of the Characters of some of the Sufferers, & particularly your Brother, whose claims to public Gratitude have so long and so justly been acknowledged throughout the United States. Let me request the favor of you to assure him, that I rejoice in the Prospect of his Recovery; and in the hope that, on the Occurrence of proper Occasions, our Country will again derive
advantage and Honor from his Talents and Patriotism—With Sentiments of Esteem and Regard I am Sir your obt. Servt.
Richd. Bland Lee Esqr Alexandria
Dft, NNC (EJ: 08717). C, enclosed in JJ to PAJ, 13 Oct. 1812, below. WJ, 2: 350. Richard Bland Lee (1761–1827), was the younger brother of Henry Lee and Charles Lee. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates (1784–88, 1796, and 1799–1806), and in the House of Representatives as a Federalist (1789–95).
2. JJ to Richard Bland Lee, 18 Feb. 1812, Dft, NNC (EJ: 08714), enclosed in JJ to Hermanus Bleecker, 18 Feb. 1812, Dft, NNC (EJ: 08715).
3. On 16 Feb., JJ received a letter (not found) and a copy of Lee’s recent oration to the Washington Society in Alexandria, Va. Two days later, JJ sent off a message to Lee enclosing his acknowledgements. Lee then informed JJ that his brother, Henry Lee, intended to publish his memoirs of the war of independence, and hoped that the forthcoming work would be “found worthy of your perusal and your countenence”. For the publications, see Richard Bland Lee, An oration delivered at the request of the Washington Society on the 22d February last, in commemoration of the birth of Washington (Alexandria, 1811; Early Am. Imprints, series 2, no. 23204); Henry Lee, Memoirs of the war in the Southern Department of the United States. By Henry Lee, lieutenant colonel commandant of the Partisan Legion during the American war (Philadelphia, 1812; Early Am. Imprints, series 2, no. 25839).
4. For the subscription papers circulated for Henry Lee’s work, see Proposals for publishing, by subscription, an interesting work, entitled Memoirs of the war in the Southern Department of the United States. By an officer of the southern army (Washington, D.C., 1810; Early Am. Imprints, series 2, no. 21981). See also JJ to PAJ, 13 Oct. 1812, below.
5. Baltimore experienced extensive rioting at the outbreak of the War of 1812. On 22 June, a crowd attacked and destroyed the printing office of the Federal-Republican, a Federalist newspaper founded in 1808 by Alexander C. Hanson, Jr. (1786–1819), and known for its inflammatory rhetoric. Emboldened by the tepid response of Baltimore’s Republican mayor, the crowd targeted and ransacked the homes and businesses of persons suspected of harboring pro-British or Federalist sentiments, including James Briscoe, a free African-American. Hanson briefly fled Baltimore, but returned on 25 July and circulated issues of his paper, now printed in Georgetown, condemning the mob actions. Hanson was besieged within a large residence on Charles Street on 28 July along with a few dozen of Maryland’s leading Federalists, including Henry Lee. Those inside fired upon the crowd, killing two, and therefore had to be taken into protective custody by authorities. The prison, however, was left largely unguarded, and a mob soon converged on the building, attacking the Federalist inmates; Lee and nine others were beaten senseless, one of whom, James M. Lingan (1751–1812), died from the injuries that he sustained. Columbian, and Commercial Advertiser (both New York), 31 July 1812; See also Charles G. Steffen, The Mechanics of Baltimore: Workers and Politics in the Age of Revolution 1763–1812 (Urbana and Chicago, 1984), 243–50; and Jeffrey L. Pasley, The Tyranny of Printers: Newspaper Politics in the Early Republic (Charlottesville and London, 2001), 241–47.