JFK+50: Volume 6, No. 1973
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (JFK+50) Two hundred forty years ago today, June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee*, a Virginia delegate to the Second Continental Congress meeting here in Philadelphia, offered a resolution stating "That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states."
The Resolution continued...
"That they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved."
The proposed resolution led to the drafting of the Declaration of Independence which was adopted on July 4, 1776. Richard Henry Lee was one of the signers of that historic document.
Mr. Lee is described as "tall, thin and aristocratic in appearance," and as "a born orator." He always wrapped his hand, which had been injured in a hunting accident, in black silk.
*Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794) was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia. His father served as Governor of Virginia. RHL became a Justice of the Peace in 1757 & in 1758 was elected to the House of Burgesses. He was one of the 1st to create a Committee of Correspondence.
RHL served as president of the Congress under the Articles of Confederation in 1784-85 & as a member of the United States Senate 1789-1792.
SOURCE
"Richard Henry Lee," Stratford Hall, www.stratfordhall.org/
Richard Henry Lee
National Portrait Gallery
Washington, D.C.
Photo by Bill Hathorn (2011)
www.commons.wikimedia.org/