Politically, he was active in Virginia as a Federalist supporting Washington and the new national government. As such, he was appointed to the largely ceremonial post of Virginia's governor for three one-year terms. In part, his popularity rested on his opposition to the assumption of the states' war time debt by the United States treasury under Alexander Hamilton. This was a course of action which was seen in the south and west as particularly favoring the commercial interests of the northern states, which generally had the largest revolutionary debt.

While governor he sought to find a wife for himself and mother for his children. Whether the repair of his fortune entered into his considerations may be conjectured; but, if it were, he chose the right place to look for an heiress, Shirley Plantation, the home of Charles Carter, one of the richest men in Virginia. Although not his first choice, he did find a new wife there in Ann Hill Carter, Charles Carter's daughter. However, no fortune came with the marriage. Charles Carter, forewarned of Lee's financial reputation, insured that Henry could not touch Ann's inheritance.

By the end of his third term as governor, Lee had overcome his sectional interest and come to see the wisdom of Hamilton's plan. The action cost him politically but brought with it the movement of the new national capital from New York to a location near the falls of the Potomac. In 1794, while still governor, he achieved another of his ambitions when he accepted Washington's commission as Major General. As such, he led a Federal Army of state militias against Pennsylvania farmers opposing Federal taxation of whiskey. In so doing he again acted against the wishes and interests of his own Virginia constituency and came back to find himself stripped of his office.

The new government he had help bring into being brought with it something for which he was unprepared: the rise of popular political parties. Lee thought government best left to the educated few. The public could choose who would rule but not participate in their decisions. Lee saw himself as particularly entitled to leadership because of his service in the revolution. Who better to rule the country, than those who created it? He held in particular contempt those who had not taken up the sword such as Thomas Jefferson, who, moreover, he saw as corrupt and immoral. There was little love lost between these two men, personally or in politics.

He did succeed, with Washington's endorsement, in being elected to the Congress in 1798, but effectively his political career was at an end. During his one term in Congress he was selected in 1799, as the representative closest to Washington, to deliver the funeral oration which in summing up Washington's life included the most remembered of all Lee's words: "First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen."

Out of Congress, Henry was now being actively pursued by his creditors. He desperately sought refuge and recoupment by appointment outside the country. Despite old friendships this was not possible when the Jeffersonians he so opposed came into power.

In order to stave off his creditors he began juggling his assets and even assets he did not own. Finally, his creditors despaired of repayment and, as was the custom at the time, sued to have him placed in debtors prison. While there, in part to repair his fortune and restate his war service while disparaging Jefferson, he wrote his History of the War in the Southern District. The effort did not garner much money, but it did provide a standard reference on this part of the war. In the last years of his life, Robert E. Lee edited a new edition of his father's work.

This pile of stones all that remains of Matildaville

The contest between France and England had its effects on America. President Jefferson's efforts at neutrality cost the country dearly. Particularly in the south which lost markets for its crops. The conflict found the United States at odds with each of the powers over interference with American commerce. This led first to an undeclared naval war with France. By 1811 the country's ire was directed at Great Britain. The war party saw the need to teach the English a second lesson and complete the union by annexing British Canada. Some boasted the Kentucky militia could wrest the territory from British control. The old soldier, Lee, saw it differently. Based on his experience in the Revolution, he despised militias and felt the standing army and navy were no match for Great Britain.

In June 1812 the Republican Congress approved a declaration of war against England. In July the Federalists still adamantly opposed. This opposition had been voiced in Baltimore, MD by a newspaper the Federal Republican published by one Alexander Hanson. In reprisal, the war party burned Hanson's printing establishment. On July 25, Hanson and a group of his supporters reopened in Baltimore and began distributing their newspaper attacking the war. Later that day a mob gathered outside Hanson's home vowing to destroy it and its occupants. By design or accident Harry Lee joined the besieged group and it fell to him to lead the defense. Violence ensued and Lee and his compatriots were convinced to accept shelter in jail until things quieted down. This offer proved to be a trap and, with the militia standing idly by, the jail was mobbed with the intent of killing its occupants. Thinking, perhaps of Spread Eagle Tavern, Lee sought to escape, but he and his friends were cut down by the mob which killed Revolutionary War veteran General Lingan, tarred and covered with feathers at least one other defender and left Light-horse Harry Lee for dead. [Thanks to the scholarly work of Mr. Bill Thayer and Mr. Eugene H. Leache there is available online A Contemporaneous Account of Hanson's Mob.]

Although still alive, Lee was battered, disfigured and left with permanent internal injuries. Returning to Alexandria and his family he found no relief. [See note] Although ready to take part in the conflict, Lee, America's foremost living soldier, was no longer physically able to do so. In hope of recovering his health, he sought a warmer climate in Barbados and the British Caribbean colonies. In so doing, he violated the terms of his release from debtors prison, once again failing his family by causing the forfeiture of the bond put up by his younger brother, Richard Bland Lee, thus drawing down on Richard his own ruin.

The Lee Crypt Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va. Photo: Stew Thornley, Find A Grave.

Lee wandered the Caribbean seeking at first to broker a peace between the United States and England. Eventually he became an irrelevant exile living on the charity of friends. All the while he continued to study his beloved classics and to inveigh on his children the wisdom of behavior he himself did not exhibit, in letters oft left unmailed. The Caribbean climate did not provide the cure he sought. Realizing he was dieing, he sought to return to his family in Alexandria.

At last he found passage on a ship which in his extreme physical condition landed him on Cumberland Island, Georgia at Dungeness, the home of the family his now-deceased war time leader, Nathanael Greene. Unable to proceed farther, Lee lay there until his death on March 25, 1818. A company from a naval ship stationed nearby and an army contingent participated in his funeral at which Lee was accorded the full honors of a General of the United Stated Army. Some time later a letter from his brother, Richard Bland Lee, gave the news to his widow and family. His grave there on the island was twice visited by his most famous son, in 1862 and again in 1870. Eventually, his remains were removed and reinterred with the rest of his family in the Lee Crypt at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA. on May 30, 1913.

As noted above, historians and writers have not been kind to Henry Lee III. By all accounts, he was anything but a loveable person (e.g., see the Storrow letter). After such initial success he failed himself, his family and those who trusted him. Can anything be said in his defense? Perhaps that what he failed most was his own promise and his vision of the future. And we may ask if his debts would have been so intractable under current laws? Was he wrong to believe that it was folly to seek war with the most powerful nation on earth without oneself having an adequate professional military? In the realm of ideas was his commitment to freedom of the press sufficient to offset his blindness to the merits of party and the right of majority rule? Was it his folly to trade an end to slavery for a new constitution and time to see a peaceful end to that "peculiar institution.?"

Lee believed in the bright future of the new nation he had helped bring into being. The western expansion of that nation, on which his dreams of wealth were based, has far exceeded what he could have imagined. It has continued to shower fortune on other men. His decision to support Hamilton and the assumption of the Revolutionary War debt became part of a compromise which created the great city he envisioned near the falls of the Potomac, Washington DC. What would have been the future if the vision of commerce and trade he championed had won out over Jefferson's ideal of an agriculturally based democracy and led to the establishment of a powerful, commercial, southern middle class? What fate would have befallen his youngest son, thanks to whom Henry Lee is now remembered at all, if Light-Horse Harry had even partially succeeded and been there as an inspiration and guide?

Note. The late Noel B. Gerson in his book states that in this period Lee received visits from President Madison and Secretary Monroe and that Dolly Madison read to him while he recuperated, presumably at the Boyhood Home. He further states that a newspaper article describing the visits makes the first newspaper mention of R. E. Lee. Since the book lacks footnotes there is no way to confirm these statements. We would appreciate the help of anyone who could do so.