Richard Henry Lee

Richard Henry Lee was born in 1732 at Stratford Hall, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, and became a leading planter and a member of the House of Burgesses. On 7 June 1776, following instructions from Virginia, he moved in Congress that the United Colonies 'are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.' Congress delayed the final vote until 2 July so that the colonies could be brought together; Lee was then in Virginia and signed the Declaration later in the year. He later served as president of Congress and as a United States senator from Virginia. He feared a strong central government and opposed the Constitution as it stood in 1787, while supporting the amendments that became the Bill of Rights. Lee was a planter who held people in slavery, even as he could also criticize the trade. He died in 1794. His June resolution is the formal beginning of the independence debate in Congress.

See also: Signers of the Declaration · George Wythe · Thomas Jefferson · Francis Lightfoot Lee · Patrick Henry · George Mason