Richard Henry Lee
Statesman and former President of the Continental CongressWikipedia
68
MENTIONS
31
EPISODES
28
PODCASTS
Search complete. 68 mentions across 31 episodes found for "Richard Henry Lee".
Oct 3, 2026
speaker_0NARRATOR
Matthew Thornton, not even elected to Congress until September, chased down his own signature in November after riding south through a collapsing military situation.
speaker_0NARRATOR
Elbridge Gerry, worn out by a year of committee work, signed alongside Richard Henry Lee and Oliver Wolcott on September 4th.
speaker_0NARRATOR
George Wythe of Virginia didn't sign until August 27th, and Thomas McKean of Delaware, who had ridden hard himself to help secure the original vote, didn't add his name until sometime between 1777 and as late as seventeen eighty one a gap so wide that his signature was left off the earliest printed editions of the declaration's roster entirely forcing him to spend years afterward insisting correctly that his name belonged there.
speaker_0NARRATOR
Robert Morris, whose deliberate absence alongside Dickinson had helped Pennsylvania's delegation vote yes back on July 2, returned to sign in August despite never having cast a vote for independence himself.
speaker_2ADVERTISER
Fresh for everyone.
Bruce CarlsonHOST
We are very excited to have Richard back from This American President.
Bruce CarlsonHOST
When last he was on, we were talking about William Howard Taft and busting some myths about that.
Bruce CarlsonHOST
And now he's got a book about Washington.
Bruce CarlsonHOST
And as I understand, a little bit of mythologizing always going on with our nation's first president.
Bruce CarlsonHOST
Richard, thanks so much for coming on.
Bruce CarlsonHOST
Good to be on.
Bruce CarlsonHOST
It's good to see you.
Steve MulliganGUEST
Jefferson's notes indicate three delegates agreed that, quote, the question was not whether, by a declaration of independence, we should make ourselves what we are not, but whether we should declare a fact which already exists.
Steve MulliganGUEST
That was a position that Massachusetts delegate John Adams and Virginia delegates Richard Henry Lee and George Wythe took.
Jean DennisHOST
George Wythe, who also instructed Jefferson and other famous early American revolutionary figures in law.
Steve MulliganGUEST
Right.
MaxHOST
Awesome.
MaxHOST
Which musical features John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Richard Henry Lee? The options are 1776, Ragtime, Hamilton, or The Apple Tree, but it's 1776.
MaxHOST
I'd
LukeHOST
take your word for that.
Rochelle PortoHOST
Yeah, it was.
Rochelle PortoHOST
But real quick, it was Richard Henry Lee's document that was done prior to the Declaration of Independence that caused the separation and spoke a lot about all this, you know, what ultimately ended up being in the in the declaration.
Rochelle PortoHOST
So Dickinson was the olive branch petitions.
Rochelle PortoHOST
I apologize.
KeltnerHOST
We've been doing it the wrong way the whole time.
KeltnerHOST
That is the day Congress actually approves Richard Henry Lee's resolution declaring that the colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states.
KeltnerHOST
Okay.
KeltnerHOST
So John Adams is like at this point, so convinced that this is the date Americans will remember that the next day he writes Abigail and predicts July 2nd will be celebrated for generations with quote, pump and parade, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, which is remarkably accurate for July 4th, except for the date.
GarrisonHOST
And here's what we got to say about all this.
KeltnerHOST
And Congress had been preparing for that case before it knew whether the July vote was going to turn out or not.
KeltnerHOST
So back on June 7th, you had Virginia's Richard Henry Lee, who had introduced this initial resolution for independence.
KeltnerHOST
Congress then delays that vote for several weeks.
speaker_0HOST
The nearest thing to a contribution John Adams could make was already circulating in Philadelphia that spring, the first volume of his massive survey of constitutions in the bookshops and in the delegates' hands.
speaker_0HOST
John Hancock and Richard Henry Lee declined their appointments.
speaker_0HOST
Samuel Adams was not chosen.
speaker_0HOST
And Patrick Henry, the voice of the revolution itself, the man whose give me liberty had raised Virginia, was named a delegate and refused to serve.
Ed HumpalNARRATOR
the intolerable acts rouse the spirit of the people from virginia in reply came the suggestion for a general congress to deliberate on those measures which the united interests of america may from time to time require at the call of massachusetts the first continental congress assembled at carpenter's hall philadelphia september fifth seventeen seventy four Fifty-five delegates from every colony, Georgia excepted, answered the summons.
Ed HumpalNARRATOR
Massachusetts sent John and Samuel Adams, Connecticut, her shoemaker statesman Roger Sherman, Pennsylvania, John Dickinson, New York, John Jay, South Carolina was represented by Christopher Gadsden and John Rutledge, while Virginia sent Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, and the man who was a host and a congress in himself, the incomparable Washington.
Ed HumpalNARRATOR
The First Continental Congress exercised a powerful influence on the destinies of America.
Ed HumpalNARRATOR
Without it, the work of the Second Continental Congress would never have been accomplished.
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