2nd Amendment - The Founding Father's Views EP 3

The more research I do on this time period and reading into the men of the days, I am continually impressed by the quality of man that arose from the time. It would seem we don't have 3 politicians today who could hold a torch to George Washington or John Adams, but in their time they found themselves in national conventions full of men cut from the same cloth. I wonder what changed... but perhaps that is a post for another time. On of the men who fit the bill and stood among the giants of early American history is Richard Henry Lee.

This man not only signed the Declaration of Independence, but was also the man who made the motion for the Declaration at the Second Continental Congress. He was a signer of the Articles of Confederation and served as the sixth president under them. He opposed the signing of the Constitution, arguing that it gave too much power to the Federal government.

In regard to religion and the state, Lee once supported a bill in Virginia for state taxes to be collected for organized churches, but the taxpayer could select which church to support. He argued that religion was historically the only effective means to preserve the morality necessary for a Democratic Republic to exist.

Lee was also an abolitionist, as he was convicted by Christian virtue: "Christianity, by introducing into Europe the truest principles of humanity, universal benevolence, and brotherly love, had happily abolished civil slavery. Let us who profess the same religion practice its precepts... by agreeing to this duty."

Aside from his long career in public service, he married twice, and father of 13 children, with 9 surviving infancy. Richard Henry Lee left a lasting legacy in Virginia, but is often forgotten and little known today. We do ourselves a sad disservice by letting these men fade quietly into the annals of forgotten history.