Lee, Arthur

(born Dec. 21, 1740, Westmoreland county, Va. [U.S.]—died Dec. 12, 1792, Middlesex county, Va., U.S.) diplomat who sought recognition and aid in Europe for the Continental Congress during the American Revolution.

Lee gave up a medical practice for the study of law and then became interested in colonial politics. He wrote political tracts, among them a series of 10 essays called “The Monitor's Letters” in the Virginia Gazette in 1768.

In 1770 he became an agent for the colony of Massachusetts, and in 1776 he, Benjamin Franklin, and Silas Deane were appointed by the Continental Congress as commissioners to negotiate an alliance with France and to solicit aid from other European governments. Important treaties of commerce were signed with France in 1778; however, Lee's quarrels with his associates led to the recall of Lee and Deane to the United States. He was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1781 and served as a delegate to the Continental Congress (1782–84). He was on the U.S. Treasury Board (1785–89). After the adoption (1789) of the federal Constitution, which he opposed, he retired to Landsdowne, his Virginia estate.