Description:

Henry "Lighthorse" Lee
Loudon Co., VA, October 12, 1788
Henry "Lighthorse" Lee ALS Re: Failed Great Falls Canal Scheme
ALS

An autograph letter signed by Henry "Lighthorse" Lee concerning a business proposition. 1p, measuring 7.25" x 12.5", Loudon County, Virginia, dated October 12, 1788. Signed "Henry Lee" and addressed to Mr. M. Frame. The letter discusses closing business with Bryan Fairfax, likely in regard to his scheme to build a canal in Great Falls, Virginia. With flattened mail folds, tears, rough edges, and minor paper loss affecting only a small amount of text. Foxing, light toning, and soiling throughout. With wax seal remnants along the left edge. Boldly signed.

In full:
"I presume you will have closed our business as Mr. Fairfax has engaged to act for me & will do anything reasonable. Mr. WA Lee will call for my papers & settle with you. Unless you & Mr. F agree I must send up my agent & the lower bonds and I want the matter adjusted before I [illegible] start for Philada."

Henry "Lighthorse Harry" Lee III (1756-1818) was a famed cavalry officer during the Revolutionary War and father to Confederate commander General Robert E. Lee. After the war, Lee became involved in a great amount of land speculation schemes, buying large tracts of land on credit and borrowing tens of thousands of dollars that his assets could not cover.
One of these schemes was to build a canal in Great Falls, Virginia, which would link the United States to Western lands on the other side of the Alleghenies. He bought 500 acres around Great Falls in the hopes of building a city named Matildaville (after his first wife). He even convinced his old Princeton classmate, James Madison, to be a prospective investor.

Neither the city nor the canal came to fruition, and Lee sunk deeper into debt. He tried to get out of debt by borrowing more money and buying more land, but he only made his situation worse. At one point, Lee even began selling property he did not own, and he put up chains on the door of his house to keep creditors out. In 1789, angling for an easy profit, he appealed to his friend Alexander Hamilton, then secretary of the Treasury, for inside information about the government's plans to issue new currency; Hamilton rebuffed him. Lee would became very mobile in the early years of the 1800s, never staying at home for too long in order to keep from paying his debts. Eventually, in 1808, he turned himself in and was jailed for two years, released only after he agreed to pay his larger debts through the sale of land. While in prison, he wrote "Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States", but the memoir did not sell well and he emerged from prison bankrupt. Lee would spend the rest of his life avoiding his creditors, dying in 1818 at the home of Nathanael Greene.

Bryan Fairfax (1736–1802) had inherited Great Falls Manor from Thomas Fairfax, sixth Baron Fairfax, in 1765. Ordained a minister of the Episcopal church of Virginia in 1789, he was named rector of Fairfax parish in 1790. Although the Fairfax title devolved on him in 1793, he did not accept the title as the eighth Baron Fairfax until 1800

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 7.25" x 12.5"
  • Medium: ALS

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