klin with
vanity, inflated by French flattery, with overweening and dictatorial
arrogance, with connivance at fraud and corruption, and with being under
French influence. William Lee and Richard Henry sympathized warmly with
Arthur in these disputes. John Adams sided with the Lees. Arthur Lee, in
1780, resigning his post, returned to America, and prepared to vindicate
himself before congress, but that body expressed their full confidence
in his patriotism. In 1781 he was elected to the assembly of Virginia,
and returned to congress, where he continued to represent the State for
several years. He was a pure, earnest, incorruptible patriot, love of
country being his ruling passion. Of a jealous disposition, and
melancholy, discontented temperament; of polite manners and strong
passions. He was well skilled in Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, and
Italian. He never married. He meditated writing a history of the
American Revolution. In a letter to General Washington, dated at Berlin,
in June, 1777, he says: "It is my intention to write a history of this
civil contention. The share you have had in it will form an interesting
and important part. It will be in your power to preserve a variety of
materials, papers, and anecdotes for such a work. May I venture to hope
that you may think me so far worthy of your confidence as to preserve
them for me? Dubious parts of history can be cleared only by such
documents, and we shall want every authentic record to vouch against the
forgeries which will be offered to the world."[704:A]

William Lee, brother of Arthur, was born in Virginia, about the year
1737. Sent to London as Virginia's agent before the Revolution, he took
up his residence there. Being a zealous whig, he was elected, in 1773,
one of the sheriffs of London. At the commencement of the Revolution he
retired to France, and afterwards was appointed by congress their
commissioner at Vienna and Berlin. An able man, and an ardent and
inflexible patriot, by communicating important intelligence, and by his
diplomatic agency, he rendered invaluable services to his country. As a
writer he was little inferior to Arthur.

During the year 1780 James Madison took his seat in congress. He was
born in March, 1751, O. S., in the County of Caroline, Virginia, on the
Rappahannock River, near Port Royal, the son of James Madison, of Orange
County, and Nelly Conway, his wife. At the age of twelve young Madison
was at school under Donald Roberts