Richard Henry Lee (20 June 1732 – 19 June 1794) was President of the Confederation Congress from 30 November 1784 to 4 November 1785, succeeding Thomas Mifflin and preceding John Hancock; he was also a US Senator from Virginia from 4 March 1789 to 8 October 1792, preceding John Taylor of Caroline. He was a member of the Anti-Administration party (later the Democratic-Republican Party).
Biography[]
Richard Henry Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia in 1732, and he came from a family of military officers, diplomats, and legislators. Both of his parents died while Lee was being educated in England in 1750, and he became justice of the peace of Westmoreland County in 1757. In 1758, he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, and he was an early advocate of American independence. In 1774, he was chosen as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, and, on 7 July 1776, he put forth the motion to the Second Continental Congress to declare independence from Great Britain. From 1784 to 1785, he served as President of the Confederation Congress, and he established a US dollar tied to the Spanish dollar as the national currency. Lee then served as a US Senator from 1789 to 1792, and he died in 1794.
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