CHARLES LEE HANDLES A MATTER OF PIRACY AND MURDER ON THE HIGH SEA ABOARD THE FRIGATE “MEDUSA’
Autograph Letter Signed, as U.S. Attorney General, to Consul General of France, Philippe Joseph Létombe, reporting that he has done his duty by forwarding Létombe’s papers concerning the alleged acts of piracy at Norfolk. 3/4 page, 4to, with integral blank Philadelphia, 3 February 1797
“Your letter . . . relative to certain persons on board the frigate Medusa at Norfolk in Virginia supposed to have committed piracy and murder on the High Sea, has been laid before the Secretary of State for the purpose of communicating it . . . to the President of the United States (Adams) that he may direct what shall be done. . . . This is all that belongs to me in my official character to do, until I receive orders from the President.”
Provenance: Collection of William Wheeler III.
Charles Lee was born in Leesylvania, Virginia, in 1758. He received the degree of A.B. at Princeton University in 1775. He went on to study law in Philadelphia with Jared Ingersoll and was admitted to the bar in June of 1794. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and served as a naval officer in the District of the Potomac.
President Washington appointed Charles Lee Attorney General on December 10, 1795 to succeed Attorney General William Bradford who had died in office. Lee continued as Attorney General under President Adams, serving until March 4, 1801. Lee then served one year as a circuit court judge before establishing his own law practice, taking up several important cases. Most notable of these cases was Marbury v. Madison, representing William Marbury against the United States in 1803. He would also successfully defend Associate Supreme Court Justice, Samuel Chase, before the Senate in 1805 in Justice Chase’s impeachment, and former Vice President, Aaron Burr, in Richmond when Burr was tried for treason in 1807. Charles Lee died in Fauquier County, Virginia, on June 24, 1815.