The Newport Gazette

Copy of a letter from General Lee to Miss Franks of Philadelphia, dated January 1779.

MADAM,

The station of an officer of the respectable rank which I bear, is grossly traduced and calumniated. It is incumbent on him to clear himself to the world with that dignity possible.

The tide of defamation and calumny which you have raised to a prodigious and intolerable height on this continent.

I am accused of a design to predominate in the war, or of holding a treasonable correspondence with the enemy. I could have borne this; I am often told, and it happened to the great Fabius Maximus. If you had accused me of getting drunk as often as I could get liquor, as two Alexanders the Great were charged with this vice, I should perhaps have been patient under the imputation; or even if you had given the plainest hints that I had stolen the soldiers' shirts, this I could have put up with, as the great Duke of Marlborough would have been an example; or if you had contented yourself with offering that I was so abominable a novice as never to pay my tailor, my shirt fared with me, the goodness of my constitution were as a guard would have given me some comfort. But the calumny you have invented, or which your man sent to me is of a new, unprecedented, kind, as would make Job himself, or a Virginia Colonel.

Is it possible that the celebrated Miss Franks, old enough to have every human and divine advantage, who has had (or at least might have read) the original of the New and Old Testaments, (though I am afraid she seldom looks even into the Almanack) I say, is it possible that Miss Franks, with every human and divine advantage, who might and ought to have read these in good books, which (as an old Welsh parson who preached in Merionethshire used to say) enjoin charity, and denounce vengeance against slander, and evil speaking; is it, I again repeat it, that Miss Franks should assert in the face of the day, carry her malignity so far, in the presence of three most respectable personages (as, of the oldest college in the world; one, of the newest for he is a new-light man; and the other most probably a theologian at Oxford, as he is an English tailor;) but I demand it again and again, is it possible that Miss Franks should assert in the presence of these respectable personages, that I wore green breeches patched with leather? To convince you therefore of the falsehood of this most diabolic slander; to put you to the test (if you are not past all grace) and to cover you with a much larger patch of infamy than you have only endeavoured to fix on my breeches, I have thought proper by the advice of three very grave friends (lawyers, and members of Congress, of course excellent judges in delicate points of honour) to send you the said breeches. And, with the confidence of truth on my side, to submit them to the most severe inspection and scrutiny of you and all those who have entered into this wicked cabal against my honour and reputation, I say I dare you, and your whole junto, to horse them over and turn them, examine them; inside and outside, and if you find them to be green breeches patched with leather, and not really as large as sheriff's Sherryvallies, such as his Majesty of Poland wears, (who, let me tell you, in a minute hath more fashions than only your knights of the garter shall put together, notwithstanding their breeches) I repeat it, (though I am almost out of breath with repetition: and parentheses) that if these are proved to be patched green breeches, and not real legitimate Sherryvallies (which a man of the first box ton might be proud of) I will submit in silence to all the currility, which I have no doubt you, and your abettors, are prepared to pour out against me, in the public papers, on this important and interesting occasion. But Madam, reputation (as Common Sense very sensibly, though not very uncommonly observes) is a serious thing; --you have already injured me in the tenderest part, and I demand satisfaction: and as you cannot be ignorant of the laws of duelling; having conversed with Tom, or Irish officers whose favourite topic it is, particularly in the company of ladies) I insist on the privilege of the injured party, which is to name his hour and weapon, as I intend it to be a very serious affair; I will not admit of any pretence: and you may depend upon it Miss Franks, that whatever may be your spirit on the occasion, the world shall never accuse General Lee with having turned his back upon you.

In the mean time,

I am, &c.

P. S. I have communicated the affair only to my confidential friend,--who has mentioned it to no more than seven men of Congress, and seventeen women, nine of whom are old maids: so that there is no danger of its taking wind on my side. and I hope you will be equally guarded on your part.

MISS FRANKS' ANSWER.

GENERAL LEE.

Delay your charge: And however desirous you may be to make a serious affair of it, I will, either like a true American--fight, or like an American General--retreat.

* Charles XII.

† The first Aid de Camps: an Aid de Camp to one of the General Officers; and Lieutenant Yele of the Prisons.

* Sherryvallies, a kind of long breeches, reaching to the ankle, with a broad stripe or leather on the inside of the thigh, for the convenience of riding.