Episode Details

This episode investigates the vital, lifelong partnership between George Washington and Richard Henry Lee, examining the persistent historical rumors that Lee sought to undermine the Commander in Chief in favor of General Nathanael Greene during the desperate winter at Valley Forge. Long before the whispers of the Conway Cabal or the publication of forged letters designed to divide them, their alliance was forged in the Northern Neck of Virginia and tested within the House of Burgesses, where they stood together against the corrupt circle of Treasury SecretaryJohn Robinson. From their joint resistance to the Stamp Act and the signing of the Westmoreland Resolves, Lee and Washington operated in lockstep.

When Washington took to the field to lead the Continental Army, Lee became his indispensable voice within the Continental Congress—securing critical food and ordnance, routing trans-Atlantic intelligence directly to the field, and eventually orchestrating the political destruction of the Conway Cabal to secure Washington's supreme command. Though the ratification of the United States Constitution would later trigger a political rift—with Lee emerging as a leading Anti-Federalist critic—their personal bond endured until the master of Chantilly on the Potomac was laid to rest.

Listen ad-free here: https://www.theamericantribune.news/p/the-conway-cabal-did-richard-henry

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Founding Foes and Friends

3:48 The Great Northern Neck Alliance: George Washington and Richard Henry Lee

6:39 How Henry Lee and George Washington Led Stamp Act Resistance

8:38 Supporting the War and Washington

12:46 The Conway Cabal: Rumors and Reality

21:07 A Divide Over the Constitution

23:09 Old Friends Reunite

24:32 Shared Western Dreams

26:21 Final Political Alignment

Sources Referenced in this Episode:

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Nagel, Paul C.: The Lees of Virginia: Seven Generations of an American Dynasty, https://amzn.to/4uCI6o9

Hendrick, Burton J.: The Lees of Virginia, https://amzn.to/4uCN4BF

Lee, Cazenove G. Jr.: Lee Chronicle: Studies of the Early Generations of the Lees, https://amzn.to/4vGzbDe

Maier, Pauline: The Old Revolutionaries, https://amzn.to/3RdsNEU

McGaughy, J. Kent: Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, https://amzn.to/4ewtGA4

Chitwood, Oliver Perry: Richard Henry Lee, Statesman of the Revolution, https://amzn.to/4ghdkxM

Unger, Harlow Giles: First Founding Father: Richard Henry Lee and the Call to Independence, https://amzn.to/4oYRYaB

Burt, Nathaniel: First Families: The Making of an American Aristocracy, https://amzn.to/3Sopnj2

Evans, Emory G.: A "Topping People": The Rise and Decline of Virginia's Old Political Elite, 1680-1790, https://amzn.to/43UPMaK

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