merchant and publicist, born in Beverly, MA on Feb. 4, 1782, was the ninth of twelve children of Joseph and Elizabeth (Cabot) Lee. Two older brothers were educated at Harvard College, but Henry after a course at Phillips Andover Academy, decided to go at once into the business in which the Cabots and the Lees had already attained prominence, the East India Trade. On June 16, 1809, he married Mary Jackson, daughter of Jonathan Jackson and sister of James (1777-1867), Charles and Patrick Tracy Jackson. They had six children; Henry Lee Higginson was their grandson. Lee's partnership with his brother Joseph proved unsuccessful, and in 1811 he sailed for Calcutta. Being compelled by the war of 1812 to remain in India for several years, he utilized his time in study and in making acquaitances, which afterwards proved valuable, among the trading community. Upon his return to Boston he set up as a merchant Trading to the East and West Indies, Europe and South America. Temperamentally, however, he seems to have been a scholar rather than a business man, and overconfidence resulted more than once in serious losses. On each of these occasions, with the scrupulous honest which characterized all his dealings, he paid all his creditors in full. His interest in commerce went far beyond the limit of his business, and he gave much thought to the tariff question on which opinion in Massachusetts was soon to be sharply divided. In 1820 the importing merchants and shipowners were still the dominant element in the business community and in politics. They bitterly opposed the demands of the Middle and Western states for higher import duties, forseeing increased costs of ships and declining volume of foreign trade. In the decade 1820-30, however, manufacturing made great strides in Massachusetts and a new group of factory owners arose, demanding protective duties. The woolen manufacturers, whos were suffering rather severly from foreign competition, held meetings in Boston. Their demands were opposed by a group of merchants and traders, who chose Henry Lee to set forth their views. The pamphlet of nearly 200 pages which he prepared, Report of the committee of the Citizens of Boston and Vicinity, Opposed to a Further Increase of Duties on Importations (Boston, 1827), received wide circulation, being known as the "Boston Report." Drawing liberally on his wide acquaintance with both free-trade and protectionist literature, and with a vigorous and incisive style, the author made skilful use of the scanty statistical material then available. The Tariff of 1828 was a triumph for the protectionists, the free-traders kept up the fight. In 1831, at the Free Trade Convention in Philadelphia, Lee worked with close association with Albert Gallatin and published An Exposition of Evidence (1832), a sort of statistical appendix, to accompany the latter's Memorial of the Committee Appointed by the Free Trade Convention (1832). As a result of these activities, Lee received in 1832 the eleven electoral votes of South Carolina for vice-president. His reputation as a student of economics and statistics spread to England, and he corresponded with McCulloch, Tooke, Newmarch, and others. He retire from business in 1840, and devoted the remainder of his life mainly to writing and study. In 1850 he emerged from his retirement to wage an unsuccessful campaign for a seat in Congress. His unconquerable shyness made it almost impossible for him to take part in politics. The nobility and honesty of his character impressed all who knew him. To his intimates he revealed himself as an accomplished conversationalist, delighting them with his genial and gay spirit. He died Feb. 6, 1867.