The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

130 LIFE OF WASHINGTON. [1774.
Congress. The proceedings of this assembly need
not here be recounted. As the debates were never
made public, the part performed by each individual
cannot now be known. It has only been ascertained,
that Dickinson drafted the petition to the King and
the address to the inhabitants of Quebec, Jay the
address to the people of Great Britain, and Lee the
memorial to the inhabitants of the British colonies; state
papers of great historical value, which extorted a eulogy from Chatham, and which will ever be regarded
as among the ablest specimens of practical talent and
political wisdom.
While attending the Congress, Washington received
a letter from his friend, Captain Mackenzie, of the
British army, then stationed at Boston, in which the
writer spoke of the rebellious conduct of the Bostonians, the trouble they had given General Gage, their
military preparations, and their secret aim at independence. In his answer, after regretting that his
friend should be engaged in such a service, he added;
"I do not mean by this to insinuate, that an officer
is not to discharge his duty, even when chance, not
choice, has placed him in a disagreeable situation;
but I conceive, when you condemn the conduct of
the Massachusetts people, you reason from effects,
not causes; otherwise you would not wonder at a
people, who are every day receiving fresh proofs of a
systematic assertion of arbitrary power, deeply planned
to overturn the laws and constitution of their country,
and to violate the most essential and valuable rights of
mankind, being irritated, and with difficulty restrained
from acts of the greatest violence and intemperance.
"Although you are taught to believe, that the people of Massachusetts are rebellious, setting up for independency, and what not, give me leave, my good