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.

PART.1 PRIVATE LETTERS. 351
TO GEORGE MASON.*
Mount Vernon, 5 April, 1769.
DEAR SIR,
Herewith you will receive a letter and sundry papers, t which were forwarded to me a day or two ago
by Dr. Ross of Bladensburg. I transmit them with the
greater pleasure, as my own desire of knowing your
sentiments upon a matter of this importance exactly coincides with the Doctor's inclinations.
At a time, when our lordly masters in Great Britain will
be satisfied with nothing less than the deprivation of
American freedom, it seems highly necessary that something should be done to avert the stroke, and maintain
the liberty, which we have derived from our ancestors.
But the manner of doing it, to answer the purpose effectually, is the point in question.
That no man should scruple, or hesitate a moment, to
use arms in defence of so valuable a blessing, is clearly
my opinion. Yet arms, I would beg leave to add,
should be the last resource, the dernier resort. We
have already, it is said, proved the inefficacy of addresses to the throne, and remonstrances to Parliament.
How far, then, their attention to our rights and privileges
is to be awakened or alarmed, by starving their trade
and manufactures, remains to be tried.
The northern colonies, it appears, are endeavouring to` A neighbour and.intimate friend of Washington, who afterwards distinguished himself by drafting the first constitution of Virginia, and by the
ability he displayed in the Convention for forming the Constitution of the
United States, and also in the Virginia Convention for adopting that instrument. He was opposed to the Constitution, as encroaching too much
on State rights, and containing the principles of a consolidated government.
f Containing resolves of the merchants of Philadelphia, respecting the
non-importation of articles of British manufacture.