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.

356 WASHINGTON'S WRITINGS. [;ET. 38.
lar manner by a letter, which I have just received from
Mr. Blair, clerk of the Council, to believe, that your
Lordship is desirous of being fully informed how far the
grant of land solicited by Mr. Walpole and others will
affect the interest of this country in general, or individuals in particular, I shall take the liberty (as I am pretty
intimately acquainted with the situation of the frontiers
of this dominion) to inform your Lordship, that the
bounds of that grant, if obtained upon the extensive plan
of the colonies. The Governor took the alarm, and immediately dissolved
the Assembly. As soon as the Burgesses left the public hall, they all met
again at a private house in Williamsburg (May 18th, 1769), appointed a
moderator, and assented unanimously to a non-importation agreement,
otherwise called an association, consisting of a preamble and eight resolves. It was signed by every member present, and sent throughout the
country for the signatures of the people. Washington was a member of
the Assembly at that time.
The A.ssociation is printed at large in Burk's History of Virginia, Vol.
[II. p. 345. On comparing it with Mr. Mason's manuscript draft, retained by
Washington, I find it precisely the same, except the addition of two short
articles, and the omission of another. The following article, contained in
Mr. Mason's draft, was left out by the Burgesses.
" If the measures already entered into should prove ineffectual, and our
grievances and oppressions should notwithstanding be continued, then,
and in that case, the subscribers will put a stop to their exports to Europe
of tar, pitch, turpentine, timber, lumber, and skins and furs of all sorts, and
will endeavour to find some other employment for their slaves and other
hands than cultivating tobacco, which they will entirely leave off making,
and will enter into such regulations, as may be necessary with regard to the
rents and other tobacco debts."
As Mr. Mason was not then a member of the House of Burgesses, and
as Washington left home for Williamsburg shortly after receiving the
draft, he must have taken it with him to the Assembly, and of course have
been a principal agent in procuring its adoption.
He wrote afterwards as follows to his correspondent in London, on
sending out his customary orders; -" You will perceive, in looking over
the several invoices, that some of the goods there required, are upon condition, that the act of Parliament imposing a duty on tea, paper, &c. for
the purpose of raising a revenue in America, is totally repealed; and I
beg the favor of you to be governed strictly thereby, as it will not be in
my power to receive any articles contrary to our non-importation agreement, which I have subscribed, and shall religiously adhere to, and should.
if it were, as I could wish it to be, ten times as strict."