to obtain such information from the customhouse-officers on the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. He also desired the speaker of the Virginia assembly, if he should think it expedient, to furnish him with similar information concerning operations on the York and James rivers. He likewise procured, from Mr. Wythe, the number of taxable inhabitants in the colony at the time of the census in 1770 and from others he obtained such information as he deemed necessary, that he might truly represent his constituents in the general Congress.

Soon after his return to Mount Vernon, Washington received a letter from his friend, Bryan Fairfax, in which he was requested to give his views at length on the subject of the current disputes, and to explain to him wherein his letter sent to the Fairfax county convention on the eighteenth of July, with a request that it should be read, was repugnant to the principles they were contending for. "I beg leave," Fairfax said, "to look upon you as a friend, and it is a great relief to unbosom one's thoughts to a friend. Besides, the information, and the correction of my errors,” he continued, "which I may obtain from a correspondence, are great inducements to it. For I am convinced that no man in the colony wishes its prosperity more, would go greater lengths to secure it, or is at the same time a better subject to the crown. Pray, excuse these compliments; they may be tolerable from a friend."

Preparations for his journey to Philadelphia, attention to private affairs, and the entertainment of company, prevented Washington from replying to his friend for several days; and then, pleading these excuses, he gave him but a brief answer. "I am sure," he said, “I have no new light to throw upon the subject, nor any other arguments to offer in support of my own doctrine, than what you have seen; and I could only in general add, that an innate spirit of freedom first told me, that the measures, which the administration have for some time been, and now are most violently pursuing, are opposed to every principle of natural justice; whilst much abler

* It was estimated by Mr. Wythe that the number of taxable inhabitants in Virginia, in 1774, was full ten thousand.

ET. 42.]

WASHINGTON TO FAIRFAX.

415

heads than my own have fully convinced me, that they are not only repugnant to natural right, but subversive of the laws and constitution of Great Britain itself, in the establishment of which some of the best blood in the kingdom has been spilt.

"Satisfied, then, that the acts of the British Parliament are no longer governed by the principles of justice; that they are trampling upon the valuable rights of Americans, confirmed to them by charter and by the constitution they themselves boast of; and convinced, beyond the smallest doubt, that these measures are the result of deliberation, and attempted to be carried into execution by the hand of power, is it a time to trifle, or risk our cause upon petitions, which with difficulty obtain access, and afterward are thrown by with the utmost contempt?.... I could wish, I own, that the dispute had been left for posterity to determine, but the crisis is arrived when we must assert our rights, or submit to every imposition that can be heaped upon us, till custom and use shall make us tame and abject slaves.... If you disavow the right of Parliament to tax us, unrepresented as we are, we only differ in respect to the mode of opposition, and this difference principally arises from your belief that they (the Parliament, I mean) want a decent opportunity to repeal the acts; whilst I am fully convinced that there has been a regular, systematic plan formed to enforce them, and that nothing but unanimity and firmness in the colonies, which they did not expect, can prevent it. By the best advices from Boston, it seems that General Gage is exceedingly disconcerted at the quiet and steady conduct of the people of the Massachusetts Bay, and at the measures pursuing by the other governments. I dare say he expected to force those oppressed people into compliance, or irritate them into acts of violence before this, for a more colorable pretence of ruling that and the other colonies with a high hand."*

It was even so. "Whatever violences are committed," wrote Dartmouth to Gage, "must be resisted with firmness; the constitutional authority of this kingdom over its colonies must be vindicated, and its laws obeyed throughout the whole empire. It is not only

* Sparks's Life and Writings of Washington, ii., 396.

its dignity and reputation, but its power, nay, its very existence, depends upon the present moment; for, should these ideas of independence which some dangerous and ill-designing persons here are artfully endeavoring to instil into the minds of the king's American subjects, once take root, that relation between this kingdom and its colonies, which is the bond of peace and power, will soon cease to exist, and destruction must follow disunion."

Acting upon these instructions and suggestions, and governed also by his fears, Gage removed the seat of government from Salem back to Boston, and commenced fortifying the Neck. But the work went on slowly. British gold could not purchase Boston carpenters, and Gage was finally compelled to import less scrupulous men, with building-materials, from other places. With his six regiments of troops and a train of artillery, he exercised military rule with great stringency; and, by proclamation after proclamation, he sought to awe the people of Massachusetts, and compel obedience to an act of Parliament which prohibited all political assemblages after the first of August. But his efforts were fruitless. The people convoked assemblies before that day, and kept them perpetually alive by adjournments, and so they accomplished their desires without violating the law. In Boston, Faneuil hall was crowded when these adjourned meetings were held; and in the more spacious South meeting-house, and under the shadows of Liberty-Tree,* the people fearlessly assembled and expressed their sentiments, unmoved by the glitter of scarlet uniforms and menacing bayonets that appeared on every side. "Throughout the colony," says Lord Mahon, "the sheriffs, magistrates, and clerks, either made their peace with the people by solemnly promising not to act under the new law, or else fled for shelter to the well-guarded town of Boston." As a signifi

* Liberty-Tree, in Boston, was a venerable elm, similar to some now seen on the Common, and stood on the corner of the present Washington and Essex streets, opposite the Boylston market. It received the name of Liberty-Tree from the circumstance that under it the association of the Sons of Liberty held meetings during the summer of 1765, and adopted measures in opposition to the stamp-act. After that, meetings were frequently held there, until they were prohibited by the British authorities in 1775. In August of that year, the obnoxious tree was cut down by order of the British commander, when a soldier, who was in its branches, was killed at its fall. The tree bore the inscription, "Liberty-Tree," and the ground under it was called "Liberty Hall.”