THE COMMITTEE of corresPONDENCE.

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Mrs. Calvert and Mrs. William Augustine Washington, who, with their husbands, were on a visit to "Mt. Vernon." A few days later Washington went to see his sorrowing friend, taking dinner at "Gunston Hall," and returning home in the afternoon. Sorrow entered the "Mt. Vernon" household also in this year-lovely young Martha Custis dying on the 19th of June, 1773. Colonel Mason now in his turn visited the house of mourning. Meeting Washington at court the next day, he returned with him to "Mt. Vernon," where he remained overnight. Colonel Mason was not at "Mt. Vernon" again until the 16th of August, when he was there with his friend Major Jenifer, staying over until the eighteenth. In the spring of 1774, before the opening of the Assembly, which carried him to Williamsburg, Washington had another visit from George Mason, who probably wished to talk with him about the building of a vestry-house in the parish. The following advertisement on the subject appeared in The Virginia Gazette, on the 21st of April:

"To be let, on Friday the 22d of April, at the new church near Pohick, in Truro Parish, Fairfax Co., to the lowest bidder, by the vestry of the said Parish,

"The building of a Brick Vestry House 24 feet long and 18 feet wide, the enclosing of the said Churchyard 158 feet square, with posts and rails, the posts to be of sawed cedar, and the rails yellow pine, clear of sap, with three handsome palisade gates, the whole to be done in the neatest and most substantial manner.

"G. MASON

}

"THOMAZIN ELLZgy Churchwardens."

X

In 1773 the movement for more combined action between the colonies received a stimulus by the origination in the Virginia House of Burgesses of Committees of Correspondence. Massachusetts soon after made a similar proposal. The resistance to the duty upon tea was more or less marked throughout all the colonies. But, in Boston the signal action of its citizens, December, 1773, in throwing the tea overboard from the vessels in the harbor, brought down

1774

upon them the vengeance of the administration in the Boston Port Bill, which threatened to destroy their commerce and occasioned great distress to many of the poorer class of the community. This was in May, 1774, and the Virginia Assembly was in session when the news reached Williamsburg. A circular letter was sent from Boston, written by Samuel Adams, to all the colonies, asking for their aid and sympathy in this crisis. The Virginia burgesses passed a resolution on the 24th of May appointing the 1st of June, the day on which the bill was to take effect, as a day of fasting and prayer, in view of the distressed condition of Boston. And for this unequivocal expression of the light in which they viewed the action of the government, Lord Dunmore, on Thursday, the 26th of May, dissolved the Assembly. They adjourned to the Raleigh tavern, and eighty-seven members of the "late house of burgesses," as they styled themselves, put their names to an "Association" expressive of sympathy with Boston, whose cause they considered as their own, and proposing that the Committee of Correspondence should recommend to the other committees of the colonies a general congress to concert united action. This meeting at the Raleigh took place on the 27th of May. Colonel Mason, who was in Williamsburg at the time on business of his own, wrote to his friend, Martin Cockburn, at Springfield," May 26th, the very day the House was dissolved. As he mentions in this letter, Mason had arrived the Sunday before and had therefore been only four days in town.

DEAR SIR:

WILLIAMSBURG, May 26, 1774.

I arrived here on Sunday morning last, but found everbody's attention so entirely engrossed by the Boston affair, that I have as yet done nothing respecting my charter-rights, and, I am afraid, shall not this week.

A dissolution of the House of Burgesses is generally expected; 'but I think will not happen before the house has gone through the public business, which will be late in June.

LETTER TO MARTIN COCKBURN.

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Whatever resolves or measures are intended for the preservation of our rights and liberties, will be reserved for the conclusion of the session. Matters of that sort here are conducted and prepared with a great deal of privacy, and by very few members; of whom Patrick Henry is the principal. At the request of the gentlemen concerned, I have spent an evening with them upon the subject, where I had an opportunity of conversing with Mr. Henry, and knowing his sentiments; as well as hearing him speak in the house since, on different occasions. He is by far the most powerful speaker I ever heard. Every word he says not only engages but commands the attention; and your passions are no longer your own when he addresses them. But his eloquence is the smallest part of his merit. He is in my opinion the first man upon this continent, as well in abilities as public virtues, and had he lived in Rome about the time of the first. Punic War, when the Roman people had arrived at their meridian glory, and their virtue not tarnished, Mr. Henry's talents must have put him at the head of that glorious commonwealth.

Enclosed you have the Boston Trade Act and a resolve of our House of Burgesses. You will observe that it is confined to the members of their own house; but they would, wish to see the example followed through the country; for which purpose the members, at their own private expense, are sending expresses with the resolve to their respective counties. Mr. Massie (the minister at Fairfax) will receive a copy of the resolve from Col. Washington; and, should a day of prayer and fasting be appointed in our county, please to tell my dear little family that I charge them to pay a strict attention to it, and that I desire my three eldest sons and my two eldest daughters may attend church in mourning, if they have it, as I believe they have.

I begin to grow heartily tired of this town and hope to be able to leave it some time next week, but of this, I can't yet be certain. I beg to be tenderly remembered to my children, and am with my compliments to my cousins and yourself,

Dear Sir,

Your affectionate and obedient servant,
G. MASON.'

"Virginia Historical Register," vol. iii., p. 27. The original, in 1850, was in the Alexandria Museum, afterwards destroyed by fire.

The governor's action in dissolving the Assembly evidently took them by surprise, as George Mason, who was in their counsels, writes so confidently of their business keeping them in session until the last of June. Through this letter we learn the date of George Mason's first acquaintance with Patrick Henry, to whose eloquence, ability, and public virtue, he here pays a glowing tribute. A mutual esteem and respect sprang up between these two leaders, and their accord on questions of public policy was never materially impaired throughout the momentous period that followed, in which they so often labored side by side. One can imagine the excitement in the small Virginia capital on those May days of 1774, as the news spread abroad of the events that were transpiring. Colonel Mason, after posting his letter, may have walked to the Assembly, and been present at its dissolution. He was doubtless among the spectators in the Apollo room the next day listening to the resolves of the Association. A Virginia historian has pictured him at the ball, given by the burgesses to Lady Dunmore, which took place the night of the twenty-seventh.' The polite Virginians, having made their preparations to entertain the governor's family, could not let this little political contre-temps interfere with their gallantry. Washington was present at this ball. But it is not likely the grave and sad-hearted visitor from "Gunston Hall," who had only the year before been made a widower, would appear on such an occasion. Rather sombre must have been the feeling of all thinking men and women among the guests at the festivities on this memorable night. Under the surface of their courtesy lurked latent embers of discontent not to be easily smothered. And Virginia had virtually seen the end of her royal Assemblies.

On the 29th of May, the delegates who were still in Williamsburg, met together to consider the propositions just received from Boston, advocating not only non-impor tation but non-exportation. The latter point called out a "Stories of the Old Dominion," J. Esten Cooke.

A MESSAGE FROM BOSTON.

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difference of opinion. A circular letter was sent by the deputies to their constituents, recommending a meeting of deputies, or a convention, to be held in Williamsburg the Ist of August, at which the sense of the colony on the subject under debate should be fully made known. The convention was also to appoint delegates to the Continental Congress, should the latter be resolved upon. Richard Henry Lee, in a letter to Samuel Adams, June 23d, gives an account of these proceedings at the capital. "The day before we were dissolved," he writes, "I had prepared a set of resolutions." They contained a protest against the blocking up of Boston harbor, and named delegates to meet with others from the several colonies to consider the means most effectual for stopping exports, etc., and "adopting other measures for securing the rights of America." He did not offer these resolutions, as it was urged public business should be finished first, and the burgesses "were inclined to believe from many conversations they had heard, that there was no danger of a dissolution before it had happened." Lee says that he then proposed to the dissolved Assembly the plan of a general congress, but they did not think they had the authority requisite, after their dissolution. And he adds: "Most of the members and myself among the rest, had left Williamsburg before your message from Boston had arrived. Twenty-five of them, however, were assembled to consider of that message, and they determined to invite a general meeting of the whole body to consider the measure of stopping the exports and imports."'

The "charter-rights" in regard to which Colonel Mason had come to Williamsburg at this time, related to lands which he had purchased in western Virginia. Among the Jefferson papers in the State Department, is to be found a copy of "The Memorial and Petition of George Mason, of the County of Fairfax, presented to the governor and council June, 1774, praying entrys or warrants for lands due for the importation of people, according to the royal charter." 1" American Archives," 4th series, vol. i., p. 446.