they were received with contempt or
indifference, and failed to awaken in the king's mind any sentiment of
mercy, or desire on the part of the parliament for reconciliation with
their younger brothers in America. Here was the last, the golden
opportunity, wherein, by an act of simple justice, by an expression of
Christian kindness, they might have won back to obedience and love
this much-injured people; but under the mistaken and fatal belief
that they were all-powerful, and that, if they yielded up these
pretended rights, the colonists would never rest until they had thrown
off and trampled under foot all authority, they suffered it to pass
unheeded, lost for ever.

A short time after the adjournment of Congress, at a second Virginia
Convention, held at Richmond, Patrick Henry, in closing one of the
grandest efforts he ever made, thus boldly declared his mind: "The
time of reconciliation is past; the time for action is at hand. It is
useless to send further petitions to the government, or to await the
result of those already addressed to the throne. We must fight, Mr.
Speaker: I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the
God of hosts is all that is left us!" The great orator did but give
voice to the feelings and sentiments of thousands of pure patriots,
among whom was Washington, who represented his district in this
convention also. No one regretted more sincerely than he that they
were thus compelled to take up the sword as the only remedy of their
wrongs and grievances. In his own mind, he had fully resolved, if
needful, to devote his life and fortune to the cause; and was willing,
he told his brother, to arm and equip a thousand men at his own
expense, and lead them to the succor of Boston, at that time blockaded
by the British fleet. Grave and thoughtful, and pondering deeply all
these things, he went to his home; and, in this frame of mind, the
winter months passed slowly by.

It was now apparent to all, that open hostilities between the Colonies
and the mother-country were no longer avoidable; and on the nineteenth
of April, 1775, the battle of Lexington announced to the world that
the first blood of a desperate struggle had been shed, and that civil
war, with all its train of horrors, had begun.

When the tidings reached Mount Vernon, the impressions made on
Washington's mind were solemn and profound, if we may judge from a
letter written at the time, in which he says, "Unhappy it is to
ref