When the assembly met in May, they received the new governor, Lord Botetourt, with much cordiality, and then fell to passing spirited and sharp-spoken resolutions declaring their own rights and defending Massachusetts.  The result was a dissolution.  Thereupon the burgesses repaired to the Raleigh tavern, where they adopted a set of non-importation resolutions and formed an association.  The resolutions were offered by Washington, and were the result of his quiet country talks with Mason.  When the moment for action arrived, Washington came naturally to the front, and then returned quietly to Mount Vernon, once more to go about his business and watch the threatening political horizon.  Virginia did not live up to this first non-importation agreement, and formed another a year later.  But Washington was not in the habit of presenting resolutions merely for effect, and there was nothing of the actor in his composition.  His resolutions meant business, and he lived up to them rigidly himself.  Neither tea nor any of the proscribed articles were allowed in his house.  Most of the leaders did not realize the seriousness of the situation, but Washington, looking forward with clear and sober gaze, was in grim earnest, and was fully conscious that when he offered his resolutions the colony was trying the last peaceful remedy, and that the next step would be war.

Still he went calmly about his many affairs as usual, and gratified the old passion for the frontier by a journey to Pittsburgh for the sake of lands and soldiers’ claims, and thence down the Ohio and into the wilderness with his old friends the trappers and pioneers.  He visited the Indian villages as in the days of the French mission, and noted in the savages an ominous restlessness, which seemed, like the flight of birds, to express the dumb instinct of an approaching storm.  The clouds broke away somewhat under the kindly management of Lord Botetourt, and then gathered again more thickly on the accession of his successor, Lord Dunmore.  With both these gentlemen Washington was on the most friendly terms.  He visited them often, and was consulted by them, as it behooved them to consult the strongest man within the limits of their government.  Still he waited and watched, and scanned carefully the news from the North.  Before long he heard that tea-chests were floating in Boston harbor, and then from across the water came intelligence of the passage of the Port Bill and other measures destined to crush to earth the little rebel town.

When the Virginia assembly met again, they proceeded to congratulate the governor on the arrival of Lady Dunmore, and then suddenly, as all was flowing smoothly along, there came a letter through the corresponding committee which Washington had helped to establish, telling of the measures against Boston.  Everything else was thrown aside at once, a vigorous protest was entered on the journal of the House, and June 1, when the Port Bill was to go into operation, was