as
he had been among boys.

The attitude toward "provincials" that brought about Braddock's fatal
error because he could not listen to advice, was destined now to bring
to England the loss of her valuable colonies in America. The English
looked down on the Americans and patronized them because they did not
understand them. They regarded the American Colonies too much in the
light of a supply house to enrich the Crown and the Mother Country, and
too little as the home of a brave and self-reliant people who came of
the most sterling English stock themselves. The colonists bitterly
resented the unjust laws that compelled them to ship their produce to
British ports and to engage in no form of industry that might cripple
British enterprise. And when the British Government imposed taxes on
the colonists that were not imposed on British subjects in England,
indignation rose to white heat, and riots and hot speeches broke out
everywhere, particularly in New England.

The "stamp act," which compelled the colonists to transact all their
legal business on paper bearing the stamp of the British Government,
and sold only by British agents, awoke the wrath of Virginia as well as
of New England. The cry of "no taxation without representation" rang
from Georgia to Massachusetts. The oratory of Patrick Henry added fuel
to the righteous indignation in every American's breast, and when the
British in response to public feeling removed all unwarranted taxes
except one--the tax on tea, a party of young men dressed as Indians
sacked the cargo of a British vessel in Boston, and poured the chests
of tea into the harbor.

Parliament retaliated. Penalties were imposed on Massachusetts. The
Virginian House of Burgesses was forbidden to meet by the King's order,
and meeting in spite of this order it called for a General Congress of
all the Colonies to decide what measures were to be taken to defend the
rights of the American provinces.

Washington, as one of Virginia's leading men, naturally was among those
who represented the colony at this congress, which met in Carpenter's
Hall in Philadelphia. He was listened to with respect and attention,
and was considered to have the sanest viewpoint and the widest fund of
information of any delegate there. The question of armed revolt against
England was still in the background, but Washington was in favor of a
resort to arms only after all other measures had failed and as a last
resort. He was ready