colonies owed no
allegiance to Parliament, in which they had no representatives; that
their own legislatures alone had the right to lay taxes. But after all,
the great advantage of this first Congress was in the opportunity which
it gave for representatives from the different colonies to become
acquainted with one another, and thus to make all parts of the country
more ready to act together.

It was only now and then that any one suggested the independence of the
colonies. Washington, like a few others, thought it possible the
colonies might have to arm and resist the unlawful attempt to force
unconstitutional laws upon them; but he did not, at this time, go so far
as to propose a separation from England. He had a friend among the
British officers in Boston, one of his old comrades in the war against
France, a Captain Mackenzie, who wrote to him, complaining of the way
the Boston people were behaving. Captain Mackenzie, very naturally, as
an officer, saw only a troublesome, rebellious lot of people whom it was
the business of the army to put down. Washington wrote earnestly to him,
trying to show him the reason why the people felt as they did, and the
wrong way of looking at the subject which Captain Mackenzie and other
officers had. He expressed his sorrow that fortune should have placed
his friend in a service that was sure to bring down vengeance upon those
engaged in it. He went on:

"I do not mean by this to insinuate that an officer is not
to discharge his duty, even when chance, not choice, has
placed him in a disagreeable situation; but I conceive, when
you condemn the conduct of the Massachusetts people, you
reason from effects, not causes; otherwise you would not
wonder at a people, who are every day receiving fresh proofs
of a systematic assertion of an arbitrary power, deeply
planned to overturn the laws and constitution of their
country, and to violate the most essential and valuable
rights of mankind, being irritated, and with difficulty
restrained from acts of the greatest violence and
intemperance. For my own part, I confess to you candidly,
that I view things in a very different point of light from
the one in which you seem to consider them; and though you
are taught by venal men ... to believe that the people of
Massachusetts are rebellious, setting up for independency,
and what not, give me leave, my good friend,