[59] “Washington was fond of hunting, and sport of all kinds. He kept a beautiful barge on the Potomac, rowed by six negroes in uniform dress.”—Soldier and Patriot, p. 61.
[60] Though the first burst of opposition to the Stamp Act came from Virginia, the New Englanders were the first to take the field against the whole project of Parliamentary taxation.—See Irving’s Washington, Mount Vernon edition, vol i. p. 110.
[61] “Parliamentary Register,” 1776.
[62] “Writings of Washington,” Jared Sparks, vol. ii. p. 345, note.
[63] “He had some few intimates in his neighborhood, who accorded with him in sentiment. One of the ablest and most efficient of these was Mr. George Mason, with whom he had occasional conversations on the state of affairs.”—Irving’s Life of Washington, vol. i. p. 341.
[64] Junius, in his celebrated letters, describes Botetourt as “a cringing, bowing, fawning, sword-bearing courtier.” The witty Horace Walpole wrote of him, “If his graces do not captivate them (the Virginians), he will enrage them to fury; for I take all his douceur to be enamelled on iron.”—Grenville Papers, vol. iv. p. 330, note.
[65] The wits of London quite amused themselves in lampoons upon this extraordinary splendor of outfit, of “a minister plenipotentiary to the savage Cherokees.”
[66] Peyton Randolph was one of the most distinguished of the Virginia patriots. He was attorney-general of the Province, and was subsequently elected President of the Second Colonial Congress.
[67] Holmes’ American Annals, vol. ii. p. 173.
[68] These nations, or tribes, consisted of the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Senecas, the Cayugas, and the Tuscaroras.—See Drake’s Book of the Indians, B. v. p. 2.