On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, George Washington wrote to his friend and former neighbor George William Fairfax, who had recently moved to Yorkshire, England, about the upcoming

general meeting requested of all the late Representatives in this City on the first of August when it is hopd, & expected that some vigorous measures will be effectually adopted to obtain that justice which is denied to our Petitions & Remonstrances; in short the Ministry may rely on it that Americans will never be tax’d without their own consent that the cause of Boston the despotick Measures in respect to it I mean now is and ever will be considerd as the cause of America (not that we approve their condt in destroyg the Tea) & that we shall not suffer ourselves to be sacrificed by piecemeal though god only knows what is to become of us, threatned as we are with so many hoverg evils as hang over us at present; having a cruel & blood thirsty Enemy upon our Backs, the Indians, between whom & our Frontier Inhabitants many Skirmishes have happend, & with who a general war is inevitable whilst those from whom we have a right to Seek protection are endeavouring by every piece of Art & despotism to fix the Shackles of Slavry upon us—This Dissolution which it is said, & believd, will not be followed by an Election till Instructions are receivd from the Ministry has left us without the means of Defence except under the old Militia & Invasion Laws which are by no means adequate to the exigency’s of the Country for from the best accts we have been able to get, there is a confederacy of the Western, & Southern Indian’s formd against us and our Settlemt over the Alligany Mountains indeed in Hampshire Augusta &ca are in the utmost Consternation & distress, in short since the first Settlemt of this Colony the Minds of People in it never were more disturbd or our situation so critical as at present; arising as I have said before from an Invasion of our Rights & Priviledges by the Mother Country

Source: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-10-02-0067