On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, George Washington wrote a reply to the letter he had received from his friend Robert McKenzie in Boston. McKenzie was from Virginia and had served under Washington’s command in the French and Indian War but had made a career in the British Army and was then serving in General Gage’s forces in Boston.

Washington complained that his friend had been misled to “condemn the conduct of the Massachusetts People” for being “rebellious, setting up for independency, & what not.” Washington wrote that he “can announce it as a fact, that it is not the wish, or the interest of . . . any . . . upon this Continent, separately, or collectively, to set up for Independence.” McKenzie was actually closer to the truth and to the scene where the people of Massachusetts were indeed setting up for rebellion and Independence. And it was Washington who had been misled by the Massachusetts delegation, who had received from back home reports of the brewing rebellion and calls for independency, but were working diligently to dissuade the people of Massachusetts from taking extreme action and to assure their colleagues in Philadelphia that it would not happen.

As part of his reply, Washington vehemently criticized the actions of the British Government that were driving the people of Massachusetts into rebellion, telling McKenzie that he should not question the reaction of

a people who are every day receiving fresh proofs of a Systematic ascertion of an arbitrary power, deeply planned to overturn the Laws & Constitution of their country, & to violate the most essential & valuable rights of mankind . . . & introduce a system of arbitrary Government, . . . but this you may at the same time rely on, that none of them will ever submit to the loss of those valuable rights & priviledges which are essential to the happiness of every free State, and without which, Life, Liberty & property are rendered totally insecure.

These Sir, being certain consequences which must naturally result from the late acts of Parliament relative to America in general, & the Government of Massachusetts Bay in particular, is it to be wonder’d at, I repeat, that men who wish to avert the impendg blow, should attempt to oppose it in its progress, or perhaps for their defence, if it cannot be diverted? Surely I may be allowed to answer in the negative; & give me leave to add, as my opinion, that more blood will be spilt on this occasion (if the Ministry are determined to push matters to extremity) than history has ever yet furnished instances of in the annals of North America

Source: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%229%20October%201774%22&s=1511311112&sa=&r=4&sr=