On this day 250 years ago in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Mercy Otis Warren wrote to English writer and historian Catherine Macauley in London that the American colonies were waiting for the British response to their grievances “with the sword half Drawn from the scabard.” At about the same time Abigail Adams also wrote Macauley from Braintree that America would have either “an ample redress to our Grievances — or a redress by the Sword.”

Source: Norton, Mary Beth, 1774 the Long Year of Revolution, New York: Vintage Books, 2021 at p. 247.

Also on that day the Virginia Gazette reported that the Fairfax County Committee wrote to the Baltimore Committee, asking that any merchants who went from Baltimore to Alexandria be given a certificate from a committee member certifying that their cargo had been imported before the December 1 deadline prohibiting imports set by the Continental Congress.

Source: https://allthingsliberty.com/2020/10/the-american-revolution-in-alexandria-virginia-upheaval-in-george-washingtons-hometown/