On this day 250 years ago, at Gunston Hall, Virginia George Mason wrote to his friend George Washington in nearby Mount Vernon:

Inclosed You have a Copy of the plan I drew for embodying the People of this County [as a militia]; in which You’ll be pleased to make such Alterations as You think necessary. You will observe I have made it as general as I well cou’d; this I thought better at first, than to discend to particulars of Uniform &c. which perhaps May be more easily done, when the Companys are made up.

I suppose You have seen the King’s Speech, & the Addresses of both Houses in the last Maryland Paper; from the Style in which they speak of the Americans I think We have little Hopes of a speedy Redress of Grievances; but on the Contrary we may expet to see coercive & vindictive Measures still pursued. It seems as if the King either had not received, or was determined to take no Notice of the Proceedings of the Congress.

Source: “To George Washington from George Mason, 6 February 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-10-02-0186. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 10, 21 March 1774 – 15 June 1775, ed. W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995, pp. 254–255.]