To Richard Henry Lee

DEAR SIR :                 GUNSTON HALL, June 7, 1770.

Your favor of the 26th May did not come to hand till the 5th instant, or I should have answered it sooner. I now enclose you the abstract f[rom the] Act of Parliament in the 4th year of his present Majesty's reign, with some remarks thereon, to which I beg leave to refer you, & think you will find them worthy of consideration, as the said Act of Parliament has never been totally repealed.

I am glad to hear that the members below intend to establish some farther regulations to render the Association effectual, & I know of none that will answer the end proposed, but preventing by all legal and peaceable means in our power (for we must avoid even the appearance of violence) the importation of the enumerated goods ; Experience having too fully proved that when the goods are here many of our people will purchase, even some who effect to be called gentlemen. For this purpose the sense of shame and the fear of reproach must be inculcated and enforced in the strongest manner, and if that can be done properly it has a much greater influence upon the actions of mankind than is generally imagined. Nature has impressed this useful principle upon every breast ; it is a just observation that if shame was banished out of the world, she would carry away with her what little virtue is left in it. The names of such persons as purchase or import goods contrary to the Association should be published, and themselves stigmatized as enemies to their country. We should resolve not to associate or keep company with them in public places, and they should be loaded with every mark of infamy and reproach. The interest, too, of the importer may be made subservient to our purpose, for if the principal people renounce all connection and commerce forever with such merchants, their agents and factors, who shall import goods contrary to the tenor of the Association, they will hardly venture to supply their worst customers with such articles at the hazard of losing their best. But I don't see how these regulations can be affected by any other means than appointing committees in the counties to examine from time to time into the imports and to convey an account of any violation of the Association to the Moderator, to be by him publish’d, or by a committee appointed for that purpose in Williamsburg, or in such other manner as shall be judged best, for without such committees in the country, I am convinced we shall once more fail of carrying the plan into execution. As it is of great consequence to have these committees composed of the most respectable men [paper illegible] ; it will be best that one committee be appointed for two or more countys, as the circumstances of particular parts of the country may require, and such of the merchants as are members of the Association ought by all means to be of these committees. It is true in Maryland there is a committee in every county, but their counties are generally larger than two of ours. The committees, whenever there is an importation of goods within their respective districts, should convene themselves and in a civil manner apply to the merchants or importers concerned, and desire to see the invoices and papers respecting such importation, and if they find any goods therein contrary to the Association, let the importers know that it is the opinion and request of the country that such goods shall not be opened or stored, but reshipped to the places from whence they came, and in case of refusal, without any manner of violence, inform them of the consequences, and proceed to publish an account of their conduct. I am persuaded there are few importers who would persist in refusing to comply with such a request, and proper resolution in the Association, with one or two public examples, would quickly put an end to it. The objection that this would be infringing the rights of others while we are contending for liberty ourselves, is ill founded. Every member of society is in duty bound to contribute to the safety and good of the whole ; and when the subject is of such importance as the liberty and happiness of a country, every inferior consideration, as well as the inconvenience to a few individuals, must give place to it ; nor is this any hardship upon them, as themselves and their posterity are to partake of the benefits resulting from it. Objections of the same kind might be made to the most useful civil institutions.

It may perhaps be proposed to have such goods as are imported contrary to the Association stored here unopened, instead of re-shipping them. But besides the risque of having such goods privately sold, storing them would by no means answer the same purposes as reshipping them, for if the goods are reshipped they will most of them be returned to the wholesale dealers and shopkeepers, and occasion an immediate stagnation of business between them and the manufacturers ; this would be practice, not theory, and beyond anything else convince the people of Great Britain that we are in earnest by an appeal to their own senses. I am at a loss to determine, even in my own mind, whether these proposed regulations ought to have retrospect, so as to require the reshipping of goods that were already imported before the 14th of this month. Not that I think there is any injustice in it, because all such persons as have imported goods contrary to the Association, have done it with their eyes open, and at their own peril, with a view to private gain, which deserves no countenance from the public ; and those merchants who have conformed themselves to the opinion and interest of the country have some right to expect that violators of the Association should suffer upon the occasion. The principal objection is the seeming impracticability of such a measure, which would put the committees upon very minute and difficult inquirys ; on the other hand, there are some strong reasons for such retrospect. There is great cause to believe that most of the cargoes refused to be received in the other colonies have been sent to this. I will mention some recent instances, particularly a ship a few weeks ago from Baltimore, in Maryland, with a cargo of about £3,000. And a committee which sat a few days ago in Port Tobacco, after examining a merchant's imports there, and finding nothing contrary to Association, at last accidentally stumbled upon an invoyce of eight or nine hundred pounds of anti Association goods ; the Nest was there, but the birds were flown-- no such goods could be found -- they had been privately sent to Virginia. Unless these machinations can be counteracted, and their contrivers effectually disappointed, Virginia will become the receptacle of all the goods refused by the other colonies, and from hence they will be sent again privately, in small quantities at a time, to frustrate the Associations of the other parts of the continent ; to our everlasting scandal and to the weakening of that mutual confidence, which in these oppressive and dangerous times should be so carefully cherished and preserved.

Suppose (to observe a sort of medium) that all goods imported contrary to the Association which now remain unopened, or uncut, should be directed to be reshipped ; or, if this is thought too much, the retrospect may be limited to a certain time, so as to include the goods that shall come from the neighboring colonies, which I believe is but a late practice. I have had some conversation with the neighboring merchants upon the subject ; they profess themselves ready to acquiesce in whatever shall be thought the interest of the country. Mr. Henderson, in particular, declares that he will cheerfully order to be packed up such goods as are contrary to the Association in any of the stores he has the direction of (and you know he is concerned for one of the greatest houses in the tobacco trade), and either store them until our grievances are redressed, or reship them if the gentlemen of the Association shall require it. In his own store he says there are no goods contrary to the Association. In this I think he means well ; it is not the interest of his owners to forfeit the esteem and good will of the people of this Colony. To do the merchants in this neighborhood justice, they have, so far as I have been able to observe, behaved in a very becoming manner, and have all along testified their willingness to accede to any measure that shall be judged conducive to the public good.

Whoever looks over with attention the proceedings of the ministerial party in the H-- e of C --ns will be convinced that the late vote for a partial instead of a total repeal of the revenue act complained of was founded upon an opinion that the Americans could not persevere in their Associations; The custom-house books showed that the exports to Virginia in particular were very little if at all lessened ; and that the exports to this colony are of greater importance to Great Britain than to any other on this continent, will not be denied by any man acquainted with the subject ; this shews the necessity of our exerting ourselves effectually upon the present occasion. Our sister colonies all expect it from us, our interest and our liberty and happiness, as well as that of our posterity, everything that is near and dear to us in this world requires it….

 GEORGE MASON.

Sources:

Kate M. Rowland, 1 The Life of George Mason, 1725-1792, 144-147 (1892).

1 The Papers of George Mason, 116-120 (Robert A. Rutland ed. 1970).