A Year With George Washington
On March 12, 1773, George Washington voted with fellow Burgesses to establish a Committee of Correspondence in an effort to streamline communication between sister colonies and Virginia.
Unlike some of the more radical rebels in the colonies in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War, Washington labored hard to balance the two separate realms of renegade and loyalist.
Even as he voted to establish a Committee of Correspondence and provide for congruous defense preparations among the colonies, he met regularly with the Virginia Royal Governor, John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, in a persistent effort to persuade him to grant him western lands as prescribed in the Royal Proclamation of 1763. The proclamation rewarded veterans of the French & Indian War with large tracts of land, and Washington intended to secure as much as he could.
It would take considerably more time to ignite the flames of indignation in Washington than in others, such as Sam Adams and his cousin John. When he received the news of the Boston Tea Party later that same year, his first reaction was one of disgust at the manner in which the Boston radicals protested. And yet, as Parliament and the Crown grew ever more aggressive toward the colonies, Washington’s path would soon follow and overtake his countrymen in the fight for freedom.
