But the manner of doing it, to answer the purpose effectually, is the point in question.
That no man should scruple, or hesitate a moment, to use a--ms in defence of so valuable a blessing, on which all the good and evil of life depends, is clearly my opinion.

Yet a--ms, I would beg leave to add, should be the last resource, the dernier resort.
Addresses to the throne, and remonstrances to Parliament, we have already, it is said, proved the inefficiency of.

How far, then, their attention to our rights and privileges is to be awakened or alarmed, by starving their trade and manufacturers, remains to be tried.[1] [Footnote 1: Ford, II, 263-64.] Thus wrote the Silent Member six years before the outbreak of hostilities, and he did not then display any doubt either of his patriotism, or of the course which every patriot must take.

To his intimates he spoke with point-blank candor.

Years later, George Mason wrote to him: I never forgot your declaration, when I had last the pleasure of being at your house in 1768, that you were ready to take your musket upon your shoulder whenever your country called upon you.
Some writers point out that Washington excelled rather as a critic of concrete plans than of constitutional and legal aspects.