"That no man should or hesitate a moment to use arms in defence of so valuable a blessing"

"The war of the revolution is known to have been in preparation for some years before the first blow was struck. In all the colonies, the topics of controversy were familiar to the youth, and in none more than in Virginia. The most temperate spirits in the land, looked to arms as the inevitable recourse; and by their writings, their speeches, their daily and familiar conversation, spread the preparatory temper around them. It was the retired soldier of Mount Vernon, [Ed. Note: George Washington], who in April 1769, thus wrote to his friend George Mason, who afterwards drafted the first constitution of Virginia: "At a time when our lordly masters in Great Britain will be satisfied with nothing less than a deprivation of American freedom, it seems highly necessary that something should be done to avert the stroke, and maintain the liberty which we have derived from our ancestors. 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 arms in defence of so valuable a blessing, is clearly my opinion."--Honourable Horace Binney, Sept. 25th, 1835 EULOGY ON JOHN MARSHALL. [HAZARD'S REGISTER OF PENNSYLVANIA. Vol. XVI..--No. 19 Philadelphia, November 7, 1835. No 409. Pg.290]