“Our all is at stake; and the little conveniences and comforts of life, when set in competition with our liberty, ought to be rejected, not with reluctance but with pleasure. We may retrench all manner of superfluities, finery of all descriptions, and confine ourselves to linens, woollens, etc. It is amazing how much this practice, if adopted by all the colonies, would lessen the American imports, and distress the various trades and manufactures of Great Britain.” The result of this correspondence was the draft, by Mr. Mason, of the plan of an association, each member of which was to pledge himself not to use any article of British merchandise upon which a duty was imposed. Washington was to submit this plan to the House of Burgesses, on its approaching session. A somewhat similar resolve had already been adopted by the people of Boston. The king had appointed Lord Botetourt[64] Governor of Virginia. It was the plan of the British court to crush the Puritans of Massachusetts by the gleam of bayonets and the rumbling of artillery. But the Cavaliers of Virginia were to be dazzled and seduced by such a display of regal splendor as had never before been witnessed on this continent. It was supposed that the _title_ of the noble lord would quite overawe the wealthy, splendor-loving plebeians of the Potomac. The king presented Lord Botetourt with a very magnificent coach of state, and also with a gorgeous dining service of solid silver.[65] When the governor reached Williamsburg, he surrounded his petty court with all the etiquette of royalty. He opened the session of the Assembly with the pomp of the monarch opening Parliament. His massive coach of state, polished like a mirror, and with the panels emblazoned with his lordship’s family coat-of-arms, was drawn from his mansion to the capitol by six milk-white horses in the richest caparisons. The poor negroes gazed upon the pageant, with mouths wide open with wonder, awe, and admiration. The bedizened lord, seated upon luxurious cushions, with his outriders, his brilliantly liveried coachman and footman, appeared to them but little less than an archangel from some higher sphere. But the pompous display was not in the least calculated to overawe George Washington, George Mason, and their gentlemanly associates, who well knew the value of human rights, and the worthlessness of tawdry splendor.