Thursday, February 16, 2012

Preventing Plunder

On February 17, 1776, Congress resolved "That the officers in the continental Armies be enjoined to use their utmost diligence in preventing every kind of plunder; and that all who shall offend herein, be punished according to the strictest discipline...."

Antagonizing the people could lose a war. As George Washington remarked on April 19, 1776, "human nature is such that it will adhere to the side from whence the best treatment is received."

Worthington Chancey Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1789: Vol. 4: January 1-June 4, 1776 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1906), 158.

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