University of Virginia Library

332. ALTERCATIONS, Nursing.—

If the British troops should pass [through our territory] without having asked leave, I should
be for expressing our dissatisfaction to the
British Court, and keeping alive an altercation
on the subject, till events should decide
whether it is most expedient to accept their
apologies, or profit of the aggression as a
cause of war.—
To General Washington. Washington ed. vii, 510. Ford ed., v, 239.
(1790)