1493. CONFISCATION, The Revolution
and.—The circumstances of our war were
without example; excluded from all commerce,
even with neutral nations, withoutarms,
money, or the means of getting them abroad,
we were obliged to avail ourselves of such reources
as we found at home. Great Britain,
too, did not consider it as an ordinary war,
but a rebellion; she did not conduct it according
to the rules of war, established by the law
of nations, but according to her acts of parliament,
made from time to time, to suit circumstances.
She would not admit our title
even to the strict rights of ordinary war; she
cannot then claim from us its liberalities; yet
the confiscations of property were by no means
universal, and that of debts still less so.—
To George Hammond. Washington ed. iii, 369.
Ford ed., vi, 16.
(Pa.,
May. 1792)
