8928. WAR, Revolutionary.—
The circumstances
of our [Revolutionary] war were
without example. Excluded from all commerce,
even with neutral nations, without
arms, money or the means of getting them
abroad, we were obliged to avail ourselves of
such resources 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.—
To George Hammond. Washington ed. iii, 369.
Ford ed., vi, 16.
(Pa.,
May. 1792)
See REvolution (American).