JOHN ADAMS

WASHINGTON AND FAMILY AT MOUNT VERNON

CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN MARSHALL

THOMAS JEFFERSON

HENRY LAURENS




CHAPTER X.


WASHINGTON OUT-GENERALS HOWE. 1777.


Among the many perplexing subjects which claimed the attention of
Washington during the winter (1776-1777), while he was holding his
headquarters among the hills at Morristown, none gave him more
annoyance than that of the treatment of American prisoners in the hands
of the enemy. Among the civilized nations of modern times prisoners of
war are treated with humanity and principles are established on which
they are exchanged. The British officers, however, considered the
Americans as rebels deserving condign punishment and not entitled to
the sympathetic treatment commonly shown to the captive soldiers of
independent nations. They seem to have thought that the Americans would