would soon be quelled, and punished for their disobedience of
legitimate authority. In this spirit, he threw some distinguished
gentlemen of Boston, and the American officers and soldiers who fell
into his hands, into the common jail of felons; and treated them,
without respect to military rank or condition, not as prisoners of
war, but as state criminals.

[Sidenote: Correspondence respecting prisoners.]

General Washington remonstrated very seriously against this
unjustifiable measure. Considering political opinion entirely out of
the question, and "conceiving the obligations of humanity, and the
claims of rank, to be universally binding, except in the case of
retaliation;" he expressed the hope he had entertained, "that they
would have induced, on the part of the British General, a conduct more
conformable to the rights they gave." While he claimed the benefits of
these rights, he declared his determination "to be regulated entirely,
in his conduct towards the prisoners who should fall into his hands,
by the treatment which those in the power of the British General
should receive."

To this letter, a haughty and intemperate answer was returned,
retorting the complaints concerning the treatment of prisoners, and
affecting to consider it as an instance of clemency, that the cord was
not applied to those whose imprisonment was complained of. To this
answer, General Washington gave a manly and dignified reply, which
was, he said, "to close their correspondence perhaps forever;" and
which concluded with saying, "If your officers, our prisoners, receive
from me a treatment different from what I wished to show them, they
and you will remember the occasion of it."

The result of this correspondence was communicated to the council of
Massachusetts,[18] who were requested to order the British officers
then on parole to be confined in close jail, and the soldiers to be
sent to such place of security as the general court should direct.

[Footnote 18: In the early part of the war, congress had
appointed no commissary of prisoners; nor had the government
taken upon itself the custody of them. They were entrusted
for safe keeping to the respective legislatures and
committees, to whom it was necessary to apply for the
execution of every order respecting them.]

On the recall of General Gage, the command devolved on General Howe,
whose conduct was less exceptionable; and this rigorous treatment