Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any Canadian or Indian in his person or property, I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment, as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it shall not be disproportioned to its guilt, at such a time and in such a cause.
George Washington, Jared Sparks (1834). “(v. 9) Containing correspondence from the time of resigning his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, to that of his inauguration as president”, p.90