On Security and Terror, 1779 edition*

I spent the last few days in the environs of our nation's capital. You know what it's called. All that marble pointing to the sky! How white it is. How straight the columns. There is apparently some disagreement among scholars as to whether the Senecas began refering to George Washington as Caunotaucarius ("destroyer of villages" or "burner of towns") before or after the Sullivan Expedition of 1779. Some historians, it seems, maintain that the name was a ceremonial title, a show of respect. Whatever. Washington's orders to General John Sullivan, issued May 31, 1779, bear quoting:

"The Expedition you are appointed to command is to be directed against the hostile tribes of the Six Nations of Indians, with their associates and adherents. The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements, and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more.

"I would recommend, that some post in the center of the Indian Country, should be occupied with all expedition, with a sufficient quantity of provisions whence parties should be detached to lay waste all the settlements around, with instructions to do it in the most effectual manner, that the country may not be merely overrun, but destroyed.

"But you will not by any means listen to any overture of peace before the total ruinment of their settlements is effected. Our future security will be in their inability to injure us and in the terror with which the severity of the chastisement they receive will inspire them."

*See also, Efrain Rios Montt