Jack Kelly > Quotes

“At Washington’s table, the French officers were more gracious to their British enemies than to the Americans. The reason, it was explained, was that these men, all from the upper echelons of their respective societies, shared “good upbringing and courtesy.”37 They had no affinity with a farmer like Benjamin Lincoln, a tanner like Anthony Wayne, a bookseller like Henry Knox, or even a poorly educated one-time surveyor. But besides their breeding, the French and British officers shared another quality: all were subjects of a king. Washington and his officers, along with the people for whom they had fought, answered to no man who claimed a divine right to rule. They had won their liberty. They were free men.”
― Jack Kelly, Band of Giants: The Amateur Soldiers Who Won America's Independence