Foreign Policy reported that the House failed to extend some of the more controversial provisions of the Patriot Act. This Act was enacted after 9/11 in order to empower the government to better hunt terrorists. One of the provisions enabled the FBI to seize “any tangible items” that were relevant to their investigations.

George Washington likely would have voted against it too. He certainly did not have to deal with wiretaps or electronic surveillance, but he knew a thing or about dealing with home-grown insurgents. And he was surprisingly protective of their property.

The Loyalist Americans caused Washington and the other Revolutionaries quite a headache. They not only joined the British army, but also supplied and spied for the enemy. Many Americans hated their betrayers so passionately that they abused them and even killed them on many occasions. And with the Revolutionary forces so poorly supplied, the Loyalists’ property became an easy target. But Washington railed against such plundering. In his General Orders of September 6, 1776, he stated:

“The General is resolved to put a stop to plundering, and converting either public, or private property, to their own use . . . . For let it ever be remembered, that no plundering Army was ever a successful one.”

As Congress began to take Loyalists’ property, Washington opposed their actions. For example, when Congress ordered Loyalists out of their homes in Philadelphia in 1778, Washington sent a letter of protest, contending that “[a] proscribing system of Laws having the same effect, when carried to a great extent, ever appeared to [him] to be impolitic; and . . . to exile many of its Inhabitants cannot be the interest of any State.”

Washington certainly confiscated property throughout the war. But he did so reluctantly and sought to ensure eventual restitution. He opposed the concept of seizing property from Americans.