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Not Retaliation Ross and Cockburn were intent on the capture of Washington, not as revenge for York, but to punish Madison and convince the Americans that the war's cost was too high. Ross wrote his wife after the burning: "They feel strongly the disgrace of having had their capital taken by a handful of men and blame very generally a government which went to war without the means or abilities to carry it on . . . the injury sustained by the city of Washington in the destruction of public buildings has been immense and must disgust the country with a government that has left the capital unprotected." No mention of York is made.
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