There are Cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them. They solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if they succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war: The cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both.

Thomas Paine, American Crisis