Excusatory

General Grant to Halleck, in an excusatory and exculpatory letter (May 7th), as to the disaster on his right, said: "Milroy's old brigade was attacked and gave way in great confusion, almost without resistance, carrying good troops with them."

Before entering another (middle- or lower-class) native's house, he is very complimentary, and sometimes three minutes' polite excusatory dialogue is exchanged between the visitor and the native visited before the former passes the threshold.

There are two excusatory phrases in the criminal justice lexicon which provoke in me immediate suspicion, especially when used by government ministers or the police. One is "there are safeguards", the other "innocent people have nothing to fear".