 Subsequently, he prevailed upon his friends in the Congress of the Confederation to pass a law that exonerated him and his associates from wrongdoing.He was concerned that he might face legal action from one or more of those he had imprisoned, notwithstanding the American Colonies had won the war.This action by the Congress provoked controversy, and it was in connection with this that the term "Lynch law", meaning the assumption of extrajudicial authority, came into common parlance in the United States.