Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:
the practice, hence, is so far from affecting british subjects alone that, under the pretext of searching for
these, thousands of american citizens, under the safeguard of public law and of their national flag, have been
torn from their country and from everything dear to them; have been dragged on board ships of war of a
foreign nation and exposed, under the severities of their discipline, to be exiled to the most distant and
deadly climes, to risk their lives in the battles of their oppressors, and to be the melancholy instruments of
taking away those of their own brethren.
use a dictionary or context clues to determine the best definition for pretext?
idea
chatter
destructive
misleading appearance or behavior