Benedict Arnold

“ That country which he forswore in the hour of its direst need can surely afford to forgive Benedict Arnold as well. Grown the greatest republic of which history keeps any record, America need not find it difficult both to forget the wretched frailties of this, her grossly misguided son, and at the same time to remember what services he performed for her while as yet his baleful qualities had not swept beyond all bounds of restraint. ”

“ Author and publisher have given to this book every mark of a genuine autobiographical work, yet have made no pretense that it is other than a work of fiction. It purports to be the life story of Benedict Arnold, written by his own hand, with the purpose of justifying his career in the eyes of the British king. Events of his public and private life are closely followed. He is represented as a Tory by nature, an aristocrat with no understanding of the more democratic aims of the revolution. ”

“ Bibliography.—Jared Sparks’ Life and Treason of Benedict Arnold (Boston, 1835) , in his “Library of American Biography,” is biassed and unfair. The best general account is Isaac Newton Arnold’s Life of Benedict Arnold (Chicago, 1880) , which, while offering no apologies or defence of his treason, lays perhaps too great emphasis on his provocations. Charles Burr Todd’s The Real Benedict Arnold (New York, 1903) is a curious attempt to make Arnold’s wife wholly responsible for his defection. ”

“ Arnold had three sons while he lived in New Haven, Benedict, Richard, and Henry. The former died while quite a young man, in the West Indies. It is believed that he came to an untimely and violent death, in consequence of his uncontrollable temper. In this respect he was very much like his father. Mrs. Arnold, who was originally a New Haven lady, died about the time the Revolutionary War commenced. Hannah, the only sister of Arnold, removed from Norwich to live with her brother, whom she loved with all a sister's devotion. ”

“ During his residence in England after the Revolution, Arnold said to an Englishman who had met him casually and, being unaware of his personality, knowing only his nationality, asked him for some letters of introduction to be used in a purposed trip to America: "Sir, I am the only American in the world whose introduction would do you more harm than good; I am Benedict Arnold." There was here more than the bitterness of ostracism ”

“ In the midst of the gloom, the country was shocked by [Pg 190] the news that Benedict Arnold had turned traitor. After the battle of Bemis's Heights, in the fall of 1777, he had been promoted to the rank of major-general, and made commandant of Philadelphia. Here he married the daughter of a royalist, and entered upon a career of extravagance which overwhelmed him with debt. He then began a system of frauds on the commissary department of the army. Charges were preferred against him by Congress, and he was convicted by a court-martial. ”

“ Benedict Arnold has been severely reproached in history, but he was a brave soldier, and possibly serving under Gates, who jealously kept him in the background, had a good deal to do with the little European dicker which so darkened his brilliant career as a soldier. ”

“ Benedict ArnoldAt Cambridge began his long comradeship with a very different character, Benedict Arnold, a young man of romantic and generous impulses, and for personal bravery unsurpassed, but vain and self-seeking, and lacking in moral robustness; in some respects a more polished man than Morgan, but of a nature at once coarser and weaker. ”

“ And the enemy came very near getting possession of this important fortress, not by force, but by treachery. Benedict Arnold, disappointed in his military prospects, alienated from his cause, overwhelmed with debts, and utterly discontented and demoralized, had asked to be ordered from Philadelphia and put in command of West Point. He was sent there in August, 1780. He was a capable and brave man; he had the confidence of Washington, in spite of his defects of character, and moreover he had rendered important services. ”

“ When you marched down, you said there would be no fighting for us Indians; we might go down and smoke our pipes; whereas numbers of our warriors have been killed, and you mean
* The address of Arnold was well calculated to awe the timid and give courage to the wavering Whigs. The prestige of his name gave great weight to it. He prefaced it with a flourish of his title and position, as follows: "By the Honorable Benedict Arnold, Esq., general and commander-in-chief of the army of the United States of America on the Mohawk River." ”

“ It is not difficult for those who are given to trace the line of cause and effect, to see in this transaction of Congress, yielding as they did to the virulent prejudices of Pennsylvania, the natural stimulus and inducement to that crime which will make the name of Benedict Arnold forever detestable.
Washington reprimanded him; but he did it in as mild a way as possible, knowing something himself of the sensitiveness of the brave soldier. His words were these :-- "Our profession is the chastest of all; even the shadow of a fault tarnishes the lustre of our finest achievements. ”

“ The committee eagerly embraced his proposal, and on the 3d of May commissioned Benedict Arnold as a colonel in the service of Massachusetts, and commander-in-chief of a body of troops not to exceed four hundred, with whom he was to proceed on an expedition to subdue and take Fort Ticonderoga. ”

“ The principal object of Arnold's letter to Washington, written on board the Vulture, was to solicit protection for his wife, who he said was "as good and as innocent as an angel, and incapable of doing wrong." He desired that she might be permitted to go to her friends in Philadelphia, or to join him, as she should choose. For himself he asked no favor, having "too often experienced the ingratitude of his country to attempt it;" and moreover he averred, that "the heart conscious of its own rectitude" could not descend to palliate an act, which the world might think wrong. ”

“ Arnold was selected to be the conductor of this expedition, and he received from Washington a commission of colonel in the Continental service. The enterprise was bold and perilous, encompassed with untried difficulties, and not less hazardous in its execution, than uncertain as to its results. These features, repelling as they were in themselves, appeared attractive in the eyes of a man, whose aliment was glory, and whose spirit was sanguine, restless, and daring. ”

“ How long Arnold continued at St. John's is uncertain. He went back to England, where he resided the rest of his life, though he was sometimes absent on business in the West Indies. When the war with France commenced, he petitioned for employment in the army; but, as no officers would serve or associate with him, the petition could not be granted. A single adventure will include all that remains to be told of him. ”

“ Arnold during his stay with the British army in Philadelphia, and before her marriage, he made use of so fortunate a circumstance to cover his correspondence now with her husband. It was not, however, what a man with the highest and most delicate sense of honor would have permitted himself to do. Mrs. Arnold afterwards rested under the stigma of being privy to the nature of this correspondence; but there is nothing to show that it was more than an unfounded suspicion. Had André been alive, he would have set the matter right with a word. ”

“ The moment Arnold caught the whispered hint, he was impatient to share the glory which such an expedition, if successful, would be certain to bring. So that as soon as he arrived at Cambridge with his handsomely uniformed company, he laid the plan before the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, as if it were altogether original with himself; and went on to show them how easy it would be to carry it out. He set forth his design with all the enthusiasm of his easily moved nature. ”

“ Amidst so much that was mercenary, and so many derelictions of principle and faults of conduct, it is refreshing to discover some alleviating incidents. The lively interest expressed by Arnold in the orphan children of the lamented General Warren, who fell at Bunker's Hill, and the substantial tokens of kindness, which from time to time he rendered to them, would in any other person be regarded as noble proofs of disinterested benevolence and goodness of heart. Let them be placed in the scale, and allowed the weight they deserve. ”

“ It is a little remarkable, that, in the midst of all these censures, Arnold never solicited a court of inquiry on his own part, by which, if they were unjust and without foundation, he might at once have silenced his enemies, and which it would be natural to expect under such circumstances from a man, possessing a quick sense of honor, who was conscious of his innocence. ”

“ It being now ascertained, that Washington and the other gentlemen would not be there, General Arnold, his family, and the aids-de-camp, sat down to breakfast. Before they arose from the table, a messenger came in with a letter for Arnold, which he broke open and read in presence of the company. It was the letter which Colonel Jameson had written two days before, and despatched by Lieutenant Allen, and it contained the first intelligence received by Arnold of the capture of André. His emotion can be more easily imagined than described. ”

“ Whether weary of a military life, or impelled by his pecuniary necessities, or from whatever cause, it appears that Arnold had actually meditated leaving the army before the difficulties with the Pennsylvania government had assumed the shape of a public censure upon his character. He had formed a project of obtaining a grant of land in the western part of New York, and of establishing a settlement for the officers and soldiers, who had served under him, and for such other persons as might choose to unite in the enterprise. ”

“ He was sent to West Point and released from military arrest, but he was immediately taken into custody by the civil authority of the state, and confined in the jail at Goshen. After remaining there several months without any trial, he found means to escape, and passed through the country, sometimes disguised in a woman's dress, to Paulus Hook and New York. At the close of the war he went to England.
Mrs. Arnold resolved to share the lot of her husband. She visited her friends at Philadelphia, and joined him in New York about the middle of November. ”

“ Happily no one will regret the blank. All that can be ascertained, in regard to his subsequent history, may be gathered from half a dozen anecdotes. Some of these are characteristic; others show in what utter disgrace he was held by the whole world.
At the time he was about to sail from New York, two Scotch officers, wishing to return to England, requested a passage in the same vessel. The captain told them, that General Arnold had taken the whole cabin for himself and family, and that there was no more room for passengers ”

“ That minister, having an admiration of his bravery and military talents, and believing generous usage the best means of reclaiming such a man from his errors, was accustomed to treat him with marked civility, and had shown no change in his deportment after the censure of the court-martial and the disgrace of a reprimand. Encouraged by this amenity and kindness, Arnold approached him with confidence, and expressed his sentiments and wishes without reserve. ”

“ Irving well says of André and his correspondence with Arnold through such a channel, "Various circumstances connected with this nefarious negotiation, argue lightness of mind and something of debasing alloy on the part of André. The correspondence carried on for months in the jargon of traffic, savored less of the camp than the counting-house; the protracted tampering with a brave and necessitous man for the sacrifice of his fame and the betrayal of his trust, strikes us as being beneath the range of a truly chivalrous nature." ”

“ Arnold's creditors were the chief losers by his defection, unless he set a large price upon the diminution of his rank, being appointed colonel of a regiment in the British service, with the brevet of brigadier-general.
Arnold had been but a few days with his new friends, when he published an Address to the Inhabitants of America, attempting to explain and vindicate the course he had pursued. Considering the cause he undertook to defend, it is no wonder that he should say little to the purpose. Abuse of Congress and of the French alliance was the principal theme of his discourse. ”

“ No one ever doubted the purity of his intention. Perceiving the mischievous tendency of the papers, and knowing them to have been copied by Arnold, at the same moment that he sent André under guard to West Point, he despatched an express with the papers to meet General Washington, then supposed to be on the road returning from his interview with the French commanders at Hartford. ”

“ It was during this expedition, that Arnold asked a captain, who had been taken prisoner, what he thought the Americans would do with him, if he should fall into their hands. "They will cut off the leg," replied the officer, "which was wounded when you were fighting for the cause of liberty, and bury it with the honors of war, and hang the rest of your body on a gibbet."
While these things were going on, Sir Henry Clinton received a letter from Lord George Germain, little suited to increase his respect for the judgment, good sense, or honesty of his new American brigadier. ”