1780.

ANDRÉ CONDEMNED TO DEATH.

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which Arnold, while commanding at West Point, had undoubted authority to give. To his letter Clinton added a note from Arnold himself, in corroboration of his statements. Sir Henry received, however, an unfavourable reply from Washington, and at the same time was apprised of the decision to which the Board of Officers had come. He determined to send immediately to the American head-quarters a deputation, which might state the true facts of the case and urge his arguments anew. For this service he selected an officer of the highest rank, General Robertson, together with the LieutenantGovernor and the Chief Justice of New York. They were the bearers, also, of a letter from Arnold to Washington, in which Arnold repeated his explanations, and threatened measures of requital if the sentence against André should be executed; a letter which, as might have been foreseen, produced no good effect, but rather, it may be feared, the reverse.

*

On the 1st of October, the three Commissioners sailed up the Hudson, in an English sloop, and with a flag of truce. Of the three, however, Washington allowed only General Robertson to land. Nor was he willing, as was wished, to confer with that officer in person; he appointed to meet him the President of the late Court of Inquiry. The English chief, accordingly, was received on shore by General Greene, and began by stating, at full length, the two points on which Sir Henry Clinton had laid stress. In reply to the first, it was observed by General Greene, that André himself, on his trial, had avowed that, in landing from the Vulture, he did not consider himself under the sanction of a flag of truce. When General Robertson alleged the testimony of Arnold, as to his having sent one out, General Greene answered drily, that the Americans would believe André in preference to Arnold. How far it might be either just or humane (for of generosity in this case we need, of course, say nothing), to turn against André an avowal made, with not a friend or counsel beside him, and in the presence of only his bitterest foes, was not any further

* This letter, and most of the others bearing on the case of André, will be found in the Appendix to vol. vii. of Washington's Writings, pp. 520-544.

in that conference discussed. General Robertson offered to exchange for the intended victim, any prisoner whom the Americans might choose. He urged that, in more than one instance, confessed and undoubted spies, the secret correspondents of Washington from the English quarters, had had their lives spared, from Sir Henry's merciful regard to the intercessions in their behalf of the American Commander. He observed that several such spies were still in Sir Henry's power. Finding his arguments, his offers, his entreaties, all alike unheeded, General Robertson said, lastly, that no military tribunal in Europe would decide the case of André to be that of a spy; and he proposed to refer the question to the judgment of General Knyphausen and the Comte de Rochambeau. Greene and Robertson then parted, the former promising only to repeat to his Chief all the representations of the latter. Early next morning, the 2nd of October, Robertson received a note from Greene, stating, in few words, that his arguments, as reported, had made no change in General Washington's opinion and determination. Another appeal, which Robertson, to leave no possible means untried, addressed in a letter direct to Washington, proved equally barren of effect.

There was one condition, it seems, and one, condition only, on which Washington would have readily agreed to André's release-that the English should give up Arnold in his place. It is astonishing (but, indeed, what part of Washington's conduct in this transaction may not excite surprise?) how such a thought should have entered such a mind; how Washington could have expected an honourable enemy to take a step so dishonourable, and so subversive of every military principle. Captain Aaron Ogden, who conveyed the letters from André and from Washington to the British posts as far as Paulus Hook, was directed to let fall this idea among the British officers; it was accordingly made known to Sir Henry Clinton, but by him was, of course and at once, rejected. The same suggestion was brought forward more directly by General Greene, in the conference with General Robertson. In his despatch to Sir Henry, Robertson declares that he replied to it only by a look of indignant rebuke.

Meanwhile, André in his captivity continued serene

1780.

ANDRÉ HANGED AS A SPY.

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and self-possessed. He beguiled one of his lonesome and weary hours by making, with his pen, a sketch of himself as he sat at his prison-table.* To death he was resigned; but he solicited the privilege of dying by the musket like a soldier, and not by the cord like a felon. On the 1st of October, he addressed to Washington a touching letter with this sad request. Washington, however, so far from relenting, vouchsafed him no reply; and the prisoner was left, to the last, uncertain of his doom. His execution had been fixed for noon the next day. He was dressed in his uniform as a British officer, and walked forward with the firmness which becomes that character. It was only when he came in sight of the gallows that, by an involuntary impulse, he shrunk back. "Must I then "die in this manner?" he said; but, speedily recovering himself, he added, "it will be but a momentary pang." He ascended the cart with a firm step, and bandaged his own eyes with a steady hand. At the last, when an American officer drew nigh and told him that he had an opportunity to speak if he desired it, he raised the handkerchief from his eyes, and said:-"I pray you "to bear me witness that I meet my fate like a brave man." These were his last words; the signal was made, the noose fell, his limbs were convulsed for a moment, and then still for ever. Thus did the Adjutant-General of the British army in America die the death of the vilest malefactors; a death, however, which, in his circumstances, and with his character, brought no disgraceno disgrace, at least, to him.

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A monument to the memory of André

WHO FELL A SACRIFICE TO HIS ZEAL FOR HIS KING AND COUNTRY

was, by command of George the Third, raised in Westminster Abbey. His remains were buried close to the place of execution. But in 1821, they were disinterred and removed to England by Mr. Buchanan, the British Consul at New York.† It was not fit, indeed, that they should rest in American ground.

* This sketch was presented by André to the officer on guard, and is now preserved in the Trumbull Gallery at Yale College. A fac-simile is given by Mr. Sparks, in his Life of Arnold.

† See an account of this disinterment, in the Ann. Register 1821, part ii. p. 133. A small peach-tree was found growing on the grave.

From the historical narrative let us now pass to the critical examination of his fate. First, then, had Washington any good ground for relying on the judgment of the Court of Inquiry? Of whom did that Court consist? As we have already seen, of twelve American, and of two European field officers. Now, it must be borne in mind that the American Generals, at that time, were, for the most part, wholly destitute of the advantage of a liberal education. They were men drawn from the plough-handle, or from the shop-board, at their country's call. Greene himself, the President of the tribunal, had been a blacksmith by trade. These humble avocations afford no reason why such men might not always do their duty as became them in the field; why they should not sometimes acquire and display military skill; why, at the present day, their names should not be held in high honour by their countrymen. But they do afford a reason, and, as it seems to me, a strong one, why such men, having no light of study to guide them, having never probably so much as heard the names of Vattel or Puffendorf, could be no fit judges on any nice or doubtful point of national law. And by whom had they been assisted? By La Fayette, who, though for some years a trans-Atlantic General, was still only a youth of twentythree, and who, as he tells us, had learnt little or nothing at his college. By Steuben, who had undoubtedly great knowledge and experience, but who speaking no English, while his colleagues spoke no French, was unable to discuss any controverted question with them. *

It follows then, that the verdict of such a tribunal ought to have no weight in such a case; and that Washington, far from relying upon it, was bound either to refer the question to such men as Knyphausen and Rochambeau, adjoining with them perhaps Steuben; or to ponder and decide it for himself. Had he considered it with his usual calmness and clear good sense, it seems scarcely possible that, with all the circumstances so utterly unlike, he should have pronounced the case of

* On this mutual ignorance of each other's language see the note at vol. vi. p. 155.

1780.

STERNNESS OF WASHINGTON.

71

André to be the same as that of a common spy. And waiving for the present the disputed point as to the flag of truce, it is clear, at all events, that when André was arrested, he was travelling under the protection of a pass which Arnold, as the commander of the West Point district, had a right to give. The Americans contend that this right was forfeited, or rendered of no effect, by Arnold's treacherous designs. Yet how hard to reconcile such a distinction with plighted faith and public law! How can we draw the line and say at what precise point the passes are to grow invalid-whether, when the treachery is in progress of execution, or when only matured in the mind, or when the mind is still wavering upon it? In short, how loose and slippery becomes the ground if once we forsake the settled principle of recognising the safe-conducts granted by adequate authority, if once we stray forth in quest of secret motives and designs!

It has, indeed, been asserted that "Washington signed "the order for André's death with great reluctance; but "the army were dissatisfied, and demanded the sacrifice." This assertion, however, rests on no sufficient evidence*; and were it most fully established, would not relieve the Commander-in-Chief from his legitimate responsibility. Nor can the inflexibility of Washington, in both awarding death to André, and denying him the last consolation and relief he sought to die the death of a soldier. be vindicated, as I conceive, by any supposed necessity, at that time, of a severe example. Had Arnold, indeed, or any American taking part with Arnold, been in question, that motive might, no doubt, have justly carried

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* It was so stated to Mr. W. Faux, on board a steam-boat in the Delaware, by "two old German gentlemen, heroes of the Revolution," who, as they said, had been in camp with Major André. (April 12. 1820; Memorable Days in America, p. 402.) In their opinion the example of his death was necessary and salutary." But the names of these two gentlemen are not given; and there is another part of their statement which I should be loth to admit, without the strongest corroborative testimony, that an American General (who is named) could insult the defenceless André on his way to execution, telling him:-"You die for your cowardice, and "like a coward!" This must surely be quite erroneous.