Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-11-06
BENEDICT ARNOLD.
His Last Years Were Years OF Bitter Re
morse and Self-Reproach.

His Last Years Were Years OF Bitter Re-
morse and Self-Reproaoh.
All the family tradition goes to show
that the last years of Benedict Arnold
in London were years of bitter remorse
and self-reproach. The great name
which he had so gallantly won and so
wretchedly lost left him no repose by
night or day. The iron frame, which
had withstood the fatigue of so many
trying battle-felds and still more trying
marches through the wilderness, broke
down at last under the slow torture Of
lost friendships and merited dis
grace. In the last sad days i'll Lon
don, in June, 1901, the family
tradition says that Arnold's mind
kept reverting to his old friendship
with Washington. lie had always care
fully preserved the American uniform
which he wore on the day when he
made his escape to the Vulturei and
now as, broken in spirit and weary of
life, he felt the last moments coming,
he called for this uniform and put IL on,
and decorated himself with the epau-
lettes and swordknot which Washing
ton had given him after the victory of
Saratoga. Lot me die" said he, lin
this old uniform in which | fought my
battles. May God forgive NE for ever
putting on any otherl'
AS we thus reach the end of one of
the saddest episodes in American his
tory, our sympathy can not fail for the
moment to go out toward the sufferer,
nor can we help contrasting these pas
siOnate dying words with the lastcynical
SCOT of that other traitor, Charles Lee,
when he begged that he might not be
buried within a mile of any church, as
he did not wish to keep bad company
after death. From beginning to end the
story of Lee is little more than vulgar
melodrama; but into the story of Arnold
there enters that element of awe and
pity which, as Aristotle pointed out, is
an essential part of real tragedy. That
Arnold had been very shabbily treated,
long before any thought of treason en-
tered his mind, is not to be denied.
That he may honestly have come to con
slider the American cause hopeless, that
he may really have lost his interest in
it because of the French alliance-al
this is quite possible Such considera-
tions might have justified him in re-
signing his commission; or even, had he
openly and frankly gone over to the
enemy, much as we should have de-
plored such step, some persons would
always have been found to Judge him
leniently, and accord him the credit OF
acting upon principle. But the dark
and crooked course which he did choose
left open no alternative but that Of I'M
qualified condemnation. II we feel less
of contempt and more of sorrow in the
case of Arnold than in the case of such
a weakling as Charles Lee, our verdict
is not the less unmitigated. Arnold's
fall was by far the more terrible, as he
fell from greater height, and into a
depth than which none could be lower.
tits only fair that we should recall his
services to the cause of American indie
pendence, which were unquestionably
greater than those of any other man in
the Continental army except Washing
ton and Greene. But 1t is part OF the
natural penalty that attaches to back
sliding such as his, that when we hear
the name of Benedict Arnold these are
not the things which it suggests to our
minds. but the name stands, and will
always stand, as a symbol Of unfaithful-
ness to trust-John Fiske, in Atlantic.