The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1891-03-20
Benedict Arm old.

All the family traditions go 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 CALAMITY
won and so wretchedly lost left him no re-
pose by night or day. The iron frame, which
! had withstood the fatigue of 30 many trying
battlefields and still more trying marches
through the wilderness, broke down at the
last under the slow torture of lost friendships
and merited disgrace.
| In the last sad days in London, in June,
1901, the family tradition says that Arnold's
mind kept reVerting to his old friendship
with Washington. He had always carefully
preserved the American uniform which he
wore on the day he made his escape to the
| Vulture; and now as, broken in spirits and
weary of life, he felt the last moments COM
ing, he called for this uniform and put it on,
and decorated himself with the epaulettes and
sword-knot which Washington had given
him after the victory of Saratoga. LET me
die said he, "in this old uniform in which
fought my battles. May God forgive me for
ever putting on any other !"
AS we thus reach the end of one of the
saddest episodes in American history, our
sympathy can not fail for the moment to 60
out towards the sufferer, nor can we help
contrasting these passionate dying words with
the last cynical scoff of that other traitor,
Charles Lee, when he begged that he might
not be buried within 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 mel
odrama; but into the story of Arnold
there enters that element of awe and pity
which, as Aristotle pointed out, is an essen
tial part of real tragedy.
That Arnold had been very shabbily treat
ed, long before any thought of treason en-
tered his mind, is not to be denied. That he
may honestly have come to consider the
American cause hopeless, that he may really
have lost his interest in it because of the
French alliance-all of this is quite possible.
Such considerations might have justified him
in resigning his commission or even, had
he openly and frankly gone over to the
enemy, much as we should have deplored
such step, some persons would always have
been found to judge him leniently, and accord
him the credit of acting upon principles.
But the dark and crooked course which he
did choose left open no alternative but that of
unqualified condemnation. If 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 I'M
mitgated. Arnold's fall was by far the more
terrible, as he fell from greater height, and
into depth than winch none could De
lower. 1t is 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 Continen-
tai army except Washington and Greene
But it is part of the natural penalty that at
tacnes 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 symbol of unfaithfulness to trust
John FiSke.