The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1894-06-15
miscellaneous.
ArnoId's Treachery Unforgotten.

| A Revolutionary Episode Recalled
From the Pail Mall Magazine.
In a corner of my library is an an
| tique cabinet, wherein are rare his
torical curiosities, each one of which
can awaken a marvellous train of
memories. Among them is the watch
that Major Andre wore during the
American revolutionary war, and with
which, and the offer of a hundred
guineas, he sought to buy release from
his captors. 1t is of gold, quite flat.
after the workmanship of the time,
and bears the inscription John An
| Dire, 1774." There is something indie
scribably pathetic in its association
with that unfortunate officer, and one
cannot but contrast his happy and
brilliant career up to the day of his
fatal rendezvous with Benedict Arnold
with the ignominy of his death as a
spy within the American lines.
Forty odd years after his execution
the remains of Major Andre were re
moved from their place of interment
at Tappan to Westminster Abbey, and
Il marble tablet, ornamented with
group of figures, was raised above
them. In this group two personages
are conspicuous one is Andre, appar-
emily waving farewell to his British
| companions in the distance the other
| is George Washington, seemingly re-
| fusing an entreaty for the prisoners
release. Few people know that the
| Father of the American republic
stands thus in effigy in Westminster
Abbey, and probably still fewer are
| aware that occasionally his head is
knocked off by some fervent Briton
who resents the intrusion of so distin-
guished Il rebel among England's loyal
dead. A glance shows that Washing
toms head has been freshly replaced,
and the information is given that the
last of these emphatic vindications of
Saratoga, 1.-The field of the grounded
arms" occurred dozen years ago.
1t is striking to find that on both
sides of the Atlantic, despite the pro-
testations of friendship of these later
days, the memories that hang about
| this incident of Andres death are still
intensely bitter. Fourteen years ago
Cyrus Field, an American of wide
reputation, erected monument to
Andre on the spot where he died, bear
| ing an inscription composed by the
| late Dean Stanley. One night, a few
monthsafter, this shaft wasOverthrown
with dynamite. There was nothing
in the words it bore intended to ruffie
American sensibility ; nor, probably,
would this slight memorial of Il brave
mans last moments have been modest
ed had it been raised by English
hands. The offense lay in that an
| American in the year 1880 should com
memorate with craven eulogy the
enemy who in 1880 came within hairs
| Of tho
| American Commonwealth. Public
antipathy to the PROSTATE plinth was
not reasoned when MIR. Field caused it
to be restored to the perpendicular,
| and but few weeks elapsed before Il
violent explosion again startled the
neighboring village from its slumber,
and daylight revealed the objection
able stone blown to such fragments as
| to preclude its further restoration. 1t
| is a coincidence that the destruction
of Andres monument in America and
the latest breaking off of Washing
toms head in Westminster Abbey
should have happened during the
same year.
There was a statement i'll Dean
Stanley's inscription which was GER
tainly erroneous, and may, perhaps,
have given offense. He declares that
Andre died regretted by both
armies,' which was very far from be-
ing the fact. In 1880 the struggle
against the blessings of despotism,
which the colonies had begun at Lex
| ington in 1715, had lasted more than
| five years, and had been carried on
with the venom that marks a domestic
quarrel. Financially the colonies
were ruined. Philadelphia had been
captured, New York burnt, the At
lantic seaboard scanned with the
march of hostile troops, commerce and
| trade had ceased to exist, the cOlOnistS
| had suffered the sternest hardships
| i'm silence and now their hearts began
to sink within them. These were the
days that tried mems souls" After
| five years fighting was indepenence
any nearer? The British and their
Hessian auxiliaries had sustained sew
eral defeats, but they were still num-
erous and well appointed and conf
dent. The fortitude of the Continen-
tai patriots remained outwardly I'M
shaken. but contemporary writings
show that to thewisest and mostdevot-
ed, with the exception of Washington
and Franklin and Il few others, the
American cause seemed almostd eSper-
ate.
1t was at this critical juncture that
| Benedict Arnold, Il general in the
American army, commanding at West
Point, the strategic key to the Hudson
river, was led by personal grievances
to enter into a correspondence with
Andre, then Adiutant General of the
forces under Sir Henry Clinton, for
the betrayal of his post. A large sum
was to be paid for this baseness,
which was to include the American
garrison of 5000 men, and was to be
| tirned to secure the presence of Wash
! ington and his consequent capture.
| Thus the animating spirit OF the Amer
| lean army, one sixth of its force and
its strongest citadel were to pass to-
gether into the hands of the enemy.
| No one can doubt that such an over
whelming stroke would instantly have
made an end of the revolution {;
and yet Dean Stanley would have us
believe that the capture and death of
Andre, which involved the failure of the
plot, could be regretted by the Ameri-
can army. AS well say that rescued
mariners regret the death they have
| escaped.
No, the seizure of Andre was hailed
on the American side with the intense
relief of men who are spared an APP
palling catastrophe. 1t required many
years before his name was in some
measure cleared of the odium which
will forever attach to that of Benedict
Arnold-more years even than the
British Government required to re-
member Andres neglected grave be-
meath peach tree on the Tappan
hillside. The sole regret experienced
by the Americans, in all this thrilling
episode, was at the escape of Arnold,
a sentiment we'll expressed by Wash
ington in his reply to Clinton.s en-
treaty for the life of Andre-'Give us
Arnold, and you shall have Major
Andre" Had Dean Stanley been dis
posed to phrase his eulogy a little diff
ferent, he might, with entire truth,