"That Major Andre, Adjutant General to the British army, ought to be considered as a spy from the enemy that he came on shore from the Vulture sloop of war, in the night of the 21st of September, on an interview with General Arnold, in a private and secret manner; that he changed his dress within our lines, and under a feigned name, and in a disguised habit, passed our works at Stony and Verplank's Points: that he was taken in a disguised habit, on his way to New-York; that he had in his possession several papers, which contained intelligence for the enemy; and that agreeably to the laws and usages of nations, he ought to suffer death."

After this report of the board of officers, Washington replied to the letter of Sir Henry Clinton, and enclosed to him a copy of the decision. As a last effort, then, to save the forfeited life of his friend, Clinton proposed that General Robertson and two other gentlemen should meet General Washington, or others appointed by him, with a view to a complete and mutual understanding of the whole business, as due to humanity, before the decision of the board should be carried into execution. Washington consented that General Greene should meet General Robertson. Every thing that ingenuity or humanity could suggest, was urged on the part of the British General; Major Andre was represented as the particular friend of the commander in chief, whom it might be important to oblige by his liberation; and in the end an absurd and threatening letter was delivered from Arnold. But General Greene was unshaken in his opinion of the nature of the transaction, and the conference ended without effect. The whole American army appeared, in the most unac

countable manner, to be interested in the fate of Major Andre, while that of their own countryman, Captain Hale, who had fallen into the hands of the enemy, under circumstances precisely similar, and who had been executed in the vilest manner, at New-York, without the formality of a board of inquiry, had been passed over as a matter of course, without its seeming to excite a single emotion of compassion or regret. Major Andre, it is true, was a high minded, honourable, brave and accomplished youth; so was Captain Hale. Major Andre had made many friends among the American officers, by his calm, dignified and manly deportment during his confinement-Captain Hale was of a disposition and character to have done the same, had an opportunity been allowed, but the summary manner in which he was condemned and executed, left his enemies ignorant of his nobility of soul: not a voice was raised in extenuation of his crime, not an eye wept at his fate.

When Major Andre was apprised of the sentence of death, which had been pronounced against him, he made this last appeal to the feelings of Washington, in a letter dated the day before his execution. "Buoyed above the terrour of death, by the consciousness of a life devoted to honourable pursuits, stained with no action that can give me remorse, I trust that the request I make to your Excellency at this severe period and which is to soften my last moments, will not be rejected.

"Sympathy towards a soldier, will surely induce you to adapt the mode of my death, to the feelings of a man of honour. Let me hope, sir, that if aught in my character impresses you with esteem towards me, if aught in my misfortunes marks me the victim of policy, not of resentment; I shall experience the ope

ration of those feelings in your breast, by being informed that I am not to die on a gibbet."

Washington, who in relation to this transaction, has been branded by his enemies with the epithets of cruel, vindictive and savage, on the receipt of the Major's letter, felt towards the unhappy writer all the sympathies of a kind and compassionate nature; and if he only had been concerned, the prisoner would have been pardoned and enlarged. But the interests of his country were at stake, and the sternness of justice demanded that private feelings should be sacrificed. He consulted his officers on the propriety of listening to Major Andre's request to receive the death of a soldier, and seemed himself desirous that this last poor consolation should be given to him; many of the officers were melted to softness by the manliness of his appeal, but General Greene, whose feelings were more under the guidance of cool discretion and prudence, insisted on the justice of the sentence, and the necessity of example. On the 2d of October, this unfortunate young man expiated the only criminal or dishonourable action of his life, on the gallows. He resigned himself to his fate with heroick fortitude, and died universally lamented by foes as well as friends.

Arnold, the miserable wretch, whose machinations had led to this unhappy catastrophe, attempted to justify his treachery on the plea of love of country. With the most infatuated weakness, he endeavoured to persuade himself and others, that the same attachment to the interesis of his country, which had first led him with enthusiastick ardour to take up arms in her defence, imposed on him the part he had now taken. The detection of Andre, indeed, seems to

have produced a temporary derangement of intellect in Arnold. He recieved the news of it with a phrenzy of feeling that makes his escape wonderful. Having gained the Vulture sloop of war, he delayed not to present himself before the British General at NewYork, from whom he received the price of his dishonour, the commission of Brigadier General, and the sum of ten thousand pounds sterling. This last was the grand secret of Arnold's fall from virtue; his vanity and extravagance had led him into expenses which it was neither in the power or will of Congress to support; he had involved himself in debt, from which he saw no hope of extricating himself; and his honour was bartered for British gold. The first thing which this newly created loyalist did, on his arrival at New-York, was to issue an address to his former companions in arms, and the American people, in which after attempting to justify his conduct, he called upon them with no less insolence than absurdity, to look upon the Congress as their only real enemies, and to flock to the standard of his Majesty, where they would receive the honours and the pay due to their services. Great as the calculations of Sir Henry Clinton were, upon the defection of Arnold, it does not appear that his example, or subsequent exertions, influenced a single individual to desert the service of his country. Washington's sentiments on this event were thus expressed in his letter to a friend, a few days after the catastrophe. "In no instance since the commencement of the war, has the interposition of providence appeared more remarkably conspicuous, than in the rescue of the post and garrison of West Point.

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"How far Arnold meant to involve me in the catastrophe of this plan, does not appear by any indubitable evidence; and I am rather inclined to think, he did not wish to hazard the more important object *by attempting to combine two events, the lesser of which, might have marred the greater. A combination of extraordinary circumces, and unaccountable deprivation of presence of mind, in a man of the first abilities, and the virtue of three militia men, threw the Adjutant General of the British forces, (with the full proof of Arnold's intention) into our hands; and but for the egregious folly, or the bewildered conception of Lieutenant Colonel Jameson, who seemed lost in astonishment, and not to have known what he was doing, I should undoubtedly have gotten Arnold. Andre has met his fate, and with that fortitude which was to be expected from an accomplished young man and a gallant officer; but I mistake if Arnold is not suffering at this time the torments of a mental hell.”

With respect to the three militia men who had been the instruments of Providence in this signal interposition, Congress, on the 3d of November "resolved, that Congress have a high sense of the virtuous and patriotick conduct of John Paulding, David Williams and Isaac Vanvert; in testimony whereof, ordered, that each of them receive annually 200 dollars in specie, or an equivalent in the current money of these states, during life; and that the board of war be directed to procure for each of them, a silver medal, on one side of which shall be a shield with this inscription, "fidelity," and on the other, the following motto, "vincit amor patriæ," and forward them to the commander in chief, who is requested to present the