Arrived at the fatal spot, he said: "I am reconciled to my fate, but not to the mode." Being asked at the last moment if he had anything to say, he answered: "Nothing but to request you to witness to the world that I die like a brave man."

It is a blemish on the character of André that he had begun his mission by prostituting a flag, had pledged his word for the innocence and private nature of his design, and had wished to make the lives of faultless prisoners hostages for his own. About these things a man of honor and humanity ought to have had a scruple; "but the temptation was great; let his misfortunes cast a veil over his errors." The last words of André committed to the Americans the care of his reputation; and they faithfully fulfilled his request. The firmness and delicacy observed in his case were exceedingly admired on the continent of Europe. His king did right in offering honorable rank to his brother, and in granting pensions to his mother and sisters; but not in raising a memorial to his name in Westminster Abbey. Such honor belongs to other enterprises and deeds. The tablet has no fit place in a sanctuary, dear from its monuments to every friend to genius and mankind.

As for Arnold, he had not feeling enough to undergo mental torments, and his coarse nature was not sensitive to shame. Though bankrupt and flying from his creditors, he preferred claims to indemnity, and received between six and seven thousand pounds. He suffered only when he found that baffled treason is paid grudgingly; when employment was refused him; when he could neither stay in England nor get orders for service in America; when, despised and neglected, he was pinched by want. But the king would not suffer his children to starve, and eventually their names were placed on the pension list.

Sir George Rodney returned to the West Indies, and, so far as related to himself, let the unsuccessful conspiracy sink into oblivion. For Clinton, the cup of humiliation was filled to the brim. "Thus ended," so he wrote in his anguish to Germain, "this proposed plan, from which I had conceived such great hopes and imagined such great consequences." He was, moreover, obliged to introduce into high rank in the British army, and receive at his council table, a man who

had shown himself so sordid that British officers of honor hated to serve with him. Arnold had the effrontery to make addresses to the American people respecting their alliance with France; to write insolent letters to Washington; to invite all Americans to desert the colors of their country like himself; to advise the breaking up of the American army by wholesale bribery. Nay, he even turned against his patron as wanting activity, assuring Germain that the American posts in the Highlands might be carried in a few days by a regular attack. No one knew better than Clinton that André was punished justly; yet in his private journal he aimed a stab at the fair fame of his humane adversary, whom he had not been able to overcome in the field nor by the practice of base deceit; and attributed an act of public duty to personal "rancor," for which no cause whatever existed. The false accusation proves not so much malignity in its author as feebleness.*

Washington sought out the three men who, "leaning only on their virtue and an honest sense of their duty," could not be tempted by gold; and on his report congress voted them annuities in words of respect and honor.

*In my narrative I have followed only contemporary documents, which are abundant and of the surest character, and which, taken collectively, solve every question. The most important are: The proceedings of the American court of inquiry; Clinton's elaborate letters to Lord George Germain of 11 and 12 October 1780; Narrative of correspondence and transactions respecting General Arnold in Sir Henry Clinton's letter of 11 October 1780; Clinton's secret letter of 30 October 1780; Clinton's report to Lord Amherst of 16 October 1780; Extract from Clinton's Journal in Mahon's England, vii., Appendix vii. to xi.; Journal of General Matthews; Trial of Joshua Hett Smith, New York, 1866; and especially Hamilton's account of André's affair in Works, i., 172-182. This last is particularly valuable, as Hamilton had the best opportunities to be well informed; and in his narrative, if there are any traces of partiality, it is toward André that he leaned. The reminiscences of men who wrote in later days are so mixed up with errors of memory and fable that they offer no sure foothold.

CHAPTER XXIX.

STRIVING FOR UNION.

1779-1781.

"OUR respective governments which compose the union," so ran the circular of congress to the states in the opening of the year 1779, "are settled and in the vigorous exercise of uncontrolled authority." The union itself was without credit and unable to enforce the collection of taxes. About one hundred and six millions of paper money were then in circulation, and in April 1779 stood at five cents. For the service of the year 1779, congress invited the states to pay by instalments their respective quotas of fifteen millions; and, further, to pay six millions annually for eighteen years, as a fund to sink all previous emissions and obligations. After these preliminaries, a new issue of a little more than fifty millions was authorized.

"The state of the currency was the great impediment to all vigorous measures;" it became a question whether men, if they could be raised, could be subsisted. The Pennsylvania farmers were unwilling to sell their wheat except for hard money. There was no hope of relief but from the central authority. To confederate without Maryland was the opinion of Connecticut; with nine or more states, of Boston; with "so many as shall be willing to do so," allowing to the rest a time during which they might come in, of Virginia.

Late in May congress apportioned among the states fortyfive millions of dollars more, though there was no chance that the former apportionment would be paid. Four times in the course of the year it sent forth addresses to the several states. Newspapers, town-meetings, legislatures, teemed with

remedial plans; but the issue of paper constantly increased, and its value fell with accelerated velocity. In the middle of August, when a paper dollar was worth but three or four cents, Washington directed his agents to receive it no longer, for the legal-tender law countenanced dishonesty.

On the second of September, congress having ascertained that the sum of outstanding emissions was but little short of one hundred and sixty millions, limited paper money to two hundred millions; and the limit was reached before the end of the year. In October it appointed Henry Laurens of South Carolina to negotiate a loan of ten millions in the Netherlands, though they had not yet acknowledged the existence of the United States; and in November it resolved to draw upon him on time for one hundred thousand pounds sterling. It resolved to draw on Jay, their minister at Madrid, for as much more, which he was left to get from the king of Spain, though that king was the most determined foe to the independence of the United States. Laurens and Jay were instructed mutually to support each other, though neither of them had any but imaginary resources. In the midst of these financial straits the year came to an end; and a paper dollar, which, when first buoyed up by the French alliance, was valued at twenty cents, in January 1779 had fallen to twelve and a half, in April to five cents, in December to less than two and a half cents.

The legislature of Virginia had, on the second of June 1779, unanimously ratified the treaties of alliance and commerce between France and the United States; and the governor had, under the seal of the commonwealth, notified the French envoy at Philadelphia of the act. The legislature of Maryland formally approved the act of its delegates in congress in ratifying the treaties. No other state followed these examples. Vergennes, in September, after reflecting on the procedure of Virginia, gave instructions to Gerard in these words: "During the war it is essential, both for the United States and for us, that their union should be as perfect as possible. When they shall be left to themselves, the general confederation will have much difficulty in maintaining itself, and will perhaps be replaced by separate confederations. Should this revolution occur, it will weaken the United States, which have not now,

and never will have, real and respectable strength except by their union. But it is for themselves alone to make these reflections. We have no right to present them for their consideration, and we have no interest whatever to see America play the part of a power. The possibility of the dissolution of the general confederation and the consequent suppression of congress leads us to think that nothing can be more conformable to our political interest than separate acts by which each state shall ratify the treaties concluded with France; because in this way every state will be found separately connected with us, whatever may be the fortune of the general confederation."

The sentiment of congress was strong against the exercise of a separate voice on a subject reserved exclusively for the deliberation of the confederacy. Before the war was ended, both Maryland and Virginia applied directly to France for assistance, which Virginia received.

On the question of a closer union, Virginia hung nearly on the balance. The first of her citizens, at the head of the army, was using all his powers of persuasion to promote an efficient government; and her legislature selected Madison, a friend to union, as one of her representatives. On the other hand, as the chief claimant of north-western lands in opposition to congress, she, above all others, asserted the sovereignty of the separate states. Congress had received petitions from persons, claiming to be companies, holding land north-west of the Ohio. "Should congress assume a jurisdiction," such was the remonstrance of the general assembly of Virginia, "it would be a violation of public faith; introduce a most dangerous precedent, which might hereafter be urged to deprive of territory or subvert the sovereignty and government of any one or more of the United States; and establish in congress a power which, in process of time, must degenerate into an intolerable despotism." 66 Although the general assembly of Virginia would make great sacrifices to the common interest of America (as they have already done on the subject of representation), and will be ready to listen to any just and reasonable propositions for removing the ostensible causes of delay to the complete ratification of the confederation, they do hereby, in the name and on behalf of the commonwealth of Virginia, expressly pro