THE SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER. APRIL, 1845. PAPERS OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE. ON THE FATE AND CHARACTER OF MAJOR ANDRE. LIMA, August 5th, 1844. DEAR SIR-Looking over the poetical works of Robert Southey, not long ago, I noticed the following passage in the preface to Madoc, which I had either not read before, or had forgotten. Mr. S. says: ting to the political history of our country are scarce, it is not in my power to satisfy myself on this point. I recollect to have read the Monody about thirtyfour years ago, for the first and the last time, and my young imagination was so struck with the venom of the invective and with what appeared to me then to be vigor likewise, that some of the lines fastened themselves upon my memory and there they yet remain, to the exclusion perhaps of something much better. Among them are these: "Miss Seward was not so much overrated at one time as she has since been unjustly depreciated. She was so considerable a person when her reputation was at its height, that Washington said no eircumstance of his life had been so mortifying to him, as that of having been made the object of her invective, in her Monody on Major André. After peace had been concluded between Great Britain and the United States, he commissioned an American officer, who was about to sail for England, to call upon her at Litchfield and explain to her, that dré the "fallen foe." And againinstead of having caused André's death he had endeavored to save him, and she was requested to peruse the papers in proof of this, which he sent for her perusal. They filled me with contrition,' says Miss Seward, for the rash injustice of my censure." " "For cowards only know, Persisting vengeance o'er a fallen foe." General Washington was the "coward" and An Now if this incident, in the life of General Washington, as related by Mr. Southey, is an admitted historical fact, there is nothing more to be said; though I cannot but express my regret that the Father of his Country should have stooped to justify himself to the most scurrilous and the most mendacious of all his libellers, at home or abroad; for that undoubtedly was Miss Anna Seward. I can not persuade myself though that he did this, for I have no recollection of seeing in any biography of him or in any history of the revolution, a statement of his having done so. It may have escaped me, however, and here, where books rela VOL. XI-25 "And infamy with livid hand shall shed Eternal mildews on thy ruthless head." The "ruthless head" was Washington's. The poem abounds with flowers and figures in the same style, and whatever may now be thought of their poetic merit, the authoress, I think, if still alive, might claim that of being able to put into a few lines as much ribaldry as almost any other English poet or poetess, not excepting Mr. Southey himself, who certainly had a very pretty talent for billingsgate, as well as much other talent; witness his apostrophe to Napoleon. "Bold man and bad! Remorseless, godless, full of frauds and lies, This, I think, is rather out-heroding Miss Se ward herself. But a British poet may be excused emptiness of poetical fame. Thirty or forty years for saying hard things of Napoleon; for it is not so ago, his poetry was as popular as Southey's has very certain that the "bold man and bad," clad in ever been, and thirty or forty years hence may again such queer costume, will not at last get the better be so; for though now condemned and neglected of his great enemy, though he died her prisoner as brocade, tinsel and mere sound, it was once exand in exile; for the four or five thousand millions tensively read and greatly admired by competent of dollars of debt which he bequeathed her, having judges; and after all, there is in it, unquestionably, compelled her to contract it, is a heavy load to much that is beautiful, much originality and much carry, of which Sir Robert Peel's resorting to war elegant versification. It is rather monotonous pertaxes in time of peace to pay the interest is a preg-haps, but it should be borne in mind that it is the nant proof. Like Nessus' shirt, it sticks to the poetry of Scott, Byron, Southey and others of the nation, a burning and consuming plague-spot, which new school that has made it appear so, and that the no human skill can palliate or cure. But an Eng- poetry of Dryden and Pope read with theirs has lishman might think no better, perhaps, of our State something of the same appearance. But fifty years debts-the interest unpaid, &c., &c. hence Dryden and Pope will probably resume their preeminence; which, however, in the opinion of many, they have never lost. The following lines of Darwin, (quoted from memory,) ought to give him some claim upon the indulgence of the readers of poetry in the United States. He is describing our Revolution. "With patriot speed the quick contagion ran, I am not sure that since I read Miss Seward's Monody, I have even seen it, and I presume that it is but little read in the United States at the present day, or in England either, for even there it would not now be considered very good taste to speak of General Washington's "ruthless head," or to denounce him as a "coward." He might have heard of the Monody, or he might have seen it; but in the absence of positive proof, I cannot be persuaded that it was to him the "most mortifying circumstance of his life," or that he commissioned an American officer or any body else, to make explanations to Miss Seward, with the view of conciliating her good opinion. He very rarely took the trouble of contradicting the libels against him at home, which were more immediate and of more serious import; it is then highly improbable that his sensibility should have been so deeply wounded, as to induce him to get up a kind of special mission with the view of counteracting an English evils that followed, an exchange of him for André "As the guilty Arnold was the cause of all the libel, the most absurd and infamous of all the calum- would have been accepted; but no such proposal nies propagated against him. Or if he did, then on was intimated by the British General, and perhaps that one occasion and that only, did his imperturbable it could not be consistently done with honor and equanimity of character forsake him; and he who the course already pursued." I return to General Washington. Is it true that he endeavored to save André, as Miss Seward says? Ought he to have endeavored to save him? It is my belief that he did not endeavor to save him and my conviction, that he ought not to have done it. Mr. Sparks, in his Life of Washington, makes the following remark: has read the Monody cannot believe, unless upon This is very true, Sir Henry Clinton by sur"confirmation strong as proof of holy writ," that rendering Arnold would have divided the infamy of he ever commissioned any person to make explana- the latter-so imperative is the usage of war, that tions to the reckless and unprincipled authoress. in such cases the greatest villains and traitors must This language is not too strong, for he is represented in the Monody, as vindictive, inexorable, bloody and remorseless, and as nothing better than the murderer of André. Nor is the character of Miss Seward such as to place her beyond the reach of an impeachment, as a wilful and malignant prevaricator, for her English biographers represent her as vain, affected and pedantic, much addicted to flattery and by no means scrupulous about the truth. She flattered Southey very perseveringly and he, in return, endeavored to save her poetical reputation from that oblivion to which it had been consigned by the general consent of her countrymen. But still he says of her poetry, insinuating disparagement, that it belonged to the "brocade fashion" of Dr. Darwin. be protected. No proposition, it is to be presumed, therefore, was formally made to the British General to save André, by sacrificing Arnold; nor could it, if made, have been a moment considered. In what way then did General Washington endeavor to save André, as assumed by Miss Seward? This question I cannot answer. I have no doubt though, that he could have saved him had he exerted himself to do so. If he had not the power as commander-in-chief, entirely to annul the sentence of the Court-Martial that condemned him to death; or if he would not take upon himself the heavy responsibility of doing so, he could, at all events, have delayed the execution of it until the pleasure of Congress could have been ascertained, and that body, without doubt, would not have been unwilling Dr. Darwin is an example of the instability and to save the prisoner, had an application for mercy been supported by the solicitation or even the ac-it-historical, poetical and miscellaneous. And to quiescence of General Washington. But there was all this I have nothing to say except that some of no such appeal made and none proposed, I believe. it had as well have been omitted; but I do say that It is singular, certainly, that with a disposition to all military history can not produce a case where prevent the execution of André, according to Miss the rigorous application of the laws of war was Seward or Mr. Southey, with all his commanding more justifiable and more proper. The ground taken influence, with full power over the whole case, and by Sir Henry Clinton and by some British writers, capable, had he wished that others should have that André ought not to have been considered as taken the responsibility of the act, of arraying on a spy, because he had been brought within the the side of mercy an irresistible influence, he should American lines by an American officer, (General have done nothing and proposed nothing, unless, Arnold,) was always manifestly absurd and was perhaps, to intimate that André could be exchanged finally abandoned by every body. He was not only for Arnold. What inference is to be drawn from a spy, but the correspondent and the accomplice of this apathy and inaction? But one it appears to me, a traitor,-an accomplice in a moral point of view. and that is, that he neither made any effort to save And not only was he this, but he was so delibeAndré, nor, for a moment, had any intention of rately, and for a considerable time, whilst he and making it. This is my belief; but still if there Arnold were corresponding under the assumed exists any strong corroborative proof that Mr. names of Gustavus and Anderson; and his labors Southey's statement is correct, then I am probably as a spy were not merely a single, hasty and unconwrong. Miss Seward's assertion I do not value at sidered act, but were cool, continued, systematic much and had she even enjoyed a high character and persevering. The plan was matured and the for veracity, (which she certainly did not,) I should time arrived for action, and he, of many hundred not think her declaration altogether above suspi- British officers at New-York, was selected to give cion, for in making it she was white-washing her- the finishing stroke to the diabolical plot that had self, not General Washington. Times had greatly changed and men's opinions too, since the Monody was written. When it was published, much sympathy was felt in England for Major André, and Washington was regarded naturally as a rebel and homicide by great numbers; but time, that can do so much to soothe and soften all asperities, had given him a very different standing with the English people, and nothing was more evident, even to Miss Seward, than that the venom and invective she had poured out upon him so profusely, no longer delighted either the vulgar by its brutality, or the refined by its poetical merit, if it had any. And of this change the neglect into which the poem had fallen was visible, tangible proof. Then nothing was more natural than that the poetess, who did not lack ingenuity, should resort to this ingenious method of retracting her most atrocious libel; and nothing more natural either, than that Mr. Southey, one of whose most assiduous flatterers she was, should assist her to extricate herself, when it cost him nothing to do so, but to repeat what she had told him, believing or affecting to believe it himself. Hence, it appears to me, comes the lady libeller's "contrition." Having assumed, right or wrong, that General Washington did not endeavor to save André, I next proceed to enquire, whether he ought to have endeavored to save him, and unhesitatingly express the opinion that he ought not; and that to have done so would have been neither wise nor just nor merciful—just and merciful to his country and her cause I mean, of course. There has been much eloquent and pathetic writing about Major André's case, much romance mingled with it and much rhetoric expended upon been so long under concoction. He meets Arnold, coquettes a little about entering the American lines, and about assuming 'a disguise; but he enters the one and he assumes the other. Every thing is arranged-signed and sealed, and nothing now remained to do but to deliver the fortress and with it the whole patriot cause, perhaps, into the hands of the British commander. He whose sensibility and delicacy recoiled from a concealment of his military rank, under a civic garb, had no misgivings about the black and atrocious treason he was abetting, or of the clandestine and unchivalrous manner in which the negotiation had been conducted. He sets out on his return to New-York, buoyant without doubt, with self-congratulation at the successful issue of his intrigue and revolving in his mind the applause and recompense that awaited him. But there was a lion in his path. He was stopped by three American militia-men, and if it is not presumptuous to suppose that Providence interposes on such occasions, it may be believed, without irreverence, that those three incorruptible patriots had appeared by supernatural appointment, at a certain hour and a certain place, for the express purpose of saving the American cause; and they did save it. Bribes, gold, valuables, promises of large rewards were offered-but in vain. They are deaf to every thing but honor and duty, the spy is captured, and the traitor would have been also, had Colonel Jameson's sagacity been equal to his uprightness and good intentions. But it was impossible I suppose for him to suspect Arnold, and indeed a man who had bled so freely and fought so gallantly for his country, must have been above suspicion, until guilt was brought home to him. Major André has been much lauded by the his torians of the Revolution for the frankness, dignity | less, exculpated. He was in his life, at the close and firmness he displayed after his capture, and I of it at least, unfortunate :—after his death, the most am not disposed to deny that he did display them; fortunate of men, for certainly never had the assobut, at the same time, it seems to me that policy ciate and accomplice of a traitor, and in addition to dictated the course he pursued subsequently, as that a spy, so much sympathy and so much lofty much as frankness and detestation of disguise. and eloquent eulogy bestowed upon him. And Some say that his being entrapped by his captors why? This question which I have asked myself a who represented themselves to be royalists, is a thousand times, I have never been able satisfactoproof of his guileless and unsuspecting temper, rily to answer. He was accomplished, talented, and of his unfitness-honorable unfitness, for the amiable, brave-so all seem to admit and so do I. dirty and defiling work in which he was engaged. But, at the same time, I am compelled to believe Be it so; but it may prove also that he happened that the great delinquency which brought him to to be surprised on that occasion, finding himself an untimely end, was an immense drawback upon suddenly placed in a perilous situation, as the most the loftiness and chivalry of his character. astute and practised deceivers sometimes are. It is brought forward also, as a further proof of his ingenuousness and nobleness of character, that he avowed himself to General Washington, to be the Adjutant General of the British army. I do not arraign the correctness of the views taken by his eulogists; but I will ask-what other course could he have pursued as a prudent man than to confess? Had concealment been practicable, what would it have availed him? Certainly nothing. On the contrary, it would have sealed at once his doom and precipitated it. Had he persisted in maintaining his incognito and passed himself off for nothing more than a common, vulgar, venal spy, his case would have been disposed of in a very summary manner. "Short the shrift and sure the cord!" would have been the order; but being an officer of high rank and standing, a more formal mode of procedure was deemed advisable. "One losel act will spoil a name for aye." He was ambitious, and "by that sin fell the angels." He had not much family influence, which is so powerful in England, and to advance himself he had to rely upon his talents and his courage, and but for his impatience they would in time probably have enabled him to reach the goal of his wishes. But he was impatient. To conduct and to consummate the intrigue which would have been ruinous perhaps to the revolted colonies and decisive of the contest in which they were engaged, would have given him claims to consideration and rewards that would have been irresistible. He could scarcely have asked any thing that he would not have deserved from his sovereign and that would not have been granted. He hazarded every thing upon the cast of a die. He threw and lost. Had André appeared only in the character of a It is useless to say any thing about André's trial spy, his case, casuistically considered, would, in my and the sentence of the court, they being so well opinion, have been much better than it is. Honoknown to every body. I will only observe that rable and estimable men have appeared, under cerevery act performed by General Washington that tain circumstances, in the character of spies, (occahad any reference to the prisoner was characterized sionally; not habitually and professionally ;) but to by the greatest delicacy and humanity, notwith-be associated with such a traitor as Arnold and to standing the insane and ribald railings of Miss be the agent and instrument of his treason, is not Seward. I am rather of opinion that in referring compatible with those refined and chivalrous printhe whole matter to the court, even to pronouncing ciples which have been so prodigally assigned to the sentence, he divested himself of a power he him. There were many officers in the British possessed as commander-in-chief, for if I mistake not, the laws of war, as then practised, (and as still practised,) in all the armies of Christendom, pronounced the doom of any person convicted as a spy, without the formality of a special sentencewhich doom was invariably, (at least generally,) death by hanging. And upon the finding of a Court-Martial that an accused person was a spy, execution followed as a matter of course, unless arrested by a competent authority. army, as brave and as ambitious as Major André, who, I have no doubt, would have indignantly spurned a proposition to have been associated in any manner with Arnold, or to have forwarded his treasonable projects in any way requiring disguise and duplicity; and fortunate would it have been for the Adjutant General had he been of the number. In his moral composition there entered some laxity of principle, which, leading him to prefer what was expedient and profitable to what was honorable and Arnold's treason and André's tragical fate seem high-minded, led to his own ruin, instead of that of to have been favorite themes with all the histori- the glorious cause against which he had directed his ans of our Revolution, except the English, to whom dark and clandestine machination. But, say his they were, (naturally enough,) not very attractive. apologists, he had no intention when he left NewAll have made Arnold as black as they well could York of acting as a spy or of assuming a disguise. and as he deserved to be made, and André they To which I answer, that that may or may not be have all, I believe, commiserated and, more or the case. There is no proof that it was, and if proven, it amounts to nothing. Had his so much but one of them it may be. This depends upon vaunted honor not been formed of somewhat pliant the quantum and quality of his conscience and upon and malleable stuff, he would neither have gone the consideration. His trade is rather a perilous into the American lines nor assumed a disguise let one and he carries it on generally, with a halter what would have come of his refusal to do so. round his neck, for the so-called laws of war, though But he did both, and his doing so was not as bad, to be found in all languages and very elaborately or at all events not worse than what he had al- compiled, afford him not the slightest protection. ready done. Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute, A pirate, a traitor-the most consummate villain and after becoming the instrument and coadjutor of can appeal to the tribunals; but for the spy there is an infamous traitor, his perception of what was no appeal except to Heaven's mercy seat. If he right and what was wrong, of what was noble and is successful and serviceable he is rewarded; if just and of what was not, became naturally obtuse caught he is hanged; and there ends the business. and undiscriminating-for there is nothing truer in all the science of ethics, than the old and time-tried adage, that evil communications corrupt good manners; i. e. good morals; and there never has been perhaps a more emphatic exemplification of its truth than this very West Point tragedy. This being the status of espionage, in describing which there is no exaggeration, it would be natural to suppose that men of principle and honor would never so far compromise themselves as to become spies; but this would be a mistake. They do sometimes act in that capacity; but from far different It has been asserted by the historians and never motives from those which actuate the common spy. denied, as far as I am informed, that the British Devotedness to their country, or to a particular officers at New York looked with loathing upon cause, or fondness for adventure or for "hair Arnold, after he was made a general in the British breadth 'scapes," or an exuberance of personal service, that they avoided him and in some cases daring may influence them now and then to emrefused to have any social relations with him. bark in this very ticklish occupation. It is not a Now to account for this requires the assumption of very common thing though in an army for an offisomething more satisfactory than that all their cer to attempt it. No commander would require avoidance and disgust resulted from a feeling of re-him to do so, unless under very extraordinary cirsentment towards him, because he had been in part cumstances, and no one ever counsels his friend to the cause of André's melancholy fate.* To have indulged this resentment would have been unreasonable and cruel, unless they had also loathed the traitor and his treason, as they did, no doubt, and could not I think have had the most exalted notions of the scrupulousness and honor of him who had been their victim, or rather the victim of his own ambition. play the part of a spy, for two reasons, because of the danger to which he must expose himself of dying the death of a felon, and because in the bosom of every honorable man there is an abiding repugnance to the duplicity and disguise which must be assumed by a spy, even when acting as such under the most praiseworthy and extenuating circumstances. This repugnance we are assured was felt War is a game in the playing of which almost by André, but the Devil, who is always present all kinds of stratagem and duplicity are allowable, where there is a traitor, prevailed upon him to stifle and the French phrase, ruse de guerre, (trick of the nascent sentiment. He did so, and discovery war,) which is a generic term for military humbug- and perdition followed. The "amiable spy," as he ging-(called more learnedly, strategy,) in general, is called by his countryman, Charles Lamb, (Elia,) has become almost vernacular in every language of though possessing many good and valuable qualities, Europe. It has, nevertherless, or is said to have lacked one worth all the rest-high and uncomits laws and obligations, which are, however, much promising principle. more talked about than observed. Among other trieks, the employment of spies has been legitiGeneral Washington said of André, that "he met mated, and he is the cleverest commander who can his fate with that fortitude which was to be exemploy them to the most advantage. The calling pected from an accomplished man and a gallant or profession of a spy is not regarded by any means as reputable, and he is looked upon as rather a dirty Chief Justice Marshall, in his life of Washingkind of tool with which it is often necessary for ton, speaks of his "candor, openness and magnagreat military men to work. I speak now of what nimity;" says he was "only mindful of his fame, may be called a professional spy-spying for pay, disdained every evasion and rendered the exami being his trade and occupation. He is, in general, nation of any witness unnecessary." Botta says a low, vulgar fellow, tolerably unprincipled, bold, that "before the Court he spoke with admirable canning, dexterous and enterprising. Sometimes candor, confessing more than he was asked"; that he is in the pay and confidence of both the com-" he died with that fortitude that belongs to brave manders of hostile armies and deceives both; or and virtuous men, and that he was worthy of a better fate." Mr. Sparks says, (Life of Washington,). Botta says that the English detested Arnold, at once for his treason and for having caused the death of André. that "the conduct of André was marked with a officer." |