the school; which the very delinquents themselves often increased, by loud peals of laughter. Going, one frosty morning, into my school, I found one of the larger boys sitting by the fire in my arm chair. I gently requested him to remove. He replied that he would, when he had warmed himself; "father finds wood, and not you." To have my throne usurped, in the face of the whole school, shook my government to the centre. I immediately snatched my two foot rule, and laid it pretty smartly across his back. He quitted the chair, muttering that he would tell father. I found his threats of more consequence than I apprehended. The same afternoon, a tall, rawboned man called me to the door; immediately collaring me with one hand, and holding a cart whip over my head with the other; and with fury in his face, he vowed he would whip the skin from my bones, if ever I struck Jotham again: ay, he would do it that very moment, if he was not afraid I would take the law of him. This was the only instance of the overwhelming gratitude of parents I received. The next day, it was reported all over town, what a cruel man the master was. "Poor Jotham came into school, half frozen and near fainting; master had been sitting a whole hour by the warm fire; he only begged him to let him warm himself a little, when the master rose in a rage and cut open his head with the tongs, and his life was despaired of."

Fatigued with the vexations of my school, I one evening repaired to the tavern, and mixed with some of the young men of the town. Their conversation I could not relish; mine they could not comprehend. The subject of race-horses being introduced, I ventured to descant upon Xanthus, the immortal courser of Achilles. They had never heard of 'squire Achilles, or his horse; but they offered to bet two to one, that Bajazet, the Old Roan, or the deacon's mare, Pumpkin and Milk, would beat him, and challenged me to appoint time and place.

Nor was I more acceptable among the young women. Being invited to spend an evening, after a quilting, I thought this a happy opportunity to introduce Andromache, the wife of the great Hector, at her loom; and Penelope, the faithful wife of Ulysses, weaving her seven years' web. This was received with a stupid stare, until I mentioned the long time the queen of Ulysses was weaving; when a smart young woman observed, that she supposed Miss Penelope's yarn was rotted in whitening, that made her so long: and then told a tedious story of a piece of cotton and linen she had herself woven, under the same circumstances. She had no sooner finished, than, to enforce my observations, I recited above forty lines of Greek, from the Odyssey, and then began a dissertation on the cæsura midst of my harangue, a florid-faced young man, at the further end of the room, with two large prominent foreteeth, remarkably white, began to sing

Fire upon the mountains, run, boys, run;

In the

And immediately the whole company rushed forward, to see who should get a chance in the reel of six.

I was about retiring, fatigued and disgusted, when it was hinted to me, that I might wait on Miss Mima home; but as I could recollect no word in the Greek, which would construe into bundling, or any of Homer's heroes, who got the bag, I declined. In the Latin, it is true, that Eneas and Dido, in the cave, seem something like a precedent. It was reported all over the town, the next day, that master was a papish, as he had talked French two hours.

Disappointed of recreation among the young, my next object was the minister. Here I expected plea

sure and profit. He had spent many years in preaching, for the edification of private families, and was settled in the town, in a fit of enthusiasm; when the people drove away a clergyman, respectable for his years and learning. This he was pleased to call an awakening. He lectured me, at the first onset, for not attending the conference and night meetings; talked much of gifts, and decried human learning, as carnal and devilish, and well he might, he certainly was under no obligations to it; for a new singing master coming into town, the young people, by their master's advice, were for introducing Dr. Watts's version of the Psalms. Although I argued with the minister an hour, he remains firmly convinced, to this day, that the version of Sternhold and Hopkins is the same in language, letter and metre, with those Psalms King David chaunted, in the city of Jerusalem.

As for the independence I had founded on my wages, it vanished, like the rest of my scholastic prospects. I had contracted some debts. My request for present payment, was received with astonishment. I found I was not to expect it, until the next autumn, and then not in cash, but produce; to become my own collector, and to pick up my dues, half a peck of corn or rye in a place.

I was almost distracted, and yearned for the expiration of my contract, when an unexpected period was put to my distress. News was brought, that, by the carelessness of the boys, the school-house was burnt down. The common cry now was, that I ought, in justice, to pay for it; as to my want of proper government the carelessness of the boys ought to be imputed. The beating of Jotham was forgotten, and a thousand stories of my want of proper spirit circulated. These reports, and even the loss of a valuable Gradus ad Parnassum, did not damp my joy. I am sometimes led to believe, that my emancipation from real slavery in Algiers, did not afford me sincerer joy, than I experienced at

that moment.

I carried a request to the late Doctor Benjamin Franklin, then president of the state of Pennsylvania, for certain papers, I was to deliver further southward. I anticipated much pleasure, from the interview with this truly great man: To see one, who, from small beginnings, by the sole exertion of native genius, and indefatigable industry, had raised himself to the pinnacle of politics and letters; a man, who, from an humble porter's boy, had elevated himself to be the desirable companion of the great ones of the earth: who, from trundling a wheelbarrow in bye lanes, had been advanced to pass in splendour through the courts of kings; and, from hawking vile ballads, to the contracting and signing treaties, which gave peace and independence to three millions of his fellow citizens, was a sight interesting in the extreme.

I found the doctor surrounded by company, most of whom were young people. He received me with the attention due to a young stranger. He dispatched a person for the papers I wanted; asked me politely to be seated; inquired after the family I sprang from; and told me a pleasing anecdote of my

brave ancestor, Captain Underhill. I found, in the doctor, all that simplicity of language, which is remarkable in the fragment of his life, published since his decease; and which was conspicuous in my medical preceptor. I have since been in a room a few hours with Governour Jay, of New York; have heard of the late Governour Livingston, of New Jersey; and am now confirmed in the opinion, I have suggested, that men of genuine merit, as they possess the essence, need not the parade of great knowledge. A rich man is often plain in his attire, and the man, who has abundant treasures of learning, simple in his manners and style.

The doctor, in early life, was economical from principle; in his latter days, perhaps from habit. Poor Richard held the purse strings of the president of Pennsylvania. Permit me to illustrate this observation by an anecdote. Soon after I was introduced, an airy, thoughtless relation, from a New England state, entered the room. It seems he was on a party of pleasure, and had been so much involved in it, for three weeks, as not to have paid his respects to his venerable relative. The purpose of his present visit was, to solicit the loan of a small sum of money, to enable him to pay his bills, and transport himself home. He preluded his request, with a detail of embarrassments, which might have befallen the most circumspect. He said that he had loaded a vessel for B, and as he did not deal on credit, had purchased beyond his current cash, and could not readily procure a draft upon home. The doctor, inquiring how much he wanted, he replied, with some hesitation, fifty dollars. The benevolent old gentleman went to his escritoir, and counted him out an hundred. He received them with many promises of punctual payment, and hastily took up the writing implements, to draught a note of hand, for the cash. The doctor, who saw the nature of the borrower's embarrassments, better than he was aware; and was possessed with the improbability of ever recovering his cash again, stepped across the room, laying his hand gently upon his cousin's arm, said, stop cousin, we will save the paper; a quarter of a sheet is not of great value, but it is worth saving: conveying, at once, a liberal gift and gentle reprimand for the borrower's prevarication and extravagance. Since I am talking of Franklin, the reader may be as unwilling to leave him as I was. Allow me to relate another anecdote. I do not recollect how the conversation was introduced; but a young person in company mentioned his surprise, that the possession of great riches should ever be attended with such anxiety and solicitude; and instanced Mr. R- M—, who, he said, though in possession of unbounded wealth, yet was as busy and more anxious, than the most assiduous clerk in his counting-house. The doctor took an apple from a fruit basket, and presented it to a little child, who could just totter about the room. The child could scarce grasp it in his hand. He then gave it another, which occupied the other hand. Then choosing a third, remarkable for its size and beauty, he presented that also. The child, after many ineffectual attempts to hold the three, dropped the last on the carpet, and burst into tears. See there, said the philosopher; there is a little man, with more riches than he can enjoy.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON, the soldier, statesman, and jurist, the right arm of Washington in peace and war, was not a native of the United States, though no name is more thoroughly American in its associations than his in our home annals. He

was born in St. Kitts, one of the West India Is lands, January 11, 1757. His grandfather was a gentleman of Ayrshire, in Scotland, whence his father emigrated to St. Kitts, where he became bankrupt as a merchant. He married at that island a widow of Huguenot descent, and thus his son, Alexander Hamilton, may have inherited the Scottish strength with the French vivacity of character. He certainly possessed both these qualities in a very eminent degree, and exhibited them at a very early age. When he attained fortune and influence in New York, he earnestly invited his father to join him; but his health not suffering him to leave the southern climate, the son contributed to his support till his death in 1799. His mother, who died in his childhood, he recollected as his warm nature and her qualities demanded, says his own son and biographer. "with inexpressible fondness." Upon her death, he was under the care of her relations at St. Croix acquiring a limited West India education, with such progress in general reading as his own powers of mind and the acquaintance of a Presbyterian clergyman directed. At twelve years of age he is in the counting-house of Nicholas Cruger, a New York merchant, transacting business in the island, who took the strongest interest in his prosperity, and by whom his good reception. when he went to America, was greatly promoted. For these good services Hamilton always entertained the warmest recollections. When upon the death of Cruger a litigation grew out of his will, Hamilton defended and secured the rights of his family, steadily refusing any compensation; and when upon Hamilton's death, a recompense for his services was offered to his widow, it was met by the production of a paper written by Hamiltor. in his last hours, enjoining his family never to receive money from any of the name of Cruger; so far did he carry his sense of the early kindness shown him.

A letter of that date, 1769, shows the ardent ambition of the boy, and the fire at that early age pent up within him. He writes to a school-fellow at New York: "To confess my weakness, Ned, my ambition is prevalent, so that I contemn the grovelling condition of a clerk, or the like, to whicl my fortune condemns me, and would willingly risk my life, though not my character, to exalt my station. I am confident, Ned, that my youth excludes me from any hopes of immediate preferment, nor do I desire it; but I mean to prepare the way for futurity. I'm no philosopher, you see, and may be justly said to build castles in the air; my folly makes me ashamed, and beg you'll conceal it; yet, Neddy, we have seen such schemes successful when the projector is constant. I shall conclude by saying I wish there was a war." There was nothing of the indolence of the tropics in this language. "The child was father of the man." He was a thorough merchant's clerk, as he was afterwards the financier of the new states even then struggling into being on the main land. A description of a storin among the islands, which he wrote at the age of fifteen, influenced his friends in sending him to New York to pursue his studies. He landed at Boston, October, 1772, and passing to New York was introduced to the good society of the place. He studied hard at the school of Francis Bar

ber* at Elizabethtown, and enjoyed the intimacy of Governor Livingston; practising his pen all the while in such occasional verses as an elegy, and a prologue and epilogue for a play acted by British soldiers in the neighborhood. He presented himself to Dr. Witherspoon at Princeton College, with the intention of passing as rapidly through the classes as his powers would permit. This privilege was not allowed by the rules of the institution, and he entered King's, after the Revolution Columbia College at New York. He exercised his talents as a speaker in a debating club of the college; and his ready pen in doggrel rhymes at the expense of the ministerial writers who attacked John Holt's Whig newspaper. His character exhibited itself at this time in his strong devotional feeling.

His first step in public affairs was memorable, and, as it is related in his memoirs, would form a worthy scene for the pencil of the artist. A meeting of the people of New York was called in The Fields to consider the questions preparatory to a general congress. It was one of the most important occasions in the city of the early Revolutionary period. Hamilton was then seventeen. His patriotism had just been excited by a visit to Boston, then the school of Revolution, where Trumbull at the same time learnt the lesson of freedom. The story is thus told by his biographer.

"It has been related to have been his habit to walk several hours each day under the shade of some large trees which stood in Batteau, now Dey street, talking to himself in an under tone of voice, apparently engaged in deep thought, a practice which he continued through life. This circumstance attracted the attention of his neighbors, to whom he was known as the 'young West Indian,' and led them to engage in conversation with him. One of them remarking the vigor and maturity of his thoughts, urged him to address this meeting, to which all the patriots were looking with the greatest interest. From this seeming intrusion he at first recoiled; but after listening attentively to the successive speakers, and finding several points untouched, he presented himself to the assembled multitude. The novelty of the attempt, his youthful countenance, his slender and diminutive form, awakened curiosity and arrested attention. Overawed by the scene before him, he at first hesitated and faltered; but as he proceeded almost unconsciously to utter his accustomed reflections, his mind warmed with the theme, his energies were recovered; and after a discussion clear, cogent, and novel, of the great principles involved in the controversy, he depicted in glowing colors the long continued and long endured oppressions of the mother country; he insisted on the duty of resistance, pointed to the means and certainty of

Francis Barber, who was of Irish parentage, was born at Princeton, New Jersey, in 1751, where he received his education, and was afterwards in charge of an academy at Elizabethtown On the breaking out of the Revolution he was an officer in the Jersey service, and rose to the rank of Colonel, being actively engaged in the scenes of the war. He was present at the capture of Yorktown. He met with his death in a singular manner by a tree falling on him as he passed the edge of a wood in the discharge of his duty as a soldier in camp with Washington at New Windsor.-Nat. Portrait Gallery, 2d Ed. 1885,

success, and described the waves of rebellion sparkling with fire, and washing back on the shores of England the wrecks of her power, her wealth, and her glory. The breathless silence ceased as he closed; and the whispered murmur, 'it is a collegian! it is a collegian!' was lost in loud expressions of wonder and applause at the extraordinary eloquence of the young stranger." The orator was thus launched on the troubled waters of the times. The writer soon plunged after. One of his first efforts seems to have been a newspaper reply to some Tory argument by the President of his college, the youthful Myles Cooper, and his earliest distinct publication, a pamphlet issued by Rivington, a reply to a government tract of the times, in which Dr. Seabury (afterwards the Bishop) had a hand. The argument of this piece of Hamilton's is direct, the language nervous. Two brief sentences are already in this early effort Hamiltonian tests of the future statesman. Addressing the farmers he intimates that he affects no class partialities for them as such, and adds, "I despise all false pretensions and mean arts." A few sentences further on, "Give me the steady, uniform, unshaken security of constitutional freedom." A second pamphlet followed February, 1775, from his pen, of noticeable vigor. President Cooper thought Mr. Jay must have written it, for Hamilton was quite too young for such a production.

There was a third character in which he was to be known to his countrymen-the soldier. While still a collegian he was engaged with some of the youth of the city in military exercises in the churchyard of St. George's chapel. They called their company the "Hearts of Oak." It was sufficiently organized to be detailed by the revolutionary committee to the work of removing the cannon from the Battery. A boat from the Asia man-of-war was fired upon, and several citizens killed by the return broadside from the ship. Hamilton, undisturbed by a fallen comrade, accomplished his work. A convention of the townspeople ensued, which drove Dr. Cooper from the college, and for a while Toryism and literature were at a discount.

We have now seen Hamilton fully embarked on his great American career, and must pass rapidly over the incidents of his manhood, barely alluding to his early engagement in the camp with Washington, at the age of twenty, in 1777; his military life, by the side of his great leader, from Trenton to Yorktown, in which his bravery and capacity were always distinguished, and the services of his pen in the army correspon

* Life of Hamilton, by J. C. Hamilton, i. 22.

Hamilton's pamphlet was entitled, “A fullVindication of the Measures of Congress from the Calumnies of their enemies, in answer to a Letter under the signature of a W. Farmer; whereby his sophistry is exposed, his cavils confuted, his artifices detected, and his wit ridiculed in a General Address to the Inhabitants of America, and a Particular Address to the Farmers of the Province of New York, Veritas magna est et prevalebit. Truth is powerful and will prevail. New York. Printed by James Rivington. 1774.

The Farmer Refuted; or, a more comprehensive and impartial view of the Disputes between Great Britain and the Colonies. Intended as a further Vindication of the Congress in answer to a letter from a Westchester Farmer, entitled a View of the Controversy between Great Britain and her Colonies, including a mode of determining the present disputes finally and effectually, &c. By a sincere friend to America. Tituli remedia pollicentur, sed pixedes ipsæ venena continent. The title promises remedies, but the box itself poisons.

un

dence. Two incidents of the war may be inentioned, for the light which they throw upon his character-his momentary difficulty with General Washington, showing his high sense of honor and the spur of his southern birth, and his pathetic considerate conduct on the capture of Major André, to whom, while his judgment acquiesced in his rigorous fate, his tenderness was bounded. There is no finer written pathos in our history than Hamilton's account, sent to Laurens, of the treason of Arnold and the death of Andre. The delicacy with which Arnold's wife is mentioned; the sensitiveness and almost reverence with which he writes about the last offices to the gallant sufferer; the ardor of his emotion, which inspires such subtle and eloquent reflections as his remarks on war, that "the authorized maxims and practices of war are the satires of human nature"-and of André, that "never, perhaps, did any man suffer death with more justice, or deserve it less." These are noble monuments of the man.

A. Hamilton

In 1780, Hamilton was married on the 14th December to the second daughter of General Schuyler, who survived her husband for half a century, dying at the age of ninety-six in the autumn of 1854.

In 1782, he withdrew from public life, which then opened to him some of its rewards, in occupation in the service of his country abroad, and devoted himself at Albany to the incessant study of the law for four months, when he was admitted to the Supreme Court. At the close of the year he took his seat in Congress, and is henceforth in political life. Becoming a delegate from New York to the Congress of 1787 which formed the Constitution, which is identified with his name as associated with Jay and Madison, he defended its provisions, and asserted its principles in the pages of the Federalist, while it was before the several states for adoption. Of the eighty-five numbers of which this work was composed, fifty

It is printed in the first volume of the Life, by his son.

He

one were by Hamilton; Jay wrote but five, and Madison the remainder.* The introduction and conclusion were from the pen of Hamilton. also took the main discussion of the importart points in respect to the taxation and the revenue, the army and militia, the power of the Executive, and the Judiciary.

When the Constitution-which he had done so much to organize and secure, both for the country at large and for his own state in the New York Convention-went into effect with the Presidency of Washington, that great man again called Hamilton to his side in the important po-1-perhaps the most important then in the national affairs-of Secretary of the Treasury. His cabinet papers and practical achievements in this position establish his great financial reputation. It was in allusion to these financial exertions and abilities that Daniel Webster paid an eloquent tribute to the genius of Hamilton in a public dinner speech in New York. "He smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of the public credit, and it sprung upon its feet."t

On the fourth of July, 1789, he delivered an Eulogium on Major-General Greene before the Society of the Cincinnati, in which he gave full expression to his admiration of the life of that distinguished officer and friend of Washington, and traced his military career in a succinct and forcible narrative. It is a model for compositions of its class.

The letters of Pacificus, in 1793, exhibit his course when France urged the abandenment of American neutrality. When, in the Presidency of Adams, Washington was invited to the command of the national forces, on the prospect of an attack from France, he paid a last compliment to the military genius of his friend and aide of the Revolution. He stipulated that Hamilton should be his second in command. On the death of Washington he became Commander-in-Chief.

The too brief remainder of Hamilton's life was passed in New York, in the practice of the law and the agitations of politics, till his fatal and unnecessary duel with Burr, at Weehawken, closed his life July 12, 1804. His last great legal effort was made but a short time before his death, in Feb., 1804, being his argument on the law of libel in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, in the case of the People against Harry Croswell, on an indictment for a libel on Jefferson, in which he maintained the popular privilege of the jury in the decision of both law and

fact.

Never was American more sincerely mourned. The eloquence of the pulpit, the bar, and the press, was expended in oration, discourse, and eulogium.

The Federalist originally appeared in the columns of the New York Daily Advertiser. The papers were collected and published in two neat duodecimo volumes, by J. & A. M'Lean. New York, 1788; another edition appeared during Hamilton's lifetime, in 1862, from the press of George F. Hopkins, New York. The papers were also included in an edition of Hami!ton's works, in three vols., by Williams & Whiting, New York, 1810. In 1818, an edition was published by Jacob Gideon at Washington, which embraced the revisions by Madison of his papers.

Speech, Feb., 1881.

Coleman, of the Evening Post, published a memorial of the occasion in A Collection of the Facts and Documents relative to the Death of Major-General Alexander Hamilton; with

Gouverneur Morris delivered his funeral oration. Dr. Mason pronounced his Eulogy in the pulpit.

His federal compatriot and friend, the eminent Fisher Ames, borrowed the language of Scripture in mourning over his death, and measuring his probable earthly future, had he lived by his undoubted past, vented his feelings in the exclamation, that "his soul stiffened with despair when he thought what Hamilton would have been."*

In 1851, an edition of the works of Hamilton, including his correspondence and official papers, with the exception of the Federalist, was published with the assistance of Congress. It was prepared by John C. Hamilton. In the last volume, two papers are given from the original MS. of Hamilton bearing upon Washington's Farewell Address: one, an Abstract of Points to form an Address, the other, a draft in full, the variations from which, as delivered, are noted. This, with the previous publication by Mr. Lenox, completed the materials for the study of the preparation of this interesting document.‡

THE FATE OF MAJOR ANDRÉ.

A Letter from Hamilton to Laurens.§ Since my return from Hartford, my dear Laurens, my mind has been too little at ease to permit me to write to you sooner. It has been wholly occupied by the affecting and tragic consequences of Arnold's treason. My feelings were never put to so severe a trial. You will no doubt have heard the principal facts before this reaches you; but there are particulars to which my situation gave me access, that cannot have come to your knowledge from public report, which I am persuaded you will find interesting.

From several circumstances, the project seems to have originated with Arnold himself, and to have been long premeditated. The first overture is traced back to some time in June last. It was conveyed in a letter to Colonel Robinson, the substance of which was, that the ingratitude he had experienced from his country, concurring with other causes, had entirely changed his principles; that he now only sought to restore himself to the favour of his king by some signal proof of his repentance, and would be happy to open a correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton for that purpose. About this period

Comments: together with the various Orations, Sermons, and Eulogies that have been published or written on his Life and Character. Quoad humanum genus incolume manserit, quamdiu usus literis, honor summæ Eloquentiæ pretium erit, quamdiu rerum natura aut fortuna steterit, aut memoria duraverit, admirabile, posteris vigebis ingenium. AURELIUS FUSCUS. By the Editor of the Evening Post. New York: J. Riley & Co., 1804 8vo. pp. 238.

Sketch of the Character of Alexander Hamilton, 1804. The Works of Alexander Hamilton; comprising his Correspondence, and his Political and Official Writings, exclusive of the Federalist, Civil and Military. Published from the Original Manuscripts deposited in the Department of State, by order of the Joint Library Committee of Congress. Edited by John C. Hamilton, Author of "The Life of Ham.lton." 7 vols. 8vo. New York: Francis & Co. 1851.

Ante, p. 180.

The feelings of the whole army were most liberal in behalf of Andre; but none was more impressed with those sentiments of generosity and sympathy than Colonel Hamilton. He was daily searching some way to save him. Every wish to that effect having proved impossible, Hamilton, who was as sensible as any other of that impossibility, and one of those who lamented it the most, published a narrative of the events, and a portraiture of the unfortunate Andre, which is a masterpiece of literary talents and amiable sensibility. As it embraces all the essential circumstances of this interesting scene, and has been erroneously published, it may not improperly be introduced into the biography of its author.-Note by J. C. Hamilton in the "Life."

he made a journey to Connecticut; on his return from which to Philadelphia, he solicited the command of West Point, alleging that the effects of his wound had disqualified him for the active duties of the field. The sacrifice of this important post was the atonement he intended to make. General Washington hesitated the less to gratify an officer who had rendered such eminent services, as he was covinced the post might be safely entrusted to one who had given so many distinguished proofs of his bravery. In the beginning of August he joined the army, and renewed his application. The enemy at this juncture had embarked the greatest part of their force on an expedition to Rhode Island, and our army was in motion to compel them to relinquish the enterprise, or to attack New York in its weakened state. The General offered Arnold the

left wing of the army, which he declined, on the pretext already mentioned, but not without visible embarrassment. He certainly might have executed the duties of such a temporary command, and it was expected from his enterprising temper, that he would gladly have embraced so splendid an opportunity. But he did not choose to be diverted a moment from his favourite object; probably from an apprehension, that some different disposition might have taken place which would have excluded him. The extreme solicitude he discovered to get possession of the post, would have led to a suspicion of the treachery, had it been possible, from his past conduct, to have supposed him capable of it.

The correspondence thus begun, was carried on between Arnold and Major André, Adjutant General to the British army, in behalf of Sir Henry Clinton, under feigned signatures, and in a mercantile disguise. In an intercepted letter of Arnold, which lately fell into our hands, he proposes an interview "to settle the risks and profits of the copartnership," and in the same style of metaphor intimates an expected augmentation of the garrison, and speaks of it as the means of extending their traffic. It appears by another letter, that André was to have met him on the lines, under the sanction of a flag, in the character of Mr. John Anderson. But some cause or other, not known, prevented this interview.

The twentieth of last month, Robinson and André went up the river in the Vulture sloop of war. Robinson sent a flag to Arnold with two letters, one to General Putnam, enclosed in another to himself, proposing an interview with Putnam, or in his absence with Arnold, to adjust some private concerns. The one to General Putnam was evidently meant as a cover to the other, in case, by accident, the letters should have fallen under the inspection of a third person.

General Washington crossed the river on his way to Hartford, the day these despatches arrived. Arnold, conceiving he must have heard of the flag, thought it necessary, for the sake of appearances, to submit the letters to him, and ask his opinion of the propriety of complying with the request. The General, with his usual caution, though without the least surmise of the design, dissuaded him from it, and advised him to reply to Robinson, that whatever related to his private affairs must be of a civil nature, and could only properly be addressed to the civil authority. This reference fortunately deranged the plan, and was the first link in the chain of events that led to the detection. The interview could no longer take place in the form of a flag, but was obliged to be managed in a secret manner.

Arnold employed one Smith to go on board the Vulture the night of the twenty-second, to bring André on shore with a pass for Mr. John Anderson. André came ashore accordingly, and was conducted