Arnold in Command of Philadelphia.—Unpopular Measures.—Arnold’s Style
of Living.—His Schemes and Speculations.—His Collisions with the
Executive Council.—His Land Project.—Charges sent against him to
Congress.—His Address to the Public.—Charges referred to a
Court-martial.—His Marriage.—Verdict of the Court-martial.—Arnold
reprimanded.—Obtains Leave of Absence from the Army.
The most irksome duty that Washington had to perform during this
winter’s encampment at Morristown, regarded General Arnold and his
military government of Philadelphia in 1778. To explain it requires a
glance back to that period.
At the time of entering upon this command, Arnold’s accounts with
government were yet unsettled, the committee appointed by Congress, at
his own request, to examine them, having considered some of his charges
dubious, and others exorbitant. Washington, however, still looked upon
him with favor, and, but a month previously, had presented him with a
pair of epaulettes and a sword-knot, “as a testimony of his sincere
regard and approbation.”
The command of Philadelphia, at this time, was a delicate and difficult
one, and required to be exercised with extreme circumspection. The
boundaries between the powers vested in the military commander, and
those inherent in the State government, were ill defined. Disaffection
to the American cause prevailed both among the permanent and casual
residents, and required to be held in check with firmness but
toleration. By a resolve of Congress, no goods, wares, or merchandise
were to be removed, transferred, or sold, until the ownership of them
could be ascertained by a joint committee of Congress and of the Council
of Pennsylvania; any public stores belonging to the enemy were to be
seized and converted to the use of the army.
Washington, in his letter of instructions, left it to Arnold’s
discretion to adopt such measures as should appear to him most effectual
and least offensive in executing this resolve of Congress; in which he
was to be aided by an assistant quartermaster-general, subject to his
directions. “You will take every prudent step in your power,” writes
Washington, “to preserve tranquillity and order in the city, and give
security to individuals of every class and description, restraining, as
far as possible, till the restoration of civil government, every species
of persecution, insult, or abuse, either from the soldiery to the
inhabitants, or among each other.”
One of Arnold’s first measures was to issue a proclamation enforcing the
resolve of Congress. In so doing, he was countenanced by leading
personages of Philadelphia, and the proclamation was drafted by General
Joseph Reed. The measure excited great dissatisfaction, and
circumstances attending the enforcement of it gave rise to scandal.
Former instances of a mercenary spirit made Arnold liable to suspicions,
and it was alleged that, while by the proclamation he shut up the stores
and shops so that even the officers of the army could not procure
necessary articles of merchandise, he was privately making large
purchases for his own enrichment.
His style of living gave point to this scandal. He occupied one of the
finest houses in the city; set up a splendid establishment; had his
carriage and four horses and a train of domestics; gave expensive
entertainments, and indulged in a luxury and parade which were condemned
as little befitting a republican general; especially one whose accounts
with government were yet unsettled, and who had imputations of mercenary
rapacity still hanging over him.
Ostentatious prodigality, in fact, was Arnold’s besetting sin. To cope
with his overwhelming expenses, he engaged in various speculations, more
befitting the trafficking habits of his early life than his present
elevated position. Nay, he availed himself of that position to aid his
speculations, and sometimes made temporary use of the public moneys
passing through his hands. In his impatience to be rich, he at one time
thought of taking command of a privateer, and making lucrative captures
at sea.
In the exercise of his military functions, he had become involved in
disputes with the president (Wharton) and executive council of
Pennsylvania and by his conduct, which was deemed arbitrary and
arrogant, had drawn upon himself the hostility of that body, which
became stern and unsparing censors of his conduct.
He had not been many weeks in Philadelphia before he became attached to
one of its reigning belles, Miss Margaret Shippen, daughter of Mr.
Edward Shippen, in after years chief justice of Pennsylvania. Her family
were not considered well affected to the American cause; the young lady
herself, during the occupation of the city by the enemy, had been a
“toast” among the British officers, and selected as one of the beauties
of the Mischianza.
Arnold paid her addresses in an open and honorable style, first
obtaining by letter the sanction of the father. Party feeling at that
time ran high in Philadelphia on local subjects connected with the
change of the State government. Arnold’s connection with the Shippen
family increased his disfavor with the president and executive council,
who were whigs to a man; and it was sneeringly observed, that “he had
courted the loyalists from the start.”
General Joseph Reed, at that time one of the executive committee,
observes in a letter to General Greene, “Will you not think it
extraordinary that General Arnold made a public entertainment the night
before last, of which, not only common tory ladies, but the wives and
daughters of persons proscribed by the State, and now with the enemy at
New York, formed a very considerable number? The fact is literally
true.”
Regarded from a different point of view, this conduct might have been
attributed to the courtesy of a gallant soldier; who scorned to carry
the animosity of the field into the drawing-room, or to proscribe and
persecute the wives and daughters of political exiles.
In the beginning of December, General Reed became president of the
executive council of Pennsylvania, and under his administration the
ripening hostility to Arnold was brought to a crisis. Among the various
schemes of the latter for bettering his fortunes, and securing the means
of living when the war should come to an end, was one for forming a
settlement in the western part of the State of New York, to be composed,
principally, of the officers and soldiers who had served under him. His
scheme was approved by Mr. John Jay, the pure-minded patriot of New
York, at that time President of Congress, and was sanctioned by the New
York delegation. Provided with letters from them, Arnold left
Philadelphia about the 1st of January (1779), and set out for Albany to
obtain a grant of land for the purpose, from the New York Legislature.
Within a day or two after his departure, his public conduct was
discussed in the executive council of Pennsylvania, and it was resolved
unanimously, that the course of his military command in the city had
been in many respects oppressive, unworthy of his rank and station, and
highly discouraging to the liberties and interests of America, and
disrespectful to the supreme executive authority of the State.
As he was an officer of the United States, the complaints and grievances
of Pennsylvania were set forth by the executive council in eight
charges, and forwarded to Congress, accompanied by documents, and a
letter from President Reed.
Information of these facts, with a printed copy of the charges, reached
Arnold at Washington’s camp on the Raritan, which he had visited while
on the way to Albany. His first solicitude was about the effect they
might have upon Miss Shippen, to whom he was now engaged. In a letter
dated February 8th, he entreated her not to suffer these rude attacks on
him to give her a moment’s uneasiness—they could do him no injury.
On the following day he issued an address to the public, recalling his
faithful services of nearly four years, and inveighing against the
proceedings of the president and council; who, not content with injuring
him in a cruel and unprecedented manner with Congress, had ordered
copies of their charges to be printed and dispersed throughout the
several States, for the purpose of prejudicing the public mind against
him, while the matter was yet in suspense. “Their conduct,” writes he,
“appears the more cruel and malicious, in making the charges after I had
left the city; as my intention of leaving the city was known for five
weeks before.” This complaint, we must observe, was rebutted, on their
part, by the assertion that, at the time of his departure, he knew of
the accusation that was impending.
In conclusion, Arnold informed the public that he had requested Congress
to direct a court-martial to inquire into his conduct, and trusted his
countrymen would suspend their judgment in the matter, until he should
have an opportunity of being heard.
Public opinion was divided. His brilliant services spoke eloquently in
his favor. His admirers repined that a fame won by such daring exploits
on the field should be stifled down by cold calumnies in Philadelphia;
and many thought, dispassionately, that the State authorities had acted
with excessive harshness towards a meritorious officer, in widely
spreading their charges against him, and thus, in an unprecedented way,
putting a public brand upon him.
On the 16th of February, Arnold’s appeal to Congress was referred to the
committee which had under consideration the letter of President Reed and
its accompanying documents, and it was charged to make a report with all
convenient dispatch. A motion was made to suspend Arnold from all
command during the inquiry. To the credit of Congress it was negatived.
Much contrariety of feeling prevailed on the subject in the committee of
Congress and the executive council of Pennsylvania, and the
correspondence between those legislative bodies was occasionally
tinctured with needless acrimony.
Arnold, in the course of January, had obtained permission from
Washington to resign the command of Philadelphia, but deferred to act
upon it, until the charges against him should be examined, lest, as he
said, his enemies should misinterpret his motives, and ascribe his
resignation to fear of a disgraceful suspension in consequence of those
charges.
About the middle of March, the committee brought in a report exculpating
him from all criminality in the matters charged against him. As soon as
the report was brought in, he considered his name vindicated, and
resigned.
Whatever exultation he may have felt was short-lived. Congress did not
call up and act upon the report, as, in justice to him, they should have
done, whether to sanction it or not; but referred the subject anew to a
joint committee of their body and the assembly and council of
Pennsylvania. Arnold was at this time on the eve of marriage with Miss
Shippen, and, thus circumstanced, it must have been peculiarly galling
to his pride to be kept under the odium of imputed delinquencies.
The report of the joint committee brought up animated discussions in
Congress. Several resolutions recommended by the committee were merely
of a formal nature, and intended to soothe the wounded sensibilities
of Pennsylvania; these were passed without dissent; but it was
contended that certain charges advanced by the executive council of
that State were only cognizable by a court-martial, and, after a warm
debate, it was resolved (April 3d), by a large majority, that the
commander-in-chief should appoint such a court for the consideration
of them.
Arnold inveighed bitterly against the injustice of subjecting him to a
trial before a military tribunal for alleged offenses of which he had
been acquitted by the committee of Congress. He was sacrificed, he said,
to avoid a breach with Pennsylvania. In a letter to Washington, he
charged it all to the hostility of President Reed, who, he affirmed, had
by his address kept the affair in suspense for two months, and at last
obtained the resolution of Congress directing the court-martial. He
urged Washington to appoint a speedy day for the trial, that he might
not linger under the odium of an unjust public accusation. “I have no
doubt of obtaining justice from a court-martial,” writes he, “as every
officer in the army must feel himself injured by the cruel and
unprecedented treatment I have met with.... When your Excellency
considers my sufferings, and the cruel situation I am in, your own
humanity and feeling as a soldier will render everything I can say
further on the subject unnecessary.”
It was doubtless soothing to his irritated pride, that the woman on whom
he had placed his affections remained true to him; for his marriage with
Miss Shippen took place just five days after the mortifying vote of
Congress.
Washington sympathized with Arnold’s impatience, and appointed the 1st
of May for the trial, but it was repeatedly postponed; first, at the
request of the Pennsylvania council, to allow time for the arrival of
witnesses from the South; afterwards, in consequence of threatening
movements of the enemy, which obliged every officer to be at his post;
Arnold, in the mean time, continued to reside at Philadelphia, holding
his commission in the army, but filling no public office, getting deeper
and deeper in debt, and becoming more and more unpopular.
Having once been attacked in the street in the course of some popular
tumult, he affected to consider his life in danger, and applied to
Congress for a guard of Continental soldiers, “as no protection was to
be expected from the authority of the State for an honest man.”
He was told in reply that his application ought to have been made to the
executive authority of Pennsylvania; “in whose disposition to protect
every honest citizen, Congress had full confidence, _and highly
disapproved the insinuation of every individual to the contrary_.”
For months, Arnold remained in this anxious and irritated state. His
situation, he said, was cruel. His character would continue to suffer
until he should be acquitted by a court-martial, and he would be
effectually prevented from joining the army, which he wished to do as
soon as his wounds would permit, that he might render the country every
service in his power in this critical time. “For though I have been
ungratefully treated,” adds he, “I do not consider it as from my
countrymen in general, but from a set of men, who, void of principle,
are governed entirely by private interest.”
At length, when the campaign was over, and the army had gone into
winter-quarters, the longdelayed court-martial was assembled at
Morristown. Of the eight charges originally advanced against Arnold by
the Pennsylvania council, four only came under cognizance of the court.
Of two of these he was entirely acquitted. The remaining two were—
_First._ That while in the camp at Valley Forge, he, without the
knowledge of the commander-in-chief, or the sanction of the State
government, had granted a written permission for a vessel belonging to
disaffected persons, to proceed from the port of Philadelphia, then in
possession of the enemy, to any port of the United States.
_Second._ That, availing himself of his official authority, he had
appropriated the public wagons of Pennsylvania, when called forth on a
special emergency, to the transportation of private property, and that
of persons who voluntarily remained with the enemy, and were deemed
disaffected to the interests and independence of America.
In regard to the first of these charges, Arnold alleged that the person
who applied for the protection of the vessel, had taken the oath of
allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania required by the laws; that he
was not residing in Philadelphia at the time, but had applied on behalf
of himself and a company, and that the intentions of that person and his
associates with regard to the vessel and cargo appeared to be upright.
As to his having granted the permission without the knowledge of the
commander-in-chief, though present in the camp, Arnold alleged that it
was customary in the army for general officers to grant passes and
protections to inhabitants of the United States, friendly to the same,
and that the protection was given in the present instance, to prevent
the soldiery from plundering the vessel and cargo, coming from a place
in possession of the enemy, until the proper authority could take
cognizance of the matter.
In regard to the second charge, while it was proved that under his
authority wagons had been so used, it was allowed in extenuation, that
they had been employed at private expense, and without any design to
defraud the public or impede the military service.
In regard to both charges, nothing fraudulent on the part of Arnold was
proved, but the transactions involved in the first were pronounced
irregular, and contrary to one of the articles of war; and in the
second, imprudent and reprehensible, considering the high station
occupied by the general at the time; and the court sentenced him to be
reprimanded by the commander-in-chief. The sentence was confirmed by
Congress on the 12th of February (1780).
We have forborne to go into all the particulars of this trial, but we
have considered them attentively, discharging from our minds, as much as
possible, all impressions produced by Arnold’s subsequent history, and
we are surprised to find, after the hostility manifested against him by
the council of Pennsylvania, and their extraordinary measure to possess
the public mind against him, how venial are the trespasses of which he
stood convicted.
He may have given personal offense by his assuming vanity; by the
arrogant exercise of his military authority; he may have displeased by
his ostentation, and awakened distrust by his speculating propensities;
but as yet his patriotism was unquestioned. No turpitude had been proved
against him; his brilliant exploits shed a splendor round his name, and
he appeared before the public, a soldier crippled in their service. All
these should have pleaded in his favor, should have produced indulgence
of his errors, and mitigated that animosity which he always contended
had been the cause of his ruin.
The reprimand adjudged by the court-martial was administered by
Washington with consummate delicacy. The following were his words, as
repeated by M. de Marbois, the French secretary of legation:—
“Our profession is the chastest of all: even the shadow of a fault
tarnishes the lustre of our finest achievements. The least inadvertence
may rob us of the public favor, so hard to be acquired. I reprehend you
for having forgotten, that, in proportion as you had rendered yourself
formidable to our enemies, you should have been guarded and temperate in
your deportment towards your fellow-citizens.
“Exhibit anew those noble qualities which have placed you on the list of
our most valued commanders. I will myself furnish you, as far as it may
be in my power, with opportunities of regaining the esteem of your
country.”
A reprimand so mild and considerate, accompanied by such high eulogiums
and generous promises, might have had a favorable effect upon Arnold,
had he been in a different frame of mind but he had persuaded himself
that the court would incline in his favor and acquit him altogether and
he resented deeply a sentence, which he protested against as unmerited.
His resentment was aggravated by delays in the settlement of his
accounts, as he depended upon the sums he claimed as due to him, for the
payment of debts by which he was harassed. In following the matter up,
he became a weary, and probably irritable, applicant at the halls of
Congress, and, we are told, gave great offense to members by his
importunity, while he wore out the patience of his friends; but public
bodies are prone to be offended by the importunity of baffled claimants,
and the patience of friends is seldom proof against the reiterated story
of a man’s prolonged difficulties.
In the month of March, we find him intent on a new and adventurous
project. He had proposed to the Board of Admiralty an expedition,
requiring several ships of war and three or four hundred land troops,
offering to take command of it should it be carried into effect, as his
wounds still disabled him from duty on land. Washington, who knew his
abilities in either service, was disposed to favor his proposition, but
the scheme fell through from the impossibility of sparing the requisite
number of men from the army. What Arnold’s ultimate designs might have
been in seeking such a command, are rendered problematical by his
subsequent conduct. On the failure of the project, he requested and
obtained from Washington leave of absence from the army for the summer,
there being, he said, little prospect of an active campaign, and his
wounds unfitting him for the field.
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