Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

statements of the lady have no proper value as historical testimony.

The widow of Colonel Humphreys, a lady of English extraction, whom he married in Portugal, where her family was established, died in Paris, the wife of a Polish adventurer named Walewski. Before she left this country, however, she entrusted the papers of her first husband to my late excellent and learned friend, John Pickering, son of Washington's Secretary of State. From his family they passed, not long since, into the hands of Mr. L. G. Olmstead, of New York, who is a connection of the Humphreys family, and whom I know a little. Their mass, I understand, is considerable, and they were never opened from the time Mr. Pickering arranged them until it was done by Mr. Olmstead at my request. But he writes me word that nothing in relation to André is to be found among them. I am not disappointed. I do not suppose that Colonel Humphreys, when he made his visit to Miss Seward, had anything but copies of the official papers, which have been known to the world since 1780. These, of course, were not worth preserving after they had served the purpose for which he carried them to England.

Since I began this letter I have read again Sir Samuel Romilly's argument on the case of André, to which I alluded when I last wrote. Pray, when you do me the favour of writing again, tell me what you think of it. The principle can hardly be stated more tersely, and commands the ready assent of several persons of legal eminence here, to whom I have shown it, and who

regard it as one that would be acted upon by a CourtMartial or Court of Law in England.

I remain, my dear Lord, &c.,

GEORGE TICKNOR.

Earl Stanhope to George Ticknor, Esq.

MY DEAR SIR,

May 12, 1855. I owe you many thanks for having so fully weighed the statement of Miss Seward, which I referred to your consideration, and having also been so kind as to make the inquiries which I suggested, to ascertain how far it might be supported by any entry in Colonel Humphreys' papers.

Upon the whole, I think with you, that we must give up the truth of the story. Miss Seward, as I am convinced, meant no deception; but her errors of fact, as you draw them up in array, are really so many and so manifest, that it is impossible to rely upon her accuracy of recollection in the other parts of what she tells. And perhaps the whole thing may be sufficiently explained by the vain and boastful character which you, from your local knowledge, ascribe to Colonel Humphreys.

To raise his own importance in Miss Seward's eyes, he may have assumed a commission from General Washington that he never in truth received, or may have. made the most of some few words addressed to him, possibly by Washington at his departure, such as—“ If

C

you see Miss Seward in England, pray explain to her how the matter really stood in André's case."

One most extraordinary feature in the case, which the more I think of the less I understand, is how Washington, with all his military training and experience, could possibly expect and make two separate overtures to obtain the exchange of Arnold for André, since the protection of deserters and transfuges is the invariable rule of every service in the world.1

I have, as you suggested, referred to and read over the letter of Sir Samuel Romilly on André's case, and venture to think that you attach to it an undue importance. How can you justly claim the authority of that able lawyer and legislator for a familiar effusion to his brother, written when he was but twenty-three years old? What weight would you allow at such an age to an obiter dictum of Chancellor Kent, or any other of those great jurists of whom America is justly proud?

But further still, I doubt very much, on considering Romilly's expressions, whether they are meant to denote

1 The case is stated as follows in the more recent Life of André, by Mr. Winthrop Sargent (p. 364, ed. Boston, 1861).

"The idea [of an exchange for Arnold] was cherished at [the American] head-quarters. Greene, it will be seen, suggested it to Robertson; and Washington, without committing himself ostensibly to the proposal, indirectly brought it before Clinton. Simcoe declares that among the letters between

the Generals, a paper was slipped in, unsigned, but in Hamilton's writing, saying, 'that the only way to save André was to give up Arnold.""

Mr. Sargent, in a subsequent passage (p. 374), most fully admits that "it would indeed have been the extreme of baseness in Clinton, under all the circumstances, to have given Arnold up in exchange for André."

any decided opinion of his own, or to do much more than to sum up the argument on both sides, stating the American, perhaps, the more emphatically, because as he observes, they gave no other reasons" for themselves.

[ocr errors]

By the way, if you come again to England, as I hope that you may, I will have the pleasure of showing you my copy of these Memoirs of Romilly, which you will find in some of the later passages enriched by notes in pencil on the margin made for me by the Duke of Wellington.

Believe me, &c.,

STANHOPE.

On the general question of the fate of André, I may venture to observe that the views which I expressed in my History of England, though warmly controverted by American writers of the present day, were held, in part at least, by some of the contemporaries and friends of Washington. Here, in proof, is an article on the demise of one of the latest survivors from those times :

The late Mrs. Alex. Hamilton.

(From the N. Y. Commercial.)

Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton, widow of General Alex. Hamilton, died at Washington yesterday. Her remains have been brought to this city, and the funeral services will take place at Trinity Church, to-morrow, at one o'clock.

Mrs. Hamilton was the daughter of General Philip Schuyler, and was born in the city of Albany, in the building known as "The Old Schuyler Mansion." She was married to General Hamilton, in the same city, in December, 1780. At the time of the marriage, Hamilton was one of the aides of General Washington, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and was just completing his twenty-fourth year. Mrs. Hamilton has survived her husband a little more than fifty years.

All our readers will remember the fate of Major André. About two months before the marriage of General Hamilton, he wrote the following letter to Miss Schuyler, which shows his strong dissent from the decree of the Court-Martial as to the manner in which André was to expiate his crime. The 'Boston Transcript,' when publishing this letter, said, “it shows that Hamilton was against the harsh decision, and it is well known that a majority of these officers themselves, catching the wide-spread sympathy of the hour, were inclined to revoke the sentence, had it not been for the counter and too ascendant influence of Greene and Lafayette.”

Colonel Hamilton to Miss Schuyler.

[Extract.]

Head-Quarters of the Army,
Tappan, Oct. 2, 1780.

Poor André suffers to-day.

Everything that is

amiable in virtue, in fortitude, in delicate sentiment,

and accomplished manners, pleads for him; but hard

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »