Nathan Hale Part 12

CONTRASTS BETWEEN HALE AND ANDRe

If Nathan Hale was in many respects the most notable American martyr, another man, in the English army, four years later met a doom that to the English appears to have exalted him to a rank corresponding to Nathan Hale's. For a long time there was a glamour about Andre that lifted him above the place to which, in the minds of many, he rightfully belonged, and comparisons have often been made between him and Hale, as if in reality their services and their characters justified such comparison.

It has been our aim to describe Hale as accurately as possible. He has been presented as an educated, high-minded patriot, wholly intent upon serving his country to the full extent of his ability, ready to run any risk in her service, and fully comprehending, in his last supreme effort to serve her, that he was risking his life and facing the possibility of a dishonorable death. He expected no reward if he succeeded, save the consciousness of having done his duty. But fail he did, and we have seen how simply and bravely he accepted his doom. His grave is unknown to this day, and his country, as a country, has made no recognition whatever of his supreme sacrifice.

In regard to Andre, we know that he was of foreign parentage, his father a Genevan Swiss, and his mother French. He had not inherited a drop of English blood. Born, however, after his parents removed to London, he was, in ordinary acceptance, English.

His parents were able to educate him thoroughly, and to fit him for what they supposed would be a successful commercial career. A disappointment in love, however, led him to seek a change of scene, and he entered the English army.

Personally he was most attractive, charming in his manners beyond the average man, a fine linguist, and a brave man. He soon attracted attention among the English officers engaged in the war against America, and was eventually made adjutant general of the English army. So far as can now be judged, his life as a soldier had been most agreeable, and he had made friends with all his a.s.sociates. While Arnold was perfecting his designs to betray West Point into the hands of the English, and thus in effect terminate the war, Andre was appointed to act as the intermediary between Arnold and Sir Henry Clinton.

Andre may have looked upon himself as an envoy from his own commander to an American commander, and he well knew that, if successful, high honor and a desirable command in the British army would be awarded him by the English government. He does not appear to have considered the fact that he was risking his life in the service of the English. Indeed, none of the English officers appear to have thought it possible that the Americans would dare to treat as a spy an English adjutant general who had been invited to his headquarters by General Arnold, and by him provided with safeguards for his return. So sure were they of Andre's safety that it is said the British officers treated with derision the suggestion that he was in danger, even after his capture.

Once captured, they should not have been so sure of his safety. But neither they nor he had any idea that he would be captured. Indeed, we can hardly see how he could have been captured had he followed the instructions of Sir Henry Clinton, who strictly enjoined him not to go within the American lines, not to a.s.sume any disguise, and not to carry a sc.r.a.p of writing.

At first Andre had supposed that Arnold would meet him on the _Vulture_, and that all their negotiations would be completed there. But Arnold, too crafty to run any personal risk, or arouse any suspicion in his own officers, insisted upon Andre's landing and conferring with him at some little distance from his own headquarters. Disregarding, through Arnold's persuasions, Clinton's first order to remain upon the _Vulture_, Andre's other failures in obedience appear to have been inevitable, and taking the risks as they came, he went forward to his doom, to his death, to Arnold's ruin as an American citizen, and to the preservation of the infant republic.

For the third time, Providence appears to have thwarted the shrewdest plans of the enemies of America. First came the fog in New York Bay, enabling Was.h.i.+ngton to withdraw his troops from Brooklyn without the knowledge of the British; second, the knowledge of Hale's fate and the preservation of his last words by a humane English officer, despite the malice of Provost Marshal Cunningham; third, and apparently most important of all, the capture of Andre, involving the defeat of Arnold's traitorous plans to ruin his country's cause.

From the moment Andre fell into the hands of the Americans, he was treated with the utmost courtesy. Every possible opportunity for him to prove his innocence was given him, and an offer to exchange him for Arnold, who had fled to the British camp, was made to the commanders of the English. This, however, could not be done honorably by Sir Henry Clinton, and Andre had to face a fate he had not for a moment thought possible.

He bore himself bravely, and he certainly won the hearts of those who held him prisoner. When he came to die in Tappan--not, as he had hoped, as a soldier, shot to death, but hanged as a spy--he seemed for a moment greatly affected. Then recovering himself before the fatal drop he said, "Gentlemen, I beg you all to bear witness that I die as a brave man."

Self-pity, the desire to be honored despite the manner of his death, marked Andre's exit from the world. Hale had gone hence without one personal expression of regret save that he could not add to his service for his country.

Andre had died pitied and lamented even by loyal Americans. England, remembering what he had done to serve her, and that he had died in her service, rendered his memory the highest honor. She conferred knighthood on his brother, and a pension of three hundred guineas a year on his mother and sisters, already well provided for.

Forty years later she sent one of her war vessels to America to bring his body back to England; and then the doors of stately Westminster Abbey, in which lie buried the dust of those she most delights to honor, were opened to receive his remains; there they will lie till the old Abbey crumbles.

Thus England honors the men who try to serve her in any line of heroic service, proving that if she "expects every man to do his duty," she, in her turn, expects to honor those who serve her, be they her own sons or the sons of strangers born "within her gates."

October 2, 1879, the ninety-ninth anniversary of the execution of Andre, a monument, prepared by order of Cyrus W. Field and placed over the spot of Andre's execution, was unveiled. There were present members of historical societies, of the United States Army, of the newspapers, and various other persons. At noon, the hour of Andre's execution, the memorial was unveiled. There were no ceremonies on the occasion. The epitaph had been prepared by the Rev. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, the beloved and honored Dean of Westminster, at whose suggestion Mr. Field had erected the memorial. It is inscribed as follows:

Here died, October 2, 1780 Major John Andre of the British Army, Who, entering the American lines On a secret mission to Benedict Arnold, For the surrender of West Point, Was taken prisoner, tried and condemned as a spy.

His death Though according to the stern rule of war, Moved even his enemies to pity; And both armies mourned the fate Of one so young and so brave.

In 1821 his remains were removed to Westminster Abbey.

A hundred years after the execution This stone was placed above the spot where he lay, By a citizen of the United States against which he fought, Not to perpetuate the record of strife, But in token of those friendly feelings Which have since united two nations, One in race, in language, and in religion, With the hope that this friendly union Will never be broken.

On the other side are these words of Was.h.i.+ngton:

"He was more unfortunate than criminal."

"An accomplished man and gallant officer."

--GEORGE WAs.h.i.+NGTON

The first of the two lines was from a letter of Was.h.i.+ngton to Count de Rochambeau, dated October 10, 1780. The second is from a letter written by Was.h.i.+ngton to Colonel John Laurens on October 13 of the same year.

In the year 1853 some Americans who believe that all historic spots in our land should be marked by permanent memorials, erected a monument at Tarrytown, New York, in honor of the captors of Andre. Hon. Henry J.

Raymond made the address at its dedication. Mr. Raymond was born in 1820 and was graduated from the University of Vermont in 1840. He a.s.sisted Horace Greeley in the conduct of the _Tribune_ and other newspapers. He founded the _New York Times_ in 1851 and died in 1869.

In the address just mentioned, Mr. Raymond, contrasting the halo that surrounded Andre's name with the oblivion then seemingly the fate of Nathan Hale, closed with these impa.s.sioned words:

"Where sleeps the Americanism of Americans, that their hearts are not stirred to solemn rapture at thought of the sublime love of country which buoyed him [Hale] not alone above 'the fear of death,' but far beyond all thought of himself, of his fate, and his fame, or of anything less than his country, and which shaped his dying breath into the sacred sentence which trembled at the last upon his unquivering lip?"

With this tribute we close, believing that the tardy justice accorded to our martyr-hero is destined to become a nation-wide loyalty; that the day will yet come when our nation, as a nation, will recognize the n.o.bility of nature displayed, and will a.s.sign a high place to the brave lad who so sublimely relinquished all that life held, and all that coming years might bring, to die for his country,--_our country_,--the high-souled Nathan Hale.