Romantic days in the early republic

Front matter

Class EjU^

I

MRS. BENEDICT ARNOLD AND HER ELDEST SON.

Foreword

All the visitors to America, during and just after the Revolution, wrote with enthusiasm, upon their return home, of the hospitality which they here enjoyed and of the beautiful women who administered it. Boston, New York, Philadelphia and the Southern cities each cherishes fondly — so far as its own traditions go — the memory of that gracious era and of those identified with it. But how little Bostonians know of early New York, how dense is the ignorance of Philadelphians concerning the traditions of New Orleans! Yet would it not add materially to our rich heritage as Americans, if the local history and noble heroes of other cities than our own evoked our keen enthusiasm.^

The author, however, who sets out, in a single book, to promote this admirable end is confronted at once with a very great diflSculty; that of selection. For no Philadelphian wants to read details about early Baltimore — however admirable he might find in any book exhaustive treatment of his own dear city. Happily, each of the cities here studied has been found to possess some story or some institution viii FOREWORD

of its own which might well become a part of common knowledge in this young and lusty land of ours. America can use more heroes, too, than we are wont to think. Jefferson and Andrew Jackson should not be mere names in this year of Progressivism; Abigail Adams and Theodosia Burr ought to be the fond familiar friends of awakening American womanhood.

Of course, the diaries, histories, reminiscences and letters consulted in the preparation of a book of this kind bulk very large; so large that their mere enumeration would cover many pages. For the most part, therefore, acknowledgments have been made in the body of the book. But I wish to mention here my gratitude to the Houghton Mifflin Company for various quotations from works which they control; to Charles Scribner's Sons; publishers of Margaret Bayard Smith's First Forty Years of Washington Society; to Harper and Brothers for their courtesy in permitting the use of some anecdotes first printed in their publications; to the Century Company for similar courtesies, and to G. P. Putnam's Sons for several citations from their edition of Washington Irving's works.

To individuals who have aided me by their counsel and by the loan of family or muchcherished portraits; to writers who have given me the benefit of their ripe wisdom and scholarly

FOREWORD ix

research; to librarians who have gladly lent time and interest my warm gratitude is also given. One of the great joys which comes to an author in the preparation of a work of this kind is the discovery that America, even today, has something of the spirit of that Cooperative Commonwealth towards which the Reformer yearns — lingering remnants, very likely, of the team-play brotherliness which made possible the early Republic.

M. C. C.

Boston, Massachusetts, 1912.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGH

Foreword vii

I. Philadelphia 1

Chapter I Philadklphia

PHILADELPHIA is the finest town, the i- si built and tlie most wealthy in the - ^-d States," stoutly maintained Brisso^ ' 'ik' (1788) in his naive volume of

The time to which our author refers ; iurse, that of the early Republic; but ^uasiiiUch as a good deal of Philadelphia's social prestige had been carried over from the days of the British Occupation, — days in which Major Andre and Peggy Shippen together participated in the Mischianza of illustrious memory, — it seems worth while to tell briefly the story of that brilliant affair and to restate clearly the known facts concerning Mrs. Arnold's relation to the clever young British ofPcer.

Peggy Shippen Arnold certainly realized to the full the delectable desire expressed by

Ibsen's neurotic Hedda, when she exclaimed, " Oh, that I might have my fingers in the destiny of a man! " History, to be sure, pretty unanimously acquits Andre's cotillion partner of any wicked complicity in what afterwards happened. Nor is there the least evidence that what Andre felt for pretty Peggy was more than the pleasure any gallant young man takes in the witty companionship of a dainty maiden who is suflBciently his junior. At the time of the Mischianza, indeed, Andre's heart had not really recovered from the blow dealt him by Honora Sneyd when she chose to become the second wife of Richard Lovell Edgeworth (and the stepmother of Maria Edgeworth, the novelist) rather than accept the portionless hand of her handsome young adorer. There are extant some letters written by young Andre to a giri who was the friend both of Honora and of himself, in which there are frequent references to the scantiness of his family fortunes and to the bearing of this fact on his prospects of future happiness.

Almost the only tangible evidence that there ever had been a fortune in the Andre family rested, it would seem, on an old coach drawn by " two long tail nags." And as frankly as he confesses his poverty young Andre avows the hopelessness of his affection for Honora. In one letter he writes, " My zephyrs are wafted through cracks in the wainscott; for murmuring streams I have dirty kennels; for bleating flocks grunting pigs — and squaUing birds that incessantly warble!" Not a favorable spot, obviously, for the cultivation of the muse. No wonder he soon came to feel that, as a change, he could even enter trade. On November 1, 1769, he wrote, " I have now completely subdued my aversT n to the profession of a merchant, and he,' ai time to acquire an inclination for it. iifet, God forbid I should ever love what I am to make the object of my attention, that vile trash which I c*^^^ not for but only as it maj be a future means of procuring the blessing of my soul. Thus all my mercantile calculations go to the tune of dear Honora. When an impertinent consciousness whispers in my ear that I am not of the right stuff for a merchant I draw my Honora's picture from my bosom and tha sight of that dear Talisman so inspirits my industry that no toil appears oppressive." It was this same picture of Honora, painted by himself, and preserved in a locket, that Andre saved from his captors (by hiding it in his mouth) when, having surrendered to Montgomery (at St. John's in 1775), he with the other prisoners of war was commanded to strip for examination. Yet Honora had then for two years been the wife of the fascinating Edgeworth — and it had probably been in the hope of drowning in an adventurous career in America the sorrow of her loss that Andre joined the British army over here. Following his capture by Montgomery, he was conveyed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where for four months he was confined as a prisoner in the house of Caleb Cope. Then he was transferred to Carlisle and, after that, was in short order exchanged and made a member of Sir Henry Clinton's military family, with promotion from his rank as captain to that of major.

It was, however, Andre's social gifts rather than any military skill he may have possessed which made him a favorite in Philadelphia. He was graceful and handsome, could draw, paint, and write poetry, — and he had chariaing manners. He seemed, indeed, particularly endowed to plan and carry through the famous social function which Howe's officers designed to mark their chief's departure from the Quaker City and to rebuke his recall to England. In an elaborate letter, written to a friend in London and published several years after Andre's death, we see reflected the young man's delight in this extraordinary fete which has ever since been regarded as the high-water mark in Philadelphia's social history.^

As the title of the fete impHes, several different kinds of entertainment were included in this

^ In the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1788.

splendid celebration of May 18, 1778. The initial feature was a grand regatta in three divisions. First came the Ferret galley, on board of which were several general officers and ladies; then the Hussar galley, bearing Sir William and Lord Howe, Sir Henry Clinton, their suite and many ladies, while the Cornwallis galley, with General Knyphausen and suite, three British generals and sc^- -al more fair ladies brought up in the rear. In front of each galley went three flatboats with bands of music; five flatboats, lined with green cloth and filled with ladies and gentlemen attended each side of the large ships, and these were in turn attended by several barges to keep off the swarm of boats in the river. Colors and streamers floated gaily from the participating ships, while all the vessels lying at anchor near by were also magnificently decorated.

The rendezvous for this interesting regattapageant was at Knight's Wharf, at the northern extremity of the city. At half-past four the company embarked, floating slowly down the river to the strains of appropriate music until they arrived opposite Market Wharf, where all rested their oars and, in obedience to a previously arranged signal, '* God Save the King " was sung and cheered by all hands to the echo. The landing was at the Old Fort, a little south of the town, and thence, after a due ritual of salutes, the company from the boats proceeded to Walnut Grove, the mansion of Joseph Wharton, through an avenue formed by two files of grenadiers, each supported by a line of light horse, to the building prepared for the next feature. Here was " discovered " a spacious lawn lined with troops and prepared for the exhibition of a tilt and tournament. Two pavilions had been provided for the ladies, with seats rising one above the other, the places of honor on the front seats having bec-n allot led to a group of maidens dressed as Turkish princesses and wearing in their turbans the favors for which the gallant knights were presently to contend.

A blare of trumpets sounded in t]ie distance. And now a band of knights in ancient habits of white and red silk, mounted on gray horses caparisoned in the same colors and attended by squires on foot, by heralds and by trumpeters, entered the lists. Lord Cathcart was chief of these knights and appeared in honor of Miss Auchmuty. One squire bore his lance, another his shield, and two coal-black slaves, dressed in blue and white silk with silver clasps on their bare necks and arms, held his stirrups. After making a circuit of the square and saluting the ladies, the members of his band ranged themselves in line with the pavilion graced by the ladies of their device. Then the herald, after a flourish of trumpets, proclaimed a challenge and asserted the superiority in wit, beauty, and accomplishment of the ladies of the Blended Rose, whose claims would now be defended according to the ancient laws of chivalry.

Thrice was the challenge repeated ere another herald and trumpeters, advancing from the opposite side of the square, proclaimed defiance in the name of the knights of the Burning Mountain. Black and orange were the colors of these servitors, while their chief. Captain Watson, appearing in honor of Miss Franks, bore for his device a heart with a wreath of roses, and for his ;ii->:tj Love and Glory. Tliis band also rede round the lists and drew up in front of the White Knights. Then the gauntlet was thrown down, lifted — and the encounter was on ! For some minutes all fought, and then the two chiefs, spurring to the center, engaged in a single combat which grew more and more fierce until the marshal of the field, rushing between them, declared that the ladies both of the Blended Rose aiicf of the Burning Mountain were satisfied with the proofs of love and valor already given and commanded their knights to desist. The bands filed off in different directions, bowing low, as they passed the pavilion, to the beautiful ladies there ensconced.

The whole company then marched in procession, through triumphal arches built in the Tuscan order, to a garden on the other side, and ascended to a spacious hall painted in imitation of Siena marble. Here were tea and other refreshments. And now the valiant knights, kneeling down, received from the fair fingers of their chosen ones the favors which they had won in the tournament. In the ballroom, where dancing continued until ten o'clock, were eighty -five mirrors reflecting the light from thirty-four branches fitted with wax candles; and to lend further brilliance to the scene there was soon a magnificent display of fireworks.

Supper, however, was the crowning glory of the day. This was served at the stroke of midnight, when large folding doors, which had hitherto been concealed, were suddenly thrown open, revealing a splendid and spacious hall richly painted and brilliantly illuminated, the central feature of which was a table set out, according to Major Andre's account, with four hundred and thirty covers and twelve hundred dishes ! At the close of the feast the herald and trumpeters of the Blended Rose entered the room, and proclaimed, first, the health of the king and royal family, then the health of the knights and their ladies. Each toast was accompanied by a flourish of music in good old medieval style. After which the company returned to the ballroom and dancing continued till four o'clock. Very weary the Mischianza belles must have been when they finally reached home. For this entertainment had made a record for length as well as for elegance!

The next day the mirrors and lusters borrowed from Philadelphia's leading citizens were quietly returned, and very shortly Sir William Howe took his departure. But the pageant given in the English general's honor caused tongues to wag for many a month in England as well as in the camps of the American army. Naturally the patriot generals, who had been enduring bitter privations in the cause of independence, were most cutting in their comments on the extravagance of the celebration, and one certainly sympathizes with the feeling which, on July 12, prompted General Wayne to write, " Tell those Philadelphia ladies who attended Howe's assemblies and levees that the heavenly, sweet, pretty, redcoats — the accomplished gentlemen of the guards and grenadiers, have been humbled on the plains of Monmouth. The knights of the Blended Roses and of the Burning Mount have resigned their laurels to rebel officers, who will lay them at the feet of those virtuous daughters of America who cheerfully gave up ease and affluence in a city for liberty and peace of mind in a cottage."

Though all the loyalist maidens of Philadelphia — the Chews, the Whites, the Craigs, the Redmans and the Burds — had a share in the festivities of that glorious day, the most prominent girl in the fete was the beautiful Miss Margaret Shippen, who was soon to become the wife of Benedict Arnold. Arnold had begun life as a druggist in New Haven, Connecticut, not far from Norwich, the town of his birth, and there had married an estimable woman who died about the time the war began. Though of a reckless and adventurous nature, the traitor seems to have been tenderly devoted to this wife, and it was perhaps the sorrow of her loss which first turned him definitely towards the crooked ways which were to prove his undoing. Sparks argues from the constant affection felt for the man by his gentle sister, Hannah Arnold, that there existed in his domestic character better traits than could be inferred from his public conduct. Other writers, pressing further this same line of reasoning, find in a fond husband's desire to indulge the extravagance of a charming young wife the explanation of Arnold's treachery. This, however, seems to me to be working too hard the injunction, *' Cherchez la femme! " Arnold was a spendthrift before ever he met Margaret Shippen.

But it was perhaps unfortunate that a man of his weak will and impressionable nature should have been put in command at Philadelphia in the wake of the Mischianza and at a time when only the utmost integrity and the finest tact could have enabled any commander to give entire satisfaction. Stories began very early to be whispered about to his discredit. One set of people said that it was nothing short of a scandal, in view of the distressed condition of the country, for Arnold to be living as he was and to be courting the favor of Tories. Another set charged him with extortion and with commercial speculations of doubtful repute.

The note of extravagance and display, which had been struck in Philadelphia before Howe's departure, was not suffered to die away under Arnold. He soon established himself at Mount Pleasant, once characterized by John Adams as " the most magnificent seat in Pennsylvania," furnished it expensively, drove a coach and four, and gave splendid entertainments, to which were always invited the friends of the lovely Miss Shippen. He had fallen in love with the Tory belle at first sight and, within three months, was declaring his passion thus eloquently:

" Dear Madam: Twenty times have I taken up my pen to write to you and as often has my trembling hand refused to obey the dictates of my heart — a heart which, though calm and serene amid the clashing of arms and all the din and horrors of war, trembles with diffidence and the fear of giving offence when it attempts to address you on a subject so important to its happiness. Dear madam, your charms have lighted up a flame in my bosom which can never be extinguished; your heavenly image is too deeply impressed ever to be effaced. My passion is not founded on personal charms only: that sweetness of disposition and goodness of heart — that sentiment and sensibility which so strongly mark the character of the lovely Miss P. Shippen — render her amiable beyond expression, and will ever retain the heart she has once captivated.

" On you alone my happiness depends. And will you doom me to languish in despair .^^ Shall I expect no return to the most sincere, ardent and disinterested passion.^ Do you feel no pity in your gentle bosom for the man who would die to make you happy ? May I presume to hope it is not impossible I may make a favourable impression on your heart? Friendship and esteem you acknowledge. Dear Peggy! suffer that heavenly bosom (which cannot know itself the cause of pain without a sympathetic pang) to expand with a sensation, more soft, more tender than friendship. A union of hearts is undoubtedly necessary to happiness. But give me leave to observe that true and permanent happiness is seldom the effect of an alliance formed on a romantic passion, where fancy governs more than judgment. Friendship and esteem, founded on the merit of the object, is the most certain basis to found a lasting happiness upon. And when there is a tender and ardent passion on one side, and friendship and esteem on the other, the heart (unHke yours) must be callous to every tender sentiment if the taper of love is not lighted up at the flame.

" I am sensible your prudence and the affection you bear your amiable and tender parents forbid your giving encouragement to the addresses of anyone without their approbation. Pardon me, dear madam, for disclosing a passion I could no longer confine in my tortured bosom. I have presumed to write to your papa and have requested his sanction to my addresses. Suffer me to hope for your approbation. Consider before you doom me to misery which I have not deserved but by loving you too extravagantly. Consult your own happiness, and, if incompatible, forget there is so unhappy a wretch; for may I perish if I would give you one moment's inquietude to purchase the greatest possible felicity to myself! Whatever my fate may be my most ardent wish is for your happiness, and my latest breath will be to implore the blessings of Heaven on the idol and only wish of my soul.

" Adieu, dear madam, and believe me unalterably your sincere admirer and devoted humble servant,

" B. Arnold.

" September 25, 1778 *' Miss Peggy Shippen."

According to some authorities the Shippen family were most distressed that their beloved Peggy returned the love of Arnold. This, however, " not so much from political feeling as from distrust of the man, objection to his origin and dislike of his private character so far as it was known. Arnold was not, in fact, a gentleman. His birth and early education were low; and his peddling and smuggling-trade with the islands, his traffic in cattle and horses could have improved neither his manners nor his morals." Yet there is extant a letter written by Peggy's grandfather, Ed ward Shippen, Sr., which contains quite a jovial allusion to the prospect of welcoming soon as a member of his family " General Arnold, a fine gentleman ! " ^

Perhaps the most astounding thing about this whole alliance was the ease with which Arnold acquitted himself in the matter of a proper {?) marriage settlement. Here his trickiness served him in good stead. For events proved that what he really settled upon the woman he was to take for a bride was a large mortgage held against the estate of Mt. Pleasant. This incumbrance, which had so reduced the amount of money necessary to be paid down for the place as to put it within Arnold's purchasing power, subsequently cut out altogether Peggy Shippen's interest in the estate.

1 Thomas Balch, in Letters and Papers Relating Chiefly to the Provincial Histonj of Pennsylvania.

In the matter of age, as well as in that of family and wealth, there was a striking disparity between these two. Miss Shippen was scarcely twenty years old while Arnold was a widower of thirty-five with three sons. But it was the story of Honora Sneyd and Richard Edgeworth over again. A handsome face, a gallant bearing and the habit of success with women quite outweighed the disadvantage of middle age, and, by the spring of 1779, Benedict Arnold, the former Connecticut apothecary, was the exultant husband of Margaret Shippen, daughter of one of Philadelphia's proudest families. Naturally, he now more than ever invited to his house the friends of the Shippen family. And quite as naturally he was now more than ever criticized for his friendliness with Tories. General Reed wrote indignantly to General Greene that Arnold had actually given a party at 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 " were present in considerable numbers. Arnold, when confronted with this accusation, replied that he had never considered it the part of a true soldier to persecute in private life the wives and daughters of the enemy. But, of course, this sophistical retort convinced no one.

On the woman he loved the effect of the petty persecution which now came to be visited upon

Arnold was (as often happens) to make her cling more closely than before to the man her heart had chosen. But it is only a coincidence, I am sure, that just at the time that they were married, Arnold first wrote to Sir Henry Clinton in disguised handwriting and under the signature of " Gustavus," describing himself as an American officer of high rank, who, through disgust at the French alliance and other proceedings of Congress, might perhaps be persuaded to go over to the British, provided he could be indemnified for any losses he might incur by so doing. The correspondence thus begun was kept up at intervals, Clinton's replies being penned by Major John Andre, his adjutant-general, over the signature of " John Anderson." For nearly eighteen months, indeed, the letters continued under fictitious names but with the gradual knowledge on the part of both principals as to whom the other party was.

Andre and Mrs. Arnold, too, occasionally wrote to each other now, and Arnold did not scruple, through this means, to convey certain messages to the English side. But Mrs. Arnold was, all the while, quite innocent of wrong, and the tale that she once confessed complicity in the treacherous plot ^ is usually discredited.

1 A letter from Major Andre to Arnold's wife, offering to secure supplies from New York of certain millinery articles for her use is generally supposed to cover a meaning understood by Arnold alone.

After his marriage, except when absent to attend the court-martial in camp, Arnold was pretty constantly in Philadelphia until the middle of July, 1780; and it was there that his first child by his second marriage, Edward Shippen Arnold, was born. The family's removal to West Point and Arnold's hasty departure from that place, — following his discovery of Andre's arrest, — were also events of that summer of 1780, a very tragic summer, we may believe, for the lovely girl who so short a time before had married her handsome general, full of high hopes for the future. Some friends of the Shippen family assert that the young wife would have been glad to return to her father's home for good upon the discovery of her husband's treachery, but if such was her desire she was effectually prevented from realizing it by this notice, served upon her within a month after she had rejoined her own people in Philadelphia, following Arnold's defection:

"IN COUNCIL

Philadelphia, Friday, Oct. 27, 1780. *' The Council, taking into consideration the case of Mrs. Margaret Arnold (the wife of Benedict Arnold, an attainted traitor with the enemy at New York), whose residence in this city has become dangerous to the public safety, and this Board being desirous as much as possible to prevent any correspondence and intercourse being carried on with persons of disaffected character in this State and the enemy at New York, and especially with the said Benedict Arnold; therefore

" Resolved, That the said Margaret Arnold depart this State within fourteen days from the date hereof, and that she do not return again during the continuance of the present war."

Nor could the Council be induced to withdraw this decree although considerable pressure was brought to bear upon them to do so. " It makes me melancholy every time I think of her reunion to that infernal villain," wrote Major Edward Burd, who had married Peggy Shippen's sister. " The sacrifice was an immense one at her being married to him at all. It is much more so to be obhged against her will, to go to the arms of a man who appears to be so very black." Major Burd was probably here expressing his own views of Arnold rather than those of his sister-in-law, although Washington Irving asserts ^ that it was " strongly against Mrs. Arnold's will that she rejoined her husband in New York." However this may be, she bore him four children after she had left Philadelphia, three sons who grew up to be officers in

^ Life of George Washington. Washington Irving, the British army and a daughter who married into the East Indian service. Edward Shippen Arnold, who had been born in Philadelphia, died in India in 1813, having won high distinction in the service of the king.

The form in which the people's indignation at Arnold's act expressed itself in Philadelphia was characteristic of the age. The night after the news of his flight was received a hollow paper effigy with a light inside and an inscription in large letters on the breast, was carried through the streets and then hung upon a gallows. On the last day of September (1780) a much more striking manifestation took place. An effigy of Arnold, dressed in regimentals but having two faces, was placed on a stage in the body of a cart and drawn through the city behind musicians playing the " Rogue's March," to a spot in front of the Coflfee House at Front and Market Streets and there burned. Towering over the figure in the cart stood the devil, with the conventional pitchfork, holding a bag of money in his hand. In front was a transparency representing Arnold, kneeling to the devil, who was about to pull him into the flames.

For Andre, however, who was forced to pay with his life for the American's treachery, the people as well as the Continental officers appear to have felt only pity. A curtain which he had painted for the Southwark Theatre at the time of the Occupation remained in use until the building was burned down (May 8, 1823), quite proof enough, it seems to me, that no spirit of revenge pursued the memory of the young Englishman's stay in Philadelphia. It had been this same Southwark Theatre, it is interesting to note, which before the Revolution was the scene of the first play by an American author ever produced in this country. This was on April 24, 1767, the piece bearing the name of The Prince of Parthia and its author being Thomas Godfrey, Jr. of Philadelphia:

In this production of an original American play, and, indeed, in almost all of the early theatrical ventures recorded in the stage history of Philadelphia, a leading actor was Lewis Hallam, whose English company had made so great a success in New York in 1753 that they were urged by the more liberal-minded Philadelphians to visit the Quaker City also. The matter was not arranged without opposition, and a goodly quantity of printer's ink was used in arguments pro and con, but eventually this forward step was taken and on April 25, 1754, Philadelphia's first regular theatrical season was inaugurated. The background of the company's efforts at this time was a temporary theatre in a warehouse situated in King or Water Street between Pine and Lombard Streets, but in 1759 they came