Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1890 — ARNOLD'S LAST DAYS. [ARTICLE]

ARNOLD'S LAST DAYS.

Th* Traitor’s Lift on the Other Side of the Doeitn. All o family tradition goes to show that t. e last years of Benedict Arnold In London were years of bitter remorse and self-reproach. The great name which he nad so gallantly won and so wretchedly lost left him no repose by night or day. The iron frame, which had withstood the fatigue of so many trying battle fields and still more trying marches through the wilderness, broke down at last under the slow torturo of lost friondships and merited disgrace. In the last sad days In London,'in Juno, 1801, the family tradition says that Arnold’s mind kept reverting to his old friendship with Washington. He had always carefully preserved the American uniform which he wore on the day when he made his escape to the Vulture; and now as, broken in spirit and weary of life, he felt the last moments coming, he called for this uniform and put it on, and decorated himself with the epaulettes and sword-knot which Washingtou had given him after the victory of Saratoga. “Let me die," said he, “in this old uniform in which I fought my battles. May God forgive me for ever putting on any other. ” Into the story of Arnold there enters that element of awe and pity which, as Aristotle pointed out, is an essential part of rehl tragedy. That Arnold had been very shabbily treated, long before any thought of treason entered his mind, is not to be denied. That he may honestly have oome to consider the American cause hopeless, that he may rerlly have lost his interest in it because of the French alliance—all this is quite possible. Such considerations might have Justified him In resigning his commission; or even, had he openly and frankly gone over to the enemy, much as we should have deplored such a step, some persons would .always have been found to Judge him leniently, and accord him the credit of acting upon principle. But the dark and crooked cc ,rse which he did choose left open no alternative bat thni of unqualified condemnation.