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Show 3he (graqedi of Peqcm i1 ; Shippen Arnold fx k t!V A t' hW: J :ca. ineoonspiratoj's Arnold and Andre E - , i By ELMO SCOTT WATSON ' f f jr '" " " f ' N JUNE 11. "CO, Edward Shippen, a &mtmL I rA S ' k 1 ' " I I f A Prominent attorney and judge of the SfMWwM h f m, 1? f f 1 4 rtcmiralty cort of Philadelphia, 7) f N iV 4 ' I F him. down at his desk and to his WSfe f v, A3 JV ' 5 I F father wrote a letter in which, oc- mmMw &Ks2fc I O CUrS this secant sentence: "My iPll T f ,1 ' Hte Peggy this morning made me a pres- Km$M$ I ' V 'i ent of a fine Baby, which tho' of the II U ??''' V , I f V worst Sex, is yet heartily welcome." . ISf F W f1 V Wl V I ' ' Could Judge Shippen have looked 14 f-,lw?WC" "P I I 1 I into the future one wonders if he 1 I ljU v f 4 mlSnt not have struck out those J I T JL J tyf ' I words "is yet heartily welcome," for, according M W'"- f H P$ I to some historians, this "fine Baby" was des- llftMWP ' fl I K W ' , V i J tined to -prove herself, in the judge strangely- fl J I Vf. prophetic words, "of the worst Sex" indeed and I "C f I it is not unlikely that there came times when litlW' MW I . VV ' the judge wished she had never been born. ' IffiPW I VL4 I For this baby, who was given her mother's iWw MWIwr m--,., name of Margaret," was to become one of the 1llfli ""a,,MaMiB. ' ' most glamorous figures In American history, was iSftfSm, . ii n "iA- 1 to be a belle of colonial days, the toast of both WMt U m MrS.Benecirct Arnold British and Continental officers during the Revo- li'fe- )) imHv ancj;her Son lution, the young wife of a distinguished Ameri- ff 'vffirP can general and a participant in the chain of ,'J ently wished escape from the web which she events which was to blacken his name with in- S herself had helped to spin. Her family and rela- . famy among his countrymen for all time and to 'A tions brouSht tremendous pressure to bear upon besmirch her name as well. ' toer as their letters snow- Elizabeth Tilghman, Was Peggy Shippen Arnold an innocent victim Sketch if- phnpn writing to Peggy's sister, Elizabeth, says that of the treason of her husband, Benedict Arnold, b.r Mairtr AnrtrP 'Pr PeSgy WaS Burg05,neti' into marry'nS Ar" or was she the arch-conspirator who used her iviajor nnare nold- ! By ELMO SCOTT WATSON 11 ' K N JU;NE n' 17C0- E(lward Shippen, a f ; l prominent attorney and judge of the 1 ' ' vice"acImiralty court of Philadelphia, ; I . J sat him. down at his desk and to his ',; father wrote a letter in which oc- U ffe curs this significant sentence: "My 8 Peggy this morning made me a pres-W pres-W V ent of a fine Baby, which tho' of the H U worst Sex, is yet heartily welcome." Could Judge Shippen have looked I y into the future one wonders if he 1 4 might not have struck out those 1 words "is yet heartily welcome," for, according to some historians, this "fine Baby" was des- J tined to -prove herself, in the judge's strangely- ' prophetic words, "of the worst Sex" indeed and it is not unlikely that there came times when 53 the judge wished she had never been born. For this baby, who was given her mother's name of Margaret," was to become one of the most glamorous figures in American history, was to be a belle of colonial days, the toast of both British and Continental officers during the Revolution, Revo-lution, the young wife of a distinguished American Ameri-can general and a participant in the chain of events which was to blacken his name with in-. in-. famy among his countrymen for all time and to besmirch her name as well. Was Peggy Shippen Arnold an innocent victim of the treason of her husband, Benedict Arnold, or was she the arch-conspirator who used her wiles to lead him into the mire of that unforgivable unforgiv-able crime? Did she really love him for himself and prove her devotion to him by voluntarily sharing his disgrace and exile from his native land, or did she marry him while she was in love with another man and because of her infatuation aid that other man in carrying forward the plot which was to ruin the man whose name she bore? Those are the questions that have been brought up by research into documents of the Revolutionary Revolu-tionary war period which have recently become available to the historians and it seems impossible impos-sible to give conclusive answers because the historians his-torians themselves do not agree. The traditional view of Peggy Shippen Arnold is that she was an innocent victim. A recent biographer of Arnold, Charles Coleman Cole-man Sellers, in his "Benedict Arnold, the Proud Warrior," declares: "I know of no evidence sufficient suf-ficient to implicate Peggy Shippen Arnold inthe Arnold treason plot. I do not attach any importance impor-tance to her correspondence with Major Andre, for she was writing to other British friends also. Her letters" to Andre seem harmless. It Is true she was under suspicion after the plot was exposed ex-posed and had to leave Philadelphia. I think it is rather far-fetched, though, to accuse her of being be-ing a traitor." 1 Just as positive on the other side is E. Irvine Haines, author of two articles on this subject in the New York Times Magazine last year. He says "A careful study of evidence heretofore unknown un-known or overlooked leads to the conviction that she was not only guilty but, even more than her husband, one of the arch-conspirators. Recent discoveries In the private correspondence of Sir Henry Clinton, In an almost unknown diary of Aaron Burr, and In Peggy's own letters, some of them addressed in code to Major Andre himself furnish testimony too damning for Peggy to controvert con-trovert were she alive and on trial. "If we re-read the story of the Revolution's greatest personal tragedy in the light of what we know now, it becomes a drama of ambitious femininity unique In American annals. It was not the game-legged, hot-tempered, disgruntled hero of Quebec and Saratoga who was the real mover in the plot on the Continental side, but the ambitious Tory girl, the spy and tool of Clinton, Clin-ton, who schemed so cleverly that she deceived such astute politicians as John Hancock, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and even Washing- 0 ton himself. It was Clinton acting on the sug-,r sug-,r gestion of Lord George Germain, the British colonial secretary, who conceived the conspir-10 conspir-10 acy, but It was Peggy Shippen, with a skill and if effrontery amazing In one so young, who carried r it out." A more moderate view one which takes a 's' somewhat middle ground between these two ex- or tremes is that of Randolph G. Adams, custodian a of the William L. Clements library of American History at the University of Michigan, which ac-n ac-n quired the military papers of Sir Henry Clinton (ill a few years ago. From these papers Mr. Adams has pieced together the "inside story" of Arnold's Ar-nold's treason and he says: "Historians have usually acquitted Peggy Shippen of any complicity com-plicity In her husband's treason, but the Clinton papers give many indications of another story. It Is difficult now to avoid the conclusion that t Mrs. Arnold certainly handled some of the secret ?y dispatches, and that the same spies who carried y the dispatches were also used to carry personal messages to Andre and the other British officers she had known in Philadelphia." In telling the story of the tragedy of Peggy ;6ce Shippen Arnold one only has available a few f. a very few, albeit known facts over which cl. there can be no dispute and a larger number of 1 ' other facts which are capable of different inter pretations depending upon the writer's point of view towards the different actors in the drama ently wished to escape from the web which she herself had helped to spin. Her family and relations rela-tions brought tremendous pressure to bear upon . her, as their letters show. Elizabeth Tilghman, writing to Peggy's sister, Elizabeth, says that 'poor Peggy was Burgoyned' into marrying Arnold. Ar-nold. "In April, 1779 (the very month and year in which the unhappy marriage took place) Si Henry Clinton was sure for the first time that Arnold had become so deeply enmeshed in the net of intrigue that the conspirators had woven about him that the great climax of the conspiracy conspir-acy was at hand." Arnold,-influenced by his wife (according to some historians), sought and, after being refused re-fused once, obtained command at West Point, the key to the whole Continental defense system. sys-tem. He corresponded in code with both Andre and Clinton. His wife also continued to write to Andre and to receive letters from him. Haines declares that the "millinery letters" which passed between Peggy and Andre, having to do with the purchase of various articles of clothing, were code messages relating to the plans for handing West Point over to the British. Brit-ish. Randolph Adams, from his researches among the Clinton papers in the University of Michigan library, says of this: "A son had been born to Arnold and Peggy Shippen just before the treason. We have actual evidence of her desire to buy baby's clothing in New York, for there were no shops in West Point like those in lower Manhattan. Her list of demands de-mands for 'pink ribbon' and 'diaper clouting' is among the other papers, sent by one of the British Brit-ish spies to New York. "The spectacle of the rejected suitor, Major Andre, buying these articles for Benedict Arnold's Ar-nold's baby does not usually figure in history. Yet the number of times that the wants of the Arnold baby figure in the correspondence is significant sig-nificant of some knowledge on Mrs. Arnold's part that her husband was engaging in a rather familiar fa-miliar correspondence with the British headquarters." headquar-ters." Adams also declares that "An examination of Andre's papers in the Clinton collection serves only to blacken yet more the character of Benedict Bene-dict Arnold." But Haines, who Is convinced of Peggy Shippen's guilt, says of Arnold: "Traitor he was; but he was also betrayed, and by means of an influence to which many of the great of the earth have been susceptible the lure of a beautiful woman." . But whatever Peggy Shippen's part in the conspiracy, con-spiracy, she paid bitterly for it in the end. When a series of blunders resulted in the premature exposure of the plot she found herself left behind be-hind by her husband when he fled to the British Brit-ish ; she soon learned that Andre, her lover (If he was her lover), was to die on the scaffold; and she went back to Philadelphia, only to be expelled ex-pelled from her native city as "dangerous to the public safety." During the remaining years of the war she lived in New York with British and Tory friends while her husband fought with the British against his former comrades. When the Revolution ended she went with him to England and there she had a brief taste of the glory she had hoped for. She was welcomed as a national heroine, publicly thanked at the court of King George and given a pension of 500 pounds a year and a bonus of 350 pounds for "meritorious services." But even though the Arnolds Ar-nolds won the gratitude of the British officials, the English public would have none of them. They were slighted and insulted In society and Peggy's triumph was short-lived. "The final chapter is the dead ashes of disillusionment," writes Haines. "Arnold died In poverty. Yet after his death, as she herself wrote, Teggy paid off all his debt, "within four or five hundred pounds' and still had left 'property and investments invest-ments of her own.' She lived three years longer than he, dying in 1S04 at the early age of forty-four forty-four too soon, by some decades, to sit to Thackeray, Thack-eray, as she might well have done, for his portrait por-trait of Becky Sharp." ( by Western Newspaper Union.) of Arnold's treason. We know the date of her birth, something of her activities as a belle of Philadelphia society immediately before and during dur-ing the early years of the Revolution, the date of her marriage to Arnold, something of her career as his wife in this country and while sharing his exile in England and the date of her death. But as to her motives, her real character and the actual part she played in the conspiracy of her husband to betray his country the evidence evi-dence is extremely contradictory. Haines makes out an exceedingly strong case against her as the arch-conspirator, the villain-ess villain-ess of the piece. Briefly, his story is this: As the daughter of a prominent colonial family, strongly strong-ly Tory in its sympathies, Peggy Shippen has been reared in an atmosphere of luxury, had been taught to admire the British military caste, had dreamed of marrying into that caste and of becoming a great lady in the courts of Europe. She first met John Andre, then a lieutenant in the Royal English Fusiliers, in 1774 when Sir Guy Carleton, governor-general of Canada, sent him to Philadelphia as a secret agent, going under un-der the name of John Anderson, to spy on the First Continental Congress then in session in the Pennsylvania capital She was then only fourteen four-teen years old but already possessed of great beauty, and Andre, himself only twenty-four years old, fell in love with her and she with him. After he left Philadelphia she corresponded with him but she did not see him again until 1777 when she visited in New York city, where he was now a captain on the staff of Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander's protege and his secret agent as he had been for Sir Guy Carleton. Their love affair progressed and returning to Philadelphia, which was at this time held by the Continental forces, she continued her correspondence correspond-ence with Andre. Then Washington lost the battles of Brandy-wine Brandy-wine and Germantown and the British took pos-' pos-' session of Philadelphia, bringing Peggy and Andre An-dre together again. She helped him organize the series of pageants, called the "Mischianza," given giv-en by the British officers on the eve of the departure de-parture of General Howe, British commander in Philadelphia, for England and she was chosen, as the most beautiful girl in Philadelphia, to pre side over them as queen. But in June, 177S, the British evacuated Philadelphia Phila-delphia and Andre and Peggy were separated separat-ed once more. In the meantime the British ministry, realizing that the rebellious colonies could not be defeated by force, resorted to treachery to accomplish its ends. It was the idea of Lord Germain, British secretary of war, that some of the American leaders could be bought -off and Clinton fell in with the scheme. But the British plan to seduce American leaders lead-ers was getting nowhere until June, 1778, when the Continental forces again occupied Philadelphia Philadel-phia and Gen. Benedict Arnold was made military mili-tary governor of the city. Then, says Haines: "By this time Peggy Shippen was deep In the Tory conspiracy. At least three times during the winter of 1777-7S she had carried important letters let-ters from spies In Philadelphia to British agents in New York. Galloway and Germain determined to use her to break down Arnold. A patriot by early conviction, Arnold soon was led to favor Peggy's family and their Tory friends. A man originally of simple tastes, he was lured into extravagance ex-travagance by the pace set by the Shippen entertainments. en-tertainments. A widower, twenty years older than Peggy, he was flattered by her apparent preference for him. . . . "In April, 177'J, Arnold and Peggy were married. mar-ried. That she could have preferred this lame, middle-aged Continental general to Andre Is not conceivable. There is evidence that it was Andre, not Arnold, whom she loved, and that she pres- |