Show rc q ed q 0 fp e sh ap el 41 t A rn 1 6 0 id 7 v h 4 A 4 J major john the arnold and andre 4 ke by ELMO SCOTT WATSON N JUNE JOKE 11 ed edward vard shippen a P prominent romI nent attorney and judge of 0 the vice lice admiralty court of philadelphia sat him down nt at his desk and to ills his father wrote a letter in which occurs this significant sentence my peggy this morning made me a present of a fine baby which tho of the worst sex Is yet heartily welcome could judge shippen have looked into the future one oae wonders it if he 4 might not have struck out those words Is yet heartily welcome tor for according to some historians this fine baby was destined to prove herself in the judges strangely prophetic words of the worst sex indeed and it Is not unlikely that there came times when the judge wished she had never been born for tills this baby who was given her mothers 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 the young wife of a distinguished american general and a participant in the chain of events which was to blacken his name with infamy among his countrymen for all time and to besmirch her name as well was peggy shippen arnold a 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 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 arc the questions that have been brought up by research into documents of the revola war period which have recently become available to the historians and it seems impossible to give conclusive answers because the historians 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 sellers in his bis benedict arnold the proud Warr warrior lor declares 1 I know of no evidence sufficient 11 to implicate peggy shippen arnold in the arnold treason plot PIOL I 1 do not attach any importance to her correspondence with major andre for she was writing to other british friends also her letters to andre seem harmless it Is true the was under suspicion after the plot was exposed and had to leave philadelphia I 1 think it Is rather farfetched far fetched though to accuse her of being a traitor 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 ile he says A careful study of evidence heretofore unknown or overlooked leads to the conviction that she bhe 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 peggys peggye own letters some of them addressed in code to major andre himself furnish testimony too damning tor for peggy to controvert were she alive and on trial it if we reread re read the story of the revolutions 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 bero 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 jon who schemed so cleverly that she deceived such euch astute politicians as john hancock nan cock john adams alexander hamilton and even washington himself it was clinton acting on the suggestion of lord george germain Ger maln the british Britis li colonial secretary who conceived the conspiracy but it was peggy shippen with a skill and effrontery amazing in one so young who carried it out A more moderate view one which takes a somewhat middle ground between these two ex is that of randolph G adams custodian of the william I 1 L clements library of american history at the university of michigan which acquired the military papers of sir henry clinton a few years ago from these papers mr adams has pieced together the inside story of arnolds treason and he says historians have usually acquitted peggy shippen of any com in her husbands treason but the clinton i papers give many indications of another story fiory it Is difficult now to avoid the conclusion that mrs arnold certainly handled some of the secret dispatches and that the wine same spies who carried the dispatches were also used to carry personal messages to andre and the other british officers the she had bad known in philadelphia in telling the story of the tragedy of peggy shippen arnold one only has available a few a very few albeit known facts over which there can be no dispute and a larger number of other facts which tire capable of different interpretations ions depending upon the writers point of view towards the different actors in the drama 14 47 NN t i A IV 4 1 e paw x A 21 r IN T A and her aon xe w 1 sketch of shippen by major andre and re of arnolds treason we ve know the date of her birth something of her activities as a belle of philadelphia society immediately before and during the early years of the Reo resolution lution 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 cut but as to her motives tier her real character and the actual part she played in the conspiracy of her husband to betray his country the evidence Is extremely contradictory haines makes out an exceedingly strong case against her as the arch conspirator the of the piece briefly his story Is this As the daughter of a prominent colonial family strongly 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 Fu fusiliers Fusi liers in 1774 when sir guy carleton governor govern or general of canada sent him to philadelphia as a secret agent going under the name of john anderson to spy on the first continental congress then in session in the pennsylvania capital she was uns then only fourteen years old but already possessed of great beauty and andre himself only twenty tour four years old fell in ione ime with her and slie site with him after he be left philadelphia la site she corresponded with him but she did not see him again until 1777 nhen ben slie site visited in new york city where here he wis was now a captain on the stair staff of sir henry clinton the british commanders comin anders and his secret agent as he had been for sir guy carleton their love affair progressed and returning to philadelphia which h ch was at this time held by the continental forces she continued her correspondence with andre then washington lost the battles of brandywine and germantown Gorman town and the british took possession of philadelphia bringing peggy and andre together again she helped him orga alze the series of pageants called the Misch ianza lanza given by the british officers on the eve of the departure of general howe british commander in philadelphia for england and she vias chosen as the most beautiful girl in philadelphia to pre side over them as queen but in june 1778 the british evacuated philadelphia and andre and peggy were separated once more in n 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 Gen nain british secretary of war that some of the american leaders could be bought off and clinton fell to in with the scheme but the british plan to seduce american lead ers was getting nowhere until june 1778 when the continental forces again occupied philadel and gen benedict arnold was made military governor of the city then says haines alnes II by bly this time peggy shippen was deep in the rory conspiracy at least three times during the winter of 1777 78 she had carried important letters 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 peggys peggye family and their tory fri friends endi A man originally of simple tastes lie he was lured into extravagance trava gance by the pace set by the shippen entertainments A widower twenty years older than peggy lie he was flattered datter cd by her apparent preference for him in april 1779 arnold and peggy were married that she could haie hae 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 antly wished to escape from the web which she herself had helped to spin her family and relations brought tremendous pressure to bear upon her as their letters show elizabeth tilghman writing to peggyj peggys sister elizabeth says that poor reggy peggy was Burgoy ned into marrying arnold in april 1779 the very month and year in which the unhappy marriage took place sir henry clinton was sure for the first time that arnold bad become so deeply enmeshed in the net of intrigue that the conspirators had woven about hilra that the great climax of the conspiracy was at hand arnold influenced by his wire wife accord according long to some historians sought and after being refused once obtained command at west point the key to the whole continental defense system lie ile corresponded in code with both andre and clinton nig its wife also continued to write to andre and to receive letters from him balnes declares that the millinery letters which passed between peggy and andre having to do with the purchase of 0 various articles ot of clothing were code messages relating to the plans for handing west point oer to the british 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 ve have actual evidence of her desire to buy babas clothing in new york for there were no shops in west point like those in lower manhattan her list of demands for pink ribbon rib lion and diaper clouting Is among the other papers sent by one of the british spies to new york the spectacle of the rejected suitor major andre busing these articles for benedict arnolds 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 ant of some kno knowledge ledge on mrs arnolds part that her husband was engaging n n in in a rather familiar correspondence with the british headquarters adams also declares that an examination of andres papers in the clinton collection serves only to blacken yet more the character of benediet arnold but haines who Is convinced of peggy guilt says of arnold traitor be was but he be was also betrayed betray ed 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 part in the conspiracy sp iracy she paid bitterly for it in the end when a series of blunders resulted in the premature re exposure of the plot she found herself left behind by her husband when lie fled to the british she soon learned that andre tier her lover it if lie he was her lover was to die on the scaffold and she went back to philadelphia only to be expelled 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 tier her husband fought with the british against his former comrades when the revolution devolution ended she went with him to england and there she had bad a brief taste of the glory she had bad hoped for she was welcomed as a national heroine publicly thanked at the court of king george and given a pension of pounds a year and a bonus of pounds for meritorious services but even though the arnolds won the gratitude of the british officials the english public would have hae none of then them they were slighted and insulted in society and peggys peggye triumph was short lived the final chapter Is the dead ashes of disillusionment writes hallies aines II arnold died in poverty yet after his death as she herself wrote peggy paid off all his debt within four or five hundred pounds and still had left property and investments of her own she lived three years longer than he dying in bisot 1801 at the early ame age 0 of forty four too soon by some decades to sl sit t to thackeray as she might well have done for his portrait of becky sharp 0 by western newspaper union |