His enthusiasm for the loyal cause was unbounded; and Sir Henry Clinton appears to have committed to his pen the treasonable correspondence which was conducted for more than eighteen months with Benedict Arnold. Their letters were written in disguised hands, Arnold using the signature of "Gustavus," and Andre that of "John Anderson." Some of these letter's are believed to have been written in the Kipp Bay House, a cut of which is inserted on page 56. This edifice, erected of Holland brick, in 1641, was considered a mansion of such respectable grandeur during the revolution, that in the forced absence of the proprietor, who was a whig, it was made the headquarters and place of banqueting and pleasant resort of British officers of distinction. Here Sir William Howe, Sir Henry Clinton, Lord Percy, General Knyphausen, Major André, and their satellites beguiled many a weary hour. It was at this house that Major André partook of his last public dinner in New York, and with his characteristic conviviality sung at the repast a song beginning:
"Why, soldiers, why,
Should we be melancholy boys,
Whose business ''tis to die?" etc.
In ten short days from that time this gay and accomplished officer was a prisoner, and found it his sad "business to die" as a malefactor.
But we have somewhat anticipated our story. André was selected to ascend the Hudson, have an interview with Arnold, and complete the arrangement for the capture of West Point. From the "Vulture," an English man-of-war, he landed near Haverstraw, at dead of night, held the expected conference with the American traitor, lay concealed for some time within the American lines, but was captured at Tarrytown, in an effort to return to New York. After an impartial trial he was, at the age of twenty-nine years, executed as a spy, at Tappan, October 2, 1780.
While there are some points of similarity in the career and fate of these accomplished young men, there are also remarkable contrasts in the treatment administered to them by the authorities into whose hands they fell. Neither of them contested the principles upon which they were sentenced, but manfully recognized the importance of these rules of war, though André begged that the application of the rule might be changed, and he shot instead of hanged—a matter to which Hale was profoundly indifferent.
Hale was approached by the authorities with advantageous offers, on Condition that he would join the enemy, which he resolutely spurned, at the loss of his life; but André was subjected to no such temptations. Hale, captured in, the afternoon, was executed at day-break on the following morning; while André was granted ten days to prepare for his approaching doom. Hale, during the short period of his confinement, was made in every conceivable manner to feel that he was considered a traitor and a rebel. He saw no friendly countenance, and heard no word of respect or compassion. The hasty letters he wrote to his father and sister were destroyed, and he was even denied the use of a Bible and the counsels of a clergyman at his execution. On the other hand, the generous Americans, half-forgetting the treachery of André, lavished to the last their attentions and affections upon his accomplished person, Washington shedding tears when he signed his death-warrant. André, as he was going to die, with great presence of mind and the most engaging air, bowed to all around him, thanking them for the kindness and respect with which he had been treated, saying, "Gentlemen, you will bear witness that I die with the firmness becoming a soldier." Hale had received no respect, and no kindly attentions; hence, he had none to return. He was a mere youth, but with a manly courage, mighty in death on the scaffold, exclaimed, "I am so satisfied with the cause in which I have engaged, that my only regret is that I have not more lives than one to offer in its service."
While we can but respect the attainments and admire the bearing of André, we are no less favorably impressed with the manly accomplishments and fortitude of Hale, several years his junior, who passed through one of the most trying ordeals in the history of the world, and whose name has not had its deserved prominence in American history.
