American Minute with Bill Federer
Spies, Traitors, Leaks, Betrayal: America's "Enemies Foreign & Domestic"
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The oath of military enlistment states:
"I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against
all enemies,
foreign and
domestic."
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Who were some of the most famous
"domestic" enemies?
In July of 1775, General Washington appointed
Dr. Benjamin Church
as the
first surgeon general of the Continental Army.
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Three months later, Washington discovered
Dr. Benjamin Church
had been spying for the British.
He wrote coded messages of the Continental Army's plans and
leaked
them to
British officer, Major Crane
.
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When
Dr. Church
was exposed as the
leaker, Washington
informed the Continental Congress, October 5, 1775:
"I have now a
painful tho' a Necessary Duty
to perform respecting
Doctor Church, Director General of the Hospital."
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Another painful betrayal during the Revolution was that of
Benedict Arnold.
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Benedict Arnold
was one of America's most popular leaders, renown for helping Ethan Allen capture
Fort Ticonderoga
in 1775.
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Arnold
fought courageously on Lake Champlain at the
Battle of Valcour Island
in 1776.
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He fought in the
Battle of Ridgefield,
Connecticut and came to the rescue at the
Siege of Fort Stanwix.
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Benedict Arnold
was considered the
hero
of the pivotal
Battle of Saratoga
in 1777, leading a daring flanking charge, though he disobeyed a direct order to do so.
Shot in the leg during the battle, his career was sidelined for a season.
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For his courageous, patriotic service,
Arnold
was, at this time, even more popular than
George Washington.
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Philadelphia
was the
largest city in America,
with a population of 43,000.
The next biggest cities were:
- New York City, with 25,000;
- Boston, with 16,000;
- Charleston, with 12,000; and
- Newport, Rhode Island, with 11,000.
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A year earlier, rather than coming to the rescue of
British General Burgoyne
at the
Battle of Saratoga, British General William Howe,
possibly due to professional rivalry,
abandoned Burgoyne,
left New York, and sailed for
Pennsylvania.
Howe
defeated
General Washington
at the
Battle of Brandywine,
September 11, 1777, then marched into
Philadelphia
, being gloriously greeted by the large number of
British Loyalists
still in the city.
The British occupied the city for eight months, but gaining no strategic benefit from being there, they
left Philadelphia
in June of 1778.
Americans once again took control, with
Benedict Arnold
being appointed the
military commander of Philadelphia.
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As
Philadelphia
had a significant population of
Quakers,
who refused for religious reasons to take up arms in defense of America,
citizens who were still loyal to Britain could blend in.
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While military commander of Philadelphia,
Benedict Arnold
became captivated by
Peggy Shippen,
the
daughter
of a wealthy
loyalist-leaning judge.
At the same time,
Arnold
was accused of using his position for his own financial benefit.
He had to endure a long and drawn out court-martial trial.
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Arnold
and
Peggy
were married in 1779.
Interestingly, during the trial,
Arnold,
vehemently accused his prosecutors of being disloyal to the patriot cause.
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Arnold
was eventually cleared of wrong-doing, but the ordeal, along with being passed over for promotion, confirmed to his
loyalist-leaning wife,
Peggy,
that the Americans did not appreciate her husband.
Meanwhile,
Arnold
incurred much debt attempting to
maintain his wife's upper-class lifestyle.
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All this while,
Peggy
had maintained communication with a
British spy,
the young and handsome
Major John Andre,
who had stayed behind in
Philadelphia
posing as a civilian.
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After a year of coaxing,
Peggy
finally convinced
Benedict
to meet with
Andre.
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That same year, 1779, the Continental Congress declared a
Day of Public Prayer to Almighty God.
Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson
observed this by signing a State Proclamation of Prayer:
"Congress ... hath thought proper ... to recommend to the several States ... a day of public and solemn Thanksgiving to
Almighty God,
for his mercies, and of Prayer, for the continuance of his favor ...
That He would go forth with our hosts and crown our arms with victory;
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That He would
grant to His church, the plentiful effusions of Divine Grace,
and
pour out His Holy Spirit on all Ministers of the Gospel;
That He would bless and prosper the means of education, and
spread the light of Christian knowledge through the remotest corners of the earth ...
I do therefore ... issue this proclamation ... appointing ... a day of public and solemn thanksgiving and prayer to
Almighty God ...
Given under by hand ... this 11th day of November,
in the year of our Lord,
1779 ...
Thomas Jefferson."
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The next spring, April 6, 1780,
General Washington
issued the order from his headquarters at Morristown, New Jersey:
"Congress having been pleased by their Proclamation of the 11th of last month to appoint Wednesday the 22nd instant to be set apart and observed as
a day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer ...
there should be no labor or recreations on that day."
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Due to
Arnold's
heroic reputation,
Washington
had a blind spot when it came to suspecting
Arnold's betrayal.
General Benedict Arnold
lobbied
General Washington
to put him in charge of
West Point,
which
Washington
did on August 3, 1780.
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The fort at
West Point
was
America's largest and most important fort,
designed by the
Polish freedom fighter Tadeusz Kosciuszko.
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West Point
controlled the
Hudson River Valley,
which stretched from near
Canada in the North
to
New York City in the south.
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The
Hudson River
effectively
divided colonial America in half,
with the
New England Colonies
on the east and the
Middle & Southern Colonies
on the west.
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The surrender of West Point would have
split the country
and possibly
cost the Americans the War.
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By August 30, 1780,
Benedict Arnold
not only agreed to
betray West Point,
but to do so
on the very day General Washington would arrive to inspect it.
This way
Washington
would be
captured.
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In return,
Benedict Arnold
would be paid
20,000 British pounds,
the equivalent of
one million dollars today.
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Arnold
intentionally
weakened West Point's defenses
by neglecting repairs and removing supplies,
all the while complaining to General Washington of shortages.
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The trap was set.
General George Washington
and
Major-General Lafayette
set out on their way to
West Point
to examine its defenses
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On September 19, 1780,
British General Henry Clinton
left Charleston, South Carolina, and put his troops in position to capture
West Point.
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On September 23, 1780,
Arnold
met with
British spy Major John Andre
to arranged the final details of the fort's surrender.
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Talking too long,
Andre
missed the rendezvous with a
British boat
waiting in the Hudson River.
This was due in part to some Americans, by chance, spotting the idle British boat and firing shots at it, causing it to retreat down river.
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Arnold
then had
Andre
dress as a civilian and
take the risky route back to the British lines by land.
This was a fateful decision, for the accepted
rules of warfare
were, that if a
combatant
was
captured in uniform,
he was afforded certain treatment
as a prisoner of war,
but if the
combatant
was
captured dressed as a civilian,
he was considered
a spy,
for which the
penalty
was
immediate hanging.
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Historians question why Arnold
did not take more precaution to keep
Andre
from being caught.
It is suspected that
Arnold
may have been blinded by jealousy.
Arnold
seemed to harbor resentment toward the younger and more handsome
Andre
for maintaining a such a close relationship with his wife,
Peggy.
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Andre
departed from
Arnold,
and hiked across the American controlled territory, and no-man's land.
He almost made it to the
British lines
when, providentially, some random American sentries spotted him in the woods and decided to stop him for questioning.
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Trying to talk his way out of why he was there, the sentries were unconvinced.
They searched him once and again.
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They almost let him go when they decided to make him take off his boot.
There, hidden in
Andre's
sagging stocking, they found the folded up
map of West Point.
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The American sentries arrested
Andre
and immediately sent word to
General Benedict Arnold.
Arnold
was anxiously waiting at West Point for the arrival of
General Washington,
supposedly to have breakfast, but where he intended to capture him.
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Major James McHenry,
for whom Fort McHenry was later named, rode ahead to let
Arnold
know that Washington was on his way, but had been delayed.
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By the time
Major McHenry
arrived at West Point,
Benedict Arnold
had realized his plot was discovered.
He left his wife and child, and fled to the waiting British ship,
HMS Vulture.
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His wife,
Peggy,
feigned insanity to avoid being questioned by Washington.
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Washington
offered to do a prisoner exchange with the British.
He would return
John Andre
to the British in exchange for
Benedict Arnold
being returned to the Americans.
The British refused.
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Since the
British
earlier
hanged
the captured 21-year-old American spy,
Nathan Hale,
General Washington insisted that
the same fate
be administered to the captured British spy
Andre.
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Major John Andre
was hung on October 2, 1780.
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Benedict Arnold
fulfilled his betrayal by joining the British ranks.
He led attacks where he
fought
and
killed Americans,
even burning the city of New London, Connecticut, in 1781.
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The day after
Arnold's
plot was thwarted,
American General Nathaniel Greene
reported September 26, 1780:
"Treason of the blackest dye was yesterday discovered!
General Arnold
who commanded at
West Point,
was about to ... give the American cause a
deadly wound if not fatal stab.
Happily the
treason
had been timely discovered to prevent the fatal misfortune.
The
providential train of circumstances
which led to its discovery affords the most convincing proof that the
Liberties of America
are the object of
divine Protection."
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On May 8, 1783, Yale President Ezra Stiles stated:
"A providential miracle
at the last minute detected
the treacherous scheme of traitor Benedict Arnold,
which would have
delivered the American army,
including George Washington himself,
into the
hands of the enemy."
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The
Continental Congress
issued a Day of Thanksgiving, October 18, 1780:
"In the late remarkable
interposition of His watchful providence,
in the
rescuing the person of our Commander-in-Chief
and the army from imminent dangers,
at the moment when treason was ripened for execution ...
It is therefore recommended ...
a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer
... to
confess our unworthiness
... and to offer fervent supplications to the
God of all grace
... to
cause the knowledge of Christianity to spread over all the earth."
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The
U.S. Military Academy
at
West Point
has plaques hanging in the Old Cadet Chapel commemorating the
name of every general of the Revolutionary War,
except one.
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Arnold's
plaque simply reads:
"Major General
____________
Born 1740."
Academy historian at West Point Steven Grove explained:
"We wanted to commemorate all the war generals, so we have a plaque for him,
but he disgraced his uniform,
so we don't put his name up there."
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John Jay,
who was later appointed by George Washington as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, stated September 8, 1777:
"This glorious revolution ... is distinguished by so many
marks of the Divine favor and interposition
... in a manner so singular, and I may say
miraculous,
that when future ages shall read its history they will be tempted to consider a great part of it as fabulous (exaggerated) ...
Will it not appear
extraordinary
... like the
emancipation of the Jews from Egyptian servitude."
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
wjfederer@gmail.com
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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