MAKING THE REVOLUTION: AMERICA, 1763-1791 PRIMARY SOURCE COLLECTION
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* ® Copyright © National Humanities Center, 2010/2013. AMERICA IN CLASS : americainclass.org/. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Printed Ephemera Collection ( facsimile reprint). In September 1780 Benedict Arnold, the commander of early American victories in the Revolution, barely escaped arrest for treason against the United States. For a year he had been delivering military secrets to the British, and soon began plottingwith the British spy chief John Andréto turn over the fort of West Point to the enemy (for a price). When Arnold learned that André had been arrested with proof of the plot, he fled to a nearby British ship. Washington offered to exchange André for Arnold, but the British refused and André was soon hanged. Arnold became a general in the British army (part of his price for betraying West Point) and after the war settled in London. The extensive newspaper coverage included this cartoon published as a broadside in Philadelphia, its text reprinted in numerous newspapers throughout the states. Arnold was a despised man and a symbol of deep treachery,
STAGE raised on the body of a cart, on “His design to have given up this fortress W A S Arnold’s POST, sir Harry sought, A which was an effigy of General ARNOLD to our enemies has been discovered by the ’T Arnold ne’er enter’d in his thought, sitting; this was dressed in regimentals, had two goodness of the Omniscient Creator, who has How ends the bargain? let us see, faces, emblematical of his traiterous conduct, a not only prevented his carrying it into exe- The fort is safe, as safe can be, mask in his left hand, and a letter in his right cution, but has thrown into our hands His favourite per force must die from Belzebub, telling him that he had done all ANDRE, the Adjutant-General of their army, His view’s laid bare to ev’ry eye; the mischief he could do, and now he must hang who was detected in the infamous character His money’s goneand lo! he gains himself. of a spy. One scoundrel more for all his pains. At the back of the General was a figure of “The treachery of this ungrateful General ANDRE was gen’rous, true, and brave, the Devil, dressed in black robes, shaking a is held up to public view for the exposition of And in his room, he buys a knave. purse of money at the general’s left ear, and in infamy; and to proclaim with joyful acclama- ’Tis sure ordain’d, that Arnold cheats his right hand a pitch-fork, ready to drive him tion another instance of the interposition of All those, of course, with whom he treats. into hell, as the reward due for the many crimes bounteous Providence. Now let the Devil suspect a bite which the thief of gold [see note, right] had “The effigy of this ingrate is therefore Or Arnold cheats him of his right. made him commit. hanged (for want [lack] of his body) as a ______In the front of the stage and before General Traitor to his native country, and a Betrayer Arnold was placed a large lanthorn of trans- of the laws of honour.” Mothers shall still their children, and sayArnold! parent paper, with the consequences of his Arnold shall be the bug-bear of their years. Arnold!vile! treacherous, and leagued with Satan. crimes thus delineated, i.e. on one part, General The procession began about four o’clock, Arnold on his knees before the Devil, who is in the following order: pulling him into the flames—a label from the Seated Gentlemen mounted on horse-back. G L O S S A R Y General’s mouth with these words, “My dear A line of Continental Officers. effigy: representation of a disliked person, often to be Sir, I have served you faithfully;” to which the hanged or burned in a public ritual. Sundry Gentlemen in a line. Devil replies, “and I’ll reward you.” On another regimentals: military uniform and insignia of a regiment. A guard of the City Infantry. side, two ropes from a gallows, inscribed, “The Belzebub: Satan, the devil (Beelzebub). Just before the cart, drums and fifes lanthorn: lantern. Traitors reward.” And on the front of the playing the Rogues March. thief of gold: “thirst of gold” in transcription printed in the lanthorn was wrote the following: Pennsylvania Packet, 3 October 1780. Guards on each side. “MAJOR GENERAL BENEDICT ARN- late commander: recent, previous. design: plan. OLD, late COMMANDER of the FORT WEST- The procession was attended with a Andre: British general John André, Arnold’s co-conspirator; POINT. THE CRIME OF THIS MAN IS HIGH hanged as a spy 2 Oct. 1780. numerous concourse of people, who, after TREASON. “He has deserted the important post sundry: various, assorted, a collection of. expressing their abhorrence of the Treason “Rogue’s March”: tune played when a military man or disliked WEST-POINT, on Hudson’s River, committed and the Traitor, committed him to the flames, person is publicly paraded as a “rogue” to his charge by His Excellency the Commander sir Harry: Sir Henry Clinton, commander of British forces in and left both the effigy and the original to in Chief, and is gone off to the enemy at New- North America, whose “favorite,” André, had per sink into ashes and oblivion. force (by necessity) to be hanged. York. bug-bear: similar to bogeyman.
National Humanities Center A Representation of the Figures exhibited and paraded through the Streets of Philadelphia, on Saturday, the 30th of September, 1780, 1780 2