Andre,  Major,  Fate  of.  The  story  of  Major
John  Andre's  career,  in  connection  with  the  coni-
plot  of  Sir  Henry  Clintou  and  General  Benedict
Arnold,  occupies  a  conspicuous  place  in  our  his-
tory, aud  sympathy  for  the  offender,  not  unmixed
with  denunciations  of  tbe  court  of  inquiry  that
condemned  him,  have  been  abundant,  and  not
always  wise  or  just.  The  court  that  condemned
him  saw  clearly,  by  his  own  confession,  that  ho
deserved  the  fate  of  a  spy ;  and  if  they  had  been
swayed  by  other  motives  than  those  of  justice
and  tbe  promotion  of  the  public  good,  they  had
full  justification  in  the  course  of  the  British  of-
ficers in  pursuit  of  the  British  policy  towards
the  Americans.  Scores  of  good  men,  not  gnilty
of  any  offence  but  love  of  countrj'  and  defence


ANDEEW


47


AUDEOS


of  tbeir  rights,  had  been  hanged  by  the  positive
orders  of  Comwallis  in  the  South ;  and  Sir
Henry  Clinton  himself,  ■who  iiiigeuerously  at-
tributed the  act  of  the  board  of  inquiry  in  con-
demning Andr6,  and  of  Washington  in  approv-
ing the  sentence,  to  "  personal  rancor,"  for  which
no  cause  existed,  had  approved  of  tenfold  more
"inhumanity"  in  the  acts  of  his  subordinates.
