ation and military discipline;
which never was, nor will be the case with raw troops. A thousand
arguments, resulting from experience and the nature of things, might
also be adduced to prove that the army, if it is to depend upon state
supplies, must disband or starve, and that taxation alone (especially
at this late hour) can not furnish the means to carry on the war. Is
it not time to retract from error, and benefit by experience? Or do we
want farther proof of the ruinous system we have pertinaciously
adhered to."

CHAPTER VIII.

Treason and escape of Arnold.... Trial and execution of
Major Andre.... Precautions for the security of West
Point.... Letter of General Washington on American
affairs.... Proceedings of congress respecting the army....
Major Talmadge destroys the British stores at Coram.... The
army retires into winter quarters.... Irruption of Major
Carlton into New York.... European transactions.

[Sidenote: 1780.]

While the public mind was anticipating great events from the
combined arms of France and America, treason lay concealed in the
American camp, and was plotting the ruin of the American cause.

The great services and military talents of General Arnold, his courage
in battle, and patient fortitude under excessive hardships, had
secured to him a high place in the opinion of the army and of his
country.

Not having sufficiently recovered from the wounds received before
Quebec and at Saratoga to be fit for active service, and having large
accounts to settle with the government which required leisure, he was,
on the evacuation of Philadelphia in 1778, appointed to the command in
that place.

Unfortunately, that strength of principle and correctness of judgment,
which might enable him to resist the various seductions to which his
fame and rank exposed him in the metropolis of the Union, were not
associated with the firmness which he had displayed in the field, and
in the most adverse circumstances. Yielding to the temptations of a
false pride, and forgetting that he did not possess the resources of
private fortune, he indulged in the pleasures of a sumptuous table and
expensive equipage, and soon swelled his debts to an amount which it
was impossible to discharge. Unmindful of his military character, he
engaged in speculations which were unfortunate; and with the hope of
immense profit, took shares in privateers which were unsuccessful. His
claims