fore a military tribunal for alleged offences of which he had
been acquitted by the committee of Congress. He was sacrificed, he
said, to avoid a breach with Pennsylvania. In a letter to Washington,
he charged it all to the hostility of President Reed, who, he
affirmed, had by his address kept the affair in suspense for two
months, and at last obtained the resolution of Congress directing the
court-martial. He urged Washington to appoint a speedy day for the
trial, that he might not linger under the odium of an unjust public
accusation.

It was doubtless soothing to his irritated pride, that the woman on
whom he had placed his affections remained true to him; for his
marriage with Miss Shippen took place just five days after the
mortifying vote of Congress.

Washington sympathized with Arnold's impatience, and appointed the 1st
of May for the trial, but it was repeatedly postponed; first, at the
request of the Pennsylvania council, to allow time for the arrival of
witnesses from the South; afterwards, in consequence of threatening
movements of the enemy, which obliged every officer to be at his post.
Arnold, in the meantime, continued to reside at Philadelphia, holding
his commission in the army, but filling no public office; getting
deeper and deeper in debt, and becoming more and more unpopular. For
months, he remained in this anxious and irritated state. At length,
when the campaign was over, and the army had gone into
winter-quarters, the long-delayed court-martial was assembled at
Morristown. Of the eight charges originally advanced against Arnold by
the Pennsylvania council, four only came under cognizance of the
court. Of two of these he was entirely acquitted. The remaining two
were:

_First_. That while in the camp at Valley Forge, he, without the
knowledge of the commander-in-chief, or the sanction of the State
government, had granted a written permission for a vessel belonging to
disaffected persons to proceed from the port of Philadelphia, then in
possession of the enemy, to any port of the United States.

_Second_. That, availing himself of his official authority, he had
appropriated the public wagons of Pennsylvania, when called forth on a
special emergency, to the transportation of private property, and that
of persons who voluntarily remained with the enemy, and were deemed
disaffected to the interests and independence of America.

In regard to the first of these charges, Arnold alleged that the
p