[CHAPTER XIV.]
RELEASE FROM PRISON.—WITH WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE.—THE HALDIMAND CORRESPONDENCE.
Allen's narrative in the preceding chapter gives a picture of himself, of the times, and of the treatment of prisoners by the most civilized nation on earth. In January, 1777, with other American officers, he was quartered on Long Island. In August he was sent to the provost jail in New York. May 3, 1778, he was exchanged for Col. Alexander Campbell. Thus he was treated as a colonel, although he had no fixed official rank or title beyond that informally bestowed on him by Montgomery. He was entertained with gentlemanly courtesy for two days at General Campbell's headquarters on Staten Island, and then crossed New Jersey amid the acclamations of the people.
For several days he was the guest of Washington at Valley Forge. Here, eighteen miles northwest of Philadelphia, where the British army was revelling in luxury, Washington, with three thousand men suffering from cold and hunger, was praying to God for guidance in so sore a strait. Baron Steuben was there fresh from the service of Frederic the Great, disciplining the raw recruits into veteran soldiers never again to know defeat. There were Gates, attending a court-martial, and Putnam and Lafayette. These were among Allen's red-letter days; courteously entertained by some of the best soldiers of Europe and America, and the favored guest of Washington, could Heaven reward him better for his long imprisonment? Here he writes a letter to Congress which Washington forwards inclosed with his own. Allen began the journey to his Vermont home in company with Gates, arriving in Fishkill on May 18, and in Bennington just four weeks after his release from prison.
We now come to a chapter in Allen's life which the biographer must enter upon with a mind free from prejudice, and with a strong desire to assimilate the feelings of the age when our little commonwealth was in process of formation. About the close of the year 1776, Allen being a prisoner on parole in New York, a British officer of rank sent for him to come to his lodgings. He told him that his fidelity, although in a wrong cause, had recommended him to General Sir William Howe, who wished to make him the colonel of a regiment of tories. He proposed that Allen in a few days should go to England, be paid in gold instead of continental rag money, be introduced to Lord George Germaine and probably to the king, return to America with Burgoyne, assist in reducing the country, and receive a large tract of land in Vermont or Connecticut as he preferred. Allen replied: "If by fidelity I have recommended myself to General Howe, I shall be loath by unfaithfulness to lose the general's good opinion; besides, I view the offer of land to be similar to that which the devil offered our Saviour, 'to give him all the kingdoms of the world to fall down and worship him,' when the poor devil had not one foot of land on earth."
Mr. B. F. Stevens, an American resident of London, and an indefatigable collector of documents relating to early American history gathered from the British archives, furnishes a letter written by Alexander C. Wedderburn, solicitor-general, on the morning of December 27, 1775, to William Eden, under-secretary of state. On the same day at noon a cabinet meeting was to be held at which was to be considered the disposition to be made of Ethan Allen and other prisoners who had reached England five days before. The "Lord S." referred to is Lord Suffolk, secretary of state, and the "Attorney" is Lord Edward Therlow, attorney-general:
Dear Eden:—I shall certainly attend Lord S. at 12 o'clock. My idea of the Business does not differ much from the Attorney's. My thoughts have been employed upon it ever since I saw you, and I am persuaded some unlucky incident must arise if Allen and his People are kept here. It must be understood that Government does not mean to execute them, the Prosecution will be remiss and the Disposition of some People to thwart it very active. I would therefore send them back, but I think something more might be done than merely to return them as Prisoners to America. Allen, by Kay's [William Kay, secret service agent at Montreal] account, took up arms because he was dispossessed of Lands he had settled between Hampshire and New York, in consequence of an order of Council settling the boundary of these two provinces, and had balanced for some time whether to have recourse to ye Rebels or to Mr. Carleton [governor-general of the Province of Quebec]. The doubt of being well received by the latter determined him to join the former, and Kay adds that he is a bold, active fellow. I would then send to him a Person of Confidence with this Proposal: that his case had been favorably represented to Government; that the injury he had suffered was some Alleviation for his crime, and that it arose from an Abuse of an order of Council which was never meant to dispossess the Settlers in the Lands in debate between ye two provinces. If he has a mind to return to his duty He may not only have his pardon from Gen. Howe but a Company of Rangers, and in the event if He behaves well His lands restored on these terms, he and his men shall be sent back to Boston at liberty; if he does not accept them he and they must be disposed of as the Law directs. If he should behave well it is an Acquisition. If not there is still an Advantage in finding a decent reason for not immediately proceeding against him as a Rebel. Some of the People who came over in the Ship with him, or perhaps Kay himself, might easily settle this bargain if it is set about directly.
Yours ever, A. C. W.
A correspondent of the Burlington Free Press, January 7, 1887, adds this comment:
That it was agreed to in the cabinet appears in the fact that on the very 27th December, 1775, Lord George Germaine of the admiralty ordered that Allen and his associates be returned to General Howe in Boston. Howe evacuated Boston March 16, 1776, went to Halifax, and thence to New York. Allen followed him round and was ultimately a prisoner on parole until the 6th of May, 1778, when he was exchanged for Col. Archibald Campbell. While he was on parole the "Person of Confidence" was found to make the proposal suggested by Wedderburn, and Allen mentions this in the narrative of his captivity.