Whether weary of a military life, or impelled by his pecuniary necessities, or from whatever cause, it appears that Arnold had actually meditated leaving the army before the difficulties with the Pennsylvania government had assumed the shape of a public censure upon his character. He had formed a project of obtaining a grant of land in the western part of New York, and of establishing a settlement for the officers and soldiers, who had served under him, and for such other persons as might choose to unite in the enterprise. The New York delegation in Congress approved his plan, and wrote a joint letter on the subject to Governor Clinton, soliciting his aid and counsel to obtain suitable patronage from the legislature. "To you, Sir," say they in the letter, "or to our State, General Arnold can require no recommendation; a series of distinguished services entitle him to respect and favor." They likewise represented, on general grounds, the policy of strengthening and guarding the frontier, by such a settlement as was contemplated.
Mr. Jay, then President of Congress, enforced the same application in a private letter to Governor Clinton, "How far his plan may coincide with the views of the legislature," he wrote, "I am at a loss to say. I wish, however, that in treating with him they may recollect the services he has rendered to his country, and the value of such a citizen to any state that may gain him. Several other general officers have thoughts of settling in our state, and the prevailing reason they assign for it is the preference of our constitution to that of other states. They consider it as having the principles of stability and vigor, as well as of liberty; advantages which the loose and less guarded kinds of government cannot promise. It certainly is our interest to encourage these predilections, by attention to those who hold them; and I have no doubt but that generosity to Arnold will be justice to the State." These testimonies show, that there was a division of opinion in Congress, and that Arnold numbered among his friends some of the ablest and best members. The spirit of party never raged with more violence within the walls of the old Congress, than at this period. Arnold's case was doubtless made worse, and his feelings irritated, by this circumstance.
He visited General Washington's camp in February, and it is supposed he extended his journey to the State of New York, and consulted Governor Clinton; but we hear no more of his project. It was absorbed at the time in the more engrossing concerns of his trial, and there was no subsequent opportunity for reviving it.
After resigning his command at Philadelphia, he continued to reside in that city, holding his commission in the army, but filling no public office. Either by the unpopularity of his character, or by his disagreeable manners, he rendered himself odious to the inhabitants, and one day when abroad he was assaulted by the populace. He immediately complained to Congress. "A mob of lawless ruffians," said he, "have attacked me in the street; and they threaten my life, now I am in my house, for defending myself when attacked. As there is no protection to be expected from the authority of the State for an honest man, I am under the necessity of requesting Congress to order me a guard of Continental troops. This request I presume will not be denied to a man, who has so often fought and bled in the defence of the liberties of his country." He asked for a guard of twenty men. Congress declined interfering, and referred him to the executive authority of Pennsylvania, not without a hint of displeasure at the insinuation in his note against the government of that State.
In reply he modified his meaning, and said he did not doubt the disposition of the executive of Pennsylvania to protect honest citizens, but he had no confidence in their ability to do it; since several persons had already been killed and wounded in an affray, notwithstanding the attempts of the civil authority to quell the disturbance. He renewed his request for a guard, and declared his belief, that his life was in danger from a mad, ignorant, and deluded rabble, whose rage and infatuation would drive them to any extreme of violence. As usual, he reminded Congress of his rank and services, and claimed to be protected by the troops, whom it had formerly been his happiness to command. This second application was unavailing, and he was left to such protection as he could obtain from the civil power of Pennsylvania.
The summer and autumn passed away, and his trial was still in suspense. At length, when the campaign was closed, and the army had retired into winter-quarters, General Washington gave notice to the parties concerned, that a court-martial would be assembled on the 20th of December in the vicinity of Morristown. The trial was commenced at that place accordingly, and it continued, with some short intermissions, till the 26th of January, 1780, when the court pronounced their verdict.
Several witnesses and much written testimony were patiently examined. Considering the grave purport of the charges, it must be allowed that the proofs, as they appear in the published proceedings, are not so clear and strong as might have been expected. Arnold's defence was studied, elaborate, and characteristic. He took up, one by one, the eight charges of the Council of Pennsylvania, although four of them only had been referred to the court, and attempted to refute them in detail. On some points he was successful, but, unfortunately for his cause, he weakened the force of his arguments and diminished the value of his facts, by making a parade of his patriotism, services, sacrifices, and wounds, and by enumerating his wrongs imaginary and real. He introduced letters from General Washington and resolves of Congress to show, that his conduct in the war had not only been approved but applauded, and thus aimed to draw the attention of the court aside from the true merits of the case by a series of particulars, which had no connexion with it.
"When the present necessary war against Great Britain commenced," said he, "I was in easy circumstances, and enjoyed a fair prospect of improving them. I was happy in domestic connexions, and blessed with a rising family, who claimed my care and attention. The liberties of my country were in danger. The voice of my country called on all her faithful sons to join in her defence. With cheerfulness I obeyed the call. I sacrificed domestic ease and happiness to the service of my country, and in her service have I sacrificed a great part of a handsome fortune. I was one of the first that appeared in the field, and from that time to the present hour I have not abandoned her service.
"When one is charged with practices, which his soul abhors, and which conscious innocence tells him he has never committed, an honest indignation will draw from him expressions in his own favor, which, on other occasions, might be ascribed to an ostentatious turn of mind. The part which I have acted in the American cause has been acknowledged by our friends and by our enemies to have been far from an indifferent one. My time, my fortune, and my person have been devoted to my country in this war; and, if the sentiments of those, who are supreme in the United States in civil and military affairs, are allowed to have any weight, my time, my fortune, and my person have not been devoted in vain." Again, in another part of his address to the court, after censuring his opponents, he added;—"On this occasion I think I may be allowed to say without vanity, that my conduct from the earliest period of the war to the present time has been steady and uniform. I have ever obeyed the calls of my country and stepped forth in her defence in every hour of danger, when many were deserting her cause, which appeared desperate. I have often bled in it; the marks that I bear are sufficient evidence of my conduct. The impartial public will judge of my services, and whether the returns I have met with are not tinctured with the basest ingratitude. Conscious of my own innocence, and the unworthy methods taken to injure me, I can with boldness say to my persecutors in general, and to the chief of them in particular, that in the hour of danger, when the affairs of America wore a gloomy aspect, when our illustrious General was retreating through New Jersey with a handful of men, I did not propose to my associates basely to quit the General and sacrifice the cause of my country to my personal safety, by going over to the enemy and making my peace."
The boastfulness and malignity of these declarations are obvious enough, but their consummate hypocrisy can be understood only by knowing the fact, that, at the moment they were uttered, he had been eight months in secret correspondence with the enemy, and was prepared, if not resolved, when the first opportunity should offer, to desert and betray his country. No suspicions of such a purpose being entertained, these effusions were regarded as the offspring of vanity and the natural acerbity of his temper. They now afford a remarkable evidence of the duplicity of his character, and of the art with which he concealed the blackest schemes of wickedness under the guise of pretended virtue, and boast of immaculate innocence.