would have been found by the person superintending the boatmen at the ferry, as it was known that an order had been given by General Arnold to that person to supply Mr. Smith with a boat at any time he should call for it. Was General Washing ton at Fishkill when he heard of General Arnold's going off to the enemy? No-he was at Robinson's house, and the matter was not generally divulged until the evening. Colonel Hay. The prisoner was at my house. Had a conversation with Smith upon the subject of his arrest. The latter protested solemnly, that the only views he had in going on board the Vulture, and bringing Anderson on shore, was to gain intelligence of importance and serve his country. The Judge Advocate here laid before the court certain papers which the prisoner admitted he once had in his possession, and the case on the part of the prosecution was closed. THE EVIDENCE FOR THE PRISONER. Jonathan Lawrence. I know but little of Mr. Smith's political conduct while in New York, but it appeared to me his general character was in favor of the country. At Dobb's Ferry I remember seeing him pass and repass as one of the convention of the state of New York. The convention was then sitting at Harlem. I was one who then guarded the ferry to examine passengers, and on examining him he produced his credentials. of being one of the convention. His general character has been that of a friend to the country, and from several conversations I have had with him within this twelve months he appeared to me to be so. Jonathan Holcomb. Mr. Smith having desired me to purchase him two cattle in New England; on my return with the cattle, which was on Friday, the 22nd September last, about four or five o'clock in the afternoon, I called upon Mr. Smith at his house and told him I had, in the droves back, his beeves coming on, and desired him to go into the road and see them. He told me that I might turn them into the pasture, that he would take them as I had purchased them, and not look at them. I insisted that he should go and look at them, and that if he was not pleased with them I would drive them on and receipt them. Mr. Smith declined going with me, and gave me for reasons, that he had been up the last night with a gentleman from New York at General Arnold's desire, to endeavor to procure a line of communication from New York to General Arnold, as we had had no news from there for some time, and the gentleman was then in his house, and Mr. Smith told me he expected the next morning to go with him to General Arnold's, and from there, if he went with him, for he appeared not determined to go, to Fishkill to his wife. The reason of his going to Fishkill was to get the keys from his wife, to get money to pay me for the beef. The Prisoner. Did I make a secret of having a gentleman from New York at my house? You did not-you spoke of it frankly to me. The COURT. Did Mr. Smith inform you that General Arnold had had an interview with this gentleman at his house? They had an interview there the night before, as I understood Mr. Smith. The COURT. Did you understand from Mr. Smith that he was present at the interview of General Arnold with the gentleman from New York? I understood he was present, and that they had been in council together to procure a line of intelligence. The Prisoner. Did I tell you I was present at the interview? No-but from what you said I conjectured so. Colonel Hay (recalled). The Prisoner. Do you remember asking me, on the road from Fishkill to Robinson's house, if I had ever wrote any treasonable letters to New York? I did ask you if you had wrote any treasonable or any other letters privately to New York-you said you had not. What was your reason for asking me this? Colonel Gouvion informing me that there were persons taken up, that would prove you held a traitorous correspondence with the enemy. Did I not, on the road, complain much of my being taken in such a manner as I was, as I was conscious of no evil design against the country? You did complain of the manner of your being taken and carried down, and said you thought yourself exceedingly ill used, after all your services to the country, and thanked God you were conscious of having done nothing that could deserve such treatment, and when you got to headquarters, said you would be very high about your treatment. Could you collect from my conduct, when first apprehended at Fishkill, any behavior in me, which conveyed to you an idea of my having done anything of a criminal nature? I did not, for you ordered your boy to follow you with a horse down to Robinson's, for you said you expected to return the next morning. Were you present at a conversation which passed between Colonel Hamilton and myself at Robinson's house, after my examination before General Washington? I was present at a conversation between you and Colonel Hamilton, but I do not know whether before or after your examination before General Washington. Don't you recollect my telling Colonel Hamilton, when pressed by him to inform of all I knew of Arnold's designs, that I had already told General Washington all I knew? I do recollect you was pressed by Colonel Hamilton to tell all that you knew, and you said you had already told all that you knew, but I do not recollect you said, to General Washington. Colonel Hamilton, to induce you to tell all you knew, and to bring out the accomplices, promised to make use of his influence to get you a discharge, but said he was unauthorized to make such a promise, but he did it of his own accord. Do you think, from the confidential manner in which I related my transactions with General Arnold to you on the road, in order to obtain your opinion that if there had been anything more in the compass of my knowledge, as far as my agency in this business extended, I should not have informed you of it, in order to obtain your advice? I must confess I had some doubts about me that you had not told me the whole affairs, but after I was permitted to see you in Robinson's house, my begging of you for God's sake, for your wife's sake, and children's sake, to accept of Colonel Hamilton's promise, and divulge the whole secret, by your solemn appeals to the Almighty that you had told all you knew, and knew no more I then believed that you had told the whole, and if you had known anything else I certainly should have got it out of you then. Do you recollect my telling Governor Clinton, that Sir George Rodney had detached six ships of the line, as а reinforcement to Admiral Greaves? I do, and also recollect your mentioning it at Dr. McKnight's, the night we supped in company with General Knox. This circumstance I forgot in my former examination. The Prisoner. Please to relate to the court all you know of my political conduct in New York before our leaving it, and since, to this time, and what offices I filled in the state. Your character at New York stood very high as a whig. I have often heard you blamed for being too warm, and your running yourself into many imprudences, by your intemperate zeal. I remember, on the 6th of March, 1775, when the whigs and tories turned out, that you was extremely active on the whig side, and was the first person that introduced the bludgeons to the whigs, to knock the tories in the head, when they opposed a measure the whigs wanted to prosecute. Ever since your living in the country, you have been active in the American cause, and I had never reason to doubt your attachment. I always found you willing to turn out with the militia, and do everything in your power to promote the public good. You have been a member of the sub-committee of the county, and member of the provincial convention at the time independence was declared. In July, 1776, two ships and three tenders came up to Haverstraw, and attempted to land some men to carry off some stores. They came so much on a surprise, that the militia could not be collected. Only thirteen, you being one of the thirteen, went down to the landing, and notwithstanding the three tenders kept a continual firing, the thirteen men beat off five or six boats, crowded with men, and saved the stores. Major Kierce. On 21st September last, General Arnold told me, when his barge returned from the continental village, with a barge that he sent for, to send it into Haverstraw creek, and to let him or Mr. Smith know by express by land, that the barge was sent into Haverstraw creek. Wrote a line to General Arnold, informing him that the barge was sent into the creek, and my express met the boy from General Arnold to me, and gave him my note, which was the reason I did not receive General Arnold's note to me. General Arnold informed me the barge was for Mr. Smith to go down the river, to get some intelligence in favor of America. The Prisoner. Did you ever apply to me for money for the public use, and what station did you act in at the time? I ap plied to you last summer for money, being in great want of it to forward public despatches to and from the eastward, and you let me have one thousand dollars, and told me you could not let me have any more at that time, and you should not want it before the fall, when you should want it to purchase some salt. I acted as quartermaster at King's Ferry at the time. Mr. Henry, who had acted as quartermaster at that place, also informed me you had let him have money for the public use. Did I not always discover to you a desire to advance the interest of the country, and promote the general cause of America? You did and bore with us the character of a warm friend to America. The COURT. Did Mr. Smith inform you that he had used the boat? No. I did not see Mr. Smith afterwards until he was coming from Fishkill after he was taken up. The Prisoner. Did you hear Colonel Robinson was on board the Vulture? It was a common report at King's Ferry that he was on board. The COURT. Do you know whether Mr. Smith was employed by General Howe and General Arnold to get intelligence? General Arnold informed me, the afternoon of the night the boat was sent into the creek, that Mr. Smith had furnished General Howe with very good intelligence, and that he, Mr. Smith, was going down the river to procure intelligence for him, and desired me not to delay the boat a minute, but, as soon as it arrived, to send it into the creek. Colonel John Lamb. Was at the table at dinner (there was a number of other gentlemen pres ent) with General Arnold at the time letters were brought in, and he said they came by a flag from Colonel Beverly Robinson; there was one he said for him, and another he said for General Putnam; he opened the one he said was for him, just looked at it, and put it up in his pocket. Never heard of his receiving any more. He did not read the letter to me; he told me that Beverly Robinson had proposed an interview with him, and asked my advice on the subject. I advised him, as he was then going down to meet his Excellency, to show the letters from Beverly Robinson to him; and told him, as the proposal was of a very extraordinary nature, I could not conceive what views Beverly Robinson could have, in proposing such an interview. If anything he had to communicate was of importance to this country, he might do it by letter, but that it was a matter that respected his own private concerns, his business would be with the governor of the state, not with the general commanding in the department, but that I supposed the latter was the case-that it was a matter of private concern respecting his estate; told him the proposal was of such a nature, that it would induce a suspicion of an improper correspondence between him and Beverly Robinson, if there was an interview between them. Told him, that as he was going down to meet his Excellency at King's Ferry, I would advise him to show the letters to his Excellency, and take his advice how he should act. After he had an interview with his Excellency, I put the question to him, to know if he had shown these letters to the general. He told me that he had, and that his Excellency's opinion respecting the matter exactly coincided with my own. I afterwards asked his Excellency if he had shown him these letters, and he said that he had. The COURT. Did General Arnold mention to you the purpose of the interview? He did not. The Prisoner. Did he not afterwards show you another letter from Robinson, in which Robinson promised to communicate to him intelligence of the utmost importance to America, if he might be restored to the repossession of his estate? He did not, nor ever mentioned any such circumstance of such a proposal to me. Was that all the conversation, that you have mentioned, that passed between you respect ing the letters Arnold had received? It was. Did you know whether flags frequently passed between Arnold and the ship Vulture? I never heard of a flag passing between him and the ship Vulture, until Arnold was gone off to the enemy. Were you stationed at the garrison at West Point, at the time Arnold told you of the interview proposed by Robinson? I was. Major General Howe and several other American officers were examined by the prisoner, and testified that he had been in the habit of furnishing intelligence to the Americans of the enemy; and that he always appeared to be a strong friend of liberty, although he was at one time regarded with suspicion on account of his family. THE ARGUMENT AND VERDICT. The Prisoner requested time to prepare his defense, and several days were allowed him for that purpose.12 When the court assembled again, he read a long defense, which occupied a quire of paper. He again denied the jurisdiction of the court, contending that the resolve of Congress, on which the charge against him was founded, could not abolish a fundamental principle established in any of the civil constitutions of the states in the union; that the exercise of the power, vested by this resolve, deprived the subject of the right of trial by jury, the great bulwark of individual freedom. He then urged that General Arnold was actually a major general in the American service, at the very time he was engaged in the combination specified in the charge, and that he could 12 "Without any one as my counsel," says Smith, in his narrative, "I was compelled to enter on my defense, which I did with the more cheerfulness, from the candid and impartial manner in which the trial was conducted by the judge advocate, and the court-martial in general, but more particularly the president, Colonel Henry Jackson, of the town of Boston, in the Massachusetts state." |