On the morning of the day originally fixed for his death Andre made a moving appeal for a change of its mode.
ANDRE TO WASHINGTON.
Tappan, 1st October, 1780. Sir:-- Buoy'd above the terror of death by the consciousness of a life devoted to honorable pursuits and stained with no action that can give me remorse, I trust that the request I make to your excellency at this serious period, and which is to soften my last moments, will not be rejected.
Sympathy towards a soldier will surely induce your excellency and a military tribunal to adapt the mode of my death to the feelings of a man of honor. Let nie hope, Sir, that if aught in my character impresses you with esteem toward me, if aught iu my misfortunes marks me the victim of policy and not of resentment, I shall experience the operation of those feelings in your heart by being informed that I am not to die on the gibbet ; I have the honor to be your excellency's most obedient and most humble servant,
John Andke, Adj.-Qen. to the Britixh Army.
"This was probably the second and last letter written by Andre to "Washington ; the latter being unable to grant the request was unwilling to wound the writer by a refusal, therefore did not reply.
Letters of farewell to his mother and his nearest friends were written, and the condemned man's calmness was still evinced in the exercise of his pen. On this same evening he sketched from memory, as a memento for a friend in New York, the striking view of the North River that had presented itself to him as he looked from the window of Smith's house, and figured the position of the Vulture as she rode at anchor beyond his reach.