These individuals were not Andre's equals; they were poor unlettered peasant boys, utterly beneath any subsequent private allusion on his part except that of magnanimity, naturally duo from a superior soul. Knowing full well that they had saved the very liberties of their country, he must have been aware that this fact was a thing of tremendous importance to them personally; and if he could have said no good of them he should have whispered 'London Political Magazine, November, sNilcs's Register, March 1, 1817.

17S0,.,' - Winthrop Sargent's

Life of Andre, 228.

CAPTURE

ANDRE

no evil. Instead lie sought to blast their reputations. pitiful deed.

It was a

The object of Tallmadge's attack on the captors in congress was to establish that they were not disinterested patriots, but ordinary thieving adventurers of the Neutral Ground. This was his private opinion as an American officer, but he of course never would have expressed it as a mere unsupported conjecture of his own. It was by giving Andre's unfavorable version of the behavior and motives of the captors that he expected to make the matter appear in a different light from that in which it was generally regarded. There is not a scintilla of testimony, direct or circumstantial, except Andre's, to suggest even a suspicion that the young men, when they found that a questionable character had fallen into their hands, wrere ruled by speculative considerations. They were by the roadside on guard in the American interest, to do whatever chance might put in their way as patriotic inhabitants of the Neutral Ground. Before Andre came along several men passed who were known to them as patriots, and whom they permitted to go about their business without so much as accosting them. Then came Andre, a stranger on horseback, of doubtful appearance.