Note 38 — JOHN ANDRÉ AND ARNOLD’S TREASON PLOT

Alexander Hamilton, in a letter to John Laurens, says: “The project seems to have originated with Arnold himself, and to have been long premeditated. The first overture is traced back to some time in January last. It was conveyed in a letter to Colonel Robinson, the substance of which was, that the ingratitude he had experienced from his country, concurring with other causes, had entirely changed his principles; that he now only sought to restore himself in the favour of his king by some signal of his repentance and would be happy to open a correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton for that purpose.”