Beschreibung:

AMERICAN REVOLUTION] ARNOLD, BENEDICT. Autograph passport signed . Philadelphia: 19 April 1779. Autograph note signed "B Arnold MGenl" allowing the passage of Capt. Francis Mountanye to the camp at Raritan "to endeavor to effect his Exchange with the Commisary of Prisoners." 5 1/2 x 6 3/8 inches (14 x 16 cm). Mounted along edges to larger card, small spots, two small punctures, original folds including one through signature (without split). A very rare manuscript signed by Arnold in April 1779 - just ten days after his wedding to Peggy Shippen and during the period that he first made himself available to the British as a spy. Placed in command of Philadelphia in June 1778, a city evacuated by the British but still deeply loyalist, Arnold was sharply criticized for his extravagant entertaining and conspicuous activities about town. Joseph Reed who presided over the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, presented eight charges of misconduct against Arnold, who immediately demanded an investigation. The Congress decided on a Court Martial, which was delivered to Arnold from General Washington on April 20th, the day after this passport was penned. Peggy Shippen, Arnold's nineteen-year-old wife, had been courted by British officer John Andre during the occupation of Philadelphia the previous year and she is a likely source of Arnold's introduction to Andre, who had become the British head of intelligence. The timing of this current passport is particularly evocative of Arnold's descent into treason as his first communication with Andre took place at this precise time. Arnold would avail himself to the British through Joseph Stansbury sometime before May 10th, and his potential uses are discussed at length in an extant four-page letter from Andre to Stansbury. In that letter Arnold's role in effecting prisoner exchanges is offered up, and at the end of the letter Stansbury is told that secret correspondence would be carried by "exchang'd officer & every messenger remaining ignorant of what they are charg'd." While Captain Francis Mountanye, the subject of this document, has proven difficult to find in listings of exchanged British soldiers, the timing of the passport is uncanny. It is interesting to note that in 1780 Arnold would serve Andre with a fake passport to get through American lines in advance of the planned surrender of West Point. Documents of any kind bearing Arnold's signature during 1779 are extremely scarce in commerce (ABPC reporting only one letter sold in 1969) especially documents that are so evocative of Arnold's betrayal. C The New York City Bar Association