Is it time to grant Benedict Arnold clemency?

by Brian Mann on January 19th, 2015

A political cartoon from the 1860s showing Benedict Arnold in hell.

Living for a decade and a half in the North Country – and with ancestors who fought against the British in the war of 1812 — I’ve always had mixed feelings about Benedict Arnold. The man who attempted to betray George Washington has become a byword for treason, his name attached to the darkest traitors in American history.

But he was also instrumental in keeping the revolution alive, capturing Fort Ticonderoga and leading a key naval engagement against the British on Lake Champlain. On balance, I’ve become convinced that it’s time to rehabilitate Arnold. Time to bring him back into the pantheon of admittedly secondary and controversial figures who were still important players in the founding of the American republic.

Real crimes, seen in context

It’s not that Arnold was falsely accused. His crimes against the revolution were unambiguous and ugly. Angered by what he viewed (rightly, I think) as ill-treatment by Congress, he began a flirtation with the British government that eventually blossomed into full-on skulduggery. Among other things, he offered to provide the British with military plans for West Point, so that they might win that strategic location on the Hudson River “without loss.”

Making this treason more vile is the fact that, while Arnold clearly had real and growing reservations about the Revolution, he also demanded cold cash in exchange for turning his coat. Americans, despite our capitalist sensibilities, have always valued principle over filthy lucre when it comes to matters of war and honor.

Arnold was, without question, a deeply flawed man. And he proved by his own reprehensible actions the deeper and more sterling greatness of those American patriots who persevered in the dark years of the war. Framed by figures such as George Washington and Paul Revere, he seems shabby and small, even a little pathetic.

But the truth is, that he was none of those things. Complex, yes. Guilty of treason, yes. But Arnold was also one of the most skilled and daring officers in the early fight for independence. His efforts in Canada and at Valcour Island gave Washington time to maneuver and prepare for a full-scale British invasion. Compared with Revere and other officers, he was remarkably daring and accomplished.

He was also legitimately concerned about the growing ugliness of anti-Tory sentiment in the new Republic. He became convinced that the revolution would fail and that mob anarchy was brewing. Yes, there was clearly deep self-interest shaping his decision to secretly serve the British crown, but he grew to share a widespread sentiment in the colonies that the American experiment was doomed to fail.

If we forgive the Confederate generals, we should grant clemency to Benedict Arnold

Image of the “boot memorial” from Wikipedia commons. Image by Americasroof

Beyond his important early contributions to the American struggle, there are two reasons that we should re-evaluate Arnold and hopefully restore to him some measure of honor. First, we’re no longer the sworn enemies of the British. Arnold’s reputation as an arch-villain solidified at a time when England, and not the Soviet Union, was viewed as the Evil Empire. In hindsight, it’s a bit easier to understand the divided cultural and political loyalties that might lead a man to waver in the crucible of a long, frustrating war.

Secondly, America has grown used to forgiving its flawed heroes and even its traitors. Arnold’s infamy was established in our collective imaginations at a time when we viewed men like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson as a kind of secular pantheon, all but unblemished. But of course, those men were slave owners, trafficking in a type of human commerce that’s now seen as one of the great stains on America’s national character. We accept those flaws in the context of their wider contribution.

We also talk comfortably about the many Southern military officers who turned coat against the United States during the Civil War. Without doubt, Benedict Arnold was guilty of treason, but so too were the hundreds of officers who joined the Confederacy in the 1860s, at a time when the US was a much more established nation. Ironically, much of the Confederacy’s officer corps were graduates of the military academy at West Point, the very strategic position Arnold attempted to betray.

Those officers had sworn an oath to defend the Constitution and the American Republic but they turned against the US. Their betrayal caused far more carnage and death and placed the Republic in far deeper peril than anything Arnold conspired to do. And yet we forgive them. We see their actions as part of a complex world, evidence of conflicted cultural loyalties, as part of a fractured moment in American history. In much of the country, those officers are celebrated, honored with memorials.

Time for a more respectful monument?

Yet Benedict Arnold remains simply and unambiguously a traitor. It hardly seems consistent or fair. We should begin his rehabilitation at Saratoga National Historic Park, right here in the North Country. The site commemorates the famous Battle of Saratoga, in which Arnold fought so valiantly against the British that a soldier later described him “as the very genius of war.” Arnold was also brutally injured and was nearly forced to have his leg amputated. He is memorialized at the site with a bizarre monument that shows only Arnold’s leg. No name, no image of the man, only the wounded limb cast in stone.

That’s not good enough. It’s time to restore the full man, in his greatness, in his smallness, in his complexity, to the way that we think about America’s first chapter. Like a lot of men, Arnold lacked the full genius needed to see our nation born. But he still deserves a place next to other flawed soldiers, such as Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson who played a painful but important role in our history.