On September 24, 1780, Benedict Arnold learned to his dismay that British spy Major John André had been captured while carrying a copy of Arnold’s plan to turn the Continental Army’s fort at West Point, N.Y, over to the British. Arnold and André had been working together clandestinely to arrange for West Point’s surrender, and with word now out of his deception, Arnold promptly fled the fort—becoming known perhaps as history’s greatest traitor since Judas. Allegations of corruption and claims that Arnold was manipulated by his young Loyalist wife complete what reads like a novelist’s story of treachery—and make it half-fictitious. The truth is that changing British and Patriot war aims, ideological divides among Patriots, and one faction’s perpetration of violence and injustice meant that Arnold could remain faithful to his principles only by abandoning the Patriot cause.
When the American Revolution’s first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, only a small minority of Patriots were determined to become independent. Most wanted a return to the so-called “Benign Neglect” in which king and parliament had controlled little more than each colony’s relationships with the rest of the empire and foreign countries. Internally, government had mirrored the division between king, lords, and commons—royal governors, councils that doubled as upper legislative houses, and elected assemblies. When the British government took an interest in a colony’s affairs, policy was based on compromises between its wishes and legislative assemblies controlling the money.
Patriot goals were not altered by the commencement of hostilities. Instead of independence, the Second Continental Congress issued the “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms” and what became known as the Olive Branch Petition in July 1775. Together they made clear that benign neglect was the goal and that peace would not be made on any other terms. Over the next nine months, opinion gradually shifted in response to British measures.
In August 1775, King George III refused to read the Olive Branch Petition and issued his “Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition.” Trading with the colonies was criminalized in December with confiscation of ships doing so as the penalty. The British army was expanded, and regiments were hired from seven German states. After the March 1776 evacuation of Boston, Britain began assembling in Nova Scotia the largest army it had ever sent to America.
Even those measures were unable to create a consensus for independence. What did so was necessity. The Patriots did not have the resources for a long-term war, as Britain’s enemies would not provide aid unless success would permanently weaken British power. But not all
