Many spies have been the same, and have engaged in their dangerous exploits from the highest motives.

Nathan Hale, whom the British hanged without compunction, was as well-born and well-bred as Andre, and as patriotic as man could be, and moreover he was a spy and nothing more.

Andre was a trafficker in bribes and treachery, and however we may pity his fate, his name has no proper place in the great temple at Westminster, where all English-speaking people bow with reverence, and only a most perverted sentimentality could conceive that it was fitting to erect a monument to his memory in this country.
Washington sent Andre to the gallows because it was his duty to do so, but he pitied him none the less, and whatever he may have thought of the means Andre employed to effect his end, he made no comment upon him, except to say that "he met his fate with that fortitude which was to be expected from an accomplished man and gallant officer." As to Arnold, he was almost equally silent.

When obliged to refer to him he did so in the plainest and simplest way, and only in a familiar letter to Laurens do we get a glimpse of his feelings.

He wrote: "I am mistaken if at this time Arnold is undergoing the torment of a mental hell.