EDITOR'S TABLE. 



123 



is about two miles from tlie Hudson 

 Kiver, and is high ground, overlooliing 

 a beautiful country. Mr. Field has pur- 

 chased thirteen acres of land surround- 

 ing it, which he proposes to convert 

 into a park ; and, when completed, he 

 will present the property to the citizens 

 of Tappan, The shaft is to be surround- 

 ed by an iron railing, and around it at 

 the cardinal points are to be planted 

 four trees, oaks or elms, two English 

 and two American. 



The remains of Major Andre repose 

 with the illustrious dead in Westmin- 

 ster Abbey. They were exhumed and 

 carried to England in 1821 by the Duke 

 of York, who was sent over by the 

 British Government for that purpose. 



We are glad that this monument has 

 been erected. It indicates the strength- 

 ening and a triumph of the nobler sen- 

 timents of civilization and a decline of 

 the intensity of international prejudice. 

 And it is especially fitting that Mr. Cy- 

 rus W. Field, to whom we so largely 

 owe that grandest of all unifying agen- 

 cies among nations, the intercontinen- 

 tal telegraph, should have carried out 

 the spirit of this great work, by doing 

 honor to the memory of an enemy of 

 his country, which has been especially 

 odious for these hundred years. To be 

 sure, Andre was hanged, but that was 

 merely one of the chances of war. 

 Washington would have been hanged 

 also, if the luck of war had run differ- 

 ently. Is it not time to begin to judge 

 of the merits of men independently of 

 the casualties that happen to befall 

 them ? We should be sorry not to go 

 behind the gallows, the cross, and the 

 axe, in estimating the characters of 

 their victims. 



But another aspect of the matter is 

 noteworthy: Mr. Field is reported to 

 have said that, if he were granted per- 

 mission, he would erect a monument to 

 the memory of Nathan Hale, the Amer- 

 ican spy, who was hanged in the pub- 

 lic grounds near Hamilton Park in this 

 city. It would have been especially 



graceful if Dean Stanley had recipro- 

 cated Mr. Field's generosity by taking 

 the initiative as an Englishman in doing 

 honor to the memory of Hale. But 

 that was not necessary. The main thing 

 is the concession that the monument 

 was deserved. No one will deny that 

 the young American who gave his life 

 for his country, and only lamented that 

 he had but one to give, well deserves a 

 monument. 



But in thus doing honor to the mem- 

 ory of spies it is important to discrimi- 

 nate between the motives that animate 

 them and the traits of character dis- 

 played. The military spy represents 

 his country's side in war, and is justi- 

 fied by the ethics of patriotism. The 

 soldier encounters the chance of an 

 honorable death on the field of battle, 

 but is safe if taken prisoner. The spy, 

 on the other hand, if he fails, is certain 

 of an ignominious death. He takes a 

 deadlier risk than the soldier, and re- 

 quires a firmer courage to meet it. Let 

 the military spy, therefore, who perils 

 and loses his life, have his posthumous 

 honors, the honors due to courageous, 

 unselfish conduct, on whatever side en- 

 listed. 



But there is another class of spies 

 who should be hanged without the 

 benefit of monuments; we mean Sher- 

 man's custom-house spies. We have rev- 

 enue laws so scandalous that the regu- 

 larly appointed ofiicers are ashamed to 

 enforce them. They shrink from brand- 

 ing all American citizens upon their 

 return home after foreign travel as 

 thieves and swindlers, and so the Gov- 

 ernment sets spies upon its own officers 

 to see that they carry out our revenue 

 regulations in the full measure of their 

 meanness. These spies, employed by 

 Government in time of peace, from 

 purely sordid considerations on both 

 sides, and who are destitute of every 

 manly impulse, abundantly deserve the 

 ropes they do not get, and the spies 

 that are hanged should not be ( 

 by being classed with them. 



