Colonel Benjamin Talmadge was a distinguished officer in the American army of the Revolution, and was a favorite aide of Washington.  It was he who was charged with the painful duty of superintending the execution of Major Andre, who suffered as a spy.  He was a tall, venerable man, and though cumbered with years, when I knew him, was active and energetic in attending to his business.  The first time I ever met him, he was standing in front of his yard-gate, shaping a gate-pin with a small hatchet, which he used as a knife, to reduce it to the desired size and form.  One end he held in his left hand; the other he rested against the trunk of a sycamore-tree, which grew near by and shaded the sidewalk.  I knew his character and his services.  As I approached him, my feelings were sublimated with the presence of a man who had been the aide to and confidant of George Washington.  He was neatly attired in gray small-clothes.  His white hair was carefully combed over the bald portion of his head, as, hatless, he pursued his work.  His position was fronting me, and I caught his brilliant gray eyes as he looked up from his work to know who was passing.  Involuntarily I stopped, and, lifting my hat from my head, bowed respectfully to him, and passed him uncovered, as he returned my salutation with that ease and dignity characteristic of the gentleman of the old school.  To-day that towering, manly form is present to my view, as it stood before me then.  He inquired of Judge Gould, his immediate neighbor, who I was, and was pleased to mention my respectful demeanor toward him.  My reply, when told of this, was:  “I should have despised myself, could I have acted otherwise toward one so eminent, and who was the confidential friend of Washington.”  This was reported to the venerable colonel, who showed his appreciation of my conduct by extending to me many kindnesses during my stay in the village.

By his own hearth-stone I have listened with eager interest to the narration of Andre’s capture and execution.  He was opposed, with Alexander Hamilton, to the hanging of Andre, and always contended that it was not clearly established that he had come into the American lines as a spy.  Andre, when captured, wore his uniform under an overcoat, which concealed it, and the papers found on his person only proved that he sought to deliver them to Arnold.  The day before his execution he solemnly declared his only object was an interview with Arnold, or, should he fail in this, to contrive to send him the papers which had been found upon him.  When he knew the commander-in-chief had refused him clemency, through Colonel Talmadge he appealed to Washington to let him be shot, and die a soldier’s death—­not to permit him to perish as a felon upon the gallows.  Colonel Talmadge, when he stated this wish to him, assured him it would be granted.  Every effort was made, by his officers and aides, to induce the granting of the request, but in vain.  “And never in my life,” said Colonel Talmadge, “have