Beschreibung:

ARNOLD, BENEDICT, Major General, Continental Army, traitor . Autograph letter signed ("B Arnold," with paraph) to Jacob Thompson Philadelphia, 10 December 1778. 2 pages, 4to, partial fold separation to first leaf , otherwise in fine condition. [With:] Autograph franking signature ("B Arnold free") on address panel. A RARE FREE FRANK. A FUTURE TRAITOR'S FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES. A letter written during Arnold's unhappy and controversial period as U.S. commander at Philadelphia, during which he married Peggy Shippen, daughter of a locally prominent family, and began to incur expenses his income could not meet. Arnold, who had played a crucial role in the American victory over Burgoyne at Saratoga a few months earlier, gives family news, then adds: "...My sister writes me Fitch has not paid his note...if he does not pay it on receipt of this letter, you will please to give his note into the hands of a lawyer with directions to attach his property for security & recover the money as soon as possible...I wish you to write me if my House would sell & what price it would fetch, I have some thoughts [of] disposing of it. I expect to have the pleasure of seeing you this Spring if the service does not require my taking the field..." Arnold was ultimately court-martialed for his affairs as commander at Philadelphia, failed to win a field command and settled in 1780 for the post of commandant of the key garrison at West Point, which he attempted to betray to the British commander. We can find no record of other postal free franks of Arnold at auction; none are recorded in the Edward Stern Collection ( History of the "Free Frankling of Mail in the United States ), or The American Stampless Cover Catalogue .