washington, he felt for the john andre but he really felt the real enemy was arnold.this young man who was a very likable character, he was sort of caught in this sordid mess. and at the same time washington felt very strongly that his job, his role as the american commander-in-chief was to defend the nation, and he needs to send a very strong signal that those who cross him and potential harms his people, they will be punished severely. so when i was going to just talking about this, the title of the book. it's called "blood of tyrants," and i gave it that title after the famous jefferson line, the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. which i find very startling, if you think about it. i think that the founding fathers, the whole founding generation in general, they saw two great the government that we have no and a constitution that we still use two spirits of the bloodshed that they endured. they wanted to create a democratic republic with people were protected. so they wanted to give the president the power to

john andre was the reddish head of intelligence under general clinton admin joshua hadden smith. so when it came time for benedict arnold to betray his country, he met with john andre to formulate the plan of attack and gave him the plans of west point and let him know where my dad attack from in order to quickly win. they met on the side of the hudson downriver from west point in a wooded area. they were bickering the whole night about how to best do things. you could see how he was not a very amenable fellow. still squabbling about the price, going on and on. sure enough the sun comes up while there's no talking. they ship with the patriots see it, so he strapped. so he says okay, smith, andre, let's go back to smith's house and figure out another way to get you back to safety in british controlled new york city. so they get back to the house and arnold says quit, put on the jacket. this will disguise you so everyone will think you're an american. and do me a favor and that attention to your city and make sure he's safe. so everything seems great. they come to westchester and i

what is striking is washington has said his disposal john andre and john smith in the exact same plot and both have damning evidence against them and he says to smith, i have enough evidence to hang space your tree. but he doesn't instead he provides them with a court martial with the military trial dating back to the 13th century in which there are some safeguards with the elements of due process that the accused has a fighting chance to defend themselves and the panel is charged with deciding if this man is guilty of war not. after four weeks of trial smith has damning evidence to have these witnesses that are testifying to see the familiarity of the monterey and smith and andre plus the coat to interpret an officer and at the end of the trial they realize because he is an american he has a high burden of proof and we need to prove that he knew what he was doing was wrong. and they couldn't. he was acquitted. people were shocked they were so shocked the authorities took them back to prison on other charges. he was a slippery character and escapes dressed as a woman making it back to