XIX. to this enterprise, and would no doubt be able to carry CHAPTER with him the regular troops on the Western waters, who might easily be re-enforced by ten or twelve thousand 1806. Western volunteers. He had besides, so he asserted, agents in the Spanish provinces, and many there were ready to co-operate. He spoke of the establishment of an independent government west of the Alleghanies as an inherent right of the people, as much so as the separation of the Atlantic States from Great Britain-an event which, like that, must sooner or later take place, and to which existing circumstances were specially fav orable. There was no energy in the government to be dreaded; in fact, the power of the government was in a manner paralyzed by the deep and serious divisions in political opinion prevalent throughout the Union. Many enterprising men, who aspired to something beyond the dull pursuits of civil life, would be ready to volunteer in this enterprise. The promise of an immediate distribution of land, with the mines of Mexico in prospect, would call multitudes to his standard. Warming up with the subject, he declared that, if he could only secure the marine corps--the only soldiers stationed at Washington-and gain over the naval commanders, Truxton, Preble, Decatur, and others, he would turn Congress neck and heels out of doors, assassinate the president, seize on the treasury and navy, and declare himself the protector of an energetic government. To which Eaton, according to his own statement, replied, that one single word, usurper, would destroy him; and that, though he might succeed at Washington in the first instance, within six weeks after he would have his throat cut by the Yankee militia. Satisfied that Burr was a very dangerous man, but having no overt act, nor even any writing, to produce XIX. CHAPTER against him, Eaton waited on the president, and suggested to him the appointment of Burr to some foreign 1806. mission, giving as a reason for it that, if he were not so disposed of, there would be, within eighteen months, an insurrection, if not a revolution, in the Western country. The president replied that he had too much confidence in the attachment of the Western people to the Union to allow him to entertain any such apprehensions. No questions were asked as to the origin of these fears on Eaton's part; and as Eaton's relations to the government at that moment were somewhat delicate, he pressed the subject no further. He did, however, communicate to Dana and to John Cotton Smith, members of Congress from Connecticut, the substance of Burr's conversations. They admitted that Burr was capable of any thing, but regarded his projects as too chimerical, and his circumstances as too desperate to furnish any ground for alarm. To Truxton, who was greatly dissatisfied at the cav. alier manner in which his name had been dropped from the navy list, Burr suggested the idea of a naval expedition against the Spanish provinces. He assured Truxton that, in the event of a war with Spain, which seemed then very probable, he intended to establish an independent government in Mexico; that Wilkinson and many officers of the army would join in the project; and that many greater men than Wilkinson were concerned in it. He several times renewed his invitation, till Truxton, understanding that the project was not countenanced by government, declined to have any thing to do with it. The same idea was also broached to Decatur, who also declined to co-operate. To how many others similar advances may have been made, or what co-operation Burr actually secured, is not distinctly known; but it is certain that Jonathan Dayton, who had played so conspic XIX. uous a part as a representative and senator from New CHAPTER Jersey, as well as some other persons in New York and its vicinity, were concerned to a greater or less extent 1806. in the enterprise, and advanced money to forward it. Toward the end of the summer Burr departed upon August. a second Western journey. A rumor for more than a year had prevailed, at the same time in Philadelphia and New Orleans, and spread through all the intervening country, that Burr was at the bottom of a project for effecting a revolution in Mexico-an idea sufficiently agreeable to the great body of the Western people, and, considering the existing difficulties with Spain and the affair of Miranda's expedition, likely enough to be secretly favored by the government. Under the impression that such was the fact, Burr and his project seem to have received a certain degree of countenance from several leading persons in the Western country. But how many, and who, and, indeed, whether any were fully and distinctly informed of the real character of the enterprise, and, having that information, had undertaken to co-operate, does not appear. Nor, indeed, does any distinct. evidence exist as to what was the exact nature and extent of the enterprise intended, if, indeed, Burr himself had any precise and definite plan. One of the first things which he did on arriving in Kentucky was to purchase of a Mr. Lynch, for a nominal consideration of $40,000, of which a few thousand were paid, an interest in a claim to a large tract of land on the Washita, under a Spanish grant to the Baron de Bastrop. Edward Livingston, at New Orleans, had been speculating on this same grant. His claims to it Lynch had purchased out for $30,000; and Burr was to pay that amount to Livingston, against whom he had demands, as a part of the purchase money. These lands, CHAPTER situate on the upper waters of the Washita, were not XIX. many miles distant from the left bank of the Mississippi, 1806. just below the mouth of the Arkansas; but, owing to the swampy and often inundated state of the intervening country, they could not well be approached except by descending the Mississippi and ascending the Washitaa circuit of several hundred miles. The pretense of an intention to settle these lands might serve to cover a very different enterprise; and, should that enterprise fail, such a settlement might really be undertaken. Burr himself, in company with Blennerhasset, entered into a contract for building fifteen boats on the Muskingum, a few miles above Marietta, toward which $2000 were advanced in a draft on New York. Application also appears to have been made to John Smith, one of the Ohio senators, and contractor to furnish supplies to the troops in the West, to purchase two gun-boats which Smith was building on the Ohio for the government. This purchase was not effected; but there are reasons for believing that Smith was, to a certain extent at least, acquainted with and favorable to Burr's projects. Authority was given to a house at Marietta, the same in which Blennerhasset had lately been a partner, to purchase provisions; and a kiln was erected on Blennerhasset's island for drying corn so as to fit it for shipment. Other similar preparations were made elsewhere, but not, so far as appears, to any great extent. Young men were also enlisted, in considerable numbers, for an enterprise down the Mississippi, as to which mysterious hints were thrown out, but the true nature of which did not distinctly appear. Wilkinson, meanwhile, in obedience to his orders, had arrived at Natchitoches, and had assumed command of the five or six hundred troops collected there to oppose the Spanish invasion. A few days after his arrival, and CHAPTER XIX. while busy in preparations for advancing on the Spaniards, a young Mr. Swartwout, brother of Burr's friend, 1806. Colonel John Swartwout, who had been lately removed Oct. 8. from his office of marshal of New York, made his appearance in the camp with a letter of introduction from Jonathan Dayton to Colonel Cushing, the senior officer next to Wilkinson. He also had with him another letter, which he took an opportunity to slip unobserved into Wilkinson's hand, being a formal letter of introduction from Burr, and inclosing another, dated July 27th, just before Burr's departure for the West, written principally in cipher. Since Burr's visit to St. Louis the preceding autumn, Wilkinson had received from him several short letters, some of them in cipher, alluding to an enterprise which he had on foot, the tenor of which would seem to imply that Wilkinson was privy to that enterprise, if not a party to it. Wilkinson had also written to Burr; but of the precise contents of his letters we are ignorant. Burr afterward, on his trial, intimated that they implicated Wilkinson as privy to all his designs, excusing the non-production of the letters by alleging that he had destroyed them. Wilkinson admitted having written, but merely with the design to draw out Burr. He had kept no copies, nor did he precisely recollect the tenor of his letters. Burr's letter in cipher, brought by Swartwout, which Wilkinson succeeded in partially deciphering the same evening, announced, in broken sentences and mysterious tone, that he had obtained friends; that detachments. from different points and under different pretenses would rendezvous on the Ohio by the first of November; that the protection of England had been secured; that Trux |