XIX. CHAPTER ton had gone to Jamaica to arrange with the English admiral on that station; that an English fleet would meet 1806. on the Mississippi; that the navy of the United States was ready to join; that final orders had been given to his friends and followers; that Wilkinson should be second to Burr only, and should dictate the rank and promotion of his officers; that orders had been already given to the contractor for provisions to forward supplies for six months to such points as Wilkinson should designate; that the people of the country to which they were going were ready to receive them, their agents then with Burr having stated that, if protected in their religion, and not subjected to a foreign power, all would be settled in three weeks. The letter requested Wilkinson to send an intelligent and confidential friend to confer with Burr, and a list of all persons west of the mountains who might be useful, with a note designating their characters; also the commissions of four or five of his officers, which he might borrow under any pretense, and which should be faithfully returned. It was stated to be the plan of operations to move rapidly from the Falls of the Ohio on the 15th of November, with the first detachment of five hundred or a thousand men, in light boats already constructing for the purpose, to be at Natchez in December, there to meet Wilkinson, and to determine whether it would be expedient to pass or to seize Baton Rouge, at that time in possession of the Spaniards as a part of West Florida. The bearer of the letter was stated to be a man of discretion and honor, thoroughly informed as to the plans and intentions of Burr, who would make disclosures so far as he was inquired of, and no further. Inclosed in the same packet was another letter, also in cipher, from Jonathan Dayton, in which Wilkinson was assured that he would certainly be displaced at the XIX. next session of Congress; "But," added the letter, "you CHAPTER are not a man to despair, or even to despond, especially when such prospects offer in another quarter. ready? Are your numerous associates ready? and glory! Louisiana and Mexico! Dayton." Are you 1806. Wealth The tenor of these letters, and the previous intimacy and correspondence between Wilkinson and Burr, have given occasion to conclude that Wilkinson really was, in the first instance, a party to Burr's designs; and that Burr, when he wrote the ciphered letter of which Swartwout was the bearer, had good reason to rely on Wilkinson's co-operation. This was specially urged by Burr and his counsel during Burr's trial, with the object of invalidating Wilkinson's testimony; and the same view was afterward taken up and urged with great pertinacity by Wilkinson's numerous enemies in Congress and out of it. Yet the tone of Burr's and Dayton's letters is hardly that of one conspirator to another, between whom a definite plan of co-operation had been arranged. It is rather like throwing out a lure, making loud boasts and round assertions, many of them totally and willfully false, with the design of attracting a partisan whose hopes and fears were alike to be operated upon. Besides, an artful man like Burr, in writing to one whom he hoped to gain over, would naturally guard against betrayal by employing such terms as might expose the recipient to suspicion, while he avoided implicating himself by any thing tangible or specific enough for the law to lay hold of. One thing, at least, is certain. Wilkinson, after deciphering the letter so far as to obtain a general idea of its contents, did not hesitate a moment as to the course he should adopt. He communicated the next morning to Colonel Cushing, his second in command, the sub CHAPTER stance of Burr's letter; stating also his intention to march XIX. as speedily as possible for the Sabine, and, having made 1806. the best terms he could with the Spanish commander, to hasten back to New Orleans, to defend that city against Burr, should he venture to attack it. Meanwhile, he proceeded to extract from Swartwout all the information. he could-information which served to raise his alarm to a very high pitch. Swartwout stated that, in company with a Mr. Ogden, he had left Philadelphia while Burr was still in that city. They had proceeded to Kentucky with dispatches for General Adair-lately appointed a senator in Congress in place of Brackenridge, made attorney general who was a party to the enterprise. Having delivered these letters, they had hastened across the country from the Falls of the Ohio to St. Louis in search of Wilkinson; but learning at Kaskaskia that he had descended the river (a circumstance on which Burr had not calculated, and which served, in the end, effectually to defeat all his plans), they had procured a skiff, and had followed on to Fort Adams, nearly opposite the mouth of Red River. Being told here that Wilkinson had gone to Natchitoches, Ogden kept on down the Mississippi with dispatches for Burr's friends in New Orleans, while Swartwout had ascended Red River to the camp. He expressed some surprise that Wilkinson had heard nothing of Dr. Bollman, who had proceeded by sea from Philadelphia to New Orleans, and must before this time have arrived there. He stated that Burr, supported by a numerous and powerful association, extending from New York to New Orleans, was about levying a force of seven thousand men for an expedition against the Mexican provinces, and that five hundred men, the vanguard of this force, would descend the Mississippi under Colonel ΧΙΧ. Swartwout and a Major Tyler. The Territory of Or- CHAPTER leans would be revolutionized, for which the inhabitants were quite ready. "Some seizing," he supposed, would 1806. be necessary at New Orleans, and a forced loan from the bank. It was expected to embark about the 1st of FebThe expedition was to land at Vera Cruz, and ruary. march thence to Mexico. Naval protection would be af- forded by Great Britain. Swartwout returned to New Orleans after remaining ten days in the camp, during which Wilkinson extracted from him all the information he could without giving any hint of his own intentions. Meanwhile Wilkinson had succeeded in procuring transportation for his baggage, and, having been joined by a body of volunteer militia from Mississippi, he advanced toward the Sabine. Oct. 22. But before setting out, he dispatched Lieutenant Smith as an express, with directions to make the utmost haste, with two letters to the President of the United States, one official, the other confidential, in which, without mentioning any names, he stated the general outline of the scheme communicated to him by Swartwout. In his confidential letter, he gave as a reason for mentioning no names that, although his information appeared to be too distinct and circumstantial to be fictitious, yet the magnitude and desperation of the enterprise, and the great consequences with which it seemed to be pregnant, were such as to stagger his belief, and to excite doubts of its reality, even against the conviction of his senses. It was his desire not to mar a salutary design, nor to injure any body, but to avert a great public calamity; V.—Q a XIX. CHAPTER and what made him the more cautious was, that among other allurements held out to him, he was told-though, 1806. considering his own orders to avoid, if possible, any collision with the Spaniards, he could not believe it-that the government connived at the plan, and that the country would sustain it. Were he sure that the combination for attacking Mexico were formed in opposition to the laws and in defiance of government, he could not doubt that the revolt and revolutionizing of the Territory of Orleans would be the first step in the enterprise; and, notwithstanding his orders to repel the Spaniards to the other side of the Sabine, he should not hesitate to make the best arrangement he could with the Spanish com'mander, so as to hasten at once to New Orleans. The defensive works of that city had moldered away, yet, by extraordinary exertions, it might in a few weeks be rendered defensible against an undisciplined rabble acting in a bad cause. As matters stood, however, he deemed it his first duty to execute his orders against the Spaniards. Simultaneously with this letter to the president, Wilkinson sent directions to the commanding officer at New Orleans to put that place in the best possible condition of defense, and especially to secure, by contract if possi ble, but at all events to secure, a train of artillery be longing to the French government, which the administration had been too parsimonious to purchase, but which the French had yet had no opportunity to remove, and which might now fall into bad hands. As the American forces advanced upon the Spaniards, they retired behind the Sabine, leaving a rear guard on the western bank of that river. A messenger was dispatched to the Spanish camp; and, after some negotiaNov. 3. tion, a temporary arrangement was entered into that the |