The Life of John Marshall
Chapter 168 : Mythical accounts of Burr's doings and intentions had now sprung up in the East.

Mythical accounts of Burr's doings and intentions had now sprung up in the East. The universally known wish of New England Federalist leaders for a division of the country, the common talk east of the Alleghanies that this was inevitable, the vivid memory of a like sentiment formerly prevailing in Kentucky, and the belief in the seaboard States that it still continued--all rendered probable, to those, living in that section, the schemes now attributed to Burr.

Of these tales the Eastern newspapers made sensations. A separate government, they said, was to be set up by Burr in the Western States; the public lands were to be taken over and divided among Burr's followers; bounties, in the form of broad acres, were to be offered as inducements for young men to leave the Atlantic section of the country for the land of promise toward the sunset; Burr's new government was to repudiate its share of the public debt; with the aid of British s.h.i.+ps and gold Burr was to conquer Mexico and establish a vast empire by uniting that imperial domain to the revolutionized Western and Southern States.[817] The Western press truthfully denied that any secession sentiment now existed among the pioneers.

The rumors from the South and West met those from the North and East midway; but Burr having departed for Was.h.i.+ngton, they subsided for the time being. The brushwood, however, had been gathered--to burst into a raging conflagration a year later, when lighted by the torch of Executive authority in the hands of Thomas Jefferson.

During these months the Spanish officials in Mexico and in the Floridas, who had long known of the hostility of American feeling toward them, learned of Burr's plan to seize the Spanish possessions, and magnified the accounts they received of the preparations he was making.[818]

The British Minister in Was.h.i.+ngton was also in spasms of nervous anxiety.[819] When Burr reached the Capital he at once called on that slow-witted diplomat and repeated his overtures. But Pitt had died; the prospect of British financial a.s.sistance had ended;[820] and Burr sent Dayton to the Spanish Minister with a weird tale[821] in order to induce that diplomat to furnish money.

Almost at the same time the South American adventurer, Miranda, again arrived in America, his zeal more fiery than ever, for the "liberation"

of Venezuela. He was welcomed by the Administration, and Secretary of State Madison gave him a dinner. Jefferson himself invited the revolutionist to dine at the Executive Mansion. Burr's hopes were strengthened, since he intended doing in Mexico precisely what Miranda was setting out to do in Venezuela.

In February, 1806, Miranda sailed from New York upon his Venezuelan undertaking. His openly avowed purpose of forcibly expelling the Spanish Government from that country had been explained to Jefferson and Madison by the revolutionist personally. Before his departure, the Spanish filibuster wrote to Madison, cautioning him to keep "in the deepest secret" the "important matters" which he (Miranda) had laid before him.[822] The object of his expedition was a matter of public notoriety.

In New York, in the full light of day, he had bought arms and provisions and had enlisted men for his enterprise.

Excepting for Burr's failure to secure funds from the British Government, events seemed propitious for the execution of his grand design. He had written to Blennerha.s.sett a polite and suggestive letter, not inviting him, however, to engage in the adventure;[823] the eager Irishman promptly responded, begging to be admitted as a partner in Burr's enterprises, and pledging the services of himself and his friends.[824] Burr, to his surprise, was cordially received by Jefferson at the White House where he had a private conference of two hours with the President.

The West openly demanded war with Spain; the whole country was aroused; in the House, Randolph offered a resolution to declare hostilities; everywhere the President was denounced for weakness and delay.[825] If only Jefferson would act--if only the people's earnest desire for war with Spain were granted--Burr could go forward. But the President would make no hostile move--instead, he proposed to buy the Floridas. Burr, lacking funds, thought for a moment of abandoning his plans against Mexico, and actually asked Jefferson for a diplomatic appointment, which was, of course, refused.[826]

The rumor had reached Spain that the Americans had actually begun war.

On the other hand, the report now came to Was.h.i.+ngton that the Spaniards had invaded American soil. The Secretary of War ordered General Wilkinson to drive the Spaniards back. The demand for war throughout the country grew louder. If ever Burr's plan of Mexican conquest was to be carried out, the moment had come to strike the blow. His confederate, Wilkinson, in command of the American Army and in direct contact with the Spaniards, had only to act.

The swirl of intrigue continued. Burr tried to get the support of men disaffected toward the Administration. Among them were Commodore Truxtun, Commodore Stephen Decatur, and "General"[827] William Eaton.

Truxtun and Decatur were writhing under that shameful treatment by which each of these heroes had been separated, in effect removed, from the Navy. Eaton was cursing the Administration for deserting him in his African exploits, and even more for refusing to pay several thousand dollars which he claimed to have expended in his Barbary transactions.[828]

Truxtun and Burr were intimate friends, and the Commodore was fully told of the design to invade Mexico in the event of war with Spain; should that not come to pa.s.s, Burr advised Truxtun that he meant to settle lands he had arranged to purchase beyond the Mississippi. He tried to induce Truxtun to join him, suggesting that he would be put in command of a naval force to capture Havana, Vera Cruz, and Cartagena. When Burr "positively" informed him that the President was not a party to his enterprise, Truxtun declined to a.s.sociate himself with it. Not an intimation did Burr give Truxtun of any purpose hostile to the United States. The two agreed in their contemptuous opinion of Jefferson and his Administration.[829] To Commodore Decatur, Burr talked in similar fas.h.i.+on, using substantially the same language.

But to "General" Eaton, whom he had never before met, Burr unfolded plans more far-reaching and b.l.o.o.d.y, according to the Barbary hero's account of the revelations.[830] At first Burr had made to Eaton the same statements he had detailed to Truxtun and Decatur, with the notable difference that he had a.s.sured Eaton that the proposed expedition was "under the authority of the general government." Notwithstanding his familiarity with intrigue, the suddenly guileless Eaton agreed to lead a division of the invading army under Wilkinson who, Burr a.s.sured him, would be "Chief in Command."

But after a while Eaton's sleeping perception was aroused. Becoming as sly as a detective, he resolved to "draw Burr out," and "listened with seeming acquiescence" while the villain "unveiled himself" by confidences which grew ever wilder and more irrational: Burr would establish an empire in Mexico and divide the Union; he even "meditated overthrowing the present Government"--if he could secure Truxtun, Decatur, and others, he "_would turn Congress neck and heels out of doors, a.s.sa.s.sinate the President, seize the treasury and Navy; and declare himself the protector of an energetic government_."

Eaton at last was "shocked" and "dropped the mask," declaring that the one word, "_Usurper_, would destroy" Burr. Thereupon Eaton went to Jefferson and urged the President to appoint Burr American Minister to some European government and thus get him out of the country, declaring that "_if Burr were not in some way disposed of we should within eighteen months have an insurrection if not a revolution on the waters of the Mississippi_." The President was not perturbed--he had too much confidence in the Western people, he said, "to admit an _apprehension_ of that kind." But of the horrid details of the murderous and treasonable villain's plans, never a word said Eaton to Jefferson.[831]

However, the African hero did "detail the whole projects of Mr. Burr" to certain members of Congress.[832] "They believed Col. Burr capable of anything--and agreed that _the fellow ought to be hanged_"; but they refused to be alarmed--Burr's schemes were "too chimerical and his circ.u.mstances too desperate to ... merit of serious consideration."[833]

So for twelve long months Eaton said nothing more about Burr's proposed deviltry. During this time he continued alternately to belabor Congress and the Administration for the payment of the expenses of his Barbary exploits.[834]

Andrew Jackson, while entertaining Burr on his first Western journey, had become the most promising, in practical support, of all who avowed themselves ready to follow Burr's invading standard into Mexico; and with Jackson he had freely consulted about that adventure. From Was.h.i.+ngton, Burr now wrote the Tennessee leader of the beclouding of their mutually cherished prospects of war with Spain.

But hope of war was not dead, wrote Burr--indeed, Miranda's armed expedition "composed of American citizens, and openly fitted out in an American port," made it probable. Jackson ought to be attending to something more than his militia offices, Burr admonished him: "Your country is full of fine materials for an army, and I have often said a brigade could be raised in West Tennessee which would drive double their number of Frenchmen off the earth." From such men let Jackson make out and send to Burr "a list of officers from colonel down to ensign for one or two regiments, composed of fellows fit for business, and with whom you would trust your life and your honor." Burr himself would, "in case troops should be called for, recommend it to the Department of War"; he had "reason to believe that on such an occasion" that department would listen to his advice.[835]

At last Burr, oblivious to the danger that Eaton might disclose the deadly secrets which he had so imprudently confided to a dissipated stranger, resolved to act and set out on his fateful journey. Before doing so, he sent two copies of a cipher letter to Wilkinson. This was in answer to a letter which Burr had just received from Wilkinson, dated May 13, 1806, the contents of which never have been revealed. Burr chose, as the messenger to carry overland one of the copies, Samuel Swartwout, a youth then twenty-two years of age, and brother of Colonel John Swartwout whom Jefferson had removed from the office of United States Marshal for the District of New York largely because of the Colonel's lifelong friends.h.i.+p for Burr. The other copy was sent by sea to New Orleans by Dr. Justus Erich Bollmann.[836]

No thought had Burr that Wilkinson, his ancient army friend and the arch conspirator of the whole plot, would reveal his dispatch. He and Wilkinson were united too deeply in the adventure for that to be thinkable. Moreover, the imminence of war appeared to make it certain that when the General received Burr's cipher, the two men would be comrades in arms against Spain in a war which, it cannot be too often repeated, it was believed Wilkinson could bring on at any moment.

Nevertheless, Burr and Dayton had misgivings that the timorous General might not attack the Spaniards. They bolstered him up by hopeful letters, appealing to his cupidity, his ambition, his vanity, his fear.

Dayton wrote that Jefferson was about to displace him and appoint another head of the army; let Wilkinson, therefore, precipitate hostilities--"You know the rest.... Are you ready? Are your numerous a.s.sociates ready? Wealth and glory! Louisiana and Mexico!"[837]

In his cipher dispatch to Wilkinson, Burr went to even greater lengths and with reason, for the impatient General had written him another letter, urging him to hurry: "I fancy Miranda has taken the bread out of your mouth; and I shall be ready for the grand expedition before you are."[838] Burr then a.s.sured Wilkinson that he was not only ready but on his way, and tried to strengthen the resolution of the s.h.i.+fty General by falsehood. He told of tremendous aid secured in far-off Was.h.i.+ngton and New York, and intimated that England would help. He was coming himself with money and men, and details were given. Bombastic sentences--entirely unlike any language appearing in Burr's voluminous correspondence and papers--were well chosen for their effect on Wilkinson's vainglorious mind: "The G.o.ds invite us to glory and fortune; it remains to be seen whether we deserve the boon.... Burr guarantees the result with his life and honor, with the lives and honor and the fortunes of hundreds, the best blood of our country."[839]

Fatal error! The sending of that dispatch was to give Wilkinson his opportunity to save himself by a.s.suming the disguise of patriotism and of fealty to Jefferson, and, clad in these habiliments, to denounce his a.s.sociates in the Mexican adventure as traitors to America. Soon, very soon, Wilkinson was to use Burr's letter in a fas.h.i.+on to bring his friend and many honest men to the very edge of execution--a fate from which only the fearlessness and penetrating mind of John Marshall was to save them.

But this black future Burr could not foresee. Certain, as were most men, that war with Spain could not be delayed much longer, and knowing that Wilkinson could precipitate it at any moment, Burr's mind was at rest.

At the beginning of August, 1806, he once more journeyed down the Ohio.

On the way he stopped at a settlement on the Monongahela, not far from Pittsburgh, where he visited one Colonel George Morgan. This man afterward declared that Burr talked mysteriously--the Administration was contemptible, two hundred men could drive the Government into the Potomac, five hundred could take New York; and, Burr added laughingly, even the Western States could be detached from the Union. Most of this was said "in the presence of a considerable company."[840]

The elder Morgan, who was aged and garrulous,[841] pieced together his inferences from Burr's meaning looks, jocular innuendoes, and mysterious statements,[842] and detected a purpose to divide the Nation. Deeply moved, he laid his deductions before the Chief Justice of Pennsylvania and two other gentlemen from Pittsburgh, a town close at hand; and a letter was written to Jefferson, advising him of the threatened danger.[843]

From Pittsburgh, Burr for the second time landed on the island of Harman Blennerha.s.sett, who was eager for any adventure that would restore his declining fortunes. If war with Spain should, after all, not come to pa.s.s, Burr's other plan was the purchase of the enormous Bastrop land grant on the Was.h.i.+ta River. Blennerha.s.sett avidly seized upon both projects.[844] From that moment forward, the settlement of this rich and extensive domain in the then untouched and almost unexplored West became the alternative purpose of Aaron Burr in case the desire of his heart, the seizure of Mexico, should fail.[845]

Unfortunately Blennerha.s.sett who, as his friends declared, "had all kinds of sense, except common sense,"[846] now wrote a series of letters for an Ohio country newspaper in answer to the articles appearing in the Kentucky organ of Daveiss and Humphrey Marshall, the _Western World_.

The Irish enthusiast tried to show that a separation of the Western States from "Eastern domination" would be a good thing. These foolish communications were merely repet.i.tions of similar articles then appearing in the Federalist press of New England, and of effusions printed in Southern newspapers a few years before. n.o.body, it seems, paid much attention to these vagaries of Blennerha.s.sett. It is possible that Burr knew of them, but proof of this was never adduced. When the explosion came, however, Blennerha.s.sett's maunderings were recalled, and they became another one of those evidences of Burr's guilt which, to the public mind, were "confirmation strong as proofs of holy writ."

Burr and his newly made partner contracted for the building of fifteen boats, to be delivered in four months; and pork, meal, and other provisions were purchased. The island became the center of operations.

Soon a few young men from Pittsburgh joined the enterprise, some of them sons of Revolutionary officers, and all of them of undoubted loyalty to the Nation. To each of these one hundred acres of land on the Was.h.i.+ta were promised, as part of their compensation for partic.i.p.ating in the expedition, the entire purpose of which was not then explained to them.[847]

Burr again visited Marietta, where the local militia were a.s.sembled for their annual drill, and put these rural soldiers through their evolutions, again fascinating the whole community.[848] At Cincinnati, Burr held another long conference with his partner, Senator John Smith, who was a contractor and general storekeeper. The place which the Was.h.i.+ta land speculation had already come to hold in his mind is shown by the conversation--Burr talked as much of that project as he did of war with Spain and his great ambition to invade Mexico;[849] but of secession, not a syllable.

Next Burr hurried to Nashville and once more became the honored guest of Andrew Jackson, whom he frankly told of the modification of his plans.

His immediate purpose, Burr said, now was to settle the Was.h.i.+ta lands.

Of course, if war should break out he would lead a force into Texas and Mexico. Burr kept back only the part Wilkinson was to play in precipitating hostilities; and he said nothing of his efforts to bolster up that frail warrior's resolution.[850]

In Tennessee and Kentucky the talk was again of war with Spain. Indeed, it was now the only talk.[851] For the third time in the Tennessee Capital a public banquet was given to the hero by whom the people expected to be led against the enemy. Soon afterward Jackson issued his proclamation to the Tennessee militia calling them to arms against the hated Spaniards, and volunteered his services to the National Government. Jefferson answered in a letter provoking in its vagueness.[852]

At Lexington, Kentucky, Burr and Blennerha.s.sett now purchased from Colonel Charles Lynch, the owner of the Bastrop grant, several hundred thousand acres on the Was.h.i.+ta River in Northern Louisiana.[853]

To many to whom Burr had spoken of his scheme to invade Mexico he gave the impression that his designs had the approval of the Administration; to some he actually stated this to be the fact. In case war was declared, the Administration, of course, would necessarily support Burr's attack upon the enemy; if hostilities did not occur, the "Government might overlook the preparations as in the case of Miranda."[854] It is hard to determine whether the project to invade Mexico--of which Burr did not inform them, but which they knew to be his purpose--or the plan to settle the Was.h.i.+ta lands, was the more attractive to the young men who wished to join him. Certainly, the Bastrop grant was so placed as to afford every possible lure to the youthful, enterprising, and adventurous.[855]

At this moment Wilkinson, apparently recovered from the panic into which Clark's letter had thrown him a year before, seemed resolved at last to strike. He even wrote with enthusiasm to General John Adair: "The time long looked for by many & wished for by more has now arrived, for subverting the Spanish government in Mexico--be ready & join me; we will want little more than light armed troops.... More will be done by marching than by fighting.... We cannot fail of success.[856] Your military talents are requisite. Unless you fear to join a Spanish intriguer [Wilkinson] come immediately--without your aid I can do nothing."[857] In reply Adair wrote Wilkinson that "the United States had not declared war against Spain and he did not believe they would."

If not, Adair would not violate the law by joining Wilkinson's projected attack on Spain.[858]

By the same post Wilkinson wrote to Senator John Smith a letter bristling with italics: "I shall a.s.suredly push them [the Spaniards]

over the Sabine ... as that you are alive.... _You must speedily send me a force_ to support our pretensions ... _5000 mounted infantry ... may suffice to carry us forward as far as Grand River_ [the Rio Grande], _there we shall require 5000 more to conduct us to Mount el Rey ...

after which from 20_ to _30,000 will be necessary to carry our conquests to California_ and the _Isthmus of Darien. I write in haste, freely_ and _confidentially_, being ever your friend."[859]

In Kentucky once more the rumors sprang up that Burr meant to dismember the Union, and these were now put forward as definite charges. For months Joseph Hamilton Daveiss, a brother-in-law of John Marshall--appointed at the latter's instance by President Adams as United States Attorney for the District of Kentucky[860]--had been writing Jefferson exciting letters about some kind of conspiracy in which he was sure Burr was engaged. The President considered lightly these tales written him by one of his bitterest enemies.

With the idea of embarra.s.sing the Republican President, by connecting him, through the Administration's seeming acquiescence in Burr's projects as in the case of the Miranda expedition, Daveiss and his relative, former Senator Humphrey Marshall--both leaders of the few Federalists now remaining in Kentucky--welded together the rumors of Burr's Mexican designs and those of his treasonable plot to separate the Western States from the Union. These they published in a newspaper which they controlled at Frankfort.[861]

The moss was removed from the ancient Spanish intrigues; Wilkinson was truthfully denounced as a pensioner of Spain; but the plot, it was charged, had veered from a union of the West with the Spanish dominions, to the establishment, by force of arms, of an independent trans-Alleghany Government.[862] The Federalist organs in the East adopted the stories related in the _Western World_, and laid especial emphasis on the disloyalty of the Western States, particularly of Kentucky.

The rumors had so aroused the people living near Blennerha.s.sett's island that Mrs. Blennerha.s.sett sent a messenger to warn Burr that he could not, in safety, appear there again. Learning this from the bearer of these tidings, Burr's partner, Senator John Smith, demanded of his a.s.sociate an explanation. Burr promptly answered that he was "greatly surprised and really hurt" by Smith's letter. "If," said Burr, "there exists any design to separate the Western from the Eastern States, I am totally ignorant of it. I never harbored or expressed any such intention to any one, nor did any person ever intimate such design to me."[863]

Daveiss and Humphrey Marshall now resolved to stay the progress of the plot at which they were convinced that the Republican Administration was winking. If Jefferson was complacent, Daveiss would act and act officially; thus the President, by contrast, would be fatally embarra.s.sed. Another motive, personal in its nature, inspired Daveiss.

He was an able, fearless, pa.s.sionate man, and he hated Burr violently for having killed Hamilton whom Daveiss had all but wors.h.i.+ped.[864]

Early in November the District Attorney moved the United States Court at Frankfort to issue compulsory process for Burr's apprehension and for the attendance of witnesses. Burr heard of this at Lexington and sent word that he would appear voluntarily. This he did, and, the court having denied Daveiss's motion because of the irregularity of it, the accused demanded that a public and official investigation be made of his plans and activities. Accordingly, the grand jury was summoned and Daveiss given time to secure witnesses.

On the day appointed Burr was in court. By his side was his attorney, a tall, slender, sandy-haired young man of twenty-nine who had just been appointed to the National Senate. Thus Henry Clay entered the drama.