Memoirs of Aaron Burr Part 119

Colonel Burr had repeated conferences on the subject with Mr. Merry, the British plenipotentiary resident in the United States. Mr. Merry communicated to his government the project of Mr. Burr. Colonel Charles Williamson, the brother of Lord Balgray, went to England on the business, and, from the encouragement which he received, it was hoped and believed that a British naval squadron would have been furnished in aid of the expedition. At this juncture Mr. Pitt died.

Wilkinson must have heard of the death of the premier late in the spring or early in the summer of 1806. From this moment, in Mr. Burr's opinion, Wilkinson became alarmed, and resolved on an abandonment of the enterprise at the sacrifice of his a.s.sociates.

On the suggestion of Wilkinson, Mexico was twice visited by Daniel Clark. He held conferences and effected arrangements with many of the princ.i.p.al militia officers, who engaged to favour the revolution. The Catholic bishop, resident at New-Orleans, was also consulted, and prepared to promote the enterprise. He designated three priests, of the order of Jesuits, as suitable agents, and they were accordingly employed. The bishop was an intelligent and social man. He had been in Mexico, and spoke with great freedom of the dissatisfaction of the clergy in South America. The religious establishments of the country were not to be molested. Madame Xavier Tarjcon, superior of the convent of Ursuline nuns at New-Orleans, was in the secret. Some of the sisterhood were also employed in Mexico. So far as any decision had been formed, the landing was to have been effected at Tampico.

During the year 1806 Colonel Burr was at the house of General Andrew Jackson for some days. Repeated and detailed conversations were held between them in relation to the expedition. Subsequently, General Jackson addressed a letter to Colonel Burr, in which he alluded to rumours that were afloat of his having hostile designs against the United States; adding that, if this were true, he would hold no communication on the subject; but, if untrue, and his intentions were to proceed to Mexico, he (Jackson) would join and accompany him with his whole division. To this the proper answer was given.

About the same time Colonel Burr wrote Senator John Smith, of Ohio, on the subject of these rumours, in which letter he says--"If Bonaparte, with all his army, was in the western country for the purpose of accomplishing that object, they would never again see salt water." It may be proper to state here that Colonel Burr's whole force at no time exceeded _one hundred and thirty men_.

This is a brief, but it is believed to be a true and faithful account of Colonel Burr's views and projects during the years 1805 and 1806.

In the progress of these transactions many individuals were implicated. While the promulgation of their names might tend to gratify an idle curiosity, it could be productive of no possible good.

(The charge of treason, now that the storm has blown over, is so perfectly ridiculous, that one who investigates the subject will be astounded that it ever gained credence. It originated with the most corrupt and unprincipled, and was countenanced, propagated, and sustained by the most malignant.) When the charge of treason was first spread abroad, Colonel Burr appeared to be deserted and abandoned by his confidential and devoted friends. Even his son-in-law, Governor Alston, seemed to shrink from the consequences of an intercourse with him. All those who were in any manner connected with the contemplated expedition disclaimed the idea of treasonable designs, averring that, if such were the views of Colonel Burr, they had been deceived. And what does all this prove? Does it not demonstrate that if his object was a separation of the Union, that object was to be accomplished without the knowledge or aid of his friends and a.s.sociates? Can any thing place the charge in a more ridiculous point of view?

Colonel Burr was arrested as a traitor on the Tombigbee river, Mississippi territory, and transported to Richmond, where he arrived on the 26th of March, 1807. He was bailed until the 22d of May, when the court was to convene. A description of the outrages and cruelty which he endured would fill volumes. A calm and dispa.s.sionate detail of the means which were adopted by Mr. Jefferson to obtain an opportunity of shedding his blood, under colour of law, would be revolting to the philanthropist and the patriot, while it would not change public opinion of this philosopher.

In October, 1806, Mr. Swartwout delivered to General Wilkinson a letter from Burr, written in cipher. That letter Wilkinson _altered_, and then deciphered it. The forgery was detected before the grand jury, and he compelled to acknowledge the fact, although he had sworn to the translation as being correct in all its parts. Notwithstanding Mr. Jefferson's knowledge that Wilkinson was a Spanish pensioner, which fact Mr. Derbigny had stated to Secretary Gallatin in a letter, and subsequently swore to its truth; and notwithstanding his perjury before the grand jury, yet did the president sustain and countenance the general as a fit instrument for his purposes.

Other arrests were made during this military reign of terror, _viz._, Generals Adair and Dayton, Blennerha.s.sett, Swartwout, Alexander, Smith, Bollman, Ogden, &c. Burr and Blennerha.s.set alone were brought to trial. On the 22d of May, 1807, came on the cause of Aaron Burr before the Circuit Court of the United States, Judge Marshall presiding. No indictment was found by the grand jury until the 25th of June, when two bills were presented against Burr; one for treason, and the other for a misdemeanour. On the 30th of June he was committed to the penitentiary for safe keeping until the third day of August. From the 5th until the 17th of August the court was engaged in obtaining a jury and discussing points of law. On that day the treason case was opened, and an examination of witnesses on the part of the government commenced. Colonel Burr had more than thirty witnesses in attendance, but deemed it unnecessary to call any of them.

On the 1st day of September, 1807, the jury retired, and in a short time returned with the following verdict, which was read by Colonel Carrington, their foreman.

"We of the jury say that Aaron Burr is not proved to be guilty under this indictment by any evidence submitted to us. We therefore find him not guilty."

This verdict was objected to by Colonel Burr as informal. He observed that, whenever a verdict is informal, the court will either send back the jury to alter it, or correct it itself; that they had no right to depart from the usual form, &c. Mr. Hay thought the verdict ought to be recorded as found by the jury, which was substantially a verdict of acquittal; and that no principle of humanity, policy, or law forbade its being received in the very terms used by the jury.

Mr. Martin said that it was like the _whole play_, "Much ado about Nothing;" that this was a verdict of acquittal; that there was nothing to do but to answer the question of guilty or not guilty; that it was the case with every jury in every instance; they had or had not evidence before them.

Colonel Carrington, one of the jury, observed, that it was said among themselves that, if the verdict was informal, they would alter it; that it was, in fact, a verdict of acquittal.

The court then directed that the verdict should remain as found by the jury; and that an entry should be made on the record of "_Not Guilty_."

On the 9th of September a jury was empannelled to try Colonel Burr on the indictment for misdemeanour, which consisted of seven counts; the substance of which were, that Aaron Burr did set on foot a military enterprise, to be carried on against the territory of a foreign prince; _viz._, the province of Mexico, which was within the territory of the King of Spain, with whom the United States were at peace.

After the prosecution had examined some of their witnesses, and the court had decided that the testimony of others was not relevant, the district attorney, Mr. Hay, made a motion that the jury be discharged.

To this motion Colonel Burr objected, insisting upon a verdict. This was on the 15th of September. The court being of opinion that the jury could not in this stage of the case be discharged without the consent of the accused, and that they must give a verdict, they accordingly retired, and very soon returned with a verdict of "_Not Guilty_."

Previous to the trial for treason it was industriously circulated that Commodore Truxton had most honourably repelled Colonel Burr's advances, and pointed out the infamy which awaited him. He was subpoenaed on the part of the United States, and on his examination said--"That Colonel Burr told him (some time in July, 1806) that he contemplated an expedition to Mexico in the event of a war with Spain, which he thought inevitable. He asked me if the Havannah could be easily taken in the event of a war. I told him that it would require the co-operation of a naval force. Mr. Burr observed to me that _that_ might be obtained. He asked me if I had any personal knowledge of Carthagena and La Vera Cruz, and what would be the best mode of attacking them by sea and land. I gave him my opinion very freely. Mr.

Burr then asked me if I would take the command of a naval expedition.

I asked him if the executive of the United States were privy to or concerned in the project. He answered _emphatically_ that he was not: I asked that question because the executive had been charged with a knowledge of Miranda's expedition. I told Mr. Burr that I would have nothing to do with it; that Miranda's project had been intimated to me, but I declined to have any thing to do with such affairs. He observed to me that, in the event of a war, he intended to establish an independent government in Mexico; that Wilkinson, the army, and many officers of the navy would join. I told Mr. Burr that I could not see how any officer of the United States could join. He said that General Wilkinson had projected the expedition, and he had matured it; that many greater men than Wilkinson would join, and that thousands to the westward would join. I told Colonel Burr that there would be no war. He was sanguine there would be war. He said, however, that if he was disappointed as to the event of a war, he was about to complete a contract for a large quant.i.ty of land on the Was.h.i.ta; that he intended to invite his friends to settle it; that in one year he would have a thousand families of respectable and fashionable people, and some of them of considerable property; that it was a fine country, and that they would have a charming society, and in two years he would have double the number of settlers; and, being on the frontier, he would be ready to move whenever a war took place."

On his cross examination Commodore Truxton added "that he was very intimate with Colonel Burr; that in their conversations there appeared to be no reserve; that he never heard Colonel Burr speak of a division of the Union; that Burr said his Mexican expedition would be beneficial to the United States; that, so far from doubting Burr's intention to settle the Was.h.i.ta lands, he was astonished at hearing he had different views, which accounts were contained in newspapers received from the western country."

From among numerous instances of Mr. Jefferson's idea of _honour_ and _morality_, as practised by him and by his order pending that trial, only one will be selected as a _sample_. Dr. Erick Bollman, the friend of Lafayette, was arrested by the order of Wilkinson as a co-conspirator with Burr. He was called as a witness on the part of the United States; and in open court, the district attorney, Mr. Hay, by order of Mr. Jefferson, tendered him a pardon, which he indignantly refused, a.s.serting his innocence of any act requiring a pardon.

Immediately after the trial, he published, under his own signature, an account of what occurred between himself and the president. From that publication, which was never controverted, sufficient will be extracted to show Mr. Jefferson's _feelings_ and _principles_.

Bollman says, "In the month of December, 1806, I was seized and arrested at New-Orleans by order of General Wilkinson, but in the name of the United States. When I arrived at Charleston, Annapolis, and Washington, the newspapers represented Colonel Burr as being at the head of two thousand men, and they were ringing at the same time with reports of his _pretended treason._

"These circ.u.mstances occasioned in my mind great indignation with regard to the reports just mentioned, and great solicitude lest General Wilkinson's conduct and Burr's situation might lead to occurrences which Colonel Burr would deprecate, and which involuntarily would put him in the wrong.

"I therefore requested an interview with the president of the United States for two decided objects. 1st, To remove from his mind the false impressions he had received with regard to treason. 2d, To endeavour to convince him that the interests of the United States would be best consulted by going to war with Spain, and giving countenance to the expedition which Colonel Burr had planned.

"It appeared to me that this step might do some good, could do no harm, and, in my situation, ought to be attempted. I saw the president, together with Mr. Madison; and having first, when questioned on that point, declared to the former that I had no _personal motives_ for this interview, spoke to them to the effect just mentioned. The day after the interview I received the following note from the president, the original of which, in _his own handwriting_, now remains in my possession:--

"'The communications which Doctor Bollman made yesterday to Thomas Jefferson were certainly interesting; but they were too much for his memory. From _their complexion and tendency_, he presumes that Doctor Bollman would have no objection to commit them to writing, in all the details into which he went yesterday, and such others as he may have then omitted, Thomas Jefferson giving him _his word of honour_ that they shall never be used against himself, and _that the paper shall never go out of his hand_.'

January 25, 1807.

"I immediately complied with the president's request; and considering the communication, in conformity with the tenour of his note, _as strictly confidential_, I had no motive to be unusually guarded, or to weigh every expression with more than ordinary care. The paper, containing nearly twenty pages, was hardly finished, when I immediately sent it to the president. I borrowed it from him some time afterward when in prison, in order to take a copy, and then returned it.

"The whole of it goes to the two points above mentioned, _viz_., to disprove treason, and to show the expediency of war. It can give no other ideas to an unbiased reader, unless one or two expressions, improperly used, and for which the allowance ought to be made, that the English is not my native tongue, are singled out, are considered disconnectedly with what precedes and follows, and construed in a hostile manner.

"The president had given _'his word of honour'_ that this paper should not be used against myself; and yet _on it_ was predicated the pretended necessity of a _pardon_ for my personal safety. The attorney for the district (Mr. Hay), in open court, when offering me the patent pardon, referred to it. Nay, when I indignantly refused that pardon, he reminded me of the _horrors of an ignominious fate_, in order, if possible, to change my determination. Is a paper not used against me when, on account of its contents being misunderstood, I am thus a.s.sailed with the _tender of a badge of infamy?_ Is _life_, in Mr.

Jefferson's opinion, _all_; and _character_ and _reputation_, which alone can render it desirable, _nothing_? The great inquest of the nation, after hearing a great variety of testimony, and particularly that of General Wilkinson, _by an opinion nearly unanimous on my subject, have absolved me from guilt!_ No indictment has been preferred against me, though they have indicted various gentlemen in different parts of the United States. Was it, then, becoming the first magistrate of the Union, whom I had approached with some degree of confidence, and with regard to whom neither my conduct nor my language have ever been unfriendly--was it becoming in _him_, in a measure, to forestall the opinion of the grand jury, and to stigmatize me as a pardoned criminal?

"The paper was never to get out of the president's hands, but it is _now_ in the hands of the attorney for the Virginia district. On the 23d of June, an occurrence of which the prints have taken no notice, the grand jury came into court. Their foreman stated that one of the witnesses had mentioned to him an important paper, written by another witness, which was in the possession of Mr. Hay, and of which they wished the delivery. Mr. Hay replied, that this referred to my letter to the president, which was in his possession, but that he did not consider himself warranted to give it to the grand jury. He also declared it to be his firm persuasion that the paper was written in my own handwriting; it has further appeared that he had occasioned General Wilkinson to read it. Through him he had brought what is falsely stated to be its contents insidiously before the grand jury.

General Wilkinson, when before that body, and, of course, on his oath, did a.s.sert that he knew the paper in Mr. Hay's hands; that it was my handwriting and my signature.

"The history of the proposed pardon will have flown over Europe, and the impression of treachery to a friend--this more detestable, more odious crime than any infraction of the laws of the country, because essentially fraught with turpitude, will be blended with my name in the minds of men who may never see _this_ letter. And if all this injury could be inflicted by Mr. Jefferson without _ill will_, merely from want of consideration, under the disturbing influence of _pa.s.sion and resentment against Colonel Burr_, notwithstanding his mature age and the dignity of his station, it will amount to strong proof, at least, that I, in my humble sphere and with a more youthful imagination, may have become warmed with the beautiful prospect of the emanc.i.p.ation of an enslaved kingdom; a project which Mr. Jefferson himself approved of and connived at when planned, not by Colonel Burr, but by Miranda; and that I may have engaged in it without meaning any harm to the United States or their president.

"But since the measure of the pardon has proved abortive and ridiculous, and since the fact of his breach of the '_word of honour_'

can no longer be denied, their tone is changed. As usual, I am abused, not for the wrong I did, but for the wrong which has been committed upon me. They insinuate, among other things, that at Washington I had _obtained promises_ from Mr. Jefferson, and had _agreed_ with him, for a pardon; that I refused it at Richmond, in order to have a pretext for withholding testimony, on the ground that it would criminate myself, though it is well known that such promise, such agreement never took place; and that before the grand jury, during an examination of upward of two hours, I answered, _without a single exception, every question that was asked me_.

"When party spirit and pa.s.sion go so far, it would be improper to remain silent; and should what I have said in my defence operate to the prejudice of Mr. Jefferson or wound his feelings, it is not my fault.

"ERICK BOLLMAN."

Footnotes:

1. In July, 1798, Generals Hamilton, Pinckney, and Knox were appointed major generals in the standing army raised that summer, _nominally_, for the purpose of repelling a French invasion, at a moment when France had not a ship of war on the ocean, and while British squadrons were hovering on her whole coast.

2. On the 10th of June, 1835, Dr. Hosack, the friend and physician of Colonel Burr, supposed that he could not continue but a few days, perhaps a few hours. Mr. Burr was so informed, and was then asked by M.L. Davis whether at any time he had contemplated a separation of the Union. His reply was--"No; I would as soon have thought of taking possession of the moon, and informing my friends that I intended to divide it among them." While making the reply his indignation seemed to be aroused.

CHAPTER XXI.

The excitement produced by Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Eaton, and Mr. Wilkinson in relation to Burr's movements, exceeded any thing that can be well imagined. That grave and dignified body, the Senate of the United States, were _terrified_, or they were _used_ for the purpose of _terrifying_ the good people of the country. On the 22d of January, 1807, Mr. Jefferson sent a message to Congress developing the treasonable designs of Burr and his a.s.sociates. On the 26th, with the aid of General Wilkinson, a second message was transmitted on the same subject; and, by _accident_, about the same time that this message of the president was received by the House of Representatives, that honourable body received a message from the Senate also, announcing that they had pa.s.sed a "_bill for suspending the writ of habeas corpus_," and asking the concurrence of the house. This was carrying the _farce_ too far, and a motion was therefore made and adopted to reject the bill on its _first reading_. Ayes 113; nays 19. Thus the bill was rejected.

During the years 1806 and 1807 Herman Blennerha.s.sett kept a private journal, in which are recorded the princ.i.p.al incidents arising out of his connexion with Colonel Burr. Portions of it are interesting and amusing. The entries confirm in every particular the statements of Truxton, Bollman, and others, and repudiate the idea of treasonable designs. That journal, having been transmitted from England, is before me. From it a few brief extracts will be made. It appears that in December, 1805, Blennerha.s.sett addressed a letter to Colonel Burr, expressing a wish to partic.i.p.ate in any speculation in the western country that might present itself to Burr. A Spanish war was hourly antic.i.p.ated, and Blennerha.s.sett proposed to join Burr in any expedition that might be undertaken against the Spainish dominions.

In August, 1806, in consequence of this overture, Burr visited Blennerha.s.sett at his house on the Ohio, and the next day rode with him to Marietta, and there they separated, Burr being on his way to Chilicothe. From Marietta to Blennerha.s.sett's was about fifteen miles.

Some time after Burr returned to Blennerha.s.sett's. Burr said that an expulsion of the Spaniards from the American territory or an invasion of Mexico would be pleasing to the administration; if it could be accomplished without an open formal war, which would be avoided as long as possible, from parsimony on the one hand and the dread of France on the other.

Blennerha.s.sett tendered his services to Burr generally. Blennerha.s.sett states that General Jackson and others were to join, and that the general was in readiness to march whenever he should think himself authorized by the position of the government.