Volume III Part 39 (1/2)

”The [Federalist] members of the Senate,” continues Merry, ”have availed themselves of the opportunity of their being collected here to hold private meetings on this subject, and ... their plans and calculations respecting the event have been long seriously resolved.... They naturally look forward to Great Britain for support and a.s.sistance whenever the occasion shall arrive.” (Merry to Hawkesbury, March 1, 1804, as quoted in Adams: _U.S._ II, 392.)

[773] As early as 1784, Was.h.i.+ngton declared that he feared the effect on the Western people ”if the Spaniards on their right, and Great Britain on their left, instead of throwing impediments in their way as they now do, should hold out lures for their trade and alliance.... The western settlers (I speak now from my own observations) stand as it were, upon a pivot. The touch of a feather would turn them any way.... It is by the cement of interest alone we can be held together.” (Was.h.i.+ngton to the Governor of Virginia, 1784, as quoted in Marshall, V, 15-16.)

[774] Marshall, V, 179.

[775] Jefferson to Breckenridge, Aug. 12, 1803, _Works_: Ford, X, footnotes to 5-6.

[776] See Shepherd in _Am. Hist. Rev._ VIII, 501 _et seq._; also _ib._ IX, 748 _et seq._

[777] Clark: _Proofs of the Corruption of Gen. James Wilkinson_, 11-12, 16, 18-24, and doc.u.ments therein referred to and printed in the appendix to Clark's volume.

[778] ”Wilkinson is entirely devoted to us. He enjoys a considerable pension from the King.” (Casa Yrujo, Spanish Minister, to Cevallos, Jan.

28, 1807, as quoted in Adams: _U.S._ III, 342.) And see affidavits of Mercier and Derbigny, _Blennerha.s.sett Papers_: Safford, footnotes to 429, 432.

”He [Wilkinson] had acted conformably as suited the true interests of Spain, and so I a.s.sured him for his satisfaction.” (Folch, Spanish Governor of Florida, to the Governor-General of Cuba, June 25, 1807, as quoted by c.o.x in _Am. Hist. Rev._ X, 839.)

[779] Parton: _Burr_, 383; see also McCaleb, 4-9.

It should be borne in mind that this was the same Wilkinson who took so unworthy a part in the ”Conway Cabal” against Was.h.i.+ngton during the Revolution. (See vol. I, 121-23, of this work.)

For further treatment of the Spanish intrigue, see c.o.x in _Am. Hist Rev._ XIX, 794-812; also c.o.x in _Southwestern Historical Quarterly_, XVII, 140-87.

[780] Annual Message, Dec. 3, 1805, and Special Message, Dec. 6, 1805, Richardson, I, 384-85, 388-89.

[781] See _Memoirs, J. Q. A._: Adams, I, 314-15.

Burr wrote: ”In New-York I am to be disfranchised, and in New-Jersey hanged” but ”you will not ... conclude that I have become disposed to submit tamely to the machinations of a banditti.” Burr to his son-in-law, March 22, 1805, Davis, II, 365.

[782] 1797-98.

[783] Lodge: _Alexander Hamilton_, 212-15; and see Turner in _Am. Hist.

Rev._ X, 276.

[784] Davis, II, 376-79.

[785] Only one previous incident in Burr's public life can even be faintly criticized from the point of view of honesty. In 1799 there were in New York City but two banking inst.i.tutions, and both were controlled by Federalists. These banks aided business men of the Federalist Party and refused accommodation to Republican business men. The Federalists controlled the Legislature and no State charter for another bank in New York could be had.

Burr, as a member of the State Senate, secured from the Legislature a charter for the Manhattan Company to supply pure water to the city; but this charter authorized the use by the company of its surplus capital in any lawful way it pleased. Thus was established a new bank where Republican business men could get loans. Burr, in committee, frankly declared that the surplus was to establish a bank, and Governor Jay signed the bill. Although the whole project appears to have been open and aboveboard as far as Burr was concerned, yet when the bank began business, a violent attack was made on him. (Parton: _Burr_, 237-40.) For charter see _Laws of New York_ (Webster and Skinner's edition), 1799, chap. 84.

[786] Merry to Harrowby, Aug. 6, 1804, as quoted in Adams: _U.S._ II, 395.

[787] McCaleb, viii-ix, 20-23.

[788] Merry to Harrowby (No. 15), ”most secret,” March 29, 1805, as quoted in Adams: _U.S._ II, 403.

[789] Adams: _U.S._ II, 394.

[790] Davis, II, 381; also Parton: _Burr_, 412.

[791] Henry Adams, in his researches in the British and Spanish archives, discovered and for the first time made public, in 1890, the dispatches of the British, Spanish, and French Ministers to their Governments. (See Adams: _U.S._ III, chaps. XIII and XIV.)

[792] Professor Walter Flavius McCaleb has exploded the myth as to Burr's treasonable purposes, which hitherto has been accepted as history. His book, the _Aaron Burr Conspiracy_, may be said to be the last word on the subject. The lines which Professor McCaleb has therein so firmly established have been followed in this chapter.