CHAPTER XX.—Another Conspiracy.
On Saturday, March 2, 1805, at the close of the administration, Vice-President Burr took formal leave of the United States Senate. The Washington Federalist referring to his farewell address, declared it “* * * the most dignified, sublime and impressive ever uttered. * * * The whole Senate was in tears and so unmanned that it was half an hour before they could recover themselves sufficiently to come to order and choose a vice-president pro tem.”
Yet his great abilities were marred by an instinct for traitorous intrigue and an unconscionable untrustworthiness which made his life a failure.
Upon retirement, he felt forced to shift his residence and at the suggestion of his friend, General James Wilkinson, a man much more dangerous and less trustworthy than Burr and at the time chief officer of the United States Army, he traveled westward with the presumed intent of establishing his domicile at Nashville.
Many who know Wilkinson’s secret history, now believe that even then he had instigated Burr to the adoption of his traitorous plot to drive Spain from North America and establish a great empire; which in due course was to take over the Western Country and if expedient, by force of arms, would then spread its dominion eastward to the Atlantic.
On April 10, Burr left Philadelphia for Pittsburgh, where he arrived on the 29th, and the next day purchasing an ark or house boat, left for Kentucky.
[pg 313] As illustrating the purchasing power of the dollar in those days, the ark, which was sixty feet long, fourteen wide and had four rooms or compartments with glass windows, cost one hundred and thirty-three dollars.
Fourteen miles below Marietta the boat tied up at Blannerhassett’s Island; and it was then he made the acquaintance of Colonel Blannerhassett and his very charming wife, who was the daughter of Governor Agnew of the Isle of Mann and the granddaughter of General Agnew, who had been killed at Germantown.
At Cincinnati he was the guest over-night of John Smith, United States Senator from Ohio and at his home met an old friend, Jonathan Dayton. These men with Blannerhassett became partners in his designs and were indicted and arrested when the details of the Burr conspiracy became public property.
Upon Burr’s arrival at Louisville, he instructed his boatmen to float down the river and await him at the mouth of the Cumberland, and rode through to Nashville on horseback.
There he remained four days, the distinguished guest of General Jackson; then in a small boat was paddled to the mouth of the Cumberland, where he re-embarked in his ark and floated down to Fort Massic. At Fort Massic he and Wilkinson perfected plans incident to the conspiracy. When he left it was in Wilkinson’s own barge and in a style more befitting the head of a proposed scheme of conquest. He traveled to New Orleans in “an elegant barge, sails, colors and ten oars, with a sergeant and ten able and faithful hands;” bearing letters of introduction to Wilkinson’s friends, by whom he was received with great honor and entertained in a most lavish style. The letter of introduction to Mr. Clark read:
[pg 314] “My Dear Sir:
“This will be delivered to you by Colonel Burr, whose worth you know well how to estimate. If the persecution of a great and honorable man can give title to generous attentions he has claim to all your civilities and all your services. You can not oblige me more than by such conduct; and I pledge my life to you it will not be misapplied.
“To him I refer you to many things improper for letter and which he will not say to any other. I shall be at St. Louis in two weeks and if you were there we could open a gold mine, a commercial one at least. Let me hear from you. Farewell, do well, and believe me always your friend.”
Colonel Burr’s engagements, social and otherwise, kept him three weeks in New Orleans. He then returned to Nashville, traveling horseback through the wilderness, where he arrived on August 6th. After a few days’ rest he visited Louisville and other Kentucky towns, then went to St. Louis to talk over matters with General Wilkinson.
In October he returned to Philadelphia, where he spent the greater part of the winter soliciting funds to finance his designs.
In August, 1806, with plans matured and money to finance them, he came to Pittsburgh, accompanied by his daughter and Colonel Dupiester. While there he confided his plans to Colonel Morgan, of Washington County, who as a patriot felt bound to give the information to President Jefferson. This was probably the first notice the government had of Burr’s conspiracy. Here he also met Comfort Taylor and arranged for recruiting men and building and outfitting several barges for the expedition; and as he voyaged down the Ohio made similar arrangements with Blannerhassett, Floyd Smith, of Indiana Territory, and others.
[pg 315] Upon his arrival in Kentucky every thing seemed propitious. Recruits in plenty offered their services and many prominent men, among them General Adair, though not openly joining in, favored his scheme.
At Nashville he arranged with General Jackson to build and equip several barges and gave him four thousand dollars to be applied to the purpose.
In October, The Western World, a Frankfort newspaper, made attacks on Innes and Sebastian, the one United States Judge for the District of Kentucky and the other a judge of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, charging their connection with the old Spanish Conspiracy and their effort to renew it. In an uncertain and confused way they connected Burr with the conspiracy and charged that the three, with others, were traitors to the United States government. The articles created considerable excitement and led Joseph H. Daviess, then the United States District Attorney for Kentucky, to investigate Burr’s purpose and the cause of his extensive and repeated visits to Kentucky.
Learning his intent, he sent warning to President Jefferson; and on November 3rd, in the United States Court at Frankfort, made motion and application for his apprehension supported by his affidavit charging him with recruiting men with the design to attack the Spanish dominions and thereby endanger the peace of the United States.
Judge Innes denied the motion as unprecedented and illegal.
In the papers of Fleming Campbell, a descendant of Rev. Calvin Campbell, was found a letter written by him to his wife, Dorothy, giving a detailed account of Burr’s trial at Frankfort; and as when possible, it is always [pg 316] better to have an account from an eye witness the author has seen fit to quote at length from that letter.
“* * * As only at infrequent intervals, can a messenger be found to bear my letters to you, you will readily understand why they are occasionally continued as a diary from day to day over a considerable period. This time I have more important and as I believe more interesting news than usual.
“As you know, I came to Frankfort the first of November to attend the United States Court in reference to our church property case; and since coming have been subpoenaed as a witness in the case of the United States against Burr; though that trial is now finished, I am forced to remain as a witness before the committee of the Legislature investigating the charges preferred against Judge Sebastian, who is declared to have been a pensioner of Spain for years. It seems as though the old Spanish Conspiracy follows me like a shadow. In the meanwhile I am conducting a series of meetings in the Presbyterian Church which are well attended and which the people are kind enough to say are bearing fruit for the Master. This first page of my letter was in fact the last written—chronologically, now begins the first page.
“I have today for the first time seen Colonel Burr and at his best—in action, pretending to address Judge Innes, but in fact talking to the benches. To me he appears the most perfect model of the fashionable gentleman. When he speaks it is with animation, apparent frankness and guilelessness; yet something inside warns against him, saying: ‘Beware, that is not the man. The real man is reserved, secretive, inscrutable.’ His face to me gives the same warning. At first blush it pleases, but upon closer scrutiny lines are seen which suggest that [pg 317] he would toss the settled things of life about as the wind scatters dried leaves.
“I may be prejudiced because I know he has been associating with Wilkinson, whom no man can touch without contamination unless the fear of God is in his heart. He is said to be a friend of Wilkinson, but Wilkinson knows no friends. Burr is a more gifted man than he, but has not his satanic poise and patience. Burr suggests a general who would cut himself off from his base and risk all in one fierce attack.
“The Court having denied Mr. Daviess’ motion to apprehend Colonel Burr, the latter was under no obligation to answer, yet he presented himself and demanded a trial, declaring his innocence.
“Pleased at the great audience, which from curiosity and excitement had gathered, though he faced the court, he talked to the benches; and the judge perceiving his purpose became an accomplice to it, by leaving the bench and taking a seat in the jury box, so that while talking to him he faced the crowd. He closed by saying: ‘Your Honor has treated the application as it deserved, but it may be renewed by Mr. Daviess in my absence; therefore, voluntarily I have appeared and demand a speedy trial upon the charge.’
“Burr misread Daviess if he believed such tactics would intimidate or embarrass him. He arose and in turn—and I believe for the first time in the discharge of his duties—seemed to talk to the benches; and the court perceiving it, moved his seat from the jury box to the bench—but Daviess continuing to face the audience, made a Federalist speech in support of the Union and the constitution and revealed at some length the conspiracy of Burr and his followers. What he said pleased me greatly and was not without effect upon the audience, though the majority [pg 318] were Democrats and in sympathy with Burr. He announced: ‘I am ready to proceed as soon as the attendance of the government’s witnesses can be procured.’ The Court asked him to fix a day and conferring with the United States marshal he named the following Wednesday, which, proving satisfactory to Colonel Burr, was named for the hearing.
“Burr, until Wednesday, appeared to pass the time in easy tranquillity. On Wednesday, the court room was filled to suffocation. Mr. Daviess, calling his witnesses, discovered that Davis Floyd, the most important one, was absent; but Judge Innes, who, all the while, has shown partiality for the accused, discharged the grand jury.
“Colonel Burr, accompanied by his counsel, Henry Clay and Col. Allen, came forward, expressed regret that the grand jury had been discharged and asked the reason.
“(Daviess) ‘The Government’s witness, Davis Floyd, is a member of the Indiana Territorial Legislature and as it is in session he cannot attend.’
“(Burr) ‘Will the Court have noted of record the reason for postponement.’ Then bowing to the Court, he addressed the audience upon the subject of the accusation and with such power, fervor and air of injured innocence, that the majority present looked upon Daviess as a persecutor for political reasons. Burr said: ‘I assure you good people of Kentucky of my innocence and beg you will dismiss your apprehension of danger from me, if such you have. I am a man of peace and feel hurt that your able district attorney is striving so zealously to connect me with schemes and rumors of war. I am engaged in no enterprise that can endanger the peace or tranquillity of our country as you will most certainly learn, when the district attorney shall be ready, which I surmise will never be. Though pressing business demands my presence [pg 319] elsewhere, I feel compelled to give your zealous official one more opportunity of proving his charge; or acknowledging my innocence and admitting that it is persecution.’
“Nevertheless, watching Burr day by day, I notice he is slowly losing his tranquillity; even his face, when at rest, has a nervous expression.
“I learn that he has sought to engage my friend, John Rowan, as one of his counsel; but Mr. Rowan declined, saying: ‘My position as a congressman-elect precludes the employment, as the charge involves fidelity to the Government.’
“This reason did not satisfy Burr, who offered him a thousand dollars (what I earn in three years by preaching) and began arguing against his objection; but Mr. Rowan interrupted him: ‘Pardon me, Colonel Burr, but I have been taught from earliest childhood not to reason on subjects which my conscience in the first instance condemns.’
“Rumor of this conversation reached Mr. Clay, who was also a member-elect of Congress, and he came to Mr. Rowan asking advice as to his employment. Rowan advised: ‘Since you have already appeared as counsel, I think you should continue; that is, if your client will give you written assurance of his innocence.’
“At Mr. Clay’s request Colonel Burr, on December 1, gave him this statement: ‘I have no design nor have I taken any measure to promote a dissolution of the Union, or a separation of any one or more states from the residue. I have neither published a line on this subject nor has any one through my agency or with my knowledge. I have no design to intermeddle with the government, or to disturb the tranquillity of the United States, nor of its territories, or any part of them. I have neither issued [pg 320] nor signed, nor promised a commission to any person for any purpose. I do not own a musket or bayonet or any single article of military stores nor does any person for me by my authority or my knowledge. My views have been explained to and approved by several of the principal officers of the government and I believe are well understood by the administration and seen by it with complacency; they are such as every man of honor and every good citizen must approve. Considering the high station you now fill in our national councils, I have thought these explanations proper, as well as to counteract the chimerical tales, which malevolent persons have industriously circulated, as to satisfy you that you have not espoused the cause of a man in any way unfriendly to the laws, the government or the interests of his country.’
“This statement Burr gave without hesitancy, though his guilt is now established. Some months prior to giving it, on July 29th, he wrote General Wilkinson:
“‘I have obtained funds and have actually commenced the enterprise. Detachments from different points and on different pretences, will rendezvous on the Ohio on the 1st of November. Everything internal and external favors views * * * Already are orders given to contractors to forward six months’ provisions to point Wilkinson may name. The project is brought to the point so long desired. Burr guarantees the result with his life and honor and with the lives and fortunes of hundreds—the best blood of the country. Wilkinson shall be second only to Burr. Wilkinson shall dictate the rank of his officers. Burr’s plan of operations is to move down rapidly from the falls by the 15th of November, with the first five or ten hundred men, in light boats now constructing, to be at Natches between the 5th and 15th of December, [pg 321] there to meet Wilkinson; there to determine whether it will be expedient in the first instance to seize on or pass by Baton-Rogue.’
“On the 25th of November Mr. Daviess announced to the Court that he could have Davis Floyd present on December 2nd and asked that a second grand jury be empaneled for that date; which was done.
“But on the 2nd Mr. Daviess was again forced to ask a postponement because of the absence of John Adair; though he asked that the grand jury be retained until he could enforce Adair’s attendance by attachment.
“This occasioned a lively and prolonged argument between Burr’s counsel and Daviess, to which all the overcrowded court room listened with marked attention.
“Clay had the sympathy of the majority of the audience. The proposed expedition and its leader were popular. Clay was a Democrat. Daviess was a Federalist, a decidedly minority party in Kentucky. The people believed in the innocence of the smiling and composed Burr. The judge was with him and refused to retain the grand jury after the disposition of pending business. It was up to Daviess to make business until Adair could be found. He asked an attachment for him, which the Court denied, holding he was not in contempt until the end of the day’s session. He drafted an indictment charging Adair with complicity in the Burr conspiracy; but the grand jury returned it, ‘not a true bill.’ As it was late, Daviess asked for and procured an adjournment until the next day.
“When the court reassembled, Daviess asked, as prosecuter, to go before the grand jury to examine his witnesses so they would understand and be able to piece together the detached evidence constituting the conspiracy. The request was resisted by counsel for Burr [pg 322] and refused by the court, though the judge himself had suggested it the evening before.
“The grand jury at the close of the hearing returned the indictment submitted against Col. Burr, ‘Not a true bill’—and further declared in their report, that the evidence submitted completely exonerated him from any designs against the peace and dignity of the United States.
“Burr’s acquittal was celebrated by a great ball given by his friends; and was followed by another given in honor of the defeated district attorney—and privately, I felt very much inclined to attend the Daviess ball; and if I had, would have been tempted to dance, as I was at my own wedding to my Dear Dorothy.
“On November 27th the President by proclamation denounced the Burr enterprise and warned the people of the Western country against participation in it.
“In the meantime preparations for the enterprise continued until the arrival of the proclamation, which in conjunction with the efforts of Mr. Graham, the government’s special agent, effectively scotched it.
“The way this came about, Blannerhassett, under the impression that Graham was a friend of Col. Burr, disclosed the details of the expedition. Graham informed Blannerhassett to the contrary and sought to persuade him from participation, but without avail; then he proceeded to Chillicothe, where the Ohio legislature was in session and interviewed Governor Tiffin. The governor sent a message to the legislature and that body, in secret session, passed an act to suppress the expedition. Thereupon the Ohio authorities seized the boats and provisions on the Ohio shore and the Ohio recruits abandoned the expedition.
[pg 323] “Graham then hastened to Kentucky, where the legislature, then in session, passed a similar law; and orders were given to apprehend all boats in Kentucky waters. Several days before Graham’s arrival, Burr had departed for Nashville.
“Graham, following after him, induced the governor of Tennessee to order all boats in Tennessee waters seized and all persons implicated arrested. Burr and his confederates were informed and made their escape in two small boats, paddling to the mouth of the Cumberland.
“There they joined the remnant of the great flotilla, eleven boats and sixty men and proceeded down the Ohio to the Mississippi and down that stream towards the trap which Wilkinson had prepared for his former co-conspirator.
“Wilkinson had always been a careful and calculating conspirator; disregarding all connections and shifting about as self interest dictated. He was the servant of the highest bidder and in the Burr conspiracy doubtless the instigator; as also the first to recognize that the scheme was chimerical. Soon learning the real Kentucky spirit, he made up his mind to abandon Burr and at the first opportunity traitorously disclosed the plans to President Jefferson; and towards the end did everything in his power to frustrate Burr’s designs.
“When Burr, visiting Wilkinson in St. Louis, spoke of discontent in Kentucky, he replied: ‘If you have not profited more by your journey in other respects than this, you would better have staid in Washington. The Western people dissatisfied to the government! They are bigoted to Jefferson and Democracy.’
“When the enterprise collapsed, Wilkinson, like many others who had been loudest in Burr’s praise and deepest in his schemes, was now the loudest in denouncing [pg 324] the conspiracy and the most zealous with suggestions to apprehend him.
“I understand that Burr, blaming its failure upon Wilkinson, denounced him: ‘As to any prospects which may have been formed between General Wilkinson and myself heretofore; they are now completely frustrated by his perfidious conduct, and the world must pronounce him a perfidious villain. If I am sacrificed my portfolio will prove him to be such.’
“One can readily understand why his expedition appealed to a great many Kentuckians. The people are hardy and adventurous. There are yet many among us who lived through the most heroic era of our history; and the younger generation, fired by their tales, are ready for any adventurous enterprise. Spain is an old enemy, the State is growing rapidly, many feel crowded if they live within sight of a neighbor; the enterprise offered great opportunities for adventure, for a new pioneer life; and land was to be had for the taking.
“Even the longest letter must have an ending, and I have found a friend going to Powell’s Valley, who has promised to deliver mine. I shall come home in January. My heart bleeds because I will not be able to spend Christmas with you and the boy. I feel I have no home, but my Master had not a place to lay his head, nor a wife and son. I pray daily for your safety and good health. The Lord bless and keep both of you.
“Your husband,
“Calvin.”
The Kentucky Legislature was petitioned in December, 1806, to make inquiry into the conduct of Judge Sebastian, a member of the Court of Appeals, as an intriguer with Spain in an effort to bring about Kentucky’s secession from the Union. In an effort to stifle the inquiry, [pg 325] Sebastian resigned, but the inquiry continued. Evidence submitted, including his confession, disclosed that he had been a pensioner of Spain for many years, receiving $2,000.00 per annum. Many believed Judge Innes implicated; and at the session of the succeeding legislature, a resolution was passed recommending that Congress inquire into his conduct, as being United States judge for the district of Kentucky it was beyond the province of Kentucky authority. This was done and resulted in his acquittal.
The disclosures of the Sebastian investigation, and the Burr conspiracy, resulted in a renewal by the Atlantic states of the old and oft-repeated charge that Kentucky was disloyal to the Union. The people of Kentucky resented the charge.
A great mass meeting was held in Lexington when the people of the State understood the charges made by the eastern states. After a patriotic speech by Rev. Calvin Campbell, which Henry Clay declared the smoothest argument he had ever heard in support of centralized power against state rights, the meeting unanimously adopted a resolution:
“* * * That all charges or insinuations against the people of this State of disaffection to the Union or Government of the United States are gross misapprehensions and without foundation.” This resolution was published in the Palladium on January 7, 1807.
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On January 14, 1807, Burr, a fugitive in the then great Southwest Wilderness, was apprehended on the Tombigbee river by Captain Gaines, of the United States army, and carried to Richmond for trial.
[pg 326]