[797] That Burr, Dayton, and others seriously thought of building a canal around the falls of the Ohio on the Indiana side, is proved by an act passed by the Legislature of Indiana Territory in August, 1805, and approved by Governor William Henry Harrison on the 24th of that month. The act—entitled "An Act to Incorporate the Indiana Canal Company"—is very elaborate, authorizes a capital of one million dollars, and names as directors George Rogers Clark, John Brown, Jonathan Dayton, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Hovey, Davis Floyd, and six others. (See Laws of the Indiana Territory, 1801-1806, 94-108.) The author is indebted to Hon. Merrill Moores, M.C., of Indianapolis, for the reference to this statute.
[798] Hildreth, V. 597.
[799] Adair had been a soldier in the Revolutionary War, an Indian fighter in the West, a member of the Kentucky Constitutional Convention, Speaker of the House of Representatives of that State, Registrar of the United States Land Office, and was one of the ablest, most trusted, and best beloved of Kentuckians.
Adair afterward declared that "the intentions of Colonel Burr ... were to prepare and lead an expedition into Mexico, predicated on a war" between Spain and the United States; "without a war he knew he could do nothing." If war did not come he expected to settle the Washita lands. (Davis, ii, 380.)
[800] See McCaleb, 25; Parton: Burr, 385-86.
[801] McCaleb, 26; Parton: Life of Andrew Jackson, i, 307-10.
[802] Parton: Jackson, i, 309.
[803] Burr to his daughter, May 23,1805. This letter is delightful. "I will ask Saint A. to pray for thee too. I believe much in the efficacy of her prayers." (Davis, ii, 372.)
[804] McCaleb, 27; Parton: Burr, 393.
[805] McCaleb, 29.