[857] Wilkinson to Adair, Sept. 28, 1806, as quoted by Plumer, Feb. 20, 1807, "Register," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.
[858] Adair to Wilkinson, Oct. or Nov. 1806, as quoted by Plumer, Feb. 20, 1807, "Register," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.
[859] Wilkinson to Smith, Sept. 28, 1806, "Letters in Relation," MSS. Lib. Cong.
[860] See vol. ii, 560, of this work.
[861] The Western World, edited by the notorious John Wood, author of the History of the Administration of John Adams, which was suppressed by Burr. (See vol. ii, 380, of this work.) Wood was of the same type of irresponsible pamphleteer and newspaper hack as Callender and Cheetham. His so-called "history" was a dull, untruthful, scandalous diatribe; and it is to Burr's credit that he bought the plates and suppressed the book. Yet this action was one of the reasons given for the remorseless pursuit of him, after it had been determined to destroy him.
[862] McCaleb, 172-75.
[863] Adams: U.S. iii, 276. This was a falsehood, since Burr had proposed Western secession to the British Minister. But he knew that no one else could have knowledge of his plot with Merry. It is both interesting and important that to the end of his life Burr steadily maintained that he never harbored a thought of dismembering the Nation.
[864] (Clay to Pindell, Oct. 15, 1828, Works of Henry Clay: Colton, iv, 206; also Private Correspondence of Henry Clay: Colton, 206-08.)
So strong was his devotion to Hamilton, that "after he had attained full age," Daveiss adopted the name of his hero as part of his own, thereafter signing himself Joseph Hamilton Daveiss and requiring everybody so to address him. "Chiefly moved ... by his admiration of Colonel Hamilton and his hatred of Colonel Burr," testifies Henry Clay, Daveiss took the first step in the series of prosecutions that ended in the trial of Burr for treason. (Ib.)
[865] Adams: U.S. iii, 278.