[920] Plumer to Mason, Jan. 30, 1807, Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.
Plumer's account of the proceedings is trustworthy. He was an eminent lawyer himself, was deeply interested in the case, and was writing to Jeremiah Mason, then the leader of the New England bar.
[921] Eaton: Prentiss, 396.
[922] See supra, 303-05.
Three days before he made oath to the truth of this story, Eaton's claim against the Government was referred to a committee of the House (see Annals, 9th Cong. 2d Sess. 383), and within a month from the time the historic affidavit was made, a bill was passed, without debate, "authorizing the settlement of the accounts between the United States and William Eaton."
John Randolph was suspicious: "He believed the bill had passed by surprise. It was not so much a bill to settle the accounts of William Eaton, as to rip up the settled forms of the Treasury, and to transfer the accountable duties of the Treasury to the Department of State. It would be a stain upon the Statute Book." (Ib. 622.)
The very next week after the passage of this measure, Eaton received ten thousand dollars from the Government. (See testimony of William Eaton, Trials of Colonel Aaron Burr: Robertson, stenographer, i, 483.)
[923] "Eaton's story ... has now been served up in all the newspapers.... The amount of his narrative is, that he advised the President to send Burr upon an important embassy, because!!! he had discovered the said Burr to be a Traitor to his country." (J. Q. Adams to L. C. Adams, Dec. 8, 1806, Writings, J. Q. A.: Ford, iii, footnote to 157.)
[924] Plumer, Jan. 30, 1807, "Diary," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.
[925] J. Q. Adams to his father, Jan. 30, 1807, Writings, J. Q. A.: Ford, iii, 159.