[944] 4 Cranch, 131-32.
[945] 4 Cranch, 132-33.
[946] Wilkinson declared in his affidavit that he "drew" from Swartwout the following disclosures: "Colonel Burr, with the support of a powerful association, extending from New York to New Orleans, was levying an armed body of seven thousand men from the state of New York and the Western states and Territories" to invade Mexico which "would be revolutionized, where the people were ready to join them."
"There would be some seizing, he supposed at New Orleans"; he "knew full well" that "there were several millions of dollars in the bank of this place," but that Burr's party only "meant to borrow and would return it—they must equip themselves at New Orleans, etc., etc." (Annals, 9th Cong. 2d Sess. 1014-15.)
Swartwout made oath that he told Wilkinson nothing of the kind. The high character which this young man then bore, together with the firm impression of truthfulness he made on everybody at that time and during the distracting months that followed, would seem to suggest the conclusion that Wilkinson's story was only another of the brood of falsehoods of which that fecund liar was so prolific.
[947] 4 Cranch, 133-34.
[948] 4 Cranch, 135.
[949] 4 Cranch, 136.
[950] Feb. 21, 1807, Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, i, 459.
[951] Annals, 9th Cong. 2d Sess. 472.