Chapter XX
It will be recalled that when Aaron Burr was under suspicion in the Fall of 1806 he made haste to assure his friends in no uncertain language that there was no truth in the rumors.
Senator John Smith of Ohio, who had received the Colonel cordially on his visit to Cincinnati, was among the first to grow alarmed and to make direct inquiry. Burr replied that he was “surprised and hurt” at the unusual tenor of Smith’s letter. He then went on to say: “If there exists any design to separate the Western from the Eastern States, I am totally ignorant of it. I never harbored or expressed any such intention to anyone, nor did any person ever intimate such design to me.”
A month later, in November, Burr addressed a letter to Governor William Henry Harrison, of the Northwest Territory. “Considering the various and extravagant reports which circulate concerning me,” he said, “it may not be unsatisfactory to you to be informed (and to you there can be no better source of information than myself) that I have no wish nor design to attempt a separation of the Union, that I have no connection with any foreign power or government, that I never meditated the introduction of any foreign power or influence into the United States, or any part of its territories, but on the contrary should repel with indignation any proposition or measure having that tendency; in fine, that I have no project or views hostile to the interest, or tranquillity, or union of the United States, or prejudicial to its government; and I pledge to you my honor for the truth of this declaration.”
Within the space of a few days he was assuring Henry Clay that: “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 do not own a musket nor a bayonet, nor any single article of military stores, nor does any person for me by my authority or with my knowledge.”
On top of all that General Andrew Jackson was himself authority for the statement that, in reply to his inquiries, Burr had given “the most sacred pledges that he had not, nor never had, any views inimical or hostile to the United States, and whenever he was charged with the intention of separating the Union the idea of insanity must be ascribed to him.”
Here then from the lips of the accused himself were the most categorical denials of the serious charges that had been brought against him. To the truth of his assertions he pledged his honor as a gentleman. It was a pledge supported by many generations of Burrs and Edwardses representing the purest blood of Puritan New England. Only by hair-splitting with the deliberate intention of misleading could his declarations be otherwise construed.
Since then Burr’s innocence of the crimes of treason and high misdemeanor, so far as his actions within the territory of Virginia were concerned, had been attested by two juries of his peers in a tribunal presided over by the Chief Justice of the United States. The only mark against him that remained unresolved was his commitment by Judge Marshall for possible misdemeanor in the State of Ohio.
In the light of this exoneration the Federalists might well claim that their charge had been sustained: to wit, that Burr was an unoffending man who had been subjected to merciless political persecution at the hands of Thomas Jefferson and his followers. On the basis of the decisions rendered in Richmond future generations might perpetuate that belief.
Some eighty years were to pass before fresh evidence was disclosed touching on the activities of Aaron Burr at the turn of the century. It was on or around the year 1890 that Henry Adams, the historian, gained access to the British and Spanish archives which contained the written reports of their representatives in this country during the administration of Thomas Jefferson. The ministers of these two countries were respectively Anthony Merry and the Marquis de Casa Yrujo.