But in this instance Yrujo was not so easily fooled. He did not believe that the British Government had fallen for the plan as Dayton asserted. Yrujo reasoned that, had they done so, Burr and Dayton would not now be coming to him. He was quite aware that Dayton, while pretending to betray the plot, had actually been sent by Burr.
Yrujo did not commit himself. He dismissed the ex-Senator courteously, promising to talk to him again. Burr and Dayton appear to have realized that they had overplayed their hand. A few days later Dayton paid a return visit. This time he confessed that Burr’s plan had not been received with enthusiasm by the British ministry.
Dayton now unfolded another. It was that a certain number of men were to be introduced into the city of Washington, in disguise and well armed. At a signal from Burr they were to seize the President, Vice-President, and the President of the Senate, thus securing the heads of government. Next they were to take the public money which was on deposit in the banks in Washington and Georgetown and possess themselves of the arsenal on the eastern branch of the Potomac and also the Navy Yard. The vessels would be burned except two or three which were ready for service. Burr, according to Dayton, hoped to paralyze the opposition and make favorable agreements with the individual states. But, failing this, he would board the vessels in the Navy Yard with his followers and sail for New Orleans and there proclaim the emancipation of Louisiana and the western states.
In reporting the interview to his Government, Yrujo observed that for one who did not know the country it would appear almost insane, “... but I confess, for my part, that in view of all the circumstances it seems to me easy to execute, although it will irritate the Atlantic States.... It is beyond question that there exists in this country an infinite number of adventurers, without property, full of ambition, and ready to unite at once under the standard of a revolution which promises to better their lot. Equally certain it is that Burr and his friends, without discovering their true object, have succeeded in getting the good-will of these men, and inspiring the greatest confidence among them in favor of Burr.”
After what Merry imagined to be valiant service for his own country in abetting the dissolution of the Union, the end of his mission to the United States was distressing. His correspondence, intended for Pitt’s ministers, was read by Fox who wrote to Merry accepting his resignation. It did no good for Merry to protest that he had not offered his resignation. But even while he waited for his successor to arrive he sent off one final dispatch warning that if Britain refused to support Burr’s enterprise recourse would be had to France, and that even without the help of any foreign power Burr proposed to go ahead.
From the foregoing evidence various conclusions may be drawn. Apologists for Burr might question the accuracy of the reports sent to their governments by Merry and Yrujo. It is hard to believe they would have made them up.
Or, Burr’s proposals may be accepted, as Merry at least accepted them, at their face value. If so, and had he gone on with his plans, a substantial charge of treason could be laid against Burr.
Still another conclusion would be to accept Burr’s own protest of innocence and to assume that the propositions he made to the British and Spanish governments were dishonest and insincere, merely designed to wring money from them for services which he never intended to perform.
Whichever conclusion is accepted, had the reports of Merry and Yrujo been made public at the time of the trials, one wonders whether in October, 1807, Aaron Burr would have walked out of the Circuit Court for the Fifth District of Virginia a free man.
