On December 1 the President sent his regular message to Congress. He made casual reference to the conspiracy, but again supplied no names. Meanwhile the House of Representatives was growing restive. John Randolph of Roanoke, the brilliant but eccentric Virginia member, who had broken with the Jeffersonians and was now constantly looking for ways to embarrass the administration, introduced a resolution requesting from the President detailed information on the conspiracy.
Thus spurred to action, President Jefferson, on January 22, addressed a special message to the Senate and House of Representatives. He stated that in answer to their request he was transmitting to them information received by him touching on “an illegal combination of private individuals against the peace and safety of the Union, and a military expedition planned by them against the territories of a power in amity with the United States, with the measures pursued for suppressing the same.”
At last the President was specific. The prime mover, he said, was Aaron Burr, “heretofore distinguished by the favor of his country.”
As early as September, the message continued, the Government had received reports of agitation in the western country. Then in the latter part of October the objects of the conspiracy began to be perceived. But they were still so involved in mystery that nothing distinct could be singled out for pursuit. However, the Government had sent a trusted agent to investigate the plot.
Then, said the President, on November 25 the Government had received from General Wilkinson, Commander-in-Chief, a letter in which the General reported having been visited by a confidential agent of Burr, with communications partly written in cipher, and partly oral, setting forth his designs and offering Wilkinson such emolument and command as to engage him and his army in the unlawful enterprise.
But, declared the President, “The General, with the honor of a soldier and the fidelity of a good citizen, immediately dispatched a trusty officer to me with the information of what had passed. Thanks to the General’s letter and other information received a few days earlier, it was possible to develop Burr’s general design.”
It appeared, said Jefferson, that Burr contemplated two distinct objects, which might be carried on either jointly or separately, and either the one or the other first, as circumstances should direct.
One of these was the severance from the Union of the states west of the Allegheny Mountains.
The other was an attack on Mexico.
The President mentioned also as a third object a settlement on what he called “a pretended purchase” of a tract of country on the Washita River in northern Louisiana. As the President interpreted it, this third object, however, was merely to serve as a pretext for Burr’s preparations in collecting men, boats, and supplies, and as an allurement for such followers as really wished to acquire settlements in that country. It also was to serve as a cover under which to retreat in the event of the final discomfiture of both branches of his main design.