The Spanish intrigues among the Republicans of Kentucky were not wholly unknown to the Federalists in that State; and as time went on, Humphrey Marshall and Daveiss obtained evidence warranting an assault on the Republicans most deeply implicated.[184] The attempt was a matter of life and death to the Spanish pensioners; and in a society so clannish as that of Kentucky, violence was not only to be feared, but to be counted upon. Daveiss took the risks of personal revenge, and laid his plans accordingly.
Burr’s appearance on the Ohio and at St. Louis in Wilkinson’s company during the summer of 1805 called attention to the old Spanish conspiracy, and gave Daveiss the opportunity he wanted. As early as Jan. 10, 1806, while Burr was still struggling at Washington to save his plot from collapse for want of foreign aid, and while John Randolph was beginning his invectives in Congress, the district-attorney wrote to the President a private letter denouncing the old Spanish plot, and declaring that it was still alive.[185] “A separation of the Union in favor of Spain is the object finally. I know not what are the means.” Assuming that Jefferson was ignorant of the facts, because he had “appointed General Wilkinson as Governor of St. Louis, who, I am convinced, has been for years, and now is, a pensioner of Spain,” Daveiss asserted his own knowledge, and contented himself with a general warning;—
“This plot is laid wider than you imagine. Mention the subject to no man from the Western country, however high in office he may be. Some of them are deeply tainted with this treason. I hate duplicity of expression; but on this subject I am not authorized to be explicit, nor is it necessary. You will despatch some fit person into the Orleans country to inquire.”
February 10 Daveiss wrote again calling attention to Burr’s movements during the previous summer, and charging both him and Wilkinson with conspiracy.[186] At about the time when these letters arrived, the President received another warning from Eaton. The air was full of denunciations, waiting only for the President’s leave to annihilate the conspirators under popular contempt. A word quietly written by Jefferson to one or two persons in the Western country would have stopped Burr short in his path, and would have brought Wilkinson abjectly on his knees. A slight change in the military and naval arrangements at New Orleans would have terrified the creoles into good behavior, and would have made Daniel Clark denounce the conspiracy.
The President showed Daveiss’s letter to Gallatin, Madison, and Dearborn; but he did not take its advice, and did not, in his Cabinet memoranda of October 22,[187] mention it among his many sources of information. February 15 he wrote to Daveiss[188] a request to communicate all he knew on the subject. No other acts followed, nor was either Wilkinson or Burr put under surveillance.
Perhaps this was what Daveiss wished; for if Jefferson pursued his course much further, he was certain to compromise himself in appearing to protect Burr and Wilkinson. Daveiss not only continued to write letter after letter denouncing Wilkinson to the President, without receiving answer or acknowledgment; he not only made a journey to St. Louis in order to collect evidence, and on his return to Kentucky wrote in July to the President that Burr’s object was “to cause a revolt of the Spanish provinces, and a severance of all the Western States and Territories from the Union, to coalesce and form one government,”—but he also took a new step, of which he did not think himself obliged to inform the President in advance. He established at Frankfort a weekly newspaper, edited by a man so poor in character and means that for some slight gain in notoriety he could afford to risk a worthless life. John Wood was a newspaper hack, not quite so successful as Cheetham and Duane, or so vile as Callender. Having in 1801 written a “History of the last Administration,” after getting from Colonel Burr, by working upon his vanity, an offer to buy and suppress the book, it was probably Wood who furnished Cheetham with the details of the transaction, and connived at Cheetham’s “Narrative of the Suppression,” in order to give notoriety to himself. Cheetham’s “Narrative” called for a reply, and Wood in 1802 printed a “Correct Statement.” Both pamphlets were contemptible; but Cheetham was supported by the Clintons, while Wood could find no one to pay for his literary wares. He drifted to Richmond, and thence across the mountains; until, in the winter of 1805–1806, he dropped quietly, unnoticed, into the village of Frankfort, in Kentucky. Humphrey Marshall and District Attorney Daveiss needed such a man.
July 4, 1806, appeared at Frankfort the first number of the “Western World,”—a weekly newspaper edited by John Wood. The society of Kentucky was alarmed and irritated to find that the “Western World” seemed to have no other object for its existence than to drag the old Spanish conspiracy to light. Passions were soon deeply stirred by the persistency and vehemence with which this pretended Republican newspaper clung to the subject and cried for an investigation. Wood had no fancy for being made the object of assassination, but he was given a fighting colleague named Street; and while Wood hid himself, Street defended the office. In spite of several attempts to drive Street away or to kill him, the “Western World” persevered in its work, until October 15 it published an appeal to the people, founded on Blennerhassett’s “Querist” and on the existence of a Spanish Association. Meanwhile two men in high position dreaded exposure,—Judge Sebastian, of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, and Judge Innis, of the United States District Court.
Daveiss was right in thinking the Spanish conspiracy of 1787–1798 closely allied with Burr’s conspiracy of 1805. In striking at Sebastian and Innis, he threw consternation into the ranks of Burr’s friends, all of whom were more or less familiar with the Spanish intrigue. Senator Adair, bolder than the rest, stood by Wilkinson and defied exposure; but the greater number of Wilkinson’s accomplices were paralyzed. Daveiss gave them no respite. In October Burr’s appearance in Kentucky offered a chance to press his advantage. Jefferson’s persistent silence and inaction left the energetic district-attorney free to do what he liked; and nothing short of compromising the Administration satisfied his ambition.
Burr passed the month of October in Kentucky; but his preparations were far from complete. The delay was probably due to the time consumed in getting Blennerhassett’s money. At last Burr paid to Lynch the purchase-money of four or five thousand dollars for Bastrop’s grant. He had already ordered the construction of boats and enlistment of men at various points on the Ohio, and especially at Marietta, near Blennerhassett’s island; but he waited too long before beginning operations on the Cumberland, for not till November 3 did Andrew Jackson at Nashville receive a letter from Burr, inclosing three thousand dollars in Kentucky bank-notes, with orders for the building of five large boats, the purchase of supplies, and the enlistment of recruits,—all of which was promptly undertaken by Jackson, but required more time than could be spared by Burr.
Meanwhile Burr’s affairs were going ill in the State of Ohio. Blennerhassett’s foolish “Querist,” and the more foolish conversation of both Blennerhassett and Burr, combined with the assaults of the “Western World,” drew so much attention to the armaments at the island that Mrs. Blennerhassett, left alone while her husband was with Allston and Burr in Kentucky, became alarmed, and thought it necessary to send them a warning. October 20 she wrote to Burr that he could not return with safety. Thinking the note too important to be trusted to the post, and ignorant of Burr’s address, she sent her gardener, Peter Taylor, on horseback, through Chillicothe, to Cincinnati, with orders to ask Senator Smith for the address. Taylor reached Cincinnati October 23, after three days of travel, and went, according to his mistress’s orders, directly to Senator Smith’s house, which was in the same building with his store,—for Smith was a storekeeper and army contractor. The senator was already too deeply compromised with Burr, and his courage had begun to fail. At first he denied knowledge of Burr or Blennerhassett. In Taylor’s words, “He allowed he knew nothing of either of them; that I must be mistaken; this was not the place. I said, ‘No; this was the right place,—Mr. John Smith, storekeeper, Cincinnati.’” In the end, Smith took him upstairs, and gave him, with every injunction of secrecy, a letter to be delivered to Burr at Lexington. Taylor reached Lexington October 25, found Burr, delivered his letters, and candidly added: “If you come up our way the people will shoot you.” The following Monday, October 27, the gardener started on his return, taking Blennerhassett with him, and leaving Burr at Lexington to face the storms that threatened from many quarters at once.