“Burr’s acquittal was celebrated by a great ball given by his friends; and was followed by another given in honor of the defeated district attorney—and privately, I felt very much inclined to attend the Daviess ball; and if I had, would have been tempted to dance, as I was at my own wedding to my Dear Dorothy.
“On November 27th the President by proclamation denounced the Burr enterprise and warned the people of the Western country against participation in it.
“In the meantime preparations for the enterprise continued until the arrival of the proclamation, which in conjunction with the efforts of Mr. Graham, the government’s special agent, effectively scotched it.
“The way this came about, Blannerhassett, under the impression that Graham was a friend of Col. Burr, disclosed the details of the expedition. Graham informed Blannerhassett to the contrary and sought to persuade him from participation, but without avail; then he proceeded to Chillicothe, where the Ohio legislature was in session and interviewed Governor Tiffin. The governor sent a message to the legislature and that body, in secret session, passed an act to suppress the expedition. Thereupon the Ohio authorities seized the boats and provisions on the Ohio shore and the Ohio recruits abandoned the expedition.
[pg 323] “Graham then hastened to Kentucky, where the legislature, then in session, passed a similar law; and orders were given to apprehend all boats in Kentucky waters. Several days before Graham’s arrival, Burr had departed for Nashville.
“Graham, following after him, induced the governor of Tennessee to order all boats in Tennessee waters seized and all persons implicated arrested. Burr and his confederates were informed and made their escape in two small boats, paddling to the mouth of the Cumberland.
“There they joined the remnant of the great flotilla, eleven boats and sixty men and proceeded down the Ohio to the Mississippi and down that stream towards the trap which Wilkinson had prepared for his former co-conspirator.
“Wilkinson had always been a careful and calculating conspirator; disregarding all connections and shifting about as self interest dictated. He was the servant of the highest bidder and in the Burr conspiracy doubtless the instigator; as also the first to recognize that the scheme was chimerical. Soon learning the real Kentucky spirit, he made up his mind to abandon Burr and at the first opportunity traitorously disclosed the plans to President Jefferson; and towards the end did everything in his power to frustrate Burr’s designs.
“When Burr, visiting Wilkinson in St. Louis, spoke of discontent in Kentucky, he replied: ‘If you have not profited more by your journey in other respects than this, you would better have staid in Washington. The Western people dissatisfied to the government! They are bigoted to Jefferson and Democracy.’
“When the enterprise collapsed, Wilkinson, like many others who had been loudest in Burr’s praise and deepest in his schemes, was now the loudest in denouncing [pg 324] the conspiracy and the most zealous with suggestions to apprehend him.