Taylor states that Mr. Smith offered him something to drink, and “charged him not to go to any tavern, lest the people should be sifting him with their questions.” Sift him about what? Did Smith then suppose that Blannerhasset’s gardener and servant was possessed of the secrets of the conspiracy, which might be sifted out of him? Is it credible that so gross and absurd an idea could be entertained by a man of his understanding? Had he used precautions to prevent Blannerhasset himself from being sifted, there would have been some sense in it: but to suppose him afraid of the gardener’s being sifted about things, which if he knew them himself he must have been satisfied that the gardener could not know, is to impute to him more folly than those who charge him with a principal participation in Colonel Burr’s designs, would be willing to admit.
Will it be said that Smith was afraid of the gardener’s being sifted about the public occurrences in the island and its neighborhood, which a person in his situation might be supposed to know? I answer, why should he be so afraid? As those circumstances were notorious, the gardener could do no harm by telling them; and they would speedily be known at Cincinnati, whether he told them or not.
It is therefore impossible to suppose that Smith’s wish to keep Peter Taylor away from the taverns, if he really had such a wish, proceeded from any fear of disclosures which Taylor might make. It is much more probable that Taylor, whose recollection we have already found to be very imperfect, or to whom these little circumstances could not then have appeared to be of any importance, has fallen into a mistake in relating them, than that John Smith did so foolish a thing. He might, indeed, caution Taylor not to go to a tavern, for fear that he should get engaged in drinking, and delay his time—a thing which he knew was very likely to happen to a man in Taylor’s situation; and it is possible, that in order to keep him away, he endeavored to alarm him about something that might happen to him at the tavern. This matter, floating confusedly in Taylor’s brain, has at last assumed the form of this story about sifting, which has found its way into his testimony, and is now adduced to fix a charge of treason on John Smith.
And it is not a little surprising, if we are implicitly to believe Peter Taylor, that Mr. Smith, after having taken so much pains to keep him away from the taverns, for fear of his being sifted, should immediately have sent him to one to get his horse fed; thus exposing him, for the value of a gallon of oats, to the very danger from which he had just appeared so anxious to guard him. “He then showed me,” says Taylor, “a tavern, and told me to go to get my horse fed by the hostler, but not to go into the house.” Does not this prove that if Smith wished to keep Taylor out of the taverns, it was to preserve him from the temptation to get drunk and lose his time, and not to keep him out of the way of questions? Had the latter been his object, would he have sent this man to a tavern at all? Would he not have had the horse fed in his own stable, or sent him to the tavern by his own servant?
I here dismiss the story of Peter Taylor, Mr. President, presuming to believe that the only fact of any moment, the letter, is satisfactorily cleared up by the letter itself and Colonel Burr’s answer; and that the other slight and trivial circumstances of suspicion are fully explained, or resolved into the confusedness and inaccuracy of Taylor’s recollection. Certainly facts so doubtful in themselves, so inconsiderable, so capable of being misunderstood by the witness, ought not to have any weight in such a case as this.
The testimony of Major John Riddle comes next to be considered; in which he states that Mr. Smith told him that he knew more of Colonel Burr’s plans than any other person in the State of Ohio, except one. Smith no doubt did, at that time, suppose that he knew a great deal about Burr’s plans, for he had then received the letter in which Burr affects to explain them. It is not therefore surprising that he should make this remark to Major Riddle; but as Major Riddle was, at the time of this communication, the commander of a body of militia, stationed on the Ohio to oppose Burr’s progress, it would have been most surprising if Smith, having a knowledge of Burr’s real plan, had selected this officer as a person to whom to boast of it. This consideration discloses the true nature of Smith’s communication to Major Riddle. He believed that he knew Burr’s plans, and that they were innocent. He therefore told Major Riddle so; but had he really known them to be criminal, this officer was one of the last persons in the world to whom he would have disclosed his knowledge. Thus this casual communication to Major Riddle, which the malicious industry of Mr. Smith’s enemies has hunted up and adduced as a proof of his guilt, appears to be a most convincing proof of his innocence.
But Mr. Smith also told Riddle “that if Burr succeeded, he would prefer living at Cincinnati, to Philadelphia or New York, on account of business.” Succeeded in what? Why in the innocent plans, which Smith had just before told Riddle that he understood better than any person in Ohio, but one. These plans, as explained by Colonel Burr to Mr. Smith, were to form a strong and numerous settlement on the Washita, and in case of a Spanish war to invade Mexico, under the authority of the Government. And Mr. Smith, without more aid from the imagination than men usually obtain in such cases, might have brought himself to believe that in case these plans should succeed, they would give rise to a vast trade between the country on the Ohio, and the new settlement or conquests; that Cincinnati would become the centre of this trade, and that he, by reason of his connections and situation, would be able to obtain a large share in it. This might have been an airy speculation, but it was certainly an innocent case; for it is manifest that the plans on the success of which it was bottomed were innocent plans. Such Smith, at that time, supposed Burr’s plans to be; or he would not have made his knowledge of them a subject of conversation with Major Riddle.
That Major Riddle himself viewed the matter in this light, is evident from his conduct. He was stationed on the river, with the command of a detachment of militia, and had orders from his superior officer, General Gano, to collect as much information as possible respecting Colonel Burr’s plans and associates, and to report this to his General. Of this we are informed by a deposition of General Gano himself; who also states that Major Riddle did report to him, but made no mention of this conversation with Mr. Smith, nor alluded to Mr. S. in any manner. This conversation, therefore, must have been on the whole of such a nature, or accompanied by such circumstances, as to make it appear perfectly innocent to Major Riddle; who, otherwise, must have communicated it as matter of suspicion at least to his commander. Had we enjoyed the opportunity of cross-examining Major Riddle, these circumstances, and the rest of the conversation, would no doubt have been recalled to his recollection, and fully explained by him. In an ex parte deposition they have been forgotten, or omitted as unimportant—an additional and very striking example of the importance of the privilege of being confronted with the witnesses against us, and of the danger of admitting any species of ex parte testimony.
I come now, Mr. President, to the testimony of Colonel James Taylor, who represents Mr. Smith as having, in a conversation with him and others at Cincinnati, expressed opinions favorable to a separation of the Union.