On the 1st of September he had descended the river and was upon Blannerhasset’s island; and, on the 4th of the same month, appeared in the newspaper, at Marietta, the first number of the Querist, which was followed by two or three more. I have been unable to obtain a copy of these papers, but the substance of their contents is well known. Their object was to prepare the minds of the people, in that part of the country, for a separation from the Atlantic States; they dilated upon all the topics so familiar in the mouth of Mr. Burr; and so much were they identified with his doctrines, that Dr. Wallace, one of the witnesses at Richmond, with whom Burr had conversed on these subjects in the summer of 1805, declares that, on his first perusal of these papers, he drew from their internal evidence the conclusion that the ideas were Burr’s, and the language Blannerhasset’s. Blannerhasset was, indeed, the writer, and precisely at the same time and immediately after, was ranging the country with the activity and spirit of a recruiting officer—promising the plunder of banks at New Orleans and of Mexican mines—settling the hereditary succession of the fancied Crown; and teeming with embassies and empires.
On the very same day that the first number of the “Querist” appeared at Marietta, the 4th of September, Mr. Burr, by the pencilled note, invites himself to the house of Mr. Smith, in Cincinnati, where he is hospitably received and entertained five or six days. During this time, he spends an evening at William McFarland’s, where he holds exactly the same kind of conversation about the impotence of the Government, the rights and wrongs of the Western country, and their inducements to separate from the rest of the Union. About the 10th of September he leaves Mr. Smith’s; proceeds to Lexington, in Kentucky, where he arrives and concludes his contract for the Washita lands, before the close of that month.
Mr. Smith, in his answers to the queries of the committee, (an answer which he offered to make upon oath,) says that, on this visit, Colonel Burr tarried with him five or six days, and then progressed on his journey: for what he next adds, I must refer to his own words:
“But he did not disclose to me ANY object he had in view. Meanwhile the voice of suspicion and jealousy was raised against him, and although I knew as little of his objects in visiting the Western States as either of you, still, as I had entertained him in conformity to the customs in which I was reared, and according to my own sense of propriety, I felt uneasiness and jealousy in consequence of these reports.”
The character of Colonel Burr is now generally well understood; and, when combined with the circumstances I have just mentioned, and with others which I am about to mention, it is difficult to conceive that his visit to Mr. Smith at this time should have been made without design. For the projects he contemplated, and which he was then attempting to carry into execution, Mr. Smith was a man of the very first importance. As a Senator of the United States, it is obvious how useful his services might become, in his attendance here, during the session of Congress. As a contractor for building gunboats, and for supplying the army with provisions, he could, without exciting suspicion, and without danger of detection, be of the greatest use in performing the same services, and furnishing for Mr. Burr the same kind of supplies. As a man of influence and consideration in the State to which he belonged, his aid in propagating the doctrines of disunion, and in contributing to the accomplishment of that end, were not less desirable. The motives of profit and of distinction which might be held up to his expectations, were of a nature as persuasive upon a mind, which could be as susceptible of receiving them, as those of making Truxton an Admiral, or Eaton a General. Is it, then, credible that, while Burr was proceeding upon his business, with all the activity and energy of his character; while his boats were building and his provisions collecting; while he was obtruding almost upon every stranger and transient acquaintance, that he found in his way, the opinions which were suitable to his purpose—while Blannerhasset was filling the newspapers with rebellion, and engaging men for war, under his standard—is it credible, I say, that Burr should have solicited entertainment under the roof of Mr. Smith, and obtained it, for five or six days, without so much as intimating to him any one of his purposes? Is it credible that, in the course of that visit and in the intimacy between the parties, which the whole transaction so strongly implies, amidst the violent suspicions with which Mr. Burr, even then, was notoriously surrounded, there should never have occurred to the friendly solicitude of Mr. Smith a single inquiry which would have led to a disclosure, real or pretended, of the object of Mr. Burr’s visit, and of his progress through the Western States? Should this be deemed, under all these circumstances, a credible thing, I then ask, how Mr. Smith’s asseveration that Burr did not then disclose to him ANY object he had in view, is to be reconciled with Mr. Smith’s affidavit of 6th January, 1807, in which he says, “Burr did then speak to him about his project of settling a large tract of his Washita lands.”
It is one of the peculiarities attending Burr’s conduct, through the whole of his conspiracy, that he had always an ostensible object, to serve as a mask to the real design. One of the difficulties and inconveniences of this method of transacting business is, that in exhibiting the purpose, which is meant only for show, it is apt to be materially variant from itself at different times. It is often variant, not upon trivial incidents, with which the best human memory cannot be accountable for perfect accuracy, but upon the most essential part of the story. It is inconceivable to me, that, at that precise period of Mr. Burr’s experiment upon the Western States, he should thus have been, at his own desire, the guest of Mr. Smith, five or six days, without making to him any communication of his real views, while he was so liberally disseminating them to others far less intimate to his acquaintance, and far less important to his purposes—and when we find Mr. Smith’s own narrative, upon this very point, so variant from itself at different times, how can we suppress the belief that the real story was not that which could safely be told?
The conversation to which Colonel James Taylor attests, occurs within a very few days after the departure of Mr. Burr from Mr. Smith’s house, at this period. The subject of that conversation was the separation of the States. Mr. Smith takes pains to circulate that Querist, which was to scatter the seeds of disunion throughout the Western country. Mr. Smith adopts its arguments as his own; and adds others of the same tendency to assist its effects. Mr. Smith contends that these doctrines, however obnoxious then, in less than two years would become ORTHODOX. Is there no knowledge and participation in Burr’s projects on the face of these expressions? We are told they were speculative opinions; and we hear complaints that a man should be held accountable for his political speculations. But when speculative opinions are associated with military preparations, and a formidable enterprise in the very process of execution, then, sir, they assume a very different complexion from that of free and legitimate discussion. Speculative opinions, at all times, have such an influence upon practice, that I hold it not very justifiable in a man vested with public trust, to speak in terms of approbation, of a dismemberment of this Union, upon any contingency, or at any distance of time. We ought to deprecate this greatest of all possible calamities, for our posterity as well as for ourselves. Yet, I acknowledge, that even these dangerous opinions, when merely speculative, may be expressed without evil intentions, and ought not to draw the weight of public censure upon the person using them, in the form of a decision of this body. It is the time, the occasion, the circumstance, upon which this speculative opinion was divulged, which display it as evidence of Mr. Smith’s participation in Burr’s conspiracy against the Union.
We have followed the course of events until the close of September, about which time Blannerhasset follows Mr. Burr into Kentucky. In the course of that and the following month, the preparations and conversations of both these personages, the numbers of the Querist, and certain publications of an opposite character, which appeared in another newspaper, called the Western World, had roused the suspicions, the anxieties, the resentments of the people in that part of the Union, to the highest degree. About the 20th of October, Mrs. Blannerhasset found it necessary to despatch Peter Taylor from the island, into Kentucky, for the purpose of warning Burr that he could not, with personal safety to himself, return to the island. Taylor was to go first to Chilicothe, then to Smith’s, at Cincinnati; and there he was to be told where Burr and Blannerhasset were to be found. At this time it was no longer safe to inculcate the disunion of the States. The people there, I thank God, were not to be deluded by Mr. Burr’s mode or by any other mode of effecting a dismemberment. They were true to themselves and to their country. The public odium had arrived at such a pitch, that it might not be advisable for Mr. Smith to appear so intimate with Burr, as to know where he was to be found, and it might also be necessary for him to have the ostensible object of Mr. Burr’s purposes ascertained. For, although he says that, when Burr was with him in September, he had talked about the settlement of the Washita lands, yet, at that time, the purchase was not made.
This view of the state of things at that time will explain the particulars of Peter Taylor’s testimony. When he arrives at Mr. Smith’s, and inquires for Burr and Blannerhasset, Mr. Smith answers, that he knows nothing of either of them. That Taylor must be mistaken; that was not the place; but finding Taylor to be Blannerhasset’s servant, he tells him, “he expected they were at Lexington, at the house of a Mr. Jourdan.” Now, sir, what does this denial, in the first instance, that he knew any thing of them, and this pointing so precisely afterwards to the very house where they were to be found, indicate? The counsel for Mr. Smith says, that Taylor was sent there for Mr. Burr’s greatcoat; nothing of that appears in the evidence. But, from Taylor’s declaration, it appears that he was sent there to ascertain where Burr and Blannerhasset were to be found; that Mr. Smith, at first, denied knowing where they were, and afterwards told him the very house in Lexington where he was to go for them. As the sole object of Taylor’s going to Mr. Smith, was to inquire where Burr and Blannerhasset were, and as, before he left the house, Mr. Smith gave him a letter for Burr, under cover, to Blannerhasset, it is impossible to doubt the correctness of Taylor’s testimony in that respect; that Mr. Smith told him where to go. The inference is irresistible. This accurate knowledge where they were, and this express denial of that knowledge to a man whom he supposed a stranger, is a proof that, even then, Mr. Smith knew much more than he was willing to avow.
The remainder of Peter Taylor’s story, so far as it respects Mr. Smith, all concurs to establish the same fact. Mr. Smith’s anxious inquiries for the news; for what was passing; for what was said, about General Wilkinson; the charge to Peter Taylor not to go to a tavern, lest he should be sifted with questions; and, finally, the letter, professedly to Blannerhasset, but enclosing one to Mr. Burr, all combine to exhibit a state of mind agitated and alarmed, studious of concealment, and fearful of detection.