I return to the letter:
“I have no political view whatever. Those which I entertained some months ago, and which were communicated to you, have been abandoned.”
Here is another note by Mr. Smith:
“J. Smith presumes that Mr. Burr refers to an invitation to settle in Tennessee, of which he heard him speak.”
The letter proceeds:
“Having bought of Colonel Lynch four hundred thousand acres of land on the Washita, I propose to send thither, this fall, a number of settlers—as many as will go and labor a certain time, to be paid in land, and found in provisions for the time they labor—perhaps one year. Mr. J. Breckinridge, Adair, and Fowler, have separately told me that it was the strong desire of the Administration that American settlers should go into that quarter, and that I could not do a thing more grateful to the Government. I have some other views, which are personal, merely, and which I shall have no objection to state to you personally, but which I do not deem it necessary to publish. If these projects could any way affect the interests of the United States, it would be beneficially; yet, I acknowledge that no public considerations have led me to this speculation, but merely the interest and comfort of myself and my friends.”
And, finally, there is the following marginal admonition:
“It may be an unnecessary caution, but I never write for publication.”
Thus you see, sir, that the design of separating the States is denied in terms explicit, as Mr. Smith’s letter had desired; but, with how much regard to truth, this volume of evidence at Richmond has sufficiently proved. The purchase of the Washita lands is announced to have been completed. Thus far, the answer is precisely such as the letter seemed to ask; but all the rest is darkness and oblivion. The caution against publication was itself not naturally suited to inspire confidence. It seems to say, You may show this letter, but you must not publish it. The other allusions are so obscure—so unintelligible—that Mr. Smith has found it necessary to make them clear by explanatory notes. There is a reference to former conversations on the subject of a separation of the States, in which Mr. Smith is reminded that he concurred with the sentiment which Mr. Burr had expressed. Mr. Smith’s note intimates that this refers to opinions about the separation of the Union in some fifty or a hundred years. But, if Burr’s speculations in public companies postponed to so distant a date the event, which he was projecting, to Eaton, to the Morgans, to Blannerhasset, to McFarland, and Glover, he had been urging the propriety of their accomplishment at a much earlier day. And from the testimony of Colonel James Taylor, it would seem that the concurrence of sentiment for which Mr. Burr refers to the consciousness of Mr. Smith, extended no less to the practical projects than to the speculative opinions of Burr—to the separation of the States within five or two years rather than to the dismemberment of the next century. The mode, says Mr. Burr, for promoting such a measure would be by operating on the minds of the people, and demonstrating it to be their interest. Now this was the very mode in which Mr. Burr and Blannerhasset under him had been attempting to promote the measure. Burr had been so operating at Cincinnati the year before this. And William McFarland at least had persuaded, that Cincinnati was to be the capital of the Western empire. He had been so operating all the way at least from Pittsburg, in August, and until he left Cincinnati in September, only six weeks before these letters were written. The Querist was one of these instruments of the mode for operating upon the minds of the people. And when the Querist first appeared, Mr. Smith had expressed his approbation of its contents. Is not this the sort of concurrence to which Mr. Burr alludes rather than that of speculating upon the destinies of a future age? The rest of the letter is equally obscure. Mr. Burr’s abandonment of a project for settling in Tennessee requires the explanation of a note from Mr. Smith; and that note is conjectural. Mr. Burr has some other views, merely personal, which he can only communicate personally. If they could affect the interests of the United States, it would only be beneficially; but they were prompted by no public considerations, but merely for the interest and comfort of himself and his friends.
Mr. President, I ask again the attention of the Senate to this remarkable sentence. Did Mr. Smith, on receiving the letter, understand this sentence, or did he not? If he did, where is the whole defence which he has now set up? If he did not, was this paragraph calculated to inspire his confidence? Was it calculated to remove suspicions? Projects which could only be personally disclosed! Projects which might affect the interests of the United States! Projects prompted by no public considerations! but merely by personal interest for himself and his friends! And was this to remove suspicion from the mind of a Senator of the United States? Was this an answer to calm anxieties and restore confidence? Is not the very language of it suspicious? Equivocal? Ambiguous? I ask every member of this Senate to put the question to himself. Had you been at that time in the midst of the scene of Burr’s operations, and had you received such an answer to a letter of solicitous inquiry, would it not have increased instead of allaying your alarm? Would you not have seen in this paragraph a concealment suspicious in itself—darkened still further by expressions of dangerous import and of doubtful legality? Strange indeed must be the texture of that mind to which this answer could restore unqualified confidence in the writer!