the morrow he had a long talk with one of the sons, and sought to persuade the lad to go West with him. Alarmed at his language and actions, Colonel Morgan repeated what had been said to the Judges of the district. All agreed to send word to Jefferson, and did so.

From Pittsburg Burr and his party pushed on to Blennerhasset's Island. There the blandishments of Burr and the youth and beauty of Theodosia completed the conquest already half begun, and made the Blennerhassets the most devoted of all his adherents. In his moments of enthusiasm the excitable and volatile Irishman saw the Federal Government fall to pieces; saw a new republic spring up in Louisiana, with Burr for its ruler, with England for its protector, with Wilkinson for its general, with himself for its minister to England, and Erich Bollmann his secretary of legation. He saw Wilkinson lead a splendid army into Mexico. He saw the authority of Spain destroyed. He saw a new throne set up, and on that throne the house of Burr firmly established. Such visions turned his head. His wits left him, and his lands, his fortune, his life, everything that was his, was laid at the feet of Burr. He gave money, he bought supplies, he built boats, he wrote in behalf of the cause.

On July fourth, 1806, there was issued at the town of Frankfort, Kentucky, the first number of a newspaper named the Western World. The chief owner was Joseph Hamilton Daveiss, the United States District Attorney. The chief editor was John Wood, the hack writer and newspaper editor, and the chief purpose of the Western World was to drag to light the men who had been concerned with Mirò in the Spanish conspiracy of 1787. The journey of Burr through the Western country in the summer of 1805; his trip to New Orleans; the discontent of the Creoles; the lingering of the Spanish officials in Louisiana; the visits of Burr to Wilkinson, convinced Daveiss that the old plot to separate the West and put it under the protection of Spain was still being cherished. Thinking so, and seeing in its exposure a fine chance to destroy his political enemies, he wrote to Jefferson in January, 1806, gave a long account of the old plot, declared it was not abandoned, and accused Wilkinson of being in Spanish

1806.

BURR IN THE OHIO VALLEY.

65

pay.* Yet another month and he wrote again, this time accusing both Wilkinson and Burr.+ Jefferson bade him tell all he knew, and letter followed letter till, wearied with the apathy of the President, Daveiss took matters into his own hands, founded the newspaper, and began an open attack on the conspirators. His aim was to show that the Kentucky Spanish association of 1787, the conspiracy of Senator Blount, the expedition of Miranda, and the scheme then brewing in the West, were all but so many different forms of the old plot. These charges, and the letters and documents with which they were supported, had made no little stir in the valley, when Blennerhasset undertook to answer them. Over the signature of 66

Querist" he now published a series of essays in the Ohio Gazette to prove that the scheme denounced so bitterly by the Western World was not so bad after all; that there were several reasons why the West should part company with the East, and why Ohio in particular would be a gainer. The first of the series was published on the fourth of September.

On that day Burr was at Cincinnati. A week later he crossed the Ohio to Lexington and hurried to Nashville, was given a public dinner, enlisted Andrew Jackson in his cause, and on the first of October was back again at Lexington. Never had his prospects seemed brighter, never had success seemed so near. Both up and down the valley all was activity in his behalf. Fifteen boats were building at Marietta; six others were soon to be begun on the Cumberland. Men were enlisting; provisions were being gathered, and, to keep up the appearance of a great land company, the purchase was made of the Bastrop Grant on the river Washita.# Into

Daveiss to Jefferson, January 10, 1806. Clark's Proofs of the Corruption of General James Wilkinson, pp. 177-184.

Idem.
Idem.

Daveiss to Jefferson, February 10, 1806. Jefferson to Daveiss, February 15, 1806. #This famous claim was for land on the river Washita, in the Territory of Orleans. It was really a contract between the Spanish Governor of Louisiana and Baron Bastrop, by which the latter bound himself to settle five hundred families on a tract thirty miles square in 1797. The Spanish Governor was to supply the settlers with food for six months. Governor Carondelet was unable to fulfil his part of the contract, and released Bastrop from the requirement regarding the families. Claiming that this did not impair the title, Bastrop sold

VOL. III.-6

his plot had been drawn men of every rank and of every description from New Orleans to New York-Senators and exSenators, judges, soldiers, men of education, men of wealth, young men, boatmen, field-hands, laborers. To each, with infinite skill, had been presented that allurement he was least able to resist. For the ambitious there were titles, honors, military rank; for the avaricious, prospects of boundless wealth; for the poor and ignorant, acres of land.

Flourishing as his cause seemed, it was in reality already doomed. The essays of "Querist"; the return of Burr; the company he kept; the boats, clearly for military purposes, building at Marietta; the babble of Blennerhasset, made Daveiss more positive than ever that the old plot was about to be executed. Without delay he openly accused Burr of being at the head of a conspiracy to deliver over the Western territory to England and Spain, and asserted that two hundred thousand dollars had been drawn from Lexington, from Bardstown, and from Louisville to further the scheme. The whole valley was by this time greatly excited. One newspaper remarked that the doors of this infamous conspiracy would soon fly open, and that then people would believe what had so often been foretold them.* Another ventured the opinion that Burr was attempting to form a third party in Kentucky. A third asserted that the men of Wood County, Virginia, had met to consider the best way to defeat the disorganizing views of Burr, had formed a volunteer company, and sent an address to Jefferson. A fourth declared a rumor was afloat that the President had issued an order to arrest Burr on a charge of treason.# He had, in fact, done nothing of the kind. Concerning the conduct of Burr, information had come to Jefferson from many sources, but it was not till late in October that he thought it necessary to lay that information before the Secretaries. When he did, they with difficulty made up their minds what to do. One day it was resolved to bid the Governors of Ohio and Indiana, Mississippi and Or

to various persons, who sold in turn to a Charles Lynch, who sold to Burr. The area sold by Lynch was three hundred and fifty thousand acres.

* Scioto Gazette.

+ Aurora.

Gazette of the United States. # Alexandria Expositor.

1806.

DAVEISS ACCUSES BURR.

67

leans, and the district attorneys of Kentucky and Tennessee, watch Burr closely, and, on the first overt act, arrest and try him for treason.* Two days later it was determined to send Preble and Decatur to New Orleans to take command of a fleet of gun-boats, and to send John Graham, Secretary of the Orleans Territory, through Kentucky to find out what Burr was doing. Next day, however, the Secretaries again changed their minds. Letters were not to be written to the Governors. Preble and Decatur were not to be despatched to New Orleans, but John Graham was, as he went southward, to notify the Governors verbally, and make inquiries into the movements of Burr.‡

Thus instructed, Graham hurried westward, but hardly had he entered Ohio when he heard that the District Attorney in Kentucky had begun to act. The step was a bold one. For, though letter after letter had been sent to Jefferson, giving names, citing evidence, assuring him most positively that a plot was on foot, the President had taken no notice of them whatever. Not a word in answer, not so much as a line in acknowledgment of the receipt of the letters, had come from Washington. To one so convinced of the existence of a conspiracy as Daveiss, such conduct seemed to make Jefferson a party. Yet he did not hesitate on the very first opportunity to take that vigorous course for which, in time, Jefferson denounced and then removed him from office. The opportunity on November third, when the United States District

came

Court opened its session at Frankfort. On the fifth Daveiss rose in Court, made an affidavit that he was in possession of evidence to show that Burr had formed an association for waging war against Spain, invading Mexico, and breaking up the Union; was raising forces and buying supplies, and moved that a process for his arrest be issued.# On the bench sat Harry Innis, who had long been a pensioner of Spain, had been as deep as Wilkinson in the Spanish plot, and had been charged with conspiracy by the Western World. As to what must be

*Cabinet Memoranda, October 22, 1806.

+ Cabinet Memoranda, October 25, 1806.

+ Cabinet Memoranda, October 25, 1806.

The affidavit is printed in full in the Aurora, December 1, 1806.

done he was not for a moment in doubt; but he took three days for pretended deliberation, and then denied the motion, and gave two reasons. The Court, he declared, had not the power to do what Daveiss asked, and if it had, the evidence before it was not enough to justify the exercise of such power.* Daveiss therefore moved for a warrant to summon a Grand Jury, before whom he would present the accused. Burr, who was in the Court, now came forward and demanded inquiry. The warrant was then issued, a Grand Jury at once empanelled from the men that filled the court-room, sworn that same afternoon, and their sitting immediately adjourned till November twelfth, the day fixed for the examination.

News of these proceedings spread far and wide, and on the day appointed the town of Frankfort swarmed with an eager and impatient crowd gathered from twenty miles around. They filled the court-room; they stood in a dense mass about the door and so blocked every avenue of approach that it was with great difficulty that the jury could get within the building. When the judge was seated and the Court opened, the names of the jurymen were called. One did not answer. Daveiss not being in court, the judge sent off a messenger to tell him that the jury was incomplete. Entering a few minutes later, he informed Judge Innis that it did not matter, as his chief witness was in Indiana, and, to the astonishment of all, moved for the discharge of the jury. In an instant roars of laughter, mingled with shouts of derision, rose from the crowd, for judge, jury, and spectators were all for Aaron Burr. In the midst of the uproar Burr, with Henry Clay for counsel, entered the Court, where, during the silence which followed his entrance, he delivered one of those dignified and quiet addresses he so well knew how and when to make; and then left the room in triumph.t

This was what Graham heard when, toward the middle of November, he came down the Ohio to Marietta. There he tarried a few days gathering evidence, and then passed on to Chillicothe, where, the Legislature being in session, he secured the passage of a law authorizing the Governor to use the

Aurora, December 1, 1806.

+ Ohio Gazette, November 27, 1806.